Life's A Beach!

My darling husband surprised me with 3 glorious days off at the beach! Not just any beach, but Gulf Shores, Alabama (part of the Redneck Riviera). It's a lesser known beach, but one of the prettiest beaches in the world! See what I mean?

The sand is not only white, but soft. It's a really fine grit, and soft on the feet. (No big chunks of shells to poke you in the feet!) If you've ever been to Destin or Panama City Beach, it's the same beach. (Just less crowded!)

When I landed, since Mom & Dad were driving up, Suzanne picked me up at the airport, and I hung around with her for a few hours. She offered to entertain me until Mom & Dad got there, just in case they were later than my flight. As it turns out, I was the last one in town, but that is a post for another day! :) To see Suzanne and her wonderful dogs, go to www.sonicagility.blogspot.com. Suzanne and Sonic are leaving next week to go to Belgium to represent the USA in International Team Agility- we wish them all the luck in the world! Go Get 'Em Sonic and Suzanne! Also joining her is Suzi with Sonic's older brother Jib, and another local agility team of Elizabeth and her pyrenean shepherd Hemi. 3 Great dogs that will represent the USA well!

The view from the Condo was AWESOME! (Not to mention the glorious sounds of the ocean!)

Monday, we spent all day lounging around in the sun. Here's Mom & Dad chilling on the beach!

Tuesday, Dad & I did some deep sea fishing! We had been with this tour before, and brought home more fish from that trip then we could handle. This trip was to be no different. Here's Dad enjoying the view on the way out to the fishing hole!

Here's our fish on the cleaning table- the fish were not as large as our last trip, and about 1/3 of what we caught had to be released, as red snapper was not yet in season. But, it was just as fun to catch them! The dolphins stayed about 2-3' off of the bow the whole fishing trip. Tried to get photos, but was too busy catching fish!

The catch consisted of vermillion snapper, white snapper (Or, blue nose snapper), and trigger fish. The biggest haul was on the blue nose snapper. Dad caught 2 Luna snapper, but since there are not many of those in the ocean, we let them release those. Also, I caught a nice sized moray eel- about 2' long- made a mess out of the lines before we got him up!

There was also a boat that was named after me- and even spelled the same! Tried to convince the owner it was my boat, but with no luck! (Oh, well!)

Day 3 was once again spent lounging on the beach, watching the gulls. Funny thing is, they've been fed so much by humans (a big no-no, btw!), that you can't eat without one of the little buggers eyeing your. (Or worse, squawking at ya!). I had a small bag of cheetos, and this little guy came begging.

When I didn't give him any, he called in reinforcements!

The sandpipers were cool-they didn't care much for the human grade food, but really enjoyed any dead or dying crabs that floated up in the surf!

Now, back to reality. It was a great 3 days, even if I did get a little sunburned on day 3! Thanks to a great hubby!

Bed Bounce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bed Bounce, as with other activities in our house that we seem to have no control over, originitated with Hershey..."The Queen". It started years ago with just the 2 girls, on Saturdays, when we had a chance to sleep in late. The morning would creep in, and one of us would yawn, or stretch, and Bed Bounce was on!

Bed Bounce consists of the dogs, one at a time (sometimes together) jumping up onto the bed (usually onto the human inhabitants of the bed). Then, pushing off of said human lumps to leap off the other end. This is followed by a pause to see if we are ready to get up and serve breakfast.

Bed Bounce was not embraced by Boo. His preferred method of protest of delayed payment of breakfast is to curl up as close to the mother figure as possible and breath sighs into the ear. But, once Bed Bounce gets into full swing, Boo finds himself on the wrong end of the bouncing, thus joins in with the other two.

Hemi, on the other hand, has taken Bed Bounce to a whole new level! He doesn't just perform the bounce, but his burrows his head into the crook of the male human's neck and proceeds to lick and nudge. All the while the other three are leaping on and off of the bed.

The rules of surviving bed bounce are few but simple:

1.) The fetal position is the safest position- this prevents internal injury when a 40-50 lb poodle lands on the soft spot (full force) of the human gut.

2.) Stay as quiet as possible- if you acknowledge bed bounce, game over, you lose.

3.) Protect long hair- any long hair trailing on the pillow will be stepped on by poodle feet.

4.) Bury your face in the covers- this protects the face from being drowned by one or more of the poodles.

It's best to end bed bounce as early as possible, or better yet, prevent bed bounce by rising early on Saturdays.

Greater Collin County AKC trial

Well, we thought this would be our big weekend. With all of the "big dogs" in Tulsa, this was a small trial. Both days, we had run and were headed home before noon. Unfortunately, the Q's and MACH points were not as free flowing as one would have hoped. Despite the Q percentage (25% for the weekend- 0% of that for Boo)- we had some VERY nice runs! The blue line with #7 (which should NOT have changed the numbering- not sure why it did)- is closer to where the weaves were set up, not how it was on paper. It did give a much nicer entry off of jump #6.



I didn't get any tape of Saturday's runs, as we've been having battery issues with our video camera, and the battery was dead. A friend taped them, but she, too, had technical difficulties and somehow managed to delete all the runs and photos from her camera! (Story of my life! LOL!) Gene managed to get the JWW runs from Sunday taped. Here is the course map from it. Gene said that the actual built course was different. The weaves were at a more direct line from jump #6 to the tunnel.

How can you tell when a 7 year old standard poodle has had ENOUGH of a pesky puppy?

Hemi's agility Class- I forget what week!

The first video is a short sequence involving the A-frame (including touches). Hemi is doing REALLY well, and loves the A-frame! He is also doing well with his start line stays- and following Gene's directions.

The next video is one a short sequence including the tunnel- notice the distance- Hemi is going out to the tunnel- I just LOVE it!

In this sequence, Gene pre-cued the A-frame, and Hemi took the jump in between the tunnel and the A-frame. (Of course, it does help that he was a little bit pattern trained, but I'll take it anyway I can get it!)

This last sequence is Hemi's footwork on the weaves- I just LOVE the footwork developing here! He just shows such concentration!

Aunt Karen's visit

Well, the poodle crew got a long awaited visit from their Aunt Karen over this Easter Holiday. Hershey thinks that Aunt Karen is hers, and made sure the others knew it.

(The room Karen was staying in is behind the gate!)


However, I think Hemi was by far the most excited to see his Aunt- what do you think?

Easter Agility!

Well, today was a cold cloudy day with threats of rain throughout the day. Since the store was closed, and we didn't get in the 1 agility trial in the area, we decided to head out to the training property and play some. I wanted to get some photos and some video of all 3 of the kids for the blog, but as with many things in my life, the equipment did not cooperate- the cameras battery died before we got most of the photos we wanted, and the back up batttery lasted long enough for about 2 photos. The video camera's battery was just dead. Period. But, we started with Boo, and we got some good dogwalk photos.
Including this one when the wind caught him, and I thought he was going off the DW again- notice the right rear leg is on the very edge, and the front left toes are curled, trying to grasp the dogwalk! Poor fellow- he finished though, and even got back on!
We got a couple of jump photos- with the cloudy skies, they didn't really come out REAL clear, but he does look happy, doesn't he?
I did some major touch-ups on this one, and it does look better!
Gene pulled Kyra out to play- she was REALLY happy about it! They didn't get breakfast since we headed out fairly early. If we feed them, then get in the car, Hemi gets sick- and Boo gets sick if he has a full tummy and then runs agility. Kyra was ready to eat, and knew Gene had food!

The channel weaves were set apart, and Kyra didn't bother wasting footwork on them!
Gene got out Hemi- look at that concentration and jumping style! He doesn't have any trouble with 12" jumps- let's hope he is a typical poodle and doesn't have any trouble with higher ones. We're a little worried, however, because he attacks everything head on- and doesn't let anything stand in his way- when the jumps go up, will he decide that it's easier to go through them then over them? YIKES!

Another good one of him jumping, AND paying attention to his Daddy- what a good boy!
He is just learning the A-frame in class- but I really like his form- we'll see if it holds as the frame goes up. He leaps the apex, just like a running contact- his touches are REALLY steady- for now.
I loved this butt-scooting photo- it's not in great focus, but it gave me a snicker!
So, all in all, it was a fun day! The furr-kids got to play some agility, and we got to practice a few things that we had been trying to find time to. If only the video camera had been working, so you could see how well the all did! Maybe next time! (Let's see, the next holiday the store will be closed will probably be Thanksgiving- only 7 months away!)