Medina County CPE Agility

Hi Everyone! We got to play CPE agility yesterday (Sunday February 21st). It’s been almost 2 months since we got to play, except for the Diva who played a couple days of AKC agility. Mom drove us to a new place called Medina SWARM that was 2 hours away in Wadsworth, OH. It was a little strange for us. First of all there was no fun place to walk and also there was no crating space left, not that there was much to begin with. So mom parked close to the entrance and car kenneled us since 4 of us were running and a lot of times in the same classes. Good thing for mom it was a rare sunny day this winter since she had to keep running outside to switch dogs. Thankfully, a few nice people offered to hold one of us while mom ran with another for a couple of small classes. Then the other thing that was different was the ring. It was long and narrow when we are used to it being square. But that ended up being a good thing – we really loved running there. At least Kiwi, Calvin, and I (Robin) did. Sefina didn’t like it so much.

I had a perfect Sunday with 4 Q’s! I finally finished Level 1 with a Q in Standard. Mom says it’s because there wasn’t a dog walk for me to leap off of. She says that is the first time she’s seen a standard course without a dog walk. I also Q’d in level 2 Jumpers and Jackpot, and Level 3 Colors. I really liked that it was long and narrow cause I got to run in a straight line most of the time and didn’t have to argue so much with mom about what to do next. Calvin also had a perfect Sunday with Q’s in his 3 runs. I beat him in Level 1 Standard (I got 1st place since I blew all the other dogs away while he got 3rd). But in Level 2 Jumpers, Calvin got 1st place even though he was way slower than me and was 3 seconds over time. But I knocked a jump over so ended up with 5 faults instead of his 3 so I got 2nd place. Calvin also Q’d in Level 2 Colors. He did really well, especially since this was only his second trial.

Mom drove us all the way out there hoping that Kiwi would Q in Level 5 Jackpot, which she did, plus she also had a perfect Sunday with Q’s in Level C Standard, Colors, and Jumpers. Since we were all doing so well, mom thought she’d have a perfect handler Sunday but Sefina had to S#%T on that idea, literally, in the middle of the ring during her Colors run. She was trying to tell mom she had to go, even though she had just taken us for a walk, by running amok in the ring. But Mom thought it was because it was a different place. But Sefina also didn’t really like running there. During her Jumpers run, she reverted to her old self and didn’t really want to do the jumps so she ended up being way over time and didn’t Q. Lets hope she gets over it by the time we play again at Washingtonville next month.

Conformation, Agility, & Snowmageddon

Hi Everyone! It’s the handsome one, Calvin. Mom took me to Erie the last weekend of January to play conformation at the Erie Kennel Club dog show. I was the only open Keeshond entered so I automatically took 1st place and Winners but mom says I didn’t receive any points for that. Then I went up against 3 special Kees for breed but I did not win. Mom says we mainly went to get some experience. She says we’re getting better each time. Mom says there are no more dog shows until the end of March. But I get to play in a few agility trials before that. I can’t wait! I love agility.

This past Friday, mom took the diva to play AKC agility in Edinboro. Kiwi double Q’d in Jumpers with Weaves and Standard! She missed a Q in EXC A FAST. It was a difficult send that consisted of a jump that was 15 feet away, a set of 12 weave poles 10 feet away, and then the far end of a tunnel. Kiwi did the jump and was doing the weave poles without hesitation and then popped out at the last one! Mom says she must have overheard the judge say that he considers 1 dropped bar or 1 missed weave pole a clean run during the briefing. But she obviously missed the part when he said that the AKC doesn’t agree with him.

It was probably a good thing Kiwi didn’t Q in FAST so they could leave early and get home before rush hour traffic in Pittsburgh since it started snowing Friday - a whole lotta bunch. And it kept snowing and snowing until about noon on Saturday. We love the snow. Once I discovered there was so much snow on the ground, I kept yelling at mom to let us out. She’d let us out and shovel snow off the deck so she could open the door. And then she’d make us come in cause we were covered in snow. And then I’d tell her to let us out again. Plus, the power kept going off and on for about an hour which freaks Kiwi out. I think because of all the things that go beep when the power goes off. It doesn’t bother the rest of us one bit but Kiwi wants to high tail it out the door. So that started happening around 10:30 PM and then the power went out for good at 11:30 PM – right after the guy on the news said there would only be 8-12 inches of total snow. Boy was he wrong! There was close to 2 feet before it finally quit. Mom says the official amount was between 21-22 inches and was the fourth highest snowfall in Pittsburgh’s history. All we know is that it is fun, fun, fun to play in. Mom was getting a little worried though because we still didn’t have power Saturday morning and it was 55 degrees in the house. By noon, she decided she should start shoveling the driveway. But it took her a while to shovel the front steps and then shovel a path to the carport. Then she started shoveling the flat part of the driveway. She says the biggest problem was where to put all the snow. She decided the best thing to do was shovel a path to the hill down to the creek so she could dump the snow over. So it took a while to shovel out enough area to back the car out and turn it around since she carried most of the snow over to the hillside. Mom tried to see if the Jeep would drive in 2 feet of snow but she said it didn’t. By then it was dark so we were snowed in for another night. It was 47 degrees inside. It doesn’t bother us but we all piled around mom to keep her warm. Luckily the power came on at 8:30 PM. Boy was mom happy! Sunday, mom went to work on the rest of the driveway. You see, we have a very long and steep driveway and to make matters worse, the snow plows created a nice snow mountain at the top. But mom was determined, and then a friend came over to help so mom was able to go to work today. Mom says we’re supposed to get more snow tomorrow. I hope so – it sure is fun to play in. Here are some pictures.

Here are the front steps and our tire jump. Three woofs for winter agility!

These two are of Robin and me (Calvin) making our own trails in the snow.