AKC Rally

Hi Everyone! It's me, Sefina! Sorry we haven't posted in a while but mom went to Texas with our aunts and uncle for a week. She sent Voodoo to go stay with a friend and took the rest of us to K9 Kingdom. I'd love to tell you what happened there but what happens at K9 Kingdom, stays at K9 Kingdom. But I can tell you that Calvin loved watering the painted flowers on the wall and that Kiwi & I destroyed a couple of their supposedly indestructable balls! They were no match for the Pirahna-Goat!

Mom took me to Youngstown All Breed Training Club's Rally trial on Friday. Boy was she brave. We hadn't practiced anything in 3 weeks, not even agility. So I made her work really, really, really hard in the ring. But in the end I got a score of 75 which was enough to Q. Mom says it was an even uglier Q than the last one but a Q by any other name is still a Q! She says she might take me to Cleveland in December so I can try to finish my advanced title this year.

Halloween weekend we are going to go to Washingtonville to play CPE agility. Kiwi, Robin, and I get to play. Mom thought about running Calvin, too but decided to wait.

Conformation & Birthday Wishes

Hi Everyone! This is Kiwi. First of all, mom wants me to tell you that pretty boy Calvin got Best Of Winners today at the Fort Steuben Kennel Association show in Aliquippa! One of these days, mom will have to drive to where the Keeshonds hang out so maybe he can get more than 1 point per win.

The main reason I wanted to post is that yesterday was my cousins Radar & Maggie's birthdays! Happy 7th birthday to Radar and Happy 4th birthday to Maggie. We aren't sure when her birthday really is so she celebrates with Radar. Radar is a really big German Shepherd and Maggie is the fastest, most agile Basset Hound mom has ever encountered (although you wouldn't guess that from this picture).

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane. You see, mom has flown me with her back to Washington State twice. Once when I was 6 months old and that's when Auntie Danae first got Radar. He was 8 weeks old and weighed as much as I did! Then I went back again 2 years ago to go camping with Auntie Danae & Radar. This was before Maggie became a part of the family. So here are pictures of Radar & I from both trips.

Posse Update

Hi everyone! Voodoo, here. Boy oh boy did we have a busy weekend so mom says I get to post the update since I was the best behaved dog this weekend. Friday, Sefina (pictured to the right) played AKC Rally Obedience at WCOTC in Delmont. This was her 3rd attempt at an Advanced level course which is done off leash. Mom wasn’t very optimistic since she had yet to finish an advanced course but was hopeful when she saw that there were only 12 stations and no off-set figure 8 with toys as distractions. But then Sefina proceeded to make up her own course anyway. Mom says it was a struggle and they were seconds away from being excused from the ring but they finally finished the course and managed a qualifying score of 83. Boy was that judge lenient! So hurray for Sefina for her 1st advanced rally Q!! Mom is trying to teach me Rally. I’m undecided whether I like it yet.

Saturday and Sunday was Splash n’ Dash K9 Sports’ USDAA agility trial at PISA in Cheswick. All 5 of us went and hung out in the X-pen but only Kiwi and Robin got to play. Kiwi had 4 qualifying runs out of 9. She & her spotted pal, Tess got a 1st place Q in P2 Pairs, and then Kiwi helped a Pomeranian from Philly get a 1st place Q in P2 Pairs since he didn’t have a partner. Kiwi got another 1st place Q in P2 Gamblers, and got 2 Q’s in P3 Snookers. Mom thought those were for a title but she learned what a ‘Super Q’ was & Kiwi needs 3 of those to title in Snookers.

It was Crazy Robin’s first USDAA trial so mom only entered him in Gamblers and Jumpers each day. He got a 2nd place Q in Gamblers and a Q in Jumpers on Saturday. On Sunday, the slip lead got caught in his fur at the start line for the Gamblers course and mom had a really hard time getting it out of his fur, especially since his bouncing & twisting & turning just made it worse. When she finally got it off he exploded and dropped the first jump bar and proceeded to live up to his nickname by leaping off contact obstacles and running around in circles barking. He did do the distance challenge perfectly & that was the hard part! But that wasn’t enough to qualify. He did have a great Jumpers run at the end of the day with a 3rd place Q.

Meanwhile, back at the X-pen, Sefina demonstrated why mom calls her Piranha-Goat by shredding the crate mat. Mom knew that was going to happen sooner or later. The five of us also got a new nickname this weekend which mom likes – the Keeshond Posse. So until next weekend when we update you about Calvin’s conformation shows in Aliquippa, so long from the posse!

BCKC Conformation

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest Keeshond of all? Me - Calvin!! Well, maybe not the fairest but I did really well Saturday at the Butler County Kennel Club Show. I got Best of Winners and Opposite Sex. Mom says I got 1 point and a breed embroidered hand towel. At the show today, I didn't win anything but I enjoyed sniffing the ground. Mom says I forgot my brain but really, I was bored. Been there done that! Also, I was real tired of mom fussing over me with brushes & combs & scissors. And she puts corn starch on my feet. What's up with that?

We will be really busy next weekend. Friday, Sefina plays AKC Rally in Delmont and then Kiwi & Robin play USDAA agility at PISA on Staurday and Sunday.

Master Kiwi

Hi Everybody! Kiwi here. We were at Westmoreland County Obedience Training Center’s AKC agility trial at PISA yesterday and guess what?! I earned my Master’s degree! Mom says it’s called an AKC Masters Agility Excellent (MX) title. That means I got 10 qualifying runs in Excellent B Standard. I also got a Q and 1st place in Open FAST. I only need one more of those to get another title. Sefina went with me and ran a jumpers with weaves course but got distracted by the ring crew so she didn’t finish. Guess she needs a few pointers from the Master ;)

We had taken a couple weeks off from doing agility trials. Calvin went to a conformation show outside of Cleveland 2 weeks ago and got Winner’s dog but only because he was the only open male. He did win a pair of nail clippers for that. Otherwise, Sefina took a couple of dancing lessons and I took a 2 hour agility class. Mom rarely takes me to class anymore. She’s always taking the young dogs. But I guess that’s because I don’t really need to take lessons. I am the Master after all! But we have a busy month ahead of us. Next Saturday, Sefina and I play AKC agility again on Neville Island and the weekend after that, pretty boy is going to 2 conformation shows in Prospect, PA. At the end of September, Sefina plays Rally Obedience on Friday and then Robin and I get to play USDAA agility at PISA. Then Calvin does a couple more conformation shows in Aliquippa, PA the first weekend of October.

CPE Agility at PISA in Cheswick

Hi everyone! Mom has been walking real funny the past couple of days. Sefina, Robin, and I (Kiwi) just did another CPE trial this weekend and mom was really tired when we got home. We were real tired too but we got our second wind a few hours later. Mom was hoping for peace and quiet but Calvin wanted to play since he got left at home with Voodoo and he got us all riled up. Besides, I was in the mood to celebrate because I did really well this weekend. I didn’t quite get a perfect weekend since I went off course in my first run Saturday morning in Standard. But I figured mom would be more relaxed the rest of the weekend if she didn’t have that Perfect Weekend thing on her mind so I was doing her a favor. But I qualified in the next 7 runs of the weekend. I did mom another huge favor by getting a Jackpot Q. She’s been really obsessed with those lately so I threw her a bone so to speak. I also finished level 5 in Fullhouse and Colors. Mom says I need 1 more Q in Snookers and Jumpers and 6 more Q’s in Jackpot to get my C-ATCH. I don’t know what that is but there had better be a T-bone steak involved.

Sefina did 3 runs each day. Saturday she Q’d in Wildcard and Fullhouse and missed a Q in Snookers by 1 point. Sunday she started off real well with a Q in Colors. She was real into it and ran faster than mom expected. But the last 2 runs she was distracted by the ring crew and other things so she still needs a Jackpot and a Jumpers Q to finish Level 1. I think mom expected too much of her to run back to back trials. She’s not a seasoned professional like me.

Robin had a Perfect Weekend – a perfect weekend of not qualifying that is! He really lived up to his nickname Crazy Robin and everyone enjoyed watching mom try to run a ‘Border Collie in a Kees body’ as mom likes to refer to him. Mom was OK with him having a grand ol’ time and not qualifying except she was not happy that he launched himself off the A-frame and dog walk and missing almost all of his contacts. Because of that, he doesn’t get to play AKC agility in a few weeks with Me & Sefina. But what does mom expect? He’s only been with us 5 months and he’s a boy!

We’re taking a few weeks off from agility trials. Pretty boy Calvin gets to go to Cleveland on Sunday to prance around the ring a couple of times. That means he has to get a bath and lots of brushing. I’ll be hiding underneath the futon where mom can’t get to me while all of that is going on.

Here are a few pictures of us playing agility at Washingtonville. Can you guess which ones are of Robin?

CPE Agility at Washingtonville

Hi guys. This is Voodoo. Boy oh boy did we have fun last weekend at Washingtonville. All 5 of us got to go 3 days in a row. We had so much fun running around in the fields, except mom always keeps me on a leash. Something about running off and not coming when called. Its not that I don’t want to come back, I just get so into running and smelling things that I really don’t notice mom calling me. Anyway, it’s still nice to go for car rides. I love to ride up front and help mom shift gears. Kiwi, Sefina, and Robin all got to play CPE agility while Calvin and I watched. Calvin isn’t old enough to do agility yet and I’ve played agility a few times but I lose interest after a few obstacles. I do love the table though. Between you and me, I have it made. I get to sit back and relax while all the others have to work. Mom said we were all good in the X-pen inside the building, even crazy Robin who she was really worried about. But he was fairly quiet. The five of us together were quite a sight. People said we were all well behaved. Boy did we have them fooled!

Kiwi had a good 3-day weekend. She qualified (Q’d) 9 runs out of 11. Mom was disappointed that she didn’t get a Jackpot Q though. Guess she really needs those. Robin did the Jackpot and he’s only been with us 5 months. For those of you who don’t know, Jackpot is a game where you do obstacles for points and then you have to do a distance challenge which is completing obstacles a certain distance from a line while mom stays on the other side of the line. Kiwi doesn’t like to get too far from mom, unless Mom has a brush or says ‘bath’. Maybe mom should try saying that during the next Jackpot run! Kiwi finished Level 5 Standard this weekend. She’s close to finishing level 5 in everything except… you guessed it – JACKPOT!

Robin and Sefina only played Saturday and Sunday and each did 7 runs. It was Robin’s 2nd CPE trial. He got 4 barking Q’s, one each in Standard, Wildcard, Snooker, and Jackpot. Mom calls them barking Q’s because he barks the entire time he runs. Sefina did very well with 6 Q’s. It was only her 2nd agility trial, with her first one being half of a Jumpers course in AKC a few weeks ago. It was really hot on Sunday and Sefina didn’t want to do the jumps on the last 2 courses so mom had to give her lots of encouragement by jumping up and down in front of all the jumps. Sefina really enjoyed that as did everyone watching. It worked though since Sefina qualified in both of those runs. Sefina only needs Q’s in Jumpers, Fullhouse, and Jackpot to finish Level 1. Robin needs a Q in Standard, Fullhouse, and Colors. Maybe they’ll both finish Level 1 this weekend at PISA in Cheswick. Keep your paws crossed!

Here are a couple of pictures of Kiwi and Robin at the CPE trial in Slippery Rock taken by Tess & Jazz’s dad. The one of Robin is at the start line since once he starts to run he’s a blur of fur!

By the way – a big Congratulations to Tess and her dad, Jim for getting their 1st Perfect Weekend! Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!