"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom."

I did some field training today with Noodle and Dolphin. We had a gunner lined up. Noodle was steady on a chukar and did a decent retrieve. I tossed the bird a few more times and the rest of her retrieves were perfect and direct. Poor Dolphin never got to retrieve as all of his birds were missed, but he stayed beautifully steady on the birds, and did a nice job staying put on an honor where the other dog had to retrieve it right in front of him. So all in all it was a good session - didn't get to work on what I had planned, but we got to work on other things so that is good.

I've been lax in posting, but it's been a nutty time here. Today Pizza was bred via TCI at Ohio State, bred simultaneously to Sig (the stud dog in NC that I have tried to breed to the past 2 times) and Dolphin. We brought Dolphin along and they collected him right there and did the insemination. May the best and fastest sperm win. I will be thrilled with either one, to tell you the truth. It wasn't my original plan...doing a dual-sired litter seems like a crazy thing. However, since we bred twice previously to Sig, and the numbers and timing were perfect and Pizza still didnt take, we have to worry about a possible mismatch between the sire and dam. Rare, but it happens. Adding Dolphin to the "mix" is a little more insurance. My plan was to hopefully breed a daughter of the original cross to Dolphin, so possibly I am just skipping a generation in my plan. God willing, the DNA test will tell.

Now I wait...May 5th is our pregnancy check. It's hard not to get excited, but I have been really tampering down my enthusiasm. I sat down tonight and asked myself why? Trying not to get excited doesn't change anything - I will still be devastated and heartbroken if this doesn't happen, regardless of my attitude leading up to the big moment. So why not get excited, and maybe have a little hope and a smidge of a dream for the next month? It's very hard for me to be optimistic. I tend to be a glass half empty sort of person, mainly for self-protection. I get so mentally and emotionally committed to these things I am trying to do, that it is crushing when it is a failure. So...I will be excited, cautiously excited. Pizza rolls, anyone?

I did some field training with Noodle today. She was pretty darn good! We trained in a field we rarely use because of the condition, and it was still pretty bad. The cover was great, but there were so many thorny stems sticking up that the dogs had a hard time running when they were off the path, and that's not very conducive to training.

Noodle had some really nice retrieves. I sent her on a SUPER long retrieve all the way across the field and when she came upon the bird, it flew off as it hadn't been hit. She did a beautiful stop to flush and stood there the whole time while I made my way down the hill and over toward her. That was awesome, as it is almost impossible to set up a stop to flush scenario so when it happens and it works, it is awesome. Noodle's honoring was OK, but her second honor was a bit scary as the other dog ended up dropping the bird about 10 feet away from Noodle and came after her. I am so incredibly proud of how she handled it, she stood there and let me diffuse the situation (always helps to be wearing knee high hunting boots when training!). Understandibly she didn't really want to honor after that. I will have to get her in the field next week with a different dog and heavily reward her honoring to bring back her enthusiasm.

Noodle and I were finally able to get to a rally trial today! I missed the last two trials - one because of bad weather and one because I was sick. We haven't done rally since the beginning of January...that's over 3 months ago! Noodle was stellar, she handled some tough situations well and earned her Rally Master title! She also earned triple QQQ #10 towards her RACH, placing 4th in Master, 3rd in Excellent, and 3rd in Advanced. It's rare when we place at all, let alone in all three classes! Unfortunately the club had no Q or placement ribbons (?) so all we received was our title ribbon (so you will have to imagine the rest). It was a really good day, although it was extremely long. Poor Noodle didn't get her dinner until 8:00 pm. I will have to plan better next time and bring her food with me.

Noodle's official name is now: GCH CH Luxe All You Can Eat Spaghetti BN RM RAE MH36 MHA MX MXB MXJ MJB MXP MJP2 MFB MFP CGC TKP SDX RD VX3

Today I had a rare Monday agility trial in Wilmington - a nice short drive for me. Dolphin and Noodle were entered. We started off OK, with both dog's Q-ing in FAST. Dolphin knocked the first bar but went on to get the send and he had enough points to qualify. I had to fight for Noodle's Q as the timer did not change the time to Preferred, so the buzzer went off early and they recorded her run 10 points short. I got it fixed, and all was OK. I only entered Dolphin in Time 2 Beat, yet again he knocked a bar. He also SAILED over the A-Frame contact...bad boy.

Both dogs Q-ed in Standard. Noodle ran pretty well. Dolphin was very unmotivated for the first 5 obstacles (jump-weaves-tunnel-jump-tunnel) but then sped up nicely the rest of the course. It wasn't his usual speed, and that benefitted us because he nailed all of his contacts. Both dogs were sitting on a Triple QQQ, and both dogs blew it in Jumpers. Dolphin knocked the 3rd bar - just took off a little too far away and barely brushed it with his belly. Although he started pretty slow, he ran the rest really well. Crushing! Noodle almost missed the 3rd jump because she was distracted looking at something outside the ring, I managed to get her to jump it at a steep slice and all was OK, until she decided to leave me and do a drive-by on the judge, missing a jump and then backjumping when she came back. I was tempted to just walk her off, but I made her finish the course (and she finished strong). Just goes to show there is always that little devil inside of Noodle waiting to come out, and it reappears every now and then. I was pretty bummed, it was a real letdown for the end of the day. Bummed enough that I didn't take any photos of the dogs with their ribbons. Oh well...we have another trial Friday and Saturday. Hopefully we will get our mojo back.

Well, we got our mojo back today! Dolphin, Noodle, and I headed to an agility trial in Zanesville. This is one of my favorite places to trial, and I love it because it's only about 45 minutes away. We started off the morning in FAST and both dogs bombed. Noodle knocked a bar in the send and did yet another drive-by past the judge. She is wearing her crime scene collar this weekend because of that! Dolphin took an off-course tunnel in the send. It was not a very auspicious start, to say the least.

Standard went really well - it was a tricky course with a lot of crooked jumping lines that Dolphin is not very good at, but today he was! Both dogs ended up with nice Q's and really good times.

Jumpers was a tricky course, as it usually is. Noodle was a little slower than in standard, but nailed it for a nice Q - which made it a Double QQ! This is her preferred double QQ #15! Pretty amazing since we only switched to preferred a little over a year ago, and she doesn't trial regularly. Dolphin ran fantastic in jumpers, and boy did we celebrate - Double QQ #10! We are officially halfway to our MACH! He has all of his points, now we just need 10 more double QQ's.

We ended the day with Time 2 Beat - only Dolphin was entered. He took an off course tunnel, which is so unlike him! No Q, but that's OK...the double QQ is the important thing!

Back to reality today, after yesterday was such an awesome day I kind of expected today to be a bit of a bust. We started off the morning with FAST, and unlike yesterday both dogs nailed it, and both won their classes. Standard was OK - Noodle had a pretty decent Q, but Dolphin knocked 2 bars. It wasn't in a complicated jumping effort, these were a line of jumps in a straight line and they were spaced out nice and wide...he just got too much speed and flattened out a little bit. Jumpers was a bust - Noodle was pretty tired and knocked a bar. Dolphin knocked two bars, for whatever reason, although he ran really well. We ended the day with Time 2 Beat and Dolphin had a nice Q happening until he got too far ahead of me and even though I used my "go" command, he turned to me and pulled off the last jump, then back-jumped it. Ugh! Still a pretty good weekend, and I am happy with how well Dolphin ran. No more agility trials for 3 weeks as we have other plans, but I am looking forward to hopefully making even more progress towards our big goal.

Today was a great day - beautiful day to spend in the field! The best part is that Mark came out to shoot for my friend and I. He hasn't hunted in over 40 years, and amazingly he hit every single bird he shot at. Incredible! Noodle was a little wound up, and although she was pretty solid on her birdowrk and retrieves, a loose running bird tried to do her in. Dolphin had a chance with one bird and did pretty well. He was nice and solid on the bird work. retrieve - still meh and his honoring was a mess - he reverted back to trying to turn towards me as I walked up to him on the honor. Overall it was a great day, and it was extra great having Mark in the field with me.

Noodle was great in agility clas this morning. She had a pretty busy day, because after class we headed to the field for a little more training. Today she was 100% stellar on her work - fantastic independent honors and solid on the birds (we only blanked, no shooting today). I was thrilled with her honoring today and I made sure I let her know how happy I was with it. Her only reward when honoring is knowing she made me happy, so I always try to make sure she gets her full reward. Today was probably our first actual hot day in the field - temps reached 80 degrees and we both were showing the heat fatigue!

Ugh, what a day. I say that not in a good way. Today I was at a rally trial about 20 minutes from my house. It was a double trial, so I entered Noodle in Master, Excellent, and Advanced in the first trial to work on her triple QQQs, and then also entered Master in the second trial to work on getting additional Master points. Since I was staying, I decided to enter Dolphin in Novice. He has only competed once in Rally - last year at the Weim Nationals. I don't think we have even trained a lick of rally since then, until I started working in my yard a few weeks ago. Crazy? Yep!

Noodle started off well in the first Master run, and all was going great until I got off course for some reason and did a series of wrong signs. I just hate it when judges design these courses with overlapping lines. It did me in, and thanks to me we got an NQ. I was pretty bummed - this was my only shot today of getting a triple QQQ towards our RACH.

We went on to do Excellent and Advanced and did pretty well in those. By the time her second Master run rolled around, it was almost 4:00 and we had been there since 7:30am. Needless to say Noodle was pretty scattered and unmotivated by then. The recall over the jump was right by an outside door, and she got to looking at something (probably someone coming in the door) and just took out the jump completely. The rest of the run went OK, but we ended up with a score of 86 which was a Q, but was worth ZERO points. So today was a complete bust for Noodle. What a waste of a day.

Dolphin, however, was the surprise of the day. He actually did pretty well in Rally Novice, which is amazing considering how little experience and training he has. He heeled rather nicely. Some of his sits (OK most of them!) were crooked, which caused some points off, and I had to redo the sit-down-walk around sign because after he went down, he sat up and started scratching. Other than that, it was surprisingly good, and he ended up with a Q and a 2nd place. I think he actually enjoyed it, so maybe I will do a little more of thos (after more training at home, of course!).

I rushed home, dropped off the pups, changed vans, and hit the road for Pennsylvania as I was hired to judge a hunt test tomorrow. No rest for the wicked!

It was a gorgeous day! I was gone all day yesterday until late, judging a hunt test in Pennsylvania, so today I took Dolphin and Noodle, and Mark out to the field to do some training. Both dogs were awesome. Dolphin surprisingly had two really nice honors on my friend's dog. he was rock solid on his bird work and had one of the best retrieves he's done in a while. Good day! Noodle was really good. She was a little sore last night when I got home, so I did minimal work with her today. She had a beautiful retrieve and some great honoring. Her bird work was great. She does hop on her mark for the retrieve, but it isn't severe enough to really squash. At this point in her career I am a bit more forgiving of the little nuances. It was such a fun day. I should mention that Mark once again hit every single bird he shot at - he is 100% in shooting for the two days he has come out to train with us. That's amazing for a guy who hasn't hunted in more than 30 years!