Mark, Bacon, and I headed to Canfield to a dog show for the day. I was lucky, Weimaraners didn't show until 4pm so I could sleep in and leisurely drive the 3+ hours up to Canfield. Mark came along, and it was a nice outing for us. I didn't expect much as it was a 5 point major in bitches, and I was pretty correct. Bacon didn't get anything other than a compliment from the judge on how nice she was. She showed pretty well, and was her usual confident, happy self. I kind of knew it would be a waste of time driving more than 6 hours round trip for 2 minutes in the ring, but we can't win a major if we don't actually show, right? I don't know of any other majors coming up in the area the rest of the year, so her show career may be halted at 9 single points. I am working on convincing myself to be OK with that. I am actually trying to convince myself to be OK with a lot of things, as I feel things in my life are spiraling downward quickly. It was difficult, but I tried to push that aside and enjoy the day out with Mark.

I confess that I had a breakdown day all day yesterday. And by all day, I mean ALL day. I think I have been working so hard for months now to try and act positive and put out a positive, happy front, that it finally became too much to squash down. So I allowed myself to have this one day yesterday where I just let it hang. Did it scare one of my friends away? Probably. But it is what it is, and it was necessary for me to go on.

Today I have it a lot more together. The trick is to not look into the future AT ALL. Nothing past next week. I am not allowing myself to even plan for a possible trip to Florida in October, because I don't know what our situation will be by then. I am living week to week, if that is realistic.

I took Noodle and Pizza to field train with my friend this morning. Man, it got hot FAST! After last week's debacle in training, today was a 180 degree turnaround. Noodle hit a beautiful slam-on-brakes honor in the field, and also had some nearly perfect birdwork and retrieve. Pizza, of course, was an honoring machine. I found I had to constantly keep her moving pointed away from the other dog so she wouldn't keep stopping and pausing every 5 feet to honor if the other dog paused. Her birdwork was spot on, and her retrieves (we did two) were great! Her first one was perfect straight to hand. Second one (same bird, just threw and shot again) was not as perfect but still to hand. I rewarded her for bringing it to hand with some treats and lots and lots of praise. I have to remember that she is my dog that craves the verbal praise and needs to always know that I am happy with her.

It looks like the next week and a half will be too hot to train in the field, so hopefully the girls will retain their improvements until the next time.

Mark and I headed to Oberlin, Ohio with Dolphin and Bacon in tow...headed to the dog show! I haven't been to this show in years. Not much has changed - still a complete mudhole with just a little bit of rain. We had a great time all weekend, just like "old times"! Bacon showed really well, ended up reserve Winners on Saturday and nothing on Sunday. The judge on Saturday complimented my training, as he said she was well-behaved and stacked so nicely. Yay!

Dolphin showed pretty good both days. The judge REALLY liked him on Saturday, he ended up select behind the #1 dog in the country, so can't fault that! We got select and NOHS best of breed both days, and Dolphin showed winderful in the group on Sunday and earned a nice NOHS sporting group 3! It was blazing hot, and he melted on Saturday, but I was smarter on Sunday and got him out of the air-conditioned van just moments before we went in the ring so he was much fresher.

This week was a hellish one. We had a massive storm Tuesday morning (which was later determined by the National Weather Service to be an F1 tornado) and it knocked down the majority of several trees, hitting our fences and hitting the back of my camper van. The damage was so depressing to look at. Just one more thing on our plate that we don't really need right now! The reduced Mark's chemo slightly this week to help keep the neuropathy at bay. It's such a hard thing - you want the full dose of chemo to fight the cancer, but the full dose will cause permanent neuropathy that could hinder his ability to walk or use his hands, so we have to balance that out.

I took Noodle and Bacon to a rally trial today. Neither have done rally since May. I entered Noodle in Choice, Master, Excellent, and Advanced. Normally I wouldn't enter her in 3 classes, but it's been so long, I figured why not? I am glad I did, Noodle was fantastic! I had a big handler error in Choice, and then Noodle had an error, so our choice score was mediocre. However, she came back super strong with nice scores in the other 3 classes. I loved the fact that even by the 4th class where I would expect her to be bored and tired, she was still pretty sparky and responsive. What a good girl!

Originally I had only entered Bacon in Intermediate. However, in rally runthroughs (that I go to almost every Wednesday morning), she has been doing wonderfully off leash, so I decided to throw her in Advanced A also. Advanced was first. She did pretty good - a decent score and 3rd place in the class. She seemed a little intimidated when we went in, so it took her a while to find her groove. The course had many sits, and she was getting pretty balky by the end of the course. However, she stayed with me the whole time and never left...yay! We came back for Intermediate, which was back on leash. She was MUCH more animated and focused in this class. However, her sits got even more balky. I will have to work on that. Overall it was a very good day for both dogs!

I really meant to type up a long description of this weekend, analyzing all of my runs, but man, I am just too tired! We had a blast at the Weimaraner Club of the Tennessee Valley agility trial in Tennessee! Dolphin was on fire! We didn't have a perfect day all all on any of the 4 days, but I absolutely love how he ran. He ran every run with speed, enthusiasm, and it made it SO much fun! As you know, with speed and enthusiasm come mistakes - a few knocked bars, a few off courses, you know how that goes. No Double QQ's this weekend, but some awesome runs that I have great memories of...worth every entry penny!

What made the weekend extra fun was the big Weimaraner MACH/PACH party they put on for all of us. There were 6 of us that had earned our MACH or PACH in the past year, so they had a cool celebration for everyone that included awesome gifts, cupcakes that were color coded to match the various dogs (Dolphin's were turquoise colored!). We had so much fun.

I did some field training both Tuesday and Wednesday with my friend. I ran both girls (Noodle and Pizza), we had gunners and awesome quail that flew beautifully. Both girls improved each day. Noodle was doing much better at her honoring. I tried the whistle in the field (I had been trying to train a whistle recall at home since she has lost most of her hearing). It was a bit of a bust, because in the field at a distance she still could not hear the whistle. In order to be able to handle her in the field, I am going to have to keep her closer to me so she can see my arm signals...I hate that! BUT...if that's what it takes to keep her out hunting, so be it.

Pizza did great the past 2 days. Her retrieves were actually pretty good! I have been working a lot more positively with her and that helps. She has the appearance of being a tough girl, but she is actually the softest dog I have. Great bravado, but melts and quits under too much pressure. It's been interesting trying to figure her out, because she is a puzzle (a complete opposite puzzle than Noodle).

Bacon and I headed south to Lexington, Kentucky and the Kentucky Horse Park for a conformation show. She only needs one more single point, and then we search for majors. Unfortunately this show was only one short of a major...bummer!

Thursday was very busy for us. We entered conformation, and also entered Rally (Intermediate and Advanced A). Conformation was first - she showed like an absolute rockstar! I was thrilled - she stacked and held her stack perfectly while the judge went over her, and gaited beautifully. We were rewarded with Winners Bitch and 2 points, which officially singled her out!

After we were done showing I had to rush over to the rally ring to walk my classes. Bacon did OK in her rally classes - scored a 91 in Advanced A and a 93 in Intermediate. The sits were the problem, she sat the first few times, but the more sits we had to do, the less she wanted to sit, and I had to ask her repeatedly to sit. This is becoming a big probolem, and I am not sure how to fix it...she will sit fine outside the ring...usually.

I went ahead and still showed Bacon on Friday, mainly to hold the points for the other bitches entered and to also give her some more ring practice time (plus after the messup last month that had me thinking she singled out when she actually hadn't, I wanted the insurance). I went in the ring and made sure she had FUN - we played games in between having to stack, and I rewarded her a lot. She still showed like a little star and ended up Winners Bitch again for some insurance points. I pulled her from the show for the rest of the weekend...now we search for those elusive and impossible to find majors. Wel, if it happens it happens. I am feeling a little so-so about the whole thing. Her energy level is even worse now than it was before I pulled her off her heart meds, so I am not sure what is going on. I have to make an appointment with the cardiologist for another echo soon so he can see how her heart is looking without the medication. My heart hurts, but I know this is just going to be the way she is, and probably conformation and rally might be her only sports. She is such a joyful puppy, I think her biggest sport is making Mark and I smile...and in that sport she is quadruple QQQQ-ing every day!

Mark drove down to Lexington last night and brought Dolphin with him, I had Dolphin entered at the show on the weekend. Since I pulled Bacon from the show, Dolphin was my focus for the day.

Dolphin was a complete poophead in the ring! He wouldn't stand still, kept moving on his stack and just being bratty. There were 6 dog specials entered, so we did not receive a placement, but we did come back in to compete after best of breed and we won owner-handled best of breed, and also best of breed bred by exhibitor. Groups weren't until many hours later in the afternoon, so we went back to the air bnb and hung out until it was time to show again. I skipped the owner-handled group in favor of the bred by exhibitor group. Dolphin was marginally better behaved in the ring, but still was moving around a lot, and not gaiting with enthusiasm. The building was really hot, and he was just done with it. Actually, so was I...so I made the decision to pack the dogs up and head home tonight instead of staying to show tomorrow. I think I have conformation burnout LOL!