Rats!!

My friend Lana has opened a web store for these cool toys she has been making. Her specialty are these realistic rats made of cowhide. Everyone that trains with us loves them, so we suggested she offer them up for sale. She also has tugs and rings and frisbee toys. I created a web store for her - have a look! www.kat-rats.com

Skye and Rip having USDAA fun in Laramie.

We went up to Laramie last weekend for the USDAA trial - this one is nice because it's one ring, so no conflicts, and they have some runs on Friday afternoon so the other days are not really long.

Skye was trying for that last Gamblers leg to finish his APD title (Accomplished Performance Dog) which is equivalent to the ADCH title in the Championship division. I thought it would be a gamble he could get, but I lost my head and didnt call him out of a tunnel, and he took a jump that was not in sequence.

Generally both of my guys had a really good weekend. They each earned 4 Q's out of 7 runs.
Skye was running fast and putting up some good times. We had a missed DW contact in one STD and a refusal in one Jumpers, but were otherwise clean and having great runs. He also made it to round 2 of performance Steeplechase and got a 2nd place to win $12!

Rip had some great runs too, and ended up finishing his Starter Snooker and Starter Pairs titles. We even got a Standard Q! He hit every contact this weekend, and missed getting a 2nd Standard Q by being enticed to the offcourse weaves. He had a great Jumpers run but I caused him to knock the last stinkin bar. Generally, he kept all the bars up which is a big accomplishment for him!
I had entered Rip in his first ever Steeplechase run and he managed to get into round 2! You have to be within 25% of the fastest 3 dogs' average time. 20 dogs made it into round 2 and we were 18th. In round 2, he did knock a bar (which just adds 5 seconds to your time), but many more experienced dogs had trouble with this course and went offcourse. Rip ended up in 8th place in round 2!

I'll post some video when I get it loaded on youtube.

All in all it was a fun time hanging out with Katrina & the pups in our camper in Laramie!

Next up, USDAA over Labor Day weekend in Brighton.

Rip's out of Novice!

Finally, at the last AKC trial, Rip got that Standard Q to move out of Novice (in AKC at least). He had a few small issues in Open JWW though, including a bar down in each run, our nemesis. Generally I was really happy with these 3 runs that are on the video. The missing run is where he was pulled shortly after starting the course for launching the AFrame.

Youtube erased my original music, so I picked one from their audioswap collection.