Crown Classic

I went temporarily insane a couple weeks ago and entered Leland in the Crown Classic at the I-X Center in Cleveland, OH.

Insane because this is a HUGE HUGE HUGE show and Leland doesn't like crowds. So off we drove at 5 am thursday morning.

Leland walks into the I-X Center (which is such a big building it had over 35 dog rings, crating areas, 2 food courts, AND an indoor ferris wheel in the center that pokes through the roof) and gets terrified.

Our standard run was sloooooooooooooooooooooooooow but a Q and 4 points. We continued to walk around and shop for a couple hours between runs. I also decided that I would take him to the dog reader. Doris was AMAZING. I owe her the world. She told me about Leland's last life and how that is affecting him now. She also gave me a new pre-trial routine.

Did it work?

YES! He put his tail up and BOOKED across the jumpers course in 30 SECONDS! He got 8 points and.... ready for this? WAS TWO SECONDS OFF OF PLACING! Oh yeah...there were over 60 dogs in his class :-)

I also had the oppurtunity to run Sue Klar's baby BC, Bonus (Winthrop Added Value) in her second ever trial, 4th run. WE HAD A BEAUTIFUL Q!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY! It was amazing and felt the best run ever. I'm so proud of our work...and SO thankful that Sue let me run her! :-) She's a special little girl.... :-)

Border Terrier Club Trial

Another weekend...more brags :) I am thankful for EVERY point, EVERY run, EVERY moment on the course with little Leland. He's amazing....and I love him (and I would even if he NQ'd every single time!)

We went to Grove City once again...the Buckeye Ranch is not our favorite place (and at the bottom of our list) but it's close to home which means no hotel, I get to sleep in, AND our club hosts the trials ;-) I was REALLY lucky, getting to sleep in until 8, getting coffee at 9, and be at the trial by 10. We didn't run until after 11!!!!!

Slow and steady doesn't win the race BUT it gets MACh :-) We got 2 QQ's again!!!! I think Leland's Q rate is something like 9/10. Not bad not bad :-)

I will be posting videos soon....

YABTC

I decided a long time ago that we would go to Youngstown, OH to the YABTC (Youngstown All Breed Training Club) AKC Trial. This weekend was out LAST CHANCE to earn points to qualify for AKC National Championships...too bad we already earned the points and QQ's :-)

The drive was looooooooooooooong friday..but saturday was so worth it :-) We earned double Q number 22 and 17 points! Watch the video...his first run (JWW) had AMAZING WEAVES!!! Standard was iffy-the teeter was L-O-U-D.

Sunday was kind of a bust. Fun JWW course, 8 points...nice start. Then he got nervous and standard was a disaster...watch how we self distruct at the end (the easy part of a VERY tough course).

Point total: 465 (of the 750 needed for MACh)

Double Q total: 22 (of the 20 needed for MACh haha)

Thank you, Jumpin4Agility!

Check it out....

http://www.jumpin4agility.com/
...her name is Hannah. She's AMAZING with photo collages :) I proudly display mine on my old site so I thought it was time to move them here.

<---Leland and Bandit will be a USDAA pairs team someday (we hope) so Hannah got the graphic ready early... :-)

^ Leland's got his own graphic for Nationals!!!!!!!!!!

Bedlington Terrier Trial

Leland and I trialed...again!

We needed 1 double Q and ten points a day. Leland pulled through HUGE: got TWO double Q's and 35 points :) I thought we needed 45 for AKC National's qualification. I'm good at advanced math, like calculus, but I can't add apparently. I miscalculated and after satuday our point total (only for Nationals points) was 402!!!! YAY! LELAND AND I GET TO GO TO NATIONALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday was another QQ and 16 more points :) YAY!!

So...Leland now was 440 points for MACh! My goal is 500 by the end of the year. This would leave us needing only 250 points from January to April. Way do-able.

Next weekend is our weekend off, followed by finals for me, then Youngstown the weekend of Thanksgiving :)

We WILL have pictures and videos from Youngstown. We failed to get any this weekend :(

QCDTC

Another sunday night and another trial must me another update :)

Leland and I (and mom) drove to Cincinnati to Queen City Dog Training Club's AKC Trial. It's a fun little trial: 1 ring, 2 judges, Excellent classes only in the morning/Novice & Open levels in the afternoon. Usually we don't earn points at this location...it's loud of crowded. But not this weekend!!

We started off STRONG: 11 points in jumpers, 14 in standard saturday. Oh, and DOUBLE Q NUMBER 19!!! LE was fast, fast, fast!! I really appreciated those who noticed and told me how fast Leland was :D

Sunday...ugh. Going for the final double Q for MACh (don't worry, we "only" have 393 points of the 750...) we get 11 points in jumpers again (yay!) and then...he misses his weave entry in standard. Big stinkin' heart breaker. No final double Q :( and worst yet, only 36 points for the weekend. We were aiming for 40. These little misses are going to add up and keep us from MAChing at PCA :(

But...I did get asked if I would like to run MACh6 Zesta :) OF COURSE!!!!!!!! So we ran, and I think we (and by we, I mean she) looked awesome. My handling was not too bad either. That is, until I pushed her into a tunnel instead of the dogwalk. Ahhhhh! I messed up a MACh6 border collie, that's pretty darn hard to do. We'll get um next time, though :)

Delaware Ohio Kennel Club

Leland did it again! We went to the Delware Ohio Kennel Club Trial in Grove City. Leland needs ~20 points per weekend to acheive our goal of MACh in April (and about $1500! AH!)

We went to DOKC with 16/20 double Q’s and 331 points. We left the trial with 21 points and TWO more double Q’s! We’re down to needing only TWO double Q’s for MACh! Yay! Too bad we need 398 points. But that’s beside the point right now...I try not to think about that part.

Leland was WONDERFUL! We started the weekend shakey-our ExB standard run was SLOW SLOW SLOW and LE almost jumped off the teeter (darn teeter problems! Thanks, Cleveland...NOT!) We got 0 points...we were 0.24 seconds overtime...luckily they round down for the Q. But in jumpers we got 5 points on a VERY nice course. Sunday Leland CHARGED the teeter along with the weave poles, a-frame, and barely made the dog walk down contact. ELEVEN POINTS! Yay! Jumpers was a niiice course-but I handled it horribly. Luckily my awesome little dog did what I said and we Q’d with 5 points-the 5 points we needed for our goal. 21 points this weekend! And...2 of the 4 last QQ’s we need for MACh!!

Total point count: 352/750
Total double Q count: 18/20

Welcome, Chuckie!

Mr. Charles the Poodle Finster, aka Chuckie!

Last night (October 22) we brought home our new little foster boy, Chuckie. He came with the name Charlie, but that's too common-and he needs a new beginning. He went from Charlie to Charles to Chuckie, after the Rugrat's character, Chuckie Finster.









Warning: he's SKINNY. Chuck is a neglect case, and he's been released for adoption byt the courts. He weighs 5 lbs, but should easily double that for a healthy weight. He's a milky chocolate color and stinkin' adorable. While he's not shy at all (he LOVES to be held) he especially loves guys. Why? Not sure. It's pretty weird. But he's super cool.








To understand how small Chuckie is...the pillow in the above picture is just a normal throw pillow. He's much smaller than it. But even better is the picture below.






Leland is sitting next to Chuckie...Leland's only 15.6" tall and ~20 lbs. Both boys are 3 years old!

Project Marietta

Our first weekend in a while traveling without Calvin was strange. Leland had Jett, but Jett is big and when LE gets the zoomies and jumps from bed to bed, Jett tackles him. Poor Little LE gets scared and stops playing.

BUT...we had another great weekend :D Leland went 4/4: 2 double Q's, 35 points (yay!), and...drum roll, please... PLACED FOURTH IN EXCELLENT B STANDARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of the entire class-only 5 dogs Q'd...and my little LE was in the top 4 woo hoo! It was a tough course-and Leland thought about teeter jumping (it was another scary teeter) but my boy did it!

Point count as of this weekend: 331 :) (We "only" need 419 points for MACHing in April!)
Double Q count: 16! YAY! (We only need 4 more for MACh!)


Go Leland :-) Next weekend is his recovery weekend...and time for me to celebrate! Then off to Grove City, followed by Youngstown, followed by Grove City again, followed by Cincinnatti...whew!

Cleveland

Everyone has rough weekends...Leland and I met ours last weeked in Cleveland. I worked 5-midnight and then drove home to crash for three hours before waking up to drive to Cleveland. Luckily I have the best driver (aka Mom) to drive us to Cleveland while I took a nap. She also bathed my little man and did an outstanding job fluff drying him :) THANKS, MOM!

Once in Cleveland, we took the whole gang out and unpacked. Did I forget to mention we went with Calvin, Calvin's mom, and Jett? Haha. It was truly a pack of poodles :)

Leland got spooked but the teeter saturday and it cost us the double Q and a LOT of points :(( But in jumpers he managed nine points!! Sunday we got the double Q and eleven points!! Our grand total for the weekend was twenty points...what we needed in one day. But hey, we're getting closer.

We are also getting closer and closer to that goal...which from now on will not be mentioned...we can't jynx it ;)

Calvin had a good weekend-earning his OA title finally. YAY CALVIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm waay proud of him, too...he's my little little man :)

Preparing for October

Leland and I decided to kick out a roommate to prepare for our upcoming month. Maybe we didn't choose to kick her out...but maybe it's better that way. School starts for me monday and it's going to be a tough quarter to say the least. BUT we have a LOT of dog shows so that should lift the spirits!

We're looking for 300 points by the end of october. Tough...VERY tough. If we have 6 days of showing, that's 50 points a day. I think we'll settle for 20 points a day for 120 points. Then we'll need.... 750-380 which equals.... 370 points left to get before april. UGH. Pray for us. Most for my sanity ;-)

September 6-7, 2008 Trial

This last weekend Calvin and his mom, Ann and me, Leland, and my mom drove to Cleveland for the Shetland Sheepdog Club of North-something Ohio. I can't remember the name-I've been calling it the Cleveland trial in early september ;-) Anyway...Saturday was kind of a disaster. Leland started the day off Q'ing in Excellent B Standard with 10 points. Not great, but a Q. Then we NQ'd with one refusal in Excellent B Jumpers :( No QQ :( Calvin BARELY NQ'd in Excellent A Jumpers with 1 baby refusal and then out of the blue knocked the double in open standard! It was such a nice run before the 2nd to last jump :(( Sunday was way better-Leland QQ'd for 21 points. Calvin NQ'd in Excellent A Jumpers with a refusal again but it was so freakin fast and smooth other than that!! He was the ONLY DOG in all of 8, 12, and 16 inch Open Standard to Q..so FIRST PLACE! AND FAST! He was freakin amazing. I am SO lucky to get to run such an AMAZING little black boy =) And of course I am so lucky to have Leland to run =)

Mission: Not-So-Impossible

So maybe not impossible but REALLY REALLY hard. I was calculating Leland's NADAC legs and disocvered he's in elite jumpers and regular. He has his EAC already and is 3 runs away from his EJC. We only need 19 regular legs (yes, seems like a lot-but we totally ROCK in regular) and then 19 jumpers legs (again, we TOTALLY ROCK at jumpers, too!) until NATCh.

But here's the Mission Impossible part: we only have out novice chances title and 1 leg in open chances. Team Leland needs 14 more chances Q's for NATCh. It's not impossible but it's sure darn hard. We suck at chances. And why do we suck? Not Leland's fault...ALL MINE. That tape just throws me for a loop. Leland's so freakin steady he could do it-he's just also a velcro dog so I need to work on MY technique on this whole distance thing.


And we're not ever worrying about AKC's FAST class. We have our NF and 1 leg towards OF. And it doesn't mean diddly for MACh ;-)


My ultimate goal: for Leland's name to be... (you ready?)

NATCh ADCh MACh Litilann's Catch Me If You Can

Notice how we don't have ANY of those titles? haha. As Walt Disney said...

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible"

Only this isn't impossible-it's all about positive attitude, consistancy, and persistance. Right now we have the last two and I'm working on the positive attitude all the time ;-)

I wanted to add this video as living proof that Leland and I rock the socks off of most runs. This is the June Cleveland All Breed Trial (I think it's June...sometime this summer ;-) )

Adventure One: Getting on the web

It's been a LONG time coming, but we finally made it to the web!!

I tried blogging on other sites (Dogster.com, WagAndBrag.com, Freewebs, etc.) but between how hard it is to create a pretty blog and trouble signing in...we're on our own and it feels GREAT! I plan on using this as a training and trialing log for Leland, updates on Jett's retirement career (modeling, acting, and therapy dog work), and competition calendar. Hopefully soon it will be about our amazing wins at big shows =)

If you've ever had the pleasure of reading anything else about the WILD Poodles...you know that our signature color is purple thanks to our club, Wild Weavers of Ohio. But we're breaking away from purple for one and only one reason: it's girly. I know I know, I'm a girl and I LOVE LOVE LOVE purple. But my 2 boys have enough problems being big, white fluffy poodles. They don't need to be called girls because I chose purple. So we're going with green. Green is Jett's color and let's be honest-Jett really started the WILD Poodles!