Happy Day, Happy Dogs

The last post was slightly depressing in nature, so I thought we needed something more cheery and uplifting.

The never-ending winter from hell is still upon us as you can see from all of the snow in these pictures, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The last few days have actually given us sunshine and above-freezing temperatures! Yesterday it reached 41 degrees and today the thermometer on my car read 47 degrees! Above zero!

I took the dogs walking yesterday on the trail we discovered last fall whilst out looking for Lucy the lost Klee Kai (who was never found, by the way; sad). I chose that trail because I figured it had a better chance of not being muddy like the bike trail, which gets soft and squishy every spring.

Silly me. There was still over 4" of snow pack on the trail yesterday, and that was following several days of gradual thawing. We went back today since I figured it would still be fine and I was right (the pictures are from today). There is still a lot of melting that needs to happen. Our back yard looks about the same. We are pretty much down to the solid ice layer that needs to melt now, though, which means we pretty much can't do anything back there.

The dogs have LOVED getting back out on the trail to romp and run. We've been leash-walking around town the last week or two and I tell you, it blows. None of us are fans of the constrictions of a leash. Well, Kaiser has no choice... But at least on the trail he gets all 23' of his Flexi.  :o)

Everyone came back to the car panting both days and we were only out 30-40 minutes at a time. They just never stopped running. Today they were a bit naughty.... We walked in the opposite direction and apparently entered the land of squirrels. Surprisingly, it was Luke who ran off on us. Likely the only reason Secret didn't follow is because she had already tree'd a squirrel of her own.

Tomorrow they say it might get up to FIFTY degrees! Too much more of this and I suppose we'll be stuck to walking the streets again, but hopefully it's only a short time before our trails are snow- (and mud-) free. And the yard of course -- who can forget the yard? I really want to get back to training the dogs again! In general, though, I'm just looking forward to being back outside. It's been a long winter...

In agility news, I've decided to keep Secret out of the NADAC trial in April. She's already past her NATCH 2 points in Regular and Jumpers -- lord knows we don't need any more of them at the moment -- and if I entered her only in Chances that's about the least motivating option on the planet for her. So, that said, she'll sit this one out. I am going to go ahead and enter Secret (and Luke) in the USDAA trial over at New Berlin the last weekend of the month. Hopefully by then we'll have actually had a chance to train again and maybe Secret will remember that agility is supposed to be fun. Like our walk today.

USDAA Trial Recap & Thoughts (plus a photo shoot!)

Yesterday was a long day! Once again we got up well before the break of day (3:45 a.m.) to travel to an agility trial. We were up in Ham Lake, MN this weekend, running under judge Peggy Hammond. I chose to go on Sunday this time because the class list was definitely to our advantage. We weren't able to run Gamblers, but we did get in four runs total. I could have signed Secret up for P3 Pairs, but I decided I'd rather go for a short day and end with P3 Standard.

Originally my plan was for Secret and I to take this trip alone to test the waters and see if she's gotten any better about traveling solo since our last try in June when she was super weird (could have been because my dad was along, too, who knows). Things changed, though, when photographer Barbara O'Brien announced another open casting call that just happened to be on this weekend. And well, since my plan was to scoot out of the trial at a decent time, I thought just maybe we could swing doing both. Kaiser, being so dang stinking cute, deserves at least as much of a shot at "fame" as Secret, so he got packed along just for that.

Poor Luke stayed at home by himself for this one. I didn't think it paid to bring him along for one class and he isn't considered a very desirable dog for photo work. I planned for the boys to keep each other company while Secret and I were off playing, so I felt bad for leaving Luke alone. He got to go spend a few hours at my parent's house, though, so I don't think he suffered too terribly.

I was on the road by 4:15 a.m. and pulled into On the Run right about 7:15 a.m. I made good time and didn't quite know what to do with myself I had so much free time.  ;o)  I got the crates set up (Kaiser even got to come inside; I was planning on him staying in the car if I couldn't find room together), brought the dogs in and then joined the hover waiting for the course maps to be posted. Masters/P3 Snooker was the first run of the day and they were torturing us by not letting us sit and study the map. lol They finally gave them to us at about 7:40 and I had time to come up with a decent plan before we started walking.

I was a little torn about my choice because it involved doing two teeters in the open. It made the most sense, though, so I went for it. My handling choice was the first red on the bottom right, teeter (5), wrap back to the red below the teeter, then teeter again (5), pull through the jumps to the red on top, then the (6) serpentine, the red and then the jump/weave sequence before going into the close.

I knew that we had to complete through 5 in the closing to get a Q, so my heart fell a bit when Secret knocked a bar on the middle jump of the serpentine in the opening. I knew that meant we now had to get through six in the close and well, she wasn't being the most zippy she's ever been and her weaves were particularly slow. As it turned out, the buzzer sounded when she was going through the second standard of the serpentine, so we ended up with 35 points. It was good enough for 1st place in the 22" dogs, but even without the dropped bar she wouldn't have gotten one of the two Super Qs awarded to our combined class, as the lower-scoring P16 SQ still had 49 points. And the hunt continues...

The good news is that Secret had three really nice teeters in this class! She did trot from the first teeter to the second red, but the judge was standing right there and I think that had more of an effect on her than the teeter. I really didn't see any hesitation from her on the approach or about the tipping point all day. Hooray for getting past the teeter issues!

P3 Jumpers was up next. I hemmed and hawed a bit over how to handle the first sequence. Would I be better off running with and forcing a front cross or go for a bit of a lead-out to catch her over two and scoop her to three? I opted for a very short lead out, just enough to allow me to get ahead of her at the jump. For the rest of the course I used blind crosses -- between 4/5, 10/11, then the 15/16/17 sequence. That one wasn't planned, but I was so far ahead of Secret that I had to do something.

We ended up 7 seconds under STC, but this run (like all of them yesterday) just felt like I was pulling her through the entire thing. And this is Jumpers, what is supposed to be her favorite class.

Secret got a bit of a break while Advanced and Starters Jumpers ran, but then we were up again for Performance Grand Prix. We have not attempted Grand Prix since the first time we tried, which happens to have been that same trial in June where she was so weird traveling by herself. On that occasion Secret ran clean but ended up with time faults. I don't think it was much -- less than a second over time -- but it still was enough to keep me from entering her again. I figured once she hit P3 she would be experienced enough to tackle all of the equipment without me worrying if she would do it or not (i.e., teeter).

I really had my doubts as to whether or not we'd make time on this one, but we did end up 5 seconds under SCT. Thankfully Secret had her fastest weaves of the day in this run or else we probably would have been over. We lost a lot of time as she trotted out of the chute and she was pretty slow over the dog walk.

P3 Standard was up next (see, I'm telling you the class list this day was ideal for getting in and out in a hurry!). I wasn't really concerned about obstacle performance at this point, as Secret had been doing the contacts and tire without a problem earlier in the day. I couldn't help but recall the time we were so close to going over time with a refusal at the tire in P2, though -- This was our first time in P3 Standard and I didn't have anything to go on with regard to how much time we'd have.

We had another pretty lackluster ho-hum run, but it was steady and clean. Once again we came in 5 seconds under SCT. That means for the day we were 3/4, all Q's in P3 and Grand Prix. It's the sort of thing I should be like, "Holy cow, that's awesome!" But instead I'm just bummed.

Secret was just not feeling it yesterday. At all. I got her all jazzed up in the waiting area. She played. She tugged. She barked her fool head off. And then we went in the ring and she just went flat. I didn't feel like she had any oomph to her stride at all. I couldn't find anything to prompt her to really want to play with me. It felt more like she was just going through the motions and not really having any fun. Who wants to feel that way about their agility partner? Not me; it's depressing to feel like I'm making her be out there.

So what now? Confession: I know Secret needs a chiropractic adjustment. I didn't get her in before this trial for various reasons; namely taking off work. Regardless of that fact, however, she still goes completely apeshit flying through the air after her frisbee or chasing and tugging on her Jolly Ball, so her (minor) alignment issues are only a factor in her performance at trials.

I really believe that this LONG super crappy god-awful winter has taken its toll on her as well. I think she's sick of the limited activity we've been reduced to in recent months -- but instead of going hyper freaking crazy like some dogs, she's gotten mopey (except for when it's time to play; then she's crazy...). I also feel that the complete inability to reward/play with her during agility is starting to sour her in the ring. Think of it, though -- We haven't trained since what, October?? That's a long time to go without reinforcement around agility equipment for a dog like Secret.

The question is what can we do about this? Obviously I can get her adjusted. But then what? I'm tempted to give Secret a break from trialing to see if that does anything. At the very least, I don't know if there's any point in trialing her until after we've gotten some training time in -- and considering there's still a good foot of snow outside my door I have no idea of knowing when that will be. I can certainly keep her out of the NADAC trial next month, but I would be more torn about keeping her out of the USDAA trial at the end of the month. I especially want to go to that trial because I want to see if she has any better shot at a Super Q in New Berlin -- I never paid attention to the P3 class because we weren't in it. My hope is that they have enough dogs to make a class of their own and not get combined with the P16 dogs...

If the weather/ground is decent enough, I'd be curious to see if I could get Secret to PLAY at the NADAC trial if I'm not running her. I don't figure I would leave her at home by herself, so I'd have to do something to get her out. It wouldn't hurt to experiment, I guess. Lots to consider, but I think we can all agree that winter has GOT to go.

We left the trial right around 2:15, which worked well because I had signed us up for the 2-4 p.m. time slot with Barbara. I hit, no lie, three different detours on the way over there! Good gracious, thank goodness for the Garmin. It was 3:00 before we got there. We ended up waiting about 45 minutes for our turn -- sharing the very small/cramped waiting area with some very poorly trained dogs (there were two scuffles during our wait and two dogs were unable to actually wait in there with the other dogs present). That said, I'm very proud of Kaiser and Secret. Aside from Secret being a freakazoid about the dog nearest us (I do believe she actually liked him, but she was making the most pathetic flirty noises), they were exceptionally well-behaved.

Secret was a good girl for her photo shoot. She spooked slightly at the flash a couple of times. She would stay nicely but then get up from her sit when the bulb popped. She was also being a poop about her ears and kept moving them back and forth at first, but Barbara should have gotten several shots with them nicely forward. Secret did not get asked to try on clothes for an upcoming Target shoot. Surprise, surprise.

Kaiser was a freaking rock star. (So was Secret, while she held a down-stay during Kaiser's shoot!) The only issue Kaiser had was that he could not keep his poor little butt in one spot on the floor. I kept placing him on the marker and he would continue to go into a down shortly after I walked away. We quickly realized that he was trying to hold his sit, but you could see his butt sliding backwards. The floor was slippery for a fuzzy butt like his! He is and always will be an adorably photogenic dog, so I'm sure Barbara got some great shots. As always, though, nobody knows what Klee Kai are and I'm sure we'll never hear anything again. But it is what it is and we try. Maybe one day we'll be surprised!

Barbara said the photos would be posted in about a month because she has some other jobs coming up. I'll keep an eye out and pick them off her site when they arrive. I'm curious to compare them to the pictures she took over two years ago!

Still Winter - New Family Pictures!

Do you remember that glorious winter we had last year? The one where we had practically no snow whatsoever? The year that we were still playing agility outside in January, February and March? Yeah, that one. We're apparently paying for that now.

With the additional 1.5" of snow that fell this morning, I think we are now something like 7" or more above average. Yay... And guess what, they just issued a new winter weather advisory for tomorrow.

Seriously, I am so tired of winter. I miss training my dogs! I am sick of planning our play schedule around how bad the footing is in the yard on any given day.

Last week I actually reached the point where I finally dragged a few jumps down into the basement. We've used the basement for playtime several times over this cruddy winter, but I never actually got around to taking any equipment down there. The recent blog action day on Internationalization (yeah, I totally failed at joining in on that one, even though I do have my fair share of opinions!) really made me want to get out and run the dogs -- so since I can't do that, I figured we could at least play with backsides, threadles & ketschkers with a couple of jumps in the basement. I haven't been torturing everyone with that -- Just Secret, but we've been having fun!

This weekend we are all home again. A sweet, blessed weekend at home. I hope that the weather cooperates enough that we can do something. Anything. Anything at all outdoors. Did I mention that last year it was 78 degrees on this day? Yup. I remember that we went swimming in March last year!

Next weekend we are making the drive back up to Ham Lake. We are only going on Sunday, as that was the day that had the most advantageous run order for Secret. Sadly for Luke, they aren't running Gamblers that day, which means he'd only have Standard and it was the last class of the day. (Secret is running Snooker, Jumpers, Grand Prix [finally], and Standard.) I decided to make the day a little bit of a test run of sorts to see how Secret does if I take her by herself (leaving the boys at home). I haven't attempted this since Father's Day weekend when my dad accompanied us to New Berlin. Who's to say her weirdness that day wasn't due to my dad tagging along, though? That's why I wanted to test the waters again.

However, plans changed. Photographer Barbara O'Brien (whom we tried to get in with when Secret was less than a year old) is having another open casting call up in the Cities next weekend. I'm thinking we should be done with our runs in time to make it over there, so I decided to sign up for Sunday afternoon. And since I figure Kaiser deserves a shot as much as anyone (well, so does Luke, but he's black and, well...), that means he gets to trek along as well. So much for Secret's solo trip.

We'll see how the audition deal goes this time. Secret has matured a lot since the last time we tried this. She was certainly a very good girl in all of our interactions with Barbara (open audition, Target audition, Chuckle Pup collar shoot), but she was obviously nervous. Hopefully having a couple more years of maturity under her belt will help her show off her naturally gifted posing personality.  :o)  It will have been a very long day with a 4 a.m. start and the trial all day, though, so we'll see what happens.

NATCH Secret!!

She did it! Actually, they both did it! Both Secret & Luke got the final Chances run they needed for their respective NATCH titles today! Originally I wasn't so sure I wanted them to get it on the same day because I thought Secret deserved a "special" day of her own, but let's admit it -- Getting a NATCH on two different dogs on the same day is pretty dang awesome!

Honestly, I did not have high hopes. In fact, my heart sunk quite a bit when it occurred to me that the set of courses we were running today was the very same set of courses we ran at the Minnesota Mixed Breed Club trial over Labor Day weekend. The reason this particular course was ingrained into my brain is because Kaiser had his NATCH on the line when we ran it. None of my dogs managed to Q on this course. Actually, I'm pretty sure that only two or three dogs in the entire Elite class Q'd on this course that day. Yeah... I wasn't too thrilled to see it again.

This course stuck with me so much that I brought it home and set it up to practice. We STILL could not get it and it caused me a great deal of frustration (the dogs, too, I'm sure). Look, I even did an entire blog posting about it with video! Honestly, I went into this more or less thinking we didn't stand a shot. You know what they say, though, sometimes those are the best because you take the pressure off yourself!

Secret absolutely nailed the course! Not a single foot out of place and zero hesitation! Hooray for the baby dog!

I've been wondering for a while if I'd do a victory lap with Secret when she got her NATCH. If I'm honest with myself, I know it's totally not her thing. When we finished the run today I started to celebrate and she continued to head for the door. I did get her to come back to me, but I knew that making her run around the ring would be anything but rewarding for her. So I sucked up my ego and we went back to the crate where she got loads and loads of chicken.

It's amazing to think that Secret took just two years to earn her NATCH! It took me four years to get the first one with Luke. It took three years to get the first one with Kaiser. Maybe I'm on some sort of a roll here? Or maybe experience just helps.  :o)

I was a little bummed that they were out of NATCH bars this weekend. I don't feel it's such a huge deal for Luke, but it would have been nice to have one for Secret's first big title. Oh well, the ribbon bling is pretty darn awesome!

Considering that Luke had also struggled greatly with this course when last we saw it, I certainly didn't think that this would be a slam dunk for him, either. He is and always will be, though, a very good boy. And Luke DOES enjoy victory laps, so we took one and had heaps of fun celebrating his fourth NATCH!

I'm so proud of the big guy! At nine years old and living with Addison's Disease he is still ROCKING IT every single day of his life! I think the best part of his day was when we came home and played frisbee, though.

In addition to their Chances runs, both Luke & Secret only ran in Jumpers today. Thankfully it was the first class of the day, so they got to get their ya-ya's out right away. Luke took down two bars, which is unusual for him (the first was from hitting the standard). Secret had a lovely run, although it certainly wasn't her speediest ever. She did still manage to come in 2nd behind the world's fastest Aussie, though, which is pretty great! And I had fun and stuck in two blind crosses, so wee for me!

Kaiser did not have quite the stellar day that he did yesterday, but he's still awesome. I need to get a better handle on how many treats I give the little guy over the course of three days, and/or I need to make sure I pump him full of pumpkin. His belly was not a happy camper today, which I know makes it hard for him to concentrate like he needs to in his runs. I think I was pretty lucky that we didn't end up with a giant mess in the first round of Regular, as he kind of exploded outside between runs. I knew he had to go -- I had him outside with Luke before that Regular run and I could tell something was up, but I gave him forever and he still didn't go. He was fine the rest of the day, though, and thankfully he only had Tunnelers to wrap up his day. Tunnelers is always fun!

With that Tunnelers Q, Kaiser is now two Touch-n-Go and two Tunnelers Q's from his V-NATCH. I don't know how I let them get quite that far behind. My original intention was to get his NATCH and then finish up the Versatility right away... Because, you know, I didn't want to finish them on the same day.  :o)  Oh well, we'll get there. With our current trial schedule, though, the earliest he can get it is June!

As if today wasn't already one of the funnest most amazing days ever, it got even better! I got to run THREE dogs in addition to my own! Seriously, I cannot tell you how much I enjoy running other people's dogs. It is such an amazing learning experience, as every dog you run will teach you something!

Colleen let me run baby dog Jet again today in Novice Regular. We NQ'd again, but it was heaps of fun! The start is a little unconventional since we figured he'd for sure take the tunnel -- Jet gets a little excited for tunnels.  :o)  Colleen was mostly interested to see how Jet weaves when someone else runs him, and the takeaway from this weekend was that he did great! Colleen was thinking about pulling him from Regular for a while, but now thinks it might be better to let him keep doing it for experience (he did finish his Novice Regular title with his mom this weekend!). He's going to be such an amazing dog!

My next awesome opportunity came when I got to run Spice! Spice is a Keeshond that belongs to my agility buddy, Cynthia. Cynthia is an amazing trainer and I have admired her (and her dogs) since I began competing in 2007. Spice has come so amazingly far since Cynthia adopted her a few years ago. She used to be a little whirling dervish who would just spin and bark at you constantly, but Cynthia has done an amazing job at teaching her "go on" skills.

Spice is a fast little stinker! She also has a running dog walk, and how much fun is that?! Unfortunately there was an off course obstacle straight off the dog walk and we NQ'd there, but it was still just ever so fun to have the opportunity to run the little fluff ball.

My last treat of the day was to run Nim. I'm sure everyone has dogs they see at trials and they think to themselves, "Man, I'd really love to run that dog one day." Nim has been one of those dogs for me ever since I saw her run. She is FAST. So super ungodly fast. She's a little twitchy, but she is amazing. Except for the whole being a girl thing and being the wrong color, Nim is pretty much everything I want in my next border collie -- She's small, she's built like a little coyote and she is crazy toy obsessed. Tug! Tug! Tug! She will play with anyone!

Renee gave me the opportunity to run Nim on the Elite Weavers course at the trial today. What a gift! It was so much fun, even if I did totally fail to support a hoop between tunnels and caused an off course before I could blink. Dang, you have to react quickly with these dogs! lol

I don't have it on video, unfortunately (I guess Renee does, so I'll post it if I get it), but I also got the completely unforgettable experience of running Nim in Tunnelers. It was the last class of the weekend and it was OH SO MUCH FUN. We put in a mind-numbing 7.9 yps run for a Q/1st! Holy buckets. Our time was 17.something and the average (good) time in the class was in the 20/22 range (Kaiser was 22). I never imagined I'd get to feel what it was like to have that kind of run. Completely exhilarating and totally addicting!

Renee is going to Champs and will be required to enter Nim in the 16" Veteran dog class (apparently all dogs 7 years and up MUST run as Vets at Champs now?). That would put her in the same class as Luke, which only makes me further think about not running him in the Regular rounds. lol Oh, we'll see... I'd love to see her run at Champs, though, that's for sure. I think she'll place quite well, if she keeps her head on straight!

I think that wraps up my super awesome day -- Oh, except that I also won the worker raffle! Sweet!!! We drove through Dairy Queen and I shared my ice cream with the crew on the drive home. Let's just say that some of them are neater than others when it comes to eating off utensils. Next time I should ask for two spoons....

In other news, we are supposed to get 10" of snow tomorrow.....

Quick trial check-in -- Still no NATCH

Obladi, oblada. Two days into the trial, two shots at Chances and still no NATCH. Bummer, eh? Good thing we have one more shot at it tomorrow!

Unfortunately neither attempt was really even what I could call close. As I mentioned previously, maybe this whole "can't train all winter" thing is not the most conducive to our distance handling.

Aside from that, Secret is running great! This morning she was entered in Round 2 of Regular (Luke was in Round 1). I couldn't help but groan to myself as I walked the course first thing and realized that Secret's round would have the weaves as obstacle two. Come on... Of all the luck.

That said, I thought she had some pretty slamming weaves considering they were the second obstacle on the course! Secret put in a very lovely Regular run today. She also had a great Jumpers run, even though I managed to get RIGHT in her way and probably knocked her neck out of alignment as she tried to keep from plowing into me. Stupid handler...

Luke also drew the short straw on the number of runs this weekend, but that is the price you pay for getting to play at USDAA trials now, buddy. He didn't suffer too much today, though -- he still got three runs (vs. the normal four). Tomorrow will be tougher, as both Secret and Luke only have two runs.

Luke is also running great -- and, just like Secret, is Qing in everything except Chances. Unlike Secret, however, Luke has been getting the challenges, but has knocked a bar both days. Boo. He WILL get it tomorrow!!

I don't know if Kaiser thought USDAA was so awful that he's extremely happy to be running NADAC exclusively, or if he's so jealous about not running USDAA that he's trying extra hard in NADAC now... But either way, he is on a heck of a roll lately. With Q's in both rounds of Regular today that is at least six in a row that's he's gotten, if not more (records? you want me to look at records?). He hasn't gotten called on his dog walk in lord knows how long, but we still managed to NQ in Touch-n-Go today thanks to a wrap on a hoop (which he went back through -- monkey see, monkey do).

Kaiser was, of course, my only dog to actually Q in Chances today. And, of course, the course had a dog walk. Maybe he's changed his rules -- maybe now he will only Q on Chances courses with dog walks?

More fun tomorrow. Cross your fingers!

Our harness labels have arrived!!

Hooray! I've been watching my order from K9gear.us, wondering with bated breath if our new tags for Secret's Julius K-9 Harness would arrive before our trial this weekend. They came in the mail tonight! My work day has been so crazy that I'd almost forgot about it until I saw the nondescript envelope in my mailbox when I got home.

Seriously, do you know how much angst goes into coming up with these things? lol Okay, maybe it's just me... You have to pick the COLOR in addition to what you want it to say. Oh the choices, the choices.

I went with purple glitter. I didn't know if pink glitter on the pink harness would have been overkill. Let's face it, any color glitter lettering is going to rock. And since purple and pink are kind of tied for favorite colors in my world, I figured I'd have Secret's harness rock both colors.

Secret's name was the obvious choice for one side (because I'm so not original and figured that would just be easy). Coming up with what to put on her tag for the other side was a bit harder. Knowing me, I'll probably end up deciding I don't like this one and ordering different ones -- but for now, I figured Sassypants fit Secret well, especially at trials where she's barking at me the whole time...

We all know that I'd love to get a label that says, "bitch" because that would be MOST fitting for Secret, but seeing as the intention is for her to wear her harness at trials I didn't know if that was the best impression to be making on judge.  :o)  Maybe "I Q a Lot" would be better? hahahaha

We don't need to Q a lot this weekend. Just once and we'll be good. Secret and Luke both have three shots to get the one Chances Q they both need, so hopefully we can knock that out of the way for each of them this weekend!

Neither are running in much else; both have just six runs total for three days thanks to me trying to save money towards running them in USDAA instead of NADAC. In addition to their Chances runs all three days, Luke & Secret are both entered in Jumpers on Saturday & Sunday and one round of Regular each on Saturday. I think Luke got round 1 and Secret got round 2.... Secret has so many stinking Jumpers Q's that I wanted to cut her back there, but I have a hard time keeping her out of the one class she enjoys the most. And since we don't really have the ability to create positive training experiences right now, we may as well try to achieve that at trials.

The little fart gets to run five runs a day on the weekend and twice on Friday. Poor Kaiser doesn't get to run USDAA, so this is his weekend to have fun! No big titles on the line for the little guy, but hopefully we can knock out a few games towards his V-NATCH.

ToughHound All Sports Collar Review

Several weeks ago I was contacted and asked to review a new product from the dog bark collar store. The product in question is the ToughHound All Sports collar. This collar "is a personalized collar that lets you display your dog's name and address. The collar is made from highly-durable polycoated webbing which will allow you many years of rough and tumble play with your pup. The ToughHound's non-porous surface dries quickly, will never absorb offensive odors and makes mud easily removable. The collar also features an integrated stainless steel laser-engraved nameplate which won't jingle or fall from its ring."

Anyone who knows me knows how much I HATE jingling tags on collars! I cannot stand it and my dogs have not had tags on their collars for, well, years. Honestly, when it comes down to it, my dogs don't wear collars all that often, which is what took so long for me to write up this review. I figured I should at least wait for a few opportunities for Secret to wear the collar before I reviewed it.

I find many things about this collar highly appealing. The colors available are bright & fun, which also makes them highly visible. I'm always a fan of anything that is waterproof -- While it's a bit too cold to consider testing the water resistance of this collar, I imagine it will become Secret's go-to swimming collar this summer. I hate how the nylon collars retain odors and that is certainly one perk of this collar!

There are numerous font choices to choose from, so you can have fun personalizing your own collars! I settled on "Arial Round" for Secret's collar. Each tag can hold up to four lines of text with 14 characters each. I opted to limit Secret's to three lines so that the text would be more visible. Working at the shelter, the only thing worse than having no tag at all is a tag that is completely unreadable. The engraving appears to be very good quality and these tags should remain readable for a good long time.

The ring for clipping on your leash is good-sized, which is always helpful. Secret has a couple of collars with small, flimsy rings and it's very hard to clip on the leash one-handed. This one is nice and hefty and even with the spare end of the collar tucked through it there is ample room to easily clip on the leash. I didn't feel like I had to fish around for the ring like I do on some collars.

The metal plate is rather thin, which I'm not so sure I'm in love with. When the collar is being used with a leash, the name plate ends up on the bottom of the dog's throat. If you have a dog that pulls on the leash I could see this fairly thin metal plate digging into their neck. Maybe it would be an aversion to pulling; who knows, but I'm not a huge fan of this aspect of the collar. Kaiser and Luke both have Boomerang tags that operate under the same principle (no jingling), but those tags are attached to an actual collar so that the tags themselves aren't pressing against the skin.

I showed the collar to several people at a couple of trials we attended and they seemed to have the same thought regarding the design. Most people said they preferred to have the collar material against the dog instead of the metal tag.

I thought the sizing was a little peculiar. I was instructed to measure one of Secret's current collars to get the correct size (measuring from the buckle to the tab). I admit that I didn't measure her again. I was pretty certain that I used 14" as the measurement for her custom sparkly collar a while back ago (the beads came unattached on that, did I ever mention?), so that was the measurement I used.

The picture above is the collar on the smallest setting. For some reason they punched that many holes into the collar to make it adjust that small, but there is very little room for error on the larger end. The holes are also spaced quite far apart, so there isn't much room for fine-tuning. As a result, the collar is either too snug on Secret or slightly bigger than I would prefer (on the largest hole).

None of these things would necessarily prevent me from using the collar. I'm terrible about having identification on my dogs, so I can very much see myself using this as a traveling collar for Secret. As I stated earlier, I think I will definitely use it as our swimming collar for when we visit the river. I likely will not choose to use it as a "walking around the neighborhood" collar for the reasons I stated above regarding thickness and digging into the dog's throat. I'll be the first to admit that I fail at teaching my dogs to walk well on leash -- Secret is fine at trials, potty stops on the road and other every-day sorts of things, but she does get excited and pull for the first half of our leash walks around town (granted, we don't do them often...).

Secret's collar is the 3/4" thickness. I would be curious to see the 5/8" collar, but I still think that this collar and the material would be a little overwhelming on a smaller dog like Kaiser. I think it would be a great collar for Luke in the 1" size, and I wouldn't worry so much about the plate digging into him because he has so much hair around his neck.

After going to the link I included above and not being able to find the actual collar by navigating the web site, I figured I could include the direct link for you here:  http://www.dogbarkcollar.com/toughhound  The collars retail for $29.95. Boomerang tags cost around $11 and you have to provide the collar, so I would say they are pretty comparable in that regard.

If you also hate jingling tags and would benefit from an easy-to-clean collar, don't hesitate to check out the ToughHound collar.

As a disclaimer, for providing this review I did receive a ToughHound All Sports Collar of my choosing. I was not required to give a positive review and all comments and opinions stated above are my own.

APD!

We did it! Secret got her last P2 Standard leg this weekend to earn her APD title so that we can move up to P3 for all classes now. I had hoped that we would get that last leg on Saturday, allowing us to move to the Masters ring for Sunday to avoid conflicts, but Secret decided she wanted to stay in her own ring, I guess.  ;o)

In addition to our snazzy new title bling, we also brought home a new harness this weekend! I've been wanting a Julius K-9 harness for Secret for some time now. Yes, I realize that EVERYONE has one and this does not make us special in the least, but I'm in love with the interchangeable patches and just had to have one. I love Kaiser's ComfortFlex Sport harness, but it doesn't have name patches. lol

I'd shopped around a bit online, but I wasn't entirely sure what size Secret would be. I guessed 0, but wanted to be able to try one on. I saw that Best for Pets was going to be vending at the trial this weekend and I was hoping they'd have a pink harness in our size. The last time we saw them was right after they'd vended at Border Collie Nationals and they were all out. This time we scored! I ran over to the booth before our first run, grabbed the only pink size 0 on the rack and asked Jason to hold it for us. It fit perfectly, so I bought it after that first run and we got to wear it the rest of the weekend! Secret did well with it -- it goes on and off very easily and she didn't have any aversion to it going over her head like she did with the collar/leash combos.

Secret's brother, Blizzard, was at the trial this weekend! Although I've kept up with him online, we haven't seen him since our little family reunion the summer after we adopted the puppies. This was the first time I've been able to see Blizzard run in person, so that was pretty awesome. He almost has his MACH already, but this was his first USDAA trial. I see a lot of similarities in the two dogs, that's for sure. If anything, he's not nearly as quirky as Secret.  ;o)  Blizzard is running Champion 26", though, so we won't be having any sibling teams any time soon.

Secret was up first with her P2 Gamblers run. Honestly I thought we had this one in the bag because sheesh, it's weaves that are 12' away. Yeah... Well, it was her first run in a horse arena in 12 months. The temptation of poop overpowered all and she stopped about four poles in to sample a morsel on the ground. So much for that.

Our opening was jump (right), a-frame, a-frame, jump, teeter, tire, jump, jump, dog walk, tunnel -- That's when the buzzer sounded and unfortunately Secret went right up the dog walk again instead of coming back to me. I couldn't get her to stop and she just kept going... Until she hit the halfway point in the middle and bailed off the side. Eek. Sorry, Secret. So by then we'd wasted a ton of time... And then the poop thing happened. Well, I guess we aren't guaranteed a move-up in Gamblers (she was one Q shy of that title).

Luke's Gamblers run was up next. I wasn't so sure about this one for him. I wasn't worried about him doing the teeter at a distance, but that backside was going to be very difficult, especially since he has a tendency to turn towards me on the contacts.

I was right. Totally didn't even come close to getting number two, or any of the other jumps in the sequence for that matter.  ;o)

His opening was jump (left), jump, a-frame, weaves, dog walk, jump, a-frame, weaves, then the buzzer went off when we were on the teeter wasting time. Oh well, good try, Luke.

Next up was Secret's P2 Standard run. I was really, really hoping for a Q in this run so that we could move to the Masters ring on Sunday. It would open up more opportunity for me to work ($$) and let me completely avoid conflicts since we didn't enter any Tournament classes this weekend.

Well, unfortunately it was not meant to be. Secret had a really lovely run; right up to the weaves, where she skipped a pole in the exact spot she had stopped to eat poop in the previous class. In Advanced you have two big opportunities for faults -- refusals on contacts and popping out of the weaves. You can blow the entry, but after that you are out of luck. Darn it. Oh well, stuck in the Starters/Advanced ring for another day, I guess.

Luke's Veteran Standard run was up next. What else can I say but that he freaking rocks?! That jump sequence after the weaves was tricky and getting a lot of dogs, but the big old moose sailed right through it. I pushed to the backside of five, rear-crossed to six, pulled in to 7 and then phew, breathed a sigh of relief. I praised him profusely when we got to the table.

We had a close call going from 17 to 18 when he nearly took the tire, but he had a great call-off and came back for the tunnel. Luke did a great job -- I'm having so much fun running him on these courses! And thankfully, I think he's having fun, too.  :o)

Next up was Secret's very first P3 Snooker run! I worked for quite a while in the morning to come up with a plan that would work for her. I knew doing a ton of 7's would not be the best plan for us considering the amount of yardage involved in the FOUR jump sequence. I did end up going for four reds, though, with a 1-7, 1-6, 1-4, 1-3 plan.

I knew that we had to get through five in the close to Q. Secret was DRAGGING on this run. We were plagued with issues all weekend that held up our runs. Timers weren't working. Equipment changes. Other various issues... Secret doesn't do well being held at the start line, that's for sure....

At any rate, the video for this run was almost painful to watch. I guess I didn't even realize how much she was trotting through this course. Sigh. Oh well, it is what it is. We almost had an off course, but in the end we made it through six in the close (the judge gifted us with that one as she was barely taking off for 6b when the buzzer sounded). It was good enough to earn us 2nd place in the P22" class, but we were one dog shy of having our own SQs, so we were combined with the 16" class and they got the 2nd one.

Jumpers was our last run of the day. After getting up at 4 a.m., my brain just wasn't in this run -- and apparently Secret was kind of done as well. We managed to stay clean up until I totally dropped her on a blind cross out of the number 12 tunnel. Then my brain shut off and also forgot to direct her after the number 14 jump. Maybe I need to just stop entering the last class of the day on these early starts... It wasn't horribly late; probably around 6:00, but it had been a long day.

Thankfully we redeemed ourselves the next morning when we got to START our day with Jumpers. I felt this was a very fun and motivating course for Secret. Despite having barely slept at all the night before (Ms. Prissypants did not like the sleeping arrangements -- the one queen bed was far too full for her liking and she kept jumping on and off all night), Secret was pretty up for this run and was running happy. I also abandoned the idea of a lead-out at the beginning, as I didn't think it was doing us any favors. The only thing I'm really disappointed about is that I totally chickened out on the blind crosses this weekend. Sissy handler.

Secret won the P22" class! She was a full two seconds faster than the second place dog, even! I was thrilled about this, until I was brought back to reality by watching the Masters dogs that were all coming in about four seconds faster than Secret's time. Sigh. Maybe one day I will just accept that she will never be THAT fast. That said, I was still thrilled with Secret's run and elated that she was happy to run again.

I knew that a Super Q was likely not in our cards for Sunday, but I was pretty confident in our ability to pull off another Q at least. This was a course designed to reward fast dogs with good weaves -- aaaaaaand we know that's not Secret. There is no way I could have attempted three 7's on this course and still had a dog willing to work with me.

I opted for the next best thing and kept a happy dog throughout the course. We did 1-7, 1-6, 1-6 and got all the way through the close. Secret likes a-frames, so I was very happy with this plan when I came up with it. I don't believe I saw anyone else execute my plan (well, mostly because almost everyone went for the 7's). That happened a lot this weekend, though... I apparently march to the beat of a different drummer in my Gamblers & Snooker plans, but they work for us so I have to try not to let that sway me!

My Snooker plan was good enough to earn us 1st place in the P22" class! Unfortunately 3 of the 16" dogs got all 7's, so both of the SQ's went to that class. Have I mentioned how fun it is that we are probably almost always going to be combined with the 16" dogs....?

The rings were much more off-balance on Sunday, so Luke continued to sit in his crate while Secret moved on to her P2 Standard run (after a considerable break, as they ran Steeplechase first).

I didn't think this course was quite the "slam dunk" that the previous day's had been, but I certainly thought it was doable. My only "worry" spots were what to do at the chute (I forced a front cross after the teeter) and getting the right end of the tunnel after the weaves (again, did another front cross). I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about popping the weaves again, though! Thankfully it was a non-issue and we didn't have a problem.

Secret did have a space cadet moment at the start for some reason. Could be because our friend, Rich, was sitting in the other ring videoing our run as he worked the class and Secret LOVES Rich for some reason. Like groveling and almost peeing on herself loves him... I lost her as she looked around before 3 and then she spaced out at the tire. We were fine after that, thankfully, and still managed to come in about 8 seconds under time. I'm thrilled that we didn't have ANY "zombie moments" after the teeter this weekend! Secret's been having issues with spacing out for a few seconds after each teeter at recent trials, but I didn't see her turning around or worrying at all. Hopefully that is behind us.

At any rate, she made it through the course without any bobbles for a Q/1st, which finishes her P2 Standard title and makes her an Advanced Performance Dog! Hooray! On to P3 for everything!

After a very long wait, Luke finally got to run! His Veteran Standard run was up first. I thought this course was a bit friendlier than the one on Saturday, at least for the big guy. The only area in this course where I kind of held my breath was from five to six. I didn't know if he'd be able to get that angle, but he came in and sliced it nicely.

Luke's been doing a great job on the USDAA a-frames and fitting in a front cross after 7 helped me fit in a blind cross after the tunnel so that I wouldn't have to flip him over 9. After that it was pretty smooth sailing. The big guy got his second Standard Q! And I *finally* got one of his runs on video!!

I might be biased, but I think he is doing an absolutely remarkable job for a dog who has never done anything but NADAC.  :o)  I give the big guy a lot of credit for jumping right into these Masters courses!

Secret's final run, P2 Gamblers, was up next. I honestly considered scratching Secret from this run because she didn't need the Q and I really felt like she was done for the day/weekend. I wish I would have listened to my gut because I was right. She wasn't into this run at all. She did a good job, but it was pretty lackluster.

We went jump (center), teeter, jump, jump, a-frame, a-frame, jump, jump, chute, jump, tire and then the buzzer went off. I elected to approach the gamble from the bottom, thinking that a switch would help send Secret out a bit better. Well, maybe, if she had any impulsion or if I wasn't stuck at the line. She paused in front of the tunnel, barked at me while I gestured towards the tunnel and then took the dog walk.

Yup, should have scratched, but I was being greedy and wanted to finish her P2 Gamblers title. Oh well.

Last run of the day! Luke did awesome. He was the first dog to run (being the only Veteran entered in this one) and showed everyone how it's done.

Luke's plan was chute, jump, weaves (although he decided he needed another jump before the weaves...), a-frame, a-frame, weaves, jump, and then the buzzer sounded when he was on the teeter. I saw Luke head-check me before each tunnel but he was a good boy and kept going. Yay for our second Veteran Gamblers Q!

Some day I need to decide if I want to go for the Veteran Versatility title with the big guy. I might try him in Jumpers one of these days, but I just don't think he would enjoy Snooker. We'll see. We've only done two USDAA trials so far and I'll give him a bit more time to get used to things.

If you have made it this far, kudos to you! I'm happy to report that I finally got video from a USDAA trial!! Somehow I didn't get either Gamblers run videoed, but seeing as they were both pretty crappy I'm not too concerned about that.

I did find myself wishing that I'd put Sunday's runs first since they were so much better, but if you wish to see them you'll have to suffer through Saturday.  ;o)

Up next is a NADAC trial in La Crosse the first weekend in March. There is also a USDAA trial at Think Pawsitive that weekend and I was very conflicted... We've still got a NATCH on the line (for both Secret & Luke), though, so I decided to stay in town and try to get that done. We'll shoot for doing one day of USDAA up in the Cities later in the month.

Today I ordered patches for Secret's new harness. No worries, I'll be sure to update when they arrive!

Oh -- and just for the Google search engines -- Our judges this weekend were Sandra Katzen (Masters) and Kirstie Dean (Starters/Advanced). I always Google to look for course maps before each trial, so if anyone is looking for course maps for either of these judges, have at 'em. I thought all of the courses were fun this weekend! Steeplechase had double weaves both days (ugh), but Grand Prix looked like fun. Maybe one of these days I'll actually enter Secret in that again...

Alternate Universe?

I'm not sure what to think here. Tonight Secret chose a tug toy over food...

Whoa.

With some warmer temps the last few days, that foot+ of snow we got started to melt. Unfortunately everything refroze today and the whole yard is a mixture of frozen slush and puddles that break when you step on them.

That means one thing -- basement!

I went downstairs with a pouch of food, planning to play with everyone on the Theraball before dinner. I figured a little core work never hurt anyone going into a trial weekend.

Imagine my surprise when I'm sitting there working Kaiser & Luke on the ball with food and Secret is going to town on a little furry tug (one of the multitude I purchased when attempting to build her toy drive as a puppy). Um, what? I expected to be shoving her out of the way during their turns.

When it was her turn I called her over and she brought the toy. She jumped up on the ball, took a piece of food and then grabbed her toy back. She slid off the ball and started tugging while I had food in my hand! I was a little surprised, to say the least.

This went on for some time and she would go back to chewing on her toy while the boys took another turn. Secret worked for her tug on the ball and even got into a pretty hardcore game of tuggy while on the peanut -- talk about core exercise, right?

She took food when offered, but continued to go back to the toy every time. Crazy. Who'd have thought the day would ever come when the toy would completely and totally trump the food?

I'm really looking forward to our trial this weekend! It should be loads of fun with two dogs who haven't done much of anything all week. Secret is finally going to the chiropractor on Wednesday, too. She is long overdue, so hopefully that keeps her happy & comfy all weekend long.

In other news, look what I made this weekend!  :o)  They are magically delicious. You, too, can dine on delectable unicorn poop if you feel like stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork. The recipe and instructions can be found at this web site.  They were a big hit at work today, which was the point of making them. They just taste like your basic sugar cookie, but they are super-duper pretty when you bite into them! And sparkly. We can't forget the sparkly.

My parents came over yesterday afternoon so that my mom could help slap these babies together. The dogs enjoyed their visit. Maybe a bit too much. Secret is weird....

Furry little nursemaids

I got hit with the flu on Saturday. Just when I thought it had passed (last night), it hit me again this morning. I have to say, the dogs have been wonderful -- Happy to lay around, not terribly demanding and super, duper cuddley. This morning I didn't even get out of bed until 11:00 (after getting up to feed the dogs and call into work at 6 a.m.). Secret may be thinking I'm a giant loser who needs to go outside and play in the above photo, but she hid her feelings well and stuck by my side (after taking herself out mid-morning, running laps in the snow and then bringing it all back to bed with her).

Even Kaiser has come forward for cuddle time, which kind of makes me wonder if I'm dieing... Today he positioned himself on my lap and must have stayed there for a good 15-20 minutes. They seem genuinely concerned when I have a retching fit -- probably because they worry about who would feed them if I fall over dead.

How miserable would it be to be home sick without my furry nursemaids?

We got lucky on the weather front. Well, I suppose it depends on how you define "luck." Last I wrote we were living on a block of ice with snow on the horizon. Snow came; believe me, snow came. It came in amounts large enough that it no longer matters that there is ice beneath it! Our forecasted 3-6" snowfall turned into more like 10-12" and then we've had what the weatherpersons like to call "clippers" the last few nights that have added probably another 3-4" by now. So yes, we have a LOT of snow. The dogs think it's grand.

The giant pile has once again appeared below the deck (the results of shoveling it clear) and that's the BEST THING EVER in Secret's head. She loves to play in that pile. Luke loves to eat it. Kaiser thinks it all kind of sucks, but at least now we've played enough in the yard that he can maneuver through the trampled snow. It was kind of deep for him!

For once I was thankful that we didn't have a trial this past weekend. At this point I'm even kind of glad we don't have one this coming weekend. But the week after that we'll totally be ready.  :o)

Last night of sanity for a while...

If you don't hear from me for a while, it might be because I had to check in to the loony bin.

This stinks. It must be Mother Nature's way of getting back at us for that wonderful, warm & snow-free winter we had last year.

Things have been a mess since the storm on Sunday. Everything packed down and froze just enough that the slightly just-above freezing temperatures weren't able to get everything melted over the last two days. Last night it POURED buckets of rain with a thunderstorm -- in January! We woke up around midnight to a big kaboom. Secret was totally taken by surprise and had a little freak-out. We'd (errr, I'd....) fallen asleep on the couch and she bolted for the bedroom when we heard that. The big crack of thunder was immediately followed by the downpour, so we had to wait a bit for it to let up before the dogs could go out for a final potty break; and then I practically had to shove Secret out the door. She's no fool, she knows it's not supposed to thunder in January.

Tonight the temperatures start to drop and rain is supposed to turn into 3-6" of snow. Then, as if that wasn't awesome enough, we are going to drop into the sub-zeros for a couple of days. Considering my yard is currently a swamp of standing water that will soon be a giant brick of ice covered by snow, that means *no* activity for the dogs for the foreseeable future.  :o(

Last night everything was still ice, so we were stuck indoors. Generally the day after a trial isn't that bad and we can lay pretty low -- but then I remembered that Secret & Luke only had two runs and were plenty full of themselves. We ended up utilizing the basement play room for the first time this year and spent a good 40 minutes down there just tugging and doing short fetches across the room. Everyone was panting and I succeeded in having a quiet night.

Tonight I packed the dogs up as soon as I got home and drove the block or so to a park with a big open area (hey, you try walking a block with dogs who are going bonkers over the Chuck-it and you'd understand why I drove, lol). I'd driven past the park on my way home to confirm that it did, indeed, have a large swath of dry land that we could use for running. Yay!

This is when I learned that Secret's brain falls out of her ears and she apparently does not understand the concept of fetching away from home. She saw the big open area and promptly went, "Wheeee!" She just ran after Luke a few times as he went after his ball, made a few laps for the fun of it and then set about to sniffing everywhere and wandering into neighboring yards (which got her yelled at). I did eventually get her to do several long fetches to get some good sprints in, but I surely would have preferred to run the snot out of her more than I was able to. When it was clear that her brain was completely fried, we packed it in and came home.

So, note to self: Work on your dog's fetching skills away from home....

Meanwhile, we'll be hunkering down and spending our evenings in the basement. Good thing I pumped up the theraball.