Happy Birthday, Dezi!

On Friday night, the Brews Brothers attended the birthday party of their favorite Portuguese Podengo Potato, Dezi!

A cake from the Bluegrass Barkery!

The birthday girl: Dezi!

This wasn't just any ordinary party, there were plenty of fun & games!

Game 1: Chase the Podengo

Followed by Game 2: Smash the Podengo!

Resting between games...

Some more guests show up: The Stump Kids!

Game 3: Chase the Swede!

It really was an International Affair  :) Welsh, Swedish, Portuguese...

The Valllhund prepares to strike back!

After we (the adults) had eaten our supper, it was time for the best game of all: The Weenie Bob! We have to get them in fighting form for the Terrier Trial in 2 weeks  :)

Weenies? We're ready!

The first weenies didn't have a chance - 

the pro's grabbed them before anyone else even saw them drop...

So the cardigans (& Lili) were pulled aside so others could participate :)

Mesa caught on...

Dally & Maya? Not so much...

So we sent in the clean-up crew to remove any stray weenies :)

Finally we ended the night with hats & cake!

The birthday girl

What a good girl! She didn't even nibble!

Ok, she nibbled some  :)

She wasn't about to let Porter have a nibble though!

At the end of the night we left her napping in the recliner.

A great party will wear you out!

Hiking at Hocking Hills: The Rock House

A couple weeks ago, John & I took the dogs to the Hocking Hills area of Ohio for a little weekend getaway.

It's an interesting area with a lot of parks, hiking trails, and cabins. And very dog friendly!  :)

The first park we visited was the Rock House - John's favorite.

Prehistoric cave-corgis

Feeding the dogs nature's "ice cubes"

Inside the Rock House

Looking out one of the "windows"

There were some pigeons in the cave -

have you heard the echo a corgi bark can make??

Porter hated those pigeons!

Zero's New Trick - Caught On Video!

It's not often that the blog veers away from the Brews Brothers, but tonight I just have to share this video of their kitty-sister!

Zero will be turning 17 next month and she has had this weird habit for as long as I can remember... She's actually doing it now as I type.

Zero is obsessed with what we call her "mouse-babies."

She roams around the house, carrying one in her mouth, and making these god-awful yowling sounds. It's pretty frightening if you don't know what she's doing. She has creeped out many house guests...

Zero with 2 "mouse-babies" - and the infamous platypus egg

All hours of the day & night (talk about creepy!) she would do this. But then along came Stout...

And he ate most of her "mouse-babies."

So she had to improvise. First it was small dog toys. We catch her carrying around that egg a lot (yes, it came inside a platypus toy).

But now it seems that she has moved on to bigger prey:

John filmed this the other night. That bunny is as big as she is!

I left the yowling on the end of the video for everyone's listening pleasure  :)

Does anyone know why she does this?

Oh Porter...

So here are the rest of Porter's runs from the weekend.

Like I said yesterday, we had some serious communication breakdowns  :)  

I think a lot of things are contributing to it:

• I can run slightly faster now since I lost weight  :)  I'm finding myself much farther ahead of him.
• I'm running him more like I've been running Stout (all that stuff I've learned in Silvia's class)
• I'm throwing in blind crosses (which I really haven't practiced with him... Why am I doing that??)
• There were a lot of wraps on these courses & I was using stuff I learned in the Dawn Weaver seminar, as well as stuff I've been teaching Stout (which I also haven't practiced with Porter).

On to the videos:

A great run by Porter, but I got lost! 

I was farther ahead than I thought & went too deep to that wrap, so when I turned, it looked like either of those jumps could have been next... Plus I just stood there in my turn to the tunnel, instead of moving toward the entrance  - I could have made it more obvious for Porter  :)  But good boy, Porter!

A whole lot of fails...

I think when Porter knocked the first bar, it just kind of shook his confidence for a little while. He was slower heading around to the tunnel. Then I got way ahead of him while he was in the tunnel - and instead of front crossing or doing a blind, I just stood there & waited so I could rear cross... Duh.

One of my biggest problems lately has been that after we screw up, I just start randomly trying things out there on the course. I need to stop. It just isn't fair to Porter. You can see how lackadaisical I get, and it's only teaching him that he can run lazy too  :)  I need to treat the whole run as if a Q is on the line.

I think that bothers me the most - I am so mad at myself for doing that! Especially since I am constantly telling my students that they need to be clear & consistent in their cues at all times - otherwise they will start to water them down & blur the lines. Which is exactly what I am doing in these runs!  :)  Ugh.

Porter & I share the blame in this run!

I could have been a little clearer that we were taking the tunnel & not the teeter in the beginning... But what was with the random tunnel sniff, Porter?!  :)  And I can blame the "almost table fault" on the way I've been doing it with Stout. I just wasn't thinking...

I was beginning to feel like I had been bragging a lot lately... So I hope posting these will humble me a little!  :)  And I really wanted to share how different these courses were. They had some tough sequences within them!

A Weekend of Firsts

If you didn't see it on Facebook, Stout received his first agility Q over the weekend!

I say "received" because he certainly didn't "earn" it  :)

I didn't even know until Sunday night when the results were emailed to me, so he didn't get a ribbon to celebrate  :(

So why didn't he "earn" it? Watch the video below:

Now don't get me wrong - I am absolutely THRILLED with how he did! Look at those weaves! The teeter! That tiny little stay at the start line! He was a freaking rock star! Not bad for his first time running a standard course!

But I think we can all agree that he had way too many faults to qualify, even for novice... But I'll still take it!

It's a little deja vu-ish since Porter's very first Q was not earned either. I must have some sort of knack for wearing judges down until they just pass us  :)  Or maybe it is the scribes that are on my side.

Thank god that bucket/cone got caught underneath him or I think he would have peed on those bags. Obviously another dog already had...

And another downfall to training by yourself was revealed: he had never had anyone count down while he is on the table. I think he thought the judge was calling him "Five" and he should go introduce himself  :)

But anyway, what was the other first?

Porter earned 26 speed points on this run! That is an all time record for him!

Porter & I had a lot of challenges over the weekend. This was the only run he Q'd. I'll share the other videos tomorrow, along with my excuses :)

And once again, I apologize for the lack of blogging. This change at work is killing me...  :)

Apologies...

I must apologize for the lack of blogging this week. I have been working out in our factory, building the prototype machine, and it is wearing me out!

We have an agility trial this weekend. Stout is running in one class on Saturday (Porter is running his usual).

So in anticipation of Stout's 2nd ever trial, here is his most recent training video  :)

Lots of playing to try to build more speed. Well, he has plenty of speed - I'm trying to get him to use it more often  :)

Wordless Wednesday: The Final Photos From Nationals...

Thank you to Great Dane Photos!

AKC Nationals: Small Dog Posse

Porter & I attended the AKC Nationals with the bulk of the Small Dog Posse - a nickname we've given our group over the years. In a sea of large agility dogs, us small dog handlers need to stick together  :)

 

Here are some photos that Marty was gracious enough to take of us. Trust me, we were quite the spectacle...

Camille (t-shirt designer) with James Brown & MACH Gus, Libba with MACH Molly, Megan with PACH Dally, Me & Porter, and Melanie with Eli

Eli was ready to be done with all this posing...

 

The guy on the bench was not impressed...

MACH Gussy could not be trusted to not run away, so Camille had to hide behind the wall holding onto his leash  :)

 

Random people were standing behind us, also taking a photo of this.

Like I said, we were quite a spectacle...

Eli is once again growing impatient...

I totally ruined the photo by not having my number on...