Missing Dog!

Indy's best buddy Cocoa is missing!  Cocoa was at our friend's Dad's business on the North Side when it was robbed.  He was hit on the head with a brick, but he credits Cocoa with preventing further injury and chasing the robbers away.  Unfortunately, Cocoa has been missing since the time of the robbery on Wednesday.

There have been a few reported sightings of Cocoa on the North Side, so we are heading there to search today.  We are taking Indy with us, in the hopes that he will draw Cocoa out or perhaps be able to lead us to her.

Cocoa does not live on the North Side normally.  She was staying with our friend's family while our friend was out of town, so Cocoa may be trying to make her way home to Zelienople.  Please keep your eyes and ears open for any information about Cocoa's whereabouts, and, at the very least, say a prayer for Cocoa's safe return.  She is an awesome dog, owned by one of the sweetest, kindest people we know.

My Boys

This afternoon, my two boys, Indy and Rocky, got a chance to work together.  While Indy has visited the barn before, this is the first time he's been out while I'm riding Rocky.

Not knowing if Indy would understand that "heel" still means "heel" when I'm on a horse, we started off with Indy on lead until he could get the hang of things.

In no time, Indy was gaiting along off lead with Rocky like a pro!

Indy and Rocky practiced the hock, stay, and recall exercises.  I'd also say we practiced the distraction exercise, since the herd of horses from the barn was following us along the fence line, and our resident mini goats were in a pen adjacent to the riding ring, so Indy had plenty of distractions to work through!

Although we have much training yet to do to be ready for a road trial, Indy did great with Rocky and seemed to enjoy himself.

As for Rocky, he celebrated his new partnership with the spotted dog by a nice roll in the dirt to cool off once he was turned back out into the pasture!

CPE Agility Team Extraordinaire

Tess and Jim earned their CPE Agility Team Extraordinaire title (C-ATE) yesterday at the Splash 'n Dash K9 Sports trial at B&D Creekside Activity Center in Latrobe!

Here's a video of the Snooker run that put Tess at the required 5000 points in the Championship level for her C-ATE:

This is the highest title you can earn in CPE agility, and Tess may be the first Dalmatian to earn a C-ATE title (although one other Dal has achieved a Specialist C-ATE, which is a jump height 8" lower than the dog's regular jump height).  We were especially pleased to earn the title at this particular trial because it was our club's trial, and also because the judge was Becky Dean, whom we have always enjoyed showing under.

Here's a picture of Judge Becky Dean holding the C-ATE ribbon, Tess, and Jim:

All three dogs ran great this weekend.  Tess also earned her Extraordinaire Wildcard (ExWC) title, and Indy earned his Level 2 Strategy Games (CL2-S) title and Level 2 Standard (CL2-R) title, which finished out Level 2 and earned him the CL2 designation.  And while Jazz didn't earn any titles, she amassed several qualifying scores toward her C-ATE.

Big congrats to Jim and Tess for a job well done!