Kingdom's All That Jazz, RE

Jazz earned her Rally Excellent title today at the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club trial!!

Not only did Jazz earn her title today, but she did it with a first placement. All three of her Excellent legs were first place runs, so I'm really proud of my little brown girl. She did a nice job even though we once again had a very difficult honor (the dog running the course thought that perhaps he ought to come and check Jazz out), but Jazz held her stay.

There was a photographer at the trial who took pictures of Jazz with her title ribbon, so I'll have to share those pics when I get them. In the meantime, thanks to my friend Mellissa for snapping these for me to post.

Jazz really seems to enjoy Rally, so we'll probably continue on for our RAE. That requires that the dog and handler qualify in both Excellent and Advanced on the same day and you need 10 legs to earn the RAE title. It's a big investment of time and money, but I really enjoy being out there with Jazz, and I think she likes it, too. I'm also hoping to start Tess in Rally in the fall and eventually want to do Rally Pairs with both Tess and Jazz, so that should be an adventure!

Coaching

Jazz and I continued our Road Trial training last evening by trying coaching with a horse and cart. We met Doris of Wolfe Dream Carriage at Northmoreland Park and had a wonderful ride with her beautiful and gentle horse Bonnie.

Here's Jazz coaching alongside the cart on one of the trails in the park.

It was a great evening for a ride, nice and cool for both Bonnie and Jazz.

Here's Jazz coaching alongside Bonnie. I would have preferred her to be back by the cart more, but I've spent a lot of time teaching her to hock, and that was the position that she preferred.


After Jazz got over the novelty of being out with a horse and cart in a lovely park (and ran off some energy), she fell more into a coaching position behind the cart, which is very acceptable.

We rode for over an hour, with only a short break to give Jazz some water. Although she was panting during the ride, I was very pleased with how quickly she came back to a baseline after the ride was over. She showed no adverse signs this morning and engaged in her normal play routine with Tess. I think that some of our endurance training is paying off, so we'll continue exercising on the fitness ball, walking, and biking.

I was incredibly pleased with Jazz while we were out with Doris and Bonnie. This is the first time she's ever seen a cart and she was off lead in an incredible park with lots of distractions. At one point, Jazz spotted a little critter scamper down an intersecting trail and stayed with the horse and cart. Even the birds, which are her big temptation, didn't faze her. This was a wonderfully positive experience for us both.

What a pleasant evening it was to ride along in the cart with Bonnie. She is an amazingly smooth horse and the surroundings in the park made for a very relaxing evening. The fact that I could combine this incredible experience with my dog was a real bonus!

After our ride in the park, we went back to Wolfe Dream Carriage to see some of the 20 carriages they have, as well as meet the equine (and canine) family. This is Toy and her 2-week-old baby Razzle Dazzle.

If you ever need a carriage for a wedding or event, I'd highly recommend Wolfe Dream Carriage. Doris and Bill are lovely people who take good care of their horses. Their carriages are beautiful and their horses are well behaved, and they were more than accommodating to me and Jazz. I hope to ride with them again soon.

Agility Update

We just got in from our club's CPE trial, and Tess and Jazz had what our friend Ron likes to call a "polyester weekend."

Tess qualified and placed in 9 of her 10 runs! She missed a perfect weekend by one second, which happened when she had to stop to sneeze just before the weaves in the last class of the trial. Arrrgh!! We're thrilled with her performance, though, since her nine qualifying runs were in either Level 5 or the Championship level, which are the highest levels of competition in CPE. Tess also Q'd in 7 of 8 runs in CPE agility two weeks ago, and had a double Q and two Standard Qs in AKC agility last weekend.

Little sister Jazz is starting to get the hang of this agility stuff. After a rather dismal 1 for 8 performance at CPE two weeks ago, she got a Novice Standard Q in AKC last weekend and qualified in 8 out of 10 runs this weekend!! Jazz is really starting to settle in and get comfortable with agility and had a really fun weekend. She is becoming less and less tentative and really showing what she can do. She had a rather tough transition from running with me to running with Jim (as evidenced by that 1 for 8 weekend where she spent most of her time in the ring looking for me), but they really pulled together this weekend and made a great team. I've decided to leave the agility stuff to Jim, while I concentrate on Rally, Obedience, and Jazz's Road Trial training. With me now taking riding lessons and doing the endurance work with Jazz, along with our Rally and Obedience classes, it really left very little time for me to work on agility training, not to mention my full-time court reporting business. I really think that Jazz will benefit in agility from having a confident handler like Jim, and I'd prefer to concentrate on Rally and Obedience, along with our Road Trial work.

So, that's our agility update. We have another busy weekend next weekend, and then things will settle down until late July. It's been a lot of fun spending the past few weekends with our agility friends, but not much gets done at home while we're playing...and the work weeks come around again way too quickly!!

Beach Memories

Well, we're back home again and missing the beach already! We had an absolutely wonderful vacation with our friends and look forward to next year's trip. The weather was fantastic, and the dogs will have a "beach hangover" for the next several days, I'm sure.

Jazz and Tess enjoy the sunrise from the deck of our beach house.

Of course, the highlight of the week was all the playing, wrestling, and digging at the beach, as well as wading into the surf.



Here's Jazz and her buddy Ian on the beach. Ian's family has five dogs, but he's always been partial to Jazz, ever since she was a puppy.

Here's the whole group of dogs that we traveled to the Outer Banks with: Labradoodles Shaina and Toby, Rocky, Tess, Jazz, Sammie, Chocolate Lab Heath, and Border Collies Swirl, Twist, Scorch, and Blizzard.

So after a week at the beach, we ended up with very tired, happy Dalmatians! The girls are still sleeping it off this morning, but they had another fun adventure in the Outer Banks this year.

Road Trial Training...at the Beach!!

Yesterday, Jazz and I had the opportunity to do some road trial training on the beach in Frisco, NC! I had called Hatteras Island Horseback Riding, because their website said they specialized in customizing your riding experience. Well, what I was looking for was custom, all right! The owner, Jeff, was very interested in the concept of Dalmatian Road Trials when I described it to him (he is training one of his horses for endurance riding events) and agreed to allow Jazz to train with his horse Gus.

Here's Gus and Jazz. Gus is a 9-year-old Norwegian Fjord Horse. He was an absolute delight to ride, and he really liked having Jazz along! They greeted each other nose to nose several times, and Gus even playfully goosed Jazz in the bum, which got tail wags and a play bow from Jazz. I'm absolutely thrilled with how comfortable Jazz is around horses. She has a healthy respect for these big critters but seems totally at ease with them, also.


Here's Jazz on a down-stay getting ready to practice the recall exercise.



Here's our recall...wait for me, here I come!!


You may notice that Jazz is dragging her leash in these pictures. While she behaved wonderfully with all the distractions on the beach (seagulls, people, other dogs), this beach is a federal park and dogs are required to be on leash. Of course, no one said you had to be holding the other end of that leash ;)



Here's me and Gus and Jazz riding off into the sunset (ok, so it was morning, but it sounded exotic) after an exhilarating training session at the beach.


Many thanks to Jeff, Susie, and Alex from Hatteras Island Horseback Riding for "customizing" my ride to include some road trial training for Jazz. It was such a pleasure to meet them and Gus, and we look forward to seeing them again next year!

Ocracoke Island

It was another beautiful day on vacation in the Outer Banks. We headed over to Ocracoke Island today, where there are awesome beaches!

Here's Jazz and Tess in the back of the car while on the ferry from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island. Both girls enjoyed the ride on the ferry and the ocean breezes.

Tess and Jazz on the dune at Ocracoke

Even though we were trying to snap this photo, Tess and Jazz were more interested in the birds just up the beach from us. They had a wonderful time on Ocracoke Island, where there were only two other people on the beach during the time we were there. It was like having our own private beach in paradise!!


Taking a break on a bench at the beach access on the way back to the car for the ferry ride back to Hatteras Island. The girls are now snoozing off their adventure at Ocracoke, but tomorrow's another day and another adventure!

Beach Adventures 2010

We're back in the Outer Banks at Avon, North Carolina, for our beach vacation. Tess and Jazz were very excited to be here again!

Tess and Jazz on the dune.

Woo-hoo! The girls love to play on the beach.

Tess and Jazz dig the Outer Banks...literally!!


Smelling the sea air.