Future Cowboys

My great-nephews, Ryan (4) and Logan (3), came to meet Rocky last evening.

Ryan was ready to go from the moment he arrived at the barn and was anxious to get to know Rocky.

First, the boys each took a little ride with me, but Ryan was anxious to ride Rocky all by himself.

At first, Logan wasn't too sure about riding Rocky, but he warmed up to it pretty quickly and took many laps around the arena, both with his brother and by himself.

The boys had a great time riding Rocky in the arena, and when we were finished, they checked out the barn and what they called Rocky's apartment (his stall).  They helped me take Rocky's tack off and turn him out into the pasture, and then they visited with the barn's resident mini goats, Nacho and Salsa --  not a bad day's work for a couple of future cowboys!

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!

Disc Dude

One of Indy's favorite pastimes of late has been chasing the frisbee.

Indy becomes excited the minute he even sees a frisbee!  He'll chase it endlessly and has become a pretty good catch.

Hey, who turned out the lights?!!

Indy is very good at always returning the frisbee and dropping it at your feet for another throw.  Neither of the girls ever took to playing frisbee (both of them will let it hit them without even attempting to catch it), so Indy has his favorite game all to himself!

Rainn-y Day

My sister recently adopted a lovely little liver Dalmatian from our friends Peggy and Tina at OBX Dalmatians.  OBX Right As Rainn, "Rainn," came to meet her Dal cousins today.

Here's Rainn, Tess, Jazz, Indy, and Dancer, all with their tongues hanging out after a nice romp in the yard.

Tess thinks there's no better way to get to know your new cousin than by sticking your nose in her ear!!

Here's Rainn cooling off in the grass after another round of chase and play.

After dinner, we got everyone settled down enough to snap this photo for the family album.  By the way, the third one in from the left is an imposter.  It's a fox statue that lives on our deck, but even he wanted his photo taken with these canine cousins.

We're pleased to welcome Rainn to our family.  Our Dals all had a wonderful day chasing and playing and wrestling with Rainn.  Jazz took a particular liking to her...must be a liver girl thing!!  Dancer was kind of the odd man out among all the spotted dogs, but he did a good job keeping up with them playing in the yard, and I understand that he loves to wrestle with Rainn.

Tess, Jazz, and Indy are looking forward to their next "Rainn" day!

Jazz is a Graduate!

Jazz joined the ranks of June grads last weekend by earning her AKC Obedience Graduate Novice title at the Westmoreland Obedience Training Club trial!

The Graduate Novice title is an optional title to help transition from Novice to Open.  It involves heeling, figure 8, a drop on recall, a dumbbell recall, recall over a high jump, recall over a broad jump, and a 3-minute out of sight down-stay.  Jazz completed all of these exercises nicely, and, in fact, was the only dog in the class of six who qualified.  We're looking forward to moving into the Open class, as Jazz can perform all of those exercises and is even doing some work in the Utility class!

Indy was also at this trial.  On Friday, he earned his first Rally Advanced leg with a very nice score of 97.  On Saturday, I decided to put him into Novice obedience, just to see where we were.  I didn't have high expectations and basically just wanted to get him some ring experience.  Well, the little guy did great and was on the road to qualifying...up until the last exercise before the group sits and downs.  As I left Indy in what I thought was a sit-stay and started across the ring for his recall, I heard the pitter-patter of little paws behind me.  Indy had broken his stay and was following me across the ring, and thus was not qualified.  Despite that, I was very pleased with how well he did.  He had beautiful heeling, on lead and off, and also a nice figure 8.  He did his stand for exam flawlessly.  I thought he did great for just 21 months old, and I'm anxious to continue our training and try again in the fall.