There's a Storm a Brewin'

Meet JLS Storm a Brewin', "Twister," our friend Susan's 3-1/2-month-old Dal puppy! We were at USDAA agility this weekend and finally got to meet this sweet, handsome liver baby.

Here's Twister stretched out in the cool grass.

Jazz was completely enthralled with little Twister. At first, she was a bit jealous that I was paying attention to him, but she quickly found out that he's lots of fun to play with!


There was lots of play bowing and chewing on each other.


I was really pleased with how well Jazz did with Twister. Although we have no puppy plans, it's nice to know that Jazz would accept a puppy and have fun, too!




While Jazz and Twister were getting to know each other, Tess and Twister's big brother Ripley were running agility at a USDAA Dog Agility Masters Tournament. It's a team competition, and our original team was supposed to be Tess, Ripley, and our adopted Border Collie Sammie. The team name was "Dalmatian Sammich" (two Dalmatians with Sammie sandwiched in between). Well, Ripley's owner had a knee injury a few weeks ago, but she was going to work hard in physical therapy and tape her knee so she could run on the team. Unfortunately, Sammie's owner fell the week of the tournament and broke her wrist in two places, so she couldn't run Sammie on the team. Then the day after she broke her wrist, I ended up in the emergency room with kidney stones! We were a medical disaster!!




Fortunately for our team, a friend with another Border Collie named Seeker stepped in to fill Sammie's place on the team. Since Jan is an EMT and we had had so many medical emergencies, we changed the team name to "Rescue 911"! Susan managed to hobble through the courses with Ripley, who ran incredibly well for having an injured handler, and Tess and Seeker ran nicely and "Rescue 911" came in third place in the team competition, earning a very nice bronze medal.



As for me, I spent the two days at the trial drinking gallons of water, visiting the ladies room, and playing with the puppy :)

Splash 'n Dash Luau

This past Sunday, our training club, Splash 'n Dash, held a summer luau. We enjoyed beautiful weather and had lots of fun with our friends and their dogs!

Here's Tess in her Hawaiian shirt and Jazz in her grass skirt

Rocky, Tess, Jazz, and Sammie enjoying the sunshine

Everybody in the pool!

Obedience Class Today

Jazz's Misty Pines obedience class met at Wexford Plaza Shopping Center today for some real-world obedience training.

We practiced heeling with all the distractions of an outdoor shopping plaza, as well as sits and downs. Here's Jazz in a sit-stay at the flower shop. All the dogs wound their way through the flower shop past all the plants, which was probably more of a challenge for the boys than the girls :)


Then it was off to the pet store, where we had to leave the dogs in down-stays in the aisles while we shopped!


Here's the whole lineup of dogs from our class at the plaza.

We ended our class with down-stays at Starbuck's. All the dogs stayed in a down outside while our instructor treated us to a drink at Starbuck's. Jazz did very well with all the distractions and the other dogs and I'd say she passed Shopping 101 with flying colors! It was a great experience to take our training on the road and practice in a different environment. I hope we have the opportunity to do it again soon!

Jazz's RE Pics

Last evening, I picked up my photos from the Rally trial last week where Jazz earned her Rally Excellent title.

This is sort of the "official" photo, very serious.

Then I just had to have this one, too, because it was so cute. The photographer was making noises to get Jazz's attention...and this is what she got! This is probably more the true Jazz.

It was a very busy week at work and I've got two classes today, teaching folks the fitness ball exercises with their dogs. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to the video of Jazz's Coaching Certificate test and get that posted.

Jazz Earns Coaching Certificate

While Jim and Tess were at agility this weekend, Jazz and I traveled to Springfield, OH, to the home of Cindy and Tom Gootee for a Dalmatian Club of America sanctioned Coaching Certificate test.

The Coaching Certificate test is sort of a precursor to the Road Trial and evaluates the dog's ability to coach. Each exercise is only about 200 yards in length, so there is no real endurance involved.

Jazz and miniature horse Clockwork. Clockwork was used to acquaint the dogs with a horse and later pulled a cart.

We met lots of great people and Dals at the Coaching test. Here's the whole group who participated in the test and the fun run. There was also a vet tech available who was taking blood samples from the Dals for the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) DNA Repository at the University of Missouri-Columbia, so Jazz also became a CHIC DNA donor!


Here's me and Jazz after passing the Coaching Certificate test, with our driver Steve and Monte and Rudy, the team of horses who pulled the wagon for the test. Steve is a very skilled driver, and Monte and Rudy were an awesome team, great around the dogs.

After the test, we were able to relax and enjoy a picnic with everyone. Jazz and I really enjoyed our trip to Springfield and the opportunity to meet all the folks who brought their Dals out for this event.

I have video of Jazz taking the Coaching Certificate test, and as soon as I figure out how to edit and add some descriptions of what you'll be seeing, I'll post it. Right now, though, I have to get caught up on the piles of work that I neglected while Jazz and I were out having fun this weekend!

Tess' Weekend

Tess had a great weekend at AKC agility in Washingtonville, OH. Despite the heat and humidity, which Tess does not tolerate well, she qualified in Standard on Friday and had double-Qs on both Saturday and Sunday!

Nice job, Jim and Tess!

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!