Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

Watery Wilson's Wordless Wednesday

Leftovers from the Weekend

Here are a couple more shots taken at the lovely park. The property was originally owned by Westmoreland and Marguerite Davis in the early 1900's. How wonderful they donated/preserved this gorgeous place for posterity. Morven Park encompasses over 1,000 acres of gardens, fields, lawns and wooded areas. This shot was taken in a highly manicured boxwood garden near the mansion. The boys are in front of a small reflecting pond with fountains. It was so lovely and very private. It was completely surrounded by boxwood hedges so the boys couldn't see out, however they could hear and smell some nearby horses and as a result have the silliest expressions. You can really see the wheels turning in their brains! Click to enlarge for the full effect.


Sitting near one of the fenced pastures.....

The Weekend Report

Well, another trialing weekend is behind us. This trial was originally scheduled in an indoor horse facility. At the last moment, the club had to relocate. Short notice being what it is, they had to opt for an outdoor venue. But, oh, what a lovely venue they chose! Not only was it 15 minutes from my house, it was in a gorgeous park! And the weather was stunning fall temps and sunshine.

Now, despite the relocation, we definitely did not lose the horse theme. Morven Park is, first and foremost, an equestrian park, hosting many international level events, as well as housing a university equine medical center. So, our distraction du jour today for all of the competing dogs was this...

Here's Jim, striking a pose with the lovely fall scenery.....

We even had a blog collision at this trial! Do you recognize this beauty from over at Life with the Horde?

But, of course, this is the report on how Jimmy did......Well, when he is good, he is VERY good! He, bless his little heart, on Saturday finally gave me a table in Open STD! And other than a botched weave entry, we were clean! Only one mistake gave us the Q! YE-HA! This is leg #2 for Open and it even earned us first place!

Unfortunately, the rest of the weekend was not as successful. John came Saturday morning to watch our Exc B JWW run. I quess the added pressure was too much for me. I cued a turn too late and that made Jimmy mad! Once he's mad, he has a hard time refocusing. The rest of the run was a disaster. I was sad and disappointed as I really wanted to make John proud. He is now forever banned from our trials!

Today, it was a bar down on a rear cross, followed by a bar down on a triple, for our JWW run. Fast, but no Q. In Open STD, Jimmy was going good til the table, hit it with his front feet and bounced off, but on second try, he did get on and stayed. We were still OK with only the dogwalk to an easy tunnel. Alas, the little bugger blew his dogwalk contact, something he never does. Crap! Run done! or should I say undone :-(



Sometimes, I really feel like we've hit a brick wall when it comes to our Standard runs...

But, by tomorrow, I'll be hot to try again! If it was too easy there would be no sense of accomplishment!

My next highly anticipated agility event is a full day seminar this friday with Daisy Peel. She is a Sixteen Time National Finalist, Five Time Regional Champion, Three Time National Champion, and Three Time USA World Team Member. It doesn't get much better than that! I am psyched to say the least!

This was shot from the car as I headed home. It's hard to sulk for too long when surrounded by this beauty!

Jump!

Wilson and Jimmy are standing on the first in a series of cross-country jumps on a horse trail. This tree they are standing on was above my waist. Behind it is a stream gully dropping down several feet, back up to that next jump, then only one stride will bring the horse to that final jump at the back. I've ridden horses my whole life (lucky me, my dad loved horses so I had them growing up!), but I can't even imagine the iron nerves it would take to direct my horse over obstacles of this size! And the stream bed below makes it even more incredible! Coming from the other direction, the horse would be traveling downhill across a big field, with tons of momentum, jump, one stride, jump, landing way down in the gully, and up hill to catch the tree the boys are on. Simply amazing that they can do it!

Country Road

Saturday Steps

Here's another installment of the George the Lad inspired theme. These steps certainly aren't anything of stunning beauty or such, but they do show very good, obedient boys! You see, this playground equipment is in a park that was built in an oak tree woods. The ground is littered with acorns and as a result, the squirrel population is enormous! The critters are everywhere, running to and fro! To make matters worse, I usually get here very early before the kids come to play, and let the boys loose to chase squirrels to their heart's content. So, they really didn't appreciate being asked to strike a pose when all they really want to do is try to catch a squirrel breakfast!

Welsh Wilson's Wordless Wednesday

Silly Cardi Item on EBay

I am always looking around for interesting, unique Cardigan items and of course EBay is a first stop. Check out this amusing Cheese Board . Be sure to enlarge both pictures for the full chuckle!
This would definitely bring a few laughs to those after-dogshow parties!

An Oldie But Goodie

This one goes back to when Jim was just a young pup, probably about a month or so after he came home to live with us. I liked the way they had their heads together.

Whole Dog Journal????

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday!

I have subscribed to The Whole Dog Journal for several years now. I have saved almost all my issues except for a few I gave away. I always thought I would re-read articles, but you know what, I never have. In an effort to reduce clutter, I am going to take them to my training center. But first I thought I would offer them up here. If anybody would like my back issues, I would be happy to drop them in the mail. Just let me know if you want all of them, or maybe just recent issues...whatever you'd like.

Have a great weekend!

Chilling Out

Jimmy's little internal engine always burns hot. Therefore, he always seeks a cool spot to sleep, usually an A/C vent on the floor. This time it seems the tub in the guest bathroom did the trick.

Wilson with Watercraft Wordless Wednesday

Does this picture make my ears look big?

Shade Break

When we go to the undeveloped beach, we always bring along a beach umbrella so we, and especially the boys, can get some shade.

The boys will chase their balls around, explore the dunes, chase the gulls, etc., and eventually they do run out of energy. So all I need to say is: "It's time to take a break, boys" and they haul back to the small patch of shade offered by the umbrella. Jimmy blends into the shade so well he's barely visible :-)


Here's a closeup of the very sandy boys, relaxing...ahhhh!



And of course, the sun eventually sets on every vacation. I have almost run out of beach trip photos. So we bid a fond farewell to Myrtle Beach. Until next trip, here is a view out of our condo's bedroom window....

The Ball Boys

Mug Shots

Wilson's Whirling Waterdroplets Wordless Wednesday

Jimmy's Agility Pictures by the Pro

Here are some great shots from this past Saturday taken by Jim Poor (who happens to have the most adorable Pemmie fluff!).

As you can see by these pictures, Jimmy is always giving it his all!

I love the fiendish look on his face in this next one!

This one is so cute, he's got his eye by the pole winked shut.

If you want to see the full selection, here are the links on Jim's site....

Open FAST

Open STD

Exc JWW

Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:

Excellent B JWW legs: 2

Excellent B STD legs: 0

Double Q's: 0

MACH Points: 27

Jimmy, You better watch out or.........

....that Sea Monster will get you! Run!

Another Blog Collision!

Let's test everyone's blog-reading skills...Does anybody recognize the two lovely ladies on the left? I am the one on the right, just to make it easier! And of course you recognize my two boys, but do you recognize the adorable little girl Cardi on the left? Depending on the blogs you follow, you may know the answer.

This photo was taken today at an agility trial in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Jimmy had some good runs but alas, still did not get an Open STD leg. He did get on the table after putting a foot on, then off, then hopped up. So there was refusal #1, so we still had a chance. Alas he popped out at weave pole #10. Run done!

Also, in Open FAST the Send really was easy, just a jump to the teeter, but Jimmy doesn't love the teeter and needed more support from me before he was willing to do it. So we did not get the send or the Q.

And finally there was Excellent B JWW. It was an VERY tight course and NOT easy!

We had 48 seconds to get it done and Jimmy gave me a beautiful clean run in just 34.29 seconds. It wasn't fast enough to place but I did get another 13 MACH points! Yippee!

Now back to the blog collision.....They are Melissa/Bonnie ( and daughter Erika) from Darby's Daily! Just by pure coincidence, Melissa was traveling with Bonnie to return her to her daughter, and the timing just happened to work out that I was going to be in their town for the agility trial! So they stopped by the trial to say Hi! How very cool is it to meet up with a fellow Cardi-blogger all the way from the other coast?! It was so fun to meet them!

On a Desert Isle

Here are the boys, playing amid the dunes. This is the undeveloped beach we go to on the jetski. It is just so lovely, no buildings, no people, just lots and lots of open beach and dunes. Jimmy and Wilson were having a great time playing hide-n-seek tag in the sand drifts.