another HS dobe

but no UD... rah rah missed a sit signal due to some screaming outside the ring (excuses...).. but the rest of the class he worked was lovely, and its all coming together. maybe tomorrow!

but berlin finished her CD with an ok class, took 4th place and was HS doberman in trial today!
berlin isnt too unhappy she didnt win a platter, instead she won a FRISBEE!!!!!!!!

miss dependable qualified all the classes she was entered in this weekend, finished TWO titles, and placed 2 of the four classes she was in! im very proud of her, she is OFFICIALLY done with all novice classes !!! onto open!

dancing in the streets

mercury went down on his out of sight sits with 14 seconds left berlin got the second leg of her CD with a shitty score and she's getting worse by the day but you know what

WHO CARES BECAUSE RAH RAH GOT

ANOTHER UD LEG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dobe specialty (cherry blossom day one)

soooo close. soooo very close. i wish one of those ribbons was from utility!!! every class but utility folks, every class.

good day. i feel like crap still. got the show site set everyone up and tried not to die. was back in the hotel by 2 pm and slept until 7:30 (WHOA????since i dont do middle of the day sleeping!) and just grabbed some soup and a frosty for my throat and now im going to take more nyquil and going back to bed - passed out dinner and bully sticks to the dogs and we're done.

so yes, everyone did well. well, its a relative term. the show site is HARD. dobe obedience is on first while everyone is still loading and unloading, and its right by all the doors. excuses, but its hard nonetheless. locationwise, at least.

rah went first. heeling was rough, he was all over the place. i dont think he brought his head up ONCE to look at me, knocked me all over the place. i need to verbally tell him what we are going to be doing more. but he did them!!! lovely.

articles - on the second pivot to the article pile he hit the chair so he didn't sit. but he did both articles - though don thought it had the wrong article???? so he followed him in.

gloves. gloves gloves gloves. argh. we had glove 2. i for some reason pivoted really poorly and rah took glove three. argh.

moving stand was fine.

go outs - first one was lovely. second one he pulled up so i tried to fix it, but it didnt go as planned :) it would have been qualifying but he already NQ'd...

so, just one glove. ONE GLOVE!!!! but he did utility, under a man!!!! and he almost q'd - it was much nicer. he ddnt know for sure where to mark for go outs, but i backed him out and remarked it and it was better. im very pleased. slightly concerned about the pulling up short on the second one, but i can fix that tomorrow (hopefully if its not raining i can set up a ring outside - its raining today so i didnt want to do it).

open B was next - to freak me out, they did open b and a stays together, so i had to find someone to handle rah. rah was a lunatic in open B too. again, the heeling. the heeling. his other exercises weren't bad, except that he raced don on a rethrow to the db because he didnt tell me "exercise finished". enthusiastic as always. going to the right on the fig8 isnt going to work because he wasnt sure what was going on. we lost 8 pts on heeling!!!!!!!!! but he q'd - sue ann took him in for stays. no placement because he sucked.

mercury in open a - outside the ring he cried during warmup but i didnt want to be too into what hurt, he was walking fine. didnt stress the sits tho. and i didnt get a SINGLE SIT on the heeling. in fact, he was so freaked by don, i had to give a second heel command. 15 points on off leash. BUT HE DID EVERY EXERCISE. and he held his sit stay to be the loooone qualifier in open A and even though he had a shit score, its still a second leg!!!!! i knew i had to take him in for stays instead of rah, since he ahd no chance of doing stays for someone else... rah was very confused tho.

berlin for novice. i have to jazz her up more. she wasnt paying attention to me for on leash and we lost 8 points for on leash heeling. ON LEASH! how far can she get? she had swivel head and stared everywhere but me. fig8 was better, sfe fine, and off leash she finally kicked in! she did fine for stays and got her first CD leg and af irst place as well !!!! and she also got first in beginner novice to finish her BN....

so, all in all a very good day. 4/5 and three first places. IM FEELING A UTILITY Q coming this weekend, I JUST KNOW IT.

all my bags are packed

(well actually they arent)

leaving tonight or sometime for the timonium MD cherry blossum cluster with the big dobes today. im terribly sick - started monday night. huge head cold, neck hurts, draining my brains from my nose, coughing, sore throat, you name it. taking drugs galore.

didnt even train the dogs this week so far - will be interesting. but im confident in the dogs that we can do this. WE CAN.
i dont know what im thinking showing three dogs in three classes (FIVE on friday!) ... eek.


three varikennels
(2 500s, 1 400)
4 soft crates
ring gates/stanchions
full set of jumps for utility
four sets of articles
full training bag with 3 dbs
chuckit with spare tennis balls
four flexis

and now i just have to pack myself up. but first another nap, since i feel like crapola.

ahhh... shows coming up and on wednesday both boys couldnt remember how to do everything. mercury broke broad jump (wait, we've never finished after the jump), rah broke articles (i dont know what you want me to do and i know there's 40 articles out there i will bring you back all leather la la la la la la la la NO none have your scent what are you talking about here's another leather!) both were just dumb. nothing like seeing in front of your eyes 300 dollars of entries being flushed...

thursday was better, both boys did their jobs and it was significantly improved. berlin was steady and good both days.

my trainers have said there is nothing else to do for rah :) im not sure that makes me happy or sad, ha! they said they have proofed this dog past the proofing of any other dog, he's proofed as far as any OTCH dog. the problem is me, and him. he doesn't think in the ring - the ring simply isn't hard enough, so he's not paying atention- he can let his mind wander because no one challenges him - he gets into the thought of "oh isn't this easy" and he stops thinking. and then i get frantic and make it worse.

think i can ask the judge to walk in his path for go outs, or touch him on signals? maybe push him on moving stand or talk to him on articles?

im leaving the baby home (aka, rah's minime) and just taking the big dobes - rah needs all his faculties with him and its hard enough having mercury, one dog he hates, there. but cherrybomb is really so much like rah its almost eerie sometime. she is picking up his mannerisms and she's sooooo much like him its adorable. i love her and i hope she turns out to be the dog i want her to be.

can't believe im even writing this...

but its good news!!! there's a new dog in the house :)

wasn't supposed to be. there was no puppy for me in kathy's litter. no dog at all. i was resigned that this wasn't the right time.

then a week and a half ago i got the message on facebook (OF ALL PLACES) from sophia (the vet who cropped berlin, OF ALL PEOPLE) - that there was a couple of all natural blue puppies that needed a home asap, did i want one?

um, do you have to ask me twice?

see, two weeks ago all of a sudden people were throwing dobermans at me left and right. people were throwing older fawn females in shelters on LI at me. people were throwing me 1 year old twitchy red females in rescues (i did look at her). a litter of blues born in rescue 2 weeks ago (offered me a pup from this litter too). a breeder even emailed me asking me if she bred a litter, did i want one because she would have the potential to make blues, it would be a CH/Sch I male bred to an almost MACH female. all of a sudden i had options...

then i went and saw this little female.
now, this little one isn't a definite. if for some reason she doesnt work out, im willing to rehome her if the need be, but honestly i dont see how it wont work. she's crazy. she's a spitfire. she's rah 2.0 (this upgrade seems to be the same, just includes tail but comes without a penis). she loves food. loves to tug. loves people. huge sense of humor. but for now im taking her, seeing how it works.

her "breeder" wanted to experience the miracle of life with his kids so he bred blue to blue to make... you guessed it, blues. and surprise surprise there isn't a huge demand for all natural blue puppies so all of a sudden at 8 weeks old there wasnt a lot to do with 4 remaining all natural blue bitches. his parents took 2 of the females and when i drove up they were on the deck in the rain :(

she's handled everything in stride - except the crate. she is drama with a capital D with the crate, though she is getting better. most of her training has involved that, since its non-negotiable that she go in the crate here. she is super-respectful of rah which is how she survives since he took a hit out on her from first site (he is not so fond of puppies. or dogs. or, well, anything, mr crankypants) and with a flick of his lip can levitate her from 3 feet away though he has never actually laid any tooth upon her blue blue hide. we have no blue on blue action here, though berlin is perplexed why she will not play with her (probably because berlin is psychotic and moves way too fast).

her name is cherrybomb. and she will be ILP'd as...
Bowie's Here Comes the Boom
(wait, i guess that means i kinda plan on keeping her... ?????) no it means if i DO keep her i just happen to have a name.
and about 120000 nicknames already.
she is learning crate games and impulse control. and she learned to wave. and today she will learn to spin and pivot and speak i think.




she's a goddamned pistol and im pretty sure she's staying, because im pretty sure this is the competition dog ive been looking for. im going to grow her out until 6 months old, but she's unflappable. she has been to puppy class, an obedience match, to work, to strangers houses, to the vet, you name it - NOTHING phases her. (except rah).

AND YES SHE"S KEEPING HER EARS AND TAIL FOREVER AND EVER.
(unless i shut her tail in a door).