Off to Regionals we go!

Agility regionals are this weekend and it will be the Abby's first year competing! I'm nervous and excited all at once. I'm mostly nervous about forgetting the course but there are only 3 to remember each day so hopefully I'll get them well memorized. I've been better at remembering the course these days since Abby is much more reliable. It was when she'd go off course that I'd get lost. Still, I'm looking forward to Gamblers the most - do any obstacles at the beginning and then Abby gets to get out and work without me. She really likes out-work (probably since I'm not there to mess her up! :D).

I'm just getting the car all packed up. Ryan of course will be coming to hang out and shmooze with everyone. We're sharing a hotel room with Tyler and Tycho and maybe Fyvish and Amigo so Ryan will be over the top happy about that.

Regionals, here we come!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention - it was my birthday last week and and we got a contact trainer and it's awesome! Tyler's very talented parents made it for us.

Abby and Ryan strut their stuff

For Abby, that would be in agility and flyball. We had an agility trial a week ago and a flyball tournament this past weekend. We've got another agility trial coming up and soon after that it's Regionals! This will be our first Regionals and I'm more than a little nervous. I have trouble enough remembering courses at a regular trial! Abby will happily scream her way through whatever is in front of her, I'm sure.

She got a Gamblers Q at the trial but I messed up all of our Standard runs. At flyball she was great and got her FDCH-S. She looked over at the other lane a couple of times but didn't cross over. I take a lot of what she does really well for granted - she never fumbles the ball or misses jumps, no matter where I send her from. She did, however, turn around and attempt to nip my leg twice out of frustration while waiting her turn. What a little bitch :)

Ryan went sheep herding last week and we go again tomorrow! It was so much fun. He went in three times for about 10 minutes each time and I worked with him the second and third times. Sometimes he was a little silly and would rush up to the sheep with his tail up barking, but mostly he did really well! He definitely wanted to work and would have happily circled all day. I got him walking behind the sheep in a somewhat calm manner. He wasn't sure about how to get the sheep out of a corner and would block their way out instead of bringing them out. He lay down whenever I asked him to - very important since my beginner brain took awhile to process everything I was supposed to be doing (watch dog, walk backwards, make sure sheep don't run me over, watch dog! run backwards, keep moving, sheep about to trample me!, dog coming in to bite sheep, run backwards! - phew).

The trainer took these nice photos:


He was tired by the end of it.

Exams are over!

The dogs are pretty happy about that!We went to the river today with Tyler and Toby. Tyler is the most handsome lab you will ever meet and he and Abby are eerily similar in some aspects of their personalities...they both flip to "brain has fallen out" mode in a split second and that involves a lot of barking and very little listening. Toby is the perfect small dog. He is so calm even when all the baddogs are freaking out! He doesn't like the water *at all*.
Abby tries the pitiful scream for a frisbee toss. This made the frisbee go away. She didn't mind too much. She just stole Ryan's Wubba instead.

And then screamed at Ryan for attempting to reclaim his Wubba.


Gimme! Abby always wins but Ryan loves her anyway.

The damn foot

I took the stitches out of Abby's foot today. They had been in for 10 days but at this point they weren't doing much. The wound is totally open and looks just as bad, if not worse, than it did at the beginning.

I guess we'll go get some more antibiotics tomorrow and I'll have to be strict about not letting her run or go in the water at all. Abby will not be impressed and neither will I!

Abby's foster cousin

My friend is fostering this cute little brown and white Chihuahua. Here she is playing with her foster brother Toby (Abby's mini-me!). The handsome black lab is Abby's boyfriend, Tyler.