We estimate that around this time of the year is Banjo’s birthdate. Dave always laments about Banjo’s horrible life with two different owners and this time in “lock-up” at the Animal Shelter before we got him… but that 5 weeks of his life has not impacted his overall look at the world too memorably 
Look a him now at 2 years old:
He and Rowan are great pals… and his most favorite things in the world are Dave and his ball… agility is down on the list.
Happy Birthday Buddy!
and Cider have taken over some of my spare time, lately. I know, cider counts as a treat – as I sip a glass right now – so it fits to write about it here briefly. Dave has been pressing apple and has lots of gallons of frementing golden delight bubbling away in our house… and the late apples are not even ready! I fear that we may all ferment around here this winter… but then again – would that be so bad? In a few days Dave and i will be posting a co-op post on his blog: oldtimecider.com. You should check it out!
I did make some apple cake with fresh picked cemetery apples.
On the dog front – Both Rowan and Banjo got 2 titles in the mail from CPE today – I hadn’t uploaded my run data from the past two trials into my spreadsheet so I had no idea! Rowan moved up to L4 in standard – giving us a little more time to get 8 legs there. Banjo got his standard title and his handler title (jumpers and fullhouse – I think) This weekend is the CAT USDAA for Rowan and I. It will be good to go to a show.
I am tired… but here is some video until I can get some commentary up here!
I will add details soon!
Well… first off we survived the heat. It has been very cool here – in the 60’s on a warm day…. that is until the weekend of the USDAA Super Regionals which gave us temperatures of 100+ on the field on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say my black, muscled Stafford didn’t fair too well. She had the Stafford Community Pool to use – provided by our friends and neighbors Karen, Kersten, Prot & Idgie – and she had fans, cool pads, etc…. but it was just not enough for my girl. We bombed the Grand Prix run and scratched the Steeplechase run. I do have to say that Rowan does have a marvelous work ethic – all things considered. I think my favorite run was this gamblers run… she had nice contacts and good speed. The gamble itself was brutal. No dogs in our class got the gamble – I’m not sure how many in the whole class were successful.
Rowan is still a young dog in lots of ways and we will take forward building steps to get us back there next year! Her overall performance and work ethic in the Advanced runs on both days were wonderful… she’s such a good girl! You will note that I did choose to run off the line with her in most runs… I have found that she has lost some confidence coming up to the line in competition and I want to build that confidence. So we are back to the games up to the line and I am getting toys back into training. She is very receptive!
Here are some more of our weekend runs:
Standard
Jumpers – 3rd place an a Q
And Pairs… my half and I think we qualified!
And Happy Birthday to Jazz & Max as well!
I can’t believe that Rowan is three… It seems like I was just flying to CA to meet Cindy and pick up my male pup….what happened!
Rowan – 10 or 11 weeks old
And at 8 weeks………gawd! The day she came home with me.
And now… what a perfect Staffy female IMO… she is so well balanced & compact – a sport model! (14 7/8 / 30!) I am so thankful to have her in my life and as my teammate in agility.
I have to send a belated Happy Birthday out to Irish Pride, ol’ Three Legs, Wizzle Wazzle Wuzzle….. She and he littermates, Butchie, Morg, & Yeller (did I forget someone??) had their 10TH Birthday at the end of May! Here’s to 10 more… cuz with our luck there will be 10 more years of still getting into the trash…. eating my flip flops…. and many many wizzle sessions! Ahhhhhh… gotta love these Red Dogs!
young – agility lovin’ Pride……..
Pride at 8 – she doesn’t look much different now maybe just a little more grey.
And I must also say Happy Birthday to Izzy – who has a birthday in the same week as Pride… and who’s Mom always reminds me about Pride’s Birthday!
I have not been feeling like much going on is very “blogworthy”…. maybe it’s more like I haven’t felt like blogging. But I guess this past weekend was fairly worthy!
I attended the Fleet Feet DAM team trial in Turner, OR. What a wonderful trial – despite the heat. It was one ring and all team event. I was on the Running with the Bulls team consisting of Rowan, Proton the Staffy, and Zoe the Aussie. Alas… no video. I just didn’t feel like getting it out of the case and asking someone who I didn’t know very well to film me. Oh Well. I do wish I had it now… I really want to get better about filming so I can evaluate my handling.
We did well as a team. Karen and Zoe really carried us with many clean, fast runs. Rowan and I had some faults that just added points to our overall time and I feel like she ran really well! She got all her contacts… minus the teeter flyoff… but she was in the yellow 
– downed bars were due to me calling her over the bars… (I could just hear Daisy saying – “you’re late!”) But overall she ran nicely – I was very pleased with her consistency. She maintained good speed – I never felt like I was cheerleading her. And I felt like I was consistent with my handling overall and I pushed my comfort zone a bit here and there with good success. No course seems too difficult due to the courses that we run in class Wednesday nights and there was some good challenge that we have not been getting in the Starters courses.
We were 3rd going into the final run – team relay and ended up 14th overall! That’s the Q Prot and Rowan needed for Nationals!!
We also Q’d for a second time in Grand Prix – so that wraps up her Q’s for Nationals in the Grand Prix as well.
Next stop – Super Regionals!
Also in the works: The new Fitness Challenge started last week, Banjo needs to get weave poles down because he will have his first trial in August, I need to decide if I am going to run team in Regionals and then if I am going to Nationals…..
I have now completed 12 really valuable weeks of my life (15, really… I started that diet parts 3 weeks early). For those of you not around me every day or have not read the fine print here for a while… I was on a 12 week fitness challenge with many of my fellow classmates in my agility class with Daisy Peel.
The final stats: I lost 30 #’s. I know I am running faster and the dogs are having more fun in agility. Today we talked about what we were going to eat… now that we could eat whatever we wanted. The best I could come up with was a hamburger… which I have been craving for two weeks now… but Daisy was going to have buttermilk pancakes….. yum! breakfast and a nap for me – cuz I would be in a sugar coma!
Next one will probably start after Memorial day and I will be signing up! I promised myself an IPod if I got through a second challenge and I need to keep up with this.
And although the rigor of keeping an on-line food journal and tracking my progress will not be critical… I will still maintain a good workout schedule at the “Y” and watch my food intake. I’d like to think I have altered my habits after this long go and I don’t want to go back to the way it was…. Besides! for the first time in my life I weigh less than my skinny brother! (On the left)
More recently, you can see me here in my non-dog life!: http://baristamagazine.epubxpress.com/bam1
oh yes…. this is what we woke up to today.
(I hate snow)
Today, Rowan is under the weather. I had to cancel going to the handling seminar with Daisy. I am so bummed. I will be able to get into the vet around 10:40 today… they wanted me to just drop her off…. ummm NO! She hates vets offices anyway. Why would I drop her off ALL DAY when she doesn’t feel well? I hope that this is the end of a GI virus taking it’s course. It’s been off and on all week.
I will go to the seminar later today – if they get me in at the vet soon enough and I will go tomorrow.
