yearly family vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC was amazing, and of course only captured through my dog pictures. oh well, I rely on taking them every year on the beach.
Monday, November 5, 2012
That thing called "vacation"
So basically since I'm so behind on blog posts, these next few catch ups will mostly consist of photos and captions to cap off my life these past few months!
Monday, June 11, 2012
"We Love and Let Go"
Last week, I received my final letter from The Seeing Eye on Neptune's progress. He has been matched and placed with a 35 year old blind man in Texas. Neptune is his first Seeing Eye Dog. This man has experience training dogs with field work, and loves spending time outdoors. Every weekend he lives by a lake and has two daughters ages 3 and 10. He is quite ambitious, working hard to become a chef and has hopes to one day open is own restaurant.
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| "We love and let go, and yes it is hard...but oh so worth it." -anonymous |
Receiving this news gave me goosebumps, I can not imagine a better partner for my boy. I specifically stated in Neptune's paperwork that he is absolutely wonderful with children and I wished he got placed in a home with kids. Sure enough, he will become the best dog for those two girls. He also adored swimming and being outdoors...especially if it meant playing fetch with sticks! He will provide his partner and family years of fun and laughter playing fetch and swimming in the lake. It is still difficult to imagine my best boy nearly on the other side of this country, not in control of his life anymore. It'll be really hard as I don't know when I will ever hear about his progress again, and am forbidden to make any attempts to locate his partner. My nerves are eased at the reminder of this news. I am so proud of him and only hope the family ceases every opportunity with this dog. He is one of my heart dogs, Neptune touched my heart in a way no other dog can. He was my special boy and my first puppy to raise as he is now the first guide for someone. I am sure his partner will forever appreciate Neptune as I surely have.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Hopeful dreams...
We are all told we are allowed to have dreams, right? Well for me, my dreams turn into goals which turn into my driving point of my life. I'm sure you've guessed, basically I'm associating this with dog stuff...
So dream #1: run Lacey in December at AKC Junior Agility Invitationals in Orlando, Florida. This isn't an impossible dream to achieve, just a matter of getting Lacey trialing as soon as we are prepared so that she is seasoned enough to run the courses there. I would absolutely love doing this and basically already got the okay from my parents to do this big show, I kinda gave up CPE Nationals in hopes to going to invitationals instead...
Dream #2: I might be nuts..I want Lacey and I to be on the first USA OJAC team to compete in England (or wherever outside this country that it is chosen to take place) in February 2013. I know, I'm crazy to hope to be on this team with a dog I'm not trialing with yet, but I'm only a junior handler for so many more months and need to cease the opportunities while I can! If you don't have dreams, you can't achieve the impossible. If I hope and set goals to try to get on this team, we can train harder, trial more and maybe get better chances of representing USA at the open junior agility championships next year. Please assure me I'm not unrealistic and nuts?!
So dream #1: run Lacey in December at AKC Junior Agility Invitationals in Orlando, Florida. This isn't an impossible dream to achieve, just a matter of getting Lacey trialing as soon as we are prepared so that she is seasoned enough to run the courses there. I would absolutely love doing this and basically already got the okay from my parents to do this big show, I kinda gave up CPE Nationals in hopes to going to invitationals instead...
Dream #2: I might be nuts..I want Lacey and I to be on the first USA OJAC team to compete in England (or wherever outside this country that it is chosen to take place) in February 2013. I know, I'm crazy to hope to be on this team with a dog I'm not trialing with yet, but I'm only a junior handler for so many more months and need to cease the opportunities while I can! If you don't have dreams, you can't achieve the impossible. If I hope and set goals to try to get on this team, we can train harder, trial more and maybe get better chances of representing USA at the open junior agility championships next year. Please assure me I'm not unrealistic and nuts?!
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| "The key to happiness is having dreams. The key to success is making your dreams come true" |
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Introducing...Archie!
Old news to life...new news to blog! Archie, my second Seeing Eye puppy to raise arrived on March 16, 2012. A beautiful little Lab/Golden second generation cross entered my life at just 7 weeks old. Here's some photos of our time together thus far!
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| First outing, our high school's musical |
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| 7 weeks old |
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| 14 weeks old |
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| Pretty little girl! Photo credit- Stephanie Adrian |
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| Lovee this little pup |
Poodle National Specialty!
April 22 thru 27 in Salisbury, MD, I attended and participated in my first PCA, Poodle Club of America National Specialty. This show was extra special after lots of hard work getting my school to approve my weeks absence, and celebrating my 17th birthday there! My mom stayed with my and the Poodles on show site with our camper. One of my favorite things gained from this experience was growing closer with the Unique Standard Poodle's crew....I love you guys, you are like family!
April 23-Agility day & birthdayy!
Running Willow at Poodle nationals was such an amazing feeling; emotionally and literally....PCA is the only club to put on a show indoors on sod...talk about sweet footing! We Q'ed in T2B, got our OJP title with 1st place and also earned the first ever PCA high in trial junior award....what an absolutely amazing birthday ever. To be in the books forever to earn this title and just running among the top USA Poodle's was just awesome. I couldn't have asked for a better trial with miss Willow, one of which may be the last for her. What better way to end a Poodle's agility career?
Wednesday- Junior Showmanship
Thursday- Amateur Owner/Handler
We won our class in Juniors. The rings were just so beautiful and soo big! I've never been in such a roomy ring! Not too shabby for my first PCA and exhibiting two Poodles :) It took a while for me to process showing with the top Poodle handlers of all time. That was amazing, showing in the same ring as people from across the country and even international Poodles and people. I can't wait to go back, celebrate my next birthday there, and have even more great memories with the Unique crew!
April 23-Agility day & birthdayy!
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| Prepping for our startline! |
.JPG) |
| Out by the warmup jump |
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| Best achievement in our agility career to date! |
Wednesday- Junior Showmanship
Thursday- Amateur Owner/Handler
We won our class in Juniors. The rings were just so beautiful and soo big! I've never been in such a roomy ring! Not too shabby for my first PCA and exhibiting two Poodles :) It took a while for me to process showing with the top Poodle handlers of all time. That was amazing, showing in the same ring as people from across the country and even international Poodles and people. I can't wait to go back, celebrate my next birthday there, and have even more great memories with the Unique crew!
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| The facility |
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| After juniors |
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| My baby dog all grown up! 14 months old |
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| She lives a tough life... |
Shows...
Okay, my apoligies, I've been pretty neglectful of this whole blog thing. My computer has been acting up whenever I want to publish one so I'm happy it's back on track! Since it's been wayyy too long since I've done a post, I'll try to just smush it all into one for you guys. I like pictures....so I will use those to sum up all the dog shows in my life from January and April.
Allentown, PA- Match- January 28 group 1st
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Harrisburg, PA April 14 class win, JR showmanship
Love this baby dog and our journey together of showing and soon to be trialing!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Agility! Oh yes and my first conformation show...
I was having a hard time when I did my entries for that weekend because I needed to get Lacey in the confo ring before her "puppy career" was over but I knew there was a local CPE trial! I hate having to choose between the two. So I ended up doing Fri and Sat of conformation with Lacey and saved Sunday to do the agility trial with Willow.
So on December 16th, I entered my first dog show with Lacey, my 9 month old Standard Poodle bitch. It was a Poodle Specialty held by Poodle Club of Lehigh Valley. Lacey and I were entered in the puppy sweepstakes (9-12 month class) and the regular 9-12 month class. Because it was a kind of small specialty, Junior Showmanship classes were not being offered. We won the puppy sweepstakes (only dog entered unfortunately) but rolled in a few bucks earned in that and some sweet ribbons!
As my mom and breeders worked like factory employees cranking out Lacey's coat and grooming, I got myself prepared to go into the ring! Before I knew it we were back out there and this time it was for real! We won our class, it was the best feeling! Literally before I knew it, I went back into the ring numerous times with Lacey (it'll take a few more shows until I understand the swing of things). What blew me away was when the judge called us as Best In Show Puppy! Had to be the most amazing feeling ever with my Poodle puppy girl!
The next day was Saturday and we were entered for our first all breed show in Allentown, PA. Unfortunately our breeders couldn't be there to help but they hooked me up with some other great Poodle people that helped me prep Lacey before the ring again. We took 1st in our 9-12 month bitch class! Because it was such a crazy environment and both Lacey and I were nervous, we didn't place in the next class but the judge was nice enough to announce in the ring how well we worked as a team and how beautiful of a puppy Lacey is and shook my hand. We had a nice time and learned some skills so it was well worth going in the breed ring that day! Literally right after that we had to run over to the JR showmanship ring for my novice senior class. Placed 3rd out of a group of like 5 juniors!
The conformation stuff was fun but with my breed the prep work on Lacey is so exhausting and stressful until I feel more comfortable with how the showing schedule works and the timing of when I go into the ring. I was so excited to have a one day of agility Sunday (the following day)!
Agility day! Sunday December 18th we were entered for a CPE trial in Barto, PA. I had my alarm set for 5:30AM so I had plenty of time to pack up the car and get a big crating space and parking spot. I also wanted to get Lacey measured to get her used to it and I was curious to see what she'd be. Well when I woke up that morning, I realized the sun was shining way too brightly through my window to be 5:30AM! I completely overslept and it was already 8:30! I guess I was so exhausted that I hit the off button to my alarm in my sleep. I ran around screaming and luckily my parents helped me pack a lunch and hit the road ASAP! I got there by about 9:20ish in the morning and as I expected, I missed my first run in Snooker but I wasn't too mad. I was more nervous about finding a space for my crate! Thank goodness the building wasn't too crowded so I got a spot fairly easily (which totally shocked me since I normally really struggle to do so!). I brought a huge wire crate with me to crate the Poodles in together. I have an equally as large soft sided crate that I love but I can't trust Lacey in it yet because I am sure she'll chew a hole in it when I take Willow out for a run. So for now I will bring my wire crate around to trials that weighs a million tons but once Lacey can be trusted in a soft sided crate, I can convert them over :)
Onto more exciting things.....my runs for that day! We did really well! Below is a list of my links for my runs with our results too. This was Willow's first time running in 20" early veterans in CPE. She seemed very comfortable with it! Enjoy the videos!
Standard L3. Our first run of the day. We did pretty well, Q'ed and 2nd place but got one fault for knocking a bar, pretty unusual for Willow so not sure what happened there. Our time could have been better but apparently a cat lives in that building and all the dogs were sniffing where the cat has been. I never had to call Willow off something during a course to stop sniffing so that was an adventure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL89s45X6nY&context=C3579099ADOEgsToPDskI-P8UTihPrbLOwr2432nhQ
Fullhouse run. We Q'ed with a 1st place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLj_p4Z0uuE&context=C3e13658ADOEgsToPDskKsOZFSGlAL9Efl4rnkiZRJ
Jumpers level 3 round 1. Clean run, Q and a 1st place! Whoop whoop! Willow sure loves those jumpers courses and runs like something else!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWN9SZnKpDk&context=C3de6fceADOEgsToPDskLaK8CZEG3kBK1bu3DS-cPq
Finally, Jumpers level 3 round 2! Another clean run, Q and 1st place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxXljJkfaRs&context=C3856418ADOEgsToPDskINIYxFCnyynu8nDLstZEoK
So proud of my Poodles for a wonderful weekend to remember!
So on December 16th, I entered my first dog show with Lacey, my 9 month old Standard Poodle bitch. It was a Poodle Specialty held by Poodle Club of Lehigh Valley. Lacey and I were entered in the puppy sweepstakes (9-12 month class) and the regular 9-12 month class. Because it was a kind of small specialty, Junior Showmanship classes were not being offered. We won the puppy sweepstakes (only dog entered unfortunately) but rolled in a few bucks earned in that and some sweet ribbons!
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| Gotta love the prep work on those Poodle coats! |
The next day was Saturday and we were entered for our first all breed show in Allentown, PA. Unfortunately our breeders couldn't be there to help but they hooked me up with some other great Poodle people that helped me prep Lacey before the ring again. We took 1st in our 9-12 month bitch class! Because it was such a crazy environment and both Lacey and I were nervous, we didn't place in the next class but the judge was nice enough to announce in the ring how well we worked as a team and how beautiful of a puppy Lacey is and shook my hand. We had a nice time and learned some skills so it was well worth going in the breed ring that day! Literally right after that we had to run over to the JR showmanship ring for my novice senior class. Placed 3rd out of a group of like 5 juniors!
The conformation stuff was fun but with my breed the prep work on Lacey is so exhausting and stressful until I feel more comfortable with how the showing schedule works and the timing of when I go into the ring. I was so excited to have a one day of agility Sunday (the following day)!
Agility day! Sunday December 18th we were entered for a CPE trial in Barto, PA. I had my alarm set for 5:30AM so I had plenty of time to pack up the car and get a big crating space and parking spot. I also wanted to get Lacey measured to get her used to it and I was curious to see what she'd be. Well when I woke up that morning, I realized the sun was shining way too brightly through my window to be 5:30AM! I completely overslept and it was already 8:30! I guess I was so exhausted that I hit the off button to my alarm in my sleep. I ran around screaming and luckily my parents helped me pack a lunch and hit the road ASAP! I got there by about 9:20ish in the morning and as I expected, I missed my first run in Snooker but I wasn't too mad. I was more nervous about finding a space for my crate! Thank goodness the building wasn't too crowded so I got a spot fairly easily (which totally shocked me since I normally really struggle to do so!). I brought a huge wire crate with me to crate the Poodles in together. I have an equally as large soft sided crate that I love but I can't trust Lacey in it yet because I am sure she'll chew a hole in it when I take Willow out for a run. So for now I will bring my wire crate around to trials that weighs a million tons but once Lacey can be trusted in a soft sided crate, I can convert them over :)
Onto more exciting things.....my runs for that day! We did really well! Below is a list of my links for my runs with our results too. This was Willow's first time running in 20" early veterans in CPE. She seemed very comfortable with it! Enjoy the videos!
Standard L3. Our first run of the day. We did pretty well, Q'ed and 2nd place but got one fault for knocking a bar, pretty unusual for Willow so not sure what happened there. Our time could have been better but apparently a cat lives in that building and all the dogs were sniffing where the cat has been. I never had to call Willow off something during a course to stop sniffing so that was an adventure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL89s45X6nY&context=C3579099ADOEgsToPDskI-P8UTihPrbLOwr2432nhQ
Fullhouse run. We Q'ed with a 1st place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLj_p4Z0uuE&context=C3e13658ADOEgsToPDskKsOZFSGlAL9Efl4rnkiZRJ
Jumpers level 3 round 1. Clean run, Q and a 1st place! Whoop whoop! Willow sure loves those jumpers courses and runs like something else!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWN9SZnKpDk&context=C3de6fceADOEgsToPDskLaK8CZEG3kBK1bu3DS-cPq
Finally, Jumpers level 3 round 2! Another clean run, Q and 1st place!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxXljJkfaRs&context=C3856418ADOEgsToPDskINIYxFCnyynu8nDLstZEoK
So proud of my Poodles for a wonderful weekend to remember!
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