Geez, between the live-streaming agility and live-streaming sheepdogs and super cool horsey stuff on network TV (!) it’s a wonder I even bathed this weekend!

Poor Bella was not only feeling neglected, but the various not-supposed-to-be-in-the-house noises were driving her nuts. The barky agility dogs and sheepdogs whistles caused endless frustration. She was also sorely confused by the sheepdog handlers random “Hey, you’s,” “Lie Down’s,” and “get outta that’s!” She would hear something familiar and look at me like, “that didn’t come from you did it?”

When I finally did peel myself away on Sunday, I got a little taste of my own.

A little how-does-this-feel?

OK, prolly deserved it.

Kate a little less sensitive about it.

Hi, remember me?!

Little less watch, little more throwing? Please and thank you?

Thata way, iffn you don’t mind?

Woot! Finally!

Yes, finally.

Good thing for them the FCI World Championships aren’t free! I only really love the streaming if it starts with “free.”

Yay for us!

Something For Everyone

Lot's of free live streaming this weekend!

Interested in agility?

The NADAC Nationals are being streamed in two different places.

Agility Vision: http://www.agilityvision.com/vod/nadac-2010-live-stream

3 Pines: http://www.3pbn.tv/2010champs/

I'm not a NADAC person, so some it of has been totally lost on me. Hoopers makes no sense to me at all, but it's been really fun to watch! Some really nice running contacts.

And..

Maybe you're interested in watching Border Collies be all Border Collie-ish?

Go watch those premier working dogs to their thang!

http://www.nationalsheepdogfinals.com/webcast/

Still About The 4-Legged And Hairy

It's my brother's birthday today.

Say "Happy Birthday" interwebs!

Although, I suppose, since he lives in Denmark it will be tomorrow when he reads this, so "Happy Belated Birthday" perhaps?

What good are birthdays if not for a little embarrassing? A little stroll down memory lane?

All photos circa early 80s or thereabouts.

My brother and Red

Red was known for being a bit of a shit. We probably would have called him really bad names if we were old enough to do so without getting in trouble. I think I recall him breaking one of our parents noses...?

(old-assed cars in the background...teehee)

Then there was Flip.

If Flip were a dog he would have been a Borzoi

Can't leave myself out, right? Me and Mel. Note all the short names. I was destined to be a Border Collie person! :-)

You can always pick me out in pictures. I'm the one with the worst posture!

I totally still sit like that. Only now, it hurts.

Happy Birthday, Svend! Hope it was a good one!

Well, It Did Take A Few Years To Master The Whole Ball Thing

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised?

Maybe I should give her a break…

…Considering we don’t Frisbee all that much?

Nah, if I can’t give her shit what’s the point?

Clowns are no fun if you can’t laugh at them!

I concur

Me. The one with the floppy thing in my mouth

Where it should be

Or, at least, will soon be.

Don't listen to her. She doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about.

I got this!

It's Crack For Dogs

Had a delightful, albeit short, morning down in Soquel. Once a month they have lure coursing fun runs.

Have you done this? No?! You need to. ASAP.

Holy crap the dogs love it!

We have only tried our hand at this sort of thing once before. We did the Course-A- Lure thingy at Cynosport a few years back. Apparently, Bella’s memory is intact, ‘cause she was all over this like flies on shit.

We do have an all-breed racing club in Nor Cal now, but all of their events so far have coincided with agility weekends. I guess the coursing folk are not CPE-ers.

So many smiling dogs!

Seriously happy pants all around

A morning dedicated solely to WEEEEEEEE

Lots and lots of WEEEEEEEEEEE

Some a little more serious than others

Everyone equally saucer-eyed, though

I didn’t get a chance to photograph my two. We had a bit of a rain delay wherein the rain is actually sprinklers on the field. Whoops. Ever try to find maintenance guy on Sunday morning at a high school? Yeah, good luck with that.

We will definitely go back next month. Hopefully no more sprinklers and perhaps a bit more sun!

The Weekend In Cell Phone Pics

Decided against taking actual camera with me this weekend. Sometimes you just get tired of that one extra bag. Particularly when that bag weighs about 300 lbs. Particularly, particularly when you have to take the stairs to your 3rd floor room 'cause someone, who may or may not be named Kate, does not like the elevator.

Plus, the place we trialed this weekend has one indoor ring (crappy to shoot in) and one outdoor ring that usually has a photog in it already. Plus plus, Elk Grove in the summer is not conducive to sitting in the sun taking freebie pics of other people's dogs.

Do you know who Willis Haviland Carrier is?

Inventor of the A/C, that's who.

We thanked him repeated this weekend for his thoughtfulness. I'm sure he was thinking about ladies with dogs sitting in traffic when it's 99°.

We had a fantastic trial. We needed one of those after our last cluster eff of a trial. It was one of those weekends that reminds you why you do all this bullshit. It was hot, but not unbearably so. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves (Bella included...yay!) and we had some great CATCH's earned.

The heat did keep some of us close to the grass

A tad more smiley when back in the A/C

Bella was pretty smiley all around

She had a great time. Q'd in 13 of our 15 runs. The best thing about that is the 2 NQ's were so obviously my fault. None of the weirdness of our last trial where neither of us could figure out what the hell was going on. No blown contacts, no refusing to do the weaves, no telling me to go to hell, no acting like you're someone else's dog.

She normally poops out soon after eating dinner. She even had energy left each night to harass the pigeons on the roof next door.

So, all in all, fun, safe, happy weekend.

However, the ride home looked much like the right up.

A Bit Of A Meltdown

Thankfully, only of the computer variety, not dog or human melting. Been having PC issues. Those ones that involve repeated trips to the store to buy things that aren’t the right thing. Then those trips to return those things that involve uncomfortable and often irritating conversations with kids that I could totally be the mother of if I were of the baby-making ilk.

Do you have Fry’s where you live? I’ve only seen them here, so maybe a CA thing? Weirdest damn store ever. I can’t really put my finger on it, but there is just something fundamentally wrong with being able to buy a hard drive and a turkey baster in the same store. Perhaps they should change their name from Fry’s Electronics to Fry’s Electronics And Random Shit That Fell Off The Back Of A Truck? Fry’s Electronics And The Stuff That Didn’t Get Destroyed In That Fire? Dunno. Would be helpful, though, to be a little more descriptive.

Plus, maybe it’s a personality flaw on my part, but I have a hard time trusting the computer advice of the 12 year old kid in the $50 suit when they are also pawning meat thermometers.

Long-ish story short. I ended up buying a new machine. Then we have the fun of getting the stuff from over there to over here and, damn, that software doesn’t run on Win7, and, damn again, when did they stop putting LPT ports on the back of computers. Gah! Been fun week.

Dogs? Oh, you came here for them. Right.

Here’s one.

That one doing very well with her re-re-training of weave poles.

At the sheep joint, though? Not so much. Just holding the fence down.

Other one pretty good, too.

Sheep thing going pretty well, depends on the day. I don’t know enough to really know how she’s doing. I don’t know how much of our issues are related to her lack of experience vs. a lack of talent. I don’t know that she has what it takes to ever be off the puppy sheep. I guess that’s OK. She started late. No plans to trial here. Just learning.

They can both hold the fence down if necessary