Woo Hoo!

Picture soon...but Emma is now CH Wintercreek Angels Walk!! We won it with 4 majors and 3 Herding group 1's. IN the UKC a "major" means competition at a certain level...placing in the group or getting Best of Winners.

Fergus on the Memorial stones

Un Petite Update

Yes!! We found Mark a puppy. A tricolor sheltie boy with a remarkable temperament, intelligence and structure. He is a little rock, the reincarnation of Abe Lincoln…the bearer of the key. He is Fergus, (primarily Kensil)and just a fabulous little dog. Very likely will go oversize. But this is no matter to an obedience team.


And Emma and I ROCKED the park in Albany the weekend of the UKC English Shepherd Specialty. We got 2 Group 1 s and a Group 3 and are one win away from a UCH….which I find thrilling primarily because it was fun and we did it all ourselves!

September 1 was Emma’s 1st birthday and we took all the dogs, my mother and sister and their 2 paps, to the coast. It was a fabulous beach run…a clear temperate weekday, 7 dogs radiating joy and awe.

My Review of Multi-Cart

CSN Supply

The patented Multi-Cart ingeniously changes shape and length to carry huge amounts of equipment yet fols small for storage. Instant transformation into any of 8 configurations, the Multi-Cart replaces the need for 8 different carts. The revolutionary design results in a moving machine that is ver...

Multi-Cart

Dog Show Cart

woolgatherer Portland OR 8/18/2009

 

4 5

Pros: Can Handle Heavy Loads, Adjustable good on mixed, Maneuvers Well

Cons: Hard to bungee steer

Describe Yourself: Quality Oriented

Primary use: Personal

The biggest problem I have had is that, unlike my other cart, choices for where to anchor bungee cords are limited because the rails are square and or large or underneath the cart. Some welded O rings on the bottom would help.
Also, the handles and wheel placement require that you push the cart rather than pull it unless you want your ankles clipped.

What I like about it is it's adjustable/small footprint, it's ability to manouever mixed terrain and the high handle bar which allows an umbrella.

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Gay

The book that started it all for me... I still own my copy.

Fun with Hair Products

yes...there is another story to tell...coming soon...the 5th dog

Emma and I have been showing in the breed ring and having lots of fun. Since June we’ve been in the ring in Canby, Portland and at the NW specialty shows in Albany for a total of 9 entries.
We’ve won our class every time except for once and in Portland we got Reserve!

What does this mean? Well, it means that I’ve been taking a crash course in grooming shelties, which is a pretty complicated undertaking. I’ve gone from overwhelmed to somewhat competent at the basics: brushing, chalking, and fluffing ruff while smoothing croup. But trimming scares me and I’m very ambivalent about “coloring” beyond chalking.

I’m also learning a lot more about handling than I ever knew before. Luckily, Emm is a natural in the ring, a free stacker, animated and attentive and she makes me look good. I think. At least I feel good on the other end of the lead…Each time we go in is an opportunity to bond, to acclimate, to learn about each other. That’s the fun part.

I’ve had an amazing and generous group of accomplished people helping me and I’m having a great time with them…so it’s all good. For real!

Next weekend we’ll enter a UKC show…where the grooming is much less intensive and where, I understand, they are quite strict about the limits of grooming.

There is little I love more in this world than dogs with titles at both ends….so even though I have no plans…not even remote… to breed Emma, I dream of CH Emma UD…

Talking to Emma

Emma.
Wintercreek Angel’s Walk, officially now. In training in obedience and agility. She is confident, fearless often, intensely curious, willing, active, beautiful, playful. At times in agility she appears to be quite a little pistol…and she learns things at the speed of lightening.
I was teaching her to touch the palm of my hand with her nose, so that when I call her over she will come in close. This keeps her from dancing away from me if I need to catch her.

I watched her think it through.
Is this close enough?
Silence
Is this better?
Nothing
Here? I felt her nose on my palm.
YES! (treat from the other hand.)
And then she did it 3 times in a row.
I switched hands…bingo. She knows it.

She learned the front feet up on the stool so that every time we passed the stool in the barn she hopped up and looked for my response.

This is a conversation we’re having now. It is incredibly gratifying, and full of promise.