Introducing... Jackpot! ♥

Jackpot is fast asleep right now, so I now have time to write a blog post! 


Ohmygawrsh, we picked up Jackpot Friday night and what a wonderful puppy he is!  ♥

He is everything I wanted and more in a puppy! He is so spunky, happy, and smart! :)

Beau and Jazz also love him! :D ♥
Remember how Jazz and sometimes wary around new dogs? Well, he is super super super awesome with Jackpot, and he doesn't even fizz him a bit! :D
I know they are all going to be the best of friends :)

I don't want this is to be a super uber long blog post, so here is a video! :)

Even though it kinda explains it in the video, I wanna write about it too :)
So his plane was arriving at 11:30pm (explains the lighting in the video!), and we waited at the airport a couple hours before just in case his flight was early. :) We watched the plane land, unload, and the buggie he was on come to the pick-up building! :) He was so happy to see us!
He had a big boy pee, ate a bit, drank some water, and played for a bit too! :)


We then went to my Nana's place since she wanted to see the cuteness machine :) He was happy to meet her too, and we played a bit more too :)


The drive home was great as well, and when we got home he met Jazz and Beau and the rest of the family. They were wonderful with him! :) He settled great, and slept with me for the first night :) 


Oh so much more I want to say about him!
Don't worry, I'll be posting tons and tons of updates, pictures, and videos! :)
This is just the beginning...  ♥

Puppy Excitement

yeeeee!
Guess what?!
We are going to pick up our new puppy today!!

I don't think I've mentioned me getting a new pup on here or anything on the subject, so here goes.. :)
*sorry if this is super long, just lots of info and feelings ;P*

A long time ago, we got on the waiting list, of a good friend of my mom and I, who breeds wonderful performance shelties. She breed a tri 'Snap' with a blue boy 'Panda' on Valentine's Day this year. When the puppies were born, unfortunately 2 were born dead :( So there were then 3 puppies; a blue boy, tri boy, and a tri girly.

Of course, I've always said my next dog would either be a blue sheltie or a pure for sable sheltie. So I instantly fell for the blue guy.
I mean like who wouldnt fall for this guy?!

As the puppies got older we would see more and more pictures and videos on facebook. (I have the breeder friended :) Of course I was thinking of this puppy for agility, obedienc, rally-o, and of course a great family pet. The more that I saw of the pups the more I was leaning towards either the blue or the tri girl. dont get me wrong, the tri boy was soooooo sweet! We went and saw the pups for the first time in person at 5 weeks (I think?). I surprisingly had first pick and I decided on the tri girl :)

Time went on and they all got names :) the blue boy, Jagger, the tri boy, Harry, and the tri girl, Nikita. I loved the name Nikita because it was badass just like her, and it had nice shorter names in it like Niki and Kita for agility.

At this point, I was beyond excitement to get this amazing pup :)

Then we went down at an agility trial to visit with the pups again at 8 weeks. By this time I knew I was getting Nikita, so I spent extra time with her ;) Here is a video with some pictures I took :)

Unfortunately, the breeder found an inflammed area around her vulva that looked like a bug bite or something. Long story short, two days before we were supposed to get her she went to the AVC and was diagnosed with a Mast Cell tumor and at that time because of its location surgery was not an option, at her age and breed no one has ever seen this before. :'(

I was devastated by this. Not at all by the fact that we weren't getting her, but by the fact that a young puppy who had just started living, might not have too much longer. And you should have seen her, she had soo much spunk and seemed so happy. Sometimes life just isn't fair.

She is now staying with the breeder, to live the most wonderful life as long as she can! There is a fb page "Nikki's Journey", which the breeder updates with all that she is doing :) She seems to be having a great life and I am so happy that she is (:

Now, you're probably wondering..
Whaaa? She said she was going to pick up her puppy today!?
That's the best part.

See, after we found out that we were not getting Nikita we went out and searched for other sheltie breeders and available pups.
I really want to get my next pup before junior year as everyone says it's the hardest and I think it'd be super hard to train a super young pup during that time.

So we checked out Athill shelties. Now, we were looking at this kennel and breeder for a sheltie pup a long time ago, before we got Beau. So we kinda knew the kennel a bit, and Ma had talked to her before, etc.

And, there he was.
Blue boy, 6 week old pup, AVAILABLE.
Remember how I said I'd always imagined my next pup a blue sheltie?! Yaaaaaa. :)

He has two blue eyes, blue merle coat, boy, sheltie, sounds perfect right?! ;) Excatly what I had always pictured my next dog :)
I've only seen pictures of him, and am in love <3 I can't wait to meet him and pick him up tonight!!!
I decided on his registered name being 'Athill's Blue Suede Shoes' and his call name 'Elvis' :)
I was thinking of calling him 'Jackpot', but then realized people would probably call him 'Jack' and there is already a dog named 'Jak' that does agility in our area.
But, I absolutly love the name Elvis, I think it's quite cute c:
Don't worry, I'll be posting hundreds and hundreds of pictures and videos of him soon (: 


Eeeeeeks! :) Puppy fever!

Both dogs. Superstars.

Training was awesome tonight.

I went out with Beau first this evening. We worked on box work, weaves, contacts, with a tunnel in the mix too c:
He rocked it.
He is really starting to understand his line, which is helping with with lots. Back side of jumps are coming along very nicely. Weaves as well, and a little more speed on dw :) I had the jumps at 16" for a bit at the start, and man or man, fast boy he can be! Haha, especially at the start when he has tons of energy! Bars at 22" for the rest of the session, and I have to say he is doing great with it. So glad I'll be specialing him from 26", he seems to have more fun and less stressed :) so yayaa for that!
His focus was good, but not as good as it could have been. Don't get me wrong, he didnt run off or sniff or anything like that which is still a GREAT step forward :) He was just making some silly mistakes that he knows better not to make (;
Hence I was out with just a tug, which is still major improvement. For him, compared to how he used to be, staying with me with JUST A TUG, is amazing! Soooo uber proud of this guy! <333

Now, for superjazz! (:
Holy cow, I love this dog.
He keeps surprising and impressing me every single day!
We worked box work, contacts, decels, directionals, weaves, with a tunnel in the mix as well :)
Backsides, threadles, serps were flawless. I am so happy with how he is improving in these areas with tighter turns and waaaay more better understanding of the cues! :)
Weaves were great with a couple different entries and a rear here and there. I'm thinking of uping the ante and proofing the weaves with both dogs sometime this week. Just a full session of mostly weaves, yay!(I'll try to video it:))
Dogwalk was superb as well. Glad to see how it is coming along with running all the way down the plank and not doing that jumpy thing at the end which he sometimes does ;P Decels at the end were nice also :)
Directionals were great! And they weren't just off a contact into a tunnel! Glad to see he can apply his knowledge :) I hope to work and use them more, they are so useful!

Whoa, long post, haha I tend to get carried away with these superstars! <3
Here's a cute pic of Jazzer to make it better (;

:)

My Fault.

We've been missing each other..
That's Jazz and I.

Lately, life has gotten in the way of us doing agility and spending time together. :(
We were also getting some land cleared, and soon to be filled and grassed. So there have been workers in our backyard for like the past two weeks..
Enough excuses.

Sooo, we had a trial on Canada Day.

It consisted of 6 runs;
Standard
3 Steeplechases
2 Jumpers

Don't get me wrong, we have some great runs, but they could have been better. It's really my fault we haven't worked a lot recently, and that's going to change! now.
I could really tell how out of shape, both Jazz and I, are. That's also going to change. More on that later.

Any who, it was still a great weekend!
However, I only got one of the runs on tape.

But, here is the video :) enjoy!

:)

Okay, so, I haven't posted a lot on here recently.. sorry! I've kinda forgot about this bloggg, but I promise I'll try to post more frequently from now on! :o)

Since my last post was all about the Jazzman, this post will be mostly about the big blue boy! :)

wuv this pic of him so much :') new fb cover photo, yeaah (:

Training with him has been extremely awesome, considering I haven't worked with him in a bit. Mostly working on focus, circle work, etc. with some contacts. He was rocking it. no joke! Yes, his contacts could have a little more speed, but his 2o2o is soooo solid! Loving it! He didn't blow not even one of his contacts! Here, check out a little video I put together with some clips I have from today!
Right here :)
See? Awesome. :)

Speaking of the video, I've decided to try to find a better video editing program. Windows Movie Maker works, but it always SO SLOW and annoying. So I got some suggestions and a couple of free downloads later, have a couple new programs I'm trying out. With this video I was testing out Pinnacle Studios! Love this program. Hopefully I'll tape some more of our training this week and try out the different programs and maybe do a collective review or something. Also pumped to get more videos up :) Since it's summer I have way more time for training and editing and all that good stuff (:

And what's a post without a little Jazz?! :)
Jazz also did very well today. However, I didn't get any clips of him today :( Def tomorrow!

Tomorrow's plan is box work and some weaves :)

Possibly best weekend, eva? :)

I just found this :o) guess I didn't post it! It was written in May, but any who here it is!



Last weekend we went to our first outdoor trial this year! :)
Needless to say, I most definitively have to question if this was one of our best weekends ever!!

Jazzy enjoying the river to cool down :)

6/7 Qs, one 1st, four 2nds, one 3rd, Judge's Choice on Sunday, and Top Masters Dog on Sunday as well! :D but that's definitively not the best part. Jazz ran sooooo well!!!

He got another Gamblers Q!!! :) which means we have 2/4 for our ATChC :D The run was superb, and super uber proud of him for getting the main gamble :) The other runs in the weekend were amazing as well! :) great and speedy standard, super snooker with some great threadles, and a great steeplechase with our steeplechase title!!!! :D

Pure
awesomeness.

What I am most happy with was how he RAN! :) It felt so connected and he was always there :) Amazing weekend overall, and I cant wait to see what 2012 will bring! <3