"Move it" Recommendation

Ok, it is expensive.
Yes, it would be classified as a luxury by many
You only need it if you have an A frame

I'm thrilled to now be an owner of a "Move it"

http://www.nosetouch.com/move_it.htm

I have put off ordering this item I have felt was not necessary for me. I am strong and sturdy and can move my A frame all by myself.

Well, I learned a lesson this summer: I should not move the A frame by myself. The consequence of me not learning the lesson until it was too late was many sleepless nights, missed agility, pain, and finally vicoden.

So I had Kel help me. Even with his help, my back was bothering me again. I had my gardener move it for me (a big hassle as he doesn't always move it where I want it nor in the method I would like it moved).

I broke down and bought one. Of course I got the stainless steel as I'm learning quickly that things do not last long in my garden unless I protect them. I didn't want ONE more thing I needed to perform maintenance on.

Today is the day the gardener comes. I unpacked my move it and used it exactly as described in the video and wolaaa! Easy as anything. I might even start taking my A frame for a walk with me (it is that easy!). Love it, Love it, Love it.

Ask your spouses for one for christmas. You will not regret your decision.

Final T Shirt Design

Team Brazen Benja Warriors is off to the Agility National Championships the end of October. They will be sporting an official Whiz design on red T Shirts.



The front of the shirt will have the asian writing design sorta centered under the collar and the large image of the dogs and team name will be on the back. I hope they'll be proud to wear their team shirts. I can't wait to be there and take pictures of this great group of women together.

Sheep Poo

It's been about 2.5 years since I worked Tazz on sheep. I quit sheep herding because:

• It is time consuming
• It involves driving long distances for a very short time in the ring
• Many sheep instructors yell and hit their dogs
• I felt like an idiot more times than not
  

I did sheep herding because Tazz really enjoyed it and it was fun to do while I was waiting for Tazz to mature so we could do agility.

My friend Laura said, why don't you go with me next week. I said, sure, why not.

Today we went and did some herding. I had zero expectations. One of the last times we herded, Tazz got yelled at and shut down completly, and Tazz has an incredible memory. The last time he was ever on sheep was two years ago and he was totally not into it at all.
But I figured, what the heck. Let's go for it.

I can not express the joy it is to watch your dog doing something they love. From the moment we arrived Tazz sniffed the air and his step had more bounce in it. When he watched another dog in a pen 1/4 mile away herd he got his happy little chirpy bark he sometimes gets, tail high and wagging and just alot of happy wiggle.

We had to wait for our turn and I was thinking that perhaps he might get hot and not want to work. That was not the case. He worked his little heart out. He was truly enjoying himself more than he has enjoyed himself in a LONG while. Heat, no problem. He ran a full steam when needed and never once gave any indication of "slo moe."

Tazz got two times in the pen with the sheep and we are definately going back. Tazz does agility for me. Herding, thats for him.

Surprize!

Well, I'm going to admit. I've been feeling down about Tazzies runs. I know I'm usually a pretty positive person, but this last weekend was somewhat disappointing. Even I need to take a sanity break and ask myself, "why?"

So I go to the USDAA website to see whether results have been posted and what do I find? I find that Tazz actually Super Q'd in July! That's TWO super Q's ...only one more to go. For those of you who don't know what a super q is, keep reading...for those of you that do, skip a paragraph.

A super Q is something you get for a fun game called Snooker. If Tazz is in the top percent of the scores he gets a super q. I can qualify in Snooker with only 38 points, but I need alot more than that usually to be in the top percent. To get a Snooker championship I need three super q's.

So lesson learned. No matter how bad I think we are doing, I should go look at those darn score sheets. I might find surprisingly good news!

Creativity

My friends are on an agility team together. "Ben," "Manja," and "Brazen." They want team shirts and their team name is "Benja Brazen Warriors." A friend of Karens did some cartoon drawings that were really cute and Laura had asked me what I would do. So I took some time today to be creative and taking inspiration from ninja turtles, I did headshots with Ninja masks.

This is the first time that I've done any drawing with the computer programs and I'm really happy with it. I actually drew the heads and scanned the image in as a JPEG. I opened the JPEG up in Fireworks8 and added the color. Brazen (the merle dog) was the easiest as I had a picture of her, but the others I had to do from memory or a small pic I found on the web.

It was a fun project and worth the time whether they use it or not. I've forgotten how much fun my art can be and I've really got to do more.

Updated: Here is another version. This one looks a little more finished.

Sept 22 Statistics

September 22

September 22 is the 265th day of the year . There are 100 days remaining until the end of the year.

-FIVE DAYS to WORLDS (http://fciagility2008.cleanrun.com/)
-Christmas is in 94 days!
-Change the clocks in 41 days
-Today is OneWebday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OneWebDay)
-74 days to TG!
-only 21 days before I leave for the USDAA Nationals
-182 days until the longest day of the year
-Kel turns 50 in 20 days (Yikes!)
-One day in the many for my fitness goals. How many days until I loose 30 pounds? Hopefully in 3 months as I made a committment to not show Fin until I lost 30 pounds. A good goal. So will I make the 3 day AKC show between Christmas and New Years? Only time will tell.

Team Slow Dog

Today found Laura and her three and me and my one on the lonely stretches of highway heading to the wonderful land of Woodland about 2.25 hours north of Morgan Hill.

Tazzie's heart was not in it today. He was out there supporting the team, but he was hot and tired and just couldn't get outta 2nd gear. The first run was pretty good. It was still in the low 80's at that point. Later, no speed. I did what I could, but it wasn't his day. He did nothing wrong, just did everything at low speed. I really think it was the heat.

Laura had some really nice runs. A couple bobbles, but all in all a good day for Team Pryse.

Havoc and I had a GREAT run in Standard. If only she had stayed on the table, we would have Q'd for sure.

No video today, I left the house at 5am and the video camera was forgotten on my desk.

No shows tomorrow. Just a little fun match close by. Tazz may get to stay home if he is still has the mopes.