Let It Snow! (like we have a choice)

We got a couple of inches of snow this morning -- our first "real" snow at our new house. And can I just say how much I love this house and this wonderful setting! And Montana -- what a great place to live. And I love my job also -- there is a lot in my life to be thankful about...but I digress -- snow pictures!

This is Zoey. At least once a day I think to myself (or say to her), "that is a beautiful puppy". High energy, devoted to me, LOVES agility -- like crazy loves agility. She doesn't jump yet but we have started private lessons. And here she is looking gorgeous as usual...


Her sister, Asia, is no wallflower either...


Sydney is the smallest of our girls but she has really grown in the past month and is now just two pounds smaller than Zoey. However, Syd is one mighty little girl and her cute face hides a rather fierce little spirit. Here are Asia, Zoey, and Syd -- and trust me -- Syd always emerges the winner, rolling the other girls every time...


And here we have the Old Ladies badly in need of an ear trimming! Maize, age nine, and Halo, age seven -- Halo is the shorter one. Both girls are doing just fine -- nobody told them that they were supposed to slow down. All of us "mature" women could take a lesson -- don't let anybody tell you what you are supposed to do or not do just because of age!


And age does not rob us of beauty -- here is lovely Maize striking a pose...


Tomorrow is cute Sydney's first birthday!!! In honor of that, I have extra pictures of her today and hope to have Glitterati pictures tomorrow. Let me tell you about Sydney -- SMART SMART SMART. We are doing an obedience class together and WOW -- she is definitely a Kaibab girl. She loves to work and still is the friendliest dog I have ever met. She does not just wag her tail -- she wags her entire body!! I weighed her yesterday and she is just under 70 pounds so not a big girl, but she has grown taller recently so added weight and some leg. She is definitely maturing slowly and not exactly at her most beautiful -- while Zoey is the Homecoming Queen/Head Cheerleader, Sydney is the president of the Debate Club -- more of a late bloomer :) Here is Sydney with her mom, Cadi...


And here is Syd, self-stacked without much coat at the moment...


Head Cheerleader/Homecoming Queen and the Debate Club president (without the horned rim glasses ;)


But just look at how incredibly adorable Sydney is -- her head is just beautiful :)



I love snow -- well, when I do not have to drive the van in it. Growing up in California, I always thought snow was so exotic and exciting, and I have never really lost that sense of wonder about it. It is an excellent reminder that what is ordinary can be so extraordinary, and that most of what brings joy is just a matter of choice and perspective. You can crab about the snow, or marvel at the winter wonderland :) I suggest choosing marvel...

Couple Things

We made it home safely! Yesterday Cadi was able to control her barking and earned second place (out of 20!) in obedience -- not bad :)

Zoey was even more edgy yesterday and the judge was a giant man -- nice but quite tall and wide -- and Zoey would not let him examine her. That was disappointing but not a real surprise -- she was not comfortable all weekend. I expect her in season anytime and hopefully she will get her groove back after that.

In case you have not seen this announcement, we have planned a Camp Berner for August -- here is the info: http://campberner.blogspot.com/

Much to our amazement Camp Berner is close to being full and we just put out the word :)

Hope your week is most excellent -- or at least heading in that direction.

Adventures in Traveling

I should have known better than to travel on Friday the 13th!! But I am nothing if not an optimist and so off I went -- with Zoey and Cadi -- to Washington on Friday the 13th.

Yes, I checked the weather in the morning and it looked fine and so we left after my last class. The pass between Idaho and Montana was quite bad and stressful but I made it, and had great weather through eastern Washington.

I was within 100 miles of my destination when suddenly it was a blizzard -- I was in a panic. I could barely see and was crawling along at 25 mph, trying to stay calm. I turned the radio to the highway info station and learned that I was in bad driving conditions -- duh. I also learned that chains were required ahead on Snowqualmie Pass -- but chains or not, I was not driving any farther than the next exit, and I wasn't sure I would make it that far!

I have never been so happy to see a rest area in my life. I pulled into Indian John Hill rest area with several other stranded travelers, and hunkered down to wait things out. I was quite happy to see that the rest area had real people (as opposed to pretend ones I guess) giving out free coffee and cookies, and it turned out they were from the Knights of Columbus, which is a Catholic organization for men. I do not drink coffee and did not find the cookies interesting enough to spend the calories/carbs but I was thrilled to see a real live Catholic priest hanging out there, looking out for weary travelers! I took that as a sign that I would be okay :)

Okay is a relative term. I was not prepared to be stranded -- I know I should have been but I wasn't, which is why it happened (in addition to the whole Friday the 13th thing). The back of the van was filled with crates and stuff and so I had to just stay in the driver's seat. I told the girls that I needed their blankets more than they did, seeing how they have fur and are from the mountains, after all. So, with my not-so-clean, stolen dog bed blankets I somehow managed to not freeze for the five hours I had to wait until the road was okay again.

At 2:30 I headed gingerly up the Pass, made it down without mishap (much to my amazement but hey -- it was the 14th by that time and there was the whole priest thing) and found myself at the show sight -- at 4:30 a.m. Sigh. Let me just say that not much is happening at a dog show at 4:30 in the morning! I walked dogs, went to a grocery store, and basically tried to kill time and stay warm.

Zoey won her class (bred-by) but must be getting ready to come into season as she was fidgety and less than a cooperator today. The poor puppy -- this was her first all breed show, she is hormonal, and when we walked into the building she almost literally ran into an Irish Wolfhound the size of a small horse -- I thought Zoey's eyes might just bug out. And then an English Sheepdog went by, and if you have never seen one at a show you will have a hard time appreciating that they do not resemble any dog you have ever seen. I suspect what was running through Zoey's mind was something like, "mom, I don't think we are in Montana anymore."

So Zoey forgot that she is actually a really cute little showdog, and decided that where I wanted her feet was just flat out wrong so she moved them every time. Oh well -- nobody is perfect.

Then it was Cadi's turn for obedience. Now, Cadi is normally a rather lively dog (understatement alert) and consider that the poor dog had spent the better part of 21 hours in a crate -- you can probably see where this is heading. Her on leash heeling and figure 8 were lovely, but I made the mistake of engaging with her excited energy. Now, you want to stay connected to your obedience dog so I am not blaming myself but I should have been more subdued about it all.

Off leash heeling started fine but I could see that Cadi was getting cranked and next thing I know, she has started barking. BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK -- translation: THIS IS FUN WHERE ARE THE COOKIES CAN WE PLAY TUG WHERE ARE THE COOKIES HEY WHOSE COAT IS THIS ON TABLE WHERE ARE THE COOKIES, etc. More barking -- if you have seen Cadi do agility, you know that barking is not out of character for Cadi, but Obedience Cadi needs to exercise more self-control than Agility Cadi. I stopped smiling and tried glaring to no avail -- once a quarter is in Cadi, she is hard to stop!

Lucky for me, the judge was a) nice; and b) hard of hearing. He said that since her barking was "only" excessive (!) and not continuous, she was still qualifying. She wound up losing four points (which is a lot) for barking, but still did a nice job considering this is a GED (Git 'er Done) attempt at a CD and so I do not fuss with precision with her. So, she got her first GED CD leg with a 189.5 -- she would have placed in the class if she had kept her opinions to herself and not lost those four points!

On the positive side, she was the happiest dog -- her tail never stopped wagging :) And she qualified so I cannot complain too much, especially given our adventures in traveling.

All that is to say that Zoey, Cadi, and I are in Washington at a dog show. Dear Husband is also in Washington -- D.C. -- and so we have the coasts covered nicely, and can say we both spent the weekend in Washington.

In the future, I am staying home in bed on Friday the 13th. I hope yours was less traumatic!

Congratulations!

We are so excited to share that Asia's littermate, Lucy, finished her CDX yesterday! Yes, Lucy is just 27 months so quite an accomplishment. Congratulations to the Lelands and Kaibab's East to Cheyenne CDX (aka Lucy)!

Here are a couple of pictures that Peggy sent of Lucy -- can you see the resemblance to Asia!? WOW!




Hope that you had a successful weekend :)

Morning Candids

Zoey is a very unusual berner. There is, of course, that whole Air Zoey thing and her insatiable desire to play fetch and how much she likes to swim and her energy level, which is a bit over the top -- I love her for all these things but yes, she is not the most berner-like berner I know. Here is one of her other quirky things -- she thinks the grooming table is her personal perch. She likes to just hang out on it, take naps on it, and even chew her toys on it, as you can see in this picture...


This is a totally candid shot -- I looked over and there was Zoey -- as usual -- with Asia on the "bottom bunk" and Syd just posing...


Syd wanted these pictures up for her special friend so that Lisa can admire how very cute Sydney is...



I hope someone thinks you are very cute :) Have a great day!

Meet Missy and Training Pics and Congrats!

Let's begin with a big congratulations to Sue Nowak and Milo (from the D Litter) who earned Milo's RN today -- Sue has worked through her own ring nerves and so good job to both Sue and Milo :)

I thought it might be time to introduce a couple of new family members. This is a picture of a cat named Missy that has joined our family -- my daughter rescued her and now Missy is living with us; she is a member of Galen's Diabetic Club...


In addition to Missy, we also have Ruby and here is her story -- I was working with a hospice patient that was just a wonderful, amazing person. She shared with me that she had found a home for one of her cats but not the other. I told her that if she did not find Ruby a home, I would take her -- well, somehow that translated to "Mary-Ann will take Ruby" -- sigh. So when the woman died, Ruby joined our family.

First we discovered that she is also in the Diabetic Club -- what the heck is up with that?! And most recently we have found a mouth ulcer that we are treating and hoping is not something really bad. Ruby likes to hide in her secret Kitty Condo so no picture just yet but she is a cute elderly tabby cat with white paws.

Having Dear Husband here is very helpful! Not only did he help me practice obedience by being a pretend judge, but he took some fun pictures of our training session today -- I thought you might enjoy seeing what we are up to these days -- all pictures were taken in the training yard.

Zoey is an agility fiend, as we all knew she would be. She is afraid of nothing and LOVES to work. I am not jumping her yet, although she does run through the uprights of the jumps -- just no bars are up and won't be for a long time (she is still a baby, after all). Here is Zoey on the dog walk.


Look closely at this picture -- it is hilarious! This is Zoey doing the table -- and giving me some attitude!


Tunnels are big fun!


At the end of the dog walk and teeter, Zoey stops and has to keep at least one toe on the piece of equipment -- she LOVES this game.


Here is Zoey on the teeter.


Okay, now we move on to obedience. For those of you who rush their dogs -- here is Asia who has been learning to heel for a good part of a year -- we still do only straight lines with no automatic sits. Separately we work a variety of little pieces she will need to have perfect heeling -- like learning to move just her butt one direction or another. Asia will show in obedience in the spring, having spent almost 18 months learning to heel and mark my words, she is going to be something special as a result of going carefully and slowly through this learning process.


Although I have certainly taken my time with Cadi's obedience work, I have not focused as much on it as I do with Asia since Cadi is more of my agility dog. However, I have decided it is time -- ready or not (more not) -- and she is entered in a show in two weeks to try for novice obedience legs. Here is Cadi heeling -- a very BALD Cadi heeling.


And here is Halo heeling -- she is a wonderful heeling dog! Halo is getting ready for utility, which is the highest obedience class.


This is Halo working on scent articles -- the correct one is #6, which she got :)


And here is Halo marking the spot across the ring that she will run to for her "go out".


Finally, some people have the strange idea that dogs prefer to just sit on the couch -- this is a picture of Asia racing to the training yard, SO excited that she gets to "work".


I hope something in your life is as interesting and exciting as training is for my girls but if not -- well, get busy!

Just Some Pictures

You know it is going to be a good day when it starts off with a rainbow!

And Dear Husband arrived a couple of days ago for a visit -- we were all very happy to see him!


Cadi and Asia wanted to take Dear Dog Dad on our favorite river hike -- so off we went.


Seriously lovely -- wouldn't you agree?


I am usually behind the camera but with Dear Husband here, I got to be in some pictures with my girls :)


I love that sweet Asia!


Asia was pleased to show off her excellent skills in the water.


Don't let Cadi's wet head fool you -- we know where Sydney's aversion to water comes from! Cadi's head is wet from rain and not from frolicking in the river with Asia.


I hope you are having an excellent weekend and that frolicking is on the agenda!

Got Faith? Yes and No

I have been meaning to update you all about Faith for some time and since it was requested, I guess now is the time.

Faith was our very small puppy that we worried about from the F litter. Instead of placing her, we kept her to make sure she was okay and Galen (my son) took her on as his. Well, Galen started college and was very busy, Faith just really loved me and soon I had seven dogs, which was not working for me or for the dogs!

It became clear that Faith was a perfectly normal puppy, and so last May I decided that if a perfect home came along for Faith -- one in which her love and devotion for a person would not have to be shared very much -- that I would let her go. This made Galen and I very sad to even think about but seven dogs -- including three puppies -- was too much, even for me.

Soon after the perfect home appeared -- I guess Faith stayed with us only until Julie was ready for her. Many tears were cried and we still miss Faith, but we also know that her path was not to be with us forever and so we let her go -- and she has brought great joy to her new life.

Faith lives in Park City, Utah with Julie. I asked Julie to write an update about Faith for you and she was happy to do so -- so here it is:

"Faith is fabulous. . . she's so beautiful that she literally stops traffic when we walk. A few weeks ago she and her big (little) brother, Booker T. Washington (2-1/2 year-old cock-a-poo) visited the groomer. The groomer called me the minute they were finished because they really needed me to pick up Faith -- they couldn't work on the other dogs because people kept stopping to ask about Faith.

So far, knock on wood, Faith hasn't swallowed anything. However, when school started up, each day I'd come home and pause before opening the door wondering what I'd find on the other side. . . somedays it was just a seam ripped on the leather couch . . . others, whole cushions were scattered about the living room and stuffing strewn.

My very sweet dog walker left a Dr. Foster/Smith catalog and suggested the diffuser with calming natural oils. When that didn't work, I bought the biggest crate Petco had . . . Faith seems very content in her crate with stuffed Kong toys.

At night, Faith prefers the cool slate floor in my master bath to the bed. She settles into a long stretch and starts to snore. That's my favorite sound in the world. I love to listen to her dream.

When Faith's ready to get up (usually just before my 5:00 am alarm), she comes over and pushes her cold nose on mine and says, "Mom, I'm here. Love me, please." Then, after a few scratches behind the ears, she jumps up onto the pillows, walks in a few circles and collapses with a sigh for a few extra minutes in bed.

Faith is filled with unconditional love.

She's still a big floppy puppy that doesn't have any idea about her size. She sees Booker in my lap and thinks that's the appropriate place for her, too. (And, of course, she's right.) The minute I sit, she's there with her brown eyes and smile asking, "is there room for me?" She puts her front paws on my lap and climbs up . . .in fact, I had to stop typing just now because she was between the computer and me. Now, she's chewing on Booker under the table."

Julie sent these pictures to share:




So Faith has her very own person and a canine brother and a wonderful human grandma that we got to meet, and she has lots of friends. We miss her still and I know Galen feels badly, but I believe we did what we were supposed to do to get Faith to her forever person.

And so that is Faith's story -- I know it shouldn't, but it still makes me sad...

Falling into Fall

Welcome to fall! The view from the deck is different but lovely in a new way -- can you see one of the Ed's in the picture?


It has been a busy week since arriving home and so I appreciated today. I stayed home all day, did therapeutic cleaning, walked, trained and groomed dogs, and just enjoyed a break.

We missed a BIG congratulations -- Molly and Fiona (from the D Litter) recently got their Open Standard agility title -- GREAT JOB girls! Molly, age 14, is a wonderful handler and Fiona is lucky to have such a dedicated owner :)

Zoey's preliminary OFA results arrived today -- normal elbows and good hips :) :) And here she is playing her favorite game -- fetch.



Unfortunately I threw the toy in a tree -- and what do you suppose Air Zoey did??




Sigh... Syd prefers to chew sticks -- even when they are still attached to the bush.


Halo thinks she could get a job hunting for truffles.


And here is Asia.


And full baby sister, Zoey.


And here's hoping your week has been a good one, and that next week is even better!

Happy Birthday B Litter

Yesterday was the B Litter's seventh birthday. The parents of that litter are Zaltana and Abra, and there were ten in the litter, including our Halo (mom of the E and F Litters). Nine of the ten have achieved veteran status now by celebrating that special seventh birthday -- Happy Birthday to the B Litter bunch!

In honor of Halo's birthday, she got special treats and a walk with just the two of us. Here are a few pictures of Halo from the past few years...





Even if it is not your birthday, I hope your day is a happy one!

Pictures!

Just a few pictures from the Regional -- thanks to John for taking them!

This is Zoey (and me) with the judge.


This is what the ring scene looked like


One of the Glitterati -- Mika, formerly Ireland, with her mom. Mika looks a lot like Syd and is just as wild and crazy!


This is Asia's littermate, Levi, who lives in California.


And here is Asia getting set up to look pretty :)


We made it home from Reno in 13 hours, which was not bad at all -- and what a pretty drive up through Idaho! Now it is recovery time -- wild weekends take a couple of days of transition time -- and sleep!

Happy Week to you :)