A Very Long Time

I haven't posted in a long time but haven't really done much either. I will try and go through everything that has gone on.
First up is Bacchus' agility video from Concord, please laugh and enjoy.


In December we had a conformation show. Bacchus picked up the last single point he needed so we are just hunting majors now. Flirt was winners 2 of the 3 days so that was nice. Clover took Best of Breed and got a group 4 on Friday. She was also Best of Opposite on Saturday. Venus was compared against Clover both of those days so that was fun.

We also did a show and go mostly to work on Bacchus' jumping, barking, biting clothing issue. Well of course he did none of that at the show and go. Venus ran well though. People were impressed by the amount of drive my Sams have. Lol!

Venus had a strange lump on her head and we had a big scare that it was a mast cell tumor. She's been seeing a range of vets and as of right now it is nothing, just a hyper reaction to a bite or injury. She's been seen by my regular vet, an internal medicine specialist, a specialized surgeon, and an opthalmologist. We do a punch biopsy this week to be sure it really is nothing.

Jenn came down this weekend and we went to watch all 3 days at the AKC National Agility Championship. Wow what a blast that was. It was great to see Ronda and Pyro do some of their runs. They won the 16" Std class with a beautiful run. They were so close in the challengers round coming in 2nd. It really made me miss competing with Venus. She is going out of season so I can do some trials without worrying about that. There is a trial coming up soon but it is full except for Friday which is Exc only. I might just enter JWW and go play for a few hours that day.
I have some videos to put up late of Venus running with Jenn. Finally got a vid of her dog walk that is so pretty right now!
Brandy

Lots of Updates- Greensboro & Concord

Greensboro-
We only showed Clover on Saturday and she had a very nice Best of Breed win. Sunday we also have Bacchus and Flirt. They were winners dog and winners bitch and both earned a point.

Concord-
What a day Friday was. First we have Open JWW for Venus. She had a beautiful run! 9 seconds under course time, no faults. So she was 3rd place got a Q and earned her OAJ title!!! Whoo!
It is looking like a big conflict between conformation and breed so I move Venus to run first in Open Std. We have an ok run, 1 refusal at the weaves and 1 offcourse since she couldn't resist a dog walk until she was on it lol. Ended up with a Q though and a horrible time of 1 sec under SCT. Something didnt work right with the timers and they asked if I wanted to run again for time. Since I was in a hurry for conformation anyways I said no ad went to go show. Somewhere between Venus' two runs Bacchus attempted his run which consisted of do 2 obstacles and then jump on me.
Bacchus goes in and is Winners Dog but he was the only one. Flirt took Winners Bitch for 1 pt. Then we go in for breed and the judge can't take his eyes off of Bacchus. He ends up giving Bacchus Best of Breed over some very nice specials! Clover took Best of Opposite to him. He also made a cut in a very nice group.
Saturday we only had Flirt in conformation and nothing for her that day. Bacchus put on an entertaining performance in agility again. Venus pooped in the ring in Ex JWW! Our first time ever in Ex and she poops! I was so embarassed. I had just walked her but she was being stupid about the grass being wet. I don't really remember what happened in Std as far as why we didn't Q. It was a fairly nice run and I know there was a refusal at the weaves. I'm pretty sure it was another refusal somewhere.
Sunday we had Bacchus, Clover, and Flirt all in breed again. Flirt lost. :( Bacchus was Winners Dog and Best of Winners for another point. Nothing for Clover. Venus was very very slow on Sunday. I'm not sue what was going on, maybe she was just very tired. She had a pretty run in Ex JWW with 1 refusal on weaves. Other than that a clean run so I am thrilled with that. In Open Std 2 refusals but neither of them on weave poles! She did those right the first time.

Overall a very good 2 weekends. We hae a lesson with Ronda tonight so I might have another update tomorrow. There was someone videoing at the trail so I will post those videos when I get them.

NADAC Trial

This trial was very interesting. Bacchus was wild and crazy and Venus was weird and hormonal.
Nov Weavers-
Bacchus- He was very wild and never did a set of weave poles correctly. He'd do a tunnel and then run around crazy and come back and do the next tunnel. I did tell him sit at one point so I could get him to settle and he actually did sit so that was good.
Venus- She had an idiot owner in this run. I forgot the NADAC rule about no collars so we had to quit the run.

Nov Jumpers (Sat)-
Bacchus- Wild and crazy again but he put a good effort into it. Knocked a bar and came back over a jump the wrong way.
Venus- She knocked a bar so I had her down and we left the run.

Nov Jumpers (Sun)-
Bacchus- He had me very worried about this run. He left the warm up jump when we were working that and went to visit people. He was erxtremely hyped so I had no clue what would happen in the ring. He was on the verge of out of control the whole time but did well. He did a nice call off on a tunnel and was trying to listen. As we got close to the end he leaped on my play growling and being wild. I got him to quit that and we finished up the course. He was entertaining.
Venus- She looked to me like she slipped after a tunnel and couldn't get her fet right to jump so she knocked the bar. I was going to let it go but she was so upset that she totally shut down.

Nov Chances-
Venus- Still upset from the previous run she was off in her own little world here.

Nov Reg 1 & 2-
Regular 1 Venus Qd and got her title! She was doing a little bit better dealing wth the hormones and had a nice run. Regulr 2 I didn't care abut I just wanted her to stay happy. Itwas very messy but she did ok.

Nov Touch N Go-
Another Q for Venus! She seemed much happier during his run.

Tunnelers-
Venus did well but we had a collision with each other and then she missed the last tunnel. I did get her in it but we were over time so no Q. There were a lot of dogs missing that last tunnel.
Bacchus washyped outside the ring watching tunnelers. Once we were in the ring he did good and would wait to find out which tunnel I wanted him in. He's understanding that the point of this game to go do the things I want and I think he likes that fact that there are some tricks out there with offcourse obstacles. He ended up with his first Tunnelers Q.

I am crazy!!

We have a show coming up later in November and I must be insane. It's a 3 day show with agility and conformation. So here is the schedule:
Friday & Sunday
Conformation- Flirt, Bacchus, Clover
Agiity- Bacchus (1 run), Venus (2 runs)
Saturday
Conformation- Flirt
Agility- Bacchus (1 run), Venus (2 runs)

Flirt will be the most important thing since she's a paying clinet dog rather than one of my spend your money dogs lol. Hopefully I won't overly stress myself. And yes I know those that know me are saying yeah right about that.

This weekend is the NADAC trial. I hope that when I get off work at 12 that I can make it over to the trial in time for Bacchus and Venus' runs. Hopefully I can find someone to video all of the craziness. 8 runs on Sunday! I don't think I'm ready.
Brandy

Last National Report and Veni video

The rest of te National was ok. Bacchus got 4th in his weight pul class. Flirt was 4th in her Sweepstakes class and 2nd in her regular class. I also made the cut in breed with Ana, a friend's special.

I've been working weaves with Venus again trying to get the speed back.


Our next trial is a NADAC trial Nov 1 & 2. Bacchus and Venus are both doing Jumpers and Weavers on Saturday. Sunday Bach is doing Jumpers and Tunnelers, Venus is in Jumpers, Chances, Tunnelers, 2 rounds of Regular, and Touch and Go.

Samoyed National- Tuesday

Ok so I had a lot going on that day at the National. Flirt (client puppy) had Futurity. Venus and Bacchus had agility runs. I got my friend Donna of Wintersong Samoyeds to show Flirt for me. It was Flirt's first time in the ring and they did great together/ Flirt was 3rd in a class of 14.
Venus' first agility run was Open Standard. She was hyped up (barking while doing the warm upjump) and I was concerned about her keeping bars up or not. She did 2 jumps and went wide and missed the 3rd. Then we had 2 refusals at the weaves and she never did do them correctly. Her table performance was interesting, she kinda slid onto the table. Her contacts were wonderful. The teeter was fine, the a-frame was nice, and the dogwalk was beautiful. Overall I was very happy with the run as a whole. Then we had our JWW run and again nice but some problems. I was able to leave her at a tunnel and run and she blasted out of there.
Next up was Bacchus' first ever run. I was very nervous about what kind of craziness he might decide to do. He stayed calm and ran well. He was slow and very distracted. I'm not really surprised since he hasn't really done agility anywhere away from home. He had one refusal that was my fault for confusing hm. Weaves took a little bit to get started because of the distractions. He got his first Q and a 1st place.
Then we had FAST which was the first time for Bacchus and Venus. Venus did a wonderful job and had a nice run for her first Q in FAST. Bach's run was random and sporadic lol. I was avoiding contacts, wanted him to do weaves, and he had never seen a chute which was part of the send.

Lengthy National Updates- Herding

Ok so I will start with Monday and go from there with results and thoughts etc.

Monday- Herding
This was one of the worst things I have seen in a long time. The sheep were flighty and heavy at the same time. The first JHD run there was an opening in the fence and the sheep could wedge themselves behind a gas tank and you could't get them out. The sheep didn't want to be near people or dogs. One dog pulled from th morning JHD run based on how the sheep acted the day before. The other two dogs in the morning struggled and both were backed down a little by the sheep. Neither dog gave up though and they did a great job trying to move the sheep.
So my first run was Venus' 1st leg of her HCT. We made it through and she passed.

Next was Bacchus' 2nd leg of his HCT. He passed and earned his HCT.


Then it was time for Bacchus to attempt the JHD course. One of the 2 dogs from the morning ended up deciding to do HCT instead of JHD. The other dog started ff well but then was limping. I probably caused most of our problems in his JHD run but it was tough.

The blue is where the sheep came in the fence. We had a big problem navigating that area. The pink X nar that is where the sheep would often get "stuck". They would turn andstare at Bacchus but he seems to have enough power that they won't do anything more to scare him. I could send him along the fence there and get the sheep moved. We did ok with the bottom left panel (green square) when looking at the picture. We had real big problems at th 2nd pink X. Bacchus is the greenish arrow and the shep are the grey. To get them out of that cornerI sent him against the fence. Once the sheep moved they took off bac to the pen where they started and I would have to start over. If I sent Bacchus in the other way they would just bolt back the direction we had come from and be back at the pen again. We'd start over and work out of that first corner and get stuck again at the 2nd corner. We did manage to get the 2nd panel (green square on bottom right) somehow. I think it was pure luck. I couldn't figure out how to get the sheep off the fences and into the center panel. We ran out of time. :(
Bacchus was the only dog to make it through 2 panels that day so that was really good. I didn't get video on my camera but someone else did. Once I get that I will post it.
Venus then had her run fo her 2nd leg of the HCT. By this point the sheep were irritated and were refusing to move for many of the dogs. They would charge the dogs and refuse to move. When the Border Collies came in to change stock they had to grip the sheep multiple times to make them move. Venus was doing well until she got charged and hit by a sheep.

That night her foot was a little bit swollen but it was fine by the next day.