January Shows

Mom Skookum still has a lot of work to do to get ready for more showing, it seems. At the agility trials we entered at Argus Ranch, Skookum seemed to have a rock bruise after her third run, so we aborted our last run and headed home. She and I are still rusty, but our teamwork got better each run, and we almost "Q'd" on our last standard run with just one fault. I was especially pleased that she got all of her contacts. We also entered an obedience trial at the Puyallup shows, but her heeling was nonexistent as she looked like she forgot what to do - no attention to me. Her jumps, retrieves, drop on recall, and sits and downs out of sight were just fine, though. So, I need to work some attention exercises and head for a couple of fun matches. At the Mt Hood show, she stepped on a sharp object the night we arrived and has been lame for several days, so she was unable to compete in either obedience or agility. On a positive note, we (all 3 dogs) had fun tracking one afternoon at Fort Vancouver and Skookum was a demo dog at a judge's seminar at the show. Cricket needs more handling practice, but handled getting mobbed by a group of grade schoolers very well. All of the dogs have been exhausted and sleeping a lot since we got home from our 3-day journey. We at least caught up on our sleep and are ready to go to work again. And, Ms. Cricket has had no more car sickness for weeks, now, thank you very much!