Ain't So Bad

If you're a dog...with your own personal fur coat to keep you warm. I might hike instead of run today. I love to go out in the first snow, makes me feel like a kid again.

Motivation

I was on Marcy's blog today and her post rings so true. Find ways to keep motivated through the Winters in the Northeast. They can be pretty brutal.

One of my biggest motivators is ESCAPE. Escape from my crazy house.

One of my second biggest motivators is the workout log. I know - I sound like a geek. I need to see the numbers climb.

My third biggest motivator is fitting in to my jeans.

My motivator for working my dogs - the insanity in my house. I have peace right now because I worked 2 of them up at my training building. This peace will be short lived though - Devin gets home from school in a few hours and the racous begins anew. Living with him is like living with Troy Polamalu. If you don't know who he is watch this video clip....he is the one with the long hair and in Black and Gold at the end - he plays for the Steelers:

The Apple and The Tree

Wow - now I know how Rosanne feels when driving long distances with me in the car (15 more days and counting). The apple doesn't fall far from the tree? Devin came home on the bus yesterday because Greg was home waiting for a mechanic to come and look at our ailing washing machine. What this means is that Devin didn't get to run around and play football at the after school program. He also didn't have football practice last night.

With no physical outlet for his energy, he was squirming out of his skin with boredom. This extra energy always seems to get directed at me. So I had a brilliant idea - go get the hula hoop from the basement (the reason I have one - the dogs). This entertained him for at least 30 minutes and it took the edge off of him.

Nothing like having 6 dogs (4 of which are high energy Border Collies) and one 9 year old boy that is also very high energy to try to entertain. Thank goodness I was a Border Collie in a former life.

Poor Greg, he will have to deal with 5 dogs and one child when I am in AZ. Sympathy cards can be sent to: Greg Gilligan (ggilligan@philamixers.com) while I am gone :)

I Need a Zoom Lense

A cool action shot of Gusto even though it is slightly off center...darn software is not as easy as my old program. We got a few decent shots but most of them are too far away and the cropping and zooming part of my software program SUCKS. So until I get a better zoom lense, the pictures will continue to not be as nice as I would like. But I am still playing around and learning, they should improve.

The Journey

A friend of mine (thank you, Weeta) just sent me a link to a beautiful video clip on YouTube. The video was done by Susan Garrett, a rather famous person in the world of agility. It's called "The Journey" and it will make you cry if you have any emotions at all toward your dogs.

Go check it out:

YouTube - The Journey

It resonated deep inside my soul...I've learned so many lessons with each one of my dogs. They've brought some pretty interesting people into my life, some for just a short time but others have been around for the long haul. Some of my greatest friends are in my life thanks to my dogs. A few are no longer part of my life but lessons were definitely learned.

I do agility and herding because I love the bond you develop when you teach your dogs a sport of any kind. The bond is deep and is hard to describe to those that have never done a sport with an animal. You can't develop it by throwing balls or taking your dog for a walk, it can only be developed by working together as a team.

Mostly, the lessons that I have learned is to live in the moment and appreciate the joys in life.

It's Official, He's a Horse

Robbie, my youngest Border Collie - just shy of 10 months of age is 41 lbs. SO - since he ain't done cooking....maybe we should start a pool on his height and weight. I'm going to say 22.6 inches tall, 50 lbs.

Any other guesses?

How Robbie got his Name

In case I forget this little tidbit, I wanted to write it down. I came up with several names that I was considering for this boy - here is the list: Owen, Beck, Trim, Bryn, Brice, Garry, Speck, Vic, Benny and Robbie. Due to his working pedigree, I really wanted a name that carried on his working ancestry so I researched dogs in his pedigree to see if there were any names that stood out or that I liked. The name Robbie appears on his pedigree about 5 generations ago. Robbie, ISDS 38315 was sired by a famous dog named Brocken Robbie who produced several Welsh Champions. Robbie ISDS 38315 produced another Robbie, ISDS 103968 as well as the famous dog named Butcher's Mac.

Devin didn't know any of the reasons I selected this name but it was his favorite, so I went with it. The funny thing is my Grandfather's name was also Robert but everyone called him Robbie. Another funny thing about this name - it connects my Robbie to Ivy and Abbey. Robbie, ISDS 38315 produced a dog named Meg, ISDS 138048. Meg is Tally of Mobella's Mother - Tally is on the girls pedigree 4 generations ago.

Truly a small world in Border Collies.

Robbie's Famous Grandsires

Picture below is Wisp - owned by Robert Dalziel of Scotland. Wisp is Robbie's Great-Grandfather (Mother's side), 2 time International Supreme Champion in the 90s. The picture on top is Llangwm Bob, Robbie's Grandfather (Father's side)- owned by Aled Owen of Wales. Bob was also a multiple international champion 2000, 2002.

The ears on Bob seemed to get passed down generations. I recently joined Facebooks and am part of the Aled Owen Sheepdog group. Lots of comments on the ears which I think is funny. Robbie's ears are doing all sorts of things right now. I've asked about size because Robbie is quite big. No remarks yet - but his size could be coming from his Mother's side.

Gusto's Session

Today I set up 7 jumps and 12 poles. I did some pretty funky angled jumps with re-direction and convergence. He kept all the bars up except the ones when we converged....he did get better by the end of the session. I did have some trouble re-directing him on a tight turn with speed....again, not being patient and waiting to make sure he turns with me. I was pretty happy with his bars though and his jumping looked good. His weave entries were great! I definitely need to do more handling exercises with him because my handling was not up to par for his speed.

I did a few weavepoles with some jumps with Ivy. Katie Leisey will be handling her at Flexi so I thought I should shake the dust off of Ivy. She was very fast and very excited to be working but did get hot, actually stopped and jumped in my tub to cool off! She needed a quick reminder about her weave entries and I did a quick a frame reminder and that was it.

Robbie is brilliant

Wow - this youngster is amazingly smart. He just blows my mind every time I train him. I took him to the building where I teach agility and worked on his dogwalk. As soon as I walked near it, he jumped on and lied down. Same with the Teeter.

I did a few short foot target sessions to a mousepad yesterday. He seemed utterly bored with it. Got it out at the building and threw it down, he went over and put his foot on it. Bored but compliant. Then he grabbed the tug off the ground, ran over to the frame, jumped on and hung out on the spot that I have done about a half a dozen times! I was thinking of doing a full running frame but it may be too late, I may need to do a foot target cuz this boy remembers everything.

Greg and I tried to get some action shots yesterday but it got too dark. This one is the only decent one - Greg was having fun with his favorite Border Collie.

The Girls Pedigree and Such

I did not have their pedigree for the longest time. I still don't have one whole side - their Sire's side (I do know he was a NASD registered BC named Roy out of Jim Shearer's working lines). I did some research and with Rosanne's help we pieced together their Mother's side. I then ordered a pedigree for their Mother who is registered with the AKC. She was born and bred in the UK out of conformation lines and the pedigree confirmed our research.

Here is a link to some relatives to Abbey and Ivy on their mother's side:

http://www.foxbarton.com/bee.htm

The top half of her pedigree is identical to Abbey and Ivy. And Bee looks a lot like a black and white Abbey.

I also found a dog in Finland that went deaf at age 4 - she is similarly bred as the girls. Must be a genetic connection, don't ya think? I sent cheek swabs to UC Davis for both of my girls....they are researching Early Onset Deafness in border collies.

In doing research, I found quite a lot of agility dogs that share common ancestry to the girls. Since their Mother was born in the UK, I was shocked at the number of dogs that are distantly related - 3 generations, not 8. Clan Abby Blue Aberdoone was a top winning conformation dog in the UK and was used a lot for breeding - this is the primary connection to the other dogs.

Here is a link to Clan Abby - this picture is the one that reminds me the most of Ivy:

http://www.clan-abby.com/nz_ch_clanabby_lorna_doone_i01712.aspx

It truly is a small world in Border Collies. Why do I say this? I used to take classes at Y2K9s near Philadelphia. The owner, Deb Norman, has a BC named Shiner. This dog is a blue merle with tan markings....her face and mannerisms reminded me of Ivy. Years later, in doing my research, I discovered that Shiner's Sire is Bessamour D'ltan Azure - Grandfather is also Clan Abby Blue Aberdoone. There are multiple other ancestors on his pedigree in common with Abbey and Ivy.

New Pics of the Boys

Robbie's Relatives

Here are 2 pictures of Robbie's relatives. The first one is Rosanne DeMascio's Seri. I love Seri - she is related to Robbie and the reason that I wanted one from this line. Seri's mother, Pearl is out of Tegwen. Tegwen and Robbie's father, Keen are bred the same - Bob X Lil. Seri also shares the Yankee line with Gusto and Seri acts more like Gusto than Robbie. Robbie is more sensible although still young so remains to be seen what he will end up like down the road. Seri is a wild thing but pretty biddable - love her!

The second picture is Classy - Robbie's littersister. Look at the ears - I call them Wonky, not to be confused with Donkey ears. I need to put a picture of Bob - I'm sure that might be where the wonky ear gene comes from :)

New Pics of Robbie