OAJ and Weekend Agility News

The biggest news of the weekend was Charley got his Open Agility Jumpers title!

He ended the weekend with a perfect score, 100/100, and was the only dog out of all the group that qualified!

On Friday, he also got a 2nd leg towards his standard title.

 Good job Charley!!!

Big Weekend in Agility

Sorry, we've been absent from blog land lately. Weekends have been really busy around here doing lots of fun summer things. Including agility! This weekend, Char and I have a two day trial, and it could be a very big weekend for us. We are two legs away from Chars novice standard title, and one leg away from Charley's Open Jumpers title. I'm pretty nervous, not for the legs we need to get, but if Charley passes Friday, we have to move up to Excellent. I know this doesn't mean much to you people reading this, but basically this is the highest level of agility, and really the highest level of any event we've trailed in. I just read this article from an agility blog I follow, and will try not to look ahead to the possible move up, and really concentrate on the levels at hand. But you never know, and that's in the back of my mind....

From Agilitynerd.com:

I sometimes get questions from novice handlers asking about preparing for competition and especially about getting stressed out at competitions. Stress and anxiety they happen to us all.

But you know what? The more you do it the easier it gets.

You will make mistakes.

You will learn from those mistakes and know what to expect and then you'll know what to do.

You will forget things (collar on? collar off? brought your dog? entered in the trial/run? treats? crate? the course sequence?)

You will find that the trial tests your skillsand uncovers your weaknesses and then you'll work on improving those skills.

You'll train out the "but we can't" excuses and you will become a better team.

You'll hang out with people who support you and your goals (and you'll stay away from the rest).

And the whole experience will get easier. The packing, travel, hotel, trial check in, course walk throughs, warm up, run, cool down; all will become things you know how to do and with practice will become second nature.

Because if you do anything enough times you will own it!

You can move past the anxiety and overcome the stress with one important mantra:

Just DO Agility

--We will try our hardest and have confidence that all our hard work and practice will see us through!!

Daffodil Hill

One Sunday in April, we went to the Heights for some brunch and to look at daffodil's.

We usually just go around the cultural gardens, on MLK, but stopped in Lakeview Cemetary to take some pictures.  Lucky us, we found out that they had  something called Daffodil Hill.  

Every year volunteers plant more and more daffodils, which total in the thousands, and bloom down a hill.  It was an awesome discovery, as there were way more flowers than the other place.

So many different varieties!!

We ❤️ Skylanders

Around here!

My bud Braden came over for an afternoon of playing Skylanders!

We have a whole collection going, and we played them all!

Snacked on some veggies and dip

Then ate our favorite, a Melt Macaroni Melt for dinner

Best day ever!!

Our New Baby!

Born January 21, 2015 on a cold winter day in a ball of his mommy's fluff.    

Little Bennington, a mini lop rabbit,  snuggles warm with his 5 sisters. 

At three weeks old, he's becoming quite the character. With his Yoda ears, he's growing up fast! 

There he is on the bottom left, in the hutch with his mom and sisters.

Little baby Bennington at 5 weeks. 

I LOVE this picture of him in the middle of a bunny pillow. His ears have almost flipped, and he's just so adorable. 

Bennington munching solid food at 7 1/2 weeks. 

Last minute snuggles with breeder Shelly Lazo before coming home. 

Bennington will look a lot like Daddy, Cooper, as a "broken silver tipped steel."

Mom, Rosey, is a sweet "chinchilla" color. 

Three of his sisters left, waiting for forever homes. 

One of two barn cats. I'm so glad he's grown up with cats around, so he's not as scared. There were even two barn dogs! Good to know when moving into our home. 

Red barn where he was born and raised. 

Braving the scary ride home! 

Settling right in and being quite rambunctious with his new toys!

And he's found a really snugly bed spot, which he sleeps in every night. And hangs his chin over the side. 

Still munching on pellets and doing great!

He's just the sweetest baby boy, we love our little Bennington!

Who me?

The end.

One Week To Go!

And he will be here! I can't wait. 

Still need to pick a name for him...

It's hard when you don't know him yet. Koby and Charley had their names before we even got them. Rugby was Rugby as soon as I saw him. Poor Chester didn't have a name for a month, and he did ok as "Kitty" for a while. 

Did You Know

Charley's AKC name is:

Sweet Pea Charley Roo, CGC, CD, BN, NAJ, RN

He's quite accomplished for a 4 1/2 year old!