Trixie's day of agility

No pictures to show for it, but yesterday I took Trixie to an agility foundation seminar taught by Susan Perry. After working with Timber, who even in his craziest state will stay close to me and come when called simply because he's a herding dog, I was a little nervous taking Trixie off-leash in an open arena. Trixie has a good recall. But she is a shiba and no matter how much I've trained, the chickens next door, a sparrow flitting through the arena, the grass waving in the wind outside the arena can all be way more exciting for a one year old shiba that me with my bag of treats.

So I put her in a wait, led past the first jump. She stayed nicely. I called her over the jump. She came to me perfectly. And then... she realized she didn't have a leash on. I could see it in her eyes, like a light bulb going off. She did that shiba thing where they duck away before you have a chance to grab their collar. Without time to even exhale, I pulled out a toy and took a few steps away from her. OK, the toy was more fun than running off. Now I can breathe. We played tug until I could grab her collar and then I took her over two jumps, and then three and four. She stayed with me off leash through the rest of the class. I even think she thought agility was fun.

I know that people with other breeds don't have the same fears as those of us with shibas. But the first time you're in a place that's not fenced like Ft. Knox and you slip that leash off, as a shiba owner you can't help but say a little prayer and hope that when you open your eyes that the dog isn't a 1/2 mile down the road.

Trixie's photo winning BOS

I'm so proud of my little girl. Doesn't she look great in this photo?

Denise and Kari want recognition...

I got crap today from Denise for not naming her in my last post about going to the dog show. Denise is my friend who owns Tomo and Odie (both sons of Tama, Tomo is Trixie's 1/2 brother and Odie is her littermate). So, Thank you Denise and my other friend, Kari, for going with me to the dog show. You two are the best! Thanks for the fun, the laughs, and for breaking my crate handle in the middle of the crosswalk with only 4 seconds left to cross. Thanks for being Trixie's "royal" entourage and helping to carry all her show stuff. You both made going to this show a bunch of fun.

So, here's Denise with her two shibas, Tomo and Odie, and Trixie. ...



Trixie and Odie...



Denise, Trixie and Odie...



Denise and the puppies...



Odie...



Kari and Denise...

Wow, what a day.

I have to say that in all my years showing dogs, today was a first. I took Trixie to the Tacoma Kennel Club dog show this morning.

I didn't sign up for yesterday's show because I teach obedience classes on Saturday. All week long I wondered if it was even worth driving to the show on Sunday because our show time was first up after the national anthem at 8:00am. I've been telling my friends that I just wasn't into getting up at 4:15am driving all that way for an early showing, just to be done by 8:30am and then turn around for a return drive home. A couple of my friends agreed to go with me as Trixie's support team. Of course I promised them lunch, lots of fun, excitement and shopping afterwords. And, I also need to include Valerie, my long-distance conscience, who called me daily to make sure I WAS going to go. Thank you Valerie.

So, now that you know how close I was to almost missing today, on to the excitement of the day. The boys showed first and Kenji (Trixie's littermate) won "Winner's Dog". Then it was the girl's turn and Trixie won "Winner's Bitch". There were no specials at this show, so it was Trixie and Kenji (littermates) up for "Best of Breed". Kenji won, Trixie took "Best of Opposite Sex". I have no complaints - AT ALL. It was fantastic seeing two dogs that I bred still in the ring at the end! Whooo Hooo.

So, Trixie is no longer a bridesmaid. She has her first points! And I'm more than thrilled that I went to the show today.

And, by the way, I guess I should have gone to the show yesterday, too. Kenji also won "Best of Breed" on Saturday.