Merry Christmas

We are so blessed to have our family and friends and we want to take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. May you enjoy time with your loved ones and be able to experience the true meaning of Christmas.

We pray for our loved ones that are serving in the military right now, may they know that we love them and wish them a safe return home.

We love you all!

Heather, Joe, Factor, Kayak and Siren

Drama King

So Factor decided to hold out until the last possible opportunity at the show last weekend to complete his Novice Agility title. All we needed was one more clean run to complete our title and get out of Novice. We had 4 opportunities-one each day of the 4 day show and Factor waited until Sunday. Friday's run was very nice and I actually thought that he had Q'd when we finished. I was very excited but none of my friends were cheering so I knew something had to have happened. So we come off the course and a friend/instructor comes up to me and tells me that the judge called the upside of the dog walk contact. Meaning that Factor didn't touch the yellow side of contact when he was getting on. To say the least, I was bummed.

So on Saturday we tried it again, he had a beautiful run and as he went over the last jump (a double jump) he dropped his back foot and dropped the bar. I had tears welling up in my eyes I was so disappointed and the Kris (friend/instructor) came up to me and told me that the judge had called the upside of his teeter contact. I had missed this call also. So, I wasn't so upset that he had dropped the bar then.

Sunday was our last opportunity and I was very worried about his upside contacts now. Jan told me that there was nothing that I could do to fix them right now so I needed to put it out of my mind. It was a very nice course and I tried not to worry, but I kept my eye on each yellow contact to make sure that he put a paw in each one. He was a stinker in the weaves and wouldn't get in them right away but he completed them. He finished the course CLEANLY and everyone was cheering when we crossed the last jump, so I figured we had done it. I heard Kris say that she didn't want to be the first one to talk to me because she had been the one to give me the bad news the past two days so she didn't want me to think that we hadn't Q'd.

I was very happy and I think that Factor knew it because he got lots of turkey and played a bunch with his new toy. So it was a nice way to end our weekend, going home with a 2nd place ribbon along with a green Q ribbon.

Jan ran Sklyer and Zelma this weekend also. Skyler came home with 2 green ribbons from 2 jumpers runs. She was having a hard time with her contacts so no standard Q's. Zelma was also having some contact issues and some off courses in jumpers so she didn't have any Q's but she sure had a GREAT time.

You can check out pictures of Factor, Zelma and Skyler at www.greatdanephotos.com under the Hounds for the Holidays show and then under each dogs name.

We are entered in a NADAC show New Year's weekend in Burnsville so that should be a lot of fun and then back to AKC and ASCA in January.

It's snowing again!

I know, shocking really that it is snowing in Minnesota in December but it is. The weather people have actually been accurate in their predictions and the snow has been coming like they say. The dogs love the snow and can't wait to go out and play in it. I really don't mind the snow too much, it is the cold and shoveling that I really don't like.

Factor and I are currently in Milwaukee, WI with our friends Jan, Skyler and Zelma. We are here for a 4 day AKC show. Today was day one and it went pretty well. None of the dogs got any Q's but they did do very well for competing at a new show site after 5 hours of driving and also staying a strange hotel. We didn't get to bed until around 1am and had to be up at 5am so that we could find a place to put our crates for the weekend, so it has already been a long day.

Like I had said before, Factor only needs one more Q in standard to get out of Novice and hopefully we can do that tomorrow-you'll just have to wait and see.

I LOVE MY DOG

Factor and I were at an AKC agility trial in Minneapolis this weekend and I have to say that I am so proud of him! Factor and I have come so far as a team in the last 2 years and even more in the last 6 months. Each run just keeps getting better and better. Factor did not Qualify or Q in any of the 4 runs that we had this weekend, but he only had minor faults. He was having a hard time picking his feet up and dropped one bar in each run. A dropped bar means that you NQ (don't qualify). We are going to a 4 day show in Milwaukee in two weeks so hopefully we can finish some titles there. Wish us luck!

We had a very busy thanksgiving week here at our house. Joe and Kayak left on Monday with Phil and Kyle to go hunting in Montana. This was Kayak's first pheasant hunting trip and Joe reports that she was a ROCK STAR! Our good friends Jan and Larry went to St. Louis, so their 6 Aussies stayed at our house. A house full of 8 Aussies-what a noisy crew. Factor's girlfriend Maizy was here so that made him VERY happy. Siren's mom and 2 sisters were also here. The puppies had a good time but I am not so sure about their momm Zee.

Joe should be home any minute now and the Polys dogs are happily back at their home so I am going to go and enjoy the quiteness for a few minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving to all-we sure have a lot to be thankful for around here!

Trying this again,,,

So I decided to try and start blogging again. I wasn't very good at keeping my msn page updated, so we will see if I am any better here. Factor and I were out at NEADS this past weekend, and we saw Factor's puppy raisers and I was reminded that there are people out there who want to know what is going on in our lives (his at least)! So we will attempt this once again.

Here is Factor at Boston/Logan airport waiting to get on the plane that is in the background.

I was very nervous to fly with him again, because of the bad experience that we had coming home from NEADS a few years ago. I am happy to say that we had a pleasant experience flying this time and the gate agent actually moved our seat on the way home so that Factor would have more room and be more comfortable.

Back to why we went out there. NEADS is going through so many fun and exciting changes. They have started a new program called Canines for Combat Veterans or CCV. They have already placed 5 dogs with vets wounded in the current war and have more on their waiting list. NEADS continues to plac assistance dogs, hearing dogs, dogs for the classroom and social dogs. The Prison PUP Partnership program has exploded and now there are more pups in prison than full time foster families. The pups continue to go with weekend puppy raisers for socialization outside of the prison.

It makes me wish that we lived closer to NEADS so that I could be more involved, but I will continue doing what I can from here!