Merry Christmas

Robin and Zeeba think it's about time they updated their blog. It's the first day of winter after all. We've already had two snowstorms of 10 and 7 inches but it's almost all melted so we're waiting for more for a white Christmas.

With the summer and fall agility trials Zeeba now has over 500 points toward his MACH but only 5 QQ's. Seems he keeps knocking down bars. AT the Thanksgiving weekend trials he had only one qualifying score. He came out of the jumpers ring on Sunday looking very unhappy and limping badly behind. Mom thought he looked better on Monday and he did a nice job in the Standard course but crashed the first jump in his next class so Mom took him off course. He went to the vet the next day and he had a high lyme positive titre as well as a pulled muscle. So he's had a long rest and after 3 weeks of antibiotics, Mom is letting him take a few low jumps--boy is he rarin to go--too much so. Well, I'll give Zeeba a chance to speak. Love, Robin

Hi from Zeeba! I'm so glad that Mom is letting me play again. What took her so long to realize that I was sick?? I guess I didn't tell since I wanted to keep working. I'm glad that indoor agility school will be starting in a few weeks as we won't be trialling until March since Dad doesn't like to get up early in the winter. Mom says thet the computer has been sick also but it's back from the "hospital" and seems to be working OK. Mom was sick too. She is sensitive to a chemical they put in bread called azodicarbonamide. Took a long time to figure that out but now she reads labels on all baked goods very carefully. Her doctor also is making her take a special kind of Vitamin D. Well that's all for now and we hope every has a happy holiday.

Bad Hair Day at TMAC

Hi, Zeeba here--I had to share this photo that Mr. Rosen took at the TMAC trial cuz it shows that I can really have a "bad hair day". Anyway agility is fun and I especially like to play with the see-saw. Sometimes I do it without even being asked, then wait to see if anyone is handy with a treat. Mom doesn't have much time to help us with bloggin' because she always seems to be mowing grass. If it wouldn't rain so much the grass wouldn't grow so high. anyway, this Spring my big accomplishments were earning a CD in obedience and a MXJ in agility. Our next trial is next weekend then not again until the end of July when we go to Vermont. I'm getting lots of points (almost 300 already) but Mom wishes I would get more QQ's. I only have 3, but then again I'm not even 3 years old yet.

Well I have to go and watch Mom pull weeds out of the garden--really nasty cuz she also gets ticks and poison ivy. I'm glad I don't get poison ivy--ticks are bad enough.

Robin says "Hello" but doesn't have much news to report except that she's been doing lots of swimmin.

Lost Squeakyball

Hi, Robin here: I haven't posted in a while because it's been such a busy winter dealing with all that snow and stuff. We had so much that it filled the patio and even covered up the picnic table. In places in our dog yeard it was as high as the fence. As a result all of our outside toys were lost. When the snow started going away, Zeeba dug holes and found some of the toys byt my favorite (next to Frisbee of course) Mr. Squeakyball never got found. So one day when Mom and Dad took us for a walk and we were outside the dog yard, Mom spotted Mr Squeakyball next to the inside of the fence but behind some bushes where it couldn't be seen from inside the yard. She called me over and showed me and said--"now remember where he is!" So we finished our walk and I had to make a few detours to dig up some voles. When we got home, Mom let us out in the yard and asked me where was Squeakyball. I thought for a minute, then rembered exactly where I had seen him and brought him back. Boy was I happy--and Mom was surprised that I had such a good memory. Well of course, I'm a border collie!!!
Here's a picture of me with Squeakyball.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Excellent Fast Robin

Hi Robin here, Well I always knew I was an excellent dog and a fast dog as well but now it's official. At the Thanksgiving cluster trial I earned my Excellent Fast title. so now I'm Robin, CDX, AX, AXJ, XF. I'm pretty proud of the third place because in a class of 56 dogs--some of them reeeal experienced, only 7 got Q scores. I have to rest up now because it was a long tiring weekend. I didn't manage to Q in any of my other classes and Dad was very disappointed since we'd been working hard but I just get soooo excited that I'd rather herd than jump and I just can't stay on those yellow contact things.

Zeeba did pretty good for a dumb puppy that's already in Excellent B classes. He kept the bars up in 4 out of 6 classes which is great for him since he runs faster than he thinks. He also got a Q in one standard class and in one jumpers class. that makes 4 MX legs and 2 MXJ legs. He was trying out new ways to NQ however, like flying off the see-saw--even tho he landed with his butt on the board and did his down --but it didn't save him. Then he missed a weave entrance--which he never has done before in a trial. Oh--and his steering went out in one jumpers class, but Mom is responsible for some of his errors.

Well that's the last of the trials for this year and it's time for Mom to clean house and do shopping and get ready for the holidays. If I don't get Mom to help me blog again I hope everybody has a great Christmas and other holidays (get lots of new bones and treats).

Summer update

Hi, it's Robin here. It's been a hot summer so we didn't train too much. We discovered that Zeeba is allergic to bee stings so Mom has to watch him real careful. Then when it was time to get ready for a trial, Zeeba came down with Lyme disease--poor guy he was really hurting. The vet gave him some medicine and he felt better real fast but couldn' t practice agility for weeks.

Finally we got to go to an agility trial called Susque-Nango. Zeeba was running real good the first day but being a little rusty knocked down a bar in each class. Then Saturday he aced his jumpers class for a blue ribbon and a new title: AXJ. He was going great guns in Standard but just before the end of the course, he ran so fast that he forgot about that yellow zone on the dog walk. On Sunday, he was a total brat, not focused at all and had all kinds of errors in Standard , then was doing great in jumpers but had trouble running "through the box" with a 270 afterwards so didn't Q. Anyway Mom was happy that he is feeling great and not lame after all that work.

As usual Dad and I had our communications problems but we came just one jump from a Q in most of my classes--but we did get a first place in the Excellent Fast class.

Usually we enjoy camping in the RV when we go to trials but this time was a nightmare. On one side of us were 6 PBGVs abd 2 Aussies who barked CONSTANTLY. On the other side the people invited all their relatives and had a big family reunion. Mom had a 3 Tylenol headache, then at 1 AM some noisy vehicles were driving around the campgrounds and woke us all up. it's no wonder Mom and Zeeba had a bad day on Sunday.

Summer fun

Hi from Robin, Here's some fun things I like to do in the summer. Zeeba still hasn't learned to like to swim.