Groovy herding with Terri Carver of Maximum Aussies (Spice's breeder)
Groovy calmly watching another dog work
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Pooooor Groovy
This weekend in Texas Groovy got to do a lot of herding and unfortunately that has resulted in a torn pad. Well really it has resulted in a torn off pad. An area about the size of a nickel and couple millimeters thick is missing from the main pad of her front left paw. Poor thing - she can't walk without limping and worse yet for her - she's on crate rest! Hope it heals quickly. :( Here is a pic of her from herding this weekend. It was fun for a while!
We have a name!!
Introducing Spice! (Registered name still in the works) And no that wasn't on the list of names and no it isn't a name I love but Jack likes it and we are going to have fun with it. Sometimes she'll be Frisbee Spice and then other times Spicy and then other times Super Spice... it'll be a fun name so I'm cool with it.
She's beautiful, drivey and focused! Can't wait to learn more about this girl.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Names...
It's fun to think of puppy/dog names but can get tiring too. Of course if I wouldn't obsess about it before I meet her it'd probably be better but that's the problem - dog names is something I think about sometimes even when I'm not getting a dog! LOL Last night I wrote down all the ones I liked and then had Jack tell me which ones he definitely did not like. That left us with 12 or so. Here's the list in no particular order... and some pros/cons/extra info about each.
Cricket - I LOVE the name - Jack just likes it. A con is that Groovy has a littermate named Cricket but that doesn't really bother me. Another Con is that is sort of sounds like Mickie - I'd think she'd get used to it though since it isn't Crickie but Cricket. Registered name would be something related to Jiminy Cricket I think. "Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide" or something.
Penny - Jack and I both like this name - neither of us love it. It's not unique or super cool or anything but we still like it. Registered name would be something to do with "Lucky Penny", "Find a Penny", etc.
Chili - Jack really likes this name - I'm OK with this name. Don't have any ideas on registered names and such. The name was inspired by the fact that she's from Texas.
Gidget - we both like this name. Registered name would be Little Surfer Girl or something like that and as such ties into our island thing Jack and I have going on.
Ting - we both like this one too and it's actually been on the list since Jam's list. Ting is a pineapple soda we drink when we are in the islands. Also folks down there say "thing" as "ting" so to say everything is great is everyting is great.
Jelly - goes with Jam! :)
Bunny - is just darn cute.
Grits - "Girl Raised In The South" cause she was...
Love Bug or June Bug - cause they are cute to say
Dandy - from the movie Tombstone "You're a dandy if you do". It means a fine or good thing.
As you can see by the length of explanation some of these have had more thought put into them than others... but they are all on the approved list. I also LOVE the name Friday but Jack doesn't care for it. I think my next dog that's mine alone will be Friday - even if she isn't born on a Friday (Fern was born on a Friday and we are meeting her on a Friday).
We'll see... we have to meet her to know for sure but we certainly have plenty to go on! :o)
I leave you with a pic of "Fern" taken while at school with Terri the other day. She comes with an off switch too!
Cricket - I LOVE the name - Jack just likes it. A con is that Groovy has a littermate named Cricket but that doesn't really bother me. Another Con is that is sort of sounds like Mickie - I'd think she'd get used to it though since it isn't Crickie but Cricket. Registered name would be something related to Jiminy Cricket I think. "Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide" or something.
Penny - Jack and I both like this name - neither of us love it. It's not unique or super cool or anything but we still like it. Registered name would be something to do with "Lucky Penny", "Find a Penny", etc.
Chili - Jack really likes this name - I'm OK with this name. Don't have any ideas on registered names and such. The name was inspired by the fact that she's from Texas.
Gidget - we both like this name. Registered name would be Little Surfer Girl or something like that and as such ties into our island thing Jack and I have going on.
Ting - we both like this one too and it's actually been on the list since Jam's list. Ting is a pineapple soda we drink when we are in the islands. Also folks down there say "thing" as "ting" so to say everything is great is everyting is great.
Jelly - goes with Jam! :)
Bunny - is just darn cute.
Grits - "Girl Raised In The South" cause she was...
Love Bug or June Bug - cause they are cute to say
Dandy - from the movie Tombstone "You're a dandy if you do". It means a fine or good thing.
As you can see by the length of explanation some of these have had more thought put into them than others... but they are all on the approved list. I also LOVE the name Friday but Jack doesn't care for it. I think my next dog that's mine alone will be Friday - even if she isn't born on a Friday (Fern was born on a Friday and we are meeting her on a Friday).
We'll see... we have to meet her to know for sure but we certainly have plenty to go on! :o)
I leave you with a pic of "Fern" taken while at school with Terri the other day. She comes with an off switch too!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Getting excited for our Texas trip!
Two days from now we leave for Texas! Of course I'm excited to go meet our new dog (new name still undetermined) but I'm also excited for all the fun that is planned the short time we are there!
It'll be a whirlwind of a trip leaving here Thursday after Thanksgiving lunch and returning Sunday afternoon. We hope to get to Baton Rouge on Thursday night and then arrive in Brenham, TX by 2 or 3pm the next day. At that point we'll get to meet some online friends Kim Dostie and her husband. We've emailed back and forth a few times over the years but have never met in person. And Jack will get to meet Terri as well. Terri I had met a few years back. We plan to play with dogs that afternoon doing both herding and disc dog stuff. Groovy is coming along and will get to work the sheep. She hasn't seen any since early October and it's supposed to be 50 something degrees so it could be a rather insane event! :) We'll finish off the evening with dinner out.
Saturday morning we get to do more herding and then we'll take off around 1pm heading back home. We might get to see our disc dog friend Brian Muck at some point as he is going to try and come out (he already herds at Terri's on a regular basis). And apparently at various points throughout our short time there we will get to meet a variety of other folks who love Fern (our new dog's current name) and want to meet her new family! Apparently she comes with a pre-installed fan club! LOL No pressure there!
It should be fun and I can't wait!
It'll be a whirlwind of a trip leaving here Thursday after Thanksgiving lunch and returning Sunday afternoon. We hope to get to Baton Rouge on Thursday night and then arrive in Brenham, TX by 2 or 3pm the next day. At that point we'll get to meet some online friends Kim Dostie and her husband. We've emailed back and forth a few times over the years but have never met in person. And Jack will get to meet Terri as well. Terri I had met a few years back. We plan to play with dogs that afternoon doing both herding and disc dog stuff. Groovy is coming along and will get to work the sheep. She hasn't seen any since early October and it's supposed to be 50 something degrees so it could be a rather insane event! :) We'll finish off the evening with dinner out.
Saturday morning we get to do more herding and then we'll take off around 1pm heading back home. We might get to see our disc dog friend Brian Muck at some point as he is going to try and come out (he already herds at Terri's on a regular basis). And apparently at various points throughout our short time there we will get to meet a variety of other folks who love Fern (our new dog's current name) and want to meet her new family! Apparently she comes with a pre-installed fan club! LOL No pressure there!
It should be fun and I can't wait!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Canis Major #5 - Tali, Groovy, Jam and Ruckus all rock!
This past Saturday was the final disc dog event of 2010 for us - Canis Major #5. We had a great time as always and the Fahle's cleaned up quite nicely in terms of success!
Tali and I... our freestyle was not as nice as last week but it wasn't too bad. I changed some stuff around and didn't get it nailed down in my head so we kinda ended up making up crap as we went. I also have failed to successfully pull off the "KatBat"/"Katamaran" at a Canis Major - kinda bummed but we'll keep practicing - I can nail it in practice 80% of the time or so - just can't when I'm a little pumped and nervous! (The KatBat is the behind my back throw followed by a backhand brush with the other disc). I also STUNK up D&A - have no idea why but oh well. We finished 2nd. Sadly (sort of) this means I have won the Open Division for the season. I say sadly because I only competed 3 times so really winning shouldn't have been an option but that's how it goes in that division. The good news is my winning kept our director's 4 year old daughter from winning. Why is that a good thing? Cause whoever wins has to move up to the higher division in September. I don't think it's cool to make a 4 year compete against the likes of Gary, Jack, Andrea, Jason, etc. Of course me competing against them won't be much different but at least I am full grown and an adult! :)
Tali and Jack needed to place well to win the Supersport (D&A) division and they did just that even with a less than stellar showing! The less than stellar part was Jack - he wasn't throwing as long and threw some out of bounds - Tali caught every single disc though. And to that point when I was doing so horribly and threw one into the scoring tent she actually went in and got it - that is HUGE for her!
Old man Ruckus had some nice D&A in him the other night and placed 4th in Supersport with Jack! Old red dogs rule!
Jam... Jam caught 3 whole frisbees in D&A the other night. That's a record high for her! She also wowed the crowd with her high flying leaps! Maybe with another 6 months of bite work practice under her belt she'll catch 5 or 6 in one competition! LOL Luckily what she lacks in drive she makes up for in cuteness and temperament!
Groovy - Groovy got another chance to "compete" again this week. Again - she and Jack aren't competing against anyone but are going out there and jamming and getting a score. She was much better focused this week AND she played D&A and she played it very well! Jack kept her close - nothing out of the 1 point zone - but she caught all 4 tosses and they did a lot of tugging at the line for reinforcement. She looked awesome and that was with a leash attached! Here is their video... and again I'm supposed to say "this is not a real routine - it is not a finished product, etc.". He's so sensitive about that (and hence her videos aren't posted on Facebook). There is definitely hope for her being a real competition dog some day. Problem is we'll have to "start all over" this spring since our competitions aren't usually at this same park then. But we are really working to increase her disc drive even more so that the game overrides the environment. Keep your fingers crossed with us that it works!
Tali and I... our freestyle was not as nice as last week but it wasn't too bad. I changed some stuff around and didn't get it nailed down in my head so we kinda ended up making up crap as we went. I also have failed to successfully pull off the "KatBat"/"Katamaran" at a Canis Major - kinda bummed but we'll keep practicing - I can nail it in practice 80% of the time or so - just can't when I'm a little pumped and nervous! (The KatBat is the behind my back throw followed by a backhand brush with the other disc). I also STUNK up D&A - have no idea why but oh well. We finished 2nd. Sadly (sort of) this means I have won the Open Division for the season. I say sadly because I only competed 3 times so really winning shouldn't have been an option but that's how it goes in that division. The good news is my winning kept our director's 4 year old daughter from winning. Why is that a good thing? Cause whoever wins has to move up to the higher division in September. I don't think it's cool to make a 4 year compete against the likes of Gary, Jack, Andrea, Jason, etc. Of course me competing against them won't be much different but at least I am full grown and an adult! :)
Tali and Jack needed to place well to win the Supersport (D&A) division and they did just that even with a less than stellar showing! The less than stellar part was Jack - he wasn't throwing as long and threw some out of bounds - Tali caught every single disc though. And to that point when I was doing so horribly and threw one into the scoring tent she actually went in and got it - that is HUGE for her!
Old man Ruckus had some nice D&A in him the other night and placed 4th in Supersport with Jack! Old red dogs rule!
Jam... Jam caught 3 whole frisbees in D&A the other night. That's a record high for her! She also wowed the crowd with her high flying leaps! Maybe with another 6 months of bite work practice under her belt she'll catch 5 or 6 in one competition! LOL Luckily what she lacks in drive she makes up for in cuteness and temperament!
Groovy - Groovy got another chance to "compete" again this week. Again - she and Jack aren't competing against anyone but are going out there and jamming and getting a score. She was much better focused this week AND she played D&A and she played it very well! Jack kept her close - nothing out of the 1 point zone - but she caught all 4 tosses and they did a lot of tugging at the line for reinforcement. She looked awesome and that was with a leash attached! Here is their video... and again I'm supposed to say "this is not a real routine - it is not a finished product, etc.". He's so sensitive about that (and hence her videos aren't posted on Facebook). There is definitely hope for her being a real competition dog some day. Problem is we'll have to "start all over" this spring since our competitions aren't usually at this same park then. But we are really working to increase her disc drive even more so that the game overrides the environment. Keep your fingers crossed with us that it works!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Groovy's freestyle debut! (and Tali rocks too!)
Jack hasn't been competing in Freestyle this Canis Major season because he's been judging. That's OK when it comes to Tali because that let's me do freestyle with her but the drawback we didn't consider that meant he wouldn't be able to play with Jam, or do his once a year routine with Mickie or debut with Groovy. Shoulda thought that out a little better! Well we talked with the club folks and they said it'd be cool for Jack to "compete" in the lower division. He'd earn a score but wouldn't be up against anyone in terms of placements or points. That worked for us!
So.... this past week we signed Groovy up. We hoped she'd get out of the car (sometimes she finds competitions too scary for that) - and she did! We hoped she'd be willing to play on the field (we'd been playing with her on the field after the competition) - and she did! We hoped she'd stay focused and not worry about the crowd or judges and she mostly did! Here is her video though I must - for Jack's sake - tell you that this isn't a real routine... they don't have a routine - just a few segments - thus this is in no way a finished product! We also felt the music was pretty appropriate for Groovy! LOL
As for Tali and I... we came in first again (I was only competing against 2 other people!)! :) I even wrote down a routine and remembered 3/4's of it! Woo hoo! Here it is...
So.... this past week we signed Groovy up. We hoped she'd get out of the car (sometimes she finds competitions too scary for that) - and she did! We hoped she'd be willing to play on the field (we'd been playing with her on the field after the competition) - and she did! We hoped she'd stay focused and not worry about the crowd or judges and she mostly did! Here is her video though I must - for Jack's sake - tell you that this isn't a real routine... they don't have a routine - just a few segments - thus this is in no way a finished product! We also felt the music was pretty appropriate for Groovy! LOL
As for Tali and I... we came in first again (I was only competing against 2 other people!)! :) I even wrote down a routine and remembered 3/4's of it! Woo hoo! Here it is...
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
New and exciting events coming up!
This weekend we took Flash with us to the disc dog competition. He LOVED everyone. Couldn't get him to acknowledge that a frisbee existed but he loved everyone and he played with a rabbit fur tug for a short time. So... Flash is definitely just a foster and is looking for a permanent home. Several of the folks who met him this weekend concurred... he'll possibly play disc one day but it'd take some work and there is no guarantee. Should be easy to find him a home though... he's just about perfect other than his continued lack of interest in the disc. We got him to pounce on it some and bring it back to us but he won't tug on it much and has zero interest in it outside of our garage training room. However hand him a green tiny stuffed bear and he'll entertain himself in the backyard for 10 minutes with it! :) He's so cute! Jack and I both agree though... if we are going to get a 6th dog it's got to have disc drive right off the bat and the mental stability to handle competing. Flash had one - not the other.
Well... enter the new and exciting thing. A friend of mine saw me with Flash this weekend and realized I might be open to adding a 6th dog to the family. She told me about one she knew was potentially going to be available because of not growing big enough for the breeder's needs. This breeder herds with her dogs over acres and acres of land. Said dog is only 16" at 6 months and isn't likely to make it to the needed height to cover the ground she'll need to. (This in an of itself is an interesting statement on aussie size but I don't have time enough to blog about that). Anyway... I didn't think much about it that night but decided to run the news past Jack the next day. He was quite interested. Additionally there was some chatter about this dog on Facebook later that day so I shared the chatter with Jack and he asked me to email the breeder for the story and I did.
Long story short... there will be a new dog in the house soon!
More info to come but the basics are:
- 6 months old
- 16" and 20#'s
- red merle
- already catching short tosses
- tugs like a demon on the disc
- awesome temperament (currently spends her days entertaining special needs kids at a school)
- related to a slew of dogs that rock at frisbee including our very own Ruckus AND Groovy!
We are very excited! She'll be arriving Thanksgiving weekend! Gobble Gobble!
Well... enter the new and exciting thing. A friend of mine saw me with Flash this weekend and realized I might be open to adding a 6th dog to the family. She told me about one she knew was potentially going to be available because of not growing big enough for the breeder's needs. This breeder herds with her dogs over acres and acres of land. Said dog is only 16" at 6 months and isn't likely to make it to the needed height to cover the ground she'll need to. (This in an of itself is an interesting statement on aussie size but I don't have time enough to blog about that). Anyway... I didn't think much about it that night but decided to run the news past Jack the next day. He was quite interested. Additionally there was some chatter about this dog on Facebook later that day so I shared the chatter with Jack and he asked me to email the breeder for the story and I did.
Long story short... there will be a new dog in the house soon!
More info to come but the basics are:
- 6 months old
- 16" and 20#'s
- red merle
- already catching short tosses
- tugs like a demon on the disc
- awesome temperament (currently spends her days entertaining special needs kids at a school)
- related to a slew of dogs that rock at frisbee including our very own Ruckus AND Groovy!
We are very excited! She'll be arriving Thanksgiving weekend! Gobble Gobble!
Tomorrow's blog post will be about Groovy's freestyle debut and mine and Tali's 1st place finish in novice freestyle on our 2nd time competing! :) It's been a good week so far!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Introducing...
Press play before scrolling to get the full effect of this post! :)
Flash - our foster dog!
The solid colored girls (including Mickie) LOVE him! The merled girl and the red boy... not so much!
He came with the name Flash... and since he arrived I can't get this song out of my head when I say his name!
More info to come as we continue to evaluate this little man.
Basic Flash Stats:
10 months old
28 pounds
18-18.5" tall
Great temperament
Likes to play fetch with soft toys but isn't crazy about the disc yet
Fahle Dog Training Center is now open
I'm sure we'll come up with a better name for it... but for now FDTC will have to do. Of course it's only open for us... well other folks can use it - but it's purpose is mainly for us to have a place to train our dogs when 1) it's too dark 2) it's too cold 3) it's too rainy and/or 4) when we want to work something in a contained non distracting area (and that something might be a someone - like Jam!).
What is the FDTC? It's our garage with foam matting covered by turf. I'll post some pics in case whoever it is that reads this blog didn't see them on Facebook. We've worked in the garage, I mean FDTC every night this week. Jam is a frizBEAST in there. It's awesome. Groovy is too but Groovy is a frizbeast in the yard too. All the dogs love it in there. Well... Tali isn't quite sure why we play in there... but she's getting the idea. It's been great. We are hoping we can build Jam's drive in that environment and have it transfer outside come spring! We shall see if the little princess plays along with that plan!
What is the FDTC? It's our garage with foam matting covered by turf. I'll post some pics in case whoever it is that reads this blog didn't see them on Facebook. We've worked in the garage, I mean FDTC every night this week. Jam is a frizBEAST in there. It's awesome. Groovy is too but Groovy is a frizbeast in the yard too. All the dogs love it in there. Well... Tali isn't quite sure why we play in there... but she's getting the idea. It's been great. We are hoping we can build Jam's drive in that environment and have it transfer outside come spring! We shall see if the little princess plays along with that plan!
Rolling out the carpet
The finished product
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