Happy 9th Birthday Kobie!!!

What a girl!  Always busy….and loves to run and play! These photos were taken in June and she and Jake were hanging out in the yard. After running a bit she settled in the sandbox to watch what was going on down the hill.  Jake decided he wanted to dig in the sandbox and apparently Kobie didn’t like sand in her face so she up and left!

          

 

        

   

Jake and Brita meet Bryan!

Saturday and Sunday was a training weekend with Bryan Cristan from the MN area.  We were at Donna's house and Forrest was learning everything he needed to know about catching a dog AND he held the line for mine also!  This was Brita 2nd experience and Jake's introduction to leg (and other place) bites.  Brita with the high pitched obnoxious bark/scream/whine is the first 5 minutes of the video and Jake with the nice deep bark is the last 5 minutes.

When we got home they had a little fun in the pool and running around the yard!

                         

PSA Trial in St. Anne, IL

Where in the world is St. Anne, IL? I'm STILL not sure!! What a fun weekend!
Click here for details about the trial!



OH! And Brita added another title to her list! TC
(Temperament and Control. It's the obedience portion of PSA 1)
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Brita (not yet 4 years old)
Herding HIC and HT
AKC Rally Excellent (includes Novice and Advanced)
Therapy Dog and Canine Good Citizen
Schutzhund BH, AD, RH1, WH, TR1
Service Dogs of America T1
PSA TC

Brita and decoy Wade Morell

Great bark and hold, huh? There IS none in a PDC but don't tell Brita!!
Reminded me of the time that someone took a great photo of Ari doing a bark and hold....
only thing it was supposed to be a call-off - not a BITE and then bark and hold!!
No WONDER Jay is smiling!

(This photo of Ari was taken several months after I almost lost him during an Addisionian Crisis. He was unconscious and in shock when I took him to the vet. It was his last trial - sort of a "retirement party"! He lived another 2.5 years before leaving on 12/18/09.)

Dog Sports Festival

Re: Dog Sports Festival Sept 3-5 IL Sch, PSA, PP
by Christie M » Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:23 am

The Dog Sports Festival in St. Anne was a really great trial!It was such a great feeling to judge my first trial in the Chicago area where it has always been so important to me to promote PSA.

The following people earned certifications or titles:

PDC-SD
Angie Stark with Dozier
Patrick Ganley with Chino

PDC
Thomas Burlile with Ruby
Angie Stark with Dozier
Harold Cherry with Ezee
Toran Scott with Cicada

PSA 1
Amanda Caldron with Achilles
Cory Dewberry with Ursa

TC
Laurel Stone with Britta

The Trial Placings were: PSA 1 -

3rd: Adron Rice with Bruno
2nd: Cory Dewberry with Ursa
1st: Amanda Caldron with Achilles

High Obedience: Amanda Caldron with Achilles
High Protection: Amanda Caldron with Achilles
High Owner Trained: Amanda Caldron with Achilles
High in Trial: Amanda Caldron with Achilles
High Owner Trained Club: Sweet Corn Kennels


Overall the trial went very smoothly and was a great example of working dog loving folks coming together to showcase their sport and try new things. Many Schutzhund titles were earned on Friday, and I hear the Brawl was a great success.

Wayne and everyone at SweetCorn Kennels deserve a huge pat on the back for bringing it all together. Thanks to Cory for coordinating all of the PSA portion. The decoys were ofcourse FANTASTIC - Wade, Toran, Thomas and Cory. And I will always be appreciative of the thankless job held by the Trial Secretary - Christina. Thanks too to Sami who jumped in to help as well.

As always, it was great seeing old friends and making new ones.

Congratulations to everyone who titled, competed and made this event such a great success.
Christie Meyer
http://www.ThunderHawkCanine.com
http://www.NorthwoodsK9.com
http://www.DutchShepherdRescue.org

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Dog Sports Festival - Sept 3-5 IL Sch, PSA, PP

Friday September 3 Schutzhund Trial

DVG Judge Lisa Little Decoy: Waine Singleton
...Titles Offered- bh, IPO I-III, TR I-III, OB I-III, Protection I-III
** this trial is just about full already so if you plan on trialing please contact me asap to hold a spot.

Saturday September 4 PSA Trial

Hosted by Central Ohio Dog Sports Judge: Christie Meyer
Decoys: Wade Morell, Toran Scott
** That's right! I said PSA Trial in the Chicagoland Area. Sweet Corn is committed to bring this sport avenue to our area

Sunday September 5 K9 Brawl Championship $$$ (Max 25 dogs)

Hardest Hitting Contest $$$ Esquive Contest $$$
Decoys: Wade Morell, Toran Scott, Jason Fox Judges: Ric Wolterbek, Mike Pulford
*** $1000 in Cash Prizes ***

We hope to make this the biggest Dog Sports Event of the year by bringing you 3 different Dog Sports in one weekend. We will also be honoring the top dogs from each Sport. All are invited. More to come on this awesome weekend.

If you are interested in judging / decoying the K9 Brawl email me at sweetcornkennel@yahoo.com
Location: 4902 S Mulberry Ave, St Anne, IL 60964

www.sweetcornkennel.com

Brita Training for the Trial!

Practice, practice, practice.....

 

Doing what she's hardwired for.... these were taken when Brita was not yet 6 months old!

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Brita & Jake lookin' all formal...

New pictures for the Pedigree Database

Brita - 3.5 years old (click here for pedigree)

 

Jake 10 months old (click here for pedigree)

 

Name That Dog!

So what do you think? 

Those who know the sport know that it’s Ari going for the guy in the suit and Jake at 10 months is going for the sleeve. 
Is it just me or are there similarities?

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Added 11/20/10

Again…. Jake on the left… Ari on the right… 
( if they are not next to each other – open your screen wider and they will be  )

    

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Added 12/24/2013

Training today with Steve Beal!

 

There’s a squirrel in my basement!!

OH….MY….GOD…… 

I was taking a load of laundry downstairs before bed and got halfway down and saw it!  Flat on it’s back… dead as dead can be!  Little arms and legs out to the side…  I immediately turned around and came back upstairs.

“OK you guys,”  I said to the dogs..  “whoever brought this squirrel in is going to take it back out.” I shoved Brita and Jake (it was one of them and my money would be on Jake) to the landing at the top of the stairs and shut the door so they could go nowhere but downstairs.  I have another stairway through an unfinished part of the lower level that goes up to the garage and there is a dog door for them to go out to the fenced yard.

Yes, they are spoiled – 3 acres fenced in various sections and maybe an acre of woods in parts of it.  Certainly lots of trees for squirrels but I rarely see any.  Most are smart enough to stay away.  Not many rabbits either.  Someone posed the question – do they eat them or just take them out and bury them.  Well the answer is – it depends.  It depends on what dog it is.  Josephine would catch rabbits and eat them right in front of me or anyone else.  I remember she did that one time when I had her along at work.  She caught it and ran back to her crate to enjoy her catch.  Ari just watched.  He was a puppy then.  Then one time when Ari was a few years old he, with pride, brought me a rabbit freshly caught and not a mark on it and dropped it at my feet.  Before either of us knew what happened, Josephine swooped by, grabbing it as she went and enjoyed the treat without sharing.  And then there is Kobie who will catch, kill and eat any critter that is unfortunate enough to come through the fence.  I call her my hunter.  I’ve always said she could live in the wild but now with her pancreatic insufficiency there would be no one to put enzymes on her catches. Teddy didn’t seem to be interested in any part of critters outside and Olivia…  well do princesses really catch and eat their own food?  I think not.  So now it’s Brita and Jake who love to bury things (see previous post) so my guess is that would bury it.

So back to the current situation…  no go..  they were ignoring it as if it wasn’t there..  I decided to go into avoidance and just go to bed and hope it magically would be gone in the morning.  It wasn’t.  So, I called on the dog that was a sure thing…  Kobie.  As she trotted down the stairs she did a double take when she almost passed by “it”. Then she turned, grabbed it and ran outside.  I never saw the squirrel again and prefer to believe that she buried it….  however…  I’ve never seen Kobie bury anything!

Another friend asked if I took a picture… duh..  never gave it a thought.  I guess I’ll just have to put a picture of Kobie here.  I should have called this post “Kobie to the rescue!”

     

St. Louis PSA Trial – The Motel

It had been 3 years since I was away overnight.  I made the commitment to stick around with Ari since he (1) because of his Addison’s disease wasn’t supposed to be in stressful situations and (2) because of his seizures and brain tumor couldn’t find his way back into the house at night.  As a result Miss Brita had not seen the inside of a motel much less stayed in one.

We arrived in St. Louis after a 9 hour drive filled with construction and traffic and got to the motel.  It was a Motel 6 and. in my experience, any Motel 6 I’ve stayed at had a door from the room straight to the outside so you could park right outside of your room.  This one was different.  It formerly had been a Holiday Inn they told me so to get to the room, we had to come inside the front entrance and go down a hallway.  hhhhmmmm…. 

Recently, I purchased a leash with a coupler but had only worked with the dogs on it once so I thought here is a test.  I was saying a silent prayer as I went in the door with 2 exuberant GSDs who had been crated all day that the people with the 3 little whatever-they-were dogs wouldn’t come out of a room or around a corner and surprise us. I told the people at the desk that if my dogs barked for any reason as we were coming in, that I had them under complete control and would immediately reprimand them but because there were German Shepherds that initially it may be loud. 

I am happy to report that they were extremely well behaved, sat as I asked prior to entering a door and before being petted. I was very proud.  Jake followed Brita’s lead so when I told them to “sit” and she did, he looked at her and did just that.  This was Friday night and all went well in and out.  Saturday I found a back door but there was an elevator ride down a floor to get out.  Jake took it in stride and Brita, well lets just say she wasn’t terribly fond of the feeling that the floor was dropping out from under her, even though as a puppy I introduced her to elevators and Jake I had not.

Saturday after the trial, we came back to the room and I decided to just stay in.  The heat index was 103 and I was happy to not have to go out in it.  As I was sorting through some photos on my computer the two of them started rolling around and playing on the bed and it was then that I took these pictures.  I had recently gotten a pocket camera and was testing it out and it also had a video recorder so I used that also.  The video below is 6 minutes of them playing and as I’m watching it after I’m done I’m thinking…  yet another video that only a MOM would watch through to the end!!  All in all…  they made me proud!!

St. Louis PSA Trial – the event

St. Louis PSA trial in July 2010 was the closest trial to me so far this season - a mere 8 hour drive that took 9 hours with construction and traffic. The photos that I took are of the 1's and 2's and what other people took of us.  Brita made me proud during the obedience and the protection went as I expected. She passed the car jacking but came off the bite in the handler attack. I wanted us to have some trial experience together and because there were some huge blips in training and no PSA decoys within a several hour drive, the result was only a handful of suit training opportunities over the last year. I now know what we have to work on and for us it's the journey not the destination! It's actually nice to have a dog that isn't thinking about biting during obedience! :)

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St. Louis PSA trial – travel and training…

The trip to St. Louis was long and delayed with lots of construction and traffic.  We did stop at a few rest stops and took some pictures. When we arrived, after checking in at the hotel, I went to the trial field for the open practice and worked Brita who did fine on the decoy (Thomas Burlile).  After that we headed back to the motel enjoying a beautiful sunset! 
(We = me and the dogs!)