Way to go Prime

Congrats to Darbi's baby daddy Prime on his Open 4th at the Bluebonnet trial in Texas this week-end!

Entered

She's in.

Darbi is entered in the Open at the Rockwell trial in Texas the first week-end of April.  Wish her luck.  Kenny is running her.

Miikka is "almost" there....close, but not yet.

One day...

One day...we'll both be big.

Little Harper checking out her future adversaries.

Home Again

I'm home...and bummed.

I will miss the great weather, the great dog training and my two favorite girls.

I'm going back to spend 2 weeks in Colorado with Kenny in May and will bring the girls home then.

"Prime" made it down to Texas before I left and it was great to see him.

Darbi, as seen here, was not as thrilled.

Prime: "I'm so cute, look at me...don't you just LOVE me?"

Darbi: "Get away from me, you never even bought me flowers"

So, after a bunch of pictures of Darbi putting on the "she beats me look", I got tired of it and just started taking pictures of Prime.  Like Miikka, he really hams it up for the camera.

We did a triple water blind with each of the dogs yesterday.  It was the first chilly day of my trip and I actually had to wear a coat.

Miikka and Darbi looked really good on their blinds and I think Miikka has really stepped up in her blind work.  Other than a couple slipped whistles at the end of one of the three blinds, Miikka rocked it!  Darbi needed a few whistles to get out on one point, so she is still out of balance, but not near as bad as in January.

I am so pleased with how they are progressing.

HOT Today

I forgot to mention that the Purina Hi-Point Dog dinner was held Friday night during the PRTA trial and I went.  It was great fun and I had a hoot rubbing shoulders with the icons on the game.  Purina had a table FULL of goodies and I got to pick two as being the "Youngest Person at the Table" and "The person who travelled the farthest".  I picked out two nice pieces of woman's clothing from Cabela's with a Purina logo on it.

Here is another pic of the great FC AFC Tangata Manu.  He was 3rd in the Amateur at the PRTA trial.  CONGRATS!!  What a cool old man.

FC AFC Catalina's Miss Monica catching Kathy's hat in the air after the test.  She got a JAM in the Open this past week-end...congrats to "Scandal".

A pic of one of the set-ups today.  You cannot see the long gun here, but it is WAY out.  We shot the long retired and then the short retired...picked up the short retired, then shot and retrieved the flyer and sent for the long retired after that.

PS-You can see all three guns if you click on the picture to enlarge it.

I thought my girls needed a credit card for an overnight stay to get the long bird, and as expected, both girls needed help.

After running tests, we stake out the wet dogs to dry off.  They are very well behaved and just sit and watch the other dogs run.

Last, but not least...the Peanut.  Kenny ran her and although she looked like a piece of crap in training today, she sure had fun doing her job.

PRTA Trial

I went to the PRTA trial this week-end and had a great time.  It was unreal at how big the trial was, and it was great to see some of the best dogs in the country.  I saw pretty much every test at every stake, and enjoyed the dog work.

I didn't take many pictures as it was hard to do.

Here is Kenny and Gunner running the Qual.

And Kenny and Pic in the Derby.

Horsetooth Retriever Kennel ended up with an Open 2nd and 3 JAMs, Amateur 3rd, Qual 2nd and 2 Derby JAMs.  A great week-end considering the huge entries.

Can't forget the peanut

Here's a pic of a semi-clean Miikka.  Don't want to make her feel bad that I'm leaving her off the blog.  She's sitting in the shade...waiting her turn.

Texas Day Two

It was HOT today.  I burned several body parts (my neck mostly), but it was worth it.

The PRTA trial starts tomorrow and even though I'm not entered (I'm a chicken and the girls aren't quite ready to run a 126 dog Open and 95 dog Amateur), I will be there to watch some of the best dogs in the country.  Can't wait.

This is my favorite picture from today.  Although I wish I had the dog centered more...it is a neat action shot.  This is "Arson" (Catalina's Controlled Burn, I think), owned by Brad and Diane Clow.

Kenny ran Darbi today-lining up for the memory bird.

Here is Kathy Berdan and FC AFC Mizpah Miz, she WON the Amateur last week-end.

And Martha McCool and Maple Ridge Sooner Boomer-who were 4th in the Amateur last week-end!!  Way to go!

A pic of 2 of the 4 marks on this test.  Look for the long gun way off in the distance below the buildings.  This picture does not give justice to how far away it was.  Both my girls broke down early and hunted short...showing they don't have enough experience with marks of this sort.  They'll see lots more in the weeks to come.

The shorter mark on the left is a bird thrown onto the island...the dogs were having a very hard time with this.  Miikka worked it out nicely after some hunting on the near and far shore...Darbi ran all over the countryside, but she was certainly not alone.

Sorry Miikka, still no pics of you.

I ran her today and it is kind of hard to run a dog while taking pictures.  I promise she'll get her mug on here next week.

Texas Day One

Beautiful day here.  Got a sunburn already.

A friend from work lent me a very nice camera, so I'll be taking tons of pictures.

Here is me running Topbrass Repete Pawsibility.  I really like Pete and he is a neat dog.

A picture of Tartan Prime Pizazz.  He is a son of FC AFC Tartan Prime Time (Prime), the sire of Darbi's 2008 litter.  Zazzy is a fun dog to be around.

FC AFC Perpetual Dizzy Daisy (Prime's sister) on the line.  She is hilarious, and really loves her job.

A very happy Darbi.  She looks great and seems very content here.  She is learning lots and I've already seen a difference in her work in just a month with Kenny.

I didn't take any pics of Miikka, as the first thing she did when she got out of her kennel was roll in the dirt.  She is doing well also. She is really starting to clue in on the fine art of running blinds, instead of just running full out to random places.  She is also learning that stopping is not optional and casts are not suggestions.

Of course, both girls are staying with me in the hotel while I'm here.  It's so nice to be able to scratch their bums again.

More tomorrow...

New QAA!!!

CONGRATS to Adey (Elmingo's Chasing A Whim owned and handled by Roger Fangsrud) for finishing 2nd in a Qualifying in Oregon this past week-end!!

This makes Adey Qualified All-Age, the second pup from this litter to do so!  These are the only two pups in trial homes, so I am thrilled with the results.

Adey is from the Tiger x Darbi litter of 2006.

Due to a last minute buyer back out, I kept Adey until she was 4 months old and sold her to a great guy, Andrew.  Andrew sent Adey to Colin McNicol for Basics training, and due to unfortunate life circumstances, Andrew could no longer keep Adey and gave her back to me to sell her to a great home.

I kept Adey for a couple months and sold her to Roger and Donna, indeed a fantastic home!  She is a very active pheasant dog when she is not trialing.

Here is a pic of Adey and I when she was a little gaffer.

Hope you like my hat, I think it's sexy.

Here is a pic of Adey at the Rocky Mountain Sporting Dog Club trial, where her and I won the Junior (Derby) together just before I sold her.

Standing on her head

When I talk about Darbi standing on her head...this is what I mean.

This is an old picture, but the only one I have of Darbs doing this.

I'm off to Texas on Tuesday morning.

Can't wait to see the girls.  Updates when I get down there!!