Sleeping dogs lie

Miikka is not the only one that Libby spoons with.

Her new favorite sleeping spot...

Libby's sisters

Fanny (pink) is doing wonderful and seems to have the stick killing down to a science.

And Teah (yellow) is already showing her talents in the field.

Airing in Kansas

One the way home from the Jayhawk trial I stopped at a great place for the dogs to get out and play.

Libby was at her finest due to being kennelled so much over the week-end.

Miikka was kind enough to teach her daughter in the ways of stick killing.

It seems the lessons were working.

What a clown.  All legs and attitude.

The part of the day I look forward to...her spooning with her momma.

Totally bummed

I'm back in Colorado and totally bummed.

You see, I dropped my new Macbook Pro a couple weeks ago and broke the screen.  No big deal.  I took it to the Apple store in Houston and had it shipped off to the Apple hospital.  I arrived in Colorado to find it waiting for me.  Well, it seems the folks at the Apple hospital decided to re-load the Operating System!!
I have lost everything from when I got my new computer to now.  ALL the pictures of Miikka's litter, etc. etc.
I still have my old Macbook, that has pictures and data on it from before this year, but I'm still really bummed.
Thank goodness for this blog, as I post a lot of my favorite pictures on here.

On a dog note...congrats to Turq, who finished his FIRST Derby with a JAM this week-end in Kansas.  What was so fun about it was that Turq's new owner ran him, and they only met one another for the first time a few days prior to the trial.

Jayhawk Trial

I'm in Kansas and am running the Jayhawk trial.  Beautiful grounds and great people.

I ran Darbi and Miikka in the Open and am proud of them both.

Darbi did a very well on the first test, a triple with two retired guns.  38 dogs (of 70+ starters) were called back to the second series.  

The second series was a double land blind.  Darbs did the first blind in 3 whistles and had great momentum and she was trying hard.  She had a GREAT initial line on the second blind, and was again trying hard.  I blew a whistle to get her through some cover when it probably wasn't necessary as she was right on line.  I then had to blow another whistle and it turned out I was too late with that one, and I lost her around the cover.  She re-appeared, but was off line 10-15 yards.  I used one more whistle to put her on the bird.  I thought it may play, but alas, it was not enough.

Miikka had great marks on the flyer and the short retired and hunted on the long retired.  Long hunts didn't play this week-end and she was dropped.

A little photo story of Miikka in the first series.

Sitting very nicely watching the long retired get thrown.

And NOT sitting at all by the time the flyer was thrown.  She never moves her feet, but she crouches like a track star.  It made me laugh.

Peanut loves her flyers.

Fingers crossed for Turq right now.  He's in the last series of his FIRST Derby tomorrow and has run a pretty nice trial so far.

Libby loves ducks

Libby loves her birds.

Last Week

It's our last week in Texas.  We are heading back to Colorado and running a trial in Kansas this week-end on the way.

Barb running Prime in training today.

And Matti running the same test.  Matti is Libby's older sister (Shaq x Miikka 2007).

Miss Libby herself.  Seems she found some dirt to snout around in.

And finally FC AFC Catalina's Pardon Me, "Pard", coming home with a bird.

Fun Day Training

Sorry I've been away from my blog.  I went on a get-away to Las Vegas this past week and had a GREAT time.  Saw some shows...lost some money...you know how it goes.

The Bluebonnets are in full bloom!  This is the view from the kennel at Vinwood Retrievers, where the dogs stay while in Texas.

And this is one of our set-ups today.  Long flier go-bird and come back and pick up the short retired.  I'm not standing exactly on line for this pic, and had to zoom in so the two guns could be seen in the picture.

I'm getting to be a pretty decent flier shooter myself and will go out and shoot birds alone most times now.  I never thought I could get good at it...but practice makes perfect.

FC AFC Tangata Manu watches us train dogs for awhile.  He is retired now, but was sure a great dog in his day...and still is.

Libby decided she needed to sit under my chair and play peek-a-boo.

And then make faces at me...

She is sure doing well.  She lives to retrieve and hits the water hard on her baby water marks.  She is even getting marks on land across channels of water and re-enters the water right away after she picks up the bumper!
When she gets walking singles, she will run back to me, spit the bumper out and whip around to look for the next one. It is very cute, just like her.

Table top

Fanny (right, Shaq x Miikka 2009) hanging with her big sisters.

Meg in Alabama

Meg's owner sent me a couple new pictures today.  I'm blown away by how much she looks like her mother.  Meg is a littermate to Turq (see a couple posts below) and is from the 2008 Prime x Darbi litter.

Meg is training in Alabama and getting ready to run Derbies.

Fanny get your gun.

Not to be outdone by her brother Zink, Fanny is shown enjoying her birds too.

Flowers are bloomin'

Miss Libby is now swimming!  I believe in letting the pup decide when they want to swim and yesterday Libby decided that it was time.  The fact that it is HOT here (28 C) probably was a contributing factor.  She even went in on her own and paddled around for a little while.

She doesn't splash and swims like an otter.  She is too cute.  

I got a neat family picture today.

From Left to Right:  Turq, Darbi and Prime.

Turq is a son of Prime and Darbi.

A Horsetooth Team member WON the Amateur at the Lone Star trial this past week-end.  This is Ollie.  He is a very cool dog.  Congrats to him and his owner/handler Grady.

As you can see, the flowers are sprouting in Texas.  They are everywhere and they are beautiful.

Lonestar Trial

The Horsetooth Team went and ran the Lonestar Trial east of Dallas this past week-end.

The Open was HUGE. Flier at 150 yards, left hand retired at 350 and the long retired at 450 yards. 99 dogs ran this test and only 20 could come up with the birds. I had 2 of the 79 dogs that did not.

Miikka tried her guts out. She has been tense in training, as I mentioned and her hunt patterns had been stiff and she just wasn't relaxing. After pinning the flier, I sent her for the "short" retired and she hunted...and hunted...and hunted. Very relaxed, tail up and working her butt off. She came up with the bird, and I was so darned proud of her effort. I sent her for the long retired and she just didn't punch far enough and ended up hunting in no man's land. I was sure happy with her effort.

Darbi pinned the flier and SMACKED the short retired. She then took a bad line to the long retired that looked like there was no recovery from, so she was handled to the long bird. Again, I was so proud of her effort.

All I ask is that my girls try and try they did.

Darbs and I ran as test dog on the land blind and she gave a great effort again. Good momentum and she took every cast. She looked happy running it.

Next trial is in a few weeks in Kansas.

Turq Marking

I ran Darbi's son Turq (Prime x Darbi 2008) on a marking set-up yesterday. We did two doubles. Man, is he nice.
Turq is presently done his yard work and has started working on cheating singles in the water. He water attitude is remarkable.
I attach the link to youtube. I thought it would be better to see the video in a bigger screen than the blog allows.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siejTjsfS7A

or click on the title "Turq Marking" to take you to the video.

Zink

Elmingo's Little Man "Zink"
The little guy I know as "Red Collar".
Her sure looks like he likes his birds.

Zink now lives in Utah.

Morning Snooze

Mother and daughter enjoying a morning nap.

Training Update

Just an update on how the girls are doing.

Darbi:
Darbs has been in Texas with Kenny since January. She has been training like a bear and is looking really good. Great momentum, good attitude and she is generally doing all that we're asking of her. Kenny says she has been consistently one of the best dogs on his truck so far this year and she is ready to win an Open. She has learned to do the HUGE marks that we see more of in the US than Canada and she is doing great on her land and water blinds.
Biggest issue we are working on with her is that sometimes she can be lazy and not put in a 100% effort. I struggled with this training her for years, but since Kenny gave me the tools to combat any lack of effort, she puts in way more good days than bad now.

Miikka:
Initially shocked coming back to full time training after raising a litter and sitting on my couch for so many months, Miikka is coming along nicely. She is starting to mark like we know she can and her blinds are coming along. Miikka has always been a bit of a head swinger, so we are doing lots of singles with her to prevent this, as well as hone her marking. Her water blinds, one of her strengths, are almost back to where they were last fall. She'll be ready to run the next trial we are entering (two weeks).
Biggest issue we are working on with Miikka is still her whistle stops. She slips whistles when stressed OR if she's too loose. It's a fine line with her. We are also working on getting her relaxed as a whole, she's a bit tense coming back to training. She's as birdy as they come, but she also worries if she's always doing the right thing.

Libby:
Now that her plate and pins are out, we need to keep her exercise restricted for another week or so. She is the cutest thing ever, and she is DYING to retrieve, but it's not time yet. She is mostly housebroken and is learning manners in the house. She sits on command, comes very well. She has no limp and does not favour her leg whatsoever.
Biggest issue with her...trying to keep her from overdoing it on her little leg. One more week and then we can stop worrying (as much).

Fun in the sun

Had some fun with the girls after training today.

Darbi (l), Miikka (r) and my friend Lois' dog Indy watching the throw into the pond.
Apparently Indy is the only dog that knows what "sit" means.



Darbi looking a little crazy-eyed while making a retrieve.




I also took some nice profile pics of the girls.

Libby enjoying some time in the grass sans metal devices or bandages.



Miikka



Darbs

No More Metal!

Libby and I went back to Texas A&M today for an assessment and x-ray by the ortho team and a re-bandage.

I was stunned when they brought her back out two hours later with no plate and pins!

The ortho vets showed me her x-rays and said that her bone has healed! He said puppies this young are "bone-growing machines".

Libby is wearing this fancy dressing for 2 days and then it can come off completely. It is there to prevent infections while her pin holes heal and scab over.

I was instructed to keep Libby restricted in her activity for the next week or so, and then she can be a full-blown puppy again!!
I can't wait!!

I must say, she has been amazing through all of this. She never messed with her bandages, she was patient with dressing changes and she tried to charge around on her leg like nothing was wrong.

The staff at A&M are also amazing! Libby had incredible care there. The first year ortho resident came in today on her day off when she heard Libby was booked in. Big thanks to them.

Flip Your Lid?

So, Libby's name is final.

Elmingo's Flip Your Lid

How did I come up with such an odd name you ask?

Well, some history.

"Elmingo" is not an original name. It was the name of the racing stable my grandparents had when I was growing up. According to my grandpa, Elmingo was a combination of Flamingo and Elmhurst...two stables they were involved with many years ago.

I am pretty proud to use the name Elmingo as my Grandpa is in the Canadian Thoroughbred Hall Of Fame and there is a Hazel Wright (my grandma) stakes race in Canada. My grandparents introduced me to my love of horses, and I am still a big horse racing fan to this day. (Hint: both Zenyatta AND Rachel Alexandra are running this week-end!)

So...in honor of the history of Elmingo Stables, my dogs are named after racehorses owned and/or bred by my grandparents.

At Full Tilt was a handy horse and Red Hot Rumors was a neat horse that got his name due to getting some severe burns when he was a yearling. He grew up to win some races too. So, after racking my brains of years of horse names, Flip Your Lid came to mind. I need to call my grandpa to ask him more about this horse, as I don't remember much about her.

As an aside. How is Pedro you wonder?
Pedro is the 2 year old racehorse I own a share of.
He is at the track training and hopefully will make his first start in the next few months!

Darbi at Red River

I'm at the Red River field trial in Texas. Having a great time.

Darbi did a very nice job on the combined 1st/2nd series.

She pinned the flyer and then had to pick up a blind before getting the remaining two marks.

For the blind, she had to slice the corner of a pond and then come out under the arc of the flyer to the blind. She got in the water way fat and needed 3 whistles to get back on line and then finished off the blind nicely.

She then nailed the last two birds of the test. I thought she may be dropped for her poor initial line on the blind, but Kenny was hopeful she'd get carried as her marks were so good.

She got dropped. Oh well. She had a ton of fun.

Here's a video of Darbi getting the go bird. I originally posted a video of her smacking the long retired and then I tried to post a video of her getting the short retired, but you couldn't see anything but a moving dot on the horizon if that, so I switched to this video. Hopefully it works better. It shows a bit of the test anyways.
(PS-Yes, she crept a bit...it was too funny for oh-so-serious Darbi to do that).




Libby is having a grand time at the trial too! Everyone, of course, is asking about the blue bandage on her leg. She's meeting lots of new people and is a very bright, animated and happy puppy. Someone put it best when they said "she is SO expressive!"

No Bandage

Libby went for a dressing change today and she is doing great according to the vets.
Her leg wound is clean and healing nicely. Her jaw looks great and is without pain as well.
The biggest issue I'm having with her right now is getting her to take it easy. She's like a bucking bronco when on a leash.
Here is a pic of her leg in between the dressing change.

Libby's Leg

Libby spends most the day in her x-pen while we're training dogs. She is wonderful in there. Quiet and content. She doesn't bother with her bandage at all and there are enough people to keep a close eye on her just in case. A short video to show how great she's doing with her leg...she even feels good enough to scratch with it!

We're off to Texas A&M in the morning for a dressing change and assessment on how she's doing. And then off to the first field trial of the season for us! Darbi is entered in the Open and Miikka is not running. She needs a few more weeks in training after 4 months off raising a litter and sitting on the couch.

Libby's home!

I went to visit Libby today and they told me I could bring her home!!

She is doing great and they want me to bring her back in this week for a dressing change and re-assess.
Her jaw definitely feels much better and she is chewing everything in sight. She's only allowed soft food, and apparently my fingers, though to chew on.

Here is a picture of her x-rays post surgery. The plate is an "external fixation device" and on the outside of her leg. The ortho vet told me she could have it off in as little as 3 weeks. Because she is so young, her bones should heal very quickly.



Libby was also given a very stylish Elizabethan Collar to wear when crated, which will be most of the day from now on.



A pic of what Libby's leg looks like to me. She weight bears and is able to flex her stifle and hock, so she gets around pretty good and can squat to go potty. She is a "wild woman", as explained by the surgeons, so we have to very carefully supervise her when she's out of her crate to be sure she isn't going to impede the healing by leaping around.

Fun Bumpers

After doing great on a very difficult water blind today, the girls had some fun with their bumpers.

Darbi was very proud of herself and made sure that Miikka knew it.



Miikka watched other dogs struggle on the same blind and laughed to herself.



And then proceeded to kill her bumper.



Afterwards she decided that one bumper was not enough. Darbi disagreed.



Ummm...Miikka...doesn't that hurt?