Tater Tuesday :)

Here is Tate at 8 months, he's all groomed & ready for his first Sanction Match which was held the next day. He got the breed & a 3rd in Group , that's my boy ♥ ......

A sitting picture the night before his first match ......

More stacking training :) ......

At 8 months his head was looking gorgeous & he was starting to grow into his big ears LOL!......

Another picture at 8 months......

Scissor Happy :)

Today was Tate's bath day. I swear the older he gets the cuter he gets !
For some time now I have noticed his chest hair has been getting sparser & sparser. It looked like just a small strip right in the center, with short hair on the sides, I didn't like it, so today I took my trusty thinning shears to it & cut it off, yup, I cut off my collies chest hair!!! I love it, he looks like a puppy again & it's all one even length.
Doesn't he look handsome ? ♥

Drew

Today I had the pleasure of grooming Amanda's dads dog. Amanda is super busy, & I needed the money, so it was a win win situation !!
His name is Drew & he is a Rottweiler X, I think he is a Bernese Mt. Dog X :)
He is SUPER sweet & so well mannered & good to do. He is an older dog but you would never know it. I just love him :)
Here he is, all groomed & looking very handsome !
So, I just talked to Amanda, apparently Drew is an Akita X , I can see it now !

Tater Tuesday !

Tate at 15 weeks, he already showed the promise of great things to come ♥ ......

At 3.5 months he took the guarding of our house very seriously :) ......

At 4 months he took the guarding of his toys very seriously :) ......

Stacking practice at 5 months......

The "show" side at 5 months......

The "off" show side at 5 months......

At 5 months his ears were so big I thought he'd never grow into them :)......

Tate at 6 months, practicing stacking, so gorgeous ♥ ......
Notice the professional me practicing with a flexi leash LOL!!!!

Hurray for Kort :)

Amanda & I braved the slippery highway & drove the 1 hr to Cowley again this morning. We went for Scenthurdle, Obedience & Rally.

Kort rocked! He was very focused, only slightly worried of the scary wall & floor vents. We won't talk about the floor :)
I had food in my hand this time so I could reward every single good behavior that I wanted. It was so exciting to have him coming back to what he once was. His left turns & left pivots are amazing thanks to all of our "perch" work. I didn't do any finishes or stays today though.

As for Scenthurdle he was 100% accurate, he sure loves that sport. Our first meet is coming up on the 5th of February in Calgary. So exciting !!

It's Tater Tuesday!!

Tate came into my life on July 12 2002. He has been a joy to own, his temperament is like no other collie I have ever owned. He is fun loving, silly , perfect!!!
This year he will be 10 years old, hard to believe. I am going to post pictures every Tues. of him to show the story of his life, hope you enjoy them!

The Beginning......

Tate's dad, winner of the American Collie National......

Tate's mom pictured with Peg Vohr,shown winning the 11 & over Veteran class at the American Collie National......

Baby Tate just a few days old in the hands of his breeder Peg Vohr......

Tate at 2.5 weeks, he's the tri 2nd from the right......

Tate at 3 weeks......

Tate at 8 weeks taken by his breeder in their yard in Northfield Massachusetts......

My favourite picture of Tate's first day in Canada......

Playing in his water dish :)......

He was so cute !......

Playing with his daddy on his first day home......

All tired out & trying to stay cool ......

Tate's litter sisters at 8 weeks, Bobbi, Baker, Tess, & the other one I don't know unfortunately......

Delay

Damn, can't get my scanner to work so will have to get that fixed before I begin scanning Tate's pictures, I've already started pulling them though!
Look for the post next week....I will be calling them TATER TUESDAYS ! :)

10 years

This year , April 11, Tate will be 10 years old!! It is so hard to believe that 10 years has gone by, he is healthier then ever!
I thought it would be fun to do blog posts, once a week, with pictures of his 10 years with me. So I will start going through albums to pull out some of my favourites of his life.
I will be posting the first in his series tonight or tomorrow :)
Stay tuned

Hurray For Small Sucesses !!!

Today Amanda & I went out to Cowley for a mini seminar sponsored by SAWHDA & given by Obedience Judge Jeffery Lunder. There has been many changes to the Obedience rules this year & he explained them to us. This was followed by a wonderful turkey lucheon & then an Obedience Fun Match.
If you recall I have been struggling with Kort to get his ring stress in check. It has been a VERY slow process with not many advances. Today he did awesome however! We entered the ring & I asked him to sit, he sat. This was huge!!!!! I knew from the very start in trials if he didn't sit we were done, game over, he was already stressed & he would not work.
We ended up spending a couple of minutes talking about what exercises I was going to do however & he laid down, stress:(
I got him up & played around with him a bit before getting him back into heel position where he sat again, yippee :)
For the heeling pattern I just did an L with no sits, but changes in pace. He was doing awesome, focused, head up, then we did an about turn followed by a fast. Kort zoomed ahead, cut me off & charged right, I was like , what the heck! I tried it again with the same result, Amanda then & told me it was the wall plus the heat vents on the floor, right, I had forgotten he is worried about those :) We moved further away from the wall & he was better, he ended his last line of heeling with wonderful focus!!!! I was thrilled!! It has taken about 6 months just to get this point. Basically all I have been doing at matches is entering the ring, asking for a sit, then leaving the ring & rewarding. Even to get him to look at me in the ring before starting has been a real challenge.
I then got greedy & tried a retrieve on flat, he retrieved his dumbbell but dropped it instead of bringing it to me, that's new, stress. I tried a drop on recall, no drop, damn, stress again, my bad!
So that was that , I just pulled out his toy & was able to get him to play & then actually tug in the ring, oh joy!!!
My goal is to trial in 2013, so another whole year of training.
I am so excited that what we have been doing to build his confidence up is working!
Good Boy Korty ♥

Woody Update

I think the smile on Woody's face says it all ♥

Through Coulee's Eyes :)

Wendy got this super cool head camera for Christmas this year. She tweaked it a bit so Coulee could carry it on walks & get a dogs perspective. Yesterday on our walk Coulee wore it, you can see it around her neck in the group picture from yesterdays post. She was such a good sport carrying it with her but unfortunately it shut off after only 3.5 minutes so we didn't get any video.
Wendy was able to get some stills from it though, 1 was of Kort racing around & one was of the 3 of us walking! I think it is super cool!!! You can see the pictures below, you can also see Coulee's chin in the top of the pictures :)

4th Annual New Year's Day Walk

This morning I met with Wendy & Amanda for our 4th New Years Day walk! Hard to believe we have done this for 4 yrs now. Sometimes we have different people & dogs join us, but we 3 have been the core every year.
It was a gorgeous frosty morning & the dogs had a great time running around through the tall grass chasing each other :)
Thanks again for the pictures Wendy! The Blog picture of Kort above of was also taken this morning.

Ok everyone, Stay!!!......

Release!!!......(notice Tate stayed in place LOL!)

Wendy managed to get one of Tate even though he was mostly off on his own sniffing or madly shaking the monkey toy :)......

Handsome ......

Kort was very pleased to have the monkey, even if he later lost it in the grass:(

Perkins was there too !!!......