Updates, Updates, Updates

Lots of news. I wish I had kept up the blog better. Cinders got her IPO2 at the UDC Nationals in May. She did pretty good. We got high tracking and high IPO2. She broke her down stay again. This cost us 10pts and HIT (she missed HIT by 5pts). We have been working on it though, so hopefully we won't have that problem again. I wish it wasn't so hot. I think it would be awesome to have her Sch 3 before she was 3yrs old. She is ready, but it is just too hot to trial. She also got her Rally Novice title. She got 99pts for her last leg in Corydon, IN.

Porsche is doing good. Her grips are AWESOME! She has tons of energy and drive. So far I haven't spent much time training her so she is a little on the wild side. However, that hopefully will change. Maddy and Cinders are going to go stay with mom and Porsche is going to live in a hotel with me for 2 wks in Minnesota where hopefully, I can spend some much needed one an one time with her.

Rain is doing GREAT! Here are some excerpts from recent progress reports from Gail:

"Well, the little miss Rain is catching on. She had her first "independent" find of training material this past weekend.

I was walking her on Saturday night and had taken her out of the van to walk back over to the agility equipment, intending to run her on a little agility and just give her a nice long walk since she had been crated a lot during the day.

As we passed the end of the sidewalk in front of the building we passed a crate sitting on the ground. Seems they had taken the training aids we were using in the water and put them in a baggie inside the crate so we could use them the next day. Miss Rain got just past the box and got into scent. She whirled around on her own, went back and stuck her nose into the baggie and then slammed the crate with her foot! Telling me "I found it Mom!" Needless to say she got her Wubbie and a big party as a reward and we played fetch for a good long time. The little girl is growing up."

"Well, my "little" girl is now a solid 51 pounds of Dober. There is no fat on her, it's all dog! LOL
Rain decided she likes my Vets (but all my dogs have always like my Vets over the 35 years I have been going to them, it's two brothers and one son) and gave Dober kisses! The one I saw yesterday was very taken with her, called her a very nice typy Doberman but he also thinks she will be a moose when she is finally grown. :-)

I'm probably looking at spaying her at about 16 months. I want at least one heat and then I want to make sure the growth plates have closed before I do it.

I can not believe how big she is now. My baby puppy has turned into a big puppy! LOL"

Rick reports that Tessa is very smart. Here is what he said in his last email:

" Anyway Tessa is doing fine, she weighs 60 lbs. her tail healed fine. She hates the rain, we open the door and she won't go out, we have to push her out and she goes potty and runs back for the door, otherwise she loves it outside, even if she's just laying looking at things. She always tries to find the shade. She is very smart, she sits and down with just hand commands, she stays for a little while with verbal command, if I throw a treat and tell her to wait she does until I say ok. I had all of this on video for you but couldn't send. She still gets bitey sometimes, mostly when she's excited or if your ignoring her when she wants to play. We have 22 pine trees like a row of 11 on each side of our property and she helps me pick up pinecones about every other day, I take a bucket and pick them up and she works a little ahead of me and brings them to me and puts them in my hand, she's close to putting them in the bucket. When I take her out to poop, we have a very big yard, she runs way in the back and poops, so I'll be up by the house and she'll come running back and I'll say lets get the shovel and clean it up, she goes to where I keep the shovel then I'll tell her to find the poop and she always takes me to where it is, she runs to it and stands with her head down until I get there with the shovel. Lately she has discovered a lot of baby birds in the yard, she starts by sniffing them, then she starts barking at them, when the mother birds start screaming at her she chases them all over the yard barking at them. She jumped a rabbit the other day and started chasing it, and I thought oh great, she'll chase that for miles and I'll be lucky to find her, but she got just over the property line and I yelled Tessa no, get back here and she stopped and came back. I have her about 7 yard toys for her I keep in the other garage and I take her out and say lets get your toys, she runs to the garage and waits, or if I'm outside and have the door up and tell her to go get her toys she runs in there and gets them. She has a unique personality which is hard to explain, like if she's wanting you to play with one of her toys and you don't feel like, she takes her toy and sticks it up your butt when your walking away, lol."

I don't have any new info on Alex "purple" other than I called David in May and she is doing good.