Good Puppy!

Smart Puppy, six months old and already clicker trained to carry her own poop bag. Never could get the Beagles to that.

Oh, OK, you want to to pick up my poop bag?

No problems, I'll just run over and get it

Click!

OK, lets go...

Paradise Park -- Aug 4, 2012

Great summer day for a hike on Mt Hood. Traveled from Timberline Lodge west to Zigzag Canyon and continued on up to Paradise Park, then retraced our steps back to Timberline Lodge. Something like 8 - 10 miles of hiking and 2800 feet elevation gain / loss.

Trail heading to Zigzag Canyon overlook, Paradise Park in background

Junction with Paradise Park Trail

Paradise Park

Agility 101 Graduation : 06-Aug-2012

Well, Echo and I signed for, attended and completed Agility 101 - taught by by Amanda Gross of Absolutely Magic Dog Training here in Gresham. Must admit that Echo has a great time with the agility stuff, much more so than the Rally and Obedience practice that we do.

 Not sure if we would ever be successful at it, but, overall a very good experience for him. He has to work in close proximity to other dogs, in a horse barn. We even spent some time between runs working on attention and heeling in that darn horse barn environment.

Here is a short video clip that Lynne took on the last day of class - clearly some successes and some big challenges to work on. Overall, class was a good intro to agility.

Stumptown Cluster -- July 20 - 21, 2012

Well, after 2 NQ's of Friday, one each, in Rally Excellent and Rally Advanced, then an NQ on Saturday morning in Rally Excellent, and after all our friends, acquaintances and the crowds had gone home - we still had one more run Saturday, after lunch. We were entered in Beginner Novice A with only two other dogs. One of the dogs moved up, leaving just Echo and his best buddy in the whole world, Roddy, to run. Finally, Echo put together a qualifying run of 192 and won the blue ribbon, losing 3 points for a dreadfully slow sit in the figure eight (usually one of his stronger skills) and five more one point deductions for tight leashes, lagging, etc. Such as it is, Echo now has his Beginner Novice Title, but, we have a long, long way to go in building reliability and focus in the ring.

Blue Ribbon Photo

Minam River Backpack - July 4 - 6, 2012

Beautiful weather on tap for the 4th of July weekend, so we loaded up the Beagles and headed out of town to escape the 'war zone' of fireworks blasting endlessly in the neighborhood. We made the big drive over to the Wallowa Mountains in the NE corner of Oregon, always a special trip. Traveled out I-84 to LaGrande, exited the freeway and headed for the little town of Cove and then made our way up a steep, gravel road to the Moss Springs Trailhead. Not exactly a high country hike, but the high country is still snowed in this time of year  - so this was a nice option - an area with very few visitors, dead quiet and beautiful scenery. From the trailhead, we made the downhill hike to Red's Horse Ranch, about eight miles, and set up camp just across the Minam River. 2nd day out we headed NE along the Minam and ended up spinning around after four or five miles of walking and returned to the previous nights camp. The Beagles just got too darn barky, they picked up a really strong scent of deer or elk or bear or something or another. Third day, we hiked back to the trailhead with just a few wild barking moments when a couple of horse pack groups passed by. All in all, a great escape from the working world and a chance to recalibrate the mind.

Great video that Lynne put together:

Moss Springs Trailhead

View just a short distance from the trailhead

Bridge across the Minam River

Squirrels, squirrels everywhere - might get whiplash

Meadow at Red's

Another shot of meadow at Red's

Trail along the Minam River

Mount Bachelor Kennel Club Show - June 30, 2012

Traveled over to central Oregon for the Mount Bachelor Kennel Club Show. Ended up sitting out on Friday, I just wasn't in the right mental state. Ran Echo in Rally Advanced B on Saturday and got a qualifying score of 88. Lost ten points on the very first station, a Halt - Sit, he got distracted - so I poked him in the hindquarters to get his attention back and we lost ten points. You are not supposed to touch your dog. All in all, an encouraging run and another step in our grand scheme to improve heeling and attention.

Puyallup Dog Show - June 9, 2012

Made the drive up to Puyallup for a nice dog show. What a great venue; indoors, on mats, large rings, in a building with only three rings away from the conformation.

Roddy had a great run in Rally Novice A and FINALLY got that Rally Novice title that has been so elusive.

Echo ran in Rally Advanced B, he did great - handler not so great. Ended up with score of 76 of 100, took an IP on two novice level stations. They involved 'call to front'. On novice 'call to fronts', you don't sit first. Yours truly asked Echo to sit first, then do the 'call to front'. Dog did great.

We also entered Beginner Novice and had a great 2nd place run, a scant 0.5 point out of first place, 194.5 of 200 points. Lost 2.5 on heeling and 2.0 on figure eight, we are having trouble with lagging, something to work on.

Beginner Novice Judge

Echo's First 2nd Place Finish

Scorecard, we are entry 1605

New Rally Novice Title for this team