quinta-feira, 25 de dezembro de 2014

Happy holidays

Yes, it's been a while. The reason is that my posts are getting to boring and repetitive… Koda is still perfect, High is still my perfect beast, life is normal! hahaha

This semester was crazy. Life wise, I applied to college in the US, and I was accepted in one college already! it's not my first choice but I only receive the other decisions latter, so when I decide where I'm     going I'll make sure to tell you guys. Sure the boys are going with me, or else I wouldn't go, but I'm scared. All of this is scary. I'll be leaving home, going to college, moving to a new country, wow! Hope I can deal with all that. Also, I just turned 18… nothing changed lol, except that now my mom lets me drive; and although my parents don't like the idea I plan to get a tattoo. 

Well, agility is still my thing. The boys are amazing, Koda surprises me in every run, and High bites; that's his thing, I guess he just likes my taste. Contacts are not our thing, they both do the see-saw, they both don't know what the hell are they supposed to do in the dog walk nor in the A-frame, so we are back to Running Contacts class and this time with both boys; let's hope it works! 

Another exciting new is that next year I'll be going to the Americas and Caribbean championship with Koda, no expectations. It is very likely that he'll be perfect and I'll ruin all our runs. No problem, I'll get over it eventually. It will be amazing, I really miss my friends from other parts of Brazil, I want to meet some new dogs and it will be my first agility trip with my boyfriend. After the championship we will attend a seminar with Tobias Wust and Daniel Schroder. I can't wait, I'm sure that the entire trip will be unforgettable. 

As usual I made a video of the year, and it's nice, hope you like it. Next year I think that I won't make a birthday video for the boys, simply because I never remember to film things; I used to film Koda's every footstep when he was a puppy but a year ago the camera got heavier therefore more difficult to carry it around. Still I'll try to make two videos of the year, since I'll be in Brazil in the first semester, and in the US in the second semester, fun adventures ahead. 

I mentioned on the last post that High had some puppies, and I get to see some of them very often. I love them, seriously they couldn't be more perfect. The owner of the female - Eva- is keeping two puppies, the big brown boy is named Juca, the big black girl used to be called Highzinha because she is just like High in every way, now she is called Stella, God bless her owner lol she's a little beast like her daddy. 

And just to explain why Ellie don't appear much on the video, she had a tiny pup <3 Her pregnancy was not the easiest, and she didn't have much milk, it was hard for both Ellie and her puppy but thankfully they are marvelous now. Just not much agility for her on the last months; She knows many many new tricks, such a smart ass! I didn't get to film her tricks but I promise I will. 

Well, the post is really random. I actually came to wish you all merry christmas and a wonderful new year! May 2015 bring you the best adventures. 


sexta-feira, 10 de outubro de 2014

Puppy breath

Hi guys. It's nice to write again! it's been forever, and I was about to make one of those blog posts where I say that it's been a while and then do a summary of what happened. But that is what I have done on the previous posts, so I guess I'll do something different this time haha.

Well, I do have some things to tell you and the most exciting thing is that High is now a daddy. Of two litters! High is 3.6 years and all his tests are fine, so now it came the opportunity to breed him to two amazing females and the puppies are here already. wow, time flies!

First litter is out of Eva Blue Abunella. She is a blue merle, with really amazing temperament and desire to work, she practices agility and is really focused and fast. She had 3 black girls, a blue merle girl and two brown boys. Since her owner lives so close to me I get to see the puppies a lot and ooh how I missed the puppy breath! it's been a long time. So here they are... Also, there is this black female that is just exactly like High at her age, the other day I got her on my arms and she growled at me!! I think she is going to follow her dad's footsteps. lol.  




The second litter is out of Zara Brownie 418 dos Pardais. She is just the sweetest and most beautiful girl around, and yet takes her job so seriously! She is an amazing agility dog and play time companion, although I live really far from her owner I got to meet them several times and Brownie is just an angel, everything someone could wish for. She had three perfect males, a blue, a black and a blue merle. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to meet them yet, But here they are. 




Both girls are from amazing and traditional bloodlines here in Brasil and I couldn't be happier about it. And that is it. Hope I can keep you posted about them. ^^ 

sábado, 14 de junho de 2014

Blonde girl

I'm back ˆ.ˆ that was fast!! But I just came to let something for you to see. It's not about the boys, but I am sure you will love her just as much. Here a video so you guys can see what I said about Ellie, she's indeed a special girlie <3

And she is already learning a lot of tricks, just wanted to show a sneak peek of her, the best is yet to come!


quarta-feira, 28 de maio de 2014

So much can happen in a month!

Hi guys, almost two months and I'm back ˆˆ with lots of news.

First we've had some agility competitions and the boys did fantastic! Koda is amazing me more and more, he is turning out to be such a confident and independent little boy. Now he is also showing the bad side of this, which is that he is not all the time next to me, when I'm not doing something he used to lay on my lap and sleep, now he is all exited about exploring haha. It doesn't have bad effects on our trainings tough, because he is so focused and really going to the obstacles forward instead of staying next to me kind of confused, and he is doing all the tricks with his new confidence and trusting me more and more.



High is also growing, we are coming along as a team and understanding what both want much better. It is amazing to run my giant boy, he has such a sweet soul and it visible in his eyes the joy and passion, although it is way easier to see when he is not barking so much, it happens when I run and give the proper command on time, yeah I can do it also on competitions!! found out that this last weekend, we were so connected, it was special. Not so good times but I'm not worried about that yet, we were close to our first exam to A2. It feels good... But it will come soon, we are connecting, and our time will come. We also had a super chaotic run, the last one of the weekend, and it was crazy! a loot of barks, yes he likes to complain with me, show me what I'm doing wrong.
Koda shined on our latest competition, setting best times all the time. My crazy pup <3

Koda, Duda, Shannon and High


Now we will have 3 months of no agility competitions, and I will put my heart and soul into running contacts. At first I just wanted because it does make me smile every time I see it, and I would love to do it with my boys, but after more than a year trying unsuccessfully I must say that it's now a matter of stubbornness, if that word exists. So many people came to me telling me to give up, but I don't do it, and I won't do it, I'm not a quitter. High's RC were almost done, but for some unknown reason now he refuses to touch the contact, so we went all the way back. Koda is much more complicated, think we will enroll on the next online class, see if we can find a solution. We are working!

High's RC before they collapse...

I have some other news that are not about my black boys, but are about a really special little dog that stole my heart pretty quickly. Ellie. And I found myself to be really good with shelties, not only koda, but the others as well. So I'll start from a place where you can understand how special she is...

Ellie is a stubborn sheltie, fearful and full of personality at the same time. She is sweet and her favorite place in earth is at my lap where she feels like she's the queen of the world and can bark with all the other dogs. I've known her for some time now, but I did't use to interact with her that much, until my boyfriend started training her. She was doing fine, but shelties are difficult and she never really liked it, so I started walking with her, and spoiling her, teaching some tricks, and we got along so well. Before I could notice she was my shadow... We are progressing as she wants, but it's stupid how happy I get every time I train her! she knows cik/cap and tunnels, we've done some short sequences, she's amazing. My eyes sparkle when she jumps and barks to get in the ring.



I used to only play with her in the agility field, throw the ball and let her run after it with koda, or run and let them chase me. Koda is such a good model! I say Ellie is becoming my mini Koda, that's perfect, I already love her! She also gives me some challenges and that's perfect. She used to run out of the ring and no one could ever train her because she didn't let people get her, nor follow hands. I worked on that first, she will gladly follow hands now, and first trick she learned was to jump on my lap so every time she would run out of the ring I set down and she would come running and do her trick, lovely lovely girly!

Then I tried to teach her pivot to start the heeling, but she would NEVER offer me things with her front paw, I've seen many dogs that don't know how to use the hind paw but never one that doesn't know that have front paws. So I made her do her favorite trick but every time she put one paw on my lap I'd reward her, gradually I put my hand closer and closer and now she is much happier knowing she has front paws hahaha. I'm sure she has many many more challenges to give me in the future, but I'm so glad for that!







I think next posts will come sooner this time! see u ˆ.ˆ

terça-feira, 8 de abril de 2014

Happy Birthday

So as I promised here are the birthday videos of my boys. Koda turned 2 on April 2nd and High turned 3 on April 3rd. I could never put in words how happy they make me, give joy to my life every day and challenge me to try new things all the time. I'm thankful for everything and most of all for having them on my life.

I love you boys <3 here to many many more years together!



segunda-feira, 3 de março de 2014

Good life

 Wow, I just noticed that I didn't post this year yet! I'm so sorry for that. It doesn't mean that I don't have news just that we were quite busy ;-)

The boys never get tired of the woods. They love to run free with all the other dogs and just play around... we should do it more often!







As I mentioned on my last post we are training at an agility school, and I'm really enjoying it! We've been training more than never and gaining a lot of confidence, mostly with Koda. I still have to keep up with High's hurricane competition mood, and try to calm down, but we are doing just fine.

We atended two competitions this year, one was a for fun competition and both the boys did fantastic! I am so proud of High because he really listened to me even when I thought that he would do something wrong he did great, all the mistakes were my fault... we ran on the open category A2/J2 and disqualified, and ran on his normal category A1/J1 and got 4th place. Beautiful contacts, dropped few bars only on the last run because he was tired, and had an awesome day after all.

Koda ran beautifully as always, I walk on the ring confident with this little boy! He doesn't stay yet so we have to let go and ruuun, and he is getting faster and faster, so soon it will be a problem... gotta work on that! He ran only the novice but got first place of all heights. Well done baby!

On the official competition I ran only on the A1/J1 with High and he did really well on the first run, perfect contacts, really loooud but that's fine, I just have to work with him because every time that there's a miscommunication or for any other reason he does a refusal and I try to put him back on the obstacle he almost bites me, and he is not like that on trainings, not anymore at least... On the second run I was mentally exhausted and he was even louder, so after he missed his best contact (see-saw) I kind of gave up, but it went better than I expected! perfect weaves, running contact on A-frame, and did all well until we disqualify on the last jump hahaha. Stories to tell.

Koda was perfect as always, but even faster and more excited! I could not keep up with his speed on the novice's straight lines, but he did magnificent and got first place. Although we had no competition, because there are only few people that attend to our regionals, and it is a new sport around here so not many people practicing yet, therefore he was the only dog of his height on novice.








I think that our biggest struggle lately are the running contacts, such a simple concept and so hard to do it! High have perfect strides, good jackpots, already on full height dog walk, but only for few repetitions than he slows down and misses everything, he is not adjusting well... think I'll try fewer repetitions and vary slower the approach. Koda is a never ending story... the reason why I started running contacts, but my biggest challenge! I don't know where I messed up but he always jumps of the end of the down ramp on the DW, always!! I go back to the ground, perfect. A bit higher, perfect. A bit higher, he jumps. It goes on and on for nine months now...  I thought about 2on2off but than I saw a video of Jenny Damm and Miss Lilli and it inspired me, I hate to give up and it's really rare for me to do it, so I will try more, be creative... one day we will have those running contacts. 

"I'm going to succeed because I'm crazy enough to think I can"

At last, out tricks... yes!! we have a lot of new things to show, but I'm saving as many videos as I can because their birthday is next month so I have two videos to make =) and I hope you'll enjoy it. Probably it will be my last post before the boys' birthday so you will see all the news and 2014 video update! 

till there ˆˆ