Our weekend at Pawsabilities

We had a great day Saturday at Pawsabilities in Harrisburg, PA. And it got me really excited about performance events (not including confomation).

First, we got there at 9:45 for the breed match. I brought Shelby, and Kit with me. I wish I could have brought Penny, she LOVES shows and events, but with her being pregnant, I didn't want to stress her. I was showing Kit, figured it was good practice since Kit has her first AKC show this Thursday. Anyway, we had a good time! The judge liked Kit and was very impressed with her self stack! The match was a few hours drawn out too long, so of course by the Best in Show puppy judging, Kit was falling asleep in my hands.

Afterwards, we decided to walk around and enjoy the venues, etc. I found a little area that said "Try agility, $3". There were trainers there who helped people guide their dogs (tons of people brought dogs to this event) through two jumps, one hoop jump, one a frame, one set of weaves, one tunnel, one dog walk, and one pause table. I have been training Shelby for agility at home since she was 8 months old, so I was eager to try. I thought SHelby would be distracted like she was for the rest of the day, but no way! After the first jump, she flew through the course flawlessly and listened to my every signal. We went back in twice, we had so much fun! Everytime was the same, she listened and did it all right. Well she was just enjoying herself so much, she kept wanting to go back in. Shelby loves agility.

Then there was a huge crowd gathering around a dock diving event. I saw a little thing that said sign up for a fun jump, and since Shelby and I practiced for dock diving last summer (Shelby would leap into our pool after her toy, swim across the entire length of the pool, then bring it back), I figured we could try it. 100% of the other dogs were biiiig dogs. So when me and Shelby, a 5 pound Dachshund, went out on the stage, everyone went "Aaaaaaaaw!" I threw her toy and she was just about to jump, until she looked down and well there was a problem. A lot of empty space between the water and the stage. I guess Shelby thought she was to jump down into nothing! She kept trying, but didnt want to jump into the unknown. One lady said to me from behind the gate "She doesn't know there's water down there, my boy had the same problem, bring her around to the ramp." So we opened the gate and Shelby flew down that ramp into the water!
Then turned around and came back. Oh well, we tried, and Shelby wasnt the only one who refused to jump that day. At least we gave them something to talk about! "There was a little Dachshund!"

It was a great day, and I cant wait to go next year!

Match show in Harrisburg, PA ... THIS WEEKEND!

Well it's finally that time again ... YUP! It's Pawsabilities!! What is it, you ask???

It's a big dog charity event held at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg every March to raise money for the Susquehanna Service Dogs! They have lots of vendors, food, events for dogs, etc. Many, MANY dogs are usually there.

One of the events is a fun breed match.

I enetered Shelby in 2006, and I enetered Penny in 2007 (with GREAT sucess) and now this year, I'm entering baby Kit! Yup, it's Kit's turn to shine in the spotlight now. I hope she does well.

Wish us luck, I'll be sure to take maaaaaany pictures!!!

Random Picture Moment #15

This would be Shelby ... NOT liking her hoodie. This picture was taken about a month before Shelby turned 2, in the fall of 2007.
The hoodie has never been seen again.

Do you want to learn more about PureSky kennels?

Do you want to learn more about PureSky kennels? Then please go to: www.freewebs.com/pureskydogs to learn more about Shelby, Penny, and Kit!

Kit's News

Yes that would be a new picture of Kit at 8 months old. And also, Kit has some news. On March 13, 2007, she is going to her FIRST AKC conformation show!! Yup!! We've been training Kit for this since she was young, and hopefully it will all pay off!
Stay tuned for more details and results of the show...

Life is busy

I havent been on for at least a week, I know, but life is busy! And I am sick, again. It scares me because last time I was sick, I had to have emergency surgery! Exactly 4 weeks ago from today was my surgery.

But anyway, Penny came home about 2 weeks ago, and things have returned to their busy normal. Kit is so glad to have her sister back, and I wish I could say the same for Shelby, but oh well...

And I am almost completely sure that Penny is pregnant, she should have puppies anytime after April 10. I am going to try and get some pictures of my dogs today and try and make another post!

Random Picture Moment #14

Another Penny as a puppu photo. She was just learning how to stack, and she wouldn't stand on her own, so I placed a jewelry box under her chest, and then she would stand perfectly! What a cutie she was.

Penny is home

Yesterday, following a call the night before from the breeder, we made the trip to bring Penny home.

Upon entering the house, I was mobbed by about 6 Shelties and 3 Dachshunds, while looking in the furry crowd trying to find Penny. Finally I saw a little mostly black thing dart over to me, tail wagging. I reached down to pick her up and a Sheltie threw itself over her.

After making my way through the little sea of Shelties and thanking the breeder, I opened the door to find Jake (Pennys stud for those few days) staring up at me, sad eyes as if to say "Where are you taking my girlfriend?"

We got in the car and Penny collapsed into my arms, exhausted. No wonder, she had a great week and a half playing with all those doggies! And I'm [kind of] sure she was glad to see me.

Kit was incredibly happy to see Penny; Shelby, not so much.

Penny for some reason looked a little sad. I guess they spoiled her a lot there and when she got home she figured, "Oh great, this place again. Oh well...".

But I'm so glad to have her home again. I sure missed her. And now I cant wait until she has her puppies in April.

Excitement, excitement.

Almost Brand New Video of Shelby

A video of Shelby from a few days ago. We were inside and bored to death, so I grabbed the camera and started calling her name and began taping her.

Wanted To Share

Adorable, no? I have puppy fever currently, and no this is not my puppy at all, it's my friends. I wanted to share it because (a) It's a Dachshund and (b) It's just too darn cute! It's unlike any of mine, though, it's a shorthaired. Mine are all long. Take in the cuteness, they're only cute for a while!

Random Picture Moment #13

This is a picture of Penny in the summer of 2006. She was only a few weeks old, and sooo adorable. *sniffles* Now my little baby is going to have babies...

Why...?

I'm not very thrilled with living back in the country.

Remember the other day I said about how our yard was frozen over and looked like a big ice rink?

Now it looks like a swamp.

That's ok, I guess. I have two very muddy, and very happy Dachshunds.

And one floor covered with filthy paw prints...

Guess who has to clean it up?

There Will Be Puppies!

Yeeeee-ha! I got word from the Anderson Farm this morning that Jake and Penny have mated, ON VALENTINES DAY. Woo-hoo! Penny and Jake will be mating twice a day for the next few days, to insure Penny's chances of getting pregnant.

I'm very excited and very nervous at the same time. I'm praying everything with be alright (as far as I pray there are no emergencies whelping), but chances are good since Dachshunds usually have very smooth births.

There will be more updates and for sure puppy pictures as time goes on! Also, there will be more hype when Shelby has her litter later this year, but Shelby won't be bred until after the May field trial. Penny's puppies will be longhaired, however, whereas Shelby's will be shorthaired, because Shelby is being bred to a shorthaired stud.

Random Picture Moment #12

This is Kit and her littermates at about 4 weeks old. Kit is the biggest puppy on the very far right ---->
I almost took the puppy next to her, the chocolate based red, but my final decision was Kit.

Let it snow ... NO MORE!

Snow has not lasted long this year. It came twice and melted before the weekend came. Well, we weren't so fortunate this time.

Yesterday morning, after lounging at the computer for a few hours, I finally looked outside (and screamed HOLY $#!@) to find the yard covered in a thin blanket of snow. I figured "It will be over faster than it came."

Well last night freezing rain came, and our entire yard is froze over. I kid you not. I haven't even tried to walk on it yet out of fear I would slip, fall and crack my head open.

I did, however, watch Shelby's slipping and sliding in amusement. She ran out the door, jumped down the step onto the ground and was met with quite a surprise. She slid about two feet and looked at me like ... "HUH?!" As she sniffed around for a place to go, the poor thing was constantly slipping (especially her back feet) around.

She finally found a place to go. Then went to run as fast as she could back up to the porch. Of course, it didn't work out to well. She slipped, fell forward and cracked her jaw on the ice. That instantly struck fear in me. She continued to run and slipped a little bit a few more times but she made it up to me safely.

Thankfully, nothing was wrong with her jaw. But it makes me glad I didn't go out on the ice or else there would have been another trip to the ER.

On another note, I called to see how Penny was doing yesterday. For those of you who don't know, Penny is at Shelby's breeder's house being bred to a male I carefully selected.
(I am not a backyard breeder, I test, plan my litters carefully, etc. I'm incredibly careful and very knowledgeable. I waited about 4 years to breed a litter at all.)

They said Penny is doing great, they all love her. They said they found it funny that she does not jump up on the furniture. She also didn't know how to use the ramp in the back of their house.
More info coming soon, especially once Penny comes home.

Yeah that's it for a boring blog post but I have one thing to add as a message to a higher being - ITS ALMOST MARCH. NO MORE SNOW!

Random Picture Moment #11

This is one of my favorite pictures of Shelby. In this picture she was 3 months old or so, it was taken in very early 2006. She was very tiny at that age, and SO adorable.

Random Thought

Wow I have been TIRED lately! Mostly because of the surgery, although I'm healing well. That doesn't match with the fact that my oldest dog, Shelby for some reason is acting strange...

She used to be a well behaved and quiet dog. She would be incredibly active during agility, swimming, etc. but otherwise she wouldn't, and she never cared for playing like puppies with the others.

Now when I can hardly move still, guess who suddenly has outburts of energy, and is ignoring my commands and deviling Kit like crazey? If you said Shelby, YOU ARE RIGHT. I think if you're my neighbor, you'll hear screams daily of "Kit, no! Shelby stop! Stop! No, Kit get out of that! SHELBY, GET OVER HERE! @#$%*!"

Speaking of Kit, I feel sorry for her. She misses Penny, a lot. We were out playing in the yard the other day, and Kit was looking for Penny. She kept running back to the door and looking in like she was expecting Penny to come out. She'll be so glad to see her when she's home. Hopefully that's soon.

This is Penny's stud

This is Jake, the little stud that is spending time with Penny this weekend. He is a lovely male. He also happens to be Shelby's father.

Random Picture Moment #10

I was thinking of Penny again, so this random picture moment again involves her. This picture is from the summer of 2007. She was in heat at the time and had dropped a lot of her coat, and didn't like the heat much.

I gave up giving up

Well last night as I was cleaning up after Shelby's wow-mom-look-I-found-a-dead-thing-no-don't-take-it-please-fine-I'll-swallow-it-then!; I began really missing Penny and wondering how she was doing with the stuuud. Was she scared? Was she safe? Did she think I would ever come back for her?

Some humor aside for the moment (hey, don't throw fruit at me!), I began reminiscing... I thought I'd share an inspirational story with you this time.

March 2006, we found a flyer for a huge dog expo event that was being held in Harrisburg called Pawsabilities! We saw they were having a breed match and I had been dying to get Shelby out and show her. So we went and tried it. It was a very small, very informal thing. We had some fun, and went home with two ribbons. Although we didn't WIN the ribbons.

We got them by default.

She was the only dog in her breed.

That year I showed Shelby two more times; once in Ludwigs Corner in April and once in Lancaster in May. She got a few ribbons but it was the same story. The ribbons were won by default because she was the only dog in her class. No competition wins.

I started to become incedibly depressed - and discouraged about my career in dogs.

"I'll never win," I uttered. I was convinced my career was over before it ever really started. The people I saw in the ring - you love them but you can't help but hate them - who have a MAGNIFICANT dog that wins big it's first time out there, and wins most of the time it goes out - they discouraged me the most.

I gave up showing Shelby. I just gave up. The truth is, Shelby wasn't the first dog I ever tried to show. She was just maybe the 8th or so. Everyone of them (my parents dogs), I found out had qualities or personalities that made them unshowable. Shelby was just the first I tried in the ring.

And the first I ever got so discouraged with.

That summer I purchased a puppy that a breeder brought to me from North Carolina. She was a longhaired red brindle Dachshund - and I named her Penny.

I got my hopes up once again that Penny would be my first real show prospect. I would stack her everyday, and examine all her good features. One day in the fall, I was horrified as I stacked her, realizing something for the first time.

Her back legs were way longer than the front, and it threw her topline off horrible! No! If I was any at all discouraged before, this threw it over the top.

"I'm done," I said. "I'm done with Dachshunds. For good."

I let Penny and Shelby become "just the pets". No longer the dogs I was so proud of that I bragged to everyone about, but the shameful secrets I tried to keep. I dreaded everyday taking care of them, seeing them as my big failures. I wondered most days why I didn't just sell them, use the revenue from selling them, and blow it all shopping.

Those were the worst kind of days. The type you cannot make better, but you only feel they cannot get worse.

Although there was one thing in the back of my mind with Penny that I am surprised I had not thought of...

She began growing bigger and bigger and bigger. Finally, she was a very good sized Dachshund. As we delved into the late winter, Penny had changed. I had never ever realized it could have been a growth spurt.

So I got back in the game, right?

Nope.

I had been way too discouraged and let myself get way too hurt. I had given up and that was that. "Yeah so she looks better. We won't be good enough. There's just no way."

That March we again found the same flier for Pawsabilities. My mom had wanted to go because there was CGC testing; she wanted to test her little poodle mix (ahem sorry mom I mean "hybrid") and also wanted to go for the socialization reasons. I glanced at the words "Breed match". For once I let my mind wander.

"Well the breed match is SO incredibly small and SO informal, maybe I might try it..." was the thought in the back of my mind. I had no hope we'd actually win anything but wasn't anything worth a shot?

The night before the breed match I realized I did the same thing again. I let my hope get up a little. So I got down on my knees for the first time in a long time and asked something that a few minutes later, I thought was foolish. "God, I'm so discouraged with this. I'm so depressed with it. Please let us win something, so we may know we're good. Let me and my little partner, Penny, win something together. Please, it's just a really, really small show and it will be easy."

The next morning as we reached Harrisburg and I rushed in with Penny as my mom found a parking spot, my heart sank. The one thing my confidence in showing up to this breed match rested in was non exsistent. I realized it in that fearful moment.

This match was huge! And not so small and informal!

There were many, many other dogs. And many determined handlers grooming. My heart sank a little, and I was angry at myself for having any faith in suceeding at all. "Dammit!" I said to myself.

I wanted to cry right there and then, and run out of there, screaming.

But alas, I had already signed up via pre-entry, so I had to participate if I didn't want to waste my money. Fear dwelled in my heart every moment as me and my mother watched and waited.

Especially as we waited.

Penny loved the atmosphere, though. She wagged her tail at everyone and everything. She was confident, and not afraid, unlike Shelby. She looked up at me with big eyes as if to say "We do good, mommy?" I sighed. "We're going to be the laughingstock of this match," I said to her. The 9 month old pup titled her head a little, as if confused at my words. My mom was proud of me, her daughter showing again, and snapped a picture (the above picture) of Penny.

Meanwhile, a man from a newspaper rolled by. He said Penny was gorgeous, and he snapped pictures of her. I was ashamed at the thought of her appearing in any newspaper. Everyone commented me on how gorgeous she was. "They don't know the breed," was my thought.

Finally our judge called us into the ring. I did horrible. My handling was SO off. Penny smiled big for the judge as I put her on the table. "Relax, hon," the judge told me. "Your dog is beautiful. You really have something here."

As I walked out of the ring, a little weight lifted off my shoulders. "Maybe..." I said to myself. Meanwhile I was grabbed by a more experienced Boston breeder - Patti, as she explained everything to me I did wrong and tried to show me right ways to do it. It discouraged me a little. "Well my dog might be good but because of my handling, I'll never be able to do it."

"She might like some better bait. My dogs love American cheese," she said as she shoved sticky, yellow cheese into my hand. In just a moment then, I filed into the ring for best of group. Cheese in one hand, alert Dachshund that wanted the cheese in other hand. In the hound group, there was quite a lineup.

First the most calm and elegant beagle I ever saw. It was the only one of it's breed, like us.

Then the most confident and radiant Rodiesian Ridgeback. It won best of breed over other dogs of it's breed.

Then the most graceful and gorgeous whippet I ever do remember seeing. There were many whippets there that day.

"The whippet first, then the Rhodie, then the beagle, then I won't get anything," I said to myself.

As the judge came around when we stacked, I had never seen Penny more alert with this cheese! The judge walked up and down, and stopped, and looked at Penny, oddly. "Oh no, she's going to disqualify us." Truth be told, I had shown another dog besides Penny. I put ALL my hope in that dog. One peculiar look from the judge, one "may I see your dog gait again?", resulted in one disqualification and an ended show career.

Fear pulsed in me. Suddenly the words I was afraid to hear. "May I see your dog gait again?" I held back tears as me and Penny made our way back and forth across the ring again and came back. "Thank you," the judge said as we took our place.

"No disqualification, but she thinks my dog is bad," I said.

She went up and down the line up again. Whippet, Rhodie, Beagle, Penny. She gave us another weird look. She walked towards me. "This is the end," I thought. "I'll have the Dachshund first."

Silence.

"What?" I said. The judge grabbed my arm and moved me. In front of the beagle. In front of the rhodie. In front of the whippet. "Now once around." Tears dwelled in the corner of my eyes. A feeling I never felt before surged over me "WHAT!?!?" I thought. I had no idea what was going on. The four of us handlers went around the ring once more. It was all a whirlwind. Suddenly the whippet owner was shaking my hand and telling me Congratulations! "What happened?" I said to the judge. "You won!" she replied.

She told me my handling could be better, but she loved my dog.

I couldn't believe it. I never felt so overwhelmed in my life. "Good dog, Penny! Good dog good dog!" I said. She wagged her tail and jumped around as if to say "Give me the cheese!"

I breathed hard from the adrenaline rush. Not only that but Penny passed her CGC that day with flying colors. I was given hope back where I lacked hope before with my dogs. I decided not to give up. I was given a new love for the show ring. And a new love for the breed...

That April, Penny won a few things in the AKC ring, and later in the year she earned 75/100 of her UKC championship. For any aspect of my life, I have officially given up, giving up. For good. If you have a dream, you go get it. You make it happen. That simple. You never give up.

I am so proud of my 3 little dogs. I am proud of my Shelby, proud of my Kit, and especially proud of my Penny. I am even very proud of Sophie, my little show cat who won 6 ribbons at a show in Febuary, 2008! And I'm sure any offspring from Shelby or Penny this year, I will be equally proud to see them in action. And I can't wait to see how Penny and Kit do in Pawsabilities 2008!

I thank the Lord always for that win that day, and I thank Him for how I have been blessed. And who knows.

Someday, I might show Shelby again.

Someday.