The Days of Johann, an agility dog!

That darn hawk that hangs around our house, got super bold this morning! He found some mice and started feeding in my yard! Can you believe that little bugger?

Here he is in the corner of my yard near the fence, checking out Mum with the camera. (And yes, Mum put a temporary board there to keep Gracie from escaping until she can fix the fence.)

He got a little spooked when she came close and tried to take his prey up to one of my fence posts.

He dropped the little mouse and had to try again to get his prey to safety. He made it the second time.

Here you can see his breakfast dangling from his talons! (It's kinda hard to see, but it's right in the middle of the top of the fence post.) Hey, that's my mouse!

Mum finally scared him off and he took his prey to the backside of our hill to feast. Then Mum went out about an hour later (she wouldn't let me go out, just in case) and he was back for seconds, OMD! What a glutton!

We've found a few videos from the European Open this past weekend.

Here's a montage of the French teams:


Silas Boogk and Back:


We believe this is Roger van de Laarschot & Troy (sheltie) from The Netherands:


And we believe this is Stephanie Tiemann & Chilly and Thorsten Tiemann & Pepper (both Manchester Terriers)


See more here! And check back, we may find more.

Gracie, Mum and I had a fantastic day yesterday...We got to do agility!

We met up with our bud Cash (that's his photo below) and his Mom who invited us to come out to their house and play agility. When we got there we were amazed at their place. I think it may have been about 5 acres of fields with an agility course set up in the corner. Can you say buggy eyes?

That's us in the car waiting for Mum to stop talking and start the party!

I have to tell ya that I think it's been November since we've been on somewhat of a full course, and Mum wasn't exactly sure what to expect from either of us, or her. But she was super proud of us.

I got to run first, and Mum of course couldn't wait to see now I handled a full lowered dogwalk. It wasn't perfect, but not too bad. I bailed a couple of times, but mostly I made it into the yellow, maybe a bit further back than Mum would have liked, but I had a few nice ones right smack in the middle. So Mum was pleased.

It wasn't until she got out the cheddar cheese that I really started to bail. She wanted to see how I would react more in a trial environment, which cheese will do for me. We still have a lot of work to do, and we know we have to work more on turning after the dogwalk. So back to practice we go.

We worked some on distance, some on tight turns, and the like. Mum was super pleased with everything I did, especially my frame and tight turns. I was as fast in the first run as I was in the last one four hours later. Guess all that backyard work, body work and conditioning is really paying off.

Then it was Gracie's turn. You'll see in the vid, after a bit of a ruff start when she lost her brain just a little, she really got into it. She bailed her first dogwalk, so Mum helped her the rest of the day by throwing a treat bag. She missed some weave entrances, but made most of them. And her speed through them wasn't too bad.

Mum loved many of her frames, total running with no bailing. Loved her tight turns. And she got more and more focused as the hours went by. Mum couldn't have asked for more from the Grace-ster. Good job, girly!

It's been a while since Mum has run that much in one day, so we expect her to be sore, today; especially since she had to mow the lawn when we got home!

We want to thank our bud Cash and his Mom for letting us come out to play. Not doing a full type of course for that long had really worn on us. We were getting manic and cranky. And spending a day doing agility with a good friend was just what we needed. We are grateful!!!!!

Enjoy the videos! (Here's mine)

Eric at AgiltiyVision.com has a few videos up of the winners of the individual agility event yesterday:

Small - Nicola Giraudi with Twister a Parson Russell from Switzerland.
Medium - Jari Suomalainen and Frodo a Small Dutch Waterfowl Dog from Finland.
Large - Krisztina Kabai and Chilli a BC from Germany.

We also hear that Nancy Gyes came in third place in the finals with Ace, congrats!

They're using electronic contacts over there this weekend. So cool! You can see some practice work on them thanks to some USA practice video from Friday.

Today is my sis Gracie's Fourth Birthday!

Gracie has a few surprises in store for her this weekend. For her presents, she's getting some Zukes Mini Naturals (her favorite treat) along with some raw duck necks for dinner. She's getting a couple of new plush squeaky toys that Mum's been hiding in the closet. And I'm gonna share my new Nina Ottosson Dog Turbo Dog Puzzle with her, of course!

But the best part is that we're all going to a friends house tomorrow to do agility with them! And they have a full size dog walk, OMD!!! Hope she won't need any of that NC short term health insurance after she's done. It's been a long while since we've seen full equipment, so we can't wait. Hopefully we get a little video to see who we both do. Can't wait!

Happy Birthday Gracie!!! We wuvs you!!!!