Keep on working.

Since the trial I haven't been working Clover to hard. We didn't have private lessons last Monday, but we did have competition agility on Tuesday. I didn't go to COW last week either because of an emergency at work, but we did have a show and go over the weekend.

It was a pretty hot day so I didn't push Clover too hard. She performed pretty well. She did rush the a contact when I did a long lead out in front of it. Some thing we will have to work on. We really enjoyed the elite tunnelers course because it had a lot of tunnels and call offs. Clover performed very well on that. The Show and go course was still set up for the teamworks summer staff party on Sunday night, so we ran it again. We also showed the Clover's run video at the party.

We did have private lessons on Monday night and clover performed flawlessly. We set up a weave jump weave jump weave jump run in the practice ring. I ran clover though it 3 times and she was flawless. She also did very well in the regular course.

We didn't have competition agility last night because of heavy rain.

Toys for Tots summary

This is a posting that Ron Young, the organizer and one of the judges made to the NADAC yahoo news group about the toys for Tots trial this past weekend. I think it gives you a good feel for the trial...

Toys for Tots Fundraiser

I just wanted to provide the annual summary of the Toys for TotsFundraiser. Due to scheduling issues, this year we tried a "NADACToys for Tots Fundraiser, Christmas in July, Midnight MadnessTrial." This trial became a success as soon as the first competitorentered. This particular event isn't so much about Q's and titlesand ribbons, but more about making Christmas special for kids, andas soon as we make Christmas special for ONE kid, the event is asuccess. Each additional child that we can bring a Christmas smileto only builds on that success.

Entries this year were down significantly compared to previousyears, with entries being about 1/3 of what they have been before.The reduced entries did not reduce the fun we had, and thosecompetitors who dodged thunderstorms, bugs, and heat were quitegenerous. Even though we had only 1/3 of the previous entries, wewere able to raise about ½ of what we have in the past.

Friday afternoon started off sweltering hot and humid. Just afterthe presentation of colors by the Marines, and before we could getour first dog on the line, a nasty storm came up, dumping torrentialrain, and thunder and lightning on us. Fortunately, we were able tocomplete the presentation of colors, and have everyone personallysay "Thank You" to the Marines for their service to our countrybefore the storm came up. After about a 30 minute delay, we wereoff and running (literally) and in no time, Natalie Lewis and herJRT Eddie finished their NATCH with a very nice jumpers run. Wewere also graced with another NATCH run by Linda Anderson and Ezri.Since the storm had knocked out the electricity, we were reallystarting to sweat (ok…maybe it was the heat also) since darkness wasfalling and we still had no lights. Fortunately, just aboutnightfall, the electricity came back on and we were able to keeprunning.

Saturday we had quite a few more entries than on Friday, but sincewe did not have any rain or darkness delays, we still finished atabout the same time. At one time, a storm looked imminent, as thewinds picked up and a few raindrops fell, but the storm skirted us.

The raffle, as always, was expertly handled by our Raffle Queen andher Raffle Princesses and was once again a huge success. Manythanks to Sydney Armstrong, Becky Spring, Joanne and Megan Crayton,Laura Ann Welch and everyone else who made the raffle a success.Even bigger thanks go out to all of the people, companies, and clubsthat contributed items to be raffled. And the biggest of thanks goout to our exhibitors who were extremely generous, purchasing $947worth of raffle tickets. With the generosity of our anonymousdonor, once again matching the raffle proceeds, our raffle ended upbringing in $1894.

Once again, the trial was held at the Teamworks Dog Trainingfacility in Youngsville, NC, and a HUGE Thank You goes to Teamworksfor giving us one of their trial dates for the fundraiser, and aneven bigger Thank You goes out to Michele Godlevski for being anever-gracious host and a true joy to work with. And we cannotforget Greg Godlevski for putting up with Michele, and also forworking hard to make sure the grounds were mowed prior to the trial.Since this is a NADAC fundraiser, not hosted by a club, we relyheavily on volunteers, and while there were so many people thatstepped up to help, a special Thank You goes out to Tim and BeckySpring for ALWAYS helping, and to Bruce and Emily Glatzel for comingall the way from Georgia, just to help with scoring. Their calm,cool heads at the scoring table are always welcome, and they are ajoy to spend time with.

Finally, I want to thank the NADAC staff for all that they do tomake this trial a success. Sharon has been a HUGE supporter of thisfundraiser from day one, and it simply could not happen without hersupport. In addition, Marj Vincent came in all the way fromWashington State, just to make sure I had enough judging help. Sheis a great judge, a great competitor, and a great friend and herjudging made it a Midnight Madness trial instead of a "Stretched into Morning" trial.

And of course, it goes without saying, that all of the exhibitors should be thanked. Those guys and girls braved wicked heat,thunderstorms and bugs to come out for a good cause. The smiles,jokes, and camaraderie of this group of people ALWAYS make trialsfun.

Okay….enough about the obligatory "Thank Yous"…..and on to whateveryone really wants to know. How did we do?

Entry Fees - 3855
Day of Show Entries - 280
Raffle Proceeds - 947
Raffle Matched - 947
Total Going to Toys For Tots - 6029
Making Christmas special for kids......PRICELESS

Thank you all for making the 3rd annual NADAC Toys for Totsfundraiser a "Wags to Wishes" success. I'm already planning for next year!Regards,

Ron Young

Thanks to Ron and everyone else that made this trial so much fun...

Midnight Madness Toys for Tots Benefit, Saturday Night

It was another scorcher out. Luckily we avoided the rain, even though we did hear some thunder.

Tonight's performance was a little better than last night's, mostly because we only had 2 contact or weave runs. The first run, once again, was the jumpers run. It was a little more difficult than last nights run, but Clover performed flawlessly. The second run was the regular touch and go run. She blew the contact on the A-frame, so I took her off the course. The third run was the elite regular run...This time, she would not do the weaves so I took her off the course.

Clover did wonderfully on the tunnelers run. Once again she got the second fastest time of any dog, at 19.02 seconds. It was a 23.40 second course for elite large dogs. This weekend clover obtained her elite tunnelers title. She also got her elite jumpers title.

The last run of the evening was the chances run. I was about ready to just skip it because of the way that Clover was performing contacts and weaves, but as we were setting it up I realized there weren't any contacts and weaves in it. It was a jumpers course with 3 tunnels, so we ran it. Clover did very well. I didn't want to stay around for the results though, so I don't know the specific time. I do know that we got a Q, our first elite Chances Q.

I have mixed feeling about Clover's performance. I was expecting her to do better on the contacts and weaves, since she has been doing so well in practice. But looking at it positively she did Q on 4 out 0f 9 runs. It looks like it is back to the drawing board on contacts and weaves.

Midnight Madness Toys for Tots Benefit, Friday Night

The NADAC Toys for Tots benefit was held at teamworks this past weekend. It was a little different because it was held at night from 6:30 till it finished. It was a good thing it was held at that time because it has been well into the 90's during the day. I went at 4:00 to help set up tents and help get ready for the trial. I then came home and picked up Clover.

This trial is very run very loose. Since it is a benefit, they didn't' have scheduled workers. They just asked for volunteers as they needed them. Often, the judge would be also be the scribe and time keeper, since we have automatic timers. We were able to get the pretrial briefing in before it started to storm. The lightning was so bad that we delayed it about 45 minutes.

Clover's first run was a jumpers run. I like Nadac jumpers runs because they are fast. You don't have any weaves or spreads that slow you down. Clover did very well. She got the 2nd fastest time of any dog. Cree, michele's dog was the only one to be her. She ran it in 23.96 seconds for a 29 second course.

The second run of the evening was the regular Elite. I was a little confused on what I had entered her in, so I missed the first run. I thought we had entered in regular open...In fact I think that is what we should have entered in.

I was disappointed in how Clover ran the contact runs all weekend. In the first one, she did the contacts, but I had to restart her in the weaves, so we didn't make time. I don't know if it is normal Clover, the Thunder or the Heat. The times in Nadac are much shorter than in AKC, so you don't have the luxury of any mistakes, especially in elite classes. I think the next trial I will run her in open, until we can get the contacts and weaves down pat.

Clover has been doing so well with weaves in practice that I thought we would try the novice weavers. It didn't go as well as planned. I had to restart her on every set. We ended up finishing the course way over time at 60.41 seconds.

The last class we competed in Friday night was the elite Chances Class. Unfortunately, the distance challenge was weave poles and I was unable to get clover to do them.

It was midnight when I finally got home. I really enjoyed having the trial at night because we had all day to do our normal weekend activities.

On Friday, we competed in 4 runs and got 1 Q. These trials are run so loosly, that we weren't given any course maps. I don't know if they are going to e-mail us the official results or not. If they do, I will post them.

The next round of Competition agility class

We have started another round of competition agility class. This time Blair Boyette is teaching the class. We have 3 people in the class, one of them is Clover's brother Guiness, owned by Clover's breeder, Lori Grove.

It was a very good class. There was a course set up and once we all tried the full course we broke it down into parts and reviewed the parts that we had difficulty with or had areas for improvement. Clover did very well except she missed the A frame tunnel discrimination. We worked on discriminations awhile. We also worked on serpentines.

Clover is doing very well with contacts and weaves. I am looking forward to seeing how she does under the competition atmosphere this weekend.

Getting ready for Midnight Madness trial...

This coming weekend Clover and I are competing in the Midnight Madness trial at Teamworks. We had a private lessons last night and worked on weave pole entries and jumpers grids. I wanted to prepare Clover for weavers class that we are entered in.

The midnight madness trial should be interesting. It is being held at 6:00 pm on Friday and Saturday night, so it will be cooler than the normal North Carolina midday.

Clover did very well, she only missed the entry on the first run.

After I private lesson, I stayed and helped repair jumps so we will be ready for the trial.

A Kira update.

It has been a while since I posted. It has been slow on the Clover training front. We are in between classes, and I didn't have private lessons because of the forth of July weekend. Also, I didn't run Clover for a while because she was sick. She had diarrhea for a couple of days, so I let her rest for about a week.

There must have been a dog flu going around because our other dog, Kira got sick too. In fact after a couple of days of diarrhea and throwing up, we had to take her into the emergency hospital the night of July third because of dehydration. She stayed there until the next night. She seems to be better but definitely is not 100% yet.

Kira has had health problems for quite awhile. She is close to 12 years old and has had a thyroid problem since she young. She has also had a strange breathing and has been tested for laryngeal paralysis. They think she may have a mild case. About a 2 years ago, we couldn't feed her without throwing up. We finally switched her diet to a dry, low residue prescription dog food that we soak in water for the day so it is very mushy. We also have to feed her on a step stool so she is in an incline position when she eats. This helps the food go down. After she is done eating we make her sit for 10 minutes, to ensure the food stays down. This has worked and we seldom have problems any more. Although, it does take her a long time to drink. Kira also has some sort of degenerative muscle disease, so she looks very skinny and bony. This, along with the LP, we think prevents her lapping up water efficiently. This may have also helped lead to the dehydration.

Believe it or not, here is Kira's medication list.
2 2x a day pills for gas, because she gulps air when eating and drinking.
1 2x a day Benadryl to help with her allergy and aid with breathing
1 1x a day She gets prednisone to help with the muscles
1 2x a day thyroid pill

Needless to say, a whole precdure has to be followed to feed her.


Lately, she has been having some abnormal liver readings so we have added thistle to that list to help. We don't know if the test are abnormal because of all the meds or not.

However, even with all these problems, she has a good attitude and she still goes to Wake Med hospital as a therapy dog once a month. We used to take her on long, 5 mile hikes, but after many of the hikes, she acted like she had a pinched nerve, so for the last 8 months or so, we have stopped taking her on long hikes and just do the hike around the neighborhood.

Last night I ran Clover for the first time in over a week, since I didn't have any classes or go to course of the week last week. It was a jumpers course and Clover did fairly well, but she is still off on the timing of her jumps and I know that would be something that would take a lot of work to fix.

The next trial is the midnight madness trial at teamworks in 2 weeks. It is a NADAC trail and we are entered in every class.