Purina Incredible Dog Challenge Invitee

I'm *finally* allowed to announce that Bayer was invited to the Eastern Regional for Purina!!! We are super excited for both Gary and Bayer's accomplishments in the sport and getting invited to PIDC is icing on the cake. I have my fingers and toes crossed that they do well enough to make the finals. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go to the regional due to vacation time, but if they make the finals I'll definitely find a way to attend.

Time to start conditioning the boys!

Family Photos

Trinity turned 6 years old today. I can hardly believe it. I am going to work on a post just for Trin though so that will be next. Wanted to post these family portraits I did today. A decent start and I love portraits with puppies. Kate did well with the whole process. Its already becoming old hat for her to be asked to hold still while I stick a camera in her face. :) The rest of my dogs just start lining up, they know what's coming. Now if I could just train them to line up evenly spaced with paws in a line! lol Guess I could train that!

First - My girls

Happy Kate & Birthday Trinity

The "adults"

Minus Trin

And finally... (drumroll please - click to biggify)

Why are you torturing us with a puppy?

I made Kate her own blog... you can now find her at:

http://keraleskate.blogspot.com

Back to our regularly scheduled Aussie programming over here. :)

For a bit of an update, Gary took Fergie and Bayer to the AFLAC Outdoor Games this past weekend. Unfortunately, he didn't get to train much before he left and with temps in the 100's neither dog was really "into" it this past weekend. I think Bayer came in 7th in FS, maybe 9th. Luckily, Bayer is already Q'd for USDDN Finals this fall so it was all for glory and apparently there were duck trophies - kinda cool! I didn't go since Kate hasn't had all her shots yet and it was really productive for me to stay home and work on getting her settled into home routines.

She's Advanced... of course.

None of my other dogs have swam as confidently as this puppy at even 6 months old. Maybe it's a BC thing? but I doubt it, as Fergie still sucks at swimming. Maybe it's how much she's been exposed to in her short 8 weeks, swimming, pssh that's nothing. I had a lot of fun making this video. I wish it had the HQ button but I'm sure it will show up one day.

I finally decided on a name... Kerales Kate.

Coolest Puppy Ever!

Yesterday was a VERY long day. I left my house around 5:30AM and flew out of Tampa around 7:15AM. Then an hour drive from Philly to Quakertown in a roller skate of a rental car called a Suzuki Reno. I got to love on the other pups for a few hours, each of those pups have such great little personalities. Leslie does an awesome job with her litters. :)

Then we had a lovely trek through downtown Philadelphia at rush hour. I kept watching the minutes tick away on my GPS pushing out my arrival to the car rental place while we waded through traffic. Luckily, Puz was quiet and contented. By the time I got to the rental car place, my flight was due to leave in 45 mins! I wanted to freak out but I just felt resolved, I didn't need to sleep and at least I could play with my puppy if I got stuck at the airport, they would find me another flight. Still, if I could make my flight I wanted to! So I slid up to the First Class counter instead of waiting in the "coach line" and told them I was in a hurry. The lady helped me, begrudgingly but she did soften quiet a bit when she looked at my cargo.

I RAN, carrying the sherpa in my arms like a baby, and actually got to my gate with about 10 minutes until departure. I saw the entire area was full and thought that was strange. I must have looked ridiculous all red-faced and out of breath, but maybe they see people like that all the time? The gate keeper lady informed me that the pilot was stuck in traffic (ha - hadn't I just been there!) so they hadn't even boarded yet. (Of course they hadn't updated the website OR the boards in the airport to mention that the flight was delayed!) With this news I relaxed significantly. Took Puz to the family restroom and she immediately pottied. I put down a towel and sat on the floor for a minute, I was worried with the running that she might throw up but she leapt at my face and tried to bite my ear so I figured she felt fine :)

I have liked Puzzle since the beginning. Then I met the litter and REALLY liked her. I'm still slightly in shock that such a normal person like me can be blessed with such an absolutely amazing dog. She's definitely a busy girl and I can see I'm going to have my hands full outsmarting a puppy that is already smarter than me. She already knows sit and down, has a lovely recall, tugs and retrieves. She pretty much HATES the xpen but if you put her in a crate she is happier. So I put the door back on the crate IN the xpen and she's getting used to both at once.

I took some pictures of her playing this morning in the living room. Wanted to get her outside for pics but it rained by the time it cooled off so I'll do that tomorrow.

So cute!



I have a picture of every dog I own doing this :)



She likes the crinkly squirrel



Even her paws are adorable! Look at those freckles!



I think she might get her daddy's ears

Happy Third Birthday Java Bean!

On Saturday Java turned 3 years old! I can hardly believe she's already three... seems so grown up, but she'll always be my perpetual puppy at her shrimp size. I was in Pennsylvania this weekend visiting family and Kerales Farm to meet our newest family member. Leslie and Kevin Whitney were fabulous hosts and very generous with their time. I couldn't be happier with the decision to add a Kerales dog to our house. More to come on that front...

Java came with me on the trip and had a great time. She got to play Frisbee on Independence Hall lawn on her birthday! She also has now attended Princeton so I expect she will be able to read the numbers on the agility course ;)

First picture is Java at Princeton and the next playing Frisbee at Valley Forge.

Puppies!

The puppy onslaught has started! I have four other close friends who are getting puppies this summer. Did I start a trend? ;) 

My most favorite photography subjects have always been puppies, its so fun to try to capture expression and intent, trying to create something special that is timeless as pups grow up so quickly! 

So I present some of Groovy Girl (name might still be pending) owned by Kat & Jack (hmm maybe Kat will start a blog of her own now?) 

So innocent...

Workin' Aussie

Java says, "you can have the toy - crazy!"

Serious Groove

My personal favorite of the series :) 

Groovy Girl Pics (Link to the rest)