Hellfire Ahoy!

The World According to Cora

 

The World According To Corm

Ah, yes. Life with Corm. I would have to sit here all day if I wrote about the 100 goofy things he does in one week. Some highlights:

I painted new place boards blue (the color of winners) and Corm thought the wet paint was delicious. 

Mowed the lawn and Corm thought it would be funny to stick a tennis ball under the mower at the perfect time, and watch it explode. 

Set a glass of ice water on the end table, got up for 30 seconds, and came back to a glass of water. Corm likes ice. 

Set a ham sandwich on the counter, bent over to pick up a piece of lettuce that had fallen on the floor. When I stood up the sandwich was there, but the ham wasn't.  Corm likes ham.

Toiler paper? Who needs it? It's only good for the rolls, which are to be chewed.

Paper towels? See above.

New shoes? Chew the laces off!

Is there anything more enjoyable in life than chewing the crotch out of your mom's favorite pajamas? Yes! Rolling in guinea shit.

There is a moth in the house! Oh, did I knock all that stuff off the tables? Yeah, but there is a MOTH in the house... and moths are delicious!

Is that a treat in your hand, mom? You won't mind if I jump up and knock you over so you can share it with me, will you?

Knees? They make the perfect place to headplant into while doing retrieves. 

Lets go try that heeling thing again! I had so much fun dislocating your shoulders the last time! 

If you read my facebook, you already know what he did to my face while running through the agility chute. (Not that it was his fault I had bent down to look inside.)

I could go on and on and on...he is RELENTLESS.  And, I still adore him. :D

 

 

 

 

Team Effort

Spanky dug it out. Mia caught it as it bolted and delivered it to me unharmed. Good thing my JRT was in the house or the little thing would have been toast.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID

Wishful Thinking

Now that's heeling! 

In our case it would be easier to develop a machine to transport us to the multiverse where field springers have no urge to forge forward and have the OCD focus of a border collie. 

 

 

Go jump!

The dog yard is officially over thrown with agility stuff, the daily practices are going great, and we are getting closer to making our big trial debut. I'm so excited I can't really think about anything else. Last June we were taking our very first class and I was fumbling around trying to use my clicker and give a treat with absolutely no successful coordination. More treats ended up on the ground than in my dog's mouth. Now, I have four dogs in training and am a certifiable clicker pro. It's been an amazing journey and I've learned so many new, positive and powerful training techniques along the way. 

Avoiding rattlesnakes, cactus, mountain lions and ginormous gopher holes whilst tracking has proven to be more problematic than my lack of agileness, and I've only faceplanted whilst running between obstacles, THREE times.

Seriously, though, it's addicting and so much more fun than monotonous field training (yawn). Ya gotta try it!

Back in action!

Look out world. The toe is healed, and Miss Cheeky is back in action!

Corm & Co.

Been really busy and going like a mad dog to get all my dogs trained for the 100 dog events I'm doing this year.  Looks like I will have to choose between a four day hunt test, a four day obedience trial, a three day agility trial all being held the same week this fall... and that sucks since I have been training hard for all three!  October is very open, go figure. 

I was going to order 300 pheasant, but just as I was thinking it, another coyote showed up and bringing on gamebirds would just be wasted time and money until it's dead. The last one took bloody forever to whack. This new one killed Cora's buddy Fabio just a few days ago. We were all very upset as he was our favorite rooster. I'm sure poor Fabio thought he could kick the coyote's butt as easily as he could whip Cora, but at least his lights went out doing what he did best... bravely defending his hens. Maybe I'll get  a lucky shot at the evil fleabag soon, but I fear at this rate I won't have any guinea hens left by the end of the month. :( 

We should be shooting pigeons over all our 2011 puppies this month. Cormie is coming on like gang busters and I have to say that his marking and retreiving are really quite impressive. He is doing 80-100 yard marks in four foot high switch grass, not easy terrain for even an adult dog, and he just hammers them out over and over and over again. His tenacity is amazing and he just doesn't EVER quit. He is a very good boy! Cora's retrieving has taken a little longer and she loves to flush and chase birds, but bringing them back wasn't her strong suit. She is just now starting to leave the bird parade behind her and share her prize. It will come, she does everything else very well, just not as well as Corm.  I have to remind myself that they are only 6.5 months old and still babies.

The next from bottom photo is of Gin and Zena in SD...both Zeeza daughters by Ace (2008) and Toby (2011). The two black and whites at the very bottom are Zipp and Blaze in WA, from the exact same breedings. 

Born to be Wild

Mom, I just don't see what the problem is. I looks bootiful.

Cora's new thing is excavation work.  I've nick named her Denise the Menace. Not surprising, her dad's nick name is Dennis the Menace.  I water, and she excavates.  She got a bubble bath after the latest hole to China, which she hates, because it makes her smell like sunflowers, when her preferred parfume is clearly Swamp No. 5. When, I let her out to pee at 1 am, she decided it was the perfect time to go for a swim in the pond covered with scum. She lost her bed dog spot and and slept in a crate.

I've started her in beginner agility to give her overactive brain a focused activity, and she's fearlessly racing across the dog walk, making the teeter slap the ground and racing through the tunnel. She is too young for jumps, but hell, she may be ready for novice agility before Iceman! She just loves it. Guess all that early puppyhood stuff we did really stuck!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that most of the new recruits are 6 months old, I've started line steadying them, and I think if we can master that anything is possible.  Everybody is land/water retrieving really well. I definitely have an outstanding group of high drive, natural retreivers, and all have soft, proper spaniel mouths. Both Cormac and Cora are definitely field trial quality puppies. Corm has a LOT of determination on water retrieves. I was impressed, really. He is a super high octane dog. Cora is deceptively quiet and calm while training. It's her recreational, born to be wild behavior that gets her in trouble. ;)

Meanwhile baby Bones is line steady at 4 months old. I would hold him by the collar, toss a bird, then let him go, and after a couple of weeks he line steadied himself. At this rate, he could be ready for Senior Hunter by fall and skip Junior entirely. He isn't the fastest guy, but he has gads of drive, determination, a kick ass NOSE, and his marking and retrieving are amazing. He has been the perfect puppy. He goes back to my "spaniels for dummies" philosophy. I include easy keepers like Annie, Cheetah, Spanky, Chica in this category. Minimal field training for maximum return. Dogs so easy to train that you only need one brain cell, one arm and one leg to train them. Okay, you might need two brain cells, and two arms as you'll need to toss birds and hold your dog, but you definitely only need one leg. ;)

 

 

Ruffed Grouse Winner

Woo hoo! Congrats to Craig and Senzi (Toby X Navy puppy) for winning the Ruffed Grouse Society Gun Dog Trial in Michigan! That's awesome. Looks like fun, too. Here is the article with pictures. 

 

 

 

Last Dance

Zeeza is in Nevada being bred to Pam Miller's dog AFC Solarjigs Whitey MH for her final litter. 

Whitey is out of NAFC FC EFC Sundart Solar (UK) and my friend Jim Nelson's beautiful bitch FC Nel's Lady Jigsaw (both parents are UK imports)...a littermate to FTW Diamond, Spanky's dad. The temperaments are absolutely lovely and they are easy to live with, quiet, clean dogs and our favorite gun dogs to shoot over. Spanky and Whitey look a lot alike, and Spanky is one of my most beloved dogs.

See the full pedigree HERE. Both parents are OFA GOOD with CERF Normal eyes.