A Real Eye-Opener

As he's not showing any longer and constantly removing his own rubber bands from his hair, Beth suggested Max get a haircut. She graciously volunteered to trim his bangs for me. So this weekend at the Vallejo show, Max had a makeover!

The artist hard at work

Voila! I love seeing his eyes all the time now!

A very amusing video

This has only happened once or twice previously, but I just happened to be in the yard taking pictures of Stan after he'd noshed on a bone...and happened to hear this racket coming down the street...and happened to see Max walk out...and happened to flip my camera to video just in case it might happen...and I was rewarded!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my1FQ1TslHg

It completely freaks the other dogs out when he does this. Every time I've replayed the video on my computer, Cujo has started crying.

Turn your volume on.

A belated happy birthday to the beardie boys

We celebrated each birthday but I neglected to post anything here.

March 1st - Happy 1st Birthday to the goofiest, fuzziest beardie in the house



March 8th - Happy 6th Birthday to the best big black dog in the house

(Photo by Doghouse Arts)

Little Lord Stanley

as Yvonne likes to call him.

Not too bad for a baby dog, huh? He has 13 points and needs one major to finish his championship.

Photos and Video

Caroline put together a great slideshow of the pictures she took in the runs leading up to Max's MACH this past weekend: Slideshow

Max's Jumpers run on Sunday, where we got more points but were just 0.66 second over the time needed to finish.

Monday's Jumpers run where we got the last point we needed and finished the MACH.
Another video of the same run, without the victory lap.

Enjoy!

MACH Max

Stan was Winners Dog again today for another point. I've also neglected to mention that he also got his first rally novice leg on Friday.

Now, on to Max...that dog just ran like a pro for me this weekend on every run, Q or not. He was so serious and composed where I was not. He hit every contact on every course and made me so proud.

The weather yesterday had taken a turn for the worse and gotten very windy (grooming for the show ring was a futile effort). It got even windier overnight and I was glad we'd taken the top off our canopy. When I got to the trial site today, it proved to be a good choice and we took the tent down altogether.

I walked the Jumpers course and it looked pretty nice. Then the dogs started running and jumps and bars were getting blown over by the wind. When one of my friends ran her dog, several tents took flight and nearly went in the ring. I started to worry more about us getting run over by a tent mid-course (and my dog forever traumatized at agility trials) than anything else.

In the end, I don't remember a whit about the weather during those 31 seconds, or where anyone else was. I just know Max and I were on course having a blast. At one point, I realized that *I* needed to settle down - he was fine, time to let him do his thing. The only hairy moment came mid-weave-poles, when Max glanced over at our setup (where Jeff and Cujo, Stanley, Rhonda and Penny, and Nancy were all watching) and paused momentarily. On video, it doesn't even look like a pause - but for me, it felt like forever. Apparently (of course I couldn't hear this past my heartbeat) Stanley was screaming a chorus of "I WANT TO RUN!!!!!!!!!" Anyway, Max realized it was his obnoxious kid brother and went right back to weaving. When it got down to the last 2 jumps, I know I had a big grin on my face.

My friends took video and photos and I'll share those when I have them. I know we were pretty darn happy on our victory lap around the ring. I'm attaching one photo Caroline took yesterday...hey, it says it all.

Everyone is napping now while I try to catch up on neglected work. It hasn't quite sunk in yet, and I know Max has no idea it was more than any other agility run, but it was a wonderful day. Thanks to Jane for letting me share my life with him, thanks to Beth for training me to be a beardie owner, thanks to Tania for teaching us everything about agility!

Day Four Report - Fiesta Cluster

Most importantly....MACH Max!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The rest...another post, when I've caught my breath.

Day Three Report - Fiesta Cluster

Two-thirds of a second. Let me repeat that - 2/3 of ONE second. That's what separated us from MACH today. Max had a brilliant jumpers run and was 0.66 seconds over the time we needed to make. So on to another day at the trial tomorrow, where he needs just ONE POINT.

Max's Standard run was also brilliant, except for the part where he ran right by the second-to-last jump. :( I was very sad about that one!

Stanley was Winners Dog today for one more point. He is 1 year and 1 day old, and he needs 1 major to finish his championship. Wow, how did that happen so fast???

Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully THE day!

Day Two Report - Fiesta Cluster

Max had a beautiful jumpers run this morning and qualified while picking up 9 more speed points. I went into the very nice standard course feeling confident and then proceeded to send my dog off-course! Tomorrow...

Stan had a great time in the ring today and went Reserve. I was happy with how nicely he stacked for the judge and moved in the heat though.

Jeff and Cujo finally got to Arizona - the boys are happy to be reunited.