Big shoes..different shoes.

I'm writing this blog from my phone so bear with me! We are home from a fabulous weekend! Legit is really showing improvement and that's what I'm lookin for! He's just much different from Ace. When Ace was Legit's age he was the type of dog that would go off course when I was clearly on the other side of the ring. He would never refuse anything, it would just be off courand, bars and not to mention he couldn't turn. We were in open jumpers needing one leg for 9 months. We took some time off and went to train with Jenn Crank, Joan Myers and Lori Michaels. Got back into the ring and he had a happy medium and the Qs and QQs came. I taught too much send work and not enought tight/close work. I had to work the tight/close stuff a lot. I always told myself my next dog is gonna be super tight ;). Legit on the other hand is a powerhouse full of stride and turns. The dude is a turning machine but he doesnt have that happy medium. He's pretty weak with his sends. I can't get more than 10ft in the ring without him pulling off. That's a hole in his training and I need to fix. At home he will send just fine. Now he will not send 30ft away but at home he doesn't pull off jumps much. I do have to say if I could pick between Ace and Legit's problem I would hands down pick Legit's. Also, he doesn't really have rears which is another thing I need to train. There much to train yet on the pony. I'm very happy with his contacts, extention and jumping. He can naturally extend and his jumping is beautiful. Now had he just did 2o2o instead of running I can almost garrentee he would be sending and have rears. Running contacts are mostly what I trained when I would train legit and now that his contacts are solid we can now start working on other stuff. Your probably wondering what my title means. Well I was about to go into the ring with Legit and one of my friends stop to pet Legit and she says "You go big shoes to fill puppy. No, wait, you have different shoes to fill" how true is that? I just love that. Legit will never fill Aces shoes cause he has different shoes :). He hav different shoes to fill Legit cause Ace has his own :). I couldn't help but to smile when she said this. We had a great time this weekend. I really have great friends. They are awesome sauce!

Busy busy Summer ahead!

I love staying busy and being on the go. I'm the type of person that can't sit still for very long and I get bored easy. My family is just like that. We take a lot of vacations through the year and travel quite a bit. I personally have been to over 35 states and have been out of the country. One day, I would love to take a year off and just travel the world when Chris and I get older. I really wanna go to New Zealand, Switzerland, Fiji, Bora Bora, Norway and Australia just to name a few places! My parents have been to Switzerland and Bermuda. My very favorite place I have visited in my short 21 years on this earth is the British Virgin Islands. The water and land is just breath taking. You should defiantly go visit the place if you haven't already!

I have a lot of stuff planned for this summer/fall. June we are heading to South Florida for a week. July we are headed to Hawaii for 2 weeks. In August Kerry and I are going to the Chicago regional, staying up there till the Wednesday then heading to the Missouri regional. Before we know it USDAA Nationals in September in Colorado will be here! I am most excited about Hawaii! I have never been there before and I have always wanted to go. The dogs will be staying home but Chris gets to come. We are going for my sisters graduation present. We also have a few friends that are going so it will be a blast :).

We have a local AKC show this weekend. I'm just showing Legit and not Ace. I have yet to run both of them at the same show. I plan to run both of them at the regional so we will see how that goes ;). I really really like running Legit. Hes 100% opposite of running Ace and its helping me as a handler. He hasn't been on a DW in a month so it will be interesting to see what his DW looks like ;). Hes such a good puppy :).

Lions, Tigers and Bears..OH MY!!

Chris and I spend this beautiful day at the zoo! The animals were out and very lively. The Houston Zoo wasn't as big as I thought it was going to be. In fact it was quite small but VERY clean and the animals looked very happy that we were there. I grew up going to the Columbus Zoo which is HUGE and super impressive so I have pretty high standards when it comes to Zoo's. Together Chris and I have been to 3 Zoo's. The Columbus Zoo, Oklahoma City Zoo and Houston Zoo. I really enjoy going to the Zoo! Ever since I was a little girl I either wanted to be a whale trainer or work at a zoo. Heck, I still would would to do either! I got to feed Giraffes! It was a pretty cool experience feeding them and the two baby elephants rolling and playing in the water hole was SO cute. I wanted to take them home ;).

I found it very sad how many endangered animals they had at the zoo and how many endangered species there are in the world. How did us as humans even let that happen? It's always very sad to think that maybe my great grand kids(I HAVE BABY FEVER!!!!) will not get to see some of these beautiful animals in the wild or in captivity. How could anybody want to kill these beautiful animals? That I will never know, but I do hope these endangered animals keep growing and that zoos keep doing these breeding programs that they do.

On a happier note, my parents are keeping the blue boy and have named him Luke :). I am very excited that he is staying in the family and I get to see what he looks like when he grows up! We are not sure what he is. We think BC/Aussie mix but he could be anything! He has drive coming out of his ears and hes very loud and super super cute ;). I told my mom she needs to do agility with him for fun cause this dude will need something to do! They are going to fill the paper work out tomorrow so he will be theirs!

Chris and I went to get approved at the bank yesterday! They said they will be calling us at the end of the week to get things started! To say that I am ready to move out would be a huge understatement ;). I AM SO READY!!! ;). Maybe not ready for all the bills and what not but I think Chris and I are ready relationship wise. I mean he lives with me now, but I don't get to see him a lot cause he goes to school full time and works full time. But yayyy, I cant wait to start looking for a house and move in! Relator is the next step and we will prob use our parents realtor. It's just crazy to me that I am getting ready to move out! Sometimes I feel like im 16 again but NO I'm 21....21!!!!!!!!!

I prob shouldn't have made this blog post haha. I have too much stuff to do before we leave for regionals tomorrow at 1! I cant wait for regionals! Get to see some new and old friends :).

Life's A Beach!

We spent our weekend at the beach. Saturday was just Chris and I then Sunday my whole family and a friend of mine came down. It was perfect beach weather and the warm water just made it a perfect day(s). It still hasn't sunk in that I live near the beach and can go whenever I want! Even tho I have lived here for about 9 months now.  I have always wanted to live near the beach ever since I was a little girl. We used to go to Florida ALL the time when I lived in Ohio, either for Disney Land or the beach. Houston's beach is nothing like Florida's beach but its a beach!!! My dogs LOVE the beach! They can always smell the salty air and they paw at their crate and wine when they see the beach. The lifeguards are pretty cool about the dogs being off leash and the people always admire the dogs. Even met someone my age that does agility and lives around me! She even trained with one of my friends! It's a very very small world this world.

On Sunday we got to see a foster that we homed about 3 months ago, Shasta! She was a cute 7 week old white puppy that was full of energy and I fell in love and I really really wanted to keep her ;). When we got to the house or should I say mansion they get her house and she came sprinting up to the car wagging her tail as fast as she could! When we got out of the car she jumped all over us and kissed us, but she was really excited when she got to see Legit! She was alllll over him the whole time we were there. I think she remembered him :).  This is why I love fostering. To see puppies/dogs that we got from the shelter that didn't have a chance, in a home where people adore her, it's so rewarding. Shes is one lucky lucky girl.

 

 

 I'm getting a gym memberships this week! I'm excited to get back into shape like I was in High School! It really hit me how out of shape I was when we were doing the 8 min practice at tryouts. I was sweating and I had it sit on the floor for a few times and take a few deep breaths(ok, maybe a lot..)! Even tho I am skinny it will feel good to get some tone and muscles back, especially in my legs ;). Maybe just maybe next year at tryouts for the 8 min I will not be heaving for air ;). So, that will be my goal, to get in shape a few months before then! Goals are good to have and dreams are too! For now here are some pictures cause I am obsessed with pictures if you couldn't all ready tell ;). ENJOY!

The Comfort Zone

Ahhh, the comfort zone! The place we feel the most comfortable and awesome. The place we love to be at and hate to leave. Well, for me at least ;). I like my comfort zone, especially in agility and most of life in general actually. My comfort zone is living with my parents in the middle of Huffman, TX. Its my home and it's what I know best. It's not living in a house without my parents and just me Chris and the dogs ;). All tho I love the sound of that, its not comforting to me, its a brand new adventure and that sounds exciting yet scary!

 We decided on getting a house and will be getting a realtor/getting approved for a house this weekend. Nothing fancy just a cute, small, little house for Chris and the boys. We looked at a few houses yesterday and I fell in love with one but there was already an offer on it. I'm really gonna miss not living in the country, not having the pool, pond, hiking trails and an agility agility field all in my backyard but we are only going to be living no further than 40 mins away, so we can also come use all of that whenever when want too :).

 With regional coming up next weekend I really want to step out of my comfort zone. When it came time for AKC Nationals I told myself  "Stay in your comfort zone, don't do anything your not comfortable with". I also told myself that I wasn't going to go out of my comfort zone and push Ace. I didn't need to win but I need 3 clean rounds. I didn't wanna risk that Q or that not clean round. Ace decided in Hybrid he would push himself and act like superman over the teeter blowing our chances of the finals ;). But hey, he was pumped, I was pumped and no regrets. I feel like its time to get out of the comfort zone. He is 5 and hes not that crazy, brainless 2 yr old he once was. He can handle it. My very very most uncomfortable thing is pushing in JWW. JWW isn't our strong suit to begin with and the thought of really pushing in JWW is scary(ha!). I really wanna start letting him watch dogs more(not comfortable with that cause he used to get way high and lose his brain as a 2 even 3 yr old) and pushing him in local JWW more and at the regional. I mean what do I have to lose? A pesky QQ?! So be it!

We are training at a friends house tonight. I need to re train Ace's contacts and the pony needs some fine tuning. Sometimes I feel like 2o2o has more maintenance than running does! I think its safe to say I like training with friends more than showing at local shows. Maybe that will change some day or maybe not. Or maybe I just need to move to Europe and show there. Now that doesn't sounds like such a bad idea! ;)

Hello blog!!!!

Why, hello blog!! I honestly totally forgot about my blog. It's been over a year and I am now writing one. You know, I never liked to write in High School. Maybe it had to do with me really not liking school or maybe, because every time I had to write something it was never in my interest? Whatever the case I enjoy writing now(even if I'm not so great at it;)) more than I have never have. I love to blog, not because people get to read about my life but to be able to look back to see what I was doing an a certain today is pretty cool if you ask me! Plus, reading about other people life is pretty awesome too!

Chris and I have started to look for places to live. We have been living with my parents for almost a year now and its time to move on with our lives. The fact that we are even looking for places is really scary! Me..living in a house..without my parents?! It's just a weird/scary/grown up thought. I'm 21 now..making my own money..paying for my own bills, its time. We have looked at both apartments and houses and we have not decided on either a house or apartment. Also, we may have a new puppy in a few months if the breeding takes(for Chris cause hes never had a dog of his own!), so 3 border collies in an apartment doesn't quite appeal to me or Chris ;). We still have lots of looking around to go and decisions to make but at least we are looking and thinking. One of the reasons I don't want a house is when it comes time to sell it. Chris and I plan to move to Southern California in the future and the thought of packing and selling a house doesn't appeal to me. On the other hand an apartment doesn't appeal to me cause paying 700$ a month on something this isn't mine kinda sucks! We should have something figured out in a month or hopefully sooner haha.

We have a new puppy in the house! We fostered him and his brother but the blue dogs brother had to be put to sleep due to distemper. He was seizing and he looked rough. The blue guy is looking great and if he pulls through my parents will be keeping him! Hes spunky with a lot of drive! He will be a handful for sure!!!

I have been traveling for agility  a lot. First, Reno,NV for AKC nationals then we just recently got back from Hopkins, MN for World Team Tryouts! We are off to Ft. Worth next weekend for regionals then to the IL regional then Kansas regional (well MO now) then before you know if USDAA nationals will be here!!!!!!!!!! In between the FT. Worth regionals and the IL/MO regional we are going to Hawaii for vacation but The Boyfriend and dogs get to stay home :(. We will be gone for 2 weeks! Lots and lots of fun adventures coming up!!!!


"Oh darling, let's be adventurers"