Posted: 20 Jul 2009 12:30 PM PDT

We got a little behind in sharing some dog agility info, tips, sites and more. Some of this info you may have found already, but anyways...let's get to it!

Silvia came out with her Summer tricks video, love it! (There's also a new vid of the Labubi Drum Band :)

We ran across this great list of FCI and World Championship winners from 1992-2008.

Our friends Hugo and Kissy from Portugal had some fun with a box last month. I think they like playing with boxes as much as we do!

The IFCS 2010 website is up and running. The 5th IFCS World Agility Championships 2010, May 14th – 16th, 2010, Hand Equestrian Centre, Clevedon, North Somerset, BS21 6TG, United Kingdom.

Check out some of these runs with Silvia, La and Bu. Very interesting discrimination work, and turning after a running dogwalk.

Surfing around we found this great site Spass-mit-hund (which in German means, Fun for Dogs). They have a lot of cool, fun ideas on how you can have fun with your dog doing tricks and utilizing everyday items for interesting play. Here's the German translation. If that doesn't work, go here :)

If you haven't yet seen the new Running Contacts blog, check it out. It's got clips of lot of folks utilizing a variety of techniques to teach running contacts.

Here's another little trick vid from we believe Sian Davies from Scotland. Mostly basic tricks but we picked up a couple of new ideas. Check out her YouTube channel for more.

Here's a clip from Rachel Sanders's CRIC presentation on The Pre-Sports Puppy. The complete DVD is available from Clean Run.
Clean Run has a great article in their magazine article section - it's The Ultimate Doggie Swimming Hole - I want one!

There's a new UK Dog Agility Magazine. Here's the website. Looks like eventually they may have some great little articles from some top European competitors. Keep an eye out.

Special thanks to aurea.userworld.com for finding some of this info for us to share.

More info on this weeks European Open coming in the next day or so, stay tuned!

I's a gas, gas, gas!

Posted: 20 Jul 2009 12:26 PM PDT

Love that song!

But its all right now, in fact, its a gas!
But its all right. I'm jumpin jack flash,
It's a gas! gas! gas!

That song gets me movin! And it also was the first thing Mum and I thought about when we (think?) we discovered something that's been going on with me the past couple of weeks. Listen along while you read if you want :)

So you may remember that Mum thought I was having some tightness in my iliopsoas. I'd be playing and wrestling with Gracie, then suddenly I'd want to come inside, lie down in my bed or the nearest comfy commercial furniture and not want to come up for quite a while. This happened once the week before last, and once last week. Mum gave me a couple of days and then, viola!, I was fine, and completely back to my wacky self.

Last week when it happened Mum poked me all over trying to find out where it hurt. I stretched out my back legs, nothing...She was baffled and gettin' kinda worried.

So, it just came to happened that our friend Coryelle, who is an animal communicator, emailed us the last day it happened. Mum got bold and decided to ask her if she would be willing to 'talk' to me and see what was up. Could save us $100's of bucks and wouldn't that be nice!

So Coryelle called Mum last week from Germany and said that she thought it was something like a gas bubble in my stomach/side area. And that it hurt a lot, but we 'released' it was gone. So they got to talking about what diet changes I had had recently and Mum instantly remembered that each day I got the 'bubble' was the day that she mixed my glucosomine/chondroitin supplement with my kibble and yogurt. Well, well, well...she stopped doing it and guess what, no gas! And so far so good.

Mum is going to try the supplement with me on it's own, then she's gonna try it with my kibble to see if that food combo affects me. But you can bet she's not gonna combine the yogurt and the supplement!

When Mum was growing up, her Mum talked a lot about food combinations and how you shouldn't eat certain foods like breads and fruits at the same time, for example, because it doesn't digest together and you receive much more of the benefits of the foods when eaten separately.

Interesting stuff. Guess time will tell.

Fun weekend!

Posted: 20 Jul 2009 12:16 PM PDT

We had a pretty fun weekend! It was super cool outside, so of course we spent as much time as possible outside.

We got in a little hiking, too busy smellin' to look at the camera.

I think we would have gone further and further. But after hours it started to wear Mum out. Guess she needs some of those Clarks shoes to keep her going longer :)

Later we took a nap with Mum on the human bed. Gotta love that! Gracie and I each have our own spots. I like the foot of the bed, so I can keep an eye out for the kitties.

Gracie likes a nice pillow to cuddle with during her nap. Then Mum gets the middle section, until we both start cuddling close to her. Gracie likes to lay completely spread along Mum's back, and I like to cuddle near her neck on the other side. We're goofy that way :)