on the hill

You may recall some photos last fall of the dogs on a giant pile of dirt. This 'mountain' was the result of digging the pond. Finally - this dirt is leaving our property! But before it is totally gone, I decided to shoot some new photos of Cash and Sophie on the hill - which makes for a mostly sky back drop.

First image - we have the boy we all know and love looking goofy as usual...

However, the young man can occasionally put on a more serious demeanor to appear regal and handsome...

Really love this one - so peaceful and dreamy...

However - the silly puppy comes back quickly for a roll in the grass :)

Now, Sophie on the other hand, had one mindset while on the hill - freaked out. There were very few shots of her that didn't make her look like a total crack head. Here's two that weren't terrible...

I like the angles on this one - its a bit French Vogue - ha ha!

Posing Pups with Pansies

OK - so the flowers aren't pansies... but it made for a cute title!

The Kids - Left to Right -

Jesse, Cash, Sophie

My girlie-girl, Sophie, LOOKS so pretty with the flowers even though she is the toughest thing in my house.

My uncooperative girl, Jesse, says "I will not look at your face with that thing in front of it." She hates the camera some days...

ALL boy - Mr. Cash says NO WAY to posing with flowers! He much prefers the shrubs!

Very handsome boy - as he alerts to the chainsaw noise in the distance...

Then, off to Allentown, to see the C.W. Corgi Princess - Miss Summer!

I am so glad I got this shot - I wanted a 'sniffing' shot all day with my kids and they wouldn't cooperate!And peaking - how cute is that puppy???
HEY! Those might be PANSIES!

Q!

Our agility drought is OVER - or at the very least, temporarily drizzled upon! Sophie Q'd today in Open Jumpers at SOJAC - a Q with second place! This is leg #2 toward our OAJ.

Very nice judge for not calling a refusal on jump #3 if I do say so myself...

one day late...

Better late than never...

Happy 4th of July!

And Mr. Cash says ...

I'll take any extra picnic food that is left over - I'm ready with my bib!

Happy 6th Birthday to the SOFA DOG!!!

Sophie turned 6 today! Here are some silly pictures of her running a bit of agility in the birthday bandanna :)

I LOVE her ears when she jumps :)

That's a happy birthday girl if I ever saw one!

Here's to many more happy, healthy years for the little red-dog!

updates - long time coming!

Sorry for the lack of posts - been a little distracted and busy during the month of March. After the snow at the start of the month, I enjoyed a week with the stomach flu. Then, my Momma fell ill, with what turned out to be a ruptured appendix! Then, my Papa came down with shingles. Not much time for photography and puppy stories with a month of illness! The good news is that Momma is on the mend, Papa's shingles are almost totally cleared up and life is getting back to normal for everyone!

So - what's happened since our last post?

On March 18th Jesse turned 6! I can't believe she's been in my life for 6 years... She is such a peaceful creature.

On March 21st and 22nd Sophie and I trialed at Dream Park again - SOJAC trial. This was a special trial for us for many reasons. First, our judge for the weekend was family! Clyde Closson - owner of Cash-man's grandma "Rosie" was the judge. This was Clyde's first official judging assignment and he designed some beautiful courses! Sophie Q'd in his Open Standard course on Saturday (Q#2 for OA). Then she Q'd in Novice Fast to finish her NF title - taking Second Place! On Sunday, Sophie took Third Place in Open Standard to finish her OA title! (Her time was actually the fastest in her class, but she lost points with a wrong course and refusal, so she came in third) Our Jumper's runs were not bad, but not worth talking about either...

On March 27th and 28th Sophie and I trialed in Freehold - Afghan Hound Cluster trials. Our Friday Open Jumpers run was AWESOME! We took first place and had a beautiful run. She was fast and connected to me. The run felt 'right' - a great feeling! We also ran in Excellent Standard - but fell off the table and couldn't manage the tricky weave pole entry. Saturday was also a great day, but no Q's. Excellent Standard was another amazing run, but a handler error sent Sophie into the wrong end of a tunnel - NQ :( Open Jumpers was at the very end of a long day and we were both shot - not our best effort and another NQ. Either way, showing on Saturday was a great way to spend my birthday.

Cash started a 'super star' puppy class on the 16th with one of the area's premiere obedience instructors. What a great class this is! He and I are learning so much - and its so nice to be starting off on the right foot!

This coming weekend is a big one - Lorie Jolly Field Training seminar at my house hosted by New Jersey Pine Barrens Golden Retriever Club. This should be a really cool experience and to make it even better, Cash-man's family is coming to visit again :)

Sophie's rear cross froze over hell...

And now we have almost a foot of snow! Thus, more snow pictures...

Thanks Sophie - Mamma needed a day off after getting up so early all weekend for the trials!

This might be one of my favorite pictures of Miss Sophie Dog... She is such a pretty red girl!

Under all that snow is the Jesse Dog. She likes to roll in snow, nuzzle her face in snow, run in snow, eat snow, etc...

Snow makes the Jesse Dog a very happy red girl!

Then there's that blonde thing...

The dialogue for this portion of the pictures sounds something like this:

the Mamma: "Mr. Cash - look! Cash-man, wanna cookie? Mamma has cookies!" big sigh...Cash wanders off...
the Mamma: "Mr. Cash - COME! Mr. Cash - COME NOW! You little %#*$-er, get your @$$ over here NOW! Cash-man, COME COOKIES NOW!"

the Cash-man: "Mamma, calm down. I'm here now. Pictures are stupid in the snow, but I'll sit for a minute. You better hurry up though..."

the Cash-man: "then I gotta go... It's far more fun to run and play in the snow than sit still for stupid pictures! Ready girls... Let's GO!"

Chaos begins, as the Mamma shuffles into the house to warm up and get more cookies... muttering aloud,

"Stupid %#*$-ing dogs... Please let spring come soon!"

If you too are having a snow day, we all hope you enjoyed it!

What a weekend!

This was the first weekend of agility trials for the area. DCKC trial was held at Dream Park in South Jersey - awesome indoor site!

Cash's family came to visit - Uncle Nikon, half-sister Snapshot, and brother Trey. Kris and Karen Hocker drove them down to compete at the trials. It was great seeing Cash-man's family. This put some real perspective on just how big the youngster has gotten! He dwarfs his brother! Karen took some shots of the boys together - I'll post them as soon as I get them :)

The trip was a great one for Karen and her kids. Huge congrats to Uncle Nikon for going 6 for 6 in Excellent B to complete his MACH 3! And huge congrats to the baby dog - Snapshot - for finishing up her Excellent Titles, earning lots of MACH points, and earning her first double Q toward her MACH! Me thinks Karen and the kids should come down our way more often! We loved having them!

Sophie and I entered for Saturday and Sunday. I really wasn't sure what to expect since its been so long since we last trialed - since NOVEMBER! I spent the week feeling nervous and unprepared...

On Saturday she played well, but had a few moments that blew the Q's. On Sunday though, she pulled it (almost all the way) together for a Q in Open Standard - one wrong course, but her idiot handler sent her there! There are no videos of the qualifying run at the moment - as I had a superstitious moment and realized our last Q was the last run we DIDN'T tape... so I didn't 'officially' tape the run, but some friends taped it anyway! We'll try to link to that video later... Sophie took 2nd place in her Standard run - nice job for the rescue kid!

For now, here's video of the NQ's on Saturday. There are some moments of brilliance in there (look carefully - I swear they're in there!).

OMG - did anyone see that rear cross? Lora and Sophie did a rear cross! No wonder we got a foot of snow today - it's usually a cold day in hell when we pull that move off!!!

Damn table - gotta work on that!

What a fun and memorable weekend! Can't wait till the next trials!

more snow!

"Before this gets started, let me just say, that I think its NONSENSE. These two run around like idiots. Don't they know there's work to be done? Skills to practice? All this running, chasing and (ugh) playing...its disgusting...

I mean, the poles are still in the yard guys! We can still train! Stop the sillyness!!!"

"No way Sophie! The boy isn't as agile today - I can actually CATCH him when the white stuff is on the ground!"

(insert sound effects... 'BANG, CRASH, BOOM!' ...think Batman cartoons)

"WHOA Lady! Its called 'playing'! Fun, remember???"

That's right Cash-man, shake it off. The girls are very serious sometimes.

Respect your elders and you will live to see your first birthday.

Family Pictures ... The Reincarnation of an August Shot

It was requested that I re-do the family portrait taken in August. The 'baby' is huge now in comparison to the girls, so it was time for a re-shoot.

In our first image, we have the kids cooperating.

Though Miss Jesse Dog refuses to smile...

Left to right - Cash, Jesse, Sophie

In our next image, we have Miss Jesse Dog showing her true emotions toward her canine house mates...

"I can't stand these two beside me... One day, I will get them..."

And in our final image, we have Mr. Cash attempting to show Miss Jesse Dog his love.

If she strained her neck much farther away from his kisses, I think her head might fall off!

Tug of war...

Sophie and Cash played tug of war in the snow...

Actually, Cash was playing, Sophie was all business...

Too bad for Sophie - Cash out weighs her by almost 20#s!

Cash says "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Training with snow flurries...

OK - maybe it was barely snowing, but I was still out there training Cash and 'weather proofing' Sophie. It wasn't too cold so it was fun to be out today. Cash did a bit of jump work and weaves entries, while Sophie and I focused on weaves. Enjoy the videos...

Here we have Cash in the horse shoe grid. He is getting so big that he took some of the jumps as doubles...not exactly the point of this exercise! 5 Jumps, set at 8" and at about a 45 degree angle to one another. Then we moved on to some entry training with the poles...

And for Miss Sophie Dog it was all about weaves. First, the send through 12 poles...

And the soft side angle work that we need so desperately...

And the hard side entries that come so naturally...

a little more snow...

It appears that our part of Jersey will remain snow-free this year. Each time the weather-man calls for snow, we get a dusting at most. Not very exciting for me, as all I think of when I hear the word snow is ... SNOW DAY!!! However, the dusting made the kids happy and inspired me to go outside, freeze my right hand off and take a few pictures of the kids. Enjoy...

Mr. Cash is really not THAT much bigger than the girls. The sidewalk slopes, and Jesse is at the lowest point.

He is, however, growing up to be soooo handsome!

Sophie, hiding from the brother... She's not that fond of him when he is off leash and out doors. She will stay better than the other two though!

Santa came - even for Mr. Cash!

Santa did not disappoint the goldens! Despite the rowdy behavior of late, presents were delivered for the furry kids in my house.

Mr. Cash, Sophie and Jesse all received stuffed ducks with Santa hats on - that honk! If you were not already aware of this, please take note... HONKING toys are the very best toys on the planet!

Sophie promptly took the hat off her duck. She felt strongly that ducks should not be wearing hats.

Jesse thought that Sophie's plan was a good one and made quick work of her duck's hat as well...

Mr. Cash had is toy in private and has managed to keep the hat. He is a metro sexual puppy - he likes accessories!

See... accessories! Isn't he the cutest?!?

The kids also got giant hedge hog toys. They also honk so they also rock :)

Santa also delivered an A-Frame and a new tunnel. That would be Santa:AKA Grandma & Grandpa for the A-Frame and Mikey for the tunnel!

We had a wonderful holiday and hope that you all had a blast as well!

Happy Holidays!

Thought it was about time to share the 'good shots' from our holiday card shoot :)

Jesse - being the perfect pet as always... put the hat on and she turns into a statue instantly! What a good old gurly she is!

Sophie - though rather disgusted with the idea of WEARING the hat, she thought that holding the holiday toy was quite good and tried to smile with it in her mouth. If only we held the dumbbell that well in obedience...hmmmm...

Cash - Mr. Serious for the pictures...but the minute I put the camera down ~ look out! He's a holly terror the last few weeks. I guess that feeling better and gaining weight equals behaving badly! This is a very serious situation - Santa may not come for Mr. Cash if he continues down the naughty path!

Photo by my wonderful and patient Momma - Carol Durr

Cash, Lora, Jesse and Sophie in the front.

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy and done with your shopping!!!