Jackson Obedience Trial Weekend

Thursday and Friday Bern and Grace did AKC Obedience at the Jackson, MS cluster show.  So here is my take home points:

• Bern:  Open A Thursday NQ... it was horrid! (Geez maybe we should practice between shows?)  He didn't drop on his recall (the judge waited too late to signal) so then Bern was upset and bungled the remaining exercises.  Open A Friday was better but he still managed to NQ.  No dumbbell retrieves either day.  Laid down on his 3 minute mom out of sight sit both days.  He dropped on his recall Friday though.
• Grace:  Wildcard Novice Thursday she did pretty good.  She was in a large class and did not place.  We took the Stand For Exam as our Wild Card (not judged exercise); however, she laid down on her 1 minute sit so she lost all the points for that exercise.  Wildcard Open Friday she even better.  It was her best offlead healing score during her several Graduate Novice or Wildcard Open ring showings.  In fact her heeling score was better than Bern's heeling score for a similar pattern.  Grace laid down on her 3 minute out of site sit (our chosen wildcard) but then she forgot to go over the high bar one direction on her dumbbell retrieve so we lost all the points for that exercise (oops!).  Grace came in 3rd place but I was so pleased with her improved heeling.

Both dogs were rusty on their exercises so we are working to polish the exercises again now.  We did sit-stays before breakfast this morning.  I'm  hoping to work my Recallers 3.0 exercises more into our daily routine as well.

Bern had a dental appointment yesterday.  Since his teeth looked great on the x-rays,  the vet had extra time while he was knocked out.  Enough time for a baseline hip x-ray.   DVM Dr. B was pleased saying Bern has good genes referring to his teeth and hips.  I'm not an expert on viewing hip radiographs.  The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) grades hips from x-rays of the type taken of Bern as Normal (excellent, good, or fair) or Dysplastic (mild, moderate, or severe).  The OFA website has a nice discussion on hip socket formation and example hip x-ray photos.

On the Christmas front Red Stick Ringers rang handbells on Saturday at the River Center theater before both performances of the Nutcracker ballet.  Handbells are done for the year - and so is my left shoulder.  We start rehearing again after New Years.

I did some cleanup in the front ornamental garden bed on Sunday.  We've got someone coming to do some heavy lifting for us so we can build up the beds a bit.  For the veggies we ordered two more earthboxes during their holiday sale.  I'm working on figuring out how to contruct a veggie garden border using the Louisiana-proof [fake but expensive] lumber I bought earlier - either metal brackets or PVC pipe.  The advantage of PVC pipe would be that the pipe could slid over rebar to anchor the bed to the ground.  Hmmm... giving it some thought.  Lots of rain last night which will help with yard/garden work this coming week.

I've been on an item  loosing/misplacing streak the last few weeks: sunglasses lost in Oklahoma, nice gold earring lost last Thursday somewhere, abandoned Grace's dumbbell at the ring in Jackson (Beth G was kind and rescued it for me), got home without Bern's red leash from the vet yesterday.......  I'm so looking forward to a week off so I can relax and settle the confusion a bit.