Crow's Hill Farm updates

Hana goes MAD!!!

2012-03-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

No, not in a crazy way.. but in a new title way! MASTER Agility dog!
Such a good little girl! She also finished her Gamble Master at Feel The Rush's Trial in Hamden CT this past Saturday.
So proud of my little over achiever!

A Chance of a lifetime....

2012-03-05T13:52:00.003-08:00

After an exciting and fun weekend, reality hit this morning as I opened my Facebook account to see the news that Rumor's sire, Chance had passed..HOF BISS MBIS ASCA/AKC CH Caitland's Isle Take a Chance STDs RS-E JS-E GS-E AX AXJ TDI... 2006 Crufts winner

What and incredibly sad day for the aussie community.. Chance was one in a million... beauty and brains. Just look at all those titles before and after his name....I am so proud to have his son.
I had admired Chance for a long time, he came from the same breeder as my late Austin. I remember checking the internet every few hours that spring in 2006 when Chance was at Crufts to see him first take the breed, then the group, then BEST IN SHOW!!! It was so exciting to be part of his family in some small way.

I became an even bigger part of his family in 2007 with the birth of his son Rumor. I am so proud to have a small piece of aussie history living with me.

Chance was one in a million, one in a lifetime.. there will never be another like him. Thank you Cathy for the choices you made to produce him. Thank you Nancy for loving him and sharing him with us and allowing Kathy to breed him to Ayr to produce my boy Rumor..

Chance, you will never be forgotten... my heart breaks for Nancy and Cathy tonight... you will be greatly missed... Rest in peace Chance man...

BARK!!!

2012-03-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

Another awesome weekend at BARK!! Went up Friday night for three classes, Hana started off the weekend with a bang getting another jumpers leg, but also her final SQ for her Snooker Master!! Rumor also Q'd in snooker and gamblers.
When all was said and done, Rumor Q'd in 13/15 runs and Hana 9/15 and finished her SM and SCH!! (Snooker Champion)
Had a great time the courses were hard, but so much fun, had two lovely dinners out with friends - a wonderful way to spend the weekend!

One day of ASCA

2012-02-26T08:14:00.000-08:00

Took Hana and Roo to the ASCA trial on Sat up at All Dogs Gym in NH. I feel like I live at ADG :) Been up there every weekend this winter...

Roo had a great day, going 4 for 4 ... he is a professional gamble dog, see below:

Hana B Nana had a great day also! She was a bit wild in jumpers and made up her own course, but was very happy.. had two excellent tries at the Gambles.. She was going too fast to get her entrance in the weave gamble (above) and for the second gamble, really worked to figure out where I was telling her to go, and did, but after she had put her foot on the aframe... nice work though. Her first standard run was incredible. 34.88 seconds and would have been even faster if I hadn't slowed her down with poor handling and a 1 second hold on the dog-walk. Her second Elite reg run was going to be faster when I tried a rear cross at the poles that I knew was too close and then a misdirect over the 3rd to last jump ... again my handling! But she was going fast enough, even with those two mistakes to get a 10pt Q! Good girlie B Nana!

Hana TOTALLY awesome!

2012-02-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

So much for wondering if I had an agility dog... there is nothing else to say except Hana was absolutely freaking unbelievable this this weekend at ADG.

She finished her JM -Jumper Master in the first class of the day, got her second snooker Super Q, got the hard, weave pole gamble, her second Master's standard Q and her first Grand Prix Q!!!

But the absolute best part is not the Q's.. Each and every time we step to the line, we go for broke. I run her like I train her and I expect she will do her contacts and she will do her weave poles and she will drive forward like she does at home and I do my part not to become a weird freaky handler who changes because a Q is on the line and we run like there is no tomorrow!

She is so much fun and she has a blast and that is all that matters... and because the Q's are not what I am after and because she can do no wrong in my mind...she is *1* Q away from her MAD and *8* Q's away from her ADCH!!!!!!!

If she keeps on this track, she will be the youngest dog I have ever had to ADCH, I never thought anyone could beat Rumor, but if she does, it will only be because we have fun and nothing more!

My little engine that could.. from the dog I was worried about. I am so lucky.. simply the best!

More precious metal!

2012-02-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

Went into the weekend needing two Q's for LAA-Silver and Rumor pulled it off!!!!!!!!
So proud of my boy and to finish out the day, he won GP for a bye at the Regionals!! What an awesome dog, I am so lucky he is my partner!!!

ADCH- Gold Rumor

2012-02-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

As I talked about in the post below, when Austin died in July 2010, he was only a handful of Qs away from ADCH-Gold.
At the trial we attended the next weekend I decided my goal for Rumor would be to get that title in honor of Austin.

Yesterday Feb 4, 2012 we accomplished that goal at the BARK! trial in NH!!

Thank you Rumor for being such an incredible partner, a truly amazing partner! Until yesterday, there were only 163 dogs... of any breed... and only 13 Aussies to have this title, now there is one more and to do it at only 4 years old is almost beyond my comprehension! What an incredible young dog and partner he is.

Huge thanks go out to our incredible relay partners Anne Derby and Spirit!! Thanks ladies!!!!

Good boy RooRoo, Good boy!!!

One down... one to go....

2012-01-29T13:08:00.000-08:00

In July of 2010 my heart dog Austin was only a handful of Qs from ADCH-Gold, I was looking forward to his achieving that title. I had never gotten an ADCH-Gold with any of my dogs and Austin was my special boy, so I was thrilled to do it with him.
Sadly, we never reached that title, Austin died unexpectedly from that dreadful cancer hermangioscarcoma.
I got myself together and somehow we attended the trial we had entered that next weekend, what better to way to grieve than with friends who understand. It was at that trial that I decided Rumor and I would go for Gold, in honor of his cousin Austin.
And now, here we are.. a year and half later and one Q away from that goal.
To say Rumor has been a good partner in this journey has been an understatement.. He has been an incredible partner. He has risen to every challenge asked of him and has never given up. I owe him a lot. So much so that next weekend, when we get that final pairs Q *IF* we get that final pairs Q... because if it doesn't happen next weekend, it will surely happen soon...Rumor will get that title in honor of Austin, but also in honor of himself.. for shinning Gold out from the darkness of loss.
Thanks Rumor, after Gold... our goal for just us... Platinum...

Happy Birthday Hana!!!

2012-01-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

Happy 2nd birthday to my beautiful baby girl! I can't believe two years have gone by already. You are one special little dog beautiful girl and I am so happy to have you in my life!

Hana Relay Master!!!

2012-01-22T03:10:00.000-08:00

WOOHOO Hana's first Master's title!! Relay Master! Thanks to all the fabulous partners she has had!!
She's a rock star! Now she needs a better handler! This girl is going places :) She was growling with excitement on the dogwalk yesterday at BARK NH! How much fun is that! Love this baby dog!

USDAA 2011....

2012-01-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

So, if things stay as they are, Rumor is once again a Top Ten dog in the 26" class!!!
Snooker, for sure, he is sitting in 7th place. In Master's Standard he is in 10th place. He is also the number one Australian Shepherd in the country in the 26 inch class!!

Not bad for a four year old!

ASCA Winter Blast

2012-01-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Went to ASCNE's winter blast agility trial yesterday and had, well, a blast! Hana got her first Elite gamble! A send away 180 to the weaves to a jump at the max distance of about 20ft, I never thought she would do it! But do it she did! Plus she wracked up 35 points in the opening and won the class! Rumor did the gamble also - of course - but dropped the second jump :(
Hana was flying all day, doing her jumpers run in 6+ yps!!! She missed a jump, so it would have been a hair slower, but not by much. She also ran awesome in regular and got a 5pt elite Q. Knocked more bars than what is normal for her, but I think I was pushing her and she was getting flat.
Rooie did great also, getting the other Elite gamble and two regular Qs. I also ran Bill Haggis's Callie and Red, Callie is 11 and Q'd in all 3 of her classes. Red, Callie's daughter was flying and pulled out of her poles, didn't see it to fix it, and got a 5pt Q in her second run. Fun day!
Below is Hana's jumpers run, thanks to a friend for filming!

Hailey and Hana Bark Master's Pairs 1-8-2012

2012-01-15T04:02:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much to Lauren and Hailey for running with us, even though Lauren thought Hailey might have had a enough running for the weekend.
So glad this was filmed! I love watching baby girl's dogwalk in this!

http://youtu.be/E2O5PLRqp-M

How to handle an "E"

2012-01-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

Baby girl's Master standard "E" at Bark on Sunday.. she's got no idea that nothing went wrong and that's they way I want it!

I was in a terrible place for the second jump, need to work on that! I pushed her out of the weaves, so we had to restart, she knows her job, I got in her way. Contacts are gorgeous! Bit of a self release on that dogwalk, but she didn't loose them after that and stopped and waited later in the day.

So proud of this little girl!

BARK! Weekend!!

2012-01-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

Fantastic weekend at the BARK! trial in NH! Rooie and I started out a little slow on Saturday, he pretty much had his own agenda in a few of the classes, shooting out of tunnels and not looking to me for direction. I think he was just feeling good and happy to be running, but it's tough when you count on him to be someplace and he's not! Shades of running Willow again! However, he got his game back on today and was where I needed him to be. He finished the weekend with 6 Qs including his Jumper Champion - Gold and Snooker Champion - Gold! Only Pairs left to our goal of ADCH-Gold - Something I am trying to get to in honor of my late Austin, who was only a handful of Q's from Gold when he died.

Little miss Hana rocked the house this weekend! Coming home with 6 Q's herself, but the best part is her speed and confidence are growing with each run! He contacts and weaves are incredible, her dogwalk is amazing! Flying across it, catching air on the up and then hitting the end and stopping.. just like she's trained! Amazing weekend! I am so proud of my baby girl!
Below is one of her jumper runs, I so wish I had gotten that dogwalk on tape!

Bark!

2012-01-05T15:51:00.000-08:00

BARK! agility trial this weekend! Can't wait! Here's hoping baby girl is just as happy and enthusiastic this coming weekend as she was last weekend. That will be my biggest victory! We have practiced contacts and weaves this week, tomorrow night we will do one more session of fun, fast practice and cross our fingers!

Confidence and contacts....

2012-01-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of days I have been talking with some friends about Hana's first full weekend in Master's and how she was a totally different dog than the one I brought out this summer. For lack of a better word, my baby girl Hana has some, what I like to call, "environmental" stress issues. She has challenged me in ways that my other dogs have not.

Holly and Rumor are soft dogs. Holly, being my first aussie had to put up with me being a novice handler and novice handler mistakes. My biggest, slowing that girl down to make up for my inadequate handling. Once I figured out what I had done, I sought of advice from people like Julie Daniels ~ who told me she had to be "obnoxious" on the start line and Elicia Calhoun who told me "I needed to put as much energy into the run as I expected her too" I have never forgotten those two pieces of advice. Holly went from a dog 2 seconds under course time, to 25 seconds under course time or more when she retired.

Willow and Austin were different challenges. Both were high drive and had a ton of "engine". I wasn't ready for a dog like Willow when I got her. I wish she were a young dog now. With them I found out there were much more pieces to this puzzle that I hadn't thought about. I was always very good at teaching my dogs weave poles. Both Willow and Austin had killer weave poles. Everything else.. well.. not so much. Both dogs did not have start line stays, both suffered from major contact issues their whole careers. Willow was a horrible bar knocker and I learned to compensate for my lack of jump training, and ground training by being a reactive handler instead of a proactive handler. There was always a lot of screaming going on as Willow raced off in the opposite direction. Austin, was more biddable, and a better jumper, but was not thoroughly trained on his contacts so we always lost time there, but we became a great team, even with the contact short comings...

Rumor is Holly in a boy suit. Very soft, low drive. I saw that as an 8 week old puppy. So I started from the very beginning with drive training. He has never known anything but running in drive...and it shows, people who see him now can't believe he's actually a low drive dog. But once again, I lacked in my training. I was determined this dog would have start line stay (which he does) and I thought I had trained contacts, but guess what? I hadn't. He too has slow contacts, always asking here, here before he leaves..killer weaves though!

So along comes Hana. Hana gets here, after 3 days of travel from her breeder's in Canada and looks at me and says "who the H*@@ are you and where the H@@@ am I? I had a challenge ahead. Her training began on day two. I knew building a relationship with her was going to take time. So we started training. To make a long story short. Hana and I train every single day. We started doing contacts on a board every single day once she was old enough. For 5 or 10 minutes. I had no idea how much training actually went into to good stopped contacts until I had to work with her to build our relationship! We worked on other things too, tricks, directionals, pole entrances anything I could think of always in short bursts. She's has the best ground skills of any dog I have ever trained. When I brought her out in Aug, she was ready... her skills were ready.. but her brain said something else. I have never had a dog who worried about the environment, the ring crew, other dogs, the judge. She'd get on the line and trot off. Where is that speed I see on sheep??? Worried, I wasn't being sincere, I was cheer-leading.

A friend pointed that out to me ~ thanks Lauren ~ so I changed. I went to confidence, to knowing that she knew what to do and all I had to do was convince her she could do it in new places by running her with confidence. Yes, she has those contacts, yes she has those poles. No she will not worry about the ring crew, or the dogs on line, or the chute. She will be fine, she can do this .. *I* will be there for her 1000% and not let her down.

Guess what? Barking sassy, Hana is here... sassy as all get out, (sometimes a bit too much but that's OK for now) with perfect contacts, perfect weave poles and a perfect start line stay! Will it always be perfect? Or at least perfect in my eyes, absolutely. We will have our challenges, we will need to learn to be a team, we may have some stress issues to deal with, but we can do it, because she is perfect. No matter what.

Contact!!

2012-01-01T08:11:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a way to end the year! Hana and Rumor had incredible runs at Contact in Hamden CT on 12/31/11.
Rumor went 3/5 - A miscue on my part made him think he was doing the gamble he had over the Thanksgiving weekend at AGD and he flipped back into the tunnel instead of taking the jump.. good boy for reading me correctly! The tire had a very light magnet and a brush by him cost us a Q. I totally get the need for a breakaway tire, but I think there should be some standard for how much force it takes to break it. He's a big dog and he barely touched it. Shame to loose a Q on a lovely run for that! He then went on to get his 32 Relay w/ Bobb and Tailer, his 34th snooker and his 33 jumper.. oh so close to Gold! 18 from LAA-Silver now!

Then there was Hana ~ her first full weekend in Masters and she was a rockstar!! We have had some issues with stress (more on that later) and I have worked very hard to learn to work through them and this weekend proved I am on the right tract! For the first time she went away from me the Master's distance and did the tough gamble that only 5 22 inch dogs did! Her first Master Gamble Q!! In Standard I felt like she was on the edge of control at times and once had to sort of stop to get us back together, she did a PERFECT Aframe while I moved laterally to the next obstacle ~ gosh it was gorgeous ~ and ended up with her first Master Standard Q. She Q'd in Pairs with my friend Anne and her girl Arwen, Q'd in Master Snooker and had a bar in jumpers, but ran really fast and finished so happy! It was a great day. I am beyond thrilled with the two of them!

The beach!

2011-12-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

Fun fun afternoon at East Matunuck State Beach! First time for the dogs at a real "big" beach like this. They loved it! Rumor chased a seagull into the surf.. not the smartest move :) it was cold! We all had a great time walking from breaker to breaker, it was cold, but not too bad. Photos will be posted to the website tomorrow! But here are a couple now!

Steere again.....

2011-12-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

Only about 20 degrees this morning.. so we decided to do Steere without the Heritage Park loop and I tracked it to see how long it was as it will be a nice length for daily walks. Turned out to be 3 miles. Perfect for everyday! Such a great place and so glad that it is there and hunting isn't allowed. It's nice to have a place to walk at this time of year.

Steere without Heritage park

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Providence, Rhode Island

Speed training...

2011-12-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

I do my training w/ Hana (and Rumor) in quick bursts. We will be out there five or ten minutes and I will work on what I want to work on with a lot of excitement and a high reward rate. Today I decided I wanted to run her over the contacts, making a big loop with quick releases. I was rewarded with her leaping the apex on the dog walk! She will nail her contact and wait for the OK to release, even when I toss food in front of her nose.
We also do a few quick runs through weave poles and some distance. She's ready for the weekend!

Another long hike...

2011-12-28T08:07:00.001-08:00

Did the same trail as yesterday without the extra loop. Took the old gals today and they made out just fine. Pretty cool that a dog Holly's age can go for such a long hike!

Finally!!

2011-12-27T11:33:00.001-08:00

It is the website is done and posted to the internet!

6.5 mile hike

2011-12-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

Vacation week!! Decided to explore all the new trails on the Steere Farm land trust and circle Heritage Park. Turned out to be a 6.5 mile hike! Roo and Hana came alone, felt kind of guilty, but I didn't want to tire out Holly and Willy too much. Tomorrow I will take the older girls and maybe cut it short by a mile or so.
Check out the trip on EveryTrial, posted below!

Steere Farm-Heritage Park

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Providence, Rhode Island

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T11:03:00.001-08:00

A week ago I started this new blog to go along with the new website.. and the website isn't done yet.. so no one is reading this :) But when they do.. Merry Christmas and Joy to the world says Hana B Nana! Hopefully I will finish and post the website in a day or two. I want to be ready for the new year and all our adventures!

Time for a change...

2011-12-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Since loosing Austin in July 2010, I haven't felt much like updating my old website, so it's been sitting idol for almost a year. Time for a change.. Today I am working on my new, crisp, simple website and using this blog to tie in our updates and accomplishments. We will see how it goes!