Vallhund's First MACH Points!

I'm sorry this is a week late, but I'm finally writing the wrap-up from the Greater Kingsport Kennel Club AKC Agility Trial in White Pine, Tenn., the weekend of Oct. 12-13.

We'll start with LaMesa and her exciting first day. The Standard course had it's hard parts, but was doable. I just wanted LaMesa to listen to me through the whole thing, and she did! She had a beautiful running contact on the dog walk, wrapped nicely around the jump after the A-frame, and kept up with her rhythm through the weave poles. On the third to last jump I heard her hit it and was so disappointed if she knocked the bar, but luckily I looked back after we finished the run and saw it was still up. Yay! We ended up winning the 8-inch Regular and getting our first MACH points together--23 points!



Going into our Jumpers run, I was fighting back thoughts of "Could we get our first QQ today?" That type of thinking always comes back to bite me in the butt. I just have this fear it will be years before LaMesa and I can put together two consistent, clean runs in one day.

I walked this Jumpers course different ways for LaMesa, but I felt comfortable with the opening moves. I don't know why she popped out after the tenth pole--both of our paces were even. The rest of the course was nice--I was even able to get in a blind cross! Minus the knocked triple and the missed last jump (no clue why she does that every once in a while). I twisted my ankle at the last jump, which made my movements awkward, but that was after she missed the jump.



As good as our Standard run was on Saturday, it wasn't as good on Sunday. I don't have the video, but she started off so riled up and crazy! She took the first few jumps, then the table instead of the weaves. Then she popped out of the weaves again. After that, she was good--nailed a tight flip from the dog walk into the tunnel.

Jumpers I thought we could get more points here. There was so many ways I could have handled jumps 4-6 (rear crosses, multiple fronts, ketschker, blinds) but I loved the way I handled that segment with Dally, so I did the same with LaMesa. Unfortunately, she knocked #6 from being too tight I think. But she nailed her weaves and everything else, so I had to be happy with that run. I had hoped we'd be just as lucky with that jump as we were in standard on Saturday with that jump, but, nope, it was on the ground. Oh well.


I was happy with how LaMesa handled the deep dirt on Saturday. She seems to really excel in horse arenas such as this, compared to the smaller rings at Queen City. We're still melding as a team, but I'm happy we now only have 726 MACH points (and 20 QQs) to go! Hahaha

Next time, we'll wrap up Dally's weekend through the deep red dirt...

Wordless Wednesday: Government Shutdown = Sightseeing Fail

Agility Trial: Greater Kingsport Kennel Club AKC

This weekend the Stump Kids and I loaded up with Jodi, Dezi, and Maya and headed south for a weekend in the Great Smokey Mountains and some AKC agility!

Our judges were Laura English and Donna Dombourian and the trial took place in an indoor horse arena. Saturday the ground was very deep, and with the small dogs going first it was hard to get much speed. 

Here were our courses from the weekend: 

The Stump Kids' New Kitty

Last month we adopted a cat. It happened a little earlier than we expected–Matt and I had talked about the possibility, but we figured his cat, Sean, was happier on his own. After weeks of him meowing a lot, being needy, and basically starting to act like the dogs, we figured maybe he was lonely for some feline company.

I started volunteering at the Woodford Humane Society in Versailles earlier this summer, so I was basically already scoping out all the cats. We knew we wanted to get an adult (did you know that adult/senior animals are the hardest to adopt out?), and that the cat had to be alright with playful dogs and other cats, of course. See, our two dogs definitely love to play, whether it’s with us or the cats, so the cat has to be alright with that.

So we checked the online posts to narrow down the cats we wanted to see in person, then spent an hour or so at the humane society loving on all of the finalists and trying to decide who we liked. We purposely did not bring a carrier with us because we wanted to sleep on it and come back later. If we had had the carrier then, we probably would have made a quick decision–not good.

After a couple of days of thinking and talking it over, we went back to the humane society with two possible contenders in mind. Welcome Sarabi to our family: 

Yeah....she's a happy girl.

She’s a big sweetheart with the littlest “mew” voice. Her name, Sarabi, is Swahili for “Mirage” and is also the name of the mother lion on The Lion King (I couldn’t even recall her name!).

Caught her red-pawed in Matt's drawers.

She gets along well with Sean–we’ve caught them playing every once in a while. Her favorite hiding spots are under the beds, and she loves sitting in the open windows. (We have no clue how she’ll act when we actually have to close the house back up when it gets cold.) Though she doesn’t care much for the dogs…yet. She’s not really scared of them, just tries to ignore them for the most part. She teases LaMesa a lot to get her to chase her, but then LaMesa ends up being the one in trouble. Poor dog.

This is the first animal I’ve adopted from a humane society–all of my previous animals have been barn cat rescues, or from a breeder. But we definitely feel good with our decision.

Any tips on blending new cats with the old dogs?

Wordless Wednesday: It's the BaDonkADonk




Fat Corgis: Do You Have One?

In late September The Daily Corgi posted a great blog post by Vicki Combs, director of the Arizona Cactus Corgi Rescue. It was on managing weight in your Corgi. And it was spot on.

I encourage you to read the blog post here: Weighty Matters: The Skinny on Fat Corgis

This strikes home with me, not only because I have a Corgi, but because I'm always battling a weight issue personally, as well as with my dogs and other loved ones. I'm fortunate enough to fully understand what excess weight can do to any animal--Corgi or human--and try my best to prevent that from happening.

I am constantly watching Dally's weight. She gets a 1/2 cup of food at night, a "small sprinkle" in the morning, and maybe one small chewie a day (though most times LaMesa steals her chewies). Treats in our house mean a little cat food first thing in the am (whatever falls to the ground when we're feeding the cats), small cookies when we leave the house, and plate licks after dinner. However, both girls are very active, with 1.5-2 mile walks every morning, maybe another walk in the evening, agility practice, and lots of play time in the house.

Walking is one of the best ways to keep your Corgi fit and trim, and you, too!
(Special appearance by another fit Corgi, Porter!)

With LaMesa, I always worry she's too skinny, so she gets about a 1/4 cup food for breakfast and a full cup for dinner. The pup just keeps going, so it's like she has a non-stop metabolism! Dally's not as lucky, and I know that, so she's always on diet watch.

If I ever feel like maybe Dally's still hungry, I'll add some canned veggies to her meal. I hadn't thought about canned pumpkin, but after reading this blog post, I will now! It took Dally a while to be OK with having something added to her food, but now I think she thinks it's a special treat.

It's always funny when people put their hands on Dally because I know she looks like she can be a little hefty, but it's mostly fluff! If you get through her thick undercoat and feel, you can feel her ribs just fine. (I tried to find a photo I've taken of Dally during a bath to show what she looks like underneath her coat, but I've deleted them all, unfortunately!) Her weight fluctuates around 24 pounds for the most part.

Multi-tasking: Lunging your horse & Corgi for exercise...

Laurie later posted a Q&A with Vicki with some of TDC's readers' questions, so definitely give it a read: Winning the Weight Game: Q & A with Vicki Combs

How do you keep your dog (Corgi or not) in shape and ready for action?

Wordless Wednesday: Proud Vallhund

LaMesa poses with her AKC Agility Excellent & Agility Excellent Jumpers certificates.