Birthday Girls

Riley, Seven, and Maddie recently celebrated a birthday.  Riley and Seven turned 8 and 6 on June 28th and Maddie turned 2 on July 2nd.  Time flies!

Riley gets zapped by the heat sometimes, but mostly she is as silly and precious as ever.

She is closing in on her second agility championship, but we have been stuck on needing two double qualifiers for a while now.  We are just having an unlucky streak.  Hopefully we will bounce out of it soon.

Riley is also about 141 points away from taking the #1 lifetime achiever from Travis.  He is still the number one greyhound in AKC agility even though he has been gone for 6 years now.  Overall, Riley is doing great!

Seven is also closing in on her second agility championship.  She too needs two double qualifiers.  She was quite a ways behind Riley, but because of Riley's unlucky streak, Seven has caught up.  We have a four day agility trial this weekend....

Seven's carpal joint has done pretty well in agility.  She did come up lame for a few minutes at an agility trial in May.  So disappointing because she was just 3 jumps away from a Double Q.  She came back and got one the next day. Such an odd, chronic problem. She just torques it, is sore for a few minutes, and then walks out of it.  Kind of like a twisted ankle.

It seems like Seven has maybe figured out how to avoid tweaking her wrist in agility most of the time.  She does some pretty hard, tight turns to the left without problems all of the time.  However, when playing in the yard, chasing Maddie or a toy, you would think her life depended on it.  She is way too intense and often will twist her wrist.  I hate treating her like an expensive, fancy, show horse that has to be kept in the barn, but sometimes she does not give me an option.

Maddie is coming along. She is still quite a challenge at times, but I am pleased with how she is progressing. I still do not have a debut date in mind.  There are several opportunities to practice her in matches this fall so I think that will be the focus.  If she can do well in a match, then a trial should have similar results.

Right now, we are taking a weekly, group agility class that highlights how fantastic Maddie can be, but also exposes the weaknesses of working with more pressure and distractions.

Class will be a great way to fill in the holes and strengthen areas we need work.  So no rush still.  I honestly do not need to be competing three dogs at one time anyway.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend!