My deer new co-worker

Ok, so this isn't about dogs, but I couldn't resist sharing pictures of the new co-worker I had on Tuesday.  

I showed up for work, and this fawn was right outside my office window.  About 5 feet away from where I sit.  Amazing.  

The fawn was TINY - I'm guessing about 15 lbs.  It was next to my window all day - quite often staring at me.  It was just the sweetest thing, and so nice to look up from my work and see its lovely little face (I started to get a little attached by the end of the day...).

Apparently, mother deer will leave their babies some place while they go off to eat.  The fawn was still there when I left, but not there when I got back to work the next morning.  I didn't see signs of struggle, and the mother & baby have been seen around the building, so all is well.

Just one of the benefits to life outside the big city!

Birthday boys!

May is birthday month for the Cardi boys.  Today is Ziggy's birthday, and tomorrow is Denzil's.

Happy 7th birthday, Denzil!

I love this picture of Denzil, taken during a break on one of our walks.  His happy, sunny disposition really shines through.

My most memorable moments with Denzil this year:

2 days worth of brace obedience at the National Specialty.  Apparently Denzil thought that having another dog in the ring working with him meant that he had to maintain heel position closest to me by biting his fellow brace participant.  Maggie took this in stride and ignored it.  Ziggy took it as an invitation to play (see most memorable moment with Ziggy listed below.)

Happy 2nd birthday, Ziggy!

 This photo was taken on a walk this spring, when our walking path had some flooding.  Ziggy is a bit wet - but happy!

Most memorable moment with Ziggy this year:

Brace obedience at this year's National Specialty with Denzil (see above).  The whole run was funny - but particularly the off lead heeling, when, after much play biting back and forth,  Ziggy was wrestled the ground by Denzil.   This is the moment when I learned that sometimes a judge will say "exercised finished" before you've finished the heeling pattern.

I also learned that:

* The corgis will continue to bring new levels of both embarrassment and humor to my life
* You can't NQ in a non-regular class if you at least try
* Maybe Denzil and Ziggy aren't my best bet for brace obedience

Anyway, happy birthday boys - I look forward to another year of adventures with you!

Mother's Day

This is how I should have spent my mother's day.  Relaxing.  

So my question is:  Does it make me a bad mother that I spent 8 hours of my mother's day at a dog show?  Not spending time with my human child, and without even one of my furry children with me?

This weekend was our Kennel Club's annual show.  Conformation, obedience, rally & agility all in the same venue.  

I missed the deadline for entries this year, so I  wasn't showing.  Instead, I volunteered all weekend.  4.5 hours yesterday as gate steward in Rally; 8 hours today as transcriber, then bar-setter in agility.

All of this volunteering gave me a great chance to catch up with my local "dog show" friends. Watching lots of other people run their dogs also made me think about what's next for my 3.  

Ziggy will focus on Rally & learning agility in the near term, and go back to obedience when he's a little more focused on me (instead of the floor, or those interesting people outside the ring, or - oh wait, look, I've seen something going on over there....).

Maggie and I will continue to work on earning her CDX title in Obedience (we just need one more little green ribbon - is that too much to ask?), and maybe go in to the agility ring on occasion.

Denzil - I'm just not sure.  I'll post an update when I figure this one out.

Oh, I feel like I've gotten off track.  The topic was Mother's Day.  So mine wasn't restful, but it was good.  I got home in time to spend the afternoon and evening with my funny, bright human child.  Now I'm hanging out with my furry children.

Ziggy goes herding

Looks promising, right?  This is the trio herding one of our neighbor kids.  Everyone was having fun.  Ziggy's the one closest to the human.

Sooo....  My husband (Pete) has decided to give herding a try.  After all we have corgis, we live in Iowa (farm country), and we know folks who herd, so who wouldn't try?  I also think he likes the "country gentleman" part of wandering around a field in his Wellies with the dog.  As a bonus, it's also a performance venue that I'm not particularly interested in pursuing, so it gives him something to focus on with the dogs.

This past week was the second time (last time was in the fall) that Pete took Ziggy out for weeknight herding with the "ladies of herding" from our Kennel Club.  For the second time, Ziggy showed no interest whatsoever in the sheep.

As Pete describes it, when in the field with the sheep all Ziggy wanted to do was eat sheep poop (yum!) and do a bit of very nice heeling.  The part about the heeling makes me laugh because this is the dog that has "attention issues" when in the obedience ring, but when outside with sheep?  Why not heel?!  It lends me some hope for his obedience career, but not so much hope for his herding talent.

The ladies of herding have convinced Pete not to give up yet.  They tell him that some dogs just take a while to "get it."  Hmmm...  We'll see how it goes.

The Trio of Trouble

These 3 are the Trio of Trouble - from left to right:

Denzil (aka:  Denz, wild man, Sir Barksalot)

Ziggy (aka:  Z, Mr. Barky, the Giant, Busy Dog)

and

Maggie (aka: Miss Magnolia Mae, the Enforcer, Barketta, sofa dog)

I know it's not the best picture of these 3, but it seems to be pretty much the only one I've got of all 3 together.  You'll notice they are tied up (rest time on a walk) -- I think this is the only reason they're all in this photo.

These dogs make me laugh nearly every day.  In my experience, working on Agility, Rally & Obedience with 3 Cardigans will either make you give up or develop a very good sense of humor.  I enjoy the learning and the laughter.

This is my first blog, but I figure it's time to join the Cardi blogging crew, so here goes....