A quick update.  Miller has a mass that seems to be growing in his thyroid area.  We are pretty sure it is cancer.  Bloodwork came back that all of his organs were functioning and x-rays showed no lesions or indication that it has spread to other areas.  Lymph nodes on palpation all seem normal.  So we are super puzzled.  Such a fast growing mass like this should surely be cancer yet all signs point to something else.  He has been running a fever as high as 104.  We have gotten it down to 102.5 today using antibiotics.  His appetite has gotten worse so we are using steriods to combat the lack of appetite and the inflammation.  It is a shot in the dark.  We are probably still going to arrive at the same answer in the end.  He seems to not be in pain but dang this dog is stoic.  He is very tolerant of me shoving pills down his throat.  Still drinking and peeing, just not much poop but that is to be expected with the lack of eating.  I will not prolong any suffering but it seems he isn't suffering or else he is hiding it very well.  He was super perky this morning and spent quite a while on the deck sunning.  I hate not knowing what to do.  We are taking a very conservative approach, keep him comfortable and see what we can do to fight the infection. I don't want any more invasive procedures.  We did a needle biopsy a few days ago and that showed us nothing so why keep trying.  I am sure it wasn't fun for him at all even though he let them do anything they wanted.  He really has been a trooper through all of this.  His back end seems to be getting weaker but I hope that is just a product of not eating.  I am hoping tonight we can find something he likes.  So far we haven't found anything consistent.  One night he ate some animal crackers.  One night he ate some vienna sausages and last night he licked some baby food.  Going to do what is right but I don't think it is time yet.  Harley has been laying with him alot.  Harley was miller's puppy so they are pretty tight, plus they are the old men of the house.  TO be continued.

Old man miller

I sit here, dreading writing this but knowing i need to.  Something is wrong with Miller.  He turned 14 this year and about two days ago, stopped eating.  We have been trying various foods and some he will eat but most he won't.  Dog food is out.  Baby food is a sometimes and we have gotten him to eat a piece of cheese pizza, some spaghetti, some vienna sausauges and the juice and some cheese slices.  That is it.  So I am trying to choke down all of these thoughts.  He had a clean check up this spring when he went in so this has snuck up on us.  We left for vacation two saturdays ago and left him as his favorite place in the whole world, alice's farm for a little over a week.  This is where we have done agility for years and he seemed happy when we dropped him off and left and when we came back to pick him up.  He would not have liked all the travel and hubub of going to TN for over a week.  I am very glad we boarded him, even if it was an outside run. He got tons of walks, a pool, lots of fresh water and food.  I know he was very well taken care of.  This just happened.  He has been slowing down for a while but it has been gradual.  Here recently he hasn't been able to jump in the van and the last few days, he won't even attempt the stairs to the bedroom upstairs.  It's weird, I was just talking to someone about how well he had aged and how I was super surprised at how well he was doing for a 14 year old.  Now this.  I have been randomly crying all day.  Wished I could have gotten him in to the vet sooner but got him in as soon as I could.  He doesn't seem to be in any pain.  His hind end seems to be betraying him but he is still going out to the yard and doing his business without assistance.  I have already decided no extreme measures, just comfort and care till the end.  I am hoping this isn't the end but I fear that it might be.  To be continued.

13 this year

Here is a typical shot of miller and what he does mostly these days.  He took retirement a lot better than I thought he would.  He is of course taken over for miss berry in the grumpy department/fun police although I catch him playing with stella some.  He loves to sun out in the yard and will hang out while i train.  He even tried to do some 22 inch jumps the other day when I was working deuce and of course cleared them with little effort.  I am sure if I was made of money I could continue to show him in preferred or veterans and he would love it but right now my focus is on deuce.  I try to take miller with me anytime I am just heading out around town or if the weather is good for him to hang out in the car while we do errands in manhattan.  Will usually stop and get him a big bone to chew on while we shop.  He does seem a bit stiff sometimes but other than that, no other old dog symptoms other than sleeping a lot.  I still can't believe he will be 13 this year.  OF course this is a guess because he was a rescue so he could be older.  I know of all the dogs, he will love the baby the most so I am excited for him to have his own little boy.  I wish he wasn't so old because he would be the perfect dog for a kid to learn agility with.  He is so honest:)  His hearing is getting pretty bad or at least his selectiveness is getting pretty bad.  I pretty much can't trust him off lead anymore and when we were staying at a friend's house while our house was being remodeled, he took a little hike on his own at like 5 in the morning when I trustingly let him out for his morning pee. Naughty red dog!  We still love his big mouth and hope that this birthday this year will bring many, many more.

We did have one incident that kind of scared me this week.  I feel that there is a shift in power going on in the house.  For years, berry was the top dog and then miller kind of silently slid in there with her.  Even when she got older and the other dogs still humored her, Miller stood by her side and enforced the rules.  When berry left us, he continued in his silent top dog way.  He wasn't in your face the way berry was, he was more just a look or a curl of the lip from across the room and the other dogs got it.  Now he is becoming a little more bossy, a little more fun police in your face.  The other day I had the dogs out in the yard playing fetch the football and he was doing his usual lay in the middle of the yard, chew on a bone routine.  He isn't a fetcher or a player so he normally just watches.  Well, I try to keep the dogs away from him because they become so focused on the game that they will literally run over him and I let them get a little too close.  He jumped up and grabbed at Harley. Usually harley will just ignore him but harley was not happy and went back at him.  It was a quick fight, a lot of talk and no action but it scared the hell out of me.  Harley is usually so submissive as he is clearly at the bottom of our pack but this time he lashed out.   I saw hair flying so i yelled loudly (it did freak me out) and they cut it out.  No injuries but it still scared me pretty bad because for once, Harley had the upper hand.  He was clearly in control of the fight and wasn't taking any shit off of miller.  This has happened another time in the house and it just scares me to see the power shift, even though it is inevitable.  i really didn't think harley would take over but he is the next oldest being 9 this year.  I figure when stella gets a little older, she will be the queen bee.  I hate seeing my pups get older but I guess this is part of doggy ownership.  

cone head

I am wondering if miller's old dog bump has been bothering him more than I really knew. Since it has been removed, he has been acting a little differently, almost more pep in his step. Unfortunately, we have pretty much had to keep the cone on for almost a week and a half as every time you take it off, he goes to mad licking the leg. The bottom part of the incision, where the staples actually stayed in, has healed all up, but the top part where the staples came out or should I say he pulled them out, is still a little bit open and red. Last night was probably the first night that he left it alone when the cone was off so i let him sleep without it and I also left it off today while I am at work. I hope this wasn't a bad decision. Tony removed the remaining staples this weekend while I was gone to the show and did an excellent job. He has now removed stitches and staples from our dogs quite successfully. Miller is shedding yet again and he is dropping hair like you wouldn't believe. This is the third time this year he has full out shed. Berry did that too as she got older so must be an older dog thing. Need to take both him and Deuce to Dr. G for adjustments. Money has been a little tight with hubby not working but now he is back at work for at least a year so I can start going back to splurging on the dogs.

the old dog bump

Miller had an old dog bump, has had it for at least a year if not more. Thursday before the trial, he started licking and chewing on it. By friday it had become irritated and bigger but didn't seem to affect his gait or jumping. Called my vet on saturday as he couldn't seem to leave it alone. I just wanted it taken off as it was still relatively small. Now mind you, I had the original bump looked at when it popped up, but my vet said it was nothing, to leave it alone until it grew. This was of course based on an aspirate of the bump. I took his advice and left it alone. Tony dropped miller off yesterday to have it removed and miller had issues coming out of ansthesia, something that I always worry about, esepcially with old dogs, so he had to stay overnight. This is the very reason why when berry got sick that we never did x-rays because I didn't want to have to even think about the possibility of surgery. Anyway, my vet sent the bump off to be biopsied and I just don't even want to know what it is. I really wished he had asked me before he sent it. I just don't want to know. I do not want to put miller through any treatments that might possibly make him feel worse or prolong his life if the quality of life isn't there. I feel like such a bitch by saying this but I just want him to live his life out happy and not in pain, not drugged up feeling the side affects of the drugs. He has had a great 10 years with me and I will not put him through treatments that will make him feel worse or not himself. Keeping my finger's crossed that it is nothing and that we can just go on our merry way of agility dog retirement. This is for sure the part of dog ownership that I hate the most.

The perfect dog walk

I entered this weekend with alot of emotion. I knew this probably would be miller's last runs and I wanted them to be good and for him to have fun. I still had a small hope that we could get that last P3 gamblers Q and also finish up his P3 standard title. I have long since given up on super Qs because the lack of P22 in our area, and was glad I did because there were 2 of us there all weekend. Anyway, I had entered him in two classes a day and figured he would have a good time since it was on turf. Of course a day before we were scheduled to leave, he started licking his leg and a little old dog bump as i call it began to get irritated and bigger. I was worried, but it didn't seem to affect his running or jumping. I tried to keep him from licking because it seemed more just irritated than anything. He is an obssesive licker of legs anyway and always has been. I think he gets that from me, I am an obssesive finger nail chewer so he has to have the same flaw since he is my kid LOL! We thought for a while that he might have food allergies but the chinese med vet said it was just his element that made him do obssesive things like that. Surprisingly, he has never had any hot spots or lick granulomas with his obssesion.

We had gamblers and standard on saturday and gamblers was first. Miller has NEVER been a distance dog so I didn't have big hopes we would get it and it was a tough, tough gamble. The part about the run that bothered me wasn't that we didn't get the gamble, but he wasn't running like his normal self. He was ducking behind me, refusing jumps and just being overall weird. I was super worried and almost pulled him, but we stretched him out and massaged him and couldn't find anything wrong. I decided to go ahead and run him in standard and if that run was not good, I would pull him from the rest of the weekend. Of course, he ran like normal in standard, got a Q and a first and had a beautiful dog walk. I could tell he was a little slower but I am getting faster due to all of the running I do now and I think running baby-d also skews my perception of how fast miller runs. That finished up his P3 standard title so I was really happy, but more than that, he seemed back to normal. Sunday I had entered him in three runs accidently, snooker, standard and gamblers. Snooker would have been a good run with the 7 being a serpentine a, b, and c and the ones were all close by. He knocked the first bar in the first 7 so I knew we were toast as far as any hopes of a super Q (plus the fact that there were only two of us total in P22) so we just had a good time and ran. He missed his weave pole entrance in the closing which was the 6 but I didn't care. He ran and had fun and that was what mattered. We had gamblers next and it was a very doable gamble, jump, jump, teeter, jump. The problem was the dog walk was the 5 and I didn't want to chance him not getting it and us loosing time and points. I had that happen previously where we did two dog walks and he didn't get either and then he got the gamble but didn't have enough opening points. I also wanted to stay away from weaves just in case he was sore. So my option was two a-frames and tunnels and jumps. I had a good plan and he for once let me lead out (we have lost our lead out since I have been running with to get speed). We were in perfect position going into the gamble, but for whatever reason, he just refused the second jump and came in and barked at me. Typical miller man so we didn't get that last gamblers q we needed. I was bummed because that was our last chance. I don't think it is fair to him to not play in akc, not go to class and then expect him to jump 22 in USDAA in the fall. I have already pulled his summer entries from AKC and just plan on doing veterans in USDAA. Anyway, was a little emotional and had to go out and be a baby and cry. Mom wanted to come with me but I just needed some alone time with my mill man. Came back in after a brief few tears and someone said something to me about it just being a stupid title and I lost it. Yes, I was bummed about not getting the title, I am human and I am competitive, but I am most bummed about this being possibly our last time in the ring. He has given me so much, so much more than I could have ever asked for or expected of a dog that started out HATING agility. I really am going to miss running him:( Got it back together and cooled down and decided to go ahead and run him in standard one last time. He laid down a beautiful run with the PERFECT dog walk. What a way to end his career! After so many years of having a crappy dog walk contact, thanks to me and that being the sole reason why it took us so long to get a MACH and he gives me the most beautiful two on two off you have ever seen. I decided that was the run, the one to end it on. Did he Q, no, but he ran like I know he can run and we ended with lots of cookies, a massage and lots of butt rubs and cookies from his friends. He was wagging his nub and wiggling for everyone. I like ending on a good note. He will still go with us and I still hope to run him some in veterans at 16 inch in USDAA.

Thanks miller man for 7 years of agility giving it your all, making me laugh, making me cry, and making me a better handler. I love you and always will:) No one can bark as loud as you, can wiggle as hard as you, or can run an a-frame like you can. Still think it is funny that you ended your career with the perfect dog walk:)

retirement, the dreaded decision

Okay so those of you who follow my miller blog know that I have been really wrestling with this decision. I had previously had miller to an animal communicator and we talked about what his signal would be when he was ready. As silly as it may sounds, he told me that when he doesn't pull me to the ring, that means he is done. Well, this weekend at USASA nationals, miller did not pull me to the ring at all and when we would get back to the room, he would zonk out cold and not stir until the morning. I had him checked out to make sure he was okay by dr. connie and she couldn't find anything physically wrong. So i think he was trying to tell me it was time. He Q'd in one run every day, even getting an excellent FAST send that I never in a million years would have thought he could have gotten but I felt like he was running because I wanted him to, not because he wanted to. When I would let him out of his crate he would just look at me with a little gleam in his eye but not his normal jump out, wiggle, and bark at me. I went ahead and pulled his entry from the July show and am leaving his USDAA june show entry in. Maybe we can get that last gambler's Q we need for his P3 title and then he can just do veterans now and again. I am not starting over in novice in AKC, unless I could find a junior handler to take him, so he will probably retire from that venue altogether.

Last night I was working deuce and miller had come with. I like to let him just run around while we work as he likes to hunt and forage. I put the jumps down to 16 and had him come over and do what deuce and I were working on and he loved it. I still think it is time though. I have decided to do tracking with him to keep his mind busy and keep us doing stuff together. We will probably never compete but just getting to interact since he isn't a cuddly, loving, in you face dog will be alot for him. i wish he was more like my other dogs, more toy driven, liked to do certain other things like obedience or rally, but agility is his thing. I love this big red dog with all my heart and soul and i want what is best for him. To go from a dog dumped at the shelter, one day away from being put to sleep, to a MACH and various other top titles USDAA, NADAC, AKC, and ASCA agility is amazing. To go from a dog that I had to drag out of his crate just to get him to go potty to a dog with so much confidence is wonderful. I owe it to him to give him the best rest of his life I can. He has given me so much joy, so many friends and so many memories as well as so much heart ache, so much frustration, and so much worry. He has been a great first agility dog even though I had berry and did some before he came along. He has taken me to 5 nationals (USDAA and AKC) and taught me the mental game and how to handle (and soemtimes how not to handle). I hope we can ease into retirment and he can be happy being retired. Would love to find a junior handler to maybe do some nadac with him or maybe even akc preferred but if not, oh well, he can just lay on his dog bed and go out to the farm when i work deuce and hunt and forage. I love you my big red Miller man!!!!!!

My new jumpers dog

Okay so for years, Miller has been a Q in standard dog, not in jumpers and all of the sudden, we can't buy a Q in standard but jumpers is spot on. GO figure! The last two shows we have been 100% on Jumpers and in an 0fer in standard, mainly due to weave poles. He popped out of the poles again in standard on saturday so I had him massaged thinking maybe it was an injury bothering him and she checked him over and he felt fine to her. Went out and Qd in jumpers, no problem. So weird! I got two Qs this weekend, both in jumpers. The funny thing was though, I had talked to the massage/rehab lady and she had told me it was time to retire him. She felt like he was in great shape but that it was time to let his body rest. I have been wrestling with this for months now, especially with the fact that I do want to do more with baby-D and that costs more money. Well, after that whole talk, he went out and placed third on a very,very tough JWW course and had a 5.18 YPS run. I know most of y'all probably run courses alot faster than that but dang, a 12 year old dog running 5.18 YPS is pretty cool. I know it has alot to do with the fact that I am running faster since I am training to do a 5 K but wow! He got 10 MACH points which for him is pretty great. I am so proud of him and how much fun he is having, even if he is costing me double Qs. I have him entered through June so we will just go with the flow. He is still pulling me to the ring like mad so I don't think he is ready just yet to become a cheerleader.

agility-mine that is

I have a separate blog for me but I thought i would put this on miller's blog because it does pertain to me and running in agility. I am pretty sure I talked about this before on this blog but I am hugely over weight right now and it is really, really effecting my runs. I have tried a long list of diets and exercises programs including weight watchers and taking classes through our school's rec center but nothing really sticks. I get bored easily or I fall off of the wagon or get injuried or just give up. I have been super successful at WW but it turned me into a food freak and I just can't go there again. I was totally addicted to their products, spending a ton of money, and feeling guilty about EVERTYHING i put in my mouth, thus causing me to binge. Now mind you, most people look at me and think there is no way she is over weight and I did encounter alot of people not liking me at WW BUT, I am 5 foot even and every little extra pound is really hard on my body. Right now, I weigh 143 lbs and am in a size 8 (tightly) and this is WAY too much for my little frame. I did the whole personal trainer thing last year and loved it and was pretty gung ho until i got injured and got out of sync and then just plain ole gave up. Winter clothes can hide pudge so I just started buying hoodies with pockets in the front and going about my business. I had been avoiding the scale for a while and then Lori decided to start a fitness challenge for people of all star. You know, it is funny, I know how to stay in shape, I have been athletic all my life. I know how to eat right, I have been through years of WW and of course I did get an MS in food science so I know these things. I have just been choosing to ignore all of this. We have been eating out alot and that will stop now that tony is laid off again. I have also been ignoring portion size and drinking a beer with dinner every night. I have been doing 0 amount of exercise. Why, who knows. I haven't been motivated at all for some reason. Usually changing sizes of clothes gets me to going, but nope, not this time. So here I am, getting ready for the fitness challenge and trying to figure out what my goals are. I do want to exercise more. Miller isn't getting any class time so the more I can do with him walking/jogging wise the better. Tony is severely overweight so the more I can get out with him the better. I worry about his heart, especially with the stress he is under. Anway, I found my motivation, I hope i can stick with it. I am doing the couch to 5 K program and already have a couple of races in mind to enter. Will I ever win, hell no but wouldn't it be fun to say I actually ran a 5 K and didn't die LOL? So here is to starting again, getting the weight off, sticking to something and making a change in my life. I am READY!

Miller FFF, Wichita and Carthage

Well, we were on a roll for a while getting one or two double Qs per show and now we have hit a slow down again. We got 0 Qs in wichita and only got Qs in JWW in Carthage. I guess for me, if we get those last 9 QQs, great, yippeee, but if we don't, he is having so much fun right now that I don't care. I am not going to move him down and start over as I thought I might, am just going to let him run and have fun. Even though I am not doing any hardcore training with him right now, he is still keeping bars up and still sound. He gets to run alot at the farm I practice at and he LOVES it. I was a little worried after the Wichita trial as the mistakes he was making were a little indicitive of the last injury he had. He didn't want to go out on any sequences that required me getting some lateral distance, and then fell off of the teeter barking at me. We are trying these running starts to see if that keeps him reved up and running but I think they are not the thing for us as I am not getting into position quick enough, especially if it is a front cross I need to do and I am having some mid course collisions with him. My fear is that his start line stay is probably gone at this point so I would have to go back and re-train it and at this point, I am not up for re-training with him. His dog walks have been funny here lately too. He stops when I stop (which is usually far out from the dog walk) and then he boings off. The good thing is he is usually in the yellow LOL! I just want him to end his career having fun and not worrying about much. He knows what to do:)

My greatest fear is what to do with him when it is time to retire. He isn't a cuddly, in your face kind of dog, has always preferred to be on his bed or in the other room for that matter. He is the first dog I have that prefers to be in a crate over being out and in my lap. However, having said that, he is very much a momma's boy and will jump through fire to get to me if he thinks I am leaving him. I do not think boarding him will ever be an option. He doesn't play well with others so doggy daycare won't work but I would hate the thought of dragging him to shows and then him not getting to play. I know I can get him out and do a practice jump or something but he is still dragging me to the ring at every show. I open up his crate and ask him if he wants to run and he comes bounding out, jumping up and barking at me. That is our signal, when he no longer does these things, he is done. I am hoping that I am not going to retire him soon but I keep on thinking about these things. What to do. When Tony stays home, he can keep him but Tony has been coming to alot of shows here lately thus all the dogs have to come. The other issue is the famous money issue. I would like to do more with Deuce in the way of more USDAA shows (which means traveling distance), more seminars, and more classes at shows like FAST. This takes away money from Miller's runs:( I am hoping that money won't decide when he retires. I am still just doing two shows a month and only two days a show even though it is KILLING me. I want to do more and I know it will be worse when Deuce gets into Excellent. I guess at that point, I will really have to re-evaluate my goals with miller. Am doing a few shows without him so I can travel with others to USDAA, but want to try and get that last P3 gamblers leg to finish up his P3 title. He now has his P3 jumpers title and still needs one or two legs for standard so will probably continue to do at least standard and gamblers and snooker for fun. I hate having to make these decisons, who gets to run, who doesn't and who gets classes left out. URGH!!!!!

First blog of the new year for the mill-man

I guess I have been doing it again, blogging about miller in deuce's blog instead of in his own blog. We have had two trials in the new year, SKC AKC trial and the Casa de Canine USDAA trial. I am a little happy and a little not so happy with our performances. Two things, start line stays and his dog walk contact. These both seem to be erroding at a hasty rate and i had to pull him on one his runs at the USDAA trial because he was being so naughty. I have started running with him on courses instead of lead outs so that he takes off running but now I can't get away from him at all on the start line. I feel like I am on borrowed time again so I hate pulling him for anything, but he was jumping the dog walk contact in gamblers, even when I had him do the dog walk twice. I NEEDED gamblers so let him get away with it and it sure did bite me in the ass. On sunday, he missed the first one so we went back and did a second one which he got. Got the gamble but because he took up so much time in the opening, he didn't get enough points so again, no gambler's legs. I may have to abandon even doing the dog walk in gamblers. I usually use it for training but if he misses it, I always re-do it and it may not be worth it. He has four P3 standard legs so it isn't like I need to work it for that. He did get his P3 jumpers title and so that is one less class for him to do. Really, really thinking that just getting his P3 title is the way to go and then maybe retire or let him play in the veterans class for fun. I can just run him in standard and gamblers and see how it goes. We got lumped down in with the P16s again this weekend for super Qs and our scores just weren't good enough with those awesome P16s like Roxy, Pilot, and Gator kicking ass. The other issue is that i want to travel for some USDAA shows for Deuce and to be able to make it economical and ride with others, I can really only take one dog. Poor miller, as my training goals shift with Deuce, so do my goals with him and his entries into shows or lack of. It really sucks because Miller is half way on double Qs for his MACH and he has been getting about 2 a weekend in AKC so i do see that it is a viable option for him to complete it this year. it is funny, i got him massaged at muttfest and the lady said if i didn't know his age, I would assume he was 6 or 7 based on his muscle tone and his structure and looks. Made me feel good and I hope that he can stay in good shape. He sure was back talking this weekend for sure! Tried to have Lori run him in P3 Jumpers on sunday but he wasn't really very happy about it. I tried hiding and wonder if it would have been better for him to know where i was instead. He ran most of the course with her but very slowly and quietly and then as soon as he was done, saw someone who looked like me and took off. What a character and what a momma's boy! To go from someone who loved his Daddy to someone who can't be without his momma is just funny. We have a three day trial coming up this weekend (actually has four days of showing available but only showing the old man two of the four and the baby three of the four) so excited to see how the mill man does. Another QQ or two would be nice, but if not, I still love my big nub and am so proud of all of the things we have accomplished together!

End of the Year thoughts and reflections and goals for 2011

So I was reading all the other blogs I like to read and I came across quite a few end of the year wrap ups and goal setting for next year blogs. I figured I'd better get mine in too, only have a few more days of 2010 and i am in an hour hold at work so need something to do. Since this is Miller's blog, I will start with Miller!

What a year for the Miller man! Again we attended both AKC nationals and USDAA nationals. While we didn't win or place or get into any finals, we did get into the semi-finals yet again this year in grand prix which I think is pretty awesome for an 11 year old dog! I felt like our runs were overall better this year at both nationals and I had alot of fun at both as usual. I missed camping out at USDAA but got to spend some time with my friend and her hubby as they graciously opened their house to us, miller, and our crazy getting up and going at the butt crack of dawn national's schedule. I did pull Miller from weekly classes this year, which was a very tough decision, because classes are more for me than him, but I did start deuce in classes so at least I am keeping in the swing of things. I am happy to say that he seems to be keeping fit through us walking and working out at our little patch of land. Miller is slowing down slightly but he seems to know what i am thinking about retiring, and every time I mention anything about it, he goes out and gets three QQS or qualifies in everything in USDAA. I still have faint hopes of finishing up his top USDAA title in performance and also possibly getting his second MACH. I will take it slow, still only showing most shows just two days and try to limit how many classes he runs in at USDAA shows. I just sent in his first entry of the year for USDAA and (gulp, this is very hard) did not enter him in any of the tournament classes:( I feel like there really isn't a point if we aren't going to nationals and it saves me money so I can show him and Deuce. My goals for Miller in 2011 are to keep him healthy and happy and to let him tell me when it is time to retire. So far he is still dragging me to the ring every run and I will continue to do so while he drags.

I might as well include harley in this blog as I have been running him in practice alot lately and even at a show or two. Tony's crazy schedule dictates when he can show or not, so i am always up for running the red rocket. While his running contacts are getting better, we still don't have a dog walk to practice on and i need to do something about that. It's mine and tony's fault that they are crap, and I will not expect anything until we can truly properly train it. I just want tony to have fun when he shows and so far, he is. I got to run harley the other night in class as deuce was down with his bum toe nail, and I had so much fun. Deuce is such a mishmash of Miller and Harley so running the extreme other end of deuce's running style was fun, and actually helped me to understand deuce better. I would love for Tony to get his first QQ this year and maybe get a MACH but I am not pushing it. We still aren't really doing much with Harley in USDAA and while I think he could kick ass in it, we just don't have the money to run all three dogs. I would love for tony to get his act together and us put together a red aussie team for fun but he just doesn't like having others depend on him in agility. He kind of marches to the beat of his own drum and so does harley, so they get along great.

What a year I have had with my baby Deuce! We have been steadily taking classes and improving throughout the year. I think we are still trying to figure each other out in shows (only been in three total days of showing) but I think we will get there. I am very proud of myself for not rushing things and not letting my criteria fall apart (oh the temptations have been there) and I am proud of him for handling the hustle and bustle of the shows. Baby deuce moved up to the competition 2 class a few weeks ago and I am so proud of how he is handling the challenges lori lays down for us. Are we perfect? Heck no, but I see the potential just bubbling under the surface. Now if we can just get that dang toe nail to heal, we can get back to it! I am excited that in 2011, we are going to start in USDAA and in February, we will be on our very first team, The Aussie Brat Pack, made up of other aussie babies starting their agility careers. My goals for Deuce in 2011 are to become more consistent as a team in the ring, to withhold criteria, and to have FUN! Deuce baby is a blast to run so no telling what 2011 will bring!!!!

We also may have an addition to the coleman family coming very soon, maybe even this spring. We are currently waiting to find out if she will be born or not so finger's crossed that we might be adding a new female wiggly butt aussie that will be a direct relation to Deuce to our pack. Happy Holidays, happy new year and hopefully we will see ya down the road at an agility trial!

miller and me in tulsa 2010

I have been bad about updating Deuce's blog but not Miller's blog. So we took Deuce, Miller, Haley, Chloe, and Danah to Tulsa for an AKC trial a couple of weeks ago. I had previously decided to not do anymore AKC till the end of the year, but just do USDAA and try to finish his top titles and maybe his Patch or whatever the heck it is called. Well, plans changed, Tulsa had novice all three days so I had at least two days to show Deuce in Novice. I decided to go ahead and show Miller all three days just to see how he handled it. He only had two classes a day and they were spread out pretty far. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a very, very emotional weekend with us loosing Haley but I don't want to get into all of that here. Haley has been battling a very long tough illness and her time had come, even though we were out of town. I ended up running not only Deuce in three runs on friday, but Miller in two runs, Danah in two runs, and Chloe in three. Lets just say I was one tired handler both physically and emotionally by the end of the day. I think because I was so pulled in all directions that I really didn't put much into my own runs and of course as usual when I don't care, Miller pulled a double Q out of no where! I didn't have anyone video taping so I can't remember exactly what we did or didn't do but it came together and I am happy with how great he was running! I think he was very close to placing on his standard run which is awesome at his age.

For whatever reason, on saturday, we double NQd with some very silly mistakes. There was a very short curved tunnel before a dog walk and i think he got caught up in the tunnel and I called his name and he came back out the entrance. Then I told him to go back in and he backed in barking at me like "i am not going back in there". I think he finally went back in the wrong entrance but I didn't care. He also popped the poles but I wasn't really worried about it at that point. Same weird stuff in jumpers, i went to do a wrap and when I stopped to wrap him, he also stopped, dead in his tracks and got a refusal. He also ran around a few jumps and i think knocked a bar but I just didn't care. We were running and that was all that mattered.

Sunday for whatever reason was another double Q day. Favorite parts of the runs: I didn't baby sit the weaves (yeah me), a blind cross in jumpers (thank you miller for reading that), dog walk contact in standard, and a good wrap in standard back to the dog walk. Here is the video of the two runs we got, enjoy! I have decided to now to keep Miller in Excellent at least till Deuce is out of Novice. I am half way to my MACH 2 now so we may see if it possible this spring before moving him into performance. Here is the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HRbGZOnGQs

Not a happy camper and then part 2

Miller is not a happy camper and I am not sure how to make him one. I started showing deuce last weekend and it was probably the worst weekend we have had in a while with regards to him and I and our performance. I haven't been taking classes with him so deuce gets to go with me both on Monday nights as a demo dog (miller's barking scares the other dogs) and he gets to go with me Thursday night for his class. I have been trying to give miller good yummy things when I leave but he has started to obsessively lick his legs while I am gone. I don't really want to take him and just leave him in the car because it is cold and I don't think it is good for him to sit in the cold. I can't put him in the pen while I run because he barks like crazy. I want him to be happy but not hurt, running but not too much. I did switch him over to a senior food as he has started getting very thick all of the sudden. I think his age is starting to slowly creep up on him. The old dog bumps are getting bigger and spreading and he is slowing down, little by little. I am not ready to retire him, but I have so many things I want to do with Deuce now that cost money, money i am using to enter all three of them. I do feel like Miller would not understand if we all went to a show and then he didn't get to run. He is getting to go to the show just him and I this weekend, no stinky little brother at all. This may be our last USDAA show if I move him down to preferred in AKC in January. I just don't see how we are going to finish up some of these titles and get super Qs if there are only a couple of USDAA shows and only a couple of P22 dogs entered in these shows. I think we could end on a great note with this show and then start Deuce in USDAA in February when he is old enough. How do you balance showing your older dog and showing your young dog? I am trying to figure out a good strategy that is fair for both miller and deuce.


Part 2:

Okay hadn't uploaded this before this weekend. This weekend, I just took Miller and no baby deuce since it was USDAA and he couldn't be measured anyway. Saturday was not great but not too bad, a Q in performance speed jumping, and a Q in snooker (not a super Q:(. Miller was sassy in standard, jumping off the table before the count was over because I was hovering over him (why the hell did i do that) and getting the hard part of the gamble and not taking the last jump (really dude?). He also missed a Q in grand prix because he ran behind me instead of coming in on a front cross after the teeter (again, really dude?). He was super tired by the end of the day and I was feeling super bad for thinking five runs was a good idea. I think we are going to have to cut out the tournament games but I LOVE them and LOVE steeplechase (at the local level). I was feeling pretty bad saturday night but my parents came in from TN and I was excited to see them and didn't have too much time to feel too bad. Sunday was my birthday and we had less runs so I was going to see how he felt and go from there. I need two legs for his P3 jumpers title so I was hoping he could pick up one and then maybe we would have to do less in the future. I am just not ready to give up on USDAA! Miller must have known it was my birthday as he Qd in standard (i didn't hover over the table, click treat me) leaving us two more legs to finish that title, Qd in jumpers (one more leg and we are finished with that), and got a Q in P3 pairs (four more but it is doable). We also decided to run speed jumping even though we were the only dog in P22 but it was a fun course and mom was doing lots of massage on him. We had a clean, fun, fast run and he got a big huge blue ribbon and 18 bucks! I think that is the most i have ever gotten for winning so I was excited! Miller bought us lunch at Taco Bell and himself a bone. He again makes my decision so hard as he did so well on sunday. I have decided to just do the regular classes, no more tournament classes :( I am still leaving hope alive that I can find someone to go to St. Louis with that can drive if it gets bad. I think there is hope that we could finish up those titles and he could get his Pad or whatever the heck it is called. Miller sure was proud of himself yesterday and I like to see how he looks and feels after he has had good runs.

USDAA Nationals Part 2

Once again, as with last year driving back, moms driving and I am bored so thought I would blog. Another nationals done with, well for Miller anyway. This was a tough nationals as it was miller’s last year to compete. I talked about it a little in the other blog post, but this really was the first year that Miller was not competitive and it kind of sucked. More and more Bcs in performance both in 22 inches and 16, which made it so hard for our older dogs to beat those blazing fast times. True that there were older dogs too but even on our best run of the weekend, we only got 14th place. I kind of dread being in championship in a way because we just won’t have a chance in hell of ever getting into any of the finals due to the fact that Deuce is just not fast enough. He has shown me some speed but not BC beating speed. I am a very competitive person so it will be a huge bitter pill to take but I am ready. I look forward to running Deuce at nationals because the mistakes that I made where due to lack of proper training in Miller in the beginning, before I knew what I was doing really. Miller has never had independent weaves so any movements I make tend to pull him out of the poles or push him out. I also don’t trust his poles and he knows that so he is always looking at me and I am always looking at him which tends to put me out of position at times. I know it bit me in the butt in standard and also in grand prix. Deuce doesn’t even know I exist when he is weaving and I LOVE that. He also doesn’t care where I am when he is doing contacts which would eliminate me having to do any weird crosses like I had to do in standard as well. I look to the future of my showing career and am very excited, can you tell?
Today we ran jumpers and that was it and boy was it a tricky course. I felt like we started out well but he popped out of the weave poles again, at the beginning of them. Someone said he slipped as he just skipped two poles but I am not sure what happened. I don’t think he was reacting to anything I was doing as we had just started and I don’t think the poles were rocking that hard. We finished the run well after I got him back in with a double front cross on the back line of the course and a rear to a blind (yeah my ass was running to get that one). Someone said I looked discombobulated but when I watched the tape, I don’t think it was that bad. We ended on a pretty good note (still on kind of a high from snooker last night) and I am overall happy with the way he ran. He is slowing down a tiny bit but when I run full out, he does too. He gave me 110% on every run and I can’t ask for more. I wish we had a veterans program in USDAA so I could continue to do USDAA with him but I am not sure how much longer I want to jump him at 22 inches. I love going to USDAA nationals, a lot more so than AKC nationals but I just don’t know if I want to do as much per day anymore, especially if I do keep him at 22 inches for a little while longer to finish his top title.
I will say that I did enjoy having the nationals in KY, mainly because it is so close and my friends are there so we can stay with them. I will say that we will probably rent an RV if we come back, even if it means driving two hours in an RV. It was tough getting up so early to beat the rush hour traffic and then sitting at the arena for hours with nothing really to do other than spend money. I think poor miller got super tired of being in his crate to as he did not want to go back in it several times and that is very unlike Miller. The 12 hour day was the worst and I NEVER want to have to do that again to him or me! I do feel like the facility needs to get a handle on the dust problem. Several days went by with the arena starting out muddy and then ending up a dust pit. I got a great pic of the dust one day as it was hazing the whole place up. I do like having the seating around the main rings so you can see versus Arizona where you have to sit on the ground or drag your chairs out and finals is very limited seating as well. I do like that the crating space was in the middle of the two arenas and within reasonable walking distance to both rings. I was fortunate that I did not have any walk-throughs that were back to back so I didn’t have to run back and forth from ring to ring since the rings were separated by the large crating area. I do know that next year, I will spend the money to have two crating spots with my teammate instead of sharing one. While we all fit, it was tight and if we both had big dogs, we wouldn’t have fit very well. Overall, other than the very long day, everything seemed to run pretty smoothly and I didn’t hear a lot of complaining. I think the atmosphere was lacking but it is hard to really have atmosphere inside. You can’t beat the scenery in AZ for sure and it was nice to be able to see the dock dog diving and lure coursing from the arenas and crating area. I will miss going to nationals next year but I just don’t think I want to do that to Miller again. Long days in a crate are just not kind to him. He will be 12 this year and I think it is time to start scaling back my expectations of what we are goin got do. I feel like he is still running great, but for how long, I don’t know. He has taken me to so many places I never thought I would be. He has shown me the correct and incorrect way to train an agility dog and he has made me a better agility handler. He is an honest dog and I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher. While I want to strangle him sometimes and kick myself in my own ass at others, we have had one hell of an agility ride together and I look forward to starting the next journey with my baby. I am sure Miller will be whispering in his ear, “mom really likes it when you blow your dog walk contact”J

USDAA Nationals

Well another nationals is almost over for Miller and I and as usual, I am filled with lots of thoughts on many matters. I was really blessed this year to have a great teammate that is in it to have fun and just laughs off my mistakes and hers (although I have made more i think:) This is the first year I really feel like Miller just isn't competitive. The first year we came, Miller placed in all classes other than snooker in the top 10. This time it just is not so. I know he is slowing down but dang, the competition is getter better and better as more and more BCs move down from 26 inches. Lots of former world team dogs are moving down into the 22 and 16 inch performance classes and kicking our asses!

Our first run was European Standard on Tuesday and boy was it a fun, tough course and super TIGHT! I LOVE the european style course as they are challenging and bring forth skills that I don't normally use in AKC. Well, Miller ran beautifully but I front crossed too tight on a jump and basically blocked him from even taking it. I got him back, finished the course and was so proud of him and the way he ran. We had two runs on wednesday, Performance grand prix quarter finals and gamblers. Gamblers was a very unique gamble, with a 10 point distance bonus in the opening and then a box we had to stay in during the closing that would get us triple points for every obstacle we completed while in the box. The catch was we had to complete the gamble before the second buzzer went off so it was a gamble with distance and time. I had a plan to get in two a-frames and two tunnels and the teeter and then start a nice loop around with the teeter, a couple of jumps and the tunnel before heading out. I accidently got caught in a tunnel, nowhere where I needed to be and only got a couple of jumps and the tunnel before getting out. While we got a decent amount of points, the teeter would have helped us immensely in the points department. I truly felt good about the run though, he gave me 110% and ran fast and I just had him in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had Grand Prix quarter finals next so had to refocus. If you have never been to USDAA nationals (or haven't read my previous blogs), you walk courses in the morning and then you may not run for hours and hours later (like today). It takes a ton of mental fortitude to remember the courses and then bring the one to the front of your head that you need at that time. We have won our way into the semi finals twice so I felt good going into the quarters. Miller turned in a smoking clean run with a fourth place overall. He had a great dog walk contact and some nice tight turns. I was so proud of him for his run and excited to be in the semis again!

On thursday, I had team standard. I felt like the standard course was straight forward with one spot that I was a little concerned about due to miller's running a-frame and a big off-course jump right at the end. Joan talked me into doing a double front cross and it worked great. Unfortunately, Miller popped out of the weaves, and then missed the entry again before completing them successfully, but that gave our team two Rs. I felt like i let our team down as my teammate had a very fast clean run. The weave poles were rocking really bad, especially the second set but I hate making excuses for him. We had semi-finals next and I was a little worried as the course was HUGE! I knew Miller and I would have to run as fast as we could as they competition was very good and very fast. I was coming out of the weaves which was the third to last obstacle and because of standard was watching him weave and not paying attention to my position. I also think i was loosing oxygen to my brain because I was about to have a clean run. I ended up throwing him over the jump causing him to knock the bar. I felt horrible, I had let him down. I should not have been watching him weave, he knows his job and I should have trusted him. How many years have I been doing this? Anyway, I had some pity moments once again but then decided to just let it go. Even if we had been clean, we would not have made the finals due to his time. I think that would have really, really bummed me out. In the end, we went to church hill downs for the afternoon and did the walking tour and had a great time. I will try and post pictures when I get back.

Today we got to the show site at 6:45 and I didn't walk to 8:45 and did not run until 6:45 pm. It was the longest day of my agility life. I really felt like I was going to loose my mind:) I have never sat that long in my life. I watched hundreds upon hundreds of runs. I was mentally frazzled by the time I ran. I even changed my plan several times. Finally, when it was my turn to run, I laid down a smoking run and miller ran his heart out. I am so proud of this red boy! At 11 he can still kick butt! We got all four reds, two fives and a seven. Of the 100s of P22 inch dogs, he came in 14th place. Good boy MILLER! He ran tight and clean and listened to me so well. The only part he missed was the last seven, he ran around the second jump in the combo. I didn't care, he was awesome for having sat in the crate all day with a few walks and a bone to chew.

Tomorrow we have team jumpers and I am sure Jane and I will kick butt or at least have tons of fun doing so. I have enjoyed nationals thus far but am sad that this will be our last till Deuce gets us back in. I will have a wrap up blog and pictures in the next blog!

USDAA nationals---Getting ready

Whew, starting to get a tad bit nervous about nationals and thought I should get my thoughts out and on paper so they will stop swirling around my head LOL! I have tried a different approach this year for nationals. I have given Miller some time off from training, just making sure is healthy and happy and stretched out. I hope this strategy pays off. This will be Miller's very last nationals and I have very high hopes. We did not qualify for steeplechase this year but I am okay with that. The competition is getting faster and younger in performance and while at the local level, he has a chance, at the national level, he is just too old and too slow. This will also be his last time USDAA show doing team. I have mixed emotions about team. While it is my favorite part of USDAA, it also has been the biggest thorn in my side. Broken promises and busted teams seemed to be the theme and I am hoping for better opportunities with Deuce since he will hopefully measure into 22 championship. Anyway, I digress:) Miller man has taken me to so many places and into so many people's lives that I otherwise wouldn't have been in so this is going to be a bittersweet nationals. I know I will be back with my deuce-do0 but who knows how long that will be. I would love to get into the finals this year for both team and for PGP but will still keep the goal of having a good time in the front of my mind. I have learned so much about myself at the nationals that Miller has taken me to and I will continue to learn. The biggest fun part of this nationals is I am actually getting to go home! I have put off going home for three years now because of my dog showing. Hell, I have put off having a family so that I could get miller's MACH (and I am dead serious when I say this). I can't wait to see my family and tony's family and to see some of my friends. It will be a quick visit (4 days) but it is better than nothing. I will maintain my blog and of course take lots of pictures when I go home and when I travel so look for those on here and on FB. I am leaving Deuce at home with his daddy and am really wishing I didn't have to but it will be nice to just have Miller and I at a show together for our last big hurrah. Good luck to all who are going to nationals and see ya there!

way to show me miller

I think Miller must read my blogs. I had been going back and forth about what to do with miller. I had been thinking everything from retiring him to dropping him down to 16 inches. Well, Mr. Miller went out this weekend and showed me he had no intentions of slowing down or retiring any time soon. He laid down some smoking runs and held his own with dogs half his age! Now, granted it was on soccer turf and he LOVES that type of surface but WOW! We had a standard run that had several tough front crosses and he kept all of his bars up and had great contacts. I was just shocked as he collected 14 points in JWW!!!! He never gets more than 10 or so points and he got 14! I think this was a big bold statement on his part. He did pick up the final double Q he needs for AKC nationals, but still needs almost 200 points and I am not planning on going to nationals next year so I am not going to push it. I still like just running him two days a weekend and keeping it to two shows a month. I am going to stick to my plan of focusing on USDAA after this next weekends AKC trial and maybe even do some ASCA trials. He is close to his top titles in both so I would like to finish those out. I may also start being selective in entering him in trials that only are on artificial turf as he seems to like those the most. That may be more of the st. louis trials or the columbia trials but he just never has done well at outdoor trials ( go figure, we train outside). If I am only going to do two shows a month, maybe I can afford it. I am going to see how it goes but man, did he make a liar out of me this weekend!

I also got to run Harley this weekend and am so proud of my red rocket! He was smoking fast and had some awesome runs! We didn't qualify but he showed me that he is listening and paying attention to my commands. His contacts were, well, lets just leave it at non-existent but I kind of expected that. Tony is still trying to shape a running contact with him and while i think he is for sure going to have a nice running a-frame, I really don't think he will ever have a good running dog walk. Tony thinks otherwise so I am just going to keep my mouth shut. Great weekend, great friends and food and great new facility!!!!!

Miller's future

Been thinking alot about Miller's future here lately, espcially after the loss of berry. I seem to have not been really paying attention to how much miller really is aging. Call it denial or whatever, it really didn't hit me till berry was gone and he became the resident "old dog". Miller is still running great and loves going running with me on the track and in agility (we do about 2 miles on the track), but I am constantly worrying about how much longer I have to do these kinds of things with him. I flip flop between am I running him too much and injuring him versus not running him enough and injuring him. I have been debating about moving him down but don't want to too early if he still is doing well at 2o inches, plus I am still chasing my top title in USDAA and don't want to move him down to 16 in training and in the ring in AKC but still have him jump at 22 in USDAA. SO, I think I have finally got my mind made up on a plan. I think I am going to jump him at 2o for the two september shows that are AKC and then do USDAA nationals at 22 and then do only USDAA for the rest of the year and then move him down to 16 inches for AKC. I can do more local shows at novice preferred in the winter season anyway when traveling isn't as big a deal. I think that is fair for Miller and I and I will just forget the plan of getting his second MACH and think longevity more than what we can accomplish.

Deuce is also still a question. While he is progressing nicely, i do see moments of pure puppy brain. Take class the other night. He didn't want to do anything, was more interested in sniffing, visiting, and doing anything other than agility. I was so disappointed as he had been doing so great in the backyard with his weaves and with his contacts and then at Lori's house he wouldn't even send over a jump and decided creeping down the a-frame rather than driving into position was more fun. It was almost like, who the heck is this dog and what happened to my good doggy? I am leaning towards waiting till he is 2 but not sure. On one hand, you want to get them in early, on the other hand, you don't want to risk bad experiences due to not being ready. It is a pure balancing act between getting good ring experience and getting quality runs, versus letting bad habits form or stress increasing due to not being ready.

Berry dog April 17, 1997-August 5, 2010

I guess I knew this day was coming. I guess I knew in my gut when she got sick that there was no getting well. I had hope but I knew the odds were stacked against us. I thought I had mentally prepared myself for this but I was wrong. I feel like someone has ripped my heart out and stomped on it a million times. I feel like I am slowly falling apart. My heart dog is gone and all I can do is cry. Why I am acting so selfishly? I keep telling myself that berry lived a great life with me and she always got the best of what I could give her. I keep telling myself that she is in a better place and is whole again with no bum knee and no rules. She can be the fun police all she wants to and chase all the horses she wants to without me yelling at her, but for some reason, I still cry. I mourn for my baby, my sweet, sweet berry dog. I want this pain to lessen but I know time is the only healer. I have had tons of emails and FB posts and they all help me but this flat out plain sucks. I tried to sleep last night but every time I closed my eyes, I saw that look on her face as the medicine acted on her body. I wanted to be so calm so that her passing was smooth and not stressful for her but I am afraid that the last thing she saw was me freaking out and sobbing. Barb, my best friend in the whole world was there with me as was my favorite vet and vet tech, but it didn't matter. As she left this world, she took a huge hunk of my heart with her and it hurts like hell.

I have been trying to think of all the good times this morning and the things I will miss and wanted to share some of those funny stories here. I think blogging and talking to people is how I deal the best with tough situations so there may be many blogs and posts until I can heal.



This was probably one of the funniest pictures I have of berry. I was living in CO at the time in a little one bedroom apartment working a job in Golden. This had been a very hard time for me with grad school ending after a very bad time with a very bad major professor in which I had basically given up getting my degree and left KSU and KS for that matter. Anyway, Tony was still in KS in electrical apprentice school and had one more year till he could transfer anywhere. He and the dogs were just hanging out till they could join me in CO. I was super lonely, knew no one there, traveled so I couldn't keep the dogs with me and for that matter, the apartment complex didn't even allow dogs anyway. Well, christmas time came that year and Tony and all three dogs came out to visit for a while. My mom, who always out does herself at christmas, had as usual done more than she should. Carebears had come back into style as they were when I was a kid and she had looked far and wide for me a grumpy bear. That was my favorite carebear for some reason growing up and I had had one for years. Well, as you can see from the picture, as soon as I unwrapped it, Berry was very interested in it so much so that we put it up really high so she couldn't interact with it while we were gone for the day. I still to this day don't know how she got it down with her bum knee, but when we got home, grumpy bear was missing his nose and stuffing had been surgically removed from his nose hole and from a hole in his butt. The other dogs did not posses surgical skills like berry as they would shred toys to bits so we knew it was her. We still wonder if she bribed harley and miller into getting that bear down for her to do surgery on. She looked so guilty and when I got this film developed, I had to laugh so hard at this picture! Do you think she looked guilty? I DO!


I had taught berry to wave as a trick. Berry was a very smart dog but at the time I got her, I knew nothing of dog training per se. We had been asked to be in a church play where we ran on the stage and the dogs did agility stuff and then we ran off. Unfortunatley, the dogs got freaked out by the circus music and the lights so we had to go to plan B. We all ran onto the stage and then I had berry sit and wave for a cookie because she would do anything for food. Berry always saved the day! This picture was taken at aussie nationals in St. Louis. I think my mom took them with her 35 mm camera and they all turned out so great. Berry was a very photogenic pup so I have tons of pictures of her. One of my favorites was taken by Mickey Rabeneck as a professional portrait. We have it in our hall way with the boy's photos under it. She is and always will be the alpha bitch in our household and I will so miss her bossiness and her cheerleading.

I love this picture too. Berry loved frisbees and agility more than anything. Okay well maybe chasing horses too.

Okay for whatever reason this one won't load in correctly but I love it so I am not going to delete it. Tony could only come up once a month when I lived in CO so he would initially only bring one dog up at a time. The first time he came up, he asked what dog I wanted to see first and of course it was my berry dog. We went up into the mountains and did all the typical CO things. This is at the Contenential Divide. The prairie dogs were driving her nuts.



Okay tired from crying and typing so taking a break. More to come after I rest. This truly is making me feel better. I will have to get some really old pics of her out and scan them in for sure now. They are classic and I want to share them. Going to try and get some sleep.