Numbers

Leo's height at withers: 11.25"
height required in agility to jump 8" instead of 12": 11" or less

(translation: Leo is a 1/4 of an inch too tall to fit into the 8" jump class, unless I can work some magic at his measuring by taking weight off him, shaving him, whatever I have to do LOL)

Lizzie's weight on Dec 2: 22.5 pounds
Lizzie's weight today: 28.5 pounds

(translation: cow)

I thought Lizzie was slowing down in size, as she doesn't "seem" that big to me anymore, but I don't really think she has. I guess that people say adult weight will be about 10 pounds from what they are at 6 months? And maybe 8 pounds for bitches. 8 pounds wouldn't be too bad.

I think I need new products

Here we go, here is Lizzie post-fluffing:



What's that you say? You say she looks the same? Hmm...I think you're right. LOL This little girl does. not. fluff. At least not with the grooming products that I own. I put mousse in her topline which helped a bit as you can see, but that's the only tiny difference I can notice after 20 minutes of grooming. Maybe I just need to wait until she grows more undercoat, I don't know.

On a good note, she's no longer scared of the blow dryer. :o)

6 months old

The breed counts were posted for Lizzie's first shows in 2 weeks. I went last year with Leo, and the shows pulled a 3 point major in boys (barely, there were 6 entries) and I think 2 points in girls. I was expecting something similar this year, except I thought *maybe* we'd pull a major in girls because I knew of several that were coming. Umm....NINETEEN class bitches!!??!! Yes folks, that is a FIVE point major. I was really kind of thinking that this show would be a good was to "ease" into the ring with Lizzie, but umm, I guess not. LOL

To that end, I have become obsessed with evaulating my dog like every stinking day, because I'm now suddenly about a hundred times more nervous about this show than I was. I don't know why, because chances are very very good that we will not win anything with this baby puppy in that kind of entry, but I'm nervous nonetheless.

As you can see, her topline is not great at the moment. Shown even better in the second picture. And I shouldn't take pictures against a nice lined background, but when it's just for evaluation purposes I actually like to see that. I'll have to try grooming her up someday and see how well I can fill in that topline with poof.


I'm also waiting to hear what happened in Portland! :o)

Just a little bean

The big question is...does this affect whether I can even consider going to the National?

Some new photos

Lizzie the stick queen. She is ALWAYS dragging some hugemungous stick up to the house from the depths of the backyard, LOL.


She's almost 6 months old! Lovely day so all the dogs got baths, rolled in the grass, and got some training. Leo started agility class this past week, Lizzie started obedience class, and Brady, well, he knows a lot of tricks he can do to earn treats. :o) And the conformation training continues, we still don't have a conformation class so I have to get her trained at home. She was still wet when I took these pictures, so her butt hair looks a little scraggly! And as usual, a comparison picture of Leo at around the same age. I think he was also fresh from a bath, and I'm pretty sure I doctored his topline in that photo.

Future Jr Handler?

The other day, when I pulled out of our neighborhood to take Charlie to daycare, she said "Let's go to dog show!". We haven't been to one since November, by the way, and apparently it has been too long in the mind of a two-year old. We weren't even talking about dogs or dog shows, either, so I like to tell Dave that it came up completely unbidden. :o) She also likes to walk Lizzie around the block:



Lizzie did learn rather quickly that 2 year olds are rather unforgiving if you lag behind...they simply keep pulling on the leash.

We think she's pretty cute

Biased though we may be. :o) Our first family picture in years, and it didn't even turn out that badly.