My good friend Pam had both Molly (on the right), and Valerie (on the left). She wrote, "MACH 4 Acadia Color of Passion HSAs, MXC, MJB2, OF "Molly" Molly came to live with me as my daughters junior handling dog for agility. When she "grew up" and gave up agility, I inherited a wonderful partner for many years to come.
Retired from agility for many years, Molly still took every opportunity to chase Border Collie Quest and "train him" to do the work. Molly and Valerie were born 2/14/1998 about the time of my first Sheltie National in Tucson where I met their breeder owner. Cadie Pruss, I can never thank you enough for sharing the girls with me. Valerie pass just a few weeks ago and Molly was still going strong at that time. Valerie passed during her nap on the cement patio, today, Molly passed in almost the same place and way. Tomorrow will be the first day since 1991 that there is not a Sheltie in the house. It will be so weirdly quiet"
My heart breaks for Pam. I can't believe that 1 month and 2 days after Valerie passed away, Molly followed. Pam said that her Border Collie, Quest, attempted to put the ball he and Valerie played with in Molly's grave. I think he thought Valerie had forgotten it, and he wanted Molly to give it to her.
These girls were truly special. They do continue in my breeding program through Claire.
Luke completed his championship this weekend by winning his 2nd major. I was So Thrilled because he did it on the 1st day of a 4 day show weekend. It was such a relief to win the first day. I "bumped him up" to the Best of Breed class so he could compete for points towards the Grand Championship. This weekend he also successfully won a major towards his Grand Champion. I would call that a successful weekend.
.jpg)
Liza won Runner-up at the 1st ever ASSA Top 20 competition. I was so honored!!! She was only entered in the Top 20, so we did what we went for, and went home happy!!
Before the competition, people came up to me and told me that they were looking forward to seeing her. Afterwards, so many people told me how much they enjoyed seeing her- and how well she moves!! This competition was judged by 3 judges- all of them breeder/judges. I am so thrilled that they recognized her quality.
compressed.jpg)
compressed.jpg)
compressed.jpg)
compressed.jpg)
comp.jpg)
compressed.jpg)
compressed.jpg)
“From
the time I brought him home (it's hard to believe it's been over 2 years!), he
has been a fearless bundle of attitude, game for anything. He's smart, eager,
and always happy. He loves everyone and everything. He is also a snuggle bug -
when he settles down, he's either on my feet or in my lap in the chair. If the
cat happens to be in my lap and Robbie wants that spot, he just jumps up and
lays on top of her - she moves out and he settles in. 
.JPG)
Congratulations to Hector and Meredith Hector of Enclave shelties. Serena will be joining them this year and I think she has a lot to offer. I am super excited to see what sort of an impact she has on their successful breeding program. Both Hector and Meredith are licensed judges, and I am proud that they thought of me when looking for a special addition to their breeding program.
Serena leaves her son, Mason, at Acadia to continue her influence here in Pennsylvania.
I am SO FRUSTRATED with GOOGLE!!!! As you can see, there have been NO PICTURES in my last few posts- and NO PARAGRAPHS!! Not because I don't want you to see the pictures that add interest to the story, or because I forgot how to write, but because what ever changes GOOGLE made to BLOGGER has made this MUCH more DIFFICULT and FUSTRATING!!! I have been "sending feedback" to Google, but I get an automatic message saying they can't reply to all the feedback they get. HEY GOOGLE!! IF YOU ARE GETTING SO MUCH FEEDBACK THAT YOU CAN'T REPLY- YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!! I just started a new paragraph- can you tell? No, because this sentence is directly behind the last sentence! No one is going to read a bunch of unformatted, run-on paragraphs. I am going to end this paragraph now and start a new one. Pictures- as you can see, the last picture that I was able to upload is SIDEWAYS. In the "old days" of Blogger, formatting pictures was EASY!!! Now, it is DIFFICULT and I can't remember how to do it without going back to a post I wrote a while ago when Helen posted a comment with instructions on how to reformat the picture. WHY do I have to go look for INSTRUCTIONs when I should be able to right-mouse click and click on ROTATE!!! It was THAT EASY BEFORE (on blogger)!! Not only can I no longer format the pictures- I can't even UPLOAD the pictures from my computer now. These last THREE posts I have attempted to add pictures- BUT ARE THEY THERE!!! NO!!! (new paragraph) GOOGLE!!!! Are you really trying to make people's lives more FRUSTRATING???? I have been using your Blogger program since 2006- This blog and its contents are IMPORTANT to me!!! I have been so FRUSTRATED with you that I don't even want to use your product anymore. (new paragraph) Why did you "FIX" what wasn't "BROKEN"? I choose your product (over Wordpress and other blog formats) because you were USER FRIENDLY and I could write a post and put on pictures QUICKLY and EASILY!!! NOT ANYMORE! NOW it is BROKEN!!! Please FIX IT!
Read more...THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU PEGGY CRAWFORD!!!!
Manny has been visiting Peggy Crawford, Peggin Shelties, in Alaska this past year. Together, they earned the Grand Championship, the Herding Tested title (HT), and the Novice Perferred Jumpers (NJP) title.
The addition of these performance titles earned Manny a Versatility Certificate (VC) from the American Shetland Sheepdog Association (ASSA). Not only did the two of them complete the NJP, but Peggy and Manny have already earned two (out of the needed 3) legs towards the next level- the Open Perferred Jumpers (OJP) title!! WOW!!
Peggy is an amazing trainer and a wonderful person. I wouldn't trust Manny with just anyone- and Peggy is one of the special people in shelties who are able to bring out the best in all the dogs she encounters.
LeaAnne writes, "We got Lucy's entry confirmation for the AKC National Rally Obedience competition in Harrisburg, PA in March! To qualify you had to have 3 scores of 95 out of 100 during Dec 1, 2012 and Nov 30 2013 and 5 Double Qualifying scores in the Excellent class and Advanced class. During the qualifying period Lucy got her RAE title in 2 months with 11 scores of over 95 and 11 Double Q's with 10 1st place, 4 2nd place and 5 3rd place finishes. She will be in the Rally Advanced/Excellent competition along with 80 other dogs from across the nation!! So proud of her! You go girl!!" That is a HUGE accomplishment!! We are so proud of all they have accomplished!
Read more...Burrrr…… Baby it’s COLD outside! Extreme Cold is gripping the entire nation and it is the favorite topic of conversation- at least on the news. The good news is that this is expected to be a short-lived problem, but it is a problem none the less. Waterlines are the most vulnerable and remind us how much we take free-flowing water for granted. Here at our farm, water to the house if still flowing, but the (Frost-free) hydrants in our barn have frozen, making it necessary to carry water from the house to the barn. No tasks are fun in extreme cold.
Schools are closed so that kids don’t have to stand outside at the bus-stop. Dogs need to go out to potty, an activity that is not optional. The first day Mike went out to check the thermometer and it said -6 and it was WINDY. He came back in and looked at the computer and it said the wind-chill made it feel like -36. It seems that I have been letting dogs out, letting dogs in, letting dogs out, letting dogs in……. In addition to the biological need to go out, they also just want to play.
The first day of this cold I only let the dogs out to potty, and as soon as I saw them go, I brought them right back in. I gave them every toy and chew toy I could find so they could play inside. They all seemed ok, but then last night it seemed that they just needed to RUN.
It was not windy last night, so the wind-chill was not as big a factor as it had been. I decided that I would allow them to tell me when they had enough of the cold. I allowed them outside and let them stay out as long as they wanted. If they came back to the door, I let them in, but I didn’t call them in. They are all individuals and just like us, they have different tolerances for cold, and as long as they were out playing, they would be generating body heat anyway.
I was surprised at how long many of them wanted to be out playing. Claire in particular didn’t seem ready to come back in. I have a high tolerance for cold too. I think it is my Swedish heritage. Today it got up to 20 degrees with no wind, and I thought it seemed downright comfortable. While I was carrying buckets of water out to the sheep, I was generating enough heat that I needed to take my coat off. I don’t mind winter, but the past 2 days have been a bit extreme, even for me.
Resolutions often begin, “this year I am going to….” No wonder they fail. People are always, “going to”. Last week I was thinking about what it was I wanted to change, accomplish, focus on, for the coming year, and then I thought about what Actions would it take to be successful. Taking the focus off what we “want to” and putting the focus on the action that is needed for achievement is powerful. Each time we act we are successful just for taking the action- step by step we get to success. Today, January 1, 2014, I “did”. I didn’t get all of the actions done that I had planned, as will life, I got “derailed” a few times. I did manage to get back on track and I found that I was much happier with what I did do. I was much more focused on how what I “did” relates to what I hope to accomplish. I think I am a glass half full person anyway, but today I felt even MORE positive about what I accomplished just knowing that I had indeed started”. Focusing on each task gives us the ability to see the task more clearly and even make improvisations if needed. Tomorrow I will continue to take action and maybe this time next year I will be writing about all of the great things I changed and accomplished. P.S. I wanted to add pictures to this post- and I have made several attempts, but I am giving up now. Sorry- no pictures. I can't get the post to format the paragraphs either. I sure hope that in 2014 Blogger reverts to the User-Friendly format it had when it first started.
Read more...
Posts
All Comments
