hey I figered I would do this too...something I read about deserving the dog that you get...

lets see:

Happy-Happy is damn near perfect now, but she wasnt always, when I got her I was extremly shy and withdrawn, I didnt trust anybody or anything. then came Happy, a smart but aggressive...that forced me to step up, take control of situations and forced me to talk to people, because I could not help her overcome her problems without the help of strangers. Happy and I both had to learn how to trust and how to relax and we helped eachother do that, Happy and I have both since calmed down learned to trust and gotten over our extreme fears..not 100% for either of us, but enugh that we can function much better in the world. toegther we are now a team, we are in total harmony and everyone can see that..we deserve eachother, both then and now.

Misty-I deserved her...when I got Misty I was sucidel, I loved Happy and she helped me through a lot, but she is not and never has been a "funny" dog, when you are so miserable all you want to do is kill yourself? a dog that needs serious work and almost never looks very happy, doesnt really help you mood! then came Misty..a dog that got stuck in strange places, ran into walls and jumped through closed windows, a dogs that jumped 3 feet and ran when she farted, a dog that took a flyer leap into a pools falling over and butt sliding accross the pool, a dog that did a running leap onto a chair sending it skidding accross the floor till it stoped abruptly and her chin smacked the table. no matter what is going on in you life, are really hard to stay upset when a goofy looking dog does all that with a giant grin on her face. I credit Misty with bringing me out of my depression, she helped more then anyone can ever know..she taught me to laugh, she taught me not to dwell on little things, hey why not do something stupid and laugh about it?

Electra-hmmmm well Electra really helped the whole house relax..she broke the tense mood we always had with half our dogs hating eachother. she also gave my head a smack, I always beleive in working dogs, but the show and "versatile" side was starting to grab at my brain so I bought a "versatile" show dog. I wound up with a very nice dog..that doesnt retreive, didnt swim, and was afraid of agility equipment and is riddled with allergies. shes real pretty though! I got into the show world, I spoke to people...people who inisted that working ability was paramount, but when I said to these same people that Electra had no instinct? a blind eye would be turned and everyone would continue to tell me what a wonderful dog I have and requests from breeders who wanted puppies from her. it wasnt until I experienced it first hand that I truley understood just how two-faced some of these people could be.

Rusty-good question. lol

Ladybug-I am not sure what it is about Ladybug, but there is just "something" that makes my heart flutter and brings a smile to my face when I see how much she has changed from what she came into my life 1 year ago, looking elderly, underweight, matted, nails over grown, reeking breath, no muscle tone, in so much pain she could barley move. its hard not to smile and see just how wonderful life is when you watch a dog that was so bad off, experinceing the simple pleasures with such sheer joy and awe. she gave me a reason to TRY, and showed me that a little effert could go a long way.

ya I reallly dont understand show breeders! they give all this lipservice to health, and then I see time and time again, show breeders who see NOTHING wrong with for an actually example: breeding a dog that in her first litter produced a monocryptoid singletone, and in her second litter had only 2 pups which she was not able to naturally deliver, so then all the show breeders patted her on the back, and TOLD HER TO BREED THE DOG AGAIN and "better luck next time!" uuummmm wha??? or a more recent one, someone asked about there dog having false pregancies after EVERY heat cycle, then asked if there was anthing she could do to stop this annoyence without spaying her, because she wants a litter out of the dog! a whole bunch of show breeders then responding, stating that this is a proven GENETIC condition, and that her best bet is to breed the dog ASAP. again, WHA????? or all these breeders that have dogs that cannot conceive and/or deliver naturally..as they boast about what great breeders they are, and LAUGH as they explain that they breed the dogs with a build so unnatural that they cannot reproduce. IMO if a dog cannot naturally reproduce, then they should NEVER reproduce, period. if they cant reproduce on their own, then thee is a force out there saying "hey folks, these dogs are fucked up, they should not be allowed to reproduce" that force is not saying "hey folks, you fucked these dogs up, so insemate then yourself, cut them open to remove the pups and make as many more as you can!"

apperently I am a horrable dog owner. I let my dogs off leash in the city, even my deaf one*oh the horrors*. I dont do the pre-screening bloodwork before a spay, nor do I accept the painkiller. I dont do the fancy planning of the raw diet for my dog, I dont weigh or measure shit. I dont do yearly check ups and I dont vaccinate beyond 1 Parvo at 16 weeks. I am awful, I should never own a dog lol. bullshit. my dogs are extremly healthy(as per my vet that said they are some of the healthiest she has ever seen), they are extremly happy, extremly healthy and very well behaved and well trained, in the real world, I get nothing but compliments for how well behaved and well adjusted my dogs are, and I get shock and awe gasps when I tell people how old my "puppies" actually are, and my vet not only does not berate us for anythng we do, she takes us seriously,she doesnt treat us like we are random public. my naighbores have never complained, and everyone in my neighborhood knows and adores my dogs. yup, I am awful, horrable, abusive, arrest me now for my happy, healthy well behaved dogs that everyone loves.

What got you into your sport of choice...why that one, why not another type of dog sport? What else have you tried, but don't care for? What haven't you tried but would like to?

hmm lets see, I dont do much sports anymore, but my sports of choice are herding, hunting and flyball.

Ive tried Agility, I still do some agility, but I am not crazy about it, and I dont go gaga over the thing. I really only do it because its something I can do in my backyard lol, I enjoy it with certain dogs..Rusty for example LOVES agaility, and so I enjoy doing it with him, but as far as competing goes...the coarses make my dizzy and the perceived pressure makes me seize up.

LOVE disc but I have no idea how to train the stunts, I just like the simple stuff for a little fun..this works best in a big feild with Happy, because she likes to show off..when its just the 2 of us, she doesnt give a crap, but as soon as someone is watching she is soaring through the air catching every toss and nailing every trick, its funny. Happys thing is the long distance stuff. Misty on the other hand better nails the short tosses and stunts..she loves that sort of thing.

I compete in Conformation..thats with Electra..I enjoy it with HER..but I will never ever for as long as I live go anywhere near anouther conformation dog, I dont care if the lines are "versatile" so are Electra's, doesnt make her capeable of anything worth crap..but gee she sure is purty. no I dont beleive in the culture..the people I have spoken too are so freaking blind as to what they are doing to these dogs..no no THEY are not the ones destroying the breeds..its all those OTHER people. bullshit. when people say about Poodles "and SOME can EVEN hunt?" when Poodles are supposed to be HUNTING dogs? or if you have to puff youself up and bring out the pictures of the 3 show labs in the world that can hunt without having a heart attack when someone tries to challage you. when you have to dumb down the basic herding test so your barbie collies can get their full Ch. because only 3 barbie collies in the world in the last 30 years were ever able to pass a BASIC ISDS herding test? and of those 3 only 1 was also able to finish in the conformation ring? hate to break it to ya honey, but YOU are destroying the breeds.

Rally-O..I quite enjoy Rally actually..not huge into it, but I enjoy it.

Obedience..ummm the begginer levels are ok, but after that its just stuffy and boring.

Hunting..havent done to much of it since Electra is kinda usless, but I would LOVE to persue it further when I get myself a real 100% full blooded HUNTING dog, and none of this supposed "versatile" crap.

Herding...only got to do it once, but I would kill to do it again, I honest to god have dreams and daydreams about working my dogs on sheep again. I take my BCs for walks wishing a stock truck would break down and the sheep would escape lol

Flyball..I competed for a few years..I left because of the club, not because of the game. I LOVE the game, if I had the time to do it agaian, I would in a heartbeat..I have actually had offers from clubs..they want my dogs lol..people have seen my speed demon run, who doesnt want a 3 second dog on their team? even if she is nearly 9 years old lol. Misty is wicked fast too, but she needs confidence, she was very slow in tournys because she was so unsure of herself, but in practices she looked like a speeding bullet..next to the dogs on the fast team!

I have done a little drafting, and I would actually love to persue it..I just cant afford it, and my building and modifing skills are next to zilch.

I got to see my Mr. Ebby today! I told him to Griffiths Petting Farm a few months ago, because they contcated us about Gerbils, they lost their last one at the age of 6, so they needed new Gerbils on the farm. I immeditly though of Ebby, he has always been my faverite, calm and sweet right from birth, he never at any point when through a jumpy stage, not only that but he was a GREAT daddy and has given us many lovley kids to work with..my Lovley Grace in fact is Ebbys granddaughter! well the petting farm had a booth at the Canada Day celabrations today, so I just had to stop by and see if they brought along one of my babys(they took Ebby, Loonie and Rehv) but since Ebby was always my Fav. I had my fingers crossed that they would have Ebby. sure enugh when we found the booth, there was Ebby sitting in Murials hand totally calm while crowds of children petted him and handled him, when it wasnt his turn, he waited calmly in his display cage with the door open, watching the people until his turn came around again. Murial said the boys are working out really well, she agree'd the Ebby is definetly the calmest and friendliest, and he is their first choice for big crowds. but she said that Loonie and Rehv are doing really good now too, she said they are not so nervous about the whole thing anymore and are taking to all the handling much better now. they calmed down quick..she said they have had about 1500 people through the farm already and they only opened for the season in May, so she said they have gotten lots of attention!

yay, Grace and Farley were breeding last night, so finger crossed for Gracie babies very soon!! Grace is the lovley gerbil I used in my header, a gorgous little nutmeg girl. Farley is a big Pied Argent Cream boy, he has already given us several gorgous Litters out of Toonie..including Irish, Bandi, Bilby, Desi, Dylan, Solar, Sky, Lark, Dawn, Bailey, Emmy, Eclipse and of coarse Gracies Surrogate sister Charity(Charity was raised with Graces mom..Trix).

we have had some issues latly with intro's, we had FOUR single gerbils because Trix and Sky were a no-go after 3 weeks in a split they were still trying to kill eachother through the divider! then Bailey and Bandi were also a no-go, after 2 weeks when I tried to intoduce them they started ball fighting. sooo since we are down to 1 split cage(the second broke..the tank not the divider!) we have Trix and Bandi in a split...so finger crossed that they will work out. once they are hopefully together we are going to try Sky and Emmy, they look the same..both Dove girls with the same spotting pattern, which we dont like to do, we prefer pairing up different colours or at LEAST differnt markings, but were just outa luck on this one, Solar and Eclipse are my only youngens and they are both boys, all my other young ones are paired off already(Desi with Bailey, Dylan with Bilby, Vickie with Charity, and Leo with Puzzle)

on the dog front...yesterday before work Steph and I took Happy, Electra(baby), her dog Arctic(Arti) and her son Austin for a walk, then we went out for ice cream. I got a doggie bowl for all 3 dogs, it was funny, Arti and Baby kept swapping bowls, but Happy was practicly laying on top of her's guarding it with her life lol. I had a hard time trying to drink my Float, while holding 3 leashes of dogs pushing ice cream bowls all over the place..Arti actually tried to eat the bowl itself lol.

I also need to do some crate swapping, ATM I have 2 medium crates in use, and 2 unused in the basement, one of the crates in use has no door..its for Baby since she likes a crate but doesnt need one. the problem is that Baby keeps inisiting on using the crate with the door and refuses to leave it..Rusty ended up comming for an inpromptu car ride because Baby was on her back twisted in a pretzal inside his crate fast asleep. I wasnt home so my mom said "screw it" and brought him along lol. soo I think I need to do a little swapping, bring up one of the crates from the basement. I am debating though on putting the door lacking crate outside on the deck for the dogs to use. we are in the process of building a dog house but thats not done yet, Ladybug already has a crate outside until the dog house is done, but that doesnt mean the smaller dogs wouldnt like something, and Baby would LOVE the platform. Ladybug wont fit in that medium crate..its like Beagle size..Ladybug is a Rough Collie mix lol