Baker and Jimmy drove me crazy today…I sleep during the day and work at night so I get to be home with dogs during the day and take care of them.  Jimmy and Baker had an eight hour bark fest while chasing each other.  I decided after getting only an hour of sleep at a time to put Baker inside with Trixie and Kahlua and the barking stopped.  Jimmy and Baker feed off of each other…while Jimmy was at his “girlfriends” house not to long ago Baker was quite as a mouse…it was great; I got great sleep those days.  Trixie and Kahlua were in their crates for a couple of hours while Baker was inside.  Trixie and Kahlua destroyed a water pitcher today.  Trixie can reach stuff off of the shelf in the dog room and today decided to obliterative my nice water pitcher; you know the hard clear plastic kind.  I was mad……I have to add that Kahlua helped her in the act of defiance as well.  Ace, Tyrael, Jimmy, Mini, Miata, and SoBe played outside with each other all day, quietly I might add.  I loaded up Mini, SoBe, and Miata and headed to training with Kenny, Missy, and Odie.  I did stop to get more pheasants for the wonderful Dahlseng family in Starbuck.  Odie did good, we quartered him up the field and threw clip wing pigeons for him so he could “hup” when he say them and heard the whistle.  I think we need to add the gun next time.  Mini barked once when I cast her off.  She trapped her birds so, I threw one for her and Kenny shot it; she whined a little on the take off for the retrieve but not bad at all.  I have also realized that she is in a false pregnancy…..I am a little annoyed because I gave her pills to prevent this from happening.  SoBe had great finds today.  She flushed her first bird, Kenny shot it, and she made the retrieve.  The second bird she trailed off the course threw a thicket that we could not get through.  She flushed the bird and stayed steady.  I called her back in and she caught wind of it again and ran it into a swamp where she splashed around for a while until I said enough is enough….plus I was a little tired and wanted to get going.  Miata quartered good today as well. She is getting the hang of it; it is very exciting.  I was watching TV in Tim’s favorite chair and Mini kicked me out so now I am blogging about the day.  I hope all of you have a wonderful day….enjoy the weather!  Get out and train!

The mosquitos are out!  Remember your Heartguard!
The weather was great.  The older dogs spent the day outside basking in the sun while Trixie and Kahlua were inside (they are a little irritated with me right now because they are inside).  I tried breeding Kahlua to Ace today but, she is not quite ready so, hopefully tomorrow will be his “lucky” day.  I ordered a clipper for the dogs today from www.petedge.com.  I have decided to shave them all down for the summer.  I have never done that before but, I think it will help them stay cooler in the summer months.  I also ordered crate colling fans for the crates in the Jeep so, the dogs when they are traveling can stay nice and cool besides the air conditioner.  Baker has been a pill today; all he wanted to do is chase Jimmy and bark.  I have a bark collar for him but, I need to charge it up again.  I went and trained in Brandon with Kenny and his wife Missy (she is awesome).  His dog Odie is in the process of being steadied; so we worked on that.  I think when we add the gun to the equation that his “follow” through will stop and he will “hup” on a dime.  We quartered Miata and she did great in fact we did it twice; she is such a happy go lucky puppy.  SoBe ran the course and had a clip wing pheasant at the end; she did good.  We also rolled in a pheasant for her; she is learning to carry them in her mouth, they are still a little awkward for her.  Mini found the escaped bird twice and then trapped it.  We threw it up for her but, it did not want to fly; I wanted to give her a retrieve for all her hard work.  I cast her off one more time and she barked so, she got put away. Training went great and I am happy that I can train now in the middle of the week with live birds instead of only when I get down to Bill’s in Montgomery. Kenny, Missy and I are going to train tomorrow as well.
Happy Training!

It is getting warm outside; make sure to keep your windows rolled down and your dogs watered if left in a vehicle!
The dogs are enjoying the warm weather; it is time to take out their swimming pool and fill it up. I am thinking about getting something a little more heavy duty than the kiddy pool I have been using the last couple of years. I have my eye on a cattle trough with a drain on the side; I know that it would definitely be easier to drain than the kiddy pool and keep clean. I am also going to shave the dogs for the summer. I have never done it before but, I want them to stay nice and cool in the warm/ hot weather. Trixie and Kahlua are in heat so, I will be breeding Kahlua here shortly. Mini and SoBe ran in the field today. I ran them on planted frozen birds and they both did good. I did, however, put Mini away after she started barking; it is going to be the “maker or breaker” in field trials this fall. SoBe had fun and listened great; she is getting better about paying attention to me and the whistle which, I might say is very nice! I have more control over her when she listens and I can get her to cover the course better. Miata did her retrieves in the field today and did great; she delivers straight to me like an UPS truck. She is also learning that the trill whistle means come and that one short whistle is “hup”. She runs great with the wind already. I have plans to train with Kenny from Alexandria with Sunday and Monday. It should be productive; he is in the process of steadying his puppy right now. The older dogs got smoked knuckles to chew on today; they enjoyed them greatly. I hope to start taking them to the lake as soon as the water warms up a little more. I am also hoping on building them a “dog deck” for the yard so, they have something to lay on besides the ground.

Today it was WINDY!!!!!  The big dogs spent the day in their dog houses occasionally barking at what ever moved managing to wake me up from my slumber.  I am on call and work for the next 12 days; night shift at the hospital.  Trixie spent the day inside because she is in heat right now and I really don’t want to breed her; she is very irritated with me right now.  I put Kahlua in a crate with her hoping that Kahlua would come into heat so we can have fall puppies.  Miata, Mini, and SoBe went out with me to the field and RAN.  I decided today to just let them run and have a good time.  They were all out in the field and Miata kept up with the big girls.  The girls did manage to find everything that was eatable, smelly, and gross; I spent most of the time telling them not to eat stuff but, over all it was good excerise for them and me; a little change in the routine. Miata  got her ears cleaned today which I might say proved interesting since she does not want to sit still for anything.  Miata did her pigeon retrieves and “hups” for me this morning before I went to bed; she did great!  She did manage to cuddle with me a little bit at midnight; I think that was accomplished because she is normally sleeping at that time so……  I am missing Tim terribly these last couple days; I hope the time goes by even faster…I want it to be August now ( that is when he comes back) !!!

Happy Mother’s Day!!  Did you remember to get your mother something special?

Well, the rain has gone away and it was a sunny day today.  The dogs enjoyed being outside in the warm sunshine.  Miata did her retrieves this morning with a frozen pigeon; she did great.  I took her to Bill’s the other day and did some training.  I gave her a clip wing pigeon and she loved it.  She retrieved it perfectly to me.  Randy and Bill helped quarter her with me in the field and she did good for her first time.  She delivered her birds to me like a delivery truck (UPS is her mom).  Mini and SoBe did good at Bill’s the other day as well.  Mini did not bark or make any noise so, I am very happy with that.  SoBe did ok.  She trapped all her birds so, when the last one was a flyer and she broke on it.  So, I gave her another one later on in the day and that bird did not fly so, I had Randy throw one for her and I held her for a good 10 seconds and she did good.
I found private land to train on not far from my house.  The family who is letting me use are awesome people; I am so excited to have access to such a great piece of land.  Mini and SoBe trained out there with me today.  I dry ran them on planted frozen pheasants.  They both ran good with no barking or complaints.  Miata ran out in the field; we took a little walk together and she naturally runs with the wind; it is great!  She still doesn’t feel to comfortable being to far away from me but, she will grown and she will be a handful to keep in gunning distance.  Trixie was in the house today with me and decided to counter surf where she found a bag of shredded cheese that was not even an hour old.  I was wondering why she was being so quite.  I found her and the bag in a crate; she gave me the “I didn’t do anything wrong” look and I just shrugged my shoulders and picked up the mess.  I do have to day I should of known better.  Crates where vacuumed and washed today, the dogs had a good inch of dirt in them because of the mud from yesterday’s rain.  I hope no more Rain!!!

It is FRONTLINE time! The ticks are out so, make sure to apply Frontline to your dogs if only for this month.
Last night I put Miata in with Baker and she slept great! No complaints; she just snuggled in with Baker and was happy. Baker did not mind because he prefers to sleep with another dog in his crate; Jimmy normally sleeps with him in the extra large crate. Jimmy is going to stay with his “girlfriend” for a couple more days; I am a little bummed out but, that is ok, he will be back soon. Miata did her retrieves this morning and did a great job. She is “hupping” good too. Mini and SoBe had retreives as well. I am running out of shells for my buoy launcher so, I will need to get some more very soon. The girls did good. Mini did not make a sound. SoBe made a little noise when I cast her off but, to her defense she was not in a field and there was really no where to run. Ace on the other hand was a PAIN in my butt today. He broke on the first retrieve and did not take well to the correction I gave him; he protested hard core. I only gave him a couple more retreives after that and put him away because I was frustrated with him. Remember it is better not to train than to train frustrated! Tomorrow I am going to put a collar on him and have it ready to go if he decides to break again tomorrow on a retrieve (I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was going to be good but, I guess not!). The dogs got smoked knuckles from the butcher and enjoyed them. They were the size of catalope…..huge! Believe it or not the knuckles smell really good. Peter came over and watched me train the dogs and played with Miata while I did. He helped me take some pictures with her.

This morning I gave Miata retreives; all frozen pigeons and she did great!  She “hupped” for me as well for treats.  She is a very intentive puppy with a lot of energy!!  She is always ready to go!  I also have to say she is very vocal but, it is getting better.  I left her with Kahlua today because I went to St. Cloud to stud Jimmy out to a great family from the St. Michael area.  They ended up taking him home for a while but, that is ok.  It is a little different only counting to 8 right now but, I won’t have to for long.  He should be home tomorrow.  Ace, Mini, and SoBe got retreives today.  Ace did great and his delivery was good; I am very pleased with it.  Mini and SoBe did awesome as usual.  The girls love the excerise; I need to find a piece of private land to train on because the public ones are closed until July and I really want to “run” them.

Miata is fitting in nicely with all of the dogs.  I am introducing her slowly to the nice ones and then I will introduce her to the more aggressive ones (with my supervision of course).  She did great with retrieves this morning.  I gave her pheasant wings and then I gave her frozen pigeons and she did great.  She is very excited to retrieve; that thrills me to death.  I am so happy with the puppy I bought!  She is everything I could ever dream of.  She “hups” for treats which is great.  I do have to say that she is running me a little ragged but, that is ok; that is what puppies do.  Mini and SoBe got retrieves today from the buoy launcher…rapid retrieves.  The other dogs are enjoying the weather, sunny.  I am praying for no more snow!

Today I went down to Minneapolis Airport and picked up my new baby with my friend Andy.  She flew in from Denver; I purchased her from Mhari and Gary Peschel from Longmont Colorado.  I named her Paragon Farm’s Mazda Miata; call name “Miata”.  She is FULL of energy.  I got her home and gave her some pheasant wing retrieves and she did great.  I put a blue collar on her.  Her crate is in my room so I can hear her cry when she needs to go out.  I have to say that she is a VERY vocal puppy.  Gotta go play with my new baby.