More Dock Dogs!

We were in Bradford Ontario the weekend of August 22nd and 23rd. Baloo made the junior finals this time with a new personal best of 13'7 and officially earned his junior title!! He came in fifth overall and we had a blast.

The next dock diving event was September 20th at Superdog Central, the "Fall Frolic". Baloo posted yet another personal best of 14'1, he just keeps getting better, we'll be really rockin' the dock next year!

Here are a few pictures from Fall frolic:

Waiting our turn

High flying Baloooooo!!

More Dock Diving Fun!

Dan, Peanut, Baloo, Ace and I headed up to Scugog last weekend for the "Dog days of Scugog" Dock diving competition. Despite poor weather for most of the weekend, we had a great time at the festival and even more fun dock diving!

While he didn't earn any placements or a spot in the finals in his waves as he's moved up a division, Baloo did post a new personal best of 13 feet 4 inches!

He also tried speed retrieve for the first time. This is where the dogs start from the 20 foot line on the dock. The announcer will then say "ready, set, GO!" and the dog is released on "go". They then have to run down the dock, jump into the pool, and swim out to the end of the pool where a fake duck hangs just above the water. In order to stop the clock they need to make a clean grab of the duck. On his very first attempt, Baloo posted a score of 9.94 seconds, not bad for a first try!

Here's his speed retrieve video, thanks to Dan for the awesome camera work!




Next up: Carrotfest!!

Agility!!!!!!

Aside from the dock dogs and obedience, we've also been to a few agility trials in the last few weeks!

Both Baloo and Peanut competed on June 13-14, each earning one qualifying score, Baloo in jumpers and Peanut in Jack pot. Peanut then had another trial this last weekend, where she qualified in an amazing 8 out of 8 runs!! What a good minpin!! :D

Here are the pictures:

Peanut with her impressive haul







Baloo on course in the June trial




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Wow we've been busy! Time to update the blog!

Baloo and I attempted two novice trials at the LOC in early June 2009. He qualified for one leg in novice, and in the second trial scooted a little on the sit so NQ'ed, but overall he was such a good boy. I was VERY pleased. :)

Then we thought we'd try our hand at dock dogs, as Baloo LOVES water and LOVES to retrieve, so this is a perfect mix of both. We went to our first competition in London at the International Food Festival at the end of June. He was in four waves, jumping around 8.5-9 feet in all of them. This earned him a place in the novice finals, where he jumped a personal best of 10 feet 9 inches! Good boy!!

Some dock diving pictures:

Baloo with all his "loot" from the weekend


Grabbing his beloved ball


Up, up and away!

Merry Christmas!

Baloo says: "AKA that OTHER time of year where Momma makes me wear dumb things and pose for the camera!"

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family!

Fun Weekend!

We went to visit Felicia, Henry and Ollie again this weekend, and even though the duck throwing party was canceled, we still had lots of fun!!

Baloo and Ollie are BFFs and played like gangbusters, barely stopping to take a breath all weekend! Luckily Henry was there to act as fun police and keep the two rowdy ones in line.

We went out to a local park sunday morning and had lots of fun playing with some other dogs that were there, and got some good pictures.

Fetch/Keep-away:

"Dashing through the snow..."



"I can get him!!"
My favorite shot from the weekend: "Lookout Henry and Baloo, the Olliemonster is RIGHT behind you!!"

Bird dog training!

We drove down to London to visit with Felicia and Henry and Ollie, and go to a fun picnic trial where we got to use real birds! And, Baloo was introduced to his very first live pigeon! It was a ton of fun, and he did GREAT, true to his retriever blood! ;)

A few pictures:

Baloo says: "Can I go play with the birdies now, Momma?"

"Hold me back!!"

"I gots it, here I come!!"

I'm VERY proud of him, and excited to see what the future holds for my little R+ bird doggie... ;)