Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[getaclue]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! What a wonderful first day, not to mention the 2 points towards CKC Champion. Wow. Impressive.

 

[Bunnylady]

Oh, man, Tara, are you gonna need a grin-ectomy to get into the ring today? After a day like that, I suspect Emmy won't be the only one "floating" around the showroom!

Heartiest of congratulations, gal! Great dogs, great work - y'all have a lot to be proud of.

 

[CanuckBock]

Oh, Tara! How wonderful! I have tears in my eyes, I'm so happy for you. I know your heart is swelling with pride for your two girls, mine is and I have never even given them the first ear rub. A hearty and heart-felt CONGRATULATIONS to you all - Em, Lace, you, Rick, the boy, and even the breeder - you all deserve it.

Good gack...no tears, I know happy but no

Bwa ha ha...I get you though & thank you

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! What a wonderful first day, not to mention the 2 points towards CKC Champion. Wow. Impressive.

Thank you!

Yeh, push me over with a feather already...

Oh, man, Tara, are you gonna need a grin-ectomy to get into the ring today? After a day like that, I suspect Emmy won't be the only one "floating" around the showroom!

Heartiest of congratulations, gal! Great dogs, great work - y'all have a lot to be proud of.

Thank you...

I am so happy to get to share the fun parts of the dogs on here too...the build up to the shows has been inch by inch and ever so slow so to hit the top of the height...yeh, hilarious!


Now fur today's BIG NEWS! Brace yerselves...get ready, set...and listen UP!

It was Lacy's DOG day indeed. And our Boy (some boy, in his thirties--still trying to lose baby fat I got from carrying him for nine months...nyuck nyuck!)...the two of them just SHONE with success today! To say me proud...HA! Understatement.

Alexander and Lacy, though they did not take Best of Breed today (the male puppy owner changed out her handler and this time, the professional did win Best of Breed and Puppy...), the two of them won Best Opposite to the Best of Breed male giving Lacy TWO Points and a very beaming and over the top giddy Mom & Dad!

Yee Haw...the judge we thought might be judge today...she was. US judge and she adored the Lace...charmed by the big red girl with the wiggy waggy tail and my handsome dapper boy. So yee haw...Lacy's day today. I whispered it on here that if that was the judge...she already was taken by the red girl puppy and it was so! So AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Now I never purposely fudged up Emmy...on Emmy's behalf, she is feeling under the weather today...and all MY fault indeed but nothing purposeful. I was a tad too generous yesterday with the baked liver and found out this afternoon, Em has had a tummy ache. She seemed off her usual self, not on her game (but keep in mind, the judge already let us know she loved the Lacy YESTERDAY...so even if Em was on her game and not with a sore tummy, it would be the Lace that won anyhoo a doo). Emmy, she is fine now, took a rather nasty dog crapola (hee hee...talking about showing and dog poo in one post...good gracious!). I have fed both girls some natural yoghurt (more than usual amount in the food today) with just kibs and both of the dog kids are down for a much deserved and rewarding napster.

Good news, since Lacy never took Breed, well we got to go home right tout sweet...left show at noon, picked up a bit of grocery and had lunch with the two dogs in a park in the spring sunshine on a park bench all together. Now that's MY kinda having a meal, eh!

So tomorrow, another big day and last show. The judge is from Mexico, a Doctor and he judged last year's ACD Club of Canada's Speciality held in Ontario in September.

Both Kathy (the other lady with a blue ACD female imported from Australia--just turned to juvenile ACD this month) and I are on pins and needles in anticipation. Wanting to know what the judge will think of the dogs here in Alberta! We might try and tug on his ear if the Ring Steward allows us tomorrow. His comments would be kewl...see if we can do this or not.

Now the other thing I do have to do. I thought about yesterday and Emmy getting two points and Lacy coming in second to her. I ponder if Lacy too might have netted two points also (she was one of three so that means two points but not sure she got that win WITH points). Gonna bug some of the dog show kids I know tomorrow (their provincials were today, see how they did tomorrow) and see how this feeble old lady does matched up to ten year old twin boys...hee hee...see if I guessed all the placements correctly thus far and what points if any after Em's Best of Breed two points are to be had. Mighten be that the Lace has FOUR now and Emmest has TWO...dunno and shall see.

So much to try and remember and understanding how the dog show points work are often just nasty on a stick trying to wade on thru. But we'll give her a whirl.

SIL comes to show tomorah too and she's a photographer...so she will hopefully take some candid clicks. My camera has stayed at home, all I need is to think I could balance that monster and two dogs and my show crap...rodeo indeed.


I am thinking of getting two pro pics done by show photographer...one of the judge with the Boy and Lacy for today's win and one of myself and Emmy for Best of Breed with the judge from Friday. See if that happens as it will cost round abouts $90 for two digitals and have to organize it with photographer when judges are available...lots to swing into play, eh. Busy day planned tomorrow and thinking I will get half of what I hope completed...pisha...may not.

So anyways, gotta fly; got laundry and ironing to get done up. Dinners for us all here in Pear-A-Dice (been magnificent spring weather), just unloaded the truck to reload for tomorrow, and Rick's taken her to town to refuel and he's fixed a signal light that was acting up when he refitted the front items we got last week for the White Dog Bus (someone busted off the ground on it and it has been a nightmare tracking down this ele issue...blah!). Fish are in the fish pond, the water plants too and he's been blowing leaves to tidy up the front yard...busy man.

We show at 8 a.m. and need to be ring side one hour ahead of the show time...gonna be a tad early but ever so much fun. Last day...next shows, probably for us will be next November. Got alot on the plate awaiting this weekend to be completed...spring stuff that has been on hold because we bin busy getting ready for this big weekend of fun stuff!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[drumstick diva]

Whoopee for Lacey

Oh, Tara don't know how we can possibly wait for November shows. Too bad, on top of all the other things you need to do, you couldn't pop into USA and win American Titles also. Then maybe a trip to Westminster. Okay feeling just a trifle happy & manic over my imagined puppers.

 

[CanuckBock]

Whoopee for Lacey

Oh, Tara don't know how we can possibly wait for November shows. Too bad, on top of all the other things you need to do, you couldn't pop into USA and win American Titles also. Then maybe a trip to Westminster. Okay feeling just a trifle happy & manic over my imagined puppers.

No worries DD...you can imagine the highest of wins for the girls if you wanna...but the dogs are the happiest here in Pear-A-Dice...don't we know it.

The three days are just murder on the rest of the regulars here and doing chores has been interesting to say the least....warm spring days so no matter how much water I put in the goose buckets, I come home and they are empty because they have been bathing in them. Dang warm weather...grumble grumble.

Dream the dreams, live vicariously and enjoy the successes right along with us--you're a dedicated fan of the girl dogs and deserve to enjoy this too...but know too that the whole thing about being here is the balance between all the components. No garden, No birds, No part time job to buy bird seeds with...etc....sure I could travel (I abhor travelling, this is a country mouse that adores it at home) the country showing but my life is so much more than that. I truly do hate travelling (just thinking of the hotel rooms make me squirm...hotel = bed bugs, not my bed, not my house, not my space...then the restaurant meals...no sing brightly happy hen eggs to eat, no muppet chef scenes of me and dancing dogs as I slice and dice up din dins...BLAH), this weekend is exhausting and fun too though but if I had every weekend like this...it would get really old soon. Because we are tired and giddy...it seems EXTRA fun...I think if we did this too often, it would get pretty tiring too. And costly. Just the entry fees by themselves this weekend were $250 and a friend's husband asked me..."Do you make money doing this dog show stuff?" and I near hurled on him...MONEY>>>yeh, we shell out lots of it to do this dog show hobby.

Fun hobby and in moderation. November WILL be here soon enough and high hopes, we will practise more, the girls will get somewhat older and understand better all the "run silly round the ring a ding" things better...all much better and by letting time go by, the anticipation of NOVEMBER show will be that much more.

We'll be having fun...soon enough, eh. Time flies when yer having fun...all over the place.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[perchie.girl]

awesomme Tara just Awesome..... I am not for travllling it gets expensive.

Had a friend who thought she had a contender in Class A Paint horse shows. It cost her Ten Thousand dollars to do the A Circuit one year.

five thousand just for the Saddle and Bridle and then a thousand for the outfit.... Trailering all over California Arizona Nevada Texas.... And she didnt use the trainer but she went with the trainers entourage.... about six horses their owners and stuff. Sleeping in Box stalls or horse trailers and one would get a hotel room which they would use for base camp. Showers naps .....

Cleaning stalls before the show swapping out bedding Washing horses every day Painting hooves Braiding forelocks putting in False tails (which are big bucks for a good one...) Banding bandaging Blanketing Feeding..... White powder for the wite spots that wont get white.... and on....

I did it once one single show.... It was a great experience but Never again.

deb

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara, I know. It's just the fantasies of an old woman. I hate to travel & don't. Haven't left the state since May 1984. I don't fly, train, Rickshaw., boat etc. I hate to go to the BIG city.

Plus I know all about dog shows(in this country anyway) and hate them. My last show was in puppy match where my pup won the sporting group, in the late '70s. It's hard to believe how much entry fees, etc. have risen when income hasn't.

I also have fantasies about the girls having puppies- can't help it. I was a breeder and loved raising puppies. My last litter was Nov.1979. My last oldie died Jan.1989.( at 14) I haven't had a dog since.

Next purchase will be a darling stuffed blue cattle dog once the "Woof " store at the zoo opens for the year. Of course they don't have red ones. Last time I went they were closed for the season. No phone no. so can't find out when they open again. If they don't have my cattle pup, I will sink into despair. But, there is always the internet.

 

[drumstick diva]

Tara is Emmy feeling better?

 

[CanuckBock]

awesomme Tara just Awesome..... I am not for travllling it gets expensive.

Had a friend who thought she had a contender in Class A Paint horse shows. It cost her Ten Thousand dollars to do the A Circuit one year.

five thousand just for the Saddle and Bridle and then a thousand for the outfit.... Trailering all over California Arizona Nevada Texas.... And she didnt use the trainer but she went with the trainers entourage.... about six horses their owners and stuff. Sleeping in Box stalls or horse trailers and one would get a hotel room which they would use for base camp. Showers naps .....

Cleaning stalls before the show swapping out bedding Washing horses every day Painting hooves Braiding forelocks putting in False tails (which are big bucks for a good one...) Banding bandaging Blanketing Feeding..... White powder for the wite spots that wont get white.... and on....

I did it once one single show.... It was a great experience but Never again.

deb

Besides the piebald Jacob sheep, I've fitted, groomed and shown WHITE llamas...good gack that's a task and a half...white fibre and llamas expel green poo...and love to ROLL after a groom in their own excretion which could happen at any moment (poo happens you know)...yeh, did that once and that was enough for me. Think biggest poodle ever and no want to keep clean!

My dog show collars run in the hundreds and I even picked up a spare in the copper for Lacy and a spare in the silver in big links for Emmy. I don't need jewelry but them doggers sure do!

​

That was a $60 investment to be prepared that at the worst moment possible, a chain would let go. Double everything up you use to be safe and not sorry. Also hard at times to say, purchase the beige leads...all they had this time at the show to buy was white but I have had two of the nylon leads in each colour I use since a dozen years ago. Brace chain was a near impossible find...one in silver if we decide to do brace in conformation (need to trip over another one, some impossible day) which I did practise at the drop in conformation last day. The fellow holding the drop in's was real surprised...I come in with both dogs in duo..."You're not doing BRACE are you this weekend?" He sounded distressed like why was I not practising that part more..."Nope, just scaring myself...!" And yeh...want to make just running round the ring with ONE dog not so bad, try TWO! There were several braces I got to see this past weekend; nice matching dogs but I do this never with matching dogs (I never seem to have two same gender, same coloured ACDs at the same time...Lacy and HyBlade would have been AWESOME as a pair of reds in brace!) ...I do this to test myself and the crew on the end of the lead...see if we can just manage it. Maybe in November? Bwa ha ha...I've had pro handlers freak their beaks when I show one blue and one red in brace conformation (Makins and HyBlade I showed in brace and Makies threatened to EAT HyBlade if'n he even looked sideways at her--talking white knuckle round the rings!). The one pro-handler had a FIT on me but the judges, they smile, they love it and so does the audience...ACD Brace goes on to Group and well, what better way to highlight the breed than with a lovely PAIR of dogs in one breed prancing around the ring with a wild eyed nervous handler in tow...Conformation Brace is deemed as in "one dog is to SHADOW the other dog." Heh heh heh...Emmy would be Lacy's shadow. We'll see how down and dirty crazy I get come November and entry time, eh! WICKED

WICKED Woman!


I also bought the girls new crate pads for the wire crates at $70 fur the pair...I can't sew something that thick up with my sewing machine and I have been on the hunt constant for dog paw prints...never any at the stores...scoffed up right quick like.

So wanna guess which pad is for which lady? Pink for ?? Black for ??

​

Two bags of crate bolts...like the missing laundry sock...crate bolts have this mystery of disappearing and over the years, I am down to one bag...crates are worse than useless with not hand tightened bolts to match. That was $18 for bolts.


So on the flying tally up of what the three points cost us...it was easily a $1,000 weekend...potentially more. Between fuel at $100/day, the food we purchased, the three sets of panty hose I ruined (bwa ha ha...me ever so not a nylon gal no more--nix to any monkey suits unless its for a GOOD cause--and proud about it too!), bait, laundry every evening so we started out clean and fresh for each day, then it gets ramped up way higher if'n we wanted to count the costs for the five trips for Conformation Drop-ins (one Sunday trip netted no practise as it was cancelled without us being notified). Not taking into account I sewed up my show clothes and that was a new sewing machine, material, notions, etc. From day one here, I have been having the girls free stack for treaties...an endeavour like this is not tallyable in reality. It is more a way of living to get ready for one three day weekend. Utterly hilarious...right?

I am mailing off a thank you card to the conformation drop-in holder...I told him it was all his fault on Sunday that we took breed and best opposite the next day! He looked pleased and said he had heard we were doing well.


I abhor the "chalking" I see at creature events. A beast is born with a set colour pattern and in my mind, that's cheating to colour or dye it falsely to seem not what Nature gave them. There is a time and place for fitting for show like removing white feathers from the body of a beetle green sheened East Indie Duck...but wing or tail feathers are never to be removed and altering the colour is a no-no. Enhancing a colour by washing your creature and using a conditioner that you do a three rinse out of the coat/feather suit...I am game on that but not something that dyes the colour from its natural expressions. In the dog rules, it is like poultry, deemed faking. Back when I first began to show dogs, one dog show judge came in with one white glove and one black glove...to show the chalking visually he had to endure whilst judging dogs. I near puked when I set up our spot beside some Sheltie exhibitor ...kept seeing clouds of chalk tossed up in the air and the hair bunnies...it was dang near every where...gag me. Exhibitors say they have to play this game because everyone else does & they would never have their dogs win ever. I say often, a dog shown in natural state, pending the judge would be a much more cleaner win than the chalked up ones. That be me though.

We are not to do ANYthing to the ACD's coat and yet, I see show photos of ACD coats back combed and made to stay that way? I expect something is put in to hold the hair out straight off the bod or heat application like a curling iron to heat treat a drying coat so it sticks out like pins and needles on a porcupine...what for? No idea as that would be the least "wash & wear" protective stock dog coat position of all...that is not a natural state and certainly not the L00K I want to see in the breed...but whatever. I am not sure how they do that and why would I want to know. It is just all wrong to me for the original purpose of the breed as a working stock dog breed.

Tara, I know. It's just the fantasies of an old woman. I hate to travel & don't. Haven't left the state since May 1984. I don't fly, train, Rickshaw., boat etc. I hate to go to the BIG city.

Plus I know all about dog shows(in this country anyway) and hate them. My last show was in puppy match where my pup won the sporting group, in the late '70s. It's hard to believe how much entry fees, etc. have risen when income hasn't.

I also have fantasies about the girls having puppies- can't help it. I was a breeder and loved raising puppies. My last litter was Nov.1979. My last oldie died Jan.1989.( at 14) I haven't had a dog since.

Next purchase will be a darling stuffed blue cattle dog once the "Woof " store at the zoo opens for the year. Of course they don't have red ones. Last time I went they were closed for the season. No phone no. so can't find out when they open again. If they don't have my cattle pup, I will sink into despair. But, there is always the internet.

Rick, I and the girls are exhausted...our butts are dragging around today!

​

This was Sunday dinner I planned, a meal of white fish for me and the girls...to boost us back to good eats and clean living without all the stress, rush and anxiety a show weekend bestows upon you. Rick stopped and bought us corn because I mentioned how much I was looking forward to eating corn on the cob...kewl eh!

Last puppy breath I created was July 2001 when the planned breeding of my dreams happened with Makins producing Fixins. I don't have litters of pups without serious thought to the fact you can lose the ***** in the process and where the pups produced are bound. Do I trade a dog I have lived with and loved for babies I have no connection with? I get kinda off when someone has the innocence to comment by saying "and you are breeding these two imports right?" No idea what we will do as we have time on our hands with our puppy girls. We promised Fixins she was the one and only dog during her time with us...so when we got the puppy girls, we were so focussed on THEM that to think, "Oh yes, I'll up and risk killing either girl having more pups!" it freaks me right out. Besides, we got a whole host of pre-breeding tests of eyes and skeletons to do and that requires our pups become two year olds for say the hip and elbow x-ray and certifications. DNA testing for PRCD is a big cost and to me, the most important test will be OFA hips before we throw good money after bad. We still cannot take OFA excellents and be guaranteed that means good non-dysplastic joints if bred. Crap shoot but knowing poor ratings in this is way more guaranteed bad offspring fulla painful existences and costly surgeries when maybe you should never have bred them period.

I guess I am just not a breeder in that sense. I breed for replacements and at this point, what would I be replacing when we have two puppies right now? We have two girls on the ground and just started showing them at our first show weekend and next time they will be adults not pups at the dog shows with even more expectations of greatness because they will be adults and not goofus pups. I am not ready to say goodbye to Emmy and Lacy or even begin to think of the sadness of the simple fact that humans are often outliving their dogs (dog years to human lifespans SUCK!). It is a problem "I" have whenever someone mentions "litter of pups" from the girls. Pups? But we have pups...two of them that demand all our attentions and energies, never mind love.

At the show this weekend, it was baby puppy entry all three days...I saw more waggy tails and meandering cuteness than I needed to see. Pups are nice with lots of AH factor (ah, yeh cuteness, but all the energy sucking maintenance with pups...good gack!) but adults, I love them more so. Like the kids on my bus...awesome...I like kids, not babies! Five year old dogs...now that's enjoyably predictable...you can count on a five year old dog to have learned all the bad tricks from you and sometimes they cling on to a few good tricks too. You got what you got in all its glory or ghastliness...but five year old dogs won't stay with you forever at that perfect to me age...so with Emmy and Lacy, I'll think about pups maybe when they are two years old and we need to screen hips and elbows...maybe be able to tear my focus off them and plan for the future without them here. Maybe I will be more about breeding and finding them a male that suits them to offset their bads compared to goods when they are two years old. Rick has said out loud that maybe we should get a "male" and have him here for breeding...I don't ponder on that much yet although I do know having the male means there are no rude surprises because you KNOW him better than hiring a stud or using semen. You know him because he lives with you.

For now, our senior puppy girls kicked butt at their first show weekend and it is all about thinking of the November show and prepping for that one next. One slow pawed step forward, bit by enjoyable suck it all in step.

ACD plushy stuffs...easy enough...

​

http://www.amazon.com/Clanger-Austr...440&sr=1-1&keywords=australian+cattle+dog+toy

Blue mottled ACD - I have about four of these BLUE ones for my genetics lessons...I special ordered them locally when I found one at a grocery store...took a long time to arrive but I got 'em.

​

http://www.amazon.com/Bocchetta-Plu...68&sr=1-11&keywords=australian+cattle+dog+toy

I don't have this blue sitting speckled one.

​

Don't have this red one either with a smutty muzzle (not sure what the white around the nose is suppose to be representing...the Bentley is white but only placed commonly between the ears??)...no speckles on this red and that's a real shame...would look nicer but suspect perhaps the mottly speckly red material required is not around??

http://www.amazon.com/Bocchetta-Plu...08&sr=1-25&keywords=australian+cattle+dog+toy



I actually found some one attempting to steal one of my four Boo ACD plushies from a display I put up at a bird show once...drives me nuts that people figure they can pilfer others items AND I volunteer my time and resources jest to get kicked. No good deed goes unpunished, eh!

I had one other time where a mother and daughter did lift a stuffed llama off my display I did at an auction sale. I'll do something once and if I get burned like that...never again is my motto and I never have gone to an auction sale with my displays since (one bad apple). Now I figured at a sanctioned bird show the clientele might be better...but HA to that. At least this time I never EVER left my display (did once a day when I could wrangle someone to come sit guard so I could use the bathroom facilities) and that's how I was able to hang on to my plushies, this time round. Burn me once, shame on you, TWICE and I'd just be rather daft to be victimized for my generosity!

Tara is Emmy feeling better?

Em was feeling better the moment she took the loaded up with too much liver dump...tee hee...no brainer. As I said, I got her fed with more natural yoghurt than norm and next day, her stool was right back to perfect again...for, uh, well doggy do poo...

This is the show dog click of her yesterday for the weekend...she's looking mighty fine!

Best of Breed, Best of Winners (two points on that) and Best Puppy in Breed!!!!!!!
Her first time showing...YAH Emmy! ​

So you know, the white lace on my black skirt will NEVER conflict like this photo does with Emmy's belly portion.

When Em was stacked by me in the show ring, I was usually kneeling or standing tall not bent over in half. If I was the photographer, I would have had me move a bit to have me both hold Emmy's collar and me stand without the ripply white lace peaking out from under belly her look this click has. I am a huge person and Emmy is a widdle dog...want me to stand yet bend to hold the collar under her chin, it's gonna be messy! I was not overly pleased with the three clicks I had to choose from and this was the best we managed to decide on. I sat while they loaded up our three pics to choose one while they took like thirty photos of this other customer's dog that was after us. Obviously relying on this show person photographer has to have you suspicious about how the photos will turn out. She offered me a "box" for Emmy to stand upon but never explained the why. I always gotta know why to make the right decisions...I never showed Emmest on a box, so why would we take clicks of her perched on a box? Not sure Em would like standing on box...hee hee...oh well, these are the up's and down's one learns by jumping the hoops and learning the ropes I guess. Unless you see results you don't like, how would you know what was required?

Another thing I was not amused over...they listed the two titles she won for the two CKC points (the judge held all the ribbons, a mitt full eh) but the photographer never put in the photo that Emmest also won "Best Puppy in Breed." No points for that win but to me, the photo should have also read the fact that she was a puppy when she won these two titles for two points...one of the reasons we bothered to show in April was because that be that...in one year's time, a dog is no longer a puppy at a year of age. So it was show them both now or never again as puppies, eh.


I asked a lady at the show desk to go over the CKC point scheme from this weekend with me (my SIL looked confused and pained right along with me during the discussion-clear as mud?) and I am not positive that Emmy got 2 points Friday (none for Lacy taking Reserve Winners and second to Emmy sounds strange). I was under the impression that three points were up for grabs each day with four ACDs entered each day...did Emmy get three or two...just dunna know now!

Not sure how the points all work but maybe because Lacy only beat out the other female (unsure, Lacy got a ribbon for Reserve to Winners--so to me, that means she beat the male??) and I thought the male...so one dog beats two competitors means she has one point...dunno, so unclear.

I asked if Lacy has one point for Best Opposite on Saturday and was told "yes" to that query by the lady at the show desk but even there I am not certain. Funny as I thought I knew this but not so much now. Oh well...


There are no other show comments I am willing to make without the photos posted to go with the comments (my camera stayed safely at home, so I have none to add). You'll all hafta wait like I am and be patient too.

My SIL is the clicker master and she had to get called back to go to work today. She was there with bells on Sunday...I have e-mailed her to say which clicks I hope she sends me. And that be that.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[perchie.girl]

picture fixed see email