WHERE YOU BELONG, MARLEY

I passed a truck on my way to work the other day advertising the garage where Marley was picked up as an 8 week old puppy. I couldn't help but wonder if that was the idiot that abused her and left her with permanent psychological damage. A defenseless puppy left in a ditch with a wound to her head. What kind of sicko abuses a puppy or any animal?

I came across this lyrics from the ABC Family show 'The Fosters'. I think it suits Marley.

It’s not where you come from,

 its where you belong,

nothing I would trade,

 I wouldn’t have it any other way,

you’re surrounded by love and you are wanted,

so never feel alone,

you are home with me right where you belong

(Kari Kimmel)

Marley needs me like none of my other dogs do. And I need her. My mom loved her Marley and I think about my mom a lot when it's just me and Marley. Makes me feel close to my mom. I remember things my mom used to say about Marley and it brings a smile to my face even as tears roll down my cheeks. Marley is where she belongs.

FUN IN SHREVEPORT

We went to Shreveport the weekend of March 14-16 for AKC Agility. Miss Kalea-Kate had a good weekend. She earned her Excellent FAST Title and Excellent JWW and T2B legs. I cost us 2 Q's by sending her to the wrong end of the tunnel. Have no idea why I did it but it is very clear on video that it was my fault. One of her JWW runs, she apparently read the course map ahead of me but she read it incorrectly and went off course.   :)


The table continues to be a pain in my butt. KK has it in her head that she doesn't have to do it in a trial and it is slowly killing me. She comes to a complete stop at the table and either runs around it or stands there and barks at me. I can get her on the table, but by then we have incurred so many refusals that we NQ. Sunday she actually got on it right away and then......hopped off. OMG! The TABLE is going to kill me!!


Saturday we had some beautiful runs that earned us much needed Q's. She was absolutely precious at the start line of JWW when she couldn't get off the start line because she was watching a cowboy on the side. Once I got her attention, she ran a beautiful run.

It was a great trial for us. It was in a new venue with shredded rubber over sand. It was a difficult surface to run on as a handler, but KK handled it well and 'burned rubber' all weekend!!

We have 2 more trials coming up, one each in AKC and USDAA and then we are on a break until summer.

MONROE IN MARCH

We went to Monroe, LA last weekend for some AKC agility. It was our first trial that we went to that Marley was retired. She went as KK's best buddy and my older girls, Molly and Missy went too.

KK ran 3 days in Excellent. She earned a T2B Q and an Excellent FAST leg. She had some almosts in JWW. 2 days she dropped a bar but her distance work was outstanding. I'm enjoying not having to run the entire course! She is just getting faster. Her average JWW time was a little over 5.4 yps. Not bad for a young team still finding their way together. Standard was... proof that she's young. For some reason she is balking the table in every standard run and costing us Q's....a lot. Only happens in trials. Does great at practice and at home. Hopefully just a kink that we will get worked out soon. If you measure success in ribbons, then we weren't successful. But I measure our success in how well we run and what positives there were in each run. And there were a lot of positives. So we were very successful!!!

I received tons of compliments on KK and her potential. Made me very proud. :) Makes me want to keep working hard and see how far we can go!!