CSSC - July 6-7, 2013

This weekend we were off to Rhode Island via Mass for a quick trip to get Kip's hips and elbows x-rayed for his OFA clearances. On that front obviously no results back yet, but the kid was a champ on the table - no sedation in a cradle while three people (including myself) hog wrestled him into a stable position. "You hold the head Erica, that's the most important part because when the head moves the hip moves". Great, no pressure, I'm just the amateur pig wrestler.  The films look really good, nice hip conformation, great positioning, femurs nice and tight in their sockets - all really good things, let's hope the review board at OFA agrees with me!

Back at the hotel Murph relaxes in AC.

As much as I'm no fan of winter I have to say that it's summer driving that makes me a nervous wreck. Why you ask? The roads are clear right? Yes, but - it's the time of year when any travel issue becomes a real life-or-death situation in a hurry. This becomes apparent when I'm in MA with three dogs and a vet appointment for one. In any other weather (it was 95 and anout 60% humidity) I can stash my kids in a fully open van with ice packs, fans, shade cloths and they can be comfortable in the shade for a bit of time, especially when the car starts out cool. In this case though, there was NO keeping the dogs cool unless the car was running. So for the vet appt, that means that I need three dogs in the office when only one has an appointment. Sorry folks, but that's what I've got to do. Not ideal for anyone, but at least Murph and Teller are so experienced in the life of abuse and pathetic animals that they were absolute angels in pop-up crates in the waiting room while Kip and I were in the back room - even when tempted by a stray toddler that 'just wanted to say hi'.

Of course once we were done with x-rays we're now stuck with being too early to setup in the trial site, and too early to check into our hotel - AND too hot to find a place to swim. Thankfully the host club took us in (in exchange for free setup labor from ME) and we managed to get in a good deed as well as keeping everyone cool(ish) and comfy. Good times :-)

Was not Teller's best weekend - just one lousy JWW Q for the boy this weekend - the hardest course of the weekend, super low SCT (32 seconds for the 20" dogs) lots of handling choices - THAT was the one he got through and earned a paultry 5 points for his effort. The rest of the weekend he was silly - running by a tunnel, missing a weave entry or like Sunday's standard run - running amok entirely putting us one save away from the Q there.
Saturday

Sunday

Kip channeled his inner rock-star extending his QQ and perfect weekend streak through one more weekend: four for four weekend and 51 points. We're going back to the a-frame work, he's losing A LOT of time on the a-frame in standard - on Sunday loosing EIGHT points!!!
Saturday

Sunday