Diane Webb sent this photo of their two accomplished sisters Olive and Asti. They are FC Autumn Olive von Dorndorf TD RN NA NAJ Wa-T BHP-G and ABS FC Arlina Ossie von Dorndorf RA AXJ BHP-2. Diane, thank you!

I traveled 385 miles to Owensboro, Kentucky last night, stayed the night at Bill & Vicki Spencer's, and drove 385 miles back home today. Two minutes after leaving Vicki this morning, my CRV's odometer turned 295,000 miles. It's no wonder...

Nexus is a bit tired. Happy but tired. He spent most of  the seven hour trip stretched out on his back in the back seat. He will get a week's worth of country quiet here at home before he and Seiko go to live with the Stocks for two weeks. (More about that later.)

Vicki, thank you so much for keeping Nexus for me. If I would have had to get him from Marietta, I'd have been driving to her home in South Carolina! My dogs and I enjoyed our visit with you and your splendid Lorindol smooths in your beautiful home! Thanks again.

All the emails I have received about Nexus have been a nice surprise and very much appreciated. Thank You!

I am leaving in a little while to drive to Kentucky. I will be picking Nexus up from Vicki Spencer. He's only been gone three weeks but I cannot wait to bring him home.

Out with Marietta Singleton just three weeks and shown two times, Nexus FINISHED requirements for Champion title which also, of course, makes him a Dual Champion. This was at the Owensboro River City Kennel Club all-breed show, day after the Louisville Dachshund Club specialty.

It is so nice when everything comes together so well.

I am very thankful to Marietta. I am glad there are people out there willing to show dogs for other people. I am working this weekend (I work every other weekend) and I simply would not have been in Kentucky to begin with, much less had Nexus groomed as well and shown as well as Marietta did.

So many, many THANKS to Marietta and to Vicki Spencer who is keeping Nexus at her home in Owensboro until I drive down Monday and bring him home.

That's two generations now of dogs that I have nearly finished when they were young, stopped showing for years, then were easily finished by other people when they were eight years old. I don't intend to make it three.   :  )

From time to time, I find articles (or they find me) that are worth drawing attention to. This happened today. Julie Knutson of Gunclub Labradors in Colorado authored an excellent article with her views on high drive dogs. I emailed Ms. Knutson to express my appreciation and asked if I could copy it to my website. She gave permission, saying the link to the article on her website will be active only through July. Her "July 2010 Tip of the Month" is the first installation on the new "Articles" page. I will occasionally install others.

Maxine Brinker and Nutmeg have had one Super Terrific Weekend!

On Friday, Nutmeg qualifyied (ran clean) in both her classes which were Excellent B Standard and Excellent B Jumpers with Weaves. These are the top echelon classes of agility.

On Saturday, she Double Qualified again and placed 3rd in Standard. "So Nutmeg has two more DQ's hope she can get one tomorrow. The courses were real nice. I am so proud of her. She took a 3rd place and in our area that is real good. Then it is rest time, no trials until the end of August. Took all the girls to the show with me. Real nice place with air conditioning which was nice, it is too hot to run outside! She is sleeping now."

Today, they made it three for three, qualifying in both classes with a 4th place in Standard.  "Nutmeg got another DQ she was so good got a fourth in Standard. She really ran nice this weekend. Now for the fun. I have to take her swimming I told her I would."

These were trials of the WI-IL Agility Club of Spring Grove, Illinois. The club changed its trial site this year to the Libertyville Sports Complex in Libertyville, Illinois. "They were asking all the exhibitors if we liked the place and we said, 'Yes!' The place was air conditioned and cool, didn't need any fans, and they also had a lot of parking. It was very, very noisy because there was a basketball tournament going on. It didn't bother my girls at all. Nutmeg ran very well, Sage was so good, she stayed in her crate with no problem and Ginger can't hear and she slept. But it's a very beautiful place and we had really nice courses. They had traps of course but they were fun courses. The dogs actually got to accelerate instead of always twisting and turning. I mean, there should be some difficulty but dogs should be able to run. The one judge, Laura [English], has Cockers, and the other one [Sionag Black] has Goldens and both of them also show their own dogs. You want the judges who show their own dogs. But that's why it is hard to get good judges, when you ask them, they're either judging somewhere else or running their own dogs. Anyway, I'm training Sage with this new trainer and she told me something I should do different with Nutmeg and it helped. Everybody told me she ran awesome. I think so, too."

I think so, three! Maxine, Congratulations to you and Nutmeg on your awesome performances this weekend!!

Coonhunting is popular in Ohio and a number of families in my area own coonhounds. I sometimes hear the dogs running coon late at night. It is an absorbing sound show.

I discovered something interesting today. The founder of the breed of coonhounds known as Treeing Walkers was a man from Indiana named Lester Nance. He's no relation that I'm aware of but the story is intriguing. I came across it on the website American Houndsmen . And then I found another account of Lester Nance as developer of the Treeing Walker.

I enjoyed reading about it. I would like to have found more. So much history goes when the old dog people go.