Tasha has her own business card now. Come on deer season! ~ Cliff Shrader, Louisiana
The Cliff & Tasha Team are chomping at the bit!
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After running errands, I attempted to take a short nap this evening. Since I hadn't fed the dogs yet, it didn't work too well. I noticed the after-the-storm light through the window was interesting. So I got up from the couch and one at a time invited the dogs to take my place for an impromptu photo shoot. Didn't have to twist their paws, Owl and Taya had been trying to sleep on me on the couch anyway! First photo is Owl, next two are Taya, then Nexus, and Viljo. They are good dogs, good friends really, and I very much enjoy them all.  Owl, 10, smiling. It is a typical Owl expression these days.  Taya, 2, looking very serious as she often does.  Taya managed to get Owl's ball. Whatever Owl has, Taya wants!  Nexus, 12, resigned and saying please just take the photo so I can eat.  Viljo, 4, intently watching Taya. They love to romp and wrestle. I didn't know how much V needed a dog who would really play until we got Taya. This weekend at a barn hunt event near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nutmeg and Sage had a great time climbing hay bales and searching for rats. 12.5 year old Nutmeg earned two legs in the Senior class, 1st place of more than 20 dogs in the class including Jack Russell and Border Terriers, and she was Best in Trial! 4.5 year old Sage earned her first leg in the Open class and placed 2nd in the class of, by Maxine's estimate, 15-20 dogs. Good job, girls!! Maxine does not like to take photos so I am posting the Barn Hunt Association logo and a description of the event.  From barnhunt.com: "The purpose of Barn Hunt is to demonstrate a dog’s vermin hunting ability in finding and marking rats in a “barn-like” setting, using straw/hay bales to introduce climbing and tunneling obstacles in the dog’s path. Barn Hunt is based on the skills historically used by itinerant “ratcatchers” in traveling the countryside, ridding farms of vermin, thus helping conserve and preserve food grains and cutting down on disease.
While ratcatchers often used breeds such as Jack/Parson Russell Terriers, they also used other non go-to-ground breeds such as Manchester Terriers, Rat Terriers, and a variety of breeds and mixes of small to medium size. At all times, the safety of the dogs, handlers, and rats is to be of paramount importance. Rats will be humanely handled and safely confined in aerated PVC tubes. While it can be used as an instinct test, there is also a handler component in that the handler must signal when the dog has reached the desired target PVC rat tube; thus, the handler must know and have a partnership with their dog. Teamwork will win the game."  Tasha and I went to the deer lease this morning. We had planted food plots last weekend during one heck of a rainstorm and we went to check things out.  It was 94 degrees and almost 80 percent humidity. If was a scorcher and the heat index was out of sight.  I put Tasha on a long stay. She watched as I walked 150 yards to the other end. If you look closer, you can see Tasha at the end of the food plot patiently waiting for me. She has been a breeze to train. ~ Cliff Shrader, Louisiana Cliff, you are doing a great job teaching Tasha impulse control!
My first day off since Friday and what a week. I was so tired when I went to bed early this morning that I fell asleep and woke later still holding my book in both hands. (I am reading the wonderful "Grace" by the hugely talented author Max... Lucado.) I do not mind saying that I had breakfast at 4 this afternoon!  Refreshed now, on this 'Throwback Thursday', I am posting a photo of Andrew (left) and Jamie Stock with Walmar's Drucilla. I acquired Druci in middle age from Wally and Mary Jones. Her sister CH Walmar's Druid Princess, a favorite of Wally's, was a DCA National Sweepstakes winner. Their black/tan brother CAN/AM CH Walmar's Dark Prince was a group winner for Uffe and Carol Brae.
Druci had one litter of one for me, CH Walmar's Luke v Dorndorf L. At his first show, Luke was WD/BW for 5 points at the Central Ohio specialty, with me handling. He finished with three majors. Luke was the father of my N litter, now 12 years old, which include DC Nadja ME, multi-Absolute, multi-titled DC Nexus, SUvCH NIck (in Sweden), and MACH5 FC Nutmeg CDX! Becky England also used Luke and he produced something like seven Champions for her. The proud parents of James and Andrew are Christian and Julie Stock. The boys are in college now but I well remember rocking Andrew when they brought him home from the hospital. : ) Dachshund breeder Darja Krivonossova posted this super-cute photo of one of her "Huntaks" puppies. Thank you, Darja, for permission to copy it to my blog! 
Yoga position for sleep. This is Blitzer. ~ Darja Krivonossova, Estonia We dog people often focus on what we are teaching our dogs and lose perspective on what our dogs are teaching us. In some ways, I have a LOT of patience. But not like this. I guess I have always felt like I had to have something to work with. Yes, I would have been one of those people who thought "Why is she showing that dog?!" Stories like this one remind me that there can be a very rich pay off to just hanging in there and digging deeper. It is also cool to see a Berner who actually looks like a working dog. (Coulda/shoulda not put the music to the video but that's my opinion. I hit the mute button real fast!) Kudos to the team!
Watching them, I thought of Maxine Brinker and Nutmeg and their struggles early on. Nutmeg's problem, though, was that she was too willing. In her early years of competition, Nutmeg missed a lot of contacts and made up many of her own courses. But with Maxine's patience and persistence, Nutmeg learned the finer arts of agility - such as not flying off obstacles, or forging her own paths! And, like this woman, Maxine was nothing if not persistent. It paid off. Together, Maxine and Nutmeg earned MACH5. That's 100 trials of qualifying in both Excellent classes in the trial ("qualifying" meaning zero faults and within standard course time), and 3, 750 Master Agility Champion points!!! I believe they were the just the third dachshund team to do it. And the first standard longhair. I admire their accomplishments. 
Here we are last night at the end of our first day in our new facility! Pretty much everything is new and different and we are having to find and figure things out as we go along. But in the end, it is all good with good people on board and... I work with a very special group of people! I appreciate you guys! Left to right in front are Barbie, Karri, and John. In the back are Marilyn, Carolyn, me, Lisa, and Bernice. Not pictured because they didn't work last night are Kathi, Doris, Susan, Kim, and Jessica. Great crew! Thanks to Heather for taking the picture for us! 
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