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Hello friends & fans –
Boy, did I have a great end to 2005 and start to 2006!
My brother Wesley and I got to spend New Years Eve Day and New Years Day doing one of the things we love most - running with our friends at an agility trial!!! We spent both days at an AKC Agility Trial in Merrillville, IN. We were going to spend the night in a hotel in Indiana (hotels are always very fun), but my assistant Tracy insisted on going back to the West Chicago Suburbs to go to a party on New Year’s Eve (and can you believe I wasn’t invited to the party!?!). But that’s ok, 'cause I got to spend the days with my dog friends at the trial. I guess that’s about the best way to spend a day… getting to do something fun (running agility), chase a few friends, and getting embarrassed by how much Tracy and the other dogs' assistants were laughing. I had a ball and you know what, I'm beginning to think maybe Tracy has even more fun than I do at these events!
I hope you all had a wonderful start to this new year! As always, I love to hear from you and this year more than ever, let me know what you want to read in The Tattler- it’s all about you, my fans!
-Bianca
Pull That Load
I like to highlight different dog activities/events for you my fans.
This month's event requires a great deal of muscle (I prefer the finese of agility competition over this, but boy you need to be REALLY buff for this one!). As always send me your feedback and suggestions at Contact Us. I also welcome contributions from you about your favorite activities!
I’ve competed in the United Kennel Club’s (UKC) agility competitions (and love it!), but they have one type of event that I am not interested in trying, yet it was interesting to see it – the Weight Pull.
As
the name of the event suggests, dogs are competing to pull the most
weight possible. I can see that some dogs are really built for pulling
heavy loads – but Westies are NOT one of these breeds! Each dog is
attached to a ‘cart’; that carries the weight. The dog wears a harness,
is attached to the cart and a certain amount of weight is placed on the
cart. The dog has to pull the cart a prescribed distance. In the
Weight Pull events I’ve watched, the carts had wheels on them, but they
could also be on a rail or on snow using a sled (Tracy said it reminds
her of Tractor Pulls back in Iowa). Scoring is based upon how much
weight the dog pulls the prescribed distance and by the proportion of
their body weight to the amount of weight pulled. Any size dogs can
compete – I saw lots of big dogs (Rotweillers, St Bernards, Pit Bulls,
etc.) but there were small dogs too (I even saw some Jack Russell
Terriers and Rat Terriers).
In some ways it reminded me of the wrestling meets my human cousins compete in. Just like the wrestlers, the weight pull dogs have to ‘weigh in’. Based upon their weight class, the minimum and maximum weights are determined:
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Dogs compete to accomplish a variety of Weight Pull titles:
To receive qualifying legs towards a title, a dog must pull the weight for 16 feet within 60 seconds. Dogs score points based upon pounds of weight pulled per pound of body weight and the dog pulling the most weight gets bonus points:
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As you can see, these dogs pull more than weight in competition. I tried to get Tracy to pull 35 pounds for every pound of her body weight, but she wasn't willing to even talk about it!! That's ok, I'll pass on this event and let the really BIG dogs take on this one!
Doggie Duds!
OK, in this edition I’m taking a departure to the traditional Doggie Duds column. This month I’m not sharing DO and DON’T Dog Fashion advice. Instead, I’m sharing a FASHION story about another animal in need of clothing! And yes, this story is TRUE – Tracy validated it on the Snopes site!
Oil
spills are tragedies that pollute our oceans and kill or injure many of
the special animals that live in the seas. To survive, birds and
mammals have to be rescued and cleaned – a huge task. An oil spill in
2000 near Australia threatened tiny penguins that lived there. The
rescue workers tried many ways to keep the penguins warm and keep them
from ingesting the toxic oil (they would swallow it when the picked at
their feathers to clean themselves). Then the idea of using doll
sweaters was suggested. It kept the little guys warm and protected
them. The call went out and soon around the world, knitters were making
all kinds of little penguin sweaters. The nature preserve on the
island has more sweaters than are needed today, but my goodness these
little birds look so darn cute.
Here are a couple of links for more details:
http://www.sushiesque.com/adorablog/2005/11/how_to_knit_a_s.html http://www.factmonster.com/spot/penguinsweater.html
Tracy has made sweaters for me and Wes, but I may suggest that Tracy make some sweaters for the pet birds in my house: Bernard and Becca our cockatiels!
Ab Fabs!!
Absolutely Fabulous Accomplishments
- submit your Ab Fabs to
bianca@2westies.com
UACH Fiona!!!
My classmate Corgi Fiona is a great little agility dog and she just got her UACH (UKC Agility Champion) title. To celebrate Fiona’s ‘mom’ Pam brought treats to our agility class. Tracy wouldn’t let me have any of the cheesecake, but everyone was raving about how good it was! If anyone needs the recipe, you can let me know and I’ll ask Tracy to email it to you (if you promise to give me a bite!). CONGRATS to Miss Fi!
Happy Holidays for M&M!!!
Many
of you have heard about my buddies Murray and MacKenzie. Like me, they
are terriers – but these guys are awesome on the agility course. Front
& Finish Magazine printed their 2004 Agility Standings. Murray was the
#1 Cairn in Standard with 324 points and #4 in Jumpers with 83 points.
The rating is based on the number of dogs competing within each class.
One point is earned for each dog defeated in the class. Both Murray and
MacKenzie had some great runs at the mid-December Hounds for the
Holiday’s agility trial in Milwaukee – it was a great way to celebrate
the holidays. Here’s a picture of my two favorite Cairns with their
winnings from Hounds (wearing the cute little collars that Wes & I gave
them for Christmas!).
A Lab-alicious Holiday!!
My lab buddy Shadow sure knew what her mom Michelle wanted for Christmas. Shadow earned her U-CDX (Companion Dog Excellent) title – it’s an advanced obedience title – I really admire any dog that can earn obedience titles – I don’t know that I could do it!
Big congrats to Shadow and Michelle.
To make Michelle even happier, Shadow’s ‘sister’ DB got her Open AKC Agility Title!!
What a month it’s been in the Riccelli household!