What a week AND a weekend!

Well, it hasn't been much fun the last week at the Hurricane Deck Household! We've been playing the doggie shuffle since both of my girls are in heat. It goes something like this - put the girls in the bathroom. Let the boy dogs in and put them in their kennels. Put the girls outside for a few hours, then reverse! I do appreciate that the weather has been nice enough to leave them outside for a few hours at a time or the Rat Dogs would have to spend more time in their kennels then I like for them to during the day. I am VERY appreciative of the fact that Rodear and Jada were kind enough to cycle at the same time so that I have another six months before I play the shuffle game again.

Over the weekend we went to the High Plains Kennel Club dog show (UKC). Rooster was being an ass, so I only showed him one show. I hope that one day his brains outgrow his ball size. Rodear showed the other three shows and she was dumped all three times - I wasn't really happy about it. I can't say that I was all that surprised - she was in the ring with a VERY different type of dog - and there were four of them and only one of her, so she probably looked a little out of place. I can't complain about how she did at all - she was PERFECT. I mean - not a foot out of place, a free stack to die for each and every time she stopped, great attention and expression - I was SO proud of her! She did everything I asked of her, even though she wasn't at her emotional best because of her heat cycle. What more could I ask of her?

I was consoled by the fact that I had lots of compliments on my little tank girl by fellow exhibitors and spectators. Not a ribbon, but dammit I will take it. :-)

Now that the weather is nice we might have one more rabbit hunting trip before the end of cottontail season - that's if I can get motivated enough to get ahead on my work projects!

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High Toes

Sometimes I get into discussions with people about dog structure and really, really, it makes me want to beat my head against a wall. However, those always make me publish those words and pictures that have been rattling around in my head for a while. Case in point – someone posted on a board that they thought that a high toe on a dog was a “cosmetic fault.” My opinion on this is fairly solid – NO! A high toe is a STRUCTUAL fault. Someone then posted that they wanted “proof.” Ah, here we go. The boondoggle of proof! Studies! Someone, somewhere, somehow agreeing or disagreeing with my point! The unfortunate thing is that it really isn’t to be found. Our Proof wanter found a website in which a couple had a Staffordshire Terrier with a high toe, and they readily admitted that the high toe caused issues with her gait, but then concluded that it was just a cosmetic issue. Hmm, really? The document can be found here , you can look at the pictures and read it for yourself. (Don't use the ...

Brindle and the Rat Terrier

It seems like every once in a while the topic of brindle comes up in the Rat Terrier world. Teeth are gnashed and garments are rendered because brindle is not an acceptable pattern in our breed, and the standard says that brindle is a disqualification. The standard probably won’t change any time soon, and I certainly hope that it will NEVER include brindle! Why? The UKC standard says, in the very beginning, that “These terriers probably included crosses between the Smooth Fox Terrier, the Manchester Terrier and the now extinct white English Terrier… Some of these dogs were crossed with Whippets or Italian Greyhounds (for speed) and Beagles (for hunting ability).” Let’s take a look at the ancestors of the Rat Terrier and how their standards treat brindle: Smooth Fox Terrier UKC : Serious Fault AKC: Objectionable Manchester Terrier: UKC: Disqualification AKC: Disqualification Whippet: UKC: Any color/pattern accepted. AKC: Any color/pattern accepted. Italian Greyhounds: UKC: Disqualif...

Yard and other work at the Jackalope House

This post has been sitting for a while - mostly because I was more annoyed than I should have been that Blogger ate most of my post, and I didn't feel like re-doing it! Anyway, this post should have been posted on November 14th. I discovered on Wednesday evening when I came home from Bible study (the topic of which was gratitude, natch) to discover that my tub faucet running at full blast. Thankfully I am intimately familiar with the location of the water shut off valve to the house, so I shut off the water. My next thought went to my hot water heater - should I shut it off as well? A quick Yahoo search revealed that YES, I should shut off Bliss lest I burn him up. With that done, I went to bed, not feeling very grateful. The next morning, I cracked open my Home Depot book about faucets and ta-da! I figured out what it probably was, so I took apart the faucet to confirm what the book said. And I, dear readers, fixed that sucker. After a work meeting. In a dress and heels no ...

Hurricane Deck

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