In The News at sinbajé basenjis
Get the latest on the greatest performance excelling hounds of silence©

as of June 9, 2008

Litter Plans past/future

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Visit my favorite photo page. I have over 50 photos to share. Enjoy.

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Important Fanconi Health NEWS

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Rebutter Central - THAT'S ME
"The trouble with letting people know where you stand is that you become a stationary target" -unknown

sinbajé articles of all things basenji

HARK A SNARK!: Did historical basenjis really bark? (©june2008) - a 1947 historically recorded account of how one barking basenji silenced London's Trinity Hall.

THINKING: The truth of the matter is (©march2008) - do as I say, or do as I do?  That really is the final question here.

THE BREED STANDARD - Another Point Of View (©january2008) - having been a dilligent student of the basenji standard for the past 14 years, I continue to wonder just how the standard came to be when it bears little, to no resemblance to the native progenitors of our breed  - HELP!

REFLECTION (©march2007) - in recent times native imported stock have really taken a beating by breed "purest" despite their proven track record in the whelping box, the breed arena and the health testing databases.   Special thanks to Eunice Ockerman for the professional layout of this article
 

Regarding Fanconi disease of the basenji dog.  We now have a test - a linkage test. All breeders are encouraged to use this test prior to any breeding. Every basenji personally owned by sinbajé basenji will be tested whether they are a beloved pet or future breeding prospect - please refer to their individual pages for links to all health results!

Please note:  sinbajé basenjis will ONLY  refer  to those ethical BCOA member breeders who are actively using this tool to safely eradicate this disease from the gene pool.

Click here to see how a line "avoided" the tri color gene for close to 20 years.  This is a visual model to show how, and why, fanconi is a simple recessive and how/why it could be avoided in a tightly line/in bred pedigree while still being within the pedigree.

There is no legitimate reason in today's world, with today's knowledge and advancements in science that ANY fanconi basenji should ever be created again.  Please support those ethical breeders who properly test for known genetic problems within our breed; fanconi, PRA and hip dysplasia. Don't just take their word for it - visit web sites such as the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals and LOOK for dogs bearing the kennel name of the breeder you are researching - see for yourself if they are truly testing their breeding stock or sending you a sales pitch.  Sadly there are many "reputable" breeders out there that say they are testing, but have nothing to show for it.  Do your research or caveat emptor!

So what's the big deal about Fanconi Syndrome? Learn what the AKC Canine Health Foundation has to say about the disease and the recent DNA test or read this valuable flyer, courtesy of sinbajé basenjis.  Feel free to print either/or if you know anyone who owns, or is considering, a basenji.

To see a visual of what can occur when clears, carriers and affecteds are bred to each other and how, statistically speaking, the genes could express themselves, click here.

June 2008
Jun 6th-8th: Back to back road trips are a pain in the rear, and tiring too!  Dogs and people head north to Flagstaff (another 3+ hour drive) for some conformation (V) and one day of Open obedience (Feigh).  I wish I could say we were successful but that would be lying <lol>.

First up was Feigh in obedience.  She was dragging a bit on the heeling and didn't even finish the end of the figure eight; heeling cost us 10 points alone.  However she only lost 1 point total for the 4 other exercises that she did right.  She needed a second command for the retrieve over the high which gave us a big fat NQ for the day.  The highlight came on the drop on recall.  Since she was slugging on the heeling I thought perhaps she would not budge on the recall - boy was I wrong.  She took off like a bat out of hell, flying towards me so fast the judge barely got her signal to me. Luckily she did give the signal, I gave the command and what do you know - Feigh dropped SO fast she slid on her belly about 2 feet before she actually stopped - seriously - you would have thought she had been shot dead she fell so quickly.  Now THAT'S entertaining.   We have been practicing her sit stays for a few weeks and she sat like a rock on her long sit portion of the stays.  Sadly I forgot to put as much emphasis on the down stay, so the moment I walked away (after giving me a HUGE calming yawn signal) Feigh proceeded to sit and stay for 5 minutes.  My fault - she did what we had practiced.  The bright side is she stayed the whole time.  The judge was very nice to all of the competitors (only 1 qualifier on Sat, none on Sunday) and was especially complimentary to me about Feigh's performance.  I really need to commit to training these guys!

Next up was V in the breed ring.  I did not get to see the judging on the boys so I was not sure what the judge was looking for.  I can't say I was too impressed with what she did with the bitches.  While the WB was nice, some of the class winners were severely lacking - especially compared to what she left out of the ribbons.  One class winning bitch was so stout, so husky that I thought she was an overweight MALE!  Yikes!

The next day's judge was much better.  We sat ringside most of the morning and actually watched her and noticed that she really gave the moving dogs ample opportunity to move out and around and she really looked at each dog and gave them her undivided attention - I did not notice any preference for handlers expect perhaps in the BOB lineup.    Even if you lost you still felt like you got a decent look. The first day V took third out of five from the bred-by (BBX) class.  Both the WB and RWB came from this class so not too bad to be third.  Sunday we took second out of five and again, the WB came from our class.  We went back in for RWB but did not get it. :O(

Another highlight of the weekend was we met with some very nice people who own dobermans.  They live in Flagstaff and are kind of researching a smaller dog.  We had emailed back and forth prior to the show and they offered to cook us lunch/dinner on Saturday.  The man, Joe is a FANTASTIC cook. We watched him as he worked his magic and cooked us up a very nice and plentiful lunch.  WOW!  Who needs restaurant food when you have Joe?!  And his indoor training building - LOVELY!

Next up - agility in San Diego over the 4th of July.  Hopefully V can remember what agility is!

May 30th-Jun 1st: Rand and I and the crew, sans the cat, head North to Pinetop/Lakeside area for what we hoped was cooler weather and agility fun.  We reserved a cabin on a lake - fun!  We took some food and actually cooked two of the three nights - good for us!  While the cabin was nice, albeit a rustic barren cabin, the weather was not as nice as I had hoped, neither was the agility. <lol>  The wind was unbearable!

Rand and the boys were somewhat successful - garnering 4 legs out of a possible 10 runs.  The girls and I were BLECH!  Feigh did have some stellar moments, V was a train wreck.  Our (Feigh and I) first run of the weekend would have been perfect except I hit a patch of wet grass and took a nose dive.  This in turn pushed Feigh away from me and into a refusal and in excellent - that means you are toast!  The rest of the run was brilliantl the rest of the weekend not so much.  V was acting spooky (Wind perhaps?  Coming into season?  Late fear period?  All of the above?) Regardless of the problem she acted for the most part like she had never seen an agility course.  To say I was disappointed in the girls would be a TOTAL understatement.   It gets frustrating when I do the vast majority of the training, hand them off to Rand where he walks away with all the success while my two flop miserably.  Bah humbug.

Next up - 5 point majors in Flagstaff this coming weekend.  Feigh is also entered in Open A obedience one day - I want to see if we have any improvement in the stay department.

May 2008
May: This has been a slow show month for the basenjis.  The weather begins to get warmer, the days longer and the desert critters are on the move so a lot of training is moved indoors into our cramped kitchen area.  The only thing I had planned this month was a 2 day Judie Howard indoor obedience seminar in Phoenix.  This was to be a working seminar so I took V with me one day, Feigh the next; the boys stayed home.   Now I have never been to an obedience seminar.  Frankly I am not impressed with most of the top trainers in obedience.  They seem to have only one way of training and if that way does not work off with the head.  Okay - so not quite but they do get rid of the dog in hopes of finding that special ONE!  I don't have that option (getting rid of the dog) so I need someone who can deal with a breed not known for obedience and still be successful and have yet to find anyone I was willing to spend money on.  This spring I was constantly reminded about the upcoming seminar and how I did not want to miss it yadda, yadda.   Judie's resume is such that she has put at least 12 OTCHs (I believe this is the most number of OTCHs earned by one person) on dogs from 5 different breed groups (herding, sporting, hound et al).  While I thought this more impressive then someone who has put OTCHs on only border collies, shelties, or aussies, I was still not sure what she could possibly teach someone whose chosen breed is a basenji.

One of the first things she said when she approached the group was she does not get rid of her dogs; apparently it's not an option - they live their lives with her and her husband, in the house, as pets. Not only does she not get rid of them, she actually has been known to rescue a few and put OTCHs on them.  Now THIS is my kind of trainer - someone who works through the glitches to success, or perhaps to a certain level of success before she retires them to live as pets in her home.  Now THIS is someone I can respect and well imagine, someone I can learn from.

Needless to say the seminar was really good. While the first day was a bit slow - the second day was well worth the time and money spent.  Both V and Feigh were used as examples on several occasions and both did outstanding - far better then anyone attending expected, certainly far better than I expected and a number of people complimented me on their working ability.   The best compliment though came from Judie herself, after I emailed a question to her, about a week after the seminar.  In her reply she wrote the following:

"I am assuming you are the delightful young woman with the two incredible basenjis.  I have told many people about them, by the way.

You are *not* creating problems for your dogs by doing the same thing, as shown by the way they reacted at the seminar.  They were both darling, not afraid to come out and work with me, willing to try new things--probably the most stable basenjis I've ever worked with. "

This from a woman who has trained hundred of thousands dogs in her career.  If I could even be an 1/8th of the trainer she is, it would be a dream come true.

April 2008
April 21-27: Our week started out pretty rough.  My folks returned Sunday from their California abode, for a short tenure in Tucson before heading to their summer abode in Santa Fe.  On Tuesday morning I got a call at work from my mom - she did not want to alarm me(!) but my dad took a hard fall the evening before and had been in emergency for the past 12 hours.  The emergency room was apparently a nightmare to be in/at.  After taking xrays/scans they sent him home - saying nothing was wrong with his pelvis - he was just bruised up.  By the time they got home and settled, another call came in saying that the radiologist saw something and they needed to get back ASAP.  Apparently the emergency room docs missed(!) the shattered hip socket!  After a terribly long day Dad was transferred to the actual hospital for about 24 hours and has since been moved to a rehab place.  He can not bear any weight on the hip, if he does he will most likely need surgery.  So that's were we are - Dad in rehab, mom alone and quite scared having to deal with it all and me being the sounding board to which all the fears are allayed.

As a break I drove the kidz south about 2 hours for some AKC lure coursing on Saturday.  This was kind of a spur of the moment plan.  I had planned to do the match in Sierra Vista and practice obedience since Feigh is entered on Sunday but due to the fact that the Sunday show is quite small, it ends up that Feigh and V are scheduled in the ring at the exact same time.  That's a no go so I decided to go have fun instead.  The location was new, the terrain was natural, albeit rather dusty, and the dogs had a blast.   V was entered in her first ever AKC trial and she walked away with a 4pt major - whoo hoo!  Feigh ran the best she has run in a long time; she was not willing to cheat/cut on this natural field.  Clay decided he did not want to run so he was eventually scratched and Drew had a hard time with only one eye as it was much too easy to lose the lure - which he did several times; besides which he was having to eat dirt on his run.

Sierra Vista ended up being a bust - no more points for V - we will have to wait until Flagstaff.  Next up - I head to Phoenix in May for an obedience seminar.  I will be taking V or Feigh (or both one day each) as it is a working seminar.  Then we will head up to the White Mountain area at the end of May for three days of agility in the cool pine weather - aahhh!  We will be staying in a cabin - too cool.

April 11-13th: Feigh, Clay, V and I head up to Casa Grande for a full day of obedience and Rally.  We left Drew at home as it would be a long, noisy day and three dogs was all I could handle even though Katy came along to watch and support us (her entries went MIA via the mail). This would be our first indoor show and there are two trials back to back, another first.  First up, literally was Feigh in Open A.  We start off beautifully, doing a bang up job on her exercises with a rather brusque judge (I do not think she cracked an involuntary smile the whole day) but we promptly fell apart on the long stays, blowing a respectable 186.5 under the heavy leaded judge.  Only 2 survivors make the grade and qualify in Open A.  Feigh was having nothing to do with me going out of the building into "the light" where you could see nothing but shadows and stood on her long sit (we were excused from the down).  On to Rally Novice with Clay and V.  First up Clay, who is raring to go.  He is in fine form and walks out of there with a perfect 100 for his second RN leg.  Only two 100s awarded in the class which is good for 2nd place.  V is last in the ring and though she is a little distracted she is working okay. Instant video replay shows we got hit with one sniff which led to one tight lead.  V gets a 98 and a 3rd place behind Clay.

Many hours later it's Feigh's turn again where she once again puts in a stellar performance.  She enters the long stays with a 193.5 and leaves with another NQ deciding this time to just follow behind me as I leave <sigh>, again we are excused from the long down.  This time only one mighty survivor in the class for their first leg in excess of 24 attempts!  I seriously consider not showing her in Tucson tomorrow though it is an outdoor show.   Next up is Clay in Rally (I did not enter V in the second show) where Clay rises to the occasion and puts in another perfect performance - this time his 100 and time is good for 1st place and his title; that's 4 titles Clay has finished in 2008.

We finally arrive home around 7:45 in the evening and prepare for our outdoor trial in Tucson the following day where Feigh is once again, 1st in the ring - ugh!  The day dawns sunny but windy as we toddle over to the Inn Suites hotel.  While Clay is entered I have pulled him as he finished his titles and I did not have time to handle three dogs at such a small show.  V is entered in Rally Novice which of course is scheduled at the same time I am in the ring with Feigh.  I bump V to the end of the line.  My goal for the day with Feigh, while ultimately is to get a leg, realistically its to get solid sit and down stays as she has had 5 attempts and has yet to do both stays in the ring.

It's obvious that the previous day was too much for Feigh as her exercises fell apart.  The only positive to this was I was able to do some "training" in the ring and did not allow her to get away with anything in a much needed ring setting.  Her heeling was atrocious, but passable.  Her drop on recall - she almost did not even attempt it,  then thought better of it but decided she could not dare put both her elbows flat to the ground.  When you notice the judge walking to the left, then to the right of your dog to check on elbow placement - you know you are going to fail so I went ahead and double, then triple commanded her to down, where she finally did it - barely just!

She went out for her dumbbell on the flat but just as she went to take it she decided to sniff so she got an immediate 'take it' from me - which she did and a prompt return.  Her retrieve over the jump had a much better pick up but then she forgot to come back over  - to which I caught her and called her over before she walked around - another good training session.  She did an okay broad jump to finish up her run.   I imagine the judge wondered what the heck we were even doing in open, too bad he could not have seen her yesterday.  Sadly - all of the Open dogs had serious trouble and no one Q'd.  Several asked to be excused, citing their dogs were too "ill" for the stay portion.  Feigh and two other brave soles attempt to do their stays and all three do a bang up job.  Finally - I get some solid stays from Feigh.

V and I rush over to the Rally ring and immediately go in.  I am having to coax her a little less then the day before (remember - she is showing purely for much needed ring exposure; my goal is to not say a peep except occasional praise during the course - we are a long way from that) but she again gets caught with a slight sniff and tight lead which costs us 2 points.  Her 98 though is good for a 2nd place and another leg.   We stay to watch Katy and Khonsu have a run in Novice B - Khonsu is having some confidence issues after having been attacked so he is not too keen to do stays.  We felt having Katy across the ring would help and it did until about 2 minutes into the long down.  The flies were getting to be too much and he sat up - at that point you could tell he thought - "uh oh" - this is not right - I better boogie.  Sadly he blew a first place in the class.

Katy and crew showed again in obedience on Sunday while V, Rand and I headed up to Casa Grande for a little conformation.  V showed like the true champ that she is becoming and placed first (out of two) in her BBX class.  In looking back over my judges notes, I happened upon this notations, with regards to this judge: "does not like or put up colored dogs." How true, how true; V was the only colored dog with a placement, all others placements were reds, despite there being a few major pointed colored dogs in the bunch.   Note to self: do not support this kind of judging.  Too bad really as the judge seemed rather friendly.

Watch Clay and V do Novice Rally.   Here are videos of Feigh doing Open A - her first and second show as detailed above.

Next up -   a small show in Sierra Vista where V and Feigh are scheduled to go into the ring at the exact same time - not sure how I plan to handle this one. <lol>

April 5th: We were able to get V and Jane pre-certed for ASFA at the practice in late March so we dicided to headup to Black Canyon City (just north of Phoenix) for one day of ASFA coursing with the girls and Khonsu.  Due to a gaffe in the huntmasters "tally ho" Jane was released after her sister but with her blazing speed she was able to cacth up and even pass V.  Sadly though Jane decided to playfully interfere on an outside corner and was dismissed.  The judge was very helpful in explaining to Katy and I why it was a dismissal and not an excusal.   V then had to run alone on the second course and she started off like a gangbuster but got spooked by the photographer and judges who were rather close to the line.  Amazingly enough her combined score was more than the required 50% needed so she was able to get a placement and points.

Feigh and Khonsu were the only FChs running.  We are trying to build Khonsu's confidence back up after being molested during the LGRA trial last month.  Feigh in her typical style managed to defeat herself before the first turn as she veered way off course to where she thinks the bunny will end up.  Khonsu ran well both runs and managed Best of Breed (V forfieted as I wanted to run her alone with the help of 6 strangers out on the course where she spooked - to show her there is nothing to be concerned about when.  The lure operator did a fab job keeping her interest in the lure while having to pass the "scary" people several times.)

March 2008
March 22-23rd: Once again we got to stay locally for the dog shows.  Good thing too as it was hot and Saturday ended up being a very l-o-n-g day!  First up was V  - she and her sister Jane ended up running for their first JC leg the minute we got to the show site.  Luckily they were both keen, and while V lost the lure briefly, she was able to finish and both earned their first JC leg.   The obedience judge for the day was painstakingly slow.  So V and I went to do our breed thing while Katy was left to show Khonsu and Nut in Open A.  V, being the only bitch entered, needed to go best of Winners to cross over for the dogs points.  Sadly the judge did not like V enough to award her Best of Winners but it was a good ring experience for V.  Every time we would run past the examination table she would try and jump onto it - what a goof ball.  Back to the obedience ring where the Novice B class has been further delayed.  We were supposed to start at 11:55am.  There were 15 dogs entered (not counting absences) and should have ended around 2-2:30pm including the judges break.  We were still there at 4:15.  It's not a good sign when Best In Show finishes before obedience.

Clay and I finally get to do our thing, in the heat of the day, which showed in his performance.  While we entered the sits and downs with a qualifying score we left the ring with a big, fat NQ.  Apparently sitting in the direct sun, late in the day, for 1 minute is too much to ask a 71/2 year old basenji and he promptly lay down.  Grrr.

Sunday we again ran V for her second JC leg and she again did well (as did Jane) and both girls walk away with a new JC title to add to their name.  While today's obedience judge was working at fast clip, V and I head to the breed ring first.  I have been looking forward to showing under this judge for awhile and she did not disappoint.  When Feigh was 13 1/2 weeks old we went to the February Scottsdale shows to do agility with Drew and Tre.  Feigh and I walked around and at one point were standing in line waiting to place a food order when a judge came up and, out of the blue, bent down and said to Feigh "If only you had been in my ring today!".  Before she turned and walked away I was able to catch her name tag and made a mental note.  I thought if she liked my high percent African at such a tender age, she might like her daughter.  She did and was willing to give us Best of Winners for V's first 2 points.  Yeehaw!

Back to the obedience ring where we are set to start the Novice B class.  Clay is fifth in and while his heeling was not something to write home about - we go into the sits and downs once again qualifying.  When we go in for sits and downs he starts to act lazy and I try valiantly to reinforce that he needs to sit for a measly minute.  I leave him and spend the whole minute looking anywhere else but at Clay - fearful that i might somehow jinx him into going down.  When the minute is up I return to a dog that is barely sitting (he had shifted his rear into a puppy sit, ready to lay down).  Thankfully he manages to stay upright until my return.  I then do his long downs, where he is solid as a rock and we finally get his third leg for his CD title (and a 4th place out of 8-10 dogs).  Not a pretty score but hey! whose complaining.   All in all a PERFECT day for the sinbaje hounds!

Next up - some lure coursing practice at the end of March in Phoenix, then a three day show of obedience, rally and breed intermixed in Casa Grande and Tucson.  The one day of obedience and rally in Casa Grande is a back to back indoor trial - our first - should be interesting.

March 15-16th: We did not have far to travel as our agility trials were in town this weekend. V was due to debut in Novice Preferred at the tender age of 15 months and she did not disappoint despite having a judge with some difficult courses, even at the novice level. First up was her Novice standard course where she (literally) flew off some obstacles just a wee bit too fast (i.e. the teeter) - good for an NQ.  In JWW she faired much better and was able to zoom through the course 10 seconds under time despite one refusal - her first Q.  Sunday dawned cold with a 30% chance of rain.  Of course when you are in the novice class, at the end of the day, you are almost guaranteed 100% chance of rain (or 100 degree temperatures).  The weather did not disappoint and by the time Novice rolled around the temps were in the high 50s and rain began to pore.  JWW was up first and baby V did an awesome job listening to me.  She nailed all of her jumps, nailed her weave pole entry and finished with a perfect score of 100 in 21 seconds (9 seconds faster then she ran the day before).  Her second ever Q in three runs.

By the time Novice standard began the rain had been falling rather steadily, leaving the table cold and wet and the chute saturated; luckily the chute was switched out before our run.  Baby V, who seemed quite distracted on this course and not quite sure she wanted to a:) listen to me or b:) be out in the cold rain did manage to do her sit on the wet table - a major victory with a basenji.  Then as we were finishing up the run, with a Q in our grasp she once again flew off the teeter for a big fat NQ.  All in all though I was very proud of her whole debut performance.

Drew started Saturday not feeling too well and it showed in his running.  Rand ended up doing a "Gregger"; twice.  That is to say he picked Drew up, thanked the judge and walked off the course.  Sunday was a bit better, despite the frigid cold.  Rand and Drew were able to eke out an Open P Standard leg, their third which means a new title for Drew.  Yeah!  He still needs one more JWW leg to move to the B class.

Clay and Rand had a good show on Saturday.  Clay double Q'd in Novice, a first for him, with placements.  The Standard Q was good for a new title of NA, to accompany his recent NAJ title.  Sunday ended up being a bad day for Clay with the weather which was disappointing to Rand.  We will continue to run Clay in Novice Preferred until he gets his preferred titles and then see about moving him to Open.  The more practice he and Rand get, the better.

Then there is Feigh. <lol>.  Her Excellent Standard run on Saturday, was astonishing and totally undesigned by me.  The course was so difficult that only one 24 inch dog, and I believe two 20 inch dogs, had Q'd by the time we entered the ring for 16 inches.  The opening sequence was the killer and I just hoped Feigh would get through it without too many errors.  Ended up she had no problems whatsoever but ended up so far away from me doing everything right that I could not catch her for the "easier" sequences and she was sucked into the tunnel for an NQ.  The rest of her run was also brilliant.  I had a number of folks come up and ooh and awe about her run and say how much they want their dog to look like that.  Sadly I had to correct them and let them know that I truly had nothing to do with her brilliance and that it truly was luck that had her hitting all the right things. It was not a controlled run in the least and not one I could repeat at this time with her in a zillion years (it was pretty though!).  I figure when she is 8 or so and slowing down and LISTENING, I might be able to handle as well as folks thought I was handling.  Her JWW run brought us all back to reality where I ended up "gregging" her.

JWW was first on Sunday and while she still chooses to ignore my pleas of "come!" or "Here!" - we did have some good handling and listening moments.  The cold became too much for her during her Standard run and was a disaster.  I "gregged" her and loped off the course.  My goal is to have some serious outdoor training sessions with my brand new, homemade, portable weave poles, jumps and a chute and work on some hard core recalls.  Her blowing me off like she is deaf is getting rather old! (and costly!).

Next up is the breed ring for V this coming Saturday/Sunday and Novice B obedience for Clay where I know we can finally get his last CD leg!  Drew and Feigh are on vacation.
 

March 1st-2nd: We packed up the car with dogs and gear and head to Scottsdale after work for some fun in the sun.  The older kidz are entered in agility and V in the breed ring.  We arrive with nary a problem, check into our hotel and head over to the show site to set up.  We have been attending this venue for many years and usually have a good time.  My schedule looked to be chaotic with breed and my agility classes going at the same time.  Thankfully agility is going much faster then expected and the breed ring was postponed due to illness so it all worked out.  V ended up 2nd out of 4 in her bred by class on Saturday - not too shabby for such an immature looking squirt (the other bitches are at least 1-2 years older).  On Sunday I should have stayed home.  There were two reds and two brindles in my class and the judge did not even LOOK at the brindles.  I was told he did not watch either of their go arounds and certainly when he was sizing them in the lineup he totally averted his eyes and looked only at the reds.  No more support for this guy - what a waste of my money.  Ah well - you pay and learn.

By far Drew was the most successful this weekend.  He and Rand earned three legs, while he and I earned one.   It is safe to say that Drew is bbaaack.  Rand and Clay were able to get their third and final JWW leg for a new title. They also earned one standard leg.  Whoo hoo.  Sadly Feigh was the worst she has been in a long time.  She had moments of brilliance which show me her potential but they were few and far between - she is border collie without the listening skills; a bad combination in a class where perfection is the only option.  I have decided if she does not get any legs over the next few months, I will move her to Novice preferred next fall and work on control and weave entries et al.  Since some day she will go to preferred I might as well catch these titles up to her current level.   In the future I plan to show all dogs in preferred and regular and get the titles at the same time before proceeding to the next class.  It was a pain in the rear to go all the back to the beginning with Tre and Drew when I finally dropped them to preferred.

I am glad to say that we will be in town for the next couple of weeks.  I am tired of traveling.  Next up is agility at Reid park where V makes her agility debut in Novice-P and the big kidz continue to play in their respective classes.  Drew and Clay are officially Rand's dogs while I get the girls.  Should be interesting. :O)
 

February 2008
February 23rd: Back to Metro Phoenix for a one day LGRA race meet; our first.  Everyone goes with (sans the cat) though only three are racing. V is there to practice (and she does a FAB job).  With my three, Khonsu and three other entries we get a respectable total of 7 - enough for 2 GRC and SGRC points to the winner.  Everything was going along pretty well despite two of the basenjis wanting nothing to do with the starting box (think greyhounds at a greyhound racing park - those type of starting boxes) and when they finally managed to get themselves turned around and out of the box, they wanted nothing to do with running; eventually these two dogs were scratched.

In the final program (we race three programs, after each program dogs are put together based on their speed/placements in the previous program) Clay and Drew were teamed together; Clay was the slowest of those dogs that ran all programs thus far and Drew was the top dog in the did not finish (DNF) category; he pulled off the lure when he heard me trying to coax the young female basenji out of the box.   Live and learn but I should have known not to run the brothers together and since Clay still had a fighting chance having ran in his prior two programs, I should have pulled Drew.  In the end Drew popped out of the box and ran the lure but when he realized Clay was not there (Clay was turned around in the box) he stopped and turned, at that point Clay was flying towards the lure and indirectly at Drew which freaked Drew out.  Clay passed Drew but then Drew had a few words for scaring the beejeejees out of him and they both petered out and either started to come back towards me or postured each other.  The whole display meant DNFs for both.   (In the future I will concentrate on Clay and if necessary, scratch Drew if the need arises.)

The high point race (which is for the fastest dogs; usually to determine first place) ended up being Feigh, Khonsu and another basenji who has had aggressive issues in the past even with a muzzle and really should not be running; in my opinion there is a BIG difference between interference, or even intimidation compared with true "I want to rip your face off" aggression.  You may remember my story about unsportsmanlike, manipulative behavior we were the recipients of back in December 2006.  This is the same person (PDA) and the same basenji; only now it is scary aggressive.  When we were in the grassy knoll finishing up inspections this dog tried to attack Khonsu.  Later, during the high point race, as I tried to get Khonsu into the starting box this dog again attacked Khonsu.  Khonsu was quite worried about the box at this point but allowed me to put him in.  (PDA, being a "nice" person (NOT!) failed to tell the person who was handling the dog, about said aggressive tendencies so they of course let the dog get right up into Khonsu's face).

As soon as the box opened Feigh came out first, the aggressor a close second and Khonsu in the rear.  The aggressor beelined for Feigh, knocked her sideways but Feigh was able to pull away when the aggressor turned its attention onto Khonsu.  You could see Khonsu trying to get around the dog but couldn't and when we ran up to retrieve them Khonsu was standing, with his head turned in a deferring manner while this dog was standing on his back growling and, through the muzzle, trying to savage Khonsu's neck area.  PDA did not appear to be in any great hurry to get the dog nor were they able to hang on once they did.  The minute Katy had Khonsu by her side, trying to put on his leash the aggressor broke free, launched itself at Khonsu, knocking Khonsu out of Katy's grasp and again, through the muzzle, seemed intent on killing Khonsu.  By this time Khonsu somewhat stuck up for himself and they squared off like boxers on their back legs hurling a few choice words at eachother before PDA was finally able (willing??) to get the dog away from Khonsu.  I have never in 13 years of coursing EVER seen such an agressive display that continued to just escalate depsite one dog giving deferring postures.  I shudder to think what would have happened had neither dog been muzzled.

I am not ashamed to admit it but I let PDA know what I thought about their willingness to continue running an OBVIOUS aggressive dog, a dog they have suspected of being aggressive as far back as December 2006 and their willingness to potentially ruin good racing dogs AND give basenjis a bad reputation in the process.  I would have liked to use a few choice words about PDA themsleves but refrained - they are not worth the breath.

Not too surprisingly the aggressor was DQ'd and Khonsu and Feigh needed to run again.  We approach the starting box and when I try and load Khonsu he FREAKS out and it takes a few moments to settle him down and convince him to go in, that he would not be attacked either on his way in, or on the course.  Once the race started he settled down but you could tell his heart was not fully in it and he kept looking back waiting for the other shoe to unexpectedly drop.  In the end Feigh finished first, Khonsu second which meant 2 GRC/SGRC and 1 GRC/SGRC point for each, respectively. We will have to get Khonsu coursing with dogs that are known to mind their manners on the field and see if we can not get him comfortable running again.  ADDENDUM: It came to our attention that this dog was DQ'd by the AKC prior to the LGRA meet while coursing in California.  The dog has yet to be reinstated with the AKC.  PDA did not and does not seem to care whose dog is ruined in the process of continuing to run this dog.  Now that is what I call SPORTSMANSHIP! not.

Next up agility and breed this Saturday and Sunday in Socttsdale.

February 23rd-24th: It's obedience time - or so we hope. On Saturday we all head up to Phoenix for an obedience trial.  Apparently it rained all day Friday which was rather obvious on Saturday; the wet grass and puddles were a dead giveaway.  Feigh has to show quite early and it is nippy outside.  While the sun did come out on Saturday it was not soon enough and Feigh decided she could not possibly put her elbows, much less her chest down in the cold, wet grass.  I had to double command her and while she did it, we received a big, fat NQ for the drop on recall exercise. Of course this problem trickled over to our out of sight, long sits and downs.  While she sat like a statue, she only lasted 25 seconds on the long down before she popped up and decided to just do another long sit. <sigh>.  Sunday she had a much better day.  The ground was dry(ish) and though the sun never showed its glorious face, the temperatures were not too horrific.  We went into the ring early again with a positive attitude.  We got through all the exercises until the broad jump where she decided to WALK over them, apparently not remembering the jump part of the name.  Another NQ.  Sadly she lasted less then 30 seconds on the long down.  I really hope this is all weather related and not becoming a problem.  She does her stays well at home and at the park so I will chalk it up to coolish, wet weather.  All in all a better day and I do not feel too negative about it. (Katy's Nut took her second Open leg on Saturday and first in the rather large class - yeah for Nut!)

Next up is Clay. He just needs one more leg for his CD title.  Saturday was NOT the day as he was horrible! While we were still qualifying, despite his horrid heeling, he blew it on the recall - he just sat and looked at anyone but me.  On a positive note he did his stays.  Sunday he seemed more interested and was working on a 190&1/2 when he jumped up out of the long down with less than 30 seconds to go.  He acted like he was shot out of a cannon and just stood there, then sat down and waited.  NQ'd by a measly 30 seconds!  The good thing is he did MUCH better!

Poor V, it was on her young shoulders to get something right for team sinbaje, as her elders failed so miserably.  Could such a young dog (only 14 months) handle the pressure?  I had planned to put V in the wild card novice class - this is a new class offered by AKC where you can not only talk positively to your dog in the ring but you can discard one of the exercises if your dog is not quite ready for it.  Then I decided that since she has one Rally Novice (RN) leg form Nationals I should perhaps go for her RN - she would still get the same kind of ring exposure and perhaps a title too!

Saturday we were doing great until the third to the last exercise where V decided to try and finish right when I needed her to go left.  What to do?  I quickly decide to redo the station or risk NQ'ing the whole run.  So we circled back around and reapproach the station and got it right but lost 3 points in the process; the only 3 points she lost ending with a 97.  The top four dogs in the class that day had 100s or 99s so no ribbons for V but we did get that sacred green ribbon and a second leg.

Sunday I had her out a bit early as we had a conflict and the ring stewards bumped me to the end instead of fitting me in the middle.  She was acting like such a doofus who had no brains that I was worried about how she would do in the actual ring; she did not want to walk on a certain patch of grass, she kept picking her feet up one at a time as though the ground was flaming hot and she could have cared less about the treats I had.  Uh oh!

Finally its our turn (we are the very last dog) and once in the ring she seems to settle down and we briskly get through the course without any problem and no do-overs.  Yeah! That's good enough for a third leg and an RN title.  The top four dogs in the class all had 100s.  When you have tied scores the tie breaker becomes the amount of time it took for you to run your course.  V ended up being not only one of the dogs earning a PERFECT 100, she and I also had the fastest time - good enough for a first placement.   Go baby V!

Next up - back to Phoenix metro area for some LGRA racing on Wednesday, then back home only to return to Scottsdale on Friday evening for some Agility and conformation on Sat/Sun.  This is our busy time of the year.

(Ps: As for my health - I had either asthma induced bronchitis or bronchitis induced asthma so I am on some bronchial inhalers for a few months to calm things down.  While I am tired, I am feeling pretty good!)

February 1st-4th: It's not been a good couple of months.  I was sick right before Christmas for about a week - didn't think much of it as it had been going around the clinic and it was inevitably my turn.  Then about 2 weeks later my cough picked up and I was again sick with all that goes along with a cold including a cough that was keeping me up at night.  At the urging of the docs at work I filled the antibiotics the human doctor prescribed earlier and I slowly returned to normal.  I spoke to a number of people who said they have heard of some sort of "cold" going around that was lasting months.  No kidding!  I really felt the antibiotics helped so thought for sure I was over the hump.  Then Lisa at work, who has relapsed twice, relapsed again but this time her symptoms were more flu like with a cough; I was right behind her and ended up calling in sick for 2 days and being sent home another day.  My cough is still relentless, I sleep in acrobatic positions to keep from coughing up a lung and rest is something in the far off distance that I know I would enjoy if I could just embrace it. I have a call into the doctor but they are not too concerned and pencil me in for Tuesday; assuming I survive.

The worst of it is - Tre is doing quite poorly.  Almost two weeks of normalcy and wham - we are back at square one though much worse as now he is not wanting to eat anything, nothing, nada!  I can not coax him with any old tried and trues; McDonald's, Chinese food, T-bone steak.  Its as though he is shutting down and saying its time.  After watching Tre refuse foods for the past 4 days means only one thing, its time to say good-bye.  I have prepared Rand that Monday the 4th is D-Day.  Rand tries to see signs of hope in Tre but I remind him even if Tre eats a morsel of bread, or walks to the water bowl and drinks, its not enough to sustain his weakened body any longer - especially not when it goes out the other end so quickly.  It's not about us, what we want or how we're feeling.  I can only hope the sun is shining brightly for us tomorrow so we can spend time in the sun before Tre begins his final journey.

Perhaps the world realizes what a special dog Tre is and mourns his eventual loss; instead of sun we are awakened to drizzle that works up to a cold rain that has no plans of dispersing.  Since I have been camped out on the couch so as not to disturb Rand's sleep, I am unaware of how often Tre gets up in the middle of the night to do his business outside.  I think Rand concedes to my decision this morning as he mentions that Tre had a tough night last night, very restless spending a lot of time outside - which is evident when I scoop the back yard.  I am scheduled to work today and while I would have preferred to take him in immediately, Rand wants to be with him and has to rearrange his schedule; the plan is to head over to the clinic around 5pm.   Due to my cough and everything else, the docs send me home to recuperate and, I would like to think, spend time with Tre.  And that's what I have been doing, giving him little massages, respectful of the fact that he never liked a lot of hands on, even as a youngster.  I've whispered in his ear how great he is, how much he has meant to me and how much I will miss him.  I have asked that he say hi to Sage for me and to let her know I miss her too.

As we await Rand to come home the weather takes a bizarre turn, first a hint of sun, then snow.  I wonder if Tre, born in Pennsylvania, was born while it snowed?  The snow on our property did not last long though it continues to snow in the foothills.  More clouds, more rain - what a dreary day in more ways then one.   Rand arrives home and we bundle Tre up in his horse blanket and head to the clinic.  Rand tells me about a triple rainbow he espied today - a good omen that heaven is preparing for Tre.  As we approach the clinic the sun breaks through the clouds.  My doctors and fellow co-workers were the best and did not make Rand, Tre or I wait too long though we were kind of being "worked in".  Dr. R as always steps up when Dr. W is caught in a room and Tre's passing goes as quickly and smoothly as possible.  I could not have asked for more.  Tre went to be with Sage at 5:00pm and to await us at the Rainbow bridge.  You did all that I asked Tre, and so much more; thank you for 14 fantastic years.

Luckily there were some vendors at the show and we were able to find Tre something he was willing to eat to some degree though it only lasted about 3 days.  He then spent the majority of the weekend lounging in the sunshine while the younger kids went to work on their agility titles.  The venue was rather nice, the weather a bit cooler then I like or expected. Feigh and I did well together - we are starting to become a team.  Sadly though she is now in the Excellent classes where you do or die - which means there is no room for error except time faults. So alas, no matter how well we did, we still did not get any legs.  But there is hope!  Drew was quite disappointing the whole weekend.  He tends to be the one dog we can rely on and he was, well, flat!  We think he was getting us back for having him baby-sit Tre one to many times.  No legs for Drew.  Clay and Rand looked MUCH improved and came OH SO CLOSE to a leg on several occasions.  Due to the Packers playoff game we decide to cut the Sunday runs short and leave early.  Rand and Clay still have JWW to do while I pack the car.  Wouldn't you know, the one time I am not there to see it they run the best they have ever run, in something like 27 seconds!  I am impressed.  Good job boys!

Upon our arrival home I decide to break out the Nature's Variety raw food and see if Tre shows any interest.  He does and for almost 2 weeks we have a well eating dog with nice stools while I fluctuate between several raw things.  I can not tell you how happy this makes me feel.

Feigh and I (along with Katy and Nutty) head to Phoenix one Saturday for some obedience.  This is to be Feigh's Open debut - I am excited.  Feigh's up first and we are doing an awesome job and head into the long sits and downs working on a first place and a 194.  Nutty and Katy follow us and are doing well, though I imagine Nut stopped Katy's heart on several occasions.  Nut goes into the long sit and downs working on a score in the 180's and a second place.  Sadly - neither girl manages to make it through the long down, for different reasons, and both blow their class placements.  Ah well we get to try again mid February.

December 2007
December 9th: Well this week has had a lot of ups and downs.  Tre is recovering well from the surgery per se but his IBD and appetite are worse for wear.  All I can say is thank doG for doggie doors as his gut plays havoc with his life enjoyment.  Thankfully Tre has accompanied me to work each day so I am better able to address any problems that arise.  In recent weeks our clinic has diagnosed at least 4 other cases of oral malignant melanoma and for whatever reason I always seem to be the tech assigned the patient.  One case had low mitotic (the ability to metastasize) who really did not want to consider jaw resection.  The dog is relatively young (just 10 years of age) and is in apparent great health.  Tre and I were able to help the owner make a decision as everyone could not believe how great and normal Tre looked only 72 hours post surgery (pic1, pic2, pic3, taken 4 days post surgery - kind of hard to tell, wouldn't you say?).   I found out this Saturday that our client went up to the Aid Animal clinic and had the surgery done.  My fingers are crossed it went as well as Tre's did.

Every morning this past week Tre has had to be roused out of bed.  He would go out for a quick piddle then hightail it back to bed (or course our weather is cold and damp so who could really blame him?).  He had no appetite and seemed almost nauseous.  I would give him his meds, try and coax him to eat to no avail (and drive myself ragged in the process) and hope that he would find his appetite at work - which he usually did though he had an affinity for "junk" food (treats, boiled chicken, scrambled eggs).  I worry he is not getting proper nutrition but thrilled when he is remotely interested.

On Thursday and Friday evening he asked to go for a walk - which is always a good sign.  He was able to make it around the block and was thrilled to check on his pee mail.  Thursday he even went to agility and gobbled down some turkey dogs.  When we were putting the equipment up he even took a jump on his own to show everyone he still knows how to do it.  Silly boy.

Friday morning and Saturday morning seemed the worse with regards to his inappetance and overall morning malaise.  On Saturday Lisa from work suggested I give him Pepcid AC in case he has some reflux issues.  He seemed better Sat. nite; Lisa will make a terrific and intuitive vet when she gets accepted to school.  Our clinic party was Sat. nite so I was able to ask Dr. Rad what to do about Tre's inappetance.  She suggests we double his pred dose for about 5 days and get his IBD back under control as this is the problem now, his jaw yesterday's news.

Apparently some great advice as this morning, after his Pepcid and his pred, Tre joined us all in the kitchen - awaiting his meal with the rest of the crew - something I have not seen for a number of days.   Right now he is bumping my leg, looking for a treat.  I do not want to speak too soon but maybe, just maybe he is on the right road finally??

December 2nd: Tre looks as though he has had a good nights rest.  I did not hear him get up and I did not see any signs of more vomiting.  He still does not seem hungry though he is approaching the water bowl like a true champ.  I muscle test and decide on 1/2 tramadol, 1/2 traumeel, 1/4 of his regular dose of Pred (I hope the Pred works two fold - settles his gut and makes him hungry).  No antibiotics this morning though I plan to resume the flagyl this evening.  I will ask the docs tomorrow about what to do since I know he needs antibiotics to stave off infection but being nauseous is not good for his recovery either.  I fix him some scrambled eggs with a small amount of ham as well as raw turkey (anything to entice him to eat!).  He seems moderately interested and eats a little - this is around 9:15 or so.  We then proceed to head outside and soak up some rays while I give him a full body massage.  This he seems to enjoy as he closes his eyes during it - mind you Tre is not a hands on sort of guy and has only mildly tolerated petting. The sun gets too warm for his black coat and we all head back inside.  He continues to drink water which is encouraging - it means his tongue is not sore or less sore and he has good use of it.  He still does not grasp any food - I have to kind of place it on the side of his mouth where he gums it.  He settles in for a nap.  The swelling in his face is almost non-existant - amazing since it is only 2 days post op and seemed so obvious Friday night/Sat morning.  I personally think it is the traumeel which is for inflammation and bruising.

This afternoon he toddles our and unfortunately has a major blow out. On the upside the last part of his BM was formed so perhaps it was just his body getting rid of all the toxins he has had the past few days.  About a half hour later - when the other dogs are out front I offer Tre some eggs and turkey and he about takes my hand off to get to it.  This was the first time he has actually used his mouth to feed himself.  This is very encouraging. While I am tempted to overfeed him to make up for the two days of no food I stop myself and only let him have a small amount.  I will offer him more later.

December 1st: I awoke at 4:15 this morning.  I planned to awaken at 2ish to give Tre his pain pill but that did not happen so I quickly jumped out of bed and got the meds for him.  I am having to push these pills to the back of his throat which is no easy task considering his surgical procedure.  I offer him a piece of bread too as I feel he is hungry.  I break off small pieces for him and he is able to gum it down his throat and he ends up eating at least half of it.  I kind of regret waking him up to give him the medication as it takes him a while to settle down again but I know its best for him to get the meds.  Tramadol the pain reliever also has sedative properties so I think that is why he is still "loopy". Finally he settles and we both fall back to sleep.

This morning his face is much more swollen.  I keep telling myself to keep positive.  He does not seem painful per se.  He just seems out of sorts; he can't figure out why his tongue does not work as well or perhaps why it is tender.  I offer him some watered down canned food and he tries once but gives up.  I then offer him some regular canned food, after making him take his antibiotics.  As long as I spoon fed him he was willing to eat and ate about half a can.  He has a lot of serous drool that has coated his legs where he rests his head.  Throughout the day he has attempted to drink water but he stops - due to pain, indecision, drug induced stupor I can not tell.  I will continue to medicate him, hand feed him if necessary and either syringe water down his throat or give SQ fluids when I take him to work on Monday.  We will get over this recovery hump.

 "Save tomorrow for tomorrow, think about today instead".

Saturday evening: Tre continues to approach the water bowl and then just stand there, looking lost. I take the other furkids for a brief walk and Tre meets us at the door as though he too wants to go.  I decide to walk him to the end of the drive and back.   We hardly make it out the gate when he vomits at least three times undigested food from the morning meal.  This would certainly explain why he does not want to eat.   The question is - what is the cause?  The antibiotics?  The tramadol? I can not get him to eat anything the rest of the evening.  I do some muscle testing and decide to only give him the homeopathy pain reliever Traumeel and his Flagyl.  The only bright light is right before bed he approaches he water bowl and actually laps up some water.  Good boy Tre!  What will the morrow bring?

From the very beginning Dr. S would tell me to think about having his jaw removed (mandiblectomy) to totally cut the cancer out; I kept resisting her suggestion.  I truly felt we could manage the growth with the local debulking and could then let what happens with cancer, happen.  I must admit that the thought of having Tre look like a bucked tooth, badly overshot dog with his tongue hanging to the ground was not appealing.  I really envisioned a monster of sorts.  I was concerned too about how the resident basenjis, who can be quite feral when it comes to pack preservation, would deal with the smell of blood after surgery, or how Tre would feel after surgery.  I really did not consider mandiblectomy an option.

Sunday the 25th of November and Tre's mass is back with a vengeance.  It appears to be eroding his lower left canine tooth; food is getting trapped in the 'new' space between his last incisor and canine tooth.  The mass is quite ulcerated now and is hanging over his tongue (it is not attached to his tongue just sits on his tongue when his mouth is closed) and the resident basenjis are very interested in this area - the very thing I want to avoid.  His lower jaw line is now swollen as well.  He still has a voracious appetite, still wants to take walks and be a part of the family so I go into work on Monday and ask Dr. S to give Dr. Visser in Scottsdale a call - I am ready for a mandiblectomy and hope it is not so late they have to take the whole jaw.  They can get me in on Friday.  It's a two hour drive to and fro; luckily I am scheduled off that day.  Boy am I nervous.  Am I doing the right thing?  Should I perhaps just euthanise even though Tre is still so full of life; he just has an enlarging growth in the wrong place which would eventually limit the quality of his life, if left to grow uncontrolled. My reasoning for considering the mandiblectomy was the very fact that the mass itself was eroding or eating at his teeth and possibly his jaw.  If the mass could end up destroying the bone/tissue - why should I hesitate to have it surgically removed to stop the progression.  While Tre did not seem painful with the mass - how do I truly know he is not?  Wouldn't it be better to give him several days of medicated discomfort versus weeks or months of bone/tissue destroying discomfort?

I asked Dr. B to ask via muscle testing, a few questions.  I did not want to influence the results by knowing the questions so she asked them to herself.  She asked if Tre was ready to leave yet.  His answer? No.  She asked if this surgery was in his best interest.  His answer?  Yes.  These are the same answers I was getting when I muscle tested Tre personally.  I feel better about subjecting him to the surgery.  Let's see if I still feel that way afterwards.

Friday comes and I am up by 4:45am.  I need to be in Scottsdale, on a work day, by 8am so I need to avoid traffic.  Rand is leaving for Berkeley a bit later - he is off to the BIG GAME between Stanford and Cal.  I am left to do this alone - which sadly seems to be my MO.  I am scared but game and Tre and I head out the door by 5:30am.  For some reason I decide to put the cell phone under my leg on vibrate; good thing as Dr. S calls me at 6am to make sure I had everything and wish me luck.  It is nice to know that folks care and I am moved to tears which is not a good thing while driving on the Interstate.   Apparently the stress of this whole thing is starting to catch up to me but I am able to shake it off.  I pop in my Jesus Christ Superstar CD and jam my way to Scottsdale.  The weather has finally decided to become winter like, with rain on Thursday and more forecasted for Friday.   Whomever watches over me or perhaps Tre; be it Sage or my grandmother - they worked wonders.  The weather held for the ride up and we make it with plenty of time to spare.

I have been to the Aid Animal Clinic several years before with Drew's brother Shaman and his mom Nancy.  Shaman had just fractured his big premolar and we made an emergency beeline to Scottsdale to have Dr. Visser perform a root canal.  Nancy and I had a lot of fun hanging out at the mall, shopping, playing games while waiting for Shaman to have his dental procedure.  This trip would be much different, though no less expensive.  While I was invited to stay and watch the procedure I kindly bowed out and was barely able to hold my composure until I made it back to the car.  I really am stressed out and the tears start to flow.  I try and remember the JCS song that says "Save tomorrow for tomorrow, think about today instead".  There is no sense in crying over something that has not happened yet or may not happen.

I am told best case scenario - they leave some of the bone that connects both parts of the lower jaw and still get clean margins.  Worst case scenario - they have to take the whole left jaw, which would mean the right jaw would not have anything to anchor it, making it floppy.  Apparently cats do NOT do well with this type of -ectomy surgery and never adjust.  Dogs are more able to adjust to learning how to eat though it can take a month or more.  I want clean margins since without clean margins it could mean that in a few months time we are in the same boat with a mass that has returned.  I also want the least amount of recorvery/adjustment for Tre.  I just have to think positively - it is what it is.

I remain in the car with a number of mags/books to peruse.  Around 11:30am I notice Dr. Visser leave the building.  I wait a bit, finish up my article and head over to see how Tre is doing.  It's 12:15pm and I am allowed to go back and visit him.  The procedure took over 2 hours and Tre is still groggy.  He does perk up when he smells my hand, so I stay for a little bit and pet him.  The best thing is - he still looks like Tre and not anything like the monster I envisioned.  The Dr. comes over to discuss what they did - a rostral mandiblectomy.  They were able to leave a bridge of bone from the left to the right so he will have stability.  Thank you guardian angels; whomever you are.  They also left his back four premolars/molars on that side which means they took the affected area and left the rest; best case scenario.  I am told their feeling is they have clean margins; the bone was actually "grossly normal" a medical term which seems like an oxymoron but loosely translates to "perfectly normal." We will find out in 7-10 days when the biopsy comes back.  They would like him to recover for another hour so I head next door to Subway and grab a bite.  Perhaps 45 minutes pass when Dr. Visser pops his head in; Tre is up and agitated (his classic anesthetic MO) so they are going to pull his catheter and release him.  Since we have a 2 hour road trip ahead of us this is great news.  Once again I thank my lucky stars as I was hoping against all hope that I would be able to leave and drive while it was still daylight; especially now that the rain has decided to rear its wet head again.    I am given a copy of the before and after pictures of his mass, the mandiblectomy and radiographs.  Caution as they are a little graphic, but not grossly so.

Tre and I have an uneventful trip back and I try and leave a message with Rand's cell phone with the encouraging news.  I stop off to pick up some medication and we arrive home where he gets a thorough sniff over, with me ready to pounce if anyone tries anything.  We all settle in for the very rainy evening.   Lisa from work calls and leaves a message to see how he is doing.  Once again I am appreciative of the care people have shown.  Dr. Visser calls around 7pm to check in.  He encourages me to give Tre his pain meds regardless so I immediately do so.  Tre does not seem painful at this time as he is still in a stupor of sorts.  He did lap up some watered down canned food which is encouraging.  Around 10ish I put everyone to bed and offered Tre some more food but he was not interested.  His jaw is getting swollen from all the bruising and is warm to the touch.  He still seems to be in a stupor so I am not too concerned.

The question is - will I feel the same way tomorrow.

November 18th/19th: Agility and breed this weekend.  Once again it's Drew to the rescue!  Rand runs him in Excellent JWW preferred on Saturday and he is able to Q with a perfect score; good job boys! Then on Sunday he and I finally get an Open P standard leg with another perfect score. Phew!  Feigh ran well, was listening to me though kind of slow and sniffy.  We did not Q either day but my ability to control her better is encouraging for the future.  Not sure where the fast and furious Feigh has been in recent months but I hope she comes back a little and stops the sniffing.  I decided not to retire Clay just yet.  I did decide however that he needs one trainer; Rand and they need to figure it out together.  Rand needs to play more with him and cheer lead while running.  Also when we are training, Clay will not just get to go 100mph around the course - Rand will let him do one obstacle and call him back to him, then progress to two obstacles, then three etc.  Rand will eventually randomize when he calls Clay back to him.  I hope this will teach Clay to listen more to Rand and teaches Rand the object of the game is not to race the dog around in practice only to lack control at a show.  We have also decided to just continue to do the course with Clay when he messes up as opposed to stopping him and bringing him back to do it right - which I think stresses Clay.  The only exception in Novice will be weave poles - we will try and send him through twice to get it right. All that said Rand and Clay did really well together this weekend.  No Q's but Clay was close and looked to be having fun (as did Rand).  Clay did not seem as uninterested or distracted - which could very well be avoidance issues due to nerves and Rand being a bit nervous as well.  Fingers crossed this works.

V got to play show dog and did okay.  She placed 2nd or 3rd in the BBE class (out of 4) the whole weekend.  For sure she needs more work on grass and possibly more work on show lead moving in general.  She has the reach and drive but does not always display it and I am not sure why.  I assume it is age related as she is still growing and strengthening her muscles et al.  I will see what she looks like on video aver Thanksgiving.  By then perhaps the national DVD with her ASE win will be here and I can see what she looked like that day and get a better understanding of my dog.

Next up - nothing planned for awhile show wise.

November 10th/11th: It's agility time!  Everyone heads to Mesa; we are hoping to get a leg or two on Feigh in Open JWW - this has been a hard class for Feigh as you are only allowed a bare minimum of mistakes - I think we have not Q'd in this class since the first leg in July (and before that we had a very long dry spell).  We have high hopes for Clay as well in his Novice classes, as he has had a serious drought also. In recent months Drew has been the only basenji to do anything for either Rand or I so we are not too worried about him and assume he will continue to shine.  The good news is Feigh not only Q'd twice in JWW (no comment on her Excellent runs), she finished her Open JWW (OAJ) title. YEAH!! Onwards to Excellent A where we plan to spend the rest of our lives. <lol>.  Drew too did well in Jumpers and has moved up to the Excellent A Preferred.  For some reason we can not seem to get any Open Standard Preferred legs with Drew in recent months.  This is odd actually for when we were in the regular classes he had the most difficulty in jumpers while acing his standard runs/titles.  Clay's runs were rather disappointing.  He did not run well with Rand so we switched handlers on Sunday and while he was a bit better with me, and oh so close in JWW, he is just not running well.  Very distracted, slow, meandering.  I am about ready to retire him before we even had a chance to get him in the game.

Tre and V just came to hang out.  Next up, local agility on the 18th/19th. V is entered in the conformation ring as well.

November 3rd/4th: It's Clay and Feigh's weekend out doing obedience locally.  Rand has Fall Congress for work in Sedona, so he was unable to come with.  Someone forgot to tell the weather people that it is November; temps were close to 90 degrees both days.  On Saturday the judge was in no particular hurry to get through the multitude of dogs so Novice did not start until 1:30pm; in the heat of the day!  Ugh!  According to the schedule the class was to begin at 10:40am so we were there quite early.  Actually we were there even earlier as Katy is showing both Khonsu and Nut in Open and the judge would not let her separate them for groups.  Nut was able to get her first Open leg, Khonsu needs a bit more work but shows great potential.  <lol>

By the time I showed, both of my kids have wilted from the heat and I am a bit worried about their ability to Q.  Even in the best of conditions one worries about a basenjis ability to Q <lol>.  Clay's up first and I move quickly to keep him on his toes.  He has been NQing on the off leash heeling so I do not want to give him a moment to think.  It's not pretty but we get to the sits and downs still in the game.   Feigh's turn.  Her heeling is marginal, her off leash even less so but she too is still in the game.  Katy helps me out and takes Clay in for sits and downs while I go in with Feigh.  The judge is kind and puts the dogs in the shade and the humans in the full sun.  Phew! Both dogs hold their stays and qualify with a 3rd place for Clay and 2nd for Feigh.  Both now have two legs; only one more to go and another day awaits us on Sunday.

Sunday: the judges are moving at a fast clip - apparently they have a shuttle to catch and they want out of there.  This time the judge allows Katy to split her dogs and she is able to do the stays with each.  Sadly neither Q in the exercises but they again show a lot of potential.  Typical green dog mistakes.  Clay is again first in the ring and is doing okay despite the temps but then he blows it.  On the recall he was looking elsewhere and air scenting.  Since I tend to say my commands VERY loudly due to my hearing, I do not feel he did not hear me - he just was not listening and sat there.  Ugh!  I called him again and you would have thought he was shot out of a cannon he flew in so fast and sat straight (why oh why does he save the straight front for a time when he has NQ'd???).  Since he decided to go down on his long sit as well I am glad he blew it when he did - nothing worse then thinking you have the leg in the bag and the dog does not do his stationary exercises; especilly in novice.   Feigh did a wee bit better on Sunday then she did on Saturday and did manage to Q and title with a first placement.  Good job Feigh.  While her scores were significantly less then her first leg, I am proud of her.  I do not work them as much as I should/could so I take what I can get.  I have high hopes/goals for V in the future so training will begin in earnest starting December.  My goal is to get Clay's CD, perhaps CDX (or a leg or two) depending on training, and Feigh's CDX by spring 2008 so I can concentrate on V only in obedience.  I may or may not try for a UD on Feigh.  It is just too hard for me to train/show multiple dogs in this venue while getting the scores I know they can earn.

Next up - agility in Mesa on the 10th/11th.

October 2007
October 11-22: Everyone, sans the cat, heads off for a l-o-n-g vacation to Northern California for the Basenji Club of America National Specialty; first stop was an overnight jaunt to Palm Desert to visit my parents.  Back on the road early the next morning, we're making great time; then the rain hits, followed by traffic - the bane of California existence.  It takes us an hour to go around 30 miles.  We finally make it to the host hotel where we find Katy's car in the unloading zone as she checked into her room - perfect timing.

Nationals was a mixed bag of emotions - as is usual for this large of a venue featuring only one breed.  I am luckier than most though; folks usually only have one shot, at most two if you count sweeps, at winning due to the sheer number of dogs entered.  Having five (relatively) trained  dogs, different performance venue possibilities and African blends, I have multiple opportunities to score big, though more realistically - lose graciously; which of course I did - a lot!

AKC lure coursing was first on the schedule, followed immediately by NOTRA Oval track racing - which we have never done before.  Competition was stiff and if Feigh, or even Drew, coursed at the level I know they can or were in the kind of coursing condition they should be in, they would have placed much higher.  Feigh, as always, cheats herself out of any real placements and ended up as NBQ (5th place) in her specials stake of 11.  Oddly, she ran better the second course but was scored much lower?!?  Drew ran cleanly, does not cheat (much!) but is unable to get a piece of the pie.   I chickened out and only entered Clay in NOTRA - figuring he would like the smaller course and have less reason/desire to interfere.

In NOTRA everyone has to wear muzzles, much to Clay's dismay; he spent part of his time doing somersaults trying to dislodge it, to no avail, which of course cost him as he ended up in last place in his runs despite being ahead of his competition going into the final straight away.  He did not seem too interested in bumping anyone so I definitely have to head back to So. Cal and enter some NOTRA or straight line racing, or both, with everyone.  Feigh ended up doing rather well in the first couple of courses but has not figured out that the inside is the place to be for greater speed.  She did however end up as the top FTE (first time entered) and according to Lisa - she has a Junior Leg and a Superior (?? Senior) leg towards her JOR and SOR(?) titles.   Drew started out great but for some reason (tired??) he refused to run the last race. I forgot how Clay ended up.  It was all rather confusing but enjoyable.   The top NOTRA dog was, I believe, one of the dogs who did not run AKC earlier that day - stands to reason he would be fresh and furious.

ASFA was on Sunday and the course was quite long.  Again Feigh defeats herself but had a blast doing it.  No future plans to run Feigh in ASFA or AKC until after we have some remedial Oval or staightline training - its too expensive to waste money on a dog that currenlty courses as bad as she does.   Drew has a lot of heart and it showed.  He ran hard after his long and tiring previous day and still managed to come in 3rd in the veterans stake for, I believe, 12 points.  Ziggy (Feigh's baby boy) and his owners came up; I was supposed to show Ziggy in the ASE match on Sunday but it was postponed until Monday evening. Pam, Feigh's breeder, was able to see him and she still feels he is the pick of the litter.  He has a GORGEOUS head piece - even better then his dad, which is hard to imagine as Chance has an incredible head.  Pam really liked his front assembly as well and while he is rarely walked on a regular collar, we were able to glean a little about his movement.  We measured him at about 17 1/4 inches.  Katy took some pics so but they were accidently purged. Here is a collage of video snaps of Ziggy.  The highlight of this weekend was I won both raffle baskets that had lots of goodies inside.

Monday arrived bright and early. On today's schedule is: Rally, Obedience, Veterans Sweeps, get Rand to the airport and the African match.  Lots to do!  A number of rally and obedience entries dropped out so I had to rush between entries and had no time to warm any of my dogs up before going into the ring - I was barely able to allow them to pee!  Unfair to them AND to me.   Clay was in Rally Novice B first and did okay. V was next and did better.  Both qualified, with V getting first place at the tender age of 10 months.  Drew and Khonsu were the only entries in Open Obedience.  Drew had a nice score going but did not like the mats and decided to pop up on the long down for a big fat NQ for the day.  The judge was pencil heavy and deducted 3 points off for Drew's long sit due to him being fidgety. Ouch!  Khonsu was rock solid on his stays but showed like a very green dog (which he is) in his first ever Open show and also NQ'd.

Feigh had a nice score going in Novice B but she too did not like the strange mats and sat up on the long down; another NQ.  Clay bombed on the off leash heeling - too many good smells to completely ignore.  During the long down you could see him looking over at Feigh sitting and wondering if perhaps he was doing the wrong thing - sure enough he slowly creeped up to a half sit, saw Katy's expression, and quickly plopped back down.  Sadly, there were no qualifiers in Obedience this year.  V and Jane were entered in Pre-Novice.  Both exceeded our expectations s 10 month olds.  Jane did not Q but she tried really hard.  V Q'd with a 190.5 score,

Tre was entered in Veterans' Sweep.  There were 4 entries in the 13+ age category (1 absent).  One of the entries was Turbo - who was a top winning special in his heyday and he is still quite special at almost 15 years of age; boy can he move!  He (Turbo) ended up with an AOM in the regular show - I should think he is the oldest basenji ever awarded an AOM.  Anyhow - Tre has never been a big fan of showing and it shows.  He looked quite hunched over and could not seem to relax so he did not look very good and was placed last.  I decided to not show him in the regular Veterans class on Wednesday.

Katy was kind enough to take Rand to the BART station midday.  Rand had to return to Tucson for a few days of work.  In the meantime I was busy trying to find someone to show Jane for Katy in the ASE 'cuz I know Katy hates the showing aspect of owning a basenji; luckily Kim B. was more then willing to show Jane and she showed her beautifully.  Dave was kind enough to bring Ziggy all the way back up so I could show him in the ASE match.  Of course Ziggy has never been on a show lead, except for the 5 minutes I played around with him the day before, so he was a bit resistant to moving with his head up, moving at all, standing still to be examined, et al.  In the end I think I got him looking somewhat decent at times for Karla, the judge and hopefully for the DVD.  He did not win his class but we got a great embroidered tote bag for our time - the best trophies of the whole specialty if I may say so.

V showed great and not only won her class but also took Best of Opposite Sex puppy.  The Best puppy was a gorgeous half african male out of Fido; drop dead level topline, beautiful outline, crisp brindle color, short coat, open side gait.  I was so proud of V and especially pleased that I had already pre ordered a copy of the ASE DVD so I can relive it. :O)  Not to be outdone, Feigh ended up winning Best Adult Exhibit. Wow!  While I have won top awards in performance venues at Nationals, I NEVER win anything on the show side of things, so it was THRILLING to win both of these with mom and daughter.  Thanks goes to Karla S. for picking them.  The icing on the cake was to have the nice comments made afterwards about their movement, attitude or both.  I just hope the win pictures turn out nice.  The ASE ended around 8pm and Katy and I still had blood draws to do for the Canine Phenome Project.  A few people were upset that I stayed to get pictures of my ASE wins so they left; in the end we drew about 6 dogs for the project with more to do the following day.

The rest of the week was spent showing or observing the puppy sweeps classes and regular classes.   The judging was very disappointing and not because I did not win.  Seeing the class placements I can honestly say I was more then happy NOT to have won; to have won would have meant, to me, that I was potentially heading down the wrong road with regard to breeding, structure and standard interpretation.   Thankfully there were some nice dogs that did eventually place in the classes and/or actually win some top honors, but there was no consistency by either judge.  Amidst short legged, squatty things with dippy toplines there would be more elegant, level backed, longer legged specimens; it just made no sense.  And the feet - ouch! I have never seen so many flat feet in my life.

Bitches that looked like dogs, adults that looked so small as to be puppies, and movement - whoo boy!  Many moved as though they had their front legs taped to their back legs, stilting their gait versus swinging freely.   Huh, you say?  Okay - imagine a saloon door - when you go through it and let it swing closed it swings nice and wide, to and fro, for a few minutes.  Continue to watch that door when it starts to come back to the center (closed) position - what do you see? Short, choppy and quick back and forth movements.  Or imagine a coin that has been set spinning on a table - notice how little effort is made to stay upright but as it begins to come to rest it gets faster and faster and the revolutions get smaller and smaller, tighter and tighter - that is the kind of movement I am currently seeing in the ring.  Still can't visualize what I mean?  Think about how efficient an eagle moves versus a hummingbird.  Who expends the least amount of effort to get the furthest?  Its not to say that both are not pretty in their own right but which wings would you rather have if you had to fly across the country?  Sadly judges are being taught that short quick movements is proper.  Last I read the basenji is supposed to emulate a trotter trotting full out.  When a judge is faced with the more open and easy ground covering gait of a true mover - they are stymied.

Sadly, if I had to pick one thing that was consistent I would have to say the lack of brindles being in the placements.  I was not the only person noticing that this color was getting the very short end of the stick.  Its truly disheartening to think in today's day and age - with limited founders - the newer imports (1987 onwards) are still being ostracized by breed aficionados.  Let's just say that a few people fell off my pedestal face first this week - ultimately their loss.  That's not to say that all the brindles showing were outstanding - there were some good ones and bad ones; apparently though a bad tri, black or red is better than a good brindle 'cuz there were many bad examples getting first through fourth and beyond!  Okay - off my pedestal.  Nationals is a time to see, be seen, live and learn; thus I had an extremely successful Nationals. :O)

Agility on Saturday and Sunday finished out the week for us.  Sadly agility was NOT a part of this years Nationals per se.  There was no BCOA representation to make folks who showed their basenjis feel a part of the overall show.  We were left to collect our own trophies, if we qualified, though having the trophy towels sit in a box on the table meant any and all could help themselves.  The agility chair asked me on Sunday if I wanted the towels as she still had them, I politely declined.  I also know of several basenji folks that came over to watch but due to the sheer number of dogs running, basenjis were lost in the crowd and spectators left without getting to see any run.  This is really too bad as a lot of fanciers are interested in seeing basenjis do more than run around a ring on a show lead.

Sadly none of the basenjis faired very well in Agility except for Drew - he Q'd in both of his jumpers runs and in the FAST class on Sunday.  I think it was just too long of a week to ask our dogs, a breed not known for their performance brilliance, to go out and work their best.   I hope in the future that agility at Nationals will NOT be a permanent part of an all breed trial and will be done earlier in the week, rather than later.  Sounds like sour grapes but showing is quite expensive nowadays (around $65 a day per dog) and I feel at Nationals we should be doing everything in our power to encourage folks to be successful while encouraging those not performing to come out and cheer the breed on.   On the plus side - I think I finally have figured out the new FAST class as I was able to sit and watch it - its kind of fun.

On another note, Dave and Ana brought Ziggy back up on Saturday so that we could collect him.  Lisa was nice enough to offer up her young, in season, female to tease him and Ziggy had a blast.  We were able to get 12 (yes twelve!) vials from him for future use.  Hopefully others will show an interest in him and his rather unique pedigree (and color - see below) and not let his genes go to waste.  Then again I can say the same for Drew and Shaman - despite all their health clearances, titles and interesting pedigree, no one has shown any interest.  Ah well - my goal is to take Drew back to V and combine both Sage and Feigh - how awesome will that be!? Then perhaps I can go back to Ziggy down the line.  What's interesting is when I was talking to Lisa after collecting Ziggy, he was standing in the direct sunlight and Lisa says "Hey, he's got stripes!" - sure enough you can see stripes in his coat - which means he has a HUGE probability of being a black brindle.  How great is THAT!?

On Monday we packed up and charted our trip back home.  Originally we planned to go back down to Palm Desert and stay with the folks but the fires nixed that idea.  Roads were being closed so we detoured over to I-40 and head on home.  It was a long day and we had to fight some strong winds but we managed to pull into the driveway 13 hours after we left Northern California.   Everyone was glad to be home a day early.  Calle was excited to see us, the house looked great, the bed even greater!  All in all a lovely time was had though perhaps next year we won't stay quite so long. (Next year is Dallas, Texas at Southfork Ranch, about 5 minutes from my sisters house where we will plan to have a family reunion of sorts!)

Next up - Feigh in obedience on the 3rd/4th of November.  Clay is also entered, V too in pre-novice; I think I will hold them out and do some more work with them - depends on how practice goes this week.

September 2007
September 30th: Despite the previous day being overcast and the following day starting out with rain, Sunday, September 30th dawned blue skied, sunny and HOT!  A perfect day to hold an obedience match with a start time of 10 am ... NOT.  Suckers that we are, and knowing we need to train more before nationals, we head over to the local race track for some fun in the sun - and I do mean sun as the facility is without one speck of shade (unless you count the small patch of shade the bathrooms created, where the huddled masses already lingered).

First up is Drew in Open A.  Drew is feeling the heat, panting a bit and sluggish.  We manage to eek out a passing performance and head into the long sits and downs.  I was worried that the heat would be too much and he would either high tail it over to the huddled masses (can you blame him) or just plop down in a melted red and white mess. However I returned both times to a very stoic young man in the same position I left him - good job Drew.

Katy, Khonsu and Nut make their debut in Open A and considering she is a novice handler, this was a new location, and we had extreme heat - they did pretty good.  Khonsu being a classic basenji boy needs to work more with obvious distractions but he has great potential and I definitely see a CDX in his future.  I had to show V in the puppy BIS ring so I missed out on Nuts performance but Katy seemed rather pleased.   Khonsu, ever the smart lad, did leave on the long down and found a spot of shade to cool down in.  Even the judge commented that the only smart dog was the one who left!  Funny too as he hightailed it back to Katy upon her return.

Next up is Clay and Feigh. My wild child is first and is working ho hum to say the least.  Qualifying but pitifully so, then disaster struck.  Off leash Feigh decides to stop and squat!  UGH!  That's what happens when you a:) have too many dogs you rush from one ring to the next and b:) work in the hottest part of the day where you dogs drink more water in 5 minutes then they have all week and c:) you just plumb forget about a and b and didn't give her the potty command BEFORE showing.  Live and learn.   Seeing as how it was a match the judge kindly allowed us to continue.   I had one dog to go before Clay's time, so I made sure he had a pit stop prior to entering.  Clay did okay in the ring - his off leash heeling needs a lot of work - more then I have to give this close to Nationals.  He is able to get through the exercises, and both dogs do their sits and downs perfectly; though I could tell that it was getting to Clay.

In all there were close to 20 dogs entered in the days match and there were only two qualifiers, Drew and Clay, with Drew winning High In Trial Match.  My old trainer, Marie was there and she jokingly said "I just hate it when basenjis are in the ring as they always win!"  I think she meant to say Border Collies. :O)

Next up - Nationals where we will be showing in every venue possibly over the course of nine days! Can you say heaven?

September 14-16:  Everyone, sans the cat, headed up to Prescott for some conformation and obedience.  We stayed at a little place that comprised of 11 "cottages".  Very rustic and quaint, though it was right on a busy two lane forest road with blind curves - not a place you want a basenji to get loose.  V was first up in the BFofGP specialty on Friday; her debut.  The weather was not very co-operative - very windy, with the wind blowing a significant amount of dirt in our faces throughout.  As the afternoon wore on, it became progressively worse - not my cup of tea.  V did okay for her first official show.  She balked a little when the judges (sweeps and regular) examined her on the table but not so much that it affected her placements.  She was the only BBX bitch in sweeps so of course we got a first!  In regular classes she came in second out of four in the BBX bitches.  The BBX class winner went on to a RWB.  A key point is all of the BBX bitches entered were at least 2 years of age and all of them have 9 or more points under their belts.  I was happy with my 9 month old baby girl.

Saturday was Clay and Feigh in Novice B - there was a total of 19 entries, 1 absent.  This is Feigh's debut and only Clay's second time ever in the ring.  I had heard the judges were not very nice so I opted to only enter Novice B one day, Open A the next. I did not want to give these judges too many opportunities to pooh pooh my basenjis or basenjis in general.  <lol>  Well I ended up being pleasantly surprised; they were actually quite friendly.  Tough! but friendly.  Clay was first in and started out great only losing 3 1/2 points on the heel on leash.  He had a perfect stand for exam but fell apart on the heel off leash.  I was not too surprised seeing as how both girls have been in season and driving the boys to distraction, in ways you really do NOT want to know.  Clay seemed a bit more interested in air scenting and ground sniffing then in heeling.  Oh, did I mention the grasshoppers? The hundreds upon hundreds of grasshoppers that alight into the air when you walk past, or lay dead or infirm, valiantly struggling to get out of the way of numerous footfalls? Well lets just say I have no idea how to proof through that kind of distraction! Needless to say with two second heel commands and a lot of dallying, Clay NQ'd off leash heeling but did pass the remaining exercises.

Feigh's turn and boy what a turn she had.  Apparently she did better then I thought.  I did not get the impression she was with me most of the time but Rand said he thought we made a great team and looked to be in tandem.  She lost 1/2 point on her heel on leash.   She too had a perfect stand for exam; we head into the heel off leash where she becomes slightly distracted as well (remember - she is only about 1 week out of being in season and with her prey drive, those grasshoppers were enticing.)  I gave her a second command once and thought I saw her out of position a few times thus I am not sure how she only managed to lose 2 1/2 points.  Her recall was beautiful and perfect - no points taken off.  She did her sits and down and walked away with a score of 197.0!!  I can not believe it.  Drew just recently gave me my highest AKC score of 196.5 and now Feigh has trumped it - wow!  Now at any other show that 197.0 would be good for a first or second place.  Sage earned herself a UKC All Breed High In Trial with a 197.0.  However, in the ring with us were two top obedience handlers, who have trained multiple OTCH Border Collies or Goldens.  Highly competitive people who do nothing but train, train, train!  The first place score was a perfect 200 - hard to beat that!  The second place score was 198.5.  The third place score was 198.0, then Feigh with her 197.0.  Good girl Feigh.

Drew sat out on Saturday but seemed raring to go on Sunday - until we got into the ring. Right next door was a flat coated retriever doing his off leash exercises and Drew wanted nothing more then to "get out of Dodge."  Drew was attacked by a flat coat a few years back, without warning, and has been very leery of any large black dogs - especially off leash black dogs.  He managed to stay in the ring but his heeling was pretty sad.  He is my best heeling dog, has so much potential but when he is nervous - it goes out the window.  He managed to Q on his heeling but lost 10 points! Ouch!  His drop on recall was superb, though he sat crooked for 1/2 a point.  Then stupid owner got involved (that would be me!) and threw the dumbbell and immediately told him to take it without waiting for the judge's command.  Ock! I have always said that Open A is the class we lament "Wow...s/he's never done that before" - when talking about the dog.  Well now I can include myself in that elite circle.  I, of course compounded the problem with a loud "oops" and "sorry".  The judge nailed us with a substantial (deserved) deduction of 3 points.  Double ouch!  His retrieve over the jump was perfect, albeit one crooked sit (1/2 point) and he ended with a perfect broad jump.  We then lost 1 point on the long sit.  I asked Rand if he had moved or whined, he said no.  On the way home I finally realized what the deduction was for.  Drew kept wanting to lie down before the long sit so I physically touched him to get him to sit - whammo! 1 point.  It was a tough Open A day, out of 14 exhibitors only 2 Q'd - Drew and a Clumber.  Drew's 185 score was worth a first place and his CDX title.  Yeah Drew.  I have actively shown only three basenjis in obedience (Clay and Feigh are just starting) and have earned multiple High in Trials, 1 High Combined, 1 UDX leg, 1 UD, 3 CDXs and 3 CDs - yeah for sinbaje!

V and Tre got to hang out and offer moral support.  I imagine in his heart of hearts Tre is saying "YES! I am glad its not me out there!"

Next up - an obedience match on the 30th to prepare us for Nationals in October.

September 12: Some not so great news. I noticed a brick red growth in Tre's mouth on Saturday morning.  It has not been there long as he was anesthetized in July for a tooth extraction due to his idiopathic root absorption issues and it was not there at that time.  The growth was quite pendulous and located behind his lower left canine.  It was ulcerated but did not seem to bother him all that much - we were able to flop it around and he never flinched or seemed uncomfortable.  His appetite waxes and wanes due to his age and IBD so I do not think it is keeping him from eating.  Anyhow - after some training Saturday morn,  I stopped by work and had Dr. W chec