Beau and I traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan to partake in the festivities of the UKC Premier. This was our 8th appearance. We showed in the Top Ten Breed Finals, COBRA Breed Specialty, and all three days of the Premier.

In Saturday's show Beau earned the Grand Champion Award of Merit under judge Karen Johnson. There were three dogs in the class including Beau.

In Sunday's show Beau showed under judge Joe Allen. Beau won his class as he was the only Grand Champion entered. He went on for Best of Breed over ten Catahoulas. Later in the day, during a thunderstorm, Beau earned a Group 2 placement in the Herding Group. I can't remember for sure how many breeds were represented in the Group ring, but it was at least 15. He defeated approximately 200 dogs that day.

I got a book in the mail today, Dog Park Wisdom by Lisa Wogan. Lisa contacted me last year about putting my site in the book as a place to get info on hiking with dogs. It's plugged on pages 110-111 (via a plug for backpackgeartest.org), with a bio in the back for Beau and me, plus some of our online friends from the Traildog email list (member since 1999, mod since 2001).

It was really nice to look in the book today and have a mention of Lucy. The book went to press just before Lucy passed away.

The author has a site here: http://dogparkwisdom.wordpress.com/ with the May 10 entry linking to my site (the instructions for the poop baggie dispenser, specifically).

My friend Christine sent me a link for 2 Dogs 2,000 miles. This is a hike by Luke and his two Great Pyrenees are taking from Austin, TX to Boston, MA to raise awareness for canine cancer research. Much of what we learn from animal cancer directly affects the treatment of human cancer. Finding a cure for our dogs helps with our own health and wellbeing. In addition, using new treatments on pets who already have cancer lowers the need for testing on labratory animals.

In June of 2007 Beau had a tumor removed from his torso and another from his neck. Luckily, neither was cancer, but it brought home the message of keeping an eye out for anything abnormal, on him and on me.

I usually carry a reusable bag when I go shopping, but many times the cashier forgets to put my purchases in the sack or, on occassion, I forget to bring the bag on my shopping trips. This leads me to collecting plastic shopping bags by the dozen-- I reuse them as trash bags and to pick up after Beau. I feel kind of weird buying a plastic bag holder (a bag to hold bags seems redundant), so I thought about a clean, handy storage container for them.

A few years ago I spotted someone at a dog show using an old vinegar bottle to hold scrunched up plastic bags. I didn't have a vinegar bottle, but I did have some empty 1-gallon (3.71 L) pet-stain-and-odor remover bottles. A milk jug would also work well, I think, but these are a little sturdier and don't have the sour milk smell to them after they've been sitting out for a while.*

I'm sure by now most news hound hikers have heard about the death of Merideth Emerson, the 24-year-old hiker from Georgia.

I wasn't sure if I would—or for that matter, should—write something about the incident. On one hand, this is mostly a nuts-and-bolts kind of site, with some input from me on various topics. On the other, this is an incident isolated to one perpetrator* against a "traildogger" who is like many who visit this site.

This case hits home for me in a way that many other trail-related crimes haven't. Yes, I've heard of trailhead break-ins, trailside thefts, and so on. In my mind those are crimes that could affect anyone. This case, however, is so much closer to me. In this case the victim is very much like me—early-mid 20s, female, solo with a dog.

As is normal for me, I'm a little late with the breaking news.

I found an article about the passing of Frank Hall of Hall's Dog Sleds fame. He made the dog sled I owned during high school/college. He was a talented craftsman and left a legacy in the world of sled dog sports.

He was from my home state of Michigan and his original home town is not far from where I was born.

More information can be found here:

Frank Hall's Obituary at Sled Dog Central

I needed to get Beau a new jacket since the one I had for him was actually Lucy's and didn't fit him properly. I also have a hard time finding a commercial jacket that fits since he has a deep chest and skinny waist.

I found this pattern for Greyhounds--also deep chested and skinny waisted. I used two layers of anti-pill fleece. I also made the chest band two-pieces so I could adjust it as needed later. If I like how it performs (with regard to fit, anyway) I'll look into making another that has a water/wind resistant outer layer or see if I can get my hands on something like a 4-way stretch fleece with DWR finish.

Over the weekend I saw some folks with no-sew fleece blankets for their dog crates at shows. Knowing Beau likes fluffy things, I thought this would be a good way to pad his crate. The pad I describe here fits well in Beau's crate and I think it'll work as a travel bed for him as well since it's pretty small (will easily fit in my Jeep). Since it's getting close to the gift-giving season, I thought I'd post this in case anyone's looking for a good present for their favorite pet-lover. It would be easy to make custom sizes for the smallest critters (check the remnant bins to save $$) or even the largest-- very few crates are wider than about 40", even ones for Great Danes. This size is about $13 to make, but could be more or less depending on size and materials used.

Beau showed this weekend at a United Kennel Club dog show hosted by Canine Activities and Traditional Sports in Danville, Indiana. Here are his results:

Saturday, Show 1, Judge Diana Allen: Group 4 of 5

Saturday, Show 2, Judge Joe Allen: Group 1 of 5

Saturday, Show 1, Judge Jeanne Heger: Group 3 of 5

Saturday, Show 2, Judge Richard Klatt: Group 4 of 5

 

2007 turned out to be a pretty good year for Beau, considering we missed a lot of shows for health problems (I missed two from my broken ankle, one from having the growths removed from Beau), and two or three from the schedule conflicting with our moving for the new job. He finished his Grand Champion, had nine Group placements (four 2s, three 3s, & four 4s), in addition to two Group 1s! He also had enough Breed wins to be ranked in the Top Ten for the second year in a row (the official rankings aren't out yet, so I'm not sure where he finished in the rankings). Not bad at all. He also finished a backpacking title, I just haven't received the certificate yet.

Hey folks,

I found this survey about hiking and backpacking with dogs. I have nothing to do with it, however it's definitely in line with info found on this site. Even if you don't take the time to fill it out, please take a look at it. It's a good look at how traildoggers are percieved by other trail users.