Birthday: February 17th 2003 Likes: Chuckit frisbee, roast turkey, stuffed toys, Kate, agility, learning things Pet-Peeves: nail clipping, Junior - the neighbor's cat, big barking dogs at agility trials, when Mom doesn't want to play Favorite Toy: Chuckit frisbee Favorite Food: raw beefheart Favorite Walk: Banner Forest Best Tricks: Jump For Joy, jumping through the tire in dead center Arrival Story: My old Boston, Mr. Macduff, was diagnosed with cardio-pulminary failure. I realized that I could not come home to an empty house. He was the light of my life. I went to a Boston Terrier Specialty show to meet breeders to find a puppy. There I met Jeannie Thomason and we kept in touch. In February, she had a litter and sent me pictures. The pups were 7 days old. I saw my Donovan and picked him out of the picture. I went visiting when he was 6 weeks old and played with all of the pups and knew I had made the right choice. The picture of the old Boston and the puppy are Mr. Macduff and Mr. Donovan just a few days after I brought Donovan home to live with us. Sadly, Mr. Macduff died 6 weeks after Donovan joined us. I miss him terribly, but having Donovan made it so much easier. He has brought so much to my life. Bio: Donovan trains and competes in agility and obedience. As long as there are plenty of treats and lots of play he's ready to train anytime.
Donovan earmed his AKC MACH (Master Agility Champion) on May 31, 2009. He will be attending the 2009 AKC Invitational as the number 3 Boston Terrier. His full name is MACH JeanE's Mr. Donovan RN, XF, O-OAC, S-OJC, S-OCC, TN-E, WV-E, S-TG-O, FFX-AP. He has earned his Novice Versatility Award, Novice Triple Superior Award, and Novice Superior Versatility, and Open Versatility Award from NADAC. Forums Motto: Have toy, will play The Groups I'm In: Dog Sports - Agility The Last Forum I Posted In: Boo-boo (A Boston Terrier) in agility??? Groups I Belong To: Rainier Agility Team; RATS @ Blast; Western Washington Boston Terrier Club
We are back from the Boston Terrier Club of Western Washington's all breed AKC agility trial. It was a lovely weekend and the weather cooperated by not raining until New Year's day.
Donovan did very well. I, on the other hand, had a very up and down performance. The first day, we had a good run going in the standard course. But, there was a triple as the last jump and I did not support Donovan and forgot to tell him it was a "big" over. He crashed the jump. He even got a scraped thigh from the jump. Then in the jumpers course, I thought we had a clean run, but the judge said we had a refusal and failed to do the weaves correctly. I asked some friends who watched the course and they said they thought Donovan had run clean. There must have been some confusion with the score sheets. I didn't have the run videoed so I had no evidence to confirm the mistake (if there was one).
The second day, we had two clean runs and Donovan completed his OA and OAJ titles. Whahoo!
On the third day, I was so nervous to be in excellent that I got lost on the standard course. Ah, well. But I made up for it by being more focused on the JWW course and Donovan ran clean and fast. He got his first leg for his AXJ title and took first place.
Now, we prepare to compete for his CD and RA in obedience. Keeping our fingers crossed.
Wahoo!!! After 4 days of no power, we have electricity and phones again. A huge wind storm hit us in the Pacific Northwest and trees were falling like dominos. I only lost a few big branches luckily. No cedars or Douglas fir falling around the house. We lost power on Thursday afternoon. When Donovan, Kate and I got in the car to go to the store we saw what had happened around us. Basically we were trapped. There were trees across power lines and roads every where. We weren't able to get out of our area until Friday.
So what do you do in the candle light with the dogs? We played clicker games. We played hide and seek with the toys and with food. We got out a cardboard box and played games with that.
We were lucky that we had heat because we have a gas fireplace. Donovan, Kate and I huddled in front of that and stayed warm. I also have a gas stove so we had hot food and coffee. We were lucky. It is still too cold to do much outside training which has me worried about getting enough training in before the obedience trial in January. Well, we'll figure it out.
Yesterday was the last day for the Northwest League Agility Intramural competition. A good time was had by all. The dogs got treats and play and the humans got coffee and treats.
Donovan did well yesterday. The game was one of distance handling. You got double the points for every obstacle your dog took while you stood in the handling box. We had some good distance in some sections of the course and other sections were a bit beyond Donovan and my abilities. He ran the standard course clean and fast. He will do just about anything for his Chuck-It frisbee.
Now we start concentrating on obedience. We are going for our AKC CD in January as well as our Rally Advanced title. Whew, lots of work ahead. We also have an AKC agility trial over New Year's weekend. If all goes well, Donovan will earn his open standard and jumpers titles that weekend.
The Dog Show: Who's Your Mama?
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