Heartland Dalmatian Club Specialty Show

We had a lovely time traveling to the Heartland Dalmatian Club specialty show.  The leaves were beautiful and the show was lots of fun, very well run, great food, nice people, and great prizes.  Victory won select dog under judge Ann Hearn, for a major toward his GCH and has 17 GCH points.  Vegas won 1st place in open liver bitches under judge Rick Miller.  Here are some really nice show pictures at the Heartland Dalmatian specialty show of Victory (CH Atlantis Wildcat Victory) sired by Argus (GCH CH Paisley Nspird by Broadway) and Read (CH Atlantis' and Read All Over.)  Victory is such a well bred Dalmatian.  In his 3 generation pedigree, there is not 1 dog that is not a champion, and even in the 5th and 6th generation of his pedigree, there are only a few dogs that are not champions.  He comes from a long line of very serious and successful Dalmatian breeding, and is really a wonderful dog.  He is extremely intelligent, bilateral hearing, OFA excellent hips, CERF normal, loves people, kids, horses, and other dogs.  His spotting is outstanding, no ticking, deep rich black spots, tail carriage is perfect, nice bone, nice feet, dark brown eyes, and lovely face and head.

Training Horses and Dogs

I was reminded of a valuable training lesson a couple of weeks ago, when I was working with my Shetland pony, Peppy.  He has been trained to drive and pull a cart for several years.  Suddenly, the last two times I've driven him, he has decided he does not want to back when hitched to the cart.  I am always pressed for time when I ride or drive my horses and ponies, because I have so much work to get done on the weekends.  I worked and worked with him to get him to back up when hitched to the cart, and he just refused to back.  He always backs great on lead, you can just give him the command and he backs until you tell him whoa.  Well, my time was running short, I wanted to work with the dogs on coaching to the cart, and I was getting really frustrated with him.  I finally decided to shove him back with my sheer strength (big joke!) and he got really ticked off at me, reared up, knocked me over, and took off, running over me with the cart.  Luckily, the cart was not terribly heavy, but one rib is hurting pretty bad.  Lesson learned:  It was my fault.  When things are not going well, you don't force the issue, you go back to square one, and start over.  I should have unharnessed him, and worked on backing without the harness.  I should have checked everywhere to see if the harness was hurting him, or not properly adjusted.  I did get up, dust myself off, and we did go driving for about a mile with the dogs, and he behaved perfectly, and did start to back then, after our huge blowup.  He forgave me, and I definitely forgave him, because I know better than to force the issue with a horse or even a 500 pound pony.  You always go back to a step that they will happily do, and work forward from there.  I have trained 13 horses over the years, and learned a long time ago, that praise and patience will get you miles further than forcing anything.  I didn't get any pictures of the cart and coach dogs this time, because of my frustration, but I did get some pictures the next day of the dogs getting to follow Jet and me on a trail ride.  Victory, Vegas, and Wishbone all absolutely love going with the horses.  Victory needs more obedience work before we get too far from home off leash.  We got to the neighbors and he saw their dogs and kids out, and he was pretty unwilling to come back when I called him!  He loves other dogs and kids.

Homecoming Week

Luke (Batman) for super hero day at school

Luke's friend Courtney was Spanish duchess

Courtney escorted by her grandfather

Luke escorting Allie 

Luke and Courtney

Luke had a fun week this week for homecoming.  He is a senior and enjoying his last year of high school.  They had a super hero day, and he dressed as Batman.  He was a candidate for homecoming king.  He did not get crowned as king, but was very pleased that his friend Brandon did.  Here are pictures from homecoming week.

New Victory Cross Country Tour

Rog's new Victory Cross Country Tour

Vegas on her favorite perch in front of the bay window.  She can see what's going on outside along with what's on the table for supper!

All of our dogs happily cooling out on the leather couch on this 105 degree day, from left, Wishbone, Vegas, and Victory

Victory and Vegas with the new Victory motorcycle

Wishbone with the new motorcycle

Rog on the Victory and Bill on the Harley, getting ready to go riding.

Rog got a new Victory Cross Country Tour motorcycle.  Our dogs, Atlantis Wildcat Victory (Victory) and Dalmino's Victory Vegas (Vegas) were named after his first Victory Vegas motorcycle, and he now has a Victory Cross Country, so I guess if we end up with another Dalmatian puppy some day, the name might be C.C.  Rog loves the new bike, as it has lots of great features, particularly comfort, great radio and Ipod hookup, 3 plugs so you can hookup GPS, Ipod, and another gadget, great storage in the saddle bags, fantastic gauges with a thermometer telling the temperature outside, saddlebags with plenty of room for gear when traveling, and plenty of power.

Pictures of Lightning Strike

This continues my original post from July 18th about the lightning strike.  Here are pictures of the tree that was struck and the animals that did not get struck.  I am so thankful every day that 3 goats survived and all horses and ponies survived.  The horses and ponies were out in the pasture away from the barn when the lightning strike happened.  Please be careful when it's lightning outside!!

Jr. and Jet eating hay by the barn.  We've had Jr. since he was two years old and he is 14 now.  Jet is 18 years old and we've had him since he was six months old.  Jr. is a registered Paint gelding and Jet is a registered POA gelding.

Jet, my favorite!

All that is left is shredded trunk of the tree that got struck.

My three survivor goats, Andrew, Fudge, and Al Pine.  All very old wethers that we've had since they were babies.

More of the shredded tree.  This tree was 50 feet tall and about 3 feet around before it was struck.

Andrew and Al Pine

Al Pine, such a sweet boy, named after the Rescue Heroes t.v. show that Luke liked when he was a little boy

This is the chunk of tree that flew about 30 yards and landed by the big horses' barn.

Tree that flew 30 yards and scraped along the big horse barn and landed outside one of their stall doors

Chunk of tree by the big horse barn

Starlite, our beautiful Classic Shetland pony that we got from Bob and June Masters in Missouri when she was a yearling

Peppy, my best driving pony.  All three of my ponies are Classic Shetlands.

Flashy, a gorgeous mare out of Dolly, and Peppy above is her sire.  Dolly was Luke's first pony when he was five years old, and she was awesome.  Everywhere we went trail riding, people would want to buy her, she was such a great pony and very beautiful to look at.  

I am thankful these guys all survived the lightning, as huge trunks of tree flew everywhere in their paddocks.

Lightning Strike

Are you afraid of lightning?  If you are not, you should be!  I was outside sweeping sidewalks this past Sunday, and it had been a very nice day.  We went to church, Rog smoked some delicious ribs on the smoker and Luke baked a german chocolate cake and Rog did the homemade coconut pecan frosting for the cake.  While I was sweeping, it was thundering and lightning, and sprinkling a little rain.  I never have worried too much about thunder or lightning, because I have to feed horses and goats every morning before work, no matter what the weather.  While I was sweeping, there was a HUGE KABOOM, and I could feel the electricity crackling in the air.  I thought that a transformer in our neighborhood had been struck by lightning, but we still had electricity, so I didn't worry too much.  Vegas was outside with me when it struck, and we both jumped a foot off the ground, it was so loud and scary.  We didn't get any wind, and only about 2/10" of rain.  I went to the barn about 1 1/2 hours later, and was shocked by what I saw.  The lightning had struck one of our trees in the goat pasture.  The tree was originally about 50 feet tall and 3 feet around.  The lightning had shredded the tree, split it into many pieces, and had thrown huge pieces of tree about 30 yards away.  One chunk, so big I could not lift it, and still had the roots attached, had been catapulted out of the ground, through the horse fence, skidded along the tin of the horse barn, and landed about 30 yards from the original tree.  I am so thankful the horses were not at the barn and were out in the pasture during the strike.  The goat pasture looked like a war zone, with huge branches and tree trunk everywhere.  It was sad losing such a beautiful tree, but our sweet little goat, Sissie, was a casualty of the strike.  I found her dead at the base of the tree that had been struck.  I'm not sure if she was struck by lightning, or hit by the flying pieces of tree.  I really loved her, and miss her tremendously.  I was so upset at the unfairness that this happened to such an innocent and sweet animal.  Rog reminded me that she had a good life.  She was about 13 years old, and we had her for about 10 years.  She was a joy, and is greatly missed.  Here is a picture of Sissie girl.  We will never forget her, and have been very blessed by her presence in our lives.

The message for all who read this, is be careful when it's lightning and thundering outside.  Mother nature is extremely powerful, and lightning can be very destructive and dangerous.  I will never again treat it as lightly as I used to.

Dals and Their Nylabone

Victory and Vegas sharing their nylabone with Wishbone in his chair keeping on eye on things.  What a wonderful life we have with these great dogs.  

The dogs' new ride, a 2012 Chevy Traverse, has tons of cargo space with room for 2 Dal crates behind the second row of seats, so can take dogs, luggage and passengers, with plenty of room, lots of leg room, and fun to drive

Victory with his nylabone, he always stands them up with his paws.  What a funny boy he is!  We always laugh and smile at these dogs, they are really funny and love it when you laugh at them.

Here is Vegas chewing on the bone and Victory waiting his turn.  Wishbone is snoozing.  They all get along so well, we never have fights between them.  And, if they ever tried, they would not get away with it!