Christmas Beauty

I bought a Christmas cacti from Dalmatian Rescue 3 years ago.  I usually set it outside all summer long, and bring it in when there is danger of frost.  This year, my cacti is so loaded with blooms, it just droops.  Attached is a picture of it, and a second plant that I just got from DRNT on Saturday.  I also want to share another picture from our Santa Paws photo session with DRNT, and some of my outdoor Christmas lights.  I love the beauty of this season.

Vegas, happy to see Rog after he got back from a motorcycle ride.  

New Christmas lights 

Old lighted Christmas horse

Christmas cacti

Victory being silly, trying to hug and kiss everyone during our Santa Paws photo session at DRNT

Busy Weekend

We went to a fund raiser for Dalmatian Rescue of North Texas yesterday.  They had Santa Paws photos with Santa.  DRNT has wonderful volunteers who do this every year, and it is so much fun and a great deal for Christmas photos of your family and dogs.  I will share some of the photos DRNT took of us between now and Christmas.  We then went shopping for outdoor Christmas lights and picked up a really pretty lighted wreath and a lighted sign that says Merry Christmas Ya'll.  I never thought I would say ya'll, since it wasn't something we say in the midwest, but I really find that word pretty handy to use!  Then we had to go buy horse feed and goat feed, Purina of course, then home for awhile, cleaned horse barns, fed animals, and then went and did a little Christmas shopping.  Today, went to church, cleaned and vacuumed the pickup and the Traverse, decorated the house for Christmas, picked up 10 huge trashcans full of leaves, and did laundry.  We have 24 large old oak trees around our house, and they are so messy.  Lovely in the summer, when it's hot, because they really keep the house cool, but no fun in spring and fall, they are so dirty.  It was 83 degrees here today, way too hot for December, and really dry, too.  Praying for rain!  The dogs always give me dirty looks when I scoop up the leaf piles, because they love laying in the leaves outside.  Wishbone found himself a large pile of leaves, and watched me work.  I don't like the leaves on the ground because we have found copperhead snakes in them, when we pick them up.  The copperheads blend right in with the oak leaves.  Here are some pictures of the dogs in the yard today during leaf cleanup, and one of the photos we got yesterday at DRNT.  Merry Christmas Ya'll!

Vegas and Wishbone

Victory watching the ponies, waiting for his chance to run along the fence with them!

Wishbone on his leaf pile

Vegas and Santa, soo cute!

Alvarado, TX Show Results

Only Victory showed in Alvarado, TX this past weekend, as there was no major, and Vegas only needs a three point major to finish.  Victory did not place on Saturday under judge Maxine Beam, but he was Select dog on Sunday under judge Roger Hartinger.  He always has a wagging tail the whole time he's in the ring, but he was pretty whiny on Sunday.  The only thing I can figure out for his whining is that he just wants to have fun and play with the other dogs and people.  He wouldn't be furiously wagging his tail, if he was stressed.  All of the judges just love it that he wags his tail as he watches them walk up to him.  We didn't get any pictures of the Alvarado show, but I'm attaching his win photo from the Heartland specialty show, where he was select dog, for a major toward his GCH.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful Dalmatians.  Tonight we were looking at some old videos of when Luke was a baby, and the Dalmatians we had then.  Our very first Dalmatian, Pepper, from 31 years ago was still alive for awhile after Luke was born 18 years ago.  She was playing with her squeaky burger in one of the videos, and our Tattersall Dalmatian, Alex, was in the video, too.  He was such a pretty liver boy, and he absolutely adored kids.  He was never far from Luke, and is in practically every baby picture we took of Luke. I'm attaching one of my favorites of Luke's first Christmas and Alex sitting right next to him.  What memories!  I am so grateful for a wonderful son and the time with these wonderful dogs!

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.