Big Air Anywhere

Woo needs no dock to get air!

Of course, to get this shot I had to shoot him out of a cannon. Don't worry, he's just a little singed, but hair grows back!

I asked Tweed if he wanted to go to MacDonald Beach, and he said:

So we went to MacDonald Beach. When we arrived, I asked him if he wanted to go swimming, and he said:

I asked Piper how she felt about me taking all these photos of Tweed, and she said:

And then look what washed up with the tide!!

Man, that cannon must have shot him real far!

We were also at MacDonald Beach to photograph two of our neighbours to the East. Banny and Liam came all the way from Edmonton, Alberta just to have a photo shoot done by Big Air Photography! Okay, maybe to visit their grandma as well, but I'm sure that was a secondary consideration ;-)

Banny is a lilac coloured border collie rescued from the Edmonton shelter, where he was dumped after being abused and starved. Now he's living the life of Riley, and just got his agility starters title.

Oh hai! Nice to meetz you.

He also has something called dilution alopecia which is something not terribly uncommon in dilute coloured dogs, ie, lilacs and blues. This is what happens when you breed for pretty colours instead of solid health and working ability. Of course, it doesn't make Mr. Banny any less fantabulous, just a little light in the coat.

Banny's brother Liam is one funny dude. He has a frisbee stuck to his face. Permanently.

Okay not really. Eventually we tackled him and got it back so that his photos wouldn't look like he has a very strange and lively growth on his face!

Banny and Liam have a special bond. A familiar bond. A very familiar-to-Woo-and-Piper bond.

So here's a question for you all, smart blog readers: what would YOU do about a dog who, as soon as you let him off the lead, takes off and stays out of catching distance, ignores his recall and puts on the afterburners when you go after him to get him?

No, I'm not talking about Woo!! (for a change). Wootie may pretend he suffers from a permanent case of "I can't hear you" but when I walk him down, he comes back in a hurry, or he sits down to await my arrival and takes it like a man. He actually does respond to his recall about 75% of the time on the first utterance.

Liam, OTOH, shoots off like a rocket the moment he is unleashed and dances out of grabby arm range for hours at a time. His mum is quite frustrated with him - she's had border collies for 35 years, and this is the first dog who will not come back when called that she has ever raised. Liam is very good at Rally-O and has lots of obedience training, but the word "come" sends him scuttling off in another direction. I know what I would do, but I would like to know what you would. So would his mum!

Because The Food Lady still is jobless, photo shoots are keeping her in grocery money at the moment, which is a blessing, because Mr. Woo eats a lot. So does The Food Lady. Earlier this week we went to Ladner and photographed a whole mess o'border collies.

Missus MoneyPenny:

And you're pointing your face-box at me WHY exactly?

Mr. Whoa (whoa) Bo!

Hey man. S'up.

And the Amazing Spinning Cracker Dog!

MINE!!!
(Penny! What are you doing back there?!)

They are very graciously playing host family to Rhys, the DFKA Bear, who came to us from Alberta when he didn't get adopted from the shelter. And we are all mystified about why he didn't, because Rhys is practically perfect in every way, a la Mary Poppins - he is a small male, he has tons of drive to play ball, he has a geat off switch and in the house can usually be found ... in your lap, and he likes every other dog he has ever met, ever. There is not a single negative thing about this dog, period.

The very handsome Rhys:

Please pay attention to us now. The Wootie Toy is getting lonely.

Princess P is still doing fabulous after her two scary episodes, and played for 4 hours today without incident. This is a happy tired dog instead of a passing out dog!

The only one of us in danger of passing out is ME, because my agility teacher is a sadist.

And Tweed, despite the beatings and abuse I visit on my dogs on a regular basis (:eyeroll:) is his usual goofy self.

I think Tweed needs a mini-me, and I so desperately wish I could adopt this superduper puppy to make that happen:


This is a 12 week old border collie X Aussie puppy available through Ravensgate RFescue. Doesn't he look like he has a little milk moustache?? WANT!! I haz the worstest puppy cravings EVAR.

Alas, it was not meant to be :(

And finally, this is just a little plug for an awesome dog named Chance.


Chance is the dog I picked up in Princeton BC in February of this year, on an 8 hour road trip. He has been in rescue since then, and he has the worst adoption luck of any dog on the planet. First, nobody was interested in him at all. Then he got adopted by a marine mammal trainer who seemed to be completely perfect for him, but developed severe allergies to the poor guy and was forced to return him since he making it hard for her to breathe.

Then we got a really nice sounding application for him from a guy who first failed to show up for his meet'n'greet, and then turned out to not live where he said he lived and has since vanished. Who does stuff like that?

Anyway, Chance really wants his own home. He is such a neat, loyal, smart and fun dog and he doesn't deserve all this bad luck. Do you know anyone who wants an awesome friend like Chance?

Oh but one last piece of good news - Cinder got adopted this week!



OMG, would you shut up and stop blogging already?

Bad, Mr. Pickles, BAD!

Do you know what Mr. Pickles is doing in this photo?

Here's a hint:

RUN SOFA, RUN AWAY OR HE'LL DROWN YOU!!

Poor Sofa. He did not run fast enough, so Mr. Pickles threw him in the lake!

I guess he was jealous of The Fantabulous Dock Diving Woo. When you see images like this:

You get The Envies. And then your poor Doberman pays the price for your wounded pride.

At least he hauled him back in again.

Which is something that Dougie the Jack probably wishes he hadn't done, after he was subjected to The Sofa Experience.

Frickin' doberman! I'm outta here!

Agh! Holy cow! Get OFFA me!!

(*borrows Piper's Mad Teeth(tm)*)

'Scuse me, but those are MY Mad Teeth(tm). How will I keep this ball in my mouth without them?

Piper has had no more episodes of drunk-walking / overheating since the last one, but I have been very careful to not run her in the middle of the day without access to swimmable water. Thanks for all the insight and suggestions about what could be ailing her! She'll be going to the vet later this week for some bloodwork and an overall check up.

She also had a pretty good agility trial, and earned herself a Starter's Snooker Q. It doesn't seem like much - after all, she had 3 runs and only Q'd in one of them, but for Piper this is a BIG accomplishment. Not too long ago, she was so all over the place on the course that she couldn't do more than a few obstacles before her brain fell out of her head and she became The Saucers-For-Eyeballs Tornado of Doom on the course. Thanks to the hard work of Gerhard ("Again, FASTER") we saw some notable successes in our runs - she took almost every obstacle on the first try, instead of running past them in a frenzy, she held her start line stays reliably and she nailed her 2o/2o contacts every time. Good girl!!

Tweed had a beautiful Masters Standard run with a first place and a Q, but he did a faceplant in his Gamble opening and then sulked his way through the rest of the course, and didn't want to do the Gamble. Poor old man :(

Speaking of things Tweed did not want to do ... this included jumping off the dock.

WTF? Off THIS thing? You been smokin' that crack, Food Lady.

Since Tweed would not jump, and Piper NEVER jumps, that left just the Woo to impress all the park goers with his sexy moves.

I am too sexy for this dock, too sexy for this dock ...

SPROING!

Holy shit, the orange dog can FLY!

This presents a whole new crop of recall training challenges. Figures.

Even he seemed a little amazed by his new talent of flight.

Dude. Whoa.

This is awesome.

I'll just fly home. See you there, Food Lady!

Yesterday I did a photo shoot for some friends out in Maple Ridge, and took photos of oh-so-many adorable doggies, but the one that stole my heart was this pittie, Sienna:

She was a rescue off a reserve here in the Vancouver area and she has the sweetest personality of all time.

And she gets pretty big air too!

Tomorrow I get to photograph some border collies, including Bear (now called Rhys) who will be up for adoption soon.

And I try to upload photos from every session on my Big Air Photography website within a couple weeks of shooting, so don't forget to check there often for new pictures!

Oh and my little sister got married last week to her long time love. The wedding was a small ceremony of just family, and happened on Bowen Island (the site of the Very Bad Woo Runs Away adventure). Congratulations to my little sister!

You Probably Already Know This ...

... but there's a dead crab on your head, Gus.

The Food Lady has been mighty busy these last few weeks, taking oh-so-many photos! I love doing this job, because I get to play with dogs and play with cameras. Doesn't get much better than this. Here's some of what we have been up to!

We went out to Mud Bay in Tsawwassen for a photo shoot with two of my favourite old people, Charissa and Gus. BTW, Charissa and Gus are dogs - their humans, Karen and Rob, are not old at all, just really great ones :) Charissa and Gus were both adopted from TDBCR.

They are a funny old couple of geezers.


Except Charissa has some serious rage issues.

STUPID *&$#!@ BIG PURPLE BALL ON A ROPE! I HATE YOU!

Just kidding - oh not about the ball on a rope, she really hates that thing. It makes her super angry. But in general, Charissa is a super sweetheart. She is pretty much deaf, doesn't see too well, but she is a therapy dog and a snuggly gal who likes it when you tell her how lovely she is.

Gus is hilarious. He's like 10 going on 2, and he is still real keen on a game of fetch, any time, anywhere ... with anything. Even the stupid purple ball of rage. If Charissa would let him, that is.

'Scuse me ... do you have a spare big purple ball of rage I could borrow?

Mud Bay is lovely - it's this crazy huge expanse of beach that is dog friendly and totally underpopulated. And the name is really appropriate, because even after two hours in the truck AND a hose off in the underground parking, my dogs are still releasing quantities of sand-dirt like I have never seen before!

Plus, Mud Bay is one big lunch table for Wootie.

Mmmm ...

Crab legs.

I think Piper enjoyed herself. I never actually saw here while we there.

We also had a photo shoot with Bandit and Cassie, two more adopted TDBCR dogs. They are the speediest and leapiest dogs EVAR.

Witness:

SPEED

And LEAPINESS

SPEED AND LEAPINESS!

And ... a little suspicious of the weirdo with the box on her face who kept following them around everywhere.

But they are lovely together, such a beautiful pair of border collies!

And neither of them has totally ridiculous ears, unlike SOME dogs I know.

What?

And of course we can't forget The Sofa (I've tried - he is a very pesty puppy. It's impossible to omit him)

And Mr. Petal Pants, AKA Turbo.

I am still processing photos of some other sessions I've had lately - my weekends are filling up so quickly that my day job is starting to feel like a few days off from my weekends ;-) But it's so much fun!

This week we head off to the Agility Association of Canada Regional Competition to see if Tweed and I can qualify for Nationals again. I think this will be our 4th or 5th Qualifier, assuming we actually qualify. That's never a given with Mr. Marches To The Beat Of His Own Drummer.

Yay! I maybe get to embarrass Food Lady and throw a few hundred of her hard earned dollars down the toilet. WOOHOO!

And since Tweed just turned 9 this week, I don't know how many more Regionals he has in him. We'd sure like to be on the podium this year. Maybe you can all send Blog Reader JuJu and (((((vibes))))) and stuff for us. Remember what happened when you FORGOT to send them last year??

I probably won't have time to post again before we leave, so mark your calendars and keep us in your thoughts.

But before I go, may I just leave you with this little dreamboat, who is available for adoption through TDBCR?

Meet Kali. Six months old, a totally blank slate of smart, athletic fun, and waiting to be YOUR next agility dog!!