Saturday was Beach Day!   First, we took the boys to meet with Jennifer and her Corgi, Meimei at Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay.  As it turns out, Meimei’s 8th birthday was the next day so it was a doggie birthday celebration for her (though we didn’t know it at the time)!   The dogs got to swim in the bay (retrieving bumpers), then walk in the ocean.

Thanks to Jennifer Chuang for the following pictures at Pillar Point:

Here’s an adorable photo of Thistle, Meimei, and Ronan at their end of their walk.

Ronan found a seaweed bulb to play with.

Here’s a rare photo of Don and me together.   It was a beautiful scene with a rocky beach and rocks in the background.  Apparently if you go there during low tide there are many tidepools to explore.

We had lunch at one of our favorite places in Half Moon Bay, the Flying Fish Grill.   The dogs were allowed with us on the patio and were very well behaved (yay!).

In the afternoon I took Sport and Lola to Seascape Beach (at least I think that’s where we were), with Jennifer and Rockie.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, and we were able to find a spot pretty much all to ourselves.

Here’s a shot of Sport, Lola, and Rockie.

The day couldn’t have ended more perfectly with dinner at Gayle’s Bakery/Rotisserie in Soquel.   What a gem of a place and so much good food to choose from.

After a week of heat, the overcast cool beach in Aptos was extremely welcoming (though Rio del Mar beach was a bit too cramped for my taste).   These aren’t the greatest photos as it was supposed to be a video of Sport and Lola fetching balls on the beach, but I managed to have the camera in some time-lapse video setting so this is all we have!

We’ve been in LA for the last week, right in the middle of a blazing inferno of heat.   Fortunately it has cooled down some, but for most of the trip everyone has refused to go outdoors except late at night!   Not much to report, but here’s a photo showing that Goldens can have fun anytime, anywhere.  :-)   The pool had just been emptied, and was a great source of entertainment for quite a while!

Also, the Artisan Beer litter is now over 16 weeks old!  Here are Ronan and Thistle today.

Ronan and Thistle here.   On Saturday, we got to go meet two new friends, Arson and Xeon.   We already met their “mom” Diane during our bird testing.  She’s the really cool bird lady who shows us how to do all sorts of neat things.

Thistle: Here I am in the boat with Arson.  Bye Momma Sporty!  That’s her watching us carefully from the shore– guess she thought I might fall out, but I CAN SWIM so it really is okay!

Thistle: See, here is a video of me swimming at Croft Lake a couple weeks ago!

Ronan: And there’s our new pal Xeon in the boat, to the left of Arson and brother Thistle.   Xeon is cute and fun, and best of all she’s a puppy too!    I got out of the boat before my human mom could take a picture of me, because there weren’t any plants or cow poop to chow on in there!  (That’s Momma Sport swimming by the boat, not me.)

Ronan: We got to run like the wind, do some wading and swimming, meet weird fake ducks in the water, hear a shotgun, and the bird lady brought birds for us!  That was the best part of all.  Momma Sporty went bonkers over that, as did I.

Afterward, just for fun, our human folks decided it would be fun to do our own illustratation of the spectrum of golden colors for Golden Retrievers.  Momma Sporty is in the middle.

It was really hot out, and we were all tired, but we were good sports and let our humans take a group shot of us.  I guess I should mention we were bribed with smoked pheasant from the bird lady’s refrigerator.  Ha ha ha.  Yummy.  No way were we looking into the bright sunlight though!

Posting to the blog has suffered because we have had a very slow and intermittent internet connection.   Today we have fantastic weather, and right now I’ve got connectivity so here’s a quick post before we lose it!

Thistle swam for the first time a couple days ago, and is doing short retrieves of bumpers and his little duck dokken!   Thistle is:   Tigana Cairngorm Blessed Thistle [beer link]

Here he is swimming:

Just lost connectivity for a couple hours in the middle of this post, so must hurry!

Here are Thistle and Ronan watching the big dogs swim

Yesterday, we went for a hike and Sporty, feeling clever, swam to a tree and climbed on.

Lola thought that was pretty cool.  Not to be outdone, here’s what she did:

All that swimming and hiking is tiring for everyone…  here’s K’Ehleyr and Thistle snoozing together while K’Ehleyr was waiting her turn to be dried.

This post took all day to do since I kept losing my internet connection (sigh).   We have many photos, most of which will need to be posted after we return.   I’ve got some cute Jingles puppies pictures to post, as Corina/Jackson and Jennifer/Rockie joined us for the first part of the trip.   Watch for them on the next post!

A gorgeous day, filled with puppies and sunshine.

Here’s an ungroomed Sport the day after having babies;  she was happy to play ball a few times in the yard.

The puppies all gained 2.5 oz on average the first day.   Here are the fatties

Feeding when standing up makes for strong legs and necks.     Actually I like this picture because it looks like Sport is wearing dark eye makeup.

Lastly,  this is what is happening in the house when we are all busy in the whelping area

More tomorrow!

I’ve been remiss in updating the website and blog! I think a full website update is coming up soon, so be watching for that.

In the last couple months:

• Sport completed her Rally Novice (RN) title. That was both her and my first venture into anything remotely resembling obedience competition, so kind of exciting.
• Jackson (Sport x Travis son) completed his Junior Dog (JD) dock diving title in Splash Dogs (5 legs jumping between 10′-15′).
• Danica (Sport x Travis daughter) qualified in all 3 Novice Preferred Agility events at the GRCA National – her first trial!

I can’t believe the holidays are upon us already. Happy Holidays, everyone!

It has been a busy couple of weeks off at the shows on the weekends, and we have accomplishments in 3 venues!

At the Grass Valley shows last weekend, Sport won Reserve Winners Bitch in conformation, with moi handling as usual. The judge was Ms. Honey Glendinning.

We also ventured into the Obedience ring for the first time (Rally Obedience), and came away with 2 Rally Novice legs, with scores of 97 and 98, and 1st and 2nd placements! The judges were Lissa Wall and Bea Moore. What fun! Thanks to Corina Marx for this Rally picture.

This weekend was USDAA Agility, where Sport earned a leg in Advanced Snooker, and earned her 3rd consecutive leg in Advanced Jumpers for her title. That means next time we get to run in Masters Jumpers. Looking forward to it!

What fun last weekend was! Sport’s son Rockie earned his first title, SRD (Senior Dock Dog). He had to earn 5 legs in competition jumping between 15-20 feet. As of last week, Rockie’s top jump of 19.04 feet puts him at #7 for Golden Retrievers in Splash Dogs (2009), and #13 for Goldens (since 2005). The picture below is Rockie placing 7th in the Pro Finals at Monterey County Fair, and Sport placing 7th in the Open Finals.

Not to be outdone, Jackson made it into a local newspaper, as he and Rockie also competed a few days prior, with Jackson getting his personal best competition jump at 14 feet! Click on Jackson’s picture to read the article on-line.

Don’t ask what Sporty jumps. She just has fun!