Christmas Surprise!

Monday, August 25, 2008

2008 UPOA K9 Trials

This years UPOA K9 trials incluced a helicopter flight in and out of our search area. The searches included a building search and an area search. Jinx did a super job on both. He found the suspect in the building in 1 min. 3 Secconds. In the area search he located the suspect in a large area with several building in 1 min. 11 seconds. That was good enough for 1st place out of 31 other dogs!

Here Jinx gives me his undivided attention while doing his obedience section of the trials. He did a fantasic job during this as well taking 2nd place over all. I love how he looks me in the eye waiting for his next instruction.

During agility Jinx had one fault. When instructed to jump through a barrel laying on its side I waited to long to give him his command. That mistake on my part jammed Jinx causing him to walk under it rather then jump through it. I brought him back and completed it the second time. That cost me a few points resulting if 4th place in that event. Here Jinx is jumping a 4' wall.


This portion of the trial was during the apprehension phase. The decoy appeared from behind a wall with a stick and a pole that had ribbon hanging from it. The decoy approaches aggresively while yelling at the dog. The test is considered a courage test for the dog. Several dogs turned and ran from the bad guy. As you can see Jinx did not! Due to another minor fault in one bite portion (the detain) he took a point deduction that resulted in 5th place finish in apprehension.

Here Jinx is putting the hurt on a decoy that attacks me while Jinx is chasing down another suspect out of the picture. He is expected to stop on command and return and defend me against the attack. He did a perfect job on this portion of the test.


Jinx take out one more bad guy. Here Jinx was required to remain laying down in a small square as I frisked a suspect for weapons. While doing the frisk the decoy attacks me and Jinx is expected to respond on my behalf. Although alittle blurry you can see he is about to put the throttle down on the guy.

After two day of competition against 31 other K9 teams from across Utah I was able to take home 5 Trophies. Including the title of 3rd place Top Dog in the state.
1st Place Area Search
2nd Place Obedience
3rd Place Top Dog
4th Place Agility
5th Place Apprehension
We also took 1st Place Top Agency as a team for the second staight year!







Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The annual Snow Bird trip








































On Aug 7th we headed to Snow Bird to visit Max and Family. This has become somewhat of an annual trip we look forward to. We spend the day riding the alpine slide, zip line, and taking the tram to the top. Its so pretty up there and it looks so much different without snow. Megan found the bull riding to be a hoot, she needs to work on her technique however! Maybe Uncle Glen can give her some pointers!

Monday, August 4, 2008

Escaping the heat!

On Thursday Aug 31st we headed to the water park to cool off. Kara had free passes from JetBlue. Since the kids are heading back to school in a week we figured it was now or never.



Megan and Porter in the wave Pool
They are such cute kids.







Whitney getting ready for the drink. She had a great time on the rope swing. She is getting so big! She's really excited to start Jr. High this year. Were very proud of her.







Check these two little monkeys out. I was really ticked the life guard said I was too big to play on the rope climb.





Porter and I take a break for the fun. Due to my knee injury I had to take it easy for the most part. People say we look alot alike. I think he is much better looking. He has a better dimple as well!





Kara catching big air off the high speed
slide. I tried it and almost had to have
a morphine drip for what it did to my
knee.






Whitney chillin under a water fall. She's turning in to such a pretty young lady.








Dude you need a diet program. You really ought
to do something about the innertube around your
waist.