Dax earned a 195.5 and first place on Thursday: the judge only took one point for vocalizing. Unfortunately, it got worse on each day. Friday he earned a 191 and third place; Saturday he lost five points for noise with a score of 189 and third place — but this still earned us High Scoring German shepherd and $15! Sunday the judge took EIGHT points to earn a 186 and third. The judge said “get his leash on him and get him out of the ring before I have to take any more points!”

Zappa on Thursday looked pretty good except for those pesky fronts. Our scores were: Thursday 186.5 and second place; Friday we scratched so I could work more on fronts; Saturday we managed a 195 and first place, which included a $10 prize! and Sunday we got a 192.5 and second place.

I have come to the conclusion over the past few weeks that Zappa really has no idea of the concept of front. Last week I was doing some kitchen-training next to the railing, and when I called him to front, he put his feet up on the railing standing tall. “Is this what you want???” At least he’s trying to be right.

I’ll be posting some ideas for drilling fronts in a fun and fast way, and let you know if it works. In the meantime I started an online class with Debbie Quigley at Dogwood Dog Training to help polish my AKC obedience presentation.

Dax

Zappa

Warren L Jones
25 August 1954 – 07 July 2013

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at
Montana State University;

BS Chemical Engineering,
MS & PhD Environmental Engineering, UC Davis;

Husband to Sam; father to Derek;

Bass player with the Textbook Blues;

Woodworker;

Performance Judge for the United Schutzhund Clubs of America;

Schutzhund competitor and dog trainer;

>Lover of Malinois, German shepherds, and all good dogs;

an honest and ethical man.

“one of the good ones”

Warren died of glioblastoma multiforma, an agressive brain tumour. Over the last year, the tumour took from him everything that was important. It took his right hand, and his ability to play guitar, run a table saw, write a document. It took his right leg, and his ability to walk. It took his intelligence and wit and the ability to teach, reason, read, play sudoko, listen to audiobooks, train his dogs. It took his speech and the ability to communicate by voice, writing and even gesture. It took his joy and love of life, and his enjoyment for his family and dogs. Finally it took his life.

It taught me that cancer is big business, and the drug companies aren’t motivated to find a cure. And the medical community is not interested in discovering causes, just in treating symptoms.

The K9FUNdamentals store was put on hold last year after Warren was diagnosed. I apologise to all my loyal customers, and will be working to get the store back up and running. I hope to start going to agility and obedience trials again in the near future, as soon as I have a dog I can trial! I appreciate your understanding and hope to see you again soon — somewhere in the west!

-samie jones

“Hi all – I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this, but improvements haven’t been happening as quickly as I’d hoped. You see, I was hospitalized last week for a stroke that occurred some time in the last couple of weeks and resulted in some seizures on Monday and Tuesday. I am on anti-seizure meds, and have had no more seizures but I sleep a lot and have been having bad headaches. Therefore, it doesn’t seem likely that I will be able to do much training in the near future. The good news is that I have no permanent issues, and they anticipate I’ll be off meds in some reasonable time.”

The following week, Warren was scheduled to judge a Schutzhund trial in Calgary and had planned to drive up. Our son DJ was able to drive instead, so the two of them spent the weekend together. But even on the meds, the seizures continued, and on his return he went back to the neurologist for more tests and another MRI. This was the first mention of a possible brain tumour. “It’s not a tumor” was the obligatory response — seriously, how likely would that be???

Films were sent to the teaching hospital at the University of San Francisco, plans made, and soon we were on our way for brain surgery. (to be continued…)

Then went to Golden Gate National Cemetery to pay respects to Warren’s Mom and Dad and contemplate our mortality.

You can find all the pictures taken over the weekend on the K9FUN flickr site!