This weekend Diane, Steve, Judy, Dave and Donna along with Yazzie, Ryder, Hunter, and Eli hosted a dog agility demonstration at the 3rd Annual Intermountain Humane SocietyDog Walk at the historic Meyer Ranch in Conifer, Colorado.  We had a blast sharing the sport of dog agility with fellow dog lovers.    Needless to say the dogs were a little tired from a day of demoing so this evening we took it easy practicing start line stays while the sun started to set in the Colorado mountains.  Update from the injured reserve list … Rankine gets his stitches out tomorrow and will be as good as new!

Speaking of Colorado our dinner theme tonight was Colorado grub.  Our menu included buffalo corn bread casserole, anasazi bean and squash harvest medley, western BBQ chicken, quinoa poppy seed muffins, and Donna’s famous peach cobbler.   The dishes were all delicious, but the award for best new recipe goes to Aaron for the buffalo corn bread casserole.  On a personal note, Aaron is quite the chef preparing dinner at our house almost every night.

Western BBQ Chicken – This recipe is a Judy creation from the Western BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe from Colorado Collage and the Norelco Microwave Ove Cookbook.

Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic.  Let marinate in the fridge several hours.  Mix together remaining ingredients except the onions and green peppers to make the BBQ sauce.  Place chicken in microwave dish layering & coating with liquid BBQ sauce.   Place onion and green pepper on top.  Cover and cook in microwave on high 20 minutes stopping halfway to turn over the chicken.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

• 3-4 Chicken breast cut in to serving size pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup catsup
• 1 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Anasazi Bean and Squash Harvest Medley – This recipe is from American Food – A Celebration Collins Publishers 1993.

• 1/4 cup dried Anasazi or pinto beans
• 1 piece Hubbard squash (about 1 1/4 lb)
• 1 cup long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 6 green onions, chopped
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Quick-soak the Anasazi beans by placing them in 1 cup water in a saucepan and slowly bringing to a boil.  Boil for 4 minutes.  Turn off the heat, cover and let stand for about 2 hours.  Drain.  Place beans in water to cover, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour or until beans are tender but still firm. Drain.

Either microwave the squash for 6 to 7 minutes, until soft when pierced with a fork, or cut into several pieces and steam fro 15 to 20 minutes until soft.  Remove rind. Dice squash.

In a saucepan, bring rice and 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Lower the heat, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes.

Mix together the vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper to make the dressing.  Toss beans, squash, rice, and green onions with dressing to coat. 

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This evening the Aussies (Hunter, Ryder, and Yazzie) enjoyed running a jumpers course from the FRAT agility trial a few weeks ago.  Before dinner we decorated the agility field pavilion with Judy’s handmade paw print tiles and one kid print tile.  Mr. Rankine is on injured reserve due to a paw injury from metal landscape edging. As a reminder be sure to inspect your yards for sharp objects.

Tonight’s dinner theme was California Hippie. The more life seasoned dog coach trainers shared their 60’s memorabilia including hippie jeans; a tee-shirt signed by Crosby, Stills and Nash; and lots of photos capturing the era.

Diane's Hippie Jeans

Our menu included:

• Tortellini Salad with fresh carrots, celery, olives, yellow peppers, and a vinaigrette dressing
• Quinoa Black Bean Salad (recipe below)
• Sliders with a variety of toppings including BBQ, coleslaw, blue cheese, bacon, onions, lettuce, and tomato.
• Avacado, mango, chicken skewers (recipe below)
• Ambrosia salad
• Fresh baked rolls from Donna’s bakery – our favorite

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It’s a beautiful evening in Colorado to enjoy a glass of wine and a Jewish pot luck dinner. Our dogs are home resting their paws after a three-day dog agility trial in Castle Rock, CO. The Online Dog Coach star of the weekend is Miss Yazzie who went 3 for 4 and would have been 4 for 4 if her Bubby had not misguided her. In addition, at 11 years old, Yazzie finished 2nd in Excellent Jumpers only to be beaten by Rain (who by the way is a Border Collie) – not too shabby.

Hunter also earned his Excellent Jumpers title. Rankine and Aaron became victim of the Table (sniffing, sniffing, sniffing)… videos to come.

Another highlight was the retired dogs run featuring Kelvin and Shiner. This event, hosted by Front Range Agility Association of Denver a.k.a. FRAT, is a first of it’s kind in Colorado and was a huge hit with the participants and spectators alike. We’ll post that video too.

Tonight we had…

Lamb Meatballs with Mint Yogurt Sauce
Fresh Baked Rye Bread
Carrot and Parsnip Ragout
Judy’s Tzimmis
Jewish Cabbage Rolls
Potato Kugel from The 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook
Cinnamon Cake

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Tonight we got together for dog agility training followed by a French potluck dinner. The training focus was on s’asseoir séjour – which is French for sit stay. Teach your dog to sit and train your dog to stay to help with control in a multitude of situations. 

Agility Training

Ryder sits and stays, waiting for his next command

Today Ryder and I worked on sit-stay. A good sit-stay is important in agility for two purposes – the start line and the table. At the start line, the dog needs to stay in place so the handler can get into a good position to start. At the table, the dog must sit or down-stay for five seconds before continuing. 

Ryder doesn’t do a sit-stay very well. To get him under control on the agility course I need to be consistent with the sit-stay. It refocuses him. After every couple of jumps I tell him to sit-stay and walk away so he knows that he needs to listen no matter where he is on the agility field. If he gets up, I return to him and have him stay before moving on. A successful stay where I release him means he gets to take some agility obstacles. Obstacles are a reward for Ryder – this method will not work with a dog who is not motivated.  

Since this has worked with Ryder in the past, we are working on it again while he gets back into agility after a medical leave of absence. 

French Potluck Dinner

This was a colorful and healthy dinner. When we picked the “French” theme, many of us wondered if you can make a French dish without a lot of butter and cream. Turns out, we found some great dishes. Some of the recipes can be found under “more” below. 

Provencale Potato Gratin – 240 calories, 7.5 g fat from Cooking Light. A new twist on potatoes with cheese. 

Crustless Spinach, Onlion, and Feta Quiche - 142 calories. It disappeared quickly and we didn’t miss the crust. A crustless quiche reduces the calories by more than half! 

Provencal Salad – We loved this salad and everyone had seconds. 

Canberry-Apricot Chicken Cutlets – 213 calories, 2.7 g fat. The most outspoken carnivores in the group had seconds of this colorful dish. The recipe is from the Weight Watchers 15 Minute Cookbook – which is a lie. It took significantly more than 15 minutes to prepare! 

French Vanilla Almond Ice Cream and Chocolate Cake – “Oh my gosh, that’s good!” “That ice cream is perfect with the cake.” Need we say more… 

Next week, join us for Jewish food. But don’t bring gefilte fish.

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Yazzi speeds through a dog agility course

We had a very nice weekend. Very relaxed trial, outside in the elements. Hot Friday,and Saturday and sweatshirts on Sunday. Yazzie was successful with 6 qualifing runs.

This was Ryder`s first outing in a year due to illness. No “Q`s” (qualifying runs) but he seemed to enjoy himself, and he did come close to qualifing, hopefully he is back to being a healthy dog.

We had fun and you can too. Try our free online Dog Agility Training Class.

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