I am Seven!

I am 7 today! So why do I have a picture of cows on my blog on my birthday? I do like cows because they smell so nice. These are extra special cows as they are the ice cream making cows of Maple View Farms.

Barbara brought me to Maple View Farms to celebrate. We left Ambrose at home - HAHA! I got a cup of ice cream. People were surprised to see a dog on the porch eating ice cream but I didn't care. All I could think of was the ice cream.

See how nicely I ate the ice cream off the spoon.

Then she let me lick the last little bit out of the cup. Yummy!

When I was finished I saw a woman eating ice cream out of a big waffle cone. I think that next year I will hold out for a waffle cone. On the way home we stopped at Teddy's house. He is one of my Drill Team buddies. His person has goats, chickens and a miniature horse. The horse, named Daisy, was being abused so Teddy's person adopted her and treats her really well and has gotten her nice and healthy. She is wearing this harness to get used to it so that she can learn to pull a little cart.

Daisy is good with dogs so I got to get pretty close to her. She smelled wonderful.

Then I got to go in the yard with the goats. I love goats. Maggie is the white goat in the front and she is very protective of the other goats. I was pretty excited and she did not want to let me get too close to them. It was ok though because I could still smell them.

What a great birthday! Cows, ice cream, a horse and goats!! I am one happy setter.

Now I will go home and annoy Ambrose and keep him away from my toilet paper roll. What fun!

Freestyle Fun and Friends

I am having a great time at the Canine Federation Freestyle Retreat! Besides getting to spend time with Barbara (without Ambrose and his cooties)and staying in a motel I am learning lots of new things and meeting new freestyle friends. I learned how to switch from left to right heel by going behind Barbara and coming up into heel. I know how to do it in front of her but had not done it this way before

I've also learned some distance work and done lots of practice on walking backwards. There are over 50 dogs here and many are from North Carolina. This morning we got all the NC dogs and people together for a group photo. You can't see me very well in the back row because Barbara is wearing black pants and I sort of blend in! But this is a great group and I am enjoying training with them.

Doing all these classes is a lot of work though and between exercises I rest on my mat next to Barbara's chair and watch the other dogs work. I have been very well behaved and I don't mind when another dog walks by right in front of me.

One of the great things about Canine Freestyle is that any dog can do it. It doesn't matter if you are big or little, it is just a matter of learning moves and then having a willing human partner who will choreograph your routines. While we dogs have been learning the technical moves the people are learning to be creative. I am not sure if Barbara can learn this but I try to help her by doing new things all the time. I have made many new friends at the retreat. There are lots of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels here.

I've sat next to Benny in a couple of classes and he is very sweet.

This little corgi is only 4 months old! She is as smart as can be. Look at the attention she has with her person. She is going to be a great freestyle dog.

I met this nice English Setter boy, Bentley. It is great to see another setter doing freestyle.

Teddy is my Drill Teammate and my traveling companion. He is doing very well in class.

Kiwi is tiny (I bet my ears weigh more than she does) but she does great freestyle and is very smart and cute.

I am having a great time but it is very tiring to think so much. I just crashed in the bleachers this afternoon.

Tomorrow is the last day of the retreat so I will try to get someone to take pictures of Barbara and I doing some of our new moves.

Road Trip

We got up early this morning and Barbara packed up the dog-crate-on-wheels with lots of stuff. Then we dropped Ambrose off at K9 Kindercare (yay!!) and I got to go on a road trip with Barbara. Look at all the stuff crammed in the car! She says that more of it is for me than for her.



We picked up my drill team buddy Teddy and his person and they crammed even more stuff in. Poor Teddy had to ride in Ambrose's crate. I was afraid he would get some of Ambrose's cooties but he didn't seem to mind.

We had an eight hour drive, which was pretty boring, but now we are at the Canine Freestyle Federation Retreat. I will get to practice my dance moves and learn some new ones. I can't wait. But the best part is that I get to stay in a motel with Barbara.




You may notice that I don't have curls on my head anymore. Barbara took the evil dog grooming torture implements to my head. She went a bit overboard though and left a bald spot on the back of my neck! She is dangerous.

I am not a Labradoodle

One good thing about having broken Barbara's finger for her is that she is unable to wield the evil dog grooming torture implements properly. This means that I have been getting only minimal brushing and no trimming. Yay!

However I am starting to rethink this. This past Saturday our Drill Team performed at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine's Open House. Thousands of people come to this event to tour the vet school. Our drill team always draws big crowds when we perform. We got lots of applause.

It was a bit rainy which made the extra long hair on my head get all curly.



At least five people came up to me and asked Barbara if I was a Labradoodle! Can you imagine? Now I like Labradoodles very much and have several doodle friends but I am a Gordon Setter. So I guess it is time for some extreme dog grooming torture so I get back to looking the way I should.

Barbara's Finger

Why is Barbara's hand all swollen and her ring finger bandaged? A bad thing happened and it was not my fault!



As the 2nd place finisher in the Bad Sports Class of the 2011 Mangominster, I know all about doing bad things. But even I have never done anything as bad as this. Barbara's ring finger is broken and it is all Miss Perfect (not) Niamh's fault.



I will tell you how it happened. We were visiting our pals Trotter and Scout and had some good play time. Barbara put me in the dog crate on wheels and went back for Niamh. She leashed Niamh and had the leash in her right hand. She put her hand on the gate and opened it. Niamh is supposed to wait but she didn't. She dashed out through the gate like a bad girl. Unfortunately Barbara's hand was still on the gate and her fingers got twisted in the chain link. She let out a huge scream (although, amazingly, no HBO words were said). Her hand and fingers got all swollen even though she put lots of ice on it. I tried to help by licking her fingers but she said it hurt too much. When she went to the doctor he took x-rays and said that her ring finger is broken above the first joint and she will have to wear this splint and see an orthopedist.



I am really sorry about Barbara's finger. I know it hurts her and it is awkward to have to wear that splint. I didn't mean to do it and now Barbara is having me do remedial work to sit and wait nicely when we go through doors and gates.

National Puppy Day

Today is National Puppy Day! We were all puppies once. In honor of the day I am posting a few pics of when Ambrose and I were puppies.

Here I am at about 10 months of age. I was quite gangly then.



Ambrose at 12 weeks. He looks fussed about something. Who knows what it could be? I certainly don't.



And here is one of me playing so nicely with Ambrose when he was a puppy and I was about 3 1/2 years old. Look how I let him sit all over me. Wasn't I a good big sister?



We are both big dogs now although Barbara always says that Ambrose has a puppy brain in an adult body!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.

As Gordon Setters we are of Scottish descent but we love all things Irish too. My name, Niamh, means "sheen or luster" in Gaelic. We are celebrating the day by wearing our reversible shamrock bandanas that our grandma gave us.



Hope you have a great day but watch out for that green beer!

Day School at Paw in Hand

We have been gone from the blogosphere for a long time and people have asked us if we have quit our blog. Definitely not! Barbara does have a very good excuse this time for being a poor secretary for me though. Since January she has been running a new venture at our training studio called Day School. It is different than doggie day care. Her slogan is
Play + Training = Day School.

Dogs come for the day and go into crates. Then they take turns being trained and having supervised play sessions with another nice dog. Riley, Beatrice, Liam, Amos and Betsy are waiting their turn to work with Barbara.



At lunch time every one gets treat dispensing toys or stuffed bones in their crate. Yum!



Ambrose and I go to Day School too and hang out in an exercise pen while Barbara trains the dogs. The only thing that worries me is that she gives away a boatload of my treats to the other dogs!

But we do get to play with all the dogs which is great. Ambrose and Beatrice like to play very bashy games with one another. Beatrice gets along with all the other dogs and flirts shamelessly with all the boy dogs. Ambrose is smitten.



I think that Barbara started this Day School thing just so that I could have more boyfriends ( you can never have too many beaux).

This little guy is Amos. Look at the nice play bow he gave me to entice me. I played hard to get but eventually deigned to play with him.



My boyfriend Riley comes to Day School every Thursday so we get a chance to play. We are resting after playing and see how we shook water all over the floor.



My newest boyfriend is Ryder. He is a young boxer and came for the first time on Tuesday. I played very nicely with him and I am sure that he will want to come back.



So we are enjoying Day School but it is hard to keep up with all our activities. I will nudge Barbara to post more. I hope you are all doing well. I had my annual physical on Monday and my vet was very pleased. He said I was in perfect shape (a very svelte 62 pounds) and my blood work was excellent. Barbara is very happy because I am going to be 7 at the end of May. Can you believe that?

I Am Three!!

I turned three years old yesterday! I am a big boy now. Barbara says she has great plans for me this year and will help me to get letters after my name. As long as it involves treats and toys, I am up for it.

I celebrated my birthday by going on a nice outing with Barbara and then she gave me a slice of roast beast! Very delish. She also sang "Happy Birthday" to me which I enjoyed (Niamh does not like it when Barbara sings) and I gave her some smooches. Then we went to play with my girlfriend Scout. A very nice way to spend the day.



Happy New Year to you all from Niamh and Ambrose!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all our dog blogging friends! We have been very bad about posting this year, especially lately. It is not that we haven't been doing fun things, it is just that Barbara keeps forgetting to take pictures of us doing them. It is all her fault! I have been in two holiday parades and Ambrose has been a demo dog twice. I have a new, much younger, Border Collie boyfriend and even Ambrose has found another girl dog willing to play his bashy games.

Here are some pictures from our Christmas photo shoot.



Barbara wrapped a big box for us to stand on. The idea was that she would take pictures of us with both of us up on the box but I refused to stand on the box if Ambrose was on it! Can you imagine the amount of cooties I would have gotten from him?



I wanted to be as far away from him as I possibly could be and still be in the picture.



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! We will catch up on all of your blogs and promise to make Barbara post more in 2012!

The Box

Remember that big box of stuff from the APDT Conference? I wanted to open it right away but Barbara said that we had to save it for a rainy day! What??? Anyway she wouldn't let us open it but kept us busy with other things. Last week we went to UNC to give a demo to the General Psychology class. I must say that I did a very nice job. I did a really fast recall before 250 students from the back of the auditorium all the way to the front. Even Ambrose behaved well and both of us worked with the students so some of them could get practice doing clicker training and operant conditioning. Of course we got lots of petting and treats. Unfortunately there are no pictures of this.

But today, Halloween, was a rainy day and we got to open the box. At first I was disappointed because all that came out were T-shirts. Who wants bits of cloth? But my nose hadn't deceived me and once Barbara removed the boring shirts we got down to the good stuff.



Look at some of this loot! There were several new toys as well as 7 different flavors of treats!!! I can't wait to do my treat palatability research. This is a heavy responsibility but anything for science.



Ambrose immediately grabbed one of the new toys and raced around with it.



Then he started to bite it and just look what he did! There are holes in the toy already and he only had it for 5 minutes!



I am not happy with Ambrose. Today I had to snap at him when he came too close to my toilet paper roll (all cardboard rolls are mine). I thought that he was maturing lately but I was wrong.



Tomorrow night Barbara is giving a talk on Coping with Canine Adolescence and Ambrose is the poster boy. Well he did take 2nd place in the Mangominster Bad Sports class.

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween and that you didn't eat any chocolate (you know it is bad for you).

APDT Conference in San Diego

Barbara abandoned us for 10 whole days! Well she brought us to K9 Kindercare (which we love) while she took off in a plane for San Diego and the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Conference.



This is the premier national conference for dog trainers who come from all over the US and many other countries to learn from the best trainers, behaviorists and vets. Some of my heros spoke at the conference including Suzanne Clothier, Pam Reid, Sue Sternberg, Terry Ryan, Ian Dunbar and two of my personal friends, Teoti Anderson and Hannah Branigan. I was very jealous that I couldn't go but it is a people training conference and Barbara was very busy there since she is on the conference committee and had work to do.

San Diego looks beautiful and I would like to see a palm tree. I don't think that we have many of those in Chapel Hill.



I was a bit shocked when I saw pictures of chickens at the conference! I understand that people practice their timing by training chickens. I do not see the point in bothering to train chickens as I would prefer to eat them.



It wasn't all work and studying at the conference. Dog trainers are very into socialization and there were activities every night. The beach party looked like great fun and I was disappointed that I wasn't there to see the surfer dog.



But the thing that has caused the most commotion here is that we found out that Barbara met our blogging friend Murphy!



Murphy lives in San Diego which seems like a very cool place. If you read his blog you know that his person is always taking him to the dog beach and Great Dane meet ups and other fun dog events. What a life! Anyway, the conference committee needed demo dogs for some of the workshops and Murphy was one of them. We are sick with jealousy that Barbara got to meet him and Ambrose and I did not. He is such a big handsome guy and did very well as a demo dog.




We are glad she is home now though. The best part is that Barbara always brings us new treats and toys from the trade show at the conference. She bought so many this year that they wouldn't all fit in her suitcase and she had to ship some of the loot. This box came today and I can tell you it smells very good.



We can't wait to see what is inside and to perform our yearly research to find out which is the most delicious treat.