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Portrait

Barbara is not a very good photographer. And I'm not such a good subject as I really don't like to sit around and pose for pictures. There was a professional photographer at the Canine Freestyle workshop that we went to in April and Barbara decided to have him take a picture of me. I think I drove the poor man crazy as I wiggled, panted or drooled every time he took a shot. Finally I sat still and here is the result.







I am very excited about the International Package Exchange that is coming up! I understand that the drawing is tomorrow and I can't wait to find out who I get. And then of course I get to go shopping!!!!

Friends

I've been doing lots of fun things in the past week or so - practicing my freestyle and working on my tracking. Unfortunately my person forgot her camera so none of my work has been recorded for posterity! I thought I would post pictures of some of my friends.

This is my new friend Minnie.




She was recently adopted from the Animal Protection Society by a nice guy who is now her special person. Minnie is a lot of fun. She runs very fast and likes to chase. We would stand very still and stare at one another and then just take off running. Such fun! She is also good at chew face games which I love to play. I am so glad that Minnie has a home and her own special person to care for her.




Here is a picture of one of my many boyfriends, Ralph.



Isn't he a handsome guy? He is a Retriever/Collie cross and he was also adopted from APS a couple of years ago. Besides being handsome, he has a sweet disposition and is very accomplished. He has his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) and just last month he passed the Delta Society's Pet Partner Evaluation so he can go visiting at nursing homes and hospitals.

There are lots of great dogs waiting for homes in shelters and adoption centers.

Memoir Meme

My Field Spaniel friend Hero tagged me for a Memoir Meme and Barbara finally took some pictures to illustrate my words.

The rules are:

1) Write your own six word memoir.
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4) Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5) Don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
6) Have fun

I am

Swift



Elegant



Tenacious



Thirsty



Educated



Rambunctious



That spells SETTER.

Most of my blogging dog friends have already done this but I will tag Ayla and Royal.

National Stuffie Appreciation Day

My terrier friend, Mr. T-bone Beasley, decided that we dogs need to show attention to our stuffed toys and declared May 8th as National Stuffie Appreciation Day. I love my stuffed toys so here are a few photos of some of my stuffies.


This is the new stuffed toy that Barbara got me in honor of National Stuffie Appreciation Day.



Here I am examining some of my toys. Do you see what a good job I've done removing the legs from the clown?


I exhumed these 2 toys especially for National Stuffie Appreciation Day. They spent the winter under the leaves. I think they look lovely and filthy now and their smell is delightful.



As I was leaving the dog park this morning I saw several abandoned stuffies on the ground. I really wanted to take one home with me but Barbara said "Niamh you don't know where those toys have been. They could have cooties!" Cooties must be some dread disease of stuffies that would be contagious to my own stuffed toys so, sadly, I left them at the dog park.

Another Drill Team Performance

I've been working hard since we had another Drill Team performance this afternoon at the Carrboro Day Festival. It was pretty hot outside but we had a nice shade awning to hang out under until we performed and of course lots of ice water to keep us cool.

Each dog and her person gets introduced to the audience and gets to show off a trick. Here is a picture of me doing my new trick where I jump up and touch my nose to Barbara's hand.



Erin and Hadji.



Amiga weaving in and out of Walter's legs.



Penny and Denise.



Here is the team doing a down stay during one of our routines.



We are marching in a circle to "I Will Survive".



Now we form a line and do a pinwheel. The crowd loved that and applauded loudly. It is hard to keep the line straight but I think that we look pretty spiffy.





Performing is a lot of fun and many people came up to me afterwards and petted and admired me. I like that so much but I liked the bacon cheeseburger that I got on the way home as a reward even more!!

Drill Team Performance

I was very excited this afternoon when Barbara got out my green bandana. I knew it meant that we were going to perform with the Drill Team. We drove over to a retirement community to do a performance of our routines for the people who live there. I was very excited to see my friends and acted a bit silly at first. I think that Barbara was afraid that I would not do well but I settled down when it was time to perform.

The people really liked our routines and clapped a lot. They asked many questions about how we are trained to do the routines. It is all positive of course. Lots of treats, praise and toys. No being jerked around or scolded. All of us dogs love to go to Drill Team practice and perform because we know that we will get lots of rewards and get to spend special time with our people.

Here is a picture of my friend Ayla and her person Sandi. Ayla is almost as silly as I am but she looks very calm here and did well in the performance. Ayla has her own blog which you can read here.



I have to rest up now because we have another performance tomorrow at the Farmers' Market in Carrboro.!

Leonberger Pups

I like Leonbergers. They are big and hairy, twice my size at least. Ika had 7 little Leonberger pups and you can see them at www.kenneldisforzando.com . Barbara went to her house to do a behavior evaluation on the puppies. She did this same evaluation to me and my sisters and brothers when we were 7 weeks old. I must have done very well on the test since she is my special person.



The evaluation looks at puppies to see how social they are, if they liked to be handled, how they behave with toys and food and will help to place them in good homes. This puppy obviously likes being handled.



But what is happening here? Barbara is playing with that puppy with my brand new tug toy that I just got last weekend at the Canine Freestyle workshop.



This is terrible. Now she has let 3 puppies play with my toy!. I am sure that they have ruined it with their puppy drool. I will not touch it until Barbara washes it for me.