Parade Practice

The Paws 4Ever Drill Team, of which I am a proud member, will be marching in the Hillsborough Holiday Parade next Saturday and in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Holiday Parade the week after that. I love the parades because our team gets lots of applause from the crowd as we march along in formation doing tricks. While we have indoor practice every Monday night, right before parade season we go into town and practice outside. We had practice this afternoon and most of us wore our new ruffled bandanas.

Royal, one of my Drill Team buddies, has a very talented grandma who makes special ruffled bandanas for dogs. They are reversible and have jingle bells inside them (important when you have a dog like Ambrose who would eat the bells if they were on the outside of the the bandana). Royal is the Australian Shepherd in the middle.




Royal's grandma made bandanas for the entire team so we can wear them in the parade. Here I am modeling my holiday bandana which has a design of stockings and mistletoe with "peace, hope and joy".




My BFF Ayla is modeling the reverse side of the bandana which is green with white bones. I think she looks quite pretty.




Casper is Jewish so she got a Chanukah bandana instead of a Christmas one.




Teddy, the newest member of our team, wanted to wear the green side so he would coordinate with his person's pants.




We had an excellent practice and I know that we will be a big hit in the parade as always. After practice we posed for a group photo. I think we dogs look pretty spiffy in our bandanas. Our people all look a bit scruffy but don't worry they will look much better in the parades because they will wear matching pants and sweatshirts. Of course all the spectators' eyes will be on the dogs and not the people anyway.




Ambrose isn't in the Drill Team (just think of the commotion he could cause in the parade) but he wanted to model his Halloween ruffled bandana so I let him.




We have new scarf bandanas with a Santa pattern that we will wear in our Christmas pictures. If you want a scarf or ruffled bandana check out Jing-a-ling Dog Bandanas. Royal's grandma makes them in all sizes with lots of different patterns.

CNN Update

Awhile ago I was filmed performing experiments at the Duke Canine Cognition Center for a story on CNN. I found out today that "Animal Intelligence" is going to be on tonight at 10:00 PM EST. You can also see some of it here at CNN.com.



There are only 3 brief clips of me - the other dogs get more air time. I knew that they would show me doing one experiment that I didn't do so well on, and of course they showed that part. But there is good information in the story and it is important for people to study dogs so they will train us better. We are fascinating!

I Am So Neglected

I am getting a bit sick of hearing how wonderful Niamh is. Barbara is constantly telling her that she is smart and beautiful and giving her kisses. Sure Niamh now has letters after her name but I could have some too if someone would train me. I have been completely neglected while Niamh got lots of training and attention. Barbara says that I have regressed.

Then she tells me that I look all tufty. Well if she would groom me I would look really handsome. And I actually enjoy being groomed, not like some Gordon Setters I know who get very touchy about their grooming.



If I didn't have my friend Scout to play with I just don't know what I would do with myself. At least I can run around with her and try rid of some of my excess energy.



I have been doing lots attention seeking behavior. I have gone back to my old counter surfing ways and I dug this nice hole near our patio. But the thing that got the most attention was when I found some old poop under the leaves, put it in my mouth and tried to bring it into the house. Many HBO words were said I can tell you.



Maybe I should chew up a shoe or something.

Freestyle Photos

Our laptop is back from the Mac vet so now we can post about my winning weekend.

All the hard work of practicing my routine and all the dog grooming torture was worth it. Barbara is so pleased with me for earning my Canine Freestyle Federation Level II title that she is constantly telling me how smart and beautiful I am. I have been basking in the attention all week. Of course Ambrose is very jealous and has been acting out because he feels neglected. I have had to speak sharply to him a few times.

Here is a photo of us after Saturday's routine. I am wearing my 2nd place medallion as well as the patch that we got for my title. Barbara says she will sew the patch on our training bag but that will never happen because she is pathetic with a needle and thread.



I am licking my chops because each day after my routine I got an entire sausage biscuit to eat! Very delish. Of course I was famished because I was not allowed to have any treats in the ring while we were performing. But I paid great attention to Barbara and tried to follow her signals. I did anticipate her cues a couple of times but stayed right with her and worked very hard to earn my biscuit. We got lots of applause after our routine and people made a big fuss over me which I enjoyed too.



Barbara had the professional photographer take lots of pictures of us so when we get those, we will post them. Here I am modeling my first place medallion after the awards on Sunday.



We have ordered the dvd of the event so I hope to post my routines when that is available. Now that I have earned my Level II title we have to move up to Level III which is much harder. I have to start practicing all sorts of new moves. But I like to hear people clapping for me and I love those sausage biscuits so I think that I will get right to work.

Freestyle Trial

We had a great weekend at the Canine Freestyle Federation trial. On Saturday I took 2nd place in my class and earned enough for my level II title . On Sunday I got 1st place!! I am now officially Stonemist Time Is On My Side CFF II. I got lots of treats and toys as well as 2 beautiful medallions. Barbara was so proud that she had our picture take by the show phoographer so I will be able to put up nice photos soon.

Unfortunately our computer got sick over the weekend and has to go to the mac vet. B is trying to blog for me from her phone and she is havingahard time so we won't be posting again until the computer is better.

I have to rest now because winning those prizes was hard work.