National Train Your Dog Month Train-a-Trick Open House

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers declared January National Train Your Dog Month. The month is almost over but we did our part to encourage reward based training. To celebrate NTYDM we had a Train-a-Trick Open House at the Paw In Hand Dog Training Center on Saturday, January 15 from 1-4 PM




We invited people and dogs to come to visit, watch some trick demos, eat some snacks and learn a new trick. Barbara and her trainer friends Sandi and Jeanine helped each person teach their dog a new trick. I did some trick demos and my boyfriend Trotter came and he did one too. Barbara explained to the people why they should teach tricks to their dogs. We handed out a sheet from the APDT on 20 Uses for Dog Tricks.




We had delicious food for people and dogs. There was a fancy fruit arrangement along with cookies and homemade coffee cake. The best were the special sardine treats that Barbara baked specially for the dogs who came to train.




Twenty-eight dogs and their people stopped by to socialize and train during the 3 hours. Fortunately not all at once or we would have been a bit crowded!

Great Pyrenees Carolina learning to sit in a hoop.




Rocky and Giacomo working with their people.



Shiloh the Yorkie practices jumping up on the stool.



English Springer Spaniel Lillie tries the roll over.



Success!



Liam practicing begging.



Wilma working with her person.




Everyone seemed to have a good time and all the dogs learned at least one new trick. There is one more day in National Train Your Dog Month so get your person to work with you to learn something new. It is fun. And see if you can convince them to make the special sardine treats.


3 large eggs
1 can sardines in oil
1 packet of graham crackers (not the whole box which usually has 3 packets)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet or baking dish.

Crush the graham crackers into crumbs.

Put the eggs and sardines in the blender and liquify.

Add in the graham crackers and blend. The mixture will be soupy.

Pour onto the cookie sheet and spread out to 1/4 inch thick.

Bake for 15 -20 minutes until rubbery, not crispy.

Let it cool and cut into bite sized squares.

Your house will smell heavenly! Enjoy!

My Heart is Heavy

I am very sad today. Just last night we learned that Barbara's dear friend and my breeder, my Auntie Karen passed away very suddenly. She took such good care of me when I was a little puppy before Barbara became my special person. Karen socialized us very well and did everything a good breeder should do to make sure my brothers and sisters and I grew up to be healthy, well adjusted dogs. Barbara brought me to see her whenever I needed to be groomed for some special event since Karen was much better at the dog grooming torture and was very gentle and patient with me.

Auntie Karen never liked to have her picture taken so I won't put her picture up on the blog. We can't believe that she is gone and our deepest sympathies to her family. I know that my sister Tori and my brother Travis will miss her terribly.

Ambrose Enters Mango Minster 2011

I am very excited to post my entry in Mango Minster's Bad Sports class. I realize that the competition is tough but I think that you will see that this is the right category for me.




While I really am a very sweet Gordon Setter boy I just can't seem to help getting into trouble. My favorite thing to do is to tear things to shreds. I can destuff a stuffie in a few seconds and all my Christmas presents were destroyed immediately and then I went to work on Niamh's presents.

Look what I did to the Christmas wrapping paper.




My table manners leave a lot to be desired.




And who can forget what I did to Flat Brutus.



Just recently I caused quite an uproar. Barbara was sick last week and made the mistake of falling asleep on the couch. I was bored so I did a bit of counter surfing and found a bag of special apple and cinnamon pancake mix that Barbara's cousin had given her for Christmas. She had planned to make the pancakes for supper that evening. I stole the bag and took it over to Niamh's bed.



When Barbara woke up she saw the mess I made. I tried to look innocent but it was hard since I was covered in pancake mix.



It was all over my face, ears and paws. I helpfully tried to lick it up.



As Barbara was trying to get Niamh's bed out the door to shake the pancake mix off of it, she managed to knock a lamp over with the bed. The lamp broke and while she was trying to sweep up the glass, I escaped out the front door which she accidently left open. Fortunately I have a pretty good recall and came right away when I saw she had string cheese but I can tell you that many HBO words were said.

I hope the Judge Fiona will consider my entry and of course I will try to score some more of the pancake mix for her. It is quite delicious.