I am Five!

I know that it will be hard for you to believe but I, Ambrose, am five years old today! How time flies. Barbara says that I still act like I am two. I say that I am young at heart and who wants to act like an old fogey anyway?? Tonight I am going to get a special treat with dinner and a new toy that I don't have to share with Niamh! Here are some photos that Barbara took today.

And here is one on the day that she took me home from my breeders. Barbara said that she wanted a mushy boy and she got exactly that. I still like to give hugs and kisses.

She is going to take me for a walk now (we are leaving Niamh at home - haha!) at a place where I will get to see cows.

Christmas Shopping

Sometimes after I have helped Barbara in her dog training work she takes me over to my favorite pet supply store, Phydeaux, and lets me pick out a toy or a treat. That is my "paycheck". This week Ambrose and I helped her work with a beautiful German Shepherd who gets over excited when she sees other dogs. We acted as the decoy dogs and Penny did very well with us. Afterwards we went to Phydeaux and I thought that we would get our paychecks. Here I am sniffing the wonderful scents in the food aisle.

Then I got to go see the wall of toys. I sniffed the toys very carefully.

Imagine my dismay when I learned that the shopping trip was for Christmas presents for my dog cousins!

Now of course I want my dog cousins to get presents but what about me? And what was Ambrose doing all this time? Disgracing me and Gordon Setters everywhere, that's what. The next sequence of photos are very blurry but you can see what the awful boy did. Ambrose lost his mind! He tried to cram himself in a shelf full of treats and managed to knock them all on the floor. Barbara had to stop taking photographs so she could control him and put the treats back.

Who knows if we will ever be allowed in Phydeaux again?

More Letters After My Name

I do like to go to Rally Trials. This evening we went to one at the Durham Kennel Club which is only 45 minutes from my house. Barbara thought that we should try to get the third leg of our Rally Novice title so we entered. I can lie down calmly in my crate and watch all the other dogs.

Usually there are not many setters at Rally events but I met this very handsome Irish Setter. He finished his Rally Advanced Excellent title (RAE)tonight.

I was very excited to meet this young Gordon Setter boy, Jackson. Quite lively in the ring but he got distracted with good smells in the ring (don't we all) so did not qualify tonight. He is only 1 1/2 years old so I was quite impressed. I can tell you that Barbara would not have had the nerve to take me in the ring when I was that age.

There were many different breeds of dogs at the trial. This Wire Fox Terrier was in his crate next to me. I was his first event and he did very well. There were some Airedales too but Barbara did not get any photos of them.

Behind us was an Old English Sheepdog who kept poking his head out of his crate to see what was going on. I am sure it is hard for him to see with all that hair

When my turn came to go in the ring, I was pretty excited. I tried to concentrate on what Barbara wanted me to do but a few times I sniffed and pulled so we lost points for that and a crooked sit. Not our best score but certainly enough to qualify and get my third leg. The green ribbon is for the qualifying and the blue rosette is for my new title!

I can now put RN after my name. It stands for Rally Novice (not registered nurse but I am sure I could do that). Barbara was very happy with me and gave me a huge chunk of mozzarella cheese as a reward. I deserved it.

Now onto the Advanced classes!

What Now??

First it was fish, then Barbara trained a chicken. You will not believe what she is training now. A couple of weeks ago she came home with a most intriguing odor on her clothes and hands. We had no idea what it was - think pork chops. Barbara is helping to clicker train a pig!!!

I ask you, isn't it enough that she spends her time with lots of other dogs? Now she is helping a friend train Lennon, a 1 year old pot bellied pig who was surrendered to the shelter. Lennon is very social and he is already house trained and can do a piggy version of the sit.

Barbara is clicker training him to know his name, come when called and to do targeting to a stick (all things I do very well). He is even going to wear a harness and learn to walk on a leash!!!

Pigs are supposed to be very smart. Some people think that pigs are smarter than dogs which I think is a lie. But then again Lennon is probably smarter than Ambrose!

Ambrose's Hair

Niamh, the blog hog, has been dominating the posts since we got back to blogging. This is not fair. And of course I have been sadly neglected while Barbara goes off to freestyle competitions with Niamh. My hair had grown very long and I had a series of bad hair days. Some people even asked Barbara if I was part Afghan Hound!!! Now nothing against Afghan Hounds but I am a Gordon Setter through and through.

It is hard to keep one's hair well groomed when other dogs are chewing on it though. My St.Bernard girlfriend, Bella, likes nothing better than to chew on my ears (well I chew on hers too). I like it but it mats up my ears and Barbara has to cut the mats out.

On Friday, Barbara gave me a big grooming and then took me next door to Max's Dog Wash for a bath. I really don't know why Niamh makes such a fuss about being groomed and thinks that it is torture. She is such a princess. I quite like getting fussed over. I am not fond of the blow dryer but I do like the feeling of being brushed. Of course I get lots of cookies when I am up on the grooming table or in the bath.

What do you think? With my head and neck trimmed you can see all my Gordon Setterness.

Today I went to a canine freestyle class to practice my moves. Of course Barbara forgot to bring the camera. You can tell how neglected I am.

APDT Conference and more

Barbara went to the Association of Pet Dog Trainers annual conference in Spokane WA in October. Because she is on the conference staff she was gone for 8 days. We wthent to K9 Kindercare as usual. We like it there and they always take good care of us. The ladies there call Ambrose "Brosie" if you can believe that! He is always kissing them. They don't realize how many cooties he gives them. Here is a photo of Barbara working with a chicken (and you thought this was a dog training conference).

Evidently training chickens makes you a better dog trainer because it it improves your mechanics and timing. I would like to eat a chicken more than train it. She brought home lots of treats and toys from the trade show at the conference. We always like that part. I will have to do an entire post about that. We just about got back into our normal routine when Barbara left town again. This time she took me with her (Ambrose went back to K9 Kindercare) as we were entered in two days of Canine Freestyle Federation competition. We got to stay in a motel, which I love. I had a bit of trouble with my routine on Saturday - not our fault. We were all warmed up and ready to go and the steward waved us into the ring. I was very focused but when we went to start the judges waved us out again! The silly steward sent us in by mistake!!! I got overexcited with all the confusion and when we were finally let in I wasn't as focused as I should have been so we didn't score all that well. Sunday was much better. I performed the routine very well and we got second place. You can see the medal around my neck in these photos. We won a gift card and I got some nice toys.

I do enjoy showing off in freestyle and getting applause. Everyone said how pretty I looked. Barbara says that I am the best traveling companion.

20th Anniversary of Paw In Hand Dog Training

Twenty years ago (long before I was around) Barbara started Paw In Hand Dog Training. She gives private lessons, teach classes and works with dogs with behavior issues. To celebrate she had a client appreciation day where she gave free lessons to past students. It was fun for her to see many of her old students. She had refreshments for the people.

All the dogs who came got a choice of a stuffed toy and a dog sausage -either chicken or beef.

Here are a few pictures of some of the dogs who stopped by to learn a new trick. Davey

Michal

Bentley

Allie

Olive

All the dogs had a good time. In other news, Barbara and I did a demo at the Carrboro Kids Dog Show. The Carrboro Commons had a nice article about the event and Barbara is quoted at the end of it. I am mentioned but there is no picture of me performing! I don't know why because the journalist certainly took enough photos of me. You can read the article here.

Ribbons and a Prize

Usually Barbara grooms me herself(not well I might add) but she had me tortured by a professional this time. Carrie at Max's Dog Wash made me look quite spiffy.

Yesterday afternoon we drove to the Winston-Salem Dog Training Club as we were entered in Rally Novice B. I really haven't had much chance to do Rally since last December so I was very excited. Lots of nice people and dogs. I was the only Gordon Setter at the trial and many people admired me. I guess all that dog grooming torture was worth it. We did very well in our run and I took 4th place in my class. Barbara was very pleased and I got an entire sausage when we came out of the ring!

The white ribbon is for 4th place, the green one is for qualifying. I now have another leg toward my title and the little star stuffie is my prize.

I will not let Ambrose have the stuffie because he will destroy it!

Boyfriends and Girlfriends

You know me - I like to hang out with the boys! Here is a picture of me with my long time boyfriend Trotter. So handsome don't you think?

Ambrose has his girlfriend Scout. They have known each other since they were little puppies. She is quite the tomboy and that is Ambrose's type. No frou-frou girls for him. He likes girls who run and play hard. Scout is really, really fast.

Here is a photo of me with my boyfriend Amos at Day School. He has been coming every Tuesday and Thursday for almost 2 years. We are doing down stays in this picture but mostly we like to run and play bitty face games. Unfortunately Amos is moving! His person got a new job and Amos is of course going with her. I will miss him so much.

Think of me tomorrow when I am having extreme dog grooming torture. I have a couple of demos coming up and Barbara says that I have to look my best.

It has been a year!

It has been 1 year since we posted in our blog! Unbelievable! I have no words to describe how slack Barbara has been. She is our special person but I can tell you that we are annoyed with her that she hasn't been posting about all our activities or helping us check in with our friends. Ambrose and I hope that you are all well and we will check in with you this weekend.

Barbara has a new computer and is in the process of transferring stuff from the old one to this one so who knows where all our photos have gone to. The one above is an old one from Christmas! Here is a more recent one of me.

And for those of you who wonder what Ambrose is up to, here is one of him with his St. Bernard girlfriend, Bella. All they do is chew on each other's ears.

Barbara has gotten some new creatures - fish. She set up a tank in our training studio this summer. I don't know why since she doesn't seem to be training them.

I didn't mind having them there until I found out what she is feeding them - sun dried baby shrimp. Do you believe that? We have never gotten shrimp, sun dried or otherwise in our whole lives and she is giving it to these untrained fish! Shocking! Fish aside, I am glad we are back in the blogosphere and we will keep you up to date with our activities. See you soon. Niamh and Ambrose