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!