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.

New Bandanna

I always know when i am going to get to march or perform with the Drill Team because Barbara gets out my team bandana. The Animal Protection Society of Orange County recently changed their name to Paws 4Ever so the people on the team had to get new T-shirts and sweatshirts and us dogs got new bandanas!



I think it looks good and it contrasts with the peoples' new T-shirts.



Today we performed at the Carrboro Day festival. We did our two group routines and Barbara and I performed our individual routine. It was very hot but I think we did well and we got a lot of applause. Afterwards lots of people came up to pet us and to find out about dog training.

Of course Ambrose had to stay at home. He does not know enough to be in the Drill Team and if he got a new bandanna he would probably tear it up like he does everything else. We will be entering pictures of some of the things he has ruined in the Pointer Pandemonium Naughty Dog competition. He might win on sheer volume of naughtiness.

For those of you who like to see his goofy face, here are a couple of photos of Ambrose. He is getting big. I just wish his brains would grow as fast as his legs.

Brazen Hussy

I am sure that I already have a reputation as a brazen hussy but I have to admit that I have another boyfriend. I met Roscoe last week and we had another date this morning. Don't you think he is pretty cute?

He is about a year and a half old (I do seem to go for the younger men) and was rescued by some really nice people. He came to Barbara's class this fall and now they are doing some more work together since he likes to pull on leash (don't we all). I think he is part schnauzer and part basset hound.



We have had some great games of chase in his yard along with some bitey face. Roscoe has a favorite ball and he likes to play soccer with it. I grabbed it and teased and flirted.



Now I have enticed him close to me and we are getting ready for more games.



Look at us go!! Even though Roscoe's legs are much shorter than mine he really kept up with me.



Most of the pictures were just blurs as we sped around the yard. Here we are hanging out on the deck getting our second wind.



It was a great morning and I can't wait to play with him again. Now I can only hope that my other boyfriends don't get jealous.


Awards


The Dughallmor Beagles sent me this great award. Thanks so much. I wish my person could take beautiful photos like your mom.




Thanks to Holly and Zac for this lovely butterfly award. I love to point at butterflies!




More Parade News

My boyfriend Royal has more parade photos on his blog along with a video of us doing some of our formations. Check it out.

My First Parade

I am really exhausted but I have had such an amazing day I couldn't wait to blog about it. I was in my first parade as a member of the Paws 4Ever Drill Team (it used to be called the Animal Protection Society)! I've been in a few demos but a parade is a whole different thing and much more exciting.

My friends Ayla and Royal were in the parade with me and this was the first time for all of us. Our people have paraded many times before with our older siblings. Ruby and Big Sandy are retired now but they were excellent in the parades and knew all the tricks perfectly. Barbara paraded many years with Selkie who was a parade diva and just loved showing off.

Our people were worried that we would be really wild in the parade so they decided to get us together for some exercise in the hopes of calming us down. I believe the phrase Barbara used was "Let's try to run their legs off". How silly of her. Not possible.

Look at the three of us go.





After a lot or chase games and bitey face, Ayla did some roaching for us.




It was a wonderful start to the day and it did help me settle down a bit but not much. I was terribly excited when we got to the parade. There were floats, firetrucks and bands and lots of little kids running around. It got me all charged up again.




Here is a picture of the team with our new banner.




We were all very glad to see Hadji and his people. Hadji was very sick this fall and could barely walk never mind practice with the team. He is recovered now and he helped his people carry our banner.




Here is our mascot.




We lined up in the street to get ready to march. I am at the very end.



Elmo and Bernie



Doing our group downs.



More marching.



Ayla, Royal and Bernie in the pinwheel move.



I think we were very popular in the parade because we got a lot of applause. I hope people see that we dogs can be trained and learn lots of neat things. Of course all our training is positive and I can't begin to tell you how many bits of cheese and hotdog I got while marching.

This was a terrific adventure and the best news is that there is another parade next weekend which is even bigger. I can't wait.

My Mailbox

Normally I don't think about the mail very much. I usually don't get any letters so I'm not interested when Barbara stops at the mailbox. But that has changed with the DWB Holiday Card exchange. I've been getting lots of cards in the last week or so the mail has become very interesting to me. I love getting cards from my blogging friends!

So you can imagine my distress when I saw this on Sunday.



What is that you may ask? It is the remains of my mailbox! Sometime on Sunday morning someone was driving too fast on our road and left the road and crashed into my mailbox. The post was sheared off and the box knocked into the ditch and the little door broken! I hope that this doesn't interfere with me getting my cards. Barbara has to go to the post office to pick up our mail until we get a new mailbox. What a drag.





Our Drill Team has been practicing very hard and I think we will be a big hit when we march on Saturday. Here is a picture of me modeling the bandana which the team will be wearing. The only bad news is that I am going to have to take a bath before the parade. Barbara wants me to look super shiny.




Boxer Update

Thank you for all your good wishes for the Boxer we are trying to rescue. He runs right across the field to the feeding tree when he sees my dog crate on wheels coming. Today Barbara was able to get him to come within 2 feet to get some cheese. He leaped away at the last second but at least he is getting closer.



He is still is not sure about me and sometimes he barks when I come near. I am doing my flirty best to get him to like me (and you know that I have many boyfriends) and trust us. Keep your paws crossed for our success.

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.!