Dog Grooming Torture Fail

On Sunday, Joan Tennille, the Founder of the Canine Freestyle Federation is coming to our freestyle guild meeting and practice to give us a presentation on scoring. She is very important in the freestyle world and Barbara wanted to make sure that I look my best when we show her our new routine.

I knew this meant dog grooming torture of a serious nature and yesterday I was attacked by all sorts of evil implements. She actually did a good job on my head.



Now I know that Mango is very concerned about his momma losing steam and I am afraid that my person is losing her mind. My Auntie Karen has taught Barbara how to put a big towel on me after my bath and to pin it down while my fur is drying. This helps to keep it nice and smooth. Well somehow she forgot to do this and you can see the result.

I have a Fluffy Butt!!



Gordon Setters are not supposed to have Fluffy Butts! Look at my tail. Some of the fur is going up instead of down! I will be a laughingstock among setters. Look at all the cowlicks. I hope my sister Tori (Ch. Stonemist Wrinkle in Time) does not see this because she will make fun of me, I know.



I think it is time to trade Barbara in for a new person. She had a birthday the week before and is now 385 dog years. That is ancient and she is becoming very forgetful.

In other news I have gotten together with some of my boyfriends. I had not seen my boyfriend Riley in quite awhile because he had a big operation on his hip and a long rehab. Fortunately it was a great success and he seems as good as new. His people brought him to see my new training center. I was very glad to see him but I played hard to get for awhile.



But Riley was persistent and we got into a good game of bitey face.



We really got going and our ears were flying. It was so good to see him again.



I also got to visit with my boyfriend Trotter. We like to practice our obedience together. Here he is practicing the trick of standing on the stool. I think this is a good one because it will make it easier for him to steal things off the counter.



It is very hot here and we haven't been playing outside very much. I am bored so I am looking forward to freestyle practice tomorrow even though I have a Fluffy Butt.

No Bitey Face Before Breakfast

I am do not try to be a bad dog on purpose. I just couldn't help myself. Barbara's training bag was open and Flat Brutus looked irresistible. What can I say??

As you know from previous posts I am very good at bitey face. Niamh taught me the rules of the game when I was just a little puppy. And Niamh has a lot of rules! The most important one is no bitey face before breakfast.

While I am a morning dog, Niamh likes to take her time getting up. Then she likes to spend time looking out the sliding glass doors and contemplating the canine condition (I think she is just looking for deer). She does not like me to disturb her while she is meditating and will give me a severe correction if I do so. I learned early on that I have to leave her alone at this time.

After we have breakfast she is much more interested in playing with me. We usually get on one of the dog beds and do some good bitey face. It is a pretty restrained version but a nice way to start off the day.



Sometimes Niamh will even play a little tug of war with me with one of her toys. I also like to tug on her ears if I get the opportunity.



It is most annoying to have the camera flashing at us when we are trying to play though.



At night we play a much more active form of bitey face which can get a bit wild. There are no pictures of that though because we are usually moving too fast for Barbara to get photos plus there is a lot of crashing into furniture and Barbara trying to calm us down. What's a good game of bitey face without some furniture crashing?

Our Visit with Flat Brutus Comes to a Sad End

As you saw in my post last week, Flat Brutus arrived and had a good time socializing with the puppies in the puppy kindergarten class. It rained a lot so we had to wait until the weekend to take him on an outing. The it got terribly hot and you know how black dogs suffer in the heat. So instead of an outing, I took him with me to freestyle practice where it was air-conditioned, which I know he appreciated. All my freestyle friends were happy to meet him but I don't think freestyle will be his sport. You have to trot to the beat of the music and I don't think Flat Brutus is good at that.



It cooled off Monday and Tuesday so we decided to take a trip to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC is the flagship school in the university system here and was the first public university in the country, established in 1793! The campus is beautiful and it is one of my favorite places for a walk.

We walked in the oldest section of the campus where you can see the Old Well. That is the site of the only water on the campus when it first opened. Now it is a water fountain and is a symbol of the university.



Flat Brutus and I posed on the steps of the Old Well and then we had a drink.



Then we headed over to Morehead Planetarium which is where some of the Apollo astronauts trained. Of course they don't allow dogs inside (although I don't know why not) so we visited the sundial and the rose garden.



Here is Flat Brutus at the sundial.



Posing by the roses.



Then we headed toward Franklin Street which is the main road in Chapel Hill. Brutus is on the stone wall along Franklin Street in front of McCorkle Place. I am not in the picture because I was obsessing about the squirrels there. The students feed them so they are very well trained and don't run away like the dopey squirrels that live near me. Flat Brutus did not seem to be too interested in the squirrels which I thought was amazing.



I like Franklin Street because there are so many restaurants that it smells very good. We stopped at Sugarland, one of my favorite places. It is a store full of cupcakes!!! I could see that Flat Brutus approved.



We throughly enjoyed our outing but I knew that other dogs were waiting to host Flat Brutus and that we would have to send him on his way soon, Barbara thought that we should take a quick trip down to the pond this morning.

Now if you are very sensitive you may want to stop reading and not look at the graphic photo which I know you will find quite disturbing. Barbara has been keeping Flat Brutus in her training bag. She left it on the counter, unzipped (a tragic mistake) while she took a shower. While she was in the bathroom, Ambrose, the counter surfing beast, pulled the bag down and extracted Flat Brutus. Just look what the little cannibal did!!!



Barbara was horrified and very upset with Ambrose. I really don't know what we are going to do with him. Not only did he rip off Flat Brutus' legs, Ambrose ate his rear end. We are so sorry and we will be making a donation to French Bulldog Rescue in his memory. I hope that his person can clone him because I know that Moose was expecting to host him next.

Flat Brutus Has Arrived

We have been waiting and waiting and finally, yesterday afternoon, Flat Brutus showed up in our mailbox. It is very exciting to have such a celebrity visit us. He got here just in time for puppy class. Now we know that Flat Brutus is very well behaved but we thought that he would enjoy some socialization with the puppies. You can never have too much socialization.

Here is Flat Brutus socializing with Ziti.




He also spent some time with Sophie.




He hung out with Luke.




Here he is with Ellie Mae.



Flat Brutus is a very friendly guy and did very well with all the pups.

We can't wait to take him all around town. Unfortunately it has been raining like crazy so we haven't been able to get out much yet.

I Am the Birthday Girl!

Can you believe it? I am five years old today!!!

Because it is going to be very hot today, Barbara said that we had to start the celebration early. So off we went to Fearrington for a walk around the ponds. Then we stopped at the outdoor cafe for a birthday treat.

I got this entire poppyseed muffin all to myself. See how politely I waited for it?



Barbara fed it to me in pieces since she was afraid that I would have gulped it down in one piece, which I seriously considered.



I ate every last crumb and I can tell you that it was quite delicious.



Then I had to stand by this fountain to pose for birthday photos.



It doesn't show up too well in these pictures but I got a pretty new collar this morning. The connector on my old plaid one broke and I have been wearing a pink collar that is so not me. One of my presents was a new collar with a green pattern which I think is more my style.



We have been very busy at the new training center and I have been helping Barbara by being the demo dog for her classes. She had her website put on our dog-crate-on-wheels to get more visibility for the center. Since the name is on it she says that we have to be very well behaved when she takes us out in public. This is a lot of pressure.



I am practically perfect in every way but sometimes, especially when we go to a new place, I get a bit silly when I get out fo the dog-crate-on-wheels. It is very exciting to visit different places and sometimes I can't help myself with all the great, new smells, but I will try.



However I don't know what we are going to do about Ambrose. Just when I think he is maturing he goes and does something really, really bad. I know you will be horrified when I tell you.

Last week Royal's sister Jet came to visit us at the training center. She is a confident little puppy but minded me quite well.



Then Ambrose came in and he stood over Jet in a rude way and then, to everyone's shock, he lifted his leg and peed on her!!!! I am mortified! Poor Jet. She didn't want anything to do with Ambrose after that (and I certainly don't blame her) but then he thought he could do play bows to her to get her to play with him. He is a real dope. He will never get a girl friend if he thinks that marking them is the way to go about it.

Anyway I am going to enjoy the rest of my birthday. I heard that we are having roast beast for dinner which is one of my favorites. Now if only Barbara refrains from singing Happy Birthday to me things will be wonderful.

Our New Training Center

This time Barbara has a really good excuse for not helping us blog or visit yours. She has been very busy and somewhat stressed but it has all worked out just fine.

We jumped in the dog-crate-on-wheels and went for a ride to the dog park. After a good run we made a turn and saw this sign.



What could it mean? Paw In Hand is the name of Barbara's business. She works with dogs and their people in their homes and also teaches group classes for Paws 4Ever and other places. But she wanted her own training center where she could teach lots of people positive reinforcement techniques of dog training.

We were a bit worried when we pulled up next to Max's Dog Wash for as you know, it is not my favorite place. But instead of going into Max's for dog grooming torture we went next door.



Then I saw my dog grooming torture table and got worried since I have been looking a bit tufty and I know that means that Barbara will get out the evil dog grooming torture implements to do bad things to my fur.



It is not another dog grooming torture parlor but instead it is Paw In Hand Dog Training. We now have a nice big room with excellent mats to cushion our feet. There are chairs for the people and toys for us. Ambrose and I hand to sniff it all over to make sure everything is fine.



This is going to be great. Barbara will be teaching her first classes there tonight. Of course I will help her as the demo dog.



It is very exciting to have our own training center. If you are ever near Chapel Hill stop by and visit us. And now that things have settled down we should be able to visit your blogs soon.

Ambrose Goes to Duke

Niamh hogs the blog all the time but I did something very interesting yesterday so it is my turn! She always makes fun of me and says rude things about my intelligence. Well I am very smart and now I have scientific proof! I was invited to participate is a research study at the Duke Canine Cognition Center. Niamh was in a study last fall and we both went to Duke when Barbara gave a talk there in January but this was my first time as an experimental subject.



The students at Duke really like dogs and everyone was very nice to me, petted me and let me sniff everything. The experiment was to see how dogs follow signals and get information. One of the students hid a treat under one of two cups. Then another student pointed to one of the cups and I had to find the treat. Sometimes the students would try to trick me by pointing to the wrong cup. Very shocking. But I soon figured out that if she was facing me, she was pointing to the cup with the treat and if she was facing away from me, she was giving me false information. The students thought I did very well, praised me a lot and of course I got to eat the treats.

Then they tried a new study with homemade biscuits. Emily showed me treats and sometimes she pretended to eat it and sometimes she put it near her ear! Then she would put the treats on the ground and see which one I went to.



You can see that I enjoyed the treat eating part of the experiment.



Emily and Katie were very nice to me. I was happy to help them advance the knowledge of how dogs solve problems and of course I would come back any time to eat some more of their treats. I did steal two treats off the table but they did not seem to mind.



While we were walking around the Duke campus we came across these statues.



I was a bit intimidated by the big camel.



But I went right up to the man to sniff him.



Niamh thinks that she is so smart, but I am too!

Canine Freestyle Federation Retreat

It has been such a long time since I have been able to blog. Barbara has been very busy making lists and phone calls. She says that she will have some exciting news soon but bits of paper with all sorts of numbers on them don't look very exciting to me. Not that Ambrose and I have been neglected or anything. We have been going to the dog park, practicing, playing and being generally good dogs and getting lots of treats.

Last weekend Barbara and I took a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee for the Canine Freestyle Federation Retreat (Ambrose went to K9 Kindercare). We went to it two years ago and this year it was even better. After a long, long ride in the dog-crate-on-wheels we arrived at a motel. I love motels. This one had a magic elevator room.



It is so cool to go in the magic elevator room and when the door opens you are in a completely different place!



I liked this motel room because it had a window seat. I sat up there to keep a watch on the parking lot.



There were about 40 dogs staying at the motel and we all behaved very well. The other non-dog guests were surprised to see us everywhere.



The Retreat started on Friday with a Freestyle competition. I wasn't entered because we haven't finished my routine. But my friend Lucky was entered and he and his person got their CFF Level III title. Their routine was excellent.



We had classes Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday morning. The instructors kept us very busy practicing our technical skills and helping our people to develop their artistry and creativity.





One of my favorite things to do is target to Barbara's hand.



Then I get to jump really high.



I think we make a really good team. We worked very hard together. The instructors asked us to show off some of our phrases in the show and tell part on Sunday.



There were all kinds of dogs at the Retreat. This is Segan and he is a Belgian Lakenois. I had never met a dog like him before. He is very good at Freestyle and makes lovely turns. We got to do a team routine together.



Of course I always like to find new boyfriends. Nova sat next to me during one of the classes and we did a lot of flirting. I think he is quite handsome.



I worked so hard that I was very tired when the classes were over. I needed a long nap to refresh myself.



It took me a whole day to recover from all my activities! Besides the physical activity, over course it was mentally stimulating to learn new things. That is exhausting too. But now I am back to my usual, active self.



Ambrose had a good time at K9 Kindercare. I was very happy when we left him there so I could have Barbara all to myself for a few days. As you can see he is doing very well. He is almost 16 months old and he is starting to get a bit of sense lately.



We have a busy week ahead of us but we will catch up with all your blogs. I know that you have been doing lots of fun things.