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.

I Spent My Birthday in the Kennel

You all know how neglected I am and now I have to tell you my sad tale of even more dire neglect. Yesterday was my 2nd Birthday and instead of getting to spend it with Barbara and go on a fun outing and get special snacks, I was at K9 Kindercare.

Now don't get me wrong. I like to stay at K9 Kindercare. When Barbara dropped me and Niamh off there the week before Christmas I was happy to be there. I always make friends with the other dogs because I like to play all the time. We even had snow which was lots of fun. Here is a picture of me with Ginger and Twinkie. We are investigating something that Twinkie found under the snow.



We got our Christmas presents at the kennel (new stuffies and bones) and we expected Barbara to pick us up on Tuesday. A week is plenty of time to spend in the kennel. But there was lots of snow in NY which messed up the airports and her flight was cancelled!! She couldn't get a flight back to NC until today which meant I had to stay at the kennel for my birthday. Boo hoo! No presents, no outing, no special treats! See how neglected I am?

So we are all back home and Barbara has promised to make it up to me. I think I will try to look really pathetic so she feels very guilty about missing my birthday.

Photo Shoot Fail

Well Barbara has been trying to get nice photos of us for our Christmas card and it has been a disaster. Her bright idea was to wrap a big box and have Ambrose and me sit in it together. No way am I sitting in a box with Ambrose and getting his adolescent boy cooties on me.

Then she thought we should sit on the grooming table together wearing our new scarf Santa Claus bandanas from Jing-a-ling Dog Bandanas. But I still had to sit too close to Ambrose. Do I look happy??



On a much nicer note my Golden Retriever friend Amiga came to visit me today at our training center. It is her birthday and she is 14! Even though her face has turned white she is very active and playful.



We ran around together and I let her play with all my toys. We are in the Drill Team together and Amiga still performs with great energy and enthusiasm. Her people adopted her from Golden Retriever Rescue when she was two and have done lots of training classes with her. She is a lovely, sweet and talented friend.



In other exciting news local paper ran a story about Barbara on Sunday. It is a good article but I would have liked it better if they had put my picture in it instead of Barbara working with some puppy. You can read it here.

Freestyle Photos

I thought that you might like to see some pictures that Jim Poor, the dog sport photographer, took at the Canine Freestyle Federation trial. He took them with no flash since that would have distracted me while I was doing my routine.




You can see that I am paying great attention to Barbara. She was very pleased with me.




I was not allowed to get any treats during the whole routine. This is very hard but we had practiced a lot so I knew I would get treats at the end.




I really like doing my freestyle because I get to work with Barbara and do fun moves.




We got lots of applause when the routine was over which I liked very much.




We ordered the DVD of the competition and will post the routine once we get it.

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.

CNN Update

Awhile ago I was filmed performing experiments at the Duke Canine Cognition Center for a story on CNN. I found out today that "Animal Intelligence" is going to be on tonight at 10:00 PM EST. You can also see some of it here at CNN.com.



There are only 3 brief clips of me - the other dogs get more air time. I knew that they would show me doing one experiment that I didn't do so well on, and of course they showed that part. But there is good information in the story and it is important for people to study dogs so they will train us better. We are fascinating!

I Am So Neglected

I am getting a bit sick of hearing how wonderful Niamh is. Barbara is constantly telling her that she is smart and beautiful and giving her kisses. Sure Niamh now has letters after her name but I could have some too if someone would train me. I have been completely neglected while Niamh got lots of training and attention. Barbara says that I have regressed.

Then she tells me that I look all tufty. Well if she would groom me I would look really handsome. And I actually enjoy being groomed, not like some Gordon Setters I know who get very touchy about their grooming.



If I didn't have my friend Scout to play with I just don't know what I would do with myself. At least I can run around with her and try rid of some of my excess energy.



I have been doing lots attention seeking behavior. I have gone back to my old counter surfing ways and I dug this nice hole near our patio. But the thing that got the most attention was when I found some old poop under the leaves, put it in my mouth and tried to bring it into the house. Many HBO words were said I can tell you.



Maybe I should chew up a shoe or something.

Freestyle Photos

Our laptop is back from the Mac vet so now we can post about my winning weekend.

All the hard work of practicing my routine and all the dog grooming torture was worth it. Barbara is so pleased with me for earning my Canine Freestyle Federation Level II title that she is constantly telling me how smart and beautiful I am. I have been basking in the attention all week. Of course Ambrose is very jealous and has been acting out because he feels neglected. I have had to speak sharply to him a few times.

Here is a photo of us after Saturday's routine. I am wearing my 2nd place medallion as well as the patch that we got for my title. Barbara says she will sew the patch on our training bag but that will never happen because she is pathetic with a needle and thread.



I am licking my chops because each day after my routine I got an entire sausage biscuit to eat! Very delish. Of course I was famished because I was not allowed to have any treats in the ring while we were performing. But I paid great attention to Barbara and tried to follow her signals. I did anticipate her cues a couple of times but stayed right with her and worked very hard to earn my biscuit. We got lots of applause after our routine and people made a big fuss over me which I enjoyed too.



Barbara had the professional photographer take lots of pictures of us so when we get those, we will post them. Here I am modeling my first place medallion after the awards on Sunday.



We have ordered the dvd of the event so I hope to post my routines when that is available. Now that I have earned my Level II title we have to move up to Level III which is much harder. I have to start practicing all sorts of new moves. But I like to hear people clapping for me and I love those sausage biscuits so I think that I will get right to work.

Freestyle Trial

We had a great weekend at the Canine Freestyle Federation trial. On Saturday I took 2nd place in my class and earned enough for my level II title . On Sunday I got 1st place!! I am now officially Stonemist Time Is On My Side CFF II. I got lots of treats and toys as well as 2 beautiful medallions. Barbara was so proud that she had our picture take by the show phoographer so I will be able to put up nice photos soon.

Unfortunately our computer got sick over the weekend and has to go to the mac vet. B is trying to blog for me from her phone and she is havingahard time so we won't be posting again until the computer is better.

I have to rest now because winning those prizes was hard work.

Extreme Makeover - Gordon Setter Edition

Next weekend is my Canine Freestyle competition. We have been practicing a lot and I hope that we will get good scores. Barbara said that is important that I look particularly beautiful (probably because she will be looking spectacularly un-beautiful and she needs me to distract people from looking at her) because I will be the only Gordon Setter there and I have to be a good representative of my breed. I knew that this meant extreme dog grooming torture.

This morning Barbara drove Ambrose and me in the dog-crate-on-wheels up to VA to visit my Aunt Karen, who is my breeder, and my biological mom, Misty.



Misty is 10 years old but still quite active and playful and of course very beautiful and good. Whenever I get to see her I always give her a little kiss on the face. She is the only adult dog that I do that to. I am very respectful of my mom.



Misty is a good hostess and let us run all around her house and yard. She was very tolerant of goofy Ambrose who brought all his cooties along and left them everywhere. I noticed that she was carefully marking over all his cootiefyed pee-mail.



After some good play we went down to the special dog grooming torture chamber. Look at the array of evil implements that were laid out to be used on me.



Here is my before picture. I am all tufty and my feet are like bedroom slippers.



My Aunt Karen is quite skilled with dog grooming torture of Gordon Setters. She managed to snip or clip every hair on my body. She was very gentle with me and never let the clippers get hot and never poked me with the shears. I was pretty good through most of the torture, but I did get fussy when she worked on my back feet and when she got close to my ears. Aunt Karen gave me lots of breaks to relax and Barbara gave me liver treats when I behaved myself.



Ta-da! Here is the after photo. I think that I look pretty spiffy.



And I am very happy to have survived all the torture in one piece.



You can see where I get my good looks. That is me in the front and Misty in the back.