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

Mango Product Alert!!

My Relentlessly Huge friend, the Mango, has posted about his dismay when he finds out about products made with his mangoness. So you can imagine my shock when I found out that Barbara has one of these dreaded mango products and she uses it regularly.

Burt's Bees Mango and Orange Body Butter! How did they make this? Did they melt the Mango? Did bees sting him? I cannot conceive how Barbara, who loves dogs, would use this product and rub it on her hands and arms.

I took a sniff of it myself and I was quite taken aback. I did not expect the Mango to smell sweet, and dare I say, girly??

I just don't know what to think.

Ambrose had no such scruples. He actually licked the Mango off Barbara's hand. Did he think that it was the same kind of butter that you put on bread? He is so disgusting.

I hope Mango is ok and has not suffered any ill affects from being made into hand cream.

A Wasted Bath

You all know how much I hate baths and all forms of dog grooming torture. On Friday, Barbara bathed me and used many evil implements on me. Even with lots of treats it is an awful experience. Barbara said that I had to get beautiful because on Saturday we were going to perform at the Dog Olympics at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. We performed there last year and got lots of applause. I was very excited because we have been practicing a new routine to demo there.

Well the bath was wasted!!! This morning we were all ready to go and the dog-crate-on-wheels had a flat tire! Major bummer. By the time it was repaired, it was too late. So now I am all groomed up with no where to go. In other news, last month Barbara went to NY and NJ to visit family. Ambrose and I were happy to go to K9 Kindercare because we would not want to fly in a plane. She got to hang out with our cousin Coby who is a very nice Cockapoo.

He likes to play with toys and sometimes he rips them. Our Grandma always performs surgery on his toys when she visits. At least he leaves them in pieces big enough to sew back together. Ambrose's idea of playing with toys is to shred them in tiny pieces.

The big news is that Coby has a new sister so we have a new cousin. She is a Cockapoo too and is called Nellie. She looks very sweet and we are glad to welcome her to the family. Coby loves her.

The No Choke Challenge

A couple of weeks ago I was the demo dog for a K9 Kindness event. Today Ambrose and I acted acted as guinea pigs at a K9 Kindness training session. K9 Kindness supports reward based training and encourages the use of training equipment such as front clip harnesses. They will have a booth at the Dog Olympics at the NC State Vet School on September 8 and will be doing the "No Choke Challenge". If a person turns in their dog's choke chain, prong collar or shock collar, the K9 Kindness trainers will give them a FREE front clip harness from Walk Your Dog with Love, a treat bag, treats, a bandana and a training session to teach their dog to walk nicely on leash!!! Good deal. Anyway the trainers wanted to practice fitting these harnesses (it is important that front clip harnesses fit correctly to work effectively) so Jenn Merritt offered a special class at our training center.

She brought stuffed dogs for the trainers to practice on. You can bet that Ambrose barked at the big stuffed lab. I did not. You can see that the way the harness fits on this little stuffed dog.

Then it was our turn. I sat very nicely while people fitted me and gave me treats.

It is a bit hard to see the harness since it is black and so am I. They left the card on it but the harness is quite comfortable and I walked very nicely in it.

Ambrose was very wiggly when the tried to fit him but then I expected that. But he walked in it very nicely and was quite pleased with himself.

He was so excited that he did a few bows, which is his favorite trick.

We were very happy to participate in this training as we know it will help lots of dogs. Plus all the trainers made a fuss over us and gave us lots of pets and treats. There are lots of dogs who could benefit from a front clip harness and we hope to spread the word about them and the joys of reward based training.

Mega Cooties!

Usually when we are at Day School Barbara sets up a big exercise pen for Ambrose and me to hang out in when she works with the other dogs. It is very spacious and there is room for our mats and our toys and to not bump into one another. Sometimes when the other pups are playing bitey face I take some of the toys and take them into a crate. Here I have taken a stuffed raccoon along with both Beatrice's and Greta's Kongs into Greta's crate to guard them.

But today the unthinkable happened. Barbara made me share a crate with Ambrose!!!

I can't tell you how horrified I was. Ambrose is full of cooties and there was no escaping them when I was stuffed into a crate with him. Ugh! I will never get them off. And just look at him hogging all the space. I barely have room to sit there. Do I look happy?

I hope she never does this again.

I Am Sick of It!!!

Sick of what you may ask? Ambrose here and I am completely sick that Niamh just hogs the blog and I get no face time. It is always "Niamh does this and Niamh does that. She is so good. She is so smart." Ugh! What about me??

I am sweet and I am smart and very handsome too. I am sick of being neglected so I am taking over the blog today. This will be a Niamh-free post. It is going to be all about what I did today.

A new dog, named Mutley, has come to live at the training center. Barbara is fostering him for a friend. He is pretty big and looks very serious.

I was a bit worried about him and barked at him when he was on the floor.

What am looking at so intently?

There is a big shelf where Barbara keeps all the treats and toys for the Day School and her classes. I know where she hides all the good stuff and sometimes if she is not paying attention, I can snag something. Unfortunately today she caught me in the act.

We do lots of training and playing in Day School. Barbara didn't get any shots of me doing my exercises (she says it is hard to train and take pictures at the same time) but I do lots tricks like spins, bows and targeting. I like to play rough and Amos is one of my best buddies. Here we are playing tug with Riley's hedgehog which I "borrowed".

I am a happy guy and I am going to insist that I get more blog time so you can enjoy my smiling face.