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.