Tracking and Topiary

My favorite dog sport is tracking. I really enjoy Rally and Canine Freestyle but when I track I get to use my nose to find interesting things. It is great fun to go out on a beautiful morning to the fields with Barbara and meet our friends and do some tracking.



We are really beginning to work as a team. She is reading my body language and trusting me to stay on track.



Of course besides the lovely smells I get delicious treats. This morning it was sausage biscuit and cheese!



My BFF Ayla tracked too. She is very good at it and I know her person was really pleased with her work. Here she is getting into her special tracking harness.



Considering that we both have a big silly streak, our people are impressed with how hard we work when we track.

Ambrose got to do a little puppy track. Of course Barbara and Sandi carried on about him like he had found buried treasure instead of a few gloves and things that were only 10 feet apart!! It really is sickening to listen to them praise him constantly.

He is getting big now. I think his ears are getting very long. Or maybe I have stretched them from chewing on them so much!




Barbara took Ambrose on a walk at Fearrington and saw these cool topiary dogs.

Ambrose had to take a good sniff to figure out that this terrier was made of moss and not fur.



This big one looks a lot like our Airedale friends.



Look at this green version of Stanislaw and Big Pupi.



And who does this look like?

Mail, Tag and more

I love to get mail. Yesterday this great package came in the mail from Addie and Lucie. For their 200th post their mom decided to donate a pound food to the animal shelter for everyone who commented on their blog. I thought this was a great idea so of course we had to comment. It turned out that we got randomly picked to receive a present for commenting.

I had to stick my head all the way in the package to check it out.



Look at all the goodies in side! Candy bar stuffies, chew sticks with chicken, a squeaky tennis ball and a lovely card.



Here is the card with Addie and Lucie's paw prints.



I love the candy bar stuffies as they are just the right size to carry in my mouth and squeak.



Since the package was addressed to me, all the presents are mine. However, generous big sister that I am, I will let Ambrose play with one of the toys and maybe have a chew stick.



Thanks so much Addie, Lucie and your mom for donating to the shelter and for my neat presents.

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A Game

Barbara was tagged by the Dughallmor Beagles to play this game awhile ago. She finally figured out all her answers!

1. What is your name? Barbara
The following answers must all begin with the first letter of your name.
2. A four letter word? Boss
3. Girl name: Brigid
4. Boy name: Brendan
5. Occupation: Baker
6. Color: Blue
7. Piece of clothing: Blouse
8. Food: Bacon
9. Item in the bathroom: Bathtub
10. Place/City: Boston (where many of our blogging friends live)
11. A reason for being late: Barbara has never been late in her life!
12. Something you’d yell: Blegh!
13. Movie: Brigadoon (Beagledoon)
14. Something you can drink: Bourbon
15. Band: Beach Boys
16. Animal: Baboon
17. Street name: Broadway
18. Car: Buick
19. Song: Born to Run
20. Activity that includes more than one participant: Baseball



I sent Ambrose off to Trotter's house yesterday to play with Trotter's new little sister Scout. The puppies got very silly when they played.



Ambrose's legs have gotten so long. I am afraid that he may be part giraffe.



Scout hid in the tunnel and Ambrose did play bows to coax her out.



When she got tired of their play she rested on the broad jump.



Ambrose continued to run around the yard with a chicken stuffie in his mouth.



Scout needed to cool off in the shade of the pause table.



All this playing with Scout wore Ambrose out, thank goodness, and I was able to rest last night instead of having to play endless games of tug.

Puppy Training

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) thinks it is vital that all puppies get trained. I do too. Ambrose is bad enough as he is. If Barbara wasn't training him I don't want to even imagine how bad he would be. Barbara started teaching a new Junior Puppy class the other night. Of course I went to demonstrate and Ambrose came too. The puppies are pretty cute but they are all very silly

Goldie



Abby



Milo



Ambrose made friends with a Lewellyn Setter named Chief.



They practiced doing their sits.



My boyfriend Trotter's special person Chris came with their new Golden Retriever puppy named Scout. Poor Trotter. Now he will be neglected the way I am while Chris spends all her time with this new puppy. I have a great idea. Trotter can come to live with me and I will send Ambrose over to Chris to live with Scout. Then neither Trotter or I will have to deal with icky puppies.



Ambrose gets lots of training at home. Barbara takes him out into the woods to climb over logs and to practice his obedience. She says it will make him confident and strong. I think that he is too confident and strong already. He has tried to put his paws on my shoulders, the little brat!



He climbs over logs.



He crawls under branches.



When he isn't looking at her, Barbara will hide behind a tree and call him.



Ambrose races to her and gets bits of hot dogs. This is a great game to help with the recall. I love to play hide 'n seek.



Here is a photo of the two of us. You can see how big he is getting.



Now we are off to play bitey face. I've been tagged for a game and received an award. We'll get them up in the next day or so.

Canine Freestyle Workshop

I just got back from a most exhausting, but educational and exciting weekend. Barbara and I do Canine Freestyle and we belong to the Carolina Canine Freestyle Guild. Our group organized a seminar with Kristen Scicotte to learn all about music and choreography for freestyle. I had a great time and learned so much.



We had to bring Ambrose along but he knows nothing about freestyle yet. Everyone made quite a fuss over him. It really is quite sickening.



But he had to stay in the crate most of the time while I got to work with Barbara on our freestyle moves and of course I got lots of cheese, hot dogs and praise for doing so well. Ha!



Here are some photos of my freestyle friends doing their moves. Smudge can actually put her paws on Sue's feet and stay there while Sue walks forward!!



Takoda and Ellen working on their moves while Kristen, the seminar leader, watches.



I was one of the three dogs chosen to show off their choreography at the end of the seminar. Everyone admired my beautiful movement and elegance. Unfortunately, even though Barbara had her video camera with her, she forgot to ask anyone to film us! I am so annoyed because I did my piece very well and we got lots of compliments.

Kristen is a wonderful teacher and she gave us a lot of good advice for our practices.



Our Carolina Canine Freestyle Guild worked hard to put on the seminar and all the participants, people and dogs, had a great experience. Here are the Guild members with Kristen.



Canine Freestyle shows off the joyful relationship between dog and handler. You can see great routines at the Hall of Fame on the CFF website.

Barbara and I have a lot more practicing to do because we are going to enter a competition in July.

Jealousy

I spent the weekend at K9 Kindercare while Barbara went away to celebrate her Mom's birthday. I like going to K9 Kindercare because they take great care of me and I have lots of fun with the other dogs. But Barbara didn't bring me back a present from San Antonio. I feel very sorry for the dogs there if there are no treats and toys in the entire city.

But what really annoyed me is that Ambrose got to stay with my boyfriend Trotter, his big sister Dreamer and Chris. I cannot believe that I had to go to the kennel while Ambrose got spoiled at Trotter's house.



He got to play in the yard all the time and hang out with Trotter.



Chris always has really good treats and I bet she gave him a lot.



On Saturday, Chris took Ambrose with her to a seminar and I heard that everyone there made a big fuss over him. I am just sick with jealousy about the whole thing!

I got him back though. He tried to play with my fish stuffie this morning and I nailed him. He won't be doing that any time soon.

Tracking

I always like it when I see Barbara's friend Gretchen because it means I'm going to have a tracking lesson. Gretchen is a tracking judge and she has trained one of her Weimeraners to be a Champion Tracker, which is very hard to do.




Gretchen laid a very interesting track for me that crossed a ditch with water in it. I had no problem with the track but Barbara has to learn to do her part, reading me, better.

Ambrose got to do his very first track. Gretchen put down a track with lots of articles (cloth, leather, plastic and metal) every few feet. Every time Ambrose found one he got huge praise and lots of hot dogs and sausage biscuit. They made a big fuss over him so he will like tracking. He doesn't really know what he is doing yet but he did get his nose down to sniff.







Ayla's person, Sandi, took these pictures for us. You can read more about tracking on Ayla's blog.

I do love to track. It is always interesting and fun and I am sure, once Ambrose figures it out, he will love it too.

Tug o' War

Tug o' war is a great game but my big sister Selkie would never allow me to play it. She and Barbara used to play it all the time but if I tried to join in, Selkie would give me a very fierce correction. So I stopped trying since Selkie was in charge and I didn't want to get in trouble.

Ambrose and I have had a few good tug games which have been lots of fun. The pictures are blurry because we were moving so fast. Barbara really should have had the video camera out to capture the whole thing.



See how well Ambrose holds onto the rabbit. He is quite strong for a little guy. Of course I can yank it away from him anytime I want to.



Notice how wet his left ear is? That's because when we play bitey face, I hold his ear in my mouth and gnaw on it.

Socialization

It's all about socialization at our house these days. Barbara is obsessed with it. Ambrose needs to be socialized to this, Ambrose needs to be socialized with that, is all I hear. It is very important that puppies get exposed, in a gentle, positive way to all sorts of experiences when they are under 16 weeks old. So according to Barbara, the clock is ticking. Of course we dogs need to keep being socialized all through our adolescence but the early weeks are critical

I was very well socialized as a puppy but I am getting a bit sick of all the time Barbara is spending doing it with Ambrose. It means I get neglected while she takes him off to have adventures. I have to stay home and he comes back with the smell of cheese on his breath.

Today she took him to her friend Jane's house to socialize with her foster dog Cherie and to walk in their neighborhood. Cherie is a lovely young pit bull mix that Jane, who is a dog trainer too, is fostering for the Durham Animal Protection Society.



Ambrose liked Cherie very much and you can see how nice she was with him. They practiced their sits before they went on their walk.



Ambrose got to see bicycles and he and Cherie met a little toddler. I hear that they behaved beautifully. I, of course, was not a witness since I was stuck at home alone. Barbara says that she has to "concentrate" on Ambrose. How hard can it be? He isn't that big!



Cherie is up for adoption. She is about a year old, spayed, housetrained and crate trained, really good with other dogs, loves people and of course has learned a lot of obedience skills from Jane. If you know of a great home for her, let me know.



Thank you for all your concern about my eating the brownies. I was fine and I can not understand why there was all the fuss. Actually I think it is some kind of conspiracy to keep us dogs from tasting something that is so delicious that the people want to keep it all for themselves.

The brownies were delicious. Barbara says that she hopes I enjoyed them because it will never happen again.

I am in BIG Trouble

Yesterday was Barbara's Junior Puppy class graduation. She always gets special biscuits from the dog bakery for the graduates and bakes some treats for the people too. I love the smell of baked goods. This time she made a nut bread and a pan of milk chocolate brownies.

She put the bread on a rack to cool on top of the fridge and left the pan of brownies on top of the stove. Later she put Ambrose in his crate when she went to take a shower. She forgot about the brownies. I did not.



I could not blame this on Ambrose since he was in his crate. It didn't help that my muzzle was covered in brownie crumbs.

Most of what Barbara said is not printable in a family blog. She did refer to me as a "complete pig" though and said that I was "a bad example to my little brother". To be fair, she directed most of the HBO words to herself for foolishly leaving such temptation in my way. And of course she was very upset because I ate chocolate. Fortunately I am fine.




To further humiliate me she announced to the entire Junior Puppy class that the reason that they only had nut bread to celebrate graduation with, and not brownies, was my fault.