I am Four!

Today is my birthday and I turned four! The day started out as usual but when Barbara came home from her lessons she had a bag from Phydeaux, my favorite store.

I got two new stuffies for my birthday! The yellow one is a great tug toy.



You may wonder why I don't look terribly excited about my new stuffies. It is because Barbara is singing "Happy Birthday" to me and it sounds ghastly. I tried to hide my head and pretend I didn't hear it.



These are great stuffies though (even if I did have to endure her singing to get them). Now I just have to keep Ambrose from getting his puppy cooties on them or farting anywhere near them.

After I got my presents Barbara took me to the park for a walk and then a drive out in the country to a most wonderful place.



The cows at Maple View Farm make delicious ice cream and the store is filled with it.



Of course I couldn't go inside but Barbara went in and bought me a dish of Butter Pecan ice cream!



She fed it to me on the spoon because she was afraid if she gave me the dish I would eat the whole thing in one gulp!



It was delicious and when I was almost through she let me lick the cup to get every creamy, yummy drop.





What a great birthday treat! More please?



I am one lucky Gordon Setter.

Excuses, Excuses!

Usually I get to post about twice a week but it has been 11 days since my last post. This is disgraceful. Barbara has lots of excuses - problems with the internet connection, work, meetings, conference calls -blah! Blah! BLAH! It is not as if I haven't been doing anything, it is just that she says that she has been too busy to upload my pictures and help me visit all my friends' blogs. What could be more important than helping me blog?



Ambrose and I met a new friend at the dog park. Her name is Jazzy and she is a young Standard Poodle.



We had a good time running around the park. Jazzy is a fast runner. I hope we meet up with her again.



I've been doing a lot of training recently because I have a freestyle competition coming up in July. Barbara is pleased with how our routine is coming. My boyfriend Trotter comes out to the training center to practice too. We always have some playtime as well. We had a good game of tug with this duck.



Ambrose has been very annoying lately. I have had to correct him quite severely as he has tried to muzzle in on my morning ear rubs! This is my special time with Barbara and I will not have it interrupted. He is also developing into a serious thief. He stole a roll of paper towels and chewed it up. He got a jar of peanut butter off the counter and ate half of it! You can imagine that many HBO words were said around here.



But the worst part is that Ambrose has turned out to be a terrible farter! I hate to be indelicate but I cannot bear it. We were in the dog-crate-on-wheels and the stench was unbelievable. Barbara opened the windows but it was not enough. Ambrose and I are in crates in the dog-crate-on-wheels (I try to do the driving if I am loose) and I could not escape. You can see from this picture that I am about ready to expire from the smell.



I really don't know what I am going to do with him. All I can say is that he better get me a really good birthday present (my birthday is Wednesday) to make up for all I have to put up with from him.



We will catch up with all your blogs in the next couple of days. Hope you all had a fun Memorial Day weekend.

Social Secretary Wanted

I think that I need to hire a social secretary. Ambrose is constantly going on play dates and socialization outings. I have been severely neglected. I don't get to blog, or visit my friends' blogs, as often as I want. Barbara takes pictures of Ambrose but forgets to take pictures of me! A social secretary could keep our lives organized and make sure that I get all the attention and training that I need.

Ambrose had another playdate today with his little girfriend Scout.



They love to race around the yard and run through the tunnel.



After they get tired of running they play a lot of bitey face. They play in a very reciprocal way so it is all in fun even if it looks pretty rough.



It is a wonder that either of them have any ears left since they chew on them so much.



Ambrose is usually very tired after his playdates with Scout. This is a good thing because it means I won't have to play with him so much and can get my beauty sleep.



I know that you all like to see pictures of Ambrose since he is supposedly such a cute puppy. Well I was pretty cute when I was a puppy too. My mom Misty sent me this photo of me when I was 3 weeks and 2 days old.

Happy Mother's Day Misty and Maisie

Ambrose and I are so lucky that we have such great Moms!

Here's my Mom, Misty.


Ch Tri-Sett Living Legend CD, JH, RE


Ambrose's Mom, Maisie.


Pointsetter Fantasia JH

They are lovely ladies with excellent noses and temperaments. We are fortunate that they passed those good traits down to us. They took great care of us when we were little puppies. They kept us clean, safe and warm. They fed us so we could grow up to be healthy and strong. As we got older they helped socialize us and show us how to be good Gordon Setters.

Thanks for everything Moms!


xoxoxo
Niamh



xoxoxo
Ambrose

Ambrose Has a Busy Day

Monday was an exciting day for Ambrose. First he and his friend Scout got to go tracking. They do little tracks with lots of articles and rewards. Then Ambrose went to the lake for the first time!

Scout has already been to the lake once so she knew just what to do.



Ambrose went into the water but kept looking back at Barbara to see if it was ok. She encouraged him with lots of praise and some treats and threw little sticks for him.



Ambrose did not know what to do with his feet! Should he splash the water with his paw or try to swim?



He is not sure if he wants to go back in to the lake or just watch Scout swimming. Next time I will go with him and show him how much fun it is to splash and swim.



Afterwards they both rolled around on the grass to dry off and played a little bitey face.



Monday night was the Junior Puppy Class graduation. The puppies got to show off their tricks and do a mini obstacle course. They tried to get a group picture but it is hard to get 9 puppies to sit still at once!



The puppies have grown so much in seven weeks (Ambrose has more than doubled in size) and learned a lot. I hope all the puppies continue on with classes so that they will grow up to be great dogs. A puppy's mind is a terrible thing to waste.

New Bandanna

I always know when i am going to get to march or perform with the Drill Team because Barbara gets out my team bandana. The Animal Protection Society of Orange County recently changed their name to Paws 4Ever so the people on the team had to get new T-shirts and sweatshirts and us dogs got new bandanas!



I think it looks good and it contrasts with the peoples' new T-shirts.



Today we performed at the Carrboro Day festival. We did our two group routines and Barbara and I performed our individual routine. It was very hot but I think we did well and we got a lot of applause. Afterwards lots of people came up to pet us and to find out about dog training.

Of course Ambrose had to stay at home. He does not know enough to be in the Drill Team and if he got a new bandanna he would probably tear it up like he does everything else. We will be entering pictures of some of the things he has ruined in the Pointer Pandemonium Naughty Dog competition. He might win on sheer volume of naughtiness.

For those of you who like to see his goofy face, here are a couple of photos of Ambrose. He is getting big. I just wish his brains would grow as fast as his legs.

Sniffing with a Purpose

As you know I love to track. I get to use my nose to find interesting things, solve problems and get big rewards! What is not to like. Some of you have expressed interest in tracking and I am sure that you would love it if you tried it. If my goofy little brother Ambrose can do it, you will be brilliant at it. I thought I would show you how to get started.

Here are some of my tracking articles that I get to find. They can be cloth, leather, plastic and metal. All you really need is some of your person's socks. Barbara puts my articles in a plastic bag with a t-shirt that she has worn to get the articles nice and smelly.



You can start with just your flat collar and a leash. After you get into tracking you will want a non-restrictive tracking harness, and a long line. Mine is from climbing rope because I am so strong and Barbara has to wear rappelling gloves because I pull so hard and the rope would burn her hands. Tracking is the one time I am allowed to pull so it makes it a lot of fun.



I am modeling my harness. They come in many colors but you can never go wrong with basic black as a fashion statement. I only get my harness put on right before we start to track.



Then your person or a friend has to lay the track. It is vital that your person knows where the track is so they can use survey flags to mark it (gardening stakes with surveyor's tape works well). Here is a flag with the start article, a black sock.



All your person has to do is take a couple of steps and put a treat down in their footstep. See the piece of string cheese by her foot? They do this a couple of more times and then put an article down with treats. Then a few more steps and another article.



Your first tracks should be very short and your person should help you a lot and of course praise you. They should make an extra big fuss when you find the articles. I don't need the pieces of treats at the beginning of the track anymore because the scent is enough.



Barbara and I have little routines that we do at the start of the track to help me get ready to work. I have to lie down near the start flag and sniff the article. This is boring because I really want to just run the track but Barbara wants me to think.



Then off we go with me with my nose down, following the track. What is it that I am smelling? Some of it is the crushed vegetation from where it was stepped on. Some of it is smell from the person. People think that with all their baths and showers they are so clean but they are shedding skin cells and smells all the time. They have no idea because their noses are almost useless compared to ours.



The scent behaves differently depending on the weather conditions and the terrain. It is fun to figure out where the track goes and of course get the big reward at the final article! Look what I found this morning!



If you and your person want to start tracking there are good books that can help you such as Try Tracking by Carolyn Krause and many others that you can find at Dogwise.

Use your nose!!

Dog Grooming Torture

Both Ambrose and I got the promised session of dog grooming torture this weekend. Since Barbara cannot groom and take pictures at the same time, there are no graphic photos of the actual torture. These are just some of the evil implements that were used on us.



Even though I get lots of cheese while I am on the torture table, I am not thrilled about the whole thing.



The miracle is that I am not bald! Barbara was very careful and only used the new clipper blade a little bit. This is a good thing because she is a trainer, not a groomer and I think that she should stick to training!



She says that as my special person it is her responsibility to keep me healthy and part of that involves bathing and grooming. She checks my skin, ears, toes and all over to look for lumps and bumps, ticks and other ickies. I know that she is just trying to take good care of me but I wish it did not involve dog grooming torture.

Ambrose had his turn on the table which he doesn't seem to mind. He hasn't had the clippers used on him yet but Barbara turns them on so he will get used to the sound.



He has a lot more hair than I did at that age. He had to get the hair on his feet trimmed as well as his little feathers on his legs brushed! I bet he is going to have a lot more coat than I do which will mean lots of dog grooming torture in his future.



But don't worry, it wasn't all torture this weekend. We had several good walks and I got to practice freestyle with my friends. Ambrose went to the park for socialization and had a playdate with Scout.



They love to chase and play bitey face.



Hope you all had a good weekend.