A Great Prize Package

As some of you may know I took 2nd Place in the Bad Sports class at Mango Minster!


Last week a package arrived addressed to Mr. Ambrose - Gordon Setter. Notice the Mr. Ambrose, not annoying Ambrose or silly boy Ambrose but Mr. Finally I get some respect! It was from Scout and Freyja who sponsored the 2nd Place prize. There was a nice note inside.



I had to stick my head in the box right away to check out all the goodies.



Scout and Freyja put some terrific stuff in there including this great bone.



I had to play with my new Snoopy frisbee right away.



There was also a burger stuffie, treats and a Snoopy portable water dish! They even sent some nice gift tags for Barbara (which she doesn't deserve since she was so late in posting about my prize). All great stuff and I thank you, Scout and Freyja and your mom, for sponsoring this prize and sending it to me. And thanks to Judge Fiona for giving me 2nd Place in the Bad Sports class.



I will turn into a cat before I refer to my little brother Ambrose as Mister! Winning that prize has gone to his head and he actually tried to get me to play bitey face this morning before I had eaten my breakfast. What nerve!

Barbara does have some excuse for being slack with our blog. She had graduation for several of her classes last week as well as a Canine Good Citizen test and had to prepare dogs for their Therapy Dog International evaluation. Her students did very well so it was worth it.

Unfortunately Ambrose and I were subjected to all sorts of dog grooming torture last week. We both had baths. You can see how unhappy I am about that.



Then she pinned a towel on me while torturing me with the blow dryer. The towel is to prevent the dreaded fluffy butt that I sometimes get after a bath.



Ambrose is waiting on the grooming table before the bath. He doesn't seem to mind the dog grooming torture as much as I do. He is crazy.



The reason we were subjected to all this was for a trip to the University of North Carolina. Now we go for walks there all the time so I saw no need for a bath for that. However we were invited to give a demonstration of dog training to a class of General Psychology students. Their professor took a puppy class with Barbara and found that the practical application of operant conditioning is a lot harder than the theory! She asked Barbara to bring us to class to demonstrate our skills and to let the students practice with us.

It was great fun! There were almost 300 students in the auditorium and they were all looking at us!! After explaining about clicker training and showing off some of our skills, she helped students work with us on target training. We got LOTS of treats and of course many of the students wanted to pet us which we also enjoyed. Of course she forgot her camera so there are no pictures. However the professor and the class really enjoyed our work and we are invited back for next semester.

Training

Ambrose here. It has been mostly sunny in NC and Barbara decided it would be a good time to take me over to Fearrington for a walk and some training.




Fearrington has nice shopping area, lots of gardens, ponds and cows and goats. While we were walking around 2 people stopped to say what a handsome dog I am. Which of course I am.

They have outdoor sculpture by local artists and Barbara thought we should look at that. I wanted to see the cows. Look at this giant metal rooster. I would have preferred a real rooster with feathers.




I practiced my sit stays by this giraffe.




And by these mushrooms.



Then we did some more by this statue. However once Barbara saw the price tag of $2400 she moved me a way from it in case I tried to practice some bad sport skills on it!



I really wanted to go see the cows in the field but none of them would come close to me at the fence so I have no pictures to show of them.


Of course the sensible cows did not come near the fence while Ambrose was there. However the cows are my friends and always come to the fence when I visit. When I go to Fearrington I will get nice photos of the cows to post.



I always enjoy hanging out with my boyfriend Trotter. We like to practice our recalls and get good treats. Here we are sitting politely in front of his person waiting for her to give us bits of cheese.



Barbara has called us to come and we raced across the yard to get to her. She had turkey sausage which was very delicious and excellent for encouraging speedy recalls.



Tomorrow I will go to freestyle practice where Barbara and I will work on some moves for a new routine.

A Shared Post

Thank you all for your concern about my poor tail and ears. I am happy to tell you that both have improved greatly and I am feeling better although I still have to take medicine for another week.



You know how I have kept strict control of my blog and I rarely let Ambrose post on it. I am worried that he may get ideas above his station and try to take over the blog like some labradorks we know. Ever since Ambrose took 2nd place in the Bad Sports class at Mango Minster he has had delusions of grandeur and wants to post more.

As a compromise we are going to experiment with shared posts! I am sure it will be a train wreck but we are going to try. I will post in regular print and Ambrose will post in italics.

Ambrose here. I am still basking in the glow of taking 2nd place in Bad Sports at Mango Minster. Miss Perfect Niamh thinks that she is the only one who can win anything. I knew that all my badness would pay off some day. I was very inspired by Moose's well deserved 1st place. I will try to emulate him and be even more bad this year.

Barbara doesn't seem to think that this is a good idea. She has decided that I need more mental stimulation to keep me from doing bad things so we are doing a lot more training lately. Here I am practicing "leave it".



After my visit to Duke the nice students there sent me a box of toys to thank me for being a demo dog at Barbara's talk. Well actually the box was addressed to Barbara but I know that they sent them to me. We had to get right in there and check it out.






Of course Ambrose couldn't wait for Barbara to take the toys out of the box and grabbed one with the packaging still on it.



I waited politely to see the toys. They are excellent toys and I wanted them all for myself.



I took two of the toys and stood over them. Ambrose of course tried to get them but you can see I gave him an intense look and he turned his head away. I am very clear in my body language and as dopey as he is, Ambrose usually gets it when I am serious.



Niamh finally let me play with the toys. They are excellent and I raced around with them. I gave the raccoon a good shake.



The rabbit is good too. Barbara likes these toys because there is no stuffing in them for me to destuff and eat.



After some good playing I decided I would be a nice little brother and wash Niamh's ears for her. They had icky bacteria in them and I thought I could help her by cleaning them out.

Ambrose does like to lick my ears. Sometimes I don't mind it but at other times he just gets too enthusiastic and rough and messes up my ear fur. Then I have to tell him off.



Look how quickly he backed off when I told him to.

My Ears and My Tail

I have been a bit under the weather lately and not my usual happy self.



I had to go to see my veterinarian at Colony Park Animal Hospital. Now I like to go to the vet's office because they always treat me nicely and give me treats but sometimes they have to do things to me that are not fun. Barbara had been treating my ears because they were yucky (which sometimes happens to us long eared dogs) but they weren't getting much better. They had to power wash my ears and give me new medicine to get at the disgusting yeast and bacteria.

But the worst was my poor tail. I have some sebaceous cysts on my tail that never seem to bother me but lately they got bigger and got all infected.

Close your eyes and don't look at the next photo if you get grossed out easily.






My tail fur had to be shaved, I am on antibiotics for a month and Barbara has to exfoliate my tail every day with special soap!!! Ugh!

Because of all of this I had to miss a fun event. Barbara was invited again to the Duke Canine Cognition Center to give the students some tips on dog body language and safe handling. Ambrose and I went last year and had a great time. I couldn't go and I am sick with jealousy that annoying Ambrose got to be the demo dog and I had to stay home. All the nice Duke students petted him and gave him treats.



They made a big fuss over him and now he thinks he is cool.

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.