Bodi's B&B: Long Weekend Photos

Finally found a few minutes to post some photos of my long weekend with Miska-Mom, Uncle Tyro and Diva. 

Miska-Mom, Uncle Tyro, Diva

and Me!

   

Uncle T decided he liked the smallest bed the best

Trying to steal the toy away from Miska-Mom on the fly

to no avail

Miska-Mom and Uncle T demonstrating that

you are never too old for a good roll on wet grass

chomp, chomp, chomp

"I was enjoying that leaf!"

Yours truly with Diva

Miska-Mom and Uncle Tyro

I Spy

I spy, with my little eye, something that

appears to be orange and brown

and





should be given A LOT OF SPACE

Good thing it was a "honey" !!!

Ooops, We Did It Again!

IT WAS RAINING!

Bodi's B&B: Full House

Miska-Mom, Uncle Tyro and Diva were here for a long weekend.  We had lots and lots of fun in spite of two days of rain.

Wednesday's WHY

Actual question regularly asked over the years:

WHY do you go to so many obedience classes?  Is your dog not very smart?

There is a big difference between "basic obedience" classes and "competitive obedience" classes. Personally, I think that "basic obedience" classes should be mandatory for anyone wishing to own a dog. It's beneficial for the dogs and it's beneficial for society at large for the humans to learn a few things about dog behaviour, body language, and basic positive training techniques.  Contrary to popular belief, it is the humans who receive most of the training in (well run) obedience classes.

I choose to challenge myself and my dog by regularly attending a variety of classes (obedience, rally, agility...).  It's been proven that human lifelong learners have sharper minds well into their senior years so WHY NOT provide more enriched lives for our dogs, as well?

Sit-stay (at 13 weeks) with Uncle Tyro and Sister Diva

 

I Spy

I Spy, with my little eye, something that is

beautiful

purple and iridescent blue

Limentis arthemis

 "Red Spotted Purple Butterfly"

taken with maximum zoom so a little blurry

2 Trick Dog Titles

2 titles earned through Kyra Sundance's "DoMoreWithYourDog.com"
(Internationally-renowned stunt dog show performer)

"You have your friends, your work, your entertainment.
Your dog has only you. You are his life, his love, his everything."
  ~ Kyra Sundance
 Do More With Your Dog

Novice Trick Dog (NTD)

To qualify as a "Novice Trick Dog," I had to demonstrate proficiency in 15 tricks from a list of 50 Novice tricks (instructions for which appear in 101 Dog Tricks, 51 Puppy Tricks, The Dog Tricks and Training Workbook, 10-Minute Dog training Games, and/or 101 Ways To Do More With Your Dog).

As my qualifying sequence of tricks was not recorded at the time they were performed, you can see me performing some of these tricks by clicking on the links to previous posts (I got a little carried away and actually performed 20 tricks!):
 

cavalettis "noodles"

chase "lure coursing"
recall here

find hidden treats
follow pointed finger

3 hand signals (without verbal cues) - future post

jump over a bar "recall over a jump"

kisses here

paws up on an object here
pedestal here
ring a bell to go outside here

shake hands here

speak

spin circles - future post

take a bow here

tunnel here

A few more examples of novice tricks from my puppyhood

food refusal/leave it (4 1/2 months)

balance beam/ramp (10 weeks)

fetch (12 weeks)

Sit-Stay (10 weeks)

Intermediate Trick Dog (ITD)

To qualify as an "Intermediate Trick Dog," I had to demonstrate proficiency in a further 12 tricks from the list of 42 Intermediate tricks.  My qualifying tricks were:

barrel racing here
leg weave/figure 8s double figure 8s
paws on my arm

perch work - I performed it using a footstool, click here for a balance disc version
pull on a rope/tug here

soccer (push a ball) - future post
target mat
wave - future post
 

stacking (6 weeks)

heel at left side with automatic sit

(the rules don't say anything about not running to say hello to the cameraman!)

place (around finish)

 side (swing finish)

Hills of Erin Studio Tour 2012

For those in and around the GTA looking for an excursion, check out the 

Hills of Erin Studio Tour 2012

September 15-16

&

September 22-23

20 Artists in 7 locations

The Town of Erin is located NW of Toronto

(just North of Georgetown)

http://www.thehillsofheadwaters.com/erinstudiotour/mem-welcome.php

One of the exhibiting artists is fellow dog-sport enthusiast, and English Pointer breeder, Genevieve Munro

http://www.pawsandeffects.com/Site/Home.html

Wednesday's Waterworks

Colour Me Orange

Saturday 

Whaaaaat?!?  4:30am and the alarm clock is screeching!?!  Bleery-eyed, we stumble outside in the pouring rain for my morning routine.  Followed by breakfast...flurry of activity...numerous bundles of stuff ferried out the front door.  Out to the car we go only to get soaked for the second time and it's barely past 6:30am!  I think I know where we are going...but, what's this...we are headed in a completely different direction than I was anticipating.  Where could we possibly be going at this hour??? I'm intrigued but it's dark, it's pouring, I'm sleepy...zzzzzzz.  I feel the car slow to a crawl...hey, I recognize this place, we drove through here with Uncle Vadasz on our way to Vizslapalooza - it's The Border!  Now, I am very intrigued but it's dark, it's pouring and I'm ... zzzzzzz. 

My first ever Hunt Test experience:

RAIN drive drive drive drive

wait wait wait wait wait

lunch break

rain wait wait wait RAIN

meet the judges and my bracemate

play play PLAY play play

ignore whistles

play run play run play

ignore humans

play run BIRD! work work

work work work work work

(my bracemate was 7 months old and we had FUN!)

 

"Is that my rosette? That colour matches my collar."

Sunday

In the car, headed west (or is that south, or east?), yup, I know where we're going - yippeee and it's not raining and it's not blazing hot!  As the sun begins to rise, the melodic tones of the radio are interrupted by a steady stream of unmentionable words ... something to do with the time of day, blinding light, too much chrome, how's a person supposed to drive with the glare from all the bleepin' glass condos!!!  I am way too young to be hearing such words so I better just...zzzzzzz.

"Thanks for not messing up my run, Mom."

"Are you sure they don't need me to double-check the field?!"

The AKC Junior Hunter test is similar to the CKC Field Dog Junior test with the added challenge of working with another dog in the field (also there are 2 judges in the field judging both dogs and JH requires 4 Qualifying scores whereas FDJ requires 3 Qualifying scores).

Great big thanks to Kathy Sadlon and Tracy Novoa and all the other volunteers from the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Western New York who hosted the test at Darien Lake State Park.  In spite of Saturday's inclement weather, everyone had a wonderful weekend working with their Pointers. Many thanks to all the judges for having tremendous patience with the youngsters entered in the Junior tests (even in the midst of Saturday's downpours).  And thanks to Liz Outram for helping us to prepare for the AKC style test.

Wednesday's Waterworks

NAVHDA NA Prize I

 September 2, 2012

Grand Valley Chapter

North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association

Natural Ability Test

Score 112/112

Prize I

with our 3 esteemed judges:
Dave Arnold, John Macneal (acting senior) and Don Vanderlip

The Journey

March 21 - August 26

58 hours (@ 4,000 km) of driving

2 awesome field trainers on 2 parcels of land (variety is the spice of training)

13 sessions encompassing 17 hours of field work

Less than 1 hour to impress 3 judges!

A great big thank you to Janice Wolff, Terri Simmons-Corneil and all the other volunteers from the NAVHDA Grand Valley Chapter for a well-organized test and to the judges who worked all day from 7:30 am in blazing sun (not a cloud in the sky), testing 10 teams in as timely a fashion as possible (taking all of a 15-minute lunch break), and for making the "newbies" feel like seasoned pros.  Thanks to Liz Outram for keeping Bodi's safety the number one priority while providing awesome training in the unbearable heat and humidity of every one of our summer sessions and for giving me the confidence to handle Bodi myself.  And, again, thanks to Mike Wilshire for fitting us into his hectic spring schedule (so we could take full advantage of the unseasonably mild spring), providing the foundation of Bodi's field career and getting us started on our field training journey.

Handling at a field test for the very first time provided plenty of mental and physical challenges for the camera hound so the camera was left in the car! 

A few shots from last weekend's training sessions with Liz

"Kisses...thanks for playing hide and seek with me... 
see you next time, Mr. Pheasant"

Ranger helping me to learn to hunt with a bracemate

"Once in a Blue Moon"
Here's what Friday's "blue moon" looked like at
5:00 am Sunday morning

 

I Spy

I spy, with my little eye, something that

is black and green/blue

moves very fast

 allowed us to get very close

Calopteryx maculata

male "Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly"