Then & Now

Beautiful Miska-Mom

November 2005

November 2013

November 2005  (2 yrs 4 mos)

November 2013  (10 yrs 4 mos)

The Bohemian

Miska: "Now this is how it should be!"

"Matchy matchy is so passé."

 "I am a free-thinking Bohemian."

"Let there be colour and disarray!"

"Is that Martha Stewart?"

Wednesday's Work

 Bionic Bodi, the Self-Employed Vizsla, takes a trip to Sarnia

CKC Rally Novice title!

Napping with my new toy on Sunday afternoon
We were inadvertently given an Obedience rosette (wishful thinking).

A great big thank you to the most patient of judges:
Diana MacKenzie  and  Del Lunn

Kudos to the judges and all of the Sarnia KC members who worked so hard

in sweltering humidity to keep things moving along at a brisk pace.

 

GIGANTIC SPOILER ALERT !

If you believe me to be perfect and infallible, please do not proceed FORWARD.

HALT

SIT

DOWN

WALK AROUND

(do anything but read further)

270 Right
away from your screen

  if you choose to
360 Left
be prepared to

take

3 STEPS BACKWARD,

SPIRAL
out of control
and
toss your rose-coloured glasses!


Thursday Morning

In the 15 minutes I spent in the man-cave while Mom went to fill up
the vehicle and pick up bags of ice for the cooler this happened!!!

Once again, I was framed by the most evil of evil Bowser beds!!!
You see, I had to go-go and in the name of self-preservation, the evil Bowser bed decided to distract me by unzipping and spilling its contents everywhere!!!



Thursday Evening - Monday

On Friday morning, we needed to be in 3 rings at the same time so the decision was made to scratch my first Rally and Pre-Novice runs. Although they would have held up the Rally and Obedience rings and waited for us to return from the conformation ring, based on Thursday night's correction match, it did not seem fair to make the other people and dogs wait in sweltering 100% humidity for half an hour just to witness a Vizsla hell-bent and determined to perform the best imitation of a Bloodhound in recorded history. (A video clip of such has been submitted to the Academy of Canine Theatrical Arts for consideration in the category of Best Imitation of the Hallmark of Another Breed.)

Evil Bowser bed aside, filthy floors are my arch nemesis!!! My 125 million (or more) turbinates were like magnets to the mats (judging by my stellar imitation, I may actually possess closer to the 500 million turbinates of an actual Bloodhound). For some odd reason, many people suggested that my pair of you-know-whats was to blame - this I do not understand as they are nowhere near my nose (well, most of the time, anyway)!!

You know your run is not going well when you lift your nose off the floor and you hear applause! SIGH! Mea culpa, mea culpa but dang that floor was intoxicating!

On Saturday afternoon, the lightbulb finally turned on and we earned the first Rally leg with a score of 81. I will take credit for losing 9 points and only 9 points. The other 10-point loss sits squarely on the human's shoulders for becoming discombobulated with shock and disbelief when my nose came off the floor at station 5 and she led me off-course toward station 13 (good thing she immediately returned us to station 5 and got us back on course)!

I did it!  I did it!

Many thanks to Michelle Ross for helping to turn on the lightbulb by sneaking up on me and pinching my butt!!!

Perhaps if my one Pre-Novice attempt had been on Monday instead of Sunday I would have passed. As it was, my heeling pattern looked more like tracking but I performed the figure-8 reasonably well, held my sit for exam and passed the group sit (only once did I glance longingly at the floor but my nose did not fall below the level of my belly button). The recall (the only off-leash exercise of the weekend) started off with my signature full-throttle bionic leap in the air but ended up with my nose planted on the ground instead of my butt!!!

Although I know all the Rally exercises through Excellent, it was deemed unwise to move up to Advance for our 2 runs on Monday. It wasn't worth the risk of practicing more bad behaviour as the freedom of being leash-free would have provided the opportunity to explore all the nooks and crannies that were out of reach on a 6' (now 9') leash.

To be fair, on Monday, I was in the conformation ring (outdoors) within 10 minutes of finishing a Rally run ("indoors") and showed beautifully. For a young (male) dog, this, in and of itself, was a stellar accomplishment. My second Rally run of the day (and last of the weekend) was about 2 hours later and I would have had High in Class (with a 91) had I chosen not to sniff the floor during the Halt-Down-Walk Around with my elbows in the air!!!!!  
 
On Sunday and Monday, the lightbulb flickered a little (okay, maybe a lot) but at least I finished the weekend way, way, way better than I started it (and way, way, way better than anyone would have predicted on Thursday evening...Friday...Saturday morning).

Lesson Learned

To overthrow my arch nemesis, I must start training in a barn!!!!!

Caught in the Act

Enjoying the Ultimate Man Cave on a cold day in January

Zippergate

The other day, I was chillin' in the man cave for all of 10 minutes when all of a sudden a zipper on the double donut started moving and stuffing was a flyin'! This is not the first Bowser bed to possess this design flaw. On behalf of dogs everywhere, I demand an inquiry into these evil faulty zippers! For far too many years, we have been framed and blamed for unzipping and de-stuffing our beds. As if we have the dexterity to move such a tiny piece of metal! As if!!

"I am not trying to hide any evidence...

...I have no idea what you mean!"

"This bed is overstuffed and the zipper just blew!"

"Oh, the injustice of it all!"

The offending double donut with the evil zipper was kicked out of the man cave

and tossed in a corner behind closed doors.

Bad Bowser Bed, Bad!!!

Frrrrreezing Frrrrriday

I tracked in clumps of mud and grass for months.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I experienced my first pawsicles.

I thought pawsicles were the COLDEST until I stepped outside Wednesday morning and felt the -28 windchill (the coldest the city has been in 4 years)!!! After being outside for only a few minutes, I ran into the house and quickly tore the fitted sheet off my double donut bed then burrowed under the timbit to warm up my tootsies!!!!!!

Deep Freeze Day 3:  it was -16 overnight with a windchill of -23!!!

Brrrrrrr!!!!!

I think I may have to reconsider those booties, now!!!

     

Happy Holiday Highlights

Hooray, Santa Paws has been here!!!

Thank You, Santa Paws!!!

I guess Santa wasn't watching the other day when I was working on this (a project I started earlier in the year here)!  Who knows how much fun I could have had if the Grinch didn't possess supersonic hearing!

  

So much excitement!
Now I need my breakfast and a nice long nap!

Take a Seat

We were so excited to get our rawhides that
we couldn't wait for the beds to be unstacked so
we just helped ourselves

Wow, my tail feels so heavy
it's a good thing there's a table beside this chair!

It's my (other) bed, and I'll tear if I want to

Alone for 5 minutes!

open zipper ... pull out bolster ... shred

A couple of weeks ago:

"What's a zipper?"

"Seriously, I have no idea how that happened!"

And people wonder why

the house is still full of x-pen barricades.

Wonder no more!

It's my bed, and I'll tear if I want to ...

It all started with a thread...

and in less than a minute ...

Very expensive dog bed - good thing it was purchased at a deeply discounted price!

Will this mean the return of the dreaded puppy bed?
 

Dun dun dun dunnnnn ...

A Deconstructivist Aesthetic

Bowsers Bliss

At last, my very own Bowsers bed!  Thanks to RENS (Guelph) for having a great "tent sale."  Here I am christening my new bed (no, not in that way!).