Sunday Rally at Poodle Club

Today I had Sadie out to CKC Rally trials in Etobicoke, held by the Poodle Club of Canada. We were trying
for our first RAE (Rally Advanced Excellent) legs. To qualify for the
RAE title, you must pass both the Advanced and the Excellent class at
the same trial, and you must do that ten times. In other words, you
must get 20 qualifying scores to earn the title.

In our first class today, the Advanced B class, Sadie was handicapped
by the ring nerves of her handler who made some errors, however she
still qualified in a fairly large group, but did not place. In the
second class, Excellent B, I was much more relaxed, Sadie was much
more focused, and she earned her first ever perfect score and placed
third. That's a thing that's a bit frustrating about Rally - you could
get a perfect score all the time and still not place if there are
other dogs with 100s who are faster. So I was thrilled to get a third
place.

On to the next trial and a second perfect score in one day! Sadie
took the Advanced class with that and a lovely fast time to edge out
the other dogs. She was working on a third perfect score, but sadly
got hung up on the backward heeling exercise and we had to redo it,
losing points in the meantime. She still got a nice q of 94 which was
good enough for 2nd place in that Excellent class.

So all told, 4 Qs, 2 perfect scores, 3 placements, and 2 RAE legs.
What a great day for me and my girl. Here she is with all her bling.
She likes her new ball the best of her prizes.

Conundrum

So, I saw this in the store and was struck by two things. First of
all, how unbelievably tacky. Secondly, and maybe the tackiness
requires it, how charmingly (or horrifyingly) inaccurate. "Golden Lab"
- maybe it's one of the new mixes or just an homage to the nonexistent
breed. And this is the awful result when indiscriminate breeding is
also mixed with electrical irresponsibility. Tsk tsk.

It's Official! Number 4 ESS in Canada!

I could not be more proud to announce that Elliott is the number 4 English Springer Spaniel in Obedience in Canada for 2008!
Elliott has become a beautiful friend, teammate and companion. He is happy-go-lucky, a delight to train, personable and sweet-natured. I am still in disbelief that we have achieved so much in the ring in such a short time as complete beginners to the sport. Thank you, Elliott, for making this dream of mine come true. Here's to all the great years ahead, my boy. The best is yet to come!

Behind Bars

Elliott is now allowed the freedom of the deck while we are out on it. The area is small enough that it basically functions as a large crate. It was recently upgraded and now has a spiffy barricade for pups! Such sad faces!

Over the Top Super Fluffy Madness

Elliott really needs a good grooming. Since he's been recovering, I
have not wanted to have him standing for any length of time on the
grooming table. I did a basic head and foot routine a couple of times
but not a full groom. As a result, parts of him have become obscenely
fluffy, especially his tail! Expect a trimmed body and tail shortly!

Back off!

Hiss! Get away from our goslings! Hisssssss!

Walking in Gooseland

Tonight on our 45 minute walk, we passed the three goose families that
live in the green area. They usually lunge and hiss at us as we pass
by, even though Sadie and Elliott are too frightened by the display of
force to go anywhere near!

My Welcoming Commitee!

Libby and Tom are always ready to receive visitors!

Crabapple 2

A little further in bloom...

Still Life With Feet

Relaxation - this is how it's done.

Hills and stairs and green grass

Elliott is continuing to make progress in his recovery. At our rehab
visit last week, we got the go-ahead to start doing carpeted stairs,
once or twice a day, on a short leash in a controlled manner, SLOWLY.
Since then Elliott has been downstairs to the land of the big tv a
couple of times, and upstairs to the bedroom a couple of times. No
getting into the bed yet, though! We are also walking farther and
walking on hills. This has expanded our range to nicer grassy areas
where the geese hiss at us as we walk past their goslings. Tonight was
perfect for walking and we had a good number of things to sniff. Our
Ruff Wear harness looks good in any setting! In case you are wondering
about Elliott's collar, let me just say I do not use a prong collar on
a regular basis and haven't had it out of the closet for many years.
However, during this recovery, one of the most important elements in
staying sane is having the tools you need to keep your post-ACL dog's
body under complete control until healing is complete. Elliott has
many titles but is not always gentlemanly with the neighbour dogs we
meet while walking near our house. I need to be able to walk him with
complete confidence in my ability to prevent him from spinning round
in excitement or from jumping up and bouncing around. The prong gets
his respect instantly. When he is all healed and can't re-injure
himself and create a need to redo arduous, expensive, and traumatic
surgery, the prong can go back into the closet.

Crabapple

Beautiful tree coming into bloom downtown.