Sadie and Elliott: 2 Spoiled English Springer Spaniels

Spring Beauty

2010-03-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

My good girl enjoying the spring weather.

Springtime?

2010-03-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

We have had unseasonably warm weather lately and this morning it is
mild enough to sit outside. Here Sadie finds a good smell on the wind.

Storage

2010-02-25T11:53:00.001-05:00

Always stack your springers in order of size.

Relaxashun

2010-01-08T15:23:00.001-05:00

...you're doing it right.

On the first day of Christmas

2009-12-27T15:02:00.001-05:00

....my true love gave to me - a beer. In a tree.
Sadie channelling Bob & Doug McKenzie.

Snow Princess

2009-12-20T12:42:00.001-05:00

Sundog

2009-12-17T10:15:00.000-05:00

Elliott checking on things in the yard. He is continuing to recover
from his ACL surgery. He has built up considerable muscle mass and has
almost complete freedom generally. However, he is still weaker on his
left side and cannot yet frolic with abandon in case he might injure
himself. But he is slowly, slowly improving.

Cuddles

2009-12-17T10:11:00.000-05:00

Frozen Dog

2009-12-17T10:10:00.000-05:00

Sparkles in the winter sun.

Snooze Alert Level: High

2009-10-13T11:18:00.001-05:00

Dog in a box

2009-10-06T10:16:00.002-05:00

Strider behaving at HDOC.

Seen at the show

2009-10-06T10:16:00.001-05:00

Seen at the show

2009-10-06T10:15:00.003-05:00

Seen at the show

2009-10-06T10:15:00.001-05:00

Let's Pretend!

2009-09-21T18:37:00.004-05:00

As I learn more and more about doing competitive obedience, I discover more and more the usefulness of something called a correction match.

At work the other day someone asked what I was doing on the weekend, and I said I was taking Sadie to a correction match.

- A what?

- A correction match. It's a sort of, um, well, it's a pretend obedience trial. The difference is that you can help your dog if she makes a mistake.

It's hard to explain obedience activities to people who are really only asking to be polite, and whose eyes begin to glaze over the instant you start using terms like "q" and "nq". So as I tried to distill the essence of the correction match into a simple phrase, this is what came out.

As I have discovered, the correction match can be a very powerful training tool for any dog and handler team. You have the full experience of the trial: you travel to a hall, which may be completely new to you and your dog. This was the case on Sunday. We went to a nice facility called The Poodle Farm in Vanessa, Ontario.

Just as at a real show, you set up your crate, you check in and find out where you are scheduled in the running order, you warm up your dog, you put yourself in the ring with a person who may be a complete stranger, who has a clipboard and who runs you through your paces as though it were an actual trial. In classes that require stays, you can test the strength of your dog's stays, and if you choose to, you can stay in the ring to help your dog, or you can come back intermittently to reward your dog. You see the strength of your competition, you watch other handlers and pick up tips you can use in your training. You commiserate with the teams that are having a bad day.

Sadie does not yet have what I would call a great deal of ring experience, so she still finds things overwhelming and stressful when we go out to new places. I am trying to take her out as much as possible to expose her to new people and new places, and correction matches are a safe and positive way to help her grow in confidence and develop her trial skills.

Unlike in a real trial, if she makes a mistake, I can correct her, re-do the exercise, break off the exercise and start over, encourage her when she is doing really well, and communicate in ways that are not allowed in an actual trial. So, for example, when we were doing our heeling pattern and instead of following me through an about turn (this is a u-turn to the right to send you back in the direction you just came from) - where was I, yes, so, instead of actually doing the "heeling" bit of the exercise, when I turned into the u-turn, Sadie decided that it looked like much more fun to jump the fabric-draped gating that we were just coming up to, to see what might be on the other side, and took down most of the line of gating in the process. Much tail wagging and spriteliness on the far side of the gating - look what I just did, mom!

Had this been a real trial, my mortification would have been extreme. Since it was a match, we were able to laugh it off, put the gating back up, and I was able to immediately re-do the exercise and make sure that she stayed with me, and reward her for doing it right.

I do have some jitters even at matches, so this is good too. Because I can talk to her, and encourage and help her, the whole experience is positive for us both. One of the things I try to do mentally at a trial is to hold on to the feeling of enjoyment I have when I work with my dog in a non-trial environment, and the feeling of calm, and to remember it as precisely as possible so that the next trial I go to, I can bring it back to mind and try to put myself in that positive, happy frame of mind.

I think that when I go to our next trials, I am going to try to convince myself that it is in fact no different or more important than a match. I need to stop investing so much emotion into the trial situation, because I keep sabotaging myself with my nerves.

A fellow match attendee mentioned yesterday that it's natural for us competitive types to enjoy the pretty ribbons and try to get them and that it is a good feeling to earn them. But the ultimate goal of doing dog sports is to spend time with our dogs and have fun with them. At the end of the show, you go home with the dog you love, ribbons or not.

Other certainties of dog shows - there is always another show next weekend, and you never, ever know what the dogs will do. Every dog and handler team has their day, and every superstar has unpredictable days. If you put in the effort, you and your dog will accomplish the things you want, while having a good time. The same person also told me "it's funny how the harder you work at something, the luckier you get".

A bonus to yesterday was the glorious weather. It was a beautiful early autumn day. Full sun, moderate temperatures, no humidity. The drive to Vanessa was filled with trees just beginning to turn colour, fields of pumpkins ready to harvest, corn as high as an elephant's eye.

On our way back home, we passed through Ayr and visited Riverside Park. Sadie jumped up into my lap and we watched the world go by for a bit.

Elliott is Improving!

2009-09-13T17:40:00.002-05:00

Elliott has been on antibiotics for 18 days now and we are seeing good improvement in his leg. He is once again walking on the underwater treadmill at the rehab clinic. Last week he did 20 minutes in there at 2.7 mph. He is no longer hopping around except occasionally when turning to the left (the surgical side) and he is starting to voluntarily bear weight when standing. He is also volunteering encouraging movements like moving backward. I am cautiously optimistic that this was in fact an infection and I am hoping we can get rid of it and start to move forward again. Last week one morning I took along the camera to get a bit of film to look at later to check his walk, and was thrilled to see he is starting to bounce again. His normal gait involves a bouncy step as he pushes off his feet. He still has a hitch on the left side which you can see, but he has continued to improve over the past week and is now walking mostly at a normal walking speed, not just slowly, and has been able to bounce for longer and longer periods during our walks. He is also back to doing gentle hills and is doing much, much better again. Thank you for your good wishes and I will be sure to post further updates as he continues to (I hope) improve.

Every Diva Has Her Day

2009-09-13T09:06:00.002-05:00

I love doing obedience with my dogs, and it is a great feeling when they do well in the ring. However one of the best aspects of obedience is the humility your dogs remind you to observe when they don't have a good day in the ring. As a trainer who I respect a lot has said many times, these are not robots we are taking in the ring. They are dogs and we don't know what they will do on any given occasion.

Personally I like to use the "failures" as learning opportunities. No work in the ring is a failure because you spent time working with your dog, and you gained an opportunity to learn and observe your dog's behaviour, and insight into ways to help your dog do better the next time. This is a dog beside you, not a robot. How is your dog feeling physically? Have you done everything you can to care for his needs? Has your dog had some exercise the day of the trial before you go in? Have you played with the dog that day like you would normally? Have you done your best not to stress yourself out to the point where your dog picks up on it and decides that whatever this is we are doing, it's obviously not going to be fun because you are freaking out?

In spite of doing everything you need to do, you will still have days when your dog surprises you in the ring. This past week we did one Rally trial at the German Shepherd Dog Club of Canada National Specialty. They generously offered one all-breed Rally trial and although the entry was quite small, several shapes and sizes of dogs apart from GSDs were present. I entered Sadie in both Advanced and Excellent, hoping to get another RAE leg towards her title.

Sadie passed her Advanced leg, but pretty much fell apart in the Excellent leg. She lost focus, spent a lot of time looking around and exploring, and I worked quite hard just to get through the course with her. We nq'd of course, and I realized it about halfway through but tried to just complete the course in the best way I could and to stay positive and get her through it.

The course was in an arena we had never been to before. Maybe I should have made an effort to get her in there earlier in the day than I did to let her see where we would be. The ring was indoors, inside an arena, on sod. Sod had been brought in and laid down on the cement to form the ring. I think she was surprised when we started working the course to discover that she was on grass. The arena was large and spacious, and not too many people were around. So at one point when the air conditioning unit came on overhead, she stopped and looked up at it. This trial started at 6pm and we did not go in the ring until about 6:45 the first time. The second round was at about 7:30. This was a first for her and although we do classes often at night, we had never trialed at night. I brought her in about an hour before the trials started and let her walk around and explore but obviously there were conditions in place that caused her to not be able to do her best. In the ring I would not say she was actively deciding not to listen to me but displayed a level of distraction that I was not able to fully draw her out of. She would come back, make contact, do a station, and then I would lose her again. Out of this experience I can take several things to work on. I need to get her out more to different venues. I need to do all things possible to remove the stress from these situations for her. I need to take her to new places and work only focus and use quality rewards for that focus. We also just need to get to more trials and get more experience. She is only 3 years old and really has come so far in the past year that I cannot be unhappy with an off day. We ALL have bad days, including the fabulous dogs who so happily consent to come along with us to the shows. Even the best obedience dogs in the country make mistakes sometimes. After all, we the humans are the ones who sign up, pay the fees, drive to the show, and ask the dogs to come along. It's all our idea, not theirs. The fact that they are happy to come along and do the strange things we ask really is a kind of magic.

Yesterday Sadie participated in her very first Open trial. Unfortunately she made one mistake in the drop on recall which caused us to nq. But I don't care. It was a mistake we can fix. What I was absolutely thrilled about was that she did all the other exercises, and she did a great job. She got excellent marks on heeling, which has always been our weakest area. She did her retrieves, she did the broad jump, and she did her out of sight stays. She did everything with very little visible stress and with a happy wag to her tail when we were finished. I was delighted that she did such a good job in her first trial and I know that she is ready to continue trialing in Open. I know that with more training and more ring experience she and I will have success in the months and years to come.

Thank you Sadie, for being such a good teacher. I will try my best to make our competition time fun and rewarding for both of us!

Wordless Wednesday Part II

2009-09-09T07:38:00.002-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-09T07:37:00.002-05:00

Sadie Got Her American CD

2009-09-07T10:18:00.008-05:00

This weekend we ventured to Sadie's homeland, the United States, for our very first foray into AKC obedience. The show was the Western Lakes Training Club trials, in Buffalo, NY.

My friend Christine came with me and was so great all weekend helping out with things and most importantly taping all our runs, so that Paul could watch when we got home. We also were able to see friends who live in Buffalo and who we have not been able to connect with for several years. We had 2 evenings of good dinners and catching up. It was an excellent bonus to the weekend.

The trials were held in what was orginally an airplane hangar and is now a large indoor soccer field with astroturf on the floor. I had never walked on astroturf and it was quite soft and spongy and you could hear it squelching a bit as you walked. I think it would be a good surface for the dogs working in Open and Utility as it would be much nicer to land on after a jump.

As usual I did not have the control over my nerves that I would have liked. This is something I continue to work on as I compete. I know that I have no business indulging any nervousness on my part because that may impede Sadie's performance as she picks up on my different attitude. However we both held things together and she was able to qualify in 3 straight Novice trials to earn her CD (Companion Dog) title, and in the 2 Rally trials offered she placed first, earning 2 of the 3 necessary legs for her Rally Novice title. Unfortunately there were only 2 Rally trials offered, so we will need to find another AKC Rally trial to finish the RN title another time.

The weather was beautiful, moderate and no humidity. The club was very hospitable and the show was very well organized and run. The venue was gigantic and there were 4 large rings, 3 for obedience, and 1 for Rally.

In AKC trials, the ribbons are differently coloured depending on where you place in the results. We were very fortunate to place in all 5 trials, and so the 2 blue ribbons were first place for Rally, the 2 red ones were 2nd place for obedience, and the yellow was a 3rd for obedience. We also got a really lovely orange and blue ribbon provided by the club for the completion of a title.
There were also prizes - toys for placements and really cool poop bags and dispensers for first place. I have to admit I have never before seen hot pink poop bags with little hearts on them or purple polka-dotted poop bags. I may need to archive them to preserve their glorious coolness to share with future generations.

It's always a bit surprising how tired you and your dog become by the end of a show, and even more so after 2 days. The mental stimulation and tension take their toll, and the excitement of working in the ring uses up a lot of energy!

Right across the road from our hotel was a campus of the State University of New York, with a huge field in front of it. Many of us took our dogs over there for a romp after a day of showing.

Here Sadie is letting off steam after a hard day at the show.

She enjoyed all the toys and is thinking about maybe sharing them with Elliott.

Thanks to the Western Lakes Training Club for a great weekend of showing. I think we will be back next year. Maybe by then Elliott's leg will have healed enough that he can be back to obedience work, and he can try for his American CD too!

If you would like to see Sadie's final run in Novice, I've put up a video on YouTube. This is not her best work. The heeling lacks the attention I'd like to see, however, it was day 2, we were both tired, and there are fascinating sights and smells in a new obedience ring! You can watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuR_Au3jJPE
This run earned 2nd place and a score of 190.5.

Dog Shows Are Such Hard Work

2009-09-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

Poor beleaguered Sadie.

Swanee

2009-09-02T18:21:00.000-05:00

How I love ya, how I love ya.

Bottoms up!

2009-09-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

This handsome fellow was feeding in the lake behind the Festival
Theatre in Stratford this afternoon.

Tracker Tom

2009-08-26T20:18:00.000-05:00

Getting ready to go work again.

Tracker Tom

2009-08-26T20:17:00.000-05:00

Elliott's cousin Tom works a track this evening. What a beautiful
night for it.

Setback

2009-08-23T10:40:00.003-05:00

I have some fun here with my little blog, and I really enjoy seeing the comments from visitors. I love my Feedjit tool that tells me people are dropping in from Spain, India, Russia, and so many other exotic locales - the world truly has shrunk when international visitors can drop in to see the goings-on of two English Springer Spaniels in a mid-sized Canadian town.

I typically refrain from putting anything too profound or heavy on my blog because I tend to view it as a bit of fun and a nice way to talk about our obedience competition, and because I love my dogs (probably too much) I like taking lots of pictures of them and sharing them with other like-minded addicts.

Today, though, I'm breaking my rule of not getting serious on my blog. I will ask for the collective goodwill of the dog-crazy people who drop in, if you could, just send a good thought towards Elliott. He has suffered a gigantic setback in his ACL recovery, and so far we don't know what has happened or how to go forward.

About a week ago he started hopping on 3 legs seemingly out of nowhere. He has been to the rehab vet twice and, while she is pretty certain that his ACL repair has not failed, we are hoping to get together for a consult with the surgeon who did the repair soon just to see what he thinks might be going on. The knee itself seems fine. There is tenderness at the back of the leg, so we are hoping that what might have happened is a strain or sprain to a muscle. However, here we are at day 7 of basically what continues to be non weight-bearing hopping around. We have rested him aggressively and gone back to square one: no walks, or only very short 5 minute walks (hops); no stairs; no uncontrolled activity of any kind. I have to open my mind to the possibility that the repair has somehow failed or that something else quite serious is going on in that leg. After almost 6 months of good improvement this is extremely hard to deal with and emotionally draining.

I am not typically a touchy-feely kind of person but I will shamelessly ask for anyone who cares to, to send a good thought Elliott's way. Maybe it will make a difference, who knows.

This is neither a cart nor a carting breed!

2009-08-13T09:14:00.009-05:00

Bernese Mountain Dog - NOT.

Elliott continues to progress in his recovery from ACL surgery. One of the biggest problems we have right now is that he has lost a lot of muscle on the surgical leg. He still goes to therapy and does work on the underwater treadmill, but we are now trying new ways to challenge different muscles in his leg and rebuild the muscle. One of the things we have been given the ok to do by our rehab vet, Dr. Leslie Woodcock, is to work sets of stairs every day as exercise. Another way to get him to dig in on the surgical leg in a controlled fashion is to have him pull a weight. She suggested a wagon or a toboggan with some books on it.

A great friend at work who is very sympathetic to Elliott and his rehab, and who has a whole passel of human children, loaned me one of her kids' toboggans so we could try having him pull it on our lawn. This morning Paul and I got Elliott suited up in his harness and set about trying to get Elliott to pull this toboggan. For now we are not putting any extra weight on the toboggan because it in itself weighs about 8-10 lbs. That's enough to start with.

Hooking up his harness to the toboggan with 2 leashes through the holes on the toboggan.

I was quite surprised that Elliott did not mind in the least when we hooked this thing up to him and did not freak out or even blink twice about us asking him to then pull it around the yard. I could see that it definitely made him work his surgical leg in a new way, but still in a controlled way. I think we will try to do this every other day to see if it will help to build up some muscle in his leg. If he becomes very good at it we can add a little more weight.

Quite the sight to see an English Springer Spaniel pulling a toboggan! Maybe this is an area for future competition!

What are you doing back there?

Coming, Dad!!!!!

Smoothie

2009-08-13T08:47:00.002-05:00

Woolly lamb no more! Post-groom smoooooooothness.

Woolly Lamb

2009-08-13T08:44:00.001-05:00

Sadie gets very woolly when she needs grooming.

Lazy "summer" days

2009-07-26T14:38:00.001-05:00

You would never know we are at summer's height here in Southern
Ontario. Temps are moderate, we are having more rain than I remember
in recent years, and it is not very summery in any way. Except that
Sadie still knows how to relax on the deck and wish for some
sunshine. Such a princess.

Making new friends

2009-07-26T14:34:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Tom, Libby, Sadie & Elliott and their people
went over to Rockway Gardens to enjoy a free concert. We spent most of
the time watching and chatting as one person after another asked to
meet the dogs. We do tend to get a lot if attention when we have all 4
dogs out together. We are often asked if they are cocker spaniels, or
simply "what kind of dogs are they?" - although on one memorable
occasion a husband insisted to his wife that they were obviously
Dalmatians. It's good to ask for ID. Here are my two and Tom doing
what they do best - spreading some Springer love.

Tried to Make Me Go To Rehab

2009-07-16T17:58:00.003-05:00

I said.... ok. Sure. Here is Elliott working hard on the treadmill.

Only Other Dog People Understand

2009-07-10T11:33:00.001-05:00

...that sometimes you share food with your dogs. At our house Paul
shares like this. Ew.

Sadie's First HIT

2009-06-30T10:21:00.012-05:00

Last year I started taking classes at a school in Georgetown called Campaign Dog Academy. Each year for the past several years they have held an obedience challenge day for staff and students. When I started going to Campaign, I really enjoyed looking at all the photo collages and promotional posters on the walls that showed the students' accomplishments over the years. The school is obviously very proud of its students and all the work that goes into competing in dog sports.

The Campaign Challenge posters were especially nice, and showed the winners in each obedience category as well as an overall winner. I thought it was great that Deb Desjardine, the owner, would go to the trouble to put on such a big day for her staff and students, and to honour the memory of her dad, Ron Peterson.

I was excited this year to be able to enter the Challenge. With Elliott out of commission due to his knee surgery, I entered Sadie for the day. Challenge Day was Sunday, June 28.

New this year to the Challenge, the overall winner was going to come from the highest combined score across the Agility, Rally, and Obedience competition. Well, I've never done Agility, so I knew there wasn't a chance we would win, but I thought it would be good fun anyway. Sadie and Elliott have both had basic courses a few years ago when they were younger but I've never run a course or done anything outside of a class that was held indoors. Fortunately there was a class available in the Challenge for dogs with no Agility titles, a pre-novice level, so I entered that and worried about what a fool I was going to look huffing around an agility course but knowing that Sadie would enjoy herself. I entered the Rally Excellent class since she has her RE title, and I was able to enter her in Novice Obedience since she has no CDX legs and has never trialed in Open.

Our scores were all kept secret during the day, but placements were announced as the classes finished. No placement in Agility, but I felt she did a good job; she cleanly did about 12 jumps and 3 tunnels and had a great party and man was she FAST. I think this is where her strengths will lie in time to come. And the smile on her face was a joy to behold. Bonus - I did not fall down in the Agility course!

On to Rally, she gave me beautiful effort there including a flawless backwards heel. I was proud when she placed first in her class and got a lovely prize.

In the Novice class she did more good work. As always, heeling is our bete noir in the Obedience ring, but very nice nonetheless. Won that class, and got another prize.

Paul helped out as a ring steward for the rest of the afternoon, and I watched the Brace competition and some of the Open and Utility competition. I always enjoy watching and learning from the experience of these talented handler and dog teams.

Then at the end of the day Deb announced the overall category winners.

Agility - I knew she wasn't in the running because she hadn't won her class.

Rally, I hoped.... maybe.... but no.

Obedience, I knew others had done better out of the Utility and Open classes.

Then, the final announcement of the overall Challenge Winner of the day. Highest cumulative score over the 3 levels of competition, the first ever Campaign Challenge Versatility champion. I think I heard my jaw hit the floor when "Mary & Sadie" was called.

My little Sadie got her first High in Trial out of several classes of competition, across three dog sports, in a very special venue. It was an honour to compete with so many richly talented teams, and it was very special to be the top team of the day at the 2009 Campaign Challenge. We got more wonderful prizes thanks to the generosity of Campaign. Especially gratifying will be to see my Sadie adorning the next collage poster that goes up on the wall at Campaign.

WAY TO GO, SADIE!!!!!

Her Tortie-Ness

2009-06-27T07:56:00.000-05:00

Yum

2009-06-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

We wanted something simple tonight for a cold supper. A bed of field
greens, cucumber, mushrooms, diced cheddar, almonds, yellow pepper and
cooled, diced, PC World's Best Meatless Chicken (a soy product).
Topped with a little cucumber and dill dressing. Really good.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T08:12:00.001-05:00

Elliott and Sadie give their dad some love for Father's Day.

Wordle is Pretty Cool

2009-06-17T13:26:00.000-05:00

....if you like tag clouds.

Future Fab Feathers

2009-06-14T18:35:00.002-05:00

Watch this space. Baby feathers forming after three months. At this
rate both sides might match in a year or so. Sigh.

Fab Feathers

2009-06-14T18:33:00.001-05:00

Elliott's feathers on his non-surgical leg are lovely and long and
luxurious. Note that he is no longer sporting a gigantic fluffball in
place of a proper tail.

Fresh Groom

2009-06-14T18:30:00.002-05:00

Sadie looks lovely with her fresh haircut!

Grooming Day

2009-06-14T17:32:00.002-05:00

First, she gave me a haircut. Then, she gave me a bath. Who do I call
to register an official complaint?

On the plus side, though, apparently I now smell really good.

Why Yes!

2009-06-14T10:48:00.001-05:00

We *would* like some of your lunch!

Gorgeous

2009-06-08T06:49:00.002-05:00

Mum, let's go!

2009-06-08T06:48:00.002-05:00

Or maybe...

2009-06-08T06:47:00.002-05:00

...that chippie went this way!

Chipmunk!!!

2009-06-08T06:45:00.001-05:00

Sadie, Tom and Libby are positive the chipmunk went this way!

Trail Walkin'

2009-06-08T06:43:00.001-05:00

A lovely view at the end of the trail the other day.

Sunday Rally at Poodle Club

2009-05-31T21:19:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-31T19:57:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-05-18T18:57:00.006-05:00

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

2009-05-18T18:57:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-16T18:34:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-05-16T18:28:00.001-05:00

Hiss! Get away from our goslings! Hisssssss!

Walking in Gooseland

2009-05-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-05-16T18:21:00.001-05:00

Libby and Tom are always ready to receive visitors!

Crabapple 2

2009-05-05T21:13:00.001-05:00

A little further in bloom...

Still Life With Feet

2009-05-04T18:46:00.001-05:00

Relaxation - this is how it's done.

Hills and stairs and green grass

2009-05-04T18:42:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-03T10:29:00.001-05:00

Beautiful tree coming into bloom downtown.

Black on black...

2009-04-28T20:54:00.000-05:00

Abby waited at home for her servant to arrive. Is this the face of
someone wanting to be fed, or what?

Night Sky

2009-04-28T20:52:00.001-05:00

A gorgeous spring night waited as I left work.

Wildlife Sighting

2009-04-23T11:18:00.001-05:00

Today on our walk we spotted a small beaver and followed him as he
headed back to his place. Here is evidence of recent construction, and
if you look closely you can see the little guy in front of the
structure. He is creating the ripple on the water.

Walkies

2009-04-23T11:09:00.002-05:00

We haven't visited our walking trail for awhile now, with Elliott
needing so much looking after. Today a friend and I took just the girl
dogs for a lovely long hike. Here is Sadie heading out ahead of me on
her Flexi.

Sadie has 8 titles!

2009-04-13T14:38:00.004-05:00

Companion Dog Intermediate (C.D.I.)

(a) The CKC will permit the use of the letters
C.D.I., signifying Companion Dog Intermediate,
to be used in connection with and after the
name of each dog, which has met the requirements
for that title as hereinafter provided.

1) Honouring
2) Heel Free and the Figure 8
3) Stand for Examination (off leash)
4) Recall Holding Dumbbell
5) Drop from Heel
6) Broad Jump
(excerpted from the CKC Obedience Trial Rules publication)

This class is conducted off leash and is a great bridge between the Novice and Open classes. The dog needs to be controlled off leash without taking the collar or touching the dog. Sadie still finds competitive venues very distracting and interesting, but kept her concentration together long enough to pass her trial on Friday and complete her CDI title. I am very proud of this lovely dog who is gradually developing into a fine working dog and who maintains her sweet demeanor and sense of humour at all times. A nicer girl I could not ask for.

Back to Earth with a thud

2009-04-06T17:01:00.001-05:00

The wonderful conference is over, I'm back home, and I got my luggage
yesterday. This white crap started falling from the sky this morning.
It sure isn't cherry blossoms.

Therapy Today

2009-04-04T16:10:00.002-05:00

Elliott is doing so well with his recovery and rehab. Today he spent
time on the blue round knobby wobbly thingie, then did some shallow
stairs for the first time, and used his surgical leg to push off and
climb. He did 12 minutes on the underwater treadmill and was relaxed
and walking steadily the entire time. The circumference of his leg has
increased by one centimetre and his good leg has gotten a bit smaller,
meaning that it is doing less work now that the surgical leg is
starting to do more work. This is great progress. We are almost
finished five weeks of the initial eight weeks of no uncontrolled
activity torture!

Home Again

2009-04-04T15:45:00.003-05:00

Look how excited Sadie is to have me home. I made it home after an
amazing trip, getting in at 2:30 am in Toronto. There were huge delays
flying into Detroit, so I had to alter my flight in order to get home
last night. I didn't really want to stay overnight in Detroit. My
luggage felt differently; it's still there. I really hope I will see
it again very soon.

More DC Dogs

2009-04-04T15:31:00.001-05:00

Outside the cafeteria at Nordstrom's at the Pentagon City mall. There
were so many great dogs to be blogged!

DC Dog

2009-04-04T15:25:00.001-05:00

Seen at the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art. A
native American hunter and his dog.

DC Protocols

2009-04-04T14:50:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, I went to the White House and saw many Secret Service,
Police and FBI vehicles. There is a high level of security in the
area. There are rules. There are even rules about where your dog's
output may be deposited. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Washington DC Metro

2009-04-01T12:38:00.001-05:00

Here's a shot looking down onto the red line.

Standing Room Only

2009-03-31T14:21:00.000-05:00

For Marydee Ojala, editor of ONLINE magazine.

Computers in Libraries Conference Keynote

2009-03-31T09:27:00.003-05:00

This morning the charming, eloquent and hilarious Paul Holdengraber of NYPL spoke on making heavy organizations levitate. Simply sublime. He is fulfilling his role of making the lions that guard NYPL, Patience and Fortitude, roar. I can hear them now. It was the sort of madly inspiring talk that makes me proud to be a librarian. More, more...

Kite flying at the Washington Monument

Amazing City

2009-03-31T09:15:00.006-05:00

I've been trying to Twitter but the wireless this morning has been just awful.
Last night I went on the Monuments by Moonlight tour and was struck by the majesty of the architecture and heritage of the city. Particularly poignant was the Vietnam Memorial at night - the names barely visible but the white carving standing out in the moonlight - and it was a beautiful, clear night. A few pics:

Jefferson Memorial across the water

Washington Monument at sunset

Vietnam Memorial Wall

Honest Abe

Cherry Blossoms by night at the Roosevelt Memorial, next to the Tidal Basin

Iwo Jima

My new boyfriend.

2009-03-30T22:46:00.000-05:00

Move over, Michelle.

Library Thing

2009-03-30T13:57:00.000-05:00

I got so excited about the possibilities with Library Thing and the
catalogue - many libraries have meshed with LT - the result is so
cool. Check Seattle PL's catalogue...

Always with the Jokes

2009-03-30T10:18:00.000-05:00

Found: this note, which is eerily accurate. I should know, I'm staying
at the Courtyard :-)

Weather Change

2009-03-30T07:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the forecast was for nasty rain. However the weather gods
smiled upon my trip and instead it was sunny and warm for my day of
walking. Here is a shot of the Washington Monument with the flag
flying in the breeze.

National Gallery of Art

2009-03-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Today I took the Metro out to Union Station and then walked past the
Capitol, down through the Mall to the Washington Monument. On the way
I stopped at the National Gallery and saw a lot of magnificent works
of art, many of which included dogs! Imagine my delight! Big man,
little dog.

Beauty at the Airport

2009-03-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

Lucky me, I am attending a conference in Washington DC. On the way I
went through the Detroit airport where this amazing fountain was.

Treadmill Front View

2009-03-25T20:10:00.002-05:00

Treadmill from the front complete with reflection.

Therapy part 2

2009-03-25T20:08:00.002-05:00

The other major activity tonight was walking on the underwater
treadmill. Tonight Elliott did 8 minutes, a slight increase over last
week's 6 minutes. Tonight we also turned on the jets after the walk
and he got a bit of massage that way. He was quite calm tonight in the
water; last week he wasn't sure what was going on!

Therapy part 1

2009-03-25T20:04:00.003-05:00

Tonight Elliott had his second visit to Dr. Leslie Woodcock's rehab
clinic in Aberfoyle. He worked on a few things -one was this wobble
board that has little bumps all over it. This helps to re-teach his
brain that it is ok to use his left leg again.

Teaser

2009-03-19T07:44:00.001-05:00

The weather has been quite mild lately, and we've had some warm days.
The crocuses on our lawn have sprouted up and come into bloom. Has
spring arrived? I don't think so. Every year around this time, spring
teases us, usually just before a big snowstorm!

Friends

2009-03-16T21:22:00.003-05:00

Recently we got some good news which as yet is unofficial and so I'm not going to post it here. I will definitely post when it is official. In the meantime I'll share this lovely card and flowers with you that a dear friend thought to give me to mark this unofficial good news. If nothing else, it might make you think of springtime.

Hanging Out

2009-03-16T21:15:00.001-05:00

Life is a bit slower when recovery from cruciate surgery is the centre of your life. We walk 3 times a day, but we walk slowly. We do exercises on Elliott's leg, and we do them slowly. We spend more time just hanging out together. English Springer Spaniels are often caricatured as crazy, busy, insanely overactive dogs. While this can be one aspect of their personalities, it should never be the primary trait in a well-bred Springer. One of the things that English Springer Spaniels excel at is the art of just hanging out, sniffing the pathway and taking things slowly when appropriate. ESSes are cuddlers par excellence. Here is an example of our fast-paced life at the moment.

Walkies

2009-03-12T08:30:00.002-05:00

Until Elliott heals, we have to control him very closely inside the
house as well as outside. When we walk him, he wears a Ruffwear
harness that has a handle on the back. We can attach a short lead to
the harness and control him with 2 leashes. He is adapting
wonderfully to the changes in his routine.

Leg Healing Nicely

2009-03-12T08:26:00.002-05:00

We are surprised at how beautifully Elliott's incision is healing.
This is day 10 post surgery.

Morning Massage

2009-03-12T08:23:00.002-05:00

Somewhere within this mass of feathers, Elliott is enjoying his
morning passive range of motion exercises and his massage and tummy
rubs!

An Excellent Weekend

2009-03-08T17:54:00.002-05:00

This weekend Paul stayed home to look after Elliott and Sadie and I
attended the KW Kennel Club trials. This was Sadie's first outing in
Rally Excellent and she made us all proud, passing all 3 trials and
getting her title just like that, with nice scores and two
placements! She is now Darkover Come Dance With Me, CGN, PCD, CD,
RNCL, RN, RA, RE! What a good girl.

Elliott is Already Out of Surgery

2009-03-02T16:14:00.003-05:00

It's only 4:15 and Elliott is already awake from his surgery. We delivered him to the vet, met the personable and knowledgeable Dr. Joe, and lectured him about how important Elliott is to us. We left the vet close to 3pm. Dr. Caron called us a few minutes ago to let us know that the surgery went very well. There was very little arthritic change in the joint. There is no damage to the meniscus. The tear was about 50 percent. The surgery went very smoothly, no problems, and Elliott woke up very smoothly and calmly with no complications from the anaethesia.
Now, if we can get through the next 2-3 months without a reinjury, it should all be good.

Paul has gone to the store to buy me a large industrial size package of M&Ms, comfort food of choice during times like this.

Will post more tomorrow. Thank you everyone who was busy thinking good thoughts today.

Pretty Feathers

2009-03-02T07:43:00.001-05:00

The lovely feathers that will soon be shaved off! Poor boy.

Living on the Main

2009-03-02T07:42:00.002-05:00

Our living room post-prep. One of us will be sleeping next to Elliott
as he will not be able to do any stairs for a while.

Preparations

2009-03-02T07:40:00.001-05:00

My living room before surgery...

Too Much Information

2009-03-01T11:09:00.003-05:00

About a year ago, Elliott and Sadie were flying at a thousand miles an hour in the dog park. It was a cold and icy day and Elliott slipped and fell at one point but got right back up again. Afterwards he had a little bit of lameness. We took him to the vet who thought it was a soft tissue injury. The mild lameness, that he would walk out within a minute, continued off and on during the year. We took him for chiropractic treatments which helped a lot. We also did warm up and cool down routines before and after exercise and training which helped a lot. We saw good improvement but not a disappearance of the problem. In the summer time I even asked our vet if it could be a cruciate injury but there was nothing to indicate that.

About 2 weeks ago, Elliott's cousins Libby and Tom were over to visit and the four of them were flying at a thousand miles an hour in our icy cold backyard. Elliott came in on 3 legs. After about 3 or 4 days he still was lame and would not bear weight on the sore leg. We went to the vet and this time there was ample evidence to suggest a cruciate injury. X-rays showed the beginning of arthritic changes and the vet did a test on his leg called a "drawer" test which shows if there is too much movement in the joint.

So, now we think that the injury a year ago was probably a very tiny tear to his ligament. These ligaments cannot heal themselves. They cannot regenerate or grow back together. In a very small dog the joint may stabilize to the point where the dog is not in too much pain and can function pretty much ok. In a dog Elliott's size, and in a dog who competes in some sort of sport like obedience, you have to repair the joint.

We have visited a canine rehabilitation specialist, and had a surgical consult with an expert in these repairs. We have chosen a method of repair and arranged surgery. Elliott will be having his operation tomorrow afternoon.

I would be so thankful to anyone who would keep a good thought for our boy during this time. The most challenging part of all this will be the recovery period of eight weeks during which time he cannot have any uncontrolled exercise in case he re-injures himself.

Improvement!

2009-02-15T12:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we were in trials in Ancaster. I love going to dog shows. There are so many lovely dogs to watch, in the ring and outside of it. Also the people who go to the shows are at least as hopelessly addicted to dogs and obedience as I am. That means people to talk to who understand when you spend 20 minutes explaining the various ways you are trying to fix sit-stay. In the real world when you try that, regular people are usually rendered unconscious within a few moments of you saying, "....so then I put food behind the armband..."

Here are a couple of nice pups, just hanging out helping their person to work the registration desk. Their heads pop out of their crates for cookies!

This is River. In between trials, he likes to carry his toy around.

And then there is this handsome fellow, who started the day off badly by not doing the "drop" portion of the drop on recall and also laying down in the sit stay AGAIN!!!!!! in the first trial but who redeemed himself by dropping nicely and proudly holding a very nice solid sit in the second trial, ending up with a very respectable 194.5. Hopefully the start of a turnaround.

Time for some Lubbin

2009-02-11T22:24:00.003-05:00

Valentine's Day - the international day of lub, is coming up very soon. In this fast-paced world, everything is available express. Here's a business that is obviously looking to capitalize on both
things. Get your lub - express. Get three lubs if you want.

SIGH.....

2009-02-08T11:22:00.003-05:00

Great scores we have blown. Most recently, yesterday, Mr. Boo was entered in the Open class at the Golden Retriever Club of Greater Toronto obedience trials. He worked beautifully in both trials. Heeling was gorgeous, we got 38.5 out of 40 in both trials. He worked beautifully until we got to our sit-stay exercise. Then he decided to lay down. In each trial we *could* have come away with a lovely score of 196.5. Sigh. If there are any obedience gurus reading this who have ideas for more proofing of the stays, I would love to hear from you. Otherwise I work stays until I'm blue in the face. One tip I got yesterday was to work a 4 minute stay just before meals. I am also working stays and rewarding back to the armband so that his focus is not out in front. I worked with another handler yesterday to set him up so I could get in a correction and then jackpotted when he held. THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. Ok, I feel a bit better now.

I am Furniture

2009-02-06T14:47:00.001-05:00

It's nice to be useful.