Wordless Wednesday Part II

Wordless Wednesday

Sadie Got Her American CD

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.

Therapy Today

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

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.

Hanging Out

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.

OH........

......my headrest has a first name, it's S...A...D...I...E....

Pleeeeeze?

Pretty please may I have a cookie?

Lazy Sunday

Sundays were made for loafing around on the couch with a comfy little
cat for a footrest. Abby is very patient with the diva dog.

Portrait Session

When Sadie or Elliott get a new title, I like to get a picture done so that in future years I can look back to see a time when I didn't have grey hair, and to remind myself what it was like when I was first competing and getting titles. I hope that these will be really nice mementoes to have when these wonderful dogs have passed on and new ones come along to train me.

Today we took a drive over to Bingeman's where the Elora Gorge Kennel Club show (traditionally the last of the year) is usually held, and where our favourite photographers were today. I packed up the freshly groomed dogs, the box o' bling, and got myself somewhat put together. The bonus part of getting pictures taken after the fact is that there is no bleary-eyed, rat-bag-hair effect that usually is present on the third day of a long weekend of showing. As a result, I usually like the way these sorts of pictures turn out, since I don't end up looking like - well, like someone who's been showing dogs for three days and not sleeping or eating properly.

We got some great pictures taken today. First of all, I wanted to mark Sadie earning her Rally Advanced (RA) title. Here is the shot we chose for a print:

Then, we wanted a picture for Elliott's RAE, especially since he is the first English Springer Spaniel to earn the Rally Advanced Excellent title from the CKC. Here is my handsome boy, draped in bling:

Taking pictures with dogs is always an adventure, and today was no exception, as we also "ended up" with these two pictures, which I think I like almost as much as the portraits.

Elliott's Opinion: Do you think four thousand pictures is not enough, really? Because I do.

Sadie's Opinion: Oh, I am sooooooo done with this, mother!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you springer joy now and for 2009. From our Christmas Eve get-
together with Elliott's cousins - this lineup is: Elliott, Sadie, Tom
and Libby.
It was nice to spend time with our extended family!

Flying Springers

Here is our Christmas gift to ourselves - a portrait of Elliott &
Sadie based on a photo I took last winter. The painting is by a very
talented local artist by the name of Mary Lou Hiller. We are thrilled
with the result and would like to say thank you to Mary Lou for
working with all our requests so graciously and giving us this great
painting to enjoy for years to come.

Sleek Sadie

Here is Miss Sadie looking very sharp and sleek!

Shaggy Sadie

Miss Sadie was becoming very shaggy & due for a haircut! Here she is
in her before picture:

Long Trip Home

Elliott was all tired out from his weekend of trials. Poor boy.

Hard Work At The Dog Show

Bling from SD&G

Elliott earned qualifying scores in his Rally trials and for each one got a lovely blue rosette from the ESSCC. The beautiful big green ribbon is from the Parade of Titleholders and has his name and all his titles inscribed on it. Very good bling from our first time at the ESSCC National specialty!

Elliott Earns His RAE Title!

I am very proud to say that Elliott successfully completed his Rally Advanced Excellent title this weekend at the Stormont Dundas & Glengarry dog show in Long Sault. He found competing outdoors very difficult but managed to hold things together enough to qualify in the 4 rounds to get his last 2 RAE legs. To the best of my knowledge he is the first English Springer Spaniel in Canada to earn the RAE and I am very proud of him. This is Elliott's tenth obedience title and his third this year after his CDX and RE. For the rest of the year he will concentrate on practicing his Open skills and this fall we will start training for Utility. I am very proud of Elliott and all the hard work he has done this year!

Springtimes Past

Sadie as a tiny pup a little over 2 years ago.Elliott in his first few days with us, lounging between legs.

Diva's Titles

In spite of being the consummate Diva, Sadie has earned two new obedience titles so far this year. Here is her picture to commemorate earning her RN (Rally Novice) and CD (Companion Dog) titles.

She performed wonderfully in Rally, earning her title in her first 3 Rally trials.

She also earned her CD in one weekend at the age of 2 years and 9 days old, with one placement. In this respect she is way ahead of Elliott - he got his CD in grand style with placements, but we had many nq's before we had success. She had already been entered in a second weekend of Rally and Novice trials as we worked on her titles, because I didn't know how well she would do. So what happened was that she got to do another weekend of Novice as a bonus, if you will. She again qualified 3 for 3 in the Novice class and that weekend managed to get 3 High in Class placements. She also placed in 4 of her Rally Novice trials, hence the lovely bling on the left of the picture. She is now the proud possessor of 5 obedience titles at just a little over 2 years of age. I am really proud of her accomplishments, and I know she will go very far, especially if we can adjust her attitude!

Sadie has earned one leg of the 3 needed towards her Rally Advanced (RA) title in the one trial she has been in so far. With any kind of luck, she will have her RA title by this time next week. Fingers crossed!!! The trials are outdoors so it should be.....interesting.