Life In The Dog House

October 14, 2018 · 17:10

All Sniffed Out

Saturday – Excellent Exterior, Advanced working 1st overall and high in trial

This weekend we participated in our final sporting detection trial for 2018. Chinook Dog Centre put on a really amazing event and it was their very first trial. Big congratulations to Joanne and Brandy-Lee. The timing of runs was fantastic, we were fed really well and we even finished early on Sunday.

On Saturday Brodie had a very busy day trialing at 3 different levels. Normally I would never do that but at the last minute we decided to pull Spirit’s entry because she just didn’t want to play scent games at the last trial and I didn’t think it was fair to force her to do it again (will be play over the winter to find out if she is still interested in Scenting or if it is time to retire). You can only get a refund for medical reasons so we substituted Brodie in for her events. He qualified in Excellent Working Exteriors and finished in 3rd place. He rocked Advanced working qualifying in all 3 components with a 1st in Interiors, 2nd in Containers and 2nd in Exteriors. He finished first overall in Advanced Working and we also won high in trial and got a basket full of goodies. He was fantastic at the Elite level. We qualified in containers and exteriors and got to the final room in our interior search and he alerted at the top of a fire extinguisher but the hide was 2 inches higher in the light switch. So close. It was a heart breaker.

Sunday – Advanced working 1st overall and high in trial

On Sunday he only ran in Excellent and Advanced. We were both tired, he was a little crazy running all over the place and then decided to play soccer with the containers instead of searching them. Needless to say we NQ’d. He managed to slow down a little bit for the Advanced searches. We qualified in all 3 components with a 3rd in Interiors, 1st in Containers and 1st in Exteriors. Once again we finished first overall, won high in trial again and got a second basket full of goodies. So proud of my little man. If we had managed to get just one Excellent Interior qualifier this weekend we would have earned our SD-MACH (Master Champion). On the positive side, we have something to look forward to next year.

Big thanks to Judges Mary-Ann Warren and Doug Wilson

Sniff and Tell

This past weekend we made the long drive down to Picture Butte Alberta to attend the Sniff and Tell Sporting Detection Trial. The trial was held at Coyote Flats Pioneer Village. What a terrific venue for a scent trial. The weather was amazing and Team Brodie had a fantastic weekend. We ran in both Working Advanced and Elite. On Saturday in Advanced we got 2nd place in Exteriors, 3rd place in containers and finished first overall. Elite didn’t go as well. We didn’t qualify in any component nor did any of the other competitors. On Sunday we finished 1st in Advanced Working Exteriors but the big news is that we earned the elusive Elite Title and we are the first Golden team to earn it. It was such a rush and an emotional roller coaster all in one. The Judge gave me a big hug after our last component and all of the other competitors were huddled outside cheering for us when we came out. That is one of the things that I love about this sport. We are all cheerleaders for one another and we are happy for each other even when we haven’t been successful. We were the only team to earn a title so by default we got the High Overall Elite award. Look at the haul of awards and goodies we came home with.

Spirit ran in the Amateur Excellent stream on both days but false alerted on every run. Very unusual for her but she seemed very happy doing it.

Brodie Loves to Run

This morning I took Brodie out to the country to give lure coursing a try. He loves playing tug and runs like the wind so I thought he might like this sport. Boy did he like it. He didn’t even need a lesson. When the lure started to move he was off like a jet and he didn’t stop until it did.

I tried to get video of his sprint but he flew by so quickly. On our way back to the start line, it took all my strength to hold him back when he saw another dog take off on her run. I can’t wait until we get to play again.

This is his second run. Twice the distance as the first one

https://www.facebook.com/groups/208608853020889?view=permalink&id=332451843969922&notif_id=1538360501799092&notif_t=group_post_mention&ref=notif

A photographer got these amazing action shots:

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Filed under Brodie, Lure Coursing

Tagged as Golden Retriever, Lure Coursing

September 27, 2018 · 17:34

More Pet Therapy

Today, on behalf of the Pet Therapy Society of Northern Alberta, Tilly and I went to visit 311 operators at the City. There were many visitors who enjoyed petting and visiting with the dogs. These two lovely ladies volunteered to pose with Tilly.

Champion Sniffer

BrodieSD-CH2018SEP23

We went to the Canine Coaching SDDA trial in Bowden Alberta this weekend. We drove down on Friday so that we wouldn’t have to get up at 4am on Saturday morning in order to get to the trial on time. That turned out to be a good choice because when we woke up Saturday morning and looked out the window of our hotel room we saw a freezing winter wonderland. It would have been a scary drive. I’ve never practiced in a snow storm never mind trialed.

SDDATrialBowden

Neither dog titled on Saturday but Spirit got a 2nd place in Advanced Working Containers and Brodie got a first place in Excellent Working Containers and was the only dog to qualify in that component.

Sunday was an amazing day for Brodie. I am so incredibly proud of my boy. He just loves this game of Scent Detection. He earned his Excellent Working Title with a 2nd place in Containers, 1st place in Exteriors and a 3rd place in Interiors. We finished 1st place overall. With a total score of 194/200 we earned our second gold level title.

But the good news doesn’t stop there. Brodie earned his Scent Detection Championship, a beautiful ribbon and beautiful swag. I have to remind myself that he is only 19 months old and he has already accomplished so much. I checked the latest title stats (updated as of 2018SEP09) and determined that as of that date, there have only been 6 Goldens who have earned their Scent Detection Champion SD-CH title so far. When they have them updated I will check again and confirm if he is the 7th.

We got so many compliments on how amazing he was for such a young dog and how well we work together as a team. Those compliments mean so much more to me than any title we have earned.

BrodieSDDA_SD-CH BrodieSDDA2018SEP22-23

Spirit came so close to titling on Sunday but we just missed on the exterior component. We qualified in containers with a 3rd place and she finished first in interiors.

SpiritSDDA2018Sep23-23

On the more humorous side, on Saturday Brodie and I got an extra special fun ribbon for “Sassy Handler” because his Mom let out an expletive during one of our searches. On Sunday we got another special ribbon for “Most Dramatic” because I was so excited when we completed our final component and I realized that we had earned our Championship….I rolled around on the floor with Brodie and smooched him up. And believe it or not, Spirit and I also got one of the “special” ribbons for “Epic Fail” when we NQ’d on our Exterior search on Sunday. They didn’t hand out that many “special” ribbons but somehow we managed to snag three of them. Crazy handler. There was a lot of laughing and a good time had by everyone.

SDDA2018SEP23SpecialAwards

Welcome baby Cleo Isla Paige

Cleo

Over a period of 3 months this summer, amongst friends and family, we had 5 beautiful babies born. Although this was the first quilt I made, it was the last one to go to its new home. I made this one for our Niece’s first baby. We didn’t know the gender and Mom wanted a marine/ocean themed gender neutral quilt using blues and greys. I found this pattern (Preppy the Whale by Elizabeth Hartman) and instantly fell in love with it. It is just perfect for a marine themed baby quilt. I didn’t know when I made it that Dad’s favourite colour was orange.

CleoJanJer CleoGrandma

A member of our walking group saw me working on Cleo’s Preppy quilt and asked me to make one just like it for a close friend who was expecting a baby girl.

AlexPreppy1 AlexPreppy2 AlexPreppy3

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Filed under Baby Quilt, FMQ, Quilting

Tagged as Quilting

September 17, 2018 · 07:12

Baby James Andrew

On July 9th we welcomed James Andrew into our extended family. He joins his big sister Leah. This was the 4th baby quilt I made this summer. It is a little unique because it is two sided. Instead of having a plain backing, it has another quilt top on the back giving the family two options. This is the front:

JamesAndrewFront