Spirit and Brodie had a nice off leash run and swim today. Unfortunately that also meant they both had to have a bath because they were filthy and smelled like “swamp thing”.
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Final Farewell to Wally
We’ve had Wally’s ashes for almost a month but I have not been able to force myself to spread them somewhere. I woke up this morning and knew today was the day. What better day than Father’s Day to celebrate my Golden boy’s 17 beautiful years of life. He sired 7 litters of guide and service dog puppies (over 50 puppies). Although he has outlived many of them, there are still numerous Wally babies working with their partners to make their lives better. His ashes joined our beloved Tango’s ashes in a beautiful wildlife park. They are back together again. I know they are both waiting faithfully for me to join them.
Filed under Wally
Brodie the scent puppy
Brodie SD-A (SP)
Got up bright and early this morning to drive to Springbrook, AB for the Nosey Pawtners Sporting Detection trials. Brodie really enjoys scent work and is very excited to search. Our morning trial was a wonderful success. It only took him 34 seconds to find both hides in the container search (and ignore the distractors). He earned a score of 56/60 and placed 3rd. We immediately went to our interior search. He got both hides in 1:25 with a score of 76/80 and 2nd place. Our final test was exteriors. They are more challenging because he gets distracted by pee mail and he wants to leave a response which results in immediate disqualification. We made it through in 2:09 without any marking and a score of 47/60 and 1st place. Yeah little man. He earned his advanced title with special designation for passing all 3 components in the same trial SD-A(SP). The icing on the cake was that he placed first overall in the advanced trial.
Because Brodie titled in the morning trial we could no longer participate in the amateur stream. For the afternoon trial we had to move up to the Advanced working class which includes dogs that do scent work for a living. He rocked it! So many people commented on how enthusiastically he searched and how he obviously loved this sport. Those comments made my heart sing. His container score was 58/60 in 40 seconds for 3rd place, interior was 78/80 in 43 seconds for 2nd place and finally his exterior was 56/60 in 1:46. He earned his Advanced Working title and placed 3rd overall. A big thank you to Judges Heather and Doug Wilson, the gang at Nosey Pawtners and all the amazing volunteers.
Two scent titles in one day wooooo hoooooo. So proud of my little man who turns 16 months tomorrow!!! Look at all this swag.
Filed under Brodie, SDDA, Sporting Detection
Welcome to the World Chloe
On Sunday our friend’s daughter had a beautiful little girl that they named Chloe May. I love the name, it’s so pretty and feminine. They now have a Grandson and a Granddaughter. Unfortunately, in my haste to get the quilt to it’s new home I forgot to take a picture of the completed quilt. I have this picture of the pieced top hanging on my design wall before it was sandwiched and quilted. The free motion quilting just added more dimension and texture to the design:
Proud Grandma sent me a picture of the quilt showing some of the longarm work.
Filed under Baby Quilt
Humboldt Strong
I was deeply affected by the loss of so many people as a result of the Humboldt bus crash. The Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild put out a call to quilters across Canada asking us to make and donate quilts to give to people who had been directly affected by the crash. They asked for 200 quilts. I knew I wanted to help. Then I found out that one of the victims was member of a friend’s extended family. Instead of making a generic quilt for the group, I decided to make an quilt dedicated to the family who lost their son. I hope that it will provide some comfort to them.
Filed under Charity Quilt, Lap Quilt, Quilting
Heidi’s Comfort Quilt
I am way behind in posting pictures of my completed quilts. I finished the comfort quilt about a month ago. It was given as a group gift to one of our friends in our Sunday morning walking group. It includes inspirational sayings that were picked out by members of our group. I have never been a fan of “scrappy” quilts but there is something about this one that really appeals to me. I just smile when I look at it.
Filed under Comfort QAL, Lap Quilt, QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Uncategorized
NACA 2018
This weekend both Brodie and Spirit competed in Rally Obedience at the Northern Alberta Canine Association (NACA) trial. I’m so proud of both of them. On Friday Brodie got his third qualification for Rally Intermediate and earned his title. He is now known as Copppermoon Lighning Bug CGN, RI, SD-S (SP). We moved up to the Advanced level for Saturday and Sunday. That means he now competes off-leash and there are toys and food used as distractions on the course. Both kryptonite for my boy. The second day he spotted the food bowl and squeaky toy while we were still sitting and waiting to start our run. I knew I was in for trouble. A few seconds into our run he took off and ran and got the squeaky toy. Very proud of myself. I called him back to me and asked him to give me the toy and thank goodness he did. The audience was in stitches. I think I earned brownie points when I put him in a down stay and walked across the course to put the toy back where it belonged. He held the stay and then we resumed the course as if nothing had happened. Little brat! He completed both runs successfully and earned 2 qualifications towards his advanced title. Sunday was also the Golden Retriever Specialty. I was so surprised when the ring steward gave us an an extra ribbon (green) and a beautiful leather leash from the Golden Retriever Club of Alberta for high score in a rally trial. Here’s my handsome boy with all of his swag and a closeup of his new leash.
Not to be outdone by her younger brother, Spirit also had a great weekend. On Friday she got a perfect score of 100 for a high in trial in her first ever Intermediate run. On Saturday she was working towards another perfect score but was spooked when a dog in the adjacent ring doing obedience, ran towards us. We lost 2 points because she got scared and ran to the end of the leash. I was so thrilled with her. She has a history of being reactive and very uncomfortable around other dogs but she didn’t bark and she recovered so quickly and finished the course in style. So proud of how she handled herself. In her final run on Sunday she got a 97 and a 4th in trial. That means she earned her Intermediate title and is now known as Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit RI SD-A.
A very big thank you to Judges Gail Carroll and Shawn Kelly.
Filed under Brodie, CKC Title, Rally Obedience, Spirit
