We made another trip to Red Deer today to compete in a scent trial hosted by the Little Nose That Knows. Brodie had a great day in his advanced trial coming in 2nd in interiors and vehicles and finished first overall. He got lots of ribbons and swag. Thank you to Judges Ryan-Ann King-Smith and MaryAnn Warren and to Kristina Sveinson and Samantha Freschette for all their hard work organizing the trial.
Filed under Brodie, SDDA, Spirit, Sporting Detection, Uncategorized
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”.
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
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
We are celebrating Brodie’s 1st birthday today. What a joy he has brought to our lives. He is everything that I wanted in a Golden and so much more!
This is what he looked like a year ago
Short video of Brodie trying to play with his birthday present but his sister Spirit has other ideas.
Filed under Brodie
This is a typical morning in our house…although usually Tilly is also snuggling somewhere in the mix. I have over 150 lbs. of hairy children draped across my body. Good thing they are comfortable…..who cares if I am.
This is Christmas morning in our house. Wally has always been the one to deliver the cards but now Brodie wants to help too. Gosh I love my fur kids. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
We drove to Red Deer today to participate in a Sporting Detection Dog Association (SDDA) trial. Spirit was entered in the Advanced Working Dog category. I have been introducing Brodie to scent detection, and since he was coming along for the ride, I thought I would enter him in the Started category so that he could get some experience being at a trial. Dogs have to be at least 6 months old to trial so we were lucky that Brodie hit that milestone last week, just in time to participate. It was a bit of a hectic morning because they decided to run the Started and Advanced at the same time. Brodie was 10th to run in the Started Division and Spirit was 8th in Advanced.
Brodie had his Container and Interior Searches first. Just before they called us, Brodie yelped and lunged towards his backend as a wasp bit him. Poor little guy. He kept walking in a circle trying to reach the spot, obviously very upset. The Judges offered to let us take a break and come back later but I decided to just go ahead since this was only a learning experience for him. To my complete shock and amazement it took him only 8 seconds (3 minute time limit) to find the correct container and we got a score of 29/30 (we lost 1 point for having an inconsistent search sequence). The Judges were as shocked as I was. We had a minute to gather our composure and he started the interior component. Again, he found the hide in only 37 seconds (5 minute time limit) with a score of 39/40 (again we lost 1 point for having an inconsistent search sequence). I had to run back to the car, drop off Brodie and grab Spirit for her first run so I didn’t have any time to really digest what had just happened.
Spirit did Containers first. She found the first hide quickly and I got all excited, rewarded her and walked away. The Judges just stood there staring at me. After about a minute of awkward silence they said, did you forget that there is a second hide??? Dummy me, having just completed the Started search that has only has one hide, I completely forgot that Advanced has two hides and a distractor. We got back to searching and Spirit indicated on another container and when I called it the Judge told me she was wrong. Dang it. I messed my girl up. Interesting note, there were 30 dogs in the Advanced category and only 4 found the 2 hides the rest false alerted like Spirit. Makes you wonder if there was some contamination in the search area. Spirit immediately moved on to her Interior search. She found both hides in 1 minute and 7 seconds and we scored a perfect 80/80.
Once again, I ran back to the car, did another quick dog switcharoo and raced backed to do Brodie’s exterior search. Unfortunately we were late and missed our turn so we had to wait and run last. The exterior search was comprised of 3 tractors. The hide was hidden underneath the middle tractor. It took my amazing little boy only 1 minute to find it (5 minute time limit with another amazing score of 29/30 (I lost 1 point for my handling hindering my dog). One of the Judges was the founder of the Search and Rescue Dog Association of Alberta (SARDAA). She was so impressed by him. She told me I have an amazing, young working dog. What a wonderful compliment from a very knowledgeable and experienced handler. I thought Brodie was just going to have a fun play day practicing searching and he ended up get his Started title. Because we got all 3 components at the same trial, we also get an SP designation (special). And the news only gets better, we actually finished 3rd overall and got a big basket of SWAG. Last but not least, because we got an overall score of 97/100, our title will be at the gold level. WOW!!!!! Big thank you to Judge Jane Book and shadow Judge Mary-Ann Warren.
Brodie’s haul: Green ribbon for 3rd place overall, 3 qualifying ribbons for containers, interior and exterior, purple Started Level Title ribbon with the SP designation and his basket of goodies.
We had a long wait before Spirit got to do her exterior search. By then it was very hot and sunny, not good for a big, hairy black dog. She really struggled. Dogs can’t scent when they are panting heavily. We used the whole 5 minutes and she didn’t find the hide. Even when the Judge told us where it was, it took two passes for her to find it and alert on it. No worries. I’m still very proud of my girl. Thank you to Judge Doug Theeft.
Each dog got a ginormous knuckle bone when we got home.
Filed under Brodie, Nosework, SDDA, Spirit, Sporting Detection
It always shocks me how quickly a puppy grows and matures. Here is photo proof. The first picture was taken the day I brought Brodie home (2017APR16). The second one was taken 4 months later when we celebrated Brodie turning 6 months old. I wish they could stay small and snuggly a little longer.
Filed under Brodie
Little Brodie is 16 weeks old and of course Wally turned 16 years old in April. They may look very different, my old man is a rich copper and the other is a silky, soft, creamy white but they are both gentle, sweet souls…..true Goldens !!!
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Filed under BlogPaws, Brodie, Wally, Wordless Wednesday
Our little golden boy Brodie is 3 months old today. He is growing so fast. He has more than doubled his weight in the month that we’ve had him. No matter how bad he is, I just take one look at that face and my heart melts.
On Sunday morning we participated in the annual First Responders Half Marathon. We have McMullin staying with us again so he and Brodie came out to cheer us on. They were a big hit. Everyone wanted to stop by and say hello to the pair.
As I was approaching the end, Don handed me the “boys” so that they could cross the finish line with me.
Brodie also helped Laura and Heidi cross the finish line.
Filed under Brodie, Hope Heels, Races, Volunteering
Our little Brodie is settling in nicely. He is a little afraid of Spirit’s larger than life personality and is very respectful of my beautiful oldie Goldie Wally. Unfortunately he is like an unruly, annoying little brother with poor little Tilly. We have to keep rescuing her from his grip.
I can’t stop taking pictures of his sweet little face. Each image is cuter than the last.
Filed under BlogPaws, Brodie, Wordless Wednesday
Yesterday I got up at 3am to head to the airport for a very special trip to Victoria to meet this cute little boy. He is the newest member of our family. He is an English type Golden Retriever and I am in love!!! There were 11 puppies in the litter but by the time I got to the breeder’s home all of them had already been picked up by their new families. There were only 3 left in the house, a little boy and girl that she was keeping for her breeding program and our little boy. We got black boy….also known as “the bruiser”. She picked him for me because he is a very active little boy and needed an experienced family to manage all that energy. Yikes!!!
I got to enjoy the day hanging out with the puppies and then flew back last night. When I got to the Victoria airport all the Westjet ticket agents were swooning over that cute face. They had seen so many puppies leaving in the last two days that they immediately recognized him as another one from the same litter. He was so pooped that he fell asleep on a chair in the departure lounge.
He was wonderful on the flight back to Edmonton….except for one small problem….farting. It was so bad that I thought he may have pooped in his carrier. The women beside me got mad at her husband because she thought he was the culprit. We all had a good giggle when I told her it was Brodie.
I finally got to bed just after midnight. Our first night wasn’t too bad. I only had to take him out once but he was wide awake at 6am. Needless to say, I am wiped today. Here is the whole 4-legged family.
He has already had a busy morning and is now crashed on the kitchen floor…I wish I could join him for a nap.
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Life In The Dog House 