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
One of my puppies is retiring after 10 years as a service dog. She was a joy to foster and train. Together we learned the incredible power of positive reinforcement and it changed my life as a trainer. She was also one of Wally’s babies so that made her extra special to me. Her partner Sam loved and cared for her as I would have myself. I could not have asked for a better partner for her. So proud of you Ebony!!!
Filed under Foster Puppies, Service Dog, Wally
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”.
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 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
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
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
