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
We received our official Advanced Title in the mail today. I didn’t realize it but we received a gold level title which means we scored 96% or better in each of the disciplines. Her started titled was a bronze so I guess it means that we are improving as a team….yeah us!!!
Filed under Nosework, Scent Detection, SDDA, Sporting Detection
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.
We were up bright and early this morning to drive to Red Deer to participate in Nosey Pawtner’s Sporting Detection Dog Association trial. We had a slow start but a great finish with lots of swag.
Spirit got a second place on the interior search component, 2nd place overall and she got her Advanced title today. So proud of my big girl. So now we have to move from the amateur steam and start competing in the working/professional scenting dog stream.
Throughout the photo shoot she had her eye on the cookie and couldn’t wait for permission to gobble it down.
Filed under Nosework, Scent Detection, SDDA, Sporting Detection
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
Now and then……..I can’t image a life without this amazing boy. He is my heart dog!!! (He looks so serious striking a pose in both pictures.)
15 years 10 months old
10 months old
As a thank you to my Golden Valentine we went for a walk (just Mom and her boy) to Tim Hortons to get him his favourite treat. He usually only gets a Timbit but today we went for the whole donut.
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Berners were bred to pull milk carts in the Swiss Alps. I thought we should start with something a little easier like pulling a kicksled. We joined a local Meetup group, rented a sled and attended our first outing at the end of January. It went really well. It took Spirit a while to figure out the game but she did a really good job pulling the sled and trying to follow the teams ahead of us. We completed a 4km loop and had a wonderful time.
This past weekend we went out with the group again. I think Spirit was possessed by the “pulling gods”. Oh my goodness she went fast….and full out on the down hill part. We only lasted about 10 minutes and ended up with 2 spectacular crashes and a bent ski on my brand new kicksled. I had my GoPro on my helmet (thank goodness I bought a helmet) so my wipeouts are on record. You can see that the camera was a little askew after the first crash and then it ended up buried in the snow after the second one.
We went out again today to a local provincial park. It was mostly flat with a few gentle hills. It was a lot slower today since the terrain was relatively flat and there were no teams ahead of us to chase. I hope to go out with the Meetup group again this weekend.
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It was a beautiful, sunny New Year’s Day so my big girl and I went for a walk together without any of the other dogs. Spirit has been having trouble getting used to sharing her “Mom” with our foster puppy McMullin. Whenever I try and smooch him she pushes him out of the way and tries to get the attention.
She was spayed 2 weeks ago so she has been very bored hanging out around the house without any physical activity except 2 gentle walks a day. Somehow she still managed to rip her toe nail almost completely off and leave just exposed tissue and bone. I had the unfortunate job of having to trim off the nail. I’m so lucky that we have such a strong bond that she completely trusted and allowed me to slowly and careful trim back the nail close to the base. Poor girl. She has sure had a run of bad luck health wise. Let’s hope that 2017 is a new beginning for her.
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I can’t believe that she is two years old already. Time is just flying by. She got a huge, delicious dino bone to celebrate.
Anticipation
You can get a perspective on just how huge the bone is when you see it beside her giant 97lb body. One end is the same size as her head. She can barely carry it in her mouth.
Filed under Birthday Pictures, Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday
No matter what I am doing, Spirit thinks she should be part of it. I don’t know how she managed to sit her giant body on the narrow incline bench and polish my face.
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We just finished our third and final Sporting Detection trial of the year. It was hosted by Nosey Pawtners in Springbrook Alberta. The results were almost an exact repeat of our advanced trial in August. Spirit got another perfect score in Containers, but we only got a second place finish this time because another dog also had a perfect score but finished faster than we did.
Then came the Interior search. Once again we failed to qualify because of handler error. Spirit found the hide but I could not tell exactly where it was. The judge picked up on my hesitation and asked me to point it out and I was off by a few inches. Darn it!!! I should have called Spirit off the hide, circled back around and got her to indicate again. I may have lost points for calling her off the hide but we would not have been disqualified. Another great learning experience.
The final search was an Exterior instead of a Vehicle, which I think is much harder because there are literally hundreds of places for a hide in an exterior area. We got a near perfect score of 59/60 and got third place.
Even though we only qualified in two of the three components, Spirit’s scores were so high that we placed 4th overall. This trial was a little different. Instead of awarding ribbons for 1st – 3rd in each component, they chose to give out certificates and dogs toys. Ribbons were award for only the overall winners. So we ended up with two certificates, one ribbon and 3 toys. I would have preferred the ribbons but I think my girl likes the toys better. So proud of Spirit especially since it has only been a few weeks since her emergency surgery to remove a blockage in her intestine. A very big thank you to Judge Doug Teeft.
Filed under Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday, Nosework, Scent Detection, SDDA, Sporting Detection
Today we had the pleasure of attending the first annual Bernese Mountain Dog party hosted by Coreen and Steve Johnson of Tailspin. They invited all of the families who had dogs from their breedings. There was a bevy of Berners in attendance. We managed to get a picture with 14 of them.
There was only one dog there from Spirit’s litter, her sister Asha.
This is Mom Sophie and her two daughters.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Tailspin’s newest litter. They are called the Olympic litter because they were born during the Olympics. Each puppy’s registered name will be Olympic themed. They will be six weeks old on Monday.
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On Saturday Spirit and I participated in an SDDA (Sporting Detection Dogs Association) Advance Trial in Red Deer hosted by The Little Nose that Knows. Two days before the trial Spirit surprised us by going into heat. I contacted the trial co-ordinator and she said we could still compete if Spirit wore a diaper and that we would have to go last. We’ve never trained with her in heat or with a diaper. I decided that we would still go to the trial for the experience…….just treat it like a training session with no expectations.
While we were waiting for our turn to start, I walked Spirit around so that she would get used to wearing her search vest and diaper. Before I could stop her, she squatted and took a pee. Great now not only was she wearing a diaper but it was sagging and heavy with pee. We didn’t have time to change so we had to go ahead and do our first two searches that way.
Our first search was containers. At the advanced level there are two finds and one distractor with dog food in it. Spirit is not what you would call a high energy or speedy dog. She slowly but methodically makes her way through the search checking each container. I could tell when she hit the distractor because she was very interested in the delicious smells wafting out of the container. I was very relieved when she moved on without alerting on it. We finished our search in 1 minute and 8 seconds (3 minute time limit).
We immediately went on to the interior search…generally the hardest component because you are inside, there is not much air movement and there are literally hundred of places where the hide can be. I could tell that she had located the scent cone of one of the hides under a table but she was having trouble finding the source. I should have asked the Judge if I could move some of the chairs out of the way to give her more room to maneuver but I didn’t. Classic handler error. She gave her alert and the Judge asked me to identify where the source was. I knew it was under the table but I could not tell him exactly where so I took a best guess and pointed to where I thought it was but I was a few inches off. Too bad…game over no hope of an advanced title today.
We had to wait another hour before we did our final search….an exterior. She located the scent cone quite quickly but it was so windy she had trouble finding the source. She went back and forth in the same area several times but then all of sudden she went straight to the hide and gave a beautiful indication. It took her 1 minute and 49 seconds (5 minute time limit).
Considering the circumstances we did great and I am so proud of Spirit. The NQ for the interior was my fault and a good lesson was learned. At the award ceremony I was just standing at the back enjoying everyone’s accomplishments when I was shocked to find out that we got a perfect score on the container search and came away with a first place ribbon.
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I love it when we can start our mornings out on the deck enjoying our morning coffee/tea together.
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Filed under BlogPaws, Spirit, Tilly, Two legged family, Wally, Wordless Wednesday
On Sunday I attended the graduation of one of Wally’s children. I have a very special spot in my heart for Garnet. Of the 51 puppies that Wally’s sired, he is the only one that really looks like his Dad. He spent the first few years of his working life as a guide dog for a wonderful gentleman. Sadly he passed away suddenly and Garnet was returned to the school. They decided that he was too young to retire so they retrained him and placed him with a psychologist to act as a therapy dog for her clients. Garnet is 7 years old now and watching him and his mannerisms….OMG he is definitely his Daddy’s boy. He has the same loving and gentle personality. Here is a picture of the whole graduating class. Garnet’s beautiful deep golden colour makes him stand out in the group….”one of these is not like the others”.
When they arrived, Garnet’s nose went up and he started air scenting and wagging his tail wildly. He knew we were there and he was excited.
I was able to get up close and snuggle with my beautiful grand-puppy. Isn’t he just beautiful.
A blast from the past…..in 2010 we had this photo taken (courtesy of Laughing Dog) of Wally and Garnet just before Garnet went into final training to be a guide dog.
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Spirit and I competed in our first sanctioned SDDA trial on Saturday, April 23rd in Morinville, Alberta. I am thrilled to announce that we qualified in all three components: container, interior and exterior/vehicle (3 purple ribbons). Spirit now has her Sporting Detection – Started title: “SD – S “. Because we qualified in all 3 components on the same day, we also earned a special designation making her title “SD – S, SP” (large purple/black ribbon). And if that wasn’t enough, we placed 3rd in the interior search which is the hardest of the three (large white and black ribbon). Thank you to SDDA Judge Paul Dyer. I am so proud of my girl. I think she was also the youngest dog at the trial.
Thanks to photographer Bev Holoboff for donating her time to take pictures of the teams at work.
A special thank you to Ryan-Ann of Doglogix Scent Detection for hosting an amazing trial and being a talented scent detection instructor. Team Spirit’s success is because of you.
After a long, cold and windy day at the trial we came home and relaxed together in the La-Z-Boy. Spirit loves to use me as her personal pillow. Note Tilly’s disgusted look.
Filed under Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday, Nosework, Scent Detection, SDDA
On February 24th (the night before Spirit’s shoulder surgery) she participated in her Sporting Detection Dogs Association (SDDA) advanced Designated Odor Test (DOT) for pine. Even though she was sore she still worked very hard and passed. We just got our ribbon and certificate so we thought an official portrait was in order. Look how nicely the fur is growing back on her shoulder and leg. With these two DOT tests under her belt, Spirit is now able to participate in sanctioned SDDA started and advanced trials.
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To say we are blessed to have our beautiful Golden Boy at the ripe old age of 15 is an understatement. Not only is he still with us but the quality of his life is really good. He is my “heart” dog. I love all of my fur kids but he and I have this very special bond that I just can’t put into words. I can’t imagine life without him….
Wally’s favourite treat are Timbits. Traditionally he gets one for each year. Once he got into double digits I started cutting them in half. Today I cut two ends off of each one and left the slice in the centre for the other dogs. It didn’t take him long to polish off 15 ends.
Ready and waiting
Patience
Here we go….
Going…..
Going….
Gone!!!
Nothin’ left but a pile of drool
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Spirit, Bentley, Boomer and Hope
On Saturday the gang got together at Patty’s house for a wonderful day of fresh air, great food and even better company. The dogs had a wonderful time running around together and practicing scent detection.
Hope helped me make a snow angel
Spirit got to meet her first cat. She just kept looking back at me with an expression that said “Hey Mom…..look at this thing!”.
Spirit meeting Bazinga
Filed under Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday, Playing
It takes Spirit just a few seconds to inhale her meals. When I saw Facebook and Blog posts about the snuffle mat I knew it would be perfect for my girl.
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Thank goodness Christmas is over……or …..the morning after the night before……..you decide?!?!
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I found this new iPhone app called Superphoto. It allows you to apply filters to your pictures. I especially like the painting filter. It makes my already beautiful “kids” look even more beautiful.
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Our girl has a good nose. Spirit passed her first Sporting Detection Dog Association (SDDA) test. She got her Designated Odour Test (DOT) certificate and ribbon for Wintergreen. There were 14 containers and the hide was in the 12th one. It took us 28 seconds to complete it.
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Since we were away on Sunday when Spirit actually celebrated her first birthday we had some “spoiling and loving” to catch up on. First she got a big frozen sardine to wet her appetite. Then came the real treat…..a giant knuckle bone. She spent over a hour lying in the snow enjoying her present.
Then we took her to the dog wash. We now have an even more beautiful and shiny girl. She is so fluffy that she looks like she put on 25 lbs.
Filed under Birthday Pictures, Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday
Well, I can’t believe it but my big girl is celebrating her first birthday. Wow time just flies by so quickly. We’ve also had our first snowfall of the season. Only one individual in our household is thrilled with the white stuff. Guess who?
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It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon so I grabbed my big girl and we went for a lovely fall walk. The long shadows of fall made for some interesting pictures.
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Life In The Dog House 