Thursday, October 22, 2009

But Can You Guess What I Am?

Well here we are at the Pumpkin Patch!

We are with grandpeep and she's delighted to find a funny joke here hehehee!

Meanwhile, I'm finding a zillion different scents and am investigating.

Sierra Rose, of course, has joined us and is already trying to demolish grandpeep's choice of pumpkin.

Ma, meanwhile, is trying to see if her pumpkin template of me will work on this particular gourd. Can you figure out what I'm going to be for Halloween yet?

Okay... now you should be able to figure it out!
My costume!



And now, some fun while checking out. I will be taking a vacay with my pawrents (finally, I get to go!) next week. Look forward to seein' ya all after the first of November - woohoo! Have a great Howloween! (Oh! Answer to the joke? "I'm vine thank you" - hahahahaha!)





Sunday, October 18, 2009

Pawsitively Surreal

My First Real Trial - and It Involved Meat

This was a long day and the story is long as well. You may recall that I have a pal named Shanti who I often do obedience practice with. Shanti's mom works for Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue. And. Shanti's mom found me for my mom and dad. Okay. That's what you need to know for today. Shanti and me were both going to the Del Valle obedience trials; Shanti in Novice B and me in Novice A. Here is Shanti not only qualifying for her second leg of Companion Dog, but winning the class. With a score of 198 1/2 out of 200. That was pawesome!

I'd been sitting around for awhile, waiting for my Novice A class, but the judges decided to take a lunch break after they were finished with the B's.

Mom and Dad and me took a stroll around the Alameda County Fairgrounds. The "midway" was loaded with doggie booths, pups and foodables for hoomans and peoples. I'm salivating for one of Dad's chicken sammiches.



Then some hooman came along CARRYING THIS!!! I must have jumped three feet up in the air and when I landed, I just barked and woofed my heart out. OMD!!! Have you ever seen such a HUMONGOUS creature???????? Well... it was time to get back to my class. I was the sixth in a group of 17 doggies. The judge is giving me and mom instructions.

Here is where the video should go, but it won't today. I did okay compared to Shanti, but great compared to the pups in my class. I think that's because I've been uber-trained by Barbara at the Oakland Club that I attend every Monday afternoon.

OMD!!! I qualified for my first leg of the CD!!! Not only that... I actually came in first!!!

Here is my pressie from the judge!

But here come the weird part. Shanti's mom is watching for the final scores from the Open Obedience Class. I guess I haven't yet told you that my scores from Novice A was 198 1/2. Well... after the Open class was finished, no one made a score of more than either Shanti or me. So here we are, BFFs, having to go head-to-head, for High Scoring Dog in a Regular Class. Anyway... this is really weird. Shanti is an uber-heeling pup and the judge made us heel off-leash. You can guess who rightfully and beautifully came out on top! Yay, Shanti!

Awesome pawesome job, girl!!! Ya do me proud! (But you gotta admit, that must have probably been a once in a lifetime weirdo thing to happen heheheh!) A great, but exhausting day! (We have a long vid of my performance, but can't seem to upload - thanks for all your amazing well-wishes!) Oh... and I got steak! Huggers xo,
PS: Got vid loaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIDhPF8PbCU if you want to look - pretty long tho! Thanks for nice comments!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Surprise Encounter during Practice!

Note from Mama: These past couple of weeks seem to have been closing in and time has taken me away from poor Sam's blog. My apologies for not having visited more often - will try to get to Sam's great pals this weekend.
With that said, it's my turn to tell you that mom made a big boo-boo when she said that I had a real obedience trial next month. Actually, (thanks Ma) it's TOMORROW awwkkkkkwoof! So my friends and I have spent lots of time this week getting ready for this. I got up early yesterday morning and practiced exercises with my Corgi pal, Moritz, and goldie buddy, Shanti. We went through the open (for them) and novice routines for me. Later in the day, I met up with Sierra Rose as I was practicing once again. Here is a picture of our morning long "sits." I have to stay here without moving for one minute.


Here we are practicing our long "downs." I have to stay put without moving for 3 whole minutes.


Later in the day, I went to McInnis to work some more, where I ran into Sierra!
Here's a little movie of my walk with Sierra that her mom took!
Later in the day, after that great walk with my girlfriend, I found Ozzie outside. Sheesh! After all this time, she still won't play with me...
...but I've come to like her lots more...



Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Show and Tell: My Collection

The above photo is what instigated this post. Norwood asked what I had hanging from my collar, so I thought I'd show you my collection today since it's raining heavily. But first I need to woof a couple of things.
Awwkkk! I hope I get to go out!

Okay, so here starts the explaining. ONE of these would be a nice thing for dad to keep in his office. But. Dad has three... count 'em... three. And guess what he has all packed full in every drawer of each chest?
These. He collects these. Some are junk and some are nice.

These are some of his faves - oops, some are crooked! But he also collects all things "Welsh." Hence one reason for the enormous tag hanging off my collar.

I don't know where dad found this, but it's his family crest. I think it was meant to be a key chain, but he decided to make it into a tag for me. And then he put it on my Celtic collar that has a matching leash.

Our names and phone number are on the back.

I got this tag at the annual party that the rangers put on at McInnis Park.

Here are my collars. I like them and wear them all. Some of my collars are serving as "bandana holders" as you'll see in the next picture.

The top bandana is from Alaska as well as the bottom neck warmy. You can see my x-mas and summer neckware as well as my latest pumpkin bandana for Howloween!

I think it's very ridiculous that I have so many leashes cause I mostly go offleash, but a couple of them serve as training and trial leashes. I didn't put the long tracking leash in there or the flexi.

Here's an assortment of training bling.

And here is where I keep my collection - right near the kitchen door.

And right next to my bling are pictures and stories and awards, like my Canine Good Citizen certificate. Up top is that cool picture of Sam that I won! Thanks again, Sam! And some pictures of me and Honey that I got from Honey's mom. I treasure those.

The rain is lulling me back into some Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs.


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Fleet Weeks and Fun Matches Do Not Match

If my assistant could figure out how to create a bubble for me, I'd have a long story to tell today. I'm very upset with her because it's been almost a whole week since I've gotten to post, and besides that, she's barely commented on your fine blogs. Things have gotta change around here and pretty darned quick. So here's some of the scoop and it's not all good.

First of all, there have been no pictures of anything I did this week, and I did quite a bit. Then... when I'm NOT permitted to go along with my peeps (the indignity of it!), they take hundreds of photos. How do you like them apples? So yesterday, my dad was invited to take mom on a yacht thingy with some of his work cronies in order to sail around the SF Bay to see...

THESE. I've seen a couple of pix like these on a couple of blogs and they do look cool, but I would have like to have gone, so I could have made up my own mind about whether they were good or not.


I mean, I guess it's pretty good when you can travel at 500 miles an hour about 3-4 feet away from another jet without a major catastrophe.

Speaking of which, there were so many boats out on the bay, that apparently dad and mom's boat almost crashed into that sailing craft up toward the bow there. See?

Here's another near miss.

I have to hide my eyes from this one.

Nice day over the Bay Bridge... at least it looks like it. But the Blue Angels themselves got cancelled. I don't think anyone minded too much. They'd been around here practicing all week. I promise you cause I know this: they are ve-ry LOUD.
PART II
The Fun Match
If a peep wakes you up early and mentions "fun match" you can bet that it's not. It's work and I have to think and remember so much.

I'm doing a figure-eight here around two people that they call "posts."

"Watching." I promise you... if I had a dime for each and every time mom has said, "watching," I'd be filthy kibble and stuffy-rich.

THIS TIME, finally, the judge really likes me lots and doesn't have a word of criticism. That's good, cause the next fun match is a real trial next month. Well we'll see.

Good girl. (And a dime for that one too.) Mercy, I'm tired.

These guys were watching us pack up as they were getting ready to leave too. WOOF!

Gonna get me some well-deserved rest. Catch ya on the flip side. I've missed y'all lots this week.