How's Your Day with "GOD" ?

God Made A Dog - YouTube

Have a Pawsitively good day ....

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More Titles - Indie & Travis

More titles for our Shelamo Dogs!

Owners Chantelle & Eric hare having a blast with these two boys.


"Travis" did so well in his Herding Instincts test in April the evaluator recommended they pursue the sport.  He's now a Therapy Dog and the goal is to work in the community.

Shelamo Handsome Trouble HIC CGN AGN AGNJ ADC SGDC AADC AGDC

And then there's the younger boy "Indie"who turns 2 today!  Happy Birthday!

 Shelamo Code Name Spitfire ADC SGDC

In just 4 trials he earned both his Starters titles in agility,  They say his learning ability is just stunning, shaping behaviours in under 5 minutes.  He's done a "Canine Nosework" class and did so well that they've started a Tracking class.  He's also working in obedience with the goal of getting ready to enter Rally O and Obedience trials.

WOW!  Just makes me tired thinking about all this guy (and owner) do!  Sure not a dull moment :)

His CKC name couldn't have suited him more!

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Motorcycling Sheltie

It's that time of year when motorcycle people hit the roads, head out touring ... but ... there's a difference with this family ... towing behind in his own little custom made trailer is a SHELTIE!!! Yes, it's Casey! Turning heads, stopping to take his picture ... Shelamo Autumn Dream, a son of our Shelamo Tia Maria, sired by our BPIS Ch Shelamo Changing Winds.

He came in today for his spring tune-up - a full wash down, suds up, shine up (and trimming the edges).

He's loaded and ready to hit the road.

off they go ... their trip this year is to head to NB, NS, the Cabot Trail and PEI ... so if you're in that vicinity watch for the Motorcycling Sheltie.

His travels will be on Facebook, so if you contact me there, I'll tell you where to find him.

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Kingston Sheep Herding & Dock Dogs

In Kingston, Ont Aug 6-8th, there was the 23rd Annual Sheep Dog Trials. They also held Dock Dogs - that's where the dog's run & jump off a high dock after their fav toy into a large pool. Other demos included the Kingston Police K-9's; flyball, agility, sheep shearing & how young dog's get started in trialing. There were all kinds of booths, doggie items, alpaca & sheep wool items, wood items, handmade hats, doggie treats, and of course human treats.
I went down with Maryl0ou arriving late morning. We were able to see one run of the 15 that qualified over the last few days (out of 113) before the lunch break. Their runs were more complicated and had 20 sheep vs 5 they dealt with on the other days. At 1pm they started up again. I've selected a few (humm turning out to be more than a few!) of the 100+ pics I took to give you some idea of the size, complexity, and how the dog's work, just by a whistle from their handler at a distance, and voice when closer in.

At the beginning of the lunch break there was an auction of 5 different shawls that had been made the previous day. There were 4 woman that took 4 hours to do each.


These two woman bid the highest and won the ones you see them with.


OK .. now on to the sheep herding. I have witnessed this before for CKC & AKC herding titles, altho in a much MUCH smaller arena, and with a lot of shelties competing. The main one was when we put on the Cdn Shetland Sheepdog Asso's National here in Ottawa.


CSSA National 2006, Ottawa -the back red fencing gives you an idea of the depth of the ring.

Now here's the 'ring' size this past weekend .... this is looking out to the right ...
If you look way past the white fence on the right you can just spot a lighter green object - that's a large umbrella where they would bring out the 1st group of sheep.

Here the dog is going on the outrun to gather the sheep on the left. The handler can not leave their post. The dog has to have a lot of trust in their handler that there are indeed sheep, somewhere out there.

Command here is 'walk up"

Now the dog, with the handler whistling commands, guides the dog to bring the sheep through the two fences.

Once the sheep are on the move towards the handler, the dog is sent back out to another group that are on the far right of the field. With the field having small rolling hills many times the dog can't even see where the sheep are and is running 'blind', following the whistle of the handler.
Which way MOM????!!!! Where are they??? Are you sure they are out there??

Command here is "Away to me"

Now you can see the pole where the handler stands; the dog has gathered the 20 sheep and must move them between the handler's pole and one other that is just outside the picture to the left.

Command here 'steady' and 'come by'.

Dog's not done yet!! Now they have to move the flock out to the middle of the field, turn left and head to the far side where there are 2 more fences that they have to move them through, make a hard left turn and bring them back across the field on the left of the handler to the center ring.

Here they are coming back from going thru the fence.

"Steady"

Once the dog & handler have the 20 sheep in the center ring - it's down a bit from the rest of the ground, mowed down, and you can see small piles of shavings which denote the edges.

The goal now is for dog & handler to shed off the sheep that do not have the red collars! This one the handler was having a real darn hard time with ONE sheep - red arrow. Do you think it would get to the outside of the group, nope, it continued to stay in the middle of its herd. She tried, we watch and the time ticked down on the clock. They have 25 minutes to complete all of this.

Although it was an over cast day, it drizzled a bit late in the day, the hard working dogs needed a break to cool off, so they knew where the kiddie pool was, and in no uncertain terms told their handler 'just a minute!!! have to dunk myself.'

"That'll do"

This was the last dog we watched. There was one real stubborn, ornery sheep; she baaa'd just about the whole time, calling to her 'friend' that had already been shed off and was now off over the hill in the shed pen.

Once the handler takes hold of the 6' rope on the pen they can't let go until the sheep are in and the gate is closed. You can see how this dog is just holding its position, that ornery sheep is pounding the ground ..'nope you back off!!!', 'no you get in there!'. Bit by bit they backed up into the pen ... it was anxious moments .....

some 4 mins according to my camera times. They did it with around 6 mins to spare. A very nice run - the crowd gave her a big round of applause, and it was a BIG crowd there too.

I said the rain held off during the trials, however on the way home it POURED! Coming through Smiths Falls the sewers couldn't handle it all. At a red light, I captured this moment of it 'bubbling' up through the man cover.

I must admit I got shivers watching these dogs work, the outruns the dogs did were with extreme conviction. Their commitment to continuing to work, no matter what the sheep threw at them was something to behold. Although I may not figure out how to find the time ... maybe not doing herding .... I'd like to do more higher level obedience & agility training with some of my dogs.

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Too Hot To Walk Your Pooch? Does He Need A Physcial Challenge?

Last Saturday, dropped into friend Mary-lou's - Harley & Sadie chased the Frisbee for about 5-6 times ....

then Harley said by his actions ....Love it guys ... but someone open the FRONT DOOR, PLEASE! Too DARN HOT for me!

Here in Ottawa, we've had a long hot & humid spell ... what we're into our 2nd week?

Some days +33C, it's just exhausting to be outside. So how can we keep our dogs healthy, mentally and physically, if we can't get out and exercise them? They will only chase after a ball for so long.

Why not consider a Canine Brain Teaser? Check out this site to see what I mean.

http://www.bestfriendsgeneralstore.com/unique_dog_toys_c/Puzzle_Toys/Puzzle+Toys

Dogs have to figure out how to manipulate the toy to dispense the treats. It allows dogs to be dogs, feeding their instinct to forage for food. Don't leave it all up to him, you can play for 20 minutes and then let them do the rest.

You're helping to stimulate their brain, keep it sharp and exercise them at the same time.

Remember, we've domesticated many breeds, but they need to be dogs first ... just as they would have had to figure out how they'd get their daily rations, this give them something else to do, other than chewing your walls, carpet etc. or going nuts 'cause they haven't had enough exercise.

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Casey - The Travelling Man

Our clients, the Morin's have now gone thru Grand Tenon National Park, WY, USA. Here's 2 pics I received.

Hey mom, hurry up and snap that pic .... wanta get going!

And this one .... it's my fav of him so far. Worthy of being the cover of a sheltie calendar.

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A Day To Relax

I am behind the 8-ball with keeping current postings since the weekend as it's just been SO busy here.

On Sunday, after the 2 day hustle of the Kingston Dog Show, Mike & I went with friends Marylou & husband Ron to an Artist's garden display just outside of Perth, a very relaxing an enjoyable afternoon .... sunny, not too hot, cloudy at times, just an all round great temp day.

Boarding & Grooming are picking up, which is a good sign I'd say that owners are caring well for their shelties. A change in plans unknown to us, really threw me off yesterday, with the pool people showing up to fix the lining that had come loose. That meant rearranging the dog's out time schedule and organizing the delivery of water to make sure the fix would work.Pool drained, lining being fixed, now it has to be filled to see if it will hold, otherwise an estimated cost of a new liner - $1,000!. It took the fire truck 3 trips, at a cost of $450!!! not what we'd expected, but then what do we know about pools .... this pool stuff is all new to us and we seem to face something going wrong every summer it's opened. Let's just hope this YEAR is a hot one and we get way more use out of it than any of us did last year. Last yr Mike was in it 3x and that was really only to clean it.

Back to the Sunday garden trip ....

The more open garden area with various artists

Ron and Mike checking things out. Some lovely stained glass work.
Ron ... marking down the items Marylou says she needs to come back to determine a possible buy.
tucked away down one of the paths near the refreshment area was a band playingwood art - not my thing but do like the toad stools; there was another artist that had ones also but they were much smaller and very cute

this one I loved ... no price on it, I was scared to even ask!
BEST OF ALL

2 sizes of lambs made out of metal .... these I wanted big time .... however, the price of the large one ???? $1,2000, yes that's one thousand two hundred dollars. They had teenie ones, some not more than 6" high for $16.00, but they'd be overtaken by plants in my garden in no time.

After browsing all the artists, returning for a few buys, Ron & Mike relaxed under the tents in the refreshment area, while Marylou and I browsed the plant sale area. We did come home with some very different hens & chicks that we will split.

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A Motorcycling Sheltie

How's this for enjoying your dog! Clients Rick & Kris are travelling to the west pacific coast on a GoldWing motorcycle with their sheltie "Casey" in tow. I just think it's an awesome thing for this dog to enjoy such a fantastic adventure. Shelties can be SO versatile. I am following their adventures that started late May on Facebook.

I've captured a few of their pics on Facebook ....

"Casey" riding 'shot gun'!

Shelamo Autum Dream

And what a dream dog he is.

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A Garden - With Love

Yesterday late afternoon Marylou and I started working on our friend, Mary-Anne's front garden. Last year she had the new walkway put it and did some landscaping, but it needed a boost. Marylou and I bought some perennials at the Carp Market last weekend to help give it a yearly look, dug more up from Marylou's place, all with the intent for less annual care & maintenance. We gated the front walkway allowing for the 2 11+wk old pups, Kodak & Taphee to enjoy a good romp and socialize with all the street noise - like 2 fire trucks & their sirens that went down the main street. We had to move back the cedar mulch, add more compost and peat moss all to give the soil a better quality and to hold the moisture better. We also added newspaper under the cedar mulch to help keep weeds at bay. Between us we remembered all the 'to do's' we'd discussed previously.

At lot of digging, turning over soil and deciding what was going to go where. MaryAnne's girlfriend Gail popped by and we sent her over to the local store to pick up some annuals to add constant colour.

Pups and Tim Hortons go good! Kodak supervising our efforts.In several places, especially under the tree area we put in water bottles - ends cut off, cap off - helps to get the water right to the roots rather than draining off. MA take note - a short sprinkle watering doesn't do it here!

Another Kodak pic ... can't help it! Such a sweet face.

I rummaged through her house to find a few things to add to the garden. We used the 'tree trunk' pot, putting some portulaca in to spill out as they explode in colour. The Cow Welcome, that was for fun and I've heard it will be retiring to the basement :) Gotta find something else MA to add a whimsical look to the garden.
Finally, after clean-up a 3.5 hours job is done. Looking pretty fine to me :) We had FUN doing it and can't wait to see it grow and produce the blooms we hope for. Know the neighbours were impressed!

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DAAAHHH?? It's A Canadian Loon!

Kinda surprised I didn't get comments/emails from my Canadian friends that this carved duck picture I posted from Xmas is a Canadian (Common) Loon!

DAHH ... how could I have forgotten? I remember my dad teaching me how to take a long, thick blade of grass (took some doing to find the right one too), holding it just so, between the length of my thumbs, cupping my hands and then blowing to make that long, lovely call called the 'wail'. This call is mostly heard on calm lakes as the evening sun sets in the summer. If you get the grass reed calling down right (gosh do I know about practising it!), you can sometimes get the loons to answer you back. It is used to keep in contact with other loons on the lake.

If you've never heard it here is a link .... listen, think of a warm summer's evening, the sun setting on the horizon .... and other than maybe crickets, this is all you hear ....

Wail (474 K AU)

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A Great Weather Weekend To Enjoy

On Saturday, Mary-Anne, Marylou and myself headed to the Carp Market not only for some shopping, but to sit and update my obedience lesson. A job I've just not gotten around to for a good year now! Arriving around 9am, don't we meet up with one of my sheltie clients Jan, and her 2 friends!She was there last week too ... this is beginning to be a real popular sheltie place ... I hear Kim was there and so was Penny! We grabbed one of the picnic tables, (most of them still wet with dew that needed drying off) and took up residence for close to 2 hours. As the sun came over the steeple of the barn, oh, my was the sun ever nice and warming! I could have sat there all day!
It's already starting to get busy! Marylou and I didn't leave without some of the Hudson's Corn ... the new batch this week is called "Vision". They say with the late corn season we'll be feeding this year up till the end of October! MA & ML picked up some Thai food for lunch, and we headed back to ML's to eat it as the wasps were getting a little pesky by this time. Before leaving, Marylou wanted to show us Harley's frisbee out-takes! This is the 1st shot I captured as he was going out of the frame.

Getting better, but he's further away from me in this shot/throw. There goes Sadie on the 'round-up'!

Much better!!!

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