It's Melting!

I do believe spring may be coming. The snow has dropped at least a foot since last week end. We have had a busy couple of weeks. The first weekend in March Emmi and I did a Level 4 K9 Nosework workshop with Dana Gallagher. It was a lot of fun. We worked with three odours, birch, wintergreen and anise. It was a cold windy weekend so a good one to spend in doors.  Since then we have been working on odour with both Em and Davie. For a guy I used to call "Mr No Nose" Davie is doing great. He just gets a little too excited when we first start but gets down to business pretty quick.
 
The following weekend was the Top Dog Agility Trial. It was a busy weekend for me and a boring one for Davie and Emmi. The trial was indoors at the Agriplex. It is the indoor arena used by the Prince George Horse Society. I did enter Em in Starters Jumpers. And she did exactly like I thought she would, a couple of tunnels then the nose kicked in. Can't blame a hound who hasn't seen dirt on 4 months. So today we went up to another barn to practice. After a case of the zoomies she settled down and did decent work. Once she gets the idea that equipment in a barn/field means agility not sniffing I think we will be on the road.

And Davie got to go herd ducks too last week. He was so good. He didn't even back down when the "Duck with Attitude" was going after him, he stood his ground and Mr Duck changed his mind. I need to make a concentrated effort to find a place to work him on sheep.

Here is the link to a video of Emmi looking for birch on chairs. After she figured out boxes weren't involved she got down to work.

These two pictures show how the snow is slowly dropping.

March 7th

March 15th

Watching for the numerous squirrels that have appeared!

Emmi is 2!!!

It was PR Davis Branch Bayou Emmi Bleu's second birthday yesterday. I can not believe she is two years old. Needless to say she had a lot of fun yesterday. We went for a snow shoe and she got to smell lots of rabbit tracks and rabbit turds. Did you know rabbit turds look like kibble scattered on the snow, didn't fool Em though. Then we had a bit of a party. We finished off the evening with some yummy bully sticks. Today she took some of her cake to the RallyO class and shared with her class mates. We still have some cake to share with the wiener dogs down the street and Catja. Benji isn't allowed any because Davie's cake upset his system, but we will find something for him. Here are some random pictures.

Emmi FKA Miss Pink

Mama Lucy and her 7, 3 girls and 4 boys

My cake

Crazy one

In flight

What's the chances of catching both ears up??

Me and my brother

Stating her opinion

Davie's new puppy friend

Meet Luna the Catahoula!

Happy Gotcha Day

It was three years ago today that I first laid eyes on Davie. I will never forget that day. We have come a long way and it hasn't always been easy. Davie's self confidence has increased a thousand fold and more.  Davie is now comfortable meeting new people on his terms. He has his favorite people and to them he gives all of himself. He has his crazy coonie sister who he has done a fine job raising and training. He has lots of dog buddies. He has helped raise numerous puppies and has an incredible way with young pups. People who see him interact with a pup for the first time are both amazed and fascinated by what Davie will do to bring the most frightened pup out of their shell, or gently but firmly correct an boisterous pup. His favorite thing is our daily walks in the bush. He is in his element running like the wind. I can never thank Amanda enough for letting Davie come to live with us.

I had a hard time picking pictures, I know I have missed some of my favorites but I this is enough!

My first view of Davie

Getting Ready for the journey home

Mud Man

Tenting on the way to Bender

Prairie Guy

Why me

Sledding with Shiloh and Lexi

His favorite place

His little sister

Wrestling match

At least I have company for these pictures now

Amber

Teddy

Looking for Marvin his British Columbia cat

Laddy who comes for walks with us, have never met his owner

A cleaner puddle

At Eromit Labs

Rune

Three best buddies, Davie, Catja and Emmi

Happy 5th Birthday Davie!

It is Davie's birthday today. I can't believe he is already 5, in under two weeks he will have been here for three years. It was a gorgeous day for a birthday, sunny with a bit of fresh snow. We went over to his best buddy's place for a party. Catja was with us when we picked Davie up three years ago and is his best friend, Emmi doesn't count because he says she is his sister. We got the birthday cake from Cindy of Dog Gone Bakery fame. Although there is no longer a DGB store Cindy still makes dog cakes and goodies, thank you Cindy. Davie wished his two favorite cats, Floyd and Marvin could have come to the party, but since Floyd lives in Saskatchewan and Marvin in Quesnel it was a littl far for them to come. But he did have a surprise visitor at his party. Here are some random pictures form today.

Twisted Sister

You've been in the birthday cake!

I got the ball, I got the ball!

Look out!

Smooth move

Sometimes they stand still

Grampa Benji in his stripes

Handsome man

Full speed

Is it really mine?

Yum

The surprise guest!

Hmmm, where did the time go

I guess when you aren't moving snow almost everyday you find lots of things to do one of which is not writing on the blog. We haven't had a good or bad dump of snow in weeks. It is very strange and the temperatures have been between -6 and 4, even stranger. We helped at the Top Dog Agility trial on January 11th, then did a Rally Obedience trail with Emmi this past weekend. Davie does awesome Rally BUT he doesn't like to do it with a bunch of people watching so he said Emmi could go right ahead without him. Let me tell you doing Rally with a hound is interesting, especially one that isn't two years old yet. Oh and did you know hounds don't mature until they are 3 or 4 or maybe 8! Yes I already knew that. Let me say that the runs were  mixture of pure hound "what is that, can I go visit" to shear brilliance. Here is you giggle for the day.

We have also been doing a lot of Nose work, now the hound is unbelieveable but then given the size of her nose I guess she should be. This is Emmi looking for the Hide which is stuck to the side of the red bedside lamp. Notice also the ceiling fan which makes it a little tricky. sorry about the poor vidoe quality, I used the GoPro and the lighting was bad.

And yes Davie does Nose work and loves it, but you can see the real difference between his nose and the hound nose. He doesn't have the best nose, but as his Uncle Michael says, "BCs don't need a good nose they are about the EYES."

Helping shovel the deck, this was the last shoveling. January 10th. Deck is now bare and dry

I hope I don't invite the Snow Elves again by my statement under the last picture. And there will be a video of Davie doing Nose work in the next posting.