The "Leave it" command

This morning on our walk I learned how wonderful the "leave it" command can make me feel and how consistent training is so important. We can teach our dog anything, call any behavior anything we wish but if it is not reinforced consistently and rewarded well it will do us no good.

I had the day off today so our walkie was a bit later than normal. We were heading toward home when I saw the "bad dogs" of the neighborhood on their front porch getting ready for a walk. Three women, three dogs; a Am Eskimo, a Beagle, and a Daschund. We would pass within 10 feet of them soon. Before we were spotted I told Oz and Happy to "leave it". Immediately the two goofs started to look for what they were to leave alone and spotted the Bad news dogs who saw them at the same time. All 3 of the Bad News dogs started barking, spinning and flinging against the end of their leash, total chaos. 9:00 in the morning and these three yahoos were making enough noise to wake the dead and the humans at the end of their leads did nothing. I told my Boyz "Leave it" and "close" and locked the Flexi and we continued on. As we pass the 3 wild ones, barking, lunging and spinning, Oz and Happy just looked at them and happily trotted past. I could tell Oz wanted so desperately to pee on their lawn but he never once pulled on the lead, Happy either. Once we were at the end of the block I stopped and hugged them both. The three women were in awe at my two. I was so proud.

"Leave it" works, use it. :)

How to get brilliant, confident, dogs in one easy step.

Last night at agility practice Oz made me proud. I had taken both Oz and Happy as back up just in case Oz got a bit wild... Silly me, Oz was awesome. I think the instructor (Barbara) was a bit skeptical when we walked in... a terrier on the end of the leash pulling and flying around like a mad dog. He settled right in to with full focus once I removed the lead for his turn at the weave poles... did absolutely wonderful. we did 6 on the near side (left), treated then did 6 more the same direction then turned and did them on the far side (right) in the same manner. next was a short 10 obstacle course... jump, dog walk, jumps, table weave jumps. He did that wonderfully also... except he launched off before he hit the contacts... he just started that. Next was a tricky run with an awkward jump sequence. Rise taught me well, we handled it beautifully... We chose the more difficult handling that removed running distance for me... At the end of class someone said "you are so lucky your dogs are so confident, you don't have to deal with the issues the rest of us have" She is so right.. I do have brilliant, beautiful, confident, loving dogs. A good reason why puppy mills and some back yard breeders should be put out of business.

Puppies need certain things to become wonderful companions. If they get this while they are young and impressionable it is easy. If this doesn't happen then the rest of their lives they may be struggling. That is not to say that ALL dogs that come from puppy mills and BYB are bad or have issues or that all puppies from reputable breeders don't have problems, we all know that is not the case. However, if they have plenty of social time with other dogs and puppies, love, quality food, some kind of regimen on a day to day basis the chances of them struggling to become the dog they want to be is lessened. Furthermore, if we do our part when we take them home it furthers their education. Take them everywhere, Home Depot, Pet Smart, PetCo, malls... anywhere they can interact with other dogs and people and different floor surfaces, noises, smells. DO NOT react when something out of the ordinary happens, that will only give the puppy the OK to be fearful.

My dogs are fearless, sweet, brilliant and the best dogs in the world for me. I owe their breeders for that... I just continued the lessons. :)

ChTC (Champion of the Terminally Cute) Cairngorm Shot in the Dark CGC, RA, SE, TBAD, TDAAG1, TOTO THE MAGNIFICENT, TDI therapy dog.

ChTC Kinloch Shadowood CGC, RN, TBAD, TDAAG1

Both soon to be NAJ/NAP

Happy New Year!!

May the New Year bring you much happiness and peace!
As you can see - "Rocky" has started early to celebrate.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

To all those far far away, a Very Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year to you from Happy, Oz, Betsy and the TomCat (who didn't go to the dog event this was taken at)!.

12/8/10 - 12/9/10

Wednesday again back to work, "Rocky" getting bigger and "Chloe" still not really wanting to eat. Her temp is fine and after hot packing and milking her the first part of the week her teats are no longer engorged. I actually hand fed her kibble by kibble. Will I have to do this until he is weaned?? Barley and Livvi arrived for a weeks stay.
Thursday morning - another hand feeding. Karen came to clean - YEA and THANK YOU! I had forgotten that "Widget" was coming to get groomed. The dogs were all out back and going totally crazy looking to the front of the house. I ran to the front of the house thinking I had left Chloe out - no didn't do that. Looked outside and there was someone lying on the parking strip. OMG it was Janet and "Widget." Long story short. Off to the hospital in an ambulance, "Widget" groomed, Karen followed me to the house to take Janet's car back home. Janet is in a sling with a fractured humerous.

Things are looking up!! My house is clean - found out that I can spoon feed "Chloe" instead of 'hand' feeding - and "Rocky" has a new 'littermate'
Keep healing thoughts out to Jan and her shoulder.

Tribute to Awbs aka Ch KinLoch's Awbrey Glen of Joywood ROM 7/11/94 - 12/7/10

The last couple of weeks I have been thinking a lot of Awbs. It has been 5 years since I have been up to visit with her and Anne and Gordon Stiff. I so love it up there. Awbrey was placed when she was around 6 years old and went to live with Anne and Gordon who overlook a golf course. How perfect could that be. Awbrey became the unofficial goose chaser on the course as the hired hand (Border Collie) was fired as some thought it was cruel to the geese. She would also run up and down the cairn cliffs chasing birds as Anne would swim in the sea. She got Gordon to start walking again as prescribed by the doctor. She had the most best life a little wee dog could have and so very loved by all.
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Tuesday I made it through a day of work with very little sleep. I came home to a phone message with Gordon asking me to call. I knew the time had come. She had gone peacefully in Anne's arms. My heart hurts so much for them. I'm sure she is taking care of the two little girls that passed just before her.

A little about Awbrey for those of you that didn't know her. She was from my very first litter. She was named after a golf course - Awbrey Glen-http://www.awbreyglen.com
which started the golf course theme for my kennel. She didn't like to show so I had Dee Hanna finish her as Awbrey so loved her!! She produced three Champions - Ch KinLoch's Augusta ROM and her brother BIS MBISS AmCan Ch KinLoch's Royal Troon RN ME CGC ROME and Ch KinLoch's Laurel Hill ROM. She had numerous grand and great grandchildren including newborn "Rocky."
She will always be in my heart and a little of her in all the dogs at KinLoch. You will be so missed by all of the lives you have touched.

12/2/10 to 12/6/10 Chloe and babies

It's been a very long week. "Chloe" gave birth to two puppies last Thursday and settled in by eating, going potty and then cuddling her new charges - 1 boy and 1 girl.
I had Jill over to help with the whelping and she took off for coffee and breakfast. She got back and we were talking about the last 12 hours and "Chloe" screams. We had heard that noise before and low and behold another baby girl. Things were going well and all nursing.
"Chloe's" mom came over and while she was watching over everyone I groomed for 7 hours. Yes, blisters did arise. But still had more to do the next day - another 5 hours.
Babies seemed to do well but the girls were small so I started supplementing them on day 2. Cindi was over so I could get the next group of dogs groomed. The girls started to decline and every two hour feedings started. Big boy "Rocky" would nurse and then do a couple of laps in the whelping box checking on his sisters. Sounds weird I know but he no longer does it. Puppy Pilates will commence next week.
Sunday the second born little girl passed away and the first girl seemed to be do good and then not. Necropsy showed no abnormal findings. I guess good news and bad news.
Monday seemed to go better for the little girl and I thought she was going to make it until 1630 when she started seizing. She was rushed to the vet where she died. More tests to be done as nothing showed on the preliminary report.
Good news - "Rocky" is thriving and I went back to work.
See the next posts for the rest of the week.

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my friends and family!

Candlelighters Candy Cane Lane 2010

Here's the shopping area. Most of it is complete, just need a few signs and we're ready for tomorrow!

Therapy Dogs International - WE DID IT!!

When Happy was so terribly ill last April/May I wrote a post "You can't leave me yet buddy, we're not done". Thank the good Lord and many wonderful people he survived and is now back to the "little Black Booger" we all know and love.


One of my goals, if he survived the mystery malady, was to share him with people struggling with health/age related issues as a therapy dog. Yesterday, in Vancouver, WA at a great little dog training/day care business Happy passed the Therapy Dog International (TDI) evaluation with flying colors, he even got some points for cute. Something he's tried for a long time to get in the Obedience and Rally rings. The business is very new and in a very small section of a strip mall. Perfect location and size to build a business the right way. We were in the main room (pretty much the only room) which was very small. there were 14 dogs of all sizes, shapes, ages and temperaments and their handlers. The first hour was quite chaotic as we were pretty much packed together. The dogs that were able to tolerate the closeness, stood next to one another at close range. Proudly I say Hap was one of those. Others that were too nervous or active were separated slightly from the crowd by a few extra feet and a desk. At first I thought it was a horrible place to do the evaluation but after a bit I saw it was perfect to see reactions of both dogs and handlers in a very stressful and close environment.


The evaluator did the CGC test first. A volunteer would hold a dog while the handler walked around a wall for the 3 minute test. While that was going on the evaluator would do the walking on loose lead, sit, down brush, etc. During our wait I put Happy through his tricks to keep him occupied. I had taken some string cheese and would discretely slip him one every once in a while just to keep his attention. By the time it was his turn to do the walk, down, sit etc he was pretty ramped up on getting fed so it was easy. First task "sit", no problem,.. now "down" :



Betsy: "happy, Down"

Happy: "oh, did you say DEAD dog?" (flop on side as if dead)

Crowd: hahahaha

Betsy: "Happy, down"

Happy: "oh, did you say Bang?" (flop as if being shot again, remain on side)

Crowd: HAHAHAHA

Betsy: "Hap, stand. Good dog, SPLAT!! "

Crowd: ROFLMAO HAHAHA, SPLAT!! HAHAHA

Happy: "OMG, they LOVE ME!!" (drop into a down as fast as possible, glance at Mom long enough to know she sees the splat then do a "flip-roll-over)

Crowd: Applause

Betsy thinking (oh well, at least we'll pass now)

Evaluator: (laughing out loud) "he's got a great personality for a Therapy dog" Sit your dog for petting"

Betsy: "Happy,sit, pet pet " (pet pet is a command so he's prepared to be approached)

Happy: "Oh, he loves me" (sit pretty while wiggling every inch of body, lift paw to say "hi" when evaluator raises his hand to pet me)


You get the picture. He performed the rest of the night regardless whether he was "on stage" or not. He passed with flying colors, along with everyone else. But no one else did it with such "Booger Flair" :).


Once more I am humbled by His grace in allowing me to keep such a wonderful animal.

Always I thank Him for bringing friends like you into my life. Those that urge me onto success, have my back and Kick my ass when needed.


I love you all.

Candlelighters Candy Cane Lane 2010

Last year our company hosted a wonderful event just before Christmas. Dedicated to helping children fighting cancer and their families with their battle, the Candlelighters hold a "shopping" event for the parents while their children are kept busy by volunteers. Gifts of all kinds are donated and brought to our warehouse where they are "priced" and displayed. The parents, with the assistance of volunteers, pick out what they need and volunteers wrap them while they go back to the kids to enjoy the festivities.

It's a wonderful event and well worth the time and effort. I've put a link to my story from last year, I hope it worked.

Happy, Santa (aka brother Bob), Santa's hand maiden (aka sister in law Gretchen) and I will play again this year. We are looking forward to this uplifting holiday event. If you are down and out this season, find something like this to volunteer for, it will do so much for your attitude, it helped me last year so much.

Agility pictures

Here is the link for Montgomery agility pictures.
Kona and Mary are on Tuesday and Wednesday Novice.
http://www.pbase.com/barryrosen/ter

Kimberton Day 2

Day two dawned with clear skies! Yipeeeeeeeee!!
Our site was still quite muddy, but we put down plastic bags covered with mats from the dollar store and it made the getting out of the space much easier. Good idea by Vicki, I must say!
The really wonderful part of the day was that we only had 6 dogs to take care of since Barb McNamee had arrived on Tuesday night. We made the very long trip from Kimberton to Bensalem to drop them off to her.
Kona qualified for JWW in the morning. Mary didn't qualify :-(
Kona qualified in Standard in the afternoon and placed first with a PERFECT run!!! Mary had a great time but didn't qualify again (another sad face).
We had to break down our little agility camp, much sadness....wishing we were doing it the full four days. We moved into the hotel where we will be spending the remainder or our time here. Happy face here! Got all organized and ready to show in conformation at Morris and Essex a show held every five years.
Check back for the next installment.

Kimberton! October 5

First of all, Happy Birthday Dena!!!

Very wet, VERY MUDDY, very FUN inspite of it all (miss you Betsy, Ryan and Heidi)
Entries: $?
Getting here: $ who knows
New rain gear: $ won't say
Experience so far: $$$$ PRICELESS

Kona Q'd and placed 2nd in Nov Jumpers with weaves in spite of the rain and mud.
Mary Q'd and placed 1st in Nov Standard with similar conditions.

Vicki groomed 5 dogs while Val worked ring crew most of the day between runs.

Dropped off three dogs to Barb tonight...tomorrow will be much easier.

Wishing we had more days to do agility!

Day 2

I have been writing tHese on my iPad as we travel down the highway. Then, I email them to myself when we get to our days end.
Here is day 2:
Day 2 Brigham City to Cheyenne, Wyoming

The WIND was REALLY blowing all morning!!! It was to be a short day and we were both pretty excited about that.

We named the GPS. On a previous trip we had borrowed one and she ended up being called "Sybil" because it was totally unpredictable. That is not the name it started with, or the only name on the progression to the final moniker, it is however the only one I remember that is fit to print. This one is "Brenda" and so far has totally lived up to her name. A really stedfast hardworking little machine. A few quirks...she pops off the dashboard when she gets tired...or mad because we turn her off when we get off the freeway, but so far no crazy routes to odd places or evil voices yelling at us the she is "recalculating" our route.

As we drove up to the KOA, we passed an awesome looking feed and tack store...maybe we could do some shopping? It is Wyoming, maybe Vicki could find a Cairn Loving Cowboy! Of course that would mean she would move to Wyoming and that would be kind of sad for those of us left in the Northwest. No worries, once we had the dogs out, we didn't budge..we even ate the second half of our Subway flatbread sandwich rather than going to find dinner someplace. We spiced it up with some of the food left from the agility trial in Ridgefield....scary!

We arrived at the Cheyenne KOA and rented a Kabin (with a K) put up the xpens and settled in for a nice afternoon. All the dogs got nice long walks. The puppies all played like crazy in the pens. We set up the weave poles, Mary and Kona got to practice those a bit. There were bunnies there, so they got to practice NOT hunting while we were doing agility also. Sully kept trying to dive into the tall grass after them (the bunnies). He could do that though cuz he isn't doing agility yet!

Pennsylvania 2010

I was going to surprise everyone with blog updates and Betsy had to go and ruin it by nagging! Well, here is the first installment...Day 1 Portland to Brigham City, Utah

We go off at the time we wanted. Vicki, Val and nine dogs. Mary, Kona, Sully, Willow, Kit, Dotty, Tera, Bree and ZeZe (the last three belonging to Brab McNamee). The goal is five nights on the road this time, since there are only two drivers. KOA Kampgrounds...that is camping with a K!

We plan to do two days of agility with Mary and Kona then four days of conformation with various combinations of our other four. Barb will be taking her three when she flies in on Tuesday night. Nine is a lot of dogs! Once upon a time I thought I would enjoy being a professional handler....NOT! The culmination will be earth dog with Kona ( now an EE2) and Mary (hoping to double Q for her EE2) As well as Willow hoping to snag her Junior title.

Love, love, love the wonderful care package of muffins, sweet bread and candy Dena brought for our trip.

Loving Subway flatbread sandwiches which we cut with scissors thrown in at the last minute. Vicki and i are committed to more healthy eating this trip.

Loving and missing our travel buds Betsy and Dena.

Loving the van Barb and Larry allowed us to drive back. We both needed to get used to the handling. It has some play in the steering AND the wind was really blowing in The Gorge!

Missing the CD's we thought were in the van. Country music is the music of choice, but constant "seeking" as we travel through coverage areas gets old fast.

Brigham City Utah on Thursday night. We slept in the car. Not a plan we want to repeat if we have an option. Vicki is too long for the seat!

Watch this blog for more fun updates!

Paws Gone Missing!!

It's been 4 days and not a blog one! Where are Val and Vicki? They left Thursday for Pennsylvania, big time dog events being held there; Agility (Mary and Kona will kick butt), rally, obedience, conformation, and Earthdog... wow, what a time the will have. Instead I think we have a "Where's Waldo" scenario. Alas, they do not have their blogger with them (me), I suppose we'll have to guess what kind of antics they are up to. I did talk to them yesterday, ever so briefly, when I found a squirrel dog costume I thought would be perfect for JimJim.

Are they in Missouri, did they poison each other with Vapor bath? Have they stopped at Cabellas and are lost on the second floor in the camo gear? Did they finally let Jaz drive? Stay tuned, I'm sure we'll hear from them soon!

Val, Vicki? Where aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeee yyyyyyyyyoooooooooooou?

Lopez and his family

On Friday, Donna came and picked up the third puppy to leave. Lopez has his forever home in the Olympia area on a mini farm with a house cat, chickens, Michael and Sarah (oh don't forget mom and dad, Donna and Joe).
Dad and the kids were out of town, arriving back home late last night.

You can only imagine the excitement on the flight home! Here is Michael, with his greeting from Lopez!

First of the Boyz of The San Juans goes home

Tico went home with his new family on Sunday.
He is now 12 weeks old, living with Hannah, Chris and Ron and their two cats. He has made himself right at home and doesn't seem to miss his brothers at all.

oops, link to pictures

http://casualpetimages.com/Domain/Event_Photos/Event_Photos.html