Thursday, January 28, 2010

Dog Show!

Oh yes, Ollie went to another dog show a couple of weekends ago in Fredericksburg VA. His pal Darcy went along too. We wanted to show you all, like Fenway did, what a dog show is like.

At our breeder's house, Ollie had to give Mr. Darcy the Deerhound a pep talk over the door so he'd be psyched to go in the ring:



Ollie doesn't usually like bigger dogs but he and Darcy are special pals. Here Darcy's thinking about what Ollie told him, to behave in the ring for once!!


So at the show Darcy started looking around -- he's either thinking about getting a massage or he's girl-watching... Hey Darce, get your head in the game!


They were judging Deerhounds first, so Darcy here is getting a pre-show rubdown from his mom (our breeder):


"Now remember what I said -- no shenanigans out there!"


He's standing up lookin' good...that's his pal Selina handling:


And he's just a big gray blur!


There he goes!



Heyyy he won a ribbon! yeaaaa! Good boy Darcy!


The judge loved him so much she came out of the ring afterwards to say how good she thought he was. He still has to grow up a little (hey isn't he big ENOUGH already??) but he should do well.

This dog looks like a bear! He's just a little guy but Mom knows the handler is a good one so he should do well in the future... he's a Leonberger. They get gigantic!!


I bet the same Poodles were at this show that were at Fenway's show in Annapolis...
They are such patient dogs being groomed so much.


This guy looked like he came for some fun --


And this pic came out strange 'cause a clip got in the way over this dog's head, but this is a different-colored Borzoi than we're used to seeing. Our breeder used to show Borzoi but hers were the white type, not like this one. Cool!


Ollie had a long time to wait before his class so he spent the time napping in a crate.


Only a few minutes 'til showtime so it's time for the brush! Here's Jamie, I think she's Ollie's half-sis, getting a little scissoring... most of our grooming had been done already at home.


Now it's Ollie's turn --- not the face! not the face!


Now for a final back-comb and they're all set --


Mom had a tough time getting pics of Ollie 'cause she couldn't get too close to the ring. Everything is blurry if you embiggen the pics but they look alright like they are here...


Long story short, he won Best of Breed! He's such a pretty kid, I must say. They didn't get a pic with the judge, but the weekend before in NYC he won the breed over more dogs, so here's a pic of that win:


Now Ollie needs one more point to get his CH title, so next week they're taking him to NJ again. Good luck little man!

Love
Rudy
(I'm so glad I'm through with dog shows - I had a couple of placements in the Terrier Group and that's plenty for me!)

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Christmas around the House and Ollie's present to Mom...

Hi Everyone!

Mom got sick starting Christmas Eve so she hasn't felt like helping me blog at all for the past week or so, so that's why you haven't heard from me this time. We had a quiet Christmas since we didn't go anywhere for the holidays. We were going to go to Grandma Mary and Grandpa Roy's until Mom got sick so we spent a lot of time helping her get well. Ollie and I took turns keeping her warm and we all helped keep her entertained. Bored humans, well, you know....

Our tree looked pretty good this year -- before she got sick I helped Mom put up stuff on our BIG tree in the living room:


I'll tell you, it sure was hard to put that angel on top of that tree... that big thing drops more needles than a REAL tree! It's so old, every year Mom thinks it's the last.

Anyway, I also helped put together a few deco's on the table in the living room. Much less reaching for me!


We put some decorations and blue LED lights on last year's agility ribbon tree
and put a big red ribbon on top! Notice the Kleenex box -- never very far away from Mom this holiday season...


More decorating, and then last but not least, the Nativity scene:


Hoo that was a lot of work! I curled up with a pink pig stuffie and took a nap after all that...


Our plastic Santa got to come out of the basement and say hi to the world outside. When he's plugged in, he's so bright we don't need any other lights in the yard.


OK, so Ollie had this bright idea he should get Mom a pressie especially for her on Christmas Eve. Trouble was, she couldn't use it. Ollie didn't realize she wanted a live rat from the pet store to practice Earthdog with, not a fresh dead one from under the deck! Mom is not sure everybody wants to see it so she's not going to let me post a pic. Awwww Mom.... it was a big brown one! (MOM: yeek!)

It was so big Mom thought Ollie had a squirrel in his mouth -- nope, wrong type tail. He came up to the deck with it and was nice enough to drop it for Mom. Good boy Ollie -- great little hunter. He's the very first one to find a rat outside. Hmm.. Mom's kinda worried now!

So instead of a rat pic, here's another vid of Ollie, me, and Josie running around when our big snow first started the weekend before Christmas. Ollie's being big and bad, patrolling the back fence, and then I run up to help, and then Josie (who's much darker) runs the fence. More running around, then last but not least we find Clancy in the purple/red/yellow sweater. She gets in an embarrassing position so in the name of privacy, Mom ends the tape...


Mom's feeling much better but Dennis is sick now! We were helping him get warm tonight. Lots of work when the humans get sick. It's what we do..

Happy New Year everyone,
Rudy