Birthday Interruption

I will resume the birthday updates soon — I need to nudge a couple of Wildflower families and also do one for Pozy — but we have been showing since Thursday at the Missoula dog show so it has been busy.

Capella

Yesterday was especially fun.

Sparkle, Claire, and Capella

Sparkle was awarded first place in the Veterans Working Group, Claire finished her Rally Novice title, and Capella was Winners Bitch (but with only nine showing it was one short of the major she needs towards her championship). A fun day!

On Friday I showed Suzanne’s Sundance in obedience and we finished his CD (obedience title).

That gave Sundance the BMDCA Working Dog award, which requires a draft title and titles from at least two other performance events — he has tracking and now obedience. Very cool.

Today is the last day of the show — and the last show I will do this summer. Capella is starting to blow coat and so our summer will be all about staying home and training for fall — with one exception. Claire has a track in the local tracking test next weekend 🍀🙏🏽

And speaking of shows, congratulations are due for Alison and Sparkler Kiri.

New UD title (VERY HARD) and first UDX leg (EXTRA VERY HARD). Amazing and wonderful and all those kinds of words.

Thought for the day: Accomplishments are fun!

Happy Sunday to you.

Wildflower Birthday Update

They grow up so fast!

Bridget sends us this fun Kitsap Birthday update from Indiana:

“Kitsap continues to brighten our lives. He’s a really good looking male the largest of the four Berner boys I have owned.

He is a lean 106 lbs and our trainer describes Kitsap as the most athletic Bernese Mountain Dog he has ever seen. In the photos with me (Bridget) I am 5’5” to give a sense of scale.

Kitsap is fortune to have his best buddy Hasley, my friends’ English Spring Spaniel. Hasley lives on 20 acres that has miles of paths for regular walks in the woods. Kitsap is always eager to jump in the water as is seen in the photo I took one rainy walk.

Kitsap celebrated part of his birthday with Hasley and my friend joked that three human years is 21 dog years. Then after texting me the pictures with the beer bottles, he noted ‘he was waiting for the sheriff to show up and charge him with contributing to the delinquency of a Berner!’ LOL.

(Don’t worry, my friend would never actually give a dog beer.)

Kitsap and Hasley have been known to make the most out of the rain and mud and get thoroughly dirty.

A tried-and-true member of the Montana puppy choir in his earliest days he continues to keep his voice in tune with a collection of whines and whimpers when he wants something, usually love and attention. However, what is truly impressive is his adult bark which he doesn’t hesitate to use if he is impatient about wanting you to act or is unsure of someone who decides to enter our 6-foot circle.

We have had some training lessons for our urban CGC where we meet at Midtown Plaza in Carmel, a thriving center of entertainment, urban style living and commerce. There are four floors of glass front buildings surrounding the plaza and Kitsap’s bark can reverberate throughout the space echoing of the windows and get everyone’s attention. Despite a warning that gets everyone’s attention he’s really a teddy bear and is as likely to meet someone and be what we call Velcro dog.

We are slowly picking up agility, it took us a while to find a training option that works for us. We work with both our obedience, rally, sent work trainer and our agility trainer one-on-one because Kitsap struggles to focus and not be loud in a crowded environment.

The other day working with our trainer we did a 15-obstacle sequence of jumps and tunnels. Kitsap’s jump position in the air is a thing of beauty.

He gives me the best attention when requested, it can be during agility, obedience, or just walking down the street.

We feel so blessed to own a Kaibab Berner. Kitsap loves to work and is a quick learner. He is athletic, loving, and lives life with gusto. We couldn’t be happier to have him in our lives.”

Thank you, Bridget and Bob, for Kitsap’s fun and active life! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KITSAP 🎉

Wildflower Birthday Continues

The Wildflowers’ Birthday Party continues today with Lupine.

We have this update from her wonderful family:

“Lupine continues to provide love and entertainment every day.  She is a very sweet girl, although prefers not to show that side when out in public as she does have a bit of a judgmental side and she either prefers her family over all others or has just found us easy to manipulate in her quest to rule the world. 

She is one of the very smartest dogs we’ve ever met and so the joke is that Lupine is here to bend us to her will

Lupine is very loving when she decides to be.  She chooses when she will get hands on attention, and she will simply walk away when she’s done.  She’s the only Berner we know who will literally get up in the middle of a belly rub, walk away and lay down somewhere else. 

But when she’s in the mood, she is the sweetest, softest girl.  She loves to use her feet, putting them on our legs or shoulders (if she can reach) when she wants attention.

Lupine experiences a high level of stress when in environments with a lot of people or strange dogs.  We try to give her a lot of opportunities for adventure in low stress areas.  She goes to work quite often where she gets lots of walks in different places where she can see the world but keep her distance. 

She loves to do Scent Work activities and training and she enjoys “working” around our property; searching the shop for cat toys to hoard, checking the mail, and finding any single sticky weed that she can add to her coat (for such a pretty girl, her nickname is Pig Pen) and DIGGING very nice holes that she could fit herself into!  She also loves to run around in the mountains.”

Thank you, Jennifer and family, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUPINE!