Water Fun

Photos from top to bottom:
Ginny and Reef soaking in the sun.

Dick earned the nickname "cart man" from Jan in helping ferry hospitality items and gear from the parking area to the site.

Cooper, Ecko and Reef at the end of the weekend.

Cooper, Ecko, Stoker and Reef. The kids are as big, if not bigger, than their mom now!

This weekend we headed up I5 to Auburn for a water workshop and trial at Nolte State Park. We attended the water workshop on Saturday and I worked Janet's dog Booty who has been staying with us for several weeks. Janet is sidelined with a broken ankle, but is getting around well enough now that she took Booty home with her at the end of the day. Booty was very happy to be reunited with Janet, but still managed to go a great job working with me while Janet looked on.

On Sunday, there was a one-day water trial and Stoker's baby Cooper passed at the Junior level to earn his JWD (Junior Water Dog) certificate. We are SO proud of Cooper and Julie. Julie credits her husband Roger for getting Cooper swimming and retrieving so confidently and hopes to tackle Apprentice with Cooper next summer. Click HERE for a Photoshow of Cooper and Julie's performance.

We entered Chili in Versatility on Sunday just for fun. Versatility isn't a titling level, but provides a place to "show off" for PWDs that have already earned their CWDX (Courier Water Dog Excellent) title. With little training this summer, Chili came through for us with an enthusiastic pass in Versatility and brought home a lovely rosette and embroidered towel.

Weekend at "Camp"

Every July I get to enjoy a long weekend of water play at the lake at Sandy Overton and Jim Smith's place in Port Orchard, WA. The last two years, we've shared our weekend fun with Kathy Simmons and Kathleen Jose and their spouses. This weekend was as enjoyable as anticipated with a litter of 7-week old pups to visit with, beautiful weather, warm water, excellent food and good friends.

Stoker made excellent progress on her Courier exercises. We worked on a "go boat" cue and retrieving an item from someone on another boat, as well as sending to the marker and a secondary target. Stoker really enjoys the send to the marker and past more in the water than on land. We don't have the time and resources to make getting her Courier title this year a reasonable goal, but starting to introduce some of these tasks will make next summer's training even easier.

Puppy Ecko finally did a "big girl" swim for the first time. She's been enjoying bounding and splashing in her flashy orange preserver and has even swum a few strokes here and there. This weekend I finally got in the water with her with some treats and she came zipping in right after me like she had been doing it all her life. She did several 25 or so foot retrieves each day, swam to the marker and back with me and recalled from shore to the boat. She loves to train and is going to be a blast to work with.

Chili came along to see where she was at with all her water skills. We practiced a few exercises from each of the levels each day. We practiced the buoy ball drop every day, since that had fallen apart a bit last fall. Chili is such a joy to work with at the water - super motivated and biddable. On the final day we were there she did one of her "recreational swims" and spent about 20 minutes just cruising around in the lake enjoying the water as several of us watched from the dock. I think Chili may have spoiled me for all future PWDs when it comes to water work.

It was great to see how all the other dogs (Cha-Cha, Jazz, Kota, Sabrina and Tramper) had progressed since I saw them last summer and what a great rapport they all have with their handlers. Jim's new little spitfire Galley (the same Galley that went on our trip to the Montana dog shows) is going to be an excellent water dog and is already certified to enter a tracking test at under a year of age. Wow!

Workin' Dog

Chili is a real daddy's girl and loves to hang out with Jan. Jan is a surveyor and sometimes when he is on a job away from the hustle and bustle of busy roadways, Chili gets to go to work with him. I had a talented friend of mine embroider a vest for her for Jan as a Christmas present. Clever Jill took my idea of embroidering the vest with the simple words "work crew" and expanded it to include Chili's name, a little black PWD sporting a hardhat and the words "PWD Crew" on it.

Chili looks to be all business in these photos with her vest pockets full of survey flagging, but I have a feeling that the fact of the matter is that she spends the majority of the day getting spoiled and fed doggy junk food. I heard tell that today's menu included Beggin' Strips, french fries and dog biscuits.

A Horse (or in this case a PWD) of a Different Color

We have a visitor dog staying with us for a bit and she is a "dog of a different color", a brown PWD. In PWDs they aren't referred to as liver or chocolate but just plain brown.

Brown PWDs tend to have a reputation in the PWD community for being just a bit "different" than their black relatives, but since I've never owned one, I can't answer to that. I can say that Booty is being a good visitor and is getting along well with all the other dogs. Booty has a reputation for being a bit of an escape artist, so we make sure the place is well fortified when we leave her home.

Here are some photos of Booty looking sweet and innocent, playing with Ecko and eating a stick (yes we ARE feeding her real food and maybe this is what they mean by brown dogs being different?).

Ecko's First Show Photo

At just a few days over 6 months of age, Ecko went to her first shows. She was shown in the Bred-by class and earned three Reserve Winners Bitch awards. This means that she was the runner-up to the best non-champion female PWD that was entered. A Reserve does not, unfortunately, earn any points. There were majors (large numbers of points) in PWDs at these shows, so Ecko's accomplishments are known in dog show slang as "major reserves". We're pretty proud of our sweet pup and thankful to judges Ronald Spritzer, Larry Mackai and Janet Sinclair for her Reserve awards.

Naughty Ecko

Jessie caught these photos of naughty Ecko trying to find a way out through the bedroom window. Ecko was jealous because we were training weave poles with Chili in the front yard. She managed to climb most of the way through the blinds and then extricate herself without damaging either herself or the blinds...