Occasionally the girls and I take a Fun Day!

This saturday, we had 2 doggie events to attend! We started the day off with the Independent Havanese's club Fun Day. Jan & Nancy, welcomed many Havanese into their home and had a glorious picnic, even taking some time to raise money for havanese rescue! There were even goody bags for the pups to take home. The event also included a show & go, costume contest, & information on havanese rescue!

See our Photos of the event at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hri_photos/album?.dir=e1cdre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

As you can see there are many pictures of Dora even in her adorable lady bug costume. She was so tired she even left the little hat on!


What was really nice was how well a group of 10+ havanese who have never met, not only get along but quickly bonded. Dora had so much fun she couldnt even hold her head up on the way home.

The second event of the day was the yearly CATC (www.columbusallbreed.com) Picnic. We started off with the whole family going but Dora & Dad went home to take a nap. They both were exhausted. They had an auction and I bought some Doggy goodies. Isabelle ofcourse stayed with me for the picnic... she wouldnt miss one of those. Besides trying to eat a great dane, she did pretty good. Her friend Margaret treated her to lots of goodies which helped her pay attention to the food rather than beat all the dogs up around her!

We had a very good Saturday!

Playing with Agility at Home

I have really been slacking in practicing Agility and I think it was because the equipment was kind of daunting and I didnt want to go out and spend hundreds of dollars. Well I have discovered Dora really enjoys agility so I have been pushed to practice. After spending $9 at the CATC auction on a jump, I decided to get creative and build my own back yard agility course this weekend. So Dora, Belle and I got collected random pieces out of the house and came up with quite the little set up. So much of a set up Isabelle quit on me and went into the house (she doesnt work in the backyard what so ever, we have agreed that this is Isabelle's sanctuary and she doesnt have to work if she doesnt want to in the backyard) Dora and I conquered the equipment though! This has motivated me to search the internet and come up with more ideas! I really liked this website and think as we further along in our studies we will get out power tools! http://www.dogplay.com/Activities/Agility/agilitye.html

In the meantime we used: 1. wooden dowels for make shift weave poles. A lot of this is really just teaching Dora what weave means-we still have large spaces between them. She has to still be pushed to weave back and forth at this point

2. our mini tunnel-we purchased this for cheap and Dora loves to play with it. I think we have to be careful because she thinks tunnel is just a toy lately! She wants to sit in the tunnel and relax in between our play times.

3. lawn chairs are great pause boxes. So much so Dora prefers this one and every chance she gets she runs like hell and jumps on the lawn chair whether we are doing agility or not.

4. We tied a hula hoop (99 cents from walmart) in between 2 poles for a Hoop. Dora really needed to practice this because last week in class she learned it was a lot easier to run under the hoop and squeeze thru the poles- so much so the instructor put a board up to stop her!!! This really helped Dora to understand the command "hoop"

5. We got out a few bricks and curtain rods for jumps (since we used our regular jump poles for the hoop) and really worked the command "jump!"

Dora enjoyed the course as much as I did. She is getting so smart that she anticipates the commands and tries to run ahead of me. I had to switch things up a bit and go backwards to get her thinking.

I just wish Dora's father would not care about the grass in the backyard and let us leave the course out ;)

P.S. if you have any recommendations for agiltiy equipment let me know ama0722@yahoo.com We also really need to make a Chute as Dora absolutely hates that piece of equipment!

Perfecting the Front

Last night's training class was really about perfecting the front. Really teaching the dog what it means when you call FRONT! I felt the first time in my training, this was an exercise that I got right! I was taught at some point (by someone-sorry I don't remember!!!) to have the dog in heel position and back up and call front teaching the dog to do a 360 and walk into me. I taught the dog well by actually teaching it too close at first. Our instructor was commenting about how many people teach the dog to not come close enough and you need to be able to touch your dog (this isnt that easy with a 4lb maltese!)

Now to perfect my front, My trainer Kim had us do a new exercise that I liked a lot. I started by placing Dora in a wait, I take about 4 steps forward. I call front. Dora comes into the front. If the dog doesn't come in straight, correct this before they sit down! Also make sure to not move the left leg-you can move the right leg back a step to assist the dog but not the left. This exercise has worked really well and one I like!

Ideally we will continue working on this until we can do side steps and have dora scoot front too. Gotta get to the practing (2 weeks off, I forgot everything-luckily my partner remembered!)

Miss March & Miss May-

Carolyn Angus uploaded a small size of what the images will be in the Havanese Photo Art Calendar. If you would like to be able to stare at Dora's cute face 60 days out of the year, you can follow the link on the bottom of her website ;) just visit http://www.carolynangusphotography.com/ select commercial, and go to page 4!

Dora is Miss March & Miss May. With Miss March, she looks totally gorgeous placed infront of the white flowers as those of you who photograph dogs, you probably realize what painstaking work Carolyn had to go through to adjust that image. White dogs + White backgrounds don't mix! Heck I just thought pretty flowers + Dora=Pretty Picture!!! Unfortunetly things dont always work that easy!

For those of you not familar with havanese, you can see what amazing colors they all come in and the attitude of what it means to be Havanese! All of the calendars proceeds benefit Havanese health research too!

Enjoy!
Amanda

P.S. If you scroll down to my July 19th entry, You can see Dora next to her beautiful image. Carolyn created this and printed up this piece. She will take any otherwise boring pet photograph you have and send you out a piece of art suitable for your fireplace mantle. Carolyn has an amazing ability to combine multiple photos, dogs, etc. Great for web pages, holiday cards, etc. The package will change depending on exactly what you want, feel free to contact her at carolynangusphotography@shaw.ca

I have been sick and on Vacation... hence the 2 week gap!!!

Last week, I was able to tag along with my husband on his business trip to Vancouver. There I was able to finally meet Carolyn Angus who I have talked to via email over the last year. This was not only special because of us both being Havanese Moms but because Carolyn’s amazing details in photography and me just getting started. I knew Carolyn had this ability before arriving because she has worked with me and my “click and shoot” photographs of Dora for the 2007 Havanese Photo Art Calendar. I already knew Carolyn took an otherwise “oh that is my cute little girl being a Neezer” photo and turned it into a “WOW that is Dora” piece of art but I didn’t realize she was really able to do that for many other Havanese too!

In person, I was able to see both of the amazing calendars that Carolyn had been working on with Doc. Oh, just wait till you get to see it in person too http://www.lulu.com/Havanese Each photograph is absolutely amazing and truly captures the essence of what it means to be Havanese. How many times I would see something in one of the photographs and think “Oh my little havanese does that too!!!”

As an amateur photographer who gets to play with my husband’s fancy digital camera, I really had no clue how much work it took to change all of the photos. Carolyn showed me what needed to be done to my photos and what the process along the way really entails! If most of you are like me, eek but the end result is priceless!!! So much so, that while I was there, I was able to purchase a lovely framed copy of one of the months that Dora is featured in by Carolyn’s local photography shop. It is also featured on Carolyn’s website www.carolynangusphotography.com just click on enhancements but the in person view is amazing!



Another amazing part of my trip was to get loving havanese kisses from Pumpkin and chase Jeepers with his squeaky toys and try to keep up with him on walks! With the time Carolyn has absorbed into making the calendar, she still has her own loving havanese family!

As recently noted with the where to vacation with your havanese, Vancouver is a great area!!! If my husband’s hotel wasn’t at UBC (and paid for by UBC also J ) I was thinking gezz I should have brought my girls! We were able to ride the water bus, walk everywhere with the dogs, let alone dine at nice restaurants with the dogs tied next to us while wait staff even brought the dogs water bowls. The best part was the public parks that Vancouver has which allow for you and your dog to hike, play, rest, and even swim in the ocean!