This “N That Thursday

Today we are joining our friends over at 2 Brown Dawgs for This ‘N That Thursday’s blog hop!

This is what she has to say about the hop,

“A little of this and a little of that and everything in between…

Shew, I thought I was going to miss This ‘N That Thursday. I am so far behind this week with all my blogging and a whole bunch of other things but I won’t bore you will all that

Training

I was able to get out to finally see my boy and he is doing great. Dave has him working on his “sit to the pile”, this I where a pile of bumpers are placed out a several yards and the idea is for the dog to be sent and on his way to the pile the trainer blows the whistle for the dog to stop, sit and look at him for further instructions. This is all part of the training leading up to T work, (more on that in another post); Titan did very well with this, I was so proud of him. Below are photos in sequence on how this looks in action…

Awards

This blog has received another wonderful award, thank you so much Sand Spring Chesapeakes for presenting us with the WordPress Family Award. What an honor to receive recognition from fellow bloggers! If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit these Chessies and their momma just hop right over there and see what their up to.

The WordPress Family Award was started by Shaun @http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com.

Here is a description of the award and the rules from Shaun:

Award Description:

“This is an award for everyone who is part of the ‘WordPress Family.’ I started this award on the basis that the WordPress family has taken me in, and showed me love and a caring side only WordPress can. The way people take a second to be nice, to answer a question and not make things a competition amazes me here. I know I have been given many awards, but I wanted to leave my own legacy on here by creating my own award, as many have done before. This represents ‘Family’ we never meet, but are there for us as family. It is my honour to start this award.”

Rules:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family.
4. Let your 10 family members know you have awarded them.
5. That is it. Just please pick 10 people who have taken you as a friend, and spread the love.

You will have to come back tomorrow to find out who my 10 will be. Since I am so far behind in getting back to your lovely comments you have left for me all week I will be answering those in my post tomorrow also. See ya then

This is a Blog Hop!

Thanks 2 Brown Dawgs

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Follow-up Friday May 10, 2013

Today I have the privilege and honor of co-hosting Jodi’s Heart Like A Dog’s Follow-up Friday, the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Thanks Jodi!

Follow-up Friday May 3, 2013

Last week I told you about the award Dogdaz bestowed upon us, so now I will share the rules and pass this award on.

RULES FOR BEST MOMENT AWARD:

• Winners re-post this completely with their acceptance speech.
• This could be written or video recorded.
• Winners have the privilege of awarding the next awardees!
• The re-post should include a NEW set of people/blogs worthy of the award;
• and winners notify them the great news.

RESOURCES: What makes a good acceptance speech?

• Gratitude. Thank the people who helped you along the way
• Humor. Keep us entertained and smiling
• Inspiration. Make your story touch our lives
• Get an idea from the great acceptance speeches, compiled in MomentMatters.com/Speech
• Display the award’s badge on your blog/website, downloadable in MomentMatters.com/Award

So, here is my little acceptance speech:

I am so humbled at receiving this award, thank you so much Dogdaz for honoring us! I am always in awe at the friendships that come about from blogging. For the most part we have never met but through this awesome thing they call cyber space we can all share our lives with each other. I have enjoyed each and every blog I read and do consider you all friends.

Now I would like to nominate…drum roll please……………………Tylersat99′s Blog

This is a great newfie blog starring Mica and Lexie, they go on great adventures with their mom and dad, and also have a awesome swimming hole! Pay them a visit and see why I enjoy them so much

Last week on my Park Day ~ Island Lake Recreation Area

2browndawgs asked…

“Do they have a designated dog training area to train off lead?

and Jodi from Heart Like a Dog asked…

“Do they allow dogs in the cabins?

Well I stopped by the Island Lake park office yesterday morning to see if I could find out if there are any areas to get the dogs off leash…that would be a big NO. They must be on a six foot leash. I then asked if there was any place I could get them in the water to swim, she said “yes there are actually a couple of places” then showed me on the map but then she proceeds to say “but they still have to be on a six foot leash” right about then I bet you can guess what I was thinking but I bit my tongue and just looked at her and said “well that defeats the purpose of swimming” But she did offer a suggestion that I might be able to apply for a special permit and gave me the paper work to fill out if I wanted to try that route. And in answer to Jodi’s question that is also a big negative.

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ My New Look!

Ever do a title only to look at it later and say “epic fail” well that is how this title was for me. After it was already posted and comments started rolling in I thought to myself it could have been better, something like “Do you think my ears make my head look big” ahhh oh well

 

This ‘N That Thursday ~

Kat n collies asked…

“I thought Titan lived with you?”

Titan does live with me but he is in retriever training at my friends DustyRose k-9Trainers. Sorry for the confusion, I forget to explain things thoroughly sometimes.

Now for another photo I have been playing with editing, this is the original

and the edited version

This is Dusty, one of my Aunts little doggies. I used Pixlr advanced and efficient for this one.

So that wraps up Follow-up Friday for us, why don’t you grab the badge and hop along with our host Jodi at Heart Like A Dog and myself!

This is a BLOG HOP!!

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This ‘N That Thursday

Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs for their This ‘N That Thursday’s blog hop!

This is what she has to say about the hop,

“This ‘N That Thursday is for anything you want!  Maybe you want to post about unrelated topics, or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post, or you have awards to share, or you have one long post…anything goes!  So grab the button and join the hop!”

Well I can’t believe the week is almost over and that means the weekend is just around the corner. This weekend will be busy, I have Maia entered in a dog show all weekend. We have been working on her standing/stacking, down and back and her go around. The standing/stacking is coming along pretty good, I think she has finally got the idea! She will even let me place her feet most of the time, until now if I had tried to place her feet myself she would place the front but the back was a different story. I would lift the rear foot to place it and she would keep it in the air, I wish I had a photo because it is quite humorous! Anyway she is better with that and she is pretty good about the down and back, but…the go around is still a work in progress We will get there!

You see when we would try to move to go around the ring she wants to cut in towards me which can lead to a couple things, both of which are not good; me tripping and falling or stepping on her foot. I came up with a technique that I think may work to help us with this, I say “around”  and move her head in the direction I want her to go. We just started it today and she caught on pretty quick.

She’s still not sure about the whole thing but each time we go to a show she is better, it’s the same with any kind of training you do with your dog; practice makes perfect!

I have a nice new show lead for her that I found at the last show, it’s a very soft leather and doesn’t seem to cut in to my hand. I added a few silver beads to dress it up a bit but they also serve a purpose; I can use them to grip on to so the lead doesn’t slip out of my hand.

So that wraps it up for us today, so why don’t you grab the badge and join the fun!

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Follow-up Friday 3-29-13

Today we are joining Heart Like A Dog and her co-host Lisa from Dogs N Pawz for Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Thank you HLAD for letting us join you!

This ‘N That Thursday

Yesterday I told you we would be sharing our answers to the questions for the Liebster Award so here goes,

Eleven questions to answer:

1. Name a stereotype about the country you come from?     I don’t play into stereotypes, people are people good, bad, indifferent, we all have to share this planet and I try not to judge a book by it’s cover.

2. How many languages do you speak?     Two, English and dog…lol

3. What is your funniest travel experience ever?     Wow there are so many but the one stands out to me is when my friend and I went out west many years ago and we were in Yellowstone watching a herd of elk down in a ravine and I saw a black bear approach them, they started to run away and then stopped suddenly and turned to chase the bear as if to say “wait a minute we out number you”

4. Which food do you cook best?     Made from scratch buttermilk biscuits, my nephew says they melt in his mouth.

5. Your favorite song?     I like a lot of different music but I would have to say my very favorite is Amazing Grace! 

6. Which place do you recommend me as a Must-See?     A cruise to the Bahamas, this was the most amazing trip I have ever been on.

7. How do you spend your time in transportations while traveling?     Well that depends on if I am the driver or the passenger, as the driver I look at the scenery as I drive but honestly I pay attention to the road, as the passenger I read, talk to the driver, do crafts.

8. What is a global issue that you worry most about?     I really don’t like to discuss these kinds of things on my blog.

9. Your favorite blog post?     I enjoy all the blog posts I read!

10. What is the last restaurant you have been to and how was it?     Applebee’s, it was okay!

11. What do you want to achieve this year?     Well that can be a long list but the most important things would be get a job in the medical insurance field, eat healthier, become a better blogger, points on Maia in conformation.

Now for my nominees for this award in no particular order are:

Heart Like A Dog ~ The Life, Loves and Writings of Jodi Stone

Dusty Rose Chesapeakes

Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Easy Rider

bassasblog

bongodogblog

Raising Poppy Seed

If you haven’t visited these blogs you really must, they are great!

I probably broke the rule of less than 200 followers on some of my nominees

You can find the instructions and rules here

Now I would  like to award the Blog Of The Year 2012 to some more great blogs and they are…

Easy Rider

Raising Poppy Seed

bassasblog

and I would like to award this again to all those I nominated the first time, so go collect your next star!

You can find the instructions and rules here

So that wraps it up for us today, hope you have a great weekend!!

This is a Blog Hop so hop on over to Heart Like A Dog and join the fun!

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This ‘N That Thursday

Today we are joining  2 Brown Dawgs for their This ‘N That Thursday, this is what they say about it:

This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!

We have received some awards from Sand Springs Chesapeakes  and Collies of the Meadow, they have nominated us for the 2012 Blog Of The Year Award, so we have two more stars to add to our badge, yeah!! We are truly delighted and humbled to receive these awards from our friends and if you have not checked them out you really must, Sand Springs Chesapeakes has great posts about their four Chessie’s and one in particular gets in to a whole lot of mischief. Collies of the Meadow writes about his beautiful collie’s and some of them are mischievous too!

Chuck and the collies also nominated us for the Liebster Award

The Liebster Award …

When receiving the award, recipients must:

• post 11 facts about yourself and answer 11 questions posted by the person who nominated you
• pass the award onto 11 other blogs and ask them 11 questions (you must make sure you don’t nominate the person who nominated you!)
• select blogs with 200 or less followers

Eleven facts to know about me:

This is hard so some will be repeats,

1. I am a struggling blogger

2. I love dark chocolate

3. I can be competitive at times

4. I love, love, love Chessie’s

5. I am addicted to Diet Coke

6. I learned to REALLY ride a horse at age 48

7. I am a perfectionist, I will even straighten pictures on the wall in someone else’s home

8. I have three siblings and I am the oldest

9. I had the opportunity to visit the Bahamas and Jamaica

10. I just learned to use a computer six years ago

11. I like to go to the dentist

 

Eleven questions to answer:

1. Name a stereotype about the country you come from?

2. How many languages do you speak?

3. What is your funniest travel experience ever?

4. Which food do you cook best?

5. Your favorite song?

6. Which place do you recommend me as a Must-See?                       

7. How do you spend your time in transportations while traveling?

8. What is a global issue that you worry most about?

9. Your favorite blog post?

10. What is the last restaurant you have been to and how was it?

11. What do you want to achieve this year?

Check back tomorrow for our answers to these questions and to find out who our nominees are for these awards.

Well it looks like Titan will be coming home soon, yeah! He has been doing quite well with training, however a couple weeks ago Dave said he drank “stupid water” which translates to he did not do what he was supposed to do and was probably quite goofy about the whole thing. That’s my boy! I can’t wait to see him, we have all missed him terribly. I think a special homecoming dinner will be in order

I have Maia entered  in a show next weekend, I have been working with her on standing for exam and moving. She does pretty good with the standing but the moving leaves something to be desired at times…lol She is young and I do see improvement, it just takes time with some of them, hoping for at least a placement.

So that’s it for us why don’t you drop by 2 Brown Dawgs and join in for This ‘N That Thursday, she has a new linky tool she is using for this blog hop.

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MIA

Wow it feels like forever since I have posted, maybe that’s because it has   I want to start out by thanking all my long time readers and new readers for all your comments on the few Wordless Wednesday’s I have managed to post, I do read them even though I do not always comment back, and I do apologize for that. I am working on trying to get back to regular posts and reading all of your posts, it is a slow process and life just seems to get in the way of that. There really is nothing like the blog world, cyber meeting people all across the world and getting to be part of their lives through the great stories you all post.

Now on to the big news for this week, drum roll please….we are the featured blog over at Pet Bloggers United! I was thrilled when Oskar and Pam asked us if we would like to be a featured blogger and what an absolutely wonderful blog they have. Full of information, feature bloggers and of course Oskar the miniature schnauzer.

Drop on over and see what they are up to and of course don’t forget to check out our feature post.

From the bottom of our we thank Oskar and Pam for this wonderful opportunity!

Follow-up Friday

Today we are joining Jodi from Heart Like a Dog for the Follow-up Friday blog hop! This hop is

co-hosted by Kristine from Rescued Insanity.

Thank you Jodi for sharing your badge!

Jodi’s explanation:

If you are new to the blog, Follow-Up Friday gives me the opportunity to revise or update a post from the previous week.  It wraps up the week and leads you right into the weekend.

Feel free to join us every Friday or whenever the need strikes you.  If you are interested in co-hosting, please leave me a message in the comments and indicate your level of interest (once, once a month etc..) and I will add you to the list.

If you have not participated with the Follow-up Friday blog hop, go check out Jodi at Heart Like a Dog and join in.

 

DIY

I don’t know about you but I am hooked on Pinterest! I just started using it a few months ago and it didn’t take long for me to become addicted, I love all the cool stuff I find and I can save it all in one convenient place! Recently Wayward Dogs posted on her switch from commercial shampoos and conditioners to natural products, you can read her post here. In commenting back and forth she said she uses DIY laundry soap and I mentioned I just made fabric freshener, so today I am sharing the recipe for fabric freshener. I don’t know about you but with having four dogs and two cats I need to freshen things up frequently in between washings and lets face it I can’t really fit the couch in the washer   I hate the high price of Febreze but what’s a girl to do…well make my own of course! I was so impressed with how easy it was to make, and best of all it really works!!

What you’ll need:

1/8 Cup of fabric softener (I used Downy April Fresh)

2 tablespoons Baking Soda

Hot tap water

Spray bottle (I used my empty 27 oz. Febreze bottle)

Preparation:

Using a funnel, pour fabric softener and baking soda into your spray bottle. Fill spray bottle with hot tap water and shake well. Don’t forget to twist the nozzle over to the LOCK position if you’re using a Febreze bottle, or you might fall on your hiney. Now go spray every fabric surface in your house and take a nap on  your very comfortable and now un-stinky couch.

Store-bought Febreze: $5.59

Homemade Febreze: $0.15

Total Savings: $5.44 OR  97.3%!

This recipe comes from Life. Family. Fun. you can see the original post here

You can check out some other cool things I have found by just clicking on the Pinterest button on my sidebar.

 

Food Fight

The award we received from DogDaz was a wonderful sweet surprise and she said is is a  food fight, we haven’t had one of those since last year when my niece and nephew were visiting, however this is a virtual food fight so we won’t get too messy

Here are the rules for the Super Sweet Award  

1. Give credit to the person who chose to nominate you: Thank you so much DogDaz, this was one of the sweetest awards we ever received.

2. Answer the ‘Super Sweet’ questions. See below

3. Nominate a “Baker’s Dozen (13) blogs.

Super Sweet Questions:

1. Cookies or Cake? It is definitely Cake for me and cookies for the dogs.  Chocolate with buttercream frosting and my guys aren’t picky so they will eat any cookie we have around.

2. Chocolate or Vanilla? Oh definitely chocolate, dark too be exact, but you knew that already!

3.  What is your favorite sweet treat?  Well my favorite sweet treat is actually a sweet and salty trail mix that has M&M’s in it, yummy!!

4.  When do you crave sweet things the most? At night when we all settle in bed to watch a movie and catch up on blogging

5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?  Hmmm this is a hard one, Cheyenne would be Cinnamon Roll because she likes to watch me make these, Riva is Sticky Buns because for some reason when I bake her butt is stuck to the floor right next to me, Maia would be Tutti Frutti because well she is a little bit silly in a very sweet way and Titan would be Tootsie Roll because he loves to roll over and get his sweet belly rubbed.

Now to name the BAKER’S DOZEN NOMINEES:     

bassasblog

bongodogblog

Basset Momma 

bumpyroadtobubba

cravesadventure

Wayward Dogs

The (mis) Adventures of Sage

Long Life Cats and Dogs

My Brown Newfies

Heart Like A Dog ~ The Life, Loves and Writings of Jodi Stone

Monica’s Tangled Web

Collies Of The Meadow

browndogcbr

So these are our victims nominees for the food fight! You’ve been hit so Have fun!!

 

Titan

So many commented on my Titan Follow-up in last weeks This ‘N That Thursday post. I will definitely miss this boy but the experience and training he will receive will be worth it. I will have his whole lifetime when he returns to rub his Tootsie Roll belly! Jodi from Heart Like A Dog asked if I hunt, not yet but this is the end goal I have with Titan, the both of us working as a hunting team!

Having kept littermates it is hard at times to divide my time between them so they both get what they need so while he is gone it will give me the opportunity to focus on Maia with conformation and obedience, who knows maybe we can try some Rally.

 

So this wraps up our Follow-up Friday, stop by Heart Like a Dog and join the fun. Don’t forget to visit her co-host Rescued Insanity

Have a Great Weekend!

This ‘N That Thursday

Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs in This ‘N That Thursday!

Thanks 2 brown Dawgs for sharing your button

For those not familiar with 2 Brown Dawgs This ‘N That Thursday here is what they say about it:

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Awards

“How Sweet It Is” and that is exactly what this award is from DogDaz. They have honored us with the Super Sweet Blogging Award and that is what we would like to say about DogDaz, they are “Super Sweet” to nominate us for this award. I love to read their blog about the zoo as she calls it; she posts such great stories and photos of all the gang, Sophie, Louise and Nine just to mention a few. You must drop by and meet the rest of the  zoo!

You will have to come back tomorrow to find out the rules and my nominees

 

Fall

I’ve been seeing quite a few bloggers posting  about fall in their area with such wonderful photos of the colors so I thought I would show a few pictures I took today at one of our state parks; enjoy!

 

Bumper Fun

And while we were at the park I threw a few bumpers for Titan, I think he had fun what do you think

Well that’s it for This ‘N That Thursday come back tomorrow when we join Jodi at Heart Like A Dog for Follow-up Friday!

 

 

 

 

Follow-up Friday

Today we are joining Jodi from Heart Like a Dog for Follow-up Friday blog hop!

Thank you Jodi for sharing your badge!

Jodi’s explanation: For those new to the blog, my Follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week.

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog. Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you. Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

 

If you have not participated with Follow-up Friday blog hop before go check out Jodi at Heart Like a Dog and join in.

Awards

We have been awarded some really great awards recently and in keeping with tradition we are passing them along to some great blogs. This award is the Reader Appreciation Award, it was bestowed on us by cravesadventure and we are very honored to pass it on to others.

          

 

We want to thank all our readers for their loyalty to reading this blog, I am always in awe that we have such great blogs reading our little blog. It is amazing how we can all reach out across this big world and connect through something such as blogging and although I have not met most of you personally I feel like I know you and your fur kids through the stories you tell. I can tell how much we all care about each other through the comments you leave on this blog and the ones I read on others. As with most awards there are some simple rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Award Your Top 6 Bloggers (who have commented the most)
3. Be Thankful (Appreciative & Grateful too)
4. You cannot award someone who has already been awarded. You cannot give the award back to me.
5. Remember to tell the bloggers you have awarded.
6. If you do not want to pass on this award, that is okay too. Just ADMIRE It!
7. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

Seven interesting things, boy that gets harder and harder because without looking back at previous posts I am probably repeating myself but here goes,

1. I recently graduated college at…um…well…a mature age!

2. I love love love dark chocolate (I know I have said this before but chocolate always bears repeating)

3. I love the fall and Michigan has the best color change!

4. I have a dream of living on a farm one day.

5. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I usually make a night of watching all my favorite scary movies.

6. One day I hope to have a Chessie in every color.

7. I find blogging somewhat addictive

 

So without further ado here  are the blogs I would like to award:

Heart Like A Dog ~ The Life, Loves and Writings of Jodi Stone

Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Tylersat99′s Blog

My Brown Newfies

Monica’s Tangled Web

2 Brown Dawgs

Collies Of The Meadow

Dusty Rose Chesapeakes

Easy Rider

The (mis) Adventures of Sage

Long Life Cats and Dogs

Okay I didn’t follow rule #2 and possibly #4, I guess the rebel in me is coming out or maybe the Chessie

 

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This ‘N That Thursday

Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs in This ‘N That Thursday!

Thanks 2 brown Dawgs for sharing your button

For those not familiar with it, this is what 2 Brown Dawgs says about This ‘N That Thursday,

“This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post.  It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!”

Awards

Today we would like to start by giving out some awards, you can see the original post here for the instructions but feel free to break the rules, I know we do

So here are the three we are awarding today

 

So in no particular order here are our picks:

Heart Like A Dog ~ The Life, Loves and Writings of Jodi Stone

Paws To Talk

cravesadventure

bongodogblog

Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Tylersat99′s Blog

The Lonely Dogs

My Brown Newfies

Monica’s Tangled Web

The (mis) Adventures of Sage

These bloggers all have the most wonderful blogs and if you haven’t visited before I encourage you to drop in on them!

Titan follow-up

It has been such a joy having Titan home and I have been trying to really soak up all of this boy I can because at the beginning of December he will be leaving for Tennessee to get more advanced training and maybe even some hunting. He will be gone for about six months unless I can’t stand it anymore and make a trip to get him…lol  But seriously, it does seem like a long time but I know it will go by quickly; he really loves his Uncle Dave and enjoys working so it will be a good thing for him. Who knows maybe he and I will get to go hunting next year

This picture was taken with my phone so I have the glowing eyes but he does look so cute!

Well that’s all we have for today, be sure and check back tomorrow as we join Jodi Stone at Heart Like a Dog for Follow up Friday and we will have some more awards to give out too.