Surprise Surprise!

We received a very nice surprise in the mail the other day.

A few weeks ago I had finally got around to sending in Titan’s paperwork to get his Trick Dog title, you know you have to make it all official, you can read about Titan’s Trick Dog here. Well when it arrived in the mail a second envelope also came. Much to my surprise Titan also received the Achiever Dog Certificate.

The Achiever Dog program is a way to recognize and encourage dog owners to participate in several venues with their dog. To be eligible for this program your dog must be AKC registered, or listed with AKC Partners program or, AKC Purebred Alternative Listing or, recorded as Foundation Stock Service

Your dog does not have to be a purebred to register with AKC, you can register them through the AKC Partners program. This program is for mixed breeds and other dogs that aren’t eligible for AKC registration.

If you have a purebred dog but they aren’t registered with AKC because perhaps the litter was not registered or the parents were not registered, or maybe your dog is a rescue and you don’t have registration papers;  you can enroll your unregistered registrable breed in the AKC Purebred Alternative Listing (PAL) program. This allows you to compete with your dog in many Performance or Companion Events.

If you have a rare breed you can enroll in the Foundation Stock Service (FSS) program. This is for purebred dogs that are not currently eligible to be registered with AKC.

So if you like to do things with your dog and would like to expand into performance events, earn titles and recognition you can see which events are eligible for the Achiever Dog program here.

Tina & the Brown Dogs

 

The First Show

I entered the Little Bittles in their first show In January. My niece and I practiced a lot with them on moving, stacking and showing their bite. We thought we had them pretty good for 6 month old pups.

So we went to the show early to let them walk around and check things out since this was their first time. They did amazingly well, calm and relaxed and not bothered by the other dogs. We practiced just a bit more. We met up with their brother, Banner, and his mom. Hailee’s family came to watch her show Zelena, so we had a a lot of people to hang out with.

Then it was our turn to go in the ring. All went well with the initial stack and go around, then it was time to stack up the dogs so the judge could go over each dog individually. Thalia was the second dog in line and I was showing her. The judge asked me to show the bite…BOOM…she would not let me show her bite. She was fighting tooth (no pun intended) and nail against me.

Our judge, Dr. Eric Liebes, was amazing! He pulled us over to the other side of the ring and let me work her through it, at one point he said to her “this is one battle you are not going to win little girl”. Finally he caught a glimpse of teeth. I was mortified at her behavior and thought for sure he would excuse us from the ring. I am so thankful he was understanding of a 6 month old puppy in the ring for the first time and allowed us the time to work through it, at least somewhat. Hailee and Zelena did fantastic! This is the first puppy Hailee has ever shown.

After all her shenanigans we were awarded second place, Zelena was third place.

I have no idea why she reacted the way she did. I play with their mouths from the time they are very young and she had been very good about it prior to ring time.

So since then we have been checking bites all the time and she seems okay about it, but time will tell.

This is Banner

Second handler is Hailee and Zelena

Me and Thalia

Tina & the Brown Dogs

Summer Fun at Lake Michigan

Just before my niece had to go back to Alabama we planned a road trip to the west side of the state to see Lake Michigan. There are many places you can go along the west coast to see the lake but we chose a park called Norman F. Kruse. We chose this park for a couple of reasons, dog friendly beach and our friend Chuck from Collies of the Meadow recommended it.

So we packed a great picnic lunch that consisted of hot dogs and hamburgers to cook on the grill, salads, chips and assorted other goodies, packed up all three dogs, my niece, nephew, his friend and my brother in two vehicles and hit the road.

The weather looked like we might get some rain but the skies cleared and we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. The drive wasn’t to bad, about an hour and a half and we were there! The park was beautiful, very clean with a nice picnic area and actual restrooms. I don’t know about you but I much rather have a real bathroom opposed to the outhouse style  

It was a bit of a hike down to the beach but well worth it. I was able to let the dogs off leash, well not Riva as she likes to take herself on little walk abouts so I had her on a 20 foot long line so she could move about freely but be reeled in if needed, but Maia and Titan ran free playing and splashing. The water was quite rough but it didn’t hold Titan back. Maia wanted to go in but each time she started to venture in farther a big wave would come up and she had second thoughts.

Everyone got in the water and did some swimming except me, one foot in that cold water and I was not going to emerge my whole body in it, so I took pictures and threw the bumper for Titan.

Some photos of our day…

Riva looking disgusted because I won’t let her off leash!Notice Maia sticking out her tongue, I guess she doesn’t like getting her face squished.  I love this one, that is my nephew sitting down with Maia and his friend standing.My beautiful niece, dog handler and overall kennel help.My brother.This was a lighthouse we could see from the beach.Taking a rest after fun in the lake and a nice lunch…well they were all laying down until I moved to take the photo.

We enjoyed a leisurely day and made some great memories. The dogs had a blast and slept all the way home. We will definitely go back to this park again!

Tina and the Brown Dogs