Erie "listening" Really Well

I uploaded this video so that Erie's breeders can come watch it. The rest of you might not find it all that interesting. I was trying to get Erie to play with her jolly ball and instead she was being a little nerd and ignoring me. She was up on a ledge in the backyard and I was filming and there really wasn't much I could do to insist she follow directions and it kinda seems like she knew that.

Sorry for my annoying voice. Ugghh.

Erie weighs 38.6 pounds today.

Tolerance

Dog Rules

The following is an excerpt from Jon Carroll's column in the SF Chronicle.

"From an internet person known only as Tim, the proud new owner of a newfoundland dog, this list of rules and regulations:

1. The dog is not allowed in the house.
2. Ok, the dog is allowed in the house, but only in certain rooms.
3. The dog is allowed in all rooms, but has to stay off the furniture.
4. The dog can get on old furniture only.
5. Fine, the dog is allowed on all furniture but is not allowed to sleep in the bed with the humans.
6. Ok, the dog is allowed on the bed, but by invitation only.
7. The dog can sleep on the bed whenever he wants, but not under the covers.
8. The dog can sleep under the covers by invitation only.
9. The dog can sleep under the covers every night.
10. Humans must ask permission to sleep under the covers with the dog."

Erie taught her self to burrow under the covers on my bed about two weeks after I got her. Here you can see her nose just poking out from under them.

Amazing Home Remedies

These really work! I checked Snopes and they are for real!

1. Avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.

2. Avoid arguments with females about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.

3. For high blood pressure sufferers, simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes thus reducing pressure on your veins. Remember to use a timer.

4. A mouse trap placed on top of you alarm clock will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

5. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives. Then you'll be afraid to cough.

Stacked Photos

Erie's first dog show is on June 12 in Vallejo, California. It's on her six month birthday, the first day she is old enough to enter!

Her co-breeder (the owner of her dad- you can find a link in my sidebar) is going to be handling her for this show, which is four days long (she won't be old enough until the last two days) and includes a Vizsla speciality- that means that there is, in partnership with the all-breed show, an additional show just for Vizslas (and it's one of the largest Vizsla specialities in the country). I've been taking Erie to handling classes to get her ready for this event and Judy, her breeder, asked me to get some photos of her for her to be able to see (Judy lives in Utah and hasn't been able to see Erie in person since she was seven weeks old).

So I'm sharing them with you too!

I didn't realize how much lip I was holding. A good benefit of photos- I can see what I'm doing wrong!

I go to the same instructor for handling and obedience. She is a professional handler and travels all over the country showing people's dogs for them (and makes a lot of money doing it). She and her husband have shown other vizslas (including Rosie, featured on a recent post on my blog) and have also owned and handled their own vizsla in the past. With that background in mind, two stories that made me happy:

Last night at obedience, Jean says to me, "Gosh she hasn't gone through an ugly or awkward phase at all, has she?"

Then tonight she asks me for the information for my breeder because she is helping someone to breed [their vizsla] and "we really, really like her," speaking about Erie. They're shopping around for males.

So basically, I think my dog is lovely, her breeders think she is lovely, our instructor thinks she is lovely, lots of other people think she is lovely . . .

Will the judges think she is lovely?

Happy Mother's Day!

Erie would like to wish all the mothers (and future mothers) out there a Happy Mothers Day and let you know that she would have loved to bring you breakfast in bed, but she's not allowed out of the house off leash.

(I was astonished at how easy it was to get this picture. I thought for sure she'd sit there and stare at the plate, but that "leave-it" command really seems to have sunk in).

Erie & Rosie Playdate

Erie got to play with Rosie again. It is hard to take pictures of two young (Erie is not quite five months, Rosie is 18 months. I think.) very fast moving vizslas. I deleted a lot more photos than I kept because there was either no dogs as they had moved out of the frame before the camera snapped the photo or they were too blurry with movement.

Here are some of the ones that you can (kinda) see some dogs in. Even though Erie is my dog, in some of these photos I can only tell them who is who because Erie is wearing a collar and Rosie is not.

That's Gerry (I think she spells her name with a "G."), Rosie's roommate.

The look on Erie's face in this photo is hilarious!