19 August 2013

#15, #34 & #35

Title No. 15 for Tyro!

A new United Kennel Club Rally Obedience level 3 title = URO3 for Tyro along with a placement!  This is Tyro's 15th title.  He now exceeds my beloved Sasha who earned 14 titles in his lifetime.  And Tyro also earned 2 legs towards his UKC Companion Dog (CD) title this past weekend at the Grand River Kennel Club UKC shows & trials in Rockton, Ontario.

Tyro

Titles  No. 34 & No. 35 for Miska

And the all-time achiever, Mrs. Wonder Dog, a.k.a. Miska.  Miska earned titles #34 & #35 this past weekend by completing her UKC Companion Dog title (UCD) and her Rally Obedience level 3 title (URO2), both in three straight trials and with placements.

Miska

A couple of somewhat blurry pics of me and Tyro in rally taken by a fellow exhibitor. Thanks Ray!





16 August 2013

Hives

Poor Diva!!


Swollen eye


Now the hives


Benadryl didn't work, so off the emergency vet we went.

Waiting for the vet. Can you spot all the bumps on her body?

Poor baby. Her right eye is even more swollen.
The culprit?


A yellow jacket.

3 of our dogs - Miska, Diva & visiting Elsie - got stung.  Tyro was lucky and didn't.  Elsie only had 1 sting but Miska and Diva were stung several times.  Diva had the most stings, including one over her right eye and several on her rump.  I administered Benadryl to all 3 dogs and it seemed to work at first, but after 3 hours, Diva started breaking out into hives and she was terribly, terribly itchy.  Of course, it was late on Friday night so off to the emergency vet we went for a shot of steroids to deal with Diva's hives.  Now, we have Prednisone on hand, just in case!!

14 August 2013

10th Anniversary, Great Power Blackout

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the great Power Blackout that saw much of eastern North America plunge into darkness. The outage prompted emergency declarations, disrupted transit service for days and left millions with little to no electricity for days.  At 4:11 p.m. today, it will be exactly one decade since the power went out for more than 50 million people — the largest blackout in North American history.

I remember that day and this Blackout so well.  I was returning home in the late afternoon after having a litter of 10 puppies (our Sasha-Nova litter born June 26, 2003) get their ID tattoos done at a vet clinic in Hillsburgh.  While driving home, I noticed several traffic lights were out but thought the situation was just local.  The moment I arrived home, my husband greeted me with the news about the power outage and the feeling shared by many that it could be another terrorist attack.  Remember, this was August 2003 and the memory of September 11, 2001 when Al Qaeda attacked the twin towers in NYC was still all too fresh and painful in our memories.

Well, we soon learned it wasn't a terrorist attack but a serious power outage that in our case, lasted 3.5 days.  With ten rambunctious 7-week old Vizsla puppies to feed and clean up after as well as several adult dogs, it was NOT fun!!  And having to let them outdoors at night to potty with only a flash light to keep track of the pups was downright terrifying.  I constantly worried about coyote dangers or the pups wandering off into the woods and getting lost. 

And since our property is a rural one, we are on a well.  Guess what?  A well pump won't work without electricity so we were without running water as well during that time.  In our case, that meant NO flushing the toilets either!! And it was stinking HOT too at night and during the day and we were sweltering!  Until a situation like this occurs, you don't realize that just about EVERYTHING depends on electricity. 

The puppies and dogs survived - as far as they were concerned, life was pretty 'normal'!  Somehow, we humans survived although it was hell for several days.  Some areas were without power for even longer than we were.

Now, we always ensure we have lots of flashlights and batteries on hand as well as a supply of bottled water in the house and if we have time, we need to fill the bathtubs full of water to use to flush the toilets.  Lessons learned!  And I sure hope we never experience another blackout like that one 10 years ago.



BOB Photo

Here it is!  

Official photo of Elsie's Best of Breed win with Judge Pedro Armando Ramos Lang of  Brazil.  


And it's me, her breeder, handling her.

12 August 2013

Upset!

Best of Breed


over a Grand Champion and Champion!

Under a Brazilian judge, Elsie, from our 2011 litter (Brick & Miska) took Best of Breed from the classes yesterday at the Kilbride show, defeating two champions, including her brother, Bodi, who is currently #11 Vizsla in Canada. The other Vizsla (Grand Champion) sits in #3 spot.  I guess it was payback time for when Bodi beat Elsie for Best of Breed a year ago at the same show!! Ha, ha! This was Elsie's first Best of Breed.  Over the weekend, she accumulated 3 more points towards her Canadian Champion title.  Way to go Elsie!!  (Official show photo to come.)

Elsie posing with her brother Bodi.

Elsie with Mama Miska in our garden in Moffat

And congratulations to Bodi and his hu-mom for earning two more Grand Champion points when Bodi took Best of Breed on Saturday.