Compare and Contrast

The similarities between these dogs are few. Size, type, color, and temperament are very different. One thing that they do have in common is their call name. The Italian Greyhound goes be the name of Czar and the Doberman Pinscher goes by Caesar. 

I'm not sure why these boys were so infatuated with each other, but it wasn't a fluke! They hung out together long enough for me to come into the yard, get settled and get my camera out! Considering the number of dogs, and the number of different things going on throughout the yard lately, it is amazing that these two Caesars/Czars found each other and that both chose their bonding time over the retrieve game that was starting with the rest of the pack. 

The Wind-Up

The wind-up = that moment *just* before those treasured jolly balls are thrown.

Dog-Fest Review

Yesterday was Applewoods' Dog-fest and Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Test. Despite the heat, a good crowd showed up for the festival and we had a total of 14 dogs take and pass the CGC test! We had 5 Labrador Retrievers, 2 Golden Retrievers, 2 German Shepherd Dogs, 2 All American Dogs, 2 Shetland Sheepdogs, and 1 Doberman Pinscher.

We had a few of our favorite local businesses donate door prizes, and several lucky CGC test takers went home with more than just their certificate! The Applewoods Students also provided in-house entertainment by doing some obedience demonstrations for all of our guests. In case you couldn't make it, here is a video of the  obedience demos...



Thanks a bunch to all the students who helped set up, and run our Dog-fest. A special thanks to Pam Loeb for being a friendly, helpful and patient evaluator. Keep checking back here, pictures of the Dog-fest are coming soon!

River Trip Part 2 and the Day Care Dogs

After the puppies got back from the river the other day, we decided to let all the other dogs go too. For our second trip of the day, we had Diesel (GSD), Sasi (mixed breed), Sandy (Golden), Red (Lab), Holly (Lab) and Jasmine (Doberman).



Most of the dogs in this trip had never been before either. It didn't take any of them long enough to realize how much better it felt IN the water.



Sydney joined us for this trip and each of the apprentices brought two dogs.



Since we left the little dogs at home, we made the trek and walked upstream with all the dogs. Some of the dogs needed a little help in the deep parts.



Running through the river is such a good workout for the people and the dogs!



Roxanne spotted some balls caught in the fallen tree. She had to swim through the deepest part of the river to get there though. The retrievers didn't mind swimming out with her though.



These two had enough of the river by the time we got to the end and hung out on the shore while they waited for Roxanne to bring those balls back.



There they are! The river is complete with toys for the dogs now! ALL the river pictures are here, if you want to see more...

River Trip Part 1 and the Puppies

It was unbearably hot today. The yard work was done early, and the training was short, sweet and mostly done before 10:30 this morning. Instead of surrendering to the weather so early, we decided to take another trip to Riverfront Park. Roxanne and I were the only apprentices for this trip and we loaded up with Sugar (Roxanne's Lab), Caesar (Doberman), Ringo (Boxer) and Rugby (my Maltese).



Neither Caesar or Ringo have shown much interest in the baby pools that we have at Applewoods. We were worried it would be a wasted trip if the dogs didn't want to get in! We lucked out though, because both boys took to the water!



Caesar warmed up the quickest and pretty soon was BEGGING Rugby and Ringo to play with him.



He wasn't scared to venture into the deep parts either and quickly transformed into Ceasar the Croc!



Ringo wasn't so sure of the situation and took much comfort in the safety of his swimming buddy, Caesar.



While Caesar worked on Ringo, Sugar was busy wading up river and getting some much appreciated longe line work. It wasn't too hot to work in the water!



The result of this trip to the river can be seen in the previous post. Those were some sleepy puppies! All the Riverfront Park pictures are here. 

Is that snoring I hear?

Fourth of July

Team Applewoods took some time from classes, and lessons to shoot Independence Day photos. Friday was our first attempt, and we had a total of 15 dogs. Some dogs were there for their lessons, most of them were there for Day Care and a few of them were there boarding over the holiday weekend.

Our biggest challenge when taking this picture was not getting the dogs set up, but keeping the giant flag from covering up the dogs' heads! We do teach a retrieve here however, and that problem was easily fixed by giving Red a piece of the flag to hold up and out of the way.

'The Littles' were just too cute waiting for all the other dogs to get set up not to take a picture of them together.

  

The Bachelor's Class the next day had their turn at the Independence Day photos, at least the ones that weren't on vacation. Some of the dogs got in the picture both days.

The Bachelor's Class covers the retrieve and some of the dogs were particularly willing to show off their new fetching/holding skills!

And by the way, did you notice what we used as a flag holder? That's right! The Catawba tree!