Farewell Teddy

This is not what I'd planned to write as my next post and not a post I expected to write this soon.  On Wed, 30 Sep, my Teddy, who you might remember had a heart condition, had what I think was a heart attack or stroke and passed over to the Bridge.

Teddy loved toys

I'll spare you all the worst of the details. We had a normal evening, dinner, a little play time, bed time cookies and cuddles on the couch. I went up to bed early as Liam was to have had a hoopers class the next morning. Teddy came up to bed with me and plunked himself down in the middle of the room.  I got up later to go to the bathroom and he was still lying on the carpet at the end of the bed. I got back into bed, then I heard what I initially thought was Teddy trying to roll over onto his back. But I quickly realized it sounded more like flailing or thrashing. I turned on the lights and sat up in bed. I could see Teddy lying there, I called but he made no movement. I got up and went to him, he regurgitated his dinner, I had to hold his head up for him. I got a blanket to put on my bed and carried him over to the bed, while I cleaned up, he never moved. I thought perhaps I should get dressed and take him to the emergency hospital. The nearest hospital is about a half hour drive from me and I didn't think he would make it. I was right, within about 20 minutes of me getting up Teddy had passed.  I laid with him in bed for about 10 minutes, telling him he would be all right as his breathing got slower and shallower. Later that night I moved Teddy to a chair in my room and called my vet's office as soon as they opened in the morning and brought him over where they could take care of him. 

Teddy's 3rd Birthday

COVID Lockdown

For those that haven't followed our story, I adopted Teddy just before he turned 3. He belonged to a friend's cousin and there was an issue with allergies so they couldn't keep Teddy. My friends brought him to me for a trial; they brought Teddy on 9 Mar 2020 and were supposed to come back in May. Well, on 13 Mar 2020, COVID lockdown happened. Teddy and my dog, Keltic became my COVID isolation crew.  Teddy celebrated his third birthday with Keltic and me. As COVID restrictions went on, my friends couldn't come back as planned but by May, Teddy was with me to stay. Later on that summer, a puppy would be added to our crew and Teddy became a good big brother to Liam

Teddy Video Tribute

Teddy was a quirky dog. He was reactive with other dogs on walks but fine with them when we went to events where there were many other dogs. Teddy was noise sensitive, smoke detectors were understandable, but he also hated power drills, electric knives, squeaky drawers, whistles, heart monitors beeping (on TV) to name a few. Any of these noises would cause him to bark nearly endlessly. Over time though he did begin to recognize there was nothing to bark at when I said: "It's on TV". I'll miss saying that now. Teddy couldn't do stairs when he arrived, I taught him to do stairs quickly and then he loved doing stairs. I think going upstairs to bark became his refuge when he was upset. And boy, Teddy could bark. I let him bark once just to see how long he would bark for; it was 45 minutes before he stopped barking but that only lasted about 5 minutes before he started again. You had to go up and reassure him with some belly rubs or cuddles before he would stop.

Covid Crew

Teddy dabbled in dog sports. He never earned any titles. We started with agility. He took to it quite quickly, he had confident teeter and was a fish in the weaves. At his very first trial, he got two qualifying scores but after a few trials Teddy decided he didn't want to do agility. We gave scent detection a try. Teddy did quite well and did a little jig with his back feet to let me know that he'd located the odour.  I loved watching him looking for the scent when I let him loose to do a practice room searches. Unfortunately, there weren't many scent trials near us and they were more expensive to enter than agility. We also gave ratting a try, Teddy again learned quickly and did his little jig when he found the rats. Teddy developed an interdigital cyst that kept coming back like a blood blister so I worried about infection with him having to search for the rats in straw so his ratting career didn't go far either.

First Agility Trial

Teddy learned to like travelling and camping in the trailer. We went all the way to Alberta one summer and down to Nova Scotia on another.  I'm glad that I was able to take Teddy down east to PEI this past summer where he got to go wading and sleep in the trailer. Teddy loved to wade and bark (of course) at waves. I took a last camping trip after getting back from France. I'm glad now for Teddy that I made that trip. There was no wading but there was a couple short hikes where Teddy led the way. He got to see deer and sit by the camp fire. He also had his first pupcup. 

Last Camping Trip Hike

I've had two dog pass over to the Bridge younger than Teddy but since I only had Teddy for a little more than 6 years, it's seems like he's the youngest. It's not fair that they when they don't even get to see double digits.

I always used to ask Teddy if he was happy with me. I hope he was. I hope I made the right decision for him in the end.

I'll miss those eyes! 

What I Did on My Summer Vacation by Liam

We tooks a break from gility and hoophoop classes for da summer. We went on a long camping trip to some place called Prince Edward Island. I don't know what an island is but we gots to go wading and sawed some horses. When we gots back from da camping trip, Mum and me did some hoophoop training and she made some videos of me and her doing hoophoops. Mum sent our videos to be judged and I gots a medal for how good I did! Mum did good too.

Mum went away and left us at home with Aunt Maureen and Uncle Steve. Mum went to some place called France. She'll tell you's all more about dat adventure later. A few days after she got home, we went to Guides Canins for a hoophoop trial. I gots my Beginner Hoop Dog title, that was the last Beginner title I needed for da Beginner Collective title. I'se now in Novice in all da hoophoop games. 

We also joined a bunch of other Shelties in an agility league called the K9 Kup. We only gots to go to two out of the four matches. Our Sheltie team was called da Barky Bunch. We was at the last match just this past weekend. I didn't do so well but our team did. Us Shelties won First Place overall!

Mum and I are back at hoophoop classes; we'll start gility classes later. Mum didn't want to pay for da classes as we was going to  miss some. We has another gility trial dis Saturday and we's going to have some fessional photos done da next weekend.

So dats' what I did on my summer vacation!

Wordless Wednesday

Bronze Hoopers Skills Medal

 

Bronze Hoopers Skills

Over the past few weeks, Liam and I have been working on a new skills program Canine Hoopers Canada (CHC) has instituted. 

The skills program has five levels: First Steps, Pre-Bronze, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each level has a series of exercises that you teach and, then once you can do the skill, you take a video of you and your dog doing that exercise. There's also a written portion to each skill level but you can use the rule book to find the answer, so no trick questions. 

You can start the program wherever you like.  When I looked at the first two levels there were exercises that we once knew but that I would have to re-teach so I decided we would start at Bronze. That, and because, Bronze focused more on actual Hoopers sequences and moves rather than foundation skills.

Each of the exercises for the Bronze skills weren't all that long but with the weather being so hot and humid and having to get a good video that showed both you and your dog, I was only able to do one or two sequences a day.  Some of the exercises said you could use a ground target so I was using our treat ball, then I asked if that was permitted and got the reply that it could only be a target and not the reward. I was, however, allowed to throw the reward after the skill was completed. It meant though I had take new videos of some of the skills we had already completed. 

Then came the hard part, you have to take all those video clips and put them into one video to be submitted to the CHC where an assessor (a qualified judge) would review all of your skills. Next time, I'm going to put the videos into a folder and rename the ones I'll use for the submission with the skill name so it will be much easier then to put together the final video.

Video of our Bronze Skills Test

Its took about 10 days from the time I submitted my video but then I received an e-mail saying that I had incorrectly performed one sequence. The assessor told me I could just redo that one skill and submit another video. I struggled a bit because I thought the test was more about the dog being able to perform the obstacles with the handler at a distance but it turned out they also wanted to see consistent (a certain) handling from me as well.  

In the video, in the part labelled Front Cross L to R, I have Liam do the three hoops directing him only with my left hand.  What they needed to see was a change of side also known as a change of hands. The program is so new that I didn't even know whether I was to submit the new video to the assessor or complete the online form again. I submitted it to the assessor and shortly afterwards received an email with our assessment report. In the video below, you'll see now that I release Liam with my right hand then direct him with my left.

Video Front Cross Right Hand to Left

Today, we got our title certificate by email with the notification that our medal is in the mail.

We'll be excited to get our medal. Sure, hope Canada Post doesn't lose it. Ours will look like the one on the left.

It's a really nice program. You can work at your own speed. You don't need a big facility or a lot of equipment. And you get a nice medal for your efforts.

Fairy Animals

When we camped at Emily, my sister and I saw a little Jesus Loves You statue in the Ladies bathroom one morning. My sister went back to get a picture but unfortunately someone had taken it. I decided though I would buy some fairy animals to leave at various locations on our trip to Prince Edward Island.

Point Prim

Montague Waterfront

Double Hill Cidery

Copper Bottom Brewing

Kouchibouguac National Park

Mactaquac Provincial Park

Parc de la Republique Botanical Gardens

Drummondville, Qc, Camping des Voygeurs

I hope people enjoy finding them.  If you do find a animal, please post and use the tag #fairyanimals. 

Catching Up!

Boy, it's been quite a while since I last posted. I won't go into to all the details but  mostly I've been away camping. This summer's big trip was to Prince Edward Island on Canada's East Coast. The last time I was to PEI was in 2019 for the Arsenault Reunion. That trip, as they say on PEI, was mostly"up West". If you look at how the Island sits in the Northumberland Strait, it's sort of on an east west axis. This trip we were "out East", staying at Brudenell Provincial Park. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Our first trip was to Emily Provincial Park here in Ontario. Just a shakeout trip before we took the long drive to the Maritimes. It was a longer drive than I thought but that probably was a good thing as our trip down east would involve some long driving days. While in Emily, we went to a small historical village and a dog friendly brewery in Bobcaygeon. 

Our trip down east involved three one night stops, one in Quebec and two in New Brunswick before we arrived in Shediac where we would stay 4 nights. I said we had long driving days, I'm not sure everyone would agree, we didn't have to leave really early and we arrived well before supper time but for me if the drive is longer than 4 hours, it seems long. After all by the time you include gas stops and rest stops, it makes for six hours or more in the car.

We stayed again at Parlee Beach in Shediac. I booked the tent site next to our RV sites and brought extra camping equipment so my brother could join us. Another of our sisters has a seasonal site in Caissie Cape about half an hour away.  We went up there for lunch one day where we were able to meet our newest great niece and have lunch with cousins that we hadn't seen in a few years. We also went to a dog friendly pub called the Thirsty Whippet.

The next stop was Brudenell Provincial Park on Prince Edward Island. We would stay here for a week. The sister who has the seasonal site, had booked two nights there over Canada Day, so we decided to have a Canada Day Party. We also have a sister who lives on PEI she, two of her children and their children were to join us for a Canada Day BBQ picnic. Little did we know though, that a plan had been made to have our remaining sister fly out from Alberta to PEI to be with us for Canada Day. When we went into Milton Station where the PEI sister lives to have dinner one night and to do laundry; she welcomed us in but kept saying they had company and to come see. So we went out to the back deck and there was our sister from Alberta. That was quite a surprise as I had not expected to see her until our trip to France later this summer. While in PEI, we also took some nice drives, visited some breweries and a cidery. The dogs got to go wading in the Brudenell River and see some horses.

Double Hill Cidery

After a week in Brudenell which passed by rather quickly, it was time to head home. We went for two nights to Kouchibouguac National Park. It was the first time I'd actually camped there, we used to go to the beach there when I was a kid.  The dogs got to go swimming at Callender's Beach as it's the dog friendly beach, where we used to go, Kelly's Beach, isn't dog friendly.

The next stop was back to Mactaquac Provincial Park where we had stayed one night on the way down. We stayed 3 nights this time so I could have a chance to get together with friends in the area. Teddy got to go wading in the Saint John River and we found some painted rocks.

Mactaquac Provincial Park

Our second last stop was at Parc de la Republique for 2 nights, again we had stayed one night here on the way down. We went to another dog friendly brewery that was located on a golf course that wasn't dog friendly, figure that, so we had to check if dogs really were allowed.

Parc de la Republique

The last stop of the trip and where we had started the journey was at Camping des Voltigeurs near Drummondville, Quebec. Both stops were just for the night. My drive home was easier than the drive there as I didn't let the GPS take me through the city of Montreal.

Camping des Voltigeurs

Now, I've been home for a little over a week. The trailer is back at the storage location but I do have another camping trip booked for Sep, just a short one closer to home.