New Friend!

Please Remove the Pins!!!!!

I don't even know what to say about this week! Monday was uneventful, Tuesday was my birthday so that was fun, and yesterday someone apparently made a voodoo doll of me or something because my back became possessed with an evil spirit and I wound up in the emergency room :(

Good heavens -- who knew a car accident could have such long lasting and yucky consequences?! Much to the amusement of Dear Husband and Galen, I had no choice but to take heavy duty pain meds and was more than a little loopy. But the good news is that the new MRI did not show any additional issues and in fact, one of the herniated discs actually has a slight bit of improvement -- yea for all that! Boo for voodoo dolls!!!

I did not let a little (!) back trouble stop us though -- my draft dogs continue their practice march towards the tests in Oregon next week. In just a week Cadi, Mac and Zoey (and me) will be heading to Portland for a three day draft test. I am looking forward to it, and to seeing some of my Northwest friends :)

Pictures! Cadi reminds us all to take time to smell the flowers...


Did you know the ability to roll your tongue is inherited? I cannot do it but obviously Zoey can -- can you?


This could be one of my most favorite pictures ever of our lovely plus-size model, Asia...


Sydney -- so cute!


Carlos/Ute says: "Some of us dogs are really shedding!"


Mrs. Maize -- doesn't she look just wonderful?


I hope that your week is going super well, and that nobody is making voodoo dolls of you!!!

Weekend Wrap-up

We are home after a very fun visit with family/dog show weekend. It was Zoey's first long trial weekend and she was awesome, even though we did not get any legs (qualifying scores).

Normally when I show a Novice dog I run the dog in a "safe" way in order to qualify and get a title but I know Zoey is something special and I have decided to do things a little differently with her. First, I will only "Q" with her if the run is clean; this is a requirement for Excellent and so I have decided to work at this now in the "easier" level. And so I am not fixing mistakes as allowed in Novice -- I am giving us one chance at obstacles (except weaves, which are not scored in Novice -- they just have to be completed in three tries) and that is all.

The second thing I am doing differently is that I am handling the course as I would if she were in Excellent -- I am not "babysitting" or taking the easy route. This means I am asking a lot more of both of us but I hope it will also mean that we will be more ready for Excellent when we finally get there.

All this is to say that Zoey would have gotten legs this weekend if not for my experiment with her. I am aware that not everyone "gets" why I would do this -- even the judge came over to me and asked if I knew we could make a second attempt at obstacles :) But I have experience moving quickly through Novice and just stalling in Open and Excellent because all the skills were not there -- so I think I will just stall in Novice instead...

That said, here is a video of Zoey's last run of the weekend -- she knocked over a jump (the entire jump!) but still a very lovely run with good skills demonstrated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jArfOaN_rEM

The weekend really belonged to Montana Mac! He qualified on both Saturday and Sunday, earning his first working title! Here are those two runs with a bonus at the end -- Zoey and Mac at the special, scenic private Idaho dog park :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNMB1wclug

If you watch Zoey's run first and then watch Mac's second run, you will see what I mean when I talk about "safe" handling as they are the same course but my handling is different. I handled Mac safely to get a Q and I handled Zoey expecting more skill (i.e., less safely :).

I would love to hear/read your impressions of the dogs' runs! I hope your weekend was excellent and that your week will be even better :)

Sunday Morning

Greetings from Einstein's Bagels in Logan, Utah. We do not have an Einstein's where I live so coming here is a real treat -- and they have free Wi-Fi!

I have spent the weekend with my wonderful daughter and her husband, who happen to live just a few miles from the site of a very nice show/agility trial so this is a double-duty trip and I have Mac and Zoey with me. Here is a picture of my daughter with everyone's favorite Feline Puppy Nanny -- Noah:


Mac got a second agility leg yesterday but what is even more impressive is how well he handles traveling and shows. My daughter has cats and dogs, and Mac is completely trustworthy and fine with all of them. My daughter, who has been a vet tech and does rescue, commented on what a nice and easy dog he is -- there are not many dogs -- let alone an intact male -- that you could take to a strange house filled with an assorted of rescue animals and know that all would be well but Mac is just a very kind soul.

I want to share about Zoey because I am just really proud of her. You may recall that I shared about a scary judge experience she had when she was 14 months old. She was going through a phase and I foolishly showed her one weekend -- and everything that could have gone wrong did at that show, including having a very large male judge. The judge was nice but Zoey was not alone in finding him very scary, and she refused to stand for him to examine her.

I suppose I could pretend that none of that happened and she has always been fine -- but why? There is no perfect dog and I won't pretend otherwise -- she had some "stranger danger" concerns when she was younger and that is the truth.

Yesterday reminded me of the importance of development -- in people and dogs. I entered Zoey in Best of Breed yesterday but not today because today's judge is the one who scared her 1.5 years ago and I just did not want to go there again. What I did not bother to check was the judge for the working group yesterday -- it was indeed Judge Scary.

Zoey won Best of Breed, which meant she earned a trip to Group. She has not enjoyed Group the couple of times she was there, and add in Judge Scary -- well, I wasn't sure I wanted to show her in Group. But you know what? I did -- and she was perfect. She wasn't bothered by any of it -- the bigger, intense dogs, Judge Scary -- none of it bothered her.

So Zoey went from agility to breed to Group to agility -- she really is a special dog :) Thanks to Bryan and Yoshi for these pictures from yesterday...





Hope your weekend is wonderful, filled with things that you feel proud of...

Distraction Pictures

Taking the pictures is the distraction -- from end-of-the-semester grading. I confess to not loving the whole grading thing -- I know, I should give them all A's but there is the whole integrity thing again -- and sometimes it conflicts with my niceness commitment. Maybe that is why I dislike grading -- it is an internal conflict between the need to accurately and honestly evaluate the work -- and my desire not to hurt anyone's feelings...

So, I took a break on this lovely Montana morning and got some pictures of the dogs doing some of their favorite dog things...

Mac and Asia having a conference about something...


This picture is just for Heidi -- Cadi is channeling Heidi's feelings towards all of us faculty at the end of the semester ;)


Maize has dug herself a lovely hole that she like to hang out in -- and we are so happy she is here and healthy and making a big mess on our walkway :)


Mac looking extremely handsome.


Zoey doing what Zoeys do -- play with balls...


Asia wrestling with a stick.


Syd wants everyone to know that it isn't just Zoey, Zoey, Zoey who can retrieve...


You will not believe this but some of the dogs dared to have fun -- this resulted in a warning glare from the Chief of the Fun Police...


Karma is still trying to convince someone to get the noisy collar off of her -- to no avail and to the great happiness of all field mice.


Hmmm... what else can I do to distract myself?????!!!!!

Endings and Beginnings

Yesterday was the University of Montana's graduation ceremonies -- and yes, there were multiple ceremonies. I love graduations -- I always have -- which is a good thing because as a faculty member I have to attend.

The day started with a bit of a wardrobe malfunction. My plan was to wear shorts and a tee-shirt under my robe but I discovered too late that the robe did not zip far enough down on me to get away with the shorts -- oops. So I had to wear jeans -- more oops -- under the robe. Oh well -- it is Montana and I was not the only one :)

The main university ceremony was in the football stadium -- very cool. The faculty marched through the tunnel onto the field, which has artificial turf -- wow!!! It was a heady experience to be down there on the field with all those people in the stands, and I had never actually felt a football field with artificial turf so I took off my shoes (once in my seat, of course) and enjoyed the novel feelings of fake grass on my toes.

They don't pay faculty quite enough so as part of our compensation package, we got great seats at graduation -- second row on the fifty yard line -- as in ON the fifty yard line :) And what a treat -- Tom Brokaw was the speaker and he was amazing -- truly. His talk was inspiring, thoughtful, intelligent, funny -- all the things a great graduation address should be -- I am a fan.

One thing he said that I will never forget was the graduates were not going out to the real world -- the real world was junior high, with all the hurt feelings, jealousies, meanness, immaturity, etc. and that was the kind of stuff that they would too often encounter again in the so-called real world. What an excellent point -- funny but sadly, too often true...

He talked about the importance of helping others, of making a difference in the world -- all that stuff that I think is important -- and his status and experience made the charge credible. It was without question the best graduation speech I have ever heard. (You can read more about it at the Missoulian: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_e60cef18-7e77-11e0-b8f1-001cc4c03286.html).

And then we had our School graduation, where we faculty beamed with pride as if it were our own children who were completing their degrees :) Lots of hugging and tears ensued -- a tender, happy and bittersweet time as we said farewell to all those wonderful students who have been a part of our lives for the past few years.

I am so lucky to once again be in academics, where I get to continue a cycle of life that started for me with kindergarten -- hard and intense work for the school year and then an ending -- a completion, a graduation. I get to graduate from this academic year and have a rest before starting again -- it is a cycle that is familiar and wonderful and suits me very well.

I will work all summer but in different ways than the school year, and that ability to vary my work is sustaining and interesting. But I will also do lots of fun things and take little trips and ride my bike and train dogs and enjoy having Dear Husband underfoot and so on. After all these years, I still get summer vacations, with all the excitement and hope that it has always brought -- I am lucky indeed :)

I think endings and beginning are important, and that we need to look for the opportunity to create them in our lives -- and celebrate them even when the ending part is hard. We rest our minds on the bittersweet sadness of an ending but need to quickly turn to face the rising sun -- the new day -- the new adventures that beginnings offer. Graduation is a really BIG ending -- and beginning -- and how blessed I am to be able to participate in them each year :)



Happy Graduation to you and good luck in your future because really -- every moment is a graduation from our past, and the beginning of our future...

Overheard Conversations

Karma: Zoey, you are my BFF forever and ever!!!
Zoey: Really??!
Karma: Yes, I love you more than any other dog in this house or even in the universe!
Zoey: That is very nice of you, Karma. What do you want?


Karma (looking insulted): Why would you think I wanted anything -- I just love you and wanted you to know that...


Zoey: Sure you do -- so what is it?
Karma: Well, there is a small matter that perhaps you could assist me with -- since we are BFF's after all...


Zoey: I am listening...


Karma: it's this stupid pink collar -- it is interfering with my business!
Zoey: What business?!
Karma: My extermination business! What business do you think I have?? A pie shop?!
Zoey: Oh -- your killing of innocent small animals -- that business...
Karma: Don't get all moralistic with me -- cheaters cheat, rattlesnakes bite, and cats...
Zoey: ...kill little animals who are minding their own business doing their little animal things. I saw Mom rescuing that cute little field mouse last weekend -- serves you right that you have to wear that noisy collar...



Karma: I am getting the impression that you are not going to help me get this collar off!!!
Zoey: Your impression would be correct.
Karma: FINE. (stomps across the deck...)

Karma: Sydney, you are my favorite dog and true and only BFF....

Just Sydney

Sydney is our feature dog today :) She is Cadi's daughter, Maize's granddaughter -- her dad is Jed...




What do you think? Isn't she growing up nicely?? :)

Just Halo

It is a perfect western Montana morning -- clear and cool, with the promise of a warm day. Halo helped me clear out the arena so it could be mowed, and I took some pictures of her -- she is 8.5 years now and not showing her age at all. Halo is the mother of Asia and Zoey, and half-sister to Mrs. Maize.







I hope that your morning reflects a day filled with promise...

Every Advantage?

Dog shows bring together all kinds of people and you can imagine that this dynamic does not always work well. Consider that there are people in the world who think it is perfectly okay to take every advantage in order to do well -- this is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. What advantages are okay and when is a line crossed? And who gets to decide?

Consider this scenario -- the obedience building is not available to exhibitors prior to the day of the show. An exhibitor takes her dog into the off-limits building and practices -- is that wrong? Or is it taking an available advantage?

In June I will be attending a draft test, and Cadi will be teamed up with another dog for open brace and the other dog's mom will handle the team. Therefore, I will not be the dogs' handler -- so could I stand ringside with folded arms (a stay cue) in sight of Cadi while the "handler" is out of sight for the stays? Isn't that just taking an available advantage?

There is a big difference between an advantage that does not break a rule, and an advantage that does; they are not the same. Going into an off limits building to practice absolutely gives an advantage to a dog/handler -- and it also violates rules about when/where a dog/handler can be. If I stood ringside and gave Cadi a stay cue it would be double-handling, and that is an advantage but it also is a rule violation.

Who cares about rules anyway?? It is only a dog show so it is not a big deal -- right?!!!

Wrong. Following rules shows respect for other people -- that is the bottom line. When I follow rules, I am letting people know that I do not think I am above them -- I do not think that I am so special that I do not have to follow the same rules as everyone else. Following rules lets people know that we are trustworthy, ethical, and want to play nicely and respectfully everyone else.

An advantage is what I have by being able to train in an arena at my own house, or to train VST on the campus where the test will happen. An advantage is having access to lessons and workshops and so on... When a rule is violated, it is no longer an "advantage" -- it is cheating.

Again, dog shows are not the most important thing in life -- but I guess being the best person we can be is -- in my opinion. And people who cheat at dog shows -- or who think rules are for other people -- well, you can bet that this reflects personal character and is not just something that happens at the dog show.

Mixing cheaters with people who see dog shows as a chance to practice integrity is kind of a mess. And it can get discouraging because cheaters -- well, they cheat! And when you call them on it they say stuff like, "everyone does that" and "it is a dumb rule anyway" and "I was just taking an advantage" or "I didn't know I couldn't be in that building".

And then they try to make the honest people look bad -- like we are uptight, naive, and/or don't know what we saw with our own eyes! But then again -- what else would we expect from the cheaters? An apology?! The truth?! Not in their nature...

The nature of a rattlesnake is to bite and not think that is wrong, because biting is what rattlesnakes do. The nature of cheaters is to cheat and not think that is wrong because cheating is what cheaters do -- but they call it, "taking an advantage". Just as you cannot really teach a rattlesnake not to bite, cheaters are also kind of a hopeless cause because they lack certain qualities that are needed to be decent, respectful, honest people -- and one of these is an awareness of their nature.

Bummer for all of us -- even the cheaters.

What is not a big fat bummer is my cute mother-daughters - here are a couple of them, starting with Halo and Zoey...


And how about look-alikes Cadi and Sydney -- are they cute or what?!


So remember friends -- Be Nice (aka No Cheating). And have a wonderful day free of mean people, cheaters, and all other manner of unpleasantness :)

Identity Crisis

I understand that gender identity issues are painful and problematic, but consider how challenging it is to have species identity crisis -- that feeling that one is trapped in the wrong species. Apparently we have a case of that at our house -- I will let Carlos/Ute/CarlUte tell his own story:

"I always knew I was different and didn't belong. I thought it was because I was living on the streets in California after my family kicked me out -- they didn't accept me because I was different.

Then that nice girl found me and we left California on the scary airplane and suddenly I was living with a bunch of boys in Utah -- I like the boys a lot even though they were not good at cleaning bathrooms (theirs or mine). But still I did not quite fit in -- I thought maybe it was because I was not Mormon... Or maybe because my name kept changing -- who can feel good about identity when one has a new name every week?!

And then I traveled again -- to Montana -- and wow! Scary stuff!!! WOLVES!!!!!!!!! EVERYWHERE!!!!! I hid for weeks and then I realized they weren't really wolves -- they were dogs. And suddenly it all became very clear to me -- I am a dog trapped in a cat body.

Although I still have three names, I now know who and what I am. My family loves me and there is no judgment because they know I was born this way -- finally I am at peace and happy and feel like I belong :) I want to share some pictures of my life as the dog I really am....

This is my real mom, Cadi -- we were separated at birth.


This is my sister, Sydney -- I am, in fact, one of the Glitterati...


Us dogs like to sleep in our crates...


Or on one of the big dog beds -- only us dogs can sleep on DOG beds...


All grooming of dogs happens on the grooming table...


Stupid DOG brush!!!!! (secretly I love the DOG brush but the spray bottle -- not so much)


Us dog littermates on the dog grooming table -- this is me and my sister, Sydney. Oh how I miss my other littermates...


And that is his story -- amazing what a little insight and acceptance can do for a person or cat or dog or whatever...

Draft Practice Video!

Pieces of draft practice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGBFIXACi-M

Mother's Day

I do not actually like this holiday at all, and maybe I am approaching it all wrong but I think it is a mean holiday.

It is mean because of people like me who do not have moms anymore. I remember the last Mother's Day card I gave my mom -- I was 23 years old and she was in the hospital getting a terminal breast cancer diagnosis at age 45 for her Mother's Day gift -- my card said in blue letters: To hell with Freud -- I love my mother".

Mother's Day is mean because of people like my student who lost a pregnancy recently -- I am sure she appreciates the reminder that she is no longer going to be a mother this year.

It is a mean holiday because of people whose children are dead. I am thinking of one today whose daughter actually died of childhood cancer on Mother's Day. I am thinking that mom is not appreciating anything that says Happy Mother's Day.

Mother's Day is mean to women who struggle with infertility -- that silent and constant loss and the ever present but unacknowledged grief that comes from yearning for something that seems so easy for everyone else.

It is mean for people who never found themselves -- for whatever reasons -- in a place to have children and who so wish life would have dealt them a different hand -- one that involved children.

Mother's Day is mean to stepmothers, who might get an obligatory Happy Mother's Day from step-children who otherwise have not recognized her for some time; the dutiful greeting only makes the silence of the other days so much louder.

Some have lost children to causes other than death, and for them this is also a mean holiday as we mourn our missing children, who will always have a place in our broken hearts.

So yes -- Happy Mother's Day indeed -- but likely we will say that to someone who doesn't feel happy at all, and only increase their sorrow as they recognize that they are not understood and their sadness and loss is not acknowledged. So for those many, here is my Mother's Day greeting: I am sorry.

Randomness

Just a bunch of random things...

1. Happy Birthday to Sharon Greenberg in St. Louis!!! I hope it is a wonderful day for Sharon, who is a super wonderful person :)

2. Last day of classes is today -- there are no words to offer enough thanks for that! A good portion of my little soldiers have been deployed to deal with the back issues and so I feel like I have operated at limited capacity all semester -- now I have a chance to catch up and regroup the troops, so to speak -- YAY! Love summer vacation!!!

3. The Puppy Nanny (aka son Galen) created a website for his design business: www.gsontag.com -- he does graphic design and develops/maintains websites, including my big www.helpwithgrief.org site. His next project is updating the Kaibab website so I will let you know when that is done. As a student, he is cheap so keep him in mind if you want something "graphic" done :)

4. More Specialty photos -- these are from super nice/great photographer Ruth Nielsen -- big thanks to her! All three are of Halo...





I hope your day is filled with random good things!

Thoughts About Draft Training

Yesterday as I was working with Montana Mac on draft, I was thinking about all the little steps that got us to where he now is and I wondered if people/dogs that have draft issues maybe skip some of those important baby steps along the way. I thought about some of the dogs that I saw drafting at the Specialty -- many did not look at all happy. I wondered why my draft dogs always look happy and other people have obviously stressed/unhappy dogs, and again I wondered if people are realizing how many tiny steps go into training a dog for anything, including draft. And so I decided to write about this today -- baby steps.

Think of a scale from 1 - 10, with one being super easy/natural/hitch 'em and go types of draft dogs, and 10 being a dog that won't even approach the cart; I have trained dogs all along this scale. My first berner, Emma, was an 11 -- I had to take the cart apart and get her used to it in pieces, and Maize was surprisingly a 10, apparently born with zero carting genes. Halo and her daughters (Zoey and Asia) were all in the 1 - 2 range -- interesting, isn't it?

Montana Mac was probably a 6 - 7 so not a super easy/natural carting dog but not as bad as Mrs. Maize by any means; I think Mac is pretty typical for most berners.

I knew this immediately because I tested him for carting genes, as I do all my dogs. The way to do this is to walk the dog between the shafts towards the cart and then lift the shafts gently as you feed the dog a cookie in the cart. A dog's reaction to the shafts tells you very quickly how much work you will need to do before you can even think about proceeding with a harness/hitch.

And so I first helped him become very comfortable walking between the shafts towards the cart -- off leash, with cookies, and no force. If he wanted to jump over the shafts and run off -- that was fine; I think it is important for a dog to know s/he can get away if needed. And we gradually built up his tolerance for the shafts along his side, touching him, and then having him facing away from the cart with the shafts along side, and then one step and so on -- still not hitched.

Yesterday I thought about all those steps as we made our way down the long drive to the street, and I thought about how we are still making our way towards a June draft test in baby steps.

Once Montana Mac was comfortable being hitched, he experienced what many berners do -- concern about that strange and noisy thing following him. I kept him on leash so that he could not take off if a noise startled him -- the last thing you want is a scary setback. And I treated noises as if they were "clicks" so noise/treat -- this transformed what a noisy cart meant to him.

Turns are very hard for most dogs -- they cannot turn as they usually do because they have to handle the shafts -- if they just turn, they wind up twisted between the shafts and scared -- not helpful for learning. Unfortunately, too many people take GIANT training steps instead of baby training steps and think a dog should learn turns right away as well -- sigh...

Consider what happens when a dog has constant stress during the training of an activity -- the dog associates stress with the activity, and you see this in the draft ring. My goal is to increase the stress associated with a new task only slightly and then stay put at that level until there is no longer any stress with it, and the dog experiences fluency in the behavior. I believe fluency is required to have a happy, confident working dog and is only achieved by taking very small steps and staying at that step until the tail is wagging :)

And so Mac was hitched and pulling but still with some concern at times -- I do not move forward when there is still concern so we did not work on turns until going straight was confident and happy. Luckily we have the perfect driveway -- almost 1/2 mile round trip and straight. So for about three weeks we have done that driveway and that is really all -- of course, we practice the harness and hitch as part of it, and add in a change of pace, stops and that kind of stuff that works with a long straight draft pull but I saved the turn training until we had what we now have -- a very confident, happy draft dog.

When I started turns I helped Montana Mac learn that he could not just turn -- he had to move his body into the shaft to be able to turn. I used food as a lure and made a huge turn one step at a time -- literally. In addition to the food lure, I applied pressure on the shaft to move him the correct way. Turns almost always create stress in a dog because they are trapped and cannot do what they want, which is to just turn their bodies -- they have to also turn the cart.

Yesterday I decided we were ready to test our training -- I have very gently been adding turns and Mac has really caught on. He is extremely motivated to do what he thinks I want, and so praising wildly for gentle big turns really got the message through and I decided to test it out.

I set up a draft test course in our arena, complete with draft weaves and a set of narrows. I was quite impressed with him -- his weaving and circles are still "big" but he is doing them with no stress at all -- and he did the narrows successfully every time :)

Zoey can literally turn circles in place -- in other words, the cart doesn't move because she turns so tightly. Montana Mac is not there yet but he shouldn't be -- she started sooner and was a "hitch and go" dog from the start. If I did not correctly assess Mac at every step of the way and only adjust his training in the smallest of increments after he had attained fluency at each step, I could have easily ruined him by expecting him to go as quickly as Zoey.

Training a dog well requires that we respect their strengths and their concerns, and they all have both (as do we). If we require a dog to move along at our pace instead of theirs, we create stress and anxiety -- both of which are counterproductive in learning new things. Dogs that are stressed and/or shut down tell us that they have been consistently pushed farther than their limits without having the chance to create the joy and confidence that comes with mastery -- or fluency.

Montana Mac walks up and down that long driveway with the cart like he owns the place, tail wagging and happy, confident, willing attitude. I know this is because I honored his pace and I broke things down into small increments and stayed there until he was happy and proud of himself. And yesterday he started working on the technical aspects of a draft test, and because he trusts me and has learned this draft game well, he tried hard and showed both skills and confidence.

We still have over four weeks until the draft test, and we will be practicing almost daily until then. When we go in the ring, he will be happy, confident, and well-trained -- because no other dog should ever step foot in a draft test ring, in my ever so humble opinion. He may or may not pass -- I cannot control that -- but I sure can control our preparation and I can tell you that will be as perfect as it can be because again, only a very well-prepared dog can have the level of confidence and joy that all dogs deserve when they are asked to perform.

I am really proud of Montana Mac -- he works when girls are in standing heat, he works when he thinks the cart could be part of a terrorist plot, he works when he thinks the shafts are an evil trap, he works when the neighbor's dog barks profanity at him -- the dog LOVES to work. And to see his confidence and happiness when he figures something out -- priceless!!! What a super fun dog he is :)

And so Mac and Zoey are racing to see who gets that NDD first -- paws crossed that they do it together...

And speaking of together, here are a couple of pictures of cuddle time:



I hope you are having a wonderful day, and will remember that all of us make progress one baby step at a time -- there are no short-cuts to perfection.

Another Birthday Picture!

I am happy to share another of the newly five year old D Litter: Elliott. This lovely boy lives in Bend, Oregon where he is an active Therapy Dog and very busy earning working titles -- Elliott's full name is Kaibab's Dash Across The Moon CD RE NAP NJP NFP NDD. Elliott also earned his BMDCA Working Dog award, which his parents received at the Specialty this year :)


Thanks to Glenda and Greg for giving Elliott such an interesting life :)