Embee Blogs (rarely)
Shameless bragging, a BBPIS win and a new Champion
So we had an awesome party on Saturday but more on that later (with pictures)…
For now I just want to shamelessly brag about my dogs and their recent accomplishments in the show ring.
Ruffi went to her first show at the end of July. She is the type of puppy that self taught herself to be a show dog. I put the show lead on her and she knew exactly what to do. It’s so weird to have a dog like that. Many Clubs are offering a Baby Puppy class for puppies under six months of age. She was a week or so shy of that magic date so I thought the baby puppy class would be a perfect opportunity to give her a no pressure and hopefully positive first ring experience.
I think we’ll call it mission accomplished. Never in my wildest dreams did we expect to bring home Best Baby Puppy in Show. Really looking forward to the future with this smart and sassy girl. I love our big orange ribbon, she adores her alligator toy that came with it.
I edited myself out since this is a very public website but it was me who handled her!
My next brag is about my good friend Jen and her boy Bucky. He is Jen’s first show dog and they learned how to compete in conformation together. Their journey started with a bang but like most it had a few bumps along the way. What that has meant for me is having the best dog show buddy I could ever ask for. Showing dogs is so much better when you have a good friend to do it with.
Conformation itself is an intimidating and dare I say; an extremely frustrating sport to be introduced and involved in. You are at the mercy of someone’s subjective opinion and unfortunately that can mean many things. In our breed it is much harder to finish wholecolours than particolours, and newbie handlers can easily be overlooked for experienced ones. All part of the game and yet we enjoy it, and even worse end up bitten by that darn show bug!
Needless to say I am thrilled to introduce Champion Embee’s The Winter Soldier, owned, handled and adored by Jen and Erik. He finished the point requirements at his and Jen’s favourite hometown show by going Best of Breed over specials, just like his Mom Molly and Brother Loki. Black and Tans gotta do it in style!
Super proud of you both!
Importance of Crate Training
Before our puppies are ready to leave on adventures with new owners, I always have their eyes tested by an ophthalmologist. I do this for my own benefit more than anything but I do feel it is appreciated by their new owner as well. Mainly I want to know what eye issues (if any) are showing up in my litters and how often they are occurring. It gives me a much clearer picture of the overall eye health of the dogs I am breeding than just testing the parents yearly (which of course we do as well).
My last trip to our wonderful ophthalmologist with puppies resulted in a story I wish to share.
I always strongly encourage my owners to peruse crate training with their puppy. I do introduce them to a crate here but it is up to the owner to continue moving that training forward. Most puppies hate it at the beginning, they wine, they howl, they bark, and some will keep you up most of the night. If you are consistent, use well timed rewards and are super good at ignoring, you soon have a well behaved puppy in a crate.
When I have this conversation with new owners about crate training I can often tell that they aren’t fully on board. They listen carefully but aren’t really engaged with what I am saying. Most will go home and give crate training a try, but I think some give up easily or don’t bother because they don’t see the need.
Overall the use of a crate seems to be greatly miss understood by most of the pet owning public. A crate for whatever reason is attached to negative connotations when it should be thought of as a safe place your dog can call its own.
While at the ophthalmologist an incredibly sweet older collie cross dog was being discharged from having cataract surgery. He was at least 10 years old and his owner was expressing concern about his welfare to the point of being a bit belligerent with staff. When they brought his dog out to him instead of being relieved that he was ok, the conflict escalated.
“I have never been away from this dog for more than a few hours in his entire life.”
“Can he see?”
“Does he have to be in SUCH a large cone?!”
Looking down, “His bandage is way too tight, it is making his leg swell!” (pressure bandage)
And then; he saw it. The top of his long collie nose was scraped from just below his eyes right down to almost his nostrils and he also had a scrape on his leg. The man lost it. He began to yell at the poor tech who was looking after him.
“How did this happen?!”
“Did you let this happen?!”
“I need to speak to the Dr. RIGHT NOW”
“What the @#$# did you do to him?”
The tech calmly explained to him; “Sir your dog was extremely stressed while visiting us. We’ve had three emergency surgeries today not including your dog. We had him in a crate to keep him safe while waiting for his surgery but he was barking, thrashing and digging at the door of the crate to get out. He was becoming extremely agitated and was panting a lot, I was worried that he was going to injure himself in the crate. I decided to take him out and attach him next to the crate while we worked on other patients nearby. He was calm if we were was close but very stressed if no one was right beside him. I think he scraped himself on the bottom of the crate door trying to get free. I’m very sorry, we did clean it up and put ointment on. It should heal in a few days.”
The man’s rage grew.
“THIS DOG HAS NEVER BEEN IN A CAGE IN HIS ENTIRE LIFE!”
There were a bunch more of sentences after that but it was all I needed to hear to have my heart break on the spot for that sweet senior dog who had never experienced being in a crate.
Even if you don’t see the point of crate training now for your lifestyle, please don’t let your dog end up being like this poor senior. It’s just not fair. Undergoing a painful surgery and recovery in a strange place, with strange people is enough for any dog to handle in one day.
Introduce a crate early and train it often. It is a life skill. You may not need it today but you will need it at some point and be thankful for it.
Our puppies and dogs are crate trained using Crate Games developed by Susan Garrett
Molly turns 5 and her son becomes a Champion
She’s been the very best companion, mouse hunter, cheerio chaser, wubba lovin’, face hugging, downright demanding, rain hating, farm girl momma in the entire world, and we love her dearly.
Happy Birthday to our beautiful Molly!
Her son Loki decided to give his Mom an early birthday present at the Erie Shores show the day before. On the first day of the show he went Winners Dog and Best of Winners over a decent entry. On Friday when I thought things couldn’t get any better, he finished his Championship by going Best of Breed.
My boy is now formally known as CH. Embee’s Mischief Managed, our first home-bred Champion. So proud of my stinker and his accomplishments. Along with conformation we’ve been having a lot of fun doing a foundations agility class, he’s fearless and fast!
Molly finished her Championship in a similar fashion, with a Best of Breed or two.
Maybe her naughty daughter Ruffi will be able to do the same thing one day. For now we’re having training discussions about doing doggy business on wet grass (I wonder where she gets that from?!) and trying to convince her that shoes and bowls are not dog toys.
Would you believe the starving puppy routine?
What shoe? I don’t know what you are talking about! 
I think we have some more work to do.
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