Five for Five

People keep telling us that it is unusual for Newfoundlands to succeed in obedience competition. Louie has been in the Rally Obedience Ring five times and all five times he qualified. Today he earned his second leg toward his RA/Rally Advanced title. It was a tough run today because someone was playing with their dog and a toy right on the other side of the gate. Louie was very interested, but when I told him to leave it he got back on track. Also, the jump was immediately after a right turn which didn't give him a lot of room. I was worried, but Louie sailed over the jump. Gary built us some awesome jumps at home yesterday. We practiced last night and first thing this morning. I think that made a huge difference for Louie in the ring today.

Louie earning his 2nd Rally Obedience Advanced leg:


Louie on the left with his three ribbons and Katie on the right with her ribbon


Louie can never be serious for too long :-)

Cool Newfs in Hot Springs

Saturday was a great day for our family at an AKC dog show in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Louie competed for the first time in Advanced Rally Obedience and earned his first leg toward his RA title. Katie also competed in Advanced Rally and qualified for the third time. This means she now has her Rally Obedience Advanced title. Hooray for Katie. Now she is officially retired from the competition world. She is going to focus on her draft and therapy work since those are the activities she loves the best.

It was so thrilling to get to take both Newfs into the ring to receive their ribbons.


We are so proud of Katie and Louie!


Excerpts from Katie's performance:


Excerpts from Louie's performance:

Daddy's Boy

Although Katie and Louie adore both Gary and me (as we do both of them), Katie tends to be a Mama's girl and Louie tends to a Daddy's boy.

Louie loves to cuddle and play with Gary. At night he usually sleeps on the floor next to Gary's side of the bed while Katie sleeps on my side.

A Few Benefits of Having a Sibling

Having your best friend as your sibling is so convenient...

There's always someone around for cuddles and snuggles.

If you get tired of laying on the hard floor you can use your sib as a pillow.

You can wait impatiently together for Mama to come home.

When she takes too long you can give up waiting and lounge together.

If you get bored you can have a contest to see who can make the funniest face



We could go on and on with hundreds of reasons we love to be together, but you get the picture.

Hugs and Licks from Katie and Louie

The Dish on Dog Food

I am truly sorry if my post about dog food last week offended anyone; I wasn't trying to say that there is only one way to feed your dogs. Most readers of this blog are dog lovers and I'm sure we all do the best we can for our fur kids. Here is the story of the evolution of our dogs' diet:

For years I fed my Siberian Husky, Scarlett, Science Diet ID (prescription food for intestinal disorders). Scarlett had pancreatitis and this was the food that was supposed to make her feel better. Instead she continued to have disabling attacks about every 2 weeks. This food was costing me about $60/bag... definitely not a "cheap" food. I started doing a lot of research and found source after source stating that some dogs have difficulty processing wheat, corn and soy. I looked at the ingredients list on the Science Diet and found that the first ingredient was corn, so I thought it was time to try a different food to see if we could get Scarlett some relief.

I first heard about Canidae from Katie's breeders and decided to give it a try for our new puppy Katie and our 13 year old girl Scarlett. The Canidae agreed with them both and Scarlett's pancreatitis attacks went from every 2 weeks to every 8 weeks. I was so happy that my baby was almost free from this illness. Scarlett lived a happy life until she was over 15 years old. When Canidae changed their formula the food began making a lot of dogs sick, so I used the website dog food analysis as a starting point to evaluate our dog food options. I chose Orijen partially because it received the highest rating on this site, but also because so many of our Newfie friends have used it with enormous success for years. I read post after post on newf.net about dogs with various digestive disorders and skin problems that miraculously went away when their owners switched to Orijen. Since Louie was having some itchy skin problems I was hoping it would help him, and it did :-)

What we choose to feed our pets is a very personal decision. The main point of this post is not to change anyone's mind about what kind of dog food they buy, but instead to provide a source of information to those who are interested in digging deeper into this topic.

Are Newfies Strong?

Gary recently sent me a link to the Wikipedia page on Newfoundland dogs. Before reading the entry I already knew through personal experience that Newfies are extremely strong, but I wasn't aware that they are considered to be possibly the strongest of all dog breeds.

Here is one of my favorite YouTube videos which gives a hilarious look at just how strong Newfies are.

"As God is My Witness, I'll Never Go Hungry Again"

Any other "Gone With the Wind" fans out there? I am a huge fan myself. Some of you may not know that my full name is Wilbon's Katie Scarlett O'Hara. Like the heroine of that book, I love the feeling of a full belly and the comfort of knowing that the dog pantry is fully stocked up.

Mama orders our food online and a big shipment just came in. If Louie and I had our way we would get ten pounds of dog food a day, but our parents are big meannies and insist we stay slim...some mumbo jumbo about that being better for our joints. Our diet is also strict because we never get any wheat, corn or soy. Now this part I have no complaints about 'cause those fillers give my brother a terrible rash. Our Newfoundland ancestors lived mainly off fish and so do we. We love our Orijen 6 fish food so much that we will do lots of tricks just for one piece of kibble. When a whole bowl is put in front of me...WOW...the only word that comes to mind is "Heaven".

Lots of love and Newfie kisses to all my doggie and human friends, Katie