Three Cheers for Louie's Third Rally Obedience Excellent Qualification & New Title!!!

Early yesterday morning, Gary, Katie, Louie and I drove three hours to Paragould Arkansas so that Louie and I could participate in a Rally Obedience competition. I am always nervous at these shows, but the fact that we had to do six hours of driving for just a few minutes in the ring made me more nervous than usual. Although Louie was a bit distracted and slow to respond a few times, overall I think he did very well. His tail was wagging the entire time and when he got distracted he was able to get back on track. We got our third green qualifying ribbon in Rally Obedience Excellent along with a blue first place ribbon. Best of all Louie earned his Rally Obedience Excellent title. He is now officially: Wilbon's What a Wonderful World RE CGC TDI. We are as proud as can be :-)






Louie during his Honor exercise. The little Pom was very close. Louie took a look at her, but didn't break his sit stay.


On the way home we took a break near some rice fields.




Katie and Louie enjoyed splashing around in some puddles from the big storms we had Friday night.


Don't pull me in please :)


Gary and the Newf kids

Hip! Hip! Hooray!

We got great news in the mail yesterday from OFA, which stands for Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. Katie and Louie recently had their hips and elbows x-rayed and their patellas checked by a vet. The results were submitted to OFA where they were reviewed by three certified radiologists. The results were the same for both Newfs: elbows and patellas normal, hips GOOD!

After a dog turns two it's a good idea to get these checks done especially if the dog will be involved in weight bearing activities such as drafting like Katie and Louie are. We always thought Katie and Louie moved well and looked healthy, but it feels really good to have medical confirmation of this.

Nature and nurture both play a big role in breeding and raising healthy dogs. As always, we are extremely grateful to Katie and Louie's breeders, Bill and Bonnie Bennett, for their dedication to improving the Newfoundland breed. They provided the "nature" part of the equation by carefully screening their Newfs before breeding them. They also provided the "nurture" side of the equation for the critical first 10 weeks of the pups' lives. After that it was up to us to make sure we kept the rapidly growing puppies on non-slip surfaces to reduce the possibility of joint injury. We also made sure to limit the length of our walks, minimize their use of the stairs, prevent the pups from jumping out of the car or off the grooming table and feed the suppliments recommended by Bonnie & Bill. The group effort paid off! We feel so fortunate to have two healthy and extremely sweet Newfs in our family.

Katie takes a "nap" while she gets her x-rays.

Louie Lovin' On Little Dogs

Here are a few pictures of Louie at the recent dog show socializing with smaller dogs.

He loves them so much and wants so badly for them to love him in return.

With dogs that are timid he instinctively gets down on the floor.

It's as if he is trying to make himself as small as possible so he won't be as intimidating.

This sassy puppy girl wasn't a bit afraid of Louie,

so they just did the usual circle and sniff routine.

School Days: Louie's Special Friend

During our recent visit to a local elementary school, we received an unexpected invitation to visit the special needs classroom. Several of the children there enjoyed getting to meet Louie, but there was one little boy in particular who had an instant and very strong bond with our Newf boy.

When "J" and Louie first met, J couldn't stop laughing at all of the kisses that Louie kept trying to give him. It drove the teacher crazy; she thought Louie's kisses were gross.

But J disagreed with her. He seemed to think Louie's kisses were the best thing ever. In fact he repeatedly made kissy noises to encourage Louie's to show him even more Newfie love.

J talked non-stop about Louie the whole time we were there.

He got to hold Louie's leash

And compare the size of Louie's feet with his hands.

Louie made J extremely happy

And Louie liked J too. Louie stayed by his side the whole visit and greatly preferred him over everyone else in the room.

After we left the room one of the teachers told me that J rarely talks. Yet he talked the whole time we were there. They had never before heard him make noises either like the kissy noise and some other verbalizations he made to Louie.

The power of Newfie Love is strong. Thanks Louie for sharing your love with J and everyone else you meet. We are so proud of you.

School Days: Katie The Teacher

Since the children we visited last week had never met Katie we decided to have a little lesson on how to introduce yourself to a dog you don't know.

Before I brought Katie in the room the children learned these steps:

1) Ask the owner if the dog is friendly. If so, ask if you can you pet it?

(The kids added to ask your parents first which is an excellent point.)

2) Approach from the front so the dog can see you (never come up behind a stranger dog)

3) Approach slowly and quietly

4) Don't stare into the dog's eyes.

5) Hold your hand out to let the dog sniff it.

6) If dog calmly sniffs your hand pet it under the chin (not the top of the head)

I explained to the children that not all dogs are as tolerant as Louie (who is the most tolerant dog I have ever met). Some dogs won't allow their bodies to be touched all over and are afraid of loud noises and sudden movements. Katie is a pretty stable girl, but she can become frightened in chaotic situations. This made her a good dog to practice on.

When I brought Katie into the room the students did a wonderful job of introducing themselves to her one by one. They were all so polite and sweet; I was very impressed. Katie remained extremely calm and quickly became right at home in the classroom due to the lovely welcome she received. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the meet and greet session, but I was too busy supervising and making sure everyone remembered the steps.

Katie, Louie and I had such a great time and are looking forward to meeting Ms. L's next group of students in the fall.

Katie showing off her pink bows and scarf to some of the girls in the class.

School Days: Louie the Smile Maker

Last Friday we made a field trip to a local elementary school. We went back to one of the classrooms Louie and I had visited during their annual reading day last November. All of the students remembered Louie and were super excited about getting to see him again. The teacher said they talk about him all the time.

Louie has such a wonderful temperament and great instinct about how to behave around children. Without being told he just plopped down on the floor and let the kids take turns surrounding him with lots of pets and love.

Look how tenderly this little boy wipes the drool off of Louie's mouth. I didn't ask him to do that, he did that all on his own. Also, I just love the little girl's laughter in this picture.

And here is another little boy taking care of Louie...so sweet.

This is one of my favorite ever pictures. You can just see the love flowing both ways.

Louie lovin' the ladies

"Mama, this is so relaxing...I'm getting sleepy."

"This is so nice. Can we do this every day?"

Rally Excellent Times Two

Last Sunday Louie earned his second Rally Obedience Excellent Leg. I finally got the video completed for both shows. You'll see that Louie got distracted a couple of times, but by some miracle I managed to get him back on track each time. He is such a good boy and he did his very best in an environment that was very challenging due to the warm temperature, a dumbbell being thrown in the next ring, another Newfie in the audience, his Dad in the audience, etc. We are thrilled with his Green qualifiying ribbon and his third place finish.

Louie's kennel is his calm place in the middle of the show chaos. Gary is in the rust colored shirt sitting next to Louie who is lying down in his crate. *

Meeting Bayou (from a distance) the only other Newfoundland in attendance

Louie doing the Honor exercise - he was grateful for the chance to rest during the down stay*

Waiting for our ribbons

Louie with his proud parents*

Our friends Tracy and Luna*

Congratulations Louie

Louie with his ribbons and prizes from the weekend

Our thanks to Tracy Hongyun Fu and Feng He for taking the pictures above marked with * and part of the video.

An Excellent Newf

On Saturday, Louie went back into the Rally Obedience ring after a five month break. Before the show started he spent about an hour relaxing in his crate. Even though it's wall-to-wall Newf in there he really does like it.


Louie competed in Rally Excellent which, unlike the novice and advanced levels, requires the dog to "Honor" the dog that runs the course after they do. During the Honor the dog must stay in the position specified by the judge for the entire time that it takes the next dog to run the course. This judge made it tricky by putting an exercise for the rally dog right behind the honor dog. Thankfully Louie did not give in to the temptation to stand up to see who was behind him. He held his stay and successfully completed the Honor portion of the requirements.

Louie cooling down after his performance.

During his trip around the ring, Louie got distracted a few times, but I was able to get him to refocus on me. He did both of the jumps beautifully and did most of the stations well.


Hooray! Louie qualified and got 2nd place! Of course, Mr. Curious had to check out the judge.


We are so proud of our sweet boy :-)


At most of these dog shows people tend to only halfway pay attention when a dog enters the ring. There is just so much going on at once and other people are usually getting their own dogs ready for competition. So I was surprised when a big round of applause broke out when Louie and I completed the course on both Saturday and Sunday. Louie, it seems, is quite the crowd pleaser which is perfect since he loves to be the center of attention.


Louie just melts my heart. Gary, Katie and I love this boy so much. Win or lose he is a very special and quite Excellent Newf.

Stay tuned to find out how Louie did in Sunday's competition...

Togetherness

Mama told Katie to get on the table. I didn't want to be left out so I just hopped up there with her.


Can't you groom us both at the same time Mama?


Having your Sissy and your best friend rolled into one lovely Newfie girl is awesome! I am such a lucky Newf.




Sorry we haven't been blogging much lately. We are getting ready for a big competition at the end of the month. Katie and I are both going to start working on our Rally Obedience Excellence titles.

Newfie kisses to all our friends. Love, Louie