Katie the Newf: Protector and Transporter

In the two years that Natalie has lived at The Happy Haus I have watched her relationships with the Newfs evolve.  Louie took to Natalie immediately and they quickly developed a very sweet bond.  Katie, on the other hand, was quite wary of Natalie and therefore needed to be watched at all times when the two girls were in the same room.  After about a year I began to feel more comfortable with their interaction as Natalie matured and learned more about manners around doggies.  About 18 months after Natalie came home I no longer had any concerns about the two girls being together.  However, I always felt like Katie simply felt neutral about Natalie…that she didn't care if Natalie was part of our family or not.

A few days ago I was walking Katie while pushing Natalie in her stroller.  We were almost home when suddenly a familiar Boston Terrier started running towards us.  Katie had an encounter with this dog back in 2007 when she was about 10 months old.   As she did previously, Katie acted nonchalant when the dog approached.  She didn't bark, move a muscle or seem to be on alert at all.  The dog's owner quickly followed.  Natalie asked if she could pet the dog.  I asked if the dog likes people - especially children.  We were assured that it did and the owner picked it up so that Natalie could reach its head to pet it.  The Boston Terrier acted very friendly, so I was surprised when Katie dropped her indifferent attitude and at lightening speed threw herself between Natalie and the other dog and pinned the dog to the ground.  At the time I didn't realize that Katie was protecting "her" Natalie.  I was just concerned about the fate of the little dog, but other than having a back covered with Newf drool it was completely unharmed.  Katie's intention was not to harm or she easily could have done so.  Her intention was to remove a possible threat to her girl.

Whenever Natalie expresses fear about the evil sea witch from "The Little Mermaid" or the mean man from "Beauty & the Beast" coming to get her I always explain that lots of people work to keep her safe.  I tell her that her teachers will keep her safe at school and when she is at home Katie, Louie and I will keep her safe.  I always believed this to be true of the Newfs after reading so many stories about Newfoundland dogs putting themselves between their humans and danger.  Seeing Katie's protective nature in action warmed my heart.


Unlike her brother Louie, who is not a fan of draft work, Katie also enjoys pulling Natalie around in her cart.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Happy Birthday to our super sweet boy, Louie Lou. We are so grateful that you are part of our family and we cherish everyday with you.

Louie at 4 months old

Louie at almost 3 years old

In honor of Louie's 3rd Birthday, Katie and Louie got to split a can of tuna. They politely waited during the birthday song before digging in.

Our little Louie, all grown up

The Best Newfie Weather

Two Sweet Newfs in Their Element

My Three Sweeties :)

Our Snowy Walk Through the Woods

Katie Back at the Happy Haus

Louie Before the Walk...

Louie After the Walk

See you all soon. XOXOXO from Katie and Louie

Fun Before the Storm

Katie, Louie, Gary and I went on a walk in the woods the day before we received several inches of snow. Stay tuned for scenes from our snowy walk this morning.

We have started letting Louie off leash when we are in areas where there are no other dogs around. He is doing a great job of staying close to his pack. It's nice to be able to use all of that obedience training in the real world.

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

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...

Our Little Snow Bunny

After getting about four inches of snow on Monday we took the Newfs to the park and let Katie run off leash. Louie has a wonderful recall, but since he is not neutered we always keep him on leash unless we are formally practicing his recall.

I was so proud of the way Katie kept checking in with us. She never got very far away and always returned if we called or whistled for her. Katie is so deeply attached to me, Gary and Louie that she likes to be able to see where we are at all times.

This little movie that I put together from Gary's video clips is one of my favorites of all time. It makes me so happy to see our sweet Katie filled with joy as she romps and explores her snowy world.

Winter Newfieland

Finally, a little bit of winter came to Little Rock, Arkansas. Katie and Louie love everything about this weather: the way it tastes, the way it crunches under their feet and the way it keeps them nice and cool. We had a fun walk in the park and even practiced a little obedience work - check our video below the pictures. Snow and ice make everything more fun.

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:

Rally-O Practice

After taking a break from rally training we are getting back on track in preparation for our upcoming competition in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the end of September. It will be Louie's first time off lead in the ring as he works toward his Rally Advanced title. Katie already has 2 Rally Advanced legs. I told her if she gets one more leg in Hot Springs she can retire from the rally ring at the ripe old age of not quite 3 years old. Katie obviously enjoys practicing rally, but she gets tense in the ring. She will be focusing instead on her draft and therapy work. Louie, on the other hand, is phased by nothing and seems to enjoy competing. He will continue to do rally, therapy work, conformation and will hopefully start working toward his CD next spring. I will also give him an introduction to drafting as soon as the weather is cool enough.

Katie

Louie

Reverse Psychology for Newfs

Although Katie and Louie are both on the high energy end of the spectrum for a relatively low energy breed, they sometimes temporarily become couch potatoes. It's as if they decide that it is just impossible for them to peel their great mass away from where it appears to have melted into the floor. If I say their name during one of these moments the only acknowledgement I receive is maybe an eye blink. I used to struggle to find a way to move them when they were in their nearly comatose states until the day I discovered that reverse psychology works on dogs.

One evening upon returning from dog school Katie decided that she was perfectly comfortable in the car and she would just spend the night there. Since this was not acceptable to me I had to find a way to get her out. After discovering that my usually obedient dog was not going to listen to me I thought I might be able to trick her into getting out of the car. I needed Katie to want to get out so I decided to convince her that I didn't want her to get out of the car yet. Katie and Louie know the "wait" command extremely well, so I said "Waaaaaaait" in a very low and slow voice to make her anticipate the release word of a very upbeat "Ok". Sure enough when I said "waaaaaait" her head popped up, her eyes snapped to attention and her body became rigid with anticipation. I waited several seconds then said "OK". She practically flew out of the car.

When our Newfs aren't tired all that is needed is a command of "Katie move" or "Louie move" if they are blocking the fridge or backdoor, but when trying to budge a sleepy Newfoundland something extra is needed. This handy reverse psychology trick works like a charm every time.