My Birthday!!

Well, Ms. Beth has been super busy and she hasn't been posting a lot about me on the blog, but that doesn't mean that she hasn't been doing things with me!!! Since my last post, I've completed my first basic obedience course, and now I'm in training to earn my AKC Canine Good Citizens Certificate. Will have more information about that in the near future!!

October 20th was my birthday, and Ms. Beth took me to Pupcakes! Pupcakes is a fun doggie shop in the 5 Points area of Columbia. While visiting Pupcakes, I met my first doggie pirate! Arghhh!! http://www.pupcakespetboutique.com/

After selecting a fun Halloween treat, I accompanied Ms. Beth and her friend Erin for lunch at Yesterday's resturant where they have outside seating. The waiter even brought me my own bowl of water! While having lunch there, I hung out under Ms. Beth's chair and just took it all in. At one point it was very exciting because a big firetruck came by. Ms. Beth said she was super proud of me because I didn't miss a beat..... just took it all in stride. I figured if she wasn't worried, why should I be worried???

I also go to experience my first Halloween with Trick-or-Treaters! There were lots of visitors in all shapes and sizes! I accompanied Ms. Beth to the door everytime so that I could view all of the creative costumes. At one point, I decided that I would venture off down the street with the Trick-or-Treaters, but Ms. Beth disagreed and called me back to stay with her. Maybe next year I can go Trick or Treating too!!!!

Right now, I've got to get to bed because Ms. Beth has entered us in the 4 mile, First Annual Hill's Healthier Pet Trot in Columbia! The "race" starts at 8:00 am, so we'll have to be there early. For more information about this great new event, check out: http://governorscupsc.org/PDFs/2009HealthierPetTrot.pdf

All in all, we've been busy, and will continue to busy for the rest of the Fall season. I will try to get Ms. Beth to post pictures of the Pet Trot as soon as I can ;)

First Confirmation Show

On Saturday, I traveled with Ms. Beth and her friend Loren down to Augusta, Georgia for and AKC confirmation show. Ms. Beth entered me into the Miscellaneous Breed Class for Boykin Spaniel puppies. I had to wear a special show lead and we could only trot around the ring. I really wanted to run FAST... but Ms. Beth said that we could only trot.

Next she asked me to stop and stand still while she fiddled with my feet and made them all nice and straight. She said that she wanted me to stand squarely... whatever that means!!

Then a lady judge came over. First she looked at my teeth, and then she felt my neck, shoulders, back and back legs. Whew!!! All I wanted to do was go play with my cousin Woody who was in the ring with us!!!!

The best part about all of this was that I got to eat lots of hotdog! Ms. Beth told me that I was a very well behaved boy and then we got to go outside and socialize and that was fun! I earned a ribbon and I was glad that Ms. Beth was happy. She says that we're off to a good start. Check out the pictures of my ribbons. I earned 1st place in my puppy class and also received Winners Dog and the Best of Breed Ribbon. Fun stuff!!

Can't wait until December when the Boykin Spaniels will be fully recognized by the AKC and I will be able to start earning points towards my Championship! Ms. Beth says that we're going to have a BLAST :)

1st Trip to the Beach!

For Labor Day weekend, Ms. Beth took me to Crescent Beach in St. Augustine, FL! I was very excited about the beach! The smells, the birds, and all of that space!! I got to play with my new toy and I just couldn't get enough of retreiving my toy from the waves. It was challenging and I had to learn to grab the toy quickly before the waves took it away, but I loved the challenge! Ms. Beth thinks that I could play at the beach all day long, every day!!

While there we met people from Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. Lots of people stopped to talk and watch me. Many people correctly guessed that I was a spaniel, but none of them had seen a Boykin Spaniel before, so Ms. Beth had to tell them all about me and my breed characteristics. All I wanted her to do was just throw the toy!! Throw the toy!!! Throw the toy!! I had to keep reminding her ;)

All in all we had a GREAT weekend and I can't wait for my next trip to the beach!!!

Big Boy Collar and a New Toy!

After spending some time hanging out with the sporting dogs last weekend, Ms. Beth decided that I definitely need to practice my swimming more and that I need a retreiving toy! We took a trip to the pet store, and I got to pick out a fun new orange Kong made just for retreiving in water! I can't wait to try it out in the water, but in the meantime, I'm having a good time playing with it on land!!

While we were shopping Ms. Beth also decided that I was old enough for a big boy collar and after much debating and trying on of various colors and styles, she chose a blue SC collar with the Palmetto Tree on it. It fit me perfectly the first time she put it on and had a great time showing it off to some of the the other shoppers at the store, which led to a discussion about how the Boykin Spaniel has been recognized the S.C. Legislature as the State Dog of South Carolina. How cool!!! What do you think of my new big boy collar?

While we were out and about today, we also saw our first car sporting the new Boykin Spaniel license tag! That was fun too! All in all, it was definitely a great day to be a Boykin Spaniel in South Carolina!!

Rally Training for Sporting Dogs!!

We got up early this Saturday to head out to Eastover, SC so that we could do some Rally training with some other sporting dogs. Two pointers (Sport and Pine), two Weimerianers (Denning and Dixie), an Irish Setter (Jackson) and me!! (I just went to socialize and tag along, but Uncle Jackson definitely did some hardcore training :) After everyone practiced, we had the opportunity to survey the property boundaries, through the trees, across streams, up hills and everywhere in between!
We ended up with a swim at the little pond at the end of the trail, and I got to practice my swimming skills again. Ms. Beth is still concerned that I don't swim very efficiently.... I splash a lot and haven't learned to just level out and propel myself forward with my legs underwater!! I tell her I just need more practice :)
She also needs to get me a retreiving dummy. I am soooo excited about retreiving, I am much more inclined to go swimming if I'm actually retreiving something..... especially if I have to beat another dog to get there first! (I am just a wee bit competitive :)
All in all, it was a GREAT day and I'm so glad that I got to tag along and train with the sporting dogs!! They are such great fun :)

Trip to Atlanta

This past weekend, Ms. Beth took me down to Atlanta to visit with her brother! We stayed right off of Peachtree street and I had to practice my leash manners. It was tough because there were so many things to see and smell. The traffic and noise didn't bother me a bit! Ms. Beth was worrying needlessly!!

We also went down to the AKC dog show that was being held in Atlanta that same weekend. This was a big, All-Breed show, which also included obedience and rally competitions. Ms. Beth says that soon I will be training and competing in those rings!! We cheered for our friend Corey the Gordon Setter. (see him in the pics). We also cheered for other Gordon Setters in the confirmation and rally rings.

As you can see from the funny picture above, Ms. Beth took a self-portrait of us at the dog show. I don't know why she is making that funny face. I look a bit worried in the picture, but rest assured, I had a good time at the dog show, checking out the vendors, visiting with other dogs and just generally having an all around good time!

Visitor!

I have been having the best week! Which is good, because last week we lost our "Kitten". Ms. Beth and Madison have been a little bit down in the mouth about losing Kitten. I have tried to perk both of them up, but I'm not sure if I was overly successful. Oh, well, I tried.

Anyway, my friend Stitch, the French Bulldog mix has been staying at our house all week! I have shared all of my toys with Stitch, and we have had lots of fun barking at strangers, playing fetch, tormenting Uncle Jackson, wrestling and running around the yard! Stitch is a lot more active than the Setters and Ms. Beth says he might actually tire me out a little bit! I find that to be highly unlikely, but Stitch is a lot of fun and I am running around a lot more now that he's here. I love having friends over :)