Water Training

Every Saturday our Newfie club puts on Water Rescue Training. It's so much fun. We all gather at Shawnigan Lake and we have 2 hours of endless fun. We start off doing some dry land training, obedience kinda stuff. Then it's into the water. We have 3 separate beach areas as well as a dock for jumping off of. I had never jumped off a dock before, it was a little scary at first but I finally made the plunge and went in over my head. Dad threw my orange buoy in and I jumped in after it, then dad jumped in to swim with me to the shore. I gotta tell ya it was soooo much fun!!! but boy was I tired afterwards! I live for Saturday mornings!! Gizzy

Gizmo Passes the Test!!!

So mom and dad have been doing alot of training with me, and I wasn't too sure where we were going with it. Other than the fact that I've been getting a whole lot of yummy treats when I do what they ask me. These treats are very very special mom calls them "Cinnamircles" and I love them!!!

But it finally hit me. The other night we were out and I had to be on my best behaviour, there was alot of other dogs there as well. Dad took me through a series of different experiences, like meeting a stranger, letting that stranger pat me, comb me.

I then had to walk thru a bit of a course where the Evaluator gets you to turn in different directions, slow down, speed up and halt when told to.

I had to walk through a group of strangers, do my down and stay ( I like my down and stay) come when called, walk by some kind of distraction, walk through a door, and you know you never walk through first, always let your mom or dad go first, just in case there is something on the other side your not sure of. Had a little play session with dad and then settle down, (that was easy) then get left alone with a stranger for 3 minutes...all of this without relieving myself, which I was very proud not to do. Some of the other dogs didn't pass because they had to relieve themselves. But dad made sure we looked after that before the exam.

So in the end I passed and got this really cool looking rosette, got my picture taken and got letters at the end of my name. It's official, I'm now "CH Mainsail's Blackbeary Express CGN"...which stands for Canine Good Neighbour!

I'm not sure whats in store for me yet, but I'm thinking it might have something to do with either water or carts. Just no rest!

My life is never boring, well except when mom and dad go to work.

Gizzy

Gizmo gets his first Group Placement

Mom is just so excited, and I really don't know what all the fuss is about. She spends hours washing, drying, combing and clipping me, which I endure just to keep her happy and for what? A couple minutes in the ring, where I'm looked at and touched in the most inappropriate places by some strange person!
But today was different. I didn't just get one turn in the ring, I was invited back again, this time with various types of dogs, not just the newfies. It was all so new to me, I can remember this happening once before when I was a young lad, but that was awhile ago.
I had quite a cheering committee, whenever I went around the ring I could hear them clapping and hooting for me, that was cool!
Then we are all lined up and the judge starts picking dogs and putting them in a different line, and I was one of them!!!


We do one more lap around the ring and more clapping and cheering and the next thing I know dad has this big white rossette in his hands for moi being 4th in the Working Group!

When we came out of the ring there was a bunch of hugging and more cheering, and there she was, my girlfriend Olive, who was ringside watching the whole thing! She is such a sweet young girl, and she gets me going everytime she comes near. We got to play around a bit until dad said I wasn't allowed to climb on her....he spoiled my fun!

All in all it was a very good day despite the problems dad had with the truck on the way to the show. But we got that fixed on our way home. With a side trip to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone....yummy!!

After a big dinner I was so ready for a sleep! Until next weekend when rumour has it they have me in another show, this time its for 3 days!!!...oh the horror of it all!

Gizzy

Oh I have been one busy boy!

Mom and dad are on vacation and they are keeping me soooo busy! I've had no time for napping. First of all we got some great company from Germany. Jutta and Jurgen, I wasn't too sure of them at first but after a few days it was like they belonged here! We headed up to my most favorite place in the whole world, can you guess...yup Hornby Island. Jutta and Jurgen just loved it as well. They were wondering where all the people were. We spent alot of time at the beach and we were pretty much the only ones there!

Well besides the eagles, which there was alot of!

I met alot of people on the ferries as well as at the store. Hornby has 2 stores one of which is the Co-op, and that is where most people do their shopping.

These three girls were camping and we pretty much fell in love with each other. They asked if they could take me back to their campsite....hahaha mom said sure! But that never happened.
We made it back home from Hornby just in time to go to water training. Jutta and Jurgen had never seen it done before. There was 8 of us newfie types and we did dry land training. We practiced take, hold and release with all kinds of objects like buoys, life jackets, rope...you name it, if it fit in our mouth we were working with it! Then we did a bit of obedience training, heeling, turning, long stays and coming when called. Our next training session should see us in the water! I can't wait, cause mom and dad have been practicing alot with me in the water, this dry land stuff is well for hangashores...(oops sorry Satch)


We took Jutta and Jurgen to the airport a couple days later to see them off. Again I met alot of people there. Mom took me inside even tho the sign said "No dogs Allowed", but hey who's the dog?

Now I'm getting ready for a dog show this weekend. I got to go swimming this morning, and a big bath and mom put all this goopey stuff in my coat that makes me smell pretty...hey mom I'm a boy, I'm not supposed to smell pretty!

And now its time for me to have a well deserved rest. If you feel the ground shake don't worry it's just me snoring!


Thanks for reading
Your friend Gizmo