One On One

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

This week at work Preacher got to have some one on one time again for some ~~play~~ exercise with her pal Weston the Rottweiler. Weston is a rescue rottie that my pal Teresa that I work with adopted a few months ago. Weston lives with his brother another adopted rottie Cyrus who is 8 years old. Both dogs train and compete in agility, lure coursing and carting. Teresa has no idea the up bringing of these boys but they sure have filled her life with tons of joy and love to be out there working. They are the sweetest boys you could meet. Preacher just loves her time with Weston as you can see from the photos.

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The excitement is all in the eyes!

I can take you Weston your Rottie butt has nothing on me!

Preacher down, but not for long.

Sometimes the dogs just need some one on one exercise. That way they know it’s just the two of them and they can concentrate on each other vs worry about where the other dogs are and when someone else is going to do the sneak attack and bomb one of them. They had no troubles racing around in the snow and cold for over a half hour. They were tired pooches for the rest of the afternoon at work.

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The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

Bales And Banks~FitDog Friday

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

This last week the SS gang got to take a ~~walk~~ run to the creek for some jolly ball fun. Glory is in the stage where she has to carry something around no matter how far away we go from home. She really wanted to haul her favorite piece of firewood but I made her leave that at home so she grabbed the jolly ball. Once we were at the creek Gambler took over possession of the ball and we did some exercise drills.

Gambler going up and down the creek banks with the jolly ball.

Glory getting the jolly ball and taking it for a run.

Gambler doing some drills on top of a hay bale.

Look at me up here!

Awe shucks, can we do some more?

Nellie being Nellie and finding stuff to eat instead of hanging with the gang.

Once back at home Gambler did some snow bank drills.

A fun day was had by all!

The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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FitDog Friday~First Training Day Of Season

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

This weekend we finally had our first training day of the season. It was still very cold out but we bundled up and braved the coldness and set up some actual hunt test marks. John was the gunner and I was the handler. He did a double from the same station, what we call a mom and pop. One bird gets thrown one way and the other bird gets thrown the other way to make it a double mark. After the marks were picked up there were two blind set up that the dogs had to get by being directed by my hand signals. Both dogs were super excited to finally be out training.

Glory was first:

We are working on Glory being steady and doing doubles with her. Since she will be running AKC Senior hunt tests and UKC Seasoned tests this year those are the things she needs to do as well as run one blind. She was so excited on the first live flyer she broke (she went and got the bird before I could send her and before the other bird was thrown). We repeated the series and she did much better without breaking. I ran two blinds with her and she did them very well. Now we know what needs work right off the bat.

Up next was Gambler:

Gambler did very well also for his first time out. He sat rock solid on the first mark, sat solid on the second mark then he couldn’t take it as I was taking too long to release him and he broke. I got him back right away and made him sit there and then let him go. He flew out there as fast as he could and flew back so he could go out and get the other bird. His blinds were very good also.

Last but not least Nellie’s turn:

Nellie is run just for fun and so she can get some exercise in. She still needs to mind her manners and do things the right way but we are a little more lax with her. She still has it for a old gal. Hopefully her extra pounds will come off a little easier this spring and summer during training season.

Now onto our Resolve To Move Your Mutt blog hop that we joined at the end of last year. We are finishing up on the first quarter of the year of the resolution.

Remember this picture I submitted?

Glory’s resolution was to keep exercising and stay fit with hunt test training. Well we haven’t done much hunt test training this winter as it has been super cold and had massive amounts of snow. She kept fit by just running in the snow. I think she is fit for taking the winter off.

Gambler’s resolution was to eat more and gain a couple of pounds and to stay fit. I did feed Gambler a bit more this winter but then he decided he didn’t want to eat some of his meals so this was challenging. She might of put on a pound but not much more than that. He is still very muscular and very fit.

Nellie’s resolution was to eat less, walk more, loose more weight and to be fit. Nellie and I have failed so far with her resolution. She did get out and exercise a little bit but the calories she burned were put back on by her disappearing acts of running off when outside to go potty and snack on anything she could find, so no weight loss this winter. We will try harder this next quarter.

Please enjoy our FitDog Friday Blog Hop brought to you by SlimDoggy and our co-hosts Peggy’s Pet Place and To Dog With Love. Join the Hop or just enjoy the links below – lots of fun fitness tips and advice!

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Black And White Sunday ~Nellie

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

We are joining Dachshund Nola & Sugar The Golden Retriever for the Black and White Sunday Blog Hop.

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FitDog Friday

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I am joining in on K9 Kamp this year. The challenge is going on right now and running for the next two weeks. The challenge is hide and seek with your pooches. We completed one week of hide and seek and would like to post up a few pictures of our challenge. I’ll be joining the Blog Hop on Feb, 21 2014 and sharing how our challenge went and signing up for a great give away the K9 Kamp Counselors are doing. Check it out! Be sure to stop over to all of the fine host’s (kamp counselors) and thank them for a great challenge Peggy’s Pet Place, Slimdoggy, and To Dog With Love.

Gambler and Glory are the only ones joining in on K9 Kamp since they are the one’s in hunt test training. Nellie got a few fun bumpers but isn’t doing the challenge.

While doing the challenge you can see they are getting in their FitDog Friday exercise also. We have deep snow so they really have to trudge through the deep snow in order to run, hop, walk or do what ever they want to do in it.

Sharp turn.

Gotta find it gotta find it!

Happy Gambler out doing something.

Glory’s turn to have some fun with the K9 Kamp Challenge.

Oh boy oh boy I get to work.

Building muscles by breaking hard.

Going under fences.

Watcha all looking at?

Come back next FitDog Friday to see week 2 of hide and seek challenge.

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FitDog Friday~Not Your Normal Exercise Regimen

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

When it comes to Sand Spring Chesapeakes nothing is normal (if you haven’t figured that out already) so today for FitDog Friday we are doing Not Your Normal Exercise Regimen.

Normal? What’s normal?

What’s that you ask?

It’s where I decide to take Nellie, Gambler and Glory down to the creek for our exercise of the day. We have a bit of a walk/run to get to the creek so while we were on our way I look back and this is what I seen:

Jumping over the first ditch bank.

Glory decided to haul a chunk of firewood out with her on her run and Gman brought his stuffed elephant. Once we got to the creek I wondered what we were going to do and it dawned on me that the only thing I had to throw to get them some retrieving in was the elephant. So I chucked the elephant across the creek to the other side and they had to go get it.

Chuck the elephant over and they will follow.

Nellie and Glory climbing back out of the creek.

Over again.

Over again with Glory in the lead.

Gambler trying to catch up.

Gambler the sly devil still beat her to the elephant and back across we come.

Again in unison.

Gambler a shy short so had to climb out.

Gambler was a little short so had to climb out.

The retrieve and back again.

In order to retrieve the elephant they had to go across to get it circle back and jump across the creek again then bring me the elephant to do it over and over again.

This is so much fun, I do it over and over again.

We take a break from jumping to work on our strength and play tug of war.

Mean while where is Miss Nellie when all this is going on? Miss Nellie is too smart in her old age to be jumping over the creek so many times so she was wondering around the creek bed and would climb out when she was finished.

This is one steep bank.

I am strong, I can do it.

I will run across the field for my exercise.

Great fun was had by all.

So you can see Not Your Normal Exercise Regimen but hey we made do with what we had and the gang got there FitDog Friday in.

K9Kampbadge_250 The Sand Spring gang will be joining the K9 Kamp this year. This is a kamp for you and your dog showing the importance of staying fit with your dog. The first K9 Kamp challenge is Doggy Hide and Seek. You can read about the details from one of the K9 Kamp Counselors SlimDoggy. I’ll be joining the Blog Hop on Feb, 21 2014 and sharing how our challenge went and signing up for a great give away the K9 Kamp Counselors are doing. Check it out! Be sure to stop over to all of the fine host’s (kamp counselors) and thank them for a great challenge Peggy’s Pet Place, Slimdoggy, and To Dog With Love.

Follow-Up/Fitdog Friday

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

We are joining Jodi at Heart Like A Dog for Follow-Up Friday.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Nothing But Norman #26

Black And White Sunday

Monday Mischief~Football Anyone?

The twist and sneek away move.

A great game of football.

nom nom nom I will destroy our footballs.

Ended in a mess and no more football.

Time Warp with a little Tuesday’s Tails

Then

Now

Thank you Easy, Mollie and Alfie for such a fun blog hop. Will be hopping along again.

Tuesday’s Tales

A sad follow-up to Tuesday’s tails. Tuesday I did go to MADACC and bust my friends animals out of jail. They are very nice there and didn’t require me to get a rabies vaccination or show a proof of rabies vaccination on Oscar the cat as he was overdue. Cooper was up to date so didn’t need to worry about him. They didn’t even charge my friends brother a holding fee which was very nice. Will need to make a donation to their facility to make up for it!

Oscar who is now ~15 years old.

I hadn’t seen Oscar in a few months as my friend was too sick for a visit. I knew he was being fed a presciption kidney diet as his kidneys weren’t working up to par but I didn’t realize how bad he was. I made the decision to humanely put him to sleep so he didn’t need to suffer anymore. He is with my friend now, hopefully they met up at the bridge. I will be having him cremated and will spread his ashes along with all her other pets.

On the other hand her dog Cooper is doing great and is healthy as a horse. He is 3 1/2 years old and was current on his vaccinations except Bordetella so the shelter gave him that. His weight is good, his hair coat is good. He got a good bath and trim and is looking like a little dude now. Looks like I didn’t have to look very hard to find him a home as my bosses nanny was raised with Shih Tzu’s and is so excited to give him a trial run. Cooper is still with me as I am re potty training him and spending time with him so I can feel close to my friend and have some closure.

Cooper before bath.

After bath and finding his spot on the couch.

Cooper and I.

Wordless Wednesday

Blog The Change~CRROW

Absolutely Right! People need to do a little research and look for smaller organizations that have the breed specific animal that you are looking for.

This ‘N That Thursday

Whatcha eating?

2browndawgs says:

That MK is quite a character. That kibble is large for a little kitty to crunch up. Bet she really has to work on it….lol.

I’ve notice since I started mixing her adult cat food in with her kitten to wean her onto the adult she doesn’t eat as much cat food and tries to eat the dogs food. She is taking Norman’s spot under the island when we eat and she begs for little yummy morsels. I give her a little nibblet and she is happy. I have to be very careful thou as all those little nibblet’s will make one big kitty.

Ruckus the Eskie says:

Quick question, what’s the best way to clean off plaque aside from daily brushing and routine dental visits? Is there a way to self-clean at home? Any special tools to use?

This is a do as I say don’t do as I do. Above is one time of hand scaler, there is another type that looks like a little hoe that will scale the dental plaque off. We use these at the clinic to do a hand scaling on areas of the mouth the ultrasonic scaler doesn’t reach. We don’t recommend people use these instruments at home as the dog is awake and can move and you may injure the gum line but more importantly when you use any type of scaler on the teeth it leaves grooves on the teeth that need to be polished off so the tarter doesn’t build up again. If not polished off the tarter will build up faster. Now onto the don’t do as I do speech, I will admit I will hand scale my dogs teeth at home and don’t polish afterwards. It does space out the need for dental cleanings and gets the plaque off the tooth so that gingivitis doesn’t happen. This will not clean under the gum line so if plaque is left there it will work at the periodontal ligament and weaken it so one day the tooth will become loose and need to come out so dental cleanings at a veterinary clinic with professionals is a must before the teeth become too loose to fix.

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FitDog Friday

Last week I got my replacement winning’s from PetsMove Senior month. Nellie was the mover of the month. She received a k9 fit vest by DogTread. Nellie would like to thank PetsMove for the gift and DogTread for donating it.