Jada is Mortified

I am mortified. Genuinely humiliated.
Someone...and I'm not naming names....thinks this was worth taking a photo of and worse yet - posting online for the world to see. I never thought when I ripped out the middle of my plush frisbee's that they'd be used against me in such a way.

Maybe I just don't get human humor.Or rather - human ATTEMPTS at humor.

I am not amused.

Tyssen's Mealtime Saga

I think Jada and I eat pretty great around here. I think most dogs would be downright envious of us! Joni feeds us pretty well....but has this unhealthy obsession with making us wait until the big hand of the clock is pointing straight up, and the little hand is pointing straight down for our dinner. Jada and I generally start bugging her a long while before that, but she holds her ground and makes us wait. What a sadist she is.

I get to eat lots more than Jada. No, it's not a sexist thing, but she just tends to get fat and I don't. HA! In fact, I have a hard time keeping the weight normal. Yeah, she balloons out like a blimp and I struggle to maintain my amazing 6-pack set of abs looking their most fabulous. But I move around alot....I keep hearing people say that I have two speeds: standing still and 100 miles an hour. Not much in between. And boy, do you burn alot of calories cranking it up that fast in a seconds time! Now Jada does have a perfect trim figure now, but last winter she was starting to blimp out a bit. Someone told us that when you feel for our ribs, it's supposed to feel like there is a t-shirt between your fingers and our ribs.....and Jada had a "sweatshirt" between their fingers and her ribs. Ha! Fatty fatty fatty! But a good analogy. I know some dogs that have a friggin' comforter between their ribs and their outsides! (some have two comforters! Ha!)

We both usually eat around 8am. Joni gets up a bit earlier...and sometimes as early as 3 or 4am when she's working. I see her getting up at that time and just refuse to get out of bed. I like to stay in bed until I see LIGHT coming in the window! So when she does that ridiculous early thing, she'll let us out to go bathroom, then I head immediately back to bed when I come in and stay there until it's officially morning. Even better - I get the whole bed to myself now!
But even when she gets up early, she makes us wait till 8am to eat. I sure don't get this schedule thing....

I'm a pretty picky eater. It has to be pretty incredible before I make myself eat it. I realize that's not typical for a Keeshond....but I kinda like being different. Jada, on the other hand, should have the middle name of "Hoover". She just inhales anything that looks like food - even some stuff that isn't food. She could clean the floor pretty easily if our vacuum cleaner ever breaks down. Frankly, she's simply embarrassing to be around when there's food out. Jada tells me all the time that it's been at least a month since our last meal and you know, I honestly think she believes that. No matter how many times I tell her to be patient, that it's only been a few hours, she just looks scornfully at me as if I'm so clueless she can't believe I have sense enough to keep breathing from one second to the next. She's never actually said this...but I can read it in her eyes.

We eat some pretty great food for breakfast and dinner. We eat "Wellness" - the chicken formula. Jada is on the "Green Bean" diet - which means she gets green beans with her kibble. I wasn't too crazy about these green things when they were offered to me, but they're sorta growing on me now. I have to be very sure about something before I eat it....if it's suspicious smelling - I want no part of it. Joni has laughed at me recently because for the longest time I refused to eat spaghetti noodles that she offers a few of when she makes it. Jada, naturally, will grab a dangling noodle out of Joni's hands and slurp it up. She takes the laughter as some sort of applause and really seems to ham it up with those wormy looking things. I smelled one that was offered to me and decided it wasn't for me. The next time I did try it, but immediately spit it out as soon as that slimy thing got in my mouth. What the hell was she trying to give me - rubber bands? Blech. But after watching the obvious enjoyment that Jada seemed to get out of them, I recently tried chewing it up...and much to my surprise, it wasn't bad. They're actually kinda fun to slurp up now. Too bad she only gives us a couple of noodles...I think I could eat a whole bowl of them up now! Anyway....I digress.....

Jada only gets 1/3 of a cup of kibble in the morning....and 2/3 cup of green beans. She also gets a tablespoon of cottage cheese on it in the mornings - and then all mixed up. I can live without the cottage cheese. I've had it several times and it's okay, but after a few meals of it I'm ready for a cottage cheese-less meal again! I get a whole cup of kibble, mixed in with a tablespoon of tuna fish and some tuna fish juices. Yeah, real "chicken of the sea" tuna. I've tried several different types of canned dog food, but they pale in comparison to a little tuna fish. By the time Joni is done fiddling around with all these ingredients, we're both a little impatient. Well, Jada is VERY impatient and I'm beginning to wonder if she'll ever be done playing up there. Our favorite stunt is a couple of fast loud furious sounding impatient barks, then immediately fall to the ground with our face between our paws so that when she looks down to tell us to be quiet, it looks as if it was some other dogs making all the racket. We're pretty good at this! We both think she's fooled by this!

When she's finally done, we like to get our morning calisthenics out of the way be jumping up and down furiously like jumping beans. I'm mildly embarrassed at resorting to this behavior so I don't put as much enthusiasm in it as Jada does. I'll jump up once or twice, then just sorta jump - making only my front feet leave the ground an inch or two. More of a cute bunny hop. Jada goes out of her mind jumping up as far as she can over and over. She's perfected the jumping while walking/jumping backwards 10 feet to where she gets her meal. I keep telling her that she'd get her food faster if she just ran in there and waited for it and that this jumping act adds about 10 seconds to receiving her food....but she thinks it works for her.

This is what Jada looks like bouncing up and down:



About 30 seconds after the food is down, Jada is done inhaling her food. I doubt she even tastes it. I like to take my time and savor each and every bite. Partly because it tastes so good, and partly because it drives Jada insane. Usually Joni puts up the dog gate so that I can be protected from Jada when she's done eating. I think she needs to put up a barb wire fence sometimes! But I also hate the gate. For one thing, she can forget I'm in there and if I don't let her know I'm done, I might be in the kitchen by myself for what feels like hours. So as soon as I'm done I immediately DEMAND in my loudest bossiest sounding bark to LET ME OUT OF HERE N O W !!! She used to ignore this bark and make me be quiet for awhile before she let me out, but I kept it up, and have her trained now! Now all it takes is that bossy demanding bark and she immediately jumps up and lets me out! So let that be a lesson to you all....don't let human attempts to change your behavior work ALL the time! You gotta have a few times you win out and control their behavior!

Sometimes Joni doesn't put up the gate. I have to watch out then, because Jada will come in and watch me eat. And boy, does she ever watch me eat. She just glares at that bowl as if she thinks she's got some telepathic ability to make it slide over to her. She watches each and every kibble that I pick up and chew. She really watches every piece of kibble that falls to the floor. She really makes me scared sometimes. Who can eat under these conditions? Sometimes I just move to the other side of the kitchen and lean against the cabinets and bark at her until Joni comes in and rescues my bowl. Now she won't EAT the food when I leave it - she just sits there and looks at it or lays down next to the bowl and looks at it. But she's smart enough to know she's not supposed to be doing this, so she only takes it so far. Sometimes I just get full and leave some food in there and it also drives her crazy. I find it amazing that she can be that frantic over wanting the food, yet restrain herself from actually eating it. She's gonna give herself an ulcer someday! Joni picks up the bowl for me to nibble on for lunch when I do this. She will then let Jada eat any pieces of kibble that have fallen on the floor, though. And this is what Jada lives for in the morning! That she'll get two or three EXTRA pieces of kibble. Sheesh. Sure doesn't take much to make Jada's day! One time she started eating up a few pieces of kibble on the floor before Joni said "okay" and she just froze when Joni said "HEY!". She actually looked up at Joni and spit it out! That's right - she just SPIT IT OUT! Even I was astonished at her self control!

I seem to be digressing alot here tonight.

Dinner time is similar. Same antics by Jada and me, that is. Jada gets another 1/3 cup of kibble and 2/3 cup of green beans - but no cottage cheese this time. I get a cup of kibble only, which is fine by me...but only in the evening. I want my tuna fish in the mornings! Sometimes Joni gives me some green beans in my food in the evening, which I appreciate occasionally. I don't need or want them every single night..but it's a nice surprise sometimes.

Two More Trials! Another CPE Trial and our first AKC Trial!

Hey, Jada here again. It's been busy around here......we got a new computer and all that entails with moving stuff over, etc. So Joni hasn't let me get on the new computer for awhile. Yeah yeah....there's an old computer now that works perfectly well for me...but no, she won't let me use that one!

We've had a lots of classes and several agility trials since I last wrote. Our August CPE trial was great - another 3-day trial. Boy, I'm loving those 3-day outings! We did pretty well.....we Q'd in 11 of our 12 runs! The only one was didn't qualify in was......big surprise!.....Jackpot! Yep, Jackpot is becoming our nemesis! What's with these Traditional Jackpots? I just don't like doing stuff that far away from Joni! But she keeps trying to make me! But I really really did try! But this was a hard one! I had to run into a tunnel with Joni way way behind me....then come out and go into weave poles. I don't think so! I came right back to Joni and didn't leave again! But I tried to make up for it by doing everything else really great over the weekend.

Next trial we're in Level 5 Jumpers - and Level 4 for Standard, Full House, Snooker, Colors and we're still in Level 3 for Wildcard and Jackpot.

My official stats are out of my 61 CPE runs, I have 53 Q's! I don't think that's too shabby for 7 weekends!
My 8 NQ's have been three in traditional jackpots, two from our first few Snookers, and two of our wildcards early on. Oh....and that stupid standard that I screwed up badly...but I'd rather not talk about that one!

A few weeks ago we did our first AKC Agility trial! We entered the one-day agility trial for the Chesapeake Bay Retrievers National Specialty. First thing I noticed is that it was not an event we needed to get up in the wee hours of the night to get ready for! We didn't have to be there until almost noon! This is great! Sleeping in - whoo hoo! This was at a different place than I was used to - a club called Queen City Dog Training Club. We visited there a couple of weeks before to do a few run-thru's so I could get used to a different building and equipment. Apparently this could have been some sort of traumatic event for me....but I could really care less! Show me some tunnels and jumps and I'll do it anywhere! Anyway, this place is different for me because they don't have indoor crating. What? You mean I have to stay...outside? Apparently so. I'm told they usually have a tent, but didn't today...so I spent lots of time in the car since it was so crowded inside. That was a bit weird for me!

Once we started, though, it was just another agility trial! First we did FAST - which, unfortunately, is exactly like a Traditional Jackpot except it's only 30 seconds long or so. Great. No pressure here! Joni insists this was a fairly easy section where I had to do it by myself, and I suppose it was....all I had to do was go into a tunnel then over an A-frame - no biggie. Except I blew it. I went over the A-frame and saw that Joni was about 6 feet away and looking like she might bolt suddenly and leave me, so I cut the corner a bit on the bottom contact and ran after her. Why can't I remember that she isn't really going to leave me there? !@#$%.

After that was Standard - which we got first place in and a Q. Cool! Then we did Jumpers with Weaves - another 1st place and a Q. Then that was it. Seriously....that was it! We were done already? Feels like we were just getting started!

So...looks like we're going to keep doing this AKC stuff. I wish we weren't doing FAST again, but Joni has endless faith in me and signed us up for it again. Sigh. Will she ever learn?

Our next AKC trial is in two weeks - a 3-day trial. Looks like it's an afternoon event again since we just started and are in Novice...which may be a good reason to never get into Excellent, right? Shhh....don't tell Joni that!

I hear that Joni is doing this because she wants to take me on a long road trip next spring for a trial. Yep - she wants to take me to the Keeshond National Specialty in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. I haven't a clue what that really means...but it sounds fun! And this is an outdoor trial! Wow - will be very cool to do all this stuff outside in the fresh air.....unless it's raining. That could be bad then! I hate getting rain in my eyes! I can barely walk outside when it rains....everyone laughs at me. I squint my eyes closed really really tight - every time I try opening them I get water in them, so I just squeeze them shut again and walk really really slowly. Now this could make for an interesting run, dontcha think?

November is going to be a busy month for us! We're doing the AKC trial one weekend; Tyssen has 4 UKC shows one weekend, and then a CPE trial another weekend. Then a few short weeks after that there's our 4-day CPE trial! I can't wait!

I'm hoping Joni will get those video's of me up soon! I keep bugging her about this...maybe soon!

Well...guess I'm outa here.....wait...what? Oh, hold on. Ty wants to say a few things!

Hey, Ty here! Yeah, you heard Jada - I have my OWN shows coming up here soon! AND I get to spend 4 days at Judy's (where I was born and where my mom and sister live) being pampered while they're at the AKC trial! She wants to use the time to "work me"...which I think is a good thing. I don't really need the "work" since I'm so damn good, but I'll let her think I do. Makes her feel useful....but that's just our secret, okay?

I keep waiting to be entered into an agility, but so far Joni seems to think I need to wait more. Personally, I think Jada is telling her this. She's afraid I'll show her up maybe? Yeah...that has to be it. What else could it be? Joni thinks I'm getting close, though.....the only thing she keeps working on alot with me is those crazy weave poles. Now what's the purpose of these things? They make no sense. In the real world I can see the purpose needing to jump, or go over a ramp - hell, even going thru a tunnel - but there is absolutely NO reason weaves have a functional reason for existing! But.....I'm beginning to get it. Joni told me she can tell the light bulb has gone off for me...but that I have a dimmer switch. I'm not sure what that really means....but I just nod like I do and that makes her happy. But I guess I can keep working with them.

She also thinks I am way too social. She doesn't want to pay for an entry only to get me out there and let me try to meet every single dog on the other side of the ring. Hey - since when is being nice and polite a crime! Sheesh. So I get a "fake" trial - a show-n-go coming up here. Supposedly it'll be "good practice" for me. We'll see.


Oh yeah....also have to mention our latest toy for agility trials! Very cool! Joni got tired of coming up with 16 D batteries each day for our two battery operated fans, so she went and got a "power pack". She got a DC splitter so she can plug in both fans - and they both run on high for 12+ hours in our crate. They might go longer, but she unplugged them after 12 hours of testing them, so who knows how long they'll last. Each day after the trial she just takes the power pack home and recharges it all night - and it's good to go all day the next day with the fans. Pretty cool! She's turned our little home-away-from home into a nice cool place!
Here's the view from the inside and top!

Power pack: Schumacher Portable Power PP-2200 , 22 amp hour / 400 watt, Built in inverter and 12 volt outlet

Jada's CPE Agility Trial Weekend

It's been a couple of weeks now, but I'm finally able to tell you about our latest Agility Trial. Joni's been hogging the computer non-stop since then, and it's been tough talking her down from the keyboard to give me a chance here!

Our last CPE Trial was a new one for me - a THREE day trial. Whoa! I thought two days was exhausting! But we had so much fun that it just flew by. Joni bought me a spiffy new crate for the trials. I was SO excited when I saw it - it's huge! No more being cramped up in that wire crate with just enough room to lay down!
Check it out:on the right here (just ignore the pug - no idea who this critter is!)

This thing is so awesome - I can stretch out in the 50"x50" interior! She puts in a couple of portable fans and I'm in hea-ven! Once there, I found out that I don't get this room by myself - I have to share it with Tyssen! TYSSEN!! What's he doing here? He's never been here before at a Trial! I figured he'd ruin the whole weekend with his non-stop talking and whining. Maybe Joni drugged him or something, but he was great! He didn't ruin anything! He was in there rubbing my shoulders down before we ran, giving me encouragement and some last minute tips. Oh, wait.....you're not believing that? Okay, he was great, though. He was very happy every time I came back from running, but I strongly suspect that was because he got treats when I did. I'm not all together sure what he did to deserve the same reward I got for all my hard work while he just sat on his ass, but maybe he was off doing something worth rewarding while I was gone.

Let me describe a typical Agility Trial weekend. We get up bright and early on Trial mornings - at 4:30. Joni is insane. That alarm goes off and she stumbles off to get dressed and Tyssen and I just lay there on the bed in utter disbelief."Is she SERIOUSLY getting up at this hour". Yes she is. Not only that, she gets us up and we're out walking around the neighborhood in the dark. Geez.....we just went to sleep a few hours ago! She feeds me when we come in. Sure, I'm tired...but I'll EAT any time anywhere! Then she's off to go get ready herself. We usually left around 6:15am, but now we can leave later since Tyssen is coming with us and we don't have to drop him off first. You'd think she'd figure out this time difference and let me sleep in another half hour, wouldn't you? Maybe next time she'll do that. Are you listening, Joni? I want to sleep in till 5am, not 4:30!!!!!

We get to the Trial and Joni makes us sit in the car for a little bit while she takes some stuff in. That's always fun, though. Just Tyssen and me in the car watching other dogs and people arrive. I made up stories about the dogs and what they're doing there....which Tyssen totally believed. He's wide-eyed back there in his crate and has his eyes glued on what he really believes is the Queen of England and her dog (just one of my many elaborations!). I had him totally believing this guy walking by was the Dog Whisperer dude. Ty's always good for a few early morning chuckles. We get inside and Joni sorta forgets about us for a little while as she's off running around and talking and deciding how we're going to run our first run. She sorta goes a little OCD over these things...just obsesses over them. Me - I just go out and run it perfectly the first time having never SEEN the course before! So I think she just needs to relax, chill out and do what I do!

So our first run of the day is ready to go! It's called "Full House", and it's the last leg of Level 3. If I "Q" - Qualify - in this leg, we can move up to Level 4. In Full House we get to make up our own course, but there is stuff we have to do - a Pair (2 round objects like a tunnel or tire), 3-of-a-kind (3 jumps) and a Joker (a contact). That's 14 points and we have to have 23 total points to Q. So we get to make up the rest of the course myself for these extra points before the horn sounds and we have 5 seconds to make it to the Table, which ends the game! We only got second place in this today, but we'd have done better if Joni was as quick as I was!

Our 2nd run of the day was Level 3 "Standard", which is a course that we have to do in a certain order. We got First Place in that one!
Our next two runs of the day were Level 4 "Jumpers" courses - which is all jumps, tunnels and weaves. Lots of fun and speed here! We got Second Place in both of those. So far we're 4 for 4 on Q's for the weekend!

So - end of the first day, and we go home where Tyssen and I both crashed and slept. Not sure why Tyssen had to crash, but he tries to do everything I do - just less successfully! I got a new Title on Friday - our CLF-3 Title.

Saturday morning started out the same, except Joni was a bit nervous about our first run of the day. It was "Jackpot". She said, "no, not just Jackpot - but a Traditional Jackpot!". Whatever. She worries about the silliest things. Jackpot is a little like Full House - we run around and accumulate points under a certain time. Different obstacles have various point amounts, blah, blah, blah. We have something like 30 seconds to do this, then they blow a horn and we have 18 seconds to do the second part of the game, called the "Gamble". The "traditional" part that had Joni quaking in fear was that this Gamble part has to be done in a very specific order...but Joni had to stay behind a line on the floor while I do these obstacles. I'm on my own. By myself. While she's way way way over there. By herself. Waving her arms frantically while I'm confused, shaking my head and saying "you want me to do what?" Now how can I do these things while she's way over there? She's supposed to be right by my side! So until she comes to her senses and comes close to me - I'm just not gonna do these things! What if I fall off? What if she runs off while I'm in the middle of one of them? The possibilities of what can go wrong are endless. So I just choose to look confused and bark at her. I've seen so many Border Collies go in circles and bark crazily at their person that it must work - so it's worth a try. I can't bark too long since some buzzer that hurts my ears goes off and Joni is putting my leash on. ??? Wait....What happened? Don't we get to finish? Apparently this was an "NQ" - a "non qualifying" score. Do I still get a treat?

So...not starting off too terribly well. I'm just devastated, but putting on a brave front. Our next two runs are "Standard" runs, like the day before. Nothing major - we've done these lots of time. I was still quite rattled from that NQ, though, and couldn't keep my mind on the course. I couldn't get that stupid "behind the line" thing out of my head. Halfway thru the course I was running over the dog ramp when I suddenly thought that Joni was leaving me! She was right there next to the ramp, but her shoulder turned just a little bit - but just enough to give me the hint that she was going to leave me high and dry up there! So I bailed! Yes, that's right! Something I NEVER ever in my entire life had ever thought I'd do while way up there on the dog ramp - I jumped right off! I realized I made a serious mistake as soon as I saw the stunned look on Joni's face, though. Oh, !@#$% - now I've done it! Joni bravely continued but I knew something was wrong and couldn't shake the ever growing bad feeling. I was right.....they gave us an NQ for that! WHAT? Nobody ever told me I couldn't jump off an obstacle before! Okay, so I know now and it'll never happen again! Sheesh. So we were 0 for 2 on Saturday and it wasn't looking good......

Our next Standard run came up quickly and I was determined to be perfect this time! And I was! I just flew thru that course! We got First Place and according to our time, we ran thru those 18 obstacles at the speed of 4.6 yards a second! That's 13.8 feet a second! I told you I was flying thru it!

Our last run of the day was Snooker. Joni has had her issues with me in Snooker so this one makes us both a bit nervous. Our first couple attempts at this game were painfully bad, but since then it's been okay, so we really need to relax about this game! I get it now! It's a bit different than any other game, so it took me a few times to figure it out. Snooker has a whole course laid out there - numbered 2 thru 7. But it also had 4 scattered "red jumps" around the course. This game is also in two parts. The first part is to do a red jump, then any other obstacle on the course. Then another red jump (not the same one as before) and another obstacle, then another red jump (again, can only use them once) and another obstacle of your choice....that's the end of the first part. Sounds simple, doesn't it? After that last obstacle you run the numbered course starting with 2. It sounds so simple....but it's not! But I ran it brilliantly! We got First Place with 44 points (I only needed 28) and had a great ending to a day that didn't start out so well! All in all - we're 6 for 8 this weekend in Q's and I got another Title today! With our Snooker Q we finished up our CL2-S Title! Two days - two new titles! Not too shabby.

Last day of the Trial and I feel like it's Day One again! I'm just anxious to get out there and run!

Our first run of the day was Full House again, this time in Level 4. We had 35 seconds to get 25 points and the obstacles seemed VERY far apart. But we flew thru it and managed to get 34 points and a First place finish.

Next up we had Wild Card. Wild Card is another game that requires some thinking out there! It's a numbered course, but there are 3 sets of obstacles out there in the course that are set up right next to each other with the same number, but are an "A" or a "B". For this course you got to pick which of these you wanted, but we had to make sure that out of these three options, we HAD to pick two that were "A's" and one that was a "B". If Joni had it planned out a certain way and I picked the other option, we could fix it at the next option, but that took some fast thinking to do while on the run! Don't tell Joni, but I've taken the wrong obstacle on purpose a few times just to see her scramble and try to fix it further down the course....unsuccessfully both times. So I quit playing that little game so we can finally Q and get out of this Level. I'll spring that little surprise on her another time sometime. We finished it with a Third Place finish, and got the "Q" and finished up our CL2-H Title - and finally finished all the games for our "CL2" Title. Now everything we're doing is in Levels 3 and 4.

Our next run was "Colors". This is basically a BUNCH of obstacles out there at one time - it's literally two different courses out there at the same time, but are numbered (or colored) differently. We pick a course (color) and run that - ignoring the other course and some of the obstacles we'll be running by and not being part of our course. Pretty simple, really. We got First Place in this and finished up the last leg of Colors for Level 3 with this one.

Our last run of the day was Snooker again. I'm actually looking forward to this game now that I get it! We needed 30 points now that we were in Level 3, but that was easy enough. We got 46 points and a First Place out of it! Great way to finish the weekend! Officially we were 10 for 12 in Q's this weekend, and got a few new Titles!

I can't wait till our next 3-day Trial now at the end of August! I'm trying my best to talk Joni into getting me into some AKC trials, and it looks like my begging has finally worked! She knows we have to do it soon as she wants to take me to the Keeshond Nationals the next couple of years for Agility.

Oh, Joni has all of these runs on video, but she hasn't transferred it yet. Maybe someday she'll quit being lazy and get it loaded up online so I can give you a link to them!

I'm NOT a "Country Girl

Hey, it's Jada again. We just had an experience recently that made us realize that I just am NOT a "country" sort of gal. I'm more of a "suburban" sort of gal. Now I've never seen a sheep or a cow or a horse, and I'm not sure what I'd think of them. But this fact I do know:

I'm deathly afraid of big birds.

There. I said it. I have to confess this doesn't make me feel any better. Everyone said I'd feel better if I talked about it. But I don't.

I don't have many fears. Oh, I'm afraid of little wisps of hair that blow across the floor when dogs are being brushed or trimmed - but isn't everyone? Hey, they look like bugs when I see them coming at me and my heart stops and I jump away quickly and then sheepishly realize it's just a piece of hair. But then it occurs to me that you just don't know WHERE or from what dog that hair came from. Uh huh. Think of it that way and you'll run from tumbleweed hair wisps also!

So other than hair wisps, I really am pretty fearless. Oh wait....I forgot. I'm sorta deathly afraid of cicada's also. Not the normal cicada's that one seldom see's. No, it's those big bulging red-eyed 17-year cicada bugs. Yes, THOSE!

Check this thing out - what's NOT to be afraid of!

I was sort of willing to give them a chance when I first saw one, but then it SCREAMED this ear-shattering shrill noise at me and that was all I needed to know about them! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

What blew me away is that Tyssen just loves them! He EATS them! He picks them up in his mouth and carries them alive for a bit, then lets them go to bat around with his paws (what, he thinks he's a cat now?) and then eventually munches them up for a snack. That's just sick. Joni doesn't help. She thinks they're great fun and picks them up and holds them out for me to see. What's that all about? She knows I hate them! So I just stand back and go to my "happy place" in my mind and pretend I'm in a big cicada-less, bird-less and hair wisp-less meadow all by myself. Joni just laughs at me refusing to look at the cicada that she's letting crawl around her hand, while she fights Tyssen off, who is trembling in anticipation of swooping it out of her hands and tearing it apart in front of me. Sick sick sick. I live with degenerates.

Fortunately the 17-cicada swarms are only around occasionally. Yeah, I hear there are different broods of them in different years, but it sure makes me happy to know that I'll never EVER meet the descendants of any of those vile creatures I met last year!

So now the big bird thing.

I've seen regular birds my entire life - robins, sparrows, cardinals - normal size birds and I'm fine with them. I leave them alone - they leave me alone. I even tried my best when I was younger to catch them before I realized I'm not a Retriever and it just made me look silly. But the birds I'm talking about are monstrous birds like ducks.....swans....stuff like that. They're just NOT normal birds! These things are freakin' scary! I heard somewhere that they think birds evolved from dinosaurs. Dinosaurs!! I don't need anything with dino DNA near me! They're just deadly looking. They've got these big ol' claw feet and sharp razor-like beak lips and flap these big hairy wings around [shudder]. And they FLY! That's just not right.

I was introduced to some baby "ducks" in the Spring while at a visit to where I was born. Judy had 4 ducks out there and I knew they were trouble from the first whiff of duck breath when I walked into the grooming room. I decided that the best tactic to deal with this was to completely ignore their existence - don't even LOOK in their direction. I just kept repeating to myself that if I don't make eye contact with them then they don't really exist....since it worked so well for the cicada's. Well, that only worked as long as someone wasn't picking up the evil pieces of yellow fluff and holding them out for me to see. Naturally - Joni did this again to me, just like with those stupid bugs. What possesses someone to do this is just beyond me. It's like she has a sadistic illness or something. I kept avoiding looking directly at them and they finally put them back into their jail-like cell they were keeping them in. THAT should tell them something, you'd think! They're ferocious enough to be kept in a cell, but safe enough for me to get them shoved in my face?

They were gone the next time I was there, I was relieved to see. Then Joni and Judy took me out to "the pond" (whatever that was) out front with my mom, Lucy, and the big black lab, Bash. I chased Lucy around for a little while, then when we stopped I was next to the BIGGEST HUGEST puddle I've ever seen. This was "the pond". WOW! I was thinking this was pretty cool when I saw it - a huge white bird with a long loopy neck. My first thought was that it HAD to have a long necked Brontosaurus ancestor! It was on top of the huge puddle heading directly at me with a murderous glint in it's dead black eyes and a 6-foot wingspan! Then I noticed the 4 ducks! No way!! They were HUGE now and were heading towards me in a flanking maneuver that was sure to entrap me and this time there was NO jail-like enclosure for them around!

Then Bash jumped IN the pond!

JUST. JUMPED. IN. !!!

At first I thought he was protecting me from them and my heart just warmed at the thought that he loved me so much he was willing to selflessly give up his own life and let them torture and eat him up, thus giving me a chance to escape to freedom. I vowed right there to name my first-born puppy "Bash" in his honor. Then I remembered I was spayed, but I could just make a donation somewhere in his name. But no....all he did was frolic in the pond next to them. That's right...he was a collaborator and a double agent - maybe even a "pod Bash"! This was all just their plan to get me! I quickly backed even further away so that Joni was between me and the puddle. I think she might be able to handle herself....and if they ripped her apart first , well....such is life. Then Bash came out of the puddle looking like the creature from the Black Lagoon and I just KNEW he was coming to get me. I didn't know what would happen next - would an alien-like bird burst out of his stomach? Maybe he'd suddenly sprout wings and a beak and come after me as a horrifyingly huge mutant lab-bird creature. I just kept on moving back even further and further. I hated that Joni and Judy were laughing at me and trying to entice me towards the pond/puddle and the evil birds again, but I'm certainly not stupid enough to come to them and see what would happen. I just kept hoping I'd wake up and this would all just be a horrible nightmare.

Finally, they got tired of laughing at me and we moved on from the pond, but my heart was pounding all the way back to the house. That's when Joni figured out that I am NOT a country girl - I'm really not a "city girl" since that sounds so downtown-ish - so it was decided that I'm a "Suburban girl". Sounds nice, doesn't it? I'd much rather see lawns and cats and tree's and kids around then these nightmarish big bird things.

A slight update:
We visited the pond again today while out on errands and Joni wanted to get some photos of my bird terror. [rolling my eyes at this!] We didn't take Bash with us this time, so he's not in any of the photos. I tried my best once again to avoid looking at those evil birds again. I was also finding duck feathers ALL over the grass. Ewwwww. I had to look very carefully to avoid walking on those.

I sat on the picnic table for a little while, but refused to look at the swan that was quietly stalking me from behind.


For some unknown reason - perhaps she's just a bit dense - Lucy seems to not understand the danger she's in when she's out there. Look at these - she's totally oblivious that she's mere seconds from having her limbs torn off! That swan continually stalked her as she meandered along the pond edge. Notice she's got her back to the murderous bird EVERY TIME! She's clueless!

RUN, Lucy, RUN!!!!

This is me when I decided to get a bit braver and look at the swan, but was pretty jumpy every time it made eye contact with me.


Finally, in sheer terror, I just closed my eyes and went to my "happy place" and kept saying "There's no place like home...there's no place like home...there's no place like home..."

I was VERY happy to finally leave the pond - best part of the whole visit!


Here's one final photo of our visit today - Tyssen and me hanging out in the yard. Ty's being silly thinking he can climb the tree and get the squirrel he is convinced is up there.

Tyssen Makes His Grand Appearance! Hold the Applause....

Tyssen here. Jada is really tough to move away from the keyboard! I had to keep reminding her this is a TEAM effort here! And I just found out that while I was getting my beauty rest, she went ahead and posted again! That Keeshond history thing was supposed to be a collaborative effort! I suppose it won't be believed that "I" did nearly all the research for that, but now she'll get all the credit. Humph!

I'm 2 years old - and 2 years younger than Jada. Both my parents were great Champions and I'm following in their footsteps. (Sure, both of Jada's parents were great Champions also, but this is all about me now!)
Our mother is named Lucy (Am. Can. Ch. Trumpets Spirit In The Sky Esprit HOF) and my dad's name is Bounce (Ch. Trumpet's Jumpin' Jack Flash) (Jada's dad is Andy - Am. Can. Ch. Foxfair Excalibur, BISS)

Yeah, I'm a "show dog" but don't think that I'm some empty headed pretty boy. More about that later.

My name "Tyssen" does mean "firebrand" and they gave a great deal of of thought to my name. I was part of the "fire" litter, so every one of us has "fire" in our registered name. My breeder/co-owner/handler, Judy, wanted my call name to have something to do with "fire" also. Lots of names were tossed around. Joni wanted names Judy didn't want (Kolby and Mavrik were tops on the list - and boy, did she really try hard to find a "fire" connection!) while Judy wanted "Magnum", which Joni didn't like. Joni finally discovered after days and days of research that the name "Tison" meant "firebrand"....and the rest was history. Actually, that's kinda of an interesting spelling, isn't it? The other spelling considered was "Tiessen", but everyone seemed to like the way we did it in the end. At least it's not "Tyson" and forever connected to Mike and chicken!

Y'all probably won't believe it, but it's hard work to go to these shows and look good. I put in a lot of long hard hours doing this! The practicing isn't bad, but ENDURING all the work that is being done to me is the tough part!! Let's see....I get my "show bath" about a week before the big event. Sounds simple enough. HA! First I get to get up early and get line brushed out. That takes about 60-90 minutes. Then I get my nails ground down to the nubs (no kidding - and they call me a wimp! I'd love to get a hold of that grinder and grind their fingers down to stumps!) and my feet trimmed up. Then I get tossed into my bath and washed and conditioned. Then it's up on the table to get blown out. I'd guess nails and bath and blowing out take another 3 hours - then brushed again after that. I'm pretty much falling asleep on my feet as they're finishing me up! Then a day before we leave for the show I get my BLT bath....Britches, Legs and Tail. Oh, and nails again. Pretty much repeat the above scene again with half my body getting washed.

Then I'd be off to the show.....lots of strange barking dogs and smells and staying in a strange hotel room with Joni, where odd sounds and weird room smells keep me up all night. Kinda freaky to be in there with all those smells. Joni brings a blanket from home to put on top of the bed so I can have my comfy home smells, which is nice. We're up early the next morning to - you guessed it - get brushed out again! Then it's off to the show ring where I walk around the ring a few times with my breeder/handler, Judy, then stand in various places in the ring, then let some total stranger look at my teeth and feel down my body and....gasp....feel to make sure I've got all the privates I'm supposed to have. I gotta admit, that one took me quite by surprise the first few times. I just wish these folks would try to NOT have ice cold hands when they do this! YEEOWWWW! [shudder]. After we pick up our ribbons we're usually done for the day, and it's a long day of hanging out in the motorhome or outside in the expen, and I can relax some before heading back to the hotel room. But the next day it starts all over again! Usually the shows lasted from 3-5 days, so you can see how exhausted I was at the end and why I pass out for the trip home! But it's not over yet! I have to get another bath the next day!

So as you can see, it's HARD being so handsome and perfect!

I got my AKC Championship in something like 5 weekends out showing. A week before I finished that I got my UKC Championship in one weekend. I'm taking a year or two off from my show career to hang around the old homestead. Officially the reason told to me and others was that I'm taking some time off to "grow up" before they "special" me, but that's just absurd since I'm exceptionally mature right now. I'm still lurking around hoping to find out the real reason.
Maybe someday they'll let me get my Canadian Championship and I can be an "International Star!" Not to mention I'd LOVE the stamp in my passport, eh! Jada would be soooo envious (although she'd never admit it).

I'm also an aspiring Agility athlete. I say "aspiring" since Joni thinks I should. I think I'm great at it already - I can guess exactly what obstacles she wants me to do at class - but she keeps thinking I need to slow down and wait for her to tell me what I already know. Sigh. Someday she'll get it - I'll just have to keep working on her. I've suspected for awhile that she just changes the obstacle order when it suits her to make it appear as if I'm not doing what she claims she wants me to do....I suppose she thinks this makes her look better. And I'm sure she'll sometime figure out how to keep up with me as I run at top speed - after all, it's HER job to keep up with me and have those treats handy! It's like I've got to keep re-training and re-training her! For awhile I slowed down and tried my best to stick with her, but that got kinda dull after awhile. Who wants to go in 1st gear when I can drop it into 5th gear and tear the course up! So I'm back to racing fast again, and hoping she'll keep up!

Sheesh - the things we have to do for our people. I really wanted to do the next Agility trial, but she thinks I'm not ready. We did Snooker in class last night and I was amazing! I'm not sure how Joni managed to knock down a few bars here and there, though......at least I'm assuming it was her. It certainly couldn't have been ME! I did detect a slight breeze in there, so maybe that was it. Perhaps it is better we wait until she figures out how to do this stuff....I don't want her embarrassing me out there with her pitiful efforts!

I've heard a few whispers about Jada maligning my intelligence in her posts here. HA! I laugh in her face! She just thinks she's smarter than me! But while she likes to show off how smart she is, I prefer to keep that fact hidden to have an advantage over any given situation that might come up! Think about it - it's a brilliant plan! I pretend to be not as quite as sharp as Jada, so less is expected of me. Then when I decide it's time to let them have a glimpse of brilliance they are astonished and gush all over me and I get a bunch of extra treats! Pretty friggin' brilliant, isn't it! But shhhhh - don't tell anyone my secret!

Lessee....what else can I share in this first post? I like to "talk" alot but so far Joni has acted as if she doesn't understand what I'm saying. I've tried every sort of "whoo-hoo" I can think of and she still doesn't get it. Then she has the nerve to laugh in my face and pet me as if I'm the village idiot and just doing this for her amusement. I'm deadly serious with the very deep and personal conversations I'm trying to share with her and I get laughed at! I'm always shaking my perfect head at her obtuseness (look it up - ha!). I suppose I have no one to blame but myself for pretending I'm not as brilliant as Jada. That's one drawback to that tactic!

Before I end this to go pass out in front of my fan, check out my stunning puppy photo - wasn't I just irresistible!! Then a photo from last Fall, after finishing my illustrious class dog career. Not hard to believe a youngster so cute could turn out so damn hunky, is it?

Ciao!
(Had to throw that in because it'd drive Jada nuts thinking I spelled it "Chow" - ha!)

What a Difference 4 Months Makes!

These photos were taken 4 months apart.

In the first photo, Tyssen is only 3 months old....

In this next photo, Tyssen is 7 months old.

They sure don't stay puppies long!

A bit of Keeshond History and other Important Stuff

Jada here again. Yeah, I know you're all anxious to hear from Tyssen, but you'll just have to wait awhile longer. Uh...he's still trying to compose his thoughts. Yeah, that's it. And he has no idea I'm doing another post so soon, so he doesn't realize he's missing out right now. So I'll just let him lay in a coma in front of his fan awhile longer.

A few things to get straight right off the bat. We're Keeshonds and proud of it! Most folks have no idea what a "Keeshond" is when they see us. We hear the craziest things out there. Some think we're a Chow, which distresses us. I guess they see a bunch of fur and a curled tail and something in their brain screams CHOW!!! Recently we've been hearing "Siberian Husky", which really annoys me. A HUSKY? Puh-lease. Just imagine if someone mistook YOU for a chimpanzee, orangutan or ape and you'll see what I mean. Not that there's anything wrong with Chows, Huskies or Apes....(sheesh...I despise political correctness and can't believe I'm saying that!)

I had Joni make this graphic up...not to belabor the point, but this is just something that I've got to get off my chest. These are from the AKC site.
Notice the differences? Seems pretty obvious now, doesn't it?So to get this straight....we're not an oddly colored Chow and we're not a long-haired Husky.

Okay. Now back to our Keeshond subject. We hear our breed name mispronounced ALOT, but have learned to live with it, although our people will still try to correct your pronunciations. Out of the 350 plus purebred dogs, the Keeshond has the most mispronounced name. "Case-hond", "keesh-hond", and even "keesh-hound" (the most popular) are all improper pronunciations. The proper was of saying our breed is "kayz-hond" or "kayz-hawnd" . The plural version is "kayz-honden" or "kayz-hawnden".

We're generally a medium sized dog with a plush double coat of black and silver fur, a ruff around our necks, and a curled tail. We originated in Germany and were originally called a German Spitz. We're closely related to other German Spitzs like the Pomeranian and Wolfspitz.

Basically, we're an old breed and one of the few that's always been so awesome as to always have been bred to be companions and watchdogs. We have no real career other than that. We're not hunters or killers, we see no sense in chasing sheep and cows around (eww - and step in sheep or cow doo-doo?) or to retrieve a bunch of dead ducks (hate feathers in my mouth. Actually, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm scared to death of ducks, dead or alive!) and have no real desire to hunt criminals and make arrests. I think it's the food thing....maybe I'd consider it if there was FOOD involved, but from what I hear these dogs love doing this for what they consider "fun" - so they can have it. We much prefer to hang around our people.

My ancestors in the 1600s and 1700s were used as watchdogs on boats, barges and farms. In Germany they were known as "Wolfspitz", in France they were known as "Chiens Loup", in Italy they called us "Lupini" (hey, sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?) and in Holland they called us Keeshonds. That name came from the 18th century Dutch patriot named Cornelis (Kees) de Gyselaer, who was the leader of the Dutch rebellion against the House of Orange. Lots of political stuff here, which I won't bore you with (yawn!). We became the rebels symbol and when our side lost, we almost disappeared since folks didn't want to be associated with the losing side's symbol anymore. I find this rather pathetic, but that's the way it was.

The word "keeshond" is a two part word. "Kees" is the nickname for Cornellius de Gyselaer, and "hond" is the Dutch word for dog. Not too exciting in terms of how our name came around, but that's the history. Some also referred to the Keeshond as the "Dutch Keeshond", the "Dutch Barge Dog" and the "Smiling Dutchman". (I dunno why, but I kinda like the last one.)

Later, in England, when people started reviving our dwindling breed, we were sometimes called silly things like "Fox Dogs" and the ghastly "Overweight Pomeranian". Not that I have anything against Poms, but geez, can you come up with something better than being a big fat pom?

Let's see....what else can I say about us. We're quite brilliant and mischievous. We're very playful and quick learners, but we also get bored quickly. This is a trait of a highly intelligent dog! We're not one of those herding dog types who can do the same thing over and over and over again and be happy doing it. We GET IT quickly, but if you keep making us do it we get a bit bored and come up with antics to amuse ourselves and befuddle you. Hey, gotta keep things interesting, right?

Along those lines, we have a tendency to be known as "stubborn". We all laugh at that. Again, we're just trying to amuse ourselves and watch our people's antics as they try to overcome our "stubborn-ness". For instance - we understand everything people say, but sometimes it's just fun to hear them give us an order and we just sit there and act as if they're speaking an ancient form of Latin we've never heard before. "Huh? What's that mean?"
But the other part of this reason for them thinking we're "stubborn" is that we're so incredibly SMART we figure we know better (and we do!). We also prefer the request to make SENSE! So if they say "come", my first thought might be more along the lines of "WHY?". Surely they can tell me where I'm at and not make me walk all the way over there! Sometimes people just don't make much sense to me! I figure this is much smarter than some brainless dog that will drop everything on a dime and obey mindlessly.

Jada's Introduction to our Blog

Hey there - I'm Jada and I'm one of the Spoiled Rotten Keeshonds. I'll introduce the other one in a minute, but me first. My whole name is "Spirit's Ready for Prime Time", but that's just too long for folks to say each time, so they call me "Jada" for short. My person I live with is Joni...or so I hear. I really don't call her that, but everyone else does for some reason. I'm not sure where she got "Jada" from, or what it means.....just that "it fit", whatever the hell that means.

I've been with her my entire life after I left where I was born in the Spring of 2007. My birth home is a fun car trip away and we go out there every few weeks for a visit and I can run around with my mom, Lucy, and her person, Judy. 'Course, I get to get tortured there by getting my nails done, which I hate, but it goes quick and then I'm off playing and running again. There's a cute furry Keeshond-wannabe (a Pomeranian) there that is in love with me named Reuben, but I pretty much just ignore him.
Anyway, I digress. I'll chat about that more later when I mention all the others that are crazy about me and that's a pretty long list.

When I came to live with Joni she had another furry critter there named Beckett. He wasn't a Keeshond, but was a curmudgeon of a Sheltie named Beckett. I'm told that if he'd met me when he was younger he'd have been crazier about me, like that's a big surprise. Did I mention everyone loves me? All I did was pretty much annoy him, but he grew to be quite fond of me. He taught me how to be nice, gentle and sweet......and I missed him when he was gone a year later.

Wasn't I an ADORABLE puppy?

Okay, a little about me. I'm simply adorable....everyone says so. I'm brilliant and have so much fun doing everything Joni wants me to do and then hearing everyone gush over my brilliance when they see this. I'm incredibly sweet.....and will do anything to make people happy. I like nothing more than being around people and hearing them gush over me. It's even better if they have FOOD! Did I mention FOOD is one of my favorite things? I'll do just about anything for FOOD, even make a fool of myself. I'll twirl for food....I'll roll over for food....I'll go to any lengths to get food! I get treats everyday...and even more when we do agility. Don't tell Joni, but I'd do agility for nothing, but if she thinks I need food for incentive or rewards...well, I certainly won't let her know differently! This summer she's been getting Popsicles, which I'm crazy about now. She'll give me a piece of it each time. Boy, I can't think of anything better in the summer! Maybe watermelon - that's a close call.

I'm an awesome Therapy Dog also! Who wouldn't like going to a place where EVERYONE'S attention is on ME and my every blink of the eye has them wanting to pet me and give me food? And I make the sad and sick people feel a little better about life, and that's fun also. Not as fun as food, but it's right up there. Unfortunately we haven't had time to do alot of Therapy visits for awhile...just been too busy with Agillity! But we'll get back into it again.

For awhile it was just me and Joni, but we kept pretty busy. She got me involved in this crazy thing called "Agility" when I was a puppy. What fun that is - running around like crazy with my person, jumping, leaping, going thru tunnels and ramps and jumps. I was pretty happy with life just like that....but then she brought home my little brother. Yes, he's really my little bro. We have the same mom but different dads. We look alot alike, but he's got this huge monster head and is now taller than me, so it's easy to tell us apart. Most folks can't....but I figure they're just a bit dense to not see the difference.

This new fellow was an adorable fun little furball to have around and we bonded from the first moment we met. His name is "Tyssen", which means "firebrand". His whole name is "Spirit's Light My Fire", but he answers to Tyssen, Tyce, Ty, Ty-Boy, and any other nutty way of saying his name. He even answers to the occasionally used "Monster" for some reason. He's not as smart as me, but then who is? But all in all, he's great to have around. Ty does agility also, but he's also conceited and vain about his appearance, which works for him since he goes to dog shows and someone decides if he walks around a ring and looks good doing it and gives him ribbons. Sounds easy, but they say it's tough. Apparently he's good at it, since he came home one day last fall from a dog show and insisted on being called "Champ". Yeah, right.....like I'm going to call him THAT! That's all his ego needs to hear! I just wrestled him to the ground and showed him who was really boss and since he's such a wimp, he said I didn't have to call him that. He's a pretty good little brother...just needs to be kept in his place.....which is ME being in charge. Little twerp. Typical little brother sort of stuff, though, I suppose. He'll be on this blog also...but for now I'm hogging the first post!

Oh...he did ask me to mention that his whole name is "AKC/UKC Champion Spirit's Light My Fire". Okay. I won't call him Champ, but I guess I can mention it! Secretly I'm pretty proud of him...but don't tell him that! His ego would explode! I can't wait to see what he's like when he starts adding Agility titles to his name. I have bunches of agility titles, but you don't see ME bragging about them in this first post! I've plenty of time for that!

This photo above was from shortly after we met. As you can see, we were pretty tight from the get-go.

We -- what? Okay....I was just informed we're going for a long walk so I'll have to continue this later! Who hoo! Maybe I'll get to visit some of those cats outside! Maybe Tyssen will see a squirrel and be happy attempting to climb a tree and catch it! OR maybe someone outside will have a TREAT for us! The possibilities are endless! Later!