Where cowlicks come from (dogs chew on each other's heads)

On dogs, cowlicks come from other dogs. Don't be fooled - doggie drool is like Elmer's glue.

It is hard to belive that this:

Turns into this:

And that this is an 8 month old puppy that weighs more than most 8 year old children:

Pyrapalooza 2009

Here we are enjoying a early morning romp with other Pyrs and their owners.

This is Buddy with his costume on.  Thirty seconds later he was only wearing the ruffles around his neck.

Buddy and Dakota guard our lunch table.

Here we are in the rescue parade.

In preparation for the workshops we listened to lectures about the activities.

This is the area for the canine good citizen test on the first day.  Todd talked to the facilitator and then Buddy took and passed the test on the second day.  The test was run by a very nice lady with two beautiful wolfhounds.

What a ham!

Step 1 of the LGD test - make nice with the goats from outside the pen.

Step 2 - get in side and show them who's boss in a firm, non-threatening way.

What a day!

We had another fantastic Pyrapalooza experience this past weekend! Each year this event seems to get even better. It is really nice to spend time with such a fun, knowledgeable and interesting group of people and their Pyrs. This year I think we signed up for just about every event.

Unfortunately we were out of vacation days so we couldn't drive up to Westfield until after work on Friday. My parents have been wonderful about all of our travel and again, graciously agreed to have the dogs over at their house during the day so that we could take off right from Manhattan. The drive wasn't so bad and we treated ourselves to burgers from Five Guys, but we still didn't make it to the fairgrounds until nearly 11pm. When we finally did get there the gate had been pushed shut for the night and we were the last people to arrive. And of course we woke up everyone - humans and Pyrs alike - when we we pulled in and then did noisy things like blowing up the air mattress. Sorry everyone!

We got started early on Saturday morning and Buddy grudgingly took part in the "fun and games" portion of the morning while Todd helped out by setting up tables and making signs. Buddy nimbly avoided all the pins in Pyr-pin Bowling and managed to loose most of his costume before we'd even made one side of the circuit.

The bulk of the activities took place in the afternoon and from noon to nearly 5pm we participated in workshops. The workshops we actually managed to get to were carting, tracking, rally obedience, and livestock guardian testing. All the workshops were terrific and although we had done some of them in the past there was something new to be learned in all of them. We have done the carting workshop three years running and Buddy now has his own carting harness - courtesy of All Things Bright And Biothane (www.allthingsbiothane.com) - so he was a shoe in for that workshop.

[That reminds me that I need to buy appropriately sized wheels for the beginner cart that I built for Buddy before the AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day last year. Right now it has wheels from a Weber grill which work, but lack a little something...]

Our first year we tried rally obedience and in that workshop there was an advanced course which Buddy was only moderately interested in. This year there was more on the obedience and a smaller portion of rally, but it worked well since most dogs, including ours need assistance with obedience and the rally part is a fun challenge. Both Buddy and Dakota did well in this event and we had fun doing it.

The two new events to Pyrapalooza that we tried this year were tracking and livestock guardian testing. Interestingly Buddy seems to have excellent tracking potential and according to the lady running the workshop he had the most potential of the dogs she tested. She even offered to help us to find a tracking workshop near us. She is actually from the Birkshires and we might be able to do her workshop sometime when we are in Kent. It is exciting that Buddy seems to have such an apptitude. The unofficial theme of this Pyrapalooza was Pyrs as livestock guardians. Mary Gloster of Hallelujah Kennels came to conduct a workshop to evaluate the potential of Pyrs as livestock guardians. The workshop involved live goats borrowed from a nearby farm. Step 1 was to walk the dog along the perimiter of the goat enclosure. If the dog seemed interested but not aggressive they got to go to the next step. Step 2 involves taking the dog into the enclosure to meet the goats. While Buddy is absolutely not allowed near livestock and was the only dog not allowed to go into the enclosure, Dakota turned out to be one of the dogs with the greates LGD aptitude and Mary advised us that we should get her livestock to guard. 

The great things about Pyrapalooza is that it is such a great opportunity for learning. For humans to learn and for Pyrs to learn. One of the things that many people don't realize is that to train a dog the human has to do most of the learning. It is nice to see the event growing and to see people and their Pyrs returning each year.

*Special thanks to Mark Vogel for sharing his pictures with us.  All the pictures in this post were taken by Mark.

River and Karizma aka Fran and Ollie

NEPR doesn't usually transport Pyrs from outside our own region.  This is for several reasons, including the fact that there are lots of needy dogs and prospective families right here in the NorthEast.  However we do make some exceptions and work with reputable organizations in other areas, especially since rescue organizations of all kinds are full to bursting as the economic situation leads to a record number of surrenders.

One of our volunteers moved to South Carolina and came across two very sweet dogs that we agreed to take.  A group of very dedicated people stretching from South Carolina to Massachusetts worked together to drive River and Karizma to their foster home.  We covered the leg from northern NJ to MA.  River and Karizma came to us after an overnight with a two volunteers who have several other dogs and a lovely muddy backyard.  When they got to our house they were super excite to see more new dogs and Dakota got a little overwhelmed so she hopped up on the couch to get out of the way.

They poor dogs were only about a year old and they were just skin and bones, but lots of spirit.  My parents had very nicely let me borrow the minivan so I wrestled the seats out of the van and wrestled the cage into the van and got on the road.

We had to stop at a pool store on the way and they were very curious about what comes from a pool store.
Our next stop was Todd's mom's house in Kent.  There we met up with another doggie friend - Maggie.  Everyone had a romp around the pool in the backyard before we got back in the car for the final leg of the trip.

We got back into the minivan and made the last bit of the trip to Judy's house in MA as it started to rain.  When we got to Judy's we had a Pyr party with Buddy, Dakota, River, Karizma, and Judy's four Pyrs.  Judy is hidden behind one of those furry bodies.

Judy has this huge fenced backyard and all the dogs ran around until the humans got too wet to stay out.  The Tatro's kindly provided delicious lasagna and a beer and helped to load up the bags and bags of kibble that we ordered from Jean.  It was really satisfying to help two more very sweet Pyrs along to better homes.

I found "Fur Happens"

At our first Pyrapalooza I saw a “fur happens” shirt. As soon as I saw it I wanted one! But then I got caught up in the excitement of the weekend and didn’t get a chance to get one. Then a few weeks ago I came across the site again!

It is the kind of thing that mostly makes sense to Pyr owners or owners of other large, long coated, non-water dogs. As explained on the fur happens site, even one Pyr produces a prodigious amount of fur. This fur collects in little tumbleweeds all over your house. But truth be told, between the cat and the dogs I’ll take Pyr fur any day. Why? Why choose white hairs that can be up to a foot in length? Because they’re actually very easy to see and pick or rub off. Even the tumble weeds are easy to pick up and throw out. Why non-water dogs? Water dogs have oily coats to protect them from the water, but this also makes the fur stick to everything and hard to pick up or wipe up. Pyrs are not water dogs so their coats are usually dry but the individual strands stick to each other and presto! you can get the fur off of your clothing, the floor, car upholstery and more!

To read about the story behind fur happens or to order one of their terrific shirts go here: http://www.furhappens.net/

Buddy made the NEPR 2010 Calendar!

It's official! The votes are in! Buddy will be in the calendar! Thank you to everyone who voted. We really appreciate it.  If anyone would like to purchase a calendar, please let us know and we'll let you know when it goes on sale.