Mr Mav goes back to his homeland

Sorry - no photos, but had to share the story -

I live pretty close to the US border - and on Boxing Day I took Mr Mav back to his home country of the USA for some post Christmas shopping.
And a little background to the story - my licence plate says "SPTD DG" - I bet you can guess what that is.
So - I go pull up to the officer, he looks at my licence plate and the first thing he says to me is, "Stupid Dog?"  (I wanted to say, "No - stupid officer" - but I didn't)  I very nicely said "No - Spotted Dog - I have a Dalmatian"
After he completed his questions and checked out Mr Mav in his crate we went on our merry way.

Now - this has happened to me many times before when people have mistaken my license plate, but I am usually in a situation where I can say something back to them.  The best was when I was judging an agility trial and some guy came into the arena and yelled - "Would the person with the Stupid Dog licence plate move their car?"  and I had fun yelling back, "Oh - you mean the judge?"  That quieted him down pretty quick.  But this time was very challenging because I couldn't really say anything back to the officer for fear of not being allowed into the country...lol!

The rest of the trip went well - and Mr Mav was happy going potty on his native soil again :)

This was his first of many trips back :)

Oh - and for those hockey fans out there - Mr Mav might have been born in the US, but he's a Canadian now and that's why he's cheering for Canada during the World Jr Hockey Championship!  We watch the games and do some training during the intermissions.  Just keeping my promise that I would raise this puppy right :)

Since I don't have any photos of this trip to the US, I thought I would share a couple photos of the last time Mr Mav was in the US - it was the day I picked him up.  Seems sooooo long ago and just yesterday all at the same time :)

Setting the record straight!

I have received some comments about how nice my friends are and how lucky Mr Mav is to have such great people around him.

Well - I won't name any names because they know who they are - but when I was putting Maverick's crate back in the car after the Christmas dinner I asked these "friends" to hold his leash for a few moments.

This is what I found when I got back -

Poor Mr Mav!  And to the guilty party - I don't know how you sleep at night :)

Where did my little puppy go?

Only a few short weeks ago, I flew to Denver to pick up my wonderful little puppy!  He was so tiny and could easily fit in my arms.  I am not sure where that little guy went.  Seems like someone has switched my little puppy for a little dog that just fits in my arms.  And everyday he takes another piece of my heart :)

Last night we were at Auntie Tahnis' house for our traditional Christmas dinner.  Mr Mav gets braver every time he goes there :)  My friends were kind (and patient) enough to try and get a family photo.

Here's the adventure -

Merry Christmas from Nina, Cinder & Maverick!

Ah ha! Need to come when called Mr Mav!

Had a wonderful weekend at my friend's place with 5 dogs around.  Mr Mav had a great time playing with all the dogs, but I made sure that he always came when called.  I try to turn every situation into a fun training opportunity.

It was such a beautiful day so we took the dogs for a short hike on the trails behind her house.  This was Mr Mav's first and he was very excited with all the smells and sounds not to mention the 4 big dogs that were running around.

When we got to a flat area and the dogs were taking a break, I wanted to check to see how strong his recall would be so I dropped his lead.  That's when Mr Mav decided that a cow patty was more exciting than da mamma.  That was the first and last time the leash was dropped on this walk :)  So we built value for his recall while on lead in the new location.  He loved going over the fallen trees and the crunching of the frozen leaves under his feet.  He went through the mini streams that had formed because of all the rain we have had and it took a little shaping but soon he was running over the planks over the larger streams.

A great day with a ton of new experiences for the Mavster!

Getting ready for out big walk

Posing the dogs for a group shot

What a great group of dogs!

I had no doubt the other dogs would stay and was very impressed with Mr Mav that he did too!

Enjoying our walk.  It was really cute when Cinder would walk along since us.

Shaping Mr Mav to go over the plank.  If you look really closely, you can see his back legs shaking :)

Oh - there might be something to this - 

And back to da mamma - chicken is a magic training tool

After that he was going over so fast it was hard to get a photo in focus

Piece of cake!

More entertaining photos of me trying to stack Mr Mav

So my friend stepped in to help

He is just all legs!

Brother vs Brother

Dear Mr Mav -
Please keep making mistakes because I like it when mom gives me your cookie
Love your brother,
Cinder

**********************************************************************************

I'm enjoying having 2 dogs to train  - I'm finding it brings out the best in both of them.

I'll tell Mav to sit - and when he doesn't, Cinder gets the cookie.  Do that a couple of times and it's amazing how quickly Mav sits the next time...lol!  Needless to say Cinder LOVES when Mr Mav messes up.

Cinder is also great for helping me proof Mr Mav's recalls.  At the park today, Mav would chase Cinder and I would call Mav back - working on his recall.  Mr Mav did very well!

And Mav is helping me with Cinder too!  Cinder isn't a big one to tug, but when he sees the attention Mav gets while we are tugging, Cinder wants to get into the action and starts tugging too.  It's pretty funny.

Mr Mav keeps growing - all legs right now.  And the bigger he gets the more Cinder likes to play with him.      Today Cinder would actually start the chase with Mr Mav - that's a first.  They had a blast at the park!

I was judging in Nanaimo last weekend and Mr Mav got to hang out with the big boys again

Auntie Yvonne was wonderful taking care of Mr Mav while I was judging

Working on Mr Mav's recall at the park today

Cinder and Mav checking out the last patch of snow

Mav chasing Cinder with the tug toy (bad mamma for letting Cinder take the tug and run with it)

But when I yell "Maverick" he immediately does a 180 and comes running to da mamma :)

Tonight we were working on some "its yer choice" - yes... those are cookies sitting on all those paws!

Having fun with the snoot loop on

A little dyna disk work with the snoot loop

WARNING: NOT FOR THE WEAK

Just warning everyone now - the following photos are not for the weak of heart - and some might say they are offensive.  Don't say you haven't been warned!

This weekend was all about Cinder - we are trying to earn the Top Dalmatian in Canada for the third year in a row (with the Agility Association of Canada) and this was our last big trial of the year.  In between Cinder's runs, I would take Mr Mav out to socialize and train with distractions.  He also experienced his first snow fall.

Now if you are one of my strict agility friends, you might want to sit down for this one because you may not believe what I am about to say.

I had my first lesson is stacking Mr Mav for confirmation today.  I know - you probably fell off your chair laughing because anyone that knows me would never believe I would be any where near the confirmation ring, but I promised the breeder I would try.

I would tell you the story of our first lesson, but I thought it would be better to show you photos!  This is where is might get offensive for the confirmation people!  Just remember, I have never done this before and I promise, we were having a great time.

So here's a photo of Maverick when Tana stacked him -

And this is what happened today - and remember - I have never done this before...lol!

This is by far my favourite photo...Mr Mav is such a monkey!

ALMOST

In the end, I was happy we got it - kinda, sorta :)

Don't worry Tana - I promise we'll practice ALOT more :)  His agility training is going really well :)


BTW - I just realized that there are some people that read this blog who have never met me before.  So for those people you need to know that I have quite the sense of humour and I can be a tad sarcastic :)  So when I say that the above photos may be offensive, I was just joking - although for a person very serious about confirmation, I wouldn't be surprised if they did find my bastardized confirmation stacking photos offensive :)