Friday, December 31, 2010

Beauceron National Specialty 2010

For your viewing pleasure, you can link to the photos from the first ever Beauceron National Specialty here.  My mom and all our friends at Grand Paws and Mes Yeux Vigilants are there.  Since I'm sure every Beauceron looks the same to the untrained eye, you can find our photos by looking for Mom.  She is wearing a burgundy t-shirt in the Journee pics and a green dress in the Specialty.  For any newcomers, I won Reserve Winners Dog (!) in the Specialty and was rated Select (along with my bro, En Theos!) in the more informal Journee.  The good people at Equilibrio Studios took the photos and Mom has contacted them for prices so that we may add to my Wall of Fame:)
I can hardly believe that today is the last day of 2010!  We planned a celebratory hike before Mom went to work but were stopped by thunder and lightning just as we headed out to the car.  All dressed up and no place to go, we decided to train instead.  We worked on our basics--stays, finishes, targeting.  Then Mom put me through my paces with some newer stuff--backing up in heel position and our new, sure-to-please trick: Where's My Dog?  In this trick, Mom wanders around looking for me under and behind things, only to have me run up from behind and stick my head and shoulders between her legs.  We can even walk a ways like this as Mom continues to fret, "Where did my dog go?  I just can't find him!"   We think the kids at Petco will like this!
I also learned how to shut cabinet doors today, generalizing it to the refrigerator door and the front door as well.  I wanted to learn how to open the doors too, but Mom refused.  I don't think she trusts me, mes chers!
Well, Jax and I must get gloriously muddy in the backyard of Faurot before we are subjected to baths at Petco!  A demain!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Busy Beauceron Hits Facebook! (And Twitter)

The time has come, mes chers!  The Busy Beauceron now has a Facebook page and I have my own profile page.  Jax wants one, too--we shall see.  Anywho, please Like me on Facebook...
You may also follow my candid thoughts on Twitter --  I am @BusyBeauceron  !!!
My favorite chew toy...er, employee has returned to Petco--Sean!  He did not know that I have grown wily in the months since his departure and have learned how to guess which aisle the prey/person will run down when they turn a corner and can therefore cut them off quite easily.  It was with great glee on my part and a little surprise on his when he turned the corner to find me barreling towards him!
I have been practicing my obedience at Petco (as has Jax) and have impressed many a passerby.  I can Down/Stay all the way at the end of the main aisle until Mom calls me and she had both Ira and Sean walk very closely around me and even step over me several times while she looked on about 10 feet away.  I finished Left and Right, did my jumping touches, struck a moment of melancholy in my Play Dead--I was on fire today, mes chers!  The compliments poured in and so did the petting:)  I know how to work a crowd.
One of my biggest fans was a family with a very active 2 year old boy.  I stopped the little rascal in his tracks with a huge kiss across the face.  Huge, amazed smile!  They ended up taking pics of me with their kid--me kissing him, him hanging on me, etc.  I was more than happy to pose and the kid genuinely liked me.  Mom was very proud how calm I was as he laughed and screeched, touched my ears and dewclaws, and all that jazz.
Christmas clearance has finally hit Petco.  Mom bought Jaxson and I the most embarrassing matching jackets.  I mean, they're cute on Jaxson--he looks like Little Red Riding Hood--but me in snowflake polarfleece with a TEENY hood that cannot fit over my huge hears?  I have my dignity!  But I wear it, for Mom says I must.  She laughs at me the entire time, too...  We also got Santa hats and Jax got a tiny pair of antlers to take home with him for next year.  And cookies.  Lots of cookies:)  The cookie jars at home were filled with mere crumbs and that, mes chers, is unacceptable!
Well, I must go for now--dinner time!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Quick Christmas Update!

Joyeux Noel, mes chers!  I trust you all had a safe and enjoyable holiday.  I hadn't been very hungry on Christmas Eve and so awoke Mom at 4 on Christmas morning with a VERY GROWLY stomach.  I was sleeping in her bed, on my back, with my derriere on her pillow and my head mashed into a nook in the blankets by her hip.  Sleeping peacefully, I might add.  The terrible noises emanating from my stomach convinced Mom, however, that I was going to sick up on the bed and so she dragged me outside into the cold, wet snow.  Once outside, I stood there and looked at her with a most pitiable expression--why had she dragged me from our warm bed and dumped me in the snow?  I finally did my business and we trudged back inside where I abruptly congealed to the bed once again while Mom rustled up some breakfast.  Mes chers, I don't get up until 7 am at least and I don't eat until after 9 on most days so I don't know what this poor woman was thinking as she tried to handfeed me kibble at 4:20 am.  When I refused for the umpteenth time, she sat back to look at me and, correctly determining that I was not in any real danger or pain, let me weave into the bathmat while she took a shower.  I claimed the second bathmat for my own and spread out over the two of them on my back once again, attempting to continue my long winter's nap.  My stomach was still gurgling to like two warring opossums when she stepped out of the shower, so Mom pulled out the big guns--canned food!!!!  I was awake and at the counter like a shot, watching with rapt anticipation.  Once I ate my breakfast, mes chers, we dragged a bleary-eyed Jaxson from his kennel and piled into the car.
Once at Faurot, we were released into the backyard to visit Brittany while Mom carried our things inside.  Santa was very good to us this year:)  I got a laser toy and a new Alligator!  Jax got an Orbee Lightbulb treat dispenser and we got to share a rope wreath.  I have proudly carried Alligator all over the house and Jax has been very entertained by the lightbub.  Between the three of us, we managed to put away an entire bag of Christmas treats from Treats Unleashed:)  And so we spent the day frolicking and chasing Anatole, coming inside for hugs and to warm up every now and again.  All in all, a very good way to spend Christmas:)

Friday, December 24, 2010

All right, Mr. DeMille...

Yes, we got our pictures done professionally AGAIN.  Mom loves to torture us...

The final stage of my dramatic interpretation of "Play Dead"

Must...reach...the...TREAT!

Don't we look so well-behaved? 

I really do like having Jaxson around!

I am, however, not as fond of the antlers...

Sorry, Adrienne!  Jax looks much better when you groom him.  We were short on time, so we plopped him in the sink at Petco for a quick bath and then toweled him as best we could et viola! 

We have an 8x10 of this and the previous photo waiting for you, Adrienne:)

Jax took to the photography process very quickly:)

Sir Action Jaxson

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Santa!

I didn't get to meet Santa last year because I hadn't gone home to Mom yet, so this year we made a special effort to go see the Man in Red himself.  After all, I need to convince him that I really was a good boy this year.  Mom says I might need a day or two to explain myself onto the "Good" list...

Jax, of course, is already on the Good Dog list...overachiever!

See?  Look how good I'm being!

I even did all my tricks for Santa!  Surely that gets me a Good List Honorable Mention, right?

SNOW!!!

Enough said, mes chers:)  Videos will soon be posted on my YouTube channel!








Saturday, December 4, 2010

The Busy Beauceron Goes to YouTube!

I'm on YouTube!  Mom posted videos from my puppyhood on my very own channel, named after this blog.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thebusybeauceron

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

DECEMBER!!

December is a wonderful month, mes chers!  Snow, Christmas and the Blessed Day of Acquisition all happen in December!!  Mom taunts us with the knowledge that she has already purchased all our Christmas presents and has locked them away in the toy box.  When she is occupied with other things, Jax and I sometimes sneak off to the bedroom for yet another attempt to open the darn box but the lack of opposable thumbs has foiled us time and again.  We must simply wait patiently...a task at which neither of us excel.  *sigh*
We don't have our tree yet, but Mom hopes this Sunday to remedy that.  She checked first to see if we had any doggie repellent left from last year--to keep me from eating the tree and its many ornaments and to prevent Jaxson from marking the tree as his new pee post.  I like our Christmas decorations--lots of lights, a big old-fashioned candle, and a little ceramic tree among many other awesome things.  I even have my own ornament from last year and Mom plans to get one for this year too.  She also purchased special frames for our Christmas pictures--with Santa at Petco this weekend and with the professional photographer later in the month. 
As for classes, Jax and I are doing so well!  Mom plans to enter me in my first Rally trial at the St. Charles show near the end of January.  Our instructor Jamie had s design courses for the last class and Mom made a very complicated X-shaped one with my hardest signs!  But I did quite well, if I do say so myself:)
As for agility, Jax now bravely runs the A-frame and the dog walk and masters tunnels and chutes.  The only thing he's not too fond of is the weave poles but he really got up to a nice speed last night.  He's a very sure-footed little guy.
Mom blames me for teaching Jax to sit, something show dogs often don't learn until after they finish their championship.  Mom taught him to sit on the couch but he wouldn't sit anywhere else, which she thought very good.  But Jax loves treats and when he saw Cricket, Kai, and I getting treats for sitting, he began experimenting.  Sure enough, he learned that sitting = treats and he's getting really good at Stay, too.  He just learned Down today and Mom reports good progress.
Well, must go fetch Anatole for awhile!  Ta ta, mes chers!