On December 8th, we had our 2nd annual Puppy Brunch at the McLean's house. We started off with some obedience outside to get the puppies a bit tired before taking them inside for the humans to eat!
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Carolyn and a sitting Coach talk with the group about the
next set of obedience commands. |
AC Carolyn had us in a semi-circle and used Coach to try and demonstrate what she wanted us to do. Little did she know that it was 10 o'clock and Coach usually has a 10 o'clock poo, so every time she wanted him to do something, all he could think about was "I need to poo."
Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Especially because when I heard his little poo whine, I took him and he did, indeed, poo. Victory!
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Nancy and her yellow lab Orchid are waiting patiently
for the next command. |
We also had some distractions such as a ratty wheel barrow full of weeds jangle by (thanks for noticing that Carolyn! 8-). In general, all the puppies were very good and did a great job on the obedience part of things.
Then Carolyn upped the ante and sent the puppies on an experience walk: Go see the large wind chimes, and cross over the koi bridge.
Lightning did great walking on the bridge, but had a little trouble walking down the bridge. But then later, ran across it just fine. So, everyone did awesome.
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| Alex and Sue sitting in chairs by the koi pond. |
Then we had some time to sit around and relax. And eat. And eat some more. Did I mention, we did some eating?
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| A look at most of the group sitting out by the koi ponds (from left: Sue, Sylvia, and Bev. Carolyn is in the middle and behind her is Brian (I think, the face is a bit blurred), then standing: Bill, Blake in front of him, Nance, Susan and Stephanie. Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
Oh, and there was quite a bit of talking. We had three sets of new potential puppy raisers with us for this meeting, which was fabulous: Julie and Brian, Alex and Susan.
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| Nancy gives Orchid a big hug and then rests her head on Orchid's. Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
They got to see the mechanics of a meeting (obedience), but also witness the benefits of becoming a puppy raiser as shown in Nancy's sweet photo above with her resting her head on Orchid's head and also in seeing the close relationships that form between repeat raisers over time.
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Stephanie, with Coastie lying in front of her, Bev and Michele, holding Coach, all sitting by the side of the pond.
Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
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Sylvia gives a big smile while Denny looks slightly sleepy
(must be the pumpkin dog biscuits!).
Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
It is such a nice feeling to wrap up the year with a party with good friends and sweet pups! Of course, sometimes, knowing everyone too well can lead to a too nice Naughty Santa game! ;-) We played Naughty Santa, where you are able to steal presents, but everyone was so nice, I think there were only three steals and there were apologies for those. Perhaps next year!
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Lois and Bill smile for the camera, while Charity looks directly into the camera.
Fred is photobombing in the back! Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
Carolyn did give out a few gifts. The first was a gift that will be our traveling gift.
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Carolyn holds a bouquet of blue and green poo bags arranged in a flower pot (I did you not! 8-).
She is announcing who the lucky winner will be! Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
I was the lucky winner. Whoever made it was very creative! Poo bag flowers...
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Carolyn and Cheryl smiling with Cheryl holding the poo bag arrangement.
Is Carolyn smiling because she no longer owns it? Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
But, I don't think I will pass it on with filled poo bags! LOL! I'm not sure I can duplicate the poo bag roses, so I think I may have to keep it intact for a year.
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Susan, with Liz and I think Lightning and Susan one of our
new potential puppy raisers. Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
There were plenty of extra dogs to go around, so that the new people had a chance to work the pups.
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Cheryl sitting with Coach between her legs. he is staring at the
camera with mouth open.Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
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Brian and Essie/Liz? (I'm not sure). He is looking at the camera and his
sweet black lab pup has her head down looking at the patio. Photo by Barbara Lindley. |
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| A photo of our whole group! Thanks Brian. |
Finally, although it took quite a bit of holiday magic (Many thanks Brian!!), but we were able to get a complete photo of the group (with everyone who was at the party, that is! We are so sorry that there were several members who were sick and couldn't make it). As you can see, we are a good looking, fun loving group!
Join us!
