Muddy Dogs

Here are some snaps of the muddy dogs from last Sunday's "Swamp Swim". If you look closely, you can even see that Sailor's tongue is black with mud. It's kind of hard to see on him, but what a mess! Also, not sure who the random retreiver is - just another dog at the dog park, but he managed to stay clean!

Water Dog

Sailor went to the dog park yesterday with his buddies, the Bernese Mountain dogs Buckley (who is 5) and Penelope (who is 17 weeks). All was well until Buckley found a black, muddy, smelly swamp and lead all three dogs into it where they wallowed around. UGH! It reeked like primordial ooze! Double UGH! We decided in order to wash Sailor, it was time for a swim in the lake. The boat's in the water now, so we figured if he took off, we could catch him. We figured that since he was swimming at day care, he would be one heck of a swimmer. Not so much! NO need to fear as he became a total baby. We put him on a long lead as we figured since he's swimming at day care he would take to it and then maybe take off and not realize where the shore is.

Todd put his waders on and then walked him in, which he was fine and you could see the mud coming off around him like an oil slick! Then we took him out deeper where he had to paddle and he swam right to the dock and wrapped his arms around the post. Aww. Our poor baby.

We didn't want to traumatize him, so we let him swim back to shore. We will keep trying to get him comfortable in the water and we know he'll get used to it over time and his own pace. After all, he is a WATER dog!

Famous Newfies

You may wonder where we got the name Sailor. Well, I did some research and found all these famous Newfies. It's interesting to see that Lord Byron and Emily Dickinson were among some of the astute Newfie owners. I found Sailor's name on this list and thought it would fit him since we live on a lake. Enjoy reading this list of famous owners and their Newfies. . ..

Adam - Seaward's Blackbeard - 1984 Best in Show winner at the Westminster Dog Show
Boatswain - pet of English poet Lord Byron and the subject of his poem Epitaph to a Dog
Brumus - Robert F. Kennedy's dog
Brutus- first dog to complete the Appalachian Mountain Club's "Winter 48", climbing all 48 peaks in one calendar winter
Canton and Sailor - A female and male pup aboard a foundering British ship in Maryland that were bred with retrievers to form the Chesapeake Bay Retriever [13]
Carlo - Emily Dickinson's dog
Faithful - First dog of President Ulysses S. Grant[14]
Frank - Unofficial mascot of the Orphan Brigade during the American Civil War[15]
Gander Canadian war hero dog who saved the lives of many soldiers in the second world war in Hong Kong Island.[1]
Hector - First dog of President Rutherford B. Hayes[14]
Josh - Darbydale's All Rise Pouchcove - 2004 Best in Show winner at the Westminster Dog Show Lara - First dog of President James Buchanan[14]
Mother Teresa - The major canine character in the movie Must Love Dogs
Pilot - pet of Edward Fairfax Rochester in Jane Eyre - first described in chapter 12
Pluto - pet of the Croatian operatic soprano Ilma de Murska, which used to dine at table with her and was trained to eat a cooked fowl from a place setting without dripping gravy on the tablecloth.[citation needed] Pluto lived in the 1860s.
Robbe - dog of Richard Wagner who accompanied him on his flight from his creditors from Riga on a fishing boat, which inspired the opera The Flying Dutchman.[citation needed]
Russ - last dog of Richard Wagner, buried at the feet of his master in the composer's tomb in the park of Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth, under his own plaque: "Here rests and watches Wagner's Russ."
Sable Chief - mascot of The Royal Newfoundland Regiment
Sgt. Gander the Mascot of the Royal Rifles of Canada who was killed in action at the Battle of Hong Kong when he carried a grenade away from wounded soldiers. For this he was awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal retroactively in 2000
Seaman - pet of Meriwether Lewis
Jack - national champion and gold medalist, resident of Cary, North Carolina. In an attempt to gain media attention, local residents insisted that he was even the most beautiful dog in the world.
Sirius - dog of Maggie in the book Star in the Storm
Thunder- from the book Thunder from the Sea
Jim (Effrijim)- from the book You Slay Me (Aisling Grey Series)
Swansea Jack- Often mistaken for a flat-coated retriever as the Newfoundland breed has gotten much larger)
Nana- Pet of the Darling family in the play Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

Eating Together

Thought this was a cute photo of Osa and Mia the cat eating together. Luckily Sailor is probably outside at the moment or all the food would be gone!

New Blog

The Canine Club and Spa where Sailor goes for doggy day care just started a blog. Their very first photos and entry is about Sailor (cause he's so cute!). They posted these 2 photos of him swimming with his buddies.

If you want to check it out and even follow along, it is: http://www.thecanineclubblog.blogspot.com/

BFF

It's so great that Sailor can play with other Newfies at doggy day care. This is Noah, an 11 month old Newfie and Sailor's "best friend forever". They swim and play together. He's not there every day, but Todd finally saw him on Friday morning and shares the encounter.

"Lee, Noah's dad, was dropping him off at the Canine Club at the same time I was. When I was getting Sailor out of the back of the car, I heard someone yelling, "Is that Sailor?" It seems the same way we know that Noah is his buddy, they've heard of Sailor. Noah came bounding over and they broke out in spontaneous play. It was so cute and sweet, like a couple of buddies who really like each other. Noah looks to be about 110 pounds or so and about 6 inches taller than Sailor, so I could see what Sailor will look like in August!

I also remember Karen at Canine Club telling me how cute they play and that once they were both laying on the floor like big lazy Newfies, but pushing each other with their legs in a playful way."

From the picture, I can tell that Noah has some white on him. like the "Landseer" Newfies. According to Wikipedia, the Landseer is named after the artist Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, who featured them in many of his paintings. The AKC, CKC, and KC all treat Landseer Newfies as part of the breed and others consider it only a Newfoundland color variation.

Showering with Todd

Every morning when Todd gets up, Sailor goes outside, then he comes in the bathroom and lays next to the shower with Todd. It's so sweet! After the shower, Sailor gets his breakfast. He definitely has his routine.

Water Bowl

Sailor is a very messy drinker. He loves to put his paws in the water bowl and swish all the water around. I don't let him get away with it in the house, but this is what he does out on the deck. After playing around and spilling all the water, he then passes out next to the dish. So much fun and so much work!

Home for Life

Todd and I attended a charity brunch on Sunday, April 26th for Home for Life Animal Sanctuary called "Tiramisu for Tails". It is so heartwarming to see what Lisa LaVerdiere and her staff have done for animals who are not adoptable for various reasons such as disabilities, but are still happy and able to live a full life. We do a few events with this organization every year and just love the animals and all the people involved with it. The dog sledding trip was something that we purchased at their gala in October where they had John Grobin (who wrote "Marley and Me"). Thought I would share these photos with you from the brunch as we are very lucky to have healthy pets compared to what some of these animals have gone thru. For more information on Home for Life, go to http://www.homeforlife.org/.

Sven Sundgaard is a local Weatherman in the Twin Cities and he is a supporter of the organization. He was at our table, so we took a couple of snaps with him and one of the dogs, Sebastian who is unable to process proteins. He has to have a special diet and is so sweet and loving and loves to be held. Tiger couldn't walk due to malnutrition from being starved (Home for Life fixed his legs with surgery) and the Great Dane is partially blind. These were just a few of the wonderful animals that live at Home for Life in Stillwater.

Yard Work

Hello Friends. Thanks for sticking with my blog. I have not updated much this week due to our Vikings Draft Party which is on Saturday, and a lot of other work things that are going on. Sailor turned 7 months old today and I haven't even had time to take a birthday picture of him. As of last Saturday, he was 83 1/2 lbs! He is up to my thigh now. Weigh in is tomorrow at Intermediate Puppy School so we won't be surprised if he is up to 85 or 86 lbs.

He was off and on a good/bad boy this week. Last night he got one of my fav pillows before we noticed and chewed it up. It was turquoise and had an orange and purple flower on it. Unsalvageable! He whined in his crate all night on Sunday night so I had a rough day on Monday with no sleep. Other than that, torturing the cat and still trying to annoy Osa, he's a sweet boy :).

Also, he "helped" Todd with some yard work last weekend by chasing squirrels away, running off into the neighbors yards to see how their lawns were doing, eating sticks to make mulch, making fertilizer, watering the lawn and chewing on the equipment.