Cabin building dog

Farrah has many talents, and for the past 2 months she's been sharpening her construction skills. We have been building a small cabin the interlake, about 2hrs north of Winnipeg. Farrah seems to want to be involved in every step of the process. Not sure how she'll help with the roof yet, but I'm sure she'll find a way.

Farrah the Forest Dog

We're building a small cabin a couple hours north of Winnipeg. We've been busy prepping the lot and often just Farrah and I go up there on our own to clear the trees, plot out the building, do this and that etc. Once in a while Farrah decides I'm spending too much time with the chain saw and not enough time with her, so she puts on a show for me to get my attention (or at least that's my interpretation...or else she just likes playing by herself). Luckily I had the camera close by to catch her in action today.

Photo from the roof...

here's the final product taken from the roof of Manitoba House, that we all sweated it out for, celebrating 100 years of St John Ambulance in Manitoba. The SJA emblem is all flowers, planted to commemorate the occasion. See below post for more info on the event.

St. John Ambulance Marks 100 Years in Manitoba

Today we attended a ceremony celebrating 100 years of the St John Ambulance in Manitoba. A few therapy dog teams were selected to attend to represent the >100 therapy dog teams in the province. There were three parts to the day: 1) attending the official presentation in the provincial Legislature building 2) a celebration luncheon in the courtyard 3) a photoshoot around the new St John Ambulance flower garden on the legislature grounds. Of course all the dogs were fantastic, and really were great ambassadors for the therapy dog program. The hardest part of the day was dealing with the heat! It hit 37.0 oC today. The photographer was a little slow, so we had to spend quite a bit of time waiting, in the heat and direct sun! It was too much to take for a human in black pants, never mind a dog in a fur coat!

It was fun bringing Farrah into the Provincial Legislature. When you walk in, there are 2 giant bison at the bottom of the great stairs, so of course we snapped a photo there. We also took a couple shots around the legislature fountains after it was all said and done.

Paws with a Cause

Farrah and I have been working as a therapy dog team for the past 8 months now. This past spring Farrah was chosen to the Poster-Dog for the Paws with a Cause program, a pilot program where therapy dog teams do group visitations to old adult facilities. One of the facilities we visit is sponsored by the Age and Opportunity association. The photoshoot was in the spring, and it was a lot of fun. Farrah really loved working it in front of the camera, and most of the photos were just of her...I was only in a handful of the shots. The annual report for the Age and Opportunity society was just released and we made it onto page 4!

Here's what was published:

The full report can be found here on the Age and Opportunity website

Happy Birthday!

Today Farrah (and the rest of the first Story/Nero litter) turned 2! To celebrate us humans enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake from our local bakery, and Farrah feasted on fresh rabbit and some choice biscuits with ice cream.

Now we get ready for the terrible twos!

another episode of 'bring your dog to work week'

Farrah's pretty good in the boat and field, but it would be better if she learned to carry marine batteries and gas cans up the hills... instead of just laying around looking beautiful!

Farrah loves sticks....

Farrah has always loved sticks. Out in NW Ontario where I work, there are a lot of beaver sticks, pre-cut to the perfect size for her.

After a long day, the floor just isn't good enough for the belle of the ball. A rare glimpse of her actually on furniture (she always prefers the ground) in our wee 13' trillium trailer

Farrah has a new boyfriend...

A colleague of mine recently adopted a new 2 1/2yr old male dog named Fozzy. He's a sweety, and Farrah sure thinks so as well! For the past two days they have been inseparable. He has a high level of play drive also, so their time together switches between moments of 150% play followed by brief rest breaks, staring longingly into each others' eyes and kissing. And Repeat.

Aren't they cute just so together?

Spring is here.....almost!

It's been quite some time since the last update, and a lot has happened since January. We went to the Ohio IABCA show at the end of January and had a great time and met +20 Shilohs and their wonderful owners. Farrah won her age catergory in 3 out of 4 shows, as well as winning Best Puppy in Breed in Show #1. She also won Best of the Herding Group in show#1 which put us in Best in Show. We didn't place, but had fun getting there. For shows 2,3 and 4 we finished 2nd puppy in breed, and the Shiloh that won the breed went on to win Best in Show! For the Shiloh Speciality, we competed in the adult catergory and finished 3rd!

We've also been rather busy with work, life etc. We've been doing Therapy Dog visitations for 4 months now, and are starting at another facility this week. Farrah is a natural at it and the seniors we visit really look forward to seeing her. This week Farrah and I are out in NW Ontario at the field station where I work, and I was able to snap some shots from our day off today. We spent most it hiking through the forest enjoying the changing of the seasons. She gets so excited being out here in the Canadian Shield, and being spring she is also shedding her winter coat. I also suspect she is very near going into heat, as she is exceptionally wild and sassy these days! Spring is definitely in the air!

Off to Therapy Work!

Sassy dog at Springtime!