December 2010

It's been quite some time since I've made a post to this blog, but I am going to get back to it. It was a tough summer here for us and I just wasn't up to reporting on any of it.

Unfortunately we lost our little boy Scooter this summer and that loss was very tough to digest for me. He and Tess escaped the yard one night and went hunting. Tess made it home, Scooter did not. He was killed by a car about a mile from home.

He is the first dog I've ever lost this way and the weight on my shoulders from it has been tough to shake. He should never have gotten out, they should never have been that far from home, it just should not have happened.

But it did. Our dogs live on our farm, they work, they run, they hike with us. Each of these activities carries risk and we do our best to keep those risks at a minimum, but they are there. The two Borders hunted almost every day, they kept our farm and our neighbors farms free from groundhogs and fighting groundhogs can be a nasty business. Not only did they run the risk of being bitten, they went into holes, tree stumps and often would get off out of sight and lost for short periods of time. This was their life, this was their breeding and heritage, and they loved it.

This summer Scooter caught his first fox and in unbelievably short order put the end to it. It wasn't planned, and I didn't want him to do this- but a working BT is a deadly little dog. That fox walked across our path, Scooter saw him and that was that. Could it have been a dangerous situation for him? Of course, but that was what he did....

I'm guessing a fox is what brought our tragedy upon us. Of course I don't know for sure, but I think they saw, heard or smelled a fox in the yard that night and took off after it. While Scooter could have handled that fox, he had no way to fend off a car. His braveness brought him to his end.

I'm sorry little buddy, it wasn't fair, and we miss you terribly.

Recent news

Finally home from our winter vacation and we are back in the swing of things. Lots to do to play catch up with yard work and getting The Farm back open.

As far as the dogs go, we've had a great spring in competition!

Louis James, aka NAFC/CH Ariels Justa Gotta Go Now finished his Dual Championship on April 23! A Dual Champion is a dog who has a bench Ch. and is a Field CH. Quite an accomplishment!

Then, just 3 weeks later, Louie ran in the AKC Gun Dog Championship, a one hr stake with 100 of the very best gun dogs in the US entered, and he was awarded 2nd place!!! How cool was that?
You can go here to read all about Louies great spring season.

Not to leave the Border Terriers behind, Scooter "Hapsberg In Hot Pursuit" was Winners Dog and Best of Winners at the Garden State All Terrier Specialty on May 6th, and then at the Trenton KC show he was again awarded Winners Dog! He now only needs 4 single points to complete his Championship!

We're off to the BT Nationals in North Carolina tomorrow morning where Scoots will be shown. I'm keeping my fingers crossed our good luck will continue.

It's been awhile since I've worked on this blog and I apologize for my absence.

The weather has finally gotten nice here in Florida, and I'll admit we have been out playing in the sun.

Yesterday we went on a great boat ride with some friends of ours and drove south down the Indian River. We saw some absolutely beautiful river front homes... no, not homes Estates!!!! Wowser...... very impressive.

Of course Scooter and Tess went with us, they are both great little boat dogs.

On one of our trips through Sebastian, we found the perfect store.....

Scooters Barkery! a pastry shop for dogs. So of course Scooter and I just had to stop and get some goodies. If you happen to be in Sebastian Florida, stop by Scooters and pick up some great biscuits for the dogs in your family.

The owner made us up a special basket of dog cookies for a gift for a pack of BT's in Orlando.

Scooters Barkery

8802 North US 1, Sebastian

-772 581-1386

The German Wirehaired Pointers

I haven't talked too much about our other breed, German Wirehairs, on this blog. Guess that's because none of them are here in Florida with us. So, they get a bit forgotten.

Louie and Stella are both in Iowa with their new best friends, Jim West and Rhonda Haukoos getting in shape to run in the upcoming AKC Gun Dog Championship. The Championship will be run in Nebraska in May, and since we are here and I can't work them all winter, Jim and Rhonda are getting them ready.

The reports on their progress have been very good... I'm hoping the remember all their training when they get to Nebraska.

Here's a photo of them working.....That's Louie in the front on point with Stella backing him. Good Dogs!

Sunrise

This is one reason I love living on the beach....

sunrise.....

still a bit on the chilly side here, but the sun will be out today!!!! Hooray!

Tampa Bay Terrier Club Work Day

Today we traveled north to Ocala to the Tampa Bay Terrier clubs work day. Next weekend they are having a 2 day Earth Dog test, and today they dug all the tunnels and set up the test sites.

One thing I learned.... this earth dog stuff is hard work for the club members! I was impressed with the number of people who showed up, shovels in hand to help dig the tunnels. Everyone was friendly, and we learned a lot about this new sport (new to us!)

Here are some club members preparing the site for the Master ED test. They rented a small back hoe to dig some of the tunnels out. I don't know everyones name... but Carol Simpson, a judge for next weeks test, was directing the digging.

Below is photo of some of the members who showed up to dig and lend support. Jim (my hubby) is the guy in the heavy coat and hat.

Here's Jim lending a hand placing a portion of the tunnel for the Senior test.

Below is Teri Beverly directing the shovelers. Teri was everywhere, digging, carrying and then helping folks do a bit of tunnel work with their dogs.

Here's Jim and Scooter waiting for their turn to run.

Both Tess and Scooter did pretty good and we were told that how they performed would be good for the real test. Tess even chewed through one of the dowels that separates the dogs from the rat in a cage.... everyone told us this was a badge of honor! Scooter did what any good little BT would do... he went right down the hole, to the rat and tried his best to "git em". Good boy Scoots!

Here is Tess's dowel.....

Both of our BTs work for the real deal on our farm in PA. Tess has a total of 15 groundhogs to her name, Scooter helps and becoming quite the little hunter. We hope to take them both on to the Master level in this earth dog stuff.....stay tuned!

We also watched a BIS BT do his turn in the tunnels. Now that was pretty cool. It was very nice to see a dog that has been that successful in the show ring be out in the dirt doing what he should be bred to do! Now, if we could just get our GWP owners to do the same with their dogs!!!!!

February in Vero

It's been a quiet month here at the beach, the weather has been rather chilly, cloudy, stormy and not wonderful beach weather. This morning it's cold... very cold, work up to temps in the mid 30's!

It's gotta warm up sometime soon. Doesn't it?

The Borders don't mind this weather one bit, in fact, they seem to really enjoy the cool temps on their morning walks on the beach. Goody for them... I want it warm! But we aren't in PA, where it's snowing again, another 12" are expected for them. Poor buggers.

We did get out to the beach one day this week and did a bit of fishing. Here's a photo of hubby Jim and the dogs. Tess is the head fish'n pole watcher, Scooter is learning!

Last weekend Scooter went to a dog show in Lakeland. We met up with some really wonderful BT folks and got to see some nice little dogs. Scooter was Reserve winners dogs (best of the losers!) so no more points for him this week.

Next week we will be heading up to Ocala for the Go To Ground trial. That will be fun and the dogs will really enjoy it.

My GWP, Louie, headed out to Iowa to spend the spring with pro trainer Jim West. So far the reports are good, keep your fingers crossed that he does well in the field trials out there. My thanks to Jim and Rhonda for taking such good care of him.

Border Terrier Art Work

Two wonderful Border Terrier prints available from artist L.A. Shepard

If you own a "Little Brown Dog", each of these delightful prints will touch your heart!

Leeann captured both the tenderness and the spirit of this breed and they would make a great addition to your BT collection.

#1 Border in the grass

#2 Border with butterfly

Description

About the Prints:

This open edition image measures 8x10 inches and is printed on 8.5"x11" Museum Quality paper with archival inks.

100% cotton rag paper designed for archival fine art prints.

Print is hand signed by the artist on the front border.

Ordering:

Each print is $15.00 plus $5.00 shipping to the US- Shipping anywhere else please add $4.00

Order both- pay one shipping fee

Please let me know which print you are ordering #1 or #2

Payment

Payment by check to

Bernee Brawn

1408 Pineville Road

New Hope, PA 18938

OR

Pay through PayPal

Borders at the beach

We've moved into our new winter home here in Ambersand Beach Florida. Ambersand Beach is on a barrier island sandwiched between the Indian River and the Atlantic ocean. We are just north of Vero Beach and just a mile south of the Sebastian Inlet.

The home we have rented for the winter is an older beach house, it's not fancy, but suits our purposes beautifully! And for the dogs, it's just great. In the back yard we have the beach and ocean, across the street is the Indian River lagoon, the best of both worlds. The place is fenced, and I've brought along a whole bunch of ex-pens so we are pretty secure. The two BT's had some lessons on not going past a certain point in the front yard to ensure they won't go out into the road. We'll continue those lessons every day just to be sure.

Here's a photo of our house- from the beach.....

Tess and Scooter have been having a blast on the beach! Tess's favorite thing is to just lie on the beach and watch the birds. I think she'll lie there all day if she could.

Scooter enjoys watching as well!

Across the street we have a dock on the river... if you look real close, you'll see Tess at the end looking for fish (she loves fish!)

Yesterday we spent most of the day just sitting on the beach with some friends. The men folk fished (didn't catch a thing!) and we girls just chatted and watched the world go by. But then, someone spotted something out in the water.....

A WHALE!!!!!!!! Yup, for sure we had a whale swimming along out in front of our house. After doing some research on the internet, it appears that Right Whales will from time to time swim up the east coast to have their babies. She/He hung out just off shore for well over 2 hrs, unfortunately we were unable to get any photos of it. We'll keep watching!

So What Did You Do Today?

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Scooter and Tess serenading a friend of ours - a beautiful day on the beach.

Sea Turtles, Dead Fish and Border Terriers

January 14, 2010

It's been a very odd winter, especially here in Florida! Cold..... just downright cold!

We arrived in the Vero Beach area on Sunday, Jan. 10th, and dang... it was downright cold!

We landed in a very nice county RV park just north of Sebastian Inlet and are staying here for the remainder of the week.

The park is a spit of land that juts out into the Indian River, most all of the sites are right on the water, so it's a great place to be. If it would just get a bit warmer! Here is Tess and Scooter checking out the beach.

Here is our camp.... the dogs have a nice little yard to hang out in.

On Wednesday we drove up to the house we will be renting for the season to check it out and do a bit of investigating. This place is fun because it's right on the beach, and directly across the street is the Indian River. The best of both worlds for us.

Because the weather has been so dang cold down here, the local wildlife has been effected badly. Along with dozens of dead fish on the beach, here is something else we found.

Sea Turtles! We found two of them - a fairly large turtle, and then a smaller one. We weren't sure they were alive, since they wouldn't move. I got brave and touched one, and it opened it's eyes, so not knowing any better we attempted to get him back into the water.

But he just didn't want to move. When we went back to camp I did a google on sea turtles and the weather, and I found out that there were hundreds of them being found on the beaches in a condition called "Cold Stunned". This apparently happens when the water and air gets too cold for them. I contacted the local Turtle Rescue and they came and picked our guys up and took them to the warm Turtle Hospital. Hopefully they will be released when everything warms up again.

IT'S WARMING UP!!!!

Yesterday we took the pooches and headed over to the beach. We were able to shed a layer or two of clothes, but there was still a very cool wind blowing. The temps were reported to be around 60. Getting better, but I can't wait till it hits 70 at least!

Once again we found dozens and dozens of dead fish up and down the beach. Snook, Rays, catfish, puffers and dozens of Stone Crabs! All killed by the cold water. At least the seagulls will eat well.

Scooter and Tess had a blast racing up and down the beach and it gave them a chance to run a bit of their pent up energy off. I think they will enjoy being beach dogs this winter!

Our 2009 Winter Vacation

January 5th, 2009 - We're off to Florida for the winter!

Florida, land of sunshine, palm trees and warm weather.

Well, not so far!

Here we sit in Daytona Beach and believe it or not, it's been sleeting since 7 am! Sleeting!

Scooter was entered in a dog show here, and I showed him wearing my Carhart jacket, jeans, gloves and boots. The judge was bundled up in his finest winter garb, and we all froze out butts off!

Below are some pictures to prove it all.....

Snow/sleet on the umbrella at the campground!

Ice on our car window....

Tess and Scooter snoozin' on the couch after the dog show.

The weather is supposed to warm up later this week.... we hope!

Scooter at Daytona Beach