Happy New Year!

So I wanted to get some pics of the doggies for New Years Eve.

Winston, of course, was  a very willing subject!

He will let you pose him almost any way!

Carly and Elliott were not quite as willing as Winston and it gets better...

Carly looks less than thrilled here! I think she is plotting my demise!

Carly and Elliott do not look like they are ready to party like it is 2011!

Here, Carly looks like a disgruntled teenager in a family photo... pretty sure she hates all of us!

Now Elliott appears as thrilled as Carly-whom I gave up on! 

Winston, however, is almost always pleasant and easy going!

Winston had a fabulous 2010! He has done so much in his short little life already!

Happy New Year everyone! See you 2011!

Winston's day job

We have been transitioning the dogs off the Royal Canin dog food and back to Canidae since we seem to have Winston's itching resolved. I had been mixing the two foods in varying quantities to help the dogs adjust and Carly decided she liked the new food much better!! She picked out all the new food pieces and started putting them on the floor! I thought this was so funny.

Back at the office, Winston tries to get me to fill up his water bowl.

Just in case I did not get the hint...

Back to paper shredding.

Hard work!

Paper shredder extraordinaire!

Cutie pie!

More Holiday pics...

I had to include a post with some of Mark's great pics from his new camera.

Winston waiting for Santa.

The" movie star dog" poses with  me at Nona and Pops.

Hasten and Elliott in a brief moment of peace and quiet!

Hasten in all her adorable cuteness!

A very rare photo of the whole clan together!

Holidays=Dog days

We all took a road trip to Seagrove to see Mark's family.

Mark's niece, Ale, loves the doggies!

and the doggies love her too!

Back at home for Christmas Eve, all the doggies got "Lucky" dog toys from PetSmart. Winston poses with his toy. They sorta favor each other.

Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads...

On Christmas Day, we all went to Nona and Pops house where everyone met my sisters new puppy, Hasten.  Poor Hasten was so sweet and adorable but no one wanted to play with her. Hasten moves so fast  I think they were  not even sure if she was a dog! Hasten showed us some of her  "free shaping training." She is so cute.

Winston loved all the gifts and unwrapping since paper shredding is his favorite form of activity! It was like a dream come true!

Of course all the doggies got their fair share of presents! Winston had no problems opening his gift from Aunt Toni!

Elliott looks like he had too much eggnog!

We also learned for the first time that Carly is a pyromaniac!

She was so entranced by the fire that she watched it for hours!

After all the gifts were opened everyone was soo tired.

Time for a nap so we can all be ready to play with all our new toys!  What a great Christmas!!!!

Training videos

Back to work for Winston and more training with our favorite trainer Lindsey! Winston has really perfected many "tricks" now. Including "touch" and "paw" that we have turned into "close it" where he can close a cabinet or drawer (at Glen height!) More progress to come, too I am sure!

Tonight Winston finally mastered "roll over." He has been very reluctant to learn this "trick." Tonight he really "got it" though and he has been able to duplicate "roll over" on command. Here is a short raw video of him performing.

Winston also took some time to do some Christmas shopping. He especially liked the rodent aisle.

Now, if we can just make it through the holidays!

Deck the halls with ...Westies and Glens.

Mark took some great photos of the dogs for our holiday cards. Carly, Elliott and the movie star front and center!

Elliott is our pacifist and hates when Carly and Winston are at odds, so for Christmas Elliott wants world peace or at least peace at home for one night!

Carly is the alpha dog and Winston still challenges her almost daily. She wants Winston to move out for Christmas!

All Winston wants for Christmas is all the food he can eat....and maybe a baby brother!

Elliott and Carly look a little bored in this one!

Soo cute!

Carly looks perturbed that Winston is so close to her.

I love this one! Elliott and Winston are posing and Carly is hating us for making her wear that stupid hat and sit by Winston!

A snow angel!

"Don't forget me Santa, I have been good all year! "

Statesman Finnabair Winston O'Reilly and his State of the Union address

Ok, I am just loving my new camera.  As I go through all the menu items on the camera, I need a subject to try the different settings.  Winston is always willing to be my model (I think he loves me!) and I take advantage of his generosity.  Here is an example of both direct and 30 degree offset bounce lighting with the remote light supplying 75% of the light.  There were also 2 shop lights on the right bouncing 1000 watts off the ceiling.  Then there is the post production where the sepia tones, vignetting and grain were added to transform the shot into something that I really like.  Double click on the image to see a bigger version.  Winston looks like he is ready to address parliament or something.  I hope you like it.  He is one handsome lad, don't you think?  I love this dog!

Training and Hunting

Winston's training continues.  We are working towards his pet therapy certification and Canine Good Citizenship titles.  We are concentrating on Winston's weaknesses which include wanting to play with other dogs and a little too much exuberance when greeting a stranger.  You can see here that Winston is doing a pretty good job with both problem areas.

Here is a shot of Jackson, a beautiful rescue Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever who is in Winston's class.  He is a really nice dog.
















And here is Brendy.  She is a beautiful massive Mastif who has been with Winston since they were both 10 weeks old.

Lindsey is helping us teach Winston new tricks.  Here she works on 'close it' (the cabinet) and 'wave'.  Winston is getting pretty darn good at both.

The original reason we decided to get another dog was to accompany me when I go deer hunting and help find downed deer.  Kelli has reluctantly allowed Winston to leave home with me.  It's been great (for me).  Winston has become my best hunting buddy.  He goes with me every time I can get away to go hunting.  He follows me into the woods and if a deer is shot (not very often) it is his duty to find the deer.

I hunt primarily in a pine plantation and we hunt openings in the forest.As you can see here, the foliage is incredibly thick where I hunt in Alabama.  This is where Winston's nose really comes in handy.  As you probably know, we have been training Winston to track all summer and he had his first real tracking experience recently.  He tracked his deer perfectly and I was more excited about his tracking performance than I was about harvesting a deer.  Great job Winston!

The more I hunt, the more I find I enjoy shooting deer with a camera than I do with a gun.  Winston doesn't seem to mind too much although I wonder if he thinks that I am a lousy hunter because we don't 'bring home the bacon' very often.

Here are a few shots of the critters we see.