January: Annie, Winn’s first Rally title, fun times in the snow, training and Winn’s Canine Good Citizen title.
February: Snow!! Hearst Castle and indoor swimming.
March: St. Patrick’s Day, a VERY tiring grooming seminar and chasing chickens.
April: Kansas City with Maisie.
May: Newfoundland National Specialty, meeting new friends and attending a water training workshop with our Canadian buddies.
June: celebrating Maisie turning 5 and Winn turning 1 on our newly designated Annual Dog Birthday in honor of Annie, more ribbons for Winn and Therapy Dog training with Maisie.
July: 4th of July and water training with our friends.
August: Lots and lots of training fun and our very first Newfoundland Water Test (we didn’t do very well, but it was a great experience).
September: Studying hard for our final water test, which was our most successful and a great way to end the summer.
October: October baseball and Halloween, Maisie and I began our quest to find all of the murals in town.
November: Thanksgiving, playing in the leaves and frolicking in the first snowfall of the season.
December: The most wonderful time of the year!
Are you looking for a gift idea for that special dog or dog lover in your life? Whenever possible, we like to support local or small businesses and many of our favorite things fall into that category.
There are 5 different flavors to choose of this easy to make, easy to store mix. Personally, I add more water than is called for because the mix is very crumbly and I find it easier to roll out and make shapes when the texture is smoother. The girls haven’t noticed a difference and have loved every flavor that we’ve tried!
There are so many choices! We especially like 
Keep your favorite furry friend nearby when you are out and about. I recently bought a memorial key chain in honor of Annie, but there are many other key chain options as well as a bracelets, necklaces and ornaments. They are made to order and personalized so plan on about 10 days lead time during the holiday season. I ordered mine last month and received it within days of my order and so far have been very pleased.
Last year my husband gave me glasses with the names of each of our past and present Newfies etched under the Newfie image. It took me a while to be able to use the Annie glass, but after a year of regular use and being washed in the dishwasher, they are still in perfect condition!
Taking classes with Maisie and Winn is something we all enjoy. Training has helped strengthen our bond and they each look to me as the leader of our team. My communication with them and their listening skills have continued to improve with each session. They both love the one on one time and the tasty rewards. Take a look at the schedules at your nearby training center and surprise someone with a class to try something new and different.
This calendar raises money for the Newfoundland Club of America’s Charitable Trust. Each year they ask for pictures to be posted on their FaceBook and the top 12 pictures with the most likes are featured. The runners-up are featured in smaller squares within the calendar (baby Maisie was in the calendar last year).
Christine is a Newfie owner and graphic designer. She has created so many cute Newfie images that can be put onto many different things. I purchased a beach towel from her last year that she customized for me with a brown newfie.
Mugs, ornaments, coasters and other novelty items $16 and up available 
$20.70-$28.80 depending on size, other gift items also available on their website 
Newfoundland, Canada has a minor league hockey team and their mascot is the Newfoundland Dog. Check out their online store 
$11.99-$19.99 depending on size and style, available 
As a big dog owner I have a hard time finding things big enough, especially beds. This is one company that caters specifically to big dogs. They are made in the U.S.A out of high quality materials. The cover zips off for easy washing and replacement covers are available. I purchased one for Annie and she immediately knew it was hers. She let Maisie try it out when it arrived, but after that, it was all hers. Every night, she cuddled up on it, rubbed her face in the bumper while making happy noises and then fell into a sound sleep.
Our “shop dog” friend Capone recommends the super soft and washable stretch fleece from Gold Paw ($22 and available in many colors on their website 
When we arrived, she went right down to our regular spot, waded right in and was ready to go after her toys. What a relief!
We played with different toys for a while and I mixed in her bumper and life jacket just for fun. She wasn’t reluctant at all to go after anything I threw out for her so I was pretty confident the horsefly fear had been tucked away and as long as another one didn’t show up while we were testing, we should be fine.
If I couldn’t get her to pull the boat all the way in before dropping the bumper, we would still have a chance if she picked the bumper back up and pulled some more. It’s not a very efficient way of doing it, but I would be allowed to keep directing her to pick it up and pull as many times as necessary until the boat was beached. The telling sign is that the boat comes to a stop and the line is still taught. If the boat drifts in and the line is slack, she needs to keep pulling until there is tension in the line, then the exercise is finished. I decided to focus on that. My first choice was to have her keep coming toward me in one smooth motion, but I wanted to have a back up plan so that we would still have a chance of passing.
Finally we were ready to get back to practice with our training group and we met up on Labor Day. Technically Winn still wouldn’t be cleared to mix with other dogs for another three days but I would keep her away while the boys practiced and then bring her down after they had done everything they wanted to do. We always set up crates and keep the dogs separated when we practice since we act as each others’ stewards but I didn’t want her to be a distraction. This was an important practice for all of us and we all wanted to do our best. Our next test was scheduled for that Saturday and this was our first practice with the boat in over a month (she was completely confused during the test in Indiana which was the last time she had tried the exercise).
After the other dogs had all practiced I brought her back down for her turn with the boat. Our normally calm lake was pretty churned up with the wind and the storm and she wasn’t as confident as usual. She swam out short distances and did everything really well but when we moved out further to the test distance she didn’t want to swim out. I decided that we wouldn’t go to the test in Michigan on Saturday, our friends hadn’t signed up for that one and would be practicing that day instead. Our club’s test was the following weekend (at the same location where we have been practicing) and I really wanted us to be our best for that one since it was our last chance. It would be better for us to have a fun practice with our friends than try and do everything perfectly in a new location with the added nerves of being in a test.
I was glad I made that decision because when we went back on Saturday she did have a couple of issues that we worked through and by the end of practice she was doing Take A Line and Tow A Boat perfectly. I wasn’t concerned about the other exercises so we didn’t practice them, I just mixed in her favorite retrievals to break up “the work”, which for Winn isn’t work at all. She really loves being in the water and her energy level was great. She was swimming without her life jacket and was still really strong at the end of practice. We were as ready as we were going to be. She had mastered all six exercises in our first summer of training and I was so happy with all that she had learned. If we could pull it off in the test, that would be the cherry on top.
next post: test time once again!
For the Drop Retrieve, the stewards row out 50 feet with her life jacket and drop it on the far side of the boat. We have to wait for the boat to clear the area, then I point her to the life jacket and send her out to bring it back to shore. We stood on shore (she still refused to sit) and once I knew she had spotted it, I sent her out. It was all going really well until a HUGE horsefly appeared and started buzzing around her head. She started whipping her head right and left, up and down, trying to keep an eye on it and then she turned and charged straight toward me out of the water. I was able to grab her before she sprinted off of the beach (that’s an automatic fail and you must stop the test) but I could tell that she was freaked out. I wasn’t sure what I should do but the judge encouraged me to take her back out and have her try it again. I knew that was the right thing to do, I didn’t want her to now be afraid of the water so we went out together and when I was about waist deep she kept swimming on her own and retrieved her jacket. I met her back on shore and kept a good grip on her collar while we got ready for the next exercise.
Take a Line can be a difficult exercise for a lot of dogs but Winn has been solid with it all summer when we’ve practiced. I hoped that she would be confident with this one and we could get back on track but as we stood on shore I had a really hard time getting her attention and focus. The judge encouraged me to take our time, get her settled and let her know when we were ready. I gave Winn some rubs and talked in her ear, she wasn’t fully attentive but she was better so I signaled that we were ready. She didn’t want to take the line at first, but when she did, she turned and started heading away from the water. I grabbed her collar and then once again, headed into the water with her to get her going. Once I was next to her in the water, she seemed to register what she was supposed to do and she finished up on her own and I met her back on shore.
So far we had passed the first two exercises and failed the next two so we were not going to pass the test. You must pass all six exercises in one test to achieve the Water Dog title. We had two exercises left and I was thinking maybe we should just pull out since she was still nervous and looking for that terrible horsefly. I voiced that to the judge and she told me she would support whatever I decided but she encouraged me to keep going, Winn was doing well once she got in the water. In all of the exercises, once you let the judge know you are ready, you must have your hands off of your dog. You can’t touch them again until the exercise is finished and then you can grab their collar and gently lead them back to the set up point for the next exercise. If the dog leaves the beach, it’s an automatic fail and you have to leave the test. Since Winn wanted to bolt, I kept grabbing her so she wouldn’t leave the area. By putting my hands back on her, we failed the exercise, but we could still continue on with the test. It’s always a good idea to keep going even if you don’t pass an exercise because you don’t want your dog to think that’s how we do it. When she turned and left the water before completing her task (also a fail), I didn’t want her to think that was a good way to perform that exercise, instead I went with her and then she did what she knew to do and I met her back on shore and praised her that she had done a good job. Did I mention that I also had a severely sprained ankle? Chasing after Winn in the sand and the water without my full physical powers was painful, clumsy and not very efficient. I’m still amazed that I was able to catch her when she tried to run by me!
I was so relieved as I walked her back to the car. I got her settled in with her fan blowing on her, a fresh bowl of water and some of her favorite treats scattered around her and then I went to gather all of our stuff to get us packed up. I was sitting in the car with Winn, about ready to head home when the judge approached and knocked on the window. She wanted to let me know that she thought Winn was a very good working dog. She told me that the very best water dog she ever had approached the articles in the water in the same way that Winn had. She swims to the left of the article and then will turn towards the item to grab it before making another 1/4 turn back to shore. She said that’s not something that’s trained, it’s instinct. By doing that, she has less drag from the item as she turns to shore. I thanked the judge for her input, I couldn’t believe she searched us out, and she told me she looked forward to seeing us in future tests.
Bogart was my husbands bachelor dog and easily adapted to our growing and changing family. He was so gentle but also had a talent for escaping and getting into things. I wrote about him on National Mutt Day, you can read more about him 
When we moved into our current house, there were two Newfoundlands in the neighborhood that I noticed while out for their daily walk. I thought they were the most beautiful dogs I’d ever seen and after meeting and talking to their owners, I just knew that was the breed for me.
Charlie was a Newfoundland/Labrador mix that we adopted several months after we said goodbye to Bogart. Bailey was about a year old and we missed having two dogs. We think he was about three years old when he was found with another small dog in the woods in Tennessee and they were both transported to Illinois by a rescue group. He was very thin when we brought him home and he was always a hunter, I assume because he lived in the wild before he was found. We frequently found dead animals (squirrels, birds, possums and chipmunks) in the yard. He loved to be warm. He would curl up next to radiators and sit as close to the fireplace as he could get. His fur would be hot to the touch, but he would be so content. He tried curling up with Bailey whenever he could but she was always hot and she would “kangaroo leg” him to get him to back off. Bailey constantly bossed him around and he was pretty tolerant of her moods. Occasionally he would let her know that he’d had enough and she would look so offended when he snarled at her. She never really understood why there might be a problem, but they bonded well and depended on each other for the rest of their lives. Charlie curled up by my feet and died 2 weeks after Bailey died and I will always remember them together; they lived together and they died together.
After losing Bailey and Charlie, I vowed to never again have two dogs close in age, the heartache was just too much. When Maisie was three years old I found Annie. Her age was presumed to be between 7-9 when she was rescued and she had been in foster care for a year. After doing some internet research on my own, I believe she was 9 1/2 when we adopted her. She was a puppy mill mama that was severely traumatized from years of abuse and neglect but she found a new life after she was rescued and blossomed in the two years that she was a part of our family. The first time I heard the term “heart dog”, I considered all of my dogs as my heart dog, I love them all so much. That was until I met Annie. There was something very different about our bond, probably because she needed me so much and I was driven to show her as much love as possible to make up for all of the years that we didn’t have together. She was very, very special and she changed me. She made me a better person and those two short years were a lifetime for us. She will always be with me, she is my heart dog and I wish I had more time with her.
maisiethenewfieandcompany 