Frozen Paws

I'd like to start out this post with a HUGE "thank you" to Jennifer at Canine Design Pet Spa. If you're in Anchorage, AK and would like some grooming or pampering for your pet (dogs and cats, both!), you NEED to look her up. Absolutely phenomenal groomer. If you don't believe me, check out these "before and after" pictures of some of the miracles she's worked.

First off, she was the one who helped us so much in Kenai. During the palmer show, not only did she house and feed us, she helped us with grooming Ryder. I'm not talking about just washing and trimming him up, she opened up her shop to us, and taught us as much as she could cram in before bedtime (2:00 am the morning of the show...).

Here is our base camp at the Palmer Fair grounds. Nice weather meant no need for tents. Thank God:

The show went very good for us. We are pleased to say that Ryder was on VERY, VERY good behavior. His "talking" was at a very minimum, and he is learning that when he is in the ring, playtime is over. In fact, during the 2nd and 3rd day's group, he had other dogs trying to play with him. He just stared lovingly up at Erin and ignored them. Pretty darn good for a young pup. Erin was approached by a professional handler showing a Pom, and asked her, "Is that the same puppy you were showing in Kenai?" When she replied, "Yes," he said, "I can't believe it. He is a totally different dog. He's amazing!!" Pretty good complement, if I do say so myself...

Erin also did very well in the ring. She's really getting Ryder's speed down, and learning more of the tricks to showing dogs. As you can see in this photo, she's able to keep Ryder's attention, even on a loose lead. They make a great team, don't you think.

Another plus was that the lady that was so awful to Erin was not at this show. This left only nice people. Very, very cool. Everyone was great. One standard was finished there, but the best moments was on the 3rd day when Jennifer and her blue standard "Tripoli (Trip)" won Best of Breed and showed in group with Erin and Ryder. On that same day, we were informed that Dandy, a black standard, was to be shaved down after the show. Her owner was not sure if Dandy was show quality and decided that this would be the last show for that dog. Dandy won a major that day. It was the very first major for Dandy (previously known as "The Reserve Queen"). After that Dandy's owner could only look and say, "Sorry honey, I guess you gotta keep your hair..." A very good day. Here's Trip and Dandy posing in the Best of Breed competition.


All in all a great experience. I think the funniest moment of the trip happened when Jennifer's 3 "lap dogs" (Trip, Spirit, and Fancy) were playing with Ryder (very gently, I might add). Jennifer told the three of them to "get your kitty!" which was a stuffed toy cat. Trip turned, faced Ryder, and started to growl. At the same time, the two girls rounded on Ryder. Jennifer yelled, "Not a kitty, NOT A KITTY!!!!" Ryder didn't back down, though (I think he was oblivious). Those three dogs played so well with Ryder and were very well mannered. I think that at the show, Ryder looked up to Trip as a "protector" from the Chow that always growls at him. When they weren't playing, Jennifer was supplying them with treats which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

All this time, Bob got a luxury vacation with his buddy Rosie. From my in-laws reports, they ran pretty consistently all four days. He's pretty tired now. Real big on naps. Tonight, I bathed him and practiced my scissoring on him, using my new "skills". Grooming is kind of addictive. As I sat there clipping I kept thinking "Ooh, I can make this look better. And this. And this. And this....." Better stop now while I'm ahead.

Last thing. New feature here on Frozen Paws. I want to start a gallery of dog portraits (doesn't have to be a poodle) from people who read this site, or are just passing through. I thought it would be a fun way to show off those we call our "best friend." We love our dogs and I know that Erin and I love to check out your pictures, so why not compile some of them together for the passers by. If you want your pups picture up, leave a comment (or an email) with the link to your site, your pet's name and call name (if applicable). I'll try to get them up as best I can.

Our laptop, which Ian generally uses to blog with, is broken. Thus, posts have been few and far between here lately. We're sorry for the inconvenience. I'm working on fixing the laptop, and in the meantime maybe I can convince Ian to blog from my computer about the exploits of the poodles.

We have uploaded a few of our pictures from last weekend's dog show in Palmer onto our Flickr page. You can visit them by clicking on the picture in this post, if you want.

Well, to start things off, I've got some bad news. Sounds like Ryder scared off all the other mini competition in the state. We're the only mini in the show. So, if we're going to score any points, it'll have to be in group... oh well. Life's lonely on the top....

In other news, we washed Ryder tonight. We tried the sink method this time, seeing as how we put a deep sink in for washing the dogs. It worked really, really well. The one oversight we had though, was the infamous, post bath "shake"...


Yup, water, water everywhere (I was encouraging him a little, though). We did better this time, cutting our total wash time from two and a half hours down to an hour and fifteen minutes. Man, that little guy has LOADS of hair. He did pretty well standing on the table this time. I think he's getting it down (cookies didn't hurt his mood, either).

Tomorrow, we're going to wet him, dry him straight, again, and then work on getting his puppy clip tuned up a bit for the show next week. Lots of table attention for this boy (Belinda, be ready for our pleas for help...)

Tags: poodle, poodles, Alaska, Alaskan, dog baths, wet dog, shake

Well, we finally gave in. Bob CANNOT be corded. We hated how it made him feel. He didn't like it, we didn't like it, so we cut it all off. We cut him by ourselves (and a little help from Shirlee Kalstone) after extensive brushing to remove his mats. We roughed him in last night (until about 2:30 am) and finished scissoring him today. Needless to say, we're pretty proud with the job we've done. It was my first attempt at scissoring (Erin was a little roughed up which you can read about here). You could call it my version of the lamb clip. We think Bobby looks great and wanted to show him off...

In other news, we're heading off to Palmer with Ryder on the 4th of August (which is also our 5th wedding anniversary) for the Cook Inlet Kennel Club's dog show. It's an outdoor show, so hopefully the weather will be great. We've been practicing down at the local park every evening, and he seems to be doing pretty well on the lead.

We received an invite to stay with the poodle groomer from Anchorage (about 40 minutes away) while we're there. She has her shop underneath her apartment, and has offered to help with Erin with Ryder. Ryder LOVES this person very much, as she helped us at the Kenai Show.

Another reason we're excited is that she has silver/blue standards, which Ryder loves to play with. He made a good friend of Tripoli (Trip for short), her blue dog. Trip kept Ryder company at Kenai and played with him (very gently) after the shows. They would lay in their kennels side by side and watch the people, share water, and sing to all passer's by. Well Ryder would sing, but I think Trip would hum along...

We don't know how many mini's will be at the show, but it's rumored that one handler from California is bringing some bitches (enough for his own major), and a breeder in Anchorage may have one entered. Keep your fingers crossed...

I DO however know the judges, and they are as follows:

• Friday: Mr. Norman Patton
• Saturday: Mrs. Honey Glendinning
• Sunday: Mr. Jamieson (Rick) Glendinning

I hope they love mini poodle pups....

Tags: poodle, poodles, Cook Inlet Dog Show, Alaska, Alaskan, lamb clip

Well, today we were voted BlogMad's Blog of the Day. Break out the good steak for the puppies!!

We're so proud of them...

Thanks for all the votes!

Tags: poodles, poodle, Alaska, Alaskan, Blog of the Day

When I arrived home from work today Erin looked at me and said, "Look what YOUR dog did today." In guy terms, that means one of the two is in a little bit of poodley trouble, and that makes me the responsible party.

Turns out, I left a paper towel roll on an end table as I left for work this morning. Ryder thought that I was the best guy ever for leaving such a wonderful toy where he could get it. You know the normal puppy thing to do, would be to unroll the paper towel by pushing the roll around with his nose and then shred it to pieces. Not Ryder. He's a super special dog. He brought the paper towel roll to Erin, shaking it vigorously, and presenting it to her, saying, "Look Mom!!! I got it! I got it!!" Yeah, all my fault.

Next thing MY dog did:

Erin points out to the yard and there is a hole that Ryder and Bob decided to excavate. My reply of course was, "What's the problem? You only have to shore the sides if it's OVER four feet deep." Probably not the right thing to say, so of course, I said it. Not that the digging was bad, she has been watching them and stopping it quickly, it's just that after they open a hole, Bob, who we are trying to cord, likes to roll around in the dirt (NOTE: He sleeps in bed with us therefore dusty sheets if we don't catch him). Oh yeah, the only reason they could get to a place they like to dig, was because I forgot to close the gate to the garden after I watered the plants this morning.

All in all, the boys are enjoying the nicer weather up here. It's been pretty rainy the last week or so, so not much outside time. They're making the most of it...

Well, we're back. And the Kenai Dog show was great. Ryder took Best of Breed all 3 days (being the only miniature poodle, it was sort of a given. But hey, "HE DESERVED IT!!!!") and did great in the group competition as well (more on this later).



Erin and I left Fairbanks at about 7:00 pm on Thursday and arrived at the show at about 4:45 am on Friday morning. We probably would have arrived earlier, but I took a wrong turn towards Seward and realized it about 20 miles into the drive. Whoopsie. I've only driven to Kenai once before and seemed to be a little confused at that particular hour.... We made it safe and sound. And tired, and cranky, and grumpy.

We took a 2 hour nap in the car and then proceeded to figure out what the heck we were supposed to be doing. We started to mosey around until the holy grail of vehicles drove up with a plate that said POODLZ. Our kind of rig. This handler was a local (from Soldotna) handler/breeder who Erin and I had email contact with but had never met. She saw us with Ryder and knew who we were. She was an awesome lady, showing a white standard bitch. She had grooming tent space already set up for us, and made us feel at home. She even had us over for dinner. He dogs are beautiful, too. She let Erin play with some 5 week old standard puppies, which was a bad idea. It was almost tempting to make plans to return for this one gorgeous little standard puppy, but we're sticking with just two for right now.... Ryder still needs a LOT of attention.

Erin and I set up in the tent with another handler from Phoenix, who helped us get Ryder's topknot up. It was a hurried attempt, but it was the best we could do, having never done a poodle's show hair before. Erin and I did some scissoring, and lots of brushing until our friend/groomer from Anchorage arrived. She is showing a gorgeous blue standard dog. The groomer helped us after our class competition with some final scissoring and some tips on handling.

Group on Friday was kind of "interesting," to put it kindly. Ryder, who was probably as tired and cranky as we were, was also EXTREMELY excited. He was in the ring right behind a bulldog, and wanted to play more than anything. He did alright, considering he was a puppy without sleep or playtime. Also with two nervous parents running around.... He LOVES to talk to the other dogs and wanted to pick a play fight with others. Kind of distracting, but also kind of cute. Very poodley, very attention-demanding, also rather rude and out of control. *sigh* Puppies.


Saturday was a much better day. After the three of us got some sleep, having decided to fork out the $150 a night for a hotel room before we left Fairbanks on Thursday. We were all feeling significantly better. Our groomer friend showed us how to put in a topknot (correctly, this time), and then she ripped (very carefully, mind you) it out, so we would have to do it. She's making us learn, darn it. So we did him up. We got to the ring at the said time, which was about one hour too early. Ryder did much better this time and he won Best of Breed, again!! On to group...


Erin and I were quite nervous about Friday's performance, but Ryder proved us wrong by being one heck of a performer. He minded his manners and was a great boy for Erin. It came down to the end, and he didn't place again, but we were so proud of him. He really tried, and strutted his stuff out there. What a boy.

Sunday, Erin and I had the timing down much better for grooming, arriving ringside, etc. We discovered that I, in fact, can do a lot of his grooming and topknotting (it takes two for that, currently). So with brushes, hairspray, combs, and camera in hand, we watched Ryder earn his way into the group ring once again.

Ryder was on his game for Sunday's group. He was free stacking, posing, and gaiting perfectly (or, at least, as perfectly as you can get from a 6.5 month old pup). In the end the judge stopped and really had to decide between Ryder and a Shiba Inu for Group 4. It seriously upset the crowd when the Shiba took the last group placement. Ryder had become the spectators' favorite at the show.


It was a GREAT weekend. I would say the only bad spot on the weekend was the persistence of one handler who tried to convince Erin that Ryder was terrified of the show (he wasn't at all), and that for the sake of the dog, she should remove him and not show him, maybe ever. Especially in group, and certainly not if she and her dog were entered in group, as well. After the handler saw Ryder in group the second day, she went on to criticize Erin's handling techniques and went as far as to call her 'stupid'. That had the poodle handlers ready to riot. Erin calmly dismissed the nay-sayer and didn't fall for the intimidation techniques. Good thing she didn't 'cause she and Ryder were AWESOME on Sunday.

On the way home we rewarded ourselves with a fun little hike in Girdwood and we camped in Anchorage last night to split up the drive. Now that we're home, we're truly exhausted. We spent the evening IM-ing Ryder's breeders, sharing the good news that he's a natural in the show ring. It was a great trip, and we can't wait until the next show (August 4th, Palmer). We're counting down...


You can see more of Ryder, Erin, and the show on FLICKR.

If you're wondering why Bob is on the slide show and not Ryder, you can scroll through it by pushing the little + button to find some pictures of him. I have to download each picture individually, and so it takes some time. I'ts also alphabetical, so Bob came first. When I get them all uploaded, I'll mix them up so there will be a better balance. Sorry it's taking so long...