National Holiday

It’s Elroy again! Because I get to tell you about a special national holiday. It’s kind of ironic really. Yesterday I got to tell you about the bad “good dog”. And today I get to tell you about the good “good dog.” Because that’s what we do on someone’s BIRTHDAY. Yup. It’s the Boss’ celebration of another trip around the sun. And it’s an extra special one. It’s his 10th birthday!!!! Double digits! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen double digits in this house. Mind you, her highness is well into triple digits. In dog years.

Viktor probably has told the story of Frodo (the Boss’ real name) many times before. But because we may have a new reader or two, I thought I’d recap his history….I wasn’t around during these early days, so I had to research this stuff.

Over the years, her highness had been owned by a multi-breed dog, a Labrador and several Bernese Mountain Dogs. When she suddenly lost her third Bernese, Harper at age 7 to cancer, she decided to “look at” some other breeds. She had read about Polish Lowland Sheepdogs and she knew someone who owned one. She met the dog once and the owner commented that the breed could be stubborn- but also extremely smart. Not one to easily back down from a challenge, her highness thought they sounded “interesting.” In addition, she had a fondness for rare breeds – when she first got into Bernese, no one knew what they were. So rarity did not bother her.

She had heard that there were few PON breeders in Canada – but as luck would have it- there was one in Nova Scotia. She contacted them to simply meet and learn more about their dogs. She did NOT know that they had 9 week old puppies at the time.

The rest, as humans say, is history. It took her less than 24 hours to make a decision- even though she had no intention of getting a puppy when she had arranged that visit. The breeder had been calling him Frodo, and her highness thought it fit, so why change it?

The new family member got along great with Paxton…

And although I couldn’t find a puppy picture with Beamish, the Lab, this shot is proof that they also got along great.

Here’s a shot of the trio:

Her highness quickly learned that this shaggy newcomer was like no dog she had ever owned. He was smart. Really smart. No gate could contain him. And he would NEVER forget something. He was extremely food motivated and extremely easy to train. And he liked to bark…

When he was a puppy, his portrait was done by a Canadian artist when her highness shared his photo…

You can find his painting to this day, on prints, pillows, bags, T-shirts… you name it! Her highness has the original painting. But no – we don’t get royalties….

Meanwhile, they worked together in obedience and rally and her highness also decided to show him in beauty pageants too. Which was not super easy because there weren’t many… often there weren’t any PONs being shown. Despite that fact, the Boss got his Championship with her highness on the other end of the lead. He got it by getting some big group ribbons He also routinely had high scores in obedience and rally. People would comment that they must have trained a lot. Her highness was too embarrassed to admit that they rarely practiced. Once she showed him what to do, he just did the job. Here are the ribbons he got in 2012. Before he turned 3…

He actually also did some work with sheep!

But years later, when he was in a sheep test, he failed. He just likes to do things HIS way,

Because he proved to be such a “wonder” dog, her highness wanted another one just like him. So she got his brother Viktor almost two years later, from a repeat breeding. They were the same, but not.

The Boss welcomed Viktor and years later welcomed me. While he likes to look tough when he first meets other dogs, he’s a real softy underneath.

Here’s a video of The Boss and Baby Viktor. Several carpets ago…

https://youtu.be/GQkJiD0dC0w

Here are early photos with yours truly. Some of them. There are loads. Although for some reason, I am blurry in many of them…

The Boss is RARELY blurry in a photo. Her highness calls him Frodo-genic. He loves having his photo taken. There are literally hundreds of shots of him. Maybe thousands. Here are a few favorites just from the past year…

Barky, bold and brilliant. He owns our house, our road, our county, and her heart. Happy birthday big guy – my hero! Today we celebrate YOU!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.