Happy Birthday to my beautiful blue girl - aka "Sparky", "Spunkster", "Suzie Uzi". She's a handsome bluetick, don't you think? UCDX Daugherty's Blazin Blue Suzie UDX2 Bh
I've been delinquent, but since it' Suzie's birthday, I thought I'd better post! :o Above is a picture of Suzie and one of her famous works of art. She chewed the center out of the pool and drug this part around, making quick work of it. She must have known I wanted to get rid of the pool. She's probably 12 to 18mo old in this picture. Above that is Suzie Cool (like Joe Cool, ya know? lol) from a trip to WI and That's My Dog! (www.thatsmydog.biz) quite a few years ago for a gather of graduates from the school there.
Today, May 1st is my little May Day girl's day! Suzie is 7 today and it's hard to believe. Today she not only got to enjoy time on the greenbelt with her "boyfriend" Barry, but she enjoyed a bully stick from Aunt Tiffany (Jack and Jeb enjoyed one too). We also fussed over her quite a bit and I had her "dressed" in a pretty collar. LOL Of course, Suzie has no idea why all the weirdness, but we enjoy it!
Suzie came to me at 11mo of age and she was a train wreck. Now she's working on her OTCH! We've come a loooong way together. I didn't get very into her at first. She didn't seem like she'd work well for SAR, no confidence. I observed her and saw in her what I needed in a SAR dog, so I set out to train her in obedience to build confidence and bring out that desire to hunt. It worked. Suzie is a terrific trailing dog now and working on other SAR work. Finally, in the last couple years I've totally bonded with her (yep, it took a while) and see the full potential in her and I myself have the confidence to go for it in obedience. She's tough and has thrown me some curves, but she's doing fantastic with a UDX2 and 38 OTCH points. I love my girl!
Suzie at 11mo when I first got her. Shaggy from living outside near Chicago and much lighter than now.
Back to the dogs....I'd like to post more of Suzie. We'll see if I can blog regularly for a few months. :o You never know what might happen..... Thanks for reading! Paula & the hounds
