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Elaine and Chris met their first PWD,
Guinness, through Elaine's
work. His "joie de vivre" and work ethic were
unbridled. We fell in love with the breed.
After researching the breed further and talking to many local
breeders, a little brown and white female
puppy from Camlin PWDS stole our hearts. We named her "Cocoa,"
in memory of Elaine's mother. At 8 weeks old, Cocoa rode
home on Elaine's lap and threw up on her favorite sweater not five
minutes into the ride. It was OK, though, because it smelled
of puppy food and puppy, not a bad smell, actually.
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Puppy Cocoa with her
Kong | |
| Cocoa is
quite full of personality, with a mind of her own--not unusual for
this breed. She loves to work hard, as long as cookies are
involved. While very independent, she can be sweet as pie
and is happy to curl up next to us to enjoy a good belly rub or head
scratch (or cookie). She loves to play with other dogs
and has been called "the most well-adjusted girl" by her
vet. She hates baths but enjoys hanging on
the grooming table. We think she likes the table because
it's high up and she can recon countertops. We took her to
puppy school like good parents and graduated to obedience
classes. We still attend to this day, because we need
constant training and she doesn't seem to mind playing
along. As long as there's a cookie
involved. |
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Cocoa hates
baths |
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Always the princess, Cocoa LOVES the show ring.
While we weren't sure we were ready to join the world of
dog shows and conformation, it's not easy finding places to go where
dogs are welcomed (well, Carmel). But everyone in the dog show
world UNDERSTANDS. So we started showing Cocoa in local shows,
and got hooked on the friendly competition, the funny politics, and
being around dogs, dogs, dogs everywhere. We were
encouraged when Cocoa earned Best in Breed Puppy at the Sir Frances
Drake Dog show in Marin. Cocoa earned her conformation
championship at 1 1/2 years old and obtained her Rally Novice title
with Chris. She also competes in water
trials.
2007 Update: Cocoa earned her Theraphy Dog certification
(TDI) with Chris at the 2007 PWDCA National Specialty in
Ventura. And Cocoa and Zada (her daughter) placed third with
dad Chris showing them in Brace competition at the
National.
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Sisters Cocoa, Betsy & Roulette at
1st dog show |
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PWDCNC (PWD Club of Northern
California), and met a lot of nice people who enjoy doing fun
things with their PWDs. Like water training and competition,
rally, tracking and agility (and some even excel at
obedience!). Noting that many people survived, in fact
thrived with more than one PWD in their home, we decided
that Cocoa needed a playmate. We contacted our
breeder, who helped us find another brown PWD from Italian
breeder do
Lusiadas (Fabiana Bazzani). His name
is "Maquah". |
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Maquah
arrives at SFO |
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Maquah is naturally
athletic, loves to work for cookies but is equally as happy at a
game of fetch. He is very sweet and loves to jump in our laps
and stare into our faces. He is highly obedient and
LOVES water work. In fact, Maquah loves just about
anything that has to do with movement and will probably be an
excellent agility dog. Because his long hair sometimes gets in
his eyes, he's developed the ability to "track" a toy he's
retrieving by smell (though Cocoa is always happy to point it
out to him, for a cookie, of course). Maquah "talks", in fact he has
a whole language of his own that he is continually trying to teach
us.
Maquah earned his Rally Novice
title with Elaine and earned his conformation championship before
reaching age two. He also just earned his UCI title, which
makes him an "international" champion.
2007 Update: Maquah is
working with Elaine in beginning agility, rally advanced, courier
water dog and novice obedience. Maquah earned his first leg in
Advanced Rally at the 2007 PWDCA National Specialty AND earned his
first leg in Novice Obedience at the 2007 PWDCNC
Regional Specialty.
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Maquah loves playing
ball |
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Malazada is from Cocoa's first
litter. We call her "Zada" for short. Her daddy is
"Baker", one of the top 10 PWDs in the U.S. in 2006. Malazada
roughly translates to "deep fried donut" in Portuguese--we called
her this because as a pup, she was truly a porker!. She's
quite the athlete now, and is the sweetest girl who loves
Maquah to pieces and enjoys water work, beginning agility and
rally and lots of hugs. More on Zada as she continues to
amaze us with her obedient, yet hard working spirit!
2007 Update: Not even two
years old, Zada has earned her Apprentice Water Dog title (mama
Cocoa is still working on hers), Rally Novice title, and earned her
first leg in agility JWW at the 2007 PWDCA National Specialty in
Ventura. |
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Oh, this was supposed to be "about us"? To know
our dogs is to know a lot about us. They've happily transformed our
lives.
We live in Castro Valley, California. To
contact us, email: elaine@avidapwds.com or phone:
510-583-0170
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