Follow Me Dog Training

Another Guinness raised in honor of a Irish Terrier

Today is another sad day for Follow Me Dog Training LLC. Today marks the passing of 15 yr old Irish Terrier, Scolaidhe’s Irish Maggie. If you have read the Meet the Trainer page on our website, it tells about an Irish Terrier that entered the Lamoureux household in 1995. This puppy, Maggie, was a catalyst in Renée’s dog training career.

Maggie was a pain in the butt puppy that needed training to turn into the amazing dog she was. Her puppy hood was tough and made me curious about why we just couldn’t get her to listen. She was the start of a conversation with an eye doctor that convinced me to look into training dogs. When I returned from my first dog training school (National K9 School for Dog Trainers), she was the first dog I trained in Maryland. She was the inspiration behind the logo for my first business, Pawsitive Obedience. Because of Maggie we went to our first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Washington DC and were pulled into the parade with the other Irish Terriers…that was the parade where I met Pepper. She was a 10+ year veteran of therapy work, working with Pets On Wheels in Montgomery County MD, she visited an assisted living home every Tuesday, including Sept 11 2001.

Dogs don’t live long enough. They provide us with so much that I suppose they give all they can for the limited time they are with us and then pass us on to the dogs they have trained to take their place. I know that Maggie raced over the hill in the fields on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge and was greeted heartily by Pepper and the Lamoureux’s first Irish Terrier, Carrie.

When lessons are over and I sit down with Leinie and Frappy tonight, I’ll open a Guinness and say a toast to two red headed Irish girls. I’ll tell them why when you own an Irish Terrier, they make you either cry or laugh everyday, and I’ll tell them tales of Irish Terriers that no regular dog owner would ever believe. And then I’ll bury another Irish Terrier in my heart.

THE BEST PLACE TO BURY A DOG

“There is one best place to bury a dog.
“If you bury him in this spot, he will
come to you when you call – come to you
over the grim, dim frontier of death,
and down the well-remembered path,
and to your side again.

“And though you call a dozen living
dogs to heel, they shall not growl at
him, nor resent his coming,
for he belongs there.

“People may scoff at you, who see
no lightest blade of grass bent by his
footfall, who hear no whimper, people
who may never really have had a dog.
Smile at them, for you shall know
something that is hidden from them,
and which is well worth the knowing.

“The one best place to bury a good
dog is in the heart of his master.”

— Ben Hur Lampman —
from the Portland Oregonian Sept. 11, 1925

Where’s Leinie? June 2010

Here’s the challenge; find where Leinie is posing, take your dog’s picture in the same spot, or as close as they can physically get.  Send the picture and the exact location to renee@followmedogtraining.com. Please send your pictures as an attachment so I can post them!

The first picture I receive with a dog in the correct spot, will win a prize from Follow Me Dog Training LLC, have their dog’s picture posted on the blog and get bragging rights for a month.

The current month’s picture will always be on our Where’s Leinie? page!

Be safe and responsible, please pick up after your dog. Now go out and explore Richmond Virginia with your dog!

This challenge is open to anyone in the area, even non- Follow Me Dog Training LLC clients!

Memorial Day 2010…thanking and remembering

President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth

upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and

dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether

that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .

can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place

for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .

we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,

who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power

to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,

what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished

work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining

before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion

to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . .

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . .

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . .

and that government of the people. . .by the people. . .for the people. . .

shall not perish from this earth.

Thank you to all the men, women and K9s that have lost their lives defending our country. And Thank you to those still serving!

Woody Finds Leinie at Cold Harbor Battlefield!

The May 2010 Where’s Leinie? challenge took Leinie out to the Richmond National Battlefield of Cold Harbor. The Battle of Cold Harbor was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the American Civil War. This battle was fought May 31-June 12 1864. It was Robert E Lee’s last major victory and one of Ulysses S. Grant’s worst losses. Like Leinie, you can go out to Mechanicsville VA and walk around the battlefield and experience history first hand.

Woody and his family found Leinie and the cannon he was posing in front of. Congrats to Woody!

Stay Tuned for the June Where’s Leinie? Picture!