My new collar!

Here I am, wearing my new, traditional Swiss dog collar. Here is the history of my beautiful new collar:

The people in Appenzell have been cowherds for centuries. They pasture their livestock in lower meadows in the winter, and in high mountain pastures in the summer, and they celebrate the cattle drives from one place to another with two colorful festivals. The Alpauffahrt -- which translates as "procession up the mountain" -- occurs in spring, when the cows are herded to upper pastures. The second festival is the Alpabfahrt, which means to "come down from the mountains." That takes place, typically, in mid-September, when the cows return from the mountains.

Every Alpauffahrt and Alpabfahrt has a festive parade in which the people wear their traditional clothes, called tracht. Farmers wear bright yellow pants with tall socks and bright red vests, and women wear amazingly detailed dresses. Cows are adorned in ornate straps with colorful treicheln or glocken [alpine cowbells] for their journey up to the mountain pasture, or down to the valley meadow. Horses and goats are also dressed up, and dogs wear their nicest ornamental collars. The traditional Swiss collars for the dogs were designed for these processions back in the 1750s by a family business.

The Faessler family has been working with leather since the 1400s. Before the collars, they were already making saddles and bridles, leather straps for cowbells; Swiss farmers still have cowbells that each have different sounds, so that each farmer knows whose cow it is. The Faesslers made leather straps for cowbells, and the Faesslers were the first family to decorate cows, goats, horses and dogs for the Alpauffahrt and Alpabfahrt processions. The Faesslers have now been making the dog collars for seven generations.

The plates around the collar depict an Appenzeller cattle drive proceeding up a mountain. The first plate shows a herdsman -- a sennen -- leading the procession. He's with a dog wearing the collar. This is followed by a series of plates with cows - the herd. The last plate on the collar is another sennen with a dog, who is trailing the herd.

Pretty cool, eh? I will be the talk of the town when I am cruising down South Granville!

Mischa

Wake up Christine!

On the weekends, Richie is usually the first one up, and I greet him either in my safe room, or outside on the patio. I sometimes come into the kitchen and have a bit of breakfast, but I usually head straight for the bedroom door, and wait for Christine to get up; if I stick my nose under the door, I can tell she is still in there. Crazy humans... only one sleep per day - I sleep dozens of times during the day - get up!

Mischa

Movie night

The other evening, Christine hosted her volleyball team for a BBQ, and so we decided to host a movie night as well. The projector thingy that is normally hanging in the basement was moved outside, and we all hung out in the backyard all evening! Richie had friends in from Switzerland - my native country! They even brought me a gift... a traditional collar for us Bernese Mountain dog types! It is a big, black leather collar, with gold cows (one of my favourite 4-legged friends) all around it. I'll try to post a good picture with me wearing it soon.

Anyhow, it was great to have everyone outside hanging out with me - as you can see, I am always in the centre of the action. There was also a lot of popcorn being eaten, and I was able to snag a few kernels from a few of the unsuspecting newcomers.

Mischa

What chu doin' down there?

I like to sit on the deck, and look over into the neighbour's yard and see what the bunny is up to. Sometimes, when Richie or Christine is in the yard, I peer over the edge to see what they are up to. For some reason, this makes them laugh! Something to do with my droopy jowls and the thick fur I have on my face.

Mischa

Training time

Here I am, in the training ring for an upcoming show in September that Cathy is going to enter me into. Apparently, I am a little "willful", but seem to be doing ok as a show puppy! I do have trouble with some of the drills, as I normally 'sit' when presented with a treat, and now they want me to 'stand' instead. I hope these humans make up their minds! They also want to look at my teeth for some reason - I didn't like it, so I would wiggle my muzzle out of their hands. Since then, Christine and Richie have been giving me treats for the command 'teeth'... man, this is the easiest trick ever - I just stand there, and they gently pry my lips apart, and I get a treat! I can do this show stuff.

Mischa

A new girlfriend!

So a new puppy appeared on the block recently - a "golden doodle" or something like that. Her name is Maisy, and although she's only 13 weeks old, she is a firecracker! She plays with me like I used to play with Idaho, when I was a little puppy.

Mischa

Frolicking in the surf!

The other evening, we went down to the doggy beach at Spanish Banks. This is where I come with my group of pals with Ruff Stuff, my dog walking group. Now that I am old enough to play with the big dogs, I get to go on field trips during the day while Richie is at work. My best friend, Idaho has been going with them for a while now, so we get to play together here as well. I am still not into swimming yet, although I have done it. I have to really get in the play mood to go in above my belly, as shown above. I just like tearing around in the sand - as shown in the brief video below:

See you next time,

Mischa