Bob

Ch. Elvbend's Too Hot to Hoot,

MT-1, MT-2, MT-3, SAR

Ch. Greyplume's Won't Back Down, TD, RN × Ch. U-Ch. Elvbend's Aida

December 12, 2008 - June 19, 2022)

Welcome to Bob's page. He was born on December 12, 2008. We just had a few pictures of him in the beginning, but he was really a ham so he posed like crazy for us. There are a few below here. After many years with us he did learn all the things that we wanted him to do, like 1) search and rescue work, 2) obedience, and 3) service work for Ed and for me. Gracie is up there where he came from, Daisy was with us when he came here, and Zöe helped us raise him as a baby too, so we turned out another good one! He was a great boy, always working with us. He never refused any job we asked him to do.

Whan Ed decided that he needed to see whether Bob would be able to use scent to check Ed's blood sugar levels, Bob came through for us again.

Here he was in his Daddy's arms. Wasn't he cute?

And here he was playing with one of his favorite toys, a little skunk!

He's absolutely adorable. Thank you, Amy and Jody! He was a good 'un his entire life, a fitting tribute to your breeding program.

Here are some more pictures of Bob. We always thought he was adorable, What do you think???

Bob was really busy his first few days with us. He went to his first Search and Rescue training, he want to a real search. and he had a great time. Not bad for a little guy who wasn't yet 15 weeks old! Pretty cool, huh? And at his second S&R training, he went out on a boat twice and encountered divers! He' grew up to be a great searcher!

Well, we had a couple of more weeks to work with Bob and he made great progress. He was great at finding his subject when we do puppy run-aways, and we did them about once a week. He turned into a marvelous searcher.

Well, the first new development was that he made great progress in learning to scent for Ed's blood sugar levels. And he did so well at the puppy run-aways in his search work, he moved very quickly to doing a lot fewer of them, and a lot more regular searches. He began working on a three-day-old track, and he always found his subject at the end. Yay, Bob! He had a nose that wiouldn't quit! He was definitely a good 'un! (Did I say "Thanks" to Amy and Jody yet? Well, "Thanks again!")

The first time he started scenting of Ed's blood sugar level, Ed didn't even know it! He put some Nu Skin on his hand for a couple of hurts that he had, and Bob went crazy, pawing at him. Ed just corrected him and went on to work. When he got to work, he realized that Acetone was the main ingredient in the Nu Skin. Bob was just alerting him! Bob always worked for both of us and he always worked well. Did I say he was an angel yet? He was from the beginning.

As Bob got older, he went on his first "over-the-road" trip to Ed's Mom's house in South Carolina. He sid did great! (All of our pups always do great when we take them anywhere, don't they? I guess we train them well before we take their first trip, huh? Either that, or they are ALL great dogs to start with! That might explain it. After all, they all came fromexcellent breeders!)

Bob went many places with us, and turned into a fantastic traveling pup. We've started going to Tweetsie Railroad Park in August to see Riders in the Sky. That turned out to be on his favorite places to go. He truly seemed to enjoy that. At each Tweetsie trip, Bob went to all four Riders in the Sky shows, he was good and quiet for every show, he walked around the park with his Papa and he was nice to everybody and everybody was nice to him, he was a little nervous around the train engines while they were running and when they set off their whistles, but Ed made sure that he stayed there and found out that they would not hurt him, he loved the cabin where we stayed, and for the best part, he got along SUPER with all the Riders in the Sky! He's became Joey's best buddy! He became a confirmed Polkaholic just like his mother! And Joey and Slim did callouts to him in all the shows they did after they met him! WAHOO! The guys were great, too. He dun good. Another good job for Bob. All jobs we ever asked him to do, He did exceedingly well.

GOOD NEWS! Bob went to his first AKC show. He dun good except for one part. He was first in the puppy class (he was the only one there!). But he went into the winner's class where he competed against the winners of all the other classes, and he WON THAT ONE TOO! He was WINNER'S DOG! He got a whole point for doing that. But it gets even better! He competed against the girls too! And he WON AGAIN! Best of Winners! Wahoo! But it still gets better. He was BEST OF BREED too! He had a wonderful day at the dog show. Of course, this isn't as important as the tracking work and the service work and the detection work that he's been doing, That's all important stuff where he helps people too. But this was good work for the day, since he'd never been in a show ring before. But this time he went in the ring, and he did GOOD in the ring. He came away with THREE POINTS. It was a major! It was just a little major, only three points, but that's one of the two that he needs out of the way. Way to go, Bob. You done good! (Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention the part where he didn't do so good. You know the last part, where the guy with the camera comes to take pictures of all the winners? Well, Bob didn't want to stand pretty. He was tired, and he wanted to play, so all we got was a picture of him SITTING next to Kathy. He wouldn't stand still. But he did show very nicely, and I'm very proud of my little guy! Well, I'm proud of my BIG guy. He was about 22" tall at that point, and he was only 8 months old! He eventually topped out at abou 23", I guess he's stopped growing now...

MORE GOOD NEWS! Bob was on his way home from Minnesota with more good news for us! He passed both his beginner's man-trailing test AND his advanced one too! He became an active worker on the search team! That's what Ed worked for since the little guy came home. We're both very proud of him. And Amy and Jody should be very proud as well, as should Connie and Cozzy (lest you get confused, Cozzy is Bob's elkie Papa!)! Thanks, folks, for producing this beautiful, INTELLIGENT boy. He had a great life with us, and you've all helped an awful lot!

This is a little bit of good news. We all (Ed, Daisy, Bob and I) went to see "White Christmas" (a local run of a Broadway show) this week, and Bob was VERY GOOD, for a young boy who was not not yet a year old! Daisy just laid in the floor and watched the show, but Bob was a BIT more active! Not much, but he wanted to sit up so he could watch what was going on up on the stage. Daisy just laid there with her head down, but she was awake, watching it "on the QT." But Bob did very well.I was pretty proud of my boy once again. We kept throwing things at him, and he kept batting them out of the park. Yay, Bob! You were always a good boy.

And here's even MORE GOOD NEWS! Bob went with us to visit with Ed's folks last week, and he got to see everybody, including the two nephews, and he did very well with them. He even went for several walks on his leash with Hunter, and he was an angel. He didn't pull or drag Hunter on the leash. He was very good. One thing that we never got enough work done on.Bob didn't like to be left alone, and Ed never managed to get him to learn that the world was not going to end when he left for a while. When I tried to correct him, he ignored me. Completely. I didn't exist as far as he was concerned. But other than the constant barking when Ed left the immediate area, Bob was very good. We never did get him straightened out. As you might already know, we never got that part of his personality "straighteded out.' For hi entire life, he never wanted to be separated from Ed.

GOOD NEWS again! Bob went to another Broadway show. We went to see "Mary Poppins!" Okay, it was the company that travels around the country so everyone can see the show, but it was the Broadway cast, or at least a lot of them, anyway. He went with Ed, me, and Daisy, and he behaved wonderfully! The show was very good (although I was not crazy about the changes they made to the story, but I can see the need for them). Bob was wondertul through the entire show, and it was a long one, well over three hours. He was a little confused when Mary Poppins flew off the stage over his head, but he maintained just fine. Bravo, Bob! And he went right to Orlando with Ed to get used to all the Disney things he had to do when he went to Orlando with me. All reports were resoundingly fantastic! Good job, Bob! You're did a super job!

Well, Bob had a really big week Spending a week in Orlando to learn about all the things he'd have to to for me as my service dog. Ed called every day with reports on how he was doing, and they were all pretty good! He had to wear a cool-down vest the whole time he was outside, but he was very good about accepting it. I think he did a wonderful job for a boy who was just barely a year old. Yay, Bob!

And Bob brought us some more GOOD NEWS again! He went to the Memorial Day Cluster of shows in southeastern Ohio yesterday, and he won the Cincinnati Kennel Club show! He was Best of Winners and Best of Breed too! (And yes, there were some girls there too!) Thanks Kathleen for showing him. And thanks for staying long enough to get a picture. I know Bob takes a little longer to have his picture taken. Thank you for humoring me and keeping with it until he stood still! One more point down, and only 11 left to go!

MORE GOOD NEWS! Well, we just got home from the NASDN seminar this year, and Bob was only THREE points away from his championship! He went to the Louisville Kennel Club cluster for a weekend while we were at the seminar, and he won two more majors! Wahoo! He's now sitting on THREE majors! Way to go, Bob!!!

Well, Bob's been working on this for a LONG TIME, and now he's finished. BOB'S A CHAMPION!!! Wahoo! Bob went to Michigan with his Dad and with his handler, Norma, and he became a champion! He done good. Thank you to Norma Smith, handler extraordinaire, and to Kathy Hamilton who got him started with his first five points! Thank both of you ladies for your excellent handling of my wonderful boy. Here's how he looked the day he finished:

Go back to donna j.'s SANCTUM Educated Elkhounds, et al. page

E-mail me if you want to contact Bob's breeder!

Well, Bob became a world traveler. He's been to the western side of the US anyway. He's now a devotee of DISNEYLAND as well as Disney World, see?

He stopped in Arizona on the way to Disneyland too!

Bob was beginning to make himself useful as our nurse-dog. A few nights ago, Ed was trying to sleep and Bob would NOT leave him alone. He started licking Ed's face around his mouth. He kept coming back to Ed everytime Ed corrected him and told him to go away. (It was LATE, and Ed wanted to sleep, not play with the dogs!) Suddenly, Ed remembered that Bob is also his service dog, who alerts to him when his breath changes because his blood sugar is too low. He got up and checked his blood sugar immediately (well, as soon as he figured out what was happening) and it was VERY HIGH! Bob even performs his job when he's supposed to be sleeping! GOOD BOY BOB! You kept up the good work your entire life! Thank you, dear boy.

Well, Bob worked very hard at getting the collection of states he's visited up even higher. He got the list up to 29 as of the end of his life.He was quite the traveler.

Here you see Bob's favorite way to spend a little time at WDW. Bob was quite enamored with the fairies, and they seemed taken with him as well!

Always open to new opportunities, Bob became an equal opportunity schmoozer during this trip. He found out he loves fairies AND princesses. Here Bob got to know Cinderella a little better.