What's in a Name?

Thought I'd explore the URL of this blog, inspiredaddiction. It comes from Addie's AKC registered name, Ali-Ann Inspired Addiction. However this name is not just some spontaneous creation; there is much thought and history behind it.

First, the Ali-Ann comes from the breeder that bred Addie; Ann Springer. Her kennel name for her Spoos is Ali-Ann - Ali for her foundation bitch, and Ann for her name.

The Inspired Addiction is a bit more complicated. When coming up with a registered name for a dog, often the dog is named something related to one or both of the parents. Addie's parents are:
Ali-Ann Empire Kwik Pik Encore, call name Carmen (mom, white)

Ali-Ann Irish Inspiration, call name Tynan (dad, black)


And I wanted something creative, but something relating either to her call name (Addie) or her parents. I ended up doing both.

The "Inspired" part comes from her dad, from "Irish Inspiration." That's not too hard. The "Addiction" part can be shortened to Addie. Also, if you want to be cheesy... Addie "inspired" the addiction to Poodles. Yay.

So we have Inspired Addicion... encompassing her call name, honoring her daddy, and a short, sweet little phrase that describes her. The perfect name.

Natalie

PS...credits for the photos go to www.ali-ann.com Addie's breeder. And thank you to Ann for helping me come up with her name!

Canine Good Citizen

Today was the day I took the AKC Canine Good Citizen test... and I passed! I am officially a good canine citizen. The CGC test is a ten item test including basic obedience skills like accepting strangers, dogs, walking on a loose leash, reacting well to distractions, etc.

I did great. One test item was supervised separation, where my person left me with a stranger and left the room for 3 minutes. At first I was a little concerned about where she went, but I soon enticed the evaluator into giving me a belly rub. When my person came back, I didn't want to get up because I was comfy and the evaluator was so nice!

When we did the come, my person told me to wait and walked away from me a little ways, then she told me to "Front." I know I'm supposed to come to her and sit straight in front of her, but I got a little excited and came right to heel position instead. We still passed because I did come but I think I messed up a little! My person just laughed and wasn't upset.

Another item was walking through a crowd, where 3 other people and another dog, along with me and my person, walked around each other, passing by each other and I couldn't bark, jump, lunge out, or anything like that. It was hard! But I knew my person didn't want me to play with the other dogs. So using all the control I had in me, I focused hard on my person and we passed that item.

One last memorable test item was reaction to distraction. My person told me to sit and stay, which I did. Then the evaluator walked around with a funny metal thing (the people called it a walker), clicking it on the ground and making noise with it. I wasn't really concerned, I wondered what it was but it wasn't bothering me. Then the evaluator said I'd be good at therapy. My person's talked about that a lot, I guess I'd get to visit places called nursing homes and hospitals, cheering people up who are sick and don't get very many visitors. Sounds like fun to me, I'd like to go have people pet me all day! My person's talked about getting me certified for that...

All in all it was a good day, my people had friends over that played with me and my person even took me rollerblading before the test. Then I got lots of treats and a big bone when we got home. I'd take this test again any day!

Addie