Can you believe it? It's another blue roan and tan English Cocker Spaniel!

Her name is Maggie, and her owners, Scott and Janine, found Murphy and me via this website. Maggie is nearly 2, and quite the feminine little girl. Check out the size difference between the two of them! Murphy is bigger than the standard, at about 17 1/2 inches to the shoulder, and Maggie is both female and petite, though probably still within the standard for ECSs. They make for a great comparison of colour - even though they are both blue roan and tan they show the variety between a dark blue roan (that'd be Murphy) and a lighter blue roan.

Anyway, Scott and Janine contacted me to let me know that they lived in Vancouver too, and also thought they were the only ones here with a blue roan and tan. We exchanged e-mails and quickly decided that we had to get the "lad and lassie together", as they put it. We decided on Ambleside, a dog park right on the ocean in West Vancouver.

Upon arrival Murphy had to show off just how mischievous he is, so after greeting his new friends he headed straight for the water. First he went and greeted a bunch of fishermen, thankfully without getting tangled in their lines, and then spotted a bunch of geese in the ocean:

He ran, then pounced over the water, then swam crazily towards the geese, who started flapping their wings and doing that half flying half running thing geese do when disturbed on the water. Can't spot Murphy? Look at the "a" in "swam" in the first sentence of this paragraph. Then go straight up 2/3 of the way towards the top of the photograph. That little speck is Murphy. Here's a little bit of a close up of that photo:

That's Murphy in the top right corner of the photo. At this point he'd decided he wasn't going to be able to catch the geese further out, so he turned around and headed back towards this bunch of geese at the left hand side of the photo. It was at about this point that Scott said to me; "You ready to go in there after him?". Seriously, I thought it might have come to that. Thankfully, before heading out to sea, Murphy came to his senses and headed back towards us. Maggie this whole time was behaving like a normal dog, sniffing the bushes and greeting new dogs.

So upon Murphy's return we kept walking, and headed along the ocean side path. Murphy and Maggie greeted an American Cocker Spaniel, among other breeds, and just generally ran around. Ambleside was packed since so many of our trails and parks are closed due to extreme risk of forest fire.

After a few minutes of walking and talking about the dogs we made it to the section of Ambleside where the dogs have a beach and easy access to the ocean (as opposed to where Murphy had done an impromptu entry into the water among the geese and fishermen). Scott and Janine weren't too sure how Maggie would take to the waves, but she jumped in like a pro:

Look at her bounce around in those waves! She was really enjoying herself, chasing other dogs, playing in the water and posing for pictures for her proud parents. Unfortunately at this point I accidentally turned my camera to "video" and used up all my memory. Because it was such a bright day out I couldn't see my screen to delete the video, so I was unable to take any further photos. Thankfully we had Janine on hand, with digital camera! So now we go to her pictures of the day, picking up right about where my camera crapped out.

Here we have Murphy posing on the rocks right next to the ocean. He didn't do much swimming at this point, he's all bedraggled from his earlier swim. Once we got to this section of the ocean Murphy appeared a little bored with the water. His mood seemed to be "Been there done that". So while Maggie cavorted in the appropriate section of the ocean like any good normal dog, Murphy, a little jaded by how adventurous *his* swim had been, took the time to sniff around, beg some people for treats, and get his dirty paws on innocent bystanders. I swear he knew we were meeting new people, so decided to show off just how badly a cocker can behave, when he puts his mind to it. And believe me, Murphy can outdo just about anyone when it comes to getting into trouble, as some of the upcoming updates will attest.

Below we have me feeding Murphy and Maggie a few treats. It was nice to see that it's not just Murphy who's obsessed with food, as Maggie will get in your face for treats almost as much as Murphy will. They did a nice little tag teem thing though, very effectively using their little eyebrows and lashes to say; "But *she* got some, where's mine?"

Even now, just looking at Maggie on the screen, she reminds me so much of Murphy as a puppy. Even though she's full grown the size difference is so dramatic that she looks like Murphy at about 6 months of age.

Above we have the photos that Janine titled "Smell ya later", which I found quite entertaining. Murphy is in the rear, no pun intended, and that's Maggie at the front. Such a sweet little face! Since she's lighter than Murphy, and her marking are a little different, you can really see those freckles on her nose. Such a cutie.

And for our last photo from that day, we have Murphy trying to eat through Maggie's treat bag. I'm sitting directly to the right of this photo, Murphy is in my shadow here, and you can tell how close Janine was by how tight a close up this shot is, and yet Murphy has no shame in going for the food right in front of us. I'm always amazed by how brazen he is.

The dogs seemed to like one another well enough, though with all the distractions they were both very busy exploring the park, and the water. If we were to get them inside, with no one but us, I would bet they'd spend more time with each other. They were quite the sight, and one woman asked if they were adult (Murphy) and puppy (Maggie). Plus we adults got to chat all about the breed and the dogs habits, diet, grooming and so on. All in all, a very enjoyable day!

Now we're heading back to the previous weekend. Murphy, Jason and I headed out to Abbotsford (about a 30 minute drive from downtown Vancouver on a lazy Sunday) to go to Cockerfest.

Cockerfest is a fundraiser for Cocker Spaniel Rescue of BC. Due to the popularity of the American Cocker Spaniel in North America, and the relative rarity of English Cockers, pretty much all of their rescues are ACSs, and it was all ACSs out there that day. But it was nice to get out, help them raise a few dollars, meet some of the past and current rescue dogs, and let ACSs owners see what an English Cocker looks like. Upon arrival we met Carol, who runs Cocker Rescue. I was impressed by how much she knew about English Cockers, being able to recognize right away that Murphy doesn't look like the dogs of our local breeders (ie. compare him to Maggie, who was locally bred). We gave a few dollars for a raffle, I donated a doggie rain coat, and we headed for the fenced dog park.

Above we have the fully enclosed dog park at Derby Reach Park, where the fest was held. This is only one little corner of the park. I wish we lived closer to this park, as in North Vancouver, and most of the Lower Mainland, our dog parks aren't fenced. This park had a locking gate and everything, plus a path, picnic tables and access to the Fraser River:

I believe this was the first time Murphy had encountered waves. They were just off the wake of a passing boat, but he got the sensation of movement. There were waves at Ambleside, at the top of this update, but remember, the Cockerfest actually took place the previous weekend. I'm just doing this out of order as I wanted the meet up with Maggie to be featured at the top of the page.

So after playing in the park a bit we headed back to the picnic area to interact a bit with the other cockers:

We met cockers of all ages, some rescued, some not. They were mostly solids - reds, lighter buffs or blacks. But I did get to see a sable cocker in person for the very first time. She was gorgeous, and I wish I'd asked her owners for permission to take her picture. What was funny was that her owners were fascinated by Murphy, while I just wanted to hear all about their dog! So the conversation went back and forth sentence by sentence as I asked about Sofie, and they asked about Murphy. I'd say to their questioning "Yeah yeah, he has a long nose, he's an English Cocker. Where did you get *your* dog? She's gorgeous! I've never met a sable before!" followed by them saying; "Yep, she's a sable. Now *your* dog's colour is so beautiful! What do you call that? I've never seen a dog like that before!" There were people there who pretty much turned their noses up at Murphy, but for the most part everything went well.

At 1pm they held the raffle for door prizes. Murphy won! We got a "Coollar", a fabric collar wrap that upon submersion in water expands and cools. So you just soak it and then wrap it around your neck, and it stays cold for days and days. Very cool! Check out Murphy modeling it to your right. It's unexpanded there, so it doesn't look right. After it's soaked it expands so much that there's only a few inches at each end, with which you tie it.

So that was Cockerfest.

Next up, a day at the pool!

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: September 4, 2003
Here's the link to the previous update: Aug 14, 2003

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