Happy Birthday, Leeds

Today, April 30, 2009, is Leeds' 13th birthday. Today's post, therefore, is full of photos of Leeds.
　　Two shots of prim Leeds to start with.
According to Mr. Hayakawa, the author of a terrier book relied among Japanese terrier owners, 13 years old of terriers is equivalent to 68 years old of mankind, which would entitle Leeds to receive 20 thousands yen (204 US Dollars) of "Fixed Cash Handout", a part of economic stimulation package of Japanese Government, if Leeds were human. The correspondence between ages of terriers and mankind will be shown later in this post.
Well, Leeds' photos continue.
Leeds looks nicer and cuter when she looks up to something, which interests her. She shows the same delighted expression as she showed during her childhood.
　　Although it is Leeds' birthday today, Piacere can not change her habit of fawning. Leeds is experiencing tougher birthday than last year. Since Piacere has grown, Leeds seems to endure much burden.
While this picture is being taken, Piacere never stops gentle biting to the tail of Leeds.
Now then, the correspondence between terriers and mankind is shown below, based on a book, "Terriers, How to keep them, how to discipline them" published by Seitosha, edited and supervised by Mr. Hayakawa.
In the world of information technology, a "dog year" is seven times faster than human year, but the dog years are faster during the firs one or two years, and after three years old, the dog year passes 4 times faster than human year.
At this moment, Chilwell, ten and half years old, is equivalent to 58 years old of human, Pizzicato, 8 years and 3months old, is 48 and half, Pieta, five and half years, is 38, and Piacere, four months old, is equivalent to 7 years old.

Spoils of the match

Today's post is the continuation of yesterday's post.
A surprise happened at the end of the show, when the awarding ceremony of BIS took place. A popular actor called Naoki Hosaka appeared and played as a presenter of the trophies. I have been told that he also owns an Airdale Terrier.
A commemorative photo of Piacere's "Reserve Queen" together with Mr. Hosaka and my wife.
The cup, Mr. Hosaka is holding, looks...
　　
This is the rosette that was given along with the cup. Since Pieta won three rosettes two and half years ago, I now have four rosettes at home.
This is the ribbon given to Piacere when she won the female baby class of Scottish Terrier Breed Match.
Pieta, on the other hand, was given this ribbon of "Best of Breed".

Prosperous start

Tokyo North Terrier Group Club Dog Show, officially approved by Japan Kennel Club (JKC), was held
yesterday, April 25, at Toneri Park in Adachi-ku, Tokyo, and Pieta made her return to dog shows
after an absence of two and half years since JKC Scottish Terrier Club Dog Show in November, 2006, in which Pieta
won the Best in Specialty Show (BISS), and Piacere made her show debut.
Scottie owners, all of whom are good friends and students of Mr. Nakahara, are busy in final
retouch onto their dogs.
The first breed to compete in the first rink was Scottie, and Piacere was the first dog to appear
in the show. Although I resumed that babies would not be able to "stand and stay", Piacere's
comepetitors stood and stayed quite firmly, which annoyed me very much. Piacere, howeve, won the
class match.
The rain, which started falling when we arrive at the site of the show, became good rain when the
show started at 9 o'clock.
As the program proceeded, the match of female adult started. As Pieta came to the show after a long
absence, she was nervous, and her tail tended to fall.
The judge examining Scotties was Mr. Barry Day from UK.
Although the up & down walk was made under the rain shelter, the round wald was under the rain. The gound was full of puddles, and it was hard to walk for short-legged dogs.
Pieta continued winning until she lost against a champion, and won the Best Of Breed.
The breed matches were held before the noon, and the best in show matches started at around one o'clock.
The first match was the male baby class, and the the female baby class. It was Pieta's challenge BIS in the female baby class.
The rightmost dog and the handler is Piacere and myself. The dog immediately left is Norfolk Terrier, and the Jack Russel Terrier.
Although Piacere was selected as one of the top three dogs, she did not win and was certified as "Reserve Queen".
It was a good success for a baby, which has not been trained to "Stand and Stay". The qualification to compete in the baby class is 4months and 1 day, Piecere became four month and a day old, and Piacere wa four month and a day old yesterday,

Piacere of the day, April 16

Piacere grows day by day.


She now looks like a Scottie after being trimmed last weekend, but I have not been able to take a good photo to show her nice appearance. In this photo, too, Piacere is interested in something on the floor and would not look ahead even if we try to pull up her head by pulling the leash.

Once she is out of the cage, she never stops but runs aournd, and the photos shown are naturally taken in the cage.


The angle of this photo is a little different to those shown before in this blog by showing Piacere with her head lifted. You can see the shape of ears, fairly grown eyebrows and the outer coat of her brisket. The coat of the brisket was electrially shaved last weekend. Although it looked whitish just after shaving, it now looks well-trimmed.


It is not often to see her lying on the back, but she is so charming when she is sleeping like this.

Piacere of the day, April 11

On this day of April 11, a Scottish Terrier Seminar, presided over by Mr. Nakahara, was held in the seminar room of a specialty shop for dog accesories in Asakusa, Erile. I participated the class with Pieta, Piacere, and my wife.
In the class, I studied the breed standard of Scottish Terrier, which was a subject of the last class, instructions for owner handlers in dog shows, examining the Scottish Terriers, and final retouch of trimming in the show sites.
I visited Mr. Nakahara's home after the class to have Piacere trimmed.
Piacere stares up at Mr. Nakahara with this expression as if to ask "What is happening?"
As described in the post of April 11 of "My Scottie Diary" of Mr. Nakahara's WEB site, Piacere was incredibly gentle while being trimmed, and never refused to be stripped. This is, of course, thanks to the master-hand of Mr. Nakahara.
After being trimmed, Piacere chenged her apperance from a baby to a miniature Scottie.

Piacere of the day, April 10

Last Saturday, April 4, the right year of Piacere finally stood up, which is a relief for me.
　　　
A recent routine is that Leeds, with her sense of responsibility as the leader, would check Piacere's cage when Piacere is allowed to go out.
Leeds is examining the cage as an "inspector", while Piacere witnesses.

Early spring scenes of the second house

After a series of posts on Piacere, today's blog deals with our second house in Yamanashi. As I wrote in yesterday's blog, we are in our second house this weekend.
While it has become the height of spring in Tokyo with the cherry flowers in full blossoms, it is still the beginning of the season here, just like the Japanese song "Poem of Early Spring" says: "Is the spring only in calendar entry? How cold the wind still is!". While the spring can be feld in the sun beam, the winds coming over the snow-covered peaks of Yatsugatake Mountains and Southern Japan Alps are still cold.
In our garden, however, you can find lots of signs of spring.
A view of the garden from east to west. Daffodils are blooming in the flowerbed.
A view of the garden from the opposite direction. Near the deck of the house, small daffodils (near) and hyacinth are blooming thanks to the heat stored and radiated by the concrete base of the wooden deck. Christmas roses have started blooming.
The mountains of Southern Japan Alps, which can be seen from our second house, are still covered with snow. The range of peaks seen in the left of the photo are Ho-oh Sanzan (Three Peaks of Phoenix), the white peak at immediate right of the range is Kita-dake Mountain, the second highest moutain in Japan after Mount Fuji, and the peak scarcely showing over the cloud is Kai-Komagatake Mountain.
The easter half of the land in our second house is being constructed as approach shot range of golf, and several different kinds of lawns are cultivated. Through the light brown lawn leaves of winter, new green leaves have started to grow. I am planning to use this area as a "Dog Run" this summer.

Piacere of the day, April 4

We are now at our second house in Yamanashi, which is the second visit for Piacere. The spring has come even here, at the south skirt of Yatsugatake Mountains at a height of 1,000 meter (3,280 feet) above the sea level, and
As a kind of "fixture" or routine, photos of three generations have been taken. From left: Pieta, the mother; Piacere, the daughter; Pizzicato, the grandmother.
This is the photo of one generation earlier, which was taken on January 1st, 2004. From left: Pieta, the daughter, two and half months old; Pizzicato, the mother; Pisala, the grandmother.
One more photo for good measure. The facial expressions and the lines of sight of the three are a little different to the one shown above.
On Sunday, March 30, I found an intersting scene of Pizzicato and Pieta, sitting on the both armrests of a sofa in our Tokyo home, just like the pair of storn-carved guardian dogs at the entrance of Shito shrines.