Today we drove up to Goshen CT to the Ball Family Reunion hosted by Steve's cousin Chris Byrne and FIL's Aunt Mary (as she is the last of Grandpa Ball's generation). The kids had a good time running all over and swimming in the pool, and there was a family tree to add to (we did) and a lot of old family pictures which were cool to see. Aunt Mary let us bring home some of Grandpa Ball and FIL so that we could scan them and get copies printed -- that will be fun! :)
Chris owns Stonehill Kennel in Goshen (lots of land and they have space for 75 dogs now and are adding a barn for about 60 more spaces). He trains dogs for a living as well as providing kennel care for people who need to board their dogs. He did a show and tell with his big German shepherd, Zeebo, and it was amazing. Z is trained in all the basic stuff (heel, fetch, stay etc) but also in defending Chris and his property. One of the trainers was wearing "the sleeve" and Chris yelled out a command and Z went right for the arm to take the guy down. He didn't let go until he heard the release command, which BTW was NOT in English -- sounded sort of like German, but it wasn't. Chris said that Z was born in Czechoslovakia, so the commands could well have been in Slovak. If I could remember any of them, I'd ask our beloved 94-year-old neighbor who speaks Slovak! Anyway, it was very cool how well trained Z was, and Chris said he hadn't worked with him in some time. If we ever do hit the lottery and somehow get a house with a decent amount of property, I want to get a dog from Chris, or a puppy that he later trains when it's old enough.
