Sunday, April 10, 2011

BUMPER PHOTOGRAPH POST - ANIMALS - McKAYNINE TRAINING CENTRE and ONDERSTEPOORT!

GREETINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA!
MAXMOM & TOBY here...

Hello there and Happy Sunday, to all our friends across the world!
Today's post is a bumper post of animal photographs:
Taken at two different venues:

Firstly:
Toby's training school (yesterday)

As many of you know, Toby has embarked on his training towards his Canine Good Citizen accreditation (Bronze Level).  Our classes take place on a Saturday morning and there are LOTS of distractions at the school - which is a farmyard setting.  These are some photos taken of the animals at:

McKAYNINE TRAINING CENTRE:

Drum roll....Our feathered friends!
 (Who occasionally enjoy escaping from their own accommodation, in order to roam the grounds - a great temptation for some of the canine students)


Then there is 'Sheep' - who is always there to give us a warm welcome.

I can't forget to mention beautiful 'Donkey', who always supervises the canine classes. 
We regularly take a carrot along for his enjoyment...


Delightful and perfectly pawdicured doggies...


Toby, getting a talking to...
(Shall we say, he was not on his best behaviour yesterday -
according to 'Maxmom')

Then the second set of photographs was taken on Friday...

 A friend and I were invited by Miss "R", on a guided tour of her veterinary training facility at
ONDERSTEPOORT
a few kilometers north of Pretoria.
(Miss "R" is a student there and is hoping to be a vet one day)
Thank you, Miss "R" for showing us around...what a privilege!
Amongst the many things she showed us, here are some pictures of some of their resident animals:

The two resident mascot goats: "Spyker" and "Jezebel"

Miss "R" and one of the many horses.
Some of the many squealers...:)

A 'Blacksmith' Plover
(I believe there is an upgraded name (?) for this beautiful bird)
Four 'King Ibises' and one 'Hadedah Ibis'
A 'cattle eagret' in the background
The life of luxury...

The Beagles at Onderstepoort are under close supervision of the students.  A Beagle interest group has been set up and volunteer students are matched with various pups.  The students are responsible for training and walking the pups. 
Time spent with the dogs is affectionately termed
"Fuzz Therapy"...
Miss "R" has been allocated a sweet little pup, who is called
"Willri"... (Pronounced: Vill-ree)
Willri is a really cute little thing. 
She accompanied us during our tour of the grounds.
The horses, too, are ridden by the students. 




I am glad to report that I also received my own dose of
"Fuzz therapy"

Thank you again, Miss "R" for your kind hospitality.
We are so proud of you and know that you are going to make a pawsome vet one day!!!

Wishing all our readers a really happy Sunday!

Lotsaluv

22 comments:

verobirdie said...

Willri already knows how to be cute, doesn't she? I want some fuzz therapy too!
Thank Miss R for the tour, will you?

Amber-Mae said...

OH my, those are some distractions!!! Must be tuff to concentrate with all those tasty looking creatures running around freely. WOW look at all those Beagles! They all are so lovely & I absolutely love that picture of them behind the fence. So cool! You guys have a happy Sunday too!

rottrover said...

We would have needed a scolding with all those distractions around Toby, nevermind...

Miss R's campus looks fantastic! Good luck to her!!

-Gizmo, Bart and Ruby

sprinkles said...

I can see why Toby was so distracted, there's just so much to see and sniff there!

I'd love to have spent a day at R's school. What a fun place!

Gail Wilson said...

What a wonderful way to spend the day. And so many beautiful dogs in your class. And all the aniamls at the vet place are amazing!
Hugs and wags, Mistaya, Maggie and M.O.M. Gail

NanaNor's said...

Hi there Toby and Maxmom, Loved seeing all these photos and all the pups. The weather looks great as well.
Sending big hugs to you both.
Love, Noreen & Reggie-dog

WFT Nobby said...

Hi Toby pal
How on earth do you cope with all those distractions at training school? The sheep for example. I would love to chase sheep, and it is very boring that Gail always keeps me on a short lead when there are any in the vicinity.
And that vet training facility looks most interesting. Were you not invited too Toby? I think you should complain.
Toodle pip!
Bertie,

Ms. ~K said...

Ms. R looks right at home in her element!!! I know you are proud!

I'm watching The Masters Golf Tournament...I'm very impressed with SA's Charl Schwartzel.
Hugs,
Kit

Kasha The Dainty Great Dane said...

Thanks for sharing all the great pictures, so sorry I haven't been around lately to read your posts so I have lots of catching up to do. So what's up with the Beagles...why do they have so many of them at the school? Just curious.

AARF Kasha the Dainty Great Dane

Tweedles -- that's me said...

Dear Maxmom and Toby
thank you for sharing all the photos.
I know it was a relaxing day for you,,, and it was also relaxing for us to sit back and enjoy your tour.
A little puppy therapy is good for everyone,,
love
tweedles

Two French Bulldogs said...

cute animals..we thought we were there but it was piggys
Benny & Lily

Anonymous said...

OMD those are the Cuties pics every single one of them!

Thanks so much for sharing!

woo woos, Tessa

Fiona said...

We loved all the photos - that is the coolest veterinary school ever - dogs and horses to work with .... Sorcha loved reading about it before school this morning and Murray loved all the photos so much! He's big into pigs at the moment too - we were at Dublin zoo yesterday and he really enjoyed the City Farm section with their great pigs!

Great post!

take care
Clive and Murray

ps-we're feeling very sorry for our Irish golfer Rory McIlroy this morning but congrats to the SA golfer Charl Schwartzel - we knew from when he got that amazing putt on the 1st that he was going to win! Murray's Dad though had a big bet on Rory so he wasn't very happy at all!!

Molly the Airedale said...

What a gorgeous facility! Willri sure is a cutie!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

Tama-Chan, Benny, Vidock, Violette, Ollie, Heloise, Momo, Ryu said...

Lots of wonderful photo and we of course noticed the Tommy lookalike!

kks said...

thanks for the tour! Miss R must be in "hog heaven"! :)
she will make a wonderful, compassionate Veterinarian....you must be sooo proud! what a sweet baby beagle!
xoxo

♥I am Holly♥ said...

What wonderful pictures of all kinds of animals!! That looks like a place that we would love to be! Thanks for sharing! Lots of love, Debbie and Holly

Mrs. JP said...

Wow, lots of pictures today. AWWWWW,,,mom, Toby was probably busy telling everybody that he's a star and they should come see him in Annie! He didn't mean to be rowdy I'm sure. He looks like he's smiling at you while you have your "stern mom" look on. That picture made me laugh.
Go Miss R!!! Who doesn't need fuzz therapy on a regular basis?

Suka said...

hey Toby and Maxmom,

So many beautiful animals! No wonder you couldn't concentrate, Toby! Actually, I think you deserve a meaty bone for being good enough to not be chasing after and playing with all those fun farm animals!

The Vet school looks wonderful! Again, so many beautiful animals, and so much going on! Good lcuk to Miss "R" and we can tell that she will make a great Vet for the animals!

Thanks for sharing so many lovely and fun photos!

Suka and K

Dom said...

Hi MAXMOM. Thank you for the lovely post and all the photos. The Beagle pups are really cute!
Thank you for always posting such positive and interesting posts.

Love Dom

P.S. The Blacksmith Plover is now known as the Blacksmith Lapwing.

Deborah said...

That is one cute little beagle....
xxoo
Deborah

Unknown said...

Fuzz Therapy...what a great name! :-)

Gorgeous pictures - love the ones of the pigs!!

And that's so great that Toby is doing the CGC - I think every pet dog should do it really - they teach such useful and important skills for every day life in human society!

Hsin-Yi