A Two Breakfast Morning

You know that I have been concerned that Barbara is now 385 in dog years. She is very decrepit but I have decided that it may work to our advantage! Yesterday Ambrose woke her up much earlier than usual because he needed to go outside. She grumbled a bit but of course took us both out for our business and then made our breakfast when we came back in. We had a good breakfast and then she looked at the clock and exclaimed that it was too early and she was going back to bed. When she woke up later, she took us out again and then made us a second breakfast. I was amazed at our good luck. Just before she put the food down, she said "Did I give you breakfast earlier?" I didn't say a word and neither did Ambrose. We just sat there looking very hungry, she shrugged and gave us our second breakfast of the day!!! If she is this forgetful now, just think how many breakfasts we will get when she is 400 in dog years.

Other than that, life has been very boring. It has been so hot, that I barely want to go outside. We did go out to the dog park very early to try to beat the heat. No one else was there yet so we had the whole 3 acre park to ourselves. Here is a short movie to show you what I did in the wet grass.






BTW I have seen Ambrose's attempt to take over the blog. That is goofy little brothers for you. I think he has been influenced by Mango's pee wee labradork brotherDexter. Don't worry, I will never allow Ambrose to have two posts in a row again!

More Good Dog Play

In my mission to encourage good dog play, I thought you would like to see a short video of me and Ambrose playing chase and a bit of bitey face. Barbara was too slow to catch us running away so the video picks up as we race back in her direction. Every time you see shots of the ground it means we crashed into her knees! Ha! Amazingly, no HBO words were used in the making of this video.




You can see how well I control the play. Ambrose has learned my cut-off signals and when I decide that the play is over for a bit, he goes away. Goofy as he is, he is learning good skills. Barbara never let him play with bad companions when he was little and of course he has had me as an excellent example. This is critical in developing a good play style. If you are bullied as a puppy, you may grow up to be a bully.

Thanks for all your concern about the dog-crate-on-wheels. The insurance will pay for the repairs but there is a long wait to get it fixed. It still drives though so we can get around to all our activities. I would not want to miss out on our Drill Team practice tomorrow.

Hope all of you had a chance to play this weekend.

Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year dog bloggers! I hope you all had a good start to 2009. I started my new year going tracking with my BFF Ayla at the university campus (my goal this year is to get my Tracking Dog (TD) title). It was great fun with lots of interesting and distracting smell. Unfortunately there are no pictures. Barbara got this cool little video camera for Christmas but is technologically challenged and we get sound but no pictures when she uploads them!!! I hope she fixes that soon so you can see me in action.

Anyway, today was lovely and sunny so we went to the new dog park. I surveyed all the running room. There weren't too many dogs but I did get in some chase games (again no useful video)



Then I had to cool off by trying out the special dog water fountains.




This little guy Toby wanted to be my boyfriend.



But he tried to hump me so I had to let him know that he should mind his manners! You can see that he got the message.



Then it was back home to thrash some toys, have dinner and relax. Tomorrow I get to meet up with my freestyle friends for some practice.

A New Dog Park

We went to check out a brand new dog park this morning. With all the problems that can happen in them, if done well they can be a lot of fun. The best park in the area is a half hour drive away at APS (and I love going there) but this new one is just 5 miles from my house.



It is really big and I had to check out every part of it. There is plenty of space to run and seats for the humans and trash cans for the poop. They left lots of trees so it will be shady in the summertime. The surface seems to be mulch so I guess we won't be going there when it is wet.






They even have a special water fountain for dogs.



After a great run, the morning was completely ruined by a trip to Max's Dog Wash. This is a place full of dog torture implements such as grooming tables, tubs and blow dryers. Barbara wants me to look nice in my parade debut but taking a bath is my idea of cruelty to animals.



She washed and conditioned me, blew me dry and brushed me out. It was horrible. I got treats before, during and after and it was still horrible.

And thanks to Archie and Agatha she had the bright idea that it has been too long since my stuffies have had a bath. So now she is going to drown them in the washing machine tonight. Cruelty to dogs and cruelty to stuffies. It is so disturbing I am not sure how I will perform in the parade tomorrow.

Good Time at the Dog Park and Tracking Fun

I knew it was going to be a fun morning when I saw Barbara packing up my tracking bag. And it got even better when she drove the dog crate on wheels through the drive-thru at Burger King. I could smell those sausage biscuits and was anticipating the fun of tracking and the great rewards.

But first we stopped at the dog park to run off some energy and meet my boyfriend Riley. I haven't seen him in awhile so I was glad to get the chance to play with him.

There was a nice group there this morning and we are had a good sniff at one another.



I did a lot of running around at first. No pictures of that because I was going so fast that I was a blur. Then I invited Riley to play with me.



The two of us get along very well and you can see my good play postures and curvy body language.







We really enjoyed the opportunity to play together and I know that Barbara was glad to see that the play helped me settle down a bit.

Riley found a nice chocolate lab mix dog to play with as well. The did a lot of bitey face and finally they both got down on the ground to chew on each other. Very silly but fun and they got very dirty too.




Then it was on to the tracking fields. Here is my BFF Ayla with her person. Ayla is all ready to track.




My boyfriend Trotter is a good tracker but he is not as intense about it as Ayla and me. He is working that track very well. I think he likes agility better because he recently got his Novice Agility title.



I ran a track where I had to find 8 articles including gloves, socks and slippers. I found them all and got sausage biscuit and muenster cheese as my reward. Very well worth it! No photos though because Barbara can't manage to hold the tracking line and take pictures at the same time! Then we headed home as I really need a nap now.

Pet Peeves at the Dog Park

Yesterday we drove the dog crate on wheels over to my friend Amiga's house and picked her and her person up for a trip to the dog park. Amiga is a lovely Golden Retriever who is in the Drill Team with me.




It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed playing with most of the dogs at the park.




Don't worry, I am not stealing treats from someone's bag. A nice person brought this bag filled with ice so we could cool off.




This is Lacey, one of Barbara's students.




Amiga got tired of running around so she is chewing on a nice stick.



Now we get to the pet peeves. There needs to be some people etiquette in the dog park. I am always shocked with the people who come to the park and talk on their cell phones or read and pay no attention to their dogs! What is wrong with them?




Then their are the people who just let their dogs poop and don't pick up after them. It makes the park nasty for everyone.




But the thing that gets me really annoyed is the people who let their dogs crowd the gate. It makes it very hard for other dogs to get in and is a good place to start a fight.




And look at this poor little thing left to fend for herself against the big dogs. It will teach her that big dogs are mean and that she has to fight them, which will of course get her in trouble. Her people should be ashamed!




I love to go to the dog park but some people don't have much sense and can ruin it for everyone. Rant over.

I promised in my last post that I would be doing taste tests on all the treats that Barbara brought home from the APDT Conference. That has been put on hold for a few days because I was a very bad girl last night. I stole a whole bag of my chewable joint supplement and ate 24 of them! Quite delicious but it has caused my tummy to be rather upset (and Barbara was upset with me and worried too). I'm feeling better now but am still eating rice and chicken broth until things are back to normal. Then the testing will begin and I will report on the most delicious kinds of treats.

My New Boyfriend Henry

I am always up for a trip to the dog park and I am always on the look out to add new boyfriends to my pack of admirers. So when Barbara said that we were going to go to the dog park to work with one of her students I was very excited.

Henry is a 2 year old Labradoodle that was just recently adopted to a wonderful family. I don't think he had the proper socialization when he was a puppy because he is very sensitive and he never really learned to play. His new person was concerned that Henry didn't enjoy himself at the dog park. Since I have excellent play skills and clear body language, Barbara thought I was just the dog to bring Henry out of his shell.


Henry came into the park but didn't interact with the other dogs and only wanted to sniff around. If other dogs came near him, he walked away.



I came up to him and we sniffed politely at the side of the face. Notice my low, sweeping tail wags and curved body position. I would never be so rude as to come straight on to another dog's face and stare at them.



I gave him a play bow so that Henry would know that everything that I was going to do was all in fun.



Then I lay on the ground to make myself as non threatening as possible and to do a little flirting.



Finally Henry realized it was ok to play with me. We had a few excellent chases and even a little chew-face game. His person was so happy to see his tail wagging. We had such a good time that it even gave Henry the confidence to go up to some other dogs. I think that Henry is going to be a social butterfly after a few more dog park outings!

But flirt that I am, I was not satisfied with one new beau. I also attracted the attention of a young male Brittany named Truman who seemed quite taken with me.




I was a little concerned that after my spaying operation boy dogs wouldn't be so attracted to me. Fortunately that is not true. I guess when a girl's got it, she's got it!!

Another Boyfriend

A girl can never have too many boyfriends. Royal is a very handsome young Australian Shepherd. I think he is very cute. I've known him for awhile but it was nice to have a chance to hang out with him in the dog park.



We had a good time sniffing each other in rude places and of course I behaved in a very flirtatious manner. Barbara thinks that I acted like a brazen hussy but I was just having fun. I did not post some of the more risque photos since impressionable puppies may be reading this blog and I do not want to shock them with R-rated material!!!



I love to be chased and Royal was happy to oblige me by chasing me around the park. You can see that we wore each other out.



I hope I get another chance to play with Royal soon.

Dog Park Silliness

I finally got out to the APS dog park this afternoon. It was hot but I really needed to run all the silliness out of me. And I made a new friend while I was there! This is Tibbie a 2 year old Bulldog. Her person adopted her from Bulldog Rescue.



We had a great time playing together. I can run much faster than Tibbie can on her short little legs. I did laps around the dog park and Tibbie would try to catch me as I ran by her.



So I would throw myself down on the ground and Tibbie would "get" me.





I think I tired her out a bit. Isn't she cute with her smushed in face?



After all our silliness we had to cool off in the baby pool. It is very small so we had to take turns.



What a fun afternoon - dog park silliness and a new friend!!