White Stuff Everywhere!

This is what I saw when I looked out my front door this morning!



Snow all over and falling from the sky. I was a bit surprised but very excited. I've been so jealous of my blogging friends who have snow and now I have some too.










I've hardly ever seen snow. Barbara says that we have been lucky the last few years and have only had a few flurries since I was a puppy. I do not consider it lucky but a complete failure on the part of the weather to provide me with all this great white stuff to play in. Here is a picture of my dog-crate-on-wheels. You can see the snow is still falling.















We went up to the field near my house to explore. Everything smells so different when it is covered in snow.

















The snow sticks to my fur and gives me a frosted look.


















I am just amazed with how wonderful it is. The only thing I don't like about snow is that it gets between my toes and forms little balls on my fur. Barbara had to help me pick them off when we came inside. But other than that I think it is great.



















Now I realize that this may seem like a paltry amount of snow compared to what my friends in Boston and Chicago have experienced. I also understand how frustrating it is not to be able to go on long walks and get exercise. But I think this is great stuff and the best part is it is still snowing.

If She's the President, Does That Make Me the First Dog?

I'm waiting for a very exciting inauguration on Tuesday but before Obama becomes President, I have to tell you that my special person is now the President of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers!! The APDT is the largest organization of dog trainers in the world with over 5000 members.

The members elected Barbara to the Board several years ago and now the Board has unanimously voted her President. I'm very excited because I get my picture in the APDT's magazine, The Chronicle of the Dog. I will be famous!



I wonder what privileges I get as First Dog? More toys? More treats? A staff to arrange my busy social schedule?

The mission of the APDT is "promoting caring relationships between dogs and people by educating trainers in canine behavior and emphasizing professionalism and reward-based training". Isn't that a great idea? It is so important that dog trainers know more about us and use the best, most humane methods to train us. I love reward based training. It means I get lots of treats, toys, praise, petting, play and other fun things and I learn at the same time.

Unfortunately being President isn't all fun and games. Barbara has to spend 2 days at a meeting. What a snore! Even though they are talking about things that will help us, I can't imagine anything more boring. We dogs don't need to talk - we just need to do things. I will be having a lot more fun at K9 Kindercare.

Farm Friends

We got up bright and early this morning to go tracking at Fearrington. It was great tracking weather - cool, no wind and it had rained last night so the ground was damp. Damp ground holds the scent really well so it was an easy track for me. Barbara may as well have put big arrows down that said "sniff here".

After tracking we took a walk around the farm. I love to visit the animals there. Here are the Belted Galloways.























I always like to look at the cows so I stuck my head through the fence. Rumor has it that cows are really Roast Beast which is my favorite treat. I have a great appreciation for cows.






















One of the cows came over to get a better look at me.























Then lots of cows came over. They are very big and shaggy and a bit intimidating to tell the truth but I could see that they were fascinated with me.
























The cows stared at me and I politely turned my head. It is rude to do too much direct eye to dogs in the dog park and even though these are cows and not dogs, I didn't want to take any chances with these big guys.

























You can see that we finally got along very well and I bravely put my nose near the fence to get a really good whiff of their delicious smell. They were sniffing back - maybe they like Gordon Setter smell.



























AFter visiting with the cows we walked over to another field to visit the nice donkey. I don't like the big one-he is scary-but this little guy is very friendly. I put my head through the fence to encourage him to come over.


























He was eating his hay but came over for a visit.
























Barbara brought along some pieces of apple which he liked very much. Maybe he is friends with Mitch! He took them very gently with just his lips and no teeth.
























I like apple too but only Delicious Apples. I spit out Granny Smith and MacIntosh! They are too tart for me.
























After we shared our apples, we continued on our walk around Fearrington. I was disappointed that my goat friends were not out. Maybe they were sleeping late. I always enjoy watching their antics and they smell delectable. Maybe I will see them next time.



Barbara thought I would look pretty against these yellow flowers.



Hope you all had a good weekend.

English Shepherds and Pugs in Montana Need Help

My BFF Ayla is an English Shepherd and she alerted me to a horrible situation in Montana. A kennel had 300 neglected English Shepherds and Pugs. Some are puppies and many of the females are pregnant. They are being cared for by a veterinarian and lots of volunteers. You can read about it at the National English Shepherd Rescue site and there are links to newspaper articles about the situation.

It is a shocking story but something that happens all too often. People start with a few dogs and think they are going to make money from them. In a short time they have more dogs than they know what to do with and then they can't or won't take care of them properly. The dogs are the ones that suffer. I am a peaceful dog but stories like this make me want to bite someone.

All of us dogs with blogs are so lucky that we have people who care for us. I was lucky to be born to a great mom and my breeder took wonderful care of me and my sibs. Then I came to live with my special person. Ayla was in a shelter but she eventually was adopted by her special person and has a great life. I know that many of you had tough starts in life but you now are in terrific homes. We should all be very thankful that we were not born in Shady Lane Kennels in Montana!

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.

Dog Bloggers Rule!

I have been absent from the blogosphere for the last two weeks because my secretary (Barbara) has been too busy shopping and wrapping to take my dictation. She also keeps forgetting to take the camera with her to document my adventures. She is very slack.

I want to thank all my blogging friends for their wonderful cards and e-cards. I enjoy getting all this mail and seeing your lovely cards. We did the math and I have gotten 7 times more cards than Barbara! I guess her family and friends are very slack also. Blogging dogs rule!

All the shopping produced many packages to wrap. I carefully inspected them all and found them to be very boring things like books and dvds. These fuzzy socks look like they could make a good tug toy though.

I have helped with the wrapping by trying to shed as many Gordon Setter hairs as I possibly can onto the present before she finishes wrapping it. I can tell you that many HBO words have been said around here and not by me.



We had a lot of rain over the weekend but today was beautifully sunny and cold. I love the cold because it makes me feel very skippy. We visited my boyfriend Trotter so we could run together in his fenced yard.



I stole his frisbee (that's the orange thing in my mouth) and raced away with it.



It feels so good to run as fast as I can.



Trotter and I waited intently for his person to throw the ball for us.



After some good running we played some bitey face games and then it was time to go home. We have to pack our bags for the holidays.

I hope that you and your people have a great holiday and that you get lots of treats and toys in your stockings.

Brazen Hussy

I am sure that I already have a reputation as a brazen hussy but I have to admit that I have another boyfriend. I met Roscoe last week and we had another date this morning. Don't you think he is pretty cute?

He is about a year and a half old (I do seem to go for the younger men) and was rescued by some really nice people. He came to Barbara's class this fall and now they are doing some more work together since he likes to pull on leash (don't we all). I think he is part schnauzer and part basset hound.



We have had some great games of chase in his yard along with some bitey face. Roscoe has a favorite ball and he likes to play soccer with it. I grabbed it and teased and flirted.



Now I have enticed him close to me and we are getting ready for more games.



Look at us go!! Even though Roscoe's legs are much shorter than mine he really kept up with me.



Most of the pictures were just blurs as we sped around the yard. Here we are hanging out on the deck getting our second wind.



It was a great morning and I can't wait to play with him again. Now I can only hope that my other boyfriends don't get jealous.


Awards


The Dughallmor Beagles sent me this great award. Thanks so much. I wish my person could take beautiful photos like your mom.




Thanks to Holly and Zac for this lovely butterfly award. I love to point at butterflies!




More Parade News

My boyfriend Royal has more parade photos on his blog along with a video of us doing some of our formations. Check it out.

My First Parade

I am really exhausted but I have had such an amazing day I couldn't wait to blog about it. I was in my first parade as a member of the Paws 4Ever Drill Team (it used to be called the Animal Protection Society)! I've been in a few demos but a parade is a whole different thing and much more exciting.

My friends Ayla and Royal were in the parade with me and this was the first time for all of us. Our people have paraded many times before with our older siblings. Ruby and Big Sandy are retired now but they were excellent in the parades and knew all the tricks perfectly. Barbara paraded many years with Selkie who was a parade diva and just loved showing off.

Our people were worried that we would be really wild in the parade so they decided to get us together for some exercise in the hopes of calming us down. I believe the phrase Barbara used was "Let's try to run their legs off". How silly of her. Not possible.

Look at the three of us go.





After a lot or chase games and bitey face, Ayla did some roaching for us.




It was a wonderful start to the day and it did help me settle down a bit but not much. I was terribly excited when we got to the parade. There were floats, firetrucks and bands and lots of little kids running around. It got me all charged up again.




Here is a picture of the team with our new banner.




We were all very glad to see Hadji and his people. Hadji was very sick this fall and could barely walk never mind practice with the team. He is recovered now and he helped his people carry our banner.




Here is our mascot.




We lined up in the street to get ready to march. I am at the very end.



Elmo and Bernie



Doing our group downs.



More marching.



Ayla, Royal and Bernie in the pinwheel move.



I think we were very popular in the parade because we got a lot of applause. I hope people see that we dogs can be trained and learn lots of neat things. Of course all our training is positive and I can't begin to tell you how many bits of cheese and hotdog I got while marching.

This was a terrific adventure and the best news is that there is another parade next weekend which is even bigger. I can't wait.

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.

My Mailbox

Normally I don't think about the mail very much. I usually don't get any letters so I'm not interested when Barbara stops at the mailbox. But that has changed with the DWB Holiday Card exchange. I've been getting lots of cards in the last week or so the mail has become very interesting to me. I love getting cards from my blogging friends!

So you can imagine my distress when I saw this on Sunday.



What is that you may ask? It is the remains of my mailbox! Sometime on Sunday morning someone was driving too fast on our road and left the road and crashed into my mailbox. The post was sheared off and the box knocked into the ditch and the little door broken! I hope that this doesn't interfere with me getting my cards. Barbara has to go to the post office to pick up our mail until we get a new mailbox. What a drag.





Our Drill Team has been practicing very hard and I think we will be a big hit when we march on Saturday. Here is a picture of me modeling the bandana which the team will be wearing. The only bad news is that I am going to have to take a bath before the parade. Barbara wants me to look super shiny.




Boxer Update

Thank you for all your good wishes for the Boxer we are trying to rescue. He runs right across the field to the feeding tree when he sees my dog crate on wheels coming. Today Barbara was able to get him to come within 2 feet to get some cheese. He leaped away at the last second but at least he is getting closer.



He is still is not sure about me and sometimes he barks when I come near. I am doing my flirty best to get him to like me (and you know that I have many boyfriends) and trust us. Keep your paws crossed for our success.