Iceskating for Dogs

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever tried iceskating? It's so much fun!
I went to the off-leash park for a hike with my neighbors, Lola the yellow lab and Rosie the Maltipoo. It's been furry cold here this week (in fact, more of that fluffy white stuff is falling from the sky right now). So there were patches of ice all along the fields and backwoods trails.

Here's another:


We even found a frozen tennis ball...I tried with all my might to get it out but it wouldn't budge. Even the hoomans couldn't free it.


I thought these frozen leaves were especially pretty:


I love going in the woods with Lola and Rosie; we have so much fun together! Rosie is Lola's new sister and she keeps up with us "big" dogs just fine. She's a big dog in a little dog's body.

I'll leave you with a clip of us playing ball...who do you think was the fastest pup?!





HAPPY 2010 TO ALL MY FURIENDS!

Happy Howlodays!

erry Christmas to all my furiends!



Did Santy Paws visit you?  He left me some yummy chewies, some squeakies and a stuffy!  Guess he turned a blind eye to my counter-surfing and inappropriate chewing this year (heh-heh).

May you all get some good scraps at dinner tonight!

Waiting for Santy Paws

No, that's not doggy dandruff.  That fluffy white stuff started to fall from the sky again on Saturday.

And kept falling...and falling...and falling...

 

I was sure that meant that Santy Paws was on his way, with lots of bones and stuffies and balls for all the good doggies of the world.

There!  Up in the sky!  I see Rudolph's red nose!

No no no!!!  They're flying right over my house!  I've been a good doggy this year, Santy, I promise!  Come baaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

Lemme out!  I gotta get Santy to turn around!!!

Oops!  My bad...it was just a plane.

Wordless Wednesday - Camo-Dog

Winter Wonderland

Hi furiends! Sorry I've been AWOL again...this time my human's excuse is something called "Krissmuss- prepurayshuns" which has been keeping her furry busy. No time for blogging. But I gave her a stern talking-to today and said I needed to catch up with my blogging buds. So here I am!

The picture above was my first experience with that fluffy cold white stuff! That was way back in early March when I was a wee pup. I really didn't mind it which is a good thing, since I was being potty-trained.

We had our first snowfall of the season last week, and Boy Twin threw snowballs for me to eat (I mean, catch!). It was so much fun.

A couple days later, my human took me back to the off-leash woods for a walk. It was so beautiful, with the ice glistening on the branches like crystals.

Remember those cool berries from my first walk? Look at them now...like whipped cream on cherries!

We saw so many doggies also out enjoying the winterscape...my human forgot to take pics 'cuz she was too busy yakking with the other humans while we doggies romped together in the snow. I love going on these walks 'cuz we both get a great workout, going up & down ridges...I'm always so tuckered out when we get home.

Does it snow where you live and if so, do you like it?

My Kennelmate is a Star!

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Update: my human is home from jury duty, yippee! The plantiff decided to drop the lawsuit.

Did any of you catch the National Dog Show in Philadelphia which was broadcast on Thanksgiving Day? If you did and saw the Sporting Group portion, you saw my kennelmate, Solo (a.k.a. Ch. Honeyrun's Lord of the Dance). He's one of the top Tollers in the country! I'm proud to say I knew him back when he was just a feisty adolescent. Here we are together (that's me in the background):

He was given his call name Solo because he was the only pup in his litter; pretty unusual, huh?

The minute my human set eyes on him, she knew he was destined for greatness.  He just had that special je ne sais quoi about him.  After watching him strut his stuff in the clip above, don't you agree?

Jury Doody

No, that's not a typo. Doody. As in, poopy. Kaka. The stuff we leave behind on our walkies which our humans collect in little plastic baggies. That's what I think of this thing which has kept my human away from me for two whole days. Which may stretch to four more. Harumph!

No off-leash walkies, no ball-throwing, no belly rubs...what's a pup to do? I know it's her "civic doody" and all, but frankly, I don't care. I just miss her!

But does she miss me? Apparently, not! I heard her telling my human dad that after she survived yesterday's juror vetting process and was chosen as one of six jurors, that she was actually looking forward to serving and seeing the justice system in action. Then they basically sat around for most of today and it looked like the parties might settle instead, and she was disappointed...but at the end of the day, they were called into the court room and heard the judge's instructions, so it's on after all.

All this to say, you might not hear from me for a while. I will try to get my human to log me on to the 'pee-yoo-ter, but once the sun sets she loses steam, so I'm not holding my breath. I feel bad that I don't know what's been going on with all my furiends...I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and got lots of leftovers!  Catch you all later.

Thankful for You!

My human has been busy-busy-busy getting ready for something called "Thanksgiving". I know it involves turkey (and hopefully lots of scraps for moi!) and being grateful. So I would like to let you know that I am thankful for all my doggy-bloggy furiends! I've met so many nice pups since I started blogging in April and have really enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you.

So now you know why I haven't been posting in a while...I'm starting to figure out that before a major holiday or event like the kids' birthdays, my human gets all frenzied and has no time to log me onto the 'pee-yoo-ter. Just 'cuz she's hosting 16 people for a meal on Thursday (with 6 of 'em staying for the long weekend)...what's the big deal? Pick up the phone, order some pizza and you're done! But she won't listen to me...harumph.

Luckily, today she realized how much she's been neglecting me and took me on a fantastic walk in the woods, OFF LEASH!!! I was so excited to be free, free at last! It's a park she discovered when Girl Twin had a soccer game there, where dogs are allowed off leash on the wooded trails. I was very well behaved and didn't run off. If I got too far ahead of my slowpoke human, I'd turn around and wait for her to catch up. She was very pleased about that since she didn't know how I'd do the first time out. A couple times, we encountered some other dogs on the trail and she was glad I remembered my recall lessons.  I do much better with just one other dog; if two or more come up to me at once, I get a bit nervous.

A tree with trail markers.  I wanted to jump into the stream but my human nixed that idea!

A beautiful stone wall

Some gorgeous berries

Surveying the domain

When it gets warm again, my human said I could swim here!

All tuckered out from all that running around.

Rally Cry

I've started my Beginning Rally class! What is Rally, you ask? Here is a description borrowed from the organization that created Rally, the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers):

Dog and Handler teams navigate a course with numbered signs indicating different exercises to perform such as Sit-Down-Sit, Straight Figure 8, Send Over Jump, Recall Over Jump. Teams navigate the course at a brisk, continuous performance without direction from the judge. Handlers are encouraged to talk to their dogs during the performance. All dogs, purebred, mixed breeds and dogs with disabilities are encouraged to participate. Rally trials can be hosted by any organization. Trials typically include Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 courses. A team earns a Rally title after successfully completing three course runs with qualifying scores. Titles can be earned at each Level and teams may also earn Championship titles, National Ranking Awards and a special Award of Excellence.

According to an instructor at our training facility, Rally was created as a sort of backlash against Obedience competition (my human's interpretation, not the instructor's) ...a more relaxed, more fun approach to evaluating the dog's knowledge of commands and dog/handler teamwork. During the trial, the handler can encourage the dog verbally and even use treats (sparingly), whereas these are forbidden in Obedience competition. My human served as a Steward at a Rally trial hosted by our club, and she thought it was so fun to hear the different ways the owners would praise their dogs throughout the course ("GOO'BOOOOOYEEEEEEEEEE!!!!") She said the dogs looked like they were enjoying themselves almost as much as the owners!

Apparently, Rally has really taken off while Obedience entries have fallen. Now, the AKC has gotten in on the act and is also sanctioning their own Rally trials.

So here's a clip of me at my second Rally class. I am the youngest in the class and it shows...I get distracted pretty easily at nice smells on the floor, at my human cousin who's taking the video, at the other dogs working the course...but I still had fun! My human says I need to work on my "place" (sitting at her left side, right next to her and close to her leg)...I have a tendency to swing out wide to sit. So you'll see her using a treat to try to get me closer in. Hey, she has lots of stuff to learn, too! You'll see her mess up one of her "about turns" (or was that supposed to be a 270 degree turn?). Enjoy!

Dony, No Swiping!

Do any of you have young'uns in the house?  If you do, you may be familiar with Swiper the Fox from the T.V. show Dora the Explorer.  Swiper is notorious for sneakily absconding with various objects from the heroine, Dora.  Or rather, he tries to swipe them, only to hear "Swiper, no swiping!" from Dora, Boots the Monkey, and millions of preschool viewers around the country.

Well, lately I've been hearing the refrain "Dony, no swiping!" around here, and I'm getting a little sick of it.  My counter surfing escapades have been seriously curtailed (heh-heh!).  How am I supposed to survive the long hours between breakfast and dinner with no snacks?!

Here's what I mean.  Little Boy wanted to make oatmeal cookies.  Of course, I offered my assistance.

   

Did somebody say cookies????

Double-checking the recipe.

I'll just skooch these measuring spoons over to Little Boy.

Time to sample the batter...it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

D'oh!!  Foiled again by Little Boy!

But even he can't stop the quickest tongue on the East Coast!

(That's a Dorito, in case anyone's wondering)

So there you have it...I've been reduced to scrounging for tiny morsels instead of my usual entire cookie/apple slice/bacon slice/fill-in-the-blank.  I feel like a junkyard dog.

BTW, I got a kick out of your comments on my Wordless Wed. pic...Cole got it right, I was under a lounge chair on the deck when Boy Twin took that picture from inside. 

Wordless Wednesday

Meet My Human Dad

This is my human dad.  As you can see, he was one of my biggest allies in the fight against my human to let me up on the couch (even tho' he'd deny it if you asked him).  I love snuggling with him when he watches the news.

Whenever I see my dad first thing in the morning, I go berserk!  This is because ever since I was a wee pup, he would greet me every morning by getting me all riled up.  My human tried to nip this little ritual in the bud, but it was rather cute in the beginning...now she says he's "created a monster", whatever that means.  All I know is that whenever I meet a man, I go nuts and try to jump all over him and lick him to death.  Luckily for the rest of the family, I don't do this to women or kids.

My dad is originally from France and my human loves it when he coos sweet nothings into my ear in French.  He's taken to calling me "ma belle", which used to be his nickname for my human...she seems a little miffed at that.  Get over it, lady!

Happy Howl-oh-ween!

So, you know how I've been dreading Girl Twin's Howl-oh-ween "surprise" for the past couple weeks?  Well, it wasn't as bad as I'd feared!  Nuhnuh-nuhnuh-nuhnuh-nuhnuh-nuhnuh-nuhnuh-nuhnuh-nuh, BATDOG!  She and my human made this for me; what do you think?

Girl Twin was Batgirl and I was her trusty sidekick, the Dog Wonder!

Here I am with her and all her trick-or-treating friends.

Those girls were too fast for my human and Little Boy, though, so we went off on our own (Boy Twin went with his friends).  BTW, thanks for all the get-well wishes for Little Boy...he is doing much better after my TLC.  Here, I ran into my friend Truman the Firefighter.

Not many other doggies out-and-about.  Lots of people took my picture and said they wished their dog was as well-behaved as me, so they could take them trick-or-treating...that made my human furry proud!  She was a little leery of how I'd react to all the commotion & costumes.  Nothing to fear...I loved being out for an evening stroll.

So now I'm gonna go check out all my blogging buddies to see if anyone else got dressed up!

Remember to stay away from the chocolate!

Nursing Duty

Quick!  Call the germ exterminators, our house needs fumigating!  Those nasty germs are still lurking and Little Boy got sick again with a fever.

I have decided to take matters into my own paws and go on nursing duty to ensure he gets better for good this time.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get him to take his medicine...

Wordless Wednesday

(I don't crimp my ear fur, I promise!!)

Training Your Human: Mastering the Furniture

It's raining cats and you-know-whats today...my human is kinda glad, 'cuz there were 5 things on the family's calendar but one got cancelled and three got rained out.  It's been a ruff week around here, that's why I've been MIA.  Little Boy was sick Mon. and Tue., Boy Twin was sick Wed. and Fri. and Girl Twin was sick Thur. and Fri.  My human dad had to go out of town and my human had a gazillion things to do, so by yesterday she was run down, got a sinus attack and still had to be a timer for a swim meet.  Whew!  No wonder I got no attention whatsoever this week.

So today, they are all taking it rather easy, snuggling under blankets, drinking tea, baking, reading, catching up on DVR'd shows, knitting, and one of my favorite activities:  napping!

Which brings me to today's installment of Training Your Human.  Remember how my human used to banish me from the kitchen table bench?  And the couch in the TV room was a big no-no?  Well...ahem...I am proud to announce that I have successfully trained her to let sleeping dogs lie where they want!  How did I manage this feat, you ask?  I noticed that when she gets all busy & frazzled with the kiddies, she's less likely to push me off the bench or couch, especially if I lie there very quietly without moving.  Maybe she doesn't see me.  I also got Girl Twin to work on her, too:  "But Mom, she's so cozy lying here with me!"  I guess my human realized it's no biggy to let me catch 40 winks where I want, since I don't destroy the furniture and haven't shed much (yet!  Will she be in for a big surprise in the Spring, hee-hee!).

So this is what I'll be doing today as the rain pitter-patters against the windows:

It seems that most of my blogging buddies have already trained their humans to allow them up on the furniture; kudos!  If you haven't, take my advice and sneak up there in increments, preferably when there's a lot of commotion going on.  Before they know it, your humans will forget that they ever banished you in the first place, and you're home free!

A.K.C.'s "Meet the Breeds" Event in NYC

Today, my human, Girl Twin and her friend left me at home with "the boys" to attend the Meet the Breeds event at the Javits convention center in NYC.  I was a little miffed about the "non-exhibitor dogs forbidden" rule, but I got over it pretty quickly when they returned with lots of goodies for me!  From what they told me, it was a huge hit so hopefully it'll become an annual event.  Yesterday and today, there were 160 dog breed booths, 41 cat breeds booths, lots of vendors and demonstration rings (obedience, agility, service dogs, acting, performing cats, pet care, etc.).  Too bad I wasn't small enough to sneak in inside my human's handbag; just look at all the cool sights & pups they got to see!

In this ring, they were demonstrating the Canine Good Citizen test with this goofy-looking dog.  That beagle must be on steroids!


Some of the breed booths and costumes were amazing!  Check these out:

This Gordon Setter exhibitor was in a full kilt.

And here's Toto the Cairn Terrier with his friends from Oz!

This Cavalier King Charles Spaniel exhibitor had an English tea table to go with her Victorian finery, and two Cavs tucked into a proper English pram (and yes, they were fast asleep!)

I've never even heard of a Black Russian Terrier, but their booth was one of the flashiest ones there (my human said they kinda look like Giant Schnauzers).

The (barkless) Basenji folks had erected an African hut and were decked out in the local fashions.

 

And my human said the Mastiff people went all Medieval on their...booth!  I didn't get the joke but she says movie buffs would.

The Saluki group had constructed something out of 1001 Arabian Nights...

...including one of their dogs!  Doesn't she look like a Bedouin princess?!

The Rhodesian Ridgeback booth also had an African theme.

The Shih Tzu folks had Chinese lanterns and a dragon (buddies of yours, Sasha?)

Speaking of buddies, Girl Twin took her friend to visit the booths of all my blogging buddies' breeds!  Brutus, this is for you.

   

NY Bully Brats, do you guys know this handsome devil?

This sweet girl made me think of all my Golden friends: Sammie, Mason Dixie, Sierra Rose, Lexi, Thor, and my new pal Miley.

Girl Twin and her friend had to visit the Siberian Husky booth twice!  The exhibitors was so happy when she told them about Khyra's mom's rescue work.  She also told them about my buddies the OP Pack, Army of Four and Kira the Beawootiful.

 

Hey Riley & Star and Snowy & Crystal, are you guys as silky as this Maltese?

Jasper, this kitty was gorgeous but I like your deeper orange shade better!

 

My human was smitten by this breed, the Tibetan Spaniel.  She loved their sweet expression and temperament, luxurious coat and compact size.  Hmmmm...maybe a future sibling for me??

Check out this ancient Aztec breed's name!  Try saying that three times fast after sampling the toliet bowl at the Pup Club!!

Speaking of Twix (and Lorenza and Beckett), my human and the girls were flabbergasted (that's gobsmacked for you Brits, Jasper!) that there was no dachshund booth!  Nor was there a Rat Terrier booth, Bijou & Banjo!  What a bummer!  And the worst omission?  No Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Booth!!!  What's up with that?!  The Xolodilaldufiljaalimcoeuqnxeruas were there, but no Tollers??!!  Once I finish this post, I'm gonna paw a letter to the national club and tell them they better get someone over there next year...heck, I'll do it myself if I have to!!

On a happier note, Girl Twin had entered an art contest for Meet the Breeds, featuring moi!  She didn't win a prize, but her work was featured along with lots of others and it was a nice surprise to see it there.  Didn't she do a nice job?

She and her friend got lots of nice freebies and they even picked up some stuff for me!  Six tennis balls for a buck, a multipack of compressed rawhide chews for a buck, and a great squirrel stuffy for $3 that they've seen in stores for $18!  So I'm a happy camper.  And so are they...my human and Girl Twin are already talking about going again next year.  If any of your humans decide to go, they should do a blogging-buddy meet-up!