Success At Dog School!

I made a new friend tonight at dog school!  Her name is Billie and she's a Miniature Pinscher.

After playtime we worked on making our humans run away so we can go to them.  I've actually got Marty and Lyle trained pretty well on this already, so I did better than a lot of the other dogs in school.  Also, most of the other dogs get distracted and want to come say hello to me.  I do not want to say hello to them, so I am a lot less distracted.  Now if they had tennis balls, that would be a whole different problem.  

Okay, if no one makes fun of me for having to play with the tiniest dog in the class despite the fact that my very best friend is a grown up Anatolian Shepherd, you can see this really cool video Marty took of me playing with Billie after class.

Playdate With Charley

Tonight we went to Marty's friends Tyke and Severine's house for me to play with their dog.  He's a Jack Russell Terrier named Charley.  I'm bigger than him already, even though he's about four!  He was really friendly, but a little more motivated about playing than I was.







They also have a human puppy.  Charley has trained him really well, and he was fun to play with.  Marty is pretty nervous about me and human puppies, and I get it, they can be really weird and noisy, but I like Matisse.

ITCHY!

I think I got into something bad at the farm, because yesterday I was so, so, so itchy.  I was so itchy I didn't even really want to play, I mostly just wanted to be allowed on the couch to cuddle.  Luckily, Marty and Lyle were very sympathetic (they're itchy too) and so we just stayed in.  They did take me for a walk around the block on my leash though.  This is why I hate the little house.  At the farm I could have gone three times that far and never had to be on my leash.  I am not a big fan, but Marty and Lyle gave me lots of little bites of ham (I like ham almost as much as chicken), so I survived.

This morning after Lyle took me out I was still SO ITCHY that Marty said enough was enough and called the vet.  While we were waiting for my appointment, Marty let me sleep in the bed with them.  Being itchy isn't all bad.  Dr. Richards has Wednesdays off, so we saw Dr. Boyd instead.  She's pretty cool too and everyone said nice things about me (as always).

I weigh 18.5lbs now!  Marty thinks I might be a BIG dog when I get to be a big dog.

Dr. Boyd said I have some kind of dermatitis and I have to take an antibiotic every day and get a bath every other day.  She also said Marty can give me a little Benadryl if I'm miserable.  I am not very excited about the bath thing, especially because I have to wait TEN MINUTES after the shampoo goes on before Marty can wash it off.  Ten minutes of being wet and soapy and cold.  Not fun.  Marty says she will give me a whole cheese stick if I am good for my baths though, so we're going to try it.  Besides, the baths are probably not going to be worse than the itching.

After the vet visit and my bath, I was exhausted, so Marty put me in my box and left me.  I don't get to play with Navidson today, but it's okay, because we're going to visit some other friends for dinner and I can play with their dog.

Playing With Ziggy!

I did it.  I actually played with another dog.  Ziggy came over tonight before dinner and it was awesome.

(I think this is how dogs play, right?)

Ziggy is great with me, he lets me chomp on him and everything.  Now if only my humans would learn to play properly.

I'm moving so fast I'm like the Flash!

That brown blur?  That's me!

We did get in a little trouble for roughhousing too close to my great-grandhuman.  Marty and Lyle and Ziggy's humans were worried we'd knock him over.  But we didn't, *and* he said Ziggy can come back and visit anytime!

What Happened After I Fell in the Lily Pond

After three days of updates about the lily pond, many of you probably thought it was inevitable.  Luckily, my humans are cool and just gave me a bottle to play with.

Ice Cream!

So Marty and Lyle had to go back to Lowe's (Marty says Lyle planned it that way) to get some more stuff for the lily pond project.  I got to go along, which was fine.  Marty says that I am being socialized, but really, I just like the chicken.  Plus, I needed to be sure they picked out the right kind of gravel.  After all, if I'm going to be swimming in this pond, I need to be sure they've got it set up right.  We saw lots of humans, and some human puppies at Lowe's, but no other dogs.  Marty says that dogs are allowed at Lowe's, but I am starting to believe that Marty takes me places that other humans don't take their dogs.  Whatever, when my humans aren't being jerks, they're awesome.  I showed them the right kind of rocks to get, but they almost got another kind anyway, so I had to stand up in the cart and show them.






















Marty brings drinks when we go places, you can see them in this picture.  Diet Coke for Lyle, Mt. Dew for her, and water for me.  She says I'm not going to be small enough to drink my water there for very much longer.









After we got done at Lowe's we had to run another errand, but Lyle and I stayed in the car.  After that, Lyle was complaining about "foooooood, waaaatttter" even though Marty brought him a drink.  I think he was mad she didn't give him any chicken.  Maybe he should try being better socialized at Lowe's.  Anyway, he was making such a fuss that we got to go someplace and get chicken and milkshakes.  I have finally trained them enough to know that I get food too!  I GOT ICE CREAM!

Busy, Busy, Busy (Napping)

Today was insane.

I got up early and Marty and I played fetch outside.  She plays with a whole bunch of tennis balls so that if I don't bring one back she can still throw another.  I'm training her not to throw the ball until I sit, but it's tricky.  I'm still jumping around a lot to try to confuse her, but she's getting better.

I've finally found something I like better about the little house than the farm.  At the little house we have air conditioning.  It is SO HOT here.  So hot that after yesterday's big walk and all the excitement that I was just about too worn out to do anything at all today.  I curled up with my rabbit and took a long nap this morning.


Marty woke me up from my nap to introduce me to my Aunt Janet and Uncle Jon.  They're pretty cool, but I was still very sleepy, and so I didn't play with them.  I did go outside and let them admire me for a little while, but that was it.  They invited me to come visit at their house and meet their cats.  Marty says that's a good idea, and she's trying to pick a time we can fit it into the calendar.

 Aunt Janet's dad is the guy that came over for hot dogs last weekend. (Remember that?  When I didn't get any?)  He came over too and HE BROUGHT ME MY OWN TRACTOR!  It squeaks and I love it.  I'll put a picture of it up soon, but I'm keeping it to myself for just a little bit longer.  He didn't stay as long as Aunt Janet did, but he came back after a little while (I was napping again) to help with the lily pond project that I've been supervising.






So Marty and Lyle and tractor guy (the crazies call him Steve, but he'll always be tractor guy to me) worked on the lily pond for a while.  I mostly stayed in the shade so I could direct appropriately.  Did I mention it's HOT up here?  It was a very dirty job and Marty got down in the muck to fill buckets with mud that had accumulated over all the years since anyone did this.  She was actually standing in the muck!  Did I get to get in there and play?  Of course not!  It took them a long time, but they finally got the whole lily pond all the way emptied out.  Allegedly, they're going to fill it back up and then they're going to put fish in it. I think once they get water in it, I will try swimming again.  








When we were finally done messing with the lily pond (and after they took showers to get the wonderful stinky smells off of them), we went to Aunt Becky's!  I love Aunt Becky!  This time my grandhuman was there too, along with a big scary guy that is my other grandhuman.  Aunt Becky had warned me about him, so I was prepared.  Now the stories I've heard about Mr. Tripoli make a lot more sense.  I decided to be shy to get them to give me treats.  It worked.  The crazies put me in my box and everyone left me, but I was so happy to be in air conditioning again that I didn't even fuss.  When they got back we played for a long time and they all told Marty that I am not rotten.  I enjoy making everyone think I'm sweet and handsome so that they don't believe Marty when she tells them about some of my tougher training methods.