Don’t go, Mommy…
Auggie knows. He knows.
Last year I packed for my vacation in secret… he was already in his crate sleeping. He did see the bags before I loaded them into the car in the morning, though, and I think that was enough.
I’ve only gone on vacation once since I’ve had Auggie (he is two and a half.) This is my second time… and I knew it was going to be harder on me, because I felt so much closer to him after our first agility trial a few months ago. I can’t explain it, but we bonded so much more just in that one time. I didn’t think I could love this little dog any more than I did before, but I do.
So… I got out the suitcase. I put it on the floor. I opened it. I turned around to grab some things to pack into it.
I turned back around…
He wants to come with me. =<
He didn’t understand why I started crying.
A Pleasant Pet Store Visit
Took Auggie to the grand opening celebration of our local Pet Supplies Plus. I had to go out there for work reasons and thought it would be fun to take my dog along, so away we went! It was awesome to see a chain store carrying premium dog foods – I was pretty pleasantly surprised.
They had LOTS of lovely leashes, but I was good and only bought one. Also picked up one of those poop bag dispenser thingies because it was a really great deal… even though Auggie never poops away from home! But now I have one just in case. Grabbed some bone-print guaze for his emergency kit, bought a new pair of thinning shears, and got some free samples of Eagle Pack (free treats!)
Auggie is a WONDERFUL ambassador for shelties. This sounds weird, because normally you talk about dogs being ambassadors in breeds that have a bad reputation, like pitties or rotties or dobes or something like that… but today two people exclaimed how surprised they were that Auggie was perfectly happy to come up to them and be pet, because “normally these dogs are so shy!”
It’s nice to have a dog who fits correct sheltie temperament, even though it’s become so accepted in the breed to have dogs who are not just standoffish, but downright SHY.
Met a PWC puppy in the store who desperately wanted to play with Auggie. He was SO FREAKING CUTE. He had no tail, just a little stumpy, and it WAGGED LIKE ALL GET OUT. Soooooooo adorable!
Agility Practice Photos, starring other pups!
Dragged my Rebel out to J’s house for agility practice. After shooting the whole night, I realized I had it on the wrong setting. Bah! Some of these are just a teeny bit blurry and could have been clearer if I were shooting properly.
But, regardless… pics!
Mom took this one of Auggie on the a-frame. (Obviously, I was handling at the time!)
Kaia, a miniature schnauzer, comes over the a-frame. I LOVE this shot and hate that it’s just slightly blurry!
Up the a-frame she goes!
Neeko, related to Auggie in some way that I can’t recall at the moment!
This is Lucky, a rescue sheltie. A great little guy. Down the a-frame!
Auggie the Brat: The Laundry
Tonight I’m doing laundry, and Auggie is with me in the laundry room, poking around by the vaccuum cleaner and finding various things to munch off the floor – dust bunnies, most likely, or maybe a spider. “Auggie,” says I, “stop eating things off the floor.” He looks at me mournfully.
A moment later, I hear him smacking his lips on something else. “AUGGIE,” I say, “stop eating things off the floor!”
I put a few more things in the dryer – and he starts chomping on something again. “Okay, baby, scoot scoot,” I tell him, and he scoots out of the laundry room and I shut the door behind him.
Now, the laundry room is in the basement and there are two doors that lead to it: one, the one I just shut, comes right into it; the other door leads towards my mom’s office and the bathroom, and also has a little hallway that leads into the laundry room.
As I’m putting things into the dryer, I suddenly see little Auggie paws creeping into the room. He stops, hiding behind the open door to the dryer.
I peek over the door and look down at him. He hasn’t noticed a thing… he’s still staring intently at my feet, watching, thinking I haven’t realized he’s snuck back in.
So, as I peer over the dryer door, I say to him… “Do you think I don’t see you there?”
He looks up at me, and – I kid you not – makes a little “D= *GASP*” face, turns around, and RUNS as fast as he can back down the hall and out into the rest of the basement… while I die laughing behind him.
My dog is a SNOT.
I just got a new camera!
Holy crap I don’t think I could be any happier!! I wish I’d bought this thing YEARS ago!! Some of these were even taken by my mom, who always always always takes blurry photos. She was so excited that she could take photos and they came out clear.
Barking at the neighbor. GRRRRR BIG TOUGH DOG.
This. is. hilarious. I cried laughing. WHY IS HE SQUINTING. I think he felt like I was going to poke his eye.
Glamour shot Auggie!!
This is Auggie’s emo puppy impression…
Auggie Plays Outside
Today I took Auggie outside to play with his brand new frisbee.
This is his new frisbee! It was a dollar at my favourite land of dollar goodies… Target!
Okay, frisbee is really just like fetch, because Auggie doesn’t know how to catch the frisbee in his mouth.
Auggie gets a drink from the garden hose, because I forgot (again) to bring out his new outdoor water dish.
This is Auggie’s transformed stage… he turns from Regular Auggie into… SOGGY AUGGIE.
My little smiley guy.
Laying underneath the bush to chill out for a little bit.
My little guy. If only his front wasn’t soaked in this photo!!
Agilty Trial #1, Day 2
Not as good of a day as yesterday!
But first, a lovely picture:
Left to right is Auggie’s uncle, Auggie’s gramma, Auggie’s aunt, Auggie’s full brother, Auggie’s dad, and then Auggie, looking teeny tiny next to his relatives!
Standard:
I managed him on the teeter fine – because of his fly off yesterday, I was very concerned about that. He was doing great. He went through the weaves and it was lovely… but then something on the ground was suddenly very smelly. I yelled, I hollered, I cheered – he was sniffing away. You can’t touch your dog in agility so I went over to him, put my feet right next to him, and cheered, “AUGGIE let’s GOOOO!” and finally got his attention back. Everybody congratulated the heck out of me for my great handling after our run, but it was sort of bizarre! After that, I was a little thrown off so I missed getting him into the chute. Still no problems… except when he came out of the chute and through the tire, then up the a-frame, I was a little taken by surprise at his speed and total willingness to go up the a-frame. I didn’t catch up in time, and was desperately yelling “TOUCH TOUCH TOUCH” at him in an attempt to stop him from flying off.
No good. That lovely 2o2o video I posted the other day? Forget that! He leapt off the a-frame halfway down. UGH. I had to reel him back in to get him over the last two jumps because I was so frustrated about the a-frame, but hey, it was no big deal. An unfortunate automatic NQ, but it was still a pretty good run for Auggie. Most of it was handler error, and reportedly, a skunk was out on the course in the morning, and we were guessing that remnants of skunk is what smelled so interesting by those weave poles!
Then jumpers was awful. I don’t know if he was tired of jumping 16, (that’s REALLY hard for him) or if it was because a rainstorm was about ten seconds from hitting us, or if he was picking up on my confusion after the whole sniffing around the weaves/flying off the a-frame thing, or maybe a bit of each.
He again found something really smelly before the weave pole entrance and it took me FOREVER to get his attention and get him through the weaves. Then I thought, okay, it’s time for a bunch of jumps – he should really be into this now. He went over two, but then…
I saw it, and J saw it… he suddenly slowed down. His whole body and demeanor changed. He took the two jumps funny and then slipped away from me, and I had to holler to call him back.
At that point, it was official: I was totally thrown off. I almost sent him over the wrong jump, realized I was doing the wrong thing, and screamed to pull him off them at the last second. He came back to me and I went “Wait – I have no idea what I’m doing.” I looked at the judge, looked at Auggie, then looked at the tunnel… THE TUNNEL!!! That’s it!!! I looked back at Auggie, and before I could tell him to go into the tunnel…
I kid you not, he barked in my face – gave me the canine equivalent of “f(%# off!” – and started to run away from me. I was so terrified of him running out of the ring that I SCREAMED at him, pulled him back, and got him through the tunnel. I put him over a jump, then he… took a wrong jump, knocking a bar as he did. And then the buzzer sounded, and the judge called “That’s time, thank you.”
We got whistled off for going (way) over time. We didn’t even finish. Yikes!
I’m not upset about the lack of a Q. I was very upset at losing control of Auggie – again.
It was like I was back at our first fun run months ago, standing in the ring while my dog completely ignored me and I desperately tried to regain control. It was a really, really awful feeling – probably the worst feeling in the world. J tried to calm me down, and I still had several people coming up to tell me I handled REALLY well in standard… but I was too icky feeling at the moment to be able to come out of my funk. I wanted to say a lot to J about how I was feeling, but all I could manage was, “I just hate losing control of him.”
“I know,” she said, paused, and then said “I mean – I really… know.”
She told me it was a long time before she ever even got her first Q, and I got one yesterday in my FIRST TRIAL, so I really did do a good job in her opinion…
but it was pretty hard to go from a great experience to losing control like that.
In hindsight, it is somewhat funny that my dog literally barked in my face and told me “Hey, Mom, screw you!!”
There are a number of factors to consider, but ultimately, the biggest thing to take away from this trial is… that my dog is a novice, and I am a novice handler. He is two and a half years old, and he is my little baby dog, but we are still learning a lot about each other and working on our relationship together. There is nothing to replace experience, especially on my behalf. I make so many mistakes and do so many silly things that, actually, Auggie does WONDERFULLY, to his credit!
Agility Trial #1, Day 1
When I left the standard ring, the first thing I heard was “That dog is going to be AWESOME.”
Everything was going dandy. I gave Auggie to my mom to have him measured by the judge while I walked the standard course. Then I walked JWW. After that, Mom came out looking kind of sour. “I guess I don’t know the ‘trick’ to make him shorter,” she says. “He’s 15.”
Auggie’s breeder, J, and I stare at each other blankly for a minute. My dog is not fifteen inches at the withers. He is 13 and a half! “Wait… what?” I said.
There was much flabbergasting back and forth, and finally the judge appears and confirms that yes, my dog has to run at the 16 inch jump height. Again, J and I stare at each other. I go to the practice jump to make sure he can handle it, and he does okay. J helps me out and tells me what to change up now that he’s running at a much higher jump height than we’ve EVER done before.
Okay. No big deal. It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m not freaking out.
I just think I’m going to puke.
Everywhere.
So we run standard. It’s going REALLY really well. He gets on the table, I put him in a down, and he holds there. Then I call him off and to the teeter – and suddenly I’m still standing by the table and he’s already on the teeter! I remember thinking I was going to throw up all over that teeter, panicking, thinking he was going to take off that teeter and start creating his own course. I caught up with him, but not in time – he hopped off the end of the teeter before it even hit the ground. Automatically eliminated from qualifying at that point. I fumbled a bit after that and missed getting him into the tunnel, which would have been -5 points but would still have had us qualify.
It was just my bad, letting him get away from me on that teeter, that screwed us out of a Q.
REGARDLESS… it was beautiful. It was awesome. It was wonderful. I came out of the ring and wanted to cry, I was so proud and so happy.
My Auggie did it. I couldn’t stop telling him what a good boy he was, I was just SO DAMN PROUD.
For Jumpers with Weaves… it was great for a first run! It was a clean run, no off courses, no touched bars, he did the weaves wonderfully!
I don’t have video for my standard run, but I do have it for JWW. (No sound because the wind was awful!)
Our JWW time was 37.79 seconds, and… FIRST place, and a Q.
It was amazing. Afterwards, everybody kept congratulating me and going “Did I hear right that this is your first run?? You did SO WELL!!”
I didn’t do anything. Auggie did it all.
That’s my Awesome Auggie.
….and now we have to do it all over again tomorrow!
A few agility videos
Took these videos for a friend of mine to show her some things. So now, I share them with the rest of the internets!
Auggie on the weave poles!
And, the far more amazing (trust me, it really is) 2o2o contact on the mini a-frame! This is not at the full incline and, being “mini,” it is not full height, but this is HUGE HUGE HUGE for us.
Hunting for eggs
I do what with this..?
Oh, I get to hunt EGGS. Okay.
LOOK MA I FOUNDED ONE
Oh oh here’s another!! Miiiiine!
OMMMM NOM NOM NOM NOM
I founds them all… I puts them in my basket.
I lieks eggs!
Hurray for Auggie! He remembered just how to do this from the year before… and remembered there were cookies in those eggs.
My dog is more hardcore than your dog.
Sup.
Auggie doesn’t know how all those kids walk with the seat of their pants hanging down to their knees. He has enough trouble just walking with baggy sleeves.
Auggie’s Favourite Game
This is Auggie’s Favourite Game In The Whole Wide World. Here are the rules, should you decide to play this game with your dog.
(I, personally, do not recommend the game.)
It’s called “Who will die first – you, or me?”
The object of the game, as obvious by the title of the game, is to see who will die first.
Player 1 – Auggie – eats as many things as he can find, edible or not, safe for doggy consumption or not.
Player 2 – me, his hapless owner – will have to discover what he has eaten, how much he has eaten, if it’s indeed safe or harmful, and how to handle the situation.
This may or may not include panic.
This may or may not include collecting pieces of a chewed item together and placing them together like a puzzle to determine how much has been consumed.
This may or may not include thorough examining of the carpeting and furniture to verify that missing pieces have indeed been eaten.
This may or may not include calls to the vet.
This may or may not include calls to the emergency vet.
This may or may not include calls to Auggie’s breeder.
This may or may not include a visit to the vet, who, by now, is quite used to a sheltie acting rather like a labrador retriever in terms of items going into his mouth.
This may or may not include hysterical crying fits.
This may or may not include sobbing into his fur, “Why can’t you just eat CHOCOLATE like any NORMAL dog??”
This may or may not include inducing vomiting.
This may or may not include poking through a pile of vomit to verify that harmful contents have indeed been vomited up.
This may or may not include inducing vomiting again, just to be absolutely, totally, 100% sure that harmful contents have indeed been vomited up.
This may or may not include several days of watching puppy poop more closely than usual to ensure that harmful contents have safely passed through the digestive system and no blockage has occured.
This may or may not include migraines caused by stress.
This may or may not include sleepless nights over the course of several days as the poisonous affects may not show up immediately.
Game ends when either player dies, either of poisoning or various other physical problems caused by eating various things, or from fear, worry, or a heart attack caused by panic.
First big snow of 2008! And winter’s almost over.
The sun was starting to go down so the light wasn’t 100% great…
Head buried in the snow… munching rabbit poop under the snow, no doubt…
This is his “I hope I hope I hope” face he makes when you have a treat… he was sitting nicely for a snowball, which was all the “treat” I had to make him sit so I could get the pic of the snow on his nose!
My handsome boy. Who needs a bath. Because the night of the snowstorm he thieved a BROWNIE out of a bag my mom left sitting on the floor (facepalm) and thusly he got the hydrogen peroxide treatment and I spent twenty minutes outside in the snow with him waiting until he puked it up, and now he’s dirty and nasty.
Hanging out in the path we made out to his ex-pen.
Obligatory “running to get me” pics. I wish the light had been just a biiit better, and these would have come out perfectly clear.
ROFL… I THINK he’s running in this one…
Shake shake shake!
aaaand last one. That’s my boot in the bottom right corner there.
I’m going to guess it’s about 9 inches. At this point, the top of the snow is really wet and dense… you sink down about three inches and then stop before you hit the ground from all the densely packed snow. It’s starting to melt fairly good though.
Newly Discovered Breed Of Dog
NEVER BEFORE BEEN SEEN IN TEH AMERICAS
HAV FOUND NEW RARE BREED OF THE DOGG
it is the…
SHELTIESAURUS.
(plz to be ignoring the dirty sink… it’s called a “mud sink” for a reason.)
(yes, I am mean. my poor Auggie.)
Two years ago…
Two years ago, I woke up at 5:45 AM. I’m not a morning person – far from it – but my eyes snapped open, and I thought, “PUPPY!”
We left our house at 7, and left the breeder’s house at quarter ’til 9, my arms full of a small, squirmy, fuzzy little puppy.
Two years ago I brought Auggie into my home for the first time.
Now…
Later that night, I wrote this in my livejournal:
“I love my puppy… …it is as though all were right in the world.”
Two years later and, it’s still true. I can’t put my overwhelming love for this dog, my emotions, into words. He is my best friend, my protector, my little buddy, my snuggle-bug, a playmate, a fuzzy foot warmer… my little baby dog.
Two years later – and hopefully there will be many many more years to come.
Mister Auggie, I sure am glad I met you.
Auggie’s second birthday!
Auggie turned TWO YEARS OLD!!! Or, as we say – he lived to be two! He didn’t die!
I only got a few pics, because I gave the camera to my mom – big mistake. Everything came out blurry except for the photos of his “cake” I took before we gave it to him.
His “cake” was puppy brownies, but I couldn’t get the candles in the brownie (they are hard and chewy) so I had to top it with peanut butter!
Mmmmm!! Caaaaake!!!
Happy birthday Auggie!! We’re so glad you lived to be two years old!!
A visit from Cousin Dogs
My sister decided that her family was good for using when you’re going out of town and dropped her two dogs off here with us.
Auggie went NUTS when they showed up… instant zoomies. Zoomies that pretty much didn’t wear off until long after they left today.
Kota is the old man on the left; Happy is on the right. Technically, he’ll be 8 in January, so I guess they’re both old men… but it’s hard to think of Happy as anything as a puppy.
Auggie, sniffing around with Happy. Happy didn’t want to play too much, and also both Kota and Happy have gotten FAT since they moved out, but they got to play a little bit. Mostly they just did this together.
If you asked Auggie what he wants to be when he grows up, he’d say “Kota.” Kota is his hero. He loves him and loves to follow him everywhere.
More sniffing around… last week it got below freezing twice, so we opened the back of the yard up at last. So there was plenty of rabbit poop to “clean up.” Gag.
More Auggie with his hero Kota. Kota looks a bit pissed here – the sun was in his eyes.
I just think Kota is the handsomest old man in the world. He was really lovey and clingy this weekend, and I did get him to play with me last night, so he was in a good mood.
He was in such a good mood, actually, that he didn’t want to leave when my sister came to pick him up… he refused to get off the porch. Then, when she finally lured him out to the car, he refused to get in the car…
Happy, looking mildly photogenic after a good brushing from me once they got here.
A good one of Happy. He’s so clearly going gray in the face, especially over his eyes… but he’s still a little puppyhead.
And finally, I thought this was hilarious. My sister claims her dogs don’t like crates, but for the last several months they lived with us, we crated them when we were gone for various reasons. So they came this weekend, and I got the crates out… and they both leapt right in them. This happened first when I was tucking everybody in to bed last night, and then again before I ran out for lunch today… Happy and Kota tried to share the same crate! Don’t worry, I didn’t leave them in together…
Now they’re gone, and Auggie is sad… and tired from his non-stop zoomies…
Seasons Changing
Some nice fall-ish outdoor shots from today…
Auggie “stacked,” for a thread on a dog forum I belong to. Back legs are a little too far out, but a pretty nice shot anyway! He is nice and freshly bathed/groomed here, too.
I stick my tongue out at you!
WITHOUT the bratty tongue sticking out.
Agility Practice
Took Auggie out to his breeder’s house for some agility practice.
Jump, puppy, jump!
Wheeeeee!
His very first time on the dog walk!
He likes it.
On the teeter-totter… he likes this, too.
More dog walk.
Overall, a nice little fun bit of practice. We didn’t do a lot since we were exposing him to a full-height teeter for the first time, and of course the dog walk, but still had some good experiences!
Canine Good Citizen
We did it!!! Auggie passed his CGC test. Awesome!!
The only reason I took the test was because it was offered free as part of our local dog training club’s “AKC Responsible Dog Ownership” day. Otherwise, I was terrified about paying to take the test and failing miserably.
I panicked a little when she tried to touch his front paws and he pulled his right one away from her rather forcibly… but when she picked it up again he let her touch it. I also was nervous about the “walking in a crowd” exercise, because they put a child in the ring to walk past him. He didn’t bark or look twice at the kid though – and then, during the “distractions” exercise, they gave the kid a bag of empty soda cans to walk around him and jingle the cans… and even though he looked at her twice, he didn’t bark!! Awesome progress for my little guy.
He lost his focus on me a little because the ring smelled of a bajillion different dogs already, and he was so busy sniffing he wasn’t interested in doing boring stuff like a sit or a stay, so I had a bit of trouble getting him to pay attention to me – but he heeled beautifully during the “on a walk” exercise, and for his recall test he came running towards me with glee. It was such a gorgeous (and adorable, because he always looks like “HI MOMMY WHEEEE!”) looking recall that people kept stopping me after the test to congratulate me on how great it looked.
I’m so proud of him! I had my doubts, but he did it. Even though CGCs don’t go on a pedigree, Auggie is now Sentinel’s The Flash CGC.
The photos:
Test #2, I think this was – “hi, can I pet your dog?” We started with our backs to the fencing on the left, but he didn’t want to sit facing that direction… so we rotated.
The grooming/inspection test.
Walking through a crowd. WITH CHILD. I love it.
They gave him a HUGE milkbone as a prize… and he was quite happy.
Swimmy Puppy
A lot of you are probably familiar with ARTLIST, the company that produces The DOG photos. There’s a bunch that they shot without the extreme fisheye lenses, and one was of a sheltie with a floatie ring on.
And then I saw these floaties at Wal-Mart for 88 cents.
Cuteness abounds.
Auggles
I found this awesome pair of knock-off Doggles on clearance at Target. And… I had to. I just HAD to.
On the day I was born
The nurses all gathered ’round
And gazed in wild wonder
At the joy they had found
The head nurse spoke up
She said “Leave this one alone”
She could tell right away…
That I was BAD TO THE BONE.
Alternatively, bomber pilot Auggie!
Growing Like A Flower
He just keeps growing – becoming less of a puppy, and more of a dog. His coat will continue to change for at least another year.
He’s awfully happy all the time, though.
I sit with my paws crossed!
Auggie’s First Easter Egg Hunt
So I had a great idea. Stick cookies inside of large Easter eggs, hide them… and let Auggie loose. And then follow him with my camera.
Hey, there’s one!
Oh, and another!
“MOM I FOUND ONE!!”
Itty Bitty Bones from Three Dog Bakery is what I stashed inside of them all.
Posing with all of his eggs. Hurray!
He had to make sure he’d gotten the cookies out of all of them.
