the sheltiechick blog

Friends are visiting!

A friend stopped by on her way down to pick up a new puppy, so she, her husband, and her two girls met me at my new house, so her girls could rip around some with my dogs and see if they couldn’t get a little bit tired out, haha. This is the first time I’ve ever taken photos in my backyard there with the sun coming from a different place than it does at my parent’s house, and in early morning light too, so my settings weren’t quite right so a bunch of photos didn’t turn out… but I have some!!


First, this is Payton’s first time able to play in the “big yard.” He likes it.


Auggie has to make sure the grass tastes the same as it does at my parent’s.


I went in the house for a second and left them in the big yard. Pepper does not like being left behind.


Ridiculous ball-catching Payton.


Ball-retrieving Payton. This is the last time Payton was that interested in the ball.


LOL Pepper.


A not-so-stupid looking Pepper.


A Bazinga has appeared! Zing is an Australian Koolie and she is quite pretty.


Sadly my best photos are of their backends chasing after the ball. Or rather, Zing went after the ball, and Payton went after Zing.


More butts!


You can totally see how Payton is barking his head off here. Non-stop barking. The guy who lives behind me is an older gentleman who always tells me he has a sick wife to care for. I’m sure he is going to love Payton.


How most of the photos turned out – boo! Zuma is a petite BC mix, and she joined in the fun – and by fun I mean she told Payton he was obnoxious. Spoiler alert: Payton already knows he’s obnoxious.


At one point Payton realized there was a TREE in this new yard and ran around it barking because there might possibly be a squirrel up there at some point.
Nobody else cared.


“Oh you guys are still chasing the ball?”


More P running after Zing!


Okay, I know this is blurry, but it’s hysterical because Auggie.


More LOL Auggie. He’s like “I am way too old for this you guys.”


Unsure if depositing or removing tennis ball from Zuma mouth.

That’s all that turned out – boo to my crappy camera settings! The girls are super cute and Payton might love Zinga because she doesn’t stop moving and that’s awesome. It was super fun to have friends over to visit our new house and play in the new yard!


Pro Christmas Pics 2012

Annual Christmas photos were yesterday… huge photo dump impending…


Georgie first! New prop this year, A SLED. OMG.


Serious Auggie is serious. Sigh.


My boy. <3
Aaaaand here we go with the annual “I love my dog a whole lot more than he loves me” photos!


THIS one I think is the winner… I like his face in this one.


Annual “Auggie hates me” photo LOL.


Payton. OMG. LOL.


My HAIR again. I almost cut my bangs before we left to prevent this from happening and I didn’t. Sigh.


Sometimes he is kinda sweet.


I like him a bit.


It’s a PAYTON!!


See, Auggie? PAYTON loves his mommy. PAYTON will give me a kiss on camera.


My little guy. He is sometimes proper…


and sometimes cute.


Slight bit of handsome devil.


I think this is my favourite. He looks naughty. He looks like Payton. XD


This is his “I just licked the floor and there was a bitch sitting here” expression. He was chattering. Stupid intact male dog.


GET IN THE SLED


“Call him, see if I can get him jumping out of the sled,” the photographer said. WELP. Future agility dog in the making LOL.


Peppy girl!


Remedial stays are still in progress. =|


I don’t even know…


SIGH this is what so many of my photos look like LOL. Bad girl.


Hey, THERE’S a cute photo!


Me ‘n my girl. <3
I love love love this photo because of how she’s looking at me. She is MY GIRL… no mistaking it.


And I kinda like her too.


The best of us I think.


Now time for ALL THREE DOGS. This was totally photoshopped together, not gonna lie, and it’s still not even perfect haha.


…oh dear.


“Quick quick, take the photo, I’m losing them!!”


This is my life guys.


I gotta admit it’s pretty hilarious LOL.


Watch me try to direct my dogs without even looking away from the camera. “Payton you come here…”


“…Pepper YOU should lay down too…”


Also shopped. Again, not gonna lie, LOL.


THEN… Auggie’s breeder was there with some of her crew so we tried a big family photo. Top row is Georgie, Pepper, Twizzle (Pepper’s sister, Georgie’s mom) and Twigley (Georgie’s sister.) Bottom row is Payton (Pep/Twizzle’s half-bro, for those who don’t remembered they are related), Raleigh (Auggie’s dad, Georgie’s grandpa), Georgie (Auggie’s grandma, Payton and Georgie’s great-grandma), Quigley (Auggie’s brother, Georgie’s dad), and of course Auggie.
I was behind the table, by the way, holding butts down. The front row was for “dogs who will stay.” I was very proud to be able to put Payton in the front row. Good boy little P.


LOL at the three young boys looking all excited.


OMG Quigley is SO bored of this!


Not sure what they’re looking at, haha.


Pepper will NOT stop sniffing her sister. STOP IT.


This one would probably be good except PEPPER is trying to plot her escape obviously. PEPPER.


I think this is the best one we got.


If only Pep and Twigley were looking at the camera! Georgia gets a pass because she’s mostly deaf and blind so she doesn’t have to look anywhere, she just has to wake up every morning.


THEN Payton decided he wanted to try and get away. He recalls somewhere on that floor a bitch was sitting and he would like to find that spot again please.
But wait, it gets better.


We got Payton to sit back up, then Georgie wanted to lay down.


Again, really close. I might be able to shop something together out of some of there haha.

BUT THEN.


Pepper was like “I BAIL BYE.”


Look at EVERY DOG’S EXPRESSION IN THIS PHOTO. I can’t stop laughing. By the way, Georgie decided since the big girly was bailing she was bailing too.


Payton is like “Crap she’s gonna land on my head! ABORT ABORT”


And poor Grandma doesn’t even know what’s happening LOL. (LOL at my arm in this one haha.)

The really funny part? Pepper jumps down so Georgie jumps down and then Twigley got down and everybody else was up and running around and we’re laughing and I’m like OF COURSE IT WAS PEPPER WHO RUINED IT ALL
And then I sit up and look down.
And there is Auggie.
Still sitting, still staying, right where I told him to sit and stay.

AUGGIE IS THE BESTEST BOY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.


Family photos and a few more

A few I took with my cellphone down in Louisville, sorry for the crappy quality but I didn’t buy my cellphone for the camera… it rained pretty much every single night down there (MUD EVERYWHERE. PAYTON UP TO HIS KNEES IN MUD PUDDLES EVERY DAY, LOOKING JOYOUS. SO GLAD FOR WASH AND WEAR COATS.) so camper lighting, not the best:


Payton, Auggie, and Grandma/Great Grandma! You can see Payton’s right leg is filthy dirty… =P


Payton, Auggie’s Dad Raleigh, and Auggie. Ral is the one Payton heavily resembles. I can’t remember if I posted about this here but I saw a picture of him at a show when he was eight months old, and it was about when Payton was eight months old, and we were all like “D= D= D=” looking back and forth at the picture of Ral and at Payton… Payton looks more like Ral than Auggie does and Auggie’s his kid, LOL.

Then we came back home and I took a really long shower in which I kept thinking I HAVE NEVER FELT SO CLEAN and then washed the boys.

The baby Georgie! I took a few photos of her sister this weekend but they’re not very good LOL. And I don’t think you guys would appreciate the photo of her trying to attack my phone the way I do… hopefully we can get the sisters together again soon and I can take a good photo of her.


Paytonmobile. Pay and Georgie’s sister, neither of whom were down in Louisville to actually do conformation, were attracting a LOT of attention. Which cracks me up considering how much time Payton spent diving into mud puddles like “=D =D =D THIS IS THE BESTEST”


My Auggiedoggie. <3 I was chasing the babies around the yard and looked over and here he was, laying down on the retaining wall. My little sun worshiper.


The Dog Training Robot

I feel like I’ve become a bit of one.

As I posted earlier, I’ve spent the last 8 weeks or so enrolled in Susan Garrett’s Recallers e-course.  I’ve been re-reading Shaping Success for a while since getting Payton; I got the 2×2 weaves DVD for Christmas (which I had been wanting for a while), and just got myself Crate Games a few weeks back too (which I had also been wanting and Recallers gave me the push to go ahead and order it.)

Basically, I have been so immersed in SG that I’ve found myself using her terminology in just about everything I do training-wise. My thinking has changed to be very “Say Yes” oriented. I was never the kind of person who would put a shock collar or anything on my dogs, but Auggie was trained with corrections – so being that I’ve trained with corrections in the past, I guess you can officially call me a cross over trainer into The Land of Do, as SG puts it.  See? There’s yet another SG term. I feel like if I say (or think) “where’s the value?” one more time, I’m going to smack MYSELF.

But the odd thing is that it’s also become kind of therapeutic to start thinking this way.

Baby Georgie thinks (and has been reinforced for it, so “knows”) the fastest way to get out of her crate is to yip at the top of her lungs in her high-pitched baby bitch voice.  So we are now trying to un-do the damage, train it out of her, and, basically, play Crate Games.
So this afternoon I came home from work, let the boys out, and put Georgie in Payton’s crate while I fed the boys.  I was going to go get Georgie, but my mom came home right then, which caused Georgie to start yelping and screaming and biting the crate trying to get out and get to my mom.  I already knew my mom had a migraine earlier and wasn’t in a mood to deal with the barking and yipping, but I’ll be damned if I was going to let a migraine tear down all the work we had done… so I shut my mom out of the room and decided to take care of it myself.

I walked out of the room and stood in the hall, waiting for her to stop barking.  When she was quite for five seconds, I would go into the room.  At first this was her cue to start screaming at me again, so I would immediately, silently, turn around and walk back out of the room.
I’m standing in the hall, having done this for several minutes, and feeling irritated because I’m freaking starving for my own dinner, not in a very good mood already having just left work, and this isn’t even my dog!! I sure didn’t encourage (even inadvertently) this bad habit, so why do I have to stand here and deal with this?! It’s bad enough to have to struggle with Payton’s brattiness but at least that is all a direct result of the work I have or have not put into him; this one has NOTHING TO DO WITH ME, and yet here I am with the dumb baby bitch barking at me every time I walk into the room, preventing me from just feeding her and getting on with the rest of my life. And suddenly my head starts going “It’s her choice.  Control the resources, NOT the dog.  It’s her choice.”  Like a calming mantra.  Control the resources… not the dog.  It’s Georgie’s choice to keep barking and not be let out of the crate.  It’s her choice to stop barking and have me walk in the room.  It’s her choice to start barking when I approach the crate and make me turn around and LEAVE the room.  It’s all her choice.  I’m not really DOING anything.  Just letting the dog make the choices.

And it’s actually VERY calming, really, when you think about it.  It sure makes it easy for me.  Well, “easy” may not be the right word, but it takes the pressure off me, at the very least. I’m not here to make the dog do anything. I don’t have to force it. We’re not having a battle for control.  All I’m here to do is allow the dog to make her own choices, come to the correct choice (what I want), and then reward her for it! You get that? I’m just here to allow her to experiment, make her own choices, and then deliver a reward when the right choice rolls around.  Nothing else.  I don’t have to sit there having a shouting match with her, screaming, “Georgie QUIET!  Georgie STOP BARKING!  QUIET!  SIT!  SIT!”
I just stand there in the hallway with the lights off… and wait.

It really didn’t take much longer than five minutes for her to stop barking, stay quiet as I walked into the room and approached her crate, sit nicely when I unlatched the crate door, OPEN the crate door, and then release her from her sit so we could finally leave the room and go get her dinner.
And all I did was stand there and wait patiently.

I like this kind of dog training.


A Very Sheltie Christmas

Yes okay I am AWARE that Christmas was almost a week ago OKAY I KNOW


Georgie gets to open her presents first!


Ooooh what’s in the box?


I eats this?


I eats the cardboard tag instead.
This was my present to Georgie. I bought her that Cuz toy (because she defuzzed one of Auggie’s balls so I got her that to try and defuzz), her very own firehose, an orange monkey, and something else I can’t remember right now.


Auggie is next… NOM. He got a bottle wrapper from Clean Run!


Next, Paytonmobile.


Hmm, how to rip this?


He DID start ripping it but then he stopped to try and eat the paper he’d just ripped off. So I had to help him. He got a sheepie ball also from Clean Run.


Georgie opening (one of) her present(s) from my mom… her own sheepie ball so she doesn’t have to steal mine, LOL.


The boys got a bag full of toys from me – this is Flappy, except I think his name is really Jolly (it says so on the back of him) but Flappy sounds better and he makes hilarious flapping sounds when you shake him from all those flappy legs flipping about. Payton LOVES Flappy.


Georgie stocking!


She got some Kong squeaker balls of her own, and…


this Kong squeaker bone thingie. That Auggie would like plz.


Auggie vacated so he could see what’s in his own stocking.


Gingie bread man squeaky ball!


Obligatory head in stocking shot.


Payton sucked at de-toy-ifing his stocking, LOL, so here’s a photo of what was in his stocking.


And what was in Auggie’s stocking! Yes that is a different sheepie ball than the two sheepie balls I already own AND the new sheepie ball… yes we have lots of sheepie balls in this house… Also he got a full bag of those orange Kong squeakers, but he was playing with the rest while I took this photo.


Babies playing in the wrapping paper!


And the loot for the boys. Except for the reindeer bottle wrapper, I bought a bunch of good tugging toys so they could play together.

Payton then proceeded to run around throwing all the toys in everybody’s faces, and Georgie ended up in her crate because she kept trying to steal Auggie’s new tennis balls instead of playing with her OWN new tennis balls and he was getting mad at her. And Auggie sat there like a grumpy tennis ball miser. MY TENNIS BALLS… MINE… PREEEECIOOOOOUS…

And then Christmas was over, and we all had a major sad!


24 Photos for the 24th


For the record, I made Payton cross his paws like that. He lay down with his legs like *SPRAWL* and I was like “You look stupid. Here.”


I was actually surprised he left them after I crossed them LOL.


And his stay is so good! He is the rock star stay-er in his puppy class.


Auggie, of course, is always a rock star. I was thinking I would like to take another class with him just because he would be so good it would make me feel like hot $@)# LOL.


My boys. <3


Just Georgie-Porgie!


She has had runny poo the last few days. We finally got her pooping solid again so she got a bath this morning to wash all the icky off her butt.


My mom was like “She looks stupid from the front with her puppy hair going everywhere! Did you STYLE her like that?!”


Yes Mom that is exactly what I did. I made your puppy look like she stuck her tongue in the electrical socket. On purpose. That is what I did.


Mom: “She looks like a HUSKY or something.”
Me: “No, she looks like a SHELTIE PUPPY. That’s what they LOOK LIKE.” Poor Georgie. I think she’s adorable, LOL.


Just Uncle Auggie with baby Georgie… aww!


Payton kept trying to ruin these photos by wandering in front of the camera. STUPID PAYTON


I love this one LOL… Auggie’s face…


Auggie has recently decided he doesn’t completely hate her after all. I’m sooo glad!


I tried to get him to wrap his leg over her but he was like “NO.” Okay, okay. I guess I shouldn’t push it.


Soooo if you make funny sounds Georgie tilts her head…


so that’s what I was doing… because it’s soooo freaking cute.


and over and over and over hahaha. I was making sounds like Pepper makes hahaha. I always say she sounds like Blue from Blue’s Clues. Bow-bo-bo-bow!


All three dogs! Aaaand Auggie looks pissed LMAO. Thanks Aug…


Little less pissed. (And yes I was still making Pepper-noises at Georgie.)


Probably the best shot of all three. Stupid Auggie and his stupid angry face hahaha.


The babies messing up the shot…


This is why Auggie always looks pissed. “JUST SIT STILL AND TAKE THE STUPID PHOTO YOU GUYS. GOSH!! IDIOTS.” (/Napoleon Dynamite)


Aaaand Payton started crawling away because he found something on the floor so one more of just Uncle Aug and the baby.

Merry Christmas everybody. =>


Some Christmas photos…


First, we asked Georgie to down. Auggie proceeded to do this. “ohhhh my goooood these puppies are killing meeeee.”


Bros! Poor Auggie has a busted lip right now. =< Not sure if he got it playing bitey face or if he bit himself at some point.


All three little doggies. Georgie apparently thought the boys had cooties today – she did NOT want to get anywhere closer to Payton.


Happy Aug!


Then we busted out the costumes LOL. “Payton won’t move now because he has something on his head,” I said. If only the same trick worked with Georgie…


Payton didn’t like the reindeer antlers so we switched him and Georgie.


Brudders <3


I think this might be the one I send to everybody! (And look! Auggie’s big ol’ chunk out of his leg hair has mostly grown back!)


Santa Auggie!

The end! I might get the big ornaments out again this year but I have to find the time to do it… not sure when that might be unless it’s literally Christmas Eve…


Dogs in a box

It all started with a sale on treats at Petco.com. And a rather large order of treats from Petco.com.

Then I had a huge empty cardboard box. Well, you can’t have an empty box in my house for long.


It’s a good thing Pepper’s not here because I don’t think FOUR would have fit. Well, maybe if I got Pepper and Payton to sit.


“HALP” says Payton. Auggie tries to figure out if he can jump out before I notice.


Georgie: Oh no you don’t! If I have to be in the box SO DO YOU!
Auggie: NO!


Auggie: *starts to scream*


Auggie: *more horrified screaming*
Payton: haaaahahaha.


Auggie: I HATE YOU


Georgie: So stay there.


Boys: Fine. HI CAMERA LADY
Georgie: Now I gotta figure out how to get out of here.


Payton: Haha now she’s trying to get out and we’re all stuck in here!


Boys: LOLOLOLOL
Georgie: Curses! Why am I so little?!


Payton: Okay I’m bored with this now can we do something fun please?
Georgie: Maybe if I jump up and down I can tip the whole box over?
Auggie: I hate my life.

Shortly after Georgie managed to scramble halfway out and I told the boys to jump out and that was the end of that.
I take it as a good sign that Payton was pretty much like “Meh, this is normal, right?” He’s totally gotten used to living here…


Payton and Georgie pics

Tried to snap a family shot in front of the tree last night…


This was the best we got. =P


Auggie was like “seriously, screw this, I was chewing on my reindeer” and got up and walked back over to his reindeer and lay back down to chew on it again. So we just did some photos of the puppies instead.


Actually in some ways it was easier to just do the two instead of making poor Auggie sit there like “*sigh*” the whole time hahaha.


They really don’t look all that related… but they are… Auggie and Georgie look very much alike but I don’t see much similarity between Payton and Georgie. Maybe when she matures some.


Taking pictures with just Georgie is sooooooo boring.


Pro Christmas shoot!

MASSIVE photodump below… some of these look very close to each other but I am just dumping in everything.

We started with Georgie because we thought she might get sleepy if we waited.


then we put antlers on her. and she hated it LOL. They all looked pretty much like this.

My mom also got photos with her and the baby, but my mom doesn’t like photos of herself, so I’m not posting any of those. They were very cute though, so hopefully my mom will get over her insecurities and print out a few.

Auggie-doggie was the first of mine up because, as we all said, you can count on Auggie to take good photos.


hahaha <3


Ah-ha! Happy dog!


One of my faves this time around.


though this one is really cute too!


Then time for me to get in the shot with Auggie. And time for Auggie to pretend he hates me.


LMAO.


no mommy


nonono!


no.


nooooo


Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this? LOL.

Next up: Payton!

who got his ears unglued just for the photos. Which means we have to glue them back down shortly LOL.


It’s really a shame he’s in his awkward stage LOL… but oh well. I will be really happy to have these some day.



“Payton, don’t look stupid.” LOL.



I really wanted me with Payton… but they didn’t turn out very well. He wasn’t in much of a mood to be snuggled. He wanted to eat the floor instead.


But these two are okay. I just really wish more had turned out well. =/

PEPPY NEXT.

In case you weren’t all aware of how gorgeous and cute she is, please allow her to demonstrate.


Ahhhhh she is the cutest girl <3


my girl.


LOL I know this isn’t entirely in focus but it was too funny not to include.


Time for all three… LOL. Well, we tried anyway.


Oh my doggies.


We had total “look at the camera” fail in other words. LOL. Oh well!

Holy photo overload Batman!! So many thanks to Kevin Devine Photography for these fabulous photos that they do every year.


Photoshoot this weekend


Princess Georgie is so nice and so cute and so


HALP


No, Mom, seriously. Help me.


Where is Payton…?


AHHHHH


There are mice in the garden this time of year. Auggie would like to eat them plz. He stuck his head through the rabbit fencing to try and get a snackie. Auggie cannot get the snackies.


Then we started doing some posed shots. Princess!


Attempt at all three dogs. The idea was to make stair steps. Our mistake was thinking that Payton had not grown again over night – he is now officially bigger than Auggie. Incorrect Stair Steps.


This would have been nice but Georgie spoiled it by laying down. In her defense, we had like a billion other nice photos but PAYTON spoiled it, so it’s not really fair to blame her. It’s really all Payton’s fault.


Uhh… okay well this one was her fault.


Baby with Uncle Auggie!


Uncle Auggie doesn’t care much for her honestly. Not that he doesn’t like her, but he doesn’t really want to play with her. She is not quite his speed and I think that’s the problem. He has no interest in slowing down and playing nice the way Payton will for her. =P


Auggie was the rock star once again and keeps his butt where I tell him to leave it, even though the babies were continually bouncing around and getting up and moving. These are out of order but this was actually one of the last ones we did. After like 20 minutes and Payton moving AGAIN, he was finally like “Seriously… I am done.” LOL. Poor Aug.


Payton: TAAA-DAAAAA


Payton: What do you mean this photo shoot isn’t all about me??


LOL at the other two dogs and then Auggie…


Then we got this out. I bought this at a garage sale for $2 for the express purpose of THIS. Thanks Aug.


I tried to do photos in the car with Payton when he was younger but he was having None. Of. That. This time he was all BEEP BEEP MM-BEEP BEEP, YEAH!!


Well, the headliner is a little busted, but I think I can fix that…


Haaaaay gurl.


This door is also kinda busted, but since it was only $2, I guess that’s okay…


They see me rollin’… they hatin’… tryin’ to catch me ridin’ durty…


The princess also got in the car.


Yaaaay~


I am too young to drive. Where is my chauffeur? Oh Payton…


We tried to take some better lit shots in the sunlight but HOLY BLOWN WHITES BATMAN.


Pumpkin photo shoot!

So I was planning on doing this anyway. And I had a crazy idea that we would be able to get all three dogs (Auggie, Payton, and my mom’s Georgie) in one photo.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Anyway.

I started with Auggie because he is a) good and b) generally obedient and c) a photo whore.


I have photos from the other side but I am trying to hide his still butchered looking leg from when he had surgery… so this is his “good side” for now LOL.


Next my baby boy…


…who thinks standing still is a terrible idea…


…but will do it if you ask nicely…


…BUT


only for a second.


Wait? Wha?


CANNOT WAITS


Whoop!


DERP DERP


Auggie was mildly annoyed and kept doing his “hit your brother” trick except I wasn’t actually cuing “hit your brother.” It was totally offered behaviour. Like “DUDE, just STAY PUT. REALLY.”


He tried to protest looking in the same direction as his brother because of this annoyance.


this is as close as we got.


OMG hahahahahaha


Payton started to lay down and I wanted him to stay sitting so I said “WAIT” and he froze. Like this. *facepalm*


WHAT IS WAIT MOM


YOU HAS COOKIES?

Stupid dogs.


So then the little baby bitch came out to play and to show them boys how it’s done.


But she is so LITTLE!


LOL chewing a treat.


She looks like she’s about to fall asleep but she was just chewing, hahaha.


Look, Payton… even the baby can do it…


AND she stays put long enough to even get a few different expressions off…


Oh no wait – my mistake –


It’s only because she wants to try and eat the hay, LOL.


I just happened to click the shutter at EXACTLY the right second for this one – she was about to jump down. I was like “OMG I REALLY hope that one was in focus…” Oh yeah. <3


Mom’s hand is in this one but look at her little face! So cute!


AHHHH THE CUTENESS AHHHHHH


Aaaaand this was the last one we got before my battery died. Close! But only two dogs, LOL. We tried many times with my P&S to get all three to sit still but with Payton and Georgie together it became chaos, hahaha. Oh well… Payton then had to endure Remedial Sit-Stays for his dinner and acted like a perfect little angel. Brat.


My mom’s puppy

My mom also has a new puppy! We have a crazy household at the moment with Payton, who has officially entered his Holy Terror stage, and now a brand new baby. The boys are being kept apart from the little baby girl for the most part except for a few very short and VERY supervised play periods.
This baby puppy is Auggie’s niece (his brother is her dad), as well as Pepper’s niece (her sister is her mom) – and Payton’s half-niece, being that he is Pepper’s half-brother.


That bed was on clearance for like $3. We had to get it, LOL. It’s a GIANT LOOFAH DOG BED… c’mon!!


Yesterday we re-did Payton’s ears with moleskin and string… the string came undone. This was the puppy’s new fave toy.


Actually Payton is kind of her new fave toy LOL. She loves him. Auggie actually has very little interest in her for some reason, but she is playing with Payton, and as long as I watch Payton and stop him before he gets out of hand, they are doing well together!


Little Princess. I keep calling her Pretty Pretty Princess and I want soooo badly to put the Pretty Pretty Princess crown on her head. I do actually own that game so I may have to open it up and get the crown out for some photos…


She is SO flippin’ cute!


Blaze Comes To Play

How did I not post these? A few weeks ago, Blaze came over to play. Blaze belongs to Auggie’s breeder, and we “borrowed” him. It was FREEZING so we ran inside and outside over and over again – outside playplayplayplay inside so I can warm up outside playplayplayplay inside so I can warm up, repeat.


Blaze says “Oh hai. You’re the cookie lady. You have cookies in your pocket.”


OH BOY LET’S PLAY.


Auggie’s favourite game of chase. These pictures are really hilarious, because Auggie was running at top speed, and Blaze was kind of just loping along behind, like “La la la I chaaaase yooooou~” and Auggie’s going “OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG WHEEEEEEE!” the whole time.


Blaze is all SERIOUS BUSINESS and Auggie’s like “I LIEK TO PLAY BALL.”


Wheeee!


Poking around the yard by himself. Auggie was off that way somewhere. *waves hand*


Blaze was gonna get the ball…


…but it tastes like Auggie-breath. Ewwww.


So Auggie has to carry the ball back to me.


Thinking about getting it again – BLEH TASTES LIKE THAT DOG.


Running with a ball or a toy in his mouth is rather Default Mode for Auggie anyway…


Having a blast.


OMG WHAT’S THAT OVER THERE QUICK LET’S GO SEE


More running around having a blast, Auggie still running around with the ball in his mouth because he’s a tennis-ball obsessed dork.


“Do you want the ball Blaze? You want the ball? YOU WANT THE BALL?” He says “OMG YES I WANT THE BALL *sproing sproing sproing*”


I GET THE BALL wait it still tastes like Auggie-breath.


Auggie is so darn happy to have another dog to play with it causes him to levitate.


They were both very interested in gobbling up snow.


Mmmm snows.


THE END.


Two Little Puppies

If you’re having a bad day, I challenge you to do this:
Imagine a sheltie puppy. A pretty small one – tightly curled up it’s just about smaller than a volleyball. It’s fuzzy and fluffy, covered in super soft downy puppy hair. They go “yarf yarf!” in little high-pitched squeaks instead of barking.
Got the mental image?
Now double it.

TWO little puppies. Soft and snuggly, they fit so nicely in your arms. One of them is a little snotty and every time you pet her she goes “AAAARRR RARR RARR” like she’s going to bite your hand off with her tiny (but sharp!) little puppy teeth. The other one keeps giving you kisses as you hold her, and you can feel her little puppy tail wagging away in your arms.

This was my yesterday.
It was a wonderful, wonderful evening.

No, neither of the puppies are mine nor will they be. Mom desperately wants one of them, though. She couldn’t stop talking about them all night long. Auggie rode home snuggled up in my lap because I was so very nostalgic for the first day I brought him home, a small fluffy ball of puppy.
I put Auggie down next to them (they were in an ex-pen at first) and let him sniff them through the bars. He wasn’t very interested. I picked one of them up and held her out to him outside of the pen and he still wasn’t very interested. He went off exploring J’s yard, peed on a tree, and looked for forgotten cookies in the grass while we talked about the dogs. I got to touch tiny little puppy feet and itty bitty puppy toenails, look at teeny tiny puppy teeth, feel little puppy ears… oh my God, now *I* have puppy fever.
After agility practice J got the puppies out of the ex-pen and let them prowl around the yard with Auggie. NOW he was interested in them. They were playful and feisty and that got him all excited. He bowled one of them over (she was being called Bullwinkle) playing chase, it was hilarious. I opened his water bottle and started to pour water into his travel bowl, and he was drinking from the stream coming from the bottle (as usual) – and Bullwinkle came over to see what he was doing, and he backed up to let her drink from his water bottle! It was soooo cute, this tiny puppy with her nose shoved into his water bottle and Auggie waiting patiently for her to finish so he could get a drink next…

Now I have a pretty good idea of how Auggie will react once I bring a puppy home. He acted much like I expected… we just have to make sure he plays gentle, because I don’t think he realizes they’re very small and he needs to be careful!


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!


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…