Easter 2017
Real talk guys – I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do an Easter egg hunt this year. Auggie was so boss at it, and I knew I would be remembering him the whole time.
But it was also Rizzo’s first Easter, and it didn’t seem fair not to let him play the game… so I sucked it up and got everything ready.
Waiting outside the gate while I hid eggs.
Inside the gate, and I’m armed with three baskets, one for each dog. Payton thinks he’s ready… pretty sure he remembers this game… here we go.
Yes. Yes this is the game.
Rizzo, meanwhile, is like “Wait what we do?”
Kane found one!
But has no clue what to do with it, so he runs off.
Rizzo also found one!
And picks it up…
And figures out how to open it!
Payton, meanwhile, is channeling Auggie for once in his life.
Bing bang boom findin’ all the eggs
Kane is basically just running around behind Payton trying to figure out what everybody is so excited about.
FINDS IT
GOTS IT
Kane is staring really hard at this one, realizing there’s got to be something… SOMETHING… involving these things… but what?!
I felt bad for him so I opened it for him to get the cookie, and put it in his basket.
Payton rockin’ it.
Rizzo, meanwhile, is also pretty good at this…
…but he also would like to carry around and chomp on the empty eggs once he has the cookie out. Noooo no no, let’s not do that.
And Payton likes to lie down while he opens his egg and enjoy his treat. It’s a good thing the other two are kinda slow or he would miss out on a bunch of eggs.
Kane can’t figure out how to open them. He just keeps pushing the egg around with his nose until I come over and open it for him.
Rizzo doesn’t have that problem.
I PUTS IN MOUTH? But he never got this one open either.
Egg hunt done! Payton is the clear winner, but Rizzo did an amazing job for his very first time playing the game! Kane got several in his basket, but not enough for them to peek out the top. Maybe next year kiddo.
Each dog also got special Easter baskets with a bag of treats AND some bunny ears.
Two dogs think this is funny and one does not.
Easter 2016
It’s been many years since I thought it would be fun to let Auggie hunt Easter Eggs. He was such a sniffy dog, always using his nose – wouldn’t it be funny to put a treat in an egg, hide it, and have him sniff them out? In some ways we were doing “Nose Work” in our house and backyard before it was a thing people paid money for to title in. Auggie really loves this game, to the point of getting excited when he sees me get the eggs and baskets out, because he knows we’re going to play. Also, it doesn’t hurt that he gets a bunch of cookies when he finds the eggs, either.
So away we went and Auggie started cruising along.
Georgie came over to play with us all. Last year she ran around stealing eggs from everybody else, especially Auggie, who was having trouble with his old man teeth popping the eggs open. But this year I was going to hoard all of Auggie’s eggs for him. If he found one and tried to open it, but couldn’t, I would step in and help him open it, then drop it in his basket after he got the cookie.
So Miss Georgie had to find her own eggs. But being Auggie’s little niecelette, she’s pretty good at it, too.
Payton found one, whoo!
Meanwhile Auggie just rocked and rolled and grabbed everything he could sniff out or see.
My sister came over with her Henri to hunt eggs, because my yard is way bigger and has more spots to hide eggs in.
It was a bit hard for Henri to stay focused on the eggs when the entire yard smells like Payton pee.
But he did a good job of finding all his eggs, anyway.
Kaner wasn’t very good at the egg hunting. He tripped over an egg and my mom declared he “found” it, then opened it for him, thinking if he figured out there were cookies inside, he might understand the game. She grossly overestimated a puppy brain.
Payton, too, is just a little attention deficit; his constant go-go-go makes it hard for him to spend time actually opening the eggs. Finally we came to a compromise where he finds them, and just like I do with Auggie, I open them for him. This worked pretty well as Payton started looking for an egg, flopped down with it, and then stared at me expectantly to come open it. I think in Nose Work we would call this an “alert” so whatever.
I am happy to say that Auggie restored his title of Egg Hunting Champion this year after I protected all his eggs from the thief.
Not surprisingly, Georgie came in second place.
Payton actually found a decent handful this year.
And Kane “found” a whopping two, by which I mean my mom gave him the first and he picked up a second one for about a half second, and we declared he “found” that one, too.
Henri, of course, found all of his eggs.
All the little shelties with their Easter baskets.
Then, because I’m an ambitious dog trainer, I went for all five. This is not Photoshopped, we actually got all five lined up and sitting on the deck with their baskets. It wasn’t easy, but it happened. Meanwhile, the little black dog in the center is only 18 weeks old, and that big one on the end and my big Payton sometimes like to try to eat each other’s faces – but for Easter, we nail beautiful harmony.
Then I pulled out the bunny ears I bought at the Dollar Spot at Target. I may have only bought one St. Patrick’s headband, but I made no such mistake with bunny ears. I bought three pair.
Big handsome Auggie thinks his bunny ears are hilarious and Easter is awesome.
Payton, for the first time ever when he’s got something on his head, doesn’t look like he’s being beaten to death!
And the bunny ears were really too big for Kaner’s head so this was quite interesting to get them to balance and then hurry up and take a photo. But somehow, with the magic of Easter, we again made it work.
I didn’t take any photos, but after all our guests went home, I got the eggs out, stuffed them again, and let Auggie have his very own egg hunt. Just me following him with his basket, letting him find every single egg without any pressure from any other dogs running around, getting all the cookies. I think that was Auggie’s favourite part.
Happy Easter from all the little bunnies!
Sheltie Egg Hunt 2015
Getting ready to hunt… Auggie is like I AM 100% FOCUSED LET’S DO THIS THING
Georgie found the easy one I set right by the deck.
Auggie ran straight past it to grab one in the yard.
And then off into the rest of the yard for another.
Georgie is very methodical, snagging the second one right near her first.
Meanwhile Payton grabbed one and started proinking around with it, then dropped it.
OH NOES EGGY
I GOT IT AGAIN
THEN DROPPED IT AGAIN
Auggie meanwhile is all bing-bang-boom findin’ all the eggs
Payton again dropped his first egg and found another.
Georgie is busy trying to snag as many as she can.
Payton lost the yellow egg to Georgie, did a lap, and came back to his pink egg… while Pepper in the front…
…is maybe finally figuring this game out.
Chomp…
Choooomp?
SHE GOT IT!
Then she found another!
LOOK GUYS SHE CAN DO IT.
I MEAN SHE TOTALLY UNDERSTANDS THE GAME. AT LAST. OMG.
She is having a hell of a time actually getting them open though.
Then she found this one, which I was really impressed with because she had to jump up in the wagon to get it.
Georgie came running over to try and steal it. Georgie was VERY good at stealing eggs from the other dogs…
My mom had to help out. “No, this is PEPPER’S egg.”
She kept workin’ on it…
and got it!
Payton accidentally broke one of his egg-balls and discovered the cookie inside so he’s making an attempt here.
LOOK he figured it out.
Okay so I tried to line everybody up for a group photo, and Payton… well… Payton. So here’s the group photo.
Miss Pepper who got THREE eggs this year!! THREE!!
So very proud of herself.
Auggie is all “I’m old and exhausted, this is tough work.”
Auggie got nine eggs this year. He would have had more if I counted every one he grabbed, but his old man teeth were having a bit of trouble chomping them open, and if he couldn’t get it open he just dropped it and buzzed on to the next.
Payton with his THREE! I think this is exactly how many he got last time too…
Georgie is the WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER this year with TEN eggs. She only really won because a) previously mentioned no-counts for Auggie and b) she kept stealing eggs from everybody else.
I cheat, I still win, who cares, haha.
Happy winning baby dog.
Sheltie Easter 2014
I realize it’s like two weeks late.
I had a horrible migraine that day – not the worst of my life, but the second worst of my life. I was heavily medicated and did pretty much nothing all day long. I forgot my Easter stuff at my house (silly me though last year “surely by next Easter we will be moved in!” and took it all over there, and I meant to bring it back on Saturday when we were done working… but I forgot it in the garage.) so I didn’t have their eggs or baskets either.
My mom ran out to the store to buy some more meds for me and found a pack of eggs for cheap there, so she brought them home so the dogs could still hunt eggs. First, we did a hunt inside where she hid all six eggs, then one at a time we let each dog find the eggs. But the lighting in this house is awful and I was still laying on the couch just watching, so no photos of that. But a few hours later, I was FINALLY feeling better, so we went outside. I didn’t really “hide” them so much as just set them down around the front of the yard, so this is officially The Worst Sheltie Easter Ever.
But I did get pics!
The shelties… one egg.
Payton manages to escape with this one.
Cookie inside!
Auggie and Pepper.
Pepper sorta kinda got into it this year since she had time to find eggs all by herself without the other dogs… but she still was like “I found one!” and then basically just sat there with it hahaha.
She wasn’t even motivated to find other cookies… maybe she thought the egg would spontaneously produce more cookies?
Auggie finding more.
Open, eat the cookie…
…find the next egg.
Auggie doesn’t play around.
Meanwhile this was happening… Payton kept running around with an egg and Georgie trying to steal it from him… NOT THE GAME, PUPPIES.
Pepper, by the way, is in the back not grabbing at an egg, but just grabbing at the ground. Because… Pepper. And meanwhile Auggie is looking around for anything still unopened.
A derp-derp!
Yeah… that’s Payton.
That’s all… not a lot. Better ones next year hopefully!
Sheltie Easter 2013
Mercifully it did not rain as much as they said it was supposed to, so we were spared the ultra muddy conditions I was expecting for this year’s Easter egg hunt!
As usual Auggie’s all “EGGS YEAH” and everybody else is all “derp de der what are we doing?”
Big dog loves this game.
Payton has no idea how to play. “I FOUND ONE OF THESE BALL TYPE THINGS IT SMELLS LIKE FOOD YAY”
I can’t believe he’ll be two in a few months, mostly because he still acts like a big dumb puppy all the time.
Georgie found an egg!! And Payton’s egg rolling behind her.
Pepper’s all “oh hey guys what’s going on over here?” (Auggie, meanwhile, is off grabbing all the other eggs like nobody’s business. There are no photos because it’s NOBODY’S BUSINESS.)
Payton’s still playing with the same egg. Derrrrr.
Georgie got her egg open to eat the cookie! Yay!
PEPPER FOUND AN EGG! She didn’t know how to open it so I had to help her, but I was very proud of her that she picked it up at all. Then of course she tried to pick up the empty shell like =D =D. No honey… no. It’s okay.
Payton found another egg (he accidentally broke his first one open and was like “!! There’s a COOKIE in here!”)
This started another round of running around with an egg in his mouth. And Georgie has no idea how to play the game either. CHASE PAYTON
Payton discovered the mass amounts of eggs at his 2x2s and was like “wait, what?” He tried to pick up both.
Okay, one more of Auggie hunting.
He loves this game. I should probably do stuff like this more often. I think his eyesight is definitely going because he wasn’t quite as snappy at it this year…
Okay, ONE more… because I hid this orange one by the basketball and it’s appropriate for Auggie…
Payton still derping with his green egg, the other eggs by the weave poles long forgotten.
Everybody’s baskets – Georgie ended up finding THREE, beating Payton’s two (I didn’t count the weave pole one he left behind because Auggie was immediately on it, opened it, and scampered off.) and Pepper only found the one. Auggie’s basket obviously is the overflowing one. =P
Family photo with baskets!
Family photo outtake. Oh Pay.
Another family shot. Georgie was like “I’m done with this (#*!” and kept laying down. Fine, whatever.
Auggie with his basket.
Pepper’s single egg hahaha. Poor dumb girly.
Payton has no idea why he’s so excited. As per usual.
“Squirrel??” Typical Payton.
Baby girly and her three eggs!
The end. Overall it turned out to be a very nice morning to hunt eggs considering one week ago we were getting over a foot of snow dumped on us.
Easter Egg Hunt – VIDEO!
Unfortunately I couldn’t wield both the video and DSLR, so I gave Mom the video camera… and she doesn’t really know what she’s doing… so not the greatest video, but I think it carries the idea LOL.
Easter Egg Hunt 2012
Rockstar Auggie who LOVES this game… I have video… I just have to edit it.
Eggy eggy eggy eggy
Payton found one!
…but he doesn’t really know what to do with it and neither does Georgie.
“I think you eats it.”
Auggie stole it and was going to open it, but apparently after being in Payton’s mouth it tasted bad because he spat it out and started pawing at it LOL.
Payton thinks that was his anyway and he wants it back…
“MAH EGGY”
He lay down and started chomping it a bit and I thought he might pop it open and get the cookie…
But then this happened. *sigh*
Meanwhile Auggie was running around finding and opening all the other eggs.
Payton DID finally open his yellow egg and was surprised there was a cookie inside. Then Georgie found another yellow egg but didn’t know what to do with it, and Payton stole it, then opened it by accident and was again surprised to find a cookie.
By the time he found this one he seemed like maybe he was figuring it out… but this was the last egg!
Auggie had found all the other eggs because he is a rock star at the egg hunt.
Payton with his three eggs!
“I lick my eggy.”
“What? There’s no food in them anymore? Rip off.”
And poor Georgie with her empty basket LOL.
All three! Payton knocked over his basket by laying down when I didn’t want him to, but it was kinda cute, so I allowed it. =P
Baby Georgie with the GIANT EGG
Auggie monster with the giant egg (effing blown whites!!)
Payton with the giant egg.
Okay, Payton is NOT a “head tilt?” kind of dog… I didn’t even notice this happened until I was editing photos later and was like “FFFFFFFFF WHY IS HE SO ADORABLE OMG.”
Because it’s funny.
Easter Egg Hunt 2011
Auggie: EASTER EGGS YEAH
Pepper: I have no idea what we are doing wheeee!
Step 1: Find the egg
Step 2: Grab egg in mouth and squeeze gently to open
Step 3: Eat treat that emerges from opened egg
oh hay Auggie what you smellin over here
what is that
I think I want it but I have no idea what to do.
Auggie shows Pepper how it’s done… I think that was the only treat he let her eat. The rest he gobbled up and completely ignored her.
Auggie is ALL about this game. He rocks at it at this point.
Such a smart little man!
The other one, though… um… LOL
WHERE IS THE NEXT EGG GOTTA GET IT
Pepper saw this egg while Auggie was opening one on the opposite end and she was SO EXCITED! She ran up to it all “OMG I FOUND ONE!!”
…and then promptly was like “now what I do?”
Can eats the empty eggs? She picked up an empty egg half and brought it to me while Auggie was zooming around finding all the eggs and opening them and I told her she was a very good girl, and then she thought THAT was the game: retrieving the empty egg halves. *facepalm*
Auggie and I (okay I did) felt bad for her so I put one back together and threw it for her like a tennis ball, thinking it might excite her enough she would pick it up and maybe accidentally open it and get the cookie. This was HER egg. All hers.
She still never figured it out.
Auggie says “Dis my basket. No stinky girls ‘lowed.”
Allllll my eggs!
Please forgive the fact that he needs to be groomed a bit… he’s got his mustache kinda goin’ on here…
“Okay, now you can dump them all out,” I told him.
Easter Egg Hunting in 2010
Hey look! It’s Auggie hunting Easter eggs and being SUPER EXCITED about it!
Look at his tail… LMAO
This year he remembered *exactly* how to get them open and get his treats out.
AN EGGS *tail wag*
I sit for egg?
NOM EGG
Sitting nicely with his basket…
It was windy. And this photo just cracks me up because of it. It’s so model-with-a-fan, LOL
Knocking the basket over, as usual…
Pushing it so all the eggs will roll out.
Checking to make sure they’re really empty. =P
I put them all back in and made him lay down next to it. AUGGIE WAS PISSED. He wanted to push the stupid basket over and dump all his eggs out.
I NOMS MY BASKET
ONE good laying down pic (and notice that I had to reposition him on the other side…)
Nomming an egg as his reward for sitting nicely. Because I’m pretty sure I had to grab an egg and hold it up like a treat to get his attention.
(Don’t you love his sheep basket? I bought one for his breeder too because she shares my sheep obsession. I also bought… um… two more to put in storage… because I won’t always just have one dog… so I… I needed more than one sheep basket… DON’T JUDGE ME)
Easter Egg Hunt 2009
It was nice and sunny outside, warm enough that I just needed a jacket – so OUTSIDE WE GO for the egg hunt this year! I had the camera but was slightly less inclined to throw myself on the muddy ground for photos the way I can lay on the living room floor and get photos whenever we go the egg hunt indoors, so my angles are a little different than usual.
This egg was hidden inside the gator’s mouth – I didn’t get a shot of him knocking it out of the mouth to pick it up.
Cookie treats inside the eggs!
Ohhhhh egg.
Nosing it over to me so I can open it for him…
…until he decided it was easier to open them himself.
This is the third year we’ve done an egg hunt, and this year he was pretty good at remembering how to open the eggs with just enough to pressure to pop them as opposed to actually chomping down and breaking them. (He broke a couple the first year… oops!)
EGG NOM.
MORE EGG NOM.
All the eggs are in the basket! He wouldn’t sit nicely next to them so I gave up and told him, “Fine – get up and do something cute with the basket.”
Which means he pushed it over with his paw.
Yeah okay, I admit it – that’s pretty cute.
Trying to open them again in case he missed a cookie somehow…
He still wouldn’t sit down nicely next to them. But okay that’s pretty cute too.
He nosed the basket over to knock the rest of the eggs out…
…and resumed opening them to make SURE they were really empty.
You see, he doesn’t trust that when I say “No, the treats are REALLY gone,” that I’m being honest. I don’t know why. I’ve never lied to him.
About all the treats being gone, anyway.
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.
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.
