the sheltiechick blog

First Snow of Winter 2014

One of my favorite things about my dogs is how snowflakes fall on their fur… so… yeah. And somehow Pepper became the star of this photo session. Normally she is hiding in the background or directly under my feet so I can’t get any good photos, but this time I managed more of her than the boys.


Just one of Pay to start…


Then my pretty girl showed up.


The poor photographer this weekend kept trying to get Pepper’s ears up and I was like “yeah, that’s just Pepper… it’s… that’s just Pepper.”


Ears up! But head down.


Head up, ears back down, haha. My girly.


Another nice one of P…


Meanwhile Auggie.


I mean Auggie.


Seriously he can kinda be a real jerk.


Okay ONE nice one of Auggie.


Back to the pretty Pepper.


I love her expression in this one, but the snowflakes aren’t in focus how I’d like.


Here the snowflakes are better but her expression is not as good. LOL. Oh well… they’re both rather nice.

I’m sure there will be plenty more snow pics to come. Ugh.


Dogs In Hats

So a few weeks ago I had free bucks to spend at Old Navy. My plan was to buy yet another sports bra, but I discovered they’ve CHANGED their sports bras. WHAT. What am I supposed to buy now??
So I found these hats back in the kid’s department.
So that’s what I bought.


I don’t know why but I’m pretty sure Payton needs to wear his bowtie with his hat.


Auggie’s fits SO GOOD. Payton’s is a little big for his head and kept falling off…


OMG I can’t. They’re like two little old men best friends or something…


Auggie’s is very fashionable.


And then there’s Payton.


Seriously, it’s like it was made for his head. HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPLAIN IT FITTING SO WELL??


Payton’s big fat head ruined this one of the perfect Auggie. Oh well. Still pretty good anyway.


Snow Storm Shelties + Arf on the Shelf Outtakes


Runnin’!


Payton says “RUNNING’S MY FAVOURITE”


Georgie: “Oh God it’s coming!”


Peppydrizzle was out wagging her tail all over the place.


The best way to navigate the snow is to hop, really.


Payton was having trouble running… not just because it was deep but because Georgie was pulling on his tail the entire time.


NOM PAYTON


Payton is just like DERP DERP and Georgie is all BANZAI


Mr. Auggie <3
Then the snowballs started.


PAYTON


I hit her with a snowball and she was like “WHAT WAS THAT.” Sorry.


This one’s my favourite.


He also likes the snowballs <3
Georgie really wants a snowball too and also she is freezing.


Yay!


Baby dog’s tongue is INSIDE his nose. Nice, P.


SNOWBALL


This is an accurate representation of Georgie.


Pepper likes snowballs also please!

More snowballs until Georgie was visibly shivering so we all went back inside…


I really love that Pepper got into it this year. I’m so excited when she does anything other than look sad and like I beat her.

Also while out there I decided to take my Arf on the Shelf photo. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do but Auggie had a few ideas.

First he looks quite pretty.


And then.


“Auggie no!!”


“Auggie stop! Don’t eat it!”


I was trying to tell him “no, stop!” and yet it was hysterical and I kept snapping photos at the same time. Poor Francisco.

End! We can’t go anywhere at all until the plows clear us out… who knows when that will be. Yay.


Springy Shelties

The, uh, whatever these purple things are, those are blooming. So I took some photos.


Baby Georgie!!


She’s a pretty little (bad) girl.


Family photo. Pepper was (clearly) not cooperating much. Also I should start a new game where I keep a running tally of how many photos I take of Payton where he’s ruining the photo because he’s looking in the tree for squirrels.


Slightly less squinty Pepper… you’d think she never sees daylight or something…


Georgie refused to sit up (worst. posing. dog. ever.) so I told Payton to down to try and balance it out a bit more.


I got everybody to down actually. Auggie had to ask me like six times if I really wanted him to down THERE and not get up and come down to me (YES I mean DOWN, RIGHT THERE, NOW) and Pepper had to be lured down. And then Auggie was unhappy because I told him “now” and that’s not nice. Sigh…


Georgie and Uncle Auggie!

I would have more but my back was still acting up a bit (super super sore from the half-marathon… what??) so I didn’t want to push it taking too many photos. We are officially into nice weather now though so I think we are clear for more cute shots.


Goober

Well, my third half-marathon is done and in the books and I am massively sore as usual. So hurray for having a puppy who is quite good at playing with me while I am lying dead on the floor!!


Um.


Yeah okay he’s kinda cute.


Big snow dump, big photo dump

This had better be the last photo dump of snow-covered shelties until we’re actually in WINTER again.


It was still coming down heavily while we were out playing. Every few minutes somebody had to shake off to prevent themselves from becoming one with the massive snowfall in the yard.


Payton is not sure what’s happening but it’s kind of fun. Or terrible. Blizzards are awesome! Or maybe the worst??


Frosted pup.


Auggie puttering around in the snow.


Georgie is frolicking. But only for a little while. It’s hard to frolick when the snow piles are almost as big as you. Kinda wears you out.


Auggie appears to think there’s something under the snow and he should immediately plunge his face into the snow to discover what’s beneath it.


Pirate Auggie McSnowBeard has made his return! Arrrrr!


See? I told you they had to keep shaking off…


Georgie and Payton are wrestling and racing.


Pepper isn’t amused by this whole thing. What is this crap? It was 60 degrees yesterday!


More chasing from Payton and Georgie…


Georgie getting Auggie in on the fun. I’m pretty sure he was running off to bark at something and she thought he was playing chase…


A very weird mid-shake photo for Payton.


“YAAAAAY!”


“IIIIII’M PAYTON!!!!”


Baby Georgie, taking a quick breather.


This is Payton.


Payton likes it when I throw snowballs at him.


Pepper wanted to get in on the snowball catching too.


Throw it throw it throw it throw it throw it throw it


Wheeeee!


The kiddos chasing snowballs.


Reaaaaadyyyyyyy…


Oh wait, now ready?


GETIT


Pretty little girl, all frosted from snow!


Auggie would also like a snowball plz.


CATCH.


He didn’t catch the second one, haha.


More from Payton – he’s having fun at least.


THROW IT


Her nails look RIDICULOUS here. I swear they aren’t that bad but she must be all grippy or something when she jumps because they look really bad.


Playing yaaaay~


First picture in which I can tell she’s related to Payton.


Playing doesn’t last very long…


HERE IS A LOVELY PHOTO OF PAYTON


I was trying to take a photo of Auggie and he came up, stuck his chin on my arm, and was like “Hi Mom throw snowball plz.”


But I still got my photo of Auggie.

The end.
It better be. >=|


Just a few of the sheltie crew…

First of all, my boys are quite proper.

QUITE proper.

Also it won’t stop snowing and being cold.

We all hate it.


Uhh… these eyes.


Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?

For everybody who thinks they want a Payton:

This is totally normal. Expression and everything. There’s a reason he’s the gator. (And Auggie is my shark.)


The very bestest boy. <3


Snowy Shelties

I think it’s done dumping on us, but we got a decent amount of snow in a very short amount of time. I came home from work and immediately took the dogs outside. I put their coats on because it was blowing like crazy (the blowing and drifting in the country is going to be a MAJOR problem for people tonight!)


Pepper THINKS she likes this. She certainly likes to lick the snow off the ground.


This was happening.


My Auggie-man.


Pepper is… mmmmmmaybe not a fan of the blowing.


P don’t give a @#(!


Trying to get good photos of Georgie, but it was really cold and she was shivering a lot. I didn’t keep her out very long.


Too bad ’cause she’s super cute LOL.


It just. kept. snowing.


Ahhh baby Pay. I was trying to get him all crazy but whenever I’d grab a handful of snow he’d sit and wait for me to throw it… good dog I guess haha.


More Auggie <3 <3
Auggie was mad because I told him to stop barking at the sound of the salt trucks rolling around the city. =P


“Where is the squirrel Payton?”


“Please throw the snowball, I can’t sit here any longer.”


Baby Georgie. Not impressed by the blowing snow either.


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!


Snow!

At last! Not much, but enough to get some photos.


How I discovered 100% Pepper was in season – she sat in the snow, stood up, and left blood behind. YEP that’s what I thought.


Payton nom-noming snow.


More Pepper.


Ack such perfect sits on this puppy.


LOL Snoface.


How much snow can I possibly cram in my mouth??


Throw snowball plz.


Perfect.


Auggie <3
This photo makes me so happy.


Snow makes Auggie frisky. Normally he doesn’t care to play with Payton outside (too many things on the ground to eat) but he plays outside in the snow, haha.


Auggie’s FACE.


Snow makes Auggie so happy he levitates!!


Ahhh boys <3
BROFIGHT


Really really ridiculously good-looking.

Tomorrow I think I will try and get winter coat pics.


Santa

Look at Pepper.
She went right up to him to sniff him. I put her on the bench next to him and she sat there no problem.
I can’t get over this.

The other dogs are pretty good too. ;>


Hoodies

So I bought these hoodies for the dogs… Payton’s and Pepper’s were on MEGA clearance (five bucks each!) and Auggie’s was pretty cheap too. I just think they’re cute. It’s warm enough that I was out in just a hoodie today so they all got their hoodies too.


Payton was zooming around in his hoodie and I imagine he was pretending to be a hot rod.


Pepper’s!


It has little wings on the sleeves and everything <3 it's SO CUTE.
And of course Augs has a skull on his. <3
Typical Payton. He got nice and worn out chasing after balls and running after Pepper, he is currently recharging his batteries so he can annoy me in ohhhh probably twenty minutes.


“Tee hee I just peed in my sweatshirt!” Payton’s needs to be altered. *facepalm* Just a touch too long… he peed all over it.


Okay, so Pepper was feeling sassy. This is a series of photos of her yapping at me. Bark


bark


BARK.


This girly. <3
And meanwhile, Payton.

Okay, so I don’t know if anybody remembers, but Pepper likes to hop up and down. Vertical. She does this when she’s really excited (which means not often) but she was doing it today and I was trying to get a photo. Unfortunately she doesn’t stay very far away from me and I had the 50mm on so I wasn’t getting the photo I wanted and was kind of bummed.
Then I opened the photos to see what I got and I think these are even better.


Perfect.


The Pepper I know and love and I wish everybody else could know and love it too.


Since she was thinking about playing and kept running after Payton and his football, I went ahead and got the tennis ball because I know she will play ball if she’s in the right mood…


I love how I’m trying to take a photo of Pepper but Payton is the one who shows up non-blurry.


SHE HAS THE BALL. We played ball for a while then Auggie would spoil it by getting the ball then walking away with it, I’d have to go get the ball from him, throw it a few more times, Auggie spoils the game… repeat.


What? I would NEVER do that. I’m not a jerk.


My best girly. Be still my heart.


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.


Punkin Pictures

I bought pumpkins yesterday morning. They were on mega sale so I was like “I will take all your pumpkins plz.” Actually I only bought five, but I wanted more…


Uhhhh unfortunately most of our family photos looked like this.


This was the best I got, haha. Pepper needs remedial stays again.


Just the boys <3
Auggie saw all the pumpkins and the leaf pile and was like “Oh. *strike a pose*” He just knows… he knows. What a good boy.


I told Payton his turn was next and he decided this is what he wanted to do. Also pivots using the pumpkin as his perch. I’m not sure if I should facepalm or be proud.


Since Payton started it I asked Georgie to do the same thing. SHE IS SO CUTE AHHH


Not in focus =< but it's sooooo cute.
The over-achiever, LOL. Oh Auggie.


Aaaaaand the under-achiever, haha. Poor Pep.


Something has moved in…

Surprise!!


Payton thinks Pepper must be a gift JUST FOR HIM.
Pepper thinks Payton is the most obnoxious dog in the world. (And she’s probably right.)

Payton is trying to get her to play and crying because she won’t play, she’s trying to decide how much snark is necessary to tell him to piss off, and also she is alternating between jumping in my lap when I least expect it and showering me with kisses, and standing two feet away clacking happily away at me and staring at me like “Is this a dream? It feels like a dream.”

No, Pep, it’s not a dream. You’re home and you’re never going away again.


Leaf Pictures

I may have a good reason to re-do the family photos this weekend…


Boys! LOL at Payton with a leaf stuck to him.


All three puppers.


Excuse me while my big dog is devastatingly handsome.


Auggie is the bestest boy.


Seriously, it’s kinda ridiculous how good looking he is. Not even a show dog, Augs.


Oh? But I so pretty.


Yeah, he definitely knows he’s a handsome boy.


And then there’s this thing.


This…


…thing.


I guess he’s kinda cute. Maybe I’ll keep him.


Oh fffffffff seriously? Fine you can stay.


Yeah okay, he’s sorta handsome too sometimes.


But only sometimes.


the rest of the time… uh…


That’s okay. I pretty much like him anyway.


Girly!!


She’s actually very good at posing all by herself, but when you try and get them all together, she can’t hold still.


Yeah she’s pretty cute too.

The end… for now…


Painting Helpers

Yesterday was Payton’s annual. My new house is halfway to the new vet’s office, so Pay came to the new house with us while we painted yesterday. He was a very good boy, but I thought it was immensely unfair that HE got to be the first dog at the new house. So Auggie got to come today. My mom decided to also bring Georgie, and because that wasn’t fair to only take two, Pay came along today too.

All three dogs “helped” while I was painting my new master bedroom. Would you care to guess which of the three did NOT come home blue?


Can you tell from this photo??


AUGGIE decided to curl up in the corner of the room right up against two freshly painted walls. AUGGIE!!


You might not be able to see it – I didn’t see it until we all packed up to leave and then I went “hey, WAIT A SECOND.” It’s on her tail and there’s a small bit on her side too LOL. I have no idea when this even happened.

So PAYTON was the only dog who didn’t get in the paint! And he had TWO opportunities to get all painted, yesterday and today! What a good pupper.


The girlie, just because. Not the girlie I wish I was taking a photo of. I’m very unhappy because this house is taking a lot longer than I expected, and the longer it takes, the longer it takes to bring MY girlie home…

Someday. I hope it’s soon. =<


Payton AND Auggie at the lake!

I was packing our swimmy bag and put Auggie in his crate. He cried like he normally does when I’m going somewhere with Payton and without him. Mom and I went outside to put our sunscreen on and he started crying louder. “I think he wants to go, but he has no idea,” I said.
We came back inside to grab our stuff and Mom said “He wants to go…”
So we took Auggie with us.


Payton went in the swimmy first of course.


And yes, if you’re wondering, I convinced my mom to go because I REALLY wanted her to take photos of Payton swimming.


Cute puppy <3
My little guy. He looks so proud of himself when he reaches the shore. Like =D =D =D LOOK WHAT I CAN DO


Then… guess who had to swim next.


“Okay, I THOUGHT I wanted to go… I didn’t want to go.”


“OMG I thought I would never make it to shore.”


Payton actually chose to swim OUT away from the shore today. Especially after I had just taken Auggie in. Because while I was in the lake with Auggie Payton was on the shore SCREAMING “THAT’S MY SWIMMY GET OUT OF MY SWIMMY THIS ISN’T FAIR.”


I have no idea what’s going on here but I think it’s a cute picture of us so there.


Happy swimming Payton…


So yeah, this is how Payton swims still, LOL. Flailing a bit, butt sinking down, searching a bit for when he hits the ground to push off – it’s like a hop-swim. Sometimes if he’s in really deep water he will even out and just swim. I think he just needs more practice in deep water where he has to REALLY swim rather than shallows or my little pool where he can kick off the ground… or maybe not, since he loves the pool too, and who am I to tell him what not to do when he loves it?


He really does love it.


THE BUMPER! We had major success with the bumper today. He played with the bumper IN the water which he wouldn’t do last weekend.


AND he would even reach down and grab it from the water and retrieve it for me! We celebrated each retrieve with a huge game of tug. There is no public dock for me to use here, but there is a ledge. I decided the next best thing was to put Payton on the dock, toss the bumper into the lake, and tell him “get the bumper!” He would jump down off the ledge then run into the water to get the bumper and bring it back to me. Hey, it’s close, LOL.


Auggie LOLOLOL. I don’t know why I always find Auggie’s disdain so amusing… sorry Augs.


So my mom came up with this GREAT idea… racing. LOL.


I call Auggie my little tugboat… because he just churns along, smooth and steady. Honestly Auggie is the far better swimmer of the two.


And Payton meanwhile tries to catch some air when he swims LOL.


Auggie won EVERY race we had, by the way. Including when Payton had a head start. LMAO. I’m not sure if I should say “oh Payton” or “oh Auggie” here.


I do believe this photo sums up both their feelings on swimming quite well.


My dirty FILTHY dog!


I’m totally sending this one to his breeder. “Oh his sister is winning at conformation shows? That’s awesome! Here’s mine.”


And if you’re curious how he got that way – like this. Including rolling ON HIS BACK and wookie noising. NOW I definitely know I should say “oh Payton.”

I feel like Payton is coming along well for sure. I’m hoping to take a few trips to the small dock at a local lake (not nearly as big as this one and I can’t swim in it) and see if I can’t get him to jump off the dock and snag me the bumper. It’s not into deep water but it’s a dock nonetheless. Baby steps. The Dock Dogs event I want to take him to is in TWO weekends… so we shall see.


Trip to the lake, round 2

Equipped with a better life jacket, we went back down to the lake today. My mom kept insisting it would be too cold (it has been chilly the past few days, getting downright cold at night) but I had faith it would be warm enough. Sure enough, it was really quite lovely – and being that it only got up to about 80 (as opposed to 100 from last time), hardly anybody was on the beach and fewer people were out on their boats, so it was just generally quieter and calmer.

I got him there, strapped on his life jacket, went out until I was about chest deep in the water… and let him go. And he swam. Pretty well actually. He still kind of bobs his butt down, checking for ground – he knows eventually he will hit shallows and he can start walking, so it’s a kind of funny swim, but swim he did. And I’m pretty sure he liked it, more importantly. I still can’t get him to grab his bumper, or ball-on-a-rope, when he’s in the water, but we were playing in the water (I was splashing him and he was biting the water.) Also, he has learned that when he hears the sound of a boat, he needs to IMMEDIATELY run down to the lakeside because that means a bunch of big waves he can play in are about to hit the beach. It’s actually hilarious and I love it. Seriously, we were sitting up on the little ledge drying off, a boat went by, his ears pricked up, and he jumped down and almost dragged me to the water so he could play in the waves. He likes to go in the water about chest-deep but he still isn’t sure about swimming out on his own. He tried it once or twice and changed his mind and turned back around immediately and went back to shore. I’m not terribly offended by this, the idea of Dock Dogs is to get the toy and come back to the ramp anyway, not just swim out to the blue beyond LOL.

ANYWAY. The pics. I was desperate to get a photo of him swimming so I took a chance and carried my point & shoot out with me… and luckily I did not drop it in the lake.

Playing in the waves.


Getting his feet wet then coming back on the beach.


Dirty dirty puppy!


This is Payton’s face as I am carrying him out into deeper water… not kidding LOL.


SWIM GO GO SWIM SWIM SWIM GO GO


A better one – for some reason he doesn’t want to swim to me, he wants to swim next to me, so this was hard to get. He REALLY has fun if I put him in the water then I swim along next to him. He starts smiling and he swims faster like it’s a race. Obviously I couldn’t take a picture like that though (I dunno how to do a backstroke or anything!)


Little paw prints in the sand. Just for my scrapbook.


His life jacket was off so he could dry out a bit and a boat went by so DOWN BY THE WATER WE GO sans life jacket.


He even climbed in without his life jacket on, which is good news. I didn’t ask him to swim without his life jacket because I could tell he was getting tired, and I didn’t want him to get tired and start sinking without the jacket – so we left it on to make sure it was a good experience until the end.


Poking around in the shallows some more…


More dirty puppy.


This happened a lot LOL. Unfortunately I can’t take him off lead here so it just kept happening… I always had to make sure before I let him go to swim that I had the leash so he wouldn’t get tangled in it. =P


Life jacket… doing it wrong. I asked him if he wanted to go back in and he hopped up for me to put his jacket back on, so we went back in one last time.


Before we left. I ‘shopped out the stupid lead because it’s otherwise such a great photo. ;P He really, truly does like the lake. I’m glad.

And finally:

THIS is the best swimming shot, but unfortunately it was blurry. =< One day I will have somebody come with me and stand on the shore and get shots with a zoom lense... one day...


Henri comes to visit again

He has actually been over another time and I’ve been to visit him a couple times but this is the second time I’ve taken pics. ;P


Henri!


Hen… um…


Oh hai.


I can’t stop laughing at this one. Henri frequents the dog park lately, being an only child, and has learned to go belly up when confronted with ballsier dogs (and I don’t just mean that Payton still has his balls.) So this is Henri throwing himself on the ground. Head first. And Payton being like “Um WTF are you doing??”


I think Payton is slightly weirded out because it’s like looking at himself. He’s having an out of body experience, LOL.


Ahhh there’s two of them!


Payton and my sister. OH HAI I’M PAYTON


Auggie, who still isn’t a huge fan of Henri. They chased a tennis ball together for a while but that was the extent of his playing with Henri. It’s definitely an improvement though.


Ummm yeah so he’s definitely gotten bigger. His ears aren’t quite sure what they’re doing (and I kept telling my sister “We can do something about that if you want” hahahaha.) Also check out his tail! I love it.


You can see all kinds of breeds in him. I see GSD for sure. Collie, yep. I don’t really see Aussie which he’s supposed to have some Aussie in him.


I thought it would be fun to try for a family photo. “Fun” is not exactly the word I would use to describe it. I’m pretty sure I told Payton “I hate you” at least six times.


LOL you can’t even see Georgie’s face because she’s looking up at me.


Proceed with caution, Henri… and LOL Payton’s face.


This is just a cute Henri LOL.


TONGUE.


Most of the pictures turned out about like this by the way.


A cute one of all the boys!


Just the shelties… all staying, but looking at my sister, hahaha.


The best one hahaha. Team Three Shelties and Whatever That Thing Is!


Attempt at a nice photo of the three shelties – this is why I told Payton I hate him so much haha.


HENRI PHOTOBOMB


Oh noes, what are you doing to me??


Oh. I see.

The end!
I pretty much love Henri by the way.


Pool today


“This would make a cute picture, right? Smile, Payton!”


He was giving me kisses before but once the camera came out he stopped, haha. I’m trying to get him to kiss me.


Now let’s get Auggie in the picture!!


Payton was licking my hand LOL. Apparently kissing my face is a no-no but kissing my hand is okay.


I’m not sure what the heck is going on here. I’m giving swim lessons??


I think I need to ‘shop Auggie out for one of him from the first two. =P


“Are you sad Auggie?”


“Everybody look at the ground.”


Poor Auggie LOLOLOL.


They both look so sad here hahahahaha! Payton had an eye goober I had to get. =P


See, they’re NOT miserable, I swear!


Repositioned Auggie so his paws were up on the side, and he starts looking at the ground again trying to decide if he wants to jump out or not.


LOL I’m not sure what’s up with Payton’s face here. “This is my look of disdain.”


We decided to try and get Georgie in the picture…


Earlier we had her and Payton in the pool together to see if they would play, but Georgie just discovered she can climb UP on Payton. Soooo that’s what she did.


And then…


…she tried to kill Payton.
Seriously, I can’t believe we got this photo. She decided to jump out using HIS HEAD as a springboard and his head went underwater. Poor guy!!


I promise to never let Georgie in the pool with you again Payton.


Payton discovers the sprinkler

In a vain attempt to save our completely brown lawn my dad has decided to start watering the yard. Last night he put the sprinkler in the back yard late at night so Payton only saw it once when he went out to pee right before bed. But it was running when I came home for lunch today, and, well.


What is that?


OH.


Ta-DAAAAAAA


C’mon baby! Let’s do the twist!


This is why I feel bad sending pictures to his breeder sometimes.


She sends me pretty pictures of his sister and I’m like “oh she’s so pretty! Here’s mine.”


Derr!


Oh gosh there’s water involved in this sprinkler thing and it’s in my EYE


I wish this one were sharper. Total joy. <3
This could be a sufficient way to let my dog wear himself out. Sure! Play in the water and get all cooled off and sleepy!


I love this dog so much. I honestly can’t put it into words. He might drive me crazy and wear me out but God do I love him.


…er.


Auggie’s look of total disdain while this was going on hahahaha. Auggie wants NOTHING TO DO with the sprinkler thankyouverymuch.


But it’s FUN DO IT DO IT C’MON GET IT


Oh puppy. <3


Swimming Shelties

I have now become obsessed with the idea of having these three be a Dock Dogs team. Wouldn’t that be fabulous?? I wonder if Miss Pepper would like to swim too…

Apologies for my pasty legs, melanoma runs in the family so I don’t tan, deal with it =P


Auggie went first. I tried the life jacket on him but really, he didn’t need it. So I just swam him without the life jacket on.


There’s a lot of flailing rather than smooth paddling… I think it’s because they can almost touch the bottom of the pool so they are trying to kick off the bottom rather than just swim.


Swim swim swim swim!


Payton was running around the pool the whole time barking THAT’S MY POOL GET OUT OF THE POOL HE’S IN MY POOL GET OUT OF THE POOL


Scrawny soaking pup!


Payton is still in his life jacket most of the time. I bought him a brand new Outward Hound life jacket that I think fits him better as opposed to the Premier Fido Float we used at the lake, and I think it definitely works better. However, Payton can definitely touch the bottom of the pool, so is kicking off the bottom. It’s not all the way full so this next weekend I will top it off and see if that makes a difference.


He kinda likes it though I think.


Holding him to try and get him to use his back legs more…


Paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle paddle go go go go


Seriously, I do think he likes it. I’d let him out and he’d run off to go shake, but every time I called him he came running back even though he KNEW I was going to put him back in the pool. Either he likes it or he’s really dumb LOL.


I like pool. maybe.


My cute puppy <3
MISS GEORGIE


Georgie is the smart one of the bunch… the boys will swim to the edge of the pool. She doesn’t bother, she just turns around and swims to me like “okay now pick me up.”


She is so cute I almost can’t stand it… seriously. In her little life jacket. Also an Outward Hound model. OMG.


Go! Swim to your mama!


But I’m getting water up my nose!


Little princess paws…


PICK ME UP


No life jacket! Go rock star princess, go!


She actually almost hopped out of the pool here hahaha.


One more time! Go little girlie!


SPLOOSH


Her ears are hysterical here.


Why? Why you do this to me??


THE END.


Payton went swimming

Ssssssorta.
Yesterday while at Target buying a pool for our backyard (this has become an obsession) I ran into a friend I met through agility. She moved out of town, not too far away, and just happened to be in town visiting her parents. She told me there’s a lake near where she lives and she has been taking her portie there and it’s a great place.

Well, I was told I couldn’t set the pool up, at least for now. And I was bored. So I packed Payton into the car and drove down to this lake. It’s about 90 minutes away, if that, so not too far really.

I took him in the water and he wasn’t really sure what to think. There were plenty of people out on boats and whenever a boat would go by (the boating section is on the opposite side of the lake from the public swimming beach) there would end up being sorta large waves rocking over to our side of the beach, and that confused him. So I took him back out and put the life jacket on.
He WILL swim, but it’s a terribly ungraceful splashing swim. I took the life jacket off and he hated that, his head dipped under water a few times too, so for now life jacket only. I ended up putting my shirt back on because I thought he was going to yank my bikini top off flailing around LOL. People were super interested in us, I kept hearing “I thought all dogs could swim!” Does it look like he can swim? LOL. One guy and I think his teenage son were talking to me about it while they threw a football back and forth, and Payton was watching them, and the guy said “Will he float in that if you let it go?” So I let it go to show him, and he was holding the football, and Payton started sloppy-splash-flail-swimming to the guy because I think he wanted the football hahahaha. OH PAYTON, you need to try that with SINGLE guys who are MY AGE, but nice try honeyface.

I tried to get him to go for a tennis ball but he was having none of it. He wouldn’t even swim out to get closer to me – I left him standing on the beach and floated out in the water and he just stared at me. I said “what if I was drowning out here??” and he just stared LOL.

We went back to the beach and sat down for a bit to get a drink, I pondered what I could try differently, then we went back in for a bit. This time he walked into the shallows all by himself and played around a little, he even walked in until he was about chin-deep, but he stopped there. Like he’s thinking about it, just not sure.

We sat on the beach drying off and I asked him if he still had fun or if he hated me now, and he gave me a kiss, or maybe my face just smelled like fish (we found half a dead fish near the shore and I was SO glad I left Auggie at home.) Picked up a few shells that had washed up on the shore and went home. Not too bad, we only spent a couple of hours there and I spent three-ish in the car, but it was really fun anyway.

I’m hoping my dad will change his mind and let me set up the pool in the backyard so we can practice more. =P

Here’s the photos I nabbed – none of Payton in the water since I was out there all by myself and wasn’t taking my camera in the lake, even if it was my crappy point & shoot…


Attempting to get a photo of us together hahaha. The lake was filthy, by the way. We both got right in the shower after getting home and my swimsuit was almost BLACK inside. Grosssssss.


“I don’t like you much right now mommy.”


Just sittin’ there, watchin’ people play in the water…


It was SO nice down there… even though it was still about 100 degrees back home and even hotter the further south you go, the air off the lake was fabulous. The sand seriously almost burned my feet though. But other than that it was super lovely!


Layin’ on his towel drying out, watching the people hanging out away from the water…

That’s it, nothing very exciting. =P I’m frickin’ exhausted right now but Payton’s like YAY YAY YAY PLAY PLAY PLAY YAY YAY YAY. stupid puppy.