the sheltiechick blog

A Very Auggie Christmas, 2010

Just about everything I asked for this year was for the dog… haaaa.
Our Christmas tree photos didn’t turn out that great though.


This would be cute if it were in focus. =<


STINKEYE. This is about what our family photos look like every year now so I can’t blame him. Somebody in our family needs to hurry up and reproduce so I don’t have to sit in front of the tree with my cousin for “kids photo” anymore. Seriously, I’m the youngest and I’m 26. I think we can stop the “kids photo” now.


Slightly mischievous look…


grumble…


more grumble…


can we be done now??


This is dumb. Let’s do something else.

And then we opened stockings. At 2AM. Because we came home at midnight and had to shovel the drive before we could even get the truck up the drive, then we opened presents a 1AM (while Auggie ran berserk the entire time with entirely too much energy for 1AM) and then decided to go ahead and just open the stockings.

I grabbed my P&S instead of the DSLR because I was too freaking tired to mess with the DSLR. And the flash was off at first. Bad idea.


OOOOH PENGUIN


I loves penguin


Oh yeah, there’s more…


Yet another sheep (of course.)


It makes snoring sounds. He was mildly fascinated.


Obligatory head in stocking shot.


He refused to fish the raccoon out of the stocking no matter how much I asked him to get it… he was becoming fascinated with the flash so finally I turned it back off.


The raccoon has a bottle inside of it and is open on the bottom so you can replace it. He was really excited once he realized there was a bottle in it!


Posing with stocking toys.


Then I made him pose with his Christmas gifts… no pictures of him pulling these out of the bag. He loved that sheep, especially since he was busy running amuck while we opened our gifts.


Gifts are all opened, stockings are opened, the tree is bare of gifts… so Auggie went under the tree to curl up. He does this and gets very upset when we start stacking gifts under the tree and there’s no room for him. I think it’s because he was born in November and in his puppyhood he spent a lot of time being naughty crawling underneath the Christmas tree at his breeder’s house, LOL.


Falling asleep under the tree… zzzzz


huhwha? No I’m awake…

He got a bully stick this morning and took it under there to eat. He also wants you all to know he ALMOST caught not only a squirrel, but ALSO a rabbit out in the yard, and he came swaggering back in looking quite proud of himself. Brat.

Clockwork

Auggie has certain things timed. I’m told he starts to get very antsy before I get home – running around and hovering by the door, waiting, because he knows I’m due home any minute. He definitely knows when dinner time is (sometimes even better than I do – he’ll be doing the Dinnertime Dance and I’m like “Dude, calm down, it’s not time for – oh. Oh yes it is. Sorry.”)

But the strangest thing he has timed… is knowing EXACTLY how long he has to fool around outside and make it back up to the stairs once I’ve said “If I have to come get you, you’re in BIG TROUBLE – okay, you’re in BIG TROUBLE.” The dog somehow has it timed. He knows how long it takes me to threaten him, turn around, go slip my shoes on, grab my coat, and step back to the door. Because it NEVER FAILS. I get my shoes, grab my coat, and open the door… and he’s standing there innocently like he’s been waiting the whole time to come back in.

I don’t know how he does it, but this is a skill he has perfected.
And I hate him for it.

Teaching Auggie to smile

I’ve decided it would be incredibly handy to teach Auggie to smile on command. Sometimes in the face of treats Auggie becomes SERIOUS DOG and doesn’t give me a smile… so if I’m trying to pose him and I have treats on me while I do this, I get SERIOUS AUGGIE IS SERIOUS photos instead of a normal goofy looking Auggie. Therefore, if I can be holding a treat and tell Auggie “smile!” and he will smile, I will get PERFECT pictures!! It’s genius, you see.

Except I forgot that my dog is an idiot and while trying to teach him a new trick he immediately begins offering up every single trick he already knows, or other things we’ve been working on. Like I’ve been working on cop-cop with him on and off for ages, so when doing heeling work, he attempts to get between my legs and stand on my feet. Or when trying to work on a down-stay, he likes to roll over.

The last trick I worked on with Auggie was teaching him to speak. I figured teaching smile would start rather the same, where I would click/treat any movement of the mouth, then start to narrow it down to the kind of open mouth expression I wanted. This was not a bad plan.
Except, again, I forgot that my dog is an idiot.
Therefore, this time, Auggie decided that I must want him to ROLL OVER WHILE BARKING.

Why, Auggie? Why? This is why I do things like buy a yellow submarine costume and put you in it.