Just two pics of two dogs
Better lighting today (the sun was just barely peeking out from behind the clouds) and I grabbed a couple of treats to make it easier on me… I’m a cheat.
Payton’s mane is getting out of control… the hair around his face, OMG. Floof!!
Also I’m obsessed with how he sits. It’s so nice and tight and straight and proper… LOVE it. Auggie is like “meh, I’m six. *slouch*”
And I love this one…
Not exactly what I intended, I wanted Auggie to lay down, but the Payton peeked out over Auggie’s shoulder… cute!!
Recall Bootcamp
After a lot of thought and a lot of staring at my bank account, I decided to enroll in Susan Garrett’s 5 Minutes to a Brilliant Recall e-course. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but I asked myself what a good recall is worth. If somehow Auggie or Payton were to get out the front door, or maybe broke the gate in the backyard, or escaped from their lead at an agility trial… and were running towards a busy road with cars coming… how much is it worth if I said “AUGGIE” and my dog would turn around and come racing back to me without hesitation? The answer, for me, is that it would be worth a lot more than I paid for the class.
So that will be our winter project… how much work we’ll get to do outside once the snow dumps on us, exactly, is anybody’s guess. But I will at least be arming myself with the games and the learning to work on it later.
Both dogs have also been learning perch work. Payton is doing better than Auggie, who ever since I got out the clicker and tried to teach him to speak has added barking furiously at me to his repertoire of “stuff to try during shaping.” Auggie was giving me two full turns around the perch but frequently would stop and bark at me, so I dropped WAY back and am currently rewarding for two steps in a row WITH NO. BARKING. and hoping that eliminates the annoying barkface.
Payton, on the other hand, is now doing a turn and a half. Sometimes he gets overly excited and ends up slipping off the perch and since he is no longer on the perch starts jumping around the room (my puppy is so weird) but once he gets himself collected and hits the perch again, he returns very quickly to pivoting. I’m very proud of him… when I first brought him home and tried to teach him to touch a target, he wouldn’t do anything. He would just sit down and stare at me. Having gone from that to a dog who learned to start zooming around a perch purely from offered behaviours, it just makes me smile. I almost cried when I saw the light bulb go off in his head and he started stepping in a hurry around the perch. Hurray for Payton!
So I will probably be posting some updates here, maybe with some videos, while we work through Auggie’s Recall Bootcamp! I’m looking forward to it for sure. (How can anybody NOT look forward to not having to go out and retrieve their dog who is in the back of the yard barking at ABSOLUTELY NOTHING through the fence when it’s 20 degrees out and they are only wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts?)
Oh Brother
First, I apologize for the crappy colours in these pictures. I looked down at my camera while shooting and went “Huh, I bet those settings aren’t quite right,” but instead of fixing it I just kept shooting. Derp. So in order to make them not quite so washed out they are now semi-neon LOL.
First of all… ohhhhh Payton.
Auggie: seriously?
Auggie: I mean really. These are what our family photos look like.
Auggie: This puppy is an embarrassment.
Payton: Oh. I sowwee.
I don’t know why Auggie looks so disgruntled in these photos. Oh wait. Yes I do. PAYTON.
I think this is the best one that turned out… unfortunately Auggie looks irritated and the colours are all wrong. Meh.
Y’know, Payton really does look lovely when he’s not chewing leaves.
So annoyed with myself for not fixing my camera settings. And for stupid Auggie looking so annoyed with his brother LOL.
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.
Couple o pics!
Who’s the little monster dog that’s a barking machine to all the kids?
AUGGIE
You’re daaaaaamn right!
Who’s the pup that would risk his neck for his brother dog?
PAYTON
Can you dig it?
About two seconds before I snapped this photo Payton’s tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth. I’m so bummed I missed that shot.
I’ve decided the best time to take posed photos of my boys is when they are tired hahaha.
Auggie turns six.
And so we celebrated Auggie’s sixth birthday with a photo of Payton.
Just kidding. Auggie was off eating grass like normal so I took a few pics of Payton first.
Then I took some Auggie photos too.
OH MAH GAH THIS LEAF IS AS BIG AS MAH HEAD
Payton has been quite delighted with all of the enourmous leaves that are falling off the tree in the back of our yard.
And I don’t mind handing him one as big as his head because he looks about like how children look when they come downstairs on Christmas and see a bike in their living room…
Back to Auggie.
Snork. Slopping around some remaining grass bits in his mouth.
That’s my boy.
kinda wonky focus but whatever.
then later…. “it’s MY birthday??”
Payton froze immediately once I put the hat on his head. LOL poor Payton…
Even Georgie wore a hat!
“Why you put things on my head Mommy? I hates it.”
I’m pretty sure Payton did not move his head from the previous photo to this one…
then Georgie had a birthday hat malfunction…
They all got some of Auggie’s birthday cake (no pics because we were juggling dogs and cake) and then Auggie got his presents! I got him this nice squeaky tuggy skull ball and also yet another Kong squeaky tennis ball – I found a “happy birthday” one in the toy box at the most recent trial we were at so I snagged it as our entry prize and saved it for his birthday.
The end!! Happy birthday, my bestest Auggie.
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.
Group photos with Pepper!
The winner winner chicken dinner!
This one came close but I liked Payton’s expression in the other better.
My boys. <3 LOL Auggie looks a little pissed. Like "remember when I was an only dog? Yeah? And all the cookies went to ME? Yeah? Remember that? Yeah."
Hahaha this would be cute but Auggie’s SadFaec ruined it. “Now I have to share my cookies… boo hoo…”
LOL boys. Pepper is being good. Payton seems to be seriously considering running off to eat leaves. Auggie is still upset about sharing cookies. And OMG I just could not get them to be close to each other… it was like they all thought the other dog had cooties… I could only get two next to each other at a time and the third was floating off elsewhere.
Derp!
I love how the ONLY dog looking at me in this one is Auggie… because he’s the only one I can say his name to and doesn’t think that means “IMMEDIATELY BREAK YOUR STAY AND COME RUNNING!!” Don’t get me wrong, I love that I can just say “Payton” and he gives me whiplash turns and runs at top speed to me, but the release from stay is “okay…” not the name…
The sheltie boys do Halloween
I broke out Auggie’s shark costume from last year again. Shark + Pirate? Yes plz.
Payton isn’t totally sold on his pirate hat though…
Ahhhhh the shark is coming to get me!! And the pirate just lets it…
Okay, these next few require some explanation… my idea was to have Auggie lay down and then Payton stand over him. This was fine except before I could scoot back into my position to take a photo, Auggie decided he didn’t really like having Payton stand over him. So… he stood up.
and took Payton with him.
And I mean he literally took Payton with him. And I’m sorry these are blurry but I started laughing so hard I was crying. There was no way I was going to get a clear shot off. But I had to post them even though they’re blurry. My mom had to come in to help because I was literally crumpled on the floor laughing and crying and trying to get a photo and I couldn’t move to go help poor Payton.
And then the pirate vanquished the shark! I actually had Payton stand ON Auggie for this one. For some reason Auggie was fine with being stood on, just not stood over. =P
Better pose but blurry. =<
And that's how we do Halloween here, LOL.
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.
More Brothers Antics
They really DO love each other, I swear, but things like this happen at least once a day and it’s so freaking funny.
Payton: GIMME THE BALL GIMME THE BALL GIMME THE BALL
Payton: GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME
Auggie: OMG. Take it and SHUT UP. *ptoo*
Payton: !!!
Payton: MA MA LOOK WHAT I HAS
Auggie: stupid puppy.
my stupid puppy.
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.
More proof that my boys do love each other…
or rather that Auggie does really love his brother, since that is the one that is always suspect.
Last night we were all in bed and I was playing my video game and I look over and see this. And was like ($@(#&@(*@# IF I GET UP TO GET THE CAMERA YOU GUYS WILL GET UP. But I managed to sneak away and get the camera and they stayed put more or less.
What I didn’t manage is a clear, well focused shot in my poorly lit bedroom, but hopefully you’ll get the idea…
d’awww!
After a few photos they were like “srsly. bedtime.” This is how they were before I went to get the camera.
Unfortunately once I moved to get another angle Payton’s head came up again.
and a cute Payton.
Big brother, little brother
I bought Payton a fire hose toy for his sharp, destructive, teething fangs. This is HIS toy, I bought it just for him.
A few minutes ago I heard Payton barking… and barking and barking. I got up to go see what he was barking at…
And discovered Auggie on the couch, laying JUST out of Payton’s reach (Payton thinks he is too small to get up on the couch) and chewing Payton’s fire hose toy. While poor Payton bounced up and down trying to reach his toy/Auggie and barking at him because he was so mad he couldn’t reach.
So after trying to get Payton to jump up on the couch and take his toy back I finally PUT him on the couch. And then he looked confused. He took the toy and then Auggie grabbed it back. Payton looked at me and then jumped off the couch.
Auggie then jumped off the couch… but left the fire hose on the couch. And here comes Auggie, marching over and smiling at me looking proud of himself, while Payton resumes bouncing up and down trying to reach the fire hose sitting towards the back of the couch JUST out of his reach.
These two. Seriously.
Despite how it may sound, they do actually love each other.
(I promise Auggie is smiling – you just can’t tell from this photo. He had a smiley face in the other photos but they were blurry.)
Boys in the leaves
AKA snacks for Payton fall from the sky.
THIS IS THE BESTEST SEASON EVARRRRR
I can’t fit them all in my mouth!!! (but I can sure try!)
punchdrunk on leaves?
Oh God so happy
happy happy
joy joy
omg. I realize this would be so much cuter if his ears were set proper right now but <3 <3
oh lol auggie.
Auggie is like “What? Pose? Kay.”
What Payton was doing while I was asking Auggie to be pretty.
I don’t know why he’s so handsome but he sure is.
this amuses the Auggie.
I’m like foaming at the mouth over Auggie being photogenic by this point.
Ohhhhhh Payton
the snackies rain from the sky!!
I wants to catch it.
hahahaha all the leaf crumbs in his mouth…
Auggie photos!!
and a Payton or two snuck in there.
Auggie of course still lives here – he’s just usually off doing something else while I chase Payton around… so I made a special point of taking Auggie photos today.
These two are big because I love them. <3
Ahhhh Auggie stop being so cute <3
I wish Payton’s face were also in focus in this one!! It would be perfect!
Trying to hunt squirrels… I can’t wait until all that belly hair grows back in…
I was trying to show how close in size they are now but they wouldn’t both pose about the same. =P Payton is close but still a bit shorter. I’m thinking (hoping!) one more growth spurt and then he’ll be done and will come to rest just a little bit taller.
ohgod <3 <3
Family portrait? Nnnnnno.
Paytonfaec. That ear…
OMG the whiskers. They are driving me insane. I want to chop them off and clean up his profile SO BAD but Auggie’s breeder told me to leave it alone a bit longer. CAN’T STAND THE CURLY WHISKERS
Happy Auggie!
“Dude, seriously. You’re ruining my shot.” Little brothers ruin everything.
Just a few family pics
My auto-focus doesn’t seem to be doing a great job. I would do manual focus for posed shots like these, but my eyes don’t seem to do a great job either. ;P I took some shots on manual the other night that I thought were clear and in focus, took the card out and pulled them up in Photoshop… blurry. Bleh.
You can see Auggie’s butchered coat… I don’t know WHAT they did at the vet. They shaved off the patch for his IV, okay, but there’s a HUGE chunk missing out of his feathering on the side too. It’s like the newbie was in there with the clippers and started going nuts and Doc was like “no, no, the FRONT of the leg.”
If you look close you can also see poor Payton’s owie head… he must have gotten his ears REALLY good with an itchy-scratchy and ripped out a chunk of hair. So his ears are wild and free for a while until things heal, and then we are going to try something else to prevent this from happening again. Probably do the moleskin on the inside of the ears and tie the moleskin together again. Poor Paypay! It doesn’t seem to hurt him at all though, so that’s the good news.
Almost a nice family shot and I didn’t pose this one either.
In November we are getting pro photos done and I’m hoping to have Pepper brought in for them! Then I can have a family photo even if we aren’t all in the same house yet… plus I really want more photos of me and Pepper together.
1 Payton + Auggie agility
First,
I’ve given him some peanut butter in this before and didn’t think much of it, but tonight while watching him chew on it, I suddenly remembered.
That Kong is a hand-me-down.
From Happy.
Disorganized landing. His takeoff is nice but his landings are about 50/50 disorganized like this. I’m not sure if it’s due to his physical limitations or just bad habits…
THIS IS MAH SERIOUS FACE
oh hai. i like a-frame. <3 <3
I LOVE this photo. The photographer actually put together a collage in her sample gallery and used this one (cropped down to just Auggie) as the large background photo and it’s really amazing. I’m thinking about ordering it because I just love it. I know typically people think of agility pics as jumps and going over jumps, but I really like his face and movement in this one.
By the way, he’s staring RIGHT at the aframe. He really would like to off course onto the a-frame if that’s okay. (It’s not okay and he didn’t.)
Puppies in a washtub
The big dog actually got in the tub second but he was SOOOO CUTE.
I love my big baby dog. <3
Auggie was ruining the photos LOL. I had to put him in a sit-stay behind me because every time I said “Auggie come here” the puppy came running.
So I had to crop Auggie out!
The baby puppy is so cute too <3 <3
I dunno if I like this…
IIIIII’M OUTTA HERE
Talk Like A Pirate Day
YAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRf.
Auggie even gets in on the action a bit… and hates me. First I won’t let him run around and play, now I slap a pirate hat on his head? Really?
I thought Payton could be a pirate for Halloween, and Auggie could be the shark again, and it would be perfect.
Playing boys
First of all, this is what I get when I say “Pepper?” to Auggie these days.
Apparently absence makes the heart grow fonder?
His head shape is changing. His needlenose is getting longer, LOL. Soon the top of his head should start to expand some.
I was moving to take photos and he was looking at me suspiciously, like I may try to grab that sheep at ANY SECOND…
Auggie chews toys, too. But often when he was a toy, Payton wants it, so he doesn’t get much peace to chew.
But Payton is teething hardcore right now so Ropey Sheep is a great chew for him.
We just started wrestling a few days ago. It often looks like this after Auggie shoulders Payton or butt-bumps him into going belly up.
Just a few pics…
New fave. <3 <3
Wouldn’t you know it – we went to breeder’s house so she could glue down his one ear and the other ear came up less than two hours after we got home that night. =P She told me how to glue it down so I’m going to give it a shot, probably tonight. She thinks they are tipping really nicely so far though.
And a very happy Auggie!
Me + My Boys
Asked Mom to take these tonight… obviously didn’t turn out anything like the photos with me and Pepper but unless I specifically ask people to take some photos, I won’t have any photos of me with Payton as a puppy. (Well, I’ll have some when we get pro photos done in November, but he just keeps growing, so…)
Trying to get him to look at the camera…
I can’t believe she caught this one, it’s amazing, haha.
He is trying to eat my face off HALP
Yay cuddly baby!!
Auggie watching all of this go on…
I couldn’t get him to smile so we both looked sad instead, LOL.
One Ear Up
One of the ears came almost entirely unglued and was being twisted some, so I took the unglued ear out. The other ear is still glued so I left it. The result is… kinda funny, haha!
I got a few of Auggie today, but they ended up blurry. =< He's busy just poking around while I chase Payton all over the yard removing grass and sticks and leaves and cicadas from his mouth…
Chomping leaves brings out the anime happy eyes??
His biggest love. Payton needs no toys… only leaves. (and we have an expressive ear!)
Rolling around on the grass. I keep trying to get a photo of him upside down but it’s not going so well!
