In Which Himself HAS A BIRTHDAY!

Peeps! You may have guessed, my mommy has been SLACKING. I've been very busy having lots of firsts and trying new things. And time has been moving along... I am SIX MONTHS OLD today! How the heck did THAT happen? I've done a lot of traveling with mommy, to different places for agility trials and also just because it is fun to travel. 

Something I've done TWICE now is play with my mommy at something she calls a "match". Nothing lit on fire, just so you don't get worried. This "match" means some person is looking at me, and my job is to make my mommy look silly. See how that works?

This was June... I was 4.5 months old and this was my first match. I am holding my mouf funny. :-)

The BEST part about this match... all the Happy Campers that were with us at the agility trial came along and CHEERED for me! Here's what I looked like when mommy was running....

Mommy and her friends made all sorts of noises about my "nice topline" and "balance" and "really nice front". I dunno. I just had fun.

Then later in June, I had SUCH a big treat. A visit from THIS lady.... this is my sissy Beckham's mama Roca! Roca was VERY nice to me... she only roared in my face when I tried to play humpy-humpy game with her. I got the picture REAL fast and then we were friends. Isn't Roca pretty??She is THIRTEEN years old! 

And THIS lady on the left is my other new friend, Breve! She is my sissy Beckham's REAL sissy, and she helped me figure out how to hang out with an adult lady Rottweiler. We had such fun together, and one of our favorite things was to try to get on my mommy's lap AT THE SAME TIME! Whee that was fun. 

Also in June, my bestie Chuck came to stay with us for a while! That was really fun. Chuck is my favorite playmate, because he lets me sit on him. 

I've been really busy getting All New Teeth. All my New Teeth are in my mouf now. So now when I bite mommy's arm, it doesn't ALWAYS hurt. 

But my biggest news... my sissy Beckham and me are getting along really good! This makes my mommy very happy, and I sure like my sissy (she doesn't like it when I kiss her face, though). Here we are the river with our friend Bode and our Favorite Uncle Phil. 

  
 So that kind of catches you up on a few Days in my Life. Bye Peeps!

In Which Himself Introduces a Few of His Friends

PEEPS!
I've missed you! Have you missed me? Mommy and I have been really busy just being puppies! Okay, I'm being a puppy, she's supervising. Which she says is a "full time job." When I'm with a friend, we entertain each other!

This is my sissy Bandia -- she wants to play with me, and I'm figuring it out! (Also, Mommy says watch to the end... bonus stubby shot!)

THIS is my new friend Sage! He's a Boston Terrier, which auntie Shirley sez makes him da bomb.



And THIS is my bestie Kicks! Kicksie and me meet up at these agility thingees that Mommy likes to go to, and when we see each other, we're all "now let's see, where were we? Oh that's right, you were sitting on me..."

Here I am at home with my new bestie Chuck! Chuck is my cousin (his mommy and daddy are auntie Heidi and uncle Chief Joey) and he may get to come LIVE with me for a while when his family is traveling to Montana from Alaska! I hope so, because we had a most excellent time together last weekend. Chuck is a cool guy. I want to be like him when I grow up (except for that whole pee paw thing...).

My grampa Joe (not to be confused with Chief Joey) took me and Chuck for a walk around my big yard. I don't go very far in our big yard yet unless someone goes with me. What? You think I'm stupid? We have COYOTES and big HAWKS!

Mommy says she will try to keep you updated more often...

In Which Himself Talks about "Things"

Well, peeps, mommy hears the clamoring of folks who would like to know what the heck Himself has been up to! Lots happening here in Montana... it is finally SPRING and that means we are busy doing a lot of things. Today I helped mommy in the yard... we have a really nice BIG yard that mommy fought hard to keep, but it takes a lot of work! Good thing I'm here to help. I told this metal spikey thing to stop squishing mommy's fingers!

I've been busy learning things! Don't tell mommy, but she's not teaching me. I just DO things, and if mommy likes what I do, she makes a happy noise or she clicks a little thing (I like to carry that little thing around) and SUDDENLY there is a nice thing to eat! So I do that thing again and VOILA! Noise and treat thing! Wow. Magic. And the cool thing... I make it happen. So I can walk around Ace Hardware and do this thing:

And the peeps at Ace Hardware LAUGH and LAUGH (a hint to peeps: we dogs know that laughing is a happy noise, so be careful what you laugh at...) and they give me popcorn things! I'm so swell. 

But funny... sometimes what I'm doing doesn't make mommy make a happy noise. Like here: mommy calls this a clicker training "fail":

I don't know why. I had fun. I gnawed, I climbed, I dug, I humped... where's the FAIL? Oh yeah, I didn't get a cookie. Hmmm. I better think about that.

Editor's note: this is an excerpt from a nearly 10-minute video... Bodhran's "fail" lasted, oh, about 1.5 minutes, then he nailed his little "ta DAH!" bow and has been offering it left, right and center in ALL situations, including to strangers at the hardware store, ever since! The hardest part about shaping behaviors is waiting the persistent little bugger out!

I stayed over at Shateau Sheltie again this week! I sure love my auntie and uncle, they take me to have a fun outside day with my Sheltie cousins Nai'a and Luka when mommy has a long day at work. I'm one lucky puppy. That's a good thing.

In Which Himself Extols the Virtues of the Mani-Pedi

Hello peeps!

Please admire my freshly Dremeled piggies... I thought I was being mutilated when mommy first broke out that suckah, but that was a couple of days ago, and now I create only a token protest, then I sigh and close my eyes and think of England. Then it's done.

Here's what my piggies looked like pre-Dremel. I must say, this look is a wee bit embarrassing, not very manly at all. I'm glad mommy doesn't buy my drama (don't tell her) and does a little mani-pedi on me every day now.

Tuesdays are a favorite around here... mommy has an appointment every Tuesday afternoon so her work day ends early, and we get to go home early. WHEE! Today it was so nice out we spent a little time in the big back yard. I played in a drippy hose. You can hear my silly sissy Bandia trying to convince us to let her out. Neener neener, sissy.

We have a big weekend ahead -- agility trial, right here in our town! I am a pro at agility trials now, this is my THIRD since ever! Mommy is in charge of all the papers and scritching on them and clicking on her computer, so we are going to bed early to save up our sleeps! 

In Which Himself is Mommy's Little Helper

Hello Peeps! I am SO helpful; I don't know WHO supervised things like "laundry" before I was here.

Inspect the dryer for the missing socks.

Certainly, the clothes were not as thoroughly stretched and aerated. This is not a job for amateurs, peeps.

After removing several clothing items from the basket, grasp the jammie leg in your toofies. Pull steadily. Repeat.

The neck of the sweatshirt must be gnawed, taking care to hold one's head at the correct angle.

It sure wasn't my silly sister Bandia; all SHE did while we did laundry was sit on the dryer and take pot shots at me.

.

Also, my sissy Bandia has decided that her job is to provide "distractions" while mommy and me are "training". 

WHAT is a boy to DO with an annoying sister like Bandia??

Color me exasperated. 

In Which Himself Enjoys the Weekend at Home

Gadzooks. SUCH fun I've been having! Yesterday we had an outing... first we went to Ace Hardware, my mommy's favorite hardware store because (1) it is locally owned, (2) the guys who work there know her and help her figure out projects (though sometimes they say to her "is your dad coming over to help you?", which she thinks is (1) cute, that they remember that her dad helps her around the house, and (2) annoying, because she thinks they might think that SHE isn't capable of the project. But, as mommy says, I digress).

Here I am posing in front of a lovely display of Medieval Torture Devices! Mommy bought a little one, and she says we are going to try it out later today. That should be fun, right?  RIGHT??

Another neat thing about Ace Hardware is that they have free popcorn! The peeps carried it around in bags, but as we all know, peeps are MESSY, so there was lots on the floor for me to very tidily Hoover up. Urp.

THEN we got to go to a fun place: Go Fetch! Mommy and some friends meet up there most Saturdays to "train" (ha ha, that's funny, mostly they just talk to each other). There, I got to see some of my favorite people! Here I am with my best uncle Phil, and cousin Bode!

This one shows how Uncle Phil "trains" puppies. He says it is because mommy "trained" Bode a year ago. Mommy sez yes but look how nice cousin Bode is, obviously it worked.

Fancy Pants Pug Tart was there, too, and another little black "pug" (?) named Wee Wee who "schooled me". Hmmm. Still thinking about that one.

Then Auntie Sandy came and brought my buddy SCOTCH! Scotch is really cool, he's a little older than me and I hope we can keep playing. Pretty soon he'll be busy "showing" and then I can't pull on his face hair. Boo. What else is face hair for but pulling??

I think it's funny how Scotch tries to grab my tail!  HA HA!  Fooled YOU, Scotch!

Whew.  All that talking makes mommy and her friends thirsty, so they go have a "social" and drink a beer and talk some more. Which I think may not make much sense, but hey. They have fun.

In Which Himself Posts a Few Pics

Hello peeps! Here are a few shots from this weekend and last...

On the way to Moses Lake, there was something REALLY INTERESTING over THERE!! 

Sigh. I'm so handsome. Am I being tiresome? You'd tell me if I was, right? Right?

It is HARD WORK being cute. I must get my beauty rest. And Mommy must have her Mongoose IPA.

The last thing the camera sees before it all goes black...

This is Izzy, one of my BFFs (she lives in Bozeman with Sami and Warren).

She's prolly going to kick my a** when I see her in two weeks...

Red Solo Yogurt Cup! I fill you up! It's time to pahtee...