Three Woofs for Bark-At-The-Park!

The only Dog Holiday that I know of comes once a year... I'm not sure why it is only once a year, since it is SO MUCH FUN!! It is called Bark at the Park. Canines from all over southern CA arrive in high spirits for this event. If you're into dog-watching, this is one event you will not want to miss. Caesar and I enjoy sniffing out all sorts of Canine breeds. Last year we happened to see a punk goth Bulldog family all decked out in black leather and spiky collars...and a family of beatiful harlequin Great Danes, and a festive Basset Hound with a paisley red scarf on his neck. There are always those who live the high-maintenance lifestyle and get rides in strollers or wagons, too. (I'm thinking of a particular family of 3 snooty poodles dressed like divas, who yipped frantically when Caesar gave them a disdainful look).

Regardless of style or stature, everyone has fun! There are courses to test speed and agility. Here I am the first year, practicing my jumps. The Lady thought I had a funny expression on my face. I just wanted to get through the course so I could get a treat!

There are tests for IQ (although I didn't understand this test...I just stared at the lady, wondering why she laid the biscuit under the blanket? It didn't need to take a nap, and I knew exactly where it was, but I would have rather her just put it directly into my mouth and saved me the trouble. She said I was no "Einstein" whatever that means). There are all sorts of goodies to eat and pools to drink from. But best of all, there is the one event Caesar and I live for each year: Lure Coursing!

Our friend Archer told us about this and we managed to convince the Man to shell out some money so that Caesar and I could run. Let me tell you...it was a blast! I never knew that chasing a non-rabbit could be such fun. The plastic bag may not have smelled very yummy, but it bounced and ran just like a rabbit did! (Speaking of which, I might raid the grocery bags under the kitchen cabinet one day and see if they are up for another chase.)

 Here is our friend Archer, running for all he is worth. He is very serious about chasing the lure.
And then at the end, he doesn't want to give up his prize!

Here, I am lunging at the lure even before it is ready to go.



 
 
 
The Man and Lady were slacking last year, so they promised to get more pictures of Caesar and I running next time. As for us, we are counting down the days until October and another thrilling Dog Holiday!

Baby Love

At first we were very resentful. The first 3.5 years were spent in fear of The Yell. The Yell would come from either the Man or Lady, at random times when we least suspected it. (I think they were afraid for the Puppy's safety, since apparently this breed doesn’t have any teeth or claws or walking instinct.) So naturally anytime we tried to play with her, They completely freaked out. Caesar was more curious, so he usually got The Yell more than I did. I just lay around moping and minded my own business. Then the Humans tried some sort of initiation routine with me, wondering why I was so aloof: they laid the Puppy right down next to me on several occasions, hoping that we would bond over dog biscuits or something. It didn't work...I streaked out of the room. The Puppy weirded me out, with all that flailing and high pictched yelping!

Here are a few rare moments when I visited the Puppy of my own accord

 

You can guess what us dogs have to put up with, although we don't really mind

 

But gradually the Puppy quieted down and started moving around, and the Humans built up a tolerance for us playing with the Puppy and they even started to force the dominance issue. (They thought that if they laid the Puppy on top of us, this would establish her at the height of our pack.)

Here Caesar is being dominated.

After a few Canine years of the Puppy failing to grow into a romping ball of fur, Caesar and I began to realize that this small thing was actually just a juvenile Human on a different timeline, so from now on we will refer to her as The Girl. Now it all makes sense, and we have accepted the Girl into our family. She does actually join us now at our food bowls, although we prefer to join her at hers. As for the poop contraption, there is no sign of that thing coming off any time soon, so Caesar and I just content ourselves knowing that someday the Girl will discover how to remove it and thus the Man and Lady will be resigned to let her join us out back.

Here, Caesar is taking his role of big brother quite seriously.

 

We can handle dry kibble as long as we get plenty of Girl treats.

The Girl is a lot of fun now that she is over a year old in Human time. She likes to plop down on my bed and wallow around in my fur the same way I favor a nice stinky dead pigeon. She has also learned to compensate for the lack of a licking-tongue by giving Caesar and I big love-bites on our noses. Although we despise it when she sticks her fingers right up our nostrils, we are overall delighted with her and can't wait until she grows into those hind legs and can chase us.

Now that I have that out of the way, Caesar and I will catch you up on our daily happenings in Doggiedom.

And Then There Were Three

Woof! It's me, Teena.

I have had a lot of time on my paws lately and decided to start up the blog again, with Caesar's help. I think the last time I posted was, hmm...almost 14 years ago?! (In Canine time, that is.) So much has happened since...     They decided to get another puppy. Everything was just fine and dandy, all ear-rubs and popsicle licks until the day when the Lady started behaving very strangely. She started smelling and looking very different to me, and I couldn't put a whisker on it. Oh, Caesar and I still got attention, but the outings became less frequent and now anytime the Humans came back from a trip there were lots of little packages and bags that didn't contain any treats for us! My ears started hanging lower than ever before. Why weren't we the center of Their universe anymore? Caesar and I took to consoling one another that it was just a juvenile phase They were going through.

We started to get very depressed...

Then one day there seemed to be a flurry of activity...the Lady was grunting and yelling at us to get away (I couldn't help but push my nose into her face to see what was going on!) and the Man finally took Her away to some sort of Human Institution (Thank goodness!) for behaving so badly. Caesar and I were lonely for a couple days, although the Man did come home to check on us apologetically and once he left a really cool little striped towel for us to sleep on. It smelled nice, almost yummy. Finally after a few days both Humans returned, and brought a big basket into the house, telling us that they brought home a new Puppy. (So that was it...the Lady was trying to hide the secret Puppy under her jacket for a few years until it started biting her!)

Here, Caesar is inspecting the New Arrival.

We sniffed and sniffed, it smelled great! Except, this Puppy was very different from us. It was naked and didn't really do much, even when we gave it a onceover licking. The ears were weird, too. Caesar thinks it is some sort of Chihuahua mix. So far we have been waiting for it to join us at our food bowls, romp in the grass, and take potty breaks out in the sandy backyard, but the Puppy seems to have some very different habits. For instance, the Humans rigged up some sort of contraption to catch all the poop and strap it on the poor Pup (Who knows why) and Caesar and I make quite the sport of it to try and catch a sniff every time they remove it. Hopefully soon they will take it off for good and we can give a proper butt-sniffing greeting.
 
More on the Puppy later. Wags,
 
Teena

Torture...

...And when we say we are living in Medieval Times, we are not talking about the overly-hyped cutesy themed dinner theatre that Humans like to attend. In fact, we are talking about the heathen torture ritual that Humans like to subject their captive Canines to periodically, aka BATHTIME. This monumentally horrendous Event takes place approximately every 4 weeks, or 4 weeks too soon on puppy time. Now we (Teena and Caesar) will give you a few painful insights into this gruesome Pastime. Here I am, after diving (terrified) under the bed at the Lady's "BATHTIME, Teena!" call.

What possesses Humans to think that we dogs actually ENJOY much less TOLERATE being dragged kicking and howling from under our various hiding places, and being shoved mercilessly into the stone cold hard bathing block known as The Tub, and then patiently enduring endless tugging and harassing and scrubbing of areas that are better left to nature's whims, is beyond me... but They are obsessed with it!!

What makes this Abomination even worse is the sickly smelling concoctions that They spread thickly over our bodies, smothering our senses and causing stinging eyes and clogged up noses. A double whammy for Canines of overly-zealous owners is when they are lathered, flooded, and lathered again - with a second dose of poison cream. This one They call Conditioner. Not sure what it is supposed to condition us for, but whatever it is, must be extremely powerfully evil. For days on end we cannot smell our blessed glandular scents but only the cloying artificial perfumes of Humankind in our poor fur! It just makes you want to go wallow in something nice and delightfully dead smelling...to wipe out the memory.

And then The Shower- Oh the flooding, the dastardly horrib- okay well I guess we are exaggerating a bit here, both Caesar and I do enjoy the water sprays a little, if only for thirst-quenching purposes - but oh the torture of water bombarding our eyes and drowning our pitiful cries for mercy!!! And then They mock us by handing us bits of treats "for being such good little doggies" throughout the needless Ordeal.

The final blow to this outlandish Crime is The Towel - the rough, vigorous shaking and patting and rubbing that we receive from a heinous bludgeon of fabric. You don't wonder now, why we streak so madly out of the bathroom as soon as it is all over!!



So Humans, in the name of love for Canines everywhere - please get this memo - WE DON'T LIKE BATHTIME AND NEVER WILL - so cease and desist already!!!!

Kicking the Rabbit Habit

There are few things in this world that hold our fascination more...than the particularly elusive, delightfully scented, crazyfast little creature called The Rabbit. Now you may think that all we want to do is just catch and eat; but you're wrong! Nothing compares to that exhilarating feeling you get after you catch a whiff, or see that still silhouette in the few split seconds that precede The Chase.

In fact, our senses are so primed for detecting The Rabbit, that it has become a woefully permanent habit of ours to blast off the mere instant we recognize one; in fact, we make it our daily pastime to sit in front of our window and keep watch. We make sure that our People know when we see one, and let out a cacaphony of frenzied barks and howls. Caesar himself once exploded his head through the screen window when he sighted The Rabbit! Here you can see us tensed and ready to take off at a moment's notice (although slightly overdressed for the occasion):



I (Teena) however, have had the incomparable delight of actually hunting one down and dispatching it, right in my backyard! My People were actually quite pleased with me (although they felt sorry for the Rabbit) since the Lady insists that every hound dog must have at least one thrilling kill in its life. Once I made my kill, I was a good dog and didn't "spread" the fun around; I simply licked the creature thoroughly in order to ingest that wonderful gamey scent.





Fortunately now, the Rabbit Habit has poured out into other areas of our lives...the other morning, it turned into a Bird Habit for me, as I (Teena) achieved my second kill - a mourning dove caught by surprise! And for Caesar, his habit has expanded to include skittering reptiles on which he tirelessly pounces.

So now as you can see, the one very habit that will probably never be kicked - at least as long as we Canines have our good sense about us - is that which involves The Chase.

We love OR!

What an adventure! Caesar and I just got back from a very long road trip to this amazing place called Oregon. (I have actually been a couple times before, but this was Caesar's first time out of the CA desert.)We started out in the car, but it was so nice and cozy that I fell asleep right away and don't remember much except for a few potty breaks. The People decided to split the trip in half, so that afternoon we stopped over in Sacramento. They took us on a long puppy walk before dinner, then the Man gave us some chicken from his salad. It was really tasty! (Don't they get how nasty dried kibble is?!)

Caesar and I got all rowdy in the hotel that night, I think the People were nervous that we would trash the place. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Once we got to Oregon, I feel like my nose went into sniff overload. There was so much to see and smell! 2 walks a day, a nice green little backyard to romp in, and of course treats galore. The People took us to the Saturday Market where we got lots of treats and attention, and I met a nice Basset Hound wearing a bandana.

We also went camping for one night too, after a long hike to a giant shower called "Multnomah Falls". (I wasn't too scared since I knew the Lady had just recently taken care of Bathtime.) More later on this topic... The tent was the best part, I loved hopping in and out! Caesar and I also got puppy smores by the campfire. The trip home was really long, 18 hours straight. It's okay, now we are back and ready for some new adventures. Woof!

Meet Caesar

Hi. I'm Caesar, a very energetic young Boxer. The Man named me "Julius Caesar Chef's Salad" but I also respond to "Sneeze", since The Lady thinks I am always sneezing. (In reality, I am just laughing at her but she doesn't suspect anything yet.)

My birthday is May 3rd, 2009. That's right - I just turned 1 year old! Teena is my older sister. We LOVE to tussle, fight, and rough it up, much to the chagrin of our People sometimes... They just don't always understand that when we Play, we are Happy, and that's what life is all about, right?

Although sometimes I guess I get too excited and can't control myself. I have given the Lady a few black eyes with my "Lethal Paws" as she calls them, and a close call with some teeth, and knocked a few people's jaws nearly off. Maybe I would have made a good police dog? Regardless, I am very loyal and follow my People around all over the house to make sure they are going to be OK. While Teena...well, she is just lazy. She likes to sleep in random places like under the bed, the office couch, and on the Lady's lap. I don't like snuggling or snoozing that much, I just want to be within a good viewing distance of everybody. When I get too bored I start biting Teena by her long ears (They are so tempting!) and boxing her around.


We have already had many good adventures, so Teena and I will do our doggone best to recall some of them and tell you all about our new adventures too!