Lark Fest

Today Mom gave me quite the challenge-a HUGE street festival. There were tons of crowds and plenty of distractions, the biggest being my best pal Yara! I am proud to say I was on my very best behavior the entire day. I was a great example of a confident, well-behaved working dog (as was Yara!) and we definitely turned some heads. The only thing that could have made it better was some quality playtime with Yara. 5 minutes of jumping around on leash just doesn't cut it for us girls!

Look at the crowds!


They don't scare me, Mom!

Taking a lunch break

Yara doing her best to avoid paparazzi Mom!

Us with our moms

Walk and Talks

Walk and Talks went much better this time around. Mom made sure I was good and tired so that I would be on my best behavior. We left early so that we could park far away and walk to get my crazies out (whatever that means...), but it started raining when we parked so we just sat in the car until it was time for our turn.

First I sat in the crate for a while and listened to the people talk. My pal, McKenzie, was there so we whined at each other to entertain ourselves. Mom did not like that-apparently it's rude to interrupt people. After all that business they broke out the camera and we started with some obedience inside. I did very well, although I do jump the gun on "over" quite a bit. I can't help it-it's my favorite command!!!

Next we went outside. It was still raining and I hate rain, so I pouted for most of it. We worked on some scary stairs for a bit. Mom told me to do them and I just looked at her, "Those things are crazy! Are you sure you want your precious princess puppy to do those???" But she was serious so up and down we went. As long as Mom says they are safe, I believe her. Sure enough we were fine-I didn't even break a nail!

We started walking back and Bessie asked Mom to see if I would walk through a puddle. Ummm, excuse me! I am Princess Fay, I don't do puddles! But again, Mom said so and through the puddle I went. Notice how I didn't say we? Mom hopped over it at the last minute-so unfair! Now my toes were cold and wet-gross!

After the puddle incident, I went to Kate for the rest of the walk back inside. I kept looking for Mom, but she was too busy gabbing with Bessie. Kate had some yummy cookies so I gave up after a bit. Then, John the Camera Man threw this bag of noise at me! Again, how rude! I just gave him a dirty look and kept walking. I'm sure he got the message!

Back inside we did some more obedience, crate time, and human talking. Before I knew it we were headed home. Mom was very proud of me and gave me a handful of cookies back at the car. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend for playtime-the best reward of all!

New Friends

These past few weeks have been filled with new friends. Remember how I mentioned swaps? Well sure enough Mom sent me packing last week. This handsome devil took my place:


Mom would not stop gushing about how cute and how nice Ajax was. Get over it already! I am way better than him!!! Apparently we swapped because Ajax doesn't like the car-how can you not like the car??? How else are we supposed to go anywhere fun? Mom showed him that the car wasn't that bad after all.


Meanwhile I went to Ajax's house. I did not have as great a time as Ajax did with my mom. See, I really missed her so I whined a lot to let Ajax's family know how much I wanted to go home. I would sit at the door and whine. I would sit near them and whine. I would go outside and whine. Do you get the idea? Apparently they didn't appreciate that so much, but I really did miss her!!! I guess his family isn't so bad. They played with me and gave my lots of treats and, best of all, they had a pool in their backyard! But nothing beats being at home with my mom. I was one happy girl the day I saw Mom's car in the driveway!!! Now there is talk of even more swaps for me-I don't get it! Doesn't Mom understand that I don't want to leave her ever?!?! The whole ordeal just wore me out, but we had to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. I don't know how I survived...


Aunt Wendy came for the weekend and brought Joey and Chandler. I've met Chandler the cat before, but I've never seen this Joey dude. He was really cute, but he never wanted to play! I did my best to convince him with my adorable play bowing and a few woofs of encouragement, but he's a stubborn guy. I did win him over a little by the end of his stay, though.



Tomorrow Mom and I have Walk and Talks. We've been preparing all week to avoid a repeat of June's disaster. Keep your fingers crossed that Mom can control my inner beast ;)

I have been a very busy 1 year old...

Wow, time flies when you get old, I guess. It has been a busy few weeks since my birthday, so I think it is time for an update.

Mom's summer classes finally ended so we went to the grandparents' for a mini-vacation. We did a lot of walking, playing, and relaxing-my kind of vacation!




Donna came for a visit, but she didn't like to play with me so that wasn't much fun. After she left there was more time for outings, so Josette and I hit the walking trail. After we were good and tired we went to the bakery for breakfast. They even brought us some biscuits-YUMMY!!!






One night, Mom and I made a short trip back to school so I wouldn't miss puppy class. There was talk of a swap. I hate swaps! I love my mom so much, so why should I leave her??? And worse yet, another dog is taking my place with Mom!!! I cannot believe this at all! I will tell you all about it when I get home...

My Birthday Puppy Class

So I was lucky enough to have puppy class on my birthday, so we did something special to celebrate. Mom and I went early and soon Stanton and Oasis showed up to play. It was pretty hot so we only ran a little, then we played in Stanton's water bowl.


Then, the little guys showed up and Mom put me in a crate. That's right, in a crate on MY birthday! I was not happy and made sure I told Mom so, but she just ignored me. I must have been in there forever when she finally took me out and said it was my turn for puppy class. I am in the big dog class now so we played a bunch of difficult games. Mom made me wear my stupid birthday hat, but everyone oooohed and ahhhed over me, so I guess it wasn't too awful. First we worked on obedience, then some people greetings. Then, we played two games-recall race and hot potato. For the race we broke into two teams (black dogs vs. yellow). Then we all went into a sit-stay at one side of the room while our humans went to the other and called us. Whoever made it to their person first won. I won the first heat, but then lost the second when I got distracted by a kibble on the floor. In hot potato the humans sat in a circle of chairs with us pups laying down next to them. They had to pass a tennis ball around until the teacher said stop and whoever had the ball was out. It came down to Mom and me and Blanche and her mom. Mom held onto the ball a little too long so we got second place. We also lined up for a group picture at some point. Our reward for all of this work? Mom made the pups and humans some delicious cookies-peanut butter for the dogs, sugar for the humans.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

That's right folks, it's my birthday! Mom cannot believe it (nor can anyone else since I am such a little gal!), but here we are. It's hard to think that last year at this time I was a hairy little sweet potato nursing on my mom and now I am a big girl who has conquered every challenge Mom can throw at me. True to my nature, we had a celebration week, rather than just one day. It started with a short road trip to a park. We first had a nice picnic lunch ( I got to hang out under the table-Happy Birthday to me!), then learned a little about the park we were in. After that we walked a ways and came upon a river! Mom got out the long line and I knew that meant one thing-swimming! I had a blast fetching as many sticks as Mom could find and scooting my little butt off when I got on land. I slept really well that night!









The next day we went to pick out my birthday present. I ended up going with a new style Nylabone, which Mom insists on making me wait for! And for the weekend we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's. Mom had to stop to get her car fixed on the way home, so we took a long walk around town. And when I say long, I mean LONG! Mom noticed I was getting a little hot so we decided to stop at the local pet store where she knew they'd have a water bowl outside. I wasn't too thirsty at that point, but Mom was so we went and grabbed an iced coffee and chilled at a table outside. There were a lot of other people and dogs there, but I surprised Mom and ignored them (I am an adult now!). This one little girl asked politely to pet me, so Mom let her. I just laid there and soaked in the love. She offered me some of her soda but Mom declined. Um, excuse me, I think she was talking to me, Mom!

On Saturday Irie and I got to go swimming. This was a new spot so it took us a while to find it, but we didn't mind the extra walking. Irie got to be off leash, but I'm not allowed. Mom did attach Irie's long leash to mine so I had a super long leash, which was nice. Afterwards we stopped at the feed store to buy food for the big dogs and they were having a big sale! Mom stocked up on a bunch of treats for me-Yum! When we got home Grandma filled up the baby pool so we all got to cool down. I think she had ulterior motives though because that delicious pond smell was gone after some time in the pool...

Tonight there happens to be a puppy class so we will have a big celebration complete with the cookies Mom has been baking! I will post more on that when we get home!

Day Trips

This week Mom, Roomie, and I went on a day trip to some old house. We walked around the outside for a bit, Mom taking a bunch of pictures and then toured the inside. Through my sniffing I determined that I was one of the first dogs to set foot in that house in quite some time. I was very well behaved, so maybe they will let more of us in soon.





Today, Grandma and Josette came up for a visit. We headed to this store that Grandma has been wanting to visit for a while. They sell all kinds of fun stuff including puzzles for dogs. Josette and I had a blast trying all of them out in the store and I was glad to see Grandma got one to take home. I'm so smart I'm sure I will have it figured out in no time! We also got some tasty treats to take home-YUM! We stopped on the way home so the humans could grab something to eat and were we surprsied to see they had a special place just for us canines.


In case you were wondering, we took full advantage of the frisbee and cookie offer ;)