Saturday, September 4, 2010

Re~Barkable

Hello, to all my human friends,
This is my mother Marley & myself sitting at the front door just last May... Must be the cat is walking through the front yard, we are focusing in on something. We have come a long ways since then....


See, looking at our picture, Im the biiiggg puppy on your left, my mama Marley is on your right. We do lots of things together, we play (sometimes bicker) with tennis balls, kongs on a rope, bones etc. As you've heard before, , we love tagging along in the vineyard... Why, you may ask... oh, it is a riot to chase birds out of the vineyard, or butterflies fluttering above the clover, searching out mice in the nearby field. When our noses find the smell, we take the trail and hop like the deer over the tall grasses, this is real good fun.
Mama Marley, she is my human fathers dog, for the most part. She loves him so much, when he goes off on the tractor, she gets to run along side him. She knows the ropes, if he tells her to go back behind him, she does, if he tells her over there, she does that too. If he leaves without my mama Marley, she becomes very sad, sits at the door whimpering and scratching. We live on a farm and can go "almost" anywhere our human mom and dad go. We like to go down back of the pasture, where a hunting blind is being built, there we can run around an old water hole, "there are tadpoles/pollywogs, in there", it is also really stinky, you all know, dogs just love getting stinky.... We are no exception........
I really love my human mom, sooo much, when she leaves me at home, I get sad... for a bit..... then I get irritated. If she forgets to close the bathroom door, I get into the trash, usually tissues and chew them up in tiny pieces on the hallway floor. Magazines left on the coffee table..... JACKPOT! She has a few Country Samplers in her basket with my teeth marks on them and corners chewed off.
She has been working with me on this, I'm starting to realize, when she leaves me at the door and tells me she will be back... She does come back... I get all kinds of tickly, but until I calm myself she enters quietly and puts her things away before she greets me. I'm just a little over a year old now, but I'm learning.
Our human parents have hired on a helping hand; at first, Mama & I didn't want her here, however, we changed our minds. We are dogs.... we will work for food... N has treats in a pouch on her waist she is walking my human parents through some tricks on how to rid us of some bad habits.
Mama Marley and I do not enjoy sharing our human parents with visitors, so we have a rug that we are placed on and have to be still (stay on rug, and be quiet) when we can do this, we get to say hello to whoever visits. We have learned and are still learning lots of things from N and we like her now... she is most welcome, as long as she brings salmon treats.
Oh, gotta go now, we are going out back to play while our owners are working on their hunting blind...
Whoof~ Whoof , Lick~ Lick,
Marley & Dunkin

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Dog Training and some people training too....


After searching several months, for a trainer to come to our house , our veterinarian called one day with a name.

Turns out, we really look forward to seeing her ... She is the best!


On the very first day of her arriving, you could not even hear yourself think, it was crazy, Marley was barking, Dunkin was barking, they were having a fit, a stranger was in the house...


It took a very long time to settle them down, but she did... She is brave.... If I had dogs coming at me barking and carrying on as they were, I'm sure the fight-or-flight thingy would have kicked in. Since, I'm not a fighter, I would have had the mindset to "fly"....



She is a very bright young lady, knows her business with dogs and even does horses.

I wish, that I had a free hand to snap some pictures of some training session/s, however, I need both hands, could even use a third.... LOL



Our goal is that when someone comes to visit, our dogs will go to their rugs, where they will stay and be quiet until they are released.

They both know what it means to go to their rugs.



They are doing a reaalllyyy good job, and will do better.... So long as we do our homework...



Thank you, Miss N. for all that you have taught us, we will make you proud for your next visit.





On another note, we really love our dogs, and like to take them out to the vineyard, to do barn chores, or include them in walks on a trail. When hubby plays on the tractor we take Marley. She is hubby's shadow, goes everywhere with him. It is cute to watch her get into the truck (she rides more than I do) sits up so straight, so proud, in her glory at his side. Tongue hanging out the side of her mouth as she looks straight ahead and braces herself for the ride. Once they arrive at their destination, she hops out and just loves to run, hopping over the tall grass, with a smile on her face, when she is called and told "lets go", she races to the truck, and takes her place in the passengers seat as proud as can be...



Dunkin, goes to the vineyard with us and he likes to sniff all around as if he is tracking things. He stays close by and does a really good job at coming when he is called. He is not as good of a rider as his mother, he is vocal and whines, but he does like to go... He is much to big to have in the cab with Hubby, Marley and myself, so he mostly travels with me. I'm sure people get a laugh out of him riding in the backseat of a car, all 90 pounds.

Marley, has added so much to this family, she is as lucky to have us as we are to have her.

I know, I'm happy with the pup she gave me.

Until next time...

Puppy kisses