Photo of the Month!

Hi everydog! I am so excited. I have been nominated for Photo of the Month over at Dogs with Blogs. There are a lot of great nominees this month, so I am sure it will be a tough decision, especially given all the great Retriever pics! If you haven't already voted, head on over to DWB (and vote for me, of course!). I was nominated for this picture:



This picture was taken at my grandparents' house on their back patio. I am holding my favorite ball, which unfortunately I have since lost in the woods behind their house. This is the last photo ever taken of me with it. See how happy I am? I am so sad that it is gone. *Sniff* It would mean so much to me to have it forever immortalized as a Photo of the Month winner.

Can you hear the violins playing in the background? Am I working the heartstrings angle well enough? If not, then you could just vote for me because I'm so darn cute!

For Mom's Sake

Well everydog, some of you will be disappointed to hear that I haven't made any more attempts to get into bed with Mom (I think she's somewhat disappointed too). I like to stretch out when I sleep you know, so having to share the bed with my parents would cramp my style. Plus, I wouldn't want to spoil Mom while Dad's away and then have her feel let down when he takes back his side of the bed. I'm much cuter and cuddlier than him, not to mention that I don't snore...usually, so I am sure she would be very sad not to have me snuggled up next to her anymore at night. I just can't put her through that kind of let down. It would be cruel. She's lucky to have such a considerate dog.

In light of the fact that I have no camera this week, I thought I'd post some old photos for your enjoyment. These are all from my first few weeks with Mom and Dad.

This first one is of me on my very first day home back in June. As you can see, I already knew how to work the cuteness with Mom and Dad. Humans are so easy.

This is me on my second day home after playing some serious fetch.

Here I am right after they had me "fixed" a couple of weeks later. I didn't know I was broken! I was so sore and groggy for a while afterward. Lucy took advantage of my miserable state to get closer to me than she had before.

I loved to lay on the floor with Mom and Dad from the start. Back then I still let them share the pillow with me. Now I pretty much take the whole thing over. This pic is from one of my first times spooning with Dad. We do this a lot at night when Mom and Dad are watching TV.

I can't wait for Dad to get home. I miss spooning with him!

Bye Dad, Good Morning Mom

Hi everydog. I'm feeling a little blue this morning. My dad left this morning for a week-long trip away. He gave me a hug goodbye at a bit after 5:00 am, but since I'm not a morning dog I went back to sleep when he left. At around 7:45 I realized that he wasn't coming back in to take me for my morning backyard visit. Where was my dad? I tried to wake up mom. I went over to the bed and pushed my nose into her. She just said, "Hi Avery," told me she was sleepy and rolled over. That just wouldn't do, so I walked around to the other side of the bed and started to climb up. I'm not allowed on Mom and Dad's bed. It is reserved just for them and my feline sisters (those cats get special treatment). I know I'm not allowed up, and I never even try. Well, okay, there was that one time that Dad woke up in the middle of the night with me snoozing right next to him. They made me get down then too. Hmpfh.

Anyway, after my mattress climbing attempt, Mom got up to take me outside. I went out and walked around the patio for a couple of minutes and then laid down on the concrete. Apparently Mom was not too pleased at being awakened for this, because she made me go back inside and she got back in the bed. She was just not getting it! I was sad and wanted some comfort! I didn't waste any time nudging her with my nose this time. I just jumped right up on the bed and laid down. Mom laughed at me and (shhh, don't tell Dad), decided I could stay. I was pretty restless though and kept getting up and changing positions. I eventually ended up with my head resting on top of Mom's head, my paws on her pillow, and my shoulder smooshed into her face. I thought it was comfy, so I'm not sure why she didn't. I guess she figured sleeping in was a fruitless pursuit, because she got up. I wasn't ready to get off the bed though and kept giving her the sad doggie eyes and putting my head between my paws (you pups know the look). Alas, it didn't work, and she made me get down. It's unfortunate that my snuggling attempts didn't work out as planned, but at least I got Mom up and giving me attention.

I'll keep you posted on any other attempts to sneak into bed with Mom this week. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to give it another try.

(No pictures this week. Dad took the camera with him on his trip.)

Dog Park Etiquette

Hi everyone. Avery's mom here. I have a question for you about dog park etiquette -both dog and human. I took Avery to the dog park today, which both of us were very excited about. It was our second time there, and our first visit was great. This time there were several doggies waiting to greet us when we got inside the fence. All were well behaved but one, who immediately mounted Avery (who is a neutered male). I pulled the dog off and said "no" and figured maybe that would be it. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. This dog would barely let Avery move a step without mounting him again. I went from thinking, no biggie, just normal dog behavior to becoming annoyed. Finally the owner wandered over and started to pull her dog off. I was trying to get Avery away and to another area of the park, but everywhere we went there was the dog trying to mount him! It was exasperating. Avery is a very gentle and docile guy, and so he just took it at first. Eventually we were able to get away a bit, but inevitably the dog would run up to Ave and try to do it again. The weird thing was that although I saw the dog mount a couple of other dogs, it was not with the same determination (for lack of a better word) that he did with Avery. At first I thought maybe I was overreacting, but then it just got to the point where I was getting pissed off at the dog and even more pissed at the owner, who kept saying "tell him no Avery" as she'd mosey over to retrieve her dog. Assertiveness is definitely not my strong point, and so I wasn't sure exactly how to handle the situation. I just kept moving Avery away when I could, although I really kind of feel like this woman was almost using Avery as a little experiment to see if she could teach her dog "leave it" (obviously without any success). After the umpteenth time of this dog trying to hump him, Avery finally started to get fed up and began growling at him when he got too close. I started to worry that if it kept up that Avery might snap at the dog and then he would be seen as the badly behaved dog at the park.

In my opinion, this woman and her dogs had no business being at the dog park. Both dogs were intact, dominant males and her other one actually got into a fight with another dog (the dogs had grouped into a pack, which I called Avery away from as soon as it formed). What do ya'll think? How would you have handled such a situation? I would really love to hear your advice and opinions! Also, any ideas why this dog would be so determined at mounting Avery when he did not go after the other dogs so repeatedly?

I posted the same question in the General Dog Discussion forum in the Bone Zone on Dogs with Blogs, in case you'd like to add your two cents there rather than post a comment here.

Where're My Cap and Gown?

Mom has been hogging the computer lately, so I haven't been able to update my blog in a while. She said something about school. I don't get what she's doing in school, but I just graduated from my click-a-trick class. Yep. Now I know how to do all kinds of stuff. I can roll over, wave, give high fives and high tens, balance a treat on my nose, hide my face with my paw, spin, crawl, go around stuff, weave in and out of mom's legs, go through a hula hoop....hmm, I know I'm forgetting a couple. I already knew how to play dead and take a bow from my previous classes. All that AND I'm darn good lookin'. Mom and Dad are pretty lucky to have a guy like me around. They tried to take some pictures of me doing some of my tricks, but their camera isn't so great with the action shots, so none of them turned out. I'll get them to try again.

Here's a picture of my graduation certificate. Pretty cool, huh?

I had Mom take out my trainer Debbie's full name, because I didn't ask her if it was okay to put it on my blog.

.

Ahh Debbie. I love her. She's my favorite human (outside of Mom and Dad of course). She's so nice and fun and always has really tasty treats. You can see in my graduation photo how much I adore her. I just can't take my eyes off of her.

Please note that the humans' faces have been blurred to protect the innocent (that would be me). Besides, the only mug that really matters here is mine. Note the adoring look on my face. Also note how patiently I wait for her attention. I'd do anything for Debbie. I'm going to really miss her this Saturday now that class is over. I've taken all my classes with her, including beginner and intermediate obedience classes. Thank goodness I've still got the advanced class to go, so I can still see her. I can't start that until next month though just because of the class schedule and how it fits with Mom and Dad's schedule. What will I do? I'll have Debbie withdrawal!

(Sigh) Just thinking about it makes me sad.

Maybe I can convince Mom to take me to Petsmart to visit her before my next class starts. That would help. Plus, then I can try and get her to buy me more toys and treats. Heh heh.

Oooh, speaking of toys. I got a new one! Remember how I said when I was at the dog park a lady had a ball thrower thing? Mom and Dad got one for me! We've used it in our back yard, but I can't wait till they take me to the dog park again so they can really let it fly!

Here's a picture of it. See who's checking it out?

I hope Chloe and Lucy don't think they'll get to play with it, cause it's all mine baby!