Happy b-day Wall-e!

It's Wall-e's 5th birthday today. Wow! It still feels like he's the baby dog.

Here he is enjoying a walk at the pond; I edited the leash out.

Happy 3rd birthday Wall-e!

It's amazing how fast time flies. Yesterday Wall-e celebrated his 3rd -- yes, THIRD! -- birthday!

First we went to the field at 10:00am:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XBzqGrXX4



The rest of the day was interspersed with walks and chasing cars along the fence in the backyard:




That evening, Wall-e had his "cake"; half of a muffin top. Wall-e LOVES muffins, and I'm sure he'd appreciate having the whole thing, but I was afraid he would get sick. He did have a nice-sized piece though:



Happy birthday Mister! I hope you have a fun year of agility, walks, and occasional car-chasing :)

Happy birthday to my little 6 year old!

On Thursday, October 14, Mika celebrated her sixth birthday. I couldn't spend as much time with her as I would have liked because I had to finish two lab write-ups and study for a big test. But we did go for a nice walk at a park we haven't been to in a while (the same one we went to last year on her birthday).

In the evening, Mika got a meal of her usual Tollden Farms raw beef and veggie patty, but also mixed in with some canned pumpkin and cooked lamb. Needless to say, she LOVED it.

(The fuzzy thing next to her left paw is her old favourite Monkey toy, which disappeared for a while and was just recently found again!)

For presents, Mika got a new flexi-leash (so that she doesn't have the share our other one with Wall-e) and organic chicken necks from The Urban Carnivore, which we haven't bought in a couple months.

My little dog is now middle-aged. The more I hear about all the health problems many schnauzers suffer from as they age, the more I appreciate the time I have with my own healthy girl.

Happy birthday Mika :)

Wall-e's 2nd birthday

Yesterday Wall-e turned 2 years old!

He had a great day. He got to go to our favourite natural pet supply store to pick out his gifts. I led him by the treat racks and let him sniff them. He was especially interested in the Rollover organ treats that are pretty big, round, and flat, so I got him a package of those.

(I remember when we'd just gotten Wall-e and we'd had him for a few days, we went to another pet supply store, where the person at the cash offered him one of these exact same treats. He snatched it away and started trotting away as far as his leash would allow, trying to hide with his treat so we wouldn't steal it from him! He couldn't chew it well because it was big for his puppy mouth. When we had to go home, I tried to take it out of his mouth, but he held that treat as TIGHT as he could and would NOT open his mouth! I eventually got it out, but I was thinking, "Uh-oh, he's going to be food possessive." Luckily, he's never shown any kind of possession with his food since.)

I also let him choose something to chew on. When I showed him a kind of beef-jerky-looking flat stick, he grabbed it. "I want DAT one!" When we were done in the store (I bought an undercoat rake for Wall-e...of course, he didn't choose that gift himself!), I let him carry his beef stick outside. He happily trotted along, tail waving gently, carrying his new stick.


In the evening, we went to the field. We worked on his A-frame at 4 feet. He didn't know how to collect himself to stop in 2on2off after all the momentum of running over the higher AF, but I still rewarded every attempt. Next session, we'll work on the AF at 3 feet instead and back-chain more gradually.

After the AF training, we ran a flowing sequence of 6" jumps and tunnels. Although he went around a lot of jumps in our first try, we still had tons of fun and I was laughing my head off. In the second try he only passed by two jumps. I'm going to have to get a lot better at handling when this speed becomes consistent!

Afterward he did a set of 6 weaves and got the entry right away, and then he got to have a mini blueberry muffin, instead of a birthday cake. He really loves muffins!

Later that evening, at home, we did some more agility. (A sequence with the chute, jumps, and weaves, and later trained the teeter individually.) Wall-e loves to train, so I figured that an evening of agility would be a great present for him. A bit of extra car chasing along the fence, his favourite activity in the world, was another gift!

It's hard to believe that Wall-e is already 2 years old and is completely grown up!

Happy birthday Mr. W!

Mika's 5th birthday

It was Mika's birthday yesterday, on October 14. Five years old!


Mika didn't like the hat too much :)


"There, that's much better!"

After school we went to the agility field and I set up a very fun, flowing sequence with Mika's favourite obstacles -- jumps (definitely her favourite) at 6", tunnels, and the dog walk. She LOVED it and zoomed through the sequence, very fast, and even clean. She had a blast!

Then we went to the park, Wall-e too. It was cold (and SNOWING, of all the days) so Mika had to wear a sweater. Added some nice colour to the photos though.







Later that evening it was time for Mika's homemade peanut butter "pupcake!"


There are five candles, look closely!


Staring eagerly at her pupcake. Don't want that beard to catch on fire! "Peanutbutterpeanutbutterpeanutbutter gimme that PEANUT BUTTER!" Yes both of my dogs are nuts for peanut butter!


LOL her expression is funny. After the candles are all blown out, Mika grabbed the pupcake and then jumped down off the chair to scarf it down. All that peanut butter actually stuck to the roof of her mouth and I had to reach in her mouth to get it all out! She enjoyed it nevertheless! (Not the best quality photo because it's taken from a video.)

Mika also got lots of homemade pumpkin cookies, which she also loved.

Her presents -- agility, yummy food, fun at the park...Mika couldn't have had a better day!! Happy 5th birthday, my little girl!

Wall-e's birthday video

Very belated birthday video.

One word to describe this dog...FUN!

Wall-e 1st birthday photo!

I'm so sorry for not writing on this blog in so long!! I've just been so busy.

Wall-e celebrated his first birthday on May 29. He had lots of fun doing lots of training (one of his very favourite things to do!), agility, and hanging out at Regionals! Here's just one of the cute photos my mom took (as I stood behind her holding up treats):



Of course Wall-e had to have a birthday hat on. I'm not big on "dressing up" the dogs -- I just put hats on them on birthdays and Christmas, and Mika has her sweaters because she gets cold really easily.

Oh, by the way...Mika qualified for Nationals!! :D Go Mika!!! A post on Regionals will come, don't worry!

~Nat

Wall-e is almost 1 year old!

I can't believe that Wall-e is almost a year old ALREADY! His 1st birthday is on Friday May 29th, in 6 days -- the first day of Regionals! What a great birthday present for him...he gets to see tons of dogs and other shelties at Regionals, and then in the evening he'll probably get to do some agility of his own at the field. We'll set up a jump/tunnel sequence and he'll get to run with me and my friend Ashley (who's coming from Miami!!). We also got him another squeaky toy, and he'll get a "cake" on his birthday like Mika always does. (Shhhhh...don't tell him!) His cake will be canned dog food kind of formed into a cake shape, which he never gets because he eats EVO dry food, and a bit of Nature's Variety raw medallions and fresh food. We'll probably get him some new treats too. After all, it's his first birthday...it should be special!

~Nat

Happy Birthday, Mika!!

On Tuesday, October 14, Mika celebrated her 4th birthday! The celebrations started after I came home from school. We put on birthday hats for the photos, though Mika didn't enjoy that too much, so I took hers off right after the photos.

Mika then received a delicious-looking birthday "cake" (it was actually half a can of Innova wet dog food) with four candles on top. The cake was also on an exquisite plate! I put the cake on a small table and blew out the candles for her. and then Mika dug in, putting her front paws on the table while she scarfed down the food. Man, she really LOVED that cake!! Of course, her beard did get all gross so we had to wash it in the bathtub afterward, but I'm sure Mika thought it was worth it!

After the plate was licked completely clean, Mika got her present -- a new collar. Her old pink collar had faded and dirtied, so it really was time to get a new one. Her new collar is nylon and rainbow-striped! I do think Mika liked the cake better :) but the collar looks great on her!

I had a looot of schoolwork to do that afternoon and also the next couple of days, so sadly I couldn't spend much time with Mika on her birthday, but I'll definitely spend the rest of the day with her today after I get home from school, and tomorrow as well.

Happy B-Day Mika!

Also, we have a trial tomorrow! Woot!

~Nat