Abby's Birthday and a Turkey-Hotdog Refresher Course for Mom

Well, it looks like we are doomed to posting once a week for a while - something to do with Mom leaving at o'-dark-thirty, and it being sort of dusk-y when she gets home, making for non-optimal photo time.  Mom has been saying something about how she has never been so excited for the Solstice in her life as she is this year - even if it is only a few minutes a day, she wants to know the days are getting longer.   But, Mom has assured me that she is going to try to post once a week.

Which is a good thing, as well have All Sorts of Exciting Things going on.

First, Abby took Mom to Petco for a refresher class on how to feed turkey-hotdogs as Mom has been slacking in the turkey-hotdog department for a while.  

Abby, being Abby, had to go suck-up to Jessi, first thing, and then go make friends with the two little Westies who were finishing up their class...

After the little dogs left, Abby got her private lesson (of which there are no pictures, because Jessi was really focusing on Mom's turkey-hotdog-delivery technique).  At the end of the private lesson, Mom's technique wasn't totally perfected yet, so Jessi invited Mom to continue to practice in the next class of the day, whose only member was Mogli, a 9 month old Newfoundland.

Abby greeted Mogli modestly, as usual.

Okay, so Abby really doesn't DO modesty....

And then they got back down to the serious business of Mom feeding turkey-hotdogs in such an enticing manner that Abby would run through Petco looking for Mom and her turkey-hotdogs.  First Mom practiced by just standing at the end of an aisle and offering her turkey-hotdogs.  Then Mom was hiding behind things, and Abby proved too be too clever.  So Mom thought she'd be Super Clever....

Let's just say Abby had the last laugh!

However, we think Mom is now crate-trained!  Heehee!

Mom got her revenge, however....  You know how I mentioned that this last Monday was Abby's birthday, but we were holding off on the celebrating until this weekend?  Well, after the Crate Incident yesterday (Mom says she got in there voluntarily, but I think Abby lured her in with some turkey hotdogs!), Mom decided to do the birthday thing today.  Which meant that Abby had to wear The Birthday Hat!

Abby is looking rather pleased with herself because Mom is hold bits of ham just off camera.  But I almost feel sorry for the poor girl - I mean with a birthday in December she's subjected to the elf hat, and the antlers AND the birthday hat all in the same month!  I least with my birthday in July, I get to spread out the, ah, glad tidings!

Mom made cake (well, mini-cakes) for both of us.  Although keeping true to the 'second-child-is-an-afterthought' maxim, Mom didn't actually have a birthday candle for Abby, and had to, ah, improvise!  (And get the card off the candle before it caught fire!)  But the cake was quite tasty!

And Granny and Grandpa had sent us some Most Excellent sweet potato snacks which we checked out - 4 paws up!  Thanks from both of us (because Abby will share, I promise!)!

After the birthday celebrations, Abby and I ran off our cake with a little bitey face. 

And a little frisbee time.

And, a little Sitting In The Snow Looking Regal.  She's a Hippobottomus, what can I say?  Besides, she did get Mom to crawl in that crate, so that's totally deserving of a little lazing about!

And finally, a gratuitous picture of me, because the ratio of Fi:Abby photos is way out of balance!  Heehee!

 *kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

What HAVE we been up to?

So, what HAVE we been up to, now that we are Good Citizens, you ask?  Well....  We've been going to the park a lot...

\

And we've been getting in some quality bitey-face time.

In case you're curious, that little fence in the background is to keep a certain sister of mine from sneaking through the one hole in the bushes and barking at innocent doggies walking down the street.


Oh!  And our hurdles showed up! 

We weren't using them there - other than as an obstacle around which to zoomie!

But we have started using them.  Mom has been setting up both of them, but to get the video, she just filmed one hurdle.  We're not exactly Brutus and Carmen (yet... well, maybe never, since apparently we can do sheep herding trials every weekend, but Mom still can't find a local place for dog agility, so the backyard it is!)

Here's our latest video (Mom's still learning how to use the basic movie software on her computer...): http://youtu.be/1x2Zbxqadwg

If you can't see the video, here are a few still 'highlights':

You'll notice in the video (or the last photo here) that Abby tried to get a treat from Mom for running beside the hurdle, rather than over it.  Mom was paying attention and made Abby go back and go over it to get her treat!


And the other excitement?  Abby has been going to MORE doggie classes!   Jessi (the turkey hotdog goddess) has a class on Saturday mornings, and she wanted another doggie in the class, so I went the first week (when Mom almost took me to the car show, instead), and then decided that since Abby gets Saturday Morning Crazies, class would be a good diversion for her.  And the class has Abby's buddy Sherman, the English Bulldog:

Heehee!  Look at that face!

And Lulu is also a frequent member of the class, so everyone is happy!

Abby's got a couple more weeks of class.  In this class she's continuing to work on Good Citizen stuff, as well as "high stress" situations where she's supposed to stay focused on Mom.  As you can see from the not-so-high stress exercise, Abby is shifty-eyed, and tries to avoid making eye-contact with Mom.  Apparently, however, Mom said Abby is "doing well" in spite of her shifty-eyedness.  

Well, apparently I'm doing SO well that I am not even doing classes.  Or maybe there isn't another class right now.  Something like that...  Heehee.  I do miss seeing Jessi every week.  And I miss the extra Vienna sausages... so maybe I'll have to talk to Mom about another class!

There is a rumor, however, that we might have a playdate tomorrow with Lulu!   Jessi has recently moved, so she now lives much closer to us than she used to, and since our park is usually empty, and Lulu requires a lot of zoomie time, Mom and Jessi are trying to coordinate a time where Abby and Lulu and I can all have crazy funballs times together!  I'll keep you posted!

*kissey face*

-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

PeeEss:  In case you were wondering about that picture of Mom in Abby's doggie class.... well, it was 35 degrees this morning, and still "a bit nippy" when Mom and Abby went to class, hence Mom's long-sleeve shirt.  You can't see the lady with the standard poodle, but she had a sweatshirt on.  It's nice during the days, but starting to get cool at night!