An Open Note to Mitch

This is a shout-out to our long-time buddy Mitch, who has just recently become a  Big Brother.  His parents brought home a little sister for him, and I'd like to offer my two cents on the raising of a little sister.



1) Teach her who is boss, and do it early and often!

Showing the munchkin the Jaws of Doom early will help put her in her place.

Seriously, do NOT underestimate the power of the Jaws of Doom

If you remind her when she's young that you are Older and In Charge, even when she gets bigger, you'll keep that psychological advantage!

In those last couple of pictures, Lard Butt out-weighed me by about 10lbs - but I've always had that psychological edge!  Even if she's a bit harder to take down...

2) Wear your sister out - a tired puppy is a Good Puppy.

 

Heehee.  Little rat couldn't decide between food or a nap, so she chose both!

 
3) Keep an eye on your little sister - you never know what she's going to get up to if left to her own devices!

I've got my eyes on you, Abby.

  
4)  Teach her how to share the toys

The more ear-flappage you can create, the better!

5) Teach her early about the Finer Things In Life 

Like snow zoomies

Is there any wonder why I call her 'Lard Tuchus'?  Heehee!

 

And frisbees

6) Remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  She's a cracker puppy, but dude, you are COOL, and she wants to be Just Like you.

But, you ARE allowed to make fun of her when she has 'bad face' days.  I mean, what are little sisters for, if you can't post embarrassing photos of them on the internet?

At the end of the day, however, there's nothing better than a little sister!

 

And when your little sister REALLY starts to get on your nerves, and all the squeeing and oohs and ahhs, and "isn't puppy breath the best" comments get annoying, just remember that you are house-trained and she's not.  And if you forget it, you can rest assured that she'll remind everyone pretty quickly that she hasn't quite learned "OUTSIDE" yet!  Heehee!

Seriously, dude, we love ya, Mitch, and we think you are going to be the best big brother a girl could have! 

*kissey face*

-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Spring is Here! (For now...)

Heh.  Given that it's only April, we could still have snow, but for now?  This was our last little patch of snow, and it disappeared last night.

The leaves from last fall have NOT disappeared, however.  Apparently Mom has it on her 'to-do' list.  Which means that those leaves might very well be there THIS fall.  Heehee!

You might notice the green thing next to the leaves, erm, snow.  That means.... On Saturday Mom finally finished raking the yard, 'prepping' it (with this nasty looking cultivator thingy), seeding it, and fertilizing it.   Once Mom had done the 'hard' work Saturday afternoon, she decided to zip over to Home Depot to get the grass seed and fertilizer so she could call the yard 'done'.  Well, 'done' as far as everything that needed to be finished before she could start watering.   And while we still may get snow, the yard is "ready".

Also on Saturday, we had another doggie class.  Mom was very busy on Saturday!   Abby and I both went, and we split out time between Mom and Jessi (the turkey hotdog lady).

Me, taking the dog class thing Very Seriously.

Me, hamming it up for the camera...

The class was working on loose-leash walking around 'strange' dogs.  (And by strange, I don't mean my sister - I mean strange as in dogs we don't know...)

The other dog in class was 'strange'.   

Actually, she wasn't strange, just new to us - and a little excited!

But Jessi had good treats, and we can handle Just About Anything with the right treats!

Abby, totally NOT paying attention to Jessi and hamming it for the camera, instead.

Abby, being the opportunistic suck-up that she is, and paying attention to Jessi in exchange for Vienna sausages.

Heehee!

Hi!  Did ya miss me?!?

Class was actually quite fun (as usual), and we came home worn out (which then allowed Mom to play in the yard).

Today we did our usual walkie thingy, and then Mom and Dad took off to "hit golf balls."  I have no idea what these poor golf balls did to Mom and Dad, but apparently the golf balls fought back viciously, and Mom and Dad came home tired, but happy that they hit these poor defenseless balls, and have plans to do it again in the near future.

When they got home,  Abby and I got in some bitey-face time while Mom was singing something about how her 'long hair didn't cover up her red neck' (apparently she didn't use enough sunscreen while whacking the poor golf balls and got a little pink). 

Good times!  And you'll notice from our lawn that were in much better shape than we were last year - but with all our snow gone, why it was high time for Mom to get the seed and fertilizer and stuff down!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Of Cheeseburgers and Clickers and Things

Okay, well, we won't fire Mom yet.    Yes, we got cheeseburgers!!!

But before the cheeseburgers, Mom hauled us off to Dog Training Class.  Something about how Abby was relapsing, and how it would be good 'bonding time' and blah-blah-blah.  All I heard was 'turkey hotdogs' - and that was good enough for me!

So off to doggie class we went (yes, both of us!), and discovered that we were the Only Ones There!

Abby immediately sucked up to Jessi while I checked out the new training area...

After deciding that the training area was acceptable, I decided to see if the treats were up to snuff.

Jessi then suggested to Mom that she try 'clicker training'.   It sounded interesting, and, of course, there would be treats involved, so really, how bad could it be?

And it totally rocked!  First, Abby was put in the car so I could get some one-on-one training time.  The clicker-thingy got my attention...

Here I am, showing off what I learned for the day!





For those of you who get this via email, here's the link:  http://youtu.be/xP0ldI6_Q_8

And if you are wondering what the point of learning to 'crawl' is, the short answer is that there is no point in crawling - but it stimulates my mentals and gets me to focus on what I'm doing.  For the record, we're also learning useful things like going and lying down in a certain spot, barking (and not barking) on command, and stuff like that.

After that I was totally worn out, so I got to rest in the car while Abby did her thing.   Abby didn't crawl, but she did lots of stuff like lying down and then getting into a 'sit' from lying down (this is not actually as easy as you think...) and lying on a dog bed when commanded to do so, and stuff like that.

We had over two hours of class time, and our mentals were TOTALLY FRIED by the time we were done.

But our day wasn't over!  After leaving Petco, we went to the Magic Cheeseburger Window!!!!  Mom came through for us!

There it is!  The Magic Cheeseburger Window!

The Magic Window dispensed a Cheeseburger, and Mom drove home in a hasty-but-legal fashion so we could dine on our Celebratory Cheeseburger!

Nom, nom, nom!

Don't worry Mom!  I just want the cheeseburger and not your fingers!

Happy birthday, Mom!  Now that we've had our cheeseburger, we have officially celebrated your birthday!

We ended the day with a little bitey-face.

And then we totally sacked out after our Big Day!  Apparently this was part of Mom's plan...  And now she's perusing her book of dog tricks...  Hmmm....

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Happy Birthday to Mom!

Happy Birthday to our Mom!  Even though she's got a lot of bloggie posting material to put up for us, we're going to give her a break and wish her a happy birthday!

C'mon, lady.  Break out the cheeseburgers.

Mom is, like, 87 million years old today**.   Hopefully she's not too old to forget that she should bring us a cheeseburger from the Magic Cheeseburger Window so we can help her celebrate!  Heehee!

So we'll just sit here until Mom brings us a cheeseburger...

*sigh*

Happy birthday, Mom!  We plan on jumping all over you and hogging the bed, just so you know how much we love you!  Especially if you and Dad go our for raw fish - then we'll spend the rest of the night trying to scour the fish remains off you!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus, your loving daughters

**Mom is claiming that she's 29.  Again.  Whatever.  We could show you pictures from her LAST birthday, where the numbers on the cake are a wee bit higher than 29...  But if Mom wants to claim to be 29, we'll go along with it.  I mean, it's still 87 million years in dog years!  Heehee!

Nekkid Fotos

Apparently there was a great deal of interest in seeing our nekkid photos, so here ya go.

First, a couple 'before' photos...

*sigh* Lard-Tuchus is a bit obstinate when it comes to looking at the camera on command.

We were getting a wee bit shaggy.  Which was not super compatible with our ultra-warm weather as of late.  So we were hustled off to the doggie spa, and came back nekkid.

Abby had to immediately get the New Dog Smell off...

And we had to get in a little nekkid bitey-face.

We were all happy with our sleek, short summer hair cuts.  Until we woke up this morning.

Great timing on the haircuts, Mom!

Actually, we were quite comfy despite being nekkid in the snow.  And a little nekkid bitey-face always warms us up!

BTW, Mom was thrilled with the snow; she spent some time yesterday raking the backyard, in preparation for grass seed and fertilizer.  And was whining about sore muscles and blisters today; I think she was actually REALLY happy to see the snow, as it meant that she didn't have to do more yard work today!  Heehee!


*ahem*

More nekkid photos for your viewing pleasure...

Is it me, or does Abby have toothpick-like leggies?  Heehee.

And some nekkid snow zoomies...

And, just in case you wanted to see our smiling faces, here were are...

And here is a gratuitous snooter picture - Mom was playing around with the camera the night before our spa day...

Really?  Really?  *sigh*  The things I do to amuse Mom...

Heh!  Our weather is supposed to warm back up again pretty quickly, so Mom will be able to get back to raking/seeding/fertilizing.  Which, if you've been paying attention is almost 2 months sooner than last year.  So maybe this year, we'll have an Ever Better lawn!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus