On a DIET!

Bit of a tactical mistake - mentioning that I was approaching 14 kgs! Jude has decided that I'm getting a bit podgy. Now when I ask her for a snack she gives me a carrot ... what the?

As you can see, I eat carrots, grudgingly. See what starvation has driven me to.

I think I'm too young to diet - what do you think?

Grrr, Toby.

Great new game!

I thought of a great new game today. I snuck into the toilet this morning when Craig was reading the newspapers and grabbed the end of the toilet paper: it had been hanging down in that provocative way that toilet paper tends to for too long! I clamped the end of the roll between my teeth and took off as fast as I could. Craig didn't notice at first, so when I got to the front door I stopped and barked, so he could share in with my exciting new game. Craig got it into the game right away - he's very clever and knew how to play immediately - he chased me.

The toilet paper was strong and it didn't break. It's amazing how long a toilet paper roll is - after I had done a few laps around the living room and back to the front door it ran out but it was much longer than I anticipated. Eventually I was trapped under the dining table, with no means of escape. Tunrs out Craig wasn't that happy about having to pick up all the toilet paper!

Oh well, back to the drawing board for another new game tomorrow.

Woofs,
Toby

He he he. 

Enormous!

It's official - I'm almost a big dog! This weekend Craig and Jude noticed that I can hardly fit in my puppy bed any more ... there's certainly no room for manoeuvre. So they have moved me into Uncle Teddy's old bed - and it's enormous. It takes up almost all the room in my play pen, and even though it has been washed and everything, I think it smells like someone else's bed. I'm not sure if I'm happy about this move or not. I'll leave it to you to make up your own mind, based on my expression.

Puppy class went well this week. I think the Shepherd girls are falling for me. Molly pretends that I annoy her by trying to play with her and snaps at me. Tea hides under the seats when ever she sees me approaching. I think this is a certain sign that they are falling for me ... I'm still the tallest puppy, and I think I do the best sits. My other tricks are coming along really well too - for example, I can now sit and wait for my meals for anything up to 1 minute until Craig says 'OK'.

This week I weighed in at 13.4kg. I don't know how I can be gaining weight when I always feel hungry.

Jude and I went for big walks again this weekend. The weather was really nice (to me anyway) - very cool but not raining. This gave me heaps of energy to jump around like a crazy boy. The things I most enjoyed picking up during today's walk were: an empty paper cup, a huge chunk of firewood and a golf ball. The wood was too heavy to carry far, so I had to abandon that. I left it in the middle of the road, but Jude thought people might run it over and damage their car, so she picked it up and threw it under the trees. The paper cup blew away when I threw it up into the air - I had done this several times and successfully caught it, but that didn't work the last time, and Jude wouldn't let me chase it (sometimes she is mean!). Jude brought the golf ball home and put it in a jar for when anyone comes to stay who likes playing golf.

So everything is good with me. I narrowly avoided a bath today when Jude saw that my tummy was a bit grubby - lucky it was such a cold day (which put Jude off the idea for some strange reason).

I'll be back as soon as I have something important to tell you.
Woof-oh.
Toby

Puppy school!

Thinking  about my new tricks & chewing Jude's shoelace

Woof-oh ... and hello! I've had an exciting week this week. I started at puppy school. It's run at the Vet's shop late at night (6:30pm) - and there are five of us in the class: me, a smooth coat collie, two german shepherd pups (sisters, very cute) and a staffordshire bull terrier. All of us are friendly and there was a lot of tail wagging action at our first class. I'm the oldest and tallest in the class, and if I say so myself, I'm also the best at doing 'sits'. This week we learned about good nutrition - I was hoping the Vet nurse who runs the show would say that I looked a bit under nourished and that I should be fed more, but she said I looked very healthy (damn it!). We also learned that this is the best time to teach us pups things ... so now I'm learning 3 new tricks:

1. to sit patiently waiting until Craig says 'OK' before I rush over to eat my dinner - this is very hard for me because I'm always starving
2. to shake hands - this was very easy to learn, only took 30 minutes or so ... now I hold my paw out whenever I sit in the hope of getting an extra treat
3. to lie down on command - this is a bit hard for me to remember sometimes, but I'm working on it

Yesterday Craig and Jude took me into the city with them for the morning. Jude's car was getting serviced (which takes a really long time) so we went to the Queen Victoria Markets and had a look around. There were lots of nice people there who said hello to me and gave me a pat. We found a pet shop stall there and Jude bought me a new 'large' size harness for the car (even tough I still don't like going in the car) because I'm growing so fast that I'm almost out of my baby-sized harness. I weighed 12.5 kilograms this morning - pretty big huh! Anyway, we did lots of walking around in the city. I enjoyed jumping on the autumn leaves and biting them. On the way back to the car place a big dog drove past in the back seat of a car - he barked at me so loudly that I got a bit frightened and had to hide behind Craig's legs ... I'll get him next time. All in all it was an exciting morning. 

During the last week we've had lots of rainy weather, so that has made it quite difficult for Craig and me to go for walks ... This weekend's weather was nice though fortunately, so Jude and I went for quite a long walk today, up past the equestrian centre (2 kilometres round trip). I noticed horses for the first time today - I needed to stop and take a careful look at them to make sure what they were - they seem really big to me. When we're out walking I love galloping along, picking up everything I see - special favourites are rocks, sticks, branches, golf balls, litter and my old favourite - kangaroo poo.  

My favourite toy at the moment is still banana man - you'll see a photo of me with him on the left. I was having a nap after a long session of play and managed to pull the blanket off Jude's lap over me - I look cute don't you think?

We went to the Wallan Markets last weekend - Jude bought me a packet of special homemade biscuits for dog from a place called 'the barkery' - ha ha ha. I think someone must have snuck into the house and stolen some of the biscuits though because they are all gone now and I can't remember eating them all! 

Next week puppy school is on Wednesday night. I'm planning to dazzle them all with my new 'shake hands' skill! 

Well, bye for now - Woofs ... Toby

PS: My grown up, golden coat is growing fast, and my black puppy hair is being over taken. I'll soon have a golden coloured head. Jude trimmed my beard this morning cos it was getting a bit thick and long, and I was starting to leave a dribble trail after drinks. I think I look more mature with the new styling ...