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 ...