My tribe

Woofs, and hello

Did you know that I have my own little tribe of followers? Well I do. Jude and Craig get them for me to play with ... I like to spend a lot of time with my tribe.

In the picture on the right you'll see me with two of my favourites - Mr Banana Man (he has featured in several of my previous posts including 'It's a Mystery' and 'Puppy School' - regular readers will be pleased to see that he has recovered well after his encounter with the racoon) and Flat Cow (he's a new addition to the tribe, joining the family during our recent visit to the Victoria Markets). Flat Cow is almost the same colour as me, so you might have a little difficulty seeing him - here's a hint, I'm holding him in my mouth in the top photo.  We play a lot - and the tribe really like me to wrestle with them, squeeze them hard (so that they squeak) and run as fast as I can up and down the passage with them in my mouth. I like to undo their rope hair / tails / legs, because I like to experiment with style.

Sometimes the tribe members need a rest. Craig says "Give it a rest Toby!". Jude picks them up and puts them on the table because she says "...if you keep that up those toys will be completely wrecked .." Sometimes humans just don't understand how to have fun!

On his second day in my tribe Flat Cow must have become disoriented and accidentally wandered down the stairs ... I'm sure he wasn't trying to run away from home. He'd certainly have no reason to.  I found him here on the steps (see picture 3), and I picked him up and took him back upstairs.

This morning I was sitting beside Jude at the dining table when she was reading the newspaper (how boring) and I was squeaking Flat Cow, repeatedly. Jude decided that I must have too much energy, so she took me outside to the common and threw my new red kong down the hill. I ran after it at the speed of light and brought it back to her (smart huh?). We kept playing that game for about 15 minutes - until I was so tired that I was walking back up the hill with the kong. I'll have to reflect on what this all means, and how I can use this to my advantage. ... zzz .... so sleepy now ... zzz.
I'll get back to you later. Tobes ....

New Garden Guru

Woofs! I was watching a re-run of Domestic Blitz recently and saw a fellow called Don Burke, who the presenter introduced as a 'garden guru'. Now I love my gardening so I watched his segment closely - and I can tell you Don's gardening skills aren't a patch on mine. Check out what I've been up to recently ...

Hello, and welcome to Toby's Backyard. 

Although I am only young (8 months) I have considerable expertise in caring for gardens. My specialty is back yards - mainly because I can't get into the front yard. What's truly impressive is that I'm entirely self taught! As you browse through some of my favourite photos (below) you'll be astounded at what one young Airedale can achieve unaided and without formal training.


Recently I have been concentrating on my favourite section of the garden. This was originally a formal path between a Buxis hedge and a line of pencil pines. Pavers, carefully spaced at human stepping distance, were interspersed with twin clumps of mondo grass: this modelled on historic formal Tuscan gardens.

... found no evidence that historic formal Tuscan gardens ever existed, so I applied a reality check ...

After significant research I found no evidence that historic formal Tuscan gardens ever existed, so I thought I had better apply a reality check. Even though it took a lot of time and effort, I have now removed each of the mondo grass plants. I'm having a little more trouble with the pavers though - it's quite difficult to move these because I don't have hands.

You'll see in this image that I have carefully inspected the Mondo grass and laid it out neatly for inspection by Craig and Jude when they come down to sit in the garden.

You'll also note that I have gone to agreat deal of trouble to back-fill the holes in which the Mondo grass was previously planted.

... I take a great deal of pride in my garden ... 

I take great pride in my entire garden - I don't just focus on one section of the back yard . I'm also quite partial to the Acacia Cognata. It's overhanging canopy gives me a great hiding place - I often lie under it's branches waiting for a Magpie to land in the backyard. As soon as one lands I'll silently leap out from under the bush and chase it away.

The photo on the left shows me sitting beside my favourite Acacia Cognata. This bush is also very handy for the secure storage of some of my most precious belongings (an old Pepsi Max bottle, a bedraggled toy that has 'migrated' to the backyard etc). It's ver secure - trust me - you'll never see Craig or Jude crawling under my Acacia Cognata bush! I've been here for 6 months now, and they have never shown the slightest interest in crawling under and waiting for the magpie with me - the pikers!


Here's where I've been trimming some of the lower branches, so I can make a speedy magpie-chasing exit. I think you can see where I'm headed artistically huh?

... I have some of my toys stored in the garden ...

I have some of my other toys stored in the garden too, in case I need to have a quick play. The toys make a very satisfying noise when I drop them down the stairs (inside) and they bang into the downstairs toilet door. Somehow I never seem to have enough toys to play with upstairs. By the way, the blue spiky looking ball is made by a company that makes toys for lions - it's tough and heavy (quite hard to carry back up stairs).

I am also keen on flowers. These are some Pansies and Paper flowers that Jude planted. She's had them for a long time (even back when they lived in Geelong) and she really likes them a lot. I do the best I can to keep an eye on them. It's strange how a bald patch has opened up in the pot there - I might need to ring Don Burke to find out what has caused that!

... I like to keep the Yukka plant trimmed up ...

I also like to keep the Yukka plant trimmed up - but it's a bit high for me. You can see how hard I have to stretch to keep in well shaped (I'm standing on my tip-toes - it's a pity that my photographer didn't capture that!).



Finally, I just want to say that I had nothing to do with this pot being smashed! It is tall and thin, and it blew over in the wind. You can trust me can't you?
(Editor's note: Funny how that pot never blew over in the two years we lived here before Toby joined our family.)

Was that haircut a mistake?

Jude has just been downloading photos from her camera - I think I look super cute ... maybe getting that first haircut was a mistake?

Big boy haircut

I got my first big boy Airedale haircut this week. Check out how cute I'm looking.

Woofs, Toby

It's a mystery!

Woofs! Hope everything is good with you. Everything is grrrreat with me. I've been doing a lot of growing lately - I'm officially a big dog now (27kg).

Something mysterious happened the other day when Craig and Jude had gone to the shops without me - I was home alone. I was sleeping on my pillow and when I woke up I found to my horror that someone had attacked my favourite toy, Mr Banana Man. His guts were spread all over the floor! The worst thing of all was that his squeaker had come out and somehow been flung under the couch. Now that I'm a big dog I can't fit under the couch any more ...

I was horrified! I think it might have been a racoon (like on Modern Family) that snuck into the house and attacked Mr Banana Man. I'm sure he (MBM) put up a great fight, but by the time I noticed what had happened it was too late - Mr Banana Man was slipping away. I couldn't do anything to help because I haven't got hands!

As soon as Craig and Jude got home I showed them what had happened. Fortunately Jude has medical training (she's accredited with the Google School of Medicine) - she rushed Mr Banana Man into intensive care. Then she came back and collected his guts and the squeaker  - I tried to 'HELP'. Dr Jude found her surgical equipment (very similar to a regular sewing needle and thread) and performed an amazing procedure, a reverse squeakerectomy and some plastic surgery. You might just be able to see the stitches in the photo above. 

After he got out of surgery, MBM had to take some bed rest. As you can see, he was doing it tough. 

Anyway, Mr Banana Man is fully recovered now. I was playing with him just now and can assure you that he is squeaking and playing as well as ever. What a lucky escape!  From now on I'll be on the alert for that pesky racoon - I will be sleeping with one eye open from now on. 

Jude says it is strange that the racoon only comes and causes trouble when they are not home, but I know that this is because he's verrrry sneaky. 

I want to go to Cavalia ...

The humans went off to Cavalia yesterday. I stayed with Aunty Shirly - so that was good fun, but not as much fun as watching the performing horses. I reckon I could have shown them a thing or two!

Why couldn't I go to Cavalia too?

This beautiful horse is called Neo. He was having a little sleep.

This handsome follow is a Percheron - look how big his feet are! 

This horse (Pancho) was Craig's favourite. He gallops really fast and helps his rider do amazing tricks (or so I've heard). 

Not a baby anymore

Woofs!

Things are going well at the moment. I've been growing A LOT! I weigh about 20 kilograms now - no-one here can be sure exactly how much I weigh because they aren't strong enough to pick me up any more. I can't fit into my baby bed any more - thought I do try sometimes. Check out the picture here and you'll see me bulging over the edges ... just lucky I've got a big dog bed as well I guess. Compare how big I am now to how small I was back in April [post: Cute pose #2].


I've been trying to learn about technology. I often try to type my own blog - by pressing the keys on Jude's laptop as she types. She says I have made up some very interesting new words. I might send them to Macquarie Dictionary and see if they'd like to list them - raise awareness of how smart dogs are. Anyway, I've had a few problems because my paws are a bit too big and it's hard to press only one key at a time. Next I tried taking a selfy with Jude's iPhone. I think it turned out really well - what do you think?

I've been for a walk this morning - it was only 3 degrees so I had to jump around quite a lot to keep warm. In the process I bit a big chunk of wood that I found by the roadside. I bit it hard, so hard in fact that I almost knocked out one of my (few remaining) baby teeth and my tongue was covered with blood. It hurt a lot and I was a bit sooky for a while. I'm over it now though.