Picnic at Williamstown Gardens

We went for a picnic at Williamstown Gardens yesterday to celebrate Stephen's birthday, and to say a belated happy Father's Day to Lloyd. All the family came along, even Hamish (my best canine friend). It was a beautiful day, and the humans all sat around in the sun and ate delicious looking sandwiches, and birthday cake. I say it looked delicious because I don't really know - no one was sharing with me except Cate, who gave me what she called the crusts of her sandwich (but was actually about half of it) - yum!!

After a while Cate, Nick and Jude talk me for a walk. The kids loved seeing how fast I could run - I was able to convince them that I was the fastest by sprinting ahead and running in front of them so they had to slow down or stop (or fall over me at speed) ... he he he ... so I was the winner. After a while I needed a rest (the sun was shining and I'm wearing a warm fur coat at the moment so I was pretty hot). I thought I'd join Cate sitting on the park bench. I like the view from up here! 

Cate was in the State School Spectacular last weekend (that's why I couldn't upload a post to this blog last weekend - Jude was too busy going to see Cate - humph!). Anyway, Cate's Mum bought her one of the costumes frm the show - a monster outfit, consisting of a headpiece, arms and hands. Cate brought it alomg to the picnic to show the family - and we were all interested in it. Nick wanted to take it away from Cate to tease her and so that she'd chase him. Gran wanted to try it on and see how it felt. I wanted to chew it - after all, one can't be too careful with monsters. 

After a while Cate let people try it on - what do you think? Looks pretty crazy doesn't it.

Hamish was a bit shy with me. I can't understand why - I am pretty sure he thought of me as a beloved cousin and totally loved spending time with me last time we were together - see my posts from February. He was happy enough to share my water bowl, but he didn't want to play rompy-bompy with me. Hmmm - I'll give this some thought. 

We all had a wonderful time - though there really could have been more food for me and Hamish! The only bad part was having to travel in Jude's car - which as you'd know, I don't like the feel of. I stood up for about half of the journey to the park (about 30 minutes) but I was so tired and relaxed that I lay down almost all the way home. So who's a clever boy now? 

Woofs

Toby

Repelling uninvited guests

I had a bit of a shock this morning. I was happily dozing after having taken Jude for a long, brisk early morning walk (whether she liked it or not) when I got the sense that something wasn't right. I was shocked to find Jude lying on MY big blue pillow on the floor reading a magazine! She had some crazy story about it being her pillow originally ... What the?

I tried several strategies to get her off the pillow:

• I stood on the page of the magazine she was tryng to read - that was a tip from Charlie, the cat next door which didn't work, but what else would you expect from a cat? Jude just laughed and said what lovely big hairy feet I had.

• I tried chewing the corners off each page of the magazine as she turned the pages. That made her laugh too - she said it was just a rag from the newspaper and she really didn't care as long as I spat out the paper eventually!

• I tried sitting on Jude, but the slope of the pillow made this too uncomfortable for me

• I tried burrowing my head in under her shoulder - I was trying the flip her off the pillow but she just thought I was being loving and snuggling up to her - I ask you, how dumb can people be? 

Eventually Jude finished reading the magazine and got up to make herself a cup of tea ... Ah ha!! At last I had an chance to regain possession. No way is she getting back on MY pillow! 

And I will keep a careful watch on her reading habits from now on.

Woofs,
Toby

Happy Dog-Father's Day Craig!

Well I'm broke! I spent all of my pocket money on sending Craig to Fowles Cellar Door Cafe for lunch and buying him two bottles of his favourite wine - 'The Rule 2010 Shiraz'. I even made this special card for Craig - and he really appreciated it!

Thanks for being such a good dog-dad Craig!

Have you noticed - humans are crazy?

Hi and Woofs,

I went to Jude's work on Friday - thought it was time I introduced myself to the team again. This meant I had to endure a 40 minute ride in the car (each way!) - and even though the suspension settings were on COMFORT I didn't feel that comfortable!

Things went well at work - lot's of people thought I was cute, and who can blame them? I had my photo taken lots of times - sometimes by team members (see example photo of me looking intelligent, taken by the lovely Melinda) and sometimes by complete strangers. Lots of people wanted to pat me, and were impressed that I'd shake hands with them, do drops etc.

The highlight of the morning was that Parul brought me a new toy. It's an elephant holding on to a chew rope. I could smell it in her handbag as soon as she came into the office (Editorial note - what is it about toys that broadcast their arrival? I can never get a new toy into the house past Toby without him being on high alert.) Anyway I gave the toy a good work out - and that squeaker was gratifyingly loud. I'm sure Craig's going to love having another squeaking toy in the house!

Each time I went out for a walk the pesky little bird would squawk and shrill at me - they even tried dive bombing me. I totally ignored them, but sometimes the people holding my lead got a bit frightened, perhaps because being a bit taller than me they were in imminent danger of having their eye taken out!

Before .... 

During my lunch time walk we visited the Marketing crew in the Treehouse. It was great to see Benita and Vanessa, who I remember from my visit back when I was only a puppy. They'd been reorganising the furniture in the office - I think I really should have hopped up on the couch to check what can be seen from there but we didn't have time apparently!

About mid-afternoon we went rushing out after a meeting (from which I'd been excluded - huh!) and across the campus only to see four of the Digital team members standing on the grass in matching t-shirts. I was just thinking what a good looking bunch of people they were when they up and tipped buckets of ice and water over their own heads - something about raising money for Motor Neurone disease research I think!!! Talk about CRAZY - it was only 12 degrees Celsius for goodness sake! Anyway, on the positive side, there were little plastic ducks in their buckets - I thought these might make great toys for me so I tried commando crawling over to get some, but Jude caught me. Oh well, good try huh?

After the buckets were tipped!
See the little ducks by their feet?

It was a busy day. Before you ask, no, I was not awarded my PhD at the end of the day - apparently that takes a LOT of study and work - more than 1 day even. I'm going to think of a topic for my PhD though - then I'll just need to find a supervisor! Much to do ....

Woofs,
Toby

I've got a new toy

This is one of those 'good news / bad news' stories ....

Bit of a sad story - Mr Banana Man has gone to heaven. We think he was attacked by the racoon! We mysteriously found him under the dining room table with all of his previous surgery unpicked (and almost no stuffing at all - Jude's wondering where that went?). Dr Jude tried to save Mr Banana Man but there weren't enough bits left to sew together. Craig suggested that it would be a better use of human time if I got a new toy ...

So I'm introducing 'DUCK DUCK'. He's a duck I think but he makes a really strange quacking noise so I'm not sure, maybe he's a goose! I'm not letting Jude or Craig play with the duck - he's all mine - yay!!! Here's a picture of me holding him in my mouth.

Woofs,
Toby <quack quack>

Soooo much has been happening!

Hi and woof-oh!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. So much has been going on that I've hardly had time to keep watch for passing baddies, let along keep up with my blog.

Where to begin? In July I went and stayed at Linda's place (Pawfect Manners) and worked on improving my manners. Apparently the world doesn't revolve around me - who knew! Well that went well: I had a great time playing with the other dogs at Linda's place and even lost a few kilos from all the extra exercise. I also learned to keep a low profile when Linda's very tall German Shepherds looked my way, and clarified my understandings of the human's commands. Craig and Jude were VERY impressed with my behaviour when I got home.

Winter has been very cold so I've been growing my fur coat. I'm told that I am looking very handsome.

Last weekend was Gran's 80th birthday celebration. Everyone in the family went to Ballarat to celebrate, including me. We drove there in Jude's new car - the sporty suspension made me feel sick. Craig says next time I go in that car Jude should change the suspension setting to 'Comfort' - I was pleased to see her checking how to do that in the manual this afternoon. She says it's easy. I hope it works because I had to stand up on the back seat and pant noisily all the way to Ballarat and home - and that wore me out, taking the edge off my showing off once we arrived.

The humans went out for lunch leaving Hamish and me at Gran's place. I think they had fun ... they took a lot of photos anyway ....

In case you are wondering, Nick had a scooter crash during the week which is how he hurt himself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAN!!!

I want to be a physio-dog-therapist when I grow up!

I've been putting in a lot of hours lately supervising Jude's at home physio exercises. Each week she visits the human physio, Sarah, and gets new exercises to add to the collection - what's annoying is that Sarah gets all the kudos for the improvements with Jude's shoulder while I go unrecognised! It's me who gets up at 5:15 every morning and supervises the workout (even when it's cold and I'd rather be in my warm bed) and it's me who supervises the evening workouts too.

Well I've had enough of playing second fiddle, and have come up with some new exercises to add to the collection - here are some of my favourites:

1. Row exercise. Jude does the basic exercise while lying on the bed or fitball with her arm hanging down the side. My new version is that I place my head between her arm and the bed/fit ball and lift her arm away from her body quickly. I know this is having an impact because Jude yells (with joy I'm sure) when I help with this one.

2. The shrug. Jude holds her arm out at 20 degrees from her side holding a weight in her hand, then shrugs the shoulder in a pattern specified by her human physio. My adaptation is to add challenge - I do this by grabbing the weight in my mouth to increase resistance. Jude's not keen on this exercise yet - I'll keep trying to convince her of the benefits. 

3, Abdominal strength. This is a complementary exercise - might as well get as many muscles working at once as possible don't you think? While Jude is lying on the floor raising her arms and shoulders over her head, I sit on her stomach - to build up her abdominal strength! If it seems like she's handling that easily I wriggle around and dig in my boney feet. 

4. Moral support. Another thing I like to do while Jude is lying on the floor is to lie down right beside her, lean against her (to keep her warm - it is winter you know) and lick her ear or whatever part of her face I can reach. 

I think you will see from readng this that I am well suited to a career as a physio - in fact I'll probably get early entrance into the course via La Trobe's 'Aspire' program, and recognition for prior learning / credit for all the practical experience I have, don't you think?