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 ...

Twelve weeks and counting ...

Woof-oh and hi. I've been super busy lately - I got my 12 week old puppy vaccination injections last Wednesday. Craig took me to the visit the Vet, and it was pretty far away in Broadford. Everything was OK, and I was very brave about getting my injections, but I didn't like having my toenails cut! I liked seeing all the other dogs and cats in the waiting room, but it was a bit scary going through the gardens outside the Vet's place ...

This week I have been learning to climb down stairs (I'm quite fearless about going up you know). It's pretty hard because my legs aren't quite long enough to reach more than one step at a time, and my body is a bit too big to fit onto a single step easily. I have to concentrate hard. So does Craig - he helps me get down the stairs ... He says soon I will be able to go up and down the stairs on my own, and go out through the dog door into the backyard whenever I like - I'm not sure if that will be as much fun as having him or Jude take me out to the front yard ... where I can hunt for kangaroo poo (he he he).

We had friends visit us yesterday - Mike, Isabella and Amelia. I luuurve Amelia (Milly) - she only has to look at me and it makes my tail wag! Milly brought me a toy ... it's a banana man with lots of bits of rope for me to chew, plus a squeaker in the tummy. I love it! She also came outside with me when I needed to pee, and she gave me a treat for being so clever - she really thinks I'm cute even though she says I am a bit jumpy and bitey.

When Craig was tidying up, getting ready for the visitors, he got the bright idea of buying a box to put all my toys into. I don't like this idea - I need speedy access to my toys at all times. I've been trying to work out how to break my toys out of the container - yesterday I climbed in and tossed my favourites over the side, but it was quite hard to get out again. This morning I've been trying to eat them to safety. It's not going so well - I keep getting distracted. Every time I go to sleep somehow all of my toys magically get back into the box. I'm going to give this some serious thought ...

I've been helping out around the house again today. Craig had hung my towels up over the stair rails to dry off (they got damp from drying me off when we got wet going outside for toilet breaks) and I thought it was about time someone took them down and started folding them up and putting them away. Have a look a the photos below and you'll see what a great job I did with the housework.

Folding up the towels ... 

How cute am I?

I'm still working on the eating, sleeping and growing thing - I'm about 7kgs now! This week I can start going for big dog walks - yay! I'll probably have a lot of new adventures to tell you about next week.

Woofs, Toby.

I'm getting bigger ....

Well, I've had a huge week. I've put on another kilogram in weight (6.5kg yesterday)  - amazing given that I am always feeling hungry ... I'm also learning to be a lot more independent, especially in the back yard and I'm learning lots of new skills.

Yesterday I climbed up all of the stairs on the inside staircase, all by myself. A human was walking close behind me but I didn't need any help. There are 15 steps (I counted them), so that was quite an achievement. Jude won't let me go down the stairs on my own yet - she says I know no fear, and would probably just jump from the top step ... sounds like fun, I don't know what she's worrying about.

Today was Mother's Day - two big things happened as a result:

1. Yesterday I had my first bath - so that I would smell nice when we visited Jude's mum. The humans put me in the kitchen sink which was filled with warm soapy water. There were lots of bubbles - I tried biting them but they just disappeared. Anyway, I was very brave, and didn't cry of try to escape or anything.  Afterwards I got rubbed with dry towels and got lots of attention, so that was fun-ish. 
2. Today I went all the way to Ballarat and back all by myself on the back seat of the car. I was  wearing my big dog harness ... it was really a bit scary but I was very well behaved. No crying - but I did hide my face between the seat and the door a few times. The humans were very happy that I wasn't sick.

The visit to Ballarat went well. I was on my best behaviour ... pulled all my cutest poses, but those dogs have forgotten how to play. They kept well away from me - but they did wag their tails at me.  There were humans in Ballarat too - but I was focusing on the two dogs. They looked very big but I wasn't scared. I showed them some of my dance moves but they just walked away shaking their heads. Maybe next time?  The good news was that they donated some of their old toys to me. Now I have two balls to chase - and when I catch them they make very loads squeaks! I love the new toys - my humans aren't so sure that they are a good thing.

I bought my human mum a card and present - had to send Craig into the shops to buy her the gift - an orange wallet.  Jude was very impressed because orange is her favourite colour - plus it was a very nice card. She gave me big hugs - I gave her a quick bite to bring her back to reality! 

Other exciting news - I found a new pair of Jude's shoes with laces that I haven't chomped before. I got stuck into them and have munched up the end of the laces really well - the hard bits at either end of the laces are the bits I like the most, I think they are called 'aglets'. I'm working on my vocabulary ... some 'expert' said that when I grow up I will know about 200 words - I'm aiming for 500 cos I am very clever.

So it has been a big exciting day - and now it's time I went to bed. 

Woofs, Toby

Week Two

Hi, it's me again. Sorry it has been a while since my last post - I have to wait my turn to use the computer, and sometimes the humans want to use it too which slows things down a bit ...

It has been a big week for me this week. I suddenly noticed that when I do my business outside I get a treat! Now I think I may have mentioned before that I'm virtually starving, so topping up on treats is a great idea. I'm learning to do a funny little run when I need to go out - most of the time the humans notice and hurry to take me outside ... I do my bit then I get a treat. I think I am so clever. The humans think so too ...

I've been feeling a lot more confident in my new home this week. I've instituted 'crazy critter' time - that's when I run around like crazy and make trouble for about 20 minutes just before it gets dark each night. Last night during crazy time I bit Jude on the thumb - it hurt so much that she nearly cried. She says it still hurts today, and the discomfort is making her type slowly - what a whinger huh!  Today during crazy critter time I taught myself to go under the couch, and crawl like a commando from one end to the other, really fast. As there is only about 2 centimentres between the bottom of the couch and my back, the humans were getting very nervous about me getting stuck - but I came through fast - I have no fear. When  I crawled through the second time I tried to bite Jude's foot from under the couch - like a tiger - but she saw me coming and got away.

Well, I have no fear except when it comes to going in the car - then I'm a bit frightened. Today the humans strapped my into a big dog harness thing and plugged one end of it into the seat-belt receptacle on the back seat. I sat up on my special dog blanket (it used to belong to Uncle Teddy) and I looked really cute and cool, but when Craig started driving I realised that I really needed to sit on Jude's lap. Only because the road was bumpy you understand. Anyway, I've decided that I don't really like the harness thing.

It has been really cold this weekend. When the humans take me outside for toilet breaks they have been wearing big coats and scarves and even hats to keep warm. Jude got to thinking that Uncle Ted used to have a coat when he was little, and - this is one of the things I hate about obsessively organised people - she could find it. She made me try it on and took a photo. She said I look cute - I think the coat is very hot (and I made it very difficult for her to take the photo) so I try to take it off as quickly as I can - he he he. I've been working on undoing the velcros straps all day - I'm really good at it now.

This week I weighed 5.4 kilograms - that means I put on 1 kg again this week. Quite an achievement huh! I won't be able to fit under the couches for much longer at this rate.

Well I'd better go - I have to try to bludge some more food.
Woofs! Toby