It's all about ME!

Man, I was so bored yesterday. We didn’t do anything at except for the chores at the kennel. Vickie moaned and groaned all day about the snow/rain slush. She kept complaining about how cold she was. She even turned the heat up. I had to spend most of the day outside on the porch cause she got the house so warm.

I spent the night thinking of ways I could get her to take me to the park, or for a walk and around 4 am I figured out exactly what I should do. First I started by pacing through the house, making sure my toenails clicked loudly across the tile floor. Through the kitchen, into the living room and around to the bedroom. Around and around I went stopping only to put my cold nose on Vickie’s arm or neck each time I passed.

I was surprised at how quickly she would wake up each time I nosed her. I now know the power of “The Nose Nudging”. However, even the Power of the Nose didn’t budge her out of her warm bed so I went outside and started to play with my tire toy.

It is hanging from a tree and has some metal rods that are next to the rope of the tire and each time I tug or pull on the tire, the metal rods cling together making a very pleasant but very loud ringing noise. Well that did it. She finally got out of bed and started getting breakfast. She came out to take a picture of me playing and said that perhaps I should wait until the sun came up next time I wanted to play with the tire swing.

I followed her around all morning giving her my most beguiling look. She says I am charming and delightful when I give her those looks so I have been practicing when she is not around. I think I have it down to a science.

Finally all of my Day Care friends had arrived and were out and about playing with each other. Vickie grabbed her gloves and coat and hat and then the camera and I KNEW we were going somewhere fun.

We all three (Jamie, Vickie and I) jumped into the old red truck and off we went. I kept reaching out with my paw to Vickie’s hand to let her know she was doing the right thing.

To my surprise and great joy, when we came to the usual park, Vickie kept driving. We just kept going west. Finally the road ended and she turned the engine off. I was beside myself with excitement. We were at the Bird Refuge west of Ogden.

It smelled so good. There were wonderful aromas coming from every direction as I jumped out of the truck. Swamps and Bird smells, cows and horses. It was heaven.

The walk was so fun. I got to run and run. The snow was pretty deep and it was a little tough but I managed. Jamie was a little slow so I had to leave her behind. There was so much to smell and to see.

One time I went under a wire fence. Vickie tried to warn me and call me back from going through it but I wasn’t in the mood to listen. Maybe I should have. As I run between the fencing a sharp little metal thing grabbed my belly and pulled out some of my hair and scratched my tummy.

I think I’ll listen a little better next time she hollers out “Watch It Bert”. It was shortly after that little experience that we turned and headed back to the truck.

I was in the lead, making sure that everything was as it should be. I have decided that one of my jobs is to protect Jamie and Vickie on our walks so I must be ahead of them a bit to check things out.

As I was making my way back, I was taken by surprise by a strong smell of Vickie coming from the north side of the trail. It was odd, because I knew Vickie was about 50 yards behind me. I figured I should check it out.

I’ll be danged, that Vickie had hidden one of her gloves just off the trail earlier on our walk and I hadn’t even seen it. Here we were just taking a walk and she still wanted me to use my nose and my brain. I knew immediately that she wanted me to find the glove and bring it to her. It is part of my search dog training and I had passed today’s test.

Yep, "I’m the man"!!! You can’t trick me. I proudly carried the glove back to her and showed her how amazing I was. She was very excited and we played and played with the glove.

Jamie told me that she was proud of me too. It means a lot to have Jamie tell me I did a good job. Vickie always talks about how good Jamie is as a search dog, so knowing that I had done something as good as she can do, well, it just makes a guy feel honored.

Jamie says that when we go walking down along the river by Fort Buenaventura, we will be able to find all kinds of hidden human things. One time, Jamie found some underwear. She said she was a little surprised at Vickie’s re-action when she brought it back to her.

Normally Jamie say’s, Vickie is excited and delighted when she finds socks or other things but this time, Vickie was acting very weird. She was saying “Drop it, Jamie. Drop It…. Yuk yuk yuk.”

So I guess it depends on what you find and where you find it. I am going to have to think about that one. Anyway, for the first time, I was happy to jump backi n the truck and go home. We had had a wonderful time.

Well, I am really really tired now. I think I will be able to sleep tonight, so I guess that means Vickie can sleep too. Night….