Its Tuff Enough proof and Wedding Days

Well here it is. My humble opinion of my new Tuff Enough toy. WE LOVE IT. I mean lets be honest, Vickie will never leave me unsupervised with it, but boy, does it stand up to the chewing and tugging and runs in the park.

This is the first real toy I have been allowed to play with, you know, cause I tend to chew, destroy, then swallow anything I can get my paws on.

So here is "A Day in the life of Me, with my new toy" (Boomerang Bob)

Boomerang Bob (from here on referred to Bob) and I start out the day with a cruel game of "Keep Away" from Jamie. I take Bob to the pillow where Jamie is resting and I shove her off and begin to chew on Bob. I know that Jamie wants Bob in a bad way, and I enjoy teasing her with him.

I let her get closer and closer, thinking she can take it away from me, and then when she is close enough, I pick Bob up and change position so he is just out of her reach.

Sometimes if I start chewing and pulling too hard on Bob, Vickie will tell me to stop it or she will take it away. I think I have figured out what that means. So when ever she is watching me, which is alllll the time when I am with Bob, I am very gentle. I try and do a little pulling and tearing but so far, Bob has not given up one single thread.....

So anyway, I tease Jamie some more.....I guess I am kind of a "knot head" after all. That is Vickies term for me when I tease poor Jamie.....yeh yeh, she's so delicate......

So next it is off to the Park. Man the park is pretty right now. All those big green trees have turned to a golden shade and the leaves are falling to the ground. It is so fun to run through them and feel them crunch beneath my paws. And Oh My, rolling in them is the BEST.

I run to a pile of them and dive in rolling over and over and sometimes I am really lucky and find some bird poop underneath which adds to my pleasure totally. All this beauty plus that wonderful fresh doo doo smell added to it. I am in heaven.

I was in such a good mood that I let Jamie play with Bob.....well for just a short minute, but it was a minute...

A minute was all I could stand and so after that, I whipped it away from her and off I went. Me and Bob, just a runnin and a playin........

And now it is time to rest......I am exhausted.....oh wait.....the neighbor boys just called Vickie and asked if they could take me for a walk and to play at the park........

I guess I am not so tired. Wake Up Bob, we are off again......wahoooooo
I LOVE THE FALL.....

The next day was the First snowfall of the season and I missed it....

Well, I mean, I got to go outside and catch snowflakes in my mouth and stuff but i didn't get to go anywhere. Vickie went to Salt Lake (With out me) She said it was to a wedding and that I needed to stay home this time. Bummer.

Oakly's mom Becky is getting married. She is Vickies Sisters Daughter. Again, not sure what that means to me, but it seemed awfully important to Vickie. She showed me pictures and I feel bad I wasn't invited. It looked like quite the TaDoo. This is a Cake. That in itself sounds like it was a really good thing that a guy like me would really have liked.

Garret brought his mom and dad down from Idaho for the shindig. I felt pretty bad that I didn't get to play with Garret. I mean, why would a kid come to Ogden and not want to spend time with me.

Becky, Ben and Cody on the happy day. Everyone is so excited about this. I sure wish I could have gone. But at least I got to play with Oakly for a few days....

Cody, Grandma Louise and Becky.

Oh Well, I am sure Vickie will find a way to make it up to me. I hear that Brian and Elizabeth have brought Scott and Callie for a week. They live in Vermont so I don't get to see them much. Wahoo Callie, I'm a comin.....

Love Bert

Just some fun pictures

It is hard to tell but the little white marks in the picture are rain. It was so weird. It was a perfectly beautiful day and no clouds in sight, but it was raining. How strange......

WE were on our way up to the trailer when we saw these five deer. It was kind of sad, because the mom to two of them was no where in sight and we fear she has been a victim of the doe hunt this year. Thank goodness the other mother took in the two orphans.....

Back at the kennel it was a day of fun. Me and No Name. (yep, they still haven't named him) ran and played until we both had to stop and take a rest.

While I was resting No Name got a second wind and started a game with Bonnie.

That went on until Bonnie got mad and stormed into the bedroom.

Zeus led the choir as we all serenaded with the ambulance and fire truck that headed west past the kennel.

Zoey was a little shaken by all the activity when she first came, but eventually she warmed up to all of us and was able to join in the fun.

Stockton has been here with us for a week and so it was kind of sad to see him heading home. I think he was happy about it though. He misses his family when they are gone, like all the other dogs here. He is luckier than most of the dogs cause he can stay in the house with me and Vickie.

I asked her why he is so special and she told me it is because one day when he first came to visit many years ago, he got tired of being separated from any of the other dogs so he figured out how to open the kennels and let them out.

Vickie had gone to the store and when she returned, Stockton had released all the dogs. They were having a party in the house and running in and out of each others rooms and play areas. It was then that she decided to keep him in the house when he came.

Cleo patiently posed for this picture. She is so sweet to everyone who comes here. Her and Gus get along with everyone.

Princess enjoys a good spin around the kennel leading the whole crew.

Casey hasn't been here for a long time but yesterday he made it very clear to his owner, that it was time to come play. He made the most of the day.

Becky is getting married on Tuesday and so Saturday they had a great shower for her. I had to wait in the car because, well, for some reason I was not invited to the party.

Vickie said the cake and all the food looked WONDERFUL but she had to leave before they ate cause we had a demo to go to.

Waving by by, Vickie was off.

The demo was pretty fun and it was great to get out of the car. Murhpy, Tucker and Allie came to help me out at the demo. It was at an open house for the veterinarian in NOrth Ogden. They had lots of food too and Vickie got a plate full and while she wasn't looking, I grabbed it and ate most of it. Now I am in trouble. (It was worth it)

These two lovelies came over to say hi to us at the demo. Yes, they are older and bigger girls but I still like em.......like em.......like em......mmmmm....... like em.......

By now

Bert

Good News Bad News

This week I got a great surprise from one of Vickies friends. She brought us a whole bunch of dirty socks and shoes from her friends, employees and neighbors just to help me out with my Scent Discrimination Training. See what we do is, Vickie takes all the shoes and throws them out in a field. Then she lets me smell a dirty sock that belongs to the person who wore one of the shoes out in the field.

Then I go out and smell all the dirty shoes.....wahooey.....until I find the one that smells the same as the dirty sock. Then I pick up the shoe and bring it back to Vickie and then we play play play with my new toy that you can read about in a minute.

It is great fun and I am really really good at it.....





















Of course Jamie, In her day, was the best ever at this but I am going to practice and practice so I can one day be as good as Jamie was.

You may wonder what this has to do with being the GREATEST SEARCH DOG IN THE WORLD but I'll tel you right now that it is a really important part of my training. Vickie says sometimes when she goes on searches that there are hundreds of other people from the community up helping look for the lost person.

If I can learn to know which smell is the smell of the person who is lost, then I wont be confused with all the other smells from all the other people looking. Does that makes sense? Anyway thank you thank you to all of Penelope Cromwells friends, neighbors and other employees. You sent us some really smelly stuff and that makes my job much easier.
































Now for some more GOOD NEWS......Finally, finally my new toy arrived. This toy is supposed to be chew proof, indestructable and I get to be the boy who tests it. People everywhere will be checking in to see if I can eat this, tear it up, rip it to pieces, and then swallow the squeeker inside blocking my stomach and making it so I get to go spend time at the vets again while they cut me open and take it out.
Now I gotta tell you that my last squeeker experience was not a pleasant one, but for my friend Jill at Pet Expectaions, I am willing to try again. Of course Vickie is watching me very closely and is only allowing me play time with this great toy while she is present.

Hopefully, I will give it my best shot and it will be true to its creators claims. I then can pass the good news on to all my other dog friends. Finally a soft toy we can enjoy.

So, I slept with it my first night. It is like a little tiny soft pacifyer that I fell asleep with in my mouth. I liked it so much that I made Vickie take it with me to the dog training on Saturday. The plan was she would keep it in her back pack until after my test.....then when I found my lost person I would get to play with my new toy.





























Of course that was the plan, but then Rosco came along and took it out of the back pack and tried to keep it for himself. I know I am supposed to share, but really Rosco......I have only had it for 12 hours. I haven't even broke it in. And I am the tester dog, not you......






















I don't mean to be rude, but I just had to get it back. Rosco tried to keep it and we ran around for a good long while trying to pull it away from each other....That Rosco is a strong willed dog. I finally had to go get Vickie and convince her (I do this by looking insecure and standing on her front with a sad face) to get my toy and put it in a safe place.....away from those other dogs.

























So now we come to the Bad News. It is finally time for me to be tested to begin my official journey to becoming the BEST SEARCH DOG IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Joyce had come early to our training area in Wyoming and had set up my test.

I started out and came to a bridge where I found her first scent article. This was given to me so that I would know exactly who I was smelling......and looking for.....like I didn't know.....





















I wasn't worried and I did just fine.....It was Vickie who messed things up. Yep, I missed by 8 minutes. Just because Vickie was not willing to wade through one more swamp to get to our missing person. I couldn't beleive her. I smelled the person, I knew where they were and I was heading straight for them. But you see, to pass this first test, both the handler (Vickie) amd the dog (me) need to be with the Victim or lost person at the same time.

Because Vickie wanted to hike around the iddy biddy little swamp, we lost precious time and, you guessed it......we did not pass.

Man, I had done such a good job too. I had found the track of the missing person and had followed it through hill and dale, creek and swamp, up and down. I found all three of the articles left by the victim along the trail and that aint easy, let me tell you. I was incredible.

Vickie, well, she did ok. She kept up with me most of the time, she crossed the creeks waided through the swamps, climbed over and through the fallen trees, but when it came to the crunch, that final swamp, she backed off. Now granted, it was deep and slimy and smelly but it didn't bother me, so whats up with it bothering her........

When we finally got back to the command post, I started noticing that I was itchy and that my coat was full of sticky things. I guess I ran through some pretty bad stuff cause what ever it was was pinching and grabbing at my skin too. Vickie and I sat over in a big field by the river and I chewed and pulled, while she carefully untangled the little bounders out of my coat.

My coat was all wet, you know, because of the cool swamps that I got to run through and so they were pretty hard to get out. We got some out but it was clear it would be a bigger job than we had time for so after the training, we headed back to Utah with the plan of pulling the rest out while we relaxed at home that night.

When we got home, to my great joy, my neighbors asked if they could take me and Tristy and Byron (a little guy that is staying with us) all to the park. Byron isn't really his name. That is just what my friends want to call him until his family picks out a name for him.....truthfully though, I kind of think Byron fits.

I thought I was too tired to go to the park but how can you say no to running and playing ball with a bunch of guys. So while Vickie took Erin and Chase home, we all went to the park.

WE had a GREAT TIME......I played for a bit, then I needed a short rest and then I got my second wind and boy did I have fun. They played ball with me, they taught me how to NOT grab the ball out of peoples hands.....We frolicked with little Byrong and we even just sat around and they petted us and they combed some more of the burrs out of my coat.

It was a wonderful ending to a long and fun day.

I guess it is not the end of the world, because I didn't pass my first test. I mean technically I did really good. It was Vickie that messed us up. So I'll test again in the near future, hopefully before the winter snows come. If there is a search before that, well, they will just have to get along with out me.

So I leave you with a picture of Tristy resting with the beautiful sun shining through the tall trees in the back ground

And Byron and Alexander taking a break as well. Love to all my friends. I think I am finally getting tired and ready to call it an evening.

I'll keep you posted on my new toy as time goes by.

Love

Bert

We Love Fall

Well, we just love the fall around here. I know it is only my second fall since I was born, but I gotta tell you, it is the best time of year. I think Vickie is most active in the fall too cause we get to spend tons more time outside in the fall than we ever did in the really hot part of summer or the really cold part of winter.

This week, we went out and played everyday, all day long and when night came, I even got to go playing with my new friends down the street, Nathan Alexander and Austin. They are new to the neighborhood so I had Vickie tell them that I would be happy to show them around any time they wanted. So last night, even though it was windy and getting really close to raining they took me and Tristy for a long long walk to the park. At the park, they played and played with me until I was ready to drop.

Tristy got really tired but she didn't give up at all. She had been to see doctor doughty earlier in the day and he took out all her stitches and gave her a clean bill of health. so this was her first really long play date and she was soo happy too.

A great treat that I learned about this year is that I have an excellent and constant food source in the fall too. See this big old tree that gives me great shade all summer long, starts dropping tasty tid bits to eat in the fall. Vickie calls it a golden walnut tree. All I know is that when they start falling, I get to chomp on this hard brown woody thing and when I break through that, there is this really tasty nut inside.

It was real cool thing once I figured out how to get to the good stuff.

While Vickie and I were at the park today, the wind started blowing. Vickie stopped and just started staring up into the sky. She didn't move for about five minutes. I was starting to get worried that something was wrong with her.

Then she told me to listen to the sound of the leaves rustling through the big tall trees as the wind passed gently and sometimes wildly among them. I guess it was pretty cool, but I got bored with that quickly as there are a lot more fun things closer to the ground than a bunch of leaves 150 feet above my head making some noise.

I played while Vickie stood transfixed (cool word for a dog to be using, eh) by the sound of the leaves and as she put it, watching the parade of cartoon characters dancing across the sky as they lead the way for the really dark storm clouds following closely behind.

She is always walking with her head toward the sky watching the clouds make different formations. Sometimes she even laughs out loud at the shapes she can see twirling above her.

Can you see the cartoon dog in the last one?

Nutty gal.....but I love her anyway.

So back to the fun of fall, one day we met Vickies mom and KC at the dog park. KC got pretty muddy but he had a great time playing chase with a ball. Oh my gosh, I just remembered, this was one of the times she didn't take me. This is just what I heard from Jamie, Abby, Tristy and Scrappy.

Oh man......I didn't get to go that time. Wonder what I did wrong that day.

Anyway, from what I hear they all had a great time. Mmmm Bummer
There was this kid there that threw the ball for Jamie and KC for ever......mmmmm I think I may be mad.

I remember that Jamie came home and couldn't walk for two days. But she said it was worth every minute of the pain she was in after, just to be able to play with that boy. I sure wish I could have met that kid. I just can't remember what I was in trouble for that time......

So I must have MADE UP for what ever it was that kept me from going to the park because even though I am not a certified search and rescue dog, I got to go on my first official search this week. And I did pretty darn good if I say so myself.

See, there is this little girl that lost her hearing aid in a city park this week. Everyone came to help her and her daddy look for it but they just couldn't find it. We didn't hear about it until two days later, but were happy to go help look when we did find out. Of course I didn't get to go officially. First Jamie Tucker and Murhpy went, but when they were all through looking, I got to come and look too.

Unfortunately, we were not able to find the hearing aid either. But we all sure worked hard. We did figure out exactly where the little girl went and where she played but just not able to pin point the hearing aid.

Even Jamie, who is famous for finding , jewelry, keys, and other small lost articles could not find the prize. By now, it has been tromped on by lots of searchers and is probably broken and deep deep down in the grasses at the park. We feel really bad for the little girl.

Vickie said that it was ok though because a really nice doctor heard about the loss and he donated a new one for her. They cost about 1800 dollars and the family was so excited and amazed at the doctors kindness and also for all the people and dogs and such that came out to help them look. They said it was very humbling to find so many people (and dogs) who cared.

I think I am going to like "this, helping people thing".....

I met this cool dog this week. Her name is Marley and she is huge....HUGE. I thought I was a big guy in the world of dogs but Marley is HUGE. She got to stay in the house with us while she stayed her because there isn't a dog door big enough for her to get through in the whole kennel.

Sometimes I would catch myself just looking at her, staring in wonder at her size. I mean check it out. She is twice my size. Mostly she was just nice to look at. She didn't have feelings towards me one way or the other. She just moved through things as though they would dissappear or move out of her way when she came by them. It was bewildering to watch her.

One final trip up to the property. Thats what Vickie said. She said if she came up again this season it would be without me.....without me......now what does that mean.

Anyway, we couldn't make it to the trailer in the truck so we had to hike in. It was a great day. Big black clouds overhead, a slight breeze throught he trees and lots and lots of muddy puddles for me to lay in.

I love how it feels when I lay down and the thick oozing mud slithers through my coat and up against the fleshy parts of my tummy and in between my toes. MMMMM mud......I am sure that this is a gift from the big guy up stairs just for me.......

We finally made it to the trailer. We went inside and saw that John had secured it for winter by putting up big four by four posts of wood to help handle the weight of the winter snows. It is kind of sad knowing there will be no more overnighters until the year 2010. wow that seems so far away.

After a bit of reminising about the great great summer, Vickie got the red atv and I ran along side as we made our way back. She went really slow so I could enjoy myself as it was a long way back to the truck. It was a great run. PErfect run, GREAT DAY.

Finally we got back to the truck and loaded up little red onto big read and started back home. I am really going to miss this place. I can't wait for next season......Boy I lucked out getting Vickie to bring me home. I wonder if my brothers and sisters are having as much fun in life as I am.

Check out the video below. The dogs have a really great time here. Wish I didn't have such a desire to eat rocks. Vickie said if I didn't, I could go inside and play with the other dogs more. Now all I get to do is watch the. Thats ok, Vickie says we get to go to Evanston this weekend to train with all the other dogs. Check back later and I'll have an update for you on the weekend.

Love

bert