July 20th thru 30th 2010

GOOD NEWS

Have ya heard the news?

It's True, Finally, Happily

I can tell you all that Dizzy

has found a new home.

And not just a new home but a GREAT home with a GREAT Lady and two other four legged pals and a HUGE BIG wonderful back yard and he gets to go on hikes ALL the Time. Every Day.

I am thinking about asking his new family to adopt me. Vickie even said she was thinking about asking if they would adopt her too.

YEAH Great and wonderful news, don't ya think.

So when Vickie took Dizzy who is now called CODY to his new home to try it out, they asked her if she wanted to bring me and Betty to a "Puppy Party". A "Puppy Party" now that sounds like a great idea.

I was so excited about it when Vickie came home and told me about it.

So a week or so after Dizzy/Cody went to live with his new family, Vickie Betty and I piled into the car and went to our first (and hopefully not last) "Puppy Party"

I say "Hopefully" cause Vickie said I might have done a few things that could get us ousted in the future. But I think she just exagerates a lot. Let me tell you what really happened.


So we get to the party and Oh MY, there are dogs everywhere and the grass, oh GRASS. I have seen grass at the park, even when I get to go to Vickies moms house, but I don't beleive I have ever seen such beautiful, roll around, make me green, grass like Dizzy/Cody has in his new yard.


Me and all the other dogs that came to the "Party" just loved the green stuff. We ran and jumped and played in it, rolled around in it till I was exhausted.

Betty was a little more reserved than I, taking advantage of all the wonderful loving she got from all the really neat people that were there.


Ray Ray and Taylor were there too. Remember the video I sent out a few months ago of the "Happy Tails" That was Ray Ray and Taylor. They sure look different when they are standing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYRLyYj6j3w

I found this ball, Ha ha. And Robie thougth she had found and hidden all of them before we came. It took some doing but Vickie finally threw it for me for about five minutes. She wouldn't let me take it to the other humans there because she says I am still a little "Phsyco" about my persuit of the ball wether it is in your hand or in the air.

Taylor found a friend on the other side of the fence but they didn't get to come over and join us so after a while we all forgot it was even there.

Dizzy/CODY (I'll call him Cody from this point on cause I think you all understand that his new name is not Dizzy but Cody) Anyway Cody is in seventh heaven. He has all kinds of new friends, two legged and four legged, he has a real live bed to sleep in (he doesn't mind sharing it with his human and Wiley the other two legged member of the family)

He has a house to live in and he hosts these wonderful parties now. Well, he is almost the luckiest dog in the world.

Betty, still working the crowd.

So I did pretty good up till now. I checked out the food they were all eating once or twice but I didn't take any. I just did the dog thing and ran and played and entertained for about an hour.

It was getting a little hot and I was tired so I went looking for water. I love water. There was no pool to cool off in but there was this big bucket full of bottles and ice. (I LOVE ICE)

So me and some of the guys start drinking the water from the big metal bucket, but I was still hot. REally hot, so I started trying to get some of those bottles out. I had a plan you see.

Now to the on lookers, you might think I was just playing in the bucket so they were laughing a little and watching. But like I said, I had a plan.

I swooshed and shoveled until I had pulled out a few of those bottles and now there is more room in the tub. Room enough for, You guessed it,

ME.

I was able to menuver things around just enough so that I could curl up tightly into the bucket and the cold ice and water with the bottles and all was my cooling off tub. Ohhhhh it felt so so good.

And the best part is that no body was mad at me.....

Well Yes, Vickie was slightly emberassed, but not mad.

That little trick of mine and a slight dissagreement with Cody just before we left, leaves us on the Maybe list for coming back to the next "Puppy Party", according to Vickie. I sure hope she is wrong. I mean, other than those two little tiny things, I was the perfect guest.

My swimming hole is getting a little crowded these days. Like today after a really long hot hike, I come to the lake all ready for a cool refreshing dip, but when I get there, what do I find?

Yep, these two mooses (is it mooses when there are two or meese) anyway they have taken up residency right in the one and only spot on the lake that I am allowed to go in on. They were just young ins, maybe two years old and I figured I could take em if I needed too. But Vickie said “NO’

Finally, after who knows how long, they have enough to drink and start slowly I mean slowly coming out of the water. So I am getting ready for my long run and dive into the water when Vickie quietly whispers “no Bert, not yet”

Now come on, the young ens have left and it is my turn…..so what is holdin up the mix here? Then I see what she is looking at with wonder and amazement and I too have to stop and watch in Awe.

Just up the hill from us comes this beautiful, huge, I mean HUGE bull Moose. He is walking stratight towards us with the intent of going to the water. It is clear that he is intent on going directly through us if we don’t move so Vickie quietly whispers “Bert, Come to Heal” The way she is whispering is intense so for one of only a few times, I “Came to Heal” at her first request.

Then we slowly moved to the right about 20 feet and stood in amazement as the big guy walked right past us and into the water. We were watching him, thourougly engrossed when I noticed out of the corner of my eye something moving along down the same trail just to the side of us.

Vickie and I Turned at the same time and saw yet another HUGE moose appearing from the forest like a gient ghost spirit not 20 feet from us. I say ghost spirit, because it was late and just as the sun was going down so as we looked at him he was appearing through the sunlight and it was ghostly.

I may be wrong but I figure when a critter as big as these two guys comes down to swim in my lake, as much as I hate it, that lake BECOMES THERE LAKE.

I may be young and foolish sometimes, but I am not CRAZY......

Yet again another demonstration this week. Of course it is always fun to be with the kids.

Check it out.....Can you find me in the picture below?

I am loving our trips up to Huntsville for my agility class with Tucker. We jump, climb, play teeter tauter (how do you spell that one) sit on boxes, race through tunnels.

Who wouldn't love that....

OK<>

So I figured I would work on my blog while she was gone, you know, really put things in my words and I stand up on my hind legs and punch the start button and I am all excited about writing stuff, cause she has always done the writing for me. (I just tell her what to say) I figured I had watched her enough and that it would be pretty easy, so I am getting ready to pull up the internet and get to my page and there it is…..PASSWORD…. WHO DOES THAT?

She had a great time without me, she saw lots of beautiful scenery and took lots of pictures

but I am glad she is back. Truth is, I missed her.

She was showing me what I missed and I asked her if we could put a few of the pictures on my blog. She went nuts taking pictures of clouds. She says she sees all kinds of things in the clouds. Dogs, a genie, birds a dragon.......

Check it out. Do you see what she sees?

I think she has a wild imagination but if I try really hard, I can see what she is talking about.

On the trip she got to go see where her mother was raised. A little town called Clear Creek. Her old back yard was filled with daisey's. The mountains all around. Vickie said she would love to have grown up in a place like that.

She even went to the old jail where all the mighty criminals stayed.

The cell was still inside and Vickie went in to see what it was like. She said she would have gone crazy to be locked up in a place that small.

Well I have gone on for some time now so I better sign off now. I gotta tell you though, I am soooo glad Vickie is back.

She is just about the only person that can keep old Allred at bay. While she was gone, he ruled with an iron thumb. By that I mean, that when ever Judy wasn't around taking care of the kennel, Allred would come out and smack me around like the devil he is.

At least when Vickie is here, she can stop him from ripping me a new one.....(what does that saying mean?)

so I leave you with a few links to some video's you might enjoy.

Dougal sent me this one. It has some pictures of him at the Fort at the new dog park. (you have to go past the first few pictures of the parade, but if you look you'll see how much fun it is there)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonzaremba/sets/72157624575567848/show/

Here is a video from John and Trigger. This is another moose that comes to my swimmin hole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54nXUdDrUv0

Last and my favorite is this one which is a combination of everything that has happened over the last two weeks. Moose, Dogs and Canine Country Club, Vickies trip down South and the kids from Childrens Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE5qKEoDuqM

Have a wonderful Week.

July 11 thru the 16th 2010

July 20th, 2010

UPDATE ON DIZZY

Thanks everyone. He found a home.

It is the most wonderful home he could

ever possibly hope for.

I'll write more on Berts Blog next week.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

You know there is only so much critisism a guy can take. Sometimes Vickie moans and groans about the silliest little things and I am getting a little tired of her one main complaint. She is always groaning about us dogs losing so much hair. Poor thing has to sweep the floors three times a day and everytime there are huge piles of hair in the dustpan when she is through.

So what does she think we do with all this hair. Of course we lose it. It is called shedding and we do it all the time. Sometimes we do it all at once but most the time us dogs just lose hair bit by bit every day.

We just can't help it.....it is how we are made.....

And since She brought the subject up, lets talk a little bit about humans and how they shed too.

I know Vickie knows that cause she talks about it when she tells children how Search Dogs use human scent to find you if you are lost.

Think about it from us dogs point of view. You worry about a little hair, but we have to SMELL you and every other human within a four mile area constantly. You guys are dropping dead skin cells into the environment at a rate of thousands a minute.

Here we are with these super sensitive noses being constantly bombarded by human dead skin cells. Every time we breath, or open our mouths, in our eyes, through our ears....GOSH it is everywhere.

So next time anyone hears Vickie maon about a little dog hair, just remind her of what us poor dogs are going through ALL THE TIME.

And not only do you humans smell, but you send out all of your moods in your smells. I know when Vickie is sad, happy, scared or mad......sometimes it is just too much for a little guy like me to handle.

But you don' t hear me complaining.....well do you?

WE had some fun times doing demonstrations this week. Lots of really fun kids. I think the reason I am not getting to do a lot of searches, you know, like Jamie McKenna and Andy my predesesors, is because I am out there teaching all the kids how to stay safe. Maybe someone is really listening.

And remember how wonderful Vickie is always saying Jamie is cause she can "Scent Discriminate" so good. Well guess who else can do it really really good?

Yep, Vickie had the kids line up their shoes at this demo and then gave me the sock to one of the shoes. My job is to pick out the shoe that matches the scent of the sock. Now I know that sounds pretty easy to some of you, but you try sticking your very sensetive nose into a bunch of smelly shoes and coming out of it all with out your eyes watering and your stomach churning.



AND YES, the answer is Bert can do it. Jamie my teacher and loving friend. Thank you for passing along some of your incredible skills to little ole me.



Dang that Vickie She made me delete the picture that was here cause she said she looked like, well, you don't want to hear what she said she looked like.


We had an extra fun time this week cause Vickies Niece Elizabeth came with her family (daddy Brian, sister Callie and brother Scott) from Vermont. We all played for an hour in the front yard of Grandma's house.

When we went inside KC and Scott got up on the chair for a little rest.

Then after a rest, they all got out a little table and did the family tradition of making chocolates.

I had to watch from the porch cause Vickie said she didn't want my hair to get into the candy. (Like their dead skin cells were not mixing into it already)

It is a great family tradition. Vickie won't learn how to make them cause she says she has too much trouble resisting chocolate as it is, but she isn't kidding anyone. She gets plenty of it around Christmas time. I know, cause I found her stash last year. MMMMM GOOD

Callie covered all kinds of things in chocolate. the favorite was marshmellows but chocolate covered grapes were the second favorite. Thats for sure. That way you get your fruit with your chocolate.

It was a happy happy day. I am so glad Vickie let me come this time. Usually only KC gets to play with the kids, but I am getting more trustworthy it seems.

I asked Vickie to show you some face shots of some of the pups that come and stay with us. So lets start with Scrappy. Only he lives with us.... but I thought he was cute in this picture so that is why I picked it.

This is Arras. He is a retired service dog. I think he worked on bombs or something in Afganistan. I think it is important that we thank him often for his work. Him and the men that are with him.

Buddy has been here for four weeks. He gets a little tired look on his face at the end of the day. I think he wants his family to come back and take him home. I told him it was ok, since I heard Vickie say they were coming back from vacation this week. He will be so happy to sleep in his own bed again.

Buck's dad is a pilot and has been away for 18 days. He is tired too. He gets to go home soon too. I feel sad for them when they stay so long but Vickie said it is better that they stay here where they can run and play all day and sleep in a nice warm bed each night, than staying such a long time in a cage.

It isn't home for them but we like to think it is the next best choice.

Our friend Dougal has had two really fun weekends and sent us a couple of slide shows for you to watch if you want.

They will show you some great places to go for the weekends. Like this one is out on the desert.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonzaremba/sets/72157624483088096/show/

ANd this one is from a hike to Inspiration Point above Willard. It is quite a hike and if you look when you get to the top you can see mountain goats. Sometimes, like when Trigger and John go, you get to see them up really close. Like 20 feet from you. I'd like that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonzaremba/sets/72157624406622875/show/

OK, Vickie insisted that we put this picture of her Holy Hocks (is that how you spell it) They are all over the kennel in the summer and they make it look so pretty. She was a little upset with me and Betty the other day cause we were playing pretty rough and we mowed down a really pretty one of these. It was bright yellow and it was the only yellow one that grew this year.

Whoops......In trouble again.

Vickie took her mom up to Sourdough this week instead of me. But I guess it doesn't hurt me to miss one week up there.

They had a great time and saw a lot of deer. They even saw two moms with twin babies.

So check out the cool video below. This will explain how come Trigger and I couldn't go swimming on this trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kVYCQt7EQ

So I am taking a class on agility. The first class was last Thursday and I did ok. I walked the plank. It was 12 feet long and 12 inches wide. I didn't fall off at all the first time. But the second and third time, I stepped off. Its ok though. When you start walking the plank they don't have it far off the ground. In fact, it was right on the ground. So whats the challenge in that.

Tucker got to do it when it was a few inches off the ground but I don't know where I was when they did that, cause I didn't get a chance to do it. I am sure I would have done fine.

They did a lot of talking and there are a lot of dogs running the course so I had to sit alot. I don't like that part.

Of course the best part is that there is a pool there for me to cool off in. I was quick to find that.

On Friday we got to go to this huge park in Hooper and meet a bunch or really cool girls scouts. We came to help them get their wilderness safety badges and they specially requested that Jamie come to.

It has been so long since Jamie has been able to come with us so this was a very special event. You know, she is the best search dog ever.....I mean before I came along.

It was really hot and Annie spent most of her time in De's lap so she didn't have to have her feet on the hot cement.

Murphy did his usual "I am the tallest dog int he world" number. He really is kind of tall.
Jamie found some friends who played with her for about 20 minutes. She was in heaven, but she came home and had to sleep all weekend before she could get up and walk again. It must be rough getting old.
I kept watch on everyone and spent a good deal of the time charming all the kids with my handsome demeaner and cleaver personality. Oh, I do what I can.....

On the way home form the demo with the girl scouts, Vickie did the strangest think I have ever seen her do. To Date, anyway.

We were driving along just enjoying the wind blowing through the window as it had cooled down some after the sun went down. Then all of a sudden, Vickie starts bouncing all around in her seat. She starts screaming and hitting her chest.

The car is weaving all over the road and she is getting more and more panicked and louder and louder. She swerved over to the side of the road and into the parking area of a gas station that was right there, then dove into the back seat and started taking her shirt off.

All the time hitting herself in the chest and reaching down her shirt grabbing at something. I have never seen anything like it.

I have never seen her rip her clothing off like a crazy woman before either....and in public no less. When she got the shirt off she started shaking it, then hitting her chest again and started taking off more clothes when suddenly a little black bug flew out from between her, well you know..her top portion....the little bug looked over its shoulder in panic as it flew out the window and off into the night.

Cheeze Vickie, it was just a little flying bug..... whats the big deal.....

Saturday Vickie bought me my own personal bathtub. I LOVE IT. Just love, love, love it. I can get all hot and tired from running and playing with Betty and the others, then I can go lie down in my personal bathtub and cool off.

Then I run through the house to make sure everything is ok there, then back out again and into my pool. with the new sand that covers the front entry way, it is like living on a beach

Vickie doesnt get upset at all, she just says that it helps make her keep the kitchen floor cleaner cause she has to wash it everytime I run through.

So, yes, she may complain about my hair, but in general, she is pretty easy going most of the time. I guess I'll keep her.

Have a great 24th of July next weekend.

Love ya

Bert