Party Review

That's right, take a photo of the cute doggie. 

This past weekend Winnie went to her first party!  My nephew turned one so we loaded the car and when to go celebrate.  The house was F-U-L-L of people, pets, and children... actually, let me give you the exact stats:

12 adults
8 children
2 cats
1 other puppy

Winnie, mind you, has run of our quiet house with just my husband and me to bother her so I was watchful to see how she would handle all the commotion. 

Gozzo, the King.

Winnie did really well.  She was sweet to pets and people and didn't pull any of her usual household stunts.  The only two very minor hiccups were Gozzo the cat and one other child.  Gozzo is a 20lb Russian Blue that rules the house.  Poor Winnie just wanted to play with him but he'd swat her on the nose and tell her to buzz off.  Which she did.  (Don't worry, he doesn't have any claws)  And this other child was just scared of dogs.  He would see Winnie and scream.  Then Winnie would look around her as if to say "What!?!  What are you scared of???  Should I be scared, too?!?"  Pretty cute. 

What a lovely book.  I'll read it to you.  Oh wait, I can't read English... just Welsh.

Winnie, DID help my nephew open some presents just to get a better look but I think he liked it.  He and Winnie are buds.  His grandma also has a corgi that he gets to hang out with so this house is a fan of the long and low.  I'm proud of my little fur-girl.

Halloween Costumes? How will you vote?

So this year Winnie and I are going to a Halloween / Birthday party at a friends house so I thought "If we're going to dress up, would Winnie like to join the fun?"  Maybe.  Actually, after trying to put a few things on her she really didn't like it so I came up with another idea.  Festive bandannas!  Here's a picture from the Doctors Foster & Smith Website that I was thinking of getting. 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/dog-supplies/halloween/ps/c/3307/11828

What do you think?  What will you do?  Vote in the costume poll! 

PS Fun that they picked a corgi model, right?  :-)

A Kong Defeated

Last August I got Winnie the Kong Wobbler.  I blogged about smart dogs needing smart toys and posted a video of my little hair-ball trying to figure this thing out. 

Today, she did. 

Uh, oops. Did I break it or beat it?

This little fluff-nugget actually unscrewed the darn thing!  (In her defense I DID put a treat in there that was too big to get out but she was so fast! It's not like they were ALL to big.)  Has anyone else had this problem?

(Sorry for the grainy photo... my phone was the only thing handy and I just couldn't believe it!)

Monkey See - Dog Do

I was reading Patricia McConnell's blog The Other End of the Leash and her most recent post sports this video asking "Do Dogs Inherently Understand Pointing Gestures?”  My own expericnce has been very close to what this clip shows.  How about you?

PS The "eyes closed" bit cracks me up.  I know Winnie for sure knows that if she wants to do something she shouldn't do... she just needs to wait till I'm not looking.  It's not just my theory anymore!

All Dogs Go to Heaven

A few weeks ago our church celebrated the Feast of St. Francis with a special evening service that included an animal blessing.  Boy!  Which one of our little fluff balls couldn't use one of those!  I know it's a little late but here are the photos.  Surprisingly we had ALL DOGS at the service.  As you can see in the photo below, some of us were more excited to be here than others.  This could have been Winnie last year.  She jumped and barked the entire time.


OMG!  (Literally)  Bless me!

This year Winnie was a good girl.  I think just being older made her more relaxed.  Or maybe it was because she found a friend with turkey legs just like her!

What ARE you?  You sprawl like a Corgi but you are FAR too hairy!

In the spirit of being a little wiggly Winnie didn't really want to hold still for her blessing.  I think the priest actually made the cross upside down.  Do you think that's bad?  :-)

What's going on here?  Hey, wait a second...

All and all it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.  There was also a pet friendly reception that had some milk bones, puppy chow, kitty litter cake, gold fish crackers, and more.  Pretty cool.

Paw It Forward

Winnie and I received our Paw It Forward package full of great things from our fellow dog blogger Jenny and her pup Stanley over at Corgi On My Mind.

The package came on Monday but we've been so busy this week that poor Winnie had to wait till today to open it.  I know, how do you deny a dog a package that smells of treats?  I was a mean dog mom.  But it was worth the wait!

Listen Ma, it's addressed to ME!  I'll decide when we open it!

The first thing I saw was a card featuring a very cool illustrated rendering of Stanley on the cover and a wonderful personalized book mark with Winnie's picture! 

Finally, someone that knows what I'm talking about here!

Of course, Winnie went right for the treats. 

This one!  Open this one!

About one second after I took this picture Winnie pushed her nose in the bag and helped herself.  These were some pretty fancy treats.  Real chicken jerky wrapped around a real dried apple slice.  Gourmet! 

I don't know French, but I know delicious.

All in all we received a portable water bowl, two bags of gourmet treats, the Kong stick toy, a Natural Balance food roll, and a festive Halloween bat squeaky toy. 

Wait, is it my birthday?

Here's a close up of some of the other treats.  The squirrel cracks me up.  And the cookie looks like it should have been for me!  Ha!

The smallest bone is what Winnie normally gets... there's some perspective for you. 

Natural Balance is actually what I feed Winnie all the time.  Well, the kibble version not the food roll version but this stuff makes the BEST training food.  You can cut it up small and it's irresistible.  Try it. 

Get some. 

The other hot favorite was the squeaky bat toy.  What fun getting it so close to Halloween!  I think it sort of even looked like Winnie.  (It's the ears)

This doesn't seriously look like me, does it?

Thanks Jenny and Stanley!  We've really enjoyed our Paw it Forward package and we got to try a few things we don't have around here in our own pet stores.  What a treat!

In the Paw It Forward tradition Winnie and I will take our turn assembling a goodie box full of our favorite things to pass along to someone new.  If you haven't been the recipient of a Paw It Forward box yet and have a dog blog be the first to leave a comment on this blog with your email address and you'll be the next in line!  (Tip:  type "at" instead of using the @ symbol to avoid getting spammed.  Like this: name(at)email.com)

Here's a clip of Winnie playing with her Bat Toy.  She's a happy dog.