Happy Howl-ween!

Yes, even I have dressed my dogs up for Halloween. It was my daughter's first Trick or Treating and she went as a vampire. So I made black bat wings for my two black labs. I must say they did look great, but because you can actually go Trick or Treating in the dark in Utah, no one really saw them.

This year I have a Queen and a Ninja to escort around the subdivision. The dogs will be home hogging the couch.

Pumpkin Chucking!

I spent the day down in Moab witnessing the First Annual Pumpkin Chucking Competition. Open to both sling shots and trebuchets.

Now, this is not normally a sport I follow, but my husband has his engineering students building catapults this semester. CEU set down 5 teams, 4 trebuchets and a sling shot. The pumpkin flying was amazing to watch as was the trebuchets self destructing. It is the height of engineering skills to be able to throw a pumpkin, wreck your catapult, and then rebuild it in time to throw again. I was truly impressed.

As you probably know, Moab is a dog kinda town. And this event was no different almost as many dogs as kids. I was a little worried about the 'pumpkin chucking' turning into 'pumpkin fetch'. Does having a dog retrieve your tossed pumpkin affect your overall distance score? I didn't get a chance to ask the judges about that. I can report that indeed many pumpkins were injured, but no dogs were lost. Though I did see a Corgie dining on pumpkin guts.

Oh, yeah, they have to been some of my dogs.

I was driving home the other day and spotted two dogs hanging out the back windows of the car in front of me. My favorite game, Do I Know That Dog. You might think I know every dog in Carbon County but most of the time I don't know the dogs I spot while driving. These two had me stumped a boxer and a yellow lab, that was a pretty unique combo. I couldn't remember a set of sibling dogs with a boxer and a lab of any shade. I guess those are not one of my dogs after all.

Then they passed my driveway and the two went nuts in the back seat. Oh, yeah, those have to be one of mine. Yes, of course, Daisy and Maggie. They aren't siblings - they are 'cousin dogs'. Daisy's sibling is Lady and as the resident Shitzu, she must be riding shotgun. Grandpa must have all the grand dogs out for a drive.

The Westies Are Coming! Defend Your Flank!

Ah, what a cute westie. You can check out all the new westie designs by clicking here.

If Sharon can just make one of a westie jumping up and biting someone on the butt, I have just the owner to buy that one for.

PowerFUR

My daughter was trying to write 'powerful' but got 'powerfur' instead. My husband told her, "PowerFUR is what Inertia has."

You just can't get rid of that dog's fur - it's everywhere, it's everywhere.

Birthday Parties

I just survived a small herd of seven and eight year old girls here for my daughters birthday. (I people tell me they can't understand how I can be surrounded by dogs all day.)

I was reminded that I never did throw a birthday party for my dogs. I had it all figured out, we would invite all of their doggie buddies over and have a cat shaped pinata full of milk bones , plus a bone shaped cake for the humans.

My 'girls' are now 11 years old - I have really procrastinated on that party. Maybe next August, I can pull it off. They won't be too old for a pinata, right?

Oy, it is going to be a long weekend.

Let's see...

Goofy can't be with Sam. Goofy is in love with Sam and Sam is vehemently against this idea. I don't want to have to explain how a Westie ate all 120 pounds of Goofy to Goof's owner.

Sam cannot play with Beau. They are both Westies but I believe that Sam was showing too much attention to McKinzie and Beau tried to defend her honor. McKinzie high tailed back to her kennel and I had to break up the boys growling at each other. We are not going to have a rematch. I even had to move Beau and McKinzie to another kennel because the boy decided to to take the match indoors and through the fence.

This is why the play yard has two parts. BB, Emma, Sam over there. Goofy, Miss Daisy, Beau and McKinze over here.

Of course, Goofy and Sam have to meet at the gate and bark at each other.


It is going to be a long and LOUD weekend.

The neighbor dog has a fan club.

The house next door just sold and I was delighted to find out that they have kids that can play with mine. I was estatic to find out that they also had a dog, a Jack Russell named Jackie.

Jackie likes to come down to the fence and check out the kennel dogs. She runs back and forth from the top of the play yard to the bottom. My doggies just have to follow along. I don't think the running is wearing out Jackie too much, but it is a workout for some of my dogs. Thanks, Jackie.

Puppy PINNED!

Match goes to Remy.

I think this hold is actually illegal in Utah.

This is the place for No Holds Barred Puppy Wrestling.

Running with the Big Dogs

I just don't get puppies often enough. Terry has made friends and wrestling partners out of all the dogs at the ranch this weekend. It is weekends like this that I know why I do what I do.

This is how most of my shots turn out.

I get many photos with dog parts in them instead of dogs. It seems that where my camera is pointing and where I think my camera is pointing are two radically different things.

Great shot of my shadow, don't ya think?

Smile for the Camera!

Terry, look this way - Nope.











Oh good, action shot - Make that, half of an action shot.














Dang, he was just looking at me.












Is everything more interesting than me?














So close, yet still not in the frame.














He is sitting still, I should be able to get the picture.













Left, Right, anything but looking at the camera.














Oh, there you are.














I'd like to be able to say that I took all these extra photos just to make this post, but this is only about a third of the shots it took to get just 2 of Terry's face. This is the first time his mom has left him and I just had to post some pictures so she wouldn't worry.

Why am I not surprised that his name is RED

I have a friend who has been paying her beautician to get this exact color for the past 20 years or so.

If you have ever wondered why your dogs sleeps for two days after spending a weekend at the ranch...

here's your answer. This is what they do, non-stop, everytime they go out to play.

This is not BB's only adoring fan.

You can be a fan of BB on the Dogster site. See, my clients are famous without me.

Click here to go to her very own website, Wonderdog BB

Stop by and give her a bone. Electronic love from BB is much safer that the 'flying leaps of love' that I get from her.

Truth be told, BB is one of my favorites. She shows up and makes all the dogs play. Everyone has a great time and they all get throughly worn out. Which is why she is stopping by again today, her owners need a worn out BB so that they can get some work done.

BB is convinced that the humans come home solely to play and play non-stop with her. Even the other dogs can't keep up with BB, so lets try to give the poor humans a break.

Don't I know you from somewhere?

Harley's owner asked me that and it turns out we used to be neighbors. His boxer Harley was fond of escaping his yard and coming over to hang out with my dogs.


There is a draw back to the fenceless, electronic containment system for dogs - one the vendors don't mention - all runaway dogs come to your house. However it did help me meet a number of my neighbors as I was returning their dogs.

Harley had a similiar system that he was willing to run through the beeps and the shock to get out of his yard, but not willing to subject himself to the same to go back home. So he hung out at my place. I had not seen him since we sold our house and moved back in 1997. I just have to get him together with my girls and see if they remember a buddy from when they were still puppies. Now that all three of them are old and going gray.

Stupid Human Tricks

Hey, I can do that too!

Talk about a useless skill to have been born with. The most it ever got me was a marriage proposal from a total stranger at a party back in college.

Who needs the WWF when you can watch Doggie Wrestling five times a day?

Dog Art, it is not just poker games anymore...

I was checking out an auction of sketches from Project Runway. (I know it is not the healthiest of obsessions, but the show ends in two weeks and I should have a complete recovery.) Well, there is a sketch from the Dog Challenge done by Robert Best. This guy can really sketch and he not only sketched his outfit, he put the dog in the sketch. It is more a peice of art than I would have expected from a design sketch. I know it would look fantastic in my daughter's very pink, very girly bedroom. Besides, Robert is a designer for Barbie, which in my daughter's eyes makes him a REAL artist. But the bidding is already at $85 and there is 5 days to go.
(that puts it out of my budget for art at this time)

What is funny about all this is that she came home from a friends house with this drawing of a girl and a dog. It may not be done by a fashion fashion designer (well not yet anyway) but it should look good in her room.

The Westminster STUFFED Dog Show

We have enough stuffed animal dogs to start our own kennel club. Though I have to say that it might have to be more of a fashion show than for breed or obedience.

That photo of Snoopy and his princess crown got me thinking about all the dressing up of stuffed animals that my kids do. I wish I had taken more photos of Snoopy's fabulous ensembles. My daughter would have her first 'collection' documented.

This dog get more changes of clothes than Barbie.

"That's PRINCESS SNOOPY to you!"

My daughter's Snoopy may just be the best dressed stuffed animal in all of Utah!

We had a road trip to pick up glasses from Costco yesterday. At McDonald's for lunch, my daughter got that Ariel 'Little Mermaid' crown that Snoopy is sporting. That crown was designed for someone with a smaller head.

This Happy Meal Toy was clearly not living up to the unrealistic yet surprisingly detailed expectations of a seven year old.

A bit of quick thinking, and deep seated fear of a meltdown on the first stop of the day, led Mom to say, "It might not fit you, but I am sure it will look stunning on Snoopy."

Phew, dodged that bullet...but I did have to promise to take a picture of our newest princess.

This is 'Blue Dog'

Blue Dog is the probably the most precious thing in the whole house after the kids and the real dogs. It the one thing I would have to run back into a burning house to retrieve.

Blue Dog started as a joke from my older brother. I sent my business cards out with the Christmas cards in 2002. My logo is a blue dog. Our 'Blue Dog' showed up in the Christmas package from Seattle that year. My daughter was 4 and my son 2 that year and he just latched onto that stuff animal.

This toy was promptly dubbed 'Blue Dog'. My kids are not creative on the naming thing, we also have a 'Pink Bear' and 'Mr. Fish'. My son still calls this place The Blue Dog Ranch.


Blue Dog goes everywhere with us. He has been on car trips and on more airplanes that any other dog I know. He never travels in the checked luggage and is never left in the car overnight.

I live in fear of losing Blue Dog. I have been checking eBay for his litter mates for 4 years. No luck so far, yet I am sure Pottery Barn made more than one Blue Dog. I keep picturing thousands of mom's searching for the elusive back-up Blue Dog for their kid just like me.


By the way, Blue Dog is sporting a fabulous open weave, dinosaur print, long john onesies that both of my kids worn as babies. I have it in red also, well the stuffed dogs do.

They don't seem to be bothered about wearing the same outfit.

As long as it looks good on you, size doesn't matter! Right?






I still think it is weird that Dobermans and Dachshunds have the exact same markings.













It is like those American Girl Doll outfits that you can but one for the doll and one for the kid.

















It even looks the same from the back.


If you really love the look...it also comes in Rottweiler and Chihauhau.