Harley's World

Party on, Harley! (And give us our blog back.)

Harley's World from 4dogart on Vimeo.

More Harley

The Cookie Face Welcoming Committee

New foster bro Harley's way fun! T-Boyz just waiting for him to heal up and run for real. But Jacks thinks his current speed is just fine...

Eight is Enough

We know that Venice has lots of water, but what do they put in it??? Cuz when the human came back, we got a new foster bro!!! Meet Harley...He's a 10-month old GSD who was removed from a "troubled" home. We don't know the nature of the trouble, but it musta been bad, the authorities removed all the animals--and the kids, too!!! Lucky for Harley he's with us now. He's kinda skinny, but he's very sweet and laid back. You can see we're set up for gettin-to-know-you mode, but we already all play together, especially outside. Unfortunately for Harley, he just had his "procedure" yesterday, so he can't really run around and play yet, but he sure wants to! Just leash walking for a little while still, brah. If you know anyone who might be interested in our new baby bro, he's available through Echo Dogs White Shepherd Rescue.

Wordless Wednesday

Buko

Miss you!!!

Gonna tell everybody I know

Guess what little Theo's all excited about? We got a new camera!!! WOOHOO!!! Finally. The human's been planning to get one for such a loooooong time now. At the risk of sounding like a commercial--Ashton Kutcher we ain't--we love our Nikon cameras! No, we didn't get a super special digital SLR (yet!), just another little CoolPix. This one's the most recent, hot off the press: Nikon S640.

Okay, we do love Nikon, but we're not blindly loyal. Our last CoolPix really sucked--we loved our first one, the very first version. Decision's still out on this one. It's definitely fast enough (though not quite fast enough to keep up with us at full speed). Anyway, we had a beautiful fall day today to test out the new toy.
(BTW, color is a little cool with this camera. And, as you can, see images are a little too contrasty. All these shots were corrected in Photoshop.)

T-Boyz are a little too fast for the camera! But it's a cool blur, no?

Here's the mighty hunter Theo. He looks like a hound dog here (minus the peanut butter and bananas).
The Theo flattened the flying squirrel!
The new camera doesn't handle low light so well. We prefer natural light to flash (as with these pics); flash works okay but is stark, and colors are too cool. Still, not so bad with after-the-fact touch ups. Maybe we can get the human to read the manual--that might help.

Come on, get happy!

Don't stop til you get enough...

More fun in our yard from 4dogart on Vimeo.

Halcyon Days

Foster bro Tanner went home to his family this week. You might recall that Tan Man came to stay with us when his owner was deployed to Iraq (and the owner's wife dumped the dog at the SPCA--that's a longer story...). For a while, we weren't sure that Tanner's family was going to welcome him back, but they decided they would (at least the husband and two kids decided). Even though we're very happy for Tanner, we do miss him. Hopefully, he's laying in a warm bed or running in a big yard being his goofy, spoiled self. Be well and happy, brah, you always have a place here...

Call us sentimental, but we broke out the old videos. Here's from a little while ago when Tanner was still with us and Kidlat came to stay for a couple weeks. We were eight!

Our Yard from 4dogart on Vimeo.

MORE!

[Photo by Dick Clark Photo]

Narra Narra Narra

Why is it always about Narra?! This fall has definitely been all about her. Now, we've even driven all the way out to Ohio for her. You see, we've been attending the German Shepherd Dog Club of America National Specialty for the last five days. The "national" is an annual event where German Shepherd Dogs from all over the country get together to compete in performance events (herding, agility, obedience, rally) and conformation. Of course, sistah is all about performing... She started the week off great in herding--even though one judge thought she was channeling "the wolf" too much--and earned her first title in it. Agility hasn't gone so well, but she has another day of that. Plus, she has rally to do, too!

What about US?! Yeah, we, Tuchuck and Theo, are along for the ride, and that's kinda fun, but we want to do cool stuff, too! We don't get to run around and play enough while waiting for sistah to take care of her bizness. Finally, today, we got to go running for a change. In honor of the boys of summer (Go, Phillies!), we went to Wiggley Field, a local off-leash dog park! Falls colors were looking awesome, and Theo enjoyed his first evuh dog park. We had the whole place to ourselves, for the most part. A couple GSDs from the trial eventually showed up, but we didn't really play with them--Tuchuck was even mean to them because he thought one was being mean to Theo! Anyway, we got our yayas out, so that was quite a relief. Weather hasn't been great (super cold and wet!), but we don't mind--just need to run!



Of course, we like hotels, too. Little Theo's earned his van legs and has become a roadtrip pro (the human even bought him a fancy new crate pad). If we didn't miss Jackson, Rousseau, Angel, and Tanner so much, we'd probably be good driving on for a bit more. The human for sure doesn't want to go back to work. But his work's not as fun as ours![herding photo by Dick Clark Photo]

The Corgador Giveth

We didn't deserve it, but Wally T. Corgador sent us a great gift: ICE CREAM!!! Actually, he sent the gift belatedly for Narra's birthday, and, of course, we all got to share! By all rights, we kinda deserve it, it's not our fault that our human has neglected our blog. Not only has he got himself super busy, he's roped in Narra and Tuchuck (and occasionally Theo) into the madness. You see, Narra will be competing in the German Shepherd Dog nationals next week, and she's been training and trialing to get ready. She's entered in agility, herding, and rally. Whew. The rest of us are glad we don't have to work that hard. Speaking of, the human does have a job, too. Sheesh, can't a dog get a break around here?

Anyway, here's a little sumpin sumpin from our impromptu ice cream party this afternoon. We apologize to our friends for not having visited blogs in a while--we'll be back, promise!!

Ice Cream Party from 4dogart on Vimeo.

A Day at the Agility Trial

Check it out! Look who hopped on the Buddy mobile and spent a day at the agility trial! Yup, little Theo got his groove on and ventured forth to meet the world. He wasn't entirely comfortable, but his curiosity and excitement balanced out the anxiety (for the most part). He made amazing progress today (even though the human may have overloaded him a bit). Don't worry, little man, the world's a wondrous place--way to go!

When we arrived, Tuchuck gave Theo the lowdown on what goes on at an agility trial.
Theo seems to be a leg man--short legs!
Tuchuck wondered when he'd be going in the ring. Not today, buddy, sorry.
Lots of BC cousins running around today. Theo was engrossed!
Nothing like relaxing in the van after an event-filled day. Ahhh.
Cookie face contentment.We're lucky the temps were mild today--the only thing HOT was Narra!!! More on her day later...

eYewatch Friday: Birthday edition

Narra celebrated a birthday this week! She's a matronly six years old. Hahahaha!!! Okay, yeah, she's not really matronly. :) In fact, she got some pretty cool stuff on her special day for her activities. She got a new tug toy for agility called a flappy. It's pretty cool, but we have yet to see how long it lasts. Our sistah ain't dainty, in case ya didn't notice. ;)
She's a Babe! She also got a suburban, bougie version of a shepherd's crook (wait, is that really for her or the human??). It's functional, we suppose, but not long in the looks department--unlike our sistah. We'll try to post pictures soon. For now, that'll do.

But watch out, boys, she ain't the sharin kind.

Happy eYewatch Friday, everyone! Enjoy a super fun weekend!!

The Cookie Face Club goes to the Vet

You guessed it, Tuchuck and Theo went to the vet today. Nothing serious, just a check up and picking up some meds. Tuchuck was mostly along for moral support. We hear little Theo rocked the clinic with his charming self. Who knew? He did let people know when boundaries were crossed, but, all in all, the little cookie face did good. :) Guess what, he even rode in the van without expending any bodily fluids, waste, or otherwise unrecognizable matter! Woohoo! Way to go, buddy!

But, wait, look what else they had at the clinic. The T-Boyz were very curious... But, no, it is not their pal Bruce.(Did anyone get the Philly reference in our title? All we can say is, "BOO, Eagles!")

Speaking of cookies...

What could possibly warrant such attention from all of us? Wally T. Corgador! Jacks sends special thanks to Wally for the super treatables! As you can see, nothing brings us together like sharing foodables. Thanks, dude!!

ps
Don't worry, Angel gets to share, too!

eYewatch Friday: Belated edition

Look at Tuchuck's big eyes! Guess what he's lookin at? He and Narra went to a Rally trial today and Narra earned more ribbons! Nah, Tuchuck's not looking at the ribbons, he's checkin out the totally awesome cookies Narra won, too. Cookies for the cookie face! The rest of us have to admit to being more impressed with the cookies also. (We were also kinda impressed at the ridonculous hour the human got up to get to the show on time... yup, we said ON TIME!) Bring home the spoils, Narra, just wake us up when you get home.

Belated Happy eYewatch Friday, everyone!

Lights, Camera, Tuchuck!

Photos from Tuchuck's first agility trial (by JFG Photos).

Red Ribbons!

Red Ribbon isn't just a favorite bakery, it's the theme for Tuchuck's agility debut weekend! That's right, we trained the human very well: he blew off his originally scheduled plans to enter another day of the agility trial (thanks to day-of-trial entries--woohoo!). Both T and Narra got to play some more! What does that have to do with red ribbons, you ask? Well, in addition, to his second place on Friday, Tuchuck earned another one on Sunday! (He earned a fourth place, too!) Not a bad debut, huh? Three runs total: two second places, one fourth, and, best yet, three qualifying scores! Way to go, Tuchuck!!! Sistah Narra never had such a weekend, but she did pretty well on Sunday, too. She actually earned two fourth places out of three runs, but no qualifying scores. (Not really sure how that works in CPE, but we'll take it.)

To add to the merriment, Tuchuck's impressive performance was witnessed by our own little posse. Family friends who were visiting the human's parental units all wanted to see agility! Although it wasn't part of their reunion plans, they seemed to have a good time checkin out the trial. And we appreciated the fandom! Go, Tuchuck, go!!!

Baby, you can drive my car

It was a busy weekend! The human took a brief interlude from agility good times to help out Deb, a young, female white German Shepherd Dog in need of a home. In fact, a lot of people helped out Deb who needed to be transported from Maryland north to New Hampshire. She's in a great foster home now and waiting to be adopted from Echo Dogs White Shepherd Rescue. Any takers? She's awesome! Tell your friends!