White Knight

"...he's gotta be fast, and he's gotta be fresh from the fight..."(Um, let's not mention fights, okay?) Here he is! This is new foster bro Tristan. We picked him up on the way home from the cape a couple weeks ago. We've actually had a bit of adjusting to do. Tristan doesn't speak "dog" really well, and we've had to learn how to interact with each other. Big bro Tanner and Tristan have had particular "issues," but they're doing okay.

We're all managing as you can see. And Tristan is starting to kinda fit in. He's still got lots to learn (like how to play), but we've learned a little patience, too. He's become really attached to the human, though we find him kinda annoying because he always wants attention. Tristan is another Echo dog, so if you know anyone wanting to adopt a big, goofy--albeit physical--white shepherd, please direct them there.

His Isolde must be out there somewhere...

You say goodbye, I say hello

WOOHOO!!! Look where we went last weekend... Cape Cod!Okay, more on that in a second. We've got some updating to do... First, some of you more observant types might have noticed that Tanner appears in Harley's video, even AFTER he was supposed to have gone home. Well, it's a sad story, and we'll make it short: Tanner's previous family tried to take him back, but they just couldn't make it work. Not through any fault of Tanner's, but those people have some things to work out among themselves. We're not sayin, we're just sayin. Anyway, big bro Tanner is back home with us--again. And we're happy to have him.

Okay, what about all these beach pics, you ask? Funny you should mention that...We actually went up to the Cape to take Harley to his new home! Yup, our little boy has moved on. Sigh. We miss him, but he's in a terrific home. We know for a fact because we visited there. The people were super nice: they gave us toys and food and everything! And they didn't even care that we made a royal mess of their house. They loved it!! You see, they lost their white shepherd in October, and they haven't had a dog in their house since. They said FOUR is FUN! Heehee...

Harley's livin large now, on the sea, bein a harbormaster, er, a harbormaster's dog. Watch out for him standing guard on the poop deck! Have fun, Harley boy, we miss you!
After saying goodbye to Harley, we had to take the opportunity to play a bit. We found a great B&B in Hyannis that welcomes dogs, so we told the human to pull right on up and check us in! We didn't get to spend that much time there because there were too many beaches to check out--and so little time. Why is it always like that?

As usual, we missed the guys back home, but we still had fun!


BTW, lest we get too comfortable without Harley, we pulled off the interstate on our way home and picked up new foster bro Tristan. More on him later...

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!!