Treader - Mistress wanted to do a book review

The Dog Whisperer: A Compassionate, Nonviolent Approach to Dog Training
In my opinion, this book is the number one dog training book. It explains how proper diet, positive reinforcement training, and others things can be useful in training dogs.
It tells you how you can train without shock collars, leash pops, pinch collars, or other infamous training methods. Cesar Millan has nothing to do with this book. It has helped me become a better leader, friend, and team with my dogs. I recommend this book to anyone who has dogs.

Cookie - tons of fun!

I had fun on Saturday! Mistress was in the pool with her brother, Treader was tied up close by, and I was allowed to be loose since I'm generally trust-worthy with the recall in the front yard. I saw a cat and ran off into the woods chasing it, but I came back in a few minutes after mistress kept calling me. When I came back mistress was fiddling with the water-rocket-sprinkler thing and I came and tried to catch the water coming out of it. Mistress started playing with it with me. Great fun! She went in the house to get new batteries for her camera and let her brother play with me with the water. Mistress took these pictures:

Treader

This afternoon I got myself a great nap while mistress fiddled around on the computer. Then she was watching TV, and then she started brushing Cookie. Cookie was a little nervous. Not sure why, she usually isn't. But then mistress started talking to her in a voice like everything was just fine, instead of a coddling voice and after a few minutes Cookie was actually wagging her tail. Cookie was trying to sit down during brushing, and mistress was placing her hand on her belly whenever she started doing that, maybe that was what was making Cookie nervous. She succeeded at laying down a couple of times, but mistress made her hand into the shape it's in when she has a treat and told Cookie to get up. Cookie got up, and while mistress didn't have a treat, she got reward with cuddles, which she loves just as much. Then Cookie started barking because I was barking at something that I saw outside. Cookie tried to go to the door to see, but mistress blocked her with her arm and told Cookie to stay. Every time Cookie started to leave, mistress blocked her and repeated stay. Cookie stayed, but she kept barking. Mistress told her, calmly, "That's enough." and Cookie stopped for a second. Mistress immediately praised and rewarded her. Cookie barked again, same story. After a few minutes, Cookie quit barking at all. Mistress was done brushing after that. Then she told Cookie to sit. Cookie layed down and went onto her side instead. Mistress did what she did in brushing, except she told Cookie to sit. Cookie sat and got up only after mistress said she could. Then Cookie saw something out the window and ran off barking. Mistress said (still calmly), "That's enough". Cookie immediately stopped barking. Mistress praised and rewarded her. Me? I was watching it all. My point in telling you all this? Positive reinforcement training WORKS.
And, if you'll excuse me, it's supper time. Thanks for reading!

Cookie

Today after church mistress came back and played with Treader. He was rolling around a little and he almost fell off the bed that he was on, but he rolled the other way just in time. Then I got my chicken foot and it gets boring from there. Sorry.

Treader - I had a good birthday!

They gave me my presents last night instead because they had to go see mistress's dad today. I got a squirrel squeaky toy, a ball with a fuzzy tail, and a whole pack of hot dogs (just for the occasion)! I love my toys, especially since both have fuzzy tails. I love to pull fuzz off of toys! (I got my two other presents earlier this week you'll remember. The Kong and my shirt.)
When I first got my squirrel:
Pulling the fuzz off my tennis tails ball:
Taking my hot dog where I can eat in peace:
I had to share with Cookie, but I got most of the hot dogs:

Then they made my sit/stay while they sang happy birthday to me. I stayed until I was told to get up.

Treader - tomorrow is the big day!!!

Yesterday was the first anniversary of my adoption. I can't wait to find out what presents I'm getting! I personally hope that at least one of them is a tennis ball, because I've either lost or broken most of my current ones. Today mistress had to go to the dentist, so I was stuck in the crate for a few hours. When she got back she fed us. She always make me sit/stay while she's pouring my food, but today I tried to sneak into my crate to eat the food while she was puting the cup she uses away. She caught me and said "Ah-uh! No!" and made my sit/stay even longer. I tried to get up several times, but finally she made me sit/stay farther away from the crate for about a minute. And when she said "okay" I rushed into my crate to eat. I wanted to go for a walk, but mistress said that it was about to rain so no walk right now. Aw, phooey. (Oh, by the woof, do you know how I ask for a walk? Well, the leashes are hanging on a homemade coat-rack next to the door. I just walk up to it and bump the tip of the hanging leash with my nose. I'm so smart, eh?)
Mistress hasn't played with me yet today. She's trying to find her new Webkinz that she just got (a Rottweiler that she named "Jedi"). She suspects me, since sometimes I'll pick up stuffed animals and put them away with my other toys under beds and tables. Do I have it? Maybe and maybe not. I'm not telling. I might have to go to the vet's office too, because I'm making noises in my nose like I'm trying to get something out of it and the effort makes me sneeze. If it doesn't go away by tomorrow, she's taking me to the vet's. Not again...
That's all fur today furs. Oh and, tomorrow since it's my barkday I'll be posting even though it will be Cookie's turn.
P.S.
Some pics from yesterday's playtime:
Bouncing around with my toy:
Looking for my toy (mistress threw it):
Catching my toy:

Cookie - sorry for missing several posts

These past few days have been busy busy. Mistress was slacking off on training just a week or two ago and now she's getting back into it again. I always have to sit and stay before a meal, I always have to stay in whatever spot she tells me too not just right next to the food dish like she used to let me do. She started up again after she noticed that I didn't obey as well outdoors or something. Plus brushing brushing brushing lately. LOTS of brushing. I shed like I was made to shed, mostly in the summer, but technically all year round. The humans were gone for the longest time today. They left at 10:00 AM and came back at around 4:30 PM. I was so excited when they got back that when mistress sat on the bed I jumped on with her even though I'm generally not allowed to do that.
(Mistress's brother put his little Cars tent on the bed.)
But I got off when I was told to:
Well, taht's about all fur now.

Treader - my barkday is coming up!!!

Today was fun. I did something that mistress though was neat this morning. (Read about that here) Mistress played with me as usual. The humans had to go to the store today. They went to that new pet store in town, Pet Supplies "Plus". They found a good dog food there that didn't cost much too. Mistress had $30 and spent it on toys for me to get on my birthday (on the 18th of this month). Okay, we don't know when my real birthday is, but we celebrate it this month. Wow, I wonder what she got me. She gave me a couple of things early. A Kong, and at Wal*Marts she got me a little jacket/shirt thingy that says "CHAMP" on the front (or back if you wanna get technical about it). I like the Kong, but the shirt could go as far as I'm concerned.

This picture of me is off of mistress's mom's camera and it was taken all the way from New Year's time. Wow, it makes me kinda sad...I miss that time of year. Anyway, not much goin' on today, so I just wanted to share some old pictures of me from over a year ago:

Treader - sorry for being so late

Don't you just love computer trouble? Yep, you guessed it. We're having computer problems. First, when we installed our latest Windows update it interfered with the internet and kept us from going on. Mistress had to uninstall the update, shut down the computer, and turn off and turn back on the modem and router before it worked again. And then she left it on while she was at church tonight and now it's too tired to work properly it seems. Which is kinda funny because we could leave it on all day before and it would would almost perfectly. Now, it will cut off without warning, and all seems normal. The fans are all working and we just cleaned some dust off it yesterday. Maybe the heat's getting to it. Maybe the power supply is going bad. We're on mistress's dad's computer, that's why I can't share any picture on this post.
Well, we'll be back on our computer tomorrow, and we'll call mistress's dad's friend who is a computer expert. He can help with almost anything.
Now, I'll get to my day. Well, last night they had peperoni pizza and mistress' doesn't like the peperoni so me and Cookie got that. Mistress made Cookie do a trick and gave her a couple. When I came close when mistress offered me one, Cookie bossed me away. Mistress knows that Cookie is my boss and she respects that in most cases, but she doesn't like her trying to take food away from me. So, out of spite she gave me all the rest. Maybe it wasn't fair, but it was yummy. Cookie didn't seem to get it. She didn't get bossy with me, she just stared at mistress like she thought that mistress still had the peperoni. Then this morning mistress was upset about the internet not working. I mean, her mom called Comcast (our internet provider) and they couldn't help us fix it. They did say that a program may be interfering, and thats what gave mistress the idea to uninstall the update. Because this trouble didn't start until the update was installed. Mistress played with me later on. I didn't play much, but I did play some. And that's about it really. Unless I'm furgetting something.

This morning mistress and her brother and mom went to visit mistress's (and her brother's) dad in one of the Jacksonville hospitals. They went to the store on the way home and came back with some goodies fur me! Chicken feet and some Milk-bones with meat in the middle! (Okay, I guess they are Treader's too. Except for the chicken footies.) Mistress went ahead and gave me one chicken foot. She made me sit for it, as usual. Mistress did something a little different with storing the chicken feet this time. She and her mom put every 5 in a quart-sized bag. She put on bag in the fridge and the rest in the chest freezer. They said that they did this because last time they started to go bad all being in one bag in the fridge and we had to get some more faster. (We get the chicken feet at Kingsland Meats, if anyone in our area is interested.) This time we counted them. 28. They should last about a month then.






Then mistress went and played with Treader for a few minutes.

And then mistress fed us: