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:

Treader - Vet Day

Well, we went to the vet today. We walked into the door (I wasn't nervous) and waited. The vet got to us within a couple of minutes. Mistress is starting to turn almost everything into a training session, but she makes it fun for me. Right now she's teaching me not to pull on the leash. Not sure why I need to know that. Anyway, I got weighed and then I went into a little room. The vet drew some blood and I didn't like it (I didn't mind the needle is was the disinfectant that she squirted onto my leg) so mistress had to hold my head and backside. Then she did something else, but I'm not going to tell you about that. She also did a heartworm test. Then she left for a second and came back to give me my yearly shots. Then she left for about 10 minutes. Something about looking at my heartworm results. While she was gone, mistress started making me do tricks. Sit, lay down, stay, wave, and spin. I did really good at obeying. :D When the vet came back in, we found out that my heartworm test came out negative!
On a down:
Then we went back into the waiting room for mistress's mom to pay the bill ($103).
I met a couple of nice dogs there. A Boston Terrier
and a Border Collie mix.
I pulled on the leash to meet them, so mistress told me to sit. I acted like I didn't hear her, so she pushed my bottom down, told me "good boy" and let me meet the dog as a reward for obeying. (The Border Collie left before I could really meet him.)
That was fun!

Cookie - Not thunder again...

There was a severe thunder storm warning for our area last night. Something about hail, 60 MPH winds, and extreme cloud-to-ground lightning. All I know is that it was scary! We didn't get any hail that I know of, though. The storm was just capable of producing it. It started at around 8:30, and end at about 10:00 PM. But we did hear some far off thunder sometimes during the very late night too. The humans let me on the couch with mistress since I was so scared. Treader wasn't scared. How does he do it? Mistress was watching the Weather Channel at first, but then she just started watching a video.
Mistress had to go out and shut the shutters with her mom. And the sky had almost constant lightning! We prepared just in case the electricity went out for a while. We got out our flashlights and battery-powered lamps.

(Treader wanted to play again today.)

Treader -

So, last night was fun. After my humans came back from the fireworks we all watch the patriotic video "A Nation Adrift". I highly recommend that video. Then mistress went on Dogster once more and then went to bed. This morning, I didn't feel like playing. I'm not sick, I'm just not in the mood for it. Oh, and speaking of sick, we got a notice from the vet in the mail today that on Monday it will be time for my Dhlp Parvo Booster, Heartworm/Lyme/Ehr/Anaplas. Test, and Kennel Cough Vacc. *sigh...*

Oh, BTW, for those who didn't get to see fireworks last night (and maybe even some who did), you can see a video containing video and pictures of fireworks. Mistress made it herself, and she took the pictures and video. :D
Here it is:

The best part of the firworks display, mistress says, was the end was the best, but she had turned off the camera just a minute or two before that part.
I wasn't there. I wanted to go, but mistress said that while I'm not afraid of thunder she's not sure how I feel about fireworks. And besides that, it takes a long time to get home after the fireworks because so many people go to see them and she couldn't imagine having me along for the ride.

Cookie - Happy 4th of July!

Mistress took Treader to the 4th of July parade. I'll show you the pictures of Treader:








I hate to end this on a sad note, but this is also mistress's late cat's birthday. Mistress wants few words:
When I first got her [Tinker Bell, the cat], she was a little playful 8 week old kitten. Cute as a button. I would describe her personality as friendly, possessive, content, sneaky when she wanted to be, a bit short-tempered but forgiving. Not exactly sweet, but like a loyal friend. She wasn't usually very affectionate. Wait, I take that back. She loved to lay her head on my hand and purr away. She would chew on my fingers while I was petting her and she was on my lap. (A friend of mine who knows a lot about cats says that that means that she loved me.)
She was the best cat I've ever known. When I was sad, she'd come into the room, walk up to me, rub against me, purr, and try to comfort me. And it always worked. When I started feeling better, she'd lay down on my lap and purr some more while I petted her. She had the faithfullness that you'd expect from a dog. She would get mad, but she would never hold a grudge for more than a couple of hours. When she was mad, she would just keep to herself and look at you really mean and swish her tail a little when you tried to pet her. She loved to be brushed, even though she could "brush" herself. I have never seen a cat smarter than her either. She did things like try to open a door the way people do after watching me do it (but she didn't suceed at that particular thing). Tink loved to lay in my dad's bedroom window sill. My dad didn't like it because she blocked his view of outside. We put tape on the window sills in his room to keep her down. I remember when she first saw the tape. She jumped up onto the window sill, only to immediately jump down. Then she ran off on three legs (she was trying to shake a piece of tape off her foot while running). When she stopped, she pulled a piece of tape off her belly. It was . I wish that I had gotten it on video, but I didn't have a digital camera back then.
We had to keep fresh tape on the window to keep her from jumping up. After that, when she wanted to jump onto the window she would get up on a stool or chair and stand up on her hind legs like she was begging, but she was just trying to see the top of the window sill to see if the tape was still there. If it was, she'd hop off the stool/chair and go off to her own business. She was a BIG glutton. She figured out how to put holes in the cat food bags (even after she was declawed) and eat up her food when her dish was empty. We had to put the food in a plastic container after that. But it was too late, she was enormously fat (obese even) by then and though we tried to have her lose weight she wouldn't. We tried keeping outside, hoping that living outdoors would help her loose weight. It did, somewhat, but after only a month of living outdoors she developed liver dysfunction, probably a result of being overweight. We didn't have any idea until we took her to the vet because we saw a bald spot. The vet said that he bald spot didn't concern him, it was the color of her skin. Lightish yellow. Jaundice! He gave us a prescription for her and some Science Diet food, but Tink hated the stuff. She would pretend to eat the medicine (she even swallowed), but she would spit it out when our back were turned. (We found this out when we found her pills on the floor that had obviously someone had tried to hide them after Tink's death.)
Only two or three weeks later, we found Tink dead in her crate.
So, tomorrow as I take my little dog to the parade, watch fireworks, and visit my dad in the hospital, I will be thinking of Tinker Bell, my beloved kitty who loved me more than, or as much as, I loved her. Which was a whole lot.
*sad smile*
Happy Birthday at the Bridge, pretty Tinky. *sniff*
Now, mistress's that enough. Geesh, quit using my blog. BOL

Treader - fun, and preparing for the big parade tomorrow!

Last night, mistress trimmed my paw-fur because it started getting long again. Good greifers, my fur is growing as fast as the grass right now! (Our grass is growing really fast because we're getting a lot of rain.) This afternoon, mistress brushed me so I would look spiffy for the Independence Day parade tomorrow. And of course I will also be wearing my handsome harness and a nice red bandana to the parade. Cookie went last year, so that's why I'm going this year. Mistress would like to bring both of us, but ah that's a long time to stand still when me and Cookie like to tease/annoy each other if you know what I mean. Oh yeah, mistress fed me too. Which is NOT unusual, so don't be alarmed. Mistress will finish her computer time (when I'm done with this blog) and then she will play with me and spend time with Cookie.
Oh, BTW, here's a picture of me after being brushed:
I don't like being brushed (as you can see from my expression), but I DO like looking handsome. It makes people pet you more.



This is a picture from last night:
See me smiling? That's me resting after a satisfying and FUN playtime. You can tell that I love it. Mistress says that the most endearing moment last night (and probably during all the time that she has had me) when when I was searching for my toy after she threw it.
Mistress will describe it:
I threw Treader's toy all the way across the room. He was a bit winded because he had been playing a while, but he leaped off the bed, and searched for his toy. He had the sweetest, most satisfied expression on his face. (Just, or at least almost, like the one in the above picture.) He jumped up onto a chair, on the other side of the room, as if to try to get a bird's eye view of his toy. He sat there for a few seconds, looking around for his toy, and looking at me with eyes full of love, fun, and satisfaction. His was also panting, which made him look even more satisfied and smiling. That one moment was, to me, the most endearing moment of all the moments that that Treader and I have shared together. Then, Treader jumped down, looked for his toy for a few more seconds. When he couldn't find it, he tiredly jumped back into the bed and laid down.

That's enough mistress. I guess that's all (for now), Treader/Cookie fans!

Cookie - pretty boring day if you ask me

Mistress was at her friend's house until around 5 o'clock. Then she came home and fed me and Treader. Then she played with Treader. She tried to make Treader sit/stay before he could chase the tug rope. He sat, but since mistress told him to stay and he didn't want to he didn't get up even when mistress let him. That cheeky little dog! So, mistress just made him sit until she threw the toy after that, but she said "okay" every time just before she threw the toy. There are some pictures, but the camera is kind of misplaced right now...after that I got petted. Mistress was going to let me outside while she was doing some yard work, but when she put me back in because I wasn't listening very well. Guess that I'm cheeky lately too. Mistress is going to start doing training with us every day instead of every few days she says. And she also says that she has to get used to using the NILIF [Nothing in life is free] method. She uses NILIF, but she is still in the habit of not using it and forgetting to use it sometimes.

Treader -

We had a fun playtime this morning. Mistress and her brother played with me. Cookie doesn't play anymore, that's why you never hear about a play session with her. She gets plenty of petting sessions though, believe me. Mistress had a little training session out front with Cookie today also. Cookie's a little rusty, which is hard to believe. Tonight mistress had to trim my belly hair fur, er...sanitary reasons. Let's just say that I get a little wet down there sometimes. She accidentally got my skin a little while trimming and I yelped. I was a little more nervous after that. Then mistress got the hydrogen peroxide out after she was done, poured some onto a paper towel and patted my belly with it.
Tomorrow mistress and her brother will have to stay at the neighbor's house for the morning. Mistress's mom has to go somewhere and with mistress's dad at the hospital...well, you get it.
Now, a few pictures from this morning:
This is the face I make when mistress blows on me:
I open my mouth.
And Cookie and mistress, and mistress's mom and brother did end up going to the park for a short while last night.
Read-about-it-here