My, what big ears you have.

All the better to hear you with!

1st July 2009 - Yoda ears:


9th July 2009 - Uppy ears:


15th July 2009 - Tipped ears:


23rd July 2009 - Sticking out ears:


Kota's ears then stayed pretty much sticking out.

11th August 2009:


3rd September 2009:


UNTIL... recently when Kota's ears starting having a teenage rebellion.

20th November 2009:


22nd November 2009 (early hours of the morning):


22nd November 2009 (evening):


8th December 2009:


His ears seem to have settled down again (for now). We''ll see what happens in the future!

Home, Home on the Island

Sparky, Kota and I recently went to visit my parents on their island. Sparky's been up there before, Kota never has. Both dogs had a brilliant time and made a few discoveries.

Kota discovered my Mum's Rayburn.



Sparky discovered a new dog toy.



Yes, that's the broken top of a buoy. No, I don't know why he wanted it either but he insisted on bringing it all the way back to mine.

They also discovered roadkill. I thought I'd spare you and not take pictures of the half-rotten rabbit corpses they decided to try and eat.

Sparky tried to help my Mum collect firewood. Surprisingly enough, it didn't work very well.

I found one!


Almost there...


Do I get a treat for trying?


Uh, nope.


We met my ex's young JRT. Last time I spoke to him he was saving up for a Bernese Mountain dog pup so to see him with JRT was a surprise. Turns out his neice bought Molly whilst pregnant and then didn't want to keep her with the child. People suck.

Molly's fast.



Far too fast for my camera.



And she's cute. But she's not as cute as Kota's belly-scratch face.

You mean this face?


How about this one?


Oi! Why did you stop? Did I say you could stop?

I am a BAD dog trainer

In my room I have two dog crates - one for Sparky and one for Kota. Sparky's is a medium sized one and is at the had of my bed. Kota's is a small on and at the foot of my bed.

Now Kota's taller than Sparky he doesn't really fit in his crate. Rather than buy a third crate I've been leaving Sparky loose when I'm out and putting Kota in Sparky's crate. So far, so good. Sparky seems to have got past the chewing stage that made me buy the crate and, as long as I don't leave anything edible in his reach, he behaves himself.

However Sparky likes to sleep in his crate at night-time. If I try and get him to sleep somewhere else he just won't. He's slept in that spot since I bought him home and he's not moving now, dammit!

Up until now I've been shutting Kota in his crate and leaving Sparky loose, Sparky will always choose to settle in his crate. I don't want to shut Kota away in a little crate all night (especially when I've been at work all evening and he's been shut away then too) and so I've been trying to get him used to sleeping loose.

For the last few nights he's spent the first hour pacing around my room, trying to get onto my bed, lying down, getting up, trying to get onto my bed, pacing around my room and trying to get onto my bed. Everytime he's tried to get up I've shooed him off and told him to "go to bed". Eventually he's always gone and lied down on his bed and fallen asleep. But I'll wake upin the early hours of the morning with him on my feet and then we go back to pacing and lying down and standing up only this time he'll mix playing with squeaky toys in, just to add a bit of fun!

Last night I read through the archives of Save the Pit Bull, Save the World right before bed and was feeling a bit soppy after looking at puppy!Steve pictures.

And so when Kota placed his front feet on my bed and looked at me appealingly I called him up.

He curled up and was snoring within 10 minutes.

I once again woke up to dead feet and a happy puppy on top of them!

*sigh*

BAD dog trainer. Now you've given in he'll try harder next time!

Although it was quite nice having a snuggly puppy in my bed...

Wordless (late) Wednesday.

When did this?


Turn into THIS?


Then.


Now.


Past.


Present.


Poses are the same, it's just the puppy that's changed!

Maybe he won't be a prize herder...

Today I introduced Kota to my Mum's chickens (with her permission, of course). The result is the vido you see below.

Most of the circling is due to curiosity mixed with nervousness. He wants to go see but wants to run away at the same time.

He then got distracted by Sparky running up and down the fence and then discovered chicken poop! The chicken poop was the end to being interested in chickens...

A new Challenge...

I went into the local bookstore the other day and found (among the many CM books >:[ ) 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance. Intrigued, I picked it up. Flicking through it I found some good ideas and bought it, to use as inspiration for a few more tricks for Sparky and Kota.

And then it hit me.

Why only use a few of the tricks when I could teach the whole book?

And so, a new challenge was born. Start at the beginning and teach all 101 tricks to Sparky or Kota or both.

The problem is I suffer from a lack of motivation. I make myself promises like this the whole time and never follow through with them. So, to keep me on the right track I decided to blog about my progress.

Welcome to 101 Dog tricks, the blog!

Please come and watch us,struggle with us and (hopefully) celebrate with us when we complete it!

Feel free to play along too.

See you over there!

Abigail, Sparky and Kota.




Sparky will be sad if you don't come and watch him being clever.

Apples, waves and wood.

We've had some horrendous weather here recently, floods and everything! The dogs and I went down to the beach to check out the aftermath.

What did we find?

Lots.


Of.


Apples.


Seriously, there were LOADS of them. They'd obviously been washed down the river from somewhere. doG only knows where exactly, but Kota was enjoying them!

Omm nom nom


There was also a HUGE lump of wood.

See.



Now, I realise that I could be doing some clever photography macro skillz and making something small look really big, so I tried to get Sparky to pose on top of the lump of wood for comparison purposes.

But Sparky's a big wuss and refused to stand on the wood whilst it was rocking in the waves.

So we had to wait for the tide to go out.

But that's fine, it gave me plenty of time to try and drown exercise Sparky.



Don't worry, I only did it once.



Or maybe twice.

Okay, I'll be honest. I carried on until Sparky refused to go into the water any more.

Nope, no way. Nadda. Not happening


You do realise there's a whole load of sticks here I can get? I don't need those ones you're throwing in there.


After all that the tide had gone out a bit and Sparky posed nicely.



Kota even got in on the act. Briefly.

Woah! I didn't realise it was THIS big!

Howl-O-Ween Part 2

ZOMG! I can't believe you just said that!


What do you mean we're not going Trick or Treating?


But I have a costume ready...


Fine. be like that! I'll go Trick or Treating by myself!


Trick or Treat readers?

Hey Mum! What are you doing?


Oh doG, you're taking pictures again.


Maybe if I hide she'll go away...


Nope, you're still there.


Maybe if I wish really, REALLY hard...


Nope, you're still there... How do I make you go away?


Seriously?

That's all?

OK!

How's this?

Very good Sparky. Well done! A good Howl-O-Ween picture.