This video shows Mary Ray and Levi, and Richard Curtis and Pogo—two of the best canine freestyle duos in the UK. Did you know that in the UK, canine freestyling is a real sport that is even a competition at their most important dog show, Crufts?
Yesterday I had the bestest day ever. First a whole bunch of people came over to the house, and I knew most of them but not all of them, and then my people put me in the car (although I like the new car harness even less than I liked the old one) and my friend with the curly hair came in the car too, and then we weren’t in the car for very long at all and then we all (everyone who had been at the house) got to go hiking! Like in the woods! For hours! And there were trees, and plants, and streams, and birds, and butterflies, and dragonflies, and other bugs,… and also lots of people who thought I was very good (the ones who I met right after I first went to live with my people, kept saying they couldn’t believe how well-behaved I’ve gotten, I think I should be insulted! but I only went crazy once, when some people went by with three big dogs in one direction and some other people went by with another dog at the same time in the other direction, I think that’s justified don’t you?,… and then later someone went by with two herding dogs like me and I totally ignored them just like Tug told me to)… also my people kept giving me these chewy meat things that tasted really good. I heard Tug tell someone that they were “a PowerBar for dogs” but I don’t know what that means.
I slept the whole rest of the day afterwards.
Today was a no-work day for my people, so they got up and walked me in the morning. It’s getting to be nice and sunny, but was still pretty cool. I wore my backpack:
I don’t like it when they first put the backpack on me, but I sort of like wearing it. It makes me feel important. Tug says I concentrate better when I’m wearing it. (He also says it’s nice that it tires me out.) My people put bottles of water in my backpack, and then they drink some and give me some so the backpack gets lighter as we go. We went to the place with the prairie dogs. Tug said it was a good thing I had my flea and tick medication last week, because I like to see if I can find one!
There were some that were out and squeaking. My person tried to take a picture, but it ducked just as she took it.
This morning I was out walking with Tug, and this car stopped and the man opened the window, and he asked Tug what kind of dog I was. Tug told him I’m a Kelpie mix, and the man said “What’s that?” (even around here, a lot of people don’t know). And Tug told him I’m related to border collies. And the man said “I thought so” and then (guess what!) he said I was very beautiful!
I was good, too. I sat the whole time.
I feel good today. I hadn’t been sleeping too good because it was so hot lately, but some men came to the house yesterday and came inside and then went up on the roof, and then the house got cold. So I slept really good. Also, Tug gave me a bully stick! I never get bully sticks anymore, Tug says they’re bad for my tummy. But he says that he found an old one in my closet so I could have it. And that maybe I can have one every once in a while anyways.
Doesn’t that look like fun?! I can’t wait to see how they do in the finals!
Today my person put some goopy stuff on her finger and let me lick it off. I liked that–it tasted like peanut butter. Then she put a weird plastic thing on her finger and put more goop on that and let me lick it off too, and that was pretty cool even though she didn’t let me chew on the plastic like I wanted to.
But then she held onto my head and stuck the plastic thing in my mouth and rubbed my teeth with it! What the heck was that? I didn’t mind her sticking it in my mouth so much, I guess, but I hated having her hold my head!
Oh, and, and, and I forgot!! Some days when my people don’t have to go away all day, they take me on a really long walk, but first we just start on our normal walk and they stop at this place and get food and drinks and they sit on the patio and eat and drink before we go on our long walk. (They never give me any, no matter how nicely I ask!) And we did that today, and guess who was at the food place? Dr. Long-Hair! I love Dr. Long-Hair! She’s one of my most favoritest people in the whole world! And she even let me put my paw on her knee, but then when I tried to jump on her, my people made me get down. They say I know better and she said I know I can get away with it because we were at Starbuck’s. Which is true. Home rules don’t have to be followed if I’m not at home, right?
One of my people’s friends sent her a link to this video. Man, I wish we got snow like that here. Maybe someday we can go live somewhere with snow like that. I looooooove snow. And I hate hot weather.
So two nights ago I was so excited when I got to my dinner and realized that instead of the blah new kibble and blah new canned food that I’ve been getting, there was actually pure canned rabbit in my dinner with the kibble!
But then I ate it and … Tug put something in it! Something that made it taste gross! But I was hungry, so I ate it anyway.
And then last night, the gross stuff was in my dinner again! Well, I just can’t take that, so I refused to eat it!
And so he picked it up and put it in the big cold box, and this morning they gave it to me for breakfast! And my people say I can’t have any treats if it means I’m not going to eat my real food and take my medicine.
Yuck. I wonder how long this is going to go on for.
So today, Tug took me out for my afternoon walk like always. An’ usually when a dog is behind a fence barking at me, I don’t mind too much. An’ Tug says that even when they’re out in their yards, if they bark and snarl it’s just ’cause they want me to go away and they won’t hurt me, so he makes me keep walking. But today, there’s this mean dog that always barks an’ snarls at me from behind his fence. Except today he was out in his front yard!! An’ his people weren’t anywhere around! An’ he didn’t even have a leash on! An’ he came running out an’ tried to bite me!! The first time he tried, I twisted away … and then the second time he tried to bite me, I twisted away again. And then I saw that he was going to try again, so I just zoomed in and bit him on the shoulder instead! And it worked!! He turned and ran away and hid behind a truck in his driveway!
Go me! I didn’t get bit and I protected my person!
Tug says he’s proud of me because I was really good as soon as I got the other dog to go away. I like to be nice, really I do (and I try really hard to ignore mean dogs when my people tell me to), but some people dogs just won’t take a hint!
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