Being Nice to Sam

I often bark at Lil Joe’s friends.  I’m not sure why I do it.  Maybe it’s because Lil Joe is always “egging” me on.  He really riles me up and sometimes it just pisses me off.  So when Lil Joe’s  friends come over, I just transfer my annoyance to his friends.  Sam is a nice boy.  They have been friends since preschool.  Sam comes over and I just bark like crazy at that kid.  His only offense – being Lil Joe’s friend.

Last night Sam slept over.  They came home pretty late – about 10:00.  I was too tired to really bark and do my usual stuff.  When they woke up this morning, I hung out in Lil Joe’s room and laid right on top of Sam.  You know what,  he was a very nice guy to let me lay on him like that.  We laid like that for about ten minutes.  I’m sure Sam what the heck was going on.   I will probably always bark at Sam, but it was nice to share some good times with that kid.

Christmas Break

Even though I am a Jewish dog, I know that Lil Joe and My G just started their winter vacation from school.  This break always occurs right around Christmas, so I think that we should call it what it is – a Christmas vacation. I guess I am a little old fashioned.  I’m excited to have this break because I know that the family will be around a lot!  My G will stay up late into the night and sleep half the day away.  Lil Joe will hang out and watch TV and read and hang out with his friends.  Hallie and B will go to work, but they will have lots of days off and no meetings at night.  This will all just make my life – happy, happy, happy!

It is definitely going to be a white Christmas.  It snowed twice this past week.  Snow is all over the place which means that my walks are a little bit shorter.  I actually don’t mind because it is a little “nippy” out there, especially for my paws.

Do people say I hope that we will have a white Hanukkah?  I doubt it.  But for those folks who do wish for snow on this minor Jewish holiday, they will definitely get their wish.  Personally, I hope that I get some new yummy chew toys as well as a new loofa dog.  Ever since Hallie got me that latex loofa (which is impossible to destroy), I just don’t get that toy as much as I use to.

I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas vacation.

I’ve Died and Gone to Heaven

Yippee, yahoo and woop-dee-doo, we have a new president and it is Bark Obama!  As many of my fans know, I have been eagerly awaiting the results of this election.  It was last January that I first wrote about the Obamas promise to their little girls that at the end of the campaign, regardless of who won, they would get a dog.  So, on Tuesday evening, I more than rejoiced at the news that Barack Obama was overwhelmingly elected as our 44th president of the United States and in his acceptance speech, he specifically reminded his girls and the world of his promise to get them  dog.

And oh how the pundits have picked up on this newsworthy story.  NPR, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, the LA Times, etc.  have all run stories about Bark’s promise and queried what kind of dog the Obamas will get.  Bark’s little daughter has allergies, so they will probably go with a dog with hair as oppose to fur.  But will they go the rescue route or go for a purebreed?  For most past presidents the golden retriever has been a popular choice.

I want to remind Bark of the importance of getting a rescue dog.  These are the dogs that are left by their owners to fend for themselves in the world.  If they are lucky they manage to survive at a no-kill shelter and I shutter to think what happens if they don’t end up in one of these shelters.  The cute puppies are the first ones to be adopted.  It’s the black and brown dogs with questionable backgrounds that are the last to be adopted.  That was me – a brown and black dog with a very questionable background.

I’ve heard Hallie tell the story many times that when the family came to the shelter they wanted a particular dog, a poodle mix, who didn’t shed and had lived in a home for several years.  They met that dog and he ignored the whole family.  When I came in the room, I slowly went up to every family member, looked them in the eye in my cutest way, and we all fell in love together.  I know that the family changed my life for the better and I like to think that I have done the same for them.

I know that whichever kind of dog the Obamas get, it will be a lucky dog because they will be part of a loving family and live in a house with 132 rooms!  But they should pick a rescue dog and give some hope to dogs everywhere.

Long Overdue

Where has April gone? I’ve been so busy that I just haven’t found the time to write. Busy you say? What is a dog busy with except for sleeping and eating? Well…the family recently celebrated yet another Jewish holiday. This one was called Passover. It commemorates the Jews leaving Egypt. First Hallie was a crazy lady cleaning the house and getting rid of all of this food with bread in it. I had to stay on guard in the kitchen, less something fell on the floor for me to eat. Then she brought into the house all of this special food without bread in it. There was this flat stuff called matzah, which makes a lot of crumbs – heaven for a dog, though it was a little dry.

One night they had all of these people over for a seder, whatever that is. It looked like a big yummy dinner to me. However, everyone came dressed up to this meal. There was a little boy dressed like a baby in a basket, a strange bald guy in capris, and a woman in a flowing sheet with a beard. This was one crazy group. Well the highlight of this meal was the brisket. Everyone was talking about it and it smelled delicious. Once again I had to stand on guard under the two tables that were set, so that I could keep the floor clean. You know, clean floors are very important to dogs everywhere.

Once Passover was over (ha-ha), the family brought all of this food with bread back into the house. My favorite were the bagels, which we rarely eat. My G left the bag on the table, an easy leap for me and I think I ate two of them. They were good going down, but I was a little queasy all afternoon. When Hallie poured more food into my bowl, I couldn’t even eat it.

As with all Jewish holidays, except for Shabbat, they seem to only happen once a year. Needless to say, I can’t wait to next Passover. I wonder if Santa Claus will come. I heard he’s very nice to dogs everywhere.

Playtime for Miles

It is so obvious that Hallie use to be a preschool teacher. She really knows how to play and have a good time. Some times when I play with Lil Joe he just rolls around on the floor and I jump all over him. I’m not sure what I am suppose to be doing and then I growl at him. He doesn’t seem to mind, but Hallie and B always make him stop this kind of playing. My G likes to dance with me. He holds my front paws and we dance around. It sure seems to make him happy. It’s fun, but I am a more confident dancer when I use all four paws.

Now Hallie is the one that really plays fun games with me. She takes all of my favorite toys upstairs and then she just throws them down the hallway. I run and get the toy and then she throws the next one and I run and get that one. Sometimes I jump on the bed and then jump down and keep running down the hall. It is so much fun. We usually play until I am huffing and puffing. It seems like Hallie can do it forever, I’m usually the first to stop. Of course, I am doing all of the running, she just stands there and throws the toys. How tiring can that be?

Like preschoolers it’s really important for us dogs to have time to play. Preschoolers learn to play and play to learn. Same for dogs. Play helps us with our extra energy and it helps us to socialize with our humans. And, of course, it’s lots of fun. If my family ignored me all day long, I would be really unhappy, probably very grouchy and growly.

So here’s my last bit of good news for the night. You know how I love my loofa dogs? Unfortunately, when I get new ones I usually rip them apart in about two minutes. Well, I don’t know how she did this, but Hallie found a latex loofa for me! It is amazing! I have had it since Bubbles and Zayde Al were here and it is still in one piece. I play with it all of the time. It has a great squeak and the same goofy face as the cloth loofas, but I can’t rip it apart. As I like to say… I am one lucky dog.

The Kids

So many of you know that I often talk about the Big Kid and the Little Kid here at the house. I talk about them a lot because I often compete with them for Hallie’s attention. Anyway, I have finally figured out some names for them. The Big Kid is My G. He’s 14 and in eighth grade. He spends a lot of time in his room listening to music and playing his guitar.  My G is a nice guy. I like spending time with him in his room and sometimes when I get up in the middle of the night I go into his room and sleep with him. If I’m real quiet, he doesn’t seem to mind. But if I shake just a little he always calls Hallie to come and get me. Sometimes I growl at him because he doesn’t seem to realize that I rather stay with him.

The Little Kid is Lil’Joe. He just turned 12 and is in sixth grade. He doesn’t spend as much time in his room. He spends a lot of time in the computer room watching The Simpsons and South Park. There’s a cute dog on the Simpsons. Lil’ Joe has a lot of energy and sometimes I get a little wild with him. He really seems fearless, which is stupid. Doesn’t he realize that I am a dog and dogs don’t usually settle things with words? We growl and bite. In all honesty, I really owe everything to Lil’ Joe because he is the one in the family that really really wanted a dog. I know for a fact that he bugged and begged Hallie and B all summer and finally they got me. So even if I get a little mad at Lil’ Joe, I really do love him a lot. If it isn’t too dark he takes me on nice walks.

Happy New Year From Miles

Hey everybody – a very happy new year to you. Boy, does this family know how to celebrate. It was the younger kid’s birthday last night and they had a birthday party for him. There were kids everywhere and they seemed to be having a great time. They ate and ate, played games and at one point they even went outside and had a snowball fight. That was crazy – I stayed in when they went out. Remember, they wear boots and I am bare-pawed! At midnight they screamed “Happy New Year” and then they were singing happy birthday, eating brownies and opening presents.

Today the family stayed around the house and basically ate and slept – it was like they were a family of dogs. I guess they were tired from all of their shenanigans from last night. All I can say is that I hope Hallie knows when my birthday is because I expect a party with presents (lots of loofa dogs) and brownies. They can skip inviting dog friends over since I don’t have any dog friends. They can invite some people (like the red-haired lady and the bald guy) because as you all know – I just love people!

The Games People Play

Everytime the whole family leaves the house they put me in the crate. First I howl and cry, then I rest. I’m not going to say how I do it, but I have figured out how to get out of that crate. When the taller kid comes home from school, I’m usually out of the crate. I’m just hanging out, resting, chewing on a toy, you know “doing the dog thing.” I would eat some more blinds, but they pull up the blinds when they leave the house.

Does this make sense? It’s like they all know that I’m going to get out of the crate, so they make it so I can’t eat the blinds, but they put me in the crate every day. Oh, the games people play!

It’s Me Again

So I was able to figure out Hallie’s password and I am writing directly on the blog by myself. Now I don’t have to wait until she leaves the computer on and I don’t have to wait for the guy she hangs out with to get off of the computer. It’s obvious that he takes his blog a lot more seriously than Hallie does. Frankly, I’m tired of this whole charade.

Things are going well. We all celebrated Thanksgiving. Actually, the humans celebrated Thanksgiving and I stayed home by my lonesome. They did leave me some extra good treats in my crate, but I was lonely just the same. It seems that it really bothers those humans that I like to chew on things. I admit, when I first arrived here there were some yummy shoes that they had left out as well as the TV remote. And well, let’s not forget that piece of furniture and the little sofa. OK, so maybe I did chew on a lot of things when I first got here. Now I just chew on my toys. I am very lucky because this family is very generous and they buy me toys all of the time. (And I happened to notice that the cat does not get any toys.) It must be great being a kid in this family. Not only do those kids get toys, but they always seem to have a lot of cookies too.

The picture above is my favorite toy. I just love those things. I carry them all around the house. Sometimes I get carried away and actually chew up these toys. A couple have even been decapitated. The first one of these loofa dogs that I got came from their friend with the red hair. She really seems to like dogs. I sat on her lap the whole night when she came for dinner. The bald guy she came with had treats in his pockets! The only problem is she kept saying “Uh-uh” and “do your business,” in a kind of loud voice.

Anyway, my family has already bought me four different loofa dogs. I chewed up three of them. They got me a cute devil one for Halloween, but he’s gone. I was sneaking around in this closet under the stairs and I saw a Chanukah loofa dog! I can’t wait. As I’ve said before, I am one lucky dog!

Obedience School Drop-Out #3

OK, so I have committed to myself that I will try to write a post at least once a week. It always seems that after our Obedience Class I have oodles to write.

Today when I picked up my DYS from school – he did everything he could to convince me that we shouldn’t go to the Obedience Class this evening. He was very persuasive and had almost won me over. Until… the teacher called me at home.

Earlier in the day I had faxed the teachers my “mid-term” exam. I had to share what I thought Miles did well, what he needed help with, what I did well, what I needed help with, what else I wanted to learn and how did I like the class. Well, basically Miles has learned to “sit” and “stay.” I have learned to use the clicker. I shared with the teachers that I found the class to be very stressful because Miles was so nervous and jittery around other dogs and I was so worried about Miles that I couldn’t concentrate on what the teacher was saying. So I faxed my exam twice this morning, but it didn’t go through (or so I thought).

But the faxes did go through, the teacher read my test and he called me at home. He made the suggestion that I should leave Miles and my DYS home and just come to class by myself and I did. It was a great idea. I was more relaxed, I could take notes and I realized that all of the other dogs were just dogs – some better behaved than others., some better trained than others – especially that German Shepard. It was a much better way to take the class. I feel energized to work with Miles this week on some of the things we went over.

So maybe the best way to take a Dog Obedience Class is without the dog!