Barkdays, Blogaversaries & Bad Fishies

It's my good pal Maggie Queen of SoCal's 2nd barkday today. She is off at Camp Bow-wow as her mum has deserted her to go camping. Ben-Ben has arranged for us to all go to surprise Maggie with a costume pawty, cool! I am going to dust off my old Sheriff Woody costume. Butchy and Snicker's mum has made me a cool new outfit, but it is in the mail somewhere between Iowa and England at the moment sadly! If you want to come to the pawty, check out Ben-Ben's blog!

Boo hoo, it looks like I could be pipped to the post for the Awesome Blog Award. Never mind, it was an honour just to get nominated by my good buddy Boo anyway!

Anyway, moving along. Do all of you already know these two good looking dogs? They are Gomer and Opie who have a blog called Dogs Aye View. They had their 10,000 visitor this week and it's also the 1 year anniversary of their blog today, Friday June 29th.

Here's Gomer. Pretty neat trick isn't it? I keep telling mum big dogs can't do this trick as I keep falling over every time I try, so I don't know what my excuse is going to be now, hmmm.

And this is Opie - quite a cutie I think you'll agree. I bet that sweet face bags lots of treats!

Anyway, this is what they're doing in celebration of their 10,ooo visitor/1 year blogaversary.

THE FIRST ANNUAL DOGS' AYE VIEW 10K:We wanna make pawprints all over the world and celebrate our success by giving back to the people who helped to rescue us and those who work hard every day to rescue other animals from the streets or from bad situations. So, will you enter the Dogs' Aye View 10K and help us out? It's simple... just run around your keyboard ...

• For every visitor* to the blog over the next 10 days (from Tuesday, June 26 till Friday, July 6), dogmom is going to donate 10 cents to Friends For Life Animal Sanctuary, where she adopted us!
  



• But wait, there's more! She's going to donate another 10 cents for everybody that posts a comment to our blog ... about anything ... to Southwest Metro Animal Rescue, located in Chaska where we live, since they have the same no-kill philosophy about domesticated animals.
  



• But wait, there's more! If you tell us in your comment that you also clicked the purple button (upper left side of our blog, under our picture... or this link) The Animal Rescue Site on our blog to help feed shelter animals ... then she's going to donate another 10 cents to EACH of these fine organizations -- Friends For Life, SWMAR and The Animal Rescue Site.
  




• And, if you post a blurb and a link on YOUR blog that tells everybody and links back to us -- then she's going to donate a whole dollar (!) to the animal rescue group of your choice if you email her their information at dogsayeview@aol.com.
  
  


• *We'll use Google Analytics to determine the number of visitors between midnight on June 26 and 11:59 p.m. on July 6.

Isn't that just the best idea? Gomer and Opie's mum sounds like the greatest mum two rescue pups could have ever wished for!

Now, you know I told you about my fishies a few weeks ago? Well I am sad to tell you that the teeny baby guppies didn't make it. I think they needed a more specialised tank to help them grow. Amber-Mae's also has some guppies who have just had 16 babies, so I hope hers will fare better than mine did. The other fishies are all still OK and have grown a fair bit already. Mr ugly mug Plec keeps sticking to the front of the tank asking me to play with him, but every time I oblige I get into trouble, and now I'm not even allowed in the living room when mum and dad aren't around. Something about knocking the tank off the stand with my "big clumsy paws" to quote dad. Thanks Mr Plec, what did I ever do to you to make you get me into trouble?!



I think you'll agree that the fish would have been loving having my face up close and pawsonal. Dad is a big meanie!

So, what have you got planned for the weekend? I have dad's hooman pups coming, agility class and a show so I'm going to be pretty busy. Did you just say "no rest for the wicked" dad? Charming!

Licks

Oscar x

What Katy Did!

I wanted to call this post "What My Mean Mum And Dad Did", but mum said we should call it "What Katy Did" as her name is Katy and she did something mean to me. Mum says she used to love the book of the same name when she was a little girl. Maybe some of your mum's read it too? I have never read a book, I chewed one once though!


So, I told you the other day that I'd tell you what mum and dad did to me at the weekend. Well, on Saturday morning we set off to agility as usual and I did good this week - nice and focused, no picking my own equipment, hehehe! Dad didn't come as he said he had things to organise at home, hmmm. When we got back all my food, poop bags, lead and other stuff was in a crate on the kitchen counter, and dad had packed a bag. They distracted me with a treat and sneaked out and drove away in the car with the bag! Well, I thought maybe mum was just taking dad to the station as he sometimes goes away on business. I was kind of tired after agility so I decided to have a little snooze. I was woken up a bit later by the noise of a car outside, but it didn't sound like ours. I heard the house door unlock and Victoria came in. Now Victoria owns a company called Paw Pals. She's looked after me before when mum and dad have had a long day out. However, this time she came with a bag like the one mum and dad left with and she told me that mum and dad had gone to a family wedding and were staying away ALL NIGHT! I have never spent a night without mum. Dad works away a fair bit and stays away, so I'm kind of used to him being away, but both of them!!! Victoria is really lovely though and Airedale Terriers are one of her favourite dogs and I am one of her favourite clients, so I was happy to stay with her.

We went for a really nice walkies, had some dinner and we settled down in front of the TV. Victoria let mum know that I was fine and relaxed. I was a good boy and didn't cry when she went to bed like I sometimes do when mum and dad go upstairs - mainly because I know my fat cat sis is allowed to snuggle up with them while I have to stay downstairs on my lonesome with only my cushion to sleep on because mean mum and dad STILL haven't bought me a new bed. Poor Victoria did have Flakes jumping on her head for most of the night apparently. That cat is a nightmare!

In the morning we went for another nice walk then I had my brekkie. Victoria went to feed and water some other animals then came back to let me out. She told me mum and dad would soon be home, and sure enough they were. Even though I was cross with them for leaving me (albeit with the lovely Victoria), I couldn't help but do a lot of racing about with my tail and bottom wiggling as I was so pleased they were home! I spent the rest of Sunday either on their lap or following them round in case they tried anything sneaky again!

I found some photos they took at the wedding. They'd tried to fob me off that I wouldn't have enjoyed it, but I'm not so sure...

Look at how pretty the bride and bridesmaids are, and how handsome all the men look. I think I would have added a certain je ne sais quoi to the photos. The groom is mum's cousin Matt.

This is Michelle. Doesn't she look like a princess? I suppose it would have been a shame if I'd got muddy paw prints on that beautiful dress, but still...The lady behind is Matt's mum, my mum's auntie. Mum says no-one could get near to give her a kiss because of that hat!

This is Matt and Michelle with mum's auntie and uncle (mum's dad's brother). Her uncle became blind after an accident but he still manages really well. He went to a special college to learn to read braille and has his own little business.

Here are the happy couple leaving church for the reception. What a cool car. I'd look great leaning out of the window with my Doggles on don't you think?

Here is dad at the reception. Hmm, looks to me like he may have had one or two of those beer drinks that I like the foam from!

There were lots of hooman pups there too. How come they are allowed and I'm not? I bet they made more mess and noise than me! I would have loved to have joined in! This is Luke, who was a page boy, and Archie.

Here is Archie doing what I enjoy, destroying flowers! See, we would have had so much in common! Mum says he didn't stay looking neat and smart for long, he's a "proper boy" apparently, cool!

This is one of Archie's sisters - he has 3 older sisters. They are all mum's cousins, as is Luke. Alice is a real sweetie, very serious, quiet and caring.

This is their sister Lillie. She is a little spitfire. Don't let that sweet smile fool you, she is a cheeky monkey!

See what I mean? This is a much more typical photo of her! The older lady in the background is my auntie Betty who has come over all the way from California. She is coming to see me next weekend and I can't wait. Mum says she is the best fun ever, and she used to have an Airedale cross who weighed about 114 lbs so she's really excited about meeting me!

Here is Luke again. He is mum's cousin too. He wasn't that keen on his page boy duties and was much happier once he got to the reception and could play!

So, I think you can see how much fun mum and dad had without me. I need to make sure I get invited next time!

However, being home alone (OK, not really ALONE, but you know...) wasn't all bad. I had fun making a mess for them. The game was to see how many toys I could get out of my toy box in the shortest time. I won!



Did you see that even with all those toys out, I actually chose the camera case to play with, hehehe!

I also got some yummy treats. These are dried chicken breasts and they are really yummy I have to say.

So yummy that I just could not wait for a sensible photo, so this was the best mum could get, CRUNCH!

I also got a new lead and collar. My puppy one was on the largest setting and was a little snug, so mum decided I was ready for a big boy collar. The lead made a good toy. Obviously I was doing important safety checks for strength and resilience at the same time. Wouldn't want it snapping while I was near a busy road now would we?



Here they are in close up, pretty groovy, eh?

Here I am modelling the new collar. it is more padded than my old one so it's lovely and comfy. I have my address tag and my cool barkday tag from Sunshade and Jaffa on it. Don't you think it goes nice with my tan colouring?

I decided they were forgiven, and after a last bit of sulking, I decided to have a good old play. Hubba Wubba!



I don't think I am too traumatised from my night alone, but I really hope if they ever go on holiday I can go too. The thought of not seeing mum and dad for a week or two is horrible. Guess I am still a baby after all!

Licks

Oscar x

A Blog For All

Thanks for your support so far to those that have voted for me in the Awesome Blog poll. I feel very honoured, especially as competition is TOUGH (as it always is - we all have awesome blogs, right?). However, there is still time to vote, so go and check out Dogs with Blogs and do your thing! Oh, and did I mention I will ensure your hoomans are at your beck and call, you get the best treats ever and none of you need ever have a bath again if I am elected? Oops, I thought I was running to be the new British PM for a minute there, hehehe!

So anyway, how are you all doing? I hope you're not all as flooded as we are here in the UK. One of the villages near the dam which is in danger of bursting are where my mum comes from and my grandma still lives there as does mum's bestest friend works also at the high school where people are taking shelter. 3 people have already drowned which is super scary. Paws crossed the rain will stop and clear up can begin soon. There are some photos here, here and here.

We haven't been so badly affected by the rain down here, so I have been getting out and about as usual. I take back everything I ever said about there being no doggies to play with on my field though, as I now seem to have a lot of friends! As well as Maddie and Poppy, I have found another girl to play with! Her name is Sasha and she's very beautiful, and like my other girl pals, she's a proper tomboy who loves getting wet, muddy and smelly at every opportunity, yeah!

Here we are having a splish splash in the river. Can you guess where we're going to reappear? This bit of the river is nice and clean.



Whereas this bit isn't! The banking is REALLY nice and yucky so when you come out with wet paws you get a good old muddy mush going on, cool! The poor boy stood there wasn't prepared for us, hehehe!

And in case you're wondering about all these girl friends...don't! That's just what they are - friends who are girls. No funny business or lovey dovey going on.

See? My blog has even been given a G rating as further proof that I am not starting my own hareem of local doggie girls!

Right, I'm off to finish off a rather tasty chew treat. Chat to you all soon. I still haven't told you what mum and dad did to me at the weekend!

Licks

Oscar x

Awesome Airedale

Hey you guys, hope you all had fun weekends!

I see that I have been nominated for an AWESOME BLOG AWARD at Dogs with Blogs! Oooh, that's so exciting and such an honour.

It's tough to be voted too though as lots of my buddies have also been nominated.

So why don't you head on over to Dogs with Blogs and cast your vote for your favourite doggy blogger.

Off you go then!

Are you still here? Get a shuffle on! Voting closes on June 30th.

Hey you! Go and make your vote count!

Licks

Oscar x

Results, Rain and Random Facts!

Hey everyone, hope you're all OK. No meaty bone photos today! The winner of the competition was....Tofu Burger! Is it a bit ironic that a doggy with a vegetarian name won the meaty bones competition?! No one got all the answers exactly correct, but Tofu and Simba were the closest! I pulled those answers out of a hat and Tofu was the vistor. Well done Tofu Burger. Send me an email and we'll sort out your prize! For anyone interested, the correct answers were:

1. Chicken thigh and drumsticks
2. Chicken wings
3. Lamb's heart
4. Pig's ear (treat rather than a meal)
5. Oxtail
6. Mackerel
7. Pork ribs
8. Lamb shank

So, I had fun on the fields last night with my pal Poppy. She's a Labrador and is about 18 months old. She's not quite as manic as Maddie, but she's just as much find to play with. She and I love to run through the long grass as fast as possible and jump in and out of the streams.

Think these photos look like we were out on a beautiful June afternoon?

Does is appear that we are frolicking in beautiful sunshine?

Hmm, well we weren't! It was absolutely pouring with rain and there was thunder and lightening. Can you see the rainbow? It looked like it ended right in the field but we didn't find the pot of gold. Lucky for Poppy and I, our mums aren't fair weather walkers and realise we need our walks regardless of the weather. Either that or they would rather get wet than have us zooming all over the house all evening because we didn't get our exercise!

If you didn't believe me about the rain, look at this! We are gambolling along like to spring lambies in the torrential downpour. It was lovely and refreshing! Mum put the camera after this as she was scared it would get to wet and stop working - leave it out I say!

So anyway, Penny, Sherman and Lola came up with a cool game to play! Penny posted the following questions and answered them herself, then challenged us to answer the same questions about ourselves. Here are my answers. I hope lots of you are going to play too!

1. Your age? - 1 year and 25 days!

2. Your age when came to live with your people? - 13 and a half weeks

3. What color is the collar you’re wearing right now? - Beige with an argyle design in blue and orange

4. Who is your favorite person other than the people you live with? - Grandad

5. How much do you weigh? - 22.5 kilos / 49.5 pounds

6. Most expensive thing you’ve ever chewed up? Dad's glasses (oops, sorry dad! Luckily he has 2 pairs)

7. Do you like other Dogs? - Yep, I am super sociable!

8. Who is your best non-human friend? - Maddie the Boxer, but also my Airedale buddies at my club who I don't see so often

9. Squeaky Toys or Tennis Balls? - My new Kong squeaky tennis balls, 2 birds with one stone

10. Do you like to be brushed? - It's OK, better than when I get my hair stripped anyway

11. Peanut Butter or Cheese? - Sooooo tough, hmmm, I think I'm going to have to go with cheese, goat's cheese, yummy! Someone needs to make cheese with peanut butter - heaven!

12. Do your people cut your toenails? - No, I have only needed them doing once so far and a groomer did it. My toenails are black and mum is scared of cutting too much. I do lots of walking so they get worn down very well anyway

13. Any formal education? - Yes, lots of obedience training. I have 5 certificates to date and I will get that elusive gold award soon!

14. Couch potato or Energizer Bunny? - Couch potato in the mornings and evening, energizer bunny in the daytime, but not manically so

15. Five nicknames your people call you - Bosco, Bosco Kid, Ratbag Boy, Wigglebum, Osc the Bosc (what is wrong with these people?!)

16. What is your best trick? - Bang (play dead)

17. Do you like kitties? - I suffer them (particularly my cat sister Fat Flakes)

18. What did you have for breakfast? - Pork ribs, mushed veggies and yogurt

19. Can you hunt (aka have you ever killed anything living)? If so, what? - Mmm, do spiders and flies count?

20. When & why was the last time you went to the V.E.T.? - A couple of weeks ago for my icky eyes

21. Where do you sleep at night? - Downstairs - on my bed if mum and dad are reading (actually on the couch as soon as they go to bed, shhh)

22. Do you like to swim? - I love water, but haven't quite mastered the swimming part yet

23. Can you make puppies? - No, I am boy bits free!

24. Your favorite place to visit? - Seven Fields, obedience and agility class

25. Do you give kisses? - Only to dad really

26. Can you potty on command? - Yes, my cue word is "quickly"

27. To Cuz or not to Cuz? - Hmm, I'm not wild about them like some of you are. I will play with it if mum got it out of my toy box, but I probably wouldn't choose it myself

I look forward to seeing all your answers!

Licks
Oscar x

Foodie Fun

Now, if you are squeamish you may not want to read this post!

OK, so mum went shopping to stock up the freezer with lots of lovely meat for meeeee! As she was bagging it all up ready for the freezer I thought it would be a good competition to see if you can guess my favourite meals.

There will be a prize for the winner who can guess the meals (not some of my juicy bones alas) so get your thinking caps on!

1) OK, here's the first one. Should be quite easy I think.

2) This is the same animal as before, but a different part.

3) This isn't a bone, it's offal (which is offaly tasty, hehehe!)

4) This is more of a treat than a meal, but can you guess what it is?

5) Mmm, this is my second favourite.

6) This is fairly obvious. This is probably the main one that Fat sister Flakes the cat would like to steal!

7) This is a new discovery of tasty meal time treats, but it is certainly delicious.

8) This is my all time most favourite dinner EVER! Even though it's a big piece of meat I can eat it in about 20 minutes bone and all!

Hopefully you are all hungry now rather than grossed out by the raw meatiness of my diet!

Good luck, and may the best doggy win!

Licks

Oscar x

Fatty Baby Photos

Our good friend Suki, the cutest little pug I know and probably the prettiest in the whole of the universe, posted a game a week or so ago asking us to show our baby photos. Well, I have finally got around to posting mine!

Now as you may or may not know, I had another family before I came to live with mum and dad. A lady had reserved me from my breeders and came to collect me at 8 week. At about 13 weeks she took me back to my breeders saying I was "too much of a handful" and a real "Jekyll and Hyde", asleep one minute and running around the next. Erm, hello...I was a little puppy! Anyway, her loss was mine and mum and dad's gain. What I am rambling on about is that we have a big gap in cute puppy photos between when I left my breeders at Sherifs Airedales and when I returned to them to go home with mum and dad. Mum has made up for it since mind you!

Anyway, here I am at 1 day old with my tired but proud mum. I had 7 brothers. What a handful for mum! We are all named after cowboys which I think is pretty cool. That's why I am Sherifs Sundance Kid like in the film. I think I am more handsome than Robert Redford though, hehehe.

Here we are at 4 weeks old. Us Airedales look quite different when we're little to when we're fully grown. I think we look a bit like rottweiler puppies. Looks like we were getting plenty of food doesn't it, roly poly puppies that we were!

Here we are at 6 weeks, getting more handsome by the day, and having lost a teeny bit of our puppy fat. I think we must have been waiting for din dins in this photo. When I came to live with mum and dad I came with a bit of that stripy sheet as a comfort blanket.

Now there is the gap in photos while I was with my first owners....

.....and here I am on my first day with mum and dad on 1st September 2006. Wasn't I a fluffy little chap. I weighed about 9 kilos here compared with 22.5 kilos now.

You can see that I had a lot more black on my ears and face and down my back legs when I was little. Look how big my paws are too!

Here I am one week later. We went to our Airedale club fun day and I won my first rosette for "Best Trick". I did shake paw. I had learned it in just a week and beat a lot of grown up Airedales!

Here I am a week after that playing at mum and dad's friends house. I did a bit of gardening while I was there and ate a few flowers, oops. My cuteness got me off the hook though. We stayed there for 4 days and I was very well behaved apart from the plant chomping, no accidents on their nice new cream carpets or chewing their lovely leather sofa or anything!

Here I am at 5 months old. Aw, there's my crate. I really liked it, but I got too big to fit in there and I must admit, sneaking on the sofa once mum and dad have gone to bed is much comfier!

I was a scruffy little urchin wasn't I? I had forgotten how much puppy fuzz I had!

This was taken at 6 months just before my first Aire cut. As you can see, I had more or less grown into my paws by now!

And here I am after my Aire-do! That was in the days before mum decided she'd rather pull my hair out instead of taking me to the groomers to be clipped!

This photo coincides with me starting my blog, so from here on in my life is VERY well documented by paparazzi wannabe mum!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my puppy photos. It's been fun having a trip down memory lane!

Licks

Oscar x

Clown Of The Class

Hmm, well it really wasn't third time lucky at agility on Saturday! I had my silly head on and decided I'd give everybody a good laugh at mum's expense rather than concentrate on the job in hand!

It all started off well enough. I did some good walking to heel, halts and setting off again.

I did some good down-stays. Look, there's a boxer in my class, but she's nowhere near as nice as Maddie. She barks at everyone and isn't friendly at all. She's pretty accurate at agility though, but she goes ever so s-l-o-w-l-y!

Here's my go on the equipment. I just don't know why, but I just wanted to do my own thing. Mum isn't very good at directing me yet, and the teacher said last week that 99% of mistakes in agility are the handlers fault for not communicating properly what they want us doggies to do. If you look when I get to the tunnel, she's standing right in front of it - well, how am I supposed to get through it?! As for the dog walk, what can I say? I just wanted to go on it THEN, not after doing the other stoopid obstacles. Eventually I just decided to go to the other end and do it myself!



Mum and dad weren't very impressed by my antics! Never mind, that's just part of the fun of owning an Airedale. We're the clowns of the dog world. And in my defence, I am still only a young 'un and it was only my 3rd class! I promised I'd try harder next time so I think I'm forgiven!

Licks

Oscar x

My Mate Maddie

Hey guess what? You know how I always moan that when I go over to play in Seven Fields there is never anyone around to play with? Well I have found my mate Maddie again! I first met her months ago when we were both little puplets and we got on great, but then I didn't see her for ages and mum lost Maddie's mum's phone number when her old mobile phone broke.

Well, we saw her again last week and we were both so excited to see each other. She is 10 months old now and she has grown loads (well, I suppose I have done a fair amount of growing too!). She is still great fun to play with though. I love playing with boxers as they like lots of wrestling and bitey-face game just like I do. Whenever I see one I get really excited. We met a little white boxer pup called Dexter the other day and we had a good old chase around and a bit of "boxercise". Hopefully we'll meet him again too.

Check me out chasing after Maddie when I spot her ahead of us on the way to the fields! I had just emerged from a particularly refreshing bit of river (read muddy and slimy!).



We got straight down to some serious wrestling. She's quite a dominant girl and wastes no time in slinging a paw round my neck to try and pull me to the floor. 1-o to Maddie.

I couldn't have everyone thinking I was a big sissy so I jumped on her head to try and knock her down that way, 1-1.

Haha, I managed to get her on the ground, but she still came back with some counter blows to my big fuzzy head. There's no keeping that girl down!

I guess my terrier touchdown made her a bit mad as she was soon back on her feet ready for a big boxer take down. 2-1 Maddie.

She meant business too. She had me pinned to the floor before I knew what was happening! 3-1 Maddie?

This is so not good for my street cred! I'm getting beaten up by a girl, and a younger girl than me at that! It's at time like these that you really wish your mum didn't have that stoopid camera permanently attached to her wrist!

Time out, time out! Maddie is the victor, I admit defeat!

So now you can all see the shameful truth of what a submissive boy I am. I think you probably had some idea when I lay down for little Saffie to play with me at the show the other day, but now you have even more proof! I say I'm just a gentleman who knows how to play nice with other doggies, especially ladies. Dad says I'm a big wuss. Mum says I am a clown but she's glad that I am such a nice friendly boy! What do you guys think?

Here we are in action. As you can see, there is no malice whatsoever in our "fighting", we are simply having the most fantastic time EVER! Apart from all the bitey face and rolling around we do plenty of jumping in and out of the stream, hopping through the long grass like a pair of gazelles (well Maddie looks like a gazelle, I kind of look like a big fluffy bunny!), and trying to take our mum's out by running past their legs at 100mph, hehehe!



Our mum's now have now swapped phone numbers again, so we will be doing lots of meeting up from now on, yay!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I have agility tomorrow so I'm really looking forward to that. I wonder what equipment we will try out this time? I think we are also going to help out at an RSPCA fun day and dog show on Sunday, so hopefully the weather will stay dry as the forecast is not good at all!

Licks

Oscar x