Talented English Goldens

Most people know that dogs bring joy and unconditional love to their families.   But did you know dogs can be quite humorous with little personalities all their own?  Take Zoe for instance.   She's sweet and quiet and oh, so obedient until there's something that catches her eye.   Then she morphs into "S Squared" or "Super Sneaky" as we like to call her.     Let me explain what I mean.

The above image is a photo of my son, Harrison jumping on the trampoline.  Zoe LOVES to do what Harrison does so she decided to jump up on the trampoline with him.   Now I told her five times to get down because I didn't want her to injure herself.  But the minute I went into the house, the above scene in the photo happened.

Really, it's quite humorous.  Here's a girl with a mind all her own.  She's sweet and obedient, but by God when Harrison jumps on the trampoline, why should he have all the fun?   So up she goes and shows the rest of us she can do what we can do.  That takes talent!

But all of my dogs have their own personalities.  Max will play fetch until my arm falls off.  He has a retrieving instinct like nothing I've ever seen.  Emma is the "alpha" and if she doesn't like something one of the other dogs does (ie. try to take her toy) she lets them know.   Reagan just wants you to pet him.  He's such a little love bug!   He looks at you with these beautiful brown eyes and begs you to love him.  There's no way you can say no to that!

Like people, dogs have their own personalities and idiosyncracies.  And some are multi-talented.   I would love to hear about what your talented dogs can do!

Puppies and the Christmas Tree

I sent out an email the other day to some friends with a photo of my sons by the Christmas tree with one of my dogs.  A friend of mine emailed me back to ask if the dogs had access to the Christmas tree.   I hadn't thought about it like that, but yes, of course they have access to the Christmas tree because they live with us.  The funny thing is the dogs reaction to it.  Emma, our oldest, noticed it right away and barked at it incessantly as if it were a person who might play with her.  It took her a few minutes to learn that the tree just stood there and didn't do anything so she got bored and doesn't even notice it anymore.

Bella hid behind me when she first saw the Christmas tree.  She wasn't sure what it was or if it was friendly or not so she was very cautious.  As with Emma, after about five minutes she went up to it and started to sniff around it.  She hit a couple of ornaments (the ones that don't break) with her tail and they clinged together which caused her to jump for a moment.  And then she noticed the bows on the presents.  My goodness, did she have some fun with the bows!  I have noticed that she gravitates to blue bows.  Fortunately I only had two of them under the tree so I let her tear them apart and I put new bows on the presents.  Now she isn't that interested in the tree or the bows, but she's also not afraid of it either. 

Max was hysterical.  Max is my explorer.  He went right up to the tree, walked on the presents, sniffed everything around it, knocked the ornaments with his tail and when he realized it wouldn't play fetch with him, talk to him or pet him, he passed right by it and hasn't looked at it again since. 

Finn had a similar reaction.  He went up to it, sniffed it for a moment and then came to me to try to sit in my lap.  He hasn't seemed to notice it since either.

We put up three Christmas trees in my home because we love the holiday.  Perhaps my dogs are just used to seeing Christmas trees as they've been up since before Thanksgiving.  Or perhaps they are so smart they understand who can actually play with them and what just stands there all day.  Whatever the situation, the dogs and the tree seem to be able to happily co-exist in the Martin family. 

Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!