Owee at the Dog Park

I've mostly been telling you about my jobs these days.  But I've been having fun and going to the Dog Park sometimes, too.

Mom and I went one day a couple of weeks ago and there were lots and lots of big dogs.  That's not the usual.  Usually there are only four or five dogs and some of them are tiny.

We played hard and they liked my Frisbee.  That's my favorite day at the dog park when the other dogs play with me and my Frisbee. 

Only things got a little rough this day. 

I was running and jumping and playing and suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my paw (foot to you humans).  

I stopped and hopped around a bit, and Mom came running.  I scared her, 'cuz I was bleeding, too.  (She hates blood.  Especially if it's someone else's and not hers.  So she was a little upset.)  She rushed me to the car and grabbed Dad's car towel.  (Dad keeps a white towel in the car for emergency spills.  He wasn't going to like my bleeding on his white towel.  But I guess he might not like me bleeding on his car seat either.)  

Mom took me to the Vet right then.  We got in without an appointment.  They said I had just broken off my Dew Claw.  But it hurt!  So they cleaned it up and put a real pretty bandage on it.

I would have liked to wear my bandage to class the next morning, but Mom said I couldn't.  They don't like it when the Therapy Dogs have "issues" in class.  I guess they're afraid I might bite one of the kids if they touched my bandage.  I wouldn't do that.  I might cry a little if it hurt, but I would never hurt one of my kids. 

Anyway,  I liked my bandage and I'm still going to go to the Dog Park.  It was just a accident!

Hope you have a good week and no accidents, but if you do, I hope you like your bandage, too.

Love, G

FINANCIAL GENIUS RUNS IN MY FAMILY

Mom is in Connecticut visiting my Grandma.  So she asked me to do the blog.  She said I could do anything I wanted.  I decided to tell you about how Financial Genius runs in our family.

At least, that's what I call it.  My Mom and Dad don't seem to appreciate it as much as I do.

You see, my Mom is an  Attorney/CPA and she has worked for a long time with financial stuff for other people.  So I figured that I should try to help her.  Since I'm a part of this family, I like to be able to make a contribution.  

I got involved first when I helped her to figure out all her CPA credits when she got audited.  I told you about that in a previous story.  You remember this picture?

I worked hard getting those records in order for her.  But we managed.

Then there was the time I checked out Dad's paycheck.  I picked it apart to make sure he had been paid sufficiently.  He and Mom weren't very happy with my work, though.  They told me I shouldn't help like that.  I think they had to ask for another paycheck.

Then there was the $22 that Mom's friends had left for her on the coffee table.  I was afraid someone might steal the money, so I took it off the coffee table and tried to fold it up to hide it.  Unfortunately, it all came apart and ended up in pieces.  

They got all their money back anyway.  I left the serial numbers intact.  I knew enough to do that at least.

A few months ago, my dad left his checkbook out on the table.   I checked through it (do you like the pun?  I "checked" through his checkbook?  Guess you had to be there.)  I wanted to make sure he had recorded all his checks correctly.  But somehow there were some pieces missing after I finished. 

I think Mom put the checkbook away before Dad could see it.  Probably for the best.  

Last week we got an insurance statement in the mail.  So I was looking at that and it lost some pieces too. 

I don't know what happens to these things.  I'm just trying to be helpful with my financial genius.  

I must have taken care of all the business by now.  'Cuz lately there haven't been any financial documents where I can see them.  So I think we must have taken care of them all.  

If you need me to help you with your financial affairs, please just call.  I'm available now that I don't have any to help Mom with.

Love, G

Finally a Success!

We finally figured out a formula to get our kids engaged.  It took Mom and me working side by side (and help from Mrs. Joy, too, when we were at the cute Courtyard restaurant the last time.)

Here's what we did.  We had a bunch of trivia cards about dogs.  We gave the kids each a notebook (with my handsome picture on it!).  Then they could keep track of the right and wrong answers without anyone else knowing.  (I think some of them are kinda shy and don't want anyone else to know when they're wrong)

So we asked tons of questions.  And the kids got really into it this time.  They even said their answers out loud and didn't seem to mind if they were wrong sometimes.  Although Mom always told them they were partly right. 

They especially liked the questions about what foods are bad for dogs.  When we got to chocolate, Mom showed them a tiny piece of Bakers Chocolate.  I didn't even know that one of those little things could kill my friend the French Bulldog.  But there was a calculator on the internet and it showed if you fed a 15 pound dog one of those little squares, that dog was a gonner!  Not me.  I would only be "mildly irritated" with one of them.  Since I'm 62 pounds it would take 3 to kill me.  But they smelled so good, I tried to snitch one when Mom wasn't looking, but old Raymond saw me and took it away.  I would only have eaten one!

Mom told them the only people food I get to eat is Carrots.  I didn't know carrots were people food.  Dad doesn't eat them.  I thought they were animal food and Mom was just stealing them from me.when she would eat them.  I always know when she does it.  She makes a lot of noise when she crunches them.  I don't let her get away with it.  I make her give me one too.

Then I got to show my kids how I could get a bunch of carrots that Mom stuck in my Kong Toy out in 2 minutes!  I don't think any of the kids could do that.

I was happy that the kids were happy.  I was sad to see them go back to class.  I watched as Miss Bernadette took them back to class.  I was hoping they would come back.

Please don't let your dogs eat theobromine.  (That's what's bad in chocolate.) And if you have any questions about what a dog can or cannot eat, go to this great website:  www.petpoisonhelpline.com 

Love, G

AAAARRGGHHH!

Mom and I spent a real lot of time working up a Laugh Workshop for my 7th and 8th graders.  She pulled up some funny jokes to start with.  (She was hoping they would have some of their own to share.)  Then we had some funny dog videos (I don't know about you, but I think us canines are pretty darn good at comedy!).  After that we were going to do pretend laughing exercises, and I was supposed to judge each of them on how happy they made me feel.

So here's how it went.  First Mom told the joke about the elephant and the red nail polish.  Oh, you don't know that one?  It goes like this:

Q:  Why did the elephant paint her toenails red?

A:  Because she could hide in a strawberry patch and no one would find her.

Is that silly?  But did you ever see an elephant in a strawberry patch?  See, it works!

Hee, hee, hee.  Kids didn't think it was all that funny either.  They smiled at some jokes, but when Mom asked if they had any to share, not a one raised their hand.

So on we went to the funny videos.  There was even one of a dog peeing while he was walking around on only his front legs and his back paws were waving in the air.  I was laughing so hard!  But only one or two of the kids even broke a smile.  It was as if they decided they weren't going to laugh no matter what.

So you can imagine how they did with the laughing exercises.  They didn't want to do it at all.  I went over to the Louis who looked the most depressed and put my head in his lap.  "Won't you please help Mom out on this, "  I asked him.  He just petted my head.

So then we just played "Pet the Dog", which I liked very much.  But I know Mom was a little disappointed. 

She needed some cheering up.  So she and I met her assistant and her assistant's dog, Gabe at a cute restaurant in the middle of a residential area of Phoenix.  All of a sudden, among all the houses, was a grove of trees surrounded by restaurants and cafes.  We all got to sit in the middle of the grove and I watched all the other puppies around.  Mom and her friend had coffee and a muffin (and mom snuck me a couple of pieces, too.)

We all felt better after that.  Mom and her friend worked up the next lesson plan.  Don't know if that one will work either, but she keeps trying and I keep trying to help!

But I was tired by the time we got back in the car.  After all, we had to get up before the sun so I could have breakfast and my morning constitution before we left for school.  So I curled up on the floor in the back seat ...

... all the way home!

Hope you can laugh a lot!

Love, G

My 2018 Resolutions

Did you keep all of your resolutions last year?  Or maybe some of them?  I'm afraid to go back and look at mine in case I didn't do too good.  But I'm going to give it a go again for 2018.  At least I can TRY to be a better puppy.

Here's what I promise to do for the next year:

1.  I promise to always share my Frisbee, especially with puppies who are shy.  'Cuz I know what it's like to be shy and afraid sometimes.

2.  I will try to be strong.  Sometimes when I go to the Dog Park, I'm ascared and the other dogs know it and they try to bully me.  But if I'm strong then they play with me and I don't feel ascared anymore.

3. I promise to teach the puppies I play with how to play my games so we can all have fun together.

4.  I will take risks, 'cuz I sometimes don't do things I want to do because I'm afraid.  (Like when Mom leaves the door just a little bit open for me so I can come in from the outside.  I sit outside forever because I'm afraid I'll get squished in the door.) 

5.  And mostly I promise to always have fun and run in the sun (I like being a poet)!

Hope you made some good New Year's Resolutions and that you stick to them this year!

Love, G

 

Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah Happy Kwanzaa & Happy Everything

Just wanted to wish all my friends the BEST! 

My Aunt Joanie is worried that we might not have decorations for Christmas, but Mom told her YES WE DO!  We grow our own, don't you know?  So I posed for Mom in front of our Christmas plant.  

You almost can't see me, but I'm the rather large ornament hanging in the front with a big red bow on.  (Mom says I'm a real good sport about posing for her pictures.)

Anyway, we're gonna have a real nice Christmas.  It's gonna be 72 degrees and we're going for a walk and I get to open my Christmas Stocking.  Here's a picture of my Christmas Stocking hanging in front of the fireplace.  We have to have the fireplace on 'cuz  it gets all the way down to 45 degrees in the morning.  

Wanna guess what's in my stocking?  I'll have to let you know later.  I can't reach it.  There's a hearth shelf and too many pillows in the way for me to get to it.  You'll just have to wait till next time.  (Rats!)

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day and a really really really great 2018!

Love, G.

Back to School

I went back to work this week. 

 I have a different group of kids.  Instead of the cute little 3rd and 4th graders, I now have 7th and 8th graders.  They're a lot different.  

At first they didn't  even seem to want to be there with me.  One girl kept asking, "Why am I here?"  So Mom explained that they were there to meet ME! And to get to know me and to do fun things with me.  They just looked bored.

So we talked about body language and how dogs have to use body language, 'cuz we can't talk.  Mom showed them a video to explain how it worked.  Then we tried it on the kids.  She went up to Jared and asked him to do some body language to make her understand that he was feeling sad.  He did a good job.  He pretended crying and wiping his eyes.  He was SOOO good, I was feeling sad for him.  So I went over to him and put my head in his lap to make him feel better.  He started laughing and so did the rest of the class, so I guess I did a good job too!

Then we had a veterinarian talk to the class about being a veterinarian.  That's a doctor for us animals, in case you didn't know.  They call them vets for short 'cuz it's too hard to pronounce all those syllables.  I don't usually like vets, but this one was kinda nice.  

She works at an emergency place for animals and sees lots of badly hurt dogs and cats.  She showed the 7th and 8th graders pictures of the hurt animals.  Some of the pictures were pretty gross.  I had to shut my eyes. 

 But these kids really liked it.  I guess they like gross pictures.  Ick!

But they were happy and then I got to go home and get some rest.  I'll be back in two weeks to play Doggie Trivia with them.  I should be rested up by then.

See you soon.

Love, G.