ZZZZZZZ...

I'm one pooped puppy!

My grandparents were really busy Wednesday and Thursday. So, Arwen and Rosie and I didn't have much to do for those couple of days. But Friday and today! Gosh we did a lot.

Elliot came over on Friday and took us to the dog park. Now, the dog park always tires us out. There's sooo much to do and sooo many doggie friends to be made. I'm hoping that Momma takes me to the dog park a few times when she's back (which I'm still really excited about).

Then my granddad took me for a walk. They haven't been able to take us for walks every morning for a while because my granddad is really busy at the University and there have been a few days of rain. I keep offering to be his shop dog but he says that I can't. Something about a lot of wood being around. I don't know why that would be a problem. I'm a real good wood chewer.

Then Elliot and his friends had a party. It was because he passed the Bar? I don't know what that means, but there were a lot of people here all night! Rosie went to bed with the grandparents around ten. I tried to keep up with Arwen who stayed up and watched the WHOLE party while making friends, but I couldn't. I don't know how she does it. I fell asleep just an hour after Rosie.

Anyway, this morning I was laying on the bathmat being a good watch dog while Grandma Marion took a shower and I dozed off! I fell asleep on the job. Can you believe it? Gosh, I must have had too much fun yesterday. I was told that it was a good thing I was a pooped pup because my grandparents have some church business to do today.

Maybe I'll just sleep all day.

ZZZZZZZ....

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly  

Best Gift Ever

I know, I know. The whole post a day thing isn't working out very well. I had a little bit of a bump these past two days. I was grounded from the Internet. I decided to steal clean another pair of my grandfather's reading glasses. Did you know that dog slobber isn't good for cleaning them and the humans don't  like it when you do it? I do now.

Anyway, I just received the best early Chrismachannukwanzica gift ever! My Momma told me that she's definitely coming home for a little bit over her break! Isn't that great!? I can't wait to see my Momma again. Maybe she'll bring me back something cool from Scotland. I only have a month to wait! Oh, it's going to go by so slow.

Well...thirty days and counting.

Puppy Meeting Tonight

I'm so excited! My grandparents are letting my go to the puppy meeting tonight! Hooray! Now I just have to wait another whole hour to be picked up! I should probably go and get ready. A girl's got to look her absolute best when going out. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. For now, here's a picture of Arwen and myself.

Me and Arwen laying on the couch. I tired to tell my grandparents that they should have put two dog blankets up there.

Love and Lab Kisses,

Hilly

They're Back

Well, my granparents got home last night. Arwen, Rosie, and I tried to pretend that the dogsitters followed all the rules right down to the periods but it wasn't that easy. We get spoiled by our dogsitters. They're just so great to me sometimes.

But, that's not the exciting news! The exciting news is that I might get to go to the puppy meeting tomorrow night! Hooray! I've missed going to the puppy meetings and seeing all of my friends. I can't wait! My Auntie Mary says that she'll come pick me up and then drop me back off after the meeting is over. That means that I'll get to ride with Lance all the way to the meeting.

I'll even get to show off my recall skills. Also, we're getting two new puppies this Saturday! Maybe I'll get to meet them if my Momma comes home.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Ho Hum

Ho Hum! What a boring day!

Sorry guys! Nothing at all interesting happened today. All we did was hang out with the dog sitters for a while. It's gotten pretty cold for where we live so none of us really wanted to go for a walk this morning and freeze our paws off! I don't know what I'm going to do if it stays this cold. I don't want to...go potty in the grass in the mornings. The grass is all icy and does not feel good one bit on my poor paws.

Hmm...might ask Santa to bring me warmer weather for Christmas.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Big Black Boxed

My grandparents pulled out their big black boxes again. Whenever they come out it means people leave and the more come out the longer they're gone. My Momma packed two really big ones full before leaving and she's still not back. Thankfully whenever my grandparents bring theirs out they are littler and they each only pack one.

I tried very hard to stop them from going by laying down in their doorway and looking very sad, but they ignored me! Can you believe it!? They just stepped over me and continued to put their clothes and the sleeping machine thingies in there.

I think those big black box things should be outlawed. At least the dog sitters allow me online.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Thank You Vets!

You know what I found out today? That today is Veteran's Day. At first I thought that this meant vets like Dr. Ramona who takes care of me when I'm sick. But that's not what it means at all. These are men and women who have or are still in the military in our country. Gosh, of course I want to thank them!

Did you know that my big sister Freya works in the military? Pretty cool huh?

So thank you Veterans and all the men and women in service...and thanks to all the vets too. You help a lot.

My One and Only Brother

Guess what I found out today? That my brother Hermes is in Class up at Guide Dogs! Hooray! I'm so proud of my brother Hermes. I can't wait to see his graduation pictures. He'll look all grown up and in a harness and Guiding his perfect match around.

Way to go Hermes!

Halette is still waiting for her perfect match, but I'm sure she'll find one soon!

Love and Lab Kisses (to my brother Hermes),
Hilly

The Brat

The brat is Rosie. Rosie also happens to be my best friend and the one I play with all day and all night, but that just means I can be more brutally honest about her. She's a labradoodle, but she got her food genes from the poodle. I'm never seen someone skip breakfast as often as she does. *shakes head*

Anyway, I call Rosie a brat because she's darn cute and she knows it and uses it to get away with so many different things. And she's loud. Not as loud as she was before the "demon collar" made its appearance. She used to just sit in the middle of the backyard and bark. Now, I've recently discovered the joy of barking at the front door when someone knocks or rings the bell, but just barking to bark doesn't sound like that much fun to me. She also use to steal my toys and take them to her hiding place. I now know where this hiding place is so she can't do it anymore.

But there are a few good things to Rosie. She's energetic like me so we get to play and play and play. She also gets dirtier than me so she's the one who gets hosed down more often. And she's afraid of heights so I never have to worry about her taking my spot on the couch or the bed. These are all good things.

Like I said, she's my best friend but sometimes she really is a brat!


Rosie, the little white labradoodle of the pack, with mud up to her elbows.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

The Queen on the Castle

No, not me. I still have a few years to go before I can even be considered the Queen of our little castle. Nope. I realized that I wasn't giving enough attention to my pack and thought I might introduce you to them both. As she is the leader of our small pack it's obvious that I should start with Arwen.

Arwen, the large Golden Retriever leader of our pack

Arwen will turn 10 in January. 10! That's pretty old (don't tell her I said that). Arwen is the Queen of the house. My 'grandparents' pretend that they run the show when really it's Arwen. They all dote on her. Gosh, she's got a nice set up. She once started limping a little after a walk and the humans dropped everything to take care of her. The limp wasn't even that bad. I wonder if I'll ever be in that position of power. 



Arwen sitting out by the tree in our backyard.



Anyway, I respect and love her. Momma always says that she's her four-legged sister so I guess that makes her my Aunt Arwen. She's taught me a lot of stuff like how to respect the older generation (they'll play when they feel like it and not before. I'm telling you puppies, don't even try) and how to bark at the door and get up on the sofa when the house is empty. She's a great mentor.  Though, everyone likes to joke that if she was ever a Guide Dog Puppy she would have been dropped the day she was born. I suppose that means I've got one up on her in that reguard.

Arwen is a happy camper.

My Momma and Arwen. Can't you see the family resemblance?

Arwen showing me what's what by taking the comfy couch and leaving me on the floor.

 Anyway, now you pretty much know Arwen. She may be grouchy at times but when she decides to play she gives me a run for my money.

Love and Lab Kisses,

Hilly

A Lesson Hard Learned

My grandfather teaches at the University in town. He teaches computers and stuff like that. He helps my Momma engrave names into her leashes and even found a way to get my Career Change tag on my new collar...eventually.

Well, he was marking some papers with a few highlighters. He looked a little weary after the first batch and went off for a little while. I, being the good grandpuppy that I am, wanted to help. So, I took the highlighters and tried to mark a few of the papers for him. Unfortunately the only way for me to get the caps off was with my mouth and by the time they were off...well, let's just say I might have had a little lot of trouble getting those caps off.

So, what did I learn? Don't eat highlighters. *tummy groan* Your tummy will not thank you for eating them. This is the email my granddad had to send to his students.

"There is one thing I forgot to mention when explaining the scoring of the instruction manual assignment. Some of you have colored highlighting marks (red, orange and yellow) on your papers. After I had marked a few papers, I started marking some of the papers with the highlighters. I did a dozen or so before my daughter's 19 month-old black Labrador puppy found two of the markers on a table and chewed them into several pieces, hence putting an end to the color marking. (red for bad, orange for not as bad,  yellow for good or noted emphasis) There is nothing especially bad or good about your paper if it has colored marks. Having the colors on your paper simply means your work was being scored while the markers were intact."
Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Aww Man!

Sorry guys! I can't believe that I forgot to write a post before Midnight. Shoot! It's now 2 minutes into November 7th and I haven't written a post for the 6th.

Ah well, today was a Sunday so not much happened. The grandparents went to church this morning which I'm no longer aloud to go to, so the three of us plus the cats had a lazy Sunday morning. A lazy Sunday really! Sometimes, I guess that's what anyone needs; a lazy Sunday.

I'm off to sleep now but when I wake up I'll write another post to make up for this one I forgot. Oops!

New Toy

While I miss my Momma a looooot, I've come to realise that living with my grandparents isn't that bad. They take me for walks and let me sleep on the bed. Alright, they don't exactly allow me to sleep on the bed per say. I kind of sneak up there when they're gone for my afternoon nap, but they don't yell at me for it either.

I get to play in our backyard with Arwen and Rosie and even if we play in mud outside and bring it inside I don't get in trouble. And they don't mind that I do my business on the concrete patio out back instead of in the grass when it rains. 

The greatest thing is that they buy me new toys every once in a while. Today, I got a new rope toy. You all know how much I like to play rope now. Yep! My grandparents aren't that bad at all.  

Me with my new orange and black rope toy.

Me tuggin' on my new rope toy.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Indoor Swimming Pool

I think my grandparents are thinking about putting in an indoor swimming pool.

This morning there was water all over the floor in the hallway that lead into their room. I started playing in it to show them how much fun an indoor swimming pool would be. For some reason they didn't want me to play in the water. Something about it being dirty water from the toilet.

First of all, who puts toilet water into a swimming pool?! They should have tried it out with normal water first so that we could have fun in it to test it out properly. Second of all, that water isn't dirty. It's clean enough to drink.

Anyway, they mopped it up. I don't think we're going to get that indoor swimming pool after all.

Hermes and Halette

Today was one of those days where it's good to be a pet. I just slept for hours (on the bed when both of the grandparents were out) and then playing with Rosie a little and then slept some more.

Seeing as today was a lazy day, I thought I'd give you an update on my two siblings still in training. Both Halette and Hermes are in the final phase of their formal training! Yay! I'm really proud of my brother and sister and hope to hear that they will be graduating as Guides soon.

As for me, I'm happy being a pet.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Rope Training

Did you guys know that when I first came to live with my Momma as a puppy in training for Guide Dogs for the Blind that I wasn't a big rope player? No, it's the truth! I just didn't get the point of it and I wasn't very good at it.

When I first came here, my Uncle Greg was in town and he taught me to play rope. He taught me to play rope good. Now, I can sometimes beat Arwen and I always beat Rosie. I'm convinced that the reason Arwen wins a lot is because she's bigger than me. I'm a little lab and Arwen is a big golden retriever!

I'm working up to beating her all the time. My granddad is helping me train. Today he trained with me and then he helped me beat Arwen and showed me how to do it. It's all about muscle memory in your jaw and legs you see.

I'm off to train some more. Probably going to do a few laps around the yard and then to some puppy push-ups. Momma use to do those with me to help me train. Works out the front paws.

Love and Lab Kisses,
Hilly

Happy Halloween and National Blogging Month

Guess what November is! It's national Blogging Month! There's a challenge for national blogging month to write a post a day for a whole month. I'm going to try to do it even though it's going to be hard.

This first post is about Halloween. My grandparents didn't dress any of us up (thankfully! While I know we're adorable in little outfits it's not very dignified), but we did get a lot of trick or treaters. Did you know that it's OK to bark when someone knocks on the door or rings the bell? I had been told all a long that you shouldn't do it, but you can! And it's really fun too! Sometimes, I'm the loudest of all three of us (I'm pretty proud of that).

What's still not OK is rushing up to the door and "harassing" the people coming into the house. So my grandparents have been teaching the three of us the command, "Away from the Door". We're really getting it! We get treats every time we sit and stay out of the entrance way.

But, we don't get treats for false alarms. We've tried to trick them a few times but to no avail.

A picture of me, Rosie, and Arwen sitting away from the door waiting for our treats. Sorry about the glare from my eye. It's a problem with being a black lab.