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Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!


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Happy New Year one and all! I made it to 10:00 pm before piking out... We slept in until 7:40 this morning and Kuma was still snoozing in his crate. I opened the back door thinking he would dash out to pee... Nup, he fell back asleep!

Hope everyone has a magnificent 2011 :heart:

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Hello Lovelies!

Happy New Year! I hope someone is nursing a hangover for me!!!!

Sorry I have been awol for a couple of days. I find it harder to get on the computer when Simon is home!!! Its like I lose all my 'Me' time!

I am loving all these pictures!

We took a drive down to Anglesea with Genevieve the other day and had the best day!!!!!! She was the most well behaved dog she has ever been!!!! We hung out at the dog beach for large part of the day and it was so funny watching her! We were in fits of giggles! She was pouncing on feathers and then running away from them, then pounced on them again! It seemed to keep her amused all day!!! She seemed to be oblivious to the other dogs and people!!! Wasn't so keen on the water though... at one stage, she had an attack of the zoomies and was running around like a mad thing and ran towards the water, and when she realised what direction she was headed, she fell over herself trying to come back to us!!!! She dug for buried treasure and sun baked on the sand! She handled the two hour drive each way pretty well, perched on the surfboard, staring out the window! I loved how she kept at my side all day, even when off the lead!!!!! And didn't try to attack anyone out of excitement like she normally does! We also discovered she loves strawberries! She stopped mid zoomies and threw herself into the down position on the sand for one, then tore off again! Of course, I came home looking like a bloody beetroot, despite the litres of sunscreen I applied! And I was a bad Mum, I took no photos!!!!!

Genevieve didn't seem to notice the fireworks! She generally doesn't get too worked up by thunder storms or other loud noises... She might pop her head up to have a look, or her ears will move, but rarely does she move to look and start barking :) I am grateful for small mercies. It is birds that get her barking!

Sorry for the lack of personals. I'm kinda stuck for time today as we have house sitters arriving and I am part way through cleaning the house, ironing and other stuff. The dog though, is now clean and snoozing (paw on lappy!). We are off to Phuket for 2 weeks on Tuesday, so I won't be on for a bit. Hopefully Genevieve will be nice to our friends and if I don't pop in before we leave, love to you all and big puppy licks!!!!!

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Happy New Year everyone!!!

We had a few friends over for drinks and nibblies last night, and to play quizzes on the PS3. I can't believe I managed to stay up til 3.30am!!! (And I was the first to go to bed, OH said the sun was up before he went to bed!) Normally I'm an in bed by 10pm at the latest, kinda girl :laugh:

Kyojin absolutely terrified me last night. I came home from work and brought him straight into the house with me. Then I realised I had to pop to IGA (2 streets away) to grab a couple of things before people came over. So I thought I'd just pop him into his crate for 5 minutes. So I called out "bedtime" and he refused to come, so I thought okay, I'll just put him back into the yard while I'm gone. Well, he was not at all happy about being put away again after being alone while we were both at work all day, so he bolted out of our street, and half way down the next road. I throw my handbag, shoes, keys, phone etc onto the grass and start yelling at him to come back, chasing him down the street. The only reason he stopped (he was ignoring me, so it wasn't really like he was running away from me because he thought it was a game etc) was because there was a man walking down the footpath, and of course Kyojin had to stop and say hello to him. This was after he decided to stop in the middle of the road, mind you. There was a ute driving down the street, but luckily they could see all this going on before hand, and had slowed right down until he was off the road. So I get a hold of him. I had no leash on him though, so I had to try and hold onto his collar and lead him home. But of course pulling on his collar was hurting him, so he refused to go and plopped down, pinning his weight down as much as he could so I was really struggling to get him back up. He was thrashing about, really making it difficult for me. I managed to get him to walk with me for about 2-3 metres every 5 minutes, the rest of the time I had to try sitting and patting him to calm him down before he would move. So while all of this is going on, 3 people walk past and ignore me while I'm freaking out and trying my best to get him to move, and there were a group of about 10 people sitting out on their front lawn immediately across the street just staring the whole time. I looked at the clock when we finally got home - we were there for 40 minutes, while they just looked on. I know it's not at all their problem, but it just absolutely amazes me that they didn't offer me any help. Eventually a very elderly couple saw me and came out of their house with a leash for me to borrow. The second I popped it onto him he was happy as larry to trot him. That's all it took to get him to come home happily, it was only because trying to walk him by his collar was choking him.

It absolutely scared the crap out of me. I have no idea what I would have done if they had not come out with a leash. I knew that's all I needed, but it wasn't like I could run home and get him one and trust that he would still be sitting there when I came back. I now realise just how truthful it is when people say you NEVER, EVER trust an Akita off leash. Every breeder we spoke to, every website, book etc I have read says that they will just run, and run and run. And that you can never really be sure that their recall will work. I know Kyojin's still a pup, and we're working on recall in class now, but that's exactly what it was like. He was just running for the sake of running, and definitely has no road sense.

So that was definitely an ordeal I never want to have again! :laugh:

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Norty Kyojin! How dare you scare your mamma like that!!! Bet you we stoked to get inside... Nice of your neighbours to bring out a leash.

Oh, and Minxy, just a tip... Start getting Kyojin used to having his pants brushed coz once he starts to blow they are a pain to get out. Kuma has the biggest mats on his pants/legs... It's the last place on his body to blow and he's now got this kinda mow hawk on butt. Actually, you could call it his Mullet. Oh no, my dog's a bogan!

Wizzle - enjoy your holiday! I'm sure G will be fine :laugh:

Had a lovely lunch with Koalathebear and cleoj today... Delicious yum cha!

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Yes, it was a lovely Yum Cha lunch today. Even my anti-social OH enjoyed all the geek chat!

Wuffles, its definitely been nice to continue doing some training over the xmas break. We were lucky that a couple of the senior instructors are trialling young dogs and wanted to keep up training themselves. I'm getting together with some of te other girls tomorrow for training/ coffee, which should be fun too!

Glad to hear everyone had a nice New years, and Xmas. Shandy as nearly finished destroying the cheap xmas toy that was bought for that purpose - she can be quite surgical and intent about it once she gets started!

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Niques - good to see you back again! I have been wondering how you and James have been going! We want photos of the squishable one. ;) Orca and Monkey are mostly for Hoover at night-time and he is not very destructive of his toys unless he uses them for tug with Elbie which is why they're both still intact. If we let them be 'day toys', both toys would be quite de-stuffed by now I'm sure.

wizzle - great news about the holiday! How wonderful to have a dog that's so easy to be dog-sat by others! I just couldn't imagine being able to hand our two monsters over to anyone to mind because while they can be total couch potatoes they can also be rambunctious whirling dervishes! :cry: Look forward to seeing all the photos on facebook!!!

minxy - glad Kyojin's ok and sorry you had that scare. I think we all have a moment of 'eek' with our pups now and then. We live near quite a large road which is why I just don't want our dogs offlead. Their recall is actually pretty good but it only takes one moment of seeing something that is just TOOOOO fascinating for us to end up with a tragedy. Any recent photos of Kyojin? :D

New Years Day Yum Cha was very pleasant! Thanks for organising KA - I'm mortified that despite the fact that someone in the group owned an Admiral Ackbar mask and someone else knew the correct pronunciation of 'Trandoshan' (i.e. Bossk the lizardly bounty hunter from Star Wars who was Boba Fett's bud - Boe-bar mind you, not BOBBA) I have won the prize for Most Geeky ... :) Oh well. Regrettably, it has always been my fate to be the Most Dorky in the Room ...

In other news, we had a HUGE thunder and lightning storm last night. Not just the usual heavy rain with rumbles of thunder and lightning. The lightning was amazing and the thunder was so loud! wuffles I thought of you and Satch and wondered how his Thundershirt was going - you are so lucky you're still in the Great North! Elbie did remarkably well but there were two MASSIVE thunderclaps that seemed to resound through the silence and were like huge explosions - Elbie barked like crazy during those two, then whimpered ... then went back to his crate... Hoover barked twice in sympathy with Elbie but was completely unphased by the thunder storm. Our little farm dog is fearless, I tell you! He thinks that the Dyson is a toy and attacks it like a cat with a mouse!

Edited by koalathebear
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Today a certain puppy turns one!! :)

He had a great play with Wuffles' gang this morning (was totally obnoxious to poor Satch :cry:) and will be out to visit his cousin Lulu this afternoon. Busy day for the little pup. Hopefully by his next birthday he will finally be free of the huge amount of mud he accumulated in his coat this morning ;) Thanks again for the meet-up, Wuffles! Will add photos later - am just sorting through them at the moment.

Minxy, that must have been terrifying! I can't believe it took 40 minutes for one of your neighbours to offer assistance! What a lovely couple for doing so. Interesting to hear that they just keep running. For what purpose were they originally bred?

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James had a bit of unrequited love goin' on with Satch :confused: They did have a good play though and lay in the mud together.

I decided that my two were definitely way too muddy, so I took them to Nudgee Beach to try and wash it off :o They had a great time swimming after sticks with a bunch of other dogs and Ava went for her first real swim! Usually she goes in up to her belly then stops, but the stick was just too tempting and she was paddling around like a pro. Satch would have to go out about 20m to get a real swim but he did pretty well. And now they are definitely much cleaner looking than before. Still grots, but at least they look like wet dogs now instead of Creatures from the Swamp.

I am glad we weren't home for the big thunderstorm! Poor Satchy. He was a bit stressed at the fireworks the other night but survived. We haven't noticed a big difference with the Thundershirt but we will keep trying, we haven't had any storms since we've been up here (touch wood)!

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Happy Birthday James! Can't wait to see the photos - there will be a lot of cuteness going on in those photos I'm sure :confused: Poor Satch - he's probably never had a trip with so many playful puppies in his life!

Despite the thunder storm last night, it's very warm today. The doggies have been playing with ice cubes and a giant minced beef ice cube thingy ... It clearly tired Hoover out because he has been lying like this for the last 10 minutes and seems to have no desire to move.

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Thanks guys, it was really scary. Hopefully we never have another incident like that again!

Niques: They were used for hunting (bears mostly), baby sitting, guarding live stock and police work.

Wuffles: I bet the doggies had a great time at the beach! I've actually never been to Nudgee beach before. I've been meaning to take Kyojin to the beach for ages, but with OH and I working such different hours to each other, we haven't really had the chance.

KTB: Lovely photos as always. These are the most recent photos I have of my boy:

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Happy new year everyone! And a very special :laugh: to Roo's long lost twin, Master James! :D

I'm looking forward to seeing photos of his playdate with Ava and Satch. It sounds interesting! :)

Minxy, I read in the Dear thread that you had an, ahem, interesting time at the dog park today? ;) :)

KTB, Cleo and KA- sounds like a whole lot of Star Wars nerds, uhhh I mean fans all had a great yum cha together ;) :laugh:

After so much cold weather, it's been a bit of a rude shock to have normal summer weather, and I have to say, I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would when it was cold! :o Mainly I've worried that Ruby has been too hot, so I've been making iceblocks for her too. The last couple of nights I've had to put the fan on for the first time, so I made sure that it's angled and oscillates towards her. The other morning when I woke up, she was lying on her back fast asleep! :laugh: Her and her best dog friend next door have been having long plays (mostly wrestling/body slamming each other up against the fence or their owners!) most evenings, and if for some reason he can't come over, they amuse themselves by playing bitey face with each other under the fence. They're working on a tunnel, but his owner doesn't seem to mind at all.

We had a storm here this afternoon and it's cooled down a lot now. Roo doesn't seem to be worried by thunder thankfully.

Hope everyone is well :)

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How can you not fall in love with Kyojin's face! So sweet. He and his feline chum look very content together.

Hoover definitely has the right idea. Today was a thoroughly unpleasant day, in regards to temperature.

Apologies in advance for the photo overload. There aren't too many brilliant shots (although I must say, Ava is unbelievably photogenic, even covered in mud!) and it was very hard to find photos that wouldn't fit the caption, "Satch. Satchmo. Satchmo! Play with me, Satch?" :laugh: James' fawning is even more obvious on film.

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He had a ball on his labrador playdate this arvo, to the point of exhaustion. Upon which he found himself an incredibly foul pile of crud to lie in. The smell was awful!

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minxy: kyojin has the most plaintive and adorable face! In the second ad, he looks like he's soliciting donations: "Please give generously this Christmas ..."

lilli_star: I was silly and put ice cubes in the indoor drink bowl. Hoover went over, dunked for icecubes and tipped the bowl of water everywhere. OH was not impressed :) The dogs are loving them though - Hoover grabs a cube and runs off to his crate to crunch noisily. Elbie pushes his around with nose and tongue until Hoover comes back and steals that one, too...

Niques: Those photos are gold - I LOVE how flyaway James' ears are. It's like he uses his ears for propulsion or something!!!

Ava looks like she's plotting evil mischief here:

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James: "When I grow up, I want to be a staffy."

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They look like they're about to sing a romantic (albeit muddy) duet:

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Satchmo looks soooo long-suffering in so many of those photos. What a hoot. In other news, my two are shedding so much! I'm thinking of shaving them bald or something.

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Satchmo looks soooo long-suffering in so many of those photos. What a hoot. In other news, my two are shedding so much! I'm thinking of shaving them bald or something.

You should see how much mine are shedding here in Brissy because it's soooooo hot. Ava's undercoat is coming out in huge clumps (and interestingly, her undercoat is white, even when her topcoat is black) :D Thankfully Satch lost most of his back home but if you pat him you still end up with a handful of fur!

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Hi All

Happy Birthday James!

Poor Satchmo, must be a bit over all this playing! Normally he does not look quite so, well, animated in photos :)

wuffles - I find it interesting that your dogs have been ok playing with so many new doggies. Did you do anything special to help with the meeting?

Minxy - sounds like you had quite a scare. Silly Kyojin running out the yard.

New Years went quite well. It was 42 degrees here, so I popped Ziggy in the soft crate inside where the aircon was on. He was very well behaved. My friends were staying with there 2 year old. She was both fascinated and a little alarmed by the dog (and the cat!). She kept her distance, but occasionally would walk past the crate, turn around, see the dog, and get a scare (poor Ziggy was really just sitting there doing nothing!). Fireworks were a bit of a non event.

We have major shedding here too! I need to vacuum tonight (hate vacuuming, despite dyson). I bathed Ziggy yesterday, and managed to use the blow drier a little bit more than usual (still requiring steady stream of treats from one hand), but he did not turn around and snap at it like he normally does. Small victory there :D Another problem with the long coat is all the buzzies that seem to be attracted to it. I took him to the off lead park (prior to the bath), which he loves, but there is obviously a lot of debris that can attach to a dog coat. I spent the night brushing and trying to pick out the buzzies, check paws for grass seeds etc.....

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