A long time ago I promised to show you the shenanigans going on in my backyard. Or should I call it backyardigans?
Waiter! I need a napkin!
These are self explanatory, but if the participants had anything to say I’ll add that as comentary under the offender’s image.
My morning abdominal workout might be offset by my morning snacking.
You will note there is one pictured here that is not like the others. She knows who she is.
I have to ask the help to fill this feeder every single day.
Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done in the house, given all the entertainment just outside my window.
I emptied out that birdfeeder, now my tummy doesn’t feel so good.
Oh wait. I really don’t get much done inside. Please don’t look at the dust covering everything or the dog fur rolling across the floor.
Somebody come help me with these two hooligans!
But I ask you. Which would you rather do?
I’m just going to sit here and watch the crazy in real time.
I thought so.
Me too.Me three.Not me, I’m eating while I can. A mom gets so little time to herself around here!You are so right! Eat while you can I always say!I see you lady with the camera! Could you please leave us more peanuts?She always puts the peanuts at the bottom. Good thing I have short legs.Seriously, I’m going to go crazy in .2 seconds.
Hey Peeps! It’s me, Penny! Guess what, guess what, guess what???! Mom and I went to a Rally trial on Friday and in spite of mom I got my first AKC title!
Where are we going mom? I’m not sure I want to go!
It all started when mom rushed me into the car in the morning. This was unusual and I wasn’t sure it was going to be a good day. I was afraid maybe I was going to the vet. Or the groomer!
But we ended up at my school and I’m always excited there. I’ll tell you a secret. I’m not excited because I get to hang out with other dogs and do fun stuff.
Well OK mom! I love school, let’s get going!
Nope. I’m excited about the cheese. Don’t tell mom, I don’t think she realizes, she still thinks I’m an intellectual dog that’s all invested in learning new things.
Let’s not disappoint her.
This doesn’t feel like school, mom!
Anyway. Mom got us there way too early. We had to wait through a whole lot of people and dogs before we got to go. I mostly sat around and begged other people to share their treats.
She has snacks RIGHT THERE mom!
Mom kept saying NO! Everybody said I was cute and they all wanted to share but mom was a meanie. Except once when we were all done she let me have a tiny salmon liver thing. OMG! Mom’s cheese is nothing compared to salmon liver!
Your snack skills are severely lacking, mother.
Anyway…once it was my turn I was a very good girl and followed mom all around that course. There were lots of circles which are not my favorite but I stuck pretty good, even though mom thought I was lagging behind sometimes.
We had to wait for almost all these people to do their thing first. I’m in Rally Novice B.
And we ended up with a 99 out of 100 and first place! And since that was my third leg (you have to get three qualifying runs to get a title) I got my first title too!
Me and my first place ribbon and my TITLE RIBBON!
Mom and I went in the back and got our pictures taken with my ribbons.
Me and mom. She said she was very proud of me.
But then I found out mom had entered us for a 2nd run. Mom called it insurance in case I didn’t qualify in the first run. But it meant waiting all that time all over again until it was my turn!
I decided I’d take a nap in my crate while we waited.
GEEZE mom, this is not fun.
But then my breeder, Mama S, showed up and I was sooooo excited to see her. She’s one of my favorite people, right up there with daddy and mom and she came to watch me! And then we waited and waited and waited…and I was soooo bored. Mom tried to keep me occupied but all I wanted to do was nap.
While we waited mom studied the map of our next run.
And when it came my turn, finally, I didn’t want to play the game anymore. I decided to protest by not sitting when she asked me to, until she asked four or five times. I also decided I wasn’t going to circle left at all. And I was going to walk reeaaaal slow. So mom had to keep trying to get me to move along.
I found the whole thing totally boring.
If that comes with a snack I’ll take it!
Lucky for us the judge was a nice lady and didn’t disqualify us. I think if we weren’t doing beginning rally we would have been kicked right out of the building! But we got an 89 and qualified and even got a third place ribbon (cause there were only 3 of us in that group) and mom was relieved.
Three ribbons!
We went in the back and got our pictures taken again, even the lady judge posed with me!
The lady judge was very nice.
And then mom drove us home. We were both very, very tired. Mom and I took a nap when we got home and today mom’s going to go back to the school to watch the obedience trials. She says we’re going to try that next month! She says I can stay home and rest up.
Mom says she has a whole bunch of camping pictures to sort through and she doesn’t have time to post about my day. So I’ll just do it myself. After all, I am the brilliant, beautiful, competent Unstoppable Pretty Penny!
Ahem.
Going on an adventure with my mom.
So as you probably know, since you’re all keeping track of my adventures, my school has been out for weeks. Mom is trying to keep up with my training (and if we’re honest, her own training) by herself and with a lot of help from her friend Diane. But let’s be honest. Mom isn’t always consistant, plus she’s been away having fun and taking pictures of stuff that’s not me.
So she was a little uncertain when today rolled around and it was time to go up to Flint and do a Fun Run or three. That’s when mom and I get to do a Rally course like at a Trial but we aren’t judged. It’s just for practice and mom figured we needed lots of practice.
Hey mom, hurry up, this is my school!
And guess what ? I did three runs, two at the Novice level and one at the Advanced level! Whoo Hoo! Mom asked the ladies running the show if we could try Advanced even though we haven’t trained at that level yet and they said “Sure! Why not?”
Staying chill while we were waiting for stuff to get started.
Did you know Advanced Rally is off leash? YES! OFF LEASH! I got to heel along with my mom without being attached to her! WOW! At first I was kinda excited and started to wander off but mom said “HEEL!” in her school voice when I had taken 1.5 steps away from her and I slapped myself back next to her leg. She smiled and I got a piece of cheese. After that it was all fun, I even got to do a jump! I wasn’t sure what it was at first but then she went on the other side and said “JUMP!” and I did, cause I love to jump over stuff at home! This was fun too. I got more cheese.
I love school cause mom’s a cheese dispenser there.
So anyway…mom is a happy camper and she hopes we are able to get my very first Rally title in a couple weeks. I say of course I can do it, the quetion is, as it always is, can mom?
I deserve this nap with my elephant, I worked hard and did good!
Mom says she has lots of photos to edit from her trip, but I keep asking her to do stuff with me so she hasn’t had time to mess with those old photos. I did let her edit the images in this post, cause they’re about me and I know how much you all want to see me.
This is mom’s favorite back yard weigela bush. It has three different shades of pink blossoms, that all bloom at once. This was the bush Mom was asking Katie to pose in front of in June of 2022 when she and dad noticed how sad Katie was.
Mom says that’s when she and daddy decided it was time to let Katie’s soul fly free. So when she sees this bush in bloom she always thinks about Katie and that day, and it makes her sad.
But did you see what’s on the bush, just to the left of my right ear? Go ahead and look again. Maybe make the image bigger on your device.
See it?
Yep…a butterfly! Mom had been out taking pictures of it earlier, from a good distance away because she didn’t want to scare it off. And then, when she thought it was gone, she took me out there to get my picture with the blooms, and the butterfly flew right around our heads and settled down eating and drinking.
It wasn’t afraid of us at all!
It stayed out there, flying around near us the entire time Mom was taking my picture. Do you think maybe it was Katie come to visit?
Once again I’m jumping online late at night while my mom snores over there on the sofa. She says if I want to write I should go get my own blog, but I say why do that when she’s already done all the groundwork?
This is mom’s garden. It might be the reason she’s snoring on the sofa.
Hey! Did you guys know I have a niece? I sure do! Her name is Sarah and she lives with my Mama S, the lady that delivered me and my four sisters two and a half years ago. My dog mom, Vivian, and her best friend Olivia live there too.
That’s me on the left, Sarah standing in back, my dog mom Vivian next and then Olivia.
She’s almost one year old and I love her so much. Last month my mom and dad took me up to Mama S’s house for a playdate with Sarah who is a bundle of energy.
Sarah loves to chase me, but I’m FAST! She’ll never catch me, no siree!
All four of us dogs and the three adult people went into the big fenced in back yard to play. Mama S had a bright orange tennis ball that Vivian and Olivia get very excited over.
Throw the ball!!!
She’d fling that ball toward the back of the yard and all four of us would chase after it, a few of us (not me) barking wildly the entire time.
Somebody get that ball!
I never once got the ball, it was mostly Olivia who did the ball handling, but sometimes one of the other two would get a chance to take it back to Mama S so she’d throw it again.
It’s a race back to Mama S!
And then we’d be off again!
Get it!
My mom and dad laughed at us a lot. Mom was busy taking pictures too of course.
A passel of shelties.
Mostly Sarah and I just ran and ran and ran. She loves to chase me and between you and me I could beat her but I let her get close once in awhile.
Sarah and Oliva the ball handler.
Then when she gets almost to my tail I take off again.
Nope, Sarah, you’re not going to get me!
We were both worn out when my folks said it was time to go home, but man, what a wonderful time we all had!
She’s gaining on me!
I’m just the luckiest sheltie girl in the whole world! I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we all enjoyed playing!
You’ve got snacks…right Mama S?
Signing off now to dream of running in a big yard, your athlete girl Penny.
Those of you that remember Katie know that every spring mom took her somewhere to do a yellow flower photo-shoot. It started out as a joke, since mom’s yellow flowers aren’t all that exotic.
But it turned into a fun outing for them and mom got some really sweet photos of Katie smiling at her parks.
Well now, mom doesn’t want to give that up so guess what mom and I did last week?
I suppose that wasn’t very hard to guess, was it!
Yep, mom rushed me over to Katie’s park when the sun came out one day. She had seen lots of yellow flowers in people’s yards and she figured as long as the park staff hadn’t mowed we’d be good.
And we were!
There were sooooo many pretty yellow flowers that I could hardly decide where to sit. In fact I didn’t want to sit at all.
I mean, if you’ve got the space and time, why not run through the yellow flowers with the wind in your furs? Right? So I did.
Several times.
Mom says I’m a very good model. I say as long as she has treats I’ll be a good model.
Cause if there’s one thing that Katie taught me it’s that you only have to sit for one photograph as a time and the flow of treats should be constant. And when the treats are done, so am I.
Thanks Katie-girl. You’re the best big sister ever!
Now I have to go comfort mom because she says that after looking at these pictures she realizes that I’m growing up too fast. She says she wants to slow it all down, but I gotta tell her, there’s no slowing me down!
Shhhhhhhh! It’s me, Penny! I’m trying to give you an update on things I’ve been doing without letting the mom know. Cause as you can see, she’s not giving me nearly enough online exposure. So I’m doing what they call an ‘end run’ around her and getting on here myself.
Mom has been taking me on lots of walks in my parks.
She’s sharing lots of stuff about her silly birds, and hardly anything about me and my adventures. All you’ve seen of me is the Easter picture. And to be honest I did that under duress. I mean pink is not my color!
“Hey mom! I didn’t bark at those bikes!”
Anyway.
Since I last wrote to you all I’ve been very very busy. I had a play date with Levi at his dog park which is about an hour away from my house.
Me and Levi. I was watching my mom come back from the car.
We had lots of fun and I made Levi chase me a few times.
We both love to run.
Mostly we did our own thing, you know? He was into running and chasing his frisbee…
Levi loves his frisbee.
…and I was just into running.
I just love to run!
Levi is a very handsome dude and of course the moms wanted a picture of the two of us together. And of course, as is stipulated in the sheltie bylaws, we made it very hard for the moms to get said picture.
“OK here’s the deal. We never both look at mom at the same time.”
Sit next to each other? No way. But maybe on our next play date we’ll be nicer to the moms. I guess it depends on the quality of treat being offered.
“Listen, mom, we’re not going to SIT. So get the shot and let us go play!”
And I also did a Rally Trial where mom signed me up to do two runs. A run is where you and your mom or dad walk around in a ring doing a bunch of stuff at little signs. You’re supposed to take your cue from your mom or dad who is supposed to be able to read the signs correctly.
Frankly it’s a bit boring because they don’t let you have treats while you’re in the ring. And without treats, what’s the point anyway?
Mom said I did great and she’s proud of me.
I did real good on the first run, I got 96 out of 100 points and second place in my group. But then mom rushed me right over to the other run without any breaks (and no treats!!) and we were all of the sudden in there walking around and I was sort of more interested in getting out of the ring, and also I forgot what the word “sit!” means.
Mom says she’s always glad when we make it to the “finish” sign!
I guess I just had a mental block. I don’t know what the big deal is, mom has those all the time! I still got a qualifying score, 80-something, but I didn’t place. Mom says that’s just fine. She says we have two legs of the three we need for a title in Novice Rally.
I’ve been taking her to doggie school every week to practice reading the signs. Between you and me, this past Tuesday afternoon she couldn’t read much of anything right and I got really frustrated with her. So I decided I didn’t know how to sit straight anymore. Or heel. Or wait. Waiting is my hardest thing anyway.
Mom says we’ll be in the basement working on that stuff this week.
Come on down, mom! And bring the cheese!
In fact, talking about the basement, my friend Lance and his folks came over and Mom and I did some work in our new basement, teaching me the tricks of Beginner Novice Obedience! Mom say she has great plans for me. I say I’m all in as long as there’s cheese involved.
Lance and me being patient with the moms.
Oh – and on Friday evenings I’ve been going on group walks with another trainer and a bunch of other dogs and their people. We’re walking around small towns and getting used to traffic and other people and other dogs. Mom says it’s working. I don’t go as crazy now when we’re out and about as long as mom has treats on her. She’s pretty happy with me and we have a lot of fun on the walks!
A perfect evening to walk around an historic little town.
I just know there’s more news to tell you, but mom’s almost done cleaning the kitchen so I better go inspect. Have I told you that the kitchen is my favorite room in my house? I call it the Food Room. You never know what will appear from hidden places there.
Mom’s been taking me shopping too. I don’t know what the point is, she never buys anything.
Change Is Hard 