I'm Back!

It's been a while since I last posted, and a lot has happened in my life in the last 2 1/2 months.  I have some really big news, but I'm going to make you wait to hear the big news.  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I'll tell you how I started this 2 month period...

I went to Camp Taurus for the longest time ever!  In the past, I have woken up at Camp Taurus 7 times, but this time, I woke up there more times than I can count!  (I can only count to 7, by the way... I'm working on it.)

I had been gaining just a little weight over the years and wanted to regain my puppyish figure.  So for the start of my stay, I signed up for the Puppy 9 Day Extreme Boot Camp (P9DX).  This involved playing for 15 minutes and resting for 15 minutes all day every day!  It was hard work, but it was fun.

My trainer was a border collie named Tony.  He was fast and made me work hard.  Here's a picture of us during a break along with another pup who was in the program.  (The other pup was a bit of a troublemaker and was always goofing around.)

Tony the P9DX Trainer

 Because the stay was during Thanksgiving, we did get a break for one day.  On that day, we even got to partake in a great Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, green beans, and sweet potato!!!!  Tony said that there's no harm in having a feast on a special day and he said that the turkey would help build our muscles.  It was my favorite meal of the year!

The P9DX program was hard, but it was rewarding.  I think you can see the results clearly in these before and after pictures.

Before P9DX with Tony After P9DX with Tony Not only do I look like a puppy again, I also feel better.  I'm much better able to guard the pack with my new muscles.  And... guarding the pack has become much more important lately...

Stay tuned!

Before I sign off, just for fun, here's another picture from Camp Taurus with some fellow campers.  It was super fun!

More fun at Camp Taurus

Update on Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 01:19PM by CTP

I feel bad because I forgot to thank all of the people who helped Tony make the P9DX camp so great.  The people who work for him at Camp Taurus really are the ones who made it a great experience.

They prepared all of the great meals, they organized all of the play times, they gave us treats when we were good and broke up the rare fights.  Most importantly, every night, they gave me a clean bed, my own fresh blanket, my own grade-A bone, and tucked me in and gave me a kiss. 

I missed my own people, but thanks to the super-nice people at Camp Taurus, I didn't get too homesick.

Sleeping as Art

There is a subtle but important difference between Sleeping as Art and the Art of Sleeping.  If you're more interested in the Art of Sleeping, please check out this great article by Henri Hound.  Henri mostly talks about how and where to sleep for some of the best experiences.  He does touch on Sleeping as Art a bit as well.

Sleeping as Art...

I love sleeping, but I think it's important to sleep with style.  I want my sleep to properly accent the room. 

When I see a pattern on a rug, I see how I can best add to the overall look of it.  I think I did that well here.

Accenting the Accent RugChairs can be a little tricky.  They can be a little short for showing off my long, lean lines.  However, I've found that if I let my body follow the natural contour of the angles, it makes for a nice effect. 

I once heard a person say, "I'd rather look good than feel good."  That makes a lot of sense to me.

Fine LinesSpeaking of showing off my long lines, I've found that the Downward Dog position is an excellent way to show off those lines.  I imagine my body as a natural waterfall flowing gracefully among the hills of green.  The blue blanket helps add to the illusion of flowing water, don't you think?

Inspiring Yoga MovesRecently, I came up with a wonderful inspiration.  If I take the Fine Lines chair position but do it on the couch, I can show off the full length of my body while complementing the angles on the couch.  It's one of my finest works yet. 

Experimental ArtI thought it would be interesting to work with a monochromatic palette just to see how it turned out.  So, I asked my people to buy a piece that was similar in color to my coat.  I like how using this palette takes the focus off of me and makes people pay close attention to the richness of hues within a narrow range of colors.  (Also, this bed is very, very comfortable so I look good AND feel good!) CamouflagedFor my last work today, I decided to take the concept of removing me from the focus to it's logical conclusion.  I've heard people say that "less is more".  When I saw the sun shining in through the window in just the right way, I was inspired to create one of my most artistic works.  Let me know if you agree. MysteriousI hope you enjoyed my little gallery of Sleeping as Art.  I know that I'll be working on more pieces over the next several months and I will display them in another show once I feel that I have a collection that is up to my standards.  Thank you for supporting the arts! 

Can You Dig It?

I have a new favortie song.  It's all about my favorite things!  Let me share some of the lyrics along with my commentary.  Then, I'll show you a cool video of the whole song.  Can you dig it?

The song is called Grazing in the Grass and is sung by The Friends of Distinction.

It starts...

It sure is mellow grazin' in the grass.

(Grazin' in the grass is a gas, baby, can you dig it?)

I love both grazin' and gazin' in the grass.  It's one of my favorite things to do in the backyard on a lazy summer day.  We don't really have much grass left for me to graze in, though.  It's been very, very dry lately.  As much as I hate rain and hate getting wet, I would like a little rain to give me more grass to graze in and gaze at.  Here's an old picture of me enjoying the grass.  (It's also my profile picture!)

Gazin' and Grazin' in the Grass (When there actually was grass around here.)

The song continues...

There are so many good things to see

While grazin' in the grass

(Grazin' in the grass is a gas, baby, can you dig it?)

Flowers with colors for takin'

Everything outta sight in the grass

I love looking at the flowers, birds and everything else.  It's so fun for me to spend my days watching the world go by.  The only problem is that sometimes as I'm grazing, I accidentially eat a mushroom or two.  When that happens, the world looks a little bit more like Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit, which is also a great song.  I'm pretty sure the rabbit loses his head at the end.

Watch out for the mushrooms!

Then there are some other cool lyrics, but I'm going to skip ahead to my favorite part.  It's all about digging!!!!!

 I can dig it, he can dig it

She can dig it, we can dig it

They can dig it, you can dig it

Oh, let's dig it

Can you dig it, baby?

Pure poetry!  I love to think of this song as my theme song, at least when my people are looking the other way. ;-) (You have to wait 10 seconds into the video until my people stop watching me.)

Although digging is very fun, it also serves a very important purpose.  My life's goal is to keep the world safe from burrowing animals, and I can only do that if I keep my digging skills sharp.

Thank you for allowing me to share one of my favorite songs with you.  Now, for your viewing pleasure, here is the full video of Friends of Distinction singing the song.  They are fun to watch.

Update on Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 01:32PM by CTP

Hmmm... They seem to have removed the full Grazing in the Grass video, but I found a partial video here.  It's still worth watching, but I miss seeing the full length one. :-(

Update on Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 01:37PM by CTP

With a little digging (my specialty), I was able to find another full-length version.  I'll still leave the partial version in case this one disappears, too.

Give a Dog a Bone

Hi everyone!  I'm sorry that's it's been so long since I last posted, but you wouldn't believe how much my work as head of security has picked up over the past month!  Almost every day, gangs of small humans walk behind our home in both the morning and the afternoon.  They come in noisy giant yellow transport vehicles and carry bags with them.  I'm sure the bags have tools for breaking into our backyard or something.  The dog days of summer are definitely over, and I'm back to working hard.

You'll be glad to know that thanks to my vigilance, not a single one of the ruff-ians has breached the security fence.

Anyhow, my people watched the ridiculous show "The Office" tonight.  (Any show that doesn't feature a dog is ridiculous.)  However, they did have a reference to my favorite commercial.  Pam cried when she saw it, so I guess I do like her now.  Why did she cry?  See for yourself:

Travelers Insurance - Prized Possession (Dog) by danbizet

I think that Travellers Insurance is going to do very well marketing to puppies.  Not many companies seem to do that.  Also, I love that they have an umbrella because I hate getting wet.

I think that most insurance companies don't advertise to puppies because they're run by people, and people never understand why bones are so important to puppies.  All I can say is that bones are the best thing ever!  Watch what I can do with mine.  (I've had this bone for almost 2 years.)

You see, I can practice pouncing on prey, strengthen my jaw, and just have an all around good time.  I even work my bone into my stretching routine sometimes!

That's a good stretch!

I feel so sorry for people because they never seem to enjoy bones the way I do.  Travellers Insurance must have some puppies on their staff.  I think that will pay off for them.

Answering Your Questions

I always like to see how people find my blog.  One way I do that is by looking at the searches that people do to find my blog.  Two recent searches were in the form of questions.  Since I consider my dog blog to be a public service, I will do my best to answer those questions.

Cody will now take your questions

The first question was "Is lemonade safe for puppies?" from search.aol.com.   

I'm not a vet, so I really don't know the answer.  I know that I would love to drink lemonade because I would love to eat and drink everything that my people eat and drink.  However, my people don't let me drink lemonade and don't let me have anything with sugar.  So, either they think that lemonade isn't safe for puppies or they just want to keep it all for themselves.  I really don't know.

I do know that if it were up to me, I'd drink a pitcher of lemonade after a long hike, but that is just a dream.

Cody dreams about lemonadeThe second question was "I'm so tired.  Why don't my puppies sleep?" from www.google.com.sg.  My people tell me that this is from Singapore.  They say that Singapore is very far.  It's even farther than the Georgetown dog park, which is the furthest I've travelled.

I don't know why your puppies don't sleep, but I do know that when I was little, I couldn't sleep unless I was in the same room as my people.  I was very scared and lonely to be by myself in a new place.  I talk about those days here.  Also, when I was little, I liked to wake up even before my people did.  Now, I like to sleep later than them sometime!

I think the most important thing that helps me sleep, other than getting older and sleeping in my people's room, is getting a lot of exercise like playing and hiking and chasing rabbits and guarding the house.  When I get a lot of exercise, I sleep like a dog.

Resting after an awesome and cool hikeI hope that this helps the nice people who were searching for answers.  If you have any questions, you can ask me directly by using my "Tell me what you think" link.  I'll do my best to answer them as a public service to all puppies and people who read my dog blog.