CAMPING, RILEY STYLE. . . .

So, I'm starting to get the hang of this campin' thing.  I like it!  If you are new to camping like I was, here's some words to live by.  It's Camping, Riley Style!!

Rules for optimum fun. . .

#1  - Take over the bark park, you and your homies must stay there and scare away all the competition.  Once thing I've noticed is that most people that camp with dogs have those yippy little things - REAL campers have us big dawgs.

#2 Best place to hang out at your site - directly under the stairs.  If you are lucky, you can trip Mom coming out of the camper with a plate full of raw meat for the grill - SCORE!!

#3 If you must have a small dog camping with you, make sure it's a really cool dog like my cousin Chloe - she can kick my butt most times.  Don't let her size fool you, not for a minute. . .

#4 Stake your claim.  There are spots in the camper that you must own.  Make them your own - who knows, maybe Dad will let you drive?

Ok, if Dad won't let you drive - at least pick out your barking spots.  These would be the places to bark out of that gives you the maximum amount of noise to leave the camper.  Here's a couple of my favorites. .

Make sure you have a spot on each side of the camper - then you can bark at people as they are walking towards your rig and then again when they are walking away from your rig. . .  You want to make sure they know you are there!

Since Myrtle Beach, Mom and Dad have made it a point to introduce me to various bodies of water and as you can see by the expression on my face, I'm not too interested in the ocean.

And go figure - here I am, sitting in the water.  Notice by the expression on my face that I'm not interested in swimming. . .  Mom - I'm sitting, not swimming.  There's a BIG difference.

And unbeknownst to me, one step forward is a dropoff in the water - aswimming, I go!!

Stay tuned - I'll be coming up with lots more camping rules for all you newbies.  Until then -

CHOW, BABY!

Just another friendly public service announcement. . .

Hi, Friends of Riley - this particular note is from Aud (AKA Riley's Mom).  As you may recall, I posted a public service announcement long ago about the dangers of Mexican blankets and 3 year old cats that eat them and land themselves in Tufts University Animal Hospital to the tune of thousands of dollars.

What prompts me to write this public service announcement isn't as dire as the warning about cats and Mexican blankets but I can personally attest to it being equally as IMPORTANT!

As you saw by Riley's previous entry, he's taken a shine to shredding my wall to wall carpet (which encompasses a hallway and three bedrooms) and whilst I agree the carpeting must go, I know the hardwood floor underneath it is junk and I'm not particularly inclined to replace the carpeting quite yet.  So, I went to Petsmart and perused the training aisle while Riley was getting his nails done to find a spray that might discourage Riley from pulling up the carpet. . .

So I ended up with a product called "Bitter Yuck", it's a water based no chew spray (I liked that thinking it wouldn't stain anything I sprayed it on) and it's good to use on the pet (for hot spots and such), furniture, wood - just about anything.  For those unfamiliar with it, the website is Bitter Yuck .

So today I used about a quarter of the spray bottle - did the trim/perimeter of the hallway and the exposed edges of the carpet in Jeff's room.  Also sprayed the kitchen sink throw rug that I'm going to throw away but wanted to keep it in place (before I replace it) to see if this stuff works.

Now, the bottle doesn't say to wear gloves when spraying.  IT SHOULD.  You know when you are using a push spray trigger that you usually end up with some liquid on your trigger finger?  Well, I washed my hands several times after spraying (with antibacterial soap, no less!) and while I was rolling the enchiladas I was making for dinner, I learned that BITTER YUCK doesn't wash off!  I got some cheese sauce on my finger, I licked it off - OH MY GOODNESS, the back of my throat and my sinuses were instantly filled with a horrific bitter taste. . .  So I'm thinking I must not have washed that fingertip quite so well and scrubbed it, thought I was OK until I went and ended up licking that finger again!  Aaaack! 

So I smartened up.  I stopped licking that finger and that's when I was unpleasantly reminded that I had used my OTHER hand to spray when my spray finger got tired from pumping - whoa, can't lick those fingers either! 

Riley has sniffed the areas I sprayed but hasn't really tried to gnaw on anything, I'm pretty sure he won't.  And you know what?  I'm not likely to chew on the carpeting any time soon either!

Anybody have some grain alcohol that I can gargle with?  Oh, the taste of this stuff is horrible! 

Hopefully this PSA will prevent anyone else from wanting to gargle with grain alcohol - wear gloves!!  And, if I end up growing a third eye or some other strange appendage from my exposure to this stuff, I'll be sure to post that too.  Although, as a parent, a third eye in the back of the head would be a welcome accessory. . .

I'm done now, I'll turn the blog back to Riley and more fun entries!  :)

Home Improvement, Anyone?

Now that I'm weighing in at 70+ lbs., it's time for me to start helping out around the house.  Dad was laid off for about 3 months and spent that time busily attending to what Mom called the "honey-do" list - re-tiling the bathroom floor, painting projects and various carpentry projects.  Since he and I were home 24-7, I spent a lot of time watching and learning and now that he's back to work, I decided to work on my own "puppy-do" list. . .

I started with the carpeting in the hallway and have focused much of my efforts on Jeff's room.  It's a tough job, but I am persisting in my attempts to remove the 20+ year old carpet. . .  Mom doesn't really care about the carpet as it's junk but she wants it left because she says the floors underneath are far worse. . .

Mom's very happy that duct tape comes in a variety of colors as she's been using it to repair my handiwork in the corners of each doorway!  (Like I said, I'm persistent. . .)  I think I heard her say once that if it wasn't for duct tape, I'd be a lovely throw rug in front of the fireplace!!

I took a break from working on the carpeting as I noticed that the trim in the hallway needed repainting.  Since I don't have thumbs, using a claw hammer to remove it was pretty much out of the question but I didn't let that STOP me. . .

So Dad took down the 12 year old pool out of the back yard to give me more room to romp (and nobody was using the pool anyways) and aside from the FUN of having a sandy area to DIG in (I'm transported back to Myrtle Beach every time I see that sand - ahhhh. . .), Dad's expanding the deck and will be building a patio area where the pool used to be.  And I'm being quite helpful - see all those new footings?  Yup, I dug 'em!

I gotta run - I have a LOT of work here to do!

Stay tuned - I'm in round two of puppy obedience class, there's sure to be more tales to get from that!  So far only the long haired German Shepherd is looking to get a chomp outta me and I'm keeping an eye on that Aussie mix, he's kindof a spaz. . .

CHOW, BABY!

Went South for Vacation, Hit the Beach to Work on my Tan. . .

Been a while since I updated the blog - just got back from a 10 day excursion south - to Myrtle Beach (Mom calls it the happiest place on earth - especially after she's had a couple of jello shots!). .  We jumped in the motorhome and began our 17 hour trek south, it was the longest car ride I had ever been on.  I did pretty good considering I wouldn't sleep the entire time and when I wasn't trying to sit on Mom's lap, I was trying to get under Dad's feet!  So I consoled myself by gnawing a hole in the carpet when Mom and Dad weren't looking, figured I could always get myself an escape hatch going!  We broke the trip down and back by travelling over the course of two days and let me tell you - Mom HATES Connecticut, she wishes and earthquake would just come and suck it deep into the bowels of the earth.  Construction sites with no workers - just barrels and random lane closures, what is WRONG with that state?  But that's her beef, not mine. . .   Oh, and speaking of beef?  When I went on my little hunger strike, Mom attempted to make my food more attractive by putting some watered down beef broth in it - it worked for her and against her. . .  I ate my food but the diahrea just wasn't worth it!  Whoops, sorry Mom. . .

Here I am in the motorhome. . .

Me and my homies - Chloe, Levi, Rusty & Benji had a pretty great time together - Heather and Aud combined their corrals and made a fenced in area inside Heather's tiki hut.  We didn't spend a lot of time there because we were usually riding around in golf carts and going to the beach but it was a great place for me and Levi to dig, dig, dig and nap, nap, nap!

One thing I did for sport all week was to dig out from under Dad's chaise lounge when he was snoozing.  What a hoot it'll be when he tips over!

Then there were the golf car races - what fun!  I would sit between Mom and Dad and if Dad wasn't going fast enough, I'd sit on his foot on the gas pedal.  Mom thought that was a riot but Dad found braking difficult under those circumstances!  It was OK - our golf cart wasn't the fastest one in the bunch, so no harm no foul.

My absolute favorite part of the week was the BEACH!  Great sand to dig in and I was quite the handsome fella and got lots of attention from people.  Every other person on the beach had a dog, they were all over the place!

Playtime on the beach was awesome, too.  Me and Levi would roll around in the sand until we were both completely covered.  Levi went into the water but Rusty and I weren't too sure about the foamy stuff crashing up on the beach. .

One warning - to those of you who haven't been to the beach?  It's fun to chase birds and dodge the tide coming in but DON'T drink the water!  Had myself a little pukefest after drinking some salt water and even though I didn't drink much, Mom made sure to keep me from drinking the water the rest of the week!

I'm likin' this thing they call VACATION - when are we doin' it again?  I'll keep ya posted - until then, CHOW, BABY!!

Spring has Sprung and it's now time to commence DIGGING!

Wow, what's not to love about New England? It's Spring and the month of March was, according to Mom, RIDICULOUS with the rain! I don't get it, what's the problem? Is there such a thing as being too well trained? Just because the back yard was a swamp, and Mom didn't want to go back there because, well, I'm all WHITE and I just suck up the mud by osmosis and also because when she walked back there with me, depending on what shoes she wore, she'd come close to losing them in the quicksand mud we had back there. WHY did she have to keep going back there with me? Because, and most of you guys will understand this, the back yard is where I poop. I don't go in the front yard, I go in the back yard. I don't care if the back yard doesn't drain well, that's where I'm going. Period. And I can be pretty darn stubborn. . .

Good news - the back yard dried up some, maybe because the water was rushing into the basement and Dad was out on fire calls pumping out everyone else's basement?! The consistency of the back yard was just FINE for digging. . . You all remember my butt pic that was featured on the Fans of Key West page on Facebook? See any resemblance here with my then and now picture?

Yeah, Key West - I'm still working on it - it's much easier now that I'm 6 months old rather than 3 months old and trying to dig through frozen turf. . . And before you ask - yup, that's the same hole I'm working on.

Just in case you are curious - I've got three excavation projects, I could end up in Key West, the molten center of the earth (in which case, the lava spew will pretty much cover up any tundra damage I'm doing in Grafton) or, as the old wive's tale is - end up in China! Chow Mein, anyone?

Mom's usually out with me and discourages me at every turn whenever I start workin' on one of my projects as she's kindof concerned about either turning an ankle in one of these pits or me hitting a hidden spring somewhere and turning the basement into an indoor pool! I put on my cuteness when she tries to stop me from digging. . . Can you believe it? It's not working as well as it used to! Curses, it's tough to get old (at least that's what Mom and Dad say all the time)!

Oh - and you know what? When I finally get to Key West/China/Molten Center of Earth - I'm taking my squeaky tennis ball toy thingy with me! Yeah. . . (Mom's OK with the squeaky tennis ball thingy getting scorched by the molten center of the Earth - then she doesn't have to worry about me sneaking it into the house!)

Oh, I have more tales to tell ~ so stay tuned and ~ CHOW, BABY!

Camping Season has started!

So, Aud and Bob kicked off camping season - we went to Normandy Farms in Foxboro to take the puppy (ME) and the motorhome on a shakedown run to ensure no mechanical (or puppy) malfunctions for our 17 hour run down to Myrtle Beach. Will Riley get carsick? How will he handle the motorhome? Only time will tell. . . So, we hit the road. I tried to help Bob out by trying to crawl under his feet to help him out with the gas and brake pedals but got turned away at every attempt. Go figure. . . But as you can see by this picture, I appear to be OK with riding in the motorhome. When I wasn't trying to snuggle up with Dad, Mom was Ok with snuggling up with me. . . It was a short ride, less than an hour and after my initial trepidation, I settled right down and claimed my spot in between the front seats of the rig. Mom's thinking this was pretty easy and things are looking good for our travel plans this summer! Guess what, Mom? I appear to be pretty mellow but don't let that fool you! As we arrived at the campground, I appeared to be pretty calm. Mom leashed me up and I was sitting quite nicely when she opened the door to the motorhome and didn't I take off like a shot? Mom got taken by surprise and since she had the leash firmly wrapped around her wrist, I took her airborne from the motorhome, neither of us ever hit the steps. Mom managed to land on her feet (although she describes the feeling that she was going to get a gravel facial) and I proceeded to drag her a couple more feet before I stopped. And stood there shaking like a leaf. I have peed next to this rig my entire life but suddenly it was a frightening entity and I'm not taking this well. This was a weekend of LOTS of new experiences for me. I did fairly well with the minor exceptions of almost faceplanting Mom in the gravel and there was the unfortunate incident where I pooped on my dish. But then my homies arrived. First, Liam (black lab) and his little brother Murphy (yellow lab puppy) arrived. Normandy Farms has the most amazing bark park and we had ourselves a wild rumpus every chance we could!

I really, really liked the bark park - Mom spent her time with me at the bark park and walking the frisbee golf course rather than the hot tubs - although she and Dale (Liam and Murphy's Mom) discussed how they could sneak us dawgs into the hot tub for a quick bath!

Here I am, wearing my peace sign kerchief (that everybody kept making fun of) - I can run and run and run pretty much forever! And you know what? The best spots to stop and roll around in is under the benches where the mulch bark isn't and the mud is nice and slimy! Me and Murphy spent a fair amount of time rolling around under there. . .

By the time everybody arrived at the campground (we were also celebrating Liam and Murphy's Dad's 50th birthday with a surprise party) - we owned that bark park! Mom wishes we could've gotten a picture of the "Smores Dawgs" walking down the street with all our peoples and the crossing of leashes and random poops and pees and needs to sniff that interesting WHATEVER! Cars and any other traffic got out of our way and we set off every dog we went by. . . LOL

Smores Dawg count - Riley (white golden retriever), Liam (black labrador retriever), Murphy (yellow labrador retriever), Hunter (golden retriever), Levi (black labrador retriever), Rusty (golden retriever), Chloe (cocker spaniel that can kick big dawgs butts!).

Watch out campin' world! I'm gonna get the hang of getting in and out of the camper and, with luck, will master being able to walk with the Smores pack of dogs without either clotheslining a kid with my leash, tripping an adult or creating chaos by crossing several leashes (especially with the folks that are working so hard to keep their two pups from crossing the beams)!

GREAT news since we got back? My half-brother Windsor has been united with Christy and she's got some awesome tales to tell as well!

I mellowed out during our camping trip enough that Mom and Dad didn't need to break out the crate, or even the corral. Mom and Dad were OK with the random checks I did on them (OK, panting in their faces was kindof a wakeup call). The end result is that Mom got her breakfast nook back since they broke down the "nursery" and I now have the run of the house. If you end up being a guest here, I don't recommend leaving socks or shoes on the floor. . .

Next trip - Myrtle Beach! We'll keep you posted and ~ CHOW, BABY ~

I have this really cool half-brother. . .

So - a flashback on my life for my fans (yup - all three of you who've dared to identify yourselves!). When Aud was first thinking about getting a new puppy, she came across JRS Goldens . She was looking for a British (or English as some call us) Cream Golden Retriever and she ended up visiting Rhea and Jim with her buddy Heather (Levi's Mom). There they met my Mom and Dad (Gabby and Logan) and there was a pup from a litter with Mysha and Logan named Windsor, he was going to be travelling to training to become a service dog for a wonderful girl in California. Aud and Heather had a great visit with Gabby (who was pregnant with me at the time) and Logan (who is my and Windsor's Dad), Windsor was such an energetic and loveable fuzzball that Aud signed up immediately to add a Windsor-like fuzzball (ME!) to her family. If I do say so myself, it's a decision she's never regretted despite the fact that I've excavated her entire back yard! But I digress. . .

So you know that Aud posts comments about my escapades on facebook and recently she and Windsor's Mom, Christy, friended each other on facebook. Christy is an amazing girl who is triumphing over an injury from a devastating accident and my half-brother Windsor will be a great addition to her family as he's been training for months! Both Christy and Windsor have been working so hard and making incredible strides and they will be such a wonderful match once they are united - and that's happening this week! We're so excited for both of them!!

Aud and I thought I was pretty smart but Windsor is so focused and dedicated to his training that it's just stunning what he can do. . . Christy has a blog that has photos and videos of Windsor's accomplishments as he sails through his training (I'm pretty sure there was no crazy-puppy attacker cat involved, which is good!). You must check it out at Christy & Windsor .

Christy and Windsor - I thought this stick was pretty darn cool. But I'm even more psyched about you guys finally getting together this week! We wish you absolutely the best and can't wait for updates on your adventures together!

God Bless and best wishes to you both! You guys are our heros!

~ CHOW, BABY ~

Marley, Me & Mud - Yay!

Sooooo. . . Last weekend, the boy-child Jeff came home from college, waited long enough to get his laundry done and clear out the refridgerator of anything edible (and then some). . Then he suddenly had very important business to attend to back in Boston and pressed Dad into service to take him and all his gear back to Boston.

So, Mom's on facebook messin' around and channel surfin', and doesn't she come across the movie Marley and Me?

I thought it looked pretty interesting. I even abandoned the squeaky monkey to check it out!

We'd never seen it, Mom decided to watch it. .

It looked really funny and I wished I'd seen this scene before I finished obedience class - I'm sure my instructors Mary and Katie would've loved me re-enacting the training scene in class!

I got some really great ideas about jumping in stranger's pools (Mom and Dad have decided to get rid of our above ground pool, wonder why?)

Oh - and that beach scene? I am SO going to do that. Aud & Bob will be taking me on a weeklong camping trip down to Myrtle Beach with my buddies Levi (black lab), Rusty (Golden), Chloe (cocker spaniel), Hunter (Golden), and Mom's lost count of how many other families will be with us! It's gonna be great - I can run like a lunatic on the beach, bark at all the golf carts that will be driving by and the best part - campsite in SAND = great digging! All week long! Woo, hoo!!

So, the Olympics are still fresh in my mind - even though the only thing Mom and Dad watched was Hockey (grrr. . . Canadians. . . ). I've decided to get into training for the Myrtle Beach puppy Olympics - DIGGING!

The back yard is AMAZING, I love it - Levi and Rusty came over the other day and we just slipped and slid all over the back yard in the mud! I'm competing with Dad - I found spots by the pool and by the gate that I can dig out and Dad's filling them in as fast as I can dig them!

Can't help but wonder why Mom groans whenever she brings me back into the house? :)

CHOW, BABY!

And I conquered Obedience Class - passed with flying colors and a wild rumpus!

Thursday nights for the last 8 weeks have been puppy class, what fun! Graduation night arrives - cousin Chloe arrives at my house, we then went to pick up neighbor Levi and the three of us were "wild thangs" in Auntie Beth's minivan! I got a little gassy on the way to class, Levi ended up peeing in one of the seat bays on the way home - did you know that cheerios float?

We had our exercises and everybody in the class did really well - I crammed with Mom this week on the 2 minute downs and despite the fact that I had Levi on one side and Chloe on the other side, I STAYED DOWN!! Woot!! Mom couldn't believe it - and I even stayed down when she circled around and stepped over me!

Cue in the "We are the Champions" by Queen - here's my buddy Levi, getting his certificate and picking his toy out of the bucket! Jimmy did a lot of the training with him and Levi did great in the class!

and then it was my turn - I couldn't decide what to get until I sniffed out the pink donut - mmmmm. . . donuts!

Then Chloe - barely tall enough to dig into the bucket but BIG enough to roughhouse with all us big dawgs, ended up with the tug rope with the pink heart!

Once the graduation "ceremony" was over - it was "praise and release" and us puppies, just like any graduating class, went nuts!

Here's Chloe with Brady. I'm in the background doin' something really weird it looks like. . .

And here I am with all my homies - Grady, Brady, Chloe. We're just lettin' it all hang out. . . Me in particular. . .

Aud got a reality dose this week with puppy teething! Right before graduation, I started chewing on everything with a vengeance. One night in particular, she noticed that the squeaky elephant was covered in blood. When she investigated my mouth (expecting that it was a teething issue), she was unpleasantly surprised to see that I'd lost MOST of my baby teeth, there were a couple of teeth sticking out of the sides of my gums (really, really loose) and my gums were a bloody mess.

Add to that, I was liking the new white chair that Mom waited 3 weeks for delivery on - it looked like snow and I just wanted to wrap my gums around the arm of it. . . Aaaaahhhhhhh. . .

Mom got a little freaky over that idea (go figure?) and called our friend Dale (Liam and Murphy's Mom - Murphy's the little yellow lab that just got added to her family) and Dale quickly recommended a frozen facecloth.

Great idea, Dale - I didn't know what to do with it, so I just barked and barked at it! But at least it kept me from chewing on that nice, clean, frosty new chair!!

Not to worry - the next morning the chair was still white, I didn't really look like much of a clubbed seal anymore AND my big-dawg teeth were poking through my reddish-pink gums! The experience also never even slowed down my appetite (maybe because I ate all my baby teeth?)! Just two baby teeth left to go! I'll keep ya posted - till then, CHOW BABY!!

Weighing in on the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

So the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show folks didn't call me. BIG mistake, I rocked at judging from my living room, LCD & Fios cable totally kicked butt. . .

The first competition that caught my attention was the hound dog category. I voiced my opinion on several of the competitors, but the one that got the most barks was the Whippet.

Aud and Bob were actually rooting for the Rhodesian Ridgeback in this category - imagine their surprise when they announced the results and my whippet selection won! Yeah, they'll be calling me next year for the show, I can totally judge this show. . .

Ok, the second night of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was pretty intense. The Sporting Dogs (of which I am technically a member of) was an incredible treat to see. But why the heck am I not able to scarf a treat out of the pocket of this handler?

See that Golden munching the treat and I can't get there? I now have issues with the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Or my cable provider - what do I know?

Ok, maybe I'm a little bit biased - but GO, GOLDEN! GO, GOLDEN!

And now I'm thinking that I can easily compete, if not, I'll be cool to judge. .

I'm graduating from obedience class next week with cousin Chloe, neighbor Levi and it's going to be a wild celebration! Stay tuned, after graduation, camping season is a stone's throw away!

Chow Baby!