Mmmm new food

Some more food arrived today - mmmm. I helped to unpack it. Actually I think the cardboard box might even be more fun that the food.

I'm not sure about this two meals a day malarkey. It's the one bad thing about growing up. I end up with these two mahoosive bowls of food instead of three nice tummy-sized ones. It's playing havoc with my digestion. I guess I will get used to it - particularly if mum keeps bunging me tasty morsels to go with it.

And relax...

Now that the garden is more to my liking I can afford to sit down and put my paws up in this beautiful warm sunshine. I've been outside most of the afternoon today - doing a spot of sunbathing, fly catching and pond dipping. We had a walk in the park with my pals later on and cos it was so hot mum took a 'water backpack' out with her. This was great - the water comes out of this little nozzle like a jet so all of us were getting stuck in having a go and getting pretty soaked. Apparently this is a sign of something called 'summer'. I think I might have been born at the end of 'summer' so i've not really ever seen one. Mum says we can go swimming in the sea and everything but she must be mad - i've been paddling and it is FREEZING.

6 months today!

I'm officially half a year old today! It's been ages since I was five months old - mainly cos mum got the dates all wrong - doh. I've achieved quite a bit in my short life so far - I've remodelled the garden to my taste (all this flatness, so dull, holes much better), added some finishing touches to a few skirting boards, almost got my bronze award, taught the cat how to join in with my training and met loads of new friends both in the park and online.

Phew! I think it must be time to have a rest - it's lovely and WARM today - we even mowed the lawn...although mum said it was less about cutting grass than shredding lots and lots of small objects that I have strewn all over the place. Honestly - these humans don't get garden design do they. A lawn without a few strategically placed sticks and plant pot shreddings (ahem) is....well...not very zen. I'm going through an oriental phase.

Silver and gold

I now go to the silver and gold class at dog school. Things have really moved up a gear. One of the things we have to do is 'go to our bed' - off the lead from one end of the room to our bed at the other - and lie down. Trouble is I hadn't taken my bed to school, so they gave me a little mat that mum says is a carpet sample. I don't know what carpet is because I don't have any at home. At least not in the bits of the house I go in. Anyway I was supposed to have this 'carpet' under my bed so it got my scent on for next time. Mum duly packed me off to bed with it. In the morning she came down to find bits of carpet all over the place. So I'm not sure what the purpose of this 'carpet' stuff is but it tastes pretty good. Hrm, think they will have to take one of my blankets along next time! Silly mat wasn't big enough for a bed anyway. Well, it certainly isn't now.

Right, enough typing - will someone please throw this ball for me?

Szervusz!

I just met a fellow countryman in the park - a Hungarian Puli (pictured above). Puli to rhyme with pulley, not poooli as his dad told us. Of course I could have told you that too - as I'm Hungarian myself. I am fluent you know - my mum was born in Hungary and she made sure we pups were bilingual. Anyway - we had the best conversation - we woofed and woofed for ages. It's not like me to woof at other dogs so even mum was able to realise that we were enjoying the chance to speak in the mother tongue.

Please can I bring it in?

Why not mum? It's great! I dug it up in the garden and everything. Humans are sooooo boring sometimes :-(

Cold again

So much for the nice weather. And what is this about it never snowing in the tropical south? If it never snows then what is this on my back? Oh - so now it does snow but it doesn't settle eh? How is a puppy supposed to get on with the painting in these conditions?

Murder and mayhem

It was VERY exciting this morning. That funny creature Oscar obviously thought he'd help with my training and brought me a dead pigeon. Trouble was that when I started to point on it he seemed to change his mind. He doubled in size, made a funny attempt to growl (I must give him lessons) and then hopped off over the wall with it. I woofed and ran round in circles to try to encourage him to bring it back but he was having none of it.

We think the pigeon might still be in next door's garden....we're keeping a low profile just in case...oops.

Dig, dig, dig!

Whilst my back toe has been sore I've been making the most of my front ones and digging some excellent holes. The beach is ace for digging but I'm particularly proud of the hole i've dug in my garden which is shaping up to get me to New Zealand one of these days. Mum says one of her friends is moving there soon so perhaps we can go visit. I'm very helpful with reducing the cost of travel.

I'm pretty much fully recovered now so it's back to school tonight. One of the other pups missed his bronze too so apparently we're going to do it in a couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Right, back to that hole....

Charlie, the biggest dog in the world

I was weighed at one of my trips to the vets - 20.1kg!! Not bad for a youngster of five and a half months! As you can see from the picture above, I'm almost big enough now to reach the cliff tops - the biggest dog in the world!

Garden pest control

I've been spending a lot of time in the garden this weekend. It's been lovely and warm in the sunshine and I've had my first doze outdoors.

The best thing about the garden is all the tasty bugs and creatures out there. Mum says she is going to rent me out as a pest control specialist. Trouble is i'm apparently something called 'indiscriminate'. This means that whilst snails and woodlice are good to eat, so are camelia buds and other ornamental foliage. Snails are best though. These are often found in the pond, but I sometimes need to work quite hard to get close enough to nab them.


I do this by pawing at the water until the snails float towards me, then crunch! Yum scrum.


My paw is getting a bit better - I've been out for a couple of little walks and have been putting weight on it again, but I'm overdoing it a bit by racing about. I didn't need to have any x-rays this morning but the vet says we've still got to keep a close eye on it.

Sore paw

Feeling a bit sorry for myself at the mo. I did something funny to my paw on Thursday night. I'm not quite sure what but I think it was just as I was leaving the house on my way out for walkies with Maggie. I started to limp so we had to turn around and it got so sore that I didn't want to put any weight on it at all.

Mum took me to the vet to find out what the matter was but he couldn't see anything. He pushed and prodded me about and I was very brave and didn't make a peep. He did spot a tiny black dot though so we think I might have a splinter. I'm on something called painkillers - I think they make me feel better but they taste real funny. Anyway apparently if I'm not 100% by tomorrow morning I might have to have an x-ray just to check that things are ok. Boo. I'm starting to put my foot down a bit more now, so paws crossed.

The biggest disappointment of it all was that I was due to take my Good Citizen Bronze Award last night. I've been working really hard for it and was sure to pass, but I've had to put it off now cos I couldn't go round on three legs really. Apparently one of the other pups wasn't very well either so they're going to let us have another go in the next few weeks.

Strange creatures

There are some other animals living in my house aside from me. At least i'm pretty sure there's more than one of them. The one I usually see is pictured above - I know his name is Oscar but I'm not sure much else about him except than he can be quite spiky. I'd love to play with him but for some reason he doesn't seem too keen - but he wags his tail and everything so it's very confusing. Mum says that our body language is all topsy turvy - my puppy play bow means something else entirely to Oscar. He can jump up REALLY high - on top of the fridge and everything. Imagine what mischief I could get up to if I could do that?! Maybe one day we will be friends and he'll teach me how to jump high - i'd like that. In the meantime I'll have to make do with getting told off for woofing at him :-)

Beachcombing is serious business

I managed to get out in one of those rare breaks in the weather (did I mention I don't like the cold and rain?) to do a spot of beachcombing down at Highcliffe. I had a swim in the sea which was great. Funny - although I hate the cold and rain I don't really mind being wet due to a swim. It's all about being in control I think. This way I decide when I get wet instead of the sky deciding. Stoopid sky.

Dog Club

I've mentioned my dog club pals before. Here's Monty, chasing Barney, chasing Bessie! We go for a walk together most days - there is usually at least five dogs and sometimes 9! I'm learning lots of good stuff from them, like how to play fight and win tug of war games. And I've learned some manners too - like which dogs want me to play with them and which ones don't. This has been pretty helpful and should stop me getting bitten again I hope.