Wordless Wednesday

No labour on Labour Day

Today is public holiday (a.k.a. day off work) in New Zealand called “Labour Day” so first a little bit of history…

“Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day. New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim this right when, in 1840, the carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington. Labour Day was first celebrated in New Zealand on 28 October 1890, when several thousand trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres. Government employees were given the day off to attend the parades and many businesses closed for at least part of the day.” (source http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/labour-day )

It is our only public holiday until Christmas Day. Labour Day (spelt with a "u" in this part of the world) signals the start of summer. Many New Zealanders go away for the “three day weekend” or stay home and catch up on chores around their house and garden. It is traditionally the time to plant tomato seedlings, as the winter frosts should be over.

Now I’ve been thinking that I work more than an eight hour day. I spend my time cleaning food bowls, getting my humans to exercise, getting my humans to open doors, following them around the house, greeting the neighbours, checking on the neighbourhood cats, sniffing around the property, educating young Enzo in doggie ways, wrestling with Enzo (to show him who is really top dog!), depositing fur around my estate, posing for cute photo opportunities, fetching things and moving my toys around the house. I bark at strange cats, I bark at strange cars and I bark sometimes just for joy. I make strange noises when I stand at the front door and put paw prints over the floor boards. I train my human to think she is training me, and so far I have taught her how often to give me extra food. I retrieve balls; I lie on my back and allow her to feel relaxed (as she passes a brush through my fur), and I make her smile. I follow her around; lie on her feet (to keep her feet warm) as she writes my blog.  I accompany her in our car, and if she goes out without me I always eagerly great her when she returns home. I know I work more than eight hours each day, so today I think I will do this all day and I'll see if she notices!

 

Woofs,

Riley

Woofless Wednesday - bird song, toys, long grass and daisies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw the funniest thing on our walk today!

Sunday morning. Enzo and I are walking along the main road, near where we live. A convertible car is parked in the car park of the local pub, with the soft roof not fully closed. A gap of about six inches. We hear our two humans discuss why, and then we see a small white dog in the back. He barks at Enzo and me. 

 

Then the dog moves to the driver’s seat, stands on his hind legs and uses his front paws to sound the car horn. A long loud continuous noise. Two humans come out of the pub, approach the car and say something to their dog. Their dog moves away from the steering wheel and retreats to the passenger seat. The dog’s humans speak a few friendly words to my humans, then they return to the pub.

 

Their dog looks at Enzo and me again, moves back to the driver’s seat and this time beeps the horn with a series of short blasts. An obvious degree of urgency in his actions as we walk away. Beep...beeep...beeep...beep.... As we look back we see the dog’s humans return and take their dog out of the car. We continue our morning walk but just wish we’d had a camera with us to video what we saw!

 

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Woofs,

Riley 

PS For all my dog and cat friends out there, how have you trained your humans to respond to you?

Six

It's my birthday, and tonight I am going to see some of my four legged friends. Then apparently I'm getting special food for dinner! Food glorious food... there is nothing that makes me happier than being with my friends and getting extra food.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was

FIVE (click this link for my 5th birthday)

 

 

 

FOUR (click this link for my 4th birthday)

 

 

THREE,

 

TWO,

 

 

 

ONE,

 

and just a wee pup.

 

 

I'm still trying to work out how I got that big furry thing on my hips that you can see in the first photo! Do you think he will want to celebrate with me tonight? He seems to follow me everywhere I go.

Woofs,
Riley

We are still here!

Mud

(This photo was taken when I was younger,

and I had to have a bath afterwards)

We have been absent from blogging and mud is one of the reasons. It is winter here in Auckland, and it has rained so much that you can see where we run around our back yard.

My human spends her time trying to catch us, wiping our feet, washing the floor, washing all the towels she uses to clean us with and sighing a lot!  She says if she had dogs that always lived outdoors, or self-cleaning cats (with small feet) she wouldn't have this problem. She also says if she lived in a big house with a "mud room" or a maid she wouldn't have this problem.

When Enzo and I go outside the rain water and clay squelches up between our toes and sticks to our fur. 

(Enzo with just a hint of mud on his back legs!)

 

 (Enzo's feet sinking into the mud in our back yard - he tries

to look innocent, but I know better)

(Mum's gumboots sinking into the mud and surface water)

When we play and chase each other around the back yard the mud covers us. Mum can't keep us on short leashes all the time. There are times we need to visit the garden to do our business and we also find interesting puddles on our walks, so she has put huge mats by the doors (inside and outside) for us to wipe our feet. She is constantly telling us walk in circles on these mats or to stand still while she dries us with towels (that we try to steal off her which is another fun game!), but sometimes all her rubbing does is work the mud into our fur. One of us usually manages to escape the towel like Enzo did in the photo below.

 (Did I kick mud onto Enzo's face?)

(Enzo's front paws)

Mum also laughs when we try to cover her clothes with paw prints. She says if she didn't laugh she would cry, so she cleans up after us and then the next time we come inside she just laughs at our paw prints. Sometimes she leaves some of our prints on the floors until tomorrow, rather than vacuuming carpet and washing floors more than once a day!  

 (Surrounded by paw prints - our floors had already

been washed once on the day this photo was taken)

Now we know that there are people who would be horrified to have paw prints on their floors (so wouldn't let their dogs inside), and they may find it hard to look at these photos as they would be compelled to wash the floors four or five times a day if we were their dogs, but I think our mum has realised it is better to have two dogs who make her smile lots and for her to spend time doing nice things with us (like going for walks and playing games) than spending all her spare time cleaning the floors. Plus she knows Spring will be here soon!

Woofs,

Riley

Winter

It is mid-winter in New Zealand, which means frosty mornings and cold nights. Here are a few photos from one of my recent walks.

Many of the trees have no leaves.

I am never far from these strange creatures, even in our inner city parks,

but they only take a mild interest in dogs and then they resume their lawn mowing duties.

There are leaves everywhere.

Time for photos. Enzo, on the right in the first photo (black collar and black tag - my collar is blue and has a blue tag), is eighteen months old now. He is almost my weight - but I have the furrier coat. Some people say we look alike and have trouble telling us apart but if you look closely we really are quite different.

Back to our walk. Look at the size of this tree! It is a Moreton Bay Fig tree and there are lots of these trees in the park.

The best thing about the Moreton Bay Fig tree is large roots. There are lots of interesting smells around the tree roots to explore. Enzo was in leg-lifting heaven.

I even found this plaque. If you click on the photo (to make it bigger) you can read about the tree.

Just remember that I live in NZ, so this tree comes from our neighbours in Australia.

 Still sniffing...

 and more sniffing...

So that was one of our winter walks. If you are in the heat wave in America I'd happily send you some of our cold winter weather - I just have to figure out how to send it to you!

Woofs,
Riley

Wordless Wednesday - watching you watching me!

Is light exercise good or bad for dogs?

Last night Enzo and I were about to take our humans for a walk around the neighbourhood, when the male one was using a torch to look for something. This got them commenting on how some cats will endlessly chase the light even though they can’t catch it. Of course dogs have always thought that cats have little brains, and this accounts for their often futile actions. When the torch was shone on the carpet we looked, we pounced a couple of times and then gave up. There was just no fun chasing a big white light.

Then we heard rattling as dad searched for something. He found his measuring tape that had something called a “laser” attached to it, and when he turned it on there was the most mesmerising tiny red light. It made us quiver and run towards it at such speed that we crashed into a wall and mum said something in an angry  voice that sounded like “OUTSIDE NOW” which made the red thing move as fast as it could to the front lawn with Enzo and me chasing it. There we ran and we ran, but we could never catch it! Of course I was cleverer than Enzo, but he was better at running and quickly turning than I was. We ran up and down the lawn, around trees, trying to catch up with the light. Dad never knew Enzo could move so fast! Sometimes, when we were really close, it had to escape us by going up the fence. I was vaguely aware of mum saying we might crash into each other, but we didn’t – we just ran and ran, and I pounced and we both ran as fast as we could wherever the little red light went until our tongues were hanging out. Even though we never gave up the chase we never caught it - somehow it escaped and then it was time to go back inside.

Now some people might not call running around in the dark light exercise, but Enzo and I thought it was so much fun we didn’t realize we’d had a workout. My humans (who were both standing with their feet not moving) said they had some exercise too as, at times, they were both doubled over and making strange sounds while watching us.

Then they decided I had had enough exercise, so dad took Enzo out for a long walk. I was left at home panting (also known as smiling with my tongue hanging out) for ages. I slept very well last night dreaming of how I am going to catch that little red thing if I ever see it again!

So is light exercise good or bad for us, as mum is thinking of using this method to tire the young pup out (as well as his usual walks) on cold winter nights?

Woofs,

Riley

PS Mum was using stomach muscles so much (laughing) she couldn’t take pictures, so the photos in this post were taken in daylight when we were still. Perhaps one day she will get a video of us in the dark chasing the light.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I've been missing in action. My human got really busy with family stuff and hasn't had much spare time lately. She told me it was more important for us to go for a daily walk than to sit at a computer. Now that she is less stressed I hope that I can get her to post more about what Enzo and I have been up to, and I also want to catch up on what you have been doing.

For anyone who is still here reading my blog... thank you!

Woofs,
Riley

Happy St. Patrick's Day