Yo readers. Guess who? Yup – it’s Elroy. Hope you had a good weekend.

Today I would like to talk to you about my experience as a follower.

What do I mean by “follower?” I am talking about canine following and how I have learned to follow the Boss’ lead. That’s why you see his picture – he’s the leader or the teacher. As I get older, I get more and more like him. Because I have learned from him. Well – at least in some things. I mean we DO have our individual differences- and although I’ve watched him retrieve a toy loads of times, I still prefer to do what I call “freestyle retrieving.” Sure – I go out to get the fetch toy when it’s thrown- but then I stop half way back and make her highness come to get it. I’m just trying to help her with those extra pandemic pounds. So the Boss and I DO differ in that regard.

But there are other things that I DO imitate and follow. For example, one thing that I have started to do is the reverse back up beep alert. You know how big trucks beep when they back up? Well, whenever the Boss hears that beep, he starts barking. For him it signals that we are getting an oil or propane delivery – so he must warn the drivers that there are “dangerous” dogs in the household. The Boss can even hear the beep at the neighbors’ house- which isn’t super close, and he’ll still bark out his warning. And I have recently started to bark along. “So what?” you might say – “you’re barking because he’s barking.” Nope – not entirely. Because last night her highness was watching some video on Waste Book (I call it that because she often wastes too much time on it) – and suddenly there was a truck in the video. And it started backing up – so it started beeping. And yours truly starred boofing. Yup. I thought it was the real thing. The Boss, on the other hand, was not fooled. But the point is, I learned the beep alert from him.

Another example: The Boss doesn’t like wearing a harness when he walks. He prefers to strangle himself. I do too – but frankly, I have never minded the harness. The Boss sees it coming and runs around the dining room table with her highness in pursuit. She always wins. Anyway, I watched him do the chase me routine – so now I do it too. So her highness has to go after both of us before our walks. Good times.

I never was one to mind grooming – but after watching the Boss run when he’s called into the Torture Palace, I now do the same thing. It’s really interesting to see how we learn from one another. I’m still not sure what he’s learned from me, though….Maybe to eat more slowly? Nah.

Anyway, if you are interested in learning a bit more about dogs learning from dog teachers, here’s an article about it:

https://moderndogmagazine.com/dog-learning

Now excuse me while we go and run around the dining room table before our walk. Monkey see. Monkey do…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Greetings readers and happy Summer Solstice. It’s Frodo here – welcoming the official start to those lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer. Someone ought to write a song about it.

Here in Canada’s Ocean Playground, we are currently experiencing above normal temperatures. And as a result, everyone in this household is experiencing hearing loss. From all of the fans we have going in almost every room of the house. Once upon a time, there didn’t seem to be a need for air conditioning in our corner of the world. I mean we had nice summer temperatures, but we weren’t like the southern states in the US where air conditioning there is as necessary as heat is here in the winter. But it appears that these days we are “feeling the heat” more in the summer so if you don’t have air conditioning, you have a heat pump to make your home more comfortable. Or in our case, you have multiple jet engine fans. I must confess it even affects out guard dog duties because we don’t hear intruders until they are right at the door. Which makes it appear that we are sleeping on the job. The good news is that temperatures cool down at night – so we can easily hear any night time intruders. And we can shout out appropriate bunny warnings at 2 AM.

Today is also the longest day of the year – and we will take advantage of the extra daylight. Because we have another hot day in the forecast, we are up extra early to go on our morning constitutional – in order to beat the heat. Odd that there are so few neighbors up at 5:30. Perhaps I shall give them a shout out today as we walk down the road – to invite them to enjoy the coolest part of the day.

I wonder if the Beatnik might go for his first swim of the year? Count me out. I’m content to watch.

I found a quote by Jenny Han that says: “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.” After the world experienced a pretty challenging first half of 2020, I think we’re all ready for a little magic. Enjoy these long days – and may they be sunny and full of good things!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Yo readers. Elroy the herder here. OK – so my recent lesson wasn’t my most brilliant. I still TRIED. Just wait until next time.

Meanwhile, here at home, we no longer want to be around her highness. For several reasons. #1 She is going to make our well run dry. #2 She has bugs.

Let’s start with #1. Since we are getting warmer weather, and the grass is growing more, she seems to be forever mowing. OK. That’s a lie. She’s not mowing grass. She’s mowing weeds. Most of our lawn is weeds because she refuses to put any chemicals on it – because of us. She feels those things are dangerous. So we grow weeds. BUT, if you mow weeds, they are green and can almost look like grass. The key is in keeping it short. So she announces she is going to mow (like someone announcing they are about to travel across the frozen tundra in a blizzard). The chore takes 2-3 hours depending if she does all in one shot, or she breaks it into two days. Either way, she comes in and needs a shower. Big time. I mean I don’t mind the aroma of sheep poo – in fact, I’ll roll in it. But when she comes in from mowing – make room. So she has to shower – sometimes twice in one day!!!! Our well has never had a problem with water – but if she keeps this up, she could end up having to bathe in the lake. These multiple showers must stop.

As for #2. Well. The other day she decided to weed whack our path to the lake. She was wearing long pants and rubber boots- so as not to pick up any vagabond ticks. Not that we have spotted any on our property – but you never know. When she came in the house , she took off all her clothes and threw them immediately in the wash. Which is another water user. She actually looked herself over to be sure she had no ticks on her. Not that she has ever brought one in before – but one cannot be too careful. She got dressed and had to run a quick errand. She came home and made her supper. While she was eating, a friend called and they were chatting. Suddenly, her highness looked down and ewwww- a TICK was crawling on her arm near her wrist!!! She grabbed a piece of paper towel and picked him off. She went into the garage to get a closer look. Yup. A wood tick or dog tick. Mr. Tick’s life then ended.

Just the THOUGHT of having a tick on her was enough to drive her crazy. She immediately inspected me and the Boss to see if we had any relatives of the now deceased tick. Nope. We were clear.

We don’t know how the tick got on her arm. She had not been just petting us – as she was having supper. She hadn’t been in the woods for hours. She was wearing completely different clothing. HOW did he get there?! She was dreaming of ticks that night.

So that’s why we’re steering clear of her highness. Who am I kidding – we’re not REALLY staying away. We don’t care if she has ticks. Or she causes us to have no water. Neither is REALLY a serious issue. Not yet anyway.

Besides- it’s all because of US that both issues arise. I mean she keeps the weeds mowed so as not to attract ticks. Which causes the water use. And she probably got a tick in trying to keep ticks away. So all of this is really a tick problem. Not a problem with her highness.

There. Glad I talked myself through that.

I hate ticks….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Greetings readers. Frodo here. I am here to report about the Beatnik’s return to herding. If one would call it that. It appears he has suffered from his lack of sheep exposure….to the point where this was SOMEWHAT similar to his first exposure to the wooly wonders. Except this was probably a tad….worse.

But instead of reporting a completely dismal outing, let’s look at the bright points. First, it didn’t rain. Second. It didn’t rain. Third. It wasn’t too hot. Fourth. It didn’t rain….

In reviewing the short video footage taken by her highness, and after hearing her observations, it does appear that each time they go, his excellent instructor does make it more challenging for him. For example- the first time they were in a small pen. The next time the pen was larger and she used the big flag to direct him. The third class, she didn’t use the flag. This time, she added a series of fences within the enclosure- to teach him to be more aware of where he was going and to keep him moving outward around the pen.

Her highness would like to emphasize that their instructor has the patience of Job. I mean she is REALLY, REALLY patient. She waits for the Beatnik to THINK – rather than completely pushing him to do something. And her highness was fascinated to watch his wheels turning when he had to figure out how to go AROUND the fencing – and how to NOT cut across the pen and go right at the sheep. He also needed to be reminded about proper manners with sheep – especially now since they aren’t wearing their fluffy wool coats.

Yes- watching the wheels turn ever so slowly is very interesting . Very interesting. And VERY slow. But they ARE turning- and despite the fact that progress was just slightly faster than a slug crossing through molasses, he never quit trying. And even after one rather raucous attempt to chase sheep recklessly, when the instructor had to firmly but fairly admonish him, he bounced right back, wagged his tail and said “OK, now what?!”

So we don’t have any exciting video to share – probably because her highness spend most of the time with her hand covering her eyes – and just peeking through her fingers.

But the instructor did say that he IS interested, and he does have drive. He doesn’t have much self-awareness of body position- and he did have one crazy run which left both a fence on the ground and the instructor on her knees. Yup – it was the typical Beatnik-in-a-china shop move.

While the Beatnik was taking down fences, the instructor’s Border Collie was squeaking to get in the pen to show the Beatnik how it’s done. She ended up being sequestered in the barn – but she just HAD to see what the strange looking beast was doing with her sheep….

I should also mention that he DID sample some sheep morsels on this outing too. And while during a decompression break, when they went for a short walk in the field, he also attempted a good old fashioned roll in the sheep poo. “Attempted” being the operative word.

So it was a very eventful morning and he he clearly still has LOTS of work ahead of him. But as long as the instructor is hopeful, they’ll keep on trying. The great news – no two or four leggeds were injured. AND the Beatnik was treated to a nice bath when he got home. Better him than me!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Salutations readers. Frodo here. Lonely Frodo. Fair enough- I’m not lonely just yet – but I will be shortly. Her highness and the Beatnik are abandoning me. I must perform solo guard duty for a few hours. I believe that, as a result, I SHOULD be getting isolation pay. I must lobby for that…

It appears that the Beatnik’s sheeping adventures are resuming today. He has not seen a moving lamb chop since before the Great Pause. The big question is whether he will recall what to do with them. Remember, he’s not allowed to “sample” the wooly wonders – although he attempted that the last time and got a mouthful of fluff. And he had “ the stick” shaken at him and it hit the ground repeatedly.

Her highnesses is also a bit concerned that since he has recently developed a taste for bunny poo – that he might now be distracted by the sheep poo. And he is a guy who debates whether or not to eat the food in his bowl. So unusual. Many of us canines enjoy the taste of “critter morsels” . I’m surprised that some clever dog food marketing company hasn’t capitalized on that fact. I can see it now “Our food tastes like poo – it’s delectable according to 9/10 canines.” Poo food. Better than lettuce.

Well, we’ll let you know if his enthusiasm for sheep remains. I’ll be able to tell by her highness’ face when she walks in the door.

Excuse me while I get her to load me up with treats before they go. And of course more when they get back. I’m going to milk this for everything I can..

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Yo readers. Elroy here. Ya know how we always think the Boss is so smart? Yeah – well maybe not so much. Mind you, we have always known he has a hearty appetite- and he’ll eat almost anything…

The day before yesterday, her highness was in the DFZ. Which since this pandemic began, has become CDA. Completely Dog Accessible. Since her highness still manages to spend time on the sofa reading or rug hooking, when she isn’t walking us, playing with us, cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, walking us, feeding us…she simply gave up keeping the DFZ gate closed. The Boss would just stand and bark at her. Or he would rattle the gate. She quit fighting with him – and opened the border to canine travel. She DID roll up the hooked rugs in there though, because yours truly enjoys picking at them. So it’s basically hardwood or a bit of area carpet on which to relax. Restricted border controls do NOT include relaxing on furniture.

Anyway, her highness was in the Former DFZ, I was sleeping on her bed, and the Boss was in the dining room, next to the screen dog door. All was quiet, when her highness heard a strange sound coming from the dining room. It didn’t sound like one of us chewing a Nylabone. Or those giant hunks of hardwood which we got one Christmas. We actually never DO chew those things. As Viktor always said – money well spent. Not.

No- this chewing sounded like crinkly paper. Like a wrapper from something. So she sprang off the indented sofa to see who had what. She came around the corner, looked at the Boss and said “What are you doing?!” He turned to look at her and that’s when she spotted what he obviously had attempted to chew. It was between his paws. Lying on its back. A JUNE BUG!!!! Her highness called the Boss over, and the flying grape was left behind. Clearly it couldn’t have been all that tasty – although her highness did read an article saying they are edible. Ewwww. She ran to get the June Bug broom and kinda picked him up and tossed him out the deck door. It wasn’t even dark out – so I don’t know why he was out. We’ll never know….

We can now say there are two things the Boss won’t eat . June Bugs and lettuce. He went out with her highness to harvest the “crops” the other day, and right now the only things growing well are green onions, herbs and lettuce. She picked some lettuce for her salad, and gave him a piece. It ended up as a soggy green blob on the kitchen floor. No need to even bother asking if I was interested in eating any.

But ya know, I MIGHT have tried that June Bug…..

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Joyous Wednesday greetings . Frodo here. I must share with you that yesterday, there was much happiness and celebration in our abode. The reason? Her highness was able to return to her hair salon – and get her haircut after months without professional service. We are quite thankful as she was beginning to resemble a very large PON. At least her head was. I don’t believe we ever told you her “story” which she shared with her stylist yesterday.

Because her highness keeps her hair rather short, when it grows even the slightest bit – she “feels” the difference. So she usually has it cut probably once per month. So after 6 weeks into the pandemic and self isolation, she became desperate. The Beatnik and I watched as she rather ceremoniously announced that she had “business” in the garage. The garage is where we are groomed so it seemed fitting that her “business” should take place there as well. We watched as she went in – with OUR dog thinning shears in her hand. Yes- desperate times called for desperate measures so she cut her own hair with our scissors. She was actually proud of her first attempt which didn’t look TOO bad. So in a few weeks, we didn’t think much of it when she went in the grooming torture palace again. But this time, because she was reluctant to chop her hair on the back of her head, she emerged with what I believe was once called a mullet. While it may have been fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s, it wasn’t the picture of style in these modern times.

Now we don’t really care what she looks like. We are used to her giant pandemic clothes and her shaggy mane. But I must say, she did look refreshed when she returned from the salon. So we did the happy dance with her.

It’s Wednesday- and it’s garbage day – so time to get moving on our zig zag walk. But first, we’ll watch her highness step on her scale to see if the numbers have gone down now that she got her haircut. I’m not so sure there will be happy dancing after that. Which honestly is fine by me – it just means we get a longer walk!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Yo readers. Elroy here. Happy Monday and Happy Upsy Daisy Day. Yup- that’s the holiday for today. Apparently this auspicious holiday is more than 10 years old. And the reason or tag line for the holiday is: “A day to remind people to get up gloriously, gratefully and gleefully.” The idea is that at least for this day, you should assume everything is going to go your way. And if it doesn’t- get over it. Attitude and gratitude are key elements to starting your day and to facing challenges.

Holy moly – the world sure can use an Upsy Daisy Day right now. Between a pandemics, crimes, accidents, racial prejudice, murder hornets and rioting, it’s pretty easy to wake up in the morning and say “now what?” Yup- you humans sure do know how to make a mess of things sometimes. While we dogs may not always be well behaved (like when we counter surf or chew carpet corners or pillowcases), we generally do not seek to destroy others. But it seems humans do that – a lot. Yeah – they might not try to destroy others physically- but instead they destroy their spirits or their souls. Some humans can be kinda nasty. In fact, some of them should be wearing muzzles.

Humans need to be more grateful. And more happy! Just think how happy we canines get over a pretty tasteless biscuit or an ordinary ball. And look how much we appreciate our humans and how thrilled we are when we are reunited after they return from the bathroom! We don’t wake up cranky. We wake up wagging. Hey – that’s going to be my new motivational saying – Wake up Wagging. The Boss thinks it’s corny – his motto would be more like Never Stop Joyous Barking. Whatever.

Anyway – I sincerely hope that you have a Happy Upsy Daisy Day. May you be kind and wag lots! We have confidence that you CAN do it.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Salutations readers. Frodo here. Reporting from the Far East – of Canada. But not the farthest. That would be Newfoundland.

Just an observation today and yet another wildlife story. One would think that we lived in a zoo. Mind you – our home IS often like a zoo.

First the observation. It’s about the Beatnik. He is truly developing his boof skills. He has always been the quietest dog in the household, but since brother Viktor’s untimely passing, the Beatnik has become quite the watch dog. When he is not boofing at his reflection in the deck door, he is boofing at any unusual noise he hears. And he has good hearing – because he can detect things in the middle of the night that neither I nor her highness can hear. And it is at those times that he lets out his super boof – which is loud. Quite loud. Super boofs in the middle of the night for no seemingly good reason are not always appreciated. Mind you, if a bear was attempting to knock down our front door, a super boof would be quite helpful. It all depends on the occasion.

The other day he let out a series of super boofs when he heard the arrival of a delivery truck. He never used to do that before. I guess he has learned to imitate my Cujo impression where I shout and throw myself against the front door. He hasn’t resorted to the throwing part yet.

Anyway, it was the delivery of some new comfy clothing for her highness – as she will no longer be able to wear her giant pandemic drawstring sweat pants now that temperatures have gone up. We are all ready for a change in her attire. Now she’ll be wearing giant pandemic drawstring shorts. And giant T-shirt’s to hide her not-so-svelte pandemic figure. Frankly, I don’t care what she wears- as long as her shorts have pockets. For treats of course. Anyway, to hear the Beatnik super boof, one might think he was terribly ferocious. It’s all an illusion….

As for wildlife – we have another new creature to add to the menagerie. We didn’t see him – but we heard her highness shouting at him in the garage yesterday. She was yelling “you can’t come in here. Stay away. Noooo. Go away. You can’t come in!” We hadn’t heard a vehicle – so we knew it wasn’t the pizza delivery guy. (No wonder she is sporting that not-so-svelte figure – but who am I to say anything). Nope- no delivery guy. And it wasn’t a June bug. Or a bear. Or a porcupine or bunny. It was a snake. A garter snake. Now garter snakes are harmless – and they do eat insects and rodents. This one would only be able to eat mini rodents because he was small. But he was lounging in the sunshine by the garage door. So when her highness opened the door – there he was. And he had three options.: Come into the garage; stay where he was and become a snake pancake after being squished by the car; or go elsewhere. Her highness got some garden tool and attempted to move him away. He was not impressed. That’s when we heard all the shouting. Her highness finally managed to shoo him into some bushes. As if he won’t be able to find his way back. She spent the rest of the afternoon Googling natural snake repellents. Repellents that are safe for dogs. She found nothing. So if you happen to know of any, please let her know. Otherwise Mr Snake could end up being a pancake after all.

That’s all the latest excitement here. According to the weather guessers, there is a 90% chance of rain today. I won’t be going far on my walk. I plan to produce quick results. Now I just need to convince the Beatnik that he needs to do the same….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Elroy here. All systems alert! Invaders on the property. Time of invasion: any time after the sun has gone down. Location of invasion: anywhere close to a light. Description of invaders: Mutant grape-sized winged creatures wearing hard shelled armor. Alias: June bugs.

First there were black flies. And ticks. And now we have the non-poisonous, benign but pesky June Bugs. If you don’t live in an area with the beetle bugs, Google them for a visual. They are massive. Well massive according to her highness. And they come out at night – and make a buzzing noise as they pound against the screen on the windows in an effort to gain entry to the house. They just want to get close to a light. Then they hit the light source and knock themselves out. Not the smartest beings on the insect intelligence scale.

Her highness despises June bugs. A dear friend once told her the story of getting one stuck in her hair, and that image is a nightmare that her highness can never forget. So at night when we go out for our final pee, we go out in the dark. No hall light left on and no outdoor lights. Her highness would rather encounter a bear than a June bug. Go figure.

But ….we had a bit of a June bug encounter the other night…Her highness was in the DFZ having a Zoom “meeting” with two dear friends. The door to the deck was open – the one with the “dog door” screen. Her highness finished her call and it was dark outside. The lights in the dining room were off- but the lights in the kitchen were on. As her highness walked into the dining room, she heard it. That telltale buzzing sound and screen bumping sound made by a June bug who wanted in. She approached the door without turning on the light, and as she did so, the Boss came in the door – pushing the screen inward – and letting the June bug IN the house. “Aghhhhhhh” she cried as the drunken armed grape flew toward the ceiling. Her highness ran for a newspaper to try and deflect his flight path. But as she grabbed the paper, she lost sight of him. Did he go in the DFZ? Or did he go down the hallway to the BEDROOM? She ran to look for him. Meanwhile, yours truly emerged from the bedroom wondering what all the commotion was about. The Boss just rolled his eyes. One thing for sure, the grape wasn’t bouncing around any lights. They are not hard to miss. So where was he? For probably a half hour, her highness searched for the grape. No sign of him. She kept telling us to find him, but given that we have no formal training in June bug detection, we just stood there. She was afraid to go to bed for fear he was in the bedroom and would somehow seek out her hair while she was sleeping.

Just as she was about to give up her search and considered sleeping with a scarf on her head, she went into the DFZ for her slippers. She happened to glance toward a wall – and noticed the invader crawling on the floor near the pole lamp. But now what? Step on him and listen for the giant crunch? Try to pick him up with a half roll of paper towel ?

She had another idea. She ran for the garage to get a broom as we watched. She raced back to the DFZ and thankfully the grape was still there. She then used the broom to repeatedly trounce the grape. Pieces of broom went flying. And then he was suddenly gone. Like Houdini. She didn’t want to look at the end of the broom for fear he was hiding among the bristles – just waiting to fly out and go straight for her hair. So – she carefully lifted the broom and positioned it straight out and headed for the front door. “Stay clear” she shouted to me and the Boss who were watching with fascination. She walked slowly past us – like a PON in the rain- so as not to dislodge the hidden grape. She slowly opened the front door after her procession from the DFZ and as soon as she was 6 feet from the front door, she bashed the broom to the ground. Out popped the grape. She ran back in the house.

For the next few weeks, the door to the deck will be closed after dark. The Boss will no longer be allowed to bring in any “friends” from outside. I know there are dogs who would be interested in eating them. The crunch could be nice, but actually neither one of us is interested. We’ll stick with non moving biscuits.

Next to look forward to – mosquito season….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.