Strands and Presents

Today's adventure took place at the Strand, which is one of my favourite places. We did Rollerblading again! (The photo at the top is me waiting for Mum to put her rollerblades on. They are more complicated to put on that shoes that don't have wheels.)

Much to my delight, my spa bath has water in it again! It was red water though, which was a bit weird. Still, I had a very nice spa bath. I don't know my people - even Mum - laugh so much when I have my spa. Another thing that made people laugh was when we stopped for a rest and Mum sat on a bench, and I climbed up to sit with her. Mum complained that I had 'dog breath' - when we're both sitting down I am taller than she is - then after I turned my head and accidentally dripped a little bit of drool on her shoulder, she pushed me off the bench! Clearly it was an accident so I don't see why it was so funny.

This photo is when we stopped for a drink break - well, one of them, we stop for lots of drink breaks. Even though we rollerblade at night, we both get pretty thirsty. We also stopped to do some work, where I have to sit, drop and come. Some nice kids watched and thought I was very clever, and I got pats and attention afterwards. 

At the far end of the Strand is the Waterpark. Tonight the water was still running and lots of kids were playing in it, but Mum still wouldn't let me go in! Life really is unfair sometimes when you're an Anatolian. 
The other thing that happened at the Strand was that a puppy walked by me who nobody had obviously taught any manners too, because she stared right at me (which is bad manners, if you a dog meeting another dog for the first time). So I growled at the puppy and Mum told me to be polite!! I WAS being polite. I politely growled and let her know that I was the boss around here, thank you very much. What's so wrong with that? 

On the way home we stopped at an ice-cream place Mum likes, which is called 'Baskin Robbins'. I don't know why I have to wait outside with my leash clipped to a table, I mean, I could be a really good floor-cleaner-uperer in a place like that. After Mum brought some ice-cream (Mmmm... ice-cream...) we went home and found out that Dad had a roast chicken cooking for us!
Mmm. Chicken.

Tonight, Mum pulled out all sorts of supplies - paper, and tape, scissors, stickers, and bags of stuff. Then she spread all the stuff over the floor, muttered to herself about what was for who, then hid all the stuff in paper so you couldn't see it anymore. I think this happened last year, too - Mum calls it 'wrapping presents'. I didn't see any presents for me though, so it wasn't very interesting.
 

I still helped, though.

Fun with Flick and Coolie

Mum has not been taking me to the dogpark much lately because she says I need to be concentrating on my training, and she seems to think I get distracted at the dog park... today though I did get a quick dog park visit and Flick and Coolie were there!! Flick and Coolie are the next-fastest dogs at the dog park, after me.

Me and Flick racing

 They are a lot of fun, even if they do gang up on me and fight dirty. I mean, two verses one, that's not very fair! 

Anatolian down! Anatolian down!

Now, I'm not saying that Flick (She is the very lean white dog with the brown patch, her sister Coolie is fawn like me, except with with brindle.) is faster than me, because NOBODY is faster than me, but Flick can keep running for a very very long time. So Coolie and me stood up on the dog ramp which Flick doesn't like very much. 

Is the coast clear now Coolie?

CLEAR! 

So Flick and Coolie and me had a run and a play, which I would have won except they didn't fought fair. I had to practice come when called, which is quite difficult because Mum always wants to me to come right when something interesting is happening, like a dog outside the fence. Mum said I was a good girl today though. After the dog park we went for a walk around North Shore. The paths, rivers and plants around North Shore are much nicer than when we walk around home, and I think it would be a nice place to live, except that the little yards are too small for an Anatolian.
The rivers had a little bit more water in them than last time, but not enough for Mum to let me swim. Just as we were crossing over the little bridge right by the water, I looked down and smelt all the delicious mud, and I went to step off the bridge to roll in it (it is only a very short step down) - but no sooner did one of my paws so much as TOUCH the mud, Mum pulled me back and called me a naughty dog! HOW does she always know? 

Dog park days are such good fun.
 

Rain at the River

It has been a long time since we went to the river - it's where I learned to swim when I was just puppy. It could be me, but it seems like the water got a lot smaller than it was back then. Maybe the River is a bit like the beach - sometimes there is lots of water and not as much sand, and other times the water is further away and the sand goes on for ages. 

It has been a very rainy weekend, but rain does not bother me because Anatolians are waterproof, and it doesn't bother Mum even though she doesn't have fur like mine. There was been some thunder and lightning too. Even though my brother Zeke is older than I am, he's scared of thunder - I'm not, since it's up in the sky and it can't hurt anybody up there. Besides, if it dared come down to the ground, I'd teach it a thing or two.

 

We walked down the river and I had to do some work, doing sit, wait, drop, and come. After all that work I took a break. When the thunder started to rumble from the sky, Mum said it was time to go home.
I think I like being at the river when it rains.

Home away from home

Today we didn't have an Adventure, because Mum went to Work then came home when it was dark. So I thought I'd talk about an Adventure I had a few weeks ago, when Mum and Dad went for a long drive. I don't know why I wasn't allowed to come - I love car rides! - but the place Zeke and I got to stay at instead was a LOT of fun. It was called 'Cordelia Pet Care', and several nice German Shepherds lived there, plus lots of other dogs that stayed a few days, just like us.
At first, I didn't know if I would like it there because the first thing that happened was that I had a bath! Nobody besides Mum had ever given me a bath before so I wasn't sure about that sort of welcome. But I felt better after I found a nice patch of dirt to roll in so I didn't smell so terrible!
Every morning after breakfast, Zeke and I got let out into a yard just for dogs to play in! There was a pool just like at home, too, for me to swim in. 

 
I showed all the other dogs how to use the pool, and even occasionally let them swim in it. Only when I wasn't using it.

 
 Zeke was grumpy of course, he just lay in a shady spot and grumbled at the other dogs if they tried to get him to play. (I am the only dog Zeke will play with. He says it's because I'm 'so annoying' but I know it's really because I'm his favourite.) But that was okay, because it meant that the other dogs played with me instead. 

It was like being at the dog park all day!

After a long day of running, resting and playing all over again, there was just enough time for one last swim before dinner. 

Mum and Dad came back after three nights, and it was good to see them and go home and smell all the familiar smells (The cat next door actually came into MY yard, grr!) - but I had a lot of fun at Cordelia, and I hope that if Mum and Dad have to go on another long car trip without me, I get to stay there again.

On the Golden Beach

Another beach adventure was had tonight! Even though I had to do lots of work doing sit, stay, and come, I did get to have some fun. Plus, my reward for doing work was pieces of steak! Mmmm... steak. 

It was a such hard work doing so much I had to have a little lie-down.

 While I was relaxing, a wave snuck up on me. I don't know how they keep doing that...

 
We walked all the way down the beach to the river I love to swim in best. Sometimes the river is really full, and sometimes it is shallow. Sometimes, like today, it has these really neat little pools just for me to play in!
  


We swam a little more, and chilled out a little more, and then it was time to go home. I shook off all that water...

But then Mum sat me down and dried me with a towel anyway! Sigh. Sometimes there's no understanding humans.

Sunset Beach Adventure

This evening we had a Beach Adventure, I had lots of fun even though Mum said there were too many people and other dogs for me to run around off the lead. But I still got to go swimming (the water is really warm again now), teach a coconut a lesson, have a good roll in the sand, and all the wonderful things a dog can do at the beach. 

This wave snuck up on me when I wasn't looking... there I was just sitting down in the water, minding my own business, and it came out of nowhere and tried to get my ears wet!  

Most of the Adventure was very peaceful as you can see in this photo. Except for the part when we walked across the grassy area where there were lots of people and a few dogs, one small dog who was tied up  barked at me. Mum said it was okay, so I was a good dog and didn't bark back. Why do small dogs bark so much anyway?

This is the coconut I found! If you've never chewed on a salty coconut before, they are the best, and you ought to try one as soon as you can.

Tasty coconut.

I got to swim a lot, since Mum says swimming is good for big dogs, especially in salt water. It's important when you have a heavy fur coat like mine to shake yourself really well after each swim, otherwise the water soaks down to your skin and makes you uncomfortable. 

Whoops, sorry Mum, did I get you? (Ha ha!)

I also got to have a really fun roll in the sand, and Mum took a video of that. It takes a lot of skill to dig sideways, you know.

After one last swim to wash off all the sand, we headed back to the grassy area (I got barked at again by the small dog. I think it must have been scared I was going to eat it, but Mum wouldn't let me) and Mum dried me with a towel, and then we drove home. I wish I could have a Beach Adventure every day! 

So Many Adventures!

Today was another day that Mum did not have to go to Work, so we had lots of Adventures instead. First, we went somewhere new, a place called 'Queens Gardens' which is very very green. As soon as we got out of the car, I smelled all the flowers and growing things, and we went in and walked around smelling them.

This is almost a cave made out of a tree. In my opinion, this is a very useful feature for a tree. I wish we had one of these at home. I think it would be a nice, shady spot to lie when it gets hot.





I also learned that roses smell nice...

 

 But cactus plants do NOT smell nice and also they are sharp.

 We found another really BIG tree which I thought was an appropriate size for an Anatolian. 

Then we checked out something called a 'hedge maze' which have big green walls of plants we had to walk in circles through. I am not sure why there were so many dead ends, since we just had to turn around and go back the way we came, but humans do weird things sometimes. 
In the hedge maze, we found a statue that Mum liked.

Then, I showed Mum the way out!

 

After we left Queens Gardens (Car ride!!) we stopped by the Strand to do some rollerblading, and we did some practice lessons too. That's where I have to do things like sit, drop, wait, and come, which Mum puts me on a special long lead to practice. Then, we went over to Grandma's place, and I got LOTS of treats, because Grandma keeps a special bag of them for when Zeke and I come and visit. I was pretty tired by then but I still guarded Grandma's kitchen very carefully. You never know when something might fall on the floor, and that would be dangerous for the humans. (They wobble around on just two legs, a silly design, if you ask me.) All in all, it was a very good day of Adventures.

Friday's Night Market and Airport Adventure

On Friday, I had many adventures, but when we got home in the afternoon we found we had no Internet! Mum spent lots of time talking to the Internet People on the phone to fix it. Then Dad talked on the phone to Internet People. Internet finally came back on yesterday!

So, on Friday, Mum and I went for a car ride (Yes! Car ride!) that was strange, because we don't usually do car rides in the middle of the day, but Mum made the car do cold air instead of putting the windows down so it was nice and cool in the car.  
We went to the airport to watch some planes, then I was allowed inside and Mum and me waited for some mice to arrive. Some of the pets Mum keeps are mice, and I don't really know why she wanted more since they all look pretty much the same to me.

But anyway, we picked up the new mice, and the nice man who brought them inside patted me, and we drove home again. 
Then, once the sun went down, we had another adventure! We went to the Strand again, but this time, we didn't rollerblade because it was Night Market night. I was happy because I love Night Market night, there are always lots of people who want to talk about me and give me pats and attention. Mum was happy too since she wanted to do some Christmas shopping. I remember Christmas from last year because Mum made me wear a red and white hat. We brought a present for James and for Grandma, and then I helped pick a present out for Cousin Aimee. (I can't tell you what we brought, because Cousin Aimee reads my blog, and Mum says Christmas presents have to be a surprise!).  



Then we walked around for a bit longer and I saw a BIG BIG dog, even bigger than me. So I had to bark and growl at him to tell him than these were MY Night Markets, thank you very much! Mum wasn't very impressed though. She told me to stop barking and sit down, even though the big dog was ignoring me! Of course I wanted to keep barking at him. But I did what Mum told me to. Then when he walked by (He didn't even look at me. Talk about rude!) I had to lie down and stay quiet. Sigh. Sometimes it's very tough being an Anatolian. Still - it was a good Adventure!