Bikejoring Greyhounds!

I have been so bad at keeping this blog up to date as there has been so much going on at the Furkid Palace!

The sledding season is over for the year and so maybe I will have more time to write. I am now trying to train Mouse up for bikejoring. Hopefully WA Sleddog Sports Association will offer a bikejoring class in at least some races next season. We are heading interstate to compete in some other races next year, so if it turns out that Mouse is a keen bikejoring dog we will enter some races.

Mouse and I competing in canicross at the last race of the season, the Jarrahwood Jaunt

Mouse has been bikejoring twice so far, and the second video shows the improvement she has made. Running canicross with her in that harness connected to a waist belt has helped her get the idea of pulling, though being a little greyhound with a high centre of gravity she still can't pull very hard.


Mouse and Jim (first time bikejoring)


Mouse running alone (second time bikejoring)

Bender is still running short tracks as a veteran but I am not sure he will still be up to it next year. He will be 10 years old in March and he really is mellowing out. He may just go into retirement.

Lure coursing for Mouse will continue on through summer. She is only one qualifying score away from becoming an ACLA Field Champion. I am also aiming to enter Mouse in another Dances With Dogs trial in December. Hopefully we will be able to make time for some more dog shows for Barbie, as she is the show pony of the Palace. She is turning 8 very soon and she still shapes up pretty well despite a few grey hairs on her face.

Mouse & I have also gotten back to obedience classes now that it is getting a bit warm for sled training. We are still working our way up the ranks but if I can schedule it in we will enter some Rally-O trials before the end of the year.

What have we been up to! A lot!

This winter I decided to give Bender a go at dryland dog sledding. I joined West Australia Sleddog Sports Association (WASSA) and we entered our first race, the Hampton Hoon, last weekend. I have been well and truly bitten by the bug. Without Nic's steady influence I think I would have gotten a sled puppy to train up for next year already!

I have decided that our team will be called "Team Planet Express" - as Bender is always going to be my very first sleddog. I have ordered a sticker for the car and the scooter, as well as an iron on patch for Bender's dog coat!

Bender and I at the mock race at beginner's camp

I also took a friend's dog along (Poppy), as her mother and aunty are certainly good sleddogs. Mouse came to participate in the canicross and I was just hoping that we wouldn't win the Red Lantern (the red lantern is the prize you get for coming last - you can read about the tradition of the red lantern here).

Poppy and I starting our first race!

It was a quite a drive out to the Hamptonview Homestead where the race was held, but it's beautiful country out there. It seemed perhaps a little dry, and in fact, it was so dry that there was no condensation at all on my tent in the mornings. This made for very pleasant camping despite the cold temperatures (which are a necessity for the sport), and the very early starts.

I decided that I would buy myself a new airbed for the trip. Well that was a mistake. It was great on the first night but sometime on Sunday it sprung a leak and so it was useless on Sunday night. I ended up stealing Mouse's bed and making her share it with me and Bender.

As for the racing, well it went as well as I expected. Bender's an old man and he ran pretty well in Novice - he definitely had the idea it was a race by the second heat and he even vocalised a bit on the start line when he was being revved up by Vanessa who was handling him for me. We finished 8th overall in Novice with an average speed over the two, 2 km heats of 14.09 kph.

He pulled up really well and this video is of his second heat. He was certainly tired after the weekend and wanted to eat more so I'd say that is a good sign. I have to complete two races as a novice before  I can enter him in any other classes but I plan to move to veteran with him when I am eligible.

Poppy is a pup, almost a year old but a large mixed breed so a long way from being a mature dog. She ran in puppy class and she ran *like* a puppy! I think she probably ran an extra kilometre from all the zig zagging she did all over the track! Poppy and I finished 5th out of 6 dogs, so this was the closest I got to getting the red lantern. Her average speed was 11.5kph. Her litter sister Lily won the red lantern instead.

Hampton Hoon 2015 - Puppy Edit Heat 1 from Jet Ska on Vimeo.
Mouse ran better than expected in the canicross. By the end of 4 heats of racing with Poppy and Bender as well as the 6k walk I did with Mouse on the Saturday to keep her happy, my feet were killing me, so I think I held us back a bit. We ran the 2 kilometres at 9.78 kph and Mouse trotted the whole way, finishing 15th. We could definitely improve in canicross as a team.

The next race is at the end of the month. I'm not sure if I will be taking Poppy along or not but I will definitely post about how we go.

The Mad Dog

Getting old should be no barrier to participating or doing stuff for a dog. I guess people might say that 9 years old isn't actually old, but that depends on the genetic makeup of the dog. We don't actually know what mishmash of breeds make a Bender - but he's on the large side, 33 kilograms with long legs. He's not exactly a giant breed but he may have some of that in him! 

Bender may be the oldest dog here but he's the most enthusiastic to throw himself in to new things. If he was a human, he would be that granny who is keen to jump out of a plane for the first time on her 60th birthday.

I bought a lightweight agility tunnel and it got delivered yesterday. When I got home I unpacked it, and Bender was convinced he should be biting it or head butting it.

I set it out in a long straight line (it only just fit in the living room) and showed him what it was actually for. Bender doesn't need much encouragement to try new things if they are not that scary, so he did it, and then told us how much he enjoyed it afterwards.

   

Mouse had a go too but she did not give it nearly as much panache as the crazy boofahead. I think she may have been a little bit intimidated by the way he was carrying on!

The Joys of Getting Older....

Bender turns 9 in human years in March. His muzzle is greying and his bad knee is gives him trouble after he tries to run too hard. It's hard to know how well he is travelling in comparison to other dogs with similar genetic origins because we honestly have no idea what breeds combined to create him. If he is compared to a Mastiff or a Labrador, he is going OK. If he's compared to a staffy or other smaller boofa, then he's probably below average.

Bender still gets right in to the action.

Barbie is 7 and her back is starting to stiffen up on her. She loves to run flat out and push herself to race around with Mouse and her younger friends, but her spine is not as supple as it once was. She had also been a bit more delicate than usual, yipping when Mouse collided with her in the house, and not wanting many cuddles.

Barbie doing her thing..... 

I came across Julie Edwards at Wellness Centre for Dogs during my work with GreyhoundAngels after she offered her services to the foster dogs. She uses Bowen therapy among other techniques to help dogs be more comfortable. I thought that Barbie in particular could benefit for some treatment, so I got her to come around the weekend after Christmas to have a look at the oldies. She did a lot of work on Barbie's neck and a bit on her back. Her neck was really tight and I could feel the difference before and after treatment.

She did as much as she could with Bender as well. He is an anxious kind of dog but he was as co-operative as I expected he would be. Julie doesn't push the dogs or force them to accept being treated, though we did use treats while she worked on his back legs. Of course the oldies took 'breaks' and when they did, Mouse came over and positioned herself in front of Julie, saying 'ok, now do me!'

Mouse chasing her friend Daisy

Mouse had a tight right hip flexor and she has some sub-scapular weakness still which causes her elbows to turn out. It's noticeable when she sits, and sometimes in her lure coursing photos, but it has improved a lot since we got her. We got given some homework, to work on front and rear paw targetting and to get them all to stand on one of those physio wobbly boards. The hounds both front-paw target a pillow now though it is taking Bender longer the 'get it'.

I could tell Barbie felt better a few hours after her treatment. The next day she was doing zoomies around the lounge and initiating games of bitey face with the others. It had been a couple of months since I had seen that behaviour from her.

The other thing I thought was worth trying was swimming. Bender is a strong swimmer and he has been since he was very young. It is part of the reason we suspect there may be some labrador in his genes, as he loves to swim and retrieve. 

The problem with Bender is that he gets to the river or the beach and does a lot of running around before he gets to the water. When he runs and jumps he ends up sore. We dose him with metacam for three days afterwards to help with the inflammation and pain but he does do the three legged bunny hop when he has been still for too long. 

There is a dog swimming pool in the kennel zone about half an hour's drive away from us at the Furkidz Resort. You can book it out for an hour or half an hour and it's just you and your dogs in the pool house.

Last time we tried to get Bender into a swimming pool was during a New Years Eve celebration a very long time ago. He was a very young dog then, and he refused, because he was scared about getting in and out. I was hoping that his memories of that had faded and that the moulded ramp in the pool as well as it being long and narrow would give him the confidence to get in and out.

The water is a bit gross, there's dog hair and it smells like dog, but for Bender the outing was a great success. The first couple of times he had to be lifted in but after that he was swimming and retrieving his ball on his own accord with no running around or competing with other dogs. The aim is to go regularly for a few weeks and see if it helps the muscle tone on his back end and in his lower back, so hopefully when he runs around off leash everything 'holds together' a little better.

As you can see in the video, swimming is not a favorite hobby for the greyhounds. Barbie is a fairly strong swimmer but she spent the whole time trying to swim to the side to try and haul herself out.

Mouse just trusts you are going to hold her up so barely bothers to kick her legs. We decided not to use life jackets as I had tried one with Mouse previously and got the same 'limp dog' effect. I think Barbie may prefer to have a life jacket on but Mouse needs to learn to swim without one otherwise she is just going to float around the pool doing nothing. We might get them the 'head donut' style swim aids that keep the water out of their ears as other greyhound owners have recommended them to us.

We are booked in again on Sunday so we will see how it goes!!!

Halloween - MWAH HA HA HAAAR

Here in Australia Halloween is getting more and more popular. There was a market happening a few suburbs away and they were encouraging children, dogs and adults to come along and get dressed up for the occassion.

I bought an adult sized costume vampire cape from a discount store, and lucked out because I was charged less than it was marked for and it was $12!

It was 140 cm long so clearly too big for the Mouser. Mouser wasn't home last week because she was away going for her Green Collar (more about that next week), and Barbie refused to get up for measuring purposes. Bender ended up being the model, and it fit him pretty well.

I picked Mouser up on Thursday night and tried it on quickly. It seemed like it would do, and I added to the outfit with a medallion (which was from a bike ride I did in 2011). Then on the day I added some eyebrows.

There were a lot of other dogs there who were dressed up too, but they all admired Mouse's cape. It turned out to be just a little bit too long for her so I had to make sure she didn't stand on it as we made our way through the crowds. 

We also rode there, so I decided that I should take the GoPro and make a video. I ordered a crepe and sat down on a park bench to share it with Mouse. Then I dug into my pocket to pull out the camera, and .... it was gone!

The mozzies were biting and it was dark so after a brief search I gave up and went home. My phone number is on the back of the case so I figured that the chances were good I'd get it back if an honest person found it.

At about 5pm on Saturday I got a phone call from a strange number, so I leapt across the room to answer it. It was a lovely lady who had found it in the park! I drove there and grabbed it off her straight away. So glad and lucky to get it back!!!! 

Here is the video:

Dunsborough weekend : Bender's GoPro Video

It turns out that Bender is quite a keen cinematographer. The only problem is that, being a boofhead boy, he is very rough on the camera. I only let him wear my old GoPro Hero 2 as the 3 is a little too precious to me.

I cut this video together for him and he told me he approves.

Fun n Games with the Gopro Hero3

I got a new GoPro this year, and I have been playing a little bit with the 'burst' photo mode and the dogs. It is quite fun to take a burst photo and then recreate it into an animated GIF like this one, which illustrates Mouse's weird bouncy running style.

The advantage over N's DSLR is that it's small, waterproof and fits easily in my pocket. I got the black version which also can run a WIFI connection to your phone or tablet. 

Of course the image quality isn't always quite there, as you can see in this shot of Mouse's 'whiplash tuck' stage of her run. As always though the camera is quicker than the eye and gets some weird positions that you don't actually see in real time.

Sometimes Mouse and I like to go to a local tennis court for some off leash time. It is a good place for training because there are not many distractions, but it also makes for some nice colourful photos. The fisheye wide angle effect of the Gopro is particularly evident in this shot (look at the fence line).

Of course the most scenic place for photos is the beach, where we don't have to worry about flying sand and salt water.

I am not sure if Mouse and Barbie are discussing the latest in toenail fashion, or which collar they might like to be purchased for them next. One thing is for sure, they are enjoying the beach in winter when there are a lot less people and dogs around.

Not much beats this shot though! I do love the GoPro and use it to make all the videos on the blog, but I do have a couple of very pricey items on the wish list. The cheapest is the new GoPro Fetch harness which provides a rigid, and stable as possible platform for the camera either on the dog's back or on his/her chest. I've always wanted to know what it would be like to ride a greyhound. Unfortunately I lack the technology to shrink myself to an appropriate size, so I think the GoPro is as close as I can get. I'm planning on picking up a harness very soon, so stay tuned for the resulting videos. 

The other thing I would LOVE to have in my GoPro armoury is a Phantom II drone. Really your imagination is the limit in terms of applications for this little camera. 

A hike at Bell's Rapids

Winter and spring are the best times to go hiking here in Perth. Once we get past November many places get too hot and inhospitable. One of these places is Bell's Rapids, located in quite a steep little valley. We have had some good rain lately and the rapids were pumping when we were there. It was Mouse's first time but she really seemed to enjoy walking up the steepish trails with loose rocks.

Mouse is very agile and sometimes it's hard to keep up with her. Bender is great off leash in the bush and never goes far, so I walked both the hounds while N could take photos. Bender just enjoyed trotting along with us at his own pace. When we take his leash off he looks with a look on his face that says 'really? are you sure? wow! awesome!"

Bender took the opportunity to sniff and pee on everything. Mouse likes to pee on stuff too, but Bender really takes it to an extreme. 

Even though it was a fairly mild day, Barbie sought out water wherever possible. She took sips out of every puddle we walked past, and then she discovered a small stream near the trail. She tried to convince us we should follow the stream instead of walking on the rocky, hot trail.

After we climbed up the hill we had a rest. They all found a flat spot to lie on. Mouse, as usual, had to be as close as possible to her sister.

We came across some horses on the trail, they are not Mouse's favorite creatures. I heard their riders chatting to each other first, so we put Bender back on the leash. I took Mouse far off the trail and made her sit and wait for them to go by. She let them go past and was really good until they got further down the trail, then she barked at them a couple of times. Mouse always has to shout. We are still working on it. 

Some of the trail was quite overgrown and I wondered what the horses thought of pushing through this kind of vegetation. The dogs didn't seem to mind. Of course everyone had to be checked over for ticks when we got home!

I hope we make it back to Bells for a couple more hikes before the weather gets too hot for it. The dogs were nicely exhausted afterwards and it's one of my favorite winter places. 

More bike trailer shennanigans!

Now Bender is a little older, he can't walk as far as he used to. He is also not allowed to go to the park and be off leash when other dogs are fetching toys, as he will run too hard and hurt his bad knee. He has had x-rays and has been diagnosed with arthritis. He has had a course of Cartrophen injections and they have helped, but he can not push himself or he will be sore. 

Our solution this weekend was to take him for a ride to a random, small suburban park in an area where not many people have dogs. I knew there wouldn't be any other dogs there playing.

Bender enjoyed wandering around the park and having a good old sniff. We practiced his recall a little, as it has become apparent that he has the worst recall of the pack!

It was raining and I didn't want the trailer get wet for Bender, so we were a bit naughty, and parked the bikes and trailer at the train station park n ride facility. It's a big no no to make use of this and not catch the train, but there weren't many other bikes around as it is the weekend after all. Bender appreciated it when we got back to the trailer and it was nice and dry. 

We managed to get to the very last night of the Maylands Hawkers Markets on Saturday night. Thanks to the Doggyride bike trailer Mouse got to join us. The only thing that was slightly unpleasant was the drizzly rain. We made it home before the worst of it hit. Here's the video.

Mouse, meet Beach!

I don't particularly like the beach in summer. The sand burns your feet and you have to share with everyone else who thought visiting the water was a good idea. As we are heading in to winter, and half of Perth's population seems to be away due to the magical combination of public holidays and school holidays, we decided that it would be a good idea to try Mouse at the beach again.

ooooo yeah

Mouse has been to the beach a few times. When we took her down to Esperance she was on leash only, much to her frustration. We had only just adopted her and I didn't trust her to stay with the 'pack'. The last time we took her to the beach I let her off leash a couple of times, but they were both only short periods, as she immediately sprinted up to people and other dogs and then harrassed them by running tight circles around them. People don't like being tripped over by strange dogs. I retrieved her and she went back on the leash.

This time we saw a huge improvement! She did scare a big standard-poodle cross type dog but she left him alone when I asked her to. She didn't try to head up into the dunes, and she mainly just played with Bender and Barbie.

Mouse making sure she doesn't outrun Bender by too much

I recalled her to me a few times, and she was great. The first recall we did, I said her name and when she looked at me I started mumbling praise. She then started walking towards me and I praised her louder. She broke into a sprint, aimed right at my legs, and I told her to slow down. She came to a complete stop and a sit right in front of me. It was beautiful. Of course she was rewarded with her favorite treat - chunks of cheddar cheese.

A quick game of chasey is always fun!

Barbie is just perfect off leash at the beach now. She mainly just wanders along just behind me, and when she does zoomies she tends to do tight circles around me rather than disappearing down the beach, like she used to. I believe Mouse will be just as perfect some time in the near future.

crazy Bender causing trouble!

The only time Mouse got into trouble was when Bender spotted a lady throwing a ball for her dog. He took off, and Mouse took off after him. Nic tried to tell Bender to stop but he was using his selective hearing. I said Mouse's name once, and she stopped for a while and looked at me as I walked towards her, but I took too long and she turned tail to join Bender running around the lady with the ball. I don't think the lady would have minded, but Bender got her dog's ball and wouldn't give it back. I had to fish it out of his mouth for her and put him on the leash. If only Bender would play fair.

having the time of her life! 

I'm looking forward to many more future beach visits with the hounds - there are a few other dog beaches I would like to visit in the next few months. I expect there will be plenty more beach pictures to come!

A hike in the bush & dog trailer fascinations

The dogs must LOVE public holidays, as over the Easter long weekend they have been the centre of attention every day. Mouse has been to run and play with her friends at the local fenced dog park a couple of times, and rode with me to the airport to pick up N. 

We also went for an 8 kilometre hike around The Spectacles which are located in suburbia well South of Perth, off Anketell Road. The Spectacles are supposed to be lakes but it's very dry there at the moment and we didn't see any water. The hiking trails are a bit confusing and we ended up walking a bit further than planned, but they are mainly flat and easy. There were some people there doing some 'bush care' work, and one of them patted Barbie and said 'greyhounds, my favorite type of dog!'

They all decided to poop very early on in the walk, and I didn't want to carry it, so I double bagged the girls poops and tied them onto one of the side d-rings on Mouse's harness. She didn't even seem to notice as she was having such a great time looking for bunnies and other small things that hop around in the bushes. 

The walk was a little bit long for the two oldies, and Barbie decided she would have a short rest on a sandy patch in the shade. Mouse was still going strong though. I think I really need to get her a backpack so she can carry water for everyone and perhaps a supply of poo bags. 

We had another strange encounter this weekend. For those not familiar with greyhound racing, the dogs are transported to the track, or wherever else they need to go in these trailers. They vary wildly in size to fit four to eight dogs, but they are all made of that white corrugated metal with little whirlybird ventilators on top. 

To me they look like caravans for midgets. When I went to pick up Mouse she was locked up in one as we were coming late in the day and the trainer didn't want to disturb all the other dogs in the kennel. Once she had been in the car, with it's glorious glass windows and padded couch like seats, I didn't think she would ever consider getting into one of these again! 

Lately I've noticed a really small dog trailer parked on the verge of a rental townhouse two doors up. They seem to be visiting as they are not there all the time. We walked past with the dogs for the first time last night, and their reactions were fascinating.

Bender didn't show any interest at all but the two greyhounds went crazy taking deep whiffs through the vents on the doors. Then Mouse dug her paws in and refused to continue on the walk, with exactly the same look on her face as when I'm trying to drag her away from the car. I managed to convince her that she wasn't going in the trailer and she begrudgingly continued on. The same thing happened when we walked back past the trailer on our way home. 

While our dogs live in the moment, they never really forget their past. 

if we want to race, we'll race at the dog park!

Bender's 8th Birthday and An Energetic Composition

Bender is becoming an old man. Of course I made him a cake for his birthday using the recipe I worked on for Mouse's birthday. This time I added a bit of honey, and whilst the cake tasted good to me, I don't think the dogs needed the extra sugar. It left them bouncing around a bit more than normal. 

Waiting patiently, tolerating birthday hats

I topped the cake with ricotta cheese that was a bit past it's used by date. It doesn't give as nice a surface as cream cheese but the dogs didn't mind one little bit. 

can I eat this NAOW?

They all very much enjoyed the cake and the quick rendition of 'happy birthday' that I sang to Bender. That was not his whole birthday celebration, however. I had a little weekend surprise for him. We went in to our favorite training venue, Billy's Daycare for Dogs, to take part in an art workshop where he got to create his own masterpiece.

An Energetic Composition is a series of art workshops which will in the end culminate in an exhibition, raising money for people with Lyme disease. At the workshop we worked on small piece to take home and a larger 'community piece' which many dogs contribute to. 

Bender's artwork

Some of the dogs delicately paw target the artwork, whilst others have their own 'style'. Bender didn't really want to paw target, so I got him to commando crawl and spin on the canvas. He did go at it with his face a couple of times, and took a big slurp of the blue paint. Good thing it is non-toxic. Apparently all the dogs who have tasted the paint so far have gone for the blue paint. I wonder what is with that? 

Then when I put the big community canvas down for him he bit at it and then dug as hard as he could. That canvas board is tougher than I imagined. The scratch marks looked really good and provided a 'finished' look to the big piece. The only problem was that Bender tried to pick it up and carry it away. I had to quickly get it out of his mouth before he damaged the board that everyone else had been working on! 

Bender is proud

I got him to use the same technique on his smaller board then and it added some great texture to the piece I think.

All in all it was a very enjoyable thing for Bender. He was pretty tired afterwards. When bought his piece home the girls were very interested in it, giving it a great big sniff. Next time I will take one of them to try it out.

Houndstooth Studio photo shoot for my Supermodels

A while back we entered a competition to win a studio session with Alex Cearns from Houndstooth Studio for two of our pets to get some professional portraits done. We decided that we would start with Bender and Barbie as they are both getting older and greyer these days. I think middle age is really the most glorious time for a dog - they have learned all the rules, but they still have energy to keep up with every day adventures and health problems are hopefully pretty superficial. It's a great time to capture with professional photographs.

Alex has two gorgeous rescued puppies of her own from Greyhound Angels of WA (the organisation I volunteer for). Pixel is a greyhound and Pip is a greyhound cross - they have a Facebook page called Black Beetle. You should check them out if you are big on Facebook, as well as the Houndstooth Studio page (which currently has a cool 88,404 likes!).

seductive Barbie number one - this photo didn't make the cut and get printed but I love it still!

Alex is incredibly popular and well known in my social circles as she does a lot of pro bono work for animal rescues. Her photography is everywhere, from every Vet clinic I've been in, to the fenced doggie area at Whiteman Park. 

The first time I met Alex was actually at Whiteman Park during a big dog focussed event they had there. I had Bender and Olive with me at the time and they both got a bit of fussing from her. She must have made a great impression on Bender because he remembered her.

Bender's happy face! We picked this one for one of the smaller prints

When we pulled up at the studio, the dogs were a bit confused. Then Alex came out to greet us. Bender recognised her right away and started bouncing up and down and doing his excited puppy squeak. He reserves his puppy squeak for his absolute favorite people. The first time we ever heard it was when he was about 8 months old and we took him to visit the lady who bottle-fed him as a rescued pup. Barbie seemed a bit embarrassed to be seen with him, but she hadn't met Alex before so she was probably wondering what the hell was going on.

Bender usually works really hard and he was very focussed during the photo session. Alex just took the reigns and he was very willing to comply with her directions. We didn't really emphasise to her how obsessive he is about toys though, and she pulled a tiny squeaky Kong ball out of the treat jar and squeaked it before we could stop her. I had a feeling of dread as he jumped around everywhere trying to get to the ball. We distracted him whilst Alex hid it, and what she did next was quite impressive. By being firm and digging deep into the Magical Treat Drawer, she managed to get him refocussed on the food treats. He forgot about the ball! I don't remember anyone else managing to break his ball fixation like that. 

Barbie was a little bit harder to motivate. She just doesn't have the drive or stamina that Bender has. She's also a bit uncertain about jumping up on to things so the couch was a bit of a challenge for her. Then when we were doing the photos of them both on the couch, Bender didn't want to jump up next to her. I think he was afraid that if he took a misstep she would tell him off. She wouldn't have, but Bender is very respectful of Barbie's space like that. We got Bender up first and I lifted Barbie on to the couch.

cute couple, this is the photo we chose for our massive print

They were both full of treaties and not that interested in their kibble at dinner time. Barbie was so tired that she slept for the rest of the day - it was a great weekend adventure for them.

Alex took thousands of photos, and she posts a preview of them on Facebook at Houndstooth Studio, before you go in for a viewing session to choose your prints. 

The Viewing Room is at a different address to the studio, and we made an after work appointment. The Room is small but adorned with a comfy couch and a projector so that you get to see the photos at their vibrant best. We started with 70 pictures and narrowed them down to 5 by trading them off against each other and choosing different poses and facial expressions. We chose a 'set' which consisted of a massive 30" x 20" print and three 5" x 7" prints, in classy black frames. We also got a 5" x 7" print as part of our prize, so I let N choose that photo so she could take it out to work with her (she chose one of Bender, surprise, surprise!) 

Due to the time of year the photo printers/framers seemed to be running behind as they were closed most of December, so we had to wait 5 weeks for the photos to be done. They are guaranteed to last for 100 years, so not only will they outlast the dogs, they will also outlast us, and probably even the house we live in!

Bender on parade! (this is the photo we picked for our unframed pic)

They are really a central feature of our lounge room now. I think I did a pretty good job of hanging them straight, though the bottom small one of Barbie has two holes behind it because the first one I drilled was a bit low!

There was a bit of a hiccup with the prints - we had organised a time for pick up, but when Alex got them they weren't perfect - there were some smudges she could not clean up. Alex knew I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to pick them up when Nic was at work so that they would be hung on the wall by the time Nic got home. She rescheduled a new pick up time, and told the lab they had to do something to make it up to us. They upgraded our unframed print to a bigger size! I was very happy with that.

Overall it was an excellent experience, and I imagine we will back with the Mouser to get her photos done some time after our mid-year holiday. 

The Mouser turns 3 (or 21 in dog years)

Mouse turned three years old and I decided that I needed to throw a little celebration. N rightly pointed out that I had never made a cake for any of the other dogs, but I was determined to be more organised this time. 

The night before her birthday I threw together a carrot and peanut butter cake. The recipe is as follows.

Ingredients

1 egg, 1/4 cup peanut butter (I used unsalted), 1/4 cup cooking oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup shredded carrots, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, creamed cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degs F (175 degs C)
2. Combine egg, peanut butter, oil and vanilla in a large bowl; mix well
3. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly
4. Sift the flour and baking soda and fold into the carrot mixture
5. Spoon batter into greased cake tin
6. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes, let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto serving plate
7. Spread the cream cheese over the cake while it is still warm for 'icing' and add whatever decoration you see fit

Final Result

I kinda spooned the batter in the cake tin into this rough shape and then cut the head out to be a bit more round. It was supposed to look like a duck but I think it was more like a chicken by the end of it, not that Mouse minded one bit! 

I tried some of the cake myself and it was actually pretty nice. You could add some honey if humans were going to join in on the celebrations.

She waited nicely for the photos to be taken without trying to chow down on the cake. I attribute this partly to my 'leave it' training, and partly to those strange little fires on top of the cake that she wasn't quite sure about. She seemed quite relieved when I blew them out.

She was a bit perturbed that I made her sit in front of the yummy cake for photos, then picked it up and took it into the kitchen.

I cut the cake up, and of course Mouse got the biggest piece. She was very excited about it. Barbie and Bender appreciated their pieces also. 

It's OK her eyes didn't actually pop out of her head....

The blur effect makes Bender's teeth look huuuuuuge.

Of course Bender finished off all the crumbs on the plate to save me from doing much cleaning up!