Pip's Superhero Day

Today is Mr Pip's Superhero day - he's having a party to celebrate his Blogoversary and everyone has sent in photo's, there are some brilliant entries so pop over and have a look see. My human was totally lacking in imagination but did manage to dress me up like this ;-)

 You see how all those walks we have helps with my muscles?! Anyway, pop over to Mr Pip's to check out all the fun photo's here at Pip Gets Back in the Game.    Dexter xxx

Our Peep on Parade

Morning all and it's Sarge's Peeps on Parade weekend, and if Sarge says do it, then we do it! Anyone who hasn't joined in yet can get the info by clicking here: Sarge's Blog. We're hoping he'll notice what obedient little chaps we are and sign us up to the Blogville Force.

We interviewed her and this is what we found out:

Right question 1, what does your Peep do for a living? She would love to say she is a Rocket Scientist, or that she single handedly discovered a cure for a terrible disease but the truth is she has always worked in Accounts Admin, in other words she said she gets to do all the jobs no-one else wants to do. It does however satisy her compulsion to create spreadsheets and she is often heard saying, "I feel a spreadsheet coming on"! This is 'She who must be obeyed', it's not a new photo as she hides from the camera but this was when Dex was a pupster:

Question 2, what do we like to do with our Peeps? Well snuggling has to be pretty high on the list but top of the list has to be going out for walks, the highlight of our day, sometimes she does something called 'training' with us when we're out which is okay but it does interrupt our furtling about somewhat!

Training in the fields

Question 3, what are her hobbies? Well she loves dog training and is an Instructor at a training club every weekend. She started dog training in 1989 when they got their first pupster a Cocker Spaniel called Monty and she was hooked on dogs from then on. She also loves any sort of crafting and makes lots of things from jewellery to cushions and things. We're not too happy about this hobbly as it doesn't involve us and she also gets very annoyed when we run off and chew her cotton reels - well...don't leave it there for us to play with is our answer!

This is one of the bags she made when she should have been playing with us!

Next question is something serious and special about our peep, she didn't want to answer that one, she does hope she makes a good and loyal friend and we can vouch for that, she is our best friend after all. She was very poorly a year ago and had to have lots of horrible treatment which made her very sick. She says her wonderful friends got her through a very bad time and she is so thankful for them.
There are too many funny things to mention about her, she is always doing funny things, she trips up - A LOT -, she forgets peoples names, she drops things. She has more embarassing moments than she can bear to remember, the one that always springs to mind is when she was compering a dog display for a group of deaf children. She had an interpreter stood next to her doing sign language, she was very nervous and the first thing she did was pick up the microphone, tap it and say "Can everybody hear me?" - oh, dear...she didn't live that one down for ages.

We do also have a Man Peep who does loads of walking with us, but he doesn't get involved in Blogville but we've included a picture as he is a huge part of our lives:

In the park with our Man Peep - we walk for miles with him

Well, we hope that has told you a bit about our Peeps, we're not quite there with the human training but they're coming on great and we wouldn't be without them now :-) love Dexter & Louis x

Mia's Big Adventure

Hi Everyone! Our cousin Mia had a big day last weekend so we invited her along to tell us, and you all about it:

Mia here, I live with my big brother Darwin in Lincolnshire and we are cousins of Dexter and Louis. I Thought I’d tell you about my big adventure on Saturday.  Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been meeting up with my friends from the dog training centre for practices for our very important day, we had been asked to do some displays at a village fete, companion and fun dog show.

This is me on Saturday, socialising in the sunshine...

 It was very exciting, Mum managed to cook up some liver treats without setting the smoke alarm off and she made sandwiches and packed our bag the night before.  We had to get up early because she was instructing for 3 hours in the morning before the display.  I got to go to the classes and slept in my crate in the office while she talked to lots of little puppies, then I got to play with my friend Stanley who’s a mini schnauzer too, he is a bit like Darwin and barks a lot.  When we got to the show, lots of my friends were already there so we had a picnic together.

Mum didn’t take many photos as she was very busy but I got to see dancers who had bells tied on their legs, some very scary birds, one was called an eagle owl, it was so big, also lots of different dogs of all sizes. 

Coco - my famous friend

This is Coco he is half Chinese Crested and half Maltese, he is my special friend – he is very famous and you can sometimes read about him in Your Dog magazine cos his Mum writes for them.

The Flying Coco!

 We did an obedience display and I was part of the on lead team, we had lots of moves to do and Mum said she liked my trotting cos I looked like a little pony.  Some of my friends did a heel work to music display and then there was the agility display where two teams raced against each other.  I wanted a go but my Mum says I’m not old enough yet as I’m only 15 months.

Me watching Coco in action...

We had a lovely time and Mum says we’ve got lots more displays to do this summer.  Darwin doesn’t like going to shows as he gets very cross if people get too close to us and he has something called pancreatitis so he can’t have yummy treats or get stressed.  He had a good time at home helping Dad with the gardening and going for a long walk to look for foxes.

Way to go Mia!!! Well done on your first display.  Have a great weekend everyone, Love Dex & Lou x

Don't forget it's Peeps on Parade weekend over at Sarge's blog and he'd like everyone to join in - click here for all the details.

Gimping Photo's

Morning all, Dex here, hope we're all doing well and those friends feeling a bit poorly are feeling better today. We've just been out for a walk, through the town and then to the park - we're back home and chilling out now and the human wanted me to tell you about The Gimp. It's the free photo editor she uses and she loves to play about with effects. This is the original photo she was messing about with and following are some of the groovy effects you can make. She loves it because it's free and also simple to use(it needs to be!), if you want to use it just Google The Gimp and download it - she says it's brilliant, hope you like these effects:

Louis Lou photo from the weekend

Can you see this one has a Canvas like effect?

This one has a Cartoon effect - great fun!

This has a Sepia effect - he looks like a Victorian Dog!!

This is a Van Gogh effect which makes it look more like a painting

Hope you liked those, there are lots more you can try too, hours of fun but the human says beware it is adddictive and you forget to do things like housework when you start messing about with it - a bit like blogging! Talking of blogging we have a new friend Magic who has a blog. Magic is so well behaved that she enters shows as well so she's a very smart cookie -  she loves meeting new folk too and we've told her all about you all. Her blog is called Life in the Doghouse - we spend a lot of time in there!!! hee hee  - Have a great day everyone, D & L xxx

Click here to go to Magic's Blog and say hello!

She's got that camera out again...!

Good Morning all, this is Louis. Hope you're all having a good weekend, I spent yesterday at dog training, the human took her camera again and kept stalking people to get photo's - can't take her anywhere! She took this one of Timo, a lovely Husky who loves to pose for the camera, luckily it wasn't too hot yesterday otherwise he must be boiling in that gorgeous coat:

Timo, he's such a poser...

 I sat and watched the first class of the day which was a socialising class for dogs that don't really know how to meet other dogs properly - they just had to see me and I could have told them, sniff their bottoms of course! Anyway, this is the paddock where all the training is done:

Our training paddock and the older dogs learning to meet and greet!

 I was waiting with my cousins Kaydee the Boxer and Finlay the German Shepherd, Kaydee is an older lady, she certainly puts us in our place if we step out of line!

Finlay, Kaydee and me waiting patiently

We did get chance for a run around on our own before the next class started. Finlay chases after his ball on a rope and I chase along behind barking - that's what I do best! I can run nearly as fast even with my little legs. 

See - I can nearly catch him!

My human took her puppy class, she forgot to take photo's of Gracie and Zena the two Boxers who were rescued from the puppy farm so she'll take the camera again next week...oh no! Still, you would love to see them they are such gentle dogs and just beginning to enjoy themselves, a little wary at first but we've seen a few tail wags. My humans friend Maria arrived with her dog Buzz, a German Short haired Pointer. Buzz loves everyone and everyone loves him, he wasn't too keen on being made to sit quiet to be photographed with me when there is a paddock to run around in but he stopped for a couple of minutes...

This would make a great caption competition...guess what I'm thinking?

 It was time for my class and I did well in some things and not so well in others so some more practise to put in...groan! I got extra treats for not moving when we had to sit still while the humans all went out of sight though! So, I'll finish off there, hope you enjoyed the photo's, it looks like there may be more next week I'm afraid. This was the last photo of me waiting for our lift home...speak soon all and have a great Sunday, Louis x

Come on - I need to go home and sleeeeeep now!

Thank Dog it's Friday

Hi all, have you all got that Friday feeling? The weekend's just around the corner and we're hoping the sunshine continues. It's been a wonderful sunny day here, for most of the day we've been sunning ourselves in the garden, the human keeps sticking a camera thingy in our face which is a bit of a distraction but we humour her now and again:

This is me Dexter - 'trying' to get some rays in...

...and here's Louis - he always lies out like a frog!

Any way, she kept on trying to get us to sit up and pose for a photograph - we weren't having any of that, all we wanted to do was this - play bitey face!

...you can't beat a good game of bitey face in the sunshine.

 Well eventually we gave in and sat down by the flowers where she wanted it to look pretty - what's all that about?! As you can see we both pulled faces, I even poked my tongue out which was a bit naughty but we did sit still for a minute.

Get on with it - we have games to play!

 So that was our rather lazy day, we did have a nice walk too, I was in the bad books because I disappeared for a while and the human couldn't find me - I was furtling in the woods of course!

Finally we would be really happy if you could take a minute to check out this message from our friend Ralphy, he's another cheeky Miniature Schnauzer!

Hai everyone!

My name is Ralphy and my Muzer, who's called Sianny has entered me into a competition to be a "MODDLE"? For the company what makes the brushes she brushes my beard with. My beard isn't as nice as Luigi, or Louis as he was formerly known but I'll give it a go anyway innit?

Ralphy - he's a good looking boy isn't he?  (he's Welsh by the way)

Would you please vote for me? I have a YouTube channel because my Muzer keeps pointing her camera in my beautiful face so if you want to look at a couple of videos to decide whether to vote for me or not, I recommend my campaign video if you would take a look..

and a video my Muzer made to "Marina and The Diamonds" if you like to click here)

Have you voted for me yet? Ralphy xxx  (you see, I told you he was cheeky)

(Sianny here: The competition is on Facebook, here's a direct link to vote for Ralphy for when you're logged in http://tinyurl.com/5rc3btf we would appreciate your support! :-)   xxxxx

Guest blog from some buddies of ours...

Hi all, we thought you'd like to meet some more friends of ours so we asked our Great Uncle Henry to write a bit about him and his family, here's what he had to say...over to you Henry!

  

Hello, Henry here. Well we thought it was time we introduced ourselves properly.  Our Two Legs hasn’t been very well and she has been lazing around a bit. However we pointed out today that she was feeling better so please could she help us write this. There are two of us here, first off there's me, Henry and I'm ten years old:

Henry - affectionately known as the Grumpy Old Man

...and Scruff who is half Mini Schnauzer and is twelve years old.  

Scruff - Who could resist that look!!??

As you can see we do get on quite well some of the time.

Move over Scruff - you're on my side!!

Henry is something like great uncle to Darwin, Louis, Dexter and Buster. We live in Dorset not far from the sea.  It is quite interesting here as there are two horses, four sheep and another dog who comes every day called Whizz. We know we are loved very much but  this is really a bit OTT we think.

Whizz loves his cuddles...

Two Legs thinks the summer is wonderful because the horses live in the field all the time and this means there are no stables for us for us to help muck out! Apart from the delicious things to eat, which make our breath  smelly, we are told; we wander into the house covered in hay and shavings and shake all over the carpet before she sees us. Henry loves that because it means she gets the cleaner out and he can follow it round and sit in the draught.

This is me (Henry) 'helping' out at the stables...

We are lucky enough  to have fields to walk in and a river to cool off in too, all just round the corner. 

The River Wey which runs through our village

 We will come back and tell you some more before long but Two legs is looking as if she would like to stop and we don’t want to put her off .  See you soon,  Henry and Scruff xx

Thanks Henry, lovely photo's - we hope we're as lively as you two when we're 10 and 12 years old, thanks for dropping by, Dex & Lou x

Schnauzer Group Walk

Hi everyone, it's me Louis for a change getting a look in on the blog world. I thought you'd like to hear about a grand day out I had yesterday on a walk - with a bucket load of Schnauzers!! The walk was at a little place called Sapperton, which is in The Cotswolds and it is just fab-u-lous for dogs. There were huge fields to run down:

Where shall we go next?

 There was a swimming pool for those who are that way inclined, not me obviously- I don't do water as you know!

Heidi and Ralphy going for a dip - mad fools!

 There were brilliant woods to run around and explore in! I had one hairy incident where Heidi and Brue, two of the bigger dogs were running so fast they ran straight into me and sent me flying - of course I used my best piggy squealing voice and got lots of fuss and treats!

So many woods...so little time - which way next chaps!?

There was a weeny pupster on the walk who had to be carried part of the way, she was a sweetie:

Let me down - I can walk, I can I can pleeeeease!

Another funny thing that happened was that a lovely lady called Sian and her husband thought my name was Luigi, not Louis. They called me this all day and my human didn't like to tell them, she did in the end and then decided she liked that name so has been calling me that too, hee hee. I quite like it, it has an Italian ring to it. Sian loved me for my long beard and took this shot of me

I think I have the Italian look about me don't you?

 This is Ralphy and me, another great buddy I met on the day:

Ralphy on the left, he's a Black and Silver mini - this was after the walk when we're nice and dirty!

 After a couple of hours of lovely walking and running we went to a pub for lunch and all sat in the garden, there was a sponsored dog walk in the area and there were more dogs than humans there! Some peeps had already left but this photo was taken of the group at the end, that's me on the left with my decrepit human who couldn't kneel down - how embarrassed was1??!! 

That's me with a big gap next to me - do I smell or something??!!

A Snuggle of Schnauzers - my new word for a group of us!!

Geting rid of Ticks - Yuk!

Hello friends! We were going to have a guest blogger today, our friend Henry who lives in Weymouth but he's been a bit busy out enjoying the sunshine so hopefully he'll drop by tomorrow.

I had a scary moment yesterday...the human found a tick on me...dis-gus-ting! If we could rid the world of one creature it would be a tick, what useful purpose do they serve? I'm not too happy as I put up with being Frontlined just to avoid these pesky things and I still get one! grrrrrrr... 

Which means more of this - the dreaded BATH word after they've removed said monster! Plus... what is this obsession of taking photo's every time we're in a less than macho pose?

Step AWAY from the camera - now!!

She thinks I must have picked it up when we were out in the woods furtling. Anyway, the human said to say that in case your tick remover is too big, which ours was, then a neat drop of Frontline on the tick soon stops it in it's tracks - and good riddance. It fell off during the night, still haven't found it but I'll keep looking!

Get those Ticks on the run...

Our human said to mention that some other remedies for ticks are Eucalyptus oil (a little on a cotton bud straight onto the monster) Vaseline put on one also kills it and it should fall off,  also if you coat them with vegetable oil then twist off anti-clockwise that's said to work. As our human is of the squeamish variety she doesn't go for this option!

Any of you peeps have any tick horror stories? Hope you're managing to avoid them however there is a new European tick causing probs over here so be on the lookout! Bye for now, Dexter xxx

Back to normal and getting fit....

Morning Friends, Dexter here - we're pleased to say life appears to be getting back to normal, only worrying sign is that our human says it's time for us to 'get fit' - not too sure about that! SHE has had us both on diets for a couple of months now, I was very poorly with pancreatitis and had to go on a low fat diet, as Louis was a little porky he was put on the same. We've both lost weight and must admit we look pretty dapper, but miss the high fat treats we used to get...we now have things like dried Ostrich to chew which sounds awful but is actually fan-tas-tic !!

Okay so she now has it in her head that we need to get fit, and is thinking of running - yikes!

A rare sight, Dexter running...must be food involved

 Now, I haven't got anything against running per se - lots of dogs enjoy it, but they're built for it - and have the long legs to use! Now we're more of your furtling around dogs, that is, we like to potter around sticking our noses in the undergrowth, sniff out what's going on - our legs are NOT made for running! We are expert 'furtlers' - our humans don't know if this is a real word but it's one they always use for us:

The art of Furtling - get your nose right in there!

Yes, we're going to have to get this silly idea of jogging - she even mentioned a push bike for goodness sake out of her head, we hope she didn't mean WE would have to ride a push bike, now that would be taking things toooooo far! No, our mission will be to bring back the ancient art of Furtling to all dogs who are not of a running mind but enjoy life at a more leisurely pace. Only problem is, after a good Furtle, you can end up very messy and this could lead to the dreaded bath, however that's the only downfall - happy Furtling everyone. Dex & Louis xxx

Oh no - we see a beard wash coming on...

Apologies for absence by Her...

Hi all, this is a short post to apologise on behalf of our human for her lack of presence in Blogland. This family wedding has taken over her life so we are now pleased that the lovely Amy is now happily married and flying off on honeymoon as we speak. The human is finding out about more exciting new sports which she's promised to tell us all about tomorrow so we can pass the info on to our friends, meanwhile she says to prove there was a second Royal Wedding we can show you a photo of the blushing bride this weekend, meanwhile we are promised normal walks and blogging will be resumed tomorrow :-)

Lovely Amy

 Meanwhile we're still sulking, in fact we're just not speaking to her! Back tomorrow when we'll visit all your blogs for a catch up, D & L xxx

Still sulking

Let sleeping dogs lie....and sulk.

Good morning, We apologise for the short post, she's rushing us to go out already - grrrrr.....we hate days like these when we're not the most important thing! Our lady human has 'one of those days' today - 101 things to do, and not enough time. Don't know what all the fuss is about, but her niece is getting married tomorrow and she's in charge of collecting flowers and bunting! They have been busy sewing these flag things that flutter like mad in the breeze annoying us but can we get to them - no. Anyway it's an early long walk for us and then plenty of this during the day.

As you can see we're very good at it and love to snuggle up, have a lovely day everyone and please keep all your paws crossed that the sun shines here tomorrow for the real Royal Wedding! Dex & Lou x