The Little Furmaid

Happy Birthday X 2!

Guinness & I share a birthday party, Bungee's definitely invited.

Guinness's favorite kind of fun is swimming & going to the lake, (us too), so a swim party & camp out at the lake it was. Only one minor detail to work out, Bungee needed to learn to swim to join in all the fun. As we quickly found out, no problemo!

Where are you going Bungee? Come on, the water is this way.


Hey the water is pretty awesome! Am I swimming yet?



How are you doing that Guinn? Where are you going?


Come on! I'll show you!



Listen, once you can swim really well, they'll throw you some bumpers too!



See Bungee, you bring them back like this.



Piece of cake! I can definitely do that!



You carry them like this, right?


WooHoo!! You got it now sister!


Guinness & mom have great birthdays & Bungee learns to swim!

11 months old & Bungee is retrieving bumpers like a pro. Best of all she turns out to be a terrific new swimming buddy for "brother" Guinness!
He really needed that!! Thank you Bungee!
& Happy Birthday all around!

The time it took to read these captions down to here is about the same amount of time it took for Bungee to get in the water & start swimming! Of course she had the help of a true master with our fabulous little Border Terrier, Guinness to show her how.

P.S. Wow! I almost forgot! The coolest tests of our dog's left & right skills have sometime come in the water, quite by chance when they are retrieving/looking for bumpers. This weekend's swim was no different! Quite unplanned, when Bungee's bumper was floating off in a strong current, I tried giving her a "left" command and boom - she cracked off a left turn, and "Oh! there it is!" saw it, and made a beeline straight for her bumper. Later on I had a chance to successfully use her right command when a poor throw & the currents had sent everyone in a snarl of wrong directions. Sometime with currents & winds it can take some doing to keep each dog swimming toward their own mark. Imagine our delight to see some recognition that Bungee is already understanding her directionals too, not once but several times. Just brilliant!

That's NOT Dirt!

Note to self...It is a blog about a dog.

They must like it too if they're taking a picture, right?


What kind of blog would it be if it didn't include the ups & the downs of life with a dog?

Well we weren't home from our camping holiday more than 15 minutes when Bungee discovered "essence of unknown droppings" (doggie perfume don't you know?) to roll in on her first trip out back to inspect "her" backyard!

Now it's been my previous experience that a dog usually feels this need to seek out their own special perfume, the night before their first really big conformation show. But Bungee had an opportunity on an ordinary day and clearly wasn't going to pass it up for something she might not experience for a long time to come.

The actual order of events went something like: arrive home, park the rig, release the dogs for a run, open the house, send eager dogs through & out back, humans return to RV, unload stuff, get it all back up to the house and put away, and Oh Yes, "let the dogs in please, they're out back."

Bungee enters the back door, but wait, she's got something on her back, "what's that brown stuff?", as I notice a strange, vile, musky odor building in the room. Husband over in kitchen says: "What's that smell?" It takes a moment to fully realize that Bungee is covered in a truly awful, crusty, brown, mystery substance. <Insert screeching, human EWWW noises here.> Back outside for a better look (only) exclaiming: "WHAT ON EARTH IS SHE COVERED IN???!!! ACK!!!" ...while at the same time knowing that I don't need to know any more. (possibly not entirely accurate quote of what was being said, but pretty sure you can't write such words on wonderful syndicated blogs like ours anyway).

That's definitely not dirt!

Bungee's very thorough - she didn't miss many spots!

...but I guarantee you she didn't anticipate what happened next :-))

...what is with you two & that camera?

Poor little Border Collie~
SO hard done by


Good thing it was 27 degrees! The hose reel was baking in the sun at that time of afternoon so the 1st half was warm...sorry Bungee! That's not going anywhere near my bathtub!

Probably thinking: I hate you both right now.


Isn't this against a Dog's Bill of Rights?


When does it end with you people?


Are you happy now? That makes one of us!


Just goes to show you life with a dog is never boring and not always predicatable either. How'd you like that smooth blog transition from precious puppy moments to busy little Border Collies rolling in poo? :+>> Just typical around here out where we live too... Away for 4 days, the neighbors away too, and being out in the country & forest as we are here, who knows what was comfortable roaming through the backyard with it all so quiet. Perhaps it was a very bad elf!

Here I thought our 1st post back would be all about the two birthdays we celebrated, or all the fine homework we did, or the fish we caught, or Bungee learning to swim (!!), or anything but this! We did get lots of pictures so something to look forward to.

Time to get going for Bungee's Monday night obedience class. I'm sure Bungee is very disappointed to be attending class without wearing the fine cologne she had picked for herself instead of this stinky vanilla shampoo her mother selected.

Bungee's Family Album #2

Aino & all the puppies!

Left to right: Bungee, Ogin, Spice, One, Chili & Mia, with their proud mama, Aino.

A moment in time - captured successfully! How lucky are we to have such precious moments recorded in these lovely photographs? We are also very fortunate to have such a talented photographer in the "family"!

I saw these pictures for the first time when they arrived this weekend, another great In-box surprise. (:-) Helena tells me the photograph above was so difficult to get, they finally had to wait for all the puppies to fall asleep to get the shot. Now that's dedication to achieving a truly memorable photo! Here's another below. Such precious pups, all sound asleep.

Spice, Ogin & Bungee sleeping (left to right)


Once again our sincere appreciation to Helena Tiainen for these wonderful photos!

Bungee's Family Album #1

Here are a few new family photos hot out of the In-box from Finland!

Pictured are Bungee's: Brother "One", Sister "Spice", Parents Aino & Elvis & "Grandma" Jenny Damm

INTRODUCING:

Kvarkin's Dom Perignon, "One"

One, (Finnish pronunciation: "Oh-nay") is Bungee's brother. Isn't he handsome? He looks so much like Bungee to me. Some time I still need help to distinguish who's who in the puppy pictures. Here he is above, pausing for two really, nice head shots and below, enjoying a little spring dip.



A Family Portrait (left to right):
Mama "Aino", Jenny Damm, Brother "One" and Papa "Elvis" ~

At center: Jenny Damm, "proud Grandma" and owner, trainer & handler of Elvis.
Jenny Damm, Lotus Education Of Sweden

Bungee's Dam, at left: Decathlete's Fidus Achates OB4, BH, AG3, VEPE1, "Aino" (Aino -Finnish pronunciation: "Eye-noh")

Bungee's Sire, at right: All Trade Flower Power Elvis GK Vallh Pr, S AgCh (Jumping), Dk AgCh, Dk AgCh(Jumping), Int AgCh, 2007 Swedish Agility Dog of the Year, "Elvis"



Kvarkin's La Belle Epoche, "Spice"

Spice (pronounced just like it sounds) is Bungee's sister. One of two tri-coloured puppies in the litter, you can now see where she gets both her name and her striking good looks, not to mention that ready intenseness!


Once again, many thanks to Helena Tiainen for the beautiful photographs!

P.S. My apologies for inconsistencies with "visited link" colors, one day I will understand what to do when this glitch occurs.