Merry Barkmas

We saw Santa!











And boy did he ever see us....


(left) Rudy, Rudy's mom Clancy, and old cousin Nathan
(right) Emmy and Josie

Merrrrry Christmas from the Bedlington bunch!

A couple of weeks ago we all took a trip to the mall one evening and got to tell Santa what we wanted and got our pictures taken. We had to split the gang up for pictures ‘cause we would’ve hurt poor Santa I believe. He had so many dogs come to visit him, we were an hour in line just for our turn! This is old Nathan’s 17th Christmas. He’s really old, but he still wobbles around and eats dinner and treats. Mom has old Christmas pictures of him and Grandpa Joey at her desk at work, and she says she better get more pictures of Nathan now. At 16 years old you don’t make long-term plans, I suppose, but I’m only 5 what do I know?

It was fun to be at the mall when we saw Santa; there were so many other dogs and their people to see. I got to say hi and kiss the people, and they said how pretty and soft I was! We all were very good, but Josie was annoying ‘cause she wanted to flirt with the little Maltese behind us who was wearing a funny coat. She has no manners in public! It got kind of hot waiting in line there so Mom took off my fancy new dog coat. Linda had given it to her as an early Christmas present because I looked so handsome in it. She’s right – I am rather stunning in it. Mom has to take a picture and post it so everyone can see! Maybe Mom will take me shopping at the pet store place so I can show it off to everybody.

Tomorrow (Saturday) there’s a party at the agility place, so I’m going to come along for the fun and games. They’re supposed to have a Musical Sits game, some kind of agility course, and a Retrieve game. Sorry, you guys, I’m not a retriever, get someone else for that game! I’m a terrier! Well, cousin Nathan used to bring things back for Mom, and he also used to herd Grandpa Joey back into the house. He was pretty smart in his day. I am too, but I’m a terrier first!
I'm not sure what we're doing for Christmas; we might have a quiet one at home because Grandma Mary told Mom that Grandpa Roy came down with strep throat and he's contagious. I don't know if us doggies get it but people do so we all have to stay away and let Grandpa get some rest. I'll probably get to see their grandkids and play with them over New Year's weekend instead. Mom says she's not ready for Christmas just yet anyway! I hope she remembers to get us doggies something.

Well if I don’t talk to everybody later, you have a great Christmas with your people and make them give you lots of goodies. Mom makes me wear the jingle bell collar which is pretty embarrassing, but my rule is always keep your dignity.... except when Josie is body-slamming you into the floor! Rroowflflgrrrllrowf!

Christmas kisses,
Rudy

My Big Day

(more flying Rudy pictures)

On Sunday Mom and I went to the agility place for the all-day agility clinic she signed up for back in October. She’s been giving me pep talks about it all week! She even bathed me and used the blow-dryer on me. That was weird, usually Linda does that to me before a dog show so I didn’t know what was going on! I saw her drag out my travel crate and knew something was up. Sunday when she put my special agility trials collar on, I knew what was going to happen! I started talking... It wasn’t a trials, but it was agility!
I had to stay in my crate a few times which I hated – I get so excited I whine a lot. Sometimes I got to hang out with Mom and everybody in their chairs while the other dogs ran. That’s OK, I love to party with new people who pet me and sometimes give me cookies. A few Border Collies looked at me funny again. One dog in the ring was so distracted I had to go back in my crate ‘cause she was staring at me. Silly people – that dog thought I was good-looking, not a sheep....
At lunch Mom took me on a short trip to put gas in her old truck. That thing eats so much gas, I don’t know why she keeps it. She says it’s the only vehicle she’s got that works. That’s pretty bad! At the gas station we met a nice couple who loved me. They had good taste in dogs! I kept an eye on Mom to make sure she came back to the truck alright. I forgot my driver’s license and couldn’t drive that thing if she didn’t come back...
The instructor was nice and kept calling me handsome. I like her! We had some good runs, though Mom is still messing up at those weave poles and trying to manage my entries too much. She needs a lot of work. I flew through the sequences and showed them what a Bedlington could do. Mom was concerned I’d get tired but I didn’t – she did! I was good and listened to Mom all day which made her happy. Our instructors were all there, too, so I had to make ‘em proud. I’m so tired today I didn’t run around with Josie who’s always up for wrestling, but she didn’t work as hard as I did yesterday. Today Mom is at work and I’m napping!




This is me napping at a VERY young age.
Is this cute or what?








Oh while I was gone I see I was Christmas-tagged. Hmm... what do I NOT want for Christmas? Let’s see –
1) Popcorn. The other dogs eat that stuff but I just hate it. They go nuts when Mom and Uncle Dennis have it, but I’ll just go lay down. Yuck!
2) Ham. I just can’t get into the baked ham thing. Mom will give me some of that stuff and I can’t eat it. I can’t believe it’s real meat! Salty-type food just isn’t my favorite.
3) I don’t want any more puppies to come live with us. I couldn’t stand it when Mom brought the last one in, which turned out to be Josie, good thing, but they just give me the creeps!

And now what DO I want for Christmas –
1) Dog goodies – any kind any how! If Mom give me too much chicken liver I get a bit sick, but I love to eat. Yum-yum-yum!
2) Some new agility equipment to practice on at home. I don’t care, I love to run and jump! We need more jumps and weave poles. Gotta train Mom!
3) Some more cozy beds so I won’t have to compete for space in the den in the evening. Someone’s always trying to share the bed I’m on and it gets annoying sometimes when I’m trying to sleep.

I could add more to the list, there’s so much I’d like. I have a pretty good life as it is; Mom takes us a lot of places together, though old Nathan is getting pretty rickety now. We have to be careful to take good care of him, he was her ‘star’ before I came along. I have some big paw-prints to follow in. Thanks for all the great posts --- more stories to come. I'll get Mom to scan our pictures with Santa. He never saw so many Bedlingtons in his life!

Rudy

One of my favorite things

(photo by Tien Tran)

Thanks for the posts, Isabella and Zack! I have a lot to talk about that's for sure. I hope to keep it interesting for ya!

One of the things I enjoy most of all is agility. Mom and I have been going to class since I was almost 3 years old because I needed another doggie sport to do. I had finished all the titles you could get in Earthdog at age 2, and she was looking for something else for me to conquer. I like lots of action and agility fit the bill. At first I didn’t understand what in the world I had to do, but when I found out it was running and jumping, I said I could do that! I get so excited it’s hard to pay attention to Mom and I just go run around and forget I’m supposed to let her tell me where to go. Oops. But I love to run!
I have some great teachers. One of my first was Claudia, and she would demonstrate with her dogs and play tug with them, and that got me really excited. I’d bark and want to play too! She was my favorite teacher. She played great! Mom learned how to do it from her, and I love tugging. She can twirl me around in a circle and I won’t let go. Diann is another one of my favorite teachers. She can play rough with me and I love that. I can just look at her and get to barking – I can’t help it. That helps me go faster through the course, getting excited. I wish Mom would do that with me – I love to be excited and go fast, but she’s worried she can’t keep up with me. That’s alright Mom, I’ll show you the way! I’m teaching Mom how to run fast...
My housemate Emmy is also taking classes, but she’s a slowpoke compared to me.
This summer I started doing agility trials, and we finished our Novice titles by August and started going in Open. Mom makes so many mistakes it’s hard not to get impatient with her. If she messes up with the weave poles I start barking at her. She is so dense sometimes! Just let me do it OK? I think she’s beginning to understand I know what I’m doing, let me do it. Thanks to instructor Elsie who told her to let ME find the entrance, please! We’ll teach Mom what to do, won’t we?
Our class session ended this week so we’ll have a break for the holidays. I’ll get bored...Josie tries to keep me entertained but she’s got no idea how much fun agility is. Mom doesn’t have time to take everybody she’d like to class which is too bad. Old Nathan took a couple of classes before I was born, and now I know how much he liked it. His bum leg wouldn’t let him compete, but he enjoyed what he did.
We have an agility seminar this weekend which Mom says should be a ton of fun. It’s a new teacher, someone famous, so I’ll be anxious to meet her. Mom says I need to perform well for her. What is she talking about – I always do well, it’s Mom who messes up! Duh! Then there’s a Christmas party the following weekend where they’ll have games for us. That should be fun. Otherwise I’ll be looking forward to the next session of classes. I wish Mom would enter some more trials for us, but she says there aren’t that many close by this time of year. Aw, Mom! No fair!

My Early Days

When I was born, Linda the breeder called Mom and said she had a puppy for me! Linda wanted a liver-colored male to keep, and I would stay with Mom at her house and Linda could take me to shows. Mom already had Grandpa Joey, Cousin Nathan, and his cousin Emmy at her house, but she loves puppies so a baby was OK with her. I needed a friend when I got there at 8 weeks old, so cousin Emmy took care of me at first. Grandpa slept a lot and cousin Nathan just stayed out of my way, so they weren’t much fun. All of them would get up on the couch to get away from my nipping and playing, and that was frustrating ‘til I figured out how to climb up the afghan on the couch and get to those old codgers! I found out climbing got me lots of places. I climbed up chairs, couches, out of pens, baby gates, you name it. I was the first baby out of the box after I was born, and running with the adults before anyone knew it. I wanted to be a big dog!
Uncle Dennis used to have some old stinky hiking boots in the floor, and I discovered how much fun it was to stick my head in there and breathe deeply. Oh it smelled so good! So good I’d get my head out and run around in circles and then go stick my head back in the boot. Mom and Dennis would laugh like crazy. They just didn’t appreciate how good those old boots smelled! Shoe funk! Life was good. If I got tired I just flopped down on the floor and slept, and then got up to run again. If they picked me up I’d wiggle ‘til they put me down. C’mon, I was busy! I remember they would pick me up when I was sleepy and take pictures. That flash kept waking me up!
Somehow I learned how to jump and jump well. I would dive-bomb old Nathan and land on his back from the couch, and bounce off him and hit the floor. I could leap from the couch to the recliner 5 feet away without hitting the ground. We’d go on trips and I’d bounce from bed to bed without hitting the floor. I learned to jump out of 4 foot exercise pens if I wanted to. I’d run and leap up to the couch, hit the back of it, and jump back off like I was doing flyball or something. I don’t even know what flyball is. They had to move the flower pots away from the back deck railing so I wouldn’t jump up to the railing and fly off into the yard. I did that a time or two!
I was lucky I didn’t break anything as a baby. Cousin Nathan broke a leg as a puppy jumping off a curb into a street and landing wrong, but I wasn’t so unfortunate. Mom says I was the craziest puppy she ever had, and she says Nathan was pretty crazy in his day. I jump bigger and better things now that I’m a big boy. I can jump the 5 foot fence out back, but then I get in big trouble with Mom. Most Bedlingtons can’t do that, I’m just a very athletic boy!

Welcome to my first blog!

Hi! I'm Rudy, I'm a Bedlington Terrier, and I've been bugging my Mom for ages for my own blog because my pal Isabella the Standard Poodle has her very own blog and I love hers. Mom finally agreed to let me have one for Christmas, so we're trying it out to see how we like it. She couldn't promise we could post every day like Isabella's Mom lets her, but I can't wait to have some fun with this! Stay tuned for more of my Very Own Blog -- yippee!