Spring flowers

Spring flowers, originally uploaded by Poodlematic.

I know that the weather is changing because these wild flowers come out once a year at the end of winter. That and the humans have cut us short again.

In fact, all our wild flowers are starting to come to life now, which means there are more places for boy doggies to leave little love messages for us girls!

A Poodle doesn't need blood diamonds

201008093645, originally uploaded by Poodlematic.

All we need is an attentive pet human with a camera and we'll happily pose; move the head from left to right (even Poodles have a good side you know) and generally enjoy being adored and the centre of attention.

We prefer bloody chicken necks to blood diamonds anyway, which just sound very gritty.

Saturday, bloody Saturday

This is the boy dog that liked me a lot. I met him and his Alsation girlfriend on my playdate this morning with Kerneels and Sophie. But his girlfriend wasn't too happy he fancied me and then she behaved like Mia and barked a lot and tried to intimidate me. And it worked cos with his nose on my bum and her shouting at me I stayed sat on the sand close to my human. And then they saw blood and the boy dog had it all over his face and it was on me and Kerneels had it in his eye. Then he and she went away with their human and I walked with Kerneels and Sophie for a bit. Then we all went home. Babette

Back to clicker school

My mom turned into the farm driveway and I knew I was going to meet some new friends and we did some training but I was too excited to perform like a circus Poodle and all I did was run around and sniff everywhere and dominate other dogs and I had lots of fun. Mia

Poodles on guard duty

Looks can be deceiving. Cute, fluffy and cuddly can also be growly, barky and scary. Well, that is what we want people to think when Mia and I are on patrol at my house. Why do people smile at us when we bark ferociously?��Babette

Fauna checking out the flora

We have lots of pretty plants in South Africa, many of them known to gardeners all over the place. I'm examining something we call 'fynbos'. This is a type of plant that only grows in the Cape and it's protected and always under threat due to humutt expansion. As canines we don't really mind urban expansion but fynbos really does make a good marking spot for boy dogs!

Today we learned to 'wait'

This is a photo of some of our classmates and their humutts at this evening's session at Petiket.

We got to sniff each other today and there is a young Boerboel that thinks I am the best thing since self-opening pet food but I overheard his owner saying something about 'having him done on Thursday'. I hope it's a lot of fun, whatever it is!

Babette

Learning to 'heel'

I am just loving this training stuff. This week we've been learning 'heel' and 'down'. I am already familiar with the 'down' command as my humutt had taught me this when I was much younger. However, to re-learn it with the funny metallic click and then get a treat, over and over again. Such joy! Sometimes I get all excited when I see the funny little blue plastic thing.

The 'heel' command is somewhat more challenging as there is so much out and about to keep my attention but somehow when I hear the word I tend to slow down and then that magic sound quickly followed by a treat. I am sooooo looking forward to Tuesday's training. Not having had a chance to chat to Mia today I can only assume that she's looking forward to it as much as I am.

Babette

Group photo

Kerneels, Sophie and I had another playdate yesterday morning. The two of them had already been for a nice long beach walk with their humutt so they were a little tired at first but we still ran and played a lot. 

I noticed that little Sophie is getting bolder with me and spends less time rolling in the sand when I go towards her.

My humutt tried the clicker thing with them and they didn't really know what the noise was but we all enjoyed the treats tasters. You can see in this picture how patient and well behaved we are!

Babette

My other doctor in Melkbosstrand

On the 7th May, when I had my 'incident' the kind humans at Melkbosstrand Animal Clinic were kind enough to allow me and my human in for my emergency consultation when my regular doctor wasn't available.

I have to admit that I was very nervous and trembled a lot but at the same time I kept letting the nice lady know that I still loved her by licking her and even doing a Poodle dance in her consultation room. She even offered me a bone biscuit as a treat for being such a good girl and not barking, biting or crying but it wasn not something that I was really interested in.

For those that don't know the story, I'm a bit clueless really but my two front leggies were not working properly and when my walking human got home from work and saw me all floppy and unable to stand properly, he freaked out completely!

My blood test results came back and they show that everything is fine and that I am a healthy three year old Poodle. Of course, we still don't know what it was that was wrong with me that day; lets hope it was a one off!

If you're in Melkbosstrand and need to get some anti-flea stuff, a bag of kibble or a nice toy for yourself, why not pop in and support the Melkbosstrand Animal Clinic? They are on Beach Road (heading towards towards Duinefontein).

Babette

Play date Saturday 22 May

We have been a bit slack at putting paw to keyboard the past few weeks. It's not that we haven't wanted to post but when our humans get busy with whatever they get busy with, they tend to forget our online needs and they know that we just can't manage the keystrokes to unlock the screen saver without their help!

Kerneelz and Sophie sent me an email late Friday evening to ask if I fancied another play date and when my humans and I read the email on Saturday morning we were very happy to hear from our friends and we made plans to meet that morning.

It was so exciting because we played and ran and barked and ran and played some more and then a human arrived with Eddie the Jack Russel and his shy Jack Russel girl friend (sorry - I forgot your name little doglette) and we all ran around and played together.

Eddie the doglet rather fancied me I think. He kept jumping up and kissing me!

Kerneelz also wanted to play with the small doglet. I like to think he was rescuing me.

I wish humutts met up like this on the beach more often because we canines just love playing together on the beach.

Babette

Early morning play-date

I'm being a bit slow with my posts at the moment but Mia and I had a play-date with Kerneelz and Sophie at 7am. It was a bit windy and cold but we had a lot of fun. Mia hasn't met my two pals and all she did was bark and bark and this scared little Sophie. My unruly sister had to wait in the car because she was very noisy and that makes me sad because I want her to play with my anipals with me. Apparently the humutts are considering some schooling for Mia.

Babette

The sea foam is back.

I have noticed that this funny sea foam sits on the beaches at this time of year. We like it because it breaks up and blows across the sand and then we can chase it. The best thing about it is that we can run through it and it makes yellow greeny booties around our Poodle paws and it drives the humutts mad!

Babette

Early morning beach inspection

Canines have managed to train humans very well, providing us with the daily routines we enjoy.

First order of the day is our weepoo walk. If we get a boiled egg before that, so much the better.

Second after doing our business is an inspection of our territory. Not only do we need to know which other canine has been sharing our space but delicious weird smells often magically appear overnight on the sand.

Third order of the morning is a nap.

Yawn.

Babette

I will stick out my pink tongue

Babette's human took us on an evening walk today and there was so much to smell and see and lots of people and dogs and we barked at some.

The human wanted us to pose for photos and so I closed my eyes and stuck my tongue out. HA!

Mia

You want to take a photo now?

It is Monday. It is cold. And it is raining. You want us to pose for a photo? We need a weepoo - c'mon!

What a beautiful evening

What luck! I am having a nice walk on Melkbos beach and it's still light. Just. This picture is for my human dad that went away very early this morning.

Poodle eye view

Waiting patiently outside the supermarket while one of my humans does hunter gatherer stuff.

Die Damhuis, Melkbosstrand

Yesterday morning (the morning I saw the flying car thingy) my humans took me to Die Damhuis, a beachfront restaurant in Melkbosstrand. Poodles and other canines are lucky, because there is an outside bit with umbrellas for keeping one cool while lying on the flagstones.

Die Damhuis is on Melkbosstrand's beach road - go down 6th Avenue from the traffic lights towards the beach and turn right - it's there on the first corner on the right.

They do not offer a menu specifically for us, so you will have to do your best to get your humans to part with some tasty treats from the human menu which could be meat, vegetable or carbohydrate based. Remind the humans if you're there on a Sunday morning that bacon fat is especially welcome!

I was offered a bowl of water but my humans decided at that point we were going walkies again, so unfortunately I can't review their bowl or water quality for you.

Babette

The day my bed/couch was taken away

Regular visitors to the Poodlematic blog may recall that my sleeping couch was carted away the other evening without so much as a hint of consultation with me, it's primary user. Two humans do share this home with me but lets get one thing straight, they share with me.

In my home, there is a spare bedroom that gets used as a laundry room, and the humans dump all the clean laundry pre-ironing onto the sleeper couch there. I made it well known that I was not amused with the fact that there were coat hangars and bags and other things all over the sleeper couch by just sitting there and staring intently at a human. This does tend to get their attention quickly (handy tip for any canines reading this) and within minutes the couch was cleared and my sleeping blanket laid down.

Better. Much better.

Blaf! Blaf! It's a dog's life!

Babette