Our Latest Portrait

Jewel did another portrait of us, this time based on a photo she took of us during our first race running together. http://www.petportrait.co.nz/

Our Portrait

Jewel Mathieson, a fantastic pet portrait artist here in New Zealand, made this PAWSOME portrait of us from our blog photo.

She's done portraits of lots of pupperoos we know--it's what all the yuppy puppies are having done these days. Have a look at her website and facebook page for more examples of her artwork.

http://www.petportrait.co.nz/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/petportrait

Sandy Point Scarper

Greetings everyone. We went to our first race last weekend, the Sandy Point Scarper in Invercargill.

 We ran a canicross race with mom and dad first. We have our own styles of mentally preparing.

Dakota surveys the competition and makes sure to show her confidence. She's one serious competitor.

Georgia just sits there looking goofy. She doesn't have a clue about what is going on.

It looks like Georgia is head-butting Dakota, but she is just reaching for some yummy "bunny nuggets".

We had a great race. It was a little on the warm side, so we struggled a bit, but we still ran well enough to pull lazy mom and dad fast enough to take first in the women's canicross race and third in the men's.

Right after that race, Dakota and dad competed in a bikejor race. Dak was tired, but she loves to run, so she was able to pull dad to a second place finish. She lost to a very fast pointer, but it was a really close finish. She says if she hadn't just run a race, she'd have won. But she says stuff like that.

We spent the night at a very nice motel that lets good doggies like us stay in the room. Mom and dad got a big room with a spare bed for Georgia and a comfy sofa for Dakota.

The next day was very exciting. It was the first time we ran together as a team. We competed in the two-dog scooter race with dad. Everyone was quite nervous beforehand.

Well, Georgia was more worried than nervous. She had no idea what was going on.

We ran well and took fourth out of sixteen teams. Not bad for a couple of halfskies in our first race together.

Dad said that we ran our little hearts out.

Here's the forest we ran through.

Dakota spent some time getting in touch with her inner husky.

Georgia tried, but she couldn't quite master the Siberian swirl.

Off to Naseby tomorrow for a training run and to get things sorted for our club's race in two weeks.

First Big Race

Hello everyone. We have our first big race coming up this weekend, so mom has spent some time getting our gear in order. Today she washed all our harnesses. They were pretty dirty. And smelly.

And we assisted her in our usual fashion--doing absolutely nothing.

This weekend we are going to compete together for the first time ever doing two-dog scooter with dad. We think we'll do okay, and we hope we'll win a ribbon. Wish us luck!

Reunion

Hi everyone. Georgia here. I have had a VERY exciting day. I got to visit my brother Ben, who I usually go and see every couple of months at the pet shop where he works. But Ben has someone special staying with him--our brother Samson. I haven't seen him since I was 8 weeks old. Everyone was wondering how our reunion would go...

Here I am being submissive to my big brothers. Apparently I did this a lot when I was a puppy. Samson growled at me when he first saw me, but we quickly got over that. Samson is the one that looks like our dad, who was a golden retriever.

Here we are serving customers in the shop. There isn't much of a family resemblance, is there? Except that we all have that goofy golden retriever smile. Especially me.

Here we are sitting nicely for treats.

Here I am with Samson and my other brother when we were about 7 weeks old. I can't remember his name, but he looks just like Samson.

We have invited Samson and Ben to join us in our sleddoggery activities, so maybe I'll get to run with my brothers one day soon.

The Potato Chip

Where did that potato chip go?

There it is!

Our Weekend

It was our mom's birthday this weekend, so we all went on a trip together to celebrate. We went to a place called Naseby which has a cool forest with lots of tracks for us pupperoos.

The first night we went for a run with mom and dad, but it was really warm, so we kept jumping into the water race to cool off. Pupperoos aren't allowed into the water. We were naughty.

The next day we went for a run in the morning and it was cooooold. Georgia and mom headed off on their own for a scooter ride, and dad and Dakota went in another direction with dad's bike. Georgia didn't understand what she was supposed to do and she spent the first 10 minutes walking along the trail, sniffing and looking for rabbit poo. Then she realised what she was supposed to do and started pulling. Seeing a rabbit run across the trail might have motivated her a bit. Dakota was off like a rocket. She always knows what to do.

Dakota was living up to her nickname of "Princess". She's also known as the "Ice Queen".

Georgia is just a goofball.

Chicken update--our new friends have started laying eggs and we have gotten four in one week. Yum! Mom let them out to free range one day when we were at doggie daycare:

Where is Georgia?

Our First Event

Hello everyone. Georgia here. This weekend we had our first sled dog event of the year. We went down south for a canicross race and to catch up with our friends.

Here we are, mentally preparing for the challenge ahead.

I ran with mom, and Dakota ran with dad. They were right behind us most of the way, but then they passed us and beat us--but by only one second. I have quite a fluffy coat compared to D, and it was a really warm day, so in the final stretch I ran out of steam. But we did really well overall. Dad and D took third, and mom and I took fourth. Not bad for a couple of out-of-shape halfskies! We had a great time.

Dakota is still the usual drama queen. You would think she just ran a marathon instead of 3km.

I was much more composed and had a quick recovery. Hmmmmm, I guess I probably could have run a little faster...

We had plenty of time to chill out afterwards.

Here is the club gossiping after the race. Can you spot Dakota?

She's on the right, peeking out from behind the container door.

Mom treated us to a walk after the race to stretch our weary legs.

Then mom and dad treated themselves to a coffee and left us in the car.

Dakota spent the evening reminding everyone how tired she was.



Another canicross on Sunday.

Our New Friends

Georgia here. I have been asked to give everyone an update on our new friends. Dakota can't talk about the chickens because she gets too excited. She spent a lot of the past week pacing back and forth in front of the coop, stalking the flock. Bad doggie. But I have to admit that I haven't been an angel either.

Now for the introductions.

This is Rocky. She is a big girl. She's the most curious and confident of all of them. The other two always follow her lead. She's just young, maybe 4 or 5 months old. She hasn't started laying eggs yet. Doesn't she look mean? She's actually very nice.

This is Daisy. She's Rocky's sister from the same clutch of eggs. Daisy is a barred plymouth rock, and Rocky is supposed to be one too. Hmmm.... Mom wanted American chickens, and she liked plymouth rocks best. Daisy follows Rocky around and is also quite curious. She also seems like the smartest one.

This is Dora. She's a dorking (a British chicken). Mom wanted three plymouth rocks, but they only had two, so she took this one for a third. She's very shy and won't come up to anyone like Rocky and Daisy do. She's older than the other two and laid an egg the first night, but she hasn't laid one since. Even though she's shy and smaller than Rocky and Daisy, mom saw her peck Rocky away when she tried to take some food from her.

We're all very excited about getting some eggs. Dakota and I enjoy sharing cheese omelettes with mom and dad on the weekends. Hopefully soon...

Dakota's Big Week

I've had a big week.

I started off the week being a bit under the weather. On Monday night I told mom and dad that I wasn't feeling very well. I crept around the house with my ears down and looked generally miserable. But on Tuesday morning I was back to my old self. Or so we all thought. Mom picked me up from doggie daycare, and they had the doors open because it smelled really bad in there. Seems I "exploded" in the afternoon and had big, runny poos. But I felt sooooo much better. Dad figured out why I was so sick. Mom couldn't find that new roll of dog food she bought on Monday ...



Georgia pooped out the red wrapper on Wednesday. That's all I let her have.

On Wednesday it was my birthday. I'm three now.

And today I found out what dad has been building. Turns out it's a ...

CHICKEN COOP!!  Mom picked up three chickens for me today! Well, mom and dad say they're NOT for me, but that doesn't stop me trying to get in and "play" with them. I am obsessed with them. My lab side says "Bird! Retrieve!" while my husky side says "Bird! Dinner!". I am torn.

Something's afoot...

Hey Dakota, what's dad building?