I have some sad news. Our red merle Aussie, Bo, passed away unexpectedly last Saturday, May 5th. I feel bad that I have waited this long to post about him!
Jim was so upset, he had really bonded with him after Duke died almost 3 years ago. I have really been slacking on photo taking lately so I don't even have any recent photos of him. =(
He was a really good farm dog. He kept the racoons and other critters out of the barn and was a good watch dog. He was also really, REALLY fast and loved chasing his buoy toy (we had an old boat that we sold and it got left behind so it became a dog toy). He LOVED to climb and he would climb up the straw and hay bales in the barn, all the way up to the top of the stalls they are stored in (maybe someday we will have a hay loft...).
He was Jim's buddy and a good listener. He had this super intense stare and would just look at you with penetrating eyes. We are so sad to lose him and all his unique quirks. He would have been 3 in July so he was still just a baby.
We don't have any idea how he died. Jim played with him that morning, we went to run some errands for a few hours, and when we got back he had passed. So very strange.
Rest in peace silly Bo Dog, and have fun playing with Duke over the Rainbow Bridge. May we one day see you again!
If you are new this week, all you have to do is post a photo of whatever you want (within reason of course, keep it clean people! ;-) ) and it has to have some element of "peekaboo," "hiding" or "camouflage" in it. Think of one of those hidden pictures where you have to find the hidden images. Or a green frog blending into the green leaf he is sitting on. There are tons of options! Have fun with it!
If you would like to join in, please make sure to link back to my blog and use my button if you like. If I decide your image(s) is/are inappropriate, I have the right to delete your link. Other than that, have fun and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Oh, and I plan on having weekly themes in the future, but if you don't have a photo that falls into the category, you can still participate. And I don't mind if you add this into another Friday blog carnival. As long as you remember to link to me, that is great! Ok, that's all for now, lets see those photos!
Here is a button for you to use if you would like to participate. Thanks!
It has been 3 months since we lost our sweet Aussie Duke. I didn't even realize it as I planted some daylilies around his grave today. Its just like I knew I should do it today. Then little Jimmy helped me pick up a bunch of small rocks to make a border around the grave area which I am making into a small flower bed (I will have to post a pic later as it didn't even occur to me to take one until it was too dark). It is in the middle of a pasture so we are going to have to fence it, but I am making sure to use "horse safe" plants. We are also going to add a bench and plant a memorial tree. It looks over the creek so it will be a nice relaxing sitting area. Oh Duke, we miss you so much!
On a brighter note, sweet little Bo is growing so fast and is so rambunctious! He is learning so well and doing great with his clicker training. He can already sit, lay down, shake, get in his "bed" (crate), stay for a short bit, and he almost has roll over - which is a big deal because Duke would NEVER roll over, not even to get his belly scratched! Bo on the other hand just loves to have his belly rubbed, he is such a roly poly little guy.
Ooo, and there are plans for a little furry playmate for him in the near future (a Christmas present perhaps??) I will keep ya posted ;-)
I hope you all are doing well, I am sorry I have been a horrible blogging friend lately. I am working on making my rounds to visit everyone, I miss you all & hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!
Let me start off by saying that I am soooo Thankful for our new puppy!! He is pretty much awesome. And he is learning very quickly. I have started clicker training him. I clicker trained Duke and he did very well. It is such a great training method and it really gets the dog's attention. Here is some info about it. I had posted a video of Duke closing the door and my friend Ter asked how I taught him, so I thought once we got a new pup I would post about it.
The way I trained Duke was with clicker training. Check out clickertraining.com, it is a great site full of resources. You get this little clicker thing and you are supposed to click it when your pet does something you want him/her to do. You don't even have to use your voice because if you click when they sit for example, and you keep doing it every time they sit (well, when you are having training time), they learn to associate the click with what they are doing at that moment. Then you immediately give them a little treat. We used little pieces of cheese or these little tiny dog treats. It is a really great tool. I started out with the Clicker Training for Dogs kit with the book, click-a-trick cards, clicker and treat sample. I bought another book later on, Clicking with Your Dog, and it is a great book. Very thorough and it is full of different tricks and sometimes a couple different methods of clicker training each one. Here are a couple links to items I use (I tried to link to the specific clickertraining.com items, but it only shows a general link):
The way I taught Duke to close the door was to get him to put his nose on the door on the side that you push to close it. As soon as his nose touched the door, I clicked & treated him. We did that over and over again until he got it down pat. Then we worked on getting him to push the door a bit with his nose and as soon as he did I clicked and treated him. And we did that over and over. We just kept at it a little at a time until he finally pushed the door all the way closed. At some point I stopped clicking and treating until the door was getting closed all the way. He actually learned very quickly so it didn't take as long as I make it sound. It just depends on how quickly it sinks in. I also taught him to open the door, that is what that rope was for on my doorknob. He just had to learn to pull it (when training I made sure it stuck through the door so the door didn't latch and he could pull it) to open the door far enough to get his nose & head in and open it the same way he was closing it. The video is a bit after he learned to do it all. He figured out his own way to do it, as you could see he pushed the rope with his nose so the door would latch and then used his rear to close the door all the way, it was so cute! And he was always using his paws like hands, that was cute too, but scratched my door up!
Clicker training is really fun, really helps with the communication between dog and owner and its a great way to strengthen your bond with your dog. I hope this info is useful to someone and thanks so much for stopping by for Thankful Thursday!
Meet our new red merle Aussie pup, Bo. As in Bo Duke . Jim came up with that, I thought it was cute and works well, now we just need to find our blue merle puppy so we can have Bo & Luke Duke... ;-) He was a very tired boy and fell right asleep next to Jim and laid there for a good while, even after Jim finally got up. And right now he is sleeping right under my chair as I type this. He is a cutie.
I have to admit I never wanted a red merle, I was actually wanting a red tri (solid brown with copper and white accents) since we have been having trouble finding any blue merles around here (I found one that I LOVE but thats another story...). But we went to see these puppies and were trying to choose between a red-bi (no copper points) and this guy and Jim really seemed to like him a lot so we brought him home. Now that we have him I really like him and I have been looking at pics of red merles on google and they are pretty. I just have a thing for blue merles though, they are still my favorite =D Soo....Bo will one day have a puppy brother to play with (Barb, if you happen to read this, I will email you soon ;-) )! The more the merrier I say ;(ok, but seriously, 2 is the limit!!) Now, I am off to bed, I just wanted to let everyone know the joyous news and to document the newest addition to our family. Hmmm...maybe I will celebrate with my very first giveaway....you better be sure to check back in the next couple days to see what it will be!!
Spring has Sprung!
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Lots of new happenings on the farm this week. Our new ducklings are on
their way today! They should arrive by Wednesday. I ordered Indian runner
ducks, blu...
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