Internal clock

Brie has a strict internal clock that she like to follow, and she tries her best to enforce it on us. However it doesn't quite align with our schedules. She starts waiting for my husband to come home an hour early every day, and the same goes for her morning bathroom business. She wakes up exactly one hour earlier than we want to get up, and she insists on going to the toilet at that precise moment, even thought she just goes back to bed afterwards.

And it's not that Brie's internal clock ignores daylight savings as it's always set one hour early, so she is consistently one whole hour premature. She need to be reformatted, but we haven't figured out how to achieve that yet. She is like one of those annoying person who set the clock 5 minutes forward, and then claim that other people don't run on time.

What does Brie dream about?

When Brie is sleeping she often has exciting dreams. We can tell, because she unknowingly acts out parts of her dream in real life. Yesterday she must have found a tasty bone in her dream, because she was making munching motions and sounds, while wagging her tail. It must have been a very good dream!

And at other times she wiggles her nose when she has found something smelly, or moves her ears around. But the worse one is when she sleep barks. I guess she must have seen the mailman in her dream.

Holiday plans

We are planning a little trip down to Christchurch to visit some family, and Brie is also joining as on our holiday, as they have little doggies for Brie to meet and also fields for her to run around and stretch her little legs in.

Well everyday is a holiday day for Brie, but this one is special as it will be first time for Brie will be traveling by airplane. She doesn't know what "pet class" is, and she thinks she is travelling first class; planning to eat gourmet cheese from the cheese board and sipping some wine. But I'm sure she will be fine because she likes her crate, since she made it smell like lamb chops and it keeps her entertained for hours. Oh and it is temperature controlled too so you're not going to get cold. But you don't need to pack yet, it's not for weeks.

Grassy poodle

The day after the mowing gets done is Brie's favourite. She investigates every inch of her lawn, and this is a huge task for a little poodle, so she gets really into it. She loves digging up new scents, and then rolling around in them. For us this means more bits of grass left around the house than usual, and naturally Brie just gets grassy. So I guess someone has to wash Brie, I hope the post-it will help.

Toy box

As Brie got older, her stash of toys accumulated. We used to just throw everything into her house where she could nest among her toys. But it got to the point where Brie couldn't even fit into her own house. So we bought a couple boxes for her to store her things.

However, Brie has discovered a new game, which she likes to call 'lets empty out all the toys onto the floor'. It usually begins because she just must have that toy that's right at the bottom, but there are all these other toys in the way.

But it continues, as once she has the toy she has worked so hard to get she then decides that it wasn't the one that she really wanted. So at the end of the night we have one triumphant poodle playing with dozens of toys scattered around the lounge.

Want out

Brie has discovered a new way of letting us know when she wants to go outside - scratching the wall next to the door with her paw. It's so sweet when she scratches then looks up to see if anybody noticed, and I feel like we are communicating so well together.

So when I let her out to do her business she usually initiates her toileting routine (Brie has a routine for everything) but is then immediately distracted by something; a neighbour, or a falling apple, or sometimes nothing in particular, but it all needs investigating. So off she goes charging around in the wet grass completely forgeting why she wanted to go out in the first place. And after a few minutes of mayhem she will come back inside, soaking wet and looking very proud of herself.

But then, a few minutes later, after she has been dried, a quiet scratching sound can be heard coming from the near the front door.. You better be going this time Brie.

In the begining

Back when Brie was a tiny puppy she wasn't able to cause as much havoc as she would have liked. This was mostly because she hadn't quite got the hang of running around while waving a toy around like crazy. But she had also yet to develop her keen sense of mischief. So instead of bounding around off the deck and into the long grass like she does now she would sort of tumble down the tiny step and land upside on the lawn. This was usually followed by some frantic squirming to get back on her feet, followed by a cautious glace around to see if anybody noticed. I'm not sure she realised how cute she was back in her youth.

Keeping the seat warm.

Brie loves sitting in the places which we have just occupied, like on couches or the bed. Unfortunately she also likes to occupy the dinning room chairs as well. Earlier on in her obedience training (or lack of obedience training) Brie and my husband made a deal that Brie would be allowed to sit on the chair but not to put a paw on the table. So she honors this deal faithfully, but when we leave the table and forget to put the seats back underneath, we often come back to see Brie defiantly seating on the table. Hmmm Brie I'm not done yet.

Brie's precious treasure

Brie is a marrow bone biscuit addict, but for the first time she has been given a real lamb marrow bone, and she loves it! I'm pretty sure she doesn't think that the biscuit look-a-like comes anywhere near the real thing.

Ever since she got given one, she is taking it around everywhere, playing with it, biting and licking it. It is her new little treasure, her last treasure was a little stone that she dug up from the garden which hurt when she dropped it on my feet, so this is definitely an improvement.

Matching umbrella

It seems like we have finally reached the wet and cold part of the year. This isn't a favourite season for Brie as she doesn't like her face getting rained on. You should see her annoyance when rain drops near her eyes.

Anyway, one of those interesting items I saw on the Internet was a "Dog Umbrella". I'm sure it seemed like a good idea when it was being designed, but when it comes to practicality I'm not sure it delivers. Like, what would happen when you have to pick up some doggie business off the ground or what if your dog likes to lead, would the umbrella still be on top of him? Lots of questions to be answered.

This is how Brie survived the winter last year.

Stubborn poodle

Brie is very stubborn and doesn't like getting up in the morning. This is a good example of what happens to a poodle when she doesn't cooperate when I'm trying to make the bed. She usually finds her way out eventually, but she manages to mess up the duvet in the process, so I have to remake the bed.

I just folded those!

Recently my husband has noticed many of the post get put in the "Mischief" category. But I can't put this post in any other category so we just have to add it to mischief, along with all the other misbehaving stories. I think this picture sums up what Brie did today. She had the whole bed all to herself, so I'm not sure why she has to bite her chew on top of the folded clean clothes.

Brie's morning routine

During the morning rush at our house we have a particularly unhelpful poodle. She stays under the duvet for as long as possible, until she get kicked out as the bed has to be made. Then she does her routine stretches, then yawns which she insists on doing before going to the little girl's room.

This is so cute on weekend mornings but really it's rather untimely when she does it on busy mornings.

Then she comes in to announce to everyone that she did her little business. Which usually involves a lot of jumping on the bed with wet paws. Then she get carried out to get her paws dried, which she thinks is play time, followed by her demand for breakfast, which she sometimes doesn't touch until we leave. Oh Brie you are very cute but you could be little more helpful, I'm so sure most doggies don't sleep in every morning. (and go dry those paws)

Bit busy right now.

Brie's is having a cheerful and upbeat day as a very nice reader suggested that Brie's poffy ears look more Princess Leia's buns. Yay that's an improvement from being called Micky mouse ears. After all Micky is a mouse and Leia is a Princess.Well anyway, Brie's treats have been downsized as the pig ear we gave her before took her too long to eat, so we had to put up with a drool covered pig ear left around the room. Which is a big fat no no, so instead I found her a lamb ear!!!
It's a quarter the size of a pig ear and also smells less, and Brie seem to enjoy it anyway despite the downsize. She is very busy chewing it away, she so busy that she didn't even come when I called her.

Poffy ears!

Brie's fur is lot denser then when she first came to our house. So when I give her a trim we can do a lot more to it. I like giving Brie poffy ears, placed higher then her actual ear position with a lot more volume, kind of like a koala outline. But some people have said that she looks more like Micky mouse. Never the less, they are both cute anyway so I'm not complaining.

The adventurous life

Brie is a big fan of Top Gear dog (TG), who is a labradoodle on the TV show 'Top Gear'. TG leads an exciting life with the crew of Top Gear going on adventures such as camping. Recently TG was herding up sheep, which Brie seemed quite interested in.

And I'm sure Brie would love to lead such an exciting life, but when it comes to getting out and doing such hard work Brie would prefers to lie in bed hiding. Brie! You should try it some time, it might be fun.

Great catch!

I attempted to teach Brie to catch when she was a lot younger but failed. This was because she was so uncoordinated that she kept getting hit by her treat on the nose, or she would loose the treat and get sad about it, so I felt little sorry for her and I stopped the training.

But recently Coco's dad has been patient and has been teaching Brie to catch (after I complained that Brie can't catch like Coco). I must admit, at the start it was more like the treat was being dropped and Brie had her mouth open so it landed in her mouth, but now she can really catch it when the treat is traveling in projectile motion. She can really catch! She even hops up and catches it sometimes. Her success rate is rather low, but I think she finally understands the concept now. Oh Brie we are very very proud of you.

Where is my orange juice??

When Brie is off in another room by herself it usually means one of two things, she is sleeping in the bedroom or she is up to no good. This happened last night and we were wondering were she was. To my horror, Brie was up on the office table looking guilty beside a half empty glass of orange juice!!!! Yes, Brie was drinking orange juice! My husband has a tendency to leave half drunk glasses and mugs around the room, and Brie decided to have a taste of it. I'm not sure who to be annoyed at; Brie who is looking very happy but guilty, or husband who doesn't think it is his fault.

This is a puppy photo of Brie that I just had to take a photo of, Yes I know I should be stopping her immediately instead of taking a picture of it, but it was really funny.

Good sit and the lazy sit

Brie expresses herself through her various sitting positions. She has two primary positions that communicate her requirements. For example, when she thinks she deserves a treat, like when she has done her business outside, she comes inside and sits very neatly, like so -

But when she is feeling a little lazy she will relax and sprawl out a bit -But as soon as she smells a hint of food she will sit to attention and use her love beams to try to win a treat. Brie knows exactly how to get what she wants when she wants it.

George the Hero

I'm sure many of you have heard about the brave Jack Russel George's story. Whose selfless act saved some small children from being attacked by two pit bulls, but lost his own life in process. I could not believe the story when I first heard about it, it is so tragic. Our thoughts goes out to his owner.

Honesty system

We still give Brie a little treat every time she does goes to the toilet outside. This is something we did for her toilet training and it works well. Still, Brie is easily distracted and sometimes she forgets what she went out to do, we tend to give her the command again to try to get her attention back on the task at hand. Usually Brie prances into the house with joy after doing her business and she does her good sit (yes, she has two alternate sitting positions; lazy sit and the good "I want a treat" sit). But sometimes there are no witnesses to the process of her doing her business so we just go with the honesty system.

And I just have a little feeling that some specific poodle is violating the system lately, and claiming more treats then she deserves.

Another milestone

Up until now Brie had been eating puppy kibble. But today is a big day as she has finally graduated onto fully grown dog kibble. The kibble pieces are much bigger than what she is used to so I was a bit worried that she would have difficulty eating them, but she pigged them down like they were made of cheese. I'm hoping this new found enthusiasm for kibble will last, and it's not just Brie getting excited by something new. Usually she is very reluctant to do even the most basic doggies tasks, like eating and excreting, requiring quite a lot of encouragement. Maybe this new lamb flavoured grown up dog kibble will help Brie take on her responsibilities like an adult.

Neat and tidy.

When I used to take Brie to puppy play school the people there said that chicken necks are a perfect treat as they are cheap, they clean teeth and dogs love them. But this idea was unanimously voted off at our house as the thought of raw chicken necks left behind by Brie on my couch and bed everywhere was not something I was looking forward to. So I decide to give Brie unflavoured cooked lamb bones. Which she loved, still I don’t like the idea of Brie smearing lamb bits everywhere so I tend to give it to her in her crate. This was a huge success, Brie just stayed in the crate chewing away for ages. Then a couple days ago we used them as a staying at home treat, because she has to stay at home by herself. When I got home there was a distinct lamb aroma emanating from the cushions. Hmmm….. I don’t think Brie did her chewing in the crate.

This is technically still staying in the crate according to Brie because the bone is in the crate even though her bum is out.