If It Works Once...

Who, me? Something in my mouth?

You may recall that I recently paid a ransom of chicken for a stone.

Um, nothing really. Just my stone.

 Duncan is a strong believer in sticking with a scheme that works. Kidnapping stones seems to work quite well, raising visions of expensive dental surgery in the minds of parents. So he kidnapped it again, right off the photography table.

I'll just keep an eye on it
while you go get the treats.

In fact, he's on a real roll. He figures that a bigger stone may equal a bigger treat:

Original stone on the left, yesterday's version on the right.

Driving Us to Drink

To drink water, that is. 

Duncan's favourite toys lately are empty water bottles, and he makes sure we keep him well supplied. (He tried to grab a full bottle once, but that didn't seem like a good idea!) They hold up surprisingly well to chewing, and make an interesting noise that is a pleasant change (to him, at least) from the standard squeaky toy. (For variety, he did steal the pool water sample bottle, but it just didn't have the same crunchiness.)

Meanwhile, his lovely new $20 miracle toy is still in practically pristine condition, though he will play with it once in a while. Probably just to humour us!

Held for Ransom

Continuing with our "random photos with associated trips down Memory Lane until fall arrives" strategy:

I've mentioned several times that Duncan is a Chewer Extraordinaire. And he learned the fine art of holding stolen objects for ransom way back when he was just a pup. We're getting pretty good (most of the time) at keeping stealable objects out of his reach.

But I may have mentioned (once or twice or thirty times) that he's smart. And now things are getting ridiculous!

I was sitting in the family room the other day, listening for splashes, while Duncan prowled the back yard. A furry head poked through the door, chewing loudly on some unidentified object. He brought his treasure in, dropped it, looked at me to be sure I noticed, quickly scooped it up, and ran upstairs. Apparently I was too slow to react, so the furry head poked itself out of the living room, looked down the stairs at me, and smacked its chops meaningfully.

I duly went and got the ransom money treats. Duncan set his treasure down between his paws and waited politely. 

Here's what cost me a hunk of freeze-dried chicken:

Yup, it's a stone. A random pebble, about 1" across. One of hundreds, if not thousands, of pebbles from the path beside the house.

This could get expensive!

Foraging for Food

Please pardon the algae - these steps are a pain!
Neither the brush nor the vacuum fits them.

A guy could starve to death around here. Seriously. I mean, dog food twice a day, but that hardly counts. Several varieties of treats for rewarding, teaching, encouraging or just plain bribing good behavior. But who can be good all the time? Occasional handouts of people food. Pathetic really - licking Daddy's ice cream bowl, instead of having his very own scoop!

So Duncan went foraging for food recently. The dead leaves that blow into the pool seemed like a good place to start:

He reached in and pulled them toward the step. He grabbed them. And he ate them.

Apparently they were quite tasty. 

Paletta Park

I've been getting complaints about the lack of blog posts lately. The problem is, His Lordship dislikes summer. He's spent much of the last two months simply moving from one air-conditioning vent to another, with a distinct lack of photo ops. So we'll dig back into the stash of photos that haven't been posted yet, and maybe look back at a few older posts. Hopefully we can find enough to keep going until the weather cools off...

So, Paletta. For those of Duncan's fans who haven't been there yet, it's a restored mansion on the lakeshore, with a small beach and a nice short trail through the woods. In other words, maximum interesting smells in a relatively small area. Kerry loved it, and Duncan seems to enjoy it, too. He made his first visit there as a tiny puppy, still in his Christmas tree cast. But visits have become more complicated this summer. Here's the sign that has appeared near the trail:

Apparently coyotes have become a real problem in Burlington this year. In fact, a cute little wheaten named Princess was attacked in her own yard last month. So morning walks at Paletta are out. But afternoon should be safe, and although the beach isn't as nice as Pinery's wonderful beach, it has good sticks:

A Guy's Gotta Chew What a Guy's Gotta Chew

As I've mentioned before, Duncan is very hard on his toys:

Tennis ball

Footie-Dude. The missing foot was confiscated because he insisted on
chewing it like bubble gum, "blowing" it out between his lips every so often!

 He's also hard on a lot of our things:

Pencil stolen from desk

Comb

Fortunately, he mostly just chews for the joy of chewing, and doesn't seem interested in swallowing most of the things he shreds, so we have (so far) avoided the surgical removal of random objects!

He seems to have a very detailed Code of Thieving Honour, which we haven't quite mastered yet. For example, objects on the desk are prime targets (e.g., pencils!), but he has never taken anything from the small bookcase in the family room. Pillows from the bed may be stolen, but pillows placed on top of his crate (right next to the bed, and the same height) are safe.

Scotsdale Farm

Duncan likes to lead us along the path.

On Monday, we celebrated Civic Holiday with a trip to Scotsdale Farm. Duncan loves Scotsdale. There are interesting smells around the old farm buildings, a pond, a small patch of woodland, and a nice long lane to hike. The Bruce trail and one of its side trails go through it. And one of the trails goes through the fields. Duncan really loves those fields, because he gets to run off leash there:

Flying ears!

Every so often, he suddenly dives into a patch of grass and collapses for a rest: