Well actually she is 3… But I figure toddler has spent a lot of time crawling around on all 4s (still does now even though she can walk on 2… I think she just likes hanging out with me), uses licks as a form of kisses and hey she can even do a sit, drop and stand on command. For this I am making the toddler an honorary dog and hence on her 3rd Birthday I’m celebrating her 21st.
Some mornings toddler wakes earlier or for whatever reason we can’t get out for a morning walk. Thankfully mum has an array of exercises for me to do rather than our walk. Check out some of them like Backwards Heel in Training Tip Tuesday.
Only need some treats and then a bit of creativity to come up with some games.
Just in case you missed it… It was my Birthday this week. Had an awesome week with one of the highlights being my birthday cake… or birthday balls as they were. Mum & toddler made these especially for me and my sister.
What you need to get out of the cupboard and fridge:
What you do with the stuff:
To check out more 1st World Dog Treats check out my Recipe Book page.
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Super busy morning with 5 toddlers and 2 babies at our house for brunch. 3 of the toddlers started off scared of me but won them over and had them playing ball with me and not wanting to leave by the end of their visit.
Also a paws up to the toddler. With the 3 toddlers being a bit scared, plus a lot of food being consumed at toddler height, mum thought it would be a good idea to put me in my crate. Well my toddler wasn’t having a bar of that. Clever little kid headed my way as soon as mum wasn’t looking and undid the zipper to let me out. Hmmm mum put me back in and found a paperclip to stop toddler undoing the zip. Yep double paws up to the toddler… She remembered there is a top zipper on the roof of the crate. Undid that one and I jumped out the roof. Toddler Teamwork!
So after that busy morning I had to back up tonight for a Rally O trial. My 1st Rally O trial at Excellent level. Excellent uses a lot of the same stations as Advanced but adds into it some changes of position (things like sit/drop/sit and sit/stand/sit), another jump and some tough things. The 1st is 3 steps backwards in heel position. Although we have been practicing this as a Tuesday Training Tip I’m not great at it yet. In Rally Excellent we also have to do what is called ‘Honor’. It means once we have finished our go through the course than we go to the Honor position. It is usually a spot inside the course but to the side. Mum has me on a 2m lead and I am told to go into a sit or a drop position and have to stay there while the next dog completes the course. It is essentially a Stay.
So turns out I did ok. The backwards steps were messy (opps sorry mum), I did sniff the distraction in the offset figure of 8 and got a bit distracted by some dogs sitting on the side of the ring but I did it… I got 71 points (need 70 or more for a pass so just scrapped through). Then I actually laid still while a GSP friend Shimmer had her turn in the ring. Oh yeah mum was so excited!!! Even got my own sausage sandwich as a SUPER TREAT!
So a great day where toddler really showed her true team spirit topped off by my 1st Quallie in Rally Excellent.
One tired puppy now… Don’t even have the energy to harass dad for some of his pizza…zzzzzz
Sorry we have been a bit slack on the posts the last week. We are on holidays. While we haven’t been posting on the blog we have been putting happy snaps on Facebook and Instagram if you want to check them out.
But we couldn’t miss Donna‘s Photo Challenge! Here is a fav holiday snap which pretty much explains why there hasn’t been much blogging, why I have sand through my fur and I am snoozing at any opportunity when I’m not on the beach.
Toddler and friends decided my crate was a good cubby house.
Go for it kids… I’ll take your lounge.
Looks like a fair trade to me.
Mum makes a conscious decision to not include too many pictures of the toddler in my blog. Firstly because it is my blog, it’s 1st World Dog after all! But she is also conscious of the social media footprint she creates for the toddler. So that makes this week pretty special… and it is because toddler and I had a pretty special week. Our photo this week is a collage of just 2 of many photos that were taken this week of us together. Mum is passionate about the relationship between the toddler and I and loves moments like this. I hope you do too. 
Thanks Donna for prompting us to capture and share these great moments.
It is very rare that I have a rant. I’m generally a pretty laid back easy going kinda dog. But…. last week mum and I read something on a pretty popular parenting website about best dog breeds for families. In itself that is misleading. Physically some dogs may have some traits that may be concerning but in general all breeds of dogs can make great family members. However, that wasn’t the bit that really got my shackles up. No it was a list of 4 things on “How to keep your kids safe around dogs”. On this link is their article and their list.
Now mum is no expert in dog training but there were a couple of things that she was really concerned were missing:
1. Respect: yes I need to respect that the toddler is a member of our pack, but more so the toddler has learnt to respect me. I think this is one of the greatest gifts I can bring her as she grows up sharing the house with a pet. That respect includes empathy (a huge deal when she is older and needs emotional intelligence skills) and understanding boundaries. Toddler is regularly taught to not go near me when I am eating. While yes as the article suggests mum can take my food away and I will sit and wait for it to be returned, by teaching toddler respect it will keep her out of danger if she is around another animal and respect of other humans and their belongings and also feelings.
2. Responsibility: this goes for both the toddler and more importantly the example set by mum. Only today did we see 2 gorgeous little 1 yo Cavoodle pups on a facebook page that had been taken to a shelter because the family, with 4 children, realised they were unable to look after them. We don’t know the details behind their story but at a topline level, not fair on these dogs who have been put in a position of having their family not want them and needing to find a new home. Having a dog is a lot of responsibility and mum refers to me as the other toddler. Yes mum does put more training into me than most people would a family pet but let’s be serious that having a dog is taking on another living being. Not only do we need food, fresh water and shelter but we also need physical exercise and mental stimulation. Mum involves toddler as much as possible with looking after me and teaching and talking to her about the responsibility of looking after me. This will involve us all going for a walk together in the afternoon, toddler helping to feed me and her being around to see what is involved day to day. Toddler has also been taught some basic words and hand signals from training although at the point in time I am choosing to ignore her. So the responsibility is equally on the adult humans to train any dog they bring into their home and keep them physically exercised and mentally stimulated. That will help keep kids safe around a dog rather than the horrible stories you hear and read of the dog who has been tied up in the backyard and then is blamed when something happens. I hope that learning about responsibility by growing up with me will put her in good stead for lots of other aspects in life, not only hopefully having a dog of her own one day but also relationships with other humans, jobs, buying a home and who knows what else.
This was never intended to be a conclusive list but just a couple of things that we felt were missing from this article. Let’s put a bit less emphasis on the dog’s behaviour… we are dogs after all, and more focus on owners doing the right thing by the dog and children so we can all live happily together.
Also strongly refute the point about bedrooms….Respect everyone has different opinions on this and love that I am allowed into the bedrooms. In fact beside naps on the bed one of my favourite things is a bedtime when mum reads toddler what is referred to as “The Bodhi Book”. This gorgeous story called “The Way I Love You” not only looks like me but pretty much sums up my relationship with toddler. It gets mum a bit teary every time she reads it. Toddler now insists I lay on her bed when we read it just like in the book (sorry for spoiling the ending)…. ahhhh… she is a good kid!
So there you have it…. I think that is my 1st ever 1st World Dog rant but one I feel I needed to have. I hope dogs out there have their own fun little toddlers to hang out with.
Gotta say toddler impressed me today by supporting my guard dog efforts. Someone was walking along the street (for the record the house is well set back off the street so mum doesn’t really see the need for a guard dog effort unless someone comes down the stairs but anyway) so I alerted everyone to their presence. Toddler came to support. Her bark is pretty poor… She will have to work on it.
Inspired by Ruby’s post earlier in the week mum went to see what Ruby was talking about. She decided to just take the toddler, something about me supposed to be resting and me & the toddler being too hard to manage somewhere like that.
Toddler loved the mirror dogs… even started trying to feed them small stones pretending it was food. Like the idea toddler but some issues with execution.
(Have to excuse the pink wing things… mum bought them so toddler had something kinda Halloween-like on for when other kids came around trick or tricking last night. Except for bath and bed she doesn’t seem to have taken them off. The feathers tickle my nose if she gets too close).
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