Showing Her Colors

Jewel will make a great mom when the time comes! She spent today in the "girls yard", playing with Dixie. Jewel showed great patience and tolerance with the Bad Baby, unlike Sadie who had no tolerance for Dixie's puppy ways. Jewel let Dixie pull on her ears, grab her throat and generally punch her around. Phoebe was glad that Dixie has a new chew toy and enjoyed some peace and quiet!

Dinner Out

Tonight we had dinner at Lowry's Crab Shack and took Gibson along. He was great! It was quite hot, there was a huge fan and lots of people so lots of hustle and bustle. Gibson let people approach him and pet him, he wanted to play with another dog who was also dining al fresco and was the most relaxed I've seen him in situations like this. I ordered him a side of hush puppies and he wolfed them down! I enlisted a family waiting for a table to feed him some "cookies" and he took them without hesitation. Ellen, you might have to start frying up these treats for the show ring!

Our Smooth Girls

Jewel "became smooth" over the week-end! She was obstinate, hard headed, had her own agenda! After ignoring commands to eat her breakfast, come here, and the exasperated "Jewel!! You're trying my patience!!!" she stayed by my side, watching me with her sweet face. Of course, I melted, and she took advantage of getting back into my good graces by racing into the play yard where I usually have Dixie, her mom and aunt spend the day. I figured today was as good as any for my smooth girls to bond and they did! Both Jewel and Dixie enjoy the same game--hide in a dog house--and they tumbled about inside so hard that the entire thing almost fell over! Their play looks very fierce but they actually got along quite well. I experimented with a different camera setting which caught every change in movement. Dixie does need her ears glued back over, but they are not actually prick as it looks in some of the pictures and Jewel can hold her ears better than it seems during this wild play session.

Ferocious Dixie
Jewel says "bring it on, little girl"


Turn-a-bout's fair play!
Dixie doesn't like not having the upper hand!
Aunt Claire's not sure she wants to join in this game!
New best friends off for a snooze!

Dog Days in August

Join us in Berryville on Aug 29 for Dog Days in August! This fun day is hosted by our new collie club, Northern Virginia Collie Club, and will have dog games, raffles, demos, seminars and more. We'll also have other dog clubs represented, rescues and vendors of great doggy stuff. Click here for more info: www.dogdaysinaugust.com

Hmmm, I Wonder What I Should Do With These??

Gibson met some sheep at Frying Pan Park in Herndon:

Gibson at the Dog Park

Another good morning out for Gibson. A quick trip through the Farmer's Market, where he was perfectly relaxed and wanted to have children approach and hang off of him, then a hard romp at the dog park. We had to drag him away from his new buddies when it was time to go home!

A Break Through?

Could Gibson already have started his turn-around after Saturday's day out? He was very calm and relaxed when we had our sisters' afternoon at Casanel, wasn't afraid of the little bridge that he usually refuses to cross, laid at my feet part of the time, didn't pull or try to bolt on the walk up and back to the winery. Perhaps having Gustof as company helped and they got along very well. After we got home, we let the two boys rough-house on the deck. They made the deck rattle with their tumbling and running!