Snakes, bums, bad knees, and Bobby

I don't know about where you live, but here in Halifax Nova Scotia the weather has been completely shitty for quite awhile.
We haven't had a sunny day from beginning to end since June 18th - and today is July 9th - so today being a beautiful day was a big thing, and I'm sure a lot of people got out and enjoyed it - I know me and the dogs did - although Jackie seems to have spent the better part of the afternoon in the well ventilated comfort of the darkened living room. He's not really the outdoorsy type. I guess spending the better part of 8 months completely indoors at one point in his life, letting the pads of his feet go baby soft and then having his nails embed into those baby soft pads sort of spoiled him for being an outdoorsy get his feet wet and dirty kind of dog.
Charlie was very happy to just lolligag wherever the lawnmower was NOT - haha!
I love this photo - and the next closeup of Bobby - I don't know if he was about to sneeze, or what, isn't it cute! He has such a beautiful face.
We went to the vet today because he's been having problems with his bum - brown stuff leaking out, so we thought his anal glands might be impacted, but the vet "expressed them" - and she said they weren't too bad - the contents were just a bit "chunky" - as it were. So that was good news.

I also had her check him over to see whether he might have a micro-chip implanted in him - but lucky for me he didn't - so he really is mine - finders keepers, losers weepers. And I also had the vet give him a good feel over because I hadn't had him in to get just a general health check - and wouldn't you know it - both of his back knees have got bad luxating patella. On a scale of 1 to 4 he's a 3 - both back knees pop out really easily - so he's going to be just like Buttercup and at some point in his life I'll be dealing with his knees. Currently she said his muscle mass in his back legs isn't that greaqt either - which isn't good - the way I kept Buttercup healthy for most of the time I've had her is that she led a "big dog lifestyle" - she got tons of exercise - and that'll be the way to keep Bobby healthy too and hold off surgery on his knees. I knew something was up because I had seen him hop-skipping down the back steps when he went out to the back yard - so I figured he had something wrong with his knees. I also had him weighed - and he's a big 10 pounds!

This picture is a photo of Daisy when she's looking at a snake that was in the backyard this afternoon who came out to say hello when I was mowing the lawn!
And this is a shot of Daisy just looking beautiful - that's not hard for her to do.
Here's a couple shots of the snake - it was almost exactly a year ago that I found another snake in the backyard and took a couple shots of him/her - isn't that weird? Maybe next July I'll find another snake again. That would be pretty neat.


Daisy was actually pretty freaked out by the snake. She was really cute.

Last night at obedience class Jack and Bobby did really well - my Dad thought that Jack was the best dog there of course.
This is Jack looking over at me saying - "why is Bobby getting all your treats and I'm getting none?" He has completely forgotten about the fact that he's getting a ton of treats from the man who's sitting in front of him - he still wants all the treats be given out in the room!
Bobby came very close to learning how to sit - which was amazing because up until last night he totally did not know how to sit. So that was a big step forward for us.
Another shot of Jack giving us the hairy eyeball - and in the background is George - one of Amy's dogs - giving my Dad the hairy eyeball because I had inserted a squeaky toy in my Dad's treat pouch - and it turns out that George is really turned on by the sound of a squeaker - so my Dad had 2 dogs very tuned into him last night - it's lucky my Dad likes a lot of attention!
Bobby is pretty good at staying focused on me when there's a hint of liver on my body.


Earlier in the week we took a trip out to my Dad's cottage - and everyone got to go for a dip in the lake - everyone likes to get their feet wet, but no one likes to swim - but whatever makes them happy makes me happy - Charlie likes to just walk around in the water and drink and drink
Buttercup likes to do the same thing, and eat the grasses
And it turns out that Bobby is not a water dog, which is strange - I thought that poodles were a water dog - but Bobby does NOT like the water. He wouldn't even come down the steps to the beach. He was having no part of the lake. That was too bad.
Daisy really likes to eat the grasses that grow along the beach - they must take like ham or something.



Me and Bobby had a really nice walk in Clayton Park this week - I'm going to make a new page on the Charlie loves Halifax site about it - Clayton Park is just such an awesome spot for people who own dogs - there are so many places for super on-leash walks - nice wide sidewalks, great little parks - the Mainland North Linear Parkway - if I was rich I would definitely live in Clayton Park

This is Bobby trying to figure out how to get at the ducks without having to get in that nasty water!