The Days of Johann, an agility dog!

Mum and I wrote a big ole blog post about eco-friendly, green, healthy and safe flooring for dogs over at our blog, RaiseAGreenDog.

You've got to go and check it out! It's entitled, "Eco-friendly, healthy, dog-friendly flooring for your dog-loving home!"

Lots of good info about nasty chemicals in commercial synthetic floorings, and really good alternatives for a healthier, happier pup and environment!

Mum surprised us yesterday, we got to go for a five mile walk. Don't think we've told ya, but we've been trying to get in 3-4 miles five days a week to keep me (oh yeah, and Mum and Gracie) in shape. Mum remembers after my muscle pulls when I could hardly walk two miles.

Times they have changed, I'm tellin' ya! Gracie, Mum and I have become walking machines!!

Every day we walk past the little pond (one of three in our neighborhood) that's closest to our house and check out the geese/ducks, and anything else that's hanging around. Oh, there's the blue heron we see a lot! I think we should name him/her, ideas?

Then we always make our way toward the big pond and see what's hanging out there. We like that they leave some cattails in the pond, more natural that way (even though the pond is chocked full of chemicals, sigh...).

Near the big pond is this old grain silo. Nice that they left it when they created this development. Some neighbors thinks it's an eye sore. But I like it, and there are lots of critters that like to hang out there. Good smellin'!

As we walk through the neighborhood, Gracie always has to check out the grasses that cover the utility boxes, just because she found something in there once, she thinks there's always gonna be something in there, silly girl :)

Sometimes at dusk in the summer we see all the hot air balloons out on their evening flights. They make me bark, a LOT!!! Occasionally they will take off right across the street from our house in the big field where I took off for a bird off leash that one day.

Well, yesterday since our walk was about two miles longer, we headed into other areas near were we live. The neighborhood across the street is a big one like ours, with just more expensive houses. We like to go there 'cause there are less kids, BOL!! And they have a lot more treed areas, also known as wildlife magnets :)

Interestingly, we went down a street we hadn't yet, and saw this...looks like some pup got caught when the cement was wet, how cool is that! Mum wishes she had my pawprints in our sidewalk now.

We kept walking and walking, and Gracie and I were pulling and pulling. Finally we got to our favorite place in this new neighborhood. It's a woodland area they preserved and put in a mulched walking path. It's not long, but it sure is fun and smelly. Oh and muddy. (Mum was kinda wishing we had ceramic tile all over the house when we got back, easier than carpet to clean, BOL!!)

Off we went, heading down the path, pulling Mum like she was a musher.

Found these neat woodland flowers, have no idea what their name is. But they are blooming at a very odd time of year here in Indiana. We liked their spunk.

We kept heading down the path, stopping at anything interesting of course!

The path ended and had a nice couple of benches to take a load off. So, of course, Mum had to try and get us to pose, we kind of obliged. :)

Have to say all three of us felt like we could have walked for ever. We were gone for almost two hours. Can we do it again today Mum? Palleeaasseee??????

Hope you had a great weekend too!

No, not that kinda tagged, it's a dog tag! I'm looking uber handsome in my cool new dog tag, don't ya think, BOL!!! (Click to bigify)

A couple of weeks ago we got an email from the nice folks at DogTagArt.com. They said they wanted me to try out one of their cool tags. So we went to their site and ordered one. I chose the Earth tag, since I'm a green dog, ya know :)

It was super easy to order, and they have so many cool designs, it was difficult to decide. The unique thing about this company is that Dog Tag Art provides really unique, indestructible pet tags printed with crowdsourced artwork. All the artwork on the tags are provided by talented artists who make a little money on the side if their tag sells. Pretty cool huh?

And they say the tags are made of indestructible aluminum, so they're guaranteed for life! We even had it personalized (on the back) with my name, contact phone, vet emergency number and my microchip number - just in case. And they have a contest a couple of times a year. Send in your photo with your tag and you could win some prizes.

Have to tell ya, I like 'em! And I could have one for every single one of my moods :)

Last night we were on Twitter, reading some of our friends tweets and saw little Kiyomi's Dads post about what it's like to have a little 20 week old sheltie in his life.

It got me remembering (Mum too :) about my sheltie puppyhood. The chewing, the neighbor kids ooooing and awwwing over me when Mum took me out and about, our first training class and how I wanted to play with everyone and every pup throughout the entire hour. Ohh, the memories!

So we thought it would be fun to post our baby pics (well at least the first formal pics of all of us).

Here's is Wolfie...he was the first to join the pack. He was about 6 months old in this pic, best guess. He was feral and had never been around a single person or in a home before, but took to Mum like glue. Here he is on the back balcony in the apartment Mum had before we got our big house. His favorite activity upon arrival was cuddling with Mum and batting a golf ball around the kitchen for hours and hours during the middle of the night. He was so much more energetic than any kittie Mum had ever had. Still is...

And here is Wiggy...the second edition. Mum got Wiggy mainly because Wolfie needed a playmate (I know, not the best reason). But in true fashion of our family, Wiggy quickly became a key member of the pack, and added a fun and loving dimension to the household. We don't know what we'd do without our 'stand up to any dog,' tough cookie, Wiggy.

You know how those big dogs go through those super ugly gangly stages? Wiggy went through one of those at about 6-8 months, then he kept growing and growing and growing, for about three years, Mum says. Now he is a big (nearly as big as me) Maine Coone mix with doggy savviness to spare.

Then of course came me. You may remember, I was adopted from a shelter here in Indy at 12 weeks. This was the first pic Mum took of me when she got me home. Many say I look wise way beyond my years in this pic. Oh, they have no idea!!!!

And then there's Gracie, our goofy girl, our hippie of the family, our luv bug. Gracie was about 6-8 months old when she came to join our family. She was a herder from day one. Here she is trying to herd me, no less, on her first day with us!

But wait...there's someone missing! Mum....where are you?

Here you are!!!! This is Mum's, first official photo after she could sit, BOL!!! Lots of people used to remark and ask what she had in her cheeks that made them so poofy. When she started talking she would to tell them it was cotton.

She had a good sense of humor from the get go. And you'll notice that unlike me, she wasn't very good at sitting and staying. And those little curls? They just got curlier and curlier much to her dismay during her teen years, but now she's right in style :) Gotta luv her!


You got baby pics? We'd luv to see 'em. Leave a comment with a link, we want to go take a look!

New friends of ours at IfPetsCouldType.com sent me a cool t-shirt the other day. I think it brings out the brown in my eyes, don't you? BOL!!!

They have a pretty cool little fund raising program going on right now to help pets with families that are struggling during this tough economy.

If you sign up at their sight and upload a pic, they will donate $1 to one of four pet food pantries across the US. I thought it was a super cool idea, so I headed right over and signed up.

It only took me 5 minutes and I had a page all put up about my favorite subject, of course, ME, BOL!!! And the cool thing is even though they have my email now, it's been a couple of months and no nasty communique, gotta love that!

Some super nice folks over there just working to help out some pups during these tough times. If you got five minutes, we recommend heading on over to their site and signing up. It's a super easy way to get a little kibble into the mouths of those in need. And those pet food banks and pantries always need food to feed all the hungry pets out there.

And who knows, you may even meet some other pawsome pets and made some new friends, we sure did! And we love making new friends.