Hahaha!

Calendar Picture

A bit of a short notice, but I'm trying to pick a picture to enter into the MyCorgi.com calendar contest. We are only allowed one entry, and while I think I'm going to enter a 4th of July themed shot, I'm having a hard time deciding between these two... They were taken at the same time and place, but I really like things about both of them. So what do you think, which one should I enter?

Philip and his Mini Me

Philip got this toy for his Birthday back in March and I've had this video up on YouTube for a while, but it looks like I totally forgot to share it here. Better late than never though, right? Enjoy the silliness :)

Your chance at Paws It Forward

If you've been on the lookout for a Paws It Forward opportunity, here's your chance! Bailey has received her package from Philip yesterday and they'll be needing two participants, so hurry on up and post a comment for them :)

In a few days you should have another opportunity with our other recipient, I'll post another quick note when they get around to their package.

Talented Pooches

This video has already gone fairly viral, but in case you haven't seen it yet, check out Ok Go's latest music video featuring some very talented dogs:



Also, here you can find a bit about the process from the trainers that provided the dogs.

Paws It Forward

Today was an exciting day in Philip's life. I signed him up for Paws It Forward over at Sadie the Corgi's blog, and so I came home yesterday to find our package at the doorstep. Unfortunately, I was busy most of the evening and my camera's battery was dead, so we had to wait until today to open the box. We got right to it as soon as I got back from work though, and I've got pictures to prove it :)

Philip couldn't wait - "What is this mom?"


"Is there something inside? I just know there is!"


He thought the box itself was an awesome delicious toy actually


"Almost... got... it..."


First present sees the light of day


"Oh boy, food, FOOD!"


Things got a bit too exciting at this point, but here's the whole set while Philip munches a toy


Philip found this toy to be great for some soccer:


Plus, everything is great for fetching ;)




All in all, Philip couldn't be happier, he's sampled the treats, played with the toys, and now resting while I type this up. Thank you Sadie and Laurie for such an awesome little package!!!

And of course, I did promise you guys a chance for gifts, right? So here it is! The first two people to respond with their email will get a package from Philip and I, so that we can all continue spreading the joy. We do ask that you have a blog to post all about it, and of course that you have a doggie to share the goodies with ;) Once you get your package, make sure to pick two more recipients as well!

Bark bark bark

Sorry for the lack of updates here, I've been busy and not creative enough to write much, but we are still around :)

Philip has been a difficult teenager rebel lately, and has been pressing all boundaries imaginable. His latest thing is barking, and testing how much of it is allowed. In general, I have very little tolerance for mindless barking and have enforced that since the first day Philip came to live with me. He knows full well that barking is largely unacceptable except for legit cases, for example when someone is at the door. Of course, he still wants to vocalize a lot more than just that (Corgis are notorious to be vocal really), so as compromise he does little muffled woofs when he wants to voice his opinion at something outside. I realize that I can't make him totally quiet, so to be fair I allow little woofs so long as they are quiet enough and don't last too long.

So Philip's latest thing has been to really test my limit on the woof-allowance. When he gets into the alert mode, he'll run up to the window and let out a small woof. He will then immediately look at me to check my reaction. If I'm not looking back at him (but I can see him looking out of the corner of my eye), he's immediately turn back and let out another, slightly louder woof, then look at me again. He'll continue this until I start looking back at him. If I'm looking back, he'll sit and analyze it for a moment - am I just looking, or am I about to tell him to stop it? After a slight pause, if my reaction has unchanged, he'll again raise up the woofing a bit and look back at me. This continues until I finally react with some sort of command to put a stop to it. Usually it's just a calm "That's enough, no bark". It works for a while, but soon enough he's back at it, starting slightly softer again. He can continue this game the whole evening if I let him.

He keeps raising his pitch until I finally say something, then goes back down in volume and the cycle repeats. With each repeated cycle, I get more irritated and use harsher voice for commands, or make him lay down away from the window. He knows it irritates me, he must know it, but he keeps testing the waters and keeps pushing the buttons. Sometimes I just want to strangle him! But of course I would never hurt him, so I'll just keep persisting, and hope that one day he'll stop pushing the issue. Sigh...

So that's a little peek into out latest shenanigans. Oh yeah, be on the lookout for a post soon enough that'll give you a chance to participate in some fun gift-giving activities :D That's all I'm saying for now ;)

P.S.: If you want to read up more about Philip, make sure to follow our Agility blog. I do keep that one much more updated, though the content is fairly limited to Agility info.

Watch Where You're Going!

We had a little scare yesterday! Not to worry though, all is well.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Philip absolutely loves to fetch balls. As soon as he spots a ball on the ground, his eyes light up, he prances to it, grabs it, and drops it at my feet, nudging me and hinting at the fact that I really need to throw it.

Once I have the ball, he is ready to run! He usually takes off way before I throw it - any slight motion of my arm sends him full speed ahead in the anticipation of the throw. It's pretty funny to fake a throw and watch him run out, realize I'm not actually letting go of the ball, and come back to give me a very dirty look.

I think these kinds of games caused Philip's latest behavior - as he is running ahead, he looks back at me for the first several steps, probably to ensure that my arm is continuing the motion that should turn into an eventual throw. Of course, this means he isn't looking where he's going!

So yesterday we had a little mishap because of this, and Philip earned himself his first play-injury:


See those dark spots underneath his eye? That's where he has a scrape and is missing some fur. Now for the story of how it happened...

We were playing fetch in a friend's yard, and as Philip took off in anticipation of a throw, he ran straight into a wooden pole. Of course, he was looking back at me, so he ran into it with the side of his face, and at full speed. The sound that came from the collision made me cringe and hiss as if I was the one that hit the pole (as a matter of fact, my friend was sure it was me and asked if I was ok!). Philip didn't even stop to think about what just happened, he simply stepped to the side and continued running ahead, waiting for the ball.

Now, we all know that dogs can take a lot more of such injuries than we humans do, so seeing as he didn't even make a peep, I figured he was just fine. After all, this isn't the first time he ran into something. I did take a quick look around him, but didn't see anything. I noticed the missing fur underneath his eye only when we got home an hour later. I checked all around his face, and in his eye to make sure there were no other damages and all looked good. As a precautionary, I put a little eye ointment in both of his eyes and decided to wait till morning. Thankfully, all is still well!

My guess is that he instinctively closed his eye lid as he hit the pole. I can't even begin to imagine what would have happened if he didn't! I'm still watching him very closely, ready to go to a vet if any swelling occurs, and checking his reaction periodically. Everything is looking good, and will hopefully stay that way. I think I'm being extra paranoid, especially considering that a local Corgi just had a pretty bad eye scare a couple months ago, and his owner mentioned that it could have been due to an impact of sorts to the eye.

Shake Shake Shake

Swimming Corgi!

I always hear that many Corgis are terrible swimmers and will sink like a brick, but Philip loves taking dips in the water. As long as the water is calm, he will wade and swim in it all on his own. Sometimes I even toss a ball for him and he'll happily bring it back, though I try not to toss it too far out just in case.

This weekend we went to a nearby pond. We've been here many times before and Philip gets very excited to go running and swimming here. The pond is man-made and has a ledge all around. It's not a very big drop, but still a bit scary for Philip, so he takes a few approaches before slowly descending into the water. It's very cute to watch him, and I wonder if he'll eventually figure out to simply jump in from the ledge like most other dogs.

Anyway, I got one of his random plunges on video, so enjoy :)

Walking for a cause

A couple of weeks ago Philip and I attended a local fundraiser walk.


The fundraiser was for a local humane society, and lots of dogs and their owners came to support the cause! We had a whole team of Corgis!


The fuzzy butts walked a couple of miles through the park


and over a nearby hill


"Hurry up, mom!"


It was a beautiful day, and we raised lots of money for the humane society. Next year, our team has grand plans to be the number one fundraisers (this year we came in second!). Go Corgis!

Philip looks funny when he runs

His tongue and ears have a life of their own!











You have no idea how many pictures like this I have...

Mud

Need I say more?

Birthday Pictures

In the interest of avoiding double posting content, follow us to our new blog to see some pictures from today's celebrations!

Happy Birthday Philip!

Today is Philip's second birthday! :)
My boy is so grown up, I can't believe it's been 2 years already

Seems like only yesterday he was a wee baby, exploring his brand new home


and yard,


learning to climb up the stairs,


and meeting new friends.


He celebrated his first birthday with a yummy cake last year


and today will surely be special as well :)
[pics to follow]

Happy Birthday Philip!!!


P.S.: I've started a new blog to document Philip's Agility progress. I promise to keep it more updated than this one as I'll have regular content from local trials. Please be sure and visit it:
http://agilitycorgi.blogspot.com/

USDAA Trial Continued

As promised, here's a recap of our Sunday adventures at the USDAA trial!

We had 3 different courses to run during the day again: Standard, Pairs, and Snooker.

First up was Standard and Philip ran wonderfully, no faults at all, and he even did the weave poles from the first try. I was so proud of him! We took first place for 12" jump height and got our Q in that round - what a great way to start the day, much better than the previous day :)

Second up was Pairs, which is a course that is split in two parts - first half is ran by one dog, and second by another. We paired up with a fellow student from our Agility classes - a rat terrier Willis. Since Philip is not too strong of a weaver, we opted for the second half of the course and let Willis take a stab at the weaves in the first half. Unfortunately, Willis got a bit drowsy from the heat, so he took it slow at this run and messed up the poles after all - no biggie, but that added a little time to the run. Philip did his half well, though it was definitely the easier half, so no hurt feelings against Willis - he is a great little man and we had a ton of fun in that run! Our total time was too long, so we didn't Q this round.

Last up was the Snooker run. This type of course requires a bit of strategy - the course has several point-value obstacles and is split into two parts of the run. The obstacles are 3 red colored jumps, each worth 1 point, and 6 other color obstacles valued 2 through 7 points. The first part or the run involves taking a red jump successfully, followed by a color obstacle, 3 times in a row (that is red-color-red-color-red-color). The second part is to run obstacles 2-7 in order. The rules are set in stone and it is important to follow the red-color combination. If the dog takes two red jumps or two color obstacles consequently, it must exit the ring. Similarly, if the red jump is knocked, it doesn't count, so another red must be taken before continuing. Each red can only be taken once, so the dog must attempt all 3 before continuing on.

Moving on to our run... The course was set up in such a way that most people opted to take the furthest red first, followed by the 2-point tunnel, another red, 7-point jump set, third red, and the 7-point jump set again. Naturally, that was my plan as well, so we started off on the far left side of the start line, and I lead out to the first red jump before having Philip run. As I called Philip to me, he took the red jump and went straight ahead to the 3-point color jump ignoring my screams to take the tunnel. Now I was thinking quickly on the course - he had taken his color, so we must go to the next red, but there is a bit distance and other obstacles in our way. As I called Philip to me to head in the intended direction he saw the tunnel and decided that now he would like to go in (after all I said to go through it at first, right?). Ruh roh, I see Philip heading for the tunnel and start screaming "No, Philip, come here, no!" and at this point I realize that the whole thing is pretty funny, so I start laughing as he's still heading for the tunnel, and then I let out the last attempt at "NO!!!" as his head is about to enter the tunnel, and he finally turns and gives me the annoyed "what?" look. "Over here, this way" I say and he changes direction - whew! So we make it to the second red jump, he takes it as intended and we head for the 7 point obstacle. This is a set of two jumps and Philip stalls on the first one, so I flail around laughing and get him to take it from the 3rd try - yay. Then we are off to the second jump of this set, the last red jump, and back over the 7-point jumps - all is well. He takes the jumps well and we go onto the point obstacles to finish the run. As I run past the judge still laughing she says to me that "he has a better plan" :) We finished the rest of the run without mishaps - even getting the weaves right from the first time again (though VERY slowly), and we still made it in time to successfully complete the run with 47 points and get our Q. Boy, was that a fun(ny) run! When I went to see the placement, I saw that the other dog in our jump height had a better time, but they took our original plan and only got 46 points, so that put us in the first place even though our run was a bit slower - yay Philip, good thinking on the 3-point jump =]

Great day over all, I had a blast and Philip definitely did better than on Saturday, I think he probably just didn't know what was going on at first. Now that the weekend is over, we are waiting to see the forecast for this upcoming weekend. We have our first AKC trial scheduled, but it's supposed to rain all week (already started today), so they aren't sure if they will go through with the trial or have to cancel it. Fingers crossed that the rain will pass by then, and the trial will be on, it's just too much fun and I wouldn't want to miss out!

Why Hello There

Wow, it's been almost a year since I posted anything here... I'm really not so great at this thing I guess, but I have something to share today!

Philip and I went to our very first Agility trial today. It was a USDAA trial and we ran 3 courses. It was a very long day - I woke up at 5:15am and left home by 6:15am to get to the site, set up, and be ready to check in by 7:15am.

Once we checked in, we were soon up and running our first course. It was a Starters Standard course and unfortunately Philip knocked the bar off of the first jump, which automatically disqualified us for that run, but we still finished the course and he did pretty good for the rest of it. He did have a minor hick-up at the weave poles, but that is pretty common with him, so it was expected. He also took a wrong course at the tricky part where the A-frame was set close to the jump. We were supposed to go over the jump, but he went for the frame. Oh well, all in all it was a good warm-up for us.

The second run of the day was Starters Gambler. This is a special run consisting of two parts - first is to gather points by doing whatever obstacles we want in 30 seconds, and second is to do the "gamble" which involves handling the dog from a distance. We started off great on the run and gathered up 23 points (18 minimum needed) before the buzzer to start the gamble. The gamble consisted of a jump, followed by two tunnels and another jump. Philip went over the jump and into the first tunnel like a pro, but he got confused at the second tunnel, so he had to run back to me and back out there. He did do the gamble correctly at the end, but unfortunately took just a bit too long with the detour, so we didn't qualify this run either (there is a time limit for the gamble).

Last run of the day for us was Starters Jumpers. In USDAA this consists of just jumps and tunnels, which are some of Philip's favorite obstacles. I was optimistic for this one, and for good reasons - we did great! We finished first with no faults at all - a great clean run and our first ever Q!!!

After all the ordeal, we got home around 3pm. Overall, I think it was a great first day. Tomorrow is the second day of the trial, and we'll be doing 3 more runs (standard, snooker, and pairs). I'll write all about it when we are back home.