Our red carpet is green

Ahhhhh, summer. Around here, it means staying up late, sleeping in late, visits to the Sno Shack (nothing but the best in parking lot cuisine for us) and gracing the park with our acute sniffing abilities. Oh, did I mention that we take the dog?

We have a GREAT park closeby. For Boozer, it's pretty much Nirvana. I'm thinking it's what he's dreaming about when he lies in the middle of our floor, snoozing, and his legs start running without him. (Not as good as the YouTube dog, but still entertaining.)

Partly because Boozer enjoys the park so much, we, his humans, think it's pretty great too. So here's a pictorial representation of a classic outing to the park:

We take turns walking the beast...


He does a little exploration...

And a little more...


And rinse and repeat until you're at the end of your rope...

Then there's this...


Oh, and A LOT of this...


We are basically a walking freak show, and it takes us FOREVER to get around the park, due to human curiosity. Every ten feet we're stopped by someone, and we take turns fielding the questions. I sound like I'm complaining (because, let's face it, that's pretty much my job), but we really enjoy it. And Boozer? He thinks he's Mick Jagger. He loves every second of the petting, the cooing, the 'can my child sit on his back?' (Well, not that so much, but he'll usually put up with it once or twice.)

And least you think it's all about the canine at the park, here's a great shot of one of our humans:

Yes, we love the park, and we're just egotistical enough to think that the park loves us. After all, would it shine like this for just anyone? I think not!

Yeah, He's Biggish

I was wondering yesterday how many times a week I hear the term 'big dog.' Usually, I hear it in this sentence: "That is a BIG dog!" A lot of times I hear just a snippet of someone's sentence as they pass by, but that snippet always contains 'big' and I know what they are talking about. My favorite is when a car drives by and a big-eyed someone sees him. They're yelling at everyone else in car, and through their open window, it sounds something like this: "look at that big dog! It's huge!!"

I was out working in the front yard this weekend. I'm right there next to the road, and Boozer is resting in the shade. A car is going by, when it suddenly slows way down. I think "Oh look! It's our neighbors! They want to stop and say hi!" and I start waving and walking toward the car. That's when I see an unfamiliar man and woman in it, and they aren't looking at me. They and their dropped jaws are looking at the dog. He's behind a bunch of flowers and tucked back in the shadows, but somehow they saw him. I might as well be a potted plant. Hmph! I guess I should be glad that they're amazed by his incredible size, and not by mine!

We think Boozer is getting close to his final stature, but it's hard to tell. His breed can grow for up to 2 years, and he's only 18 months old. We haven't weighed him lately, but I'd guess he's around 150 lbs. That officially makes him the heaviest in our household. Add that to hairiest, hungriest, smelliest, mellowest. On a good day (when he hasn't chewed up, sneezed on, trampled over or vomitted on something I treasure), I'd have to also give him the cutest. Cute, ya know, in a ginormous drooling sort of way.

Here he is last night, after we all got home. He was so happy to see us, so he was running around like a madman, er dog.

Whatever. Hi. Now where do you hide your treats?

Thought I'd show you what an hour of my free time produces:



Isn't he so precious?? He also lifts his paw to shake when you say "Howdy" to him. He learns REALLY fast--like I said, it took me a total of an hour to teach him "play dead." Part of the reason he's so easy to teach tricks is that he's HIGHLY, highly, HIGHLY food-motivated. When he gets a hankering for a treat (which is 23 hours of every day), he'll actually start lifting his paw to you. First one, then the other, then the other, over and over again. People come in our house, and they're so impressed he wants to greet them with a howdy shake. Friendly, polite doggy!! In reality, he's hitting them up for a treat. Ya know, just in case they go through their day with a dog biscuit in their pocket. We should just teach him to hold a pistol, then he could get straight to the point, without any of that annoying human gushing.

Boozer is so food motivated that he'll go on hunger strikes for DAYS. If he gets a hold of one little piece of hot dog that rolled into the family room (it happens), he will refuse to eat his dry dog food. Instead, he'd rather hold out for the good stuff he's just sure is rolling his way any second. (If the kids were younger, that strategy would probably make sense--spilled food 24/7!) Then he'll get hungry, he'll paw us to death trying to instigate a howdy shake, we get annoyed, we put him outside, and he eats his own poop. Yes, this dog would rather eat THAT than stoop to eating the specialty liver, chicken and beef dog food we give him. I think even in the doggy world that is called irony.