103 posts tagged “havybeaks”
This past weekend I took some photos of the dogs playing in the snow. They were like little kids running around. Haven's happy jumping as she catches a snowball in her mouth.
Here Beacon's fetching his Orbee ball and Haven's "attacking" him.
After getting tired and hot from fetching Beacon decided to cool off in the snow.
Eventually Andrew hit Beacon with a snowball. He didn't really try to get out of the way and ended up taking it on the side of his face. I actually got a photo!
There was also digging in snow piles for the Orbee ball.
And of course Haven did her exploring, which usually leads to snow on her face.
On Sunday Andrew built a snowman for Beacon to "attack". Beacon's very serious about these attacks. You can watch a video of Beacon taking on the snowman here.
Starting tonight another storm will hit us. It'll last until Thursday afternoon or evening! There will be rain, freezing rain, and snow so things will be a mess. Eventually we'll get a decent dumping of snow before it's all over.
This morning was the annual running of Bailey's Doggie Dash. Andrew hasn't been running much at all this year due to a back injury so he decided to enter the costume contest. He has had this idea for a couple of years but finally got costumes this year. Andrew's race number this year was a cool one. His birthday month and year.
Since we call Haven Miss B when she's naughty (get it - Miss B Haven) the bee costume is fitting. Andrew had to be a sunflower to go along with her. They ended up placing fourth in the costume contest.
These two collies have creative costumes each year. One year they were "collie flowers" with head gear similar to Andrew's! The football player took first place and the cheerleader took second in the costume contest. A pirate was in third place even though we thought Haven should have been there if the collies were going to be first and second. Haven was doing her screaming while being *judged* so we told her she got points taken off her score for her behavior. You can see video of Haven screaming here.
Once the race started Haven settled in. But Andrew said that she was mad that they weren't running as fast as they usually do!
After the race we hung out while waiting for everyone to finish. Haven was all over getting treats and watching the people. She didn't mind all of the dogs but they weren't as interesting.
Back at home we took our yearly photo of Andrew and Haven in front of the burning bush with whatever they took home from the race that year.
After throwing a ball at the bumper it eventually came down. Now both dogs are happily sleeping - Beacon in a sunbeam and Haven on a double decker soft bed.
More photos that I took this morning can be seen in my Doggie Dash Flickr album.
My parents and Zeke came for a visit yesterday. When we went out for lunch we left Zeke uncrated. This is the first time that he has been uncrated here. He's used to being out of a crate at my parents' house so we decided to try it out here. Only one thing was disturbed when we got home.
Well, two. One was Haven though. She took the exercise ball off the love seat. Miss B. likes to get up there when we're gone and has discovered that if she knocks a ball off she can get up there. Stinker. The only thing that Zeke did was pull stuffing out of one of the dog beds. The beds are old so it wasn't a big deal. When we went out for dinner we moved the beds into a room where the door was closed. Nothing was disturbed the second time other than Haven once again removing one of the balls off the love seat.
Both times we set up to the Pets Eye View camera. Overall nothing interesting was caught. There are a couple shots of Beacon chewing on Haven's ears though!
It was finally not raining and some sun was shining in the afternoon after about a week of rainy weather. Beacon enjoyed some fetching. Haven sniffed around and tried to avoid Zeke nipping at her legs. Zeke was either chasing after Beacon or Haven trying to get them to play.
By the time we were done playing with the dogs in the backyard they were all tired.
My parents picked Zeke up yesterday. After spending 10 nights with us we weren't sure he would want to go home. He loved being around the big dogs and playing with them. Although now Beacon and Haven seemed happy to have their quiet house back. Zeke's a good dog and they like him but he's a little busier than they are.
Zeke liked trying to get Haven to play with him. His way of telling her he wanted to play was to bite her feet and legs. Haven's so patient and kind that she just let him do this without telling him that she was annoyed. Zeke would try this approach with Beacon, who let him know this was unacceptable behavior. Consequently Zeke "annoyed" Haven a lot more than Beacon. Eventually Haven would put Zeke in his place a little but not enough to get him to leave her alone.
We took Zeke to the dog park twice and once to another park where I walked a mile loop with him. He learned the "sit"command while he was here. We started to try and teach him "through the hoop" but he was having no part of those lessons. By the end of each day he was here with us he was worn out. I'm sure he's looking forward to coming back to camp.
There are white things floating down from above but it's not snow. It's cottonwood seeds. On the side of our yard we have a cottonwood tree behind out house in the woods off to the side. Every year for at least a couple of weeks the seeds float around. At times they look cool. At times they're a pain, especially when mowing.
This tall tree started dropping seeds last week. I don't think we've reached the height of all of the things floating around. There are still a lot of cotton clumps all over the tree.
I was on my belly in the grass taking photos of all the seeds in the grass. Andrew and the dogs were also outside. The dogs started playing and kept trying to use me as a home base. In order to not get jumped on or have the camera knocked out of my hand I decided to go vertical. There were a few stare downs next to me.
The dogs were also interested in the fuzzy things on the grass. Or there may have been some good smells. There was a lot of sniffing.
But it always went back to running around the yard until they were too tired and hot. I had been taking shots of the seeds in the grass when they started this round of chase so the camera settings weren't set up for an action shot. But I like how this turned out anyway.
We'll see how long these seeds fall this year.
Yesterday and today we've been celebrating the sixth birthday of the dogs. Haven was born on June 8th. Beacon was born after midnight so technically his birthday is today, the 9th. Typically we have a two day celebration for them each year.
Part of that celebration means breaking out the party hats. The dogs aren't too thrilled with this part of the festivities but they're good sports.
Yesterday we gave each dog roast beef from Arbys. This is Haven's favorite being the treat hound. The treat came complete with a Gummy Bear "candle". I'll give them something special tonight too. I also played fetch with Beacon int he backyard this afternoon. Haven was too interested in sniffing things to care about retrieving.
If you're interested you can see more photos that I've taken of the dogs wearing hats (and a video of the roast beef consumption) at the end of this Flickr album.
Tuesday afternoon Amber, a former foster dog, was dropped off to spend a week with us. We fostered her a little over two years ago when she was about four months old. This is what she looked like in March 2007.
All three dogs "helped" plant things in our various gardens Tuesday evening. Hopefully sometime I'll find the time and motivation to post about that. So yesterday was a pretty lazy day. And so far today has been much of the same. Amber has sniffed around the yard with Haven and has napped in the sun with Beacon.
Beacon and Haven have adjusted to having a third dog in the house again. Last night all three of them were packing around me as I sat on the floor watching TV. Beacon was even right next to Amber and let her touch him. That's a definite sign that he has accepted a "strange" dog in the house.
Haven continues her silly antics of rolling around the grass. She always looks so happy while she does it. But all of that rolling around can wear one out so there's always time for napping in the sun.
And Beacon has taken to hanging out in a garden area we turned over but have left empty for now. It's a good spot to survey the yard.
It's hard being a dog in our house.
The dogs love being outside when it's nice. They'll actually tap on the door and ask to go out. Not to go to the bathroom or chase some animal they see too close to the fence but to hang out in the sun. Haven enjoys sunbathing more than Beacon but they'll both hang out in the sun looking around if I'll let them.
Lately the dogs have been doing what we call the death roll in the backyard. That's when they smell something and feel that they need to roll in/on it. Usually this happens when they discover something stinky while out hiking with us. I'm not sure what they're rolling in when it happens in the backyard. I don't see anything in the grass so it must be some scent. I wonder what animal or animals have gone through the backyard overnight. They seem to focus on the same spot or spots for a couple of days and then move on if they find another area that's roll worthy.
Haven also likes to roll on her back in the grass. Sometimes when she's in death roll mode and sometimes just to be silly. She closes her eyes and takes it all as if this is the best thing in the world. To her it may be other than Arby's roast beef.
It's finally starting to feel like spring might be here. And that it may actually stick around. I say it's about time. It's only 50 degrees outside now but it almost feels hot. I'm hoping that our highs in the 30s from earlier this week are gone until late fall.
With sun and warmer temps the dogs love being outside. They look at birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer, and whatever else roams around outside. Lots of new smells to explore as well.
Then the antics begin.
Now that I'm pretty much back to normal following my surgery I've been able to mess around more with the new camera. :)
Last weekend Andrew and I purchased a National Geogrphic Pet's Eye View pet cam at Target for $30. It's technically a kid's toy but we fit the over age 8 requirement for use. We've had it on both dogs a few times. I should post some of the photos they captured at some point.
The camera doesn't take the best quality photo but it's still fun to see things from the dogs' point of view. Although we have to make sure the dogs are going to be active when using this camera or we just get black images because the lens is covered up when the dogs are sleeping. You can set the camera to take a photo at a 1, 5, or 15 minute interval. The camera can hold up to 40 photos. So far we've only used the one minute setting.
Tonight we went out for dinner and decided to set up the camera so that it was focused on the couch. We wanted to catch Haven in the act of sleeping up there while we're gone. She knows she's not supposed to be on the couch but whenever we don't put things on the cushions she gets up there when left unattended. And recently she has even started moving magazines around or pushing them onto the floor in order to sleep on the couch. She earns her Miss B Haven nickname when it comes to seeking out softness.
Everything looks fine. One of the dogs is right next to the couch. So far so good.....
Caught in the act!! Haven's on the couch. And Beacon's on a bed on the floor looking like he wants nothing to do with Haven's antics.
Haven is still on the couch and Beacon has fled the scene. The 19th photo that the camera took has Haven on the couch. So apparently (or at least this time) she waited to make sure we weren't coming right back. The remaining photos on the camera all look the same as far as Haven goes. She's in the same position and doesn't move. It's likely that she spent her time on the couch until she heard the garage door open upon our return.