Help with the Morning Paper

On a list I belong to I mentioned Skipper. This humorous image came out of the exchange.

On Dec 2, 2006, at 11:25 AM, Cheryl Phillips wrote:

... he's allowed to go out by himself to get the paper. It's pretty
handy really, saves me trips to the end of the driveway in my bathrobe
in the rain. I do have to bribe him with a dog biscuit in a treat toy
afterward so I can read it.

(visualize shaking head in been-there-done-

that fashion here) See?
just when you think you've got a good thing going, and then you find
out there's a price to pay...!

margie ;-) now laughing uncontrollably at the image of you in your
bathrobe trying to nab the paper and complete the bribe of the wet,
dripping and not yet shaken-out dog before he shakes himself out!

Updates

Friends and family have been asking when there would be new pictures posted of Skipper, so here are some from this summer:

He found this piece of plastic drainpipe and had a great time playing in the water with it...





In fact, he just had a great time with it all-around!

Wet Dog

I'm sitting here working tonight soaked to the knees. Skipper and I went down to Lake Washington and he retrieved the ball out of the water for a while. He was a little hesitant at first, there were waves from the boat wakes breaking on the small beach where we go, but he wanted the ball, so he snatched it up from near the shore.

We had only been there about 10 minutes when a man came along with his lab and played fetch with his dog. Skipper promptly decided that if that dog could do it so could he. Actually Skipper did a better job than the lab. The lab kept leaving his ball floating and trying to take Skipper's. Skipper could actually swim faster and would overtake the other dog and take his ball out of the older dog's mouth! The other owner was getting a little frustrated. I thought about leaving, but decided that both dogs needed practice working with distractions.

After about 20 minutes I took Skipper up to the car, switched to a regular leash (I work him on a 20' rope in the water - it floats and I just let it go, but I can step on it when he comes out if he doesn't come directly back to me). Then we took a very slow walk along the waterfront. He does "heel" pretty well in the street at home or in the field behind the house, but is having a terrible time where there are lots of people and dogs. There were plenty of both tonight. After a quarter of an hour he was paying better attention to me which was enough to ask. We'll go again soon.

Skipper waits paitently for me to open the gate so we can go for our morning walk.
Cheryl Phillips 2005

Landfill adventures

Skipper and I go out twice most days and circle the landfill behind the
house. He has lots of opportunity to stretch his legs, investigate "stuff",
and play with other dogs. There's a pretty good size community of people
who walk their dogs there daily.

There are lots of interesting props too, large puddles when it's been
raining, (Mud!), rocks and bleachers and cement blocks for climbing on, old
chunks of pipe to run through, and of course sticks, like this surveyor's
stake that he's found. He didn't really pull it up. Someone else had done
that before he found it, who knows where it really belonged.

--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.9 - Release Date: 5/12/2005

Probably they didn't want that survey stake there anyway!
James Welton 2005

Skipper at Tom's with the new rope toy Lori gave him.
Cheryl Phillps 2005

Playing with Joanne

Skipper and Joanne from next door spent a good half-hour today running in
circles around the yard. Joanne ended up happy because Skipper got tired
enough to lie down and let her pet him. Skipper was happy because he
convinced someone to run around with him for a half hour.

New Blog

Ok,
Skipper turned 8 months last week.
The grass in the landfill is up to my chest now. He loves to run through it, but there are no pictures, because all you can see is the grass waving, with an occasional view of his head when he jumps up to see where he is. I did take some pictures of him last week though. Let's see if this works.

Well, it doesn't seem to just yet. I'm off to a meeting