More of Blaze singing

Another song for Blaze's first album.

Here We Come A-Caroling...

So, when unpacking I uncovered my old tin whistle, which I haven't played in a long time. I picked it up initially when I was travelling through Ireland in 1994 and have messed around with it now and again over the years, but as with all things musical, I am pretty hopeless (as you will notice in the video). But when I found it I started playing a little, and a couple of songs came back to me. I noticed that when I started to play Blaze came running, and part way through a song, I heard a low howl accompanying me just for a moment from his bed in the corner of my office. Over the last couple of weeks I have picked up the tin whistle a few times and encouraged Blaze to sing along. This morning I decided to try to capture the moment and in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, I thought I would share Blaze's lovely singing voice with everyone (seriously, he is far less tone deaf than either Dan or I). Enjoy!

Old Dogs, New Tricks

At our recent housewarming party, Tazzy managed to win over everyone with her charm, good looks, and baby-sitting skills. She had three young children, who we were initially told were afraid of dogs, playing with her all night, she was super tolerant, and soaked up the attention, as well as the bounty of food they managed to drop for her. Even Dan's boss admited later that he is afraid of dogs, but thought she was simply wonderful. Tazzy then proceeded to provide some evening entertainment for everyone by showing off some of her tricks. Blaze accompanied her a little, but because of the number of people, and specifically, the number of scary little people known as children, he didn't get to stay out for most of the party.

As mentioned previously, the idea of training a dog is a bit novel here, so perhaps the crowd was easily swayed, but everyone seemed impressed by their little circus dog act. One women said to me " You must have trained them when they were very young, when they could learn so many things." She was suprised when I said that both of them were rescues that we adopted, and that we didn't think either of them had much training as puppies. She was even more surprised when I told her that they continue to learn new tricks all the time. The week before the party, they each learned a new trick. When I tell Tazzy "Shhh" she now lays on her side and puts her head all the way down, and on hearing "relax" Blaze lays down and rests his head either on the floor or on his paw. They love to learn, and mostly they are limited by my imagination trying to figure out what I should get them to do. But don't worry, I'll keep working on it.

Tazzy's bored...

So this morning I was in the kitchen unpacking groceries, when I heard talking that sounded like it was coming from inside the house. I was pretty sure I didn't have either unannounced visitors (Blaze would never allow that) or ghosts (he probably wouldn't allow that either), so I walked into the living room to find out what was going on. Tazzy looked at me from her spot on the couch, wiggled, then went back to what she was doing when I entered the room, which, apparently, was watching television. She was lying on top of the remote, watching FOX (and she really did look like she was watching it). Luckily, at least we don't get FOX news here, mostly just Simpsons and House repeats, so at least it was safe for her to watch. A few minutes later she came strolling into the kitchen, so I guess her curiosity was satisfied.

For now I am going to chalk this up as an accident, but if it happens again I will start to wonder...

My Fearless Protector

Blaze is the type of dog that needs a job to do. He thinks his job is to protect Tazzy and I from anyone (or anything) that might harm us. Sometimes this can be a problem, because his idea of what might harm us can be very different than mine. For example, he is very wary of new people, though he is getting much better, and I taught him the phrase "go say hi" to make him go and let the new person touch him so he can see that they mean us no harm. He is also scared of some objects, so he has learned "touch" to go and make sure things like the plastic bag blowing in the wind is not going to swallow any of us whole.

Here in Portugal he has found a new enemy, and spends a good part of his day defending against them for me. You see, our house here has no screens, and with the extremely pleasant weather we have been having, I have been working with the sliding glass doors open for much of the day. This causes the occasional uninvited visit from some very large (and very loud) house flies. One day I was sitting and working at my computer, when Blaze lounged straight at the glass door, worried, I went to see what he was up to, and he did it again. Then I noticed the fly, Blaze was watching it intently, and when it came low enough, he went for it. Each time he missed by a couple of feet, as the fly was too quick for him. It went on for about 10 minutes, until, finally, he was victorious, and the fly became a late afternoon Blaze snack. He then looked at me with a guilty look on his face, as though he ate something he wasn't supposed to, so I told him "good boy," which made him very happy. He has since continued to serve as my diligent protector from flies, and his accuracy, speed and skill for fly catching has increased dramatically. Now Tazzy even joins in the game occasionally, though she does not take it as seriously as Blaze. Recently I even saw him lying half in and half out of the sliding door, and he nabbed one on the threshold, before it even had a chance to explore the house. He seems to enjoy the game, and I enjoy the fly-free house, for which I concede the dog-nose smudge marks on the sliding door. And each time I see him catch one, I tell him "good boy" and he gets very excited for a moment, but then the excitement passes, after all, he has a job to do.

Awww...

Sorry for the double post in both blogs...but I thought this picture was pretty cute. Tazzy is definitely one of the cuddliest dogs...ever. When I decided I couldn't take anymore of the hard plastic lawn furniture that we currently have in the living room until our furniture arrives, I tried to make myself comfortable on the floor to watch TV (and then nap). Not only did she let me use her as a pillow for quite some time, she then allowed me to position her on my feet when I went to bed and stayed there for most of the night (I was cold and wasn't feeling well). What a good girl.

Playing on the beach

As promised...a couple of pictures playing on the beach. The first is Blaze chasing Tazzy through the shallow surf. While Blaze usually takes this game very seriously, and is very focused, Tazzy usually has a big grin on her face, and just seems to have a good time running.

Here the dogs entertain themselves by wrestling while Dan and I read.

I'm not sure what it is about the beach, but humans and dogs alike seem to love it. We meet lots of doggy playmates there, though several of them have followed us down the beach quite a ways while we run. Usually with their owners yelling futilely behind them and the dogs very blatantly ignoring them. I guess not everyone has worked on recall as much as they should. While Tazzy has surprised a couple of people by putting her nose in their book when they haven't looked up to give her attention, they have both been very well-behaved on the beach. They haven't stolen any food, followed people they shouldn't have, and are even getting much better at waiting to say hi to dogs until released.