Too...many...presents...

Here alone are 6 of his gifts... multiply that by at least 3 and we have Barney's first Christmas. :-)

Lovin' himself some Aunt Nicole

B-man scored this Christmas... big time.
But I think he liked the lovin' more than anything. :-)

My own little Sherlock... aka: the devil dog

Barney like big stick

These pictures kind of speak for themselves...
There are no wussy-dog sticks in Barney's vocabulary.
None at all...

Barney's new toy

Genelle dubbed it as "the most disgusting toy ever" but Barney just LOVED the squirrel Nicole brought him. It does do this strange-looking "paws-up" thing if laying on it's back... which is quite morbid... but all the more reason to love it as well.
And Barney is the only one who appears to be able to find the squeaker inside...

For Grandma

So Barney found the squirrel...

Goose report

Innards intact.
Or they were this morning...

Update:
Innards intact.
Honker gone.
:-)

Thank you Kendree, Kristi and Kyle!!!!

For Julie's birthday... Barney scored BIG TIME.
I can't even believe I got him to sit still long enough with all these goodies around him for this picture.
Just look at all the things we got with the gift card from Petsmart!!!
Barney will be occupied for months to come (or I'm hoping these last months).

Thank you so much Spisak clan!
You've made a doggie (and Julie) very happy!!!!!

Geese maybe aren't his thing...

So on my trip home this weekend, I made the routine trip to the Charleston Walmart... and found a funny stuffed goose, equipped with the most-realistic honker inside I think you can get for five bucks.

Barney, however, really wasn't that interested.

Although I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow morning and the thing will be gutted.


Here I'm wondering if he thought he might possibly be able to be closer to the ground than the goose...

Well, I can no longer say a guy has never gotten me flowers...

Barney no like fire

Barney did a fabulous "leave it" while he gave me my birthday cupcake. (Rather I sat it in front of him for this picture)
That is until the candle was lit.
Here it is, blown out... and him being rather nonchalant about it sitting next to him.
He needed a party hat.
Next year...

My dog... the Graduate

Mr. Barney is now a Adult I graduate... diploma and all!!!

I was on the fence as to whether or not we'd actually get to don the cap and gown (gown didn't fit... dang) due to the lack of time we had to practice the prior week—but he did me proud!

His final exam included:
1. Sit
2. Down
3. Stay
4. Touch (impressive seeing he now thinks any hand signal is "shake")
5. Shake
And the grand poomba finale...
6. "Leave it" with two treats, soft fish ones mind you (stink-a-roo), resting on both paws.

Yay, Barney!!!

Rockstar

So for the first time EVER (okay, so we've only had 5 classes so "ever" isn't really that long) Barney was the A student in class. It could have been the hot dogs and cheese the trainer brought especially for us to "help focus."

Hey, whatever... it worked.

Bizarre Love Triangle

After a night of, um, how shall we say slight hostility... all the dogs in the Darding household (Barney included) were just chillin' out... they all started getting along almost perfectly and seemed to want to have a little slumber party on the floor in the room I was staying in. Okay, maybe they wern't that loving towards each other... but I'll pretend they were.

Barney needs to work on his self confidence issues.
That was definitly something I learned needs a LOT of work.

Thanks for being patient, Maggie and Mel. We had tons-o-fun!!!

Reuniting with old friends...

For more Barney car boredom, well, I'm sure he at least saw it that way at first... we hopped in the car (yes, again) and drove down to visit Ryan just inside the Ozarks. I hadn't seen him for over ten years and was so thrilled he was around this weekend. Barney was given free reign of his massive yard while we caught up. (I'm sure Barney was reminiscing his recent homeless days and either being thankful for his new life, or wondering how he could run for it...)
He also got to be off leash in the park until the little guy started puking after eating who knows what kind of plant/mushroom/fungus that scared me half to death. He was fine... got that nasty stuff right out apparently. :-)

Ryan and I (and Barney) did make it to the cave.
I've been told I have 20 "Ryan hiking credits" left.
I'm keeping count! :-)

Barney hearts Coy

Barney found many reasons this weekend to ask me why the hell we live in Chicago.
Cheryl and Keith's coy pond was one of the many... I keep getting told Barney has it pretty good... I'm thinking these fish don't have it too shabby either. :-)

Becca (aka: the female dog whisperer)

Becca took Barney and I on a day of fun on our first day in St. Louis...
Barney is quite the traveler as he saw the Arch, did a drive-by of the new Busch Stadium (um, hello... gorgeous), ate some Ted Drewes, crashed tailgating for the Mizzou/Illini game that night and had a nice walk through Forest Park... oh, and got some good belly rubs. Not too shabby. :-)

Barney does St. Louis

My dog might soon smother me in my sleep, and that's only for this weekend alone. Who knows how much pent up anger we're going to work through outside of 12 hours in a car. :-)

He handled it like a champ, even became buds with Mel and Maggie after a bit of the "female dog whisperer" taking control. More to come...

Stand-Off

Barney went out for his late-night potty break last night and got into a bit of trouble when a nice, large, black dog walked by. So, in true doggie-class suck-up fashion, we marched straight inside to make him do "push-ups."

Almost 45 minutes later, you could find me standing in the exact same place I was when we started, staring down at him, waiting for him to complete "down"... and him in absolute refusal mode, falling asleep while standing up with his head hitting the wall occasionally in various nod-offs. Occasionally... just one eye would peer open ever so slightly to check to see if I was still there. Dang dog didn't lay down for 40+ minutes.

Strike that "he may be confused" statement our teacher said.

He's freaking stubborn.

He's learning, though, I am too... and I'm worse.

:-)

Who knew rope could be so exciting???

So in preparation for our little road trip this weekend, I was in the spoiling mood at Petco today. One of the many items in the basket was this lovely rope toy.

Um. How silly am I to have not gotten him one of these before?
It's like catnip for dogs.
Strange.

Best line from Doggie Class III

"You know, I'm starting to think it's not just Barney being stubborn... I think he's just confused."

So now, I officially have an A.D.D, stubborn, skittish and confused dog.
I'd like to work it down to just one or two adjectives. :-)

"Skittish behavior"

I'd like to send a shout out to the poor old lady Barney growled and lunged at on Monday night.

Our doggie class teacher is now on a personal communication level correcting "skittishness."
Or hopefully she is.

Baby steps...

So I can honestly say, we weren't the bottom of the barrel in class tonight.
I mean, come on... how could we be with this face?


Spoiled dog award goes here... I'm creating a monster.

Here's what you missed out on...

Meetin' more of the fam...

Air and Water was this weekend...
And Barney somehow managed to get through the roar of aircraft overhead. I think staring at boats, birds and just getting massive amounts of attention helped out a bit.

Barney got to share Aunt Cheryl's popsicle... well, he took over when she was done, anyway.


Jumping madly at Aunt Cheryl's noggin, scaring the bejesus out of her...


And Barney has a new friend... Kyle's shirt covered in fur at the end of the day proved it. :-)

First grooming appointment

Okay, so this picture is a couple of weeks old... but the smirk he's giving off is too priceless. He had just been Furminated, toe nails clipped and smelled like roses. :-) And he's darn cute in a bandana...

A.D.D. Dog

So I tried to "dress" him for his first day of school... the best I got was strapping the CARA backpack on him and laying a training book at his feet. My goal of making him wear glasses went out the window rather quickly... And oh look, his penis has come out to play. Lord. (wait... will I get in trouble for doggie porn now?)


Who knew I'd capture that dang thing on film... well, odds are actually in my favor. He can't keep it in his pants...

Anyway...
So in the "class supply requirements" it included the Gentle Leash.
You can see below where he'd like to tell me to stick said Gentle Leash.
Oh yes, he LOVED it.



Well... we made it through class one.
Barney either has a SEVERE case of A.D.D. or he's just plain stubborn. I'm thinking it's a bit of both. And it doesn't help there's a Barry in the class, but I'm not blaming the other dog yet.

I learned "yes" is the only good command.
He's a master of "sit"
Looks at me like a fool when I say "down"
IS good on the leash... at least we got one thing going for us! :-)
Wouldn't do "touch" for me or the trainer, so that at least made me feel better...

And, for the latter portion of the class, was apparently so done with it all... he let out a loud sigh and yawn, then stretched and rolled over on his back and just laid their with his bits exposed.

That's my dog.

Adult I class begins tonight

And no, it's not an adult film.
Barney will try his hand at basic obedience this evening... we'll see how well this goes.

He did do an amazing high five for the U.S. winning gold.
He knows athletics are a bit of a priority. :-)

Barney goes Andy Warhol

Okay, so this is really cheesey. But it was free. And PAWS got a donation for it. Who could resist?

Jessie invites Barney to the dog park...

Barney had the pleasure of being invited to Lake Forest today for a playdate with Jessie.
Katie and I have established that Barney is part deer as he likes to do a sort of Tigger hop/deer prance as he runs around.

This one I call... "Dogs Not Looking At The Camera"

Barney and Jessie resting in absolute muck. Then drinking it. Mmmm. Tasty.

This kind of looks like the opening of Lassie... but in color... and with a different dog.

He got in the water. Swimming must come later... I'm thinking if he saw Jessie go in after geese, we might still be waiting for them to get out of the water. But no geese today, only two ducks. Thank goodness...

I think he and Jessie will be pooped the rest of the day... if not longer.

Thanks, Katie and Jessie. And for the bath after. Hopefully you won't be finding fur for the next century... :-)

Interesting development

Barney is not fond of "doing his business" when it's raining.

I don't know if he can't smell the other dogs' pee or maybe he lives in fear of his scent being whisked away... Who knows. The dog won't relieve himself to save his life.

Even when I tried to get him next to a bush and lift his leg for him (yes, I did do this...SEVERAL TIMES) no dice.

No accidents, though.

Barney... now known as the dog with the bladder of STEEL.

You think I'm spoiled now???

When we got home, we had a big surprise for a "Barney Justison" in the form of a box in our mail area. And while we're trying to establish Barney like a Madonna or a Cher where one name says it all... Barney Justison's mail arrived in one piece and had waaaay too many fun things from our Aunt Cheryl.

Just look at all the play goodies I got—and this isn't even all of it! Julie even got a turbo lint roller which was way more exciting for her than me... I'm one happy pup. Wahoo!

Thank you, Aunt Cheryl!

Bye bye Chucktown!

Until we meet again...
(again, super thanks to Katie and Clarence!!!! Without whom this trip would not have been possible)

Fox Ridge—aka Squirrel and Rabbit Heaven

Last day in Chucktown... made a visit to Fox Ridge to tire the pooch out.
Mission accomplished.
Thought we were going to be able to have Barney pull Grandma up the final hill, but I think we found out Barney isn't a hill type-a-guy.

The flower shop van makes a pretty good doggie transport mobile...

Likin' this view thing again...


Mid-hill + No end not in sight = Panting dog