The dog next door

I don't understand the Labradoodle next door. Actually, she lives behind us. A fence separates her yard from my woods. She comes outside and always trots over whenever she sees me outside. Then she stops about six feet from the fence and sits down.

Why doesn't she come up to the fence to greet me? 

She paces back and forth sometimes. Once, when the snow was over two feet deep she very...carefully... put one paw in front of the other...stopped... put another paw out, kept looking at the ground, and slowly...made her way to the fence.

We touched noses. We turned around and sniffed rear ends. We played all day running along the fence, stopping to sniff, then running some more. What fun!

The snow melted and she never ventures near my fence. She acts like she is afraid of the fence. My fence is just a wire fence - the kind you can see through. Deer fencing, Mom calls it. There are big squares about four inches wide in the wire.  There is plenty of room to stick your nose through and do a proper greeting, but my next door neighbor never comes close to the fence.

Mom says my friend doesn't come near my fence because the Labradoodle has an invisible fence that is about a foot away from my wire fence, but I know there is no such thing as an invisible fence. After all, I'm a Doberman and too smart to believe in invisible fences. 

When Mom's sick, it's a bummer

Mom's been sick for over a week with bronchitis.

Everyone else is trying to help me out, but no one else has the time to take me on runs, take me to Obedience class or take me to playgroup. Dad is trying - he takes me out to the backyard to kick around the Jolly ball, but he doesn't have much time because he has to work, then cook dinner, then clean up after dinner, then grade papers and in between help Mom.

Being sick stinks - even when it's not you that's sick.

Jolly Ball

This week Mom brought home a jolly ball to replace my soccer ball that is now a deflated piece of remnant leather. At first we all thought the Jolly ball would be Doberman safe, but it turned out that the jolly ball, which does not deflate as promised, is not alas, Doberman safe.

It felt good to sink my teeth into the Jolly ball. I liked to get the ball into my teeth and chomp down. I could carry the ball around in my moth and had a great time. However, one night in about 5 minutes I was able to chew off a small part of the handle. After that I was on a mission. Every chance I got I chewed on that hole until the entire handle was off!

The handle came off in small bits I couldn't choke on. And Mom never gave me the ball when I was alone to make sure I didn't get in trouble.

There is one good thing about not having the handle though - now the Jolly ball rolls much better. Jolly well, in fact! 

sitting in the corner

Well, its official - I've been kicked out of agility class. Mom tried to help - she took me to distracting locations to practice obedience. It helped - everyone said that I was great in obedience class. In fact, the teacher said I was the star of the class! But, sit me down in front of an obstacle, take off the leash and I turn and make a beeline over to the other dogs to play! Hey, I like dogs. After all, I am one!

Apparently this is not the point of agility class. 

Last week when I just wanted to play with the other dogs, my teacher banned me to the corner. I had to sit and stay on lealsh while everyone else got to do tunnels, jumps, and the other obstacles. 

Mom kept me to the side and we did obedience training - the entire time. It was okay. I got lots of treats. The trainer says I need to grow up some before trying agility again.

It the meantime we are doing obedience and that isn't bad. I'm really good at obedience class.