A.J. continues to amaze me. I’ve mentioned before that he has climbed trees. The trees that he’s climbed don't have trunks that stand straight up, they’re at an angle of around 35 or 40 degrees (90 degrees being a perfectly straight tree). I’ve been saying he climbs trees, but really he’s just been running up into …
Tag: funny things
Whose Turn to Guard the House?
We had a thunderstorm very early this morning. I would have slept right through it, but A.J. made sure to let me know what was going on. When I woke up to his barking I was sleepy enough not to care what it was about. I told him “Shush,” petted him for a moment (since …
Yuck! I Mean, Yum!
A.J. will eat almost anything. I’ve tried to teach him not to just grab anything that hits the ground. This works in the house. If we’re in the kitchen and I drop something, he’ll wait a moment and make sure it’s okay with me before he picks it up and eats it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t …
Another Trip to the Airport
A few months ago I took A.J. to the airport with me to pick up Greg after a business trip. A.J. was the star of the airport. Shortly after that trip I read an article about programs at airports around the country where they bring in therapy dogs to calm and cheer up passengers. For various reasons, …
A Walking Sideshow
I can’t imagine there is anyone who spends any time around dogs and really pays attention to them who isn’t constantly entertained by them. When I got my first dog I saw all the funny and interesting things she did and thought I’d get used to it within a month or so. But in the …
The Things We Say
“I’m going out to get the monkey before it gets dark.” Sometimes I surprise myself when I actually pay attention to what I’ve just said. Today we were cleaning out boxes of old junk. Greg ran across a stuffed monkey he’d picked up as a promotional giveaway at a conference years ago. Deciding it wasn’t …
Time to Wake Up
When we first brought A.J. home as a one-year-old, he tried to get attention by crying. He cried A LOT. That included waking me up in the morning when he decided it was time to get up. But I slowly taught him that whining was never going to get him what he wants, and he eventually stopped crying …
Just a Little Attention
We put up a Christmas tree over the weekend. Normally changes around the house don’t seem to bother A.J., but this time, well, he was a bit … needy. We went for our usual walk on Monday morning. After lunch I needed to leave to go finish my Christmas shopping. Normally when I leave A.J. …
A.J. Gets Tangled Up…Again
Well, he finally did it. We’ve had run-ins with the soccer goal net before, but today A.J. managed to get himself completely tangled. We let A.J. loose on the field behind the school across the street. He was doing his usual sniffing around looking for interesting things when he found something very interesting: the remains of someone’s …
A.J. Helps Me Paint
Today I finally got around to painting the door that has A.J.’s dog door in it. (Yes, it’s been two months since the door was put in. What’s your point?) I taped around the door and then wandered back and forth between the patio and the garage to get paint, brushes, drop cloths, etc. A.J. …
AJ the Springer 