Colts games, sheep herding and Gigantic Monuments!

Sanders is loving to stick his head out of the window more and more as we take trips places. We think it is because it is the one time his vision is not impaired. See our not-so-aerodynamic pooch:




Our friends, Kim and Andy, invited us to attend the Colts last preseason game at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis. WOW! The stadium is AMAZING! We were still about 4 blocks away when we snapped this picture:
Tony and his friends bought a brick outside of the stadium this year.


We didn't think we'd get to see too many of the main Colts team playing..but they were there and down on the field. Here is our hero...Bob Sanders:

And here is Peyton just warming up:

Here is Tony enjoying the breeze from the open window at the North end of the stadium:Kim and Andy during the game:

The lights as we were leaving the stadium:

This past week, I was on the road a lot. I traveled to St. Louis and en route, saw the LARGEST crucifix I've ever seen. It was easily 3 times the height of a semi truck! I had to laugh when I saw this thing! It is just outside of Effingham, Illinois on I-70.

Then in St. Louis, I drove by the St. Louis Arch...another huge monument! I had to laugh again! The I headed to Louisville, but unfortunately do not have the third in the trifecta of gigantic monumants photographed. There, I saw the HUGE bat sitting outside of the Louisville Slugger Museum. The bat is like 5 stories tall. I think more people in the world need to make these huge monuments. Who doesn't like unneccessary over the top super sized stuff?

This week we have been teaching Sanders a new command for the Colts first regular season game. The command is HIGH FIVE. See how cool he looks when he does it on game day :


We watched our first regular Season Colts game together cheering on Bob Sanders. This was in the first quarter, when we could still think there was hope:


I think I have decided what I'll be for Halloween. Little Bo Peep. Seriously, I think this was #2024 on my list of "things I never imagined I'd end up doing". Herding sheep....Really? As a shepherdess? Get Real...yet I did it (Herding stick and all), and plan to do it some more. It is so funny to watch a dog, who has been genetically bread since like 900AD, do what he was designed to do! It kind of plays to my interest in genetics...but as our loyal subscribers know, there is no way we can pass along his genes...so if he ends up being the best herder dog ever..it will end with him. And he will live in infamy....*smack* OK wait, back to reality. Like I mentioned before, Sanders loved the first sheep herding class. We went to Stockdog University in Muncie. Ferreh (who runs the place) is so good!! We decided to go back the next day so that Tony could see him run around. He was so excited to do it, but after getting a little too close to the sheep, we whacked him on the nose...so he decided to go off and pout for a few minutes. He was trying to figure out what he had done wrong...and he did figure it out. He now knows not to run the sheep INTO the fence, just around inside of it.

Here is Sanders getting ready to go into the sheep pen:

Sanders running after sheep:

Sheep Herding!

I don't have any pictures right now....but we just got back from our FIRST attempt at sheep herding ever. It was sooo fun and exciting! Sanders LOVES SHEEP!

Do we have any loyal subscribers out there?

Yes, it has been WAAAYYYY too long since we have posted anything on our blog. Things were so busy during the month of July. It is a relief to have August here...even though it is really really hot (which Sanders does not like).

Let's catch you up on the happenings in Sanders' life!

First, we gave Sanders a bath around July 1st. Thought it was about time to do it...then on July 2nd, he went and found some other smelly substance (dead animal? Rotten vegetation? who knows....) and decided he preferred that odor to the nice perfumey smelling shampoo we'd washed him in. So he proceeded to bask in that not-so-delicious-to-humans smelly thing right before we left for the July 4th weekend, where we were staying at Tony's brother's house. So, my nieces and I got to give Sanders ANOTHER bath (which, he loves....not so much). This time, we had 8 hands involved instead of 2. (Yes, there are only 6 below. 2 of them are taking the picture).


I think the entire time we were sudsing up Sanders, he was thinking "Please help me....if anyone from PETA out there gets ahold of these pictures....Please help me. They are removing that wonderful scent from me that I worked so hard to find and roll in"

After washing/rinsing Sanders in the bath (where we didn't have a special hose to rinse quickly), somehow, someone (or 3 someones) made him look very L.A.

After stepping out of the bath, he gives another pleaful look to anyone out there who can help:
Yes, I think in this picture, he is thinking "Why didn't they name me MATT?" After this bath, his ENTIRE coat/hair turned into one enormous mat. It was HORRIBLE. They say some Pulis get their cords/dreadlocks in over the course of a few months....Because of the 2 baths in a week and the way the planets were aligned, Sanders got his overnight. He was sooo matted after this. We have been spending about an hour a night just pulling apart the mat little by little into some sort of ordered dread locks. They are starting to look a lot better now.

So.....with Sanders clean, we were able to head to Louisville for the long weekend with a good smelling dog. Sanders quickly realized that Rob has a bird named Buddy. He wanted to play with Buddy so badly. We decided it probably wasn't a good idea, because one chomp, the bird would be gone, and one peck and the dogs eye would be bloody. So we let Buddy play the role of Tweetey and Sanders played the role of Sylvester. Looks just like a scene out of your latest Looney Toons, doesn't it?



We went to the Old Fashioned Celebration just down the road from Rob's house. We took Sanders and he loved all the smells and people. He also loved the attention. These two cute girls wanted to hug him. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap this shot!
And what great fair, isn't complete without a snow cone? Certainly not this one! We got a snow cone for Sanders to enjoy:

Look at how properly he eats the snow cone:


We started getting rained on just before the fireworks! So we took a trolley back to the intersection close to Rob's apartment. They even let Sanders ride!

The next weekend, we went to the annual Hancock County 4-H fair. With my nieces back from Texas, they were able to have all their baked goods judged again this year, and then auctioned off in the food auction. Unfortunately, I didn't get to buy too much of their stuff...I did get a Cherry pie that Jess made. It was delicious (made from the cherries from the tree in front of her house). I also got to bid on a cake that Tony pointed out to me. Doesn't it look like this cake has a black and orange Puli dog on it? Weird, huh? I wonder what the little kid intended for these to be...caterpillars? Surely, not Pulis....

We've been going through obedience classes with Sanders. He is getting pretty good! On Tuesday of this week, he got his diploma for the Novice class. On Saturday, we are starting with Agility classes. And on Wednesdays we'll be doing the Advanced Obedience classes. I decided I want to try to start training him so I can take him to Nursing Homes or to the Children's hospital. He is such a nice dog, I'm sure people will enjoy looking and petting this strange little guy...as long as he hasn't went out and found his favorite scent!

Below is a picture of Tony and Sanders getting ready to heel.
Below, Sanders is in a 5 minute down stay with many other dogs
Here, Sanders is coming to Tony and finishing up with a By-heel. Sanders was picked as one of the fastest dogs in the class! Yep, he's little, but really fast...just like Bob Sanders!!!

The other thing we've been busy with has been getting ready for my mom and dad's anniversary party. We were cutting up boat loads of veggies last Friday. Sanders even got into the fun of it all and was helping. He carried some of each vegetable into the living room and put them in piles. See the onion, cauliflower, broccoli, and cucumber peel?

My mom and dad looked so beautiful for their 50th wedding anniversary!


Here is the cake I made...there was none left!!!!!
We also got Sanders a bed earlier in July....he doesn't really sleep in it much, but he knows when we say "bed" that he is supposed to go lay in it. I think it makes him hot.

I've been really busy with my garden. Sometimes Sanders comes out and helps me with things. Here he is standing around, smelling the wind in front of my Tomatoes!
I've also got quite the orchard going. My trees are absolutely loaded this year! Look at all these peaches that were on just one of my trees! I picked 3 bushels from this tree! It made a great filling in mom and dad's cake.

My pear trees are also loaded....only 3 more weeks until I get to eat those!!! YUMMY!!

Here is a close up of some of the peaches.

I also have some grape vines. This is the best they've ever done! I've managed to keep the bugs/japanese beetles away for quite some time now. Pretty, aren't they?

I thought this was funny. I came in from picking peaches one day, and I found Sanders laying at the front door...not sleeping, just keeping one eye open to see what was going on. He had no desire to get up and say hi. What a lazy dog! :) In case you can't tell....he is on his back, and nose is facing the camera with one eye open. His legs are in the air and one is against the wall. It's getting harder and harder to tell which end is which!

Oh yes, and Sunday after everything was finished for the anniversary party, Sanders joined me in the backyard to check on the fruit trees. He managed to pick up an apple and chew on it. Guess my dog is a healthy eater. He likes his fruit!

And here we are just glad to be finished with the chaos that July had for us. We finally got to spend some time together!

And with that, the Colts' first preseason game was Sunday. Sanders had to put on the uniform!!

Oh boy! A Road Trip!

With a beautiful weekend forecasted, we decided to pick up our nieces and pack the tent and dog and head down to Lincoln State Park. It is in Southern Indiana, about an hour west of Louisville, and 5 minutes from Holiday World, home of the #1 wooden Roller coaster on the planet and an awesome water park! So, of course we had to go to Holiday World....what an awesome park. It has to be the cleanest park, and is such a perfect place to take the family! With tickets being only $35 (with a Pepsi Can), you get access to the amusement park and water park, free sunscreen, all you can drink Pepsi beverages. Food is so affordable (5 of us had a BIG lunch for less than $30, and each had ice cream with sprinkles for less than $10!). Also, you can bring your dog, and leave them in the Holidog Inn (=AC dog kennel and you can come back and say hi to your dog throughout the day!) for only $10! The park was a blast! Tony took a really cool video while he was riding the Voyage. I'll try to get it uploaded to Youtube.

Sanders did pretty good camping. He loved all the smells and getting to sleep in the tent with the 5 of us. We had Pizza Pudgy Pies that Cyndi taught us how to make. We only burnt the first 2 :). And, we all learned that cast iron will get completely red and hot if left in the fire! Those are the pudgy pie irons in the picture below!!!! Weird how they're glowing, isn't it?

It was funny when we took him on walks. He looks like a little bear cub being walked around on a leash....check out the picture of him:
And the picture of the baby bear cubs we saw a few years ago in Sequoia National Park:
They look related, don't they?

A week ago, we went to Rod and Carissa's house for a wonderful dinner. We brought Sanders over to play with Heather's dog....and they had a blast!

New Bed(s), New Bone, New Training

The weekend after Memorial Day, we did some more spring cleaning. Jen and I took a trip to the laundromat to wash the large cushions from our kitchen chairs and our comforter. THANK GOD we have a washer and dryer. Regular trips to laudromat would s-u-c-k. Our comforter didn't get all the way dry, so Jen hung it out over a couple lawnchairs rather than spend another hour at the God-forsaken laundromat. Sanders decide to use the lawnchair/comforter tent as his own temporary doghouse and took a nap in there.

While we were out doing laundry, we made a stop by Mendards and while we were there, we bought Sanders a HUGE bone. Jen calls it his dino bone. Let me tell you, he loves it. We just left it in the backyard, but he became obsessed with it. When we let him out to go to the bathroom, he'd just run straight to the bone and lie down with it rather than using the bathroom. Then when he came inside, he'd keep standing at the door and barking wanting to go back out and get it. So we had to pick it up and hide it from him. We still give it to him every so often, and he hasn't made a dent in chewing it up, yet. We also gave him a large rawhide bone, which he has eaten. I've recently found out that rawhide is BAD for your dog, though, so please don't buy any rawhide. It can form a blockage inside their intestine and cause major damage. Luckily, no such blockage with Sanders.


Also, a funny thing happened while we were at the dog park. There's a gazebo at the dog park with a wrought iron railing around it, the base of the railing extending down to about 6" from the ground. Sanders was playing with a small, white terrier. Sanders was chasing him and was right on his heels. The terrier ran towards the gazebo and ducked under the railing... SMACK. Sanders hit it at full-on. His head stopped and his hind end kept right on moving forward until it looked like he was doing a handstand. HILARIOUS!!! I wish we'd had the video going.

Jen also bought a nice bed for Sanders at Pet Smart. He has not yet started using it, as he's taken to sleeping on the couch after we go to bed. Now, he never gets up on the couch while we're up unless we "invite" him, and we only do that if we first lay out a blanket for him. Now, having said that, I got up the other day and he was there sleeping on the bare couch after apparently removing his blanket from it. Since he has so much hair, I think the bare leather is "cooler" for him than lying on a blanket/bed/carpet. GRRRR.... We'll see how we deal with this little issue... Here he is looking at me after I found him on the bare couch.

Lastly, Jen enrolled Sanders in another obedience class. This one is only about 1 1/2 miles from our house, and she did it with the mind that once he completes this class, she can enroll him in agility classes there (you know, running through an obstacle course... jumping over barricades and through hoops. On that note, Jen's mom bought Sanders a hula hoop that we're teaching him to jump through. He seems to like it, and its fun to watch.