Merry Christmas!

Well, it's Christmas morning here - but there are no presents for dogs. Kay had to jet off to America to visit her Mom and has left us with Neil. He is very good for walkies and runs on the beach, but not so good for presents.

Neil's presents have been hidden around the house - Kay is going to send clues on where they are, but I bet we can help him find them with just our superior noses. We have been promised our prezzies when she gets back. We can wait, no worries.

Here's the kind of fun we have with Neil, we're not supposed to use the kids play equipment, but when no one is looking we have a bit of fun!

To all our blogging friends, we want to wish you a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year.

All the best, Ruby and Gracie (and Neil).

Airedale fun day

We had our end-of-year Airedale fun day a few weeks ago. It was held at the Nuringingy Reserve - a nice private, bush area near Blacktown.
We met a new Dale - Finn. He's come all the way from America - that's him at the front. He was a very handsome fellow (That's Gracie and Teddy at the back).

His dad, Jon, took some great pictures on the day...many of them were of us!

Look how good we look.

Gracie and me.

Me.
Gracie.

But enough posing, it was time for the games to begin.

Here I am waiting for my turn at the obstacle course relay. Kay thought she had designed a really easy course that anyone could do...but not so.

From the Dales that slipped their collars and ran away when asked to go through the hula hoops, to Billy who couldn't leave the tennis balls in the bucket (he had to carry one back to the finish line), it was Airedale chaos!

Luckily we had three latecomers arrive just about the time we were filming, so we regrouped and ran the event again.

It went a bit better the second time around, although Legend remained adamant she wasn't doing the hula hoop second time or any time.

We had a fancy dress parade, but didn't manage to get any photos. It was a fun day out, not too hot and always great to see our Airedale friends.

sculpture by the sea

The other day we took our early morning walkies over near Bondi beach. They have a sculpture by the sea exhibition each year - and we went to have a look.

Bondi beach

Look George, our step photo - better late, than never?

It was a lovely morning, enjoying the sea views and the artworks.

more motorcycle maintenance

Neil's been working on his motorbike... a lot.

Nothing much else for the Airedale to do, but hang out in the old sand pit.

It's strategically placed to watch out for any signs of action.

Oooh, maybe we are going to the park...?

Hmmm, not yet I guess.

Look how cute we are, Neil - you should take us to the park!
How can you resist??

Street fair

We went to the Summer Hill breakfast bazaar last weekend, there were lots of people and lots of food!
There was a middle eastern theme, here is Neil trying out the ful medames - beans by any other name. He didn't share any - said beans were bad for dogs. I'm not too sure about that, but he was adamant.

Kay was a bit more forthcoming with bits of ricotta cannoli - very yummy and definitely good for dogs!

Wolli Creek walkies

We went somewhere new for our walk today, it's called Wolli Creek and it runs off of the Cook River,here in Sydney. It was a bush walk.

Look out, Airedales about!

About half way along the track you come to this row of little cottages that were built in the 1920's - the're in an old quarry and have a very secluded position overlooking Wolli Creek.
It was all very interesting.

Gracie can do it too!

Gracie got a chance to strut her stuff for the camera when we at Callan Park as well. She's not nearly as good as me, but not bad for a big fluffy pup.

Kay has a chunk of hot dog in her mouth (which is why I never take my eyes off her face - you never know when some might fall out!). That's what she is giving Gracie for rewards in the video - maybe not elegant, but quite handy.

Callan Park

Last Saturday we went for a walk in beautiful Callan Park. It is an old bit of Sydney that was last used as a psychiatric hospital, but is now preserved as a park right on the shores of the harbour.

There are some wonderful old sandstone buildings dotted around the extensive grounds.




And sure enough, there was a lot of heeling practice too. Kay has tried to think of all sorts of things to improve my heeling - hot dogs and my orbee ball are my favourites so far.

Here's a video of us practicing - you can see that I really do know how to do it...

We love Callan Park.

Obedience outing

I went to another obedience trial this morning. It was so boring. We had to wait for hours and hours until our turn. By that point, I didn't much care.

Kay tried to get me revved up, but to tell the truth, I wasn't feeling all that great.

I think I might have picked up something toxic last week when Gracie pushed me into the Cooks River. It's so polluted that you aren't supposed to eat the fish from it - and you sure aren't supposed to be swimming in it.

I was just sniffing around the edge, as I always do, when a bouncing Gracie careened into me and knocked me over the edge. It was a long drop down, lucky the tide was in so I splashed in the water instead of smashing into the mud.

Neil had to climb down a ladder and try to haul me six feet back up to the bank, while not falling in himself. Thanks a lot, Gracie.

Anyway, the point was that I didn't do very well in the ring - we actually failed big time evidently. Kay was not very impressed. I guess it's back to the practice ring for me.

swimming lesson

While we were up at the beach, Kay decided Gracie need a bit more encouragement to learn to swim. Even though the water was pretty chilly, we were hot from running around. So... time for a dunking!

I don't think Gracie was too impressed, but I'm sure she won't be let off until she's swimming happily...whether she likes it or not.

down by the riverside

We were out in the country last weekend and stopped by this fun little spot.
It's the Sherwood Rd bridge over the Macleay River, just west of Kempsey.

Very interesting with all these smooth stones.

The water was lovely and cold - it sure was flowing briskly too.

But that didn't stop me. I did a lot of fetching of sticks.

Gracie wouldn't swim, she just paddled at the edges
- she's going to have to learn how to swim soon, to be a proper Airedale.

She would steal my sticks as soon as I brought them to shore.

What a pest!

And off she'd bolt...

Kay always says Gracie runs like a jackrabbit - look at the Airedale bunny.

Very pleased with herself here - that was a very good stick.

I went back to exploring the riverbanks... very interesting smells... could even be RATS!
...or something very like them.

Gracie, the gannet

Have I ever mentioned that Gracie is a total guts and gobbles down any food she can find? Neil always calls her a gannet (those seabirds that swallow big fish down in one gulp) because she does the same with all her food.

So, I guess it wasn't such a surprise to see her in action with her birthday 'cake' (really a lot of smaller pieces of yummy liver cake).


Kay set up a table full of fabulous new toys for her - I was well and truly envious, I can tell you. But did Gracie go for the new chewber or the wonderful soft, chewy squirrel or the little bird toy that cheeps just like a real bird...?

No, as soon as that Airedale nose detected liver cake, she was into it.

She tried to eat it all in one gulp. Kay had to intervene, but it was too late. Luckily the video cuts out before showing Gracie going off and choking and vomiting it all back up. I won't even mention what came next.... but it was all cleaned up pretty quickly.