Duke and the Remote Car

During spring cleaning we found fiancé's mini remote controlled car. We introduced it to Duke.

Set it down carefully. Show the dog.

Bark Bark Bark. Run some... Bark more. Clearly not a fan.

We even held poor little Dukemister tight and showed him the car. Not a fan of it.

Posts are going to be a little more few and far between. I went back to work, which takes up a lot of time.

Nothing to do with Duke, but here is an awesome photo fiance took of me doing one of my jobs! I'm a volunteer diver at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey.

10 Honest Things About Duke

Duke was tagged by Lola the Puggle.

Here are the instructions:

"When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to said person so everyone knows he or she is real. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have 7 friends. Show the 7 random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Weblog”. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon. List at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"

Duke's not very good at following directions, and it appears the nifty icon has been lost. So I'll just write 10 honest things about the Dukemister.

1. We only feed Duke kibble. He gets spoiled when he visit's fiancé's parents because they feed him kibble, cheese, chicken, potato, etc etc etc.
2. Duke always tries to sleep on a pillow! He's like a little person.
3. He lets fiancé carry him around like he is a toddler.
4. Duke absolutely loves to ride in the car. Like adores it.
5. He has a zig-zag pattern hair part that goes down his back. We call it his zipper.
6. He can't get enough of snow! He kind of bounds like a bunny rabbit through it. He also tries to eat it at the same time he's running through it.
7. Duke isn't allowed to have any stuffed toys anymore. He is limited to his Kong, a rubber ball, hooves, and a smoked bone.
8. His farts are so stinky because he eats his food too fast. (he gulps air when he eats... so it has to go somewhere!)
9. The breeder referred to Duke as the "talkative one." He has lived up to that name because he is always making little noises to get our attention.
10. Whenever he chews on a hoof he will jump in your lap, put both his paws on your shoulders, and put the hoof about an inch from your face. He's not giving it to you, just showing you he has it. He will then go to everyone in the room and do the same thing. Don't take it, he'll get really grumpy.

Here's some pictures of Duke enjoying his snow day... from inside on the couch. What a bum.

Here's an example of Duke sleeping on one of our pillows....

*STRETCH* "Can we go play in the snow now?!"

Baby Duke

I was contacted by Duke's breeder the other day because we had mentioned we wanted to get a second puppy. We really wanted to get another puppy from the same mother (River Run Tape, AKA Brownie) and father (There's Basil in My Coffee <-- I love his call name!). Unfortunately the litter would be born and ready to be picked up right before our wedding. We decided it would be unfair for a new puppy to throw him/her into a wedding mess, so we're going to wait until next year when they breed again.

So it got me thinking about when we first got Duke and decided to put our deposit down, etc etc, so I went back and found his "baby" photos that the breeder sent us.

First photo EVER of the Dukemister. Not a very good picture, we were uncertain so we asked her to send us some more.

Oh Dukey, clearly camera shy. His poor tail down turned.

He looks like a clown! This is when I fell in love with him. He's a charmer.

If you look closely, he's sticking his tongue out.

Here's one I took with my cell phone. He was so tiny! Only seven weeks old. What a babe.

Here is him in my lap in the car. He just wanted to cuddle.

Pshh, what a LONG day. He mostly slept in the car, right in my lap.

Oaks Dog Park

Took Mr. Duke to the dog park over the weekend to tire him out. Fiance and I decided we wanted to go dancing Saturday night, and the only way to do that is to make sure we have one tired pup so he doesn't bark at night in the apartment. Success!

Anyway, we took him to the Oaks Dog Park. We figured it would end up somewhat messy and dirty because the weather went from the 20's up to the mid 50's in two days. We arrived to find a giant fenced in mud pit. Since we already drove there, and we had towels in the trunk, we decided to let Duke play.

Fiance says that Duke is the first dog he's ever owned that plays fetch! And Duke does, he really runs after it and brings it back, no questions asked.

Here he is fetching. Notice the shinny ground and his wet chest. This was only the beginning of the mess.

We met a JUG at the dog park. His name was Jack and he was about 6 months old. His legs were SO much shorter than Dukes so when they'd chase after the tennis ball, Jack couldn't even begin to keep up.

I think this is the only picture where Duke paid any attention to Jack. Poor little Jack, all he wanted to do was play and Duke acted like he wasn't even there.

Here is a somewhat close up of Duke COVERED in mud. See it flying off his butt?

This is my favorite photo from the dog park. Not sure why, but I think it's because Duke looks so happy... or the fact he completely missed the ball. Or his tail is so curled and sticking out. Or he only has like, one foot on the ground....

Duke Meets the Toddler

Duke met his first toddler today.

This is Vincent. He is 16 months. It was really cute because he could say "Duke," but he said it more like, "Dooooooke." It was really cute.

Duke investigates Vincent. He was quite uncertain about a very small person at first, but got used to him quickly and followed him around.

Vincent put himself in the dog cage. I swear he was smiling in this photo and reaching for the camera even if you can't really see his face. I swear.

Duke was concerned the Vincent was in Dinoco's house. He kept running circles around the cage. Vincent wouldn't let anyone in the cage with him.

And since Duke didn't really know what to think so he came to see me! He was super concerned.

He ended up being really really really good even when Vincent took his purple ball. He played fetch with Vincent and was super gentle. it was cute.

Dad is away so the Pup can play

So fiance is away for a few days at a work conference so it's just the Dukemister and myself. He threw a temper tantrum when he left too and misbehaved for the rest of the afternoon. I had to give him a butt whoopin' before we went to bed because he was just being a brat.

It seemed to do the trick because he was all cuddly with me this morning. I think he hates being cooped in the apartment and gets upset when his dad doesn't come home at night. It's been super cold outside here (20's and low 30's) so it's hard to take him for a walk because the concrete sidewalks hurt his feet when it's cold. I took him over to the future in-laws so he could run around and play in their backyard (it's all grass and a lot softer on his feet even if it is cold).

We've taken away most of his toys because he destroys them. He managed to sneak and grab a toy we were giving to my future sister-in-law's baby. Not anymore after Duke got a hold of it!

When you roll it along the floor it makes noises and he barks at it. It's pretty funny to watch. Or it was until all he wanted to do was chew it's head off. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

The only other news since fiance left is Duke has had horrible horrible gas. Stinky, room clearing, nastiness. Oh boy Duke. I wish there was something we could do about that.

Happy Home

Do you think he's happy we're home?