Happy Birthday Johnnie Reb!!

As you may or may not know, I like to post pictures on the birthday of my family members. My dog is obviously not human, but she's like a kid for me so in honor of Johnnie Reb, today's blog post is in celebration of her first birthday. I got Johnnie Reb was she was just six weeks old and you can see that she was absolutely adorable as a pup.


I love loading her up in my truck and be-bopping around town or to taking her to visit my family. In the picture below, she was guarding my truck in the small town of Wellton, AZ on my first visit to my sister and brother-in-law's new house! She had really big ears for awhile so I'm glad she grew into them.



I soon changed my mind about leaving her in the cab of the truck after chewed several pages out of my prized planner, which in most cases acts as my short term memory. I was doing SAE visits (home visits) for my students last June and when I returned from visiting with a student's family, this was how she let me know that she wasn't pleased about being left behind.



I gave my dad a litter mate of JR's for a very, very early birthday present. Below Buck is on the right and JR is on the left. Buck is a great dog too, although is much stouter than JR. I love going home to visit my parent's and JR loves giving her brother a run for his money to see who is the most rambunctious and crazy dog!

Well, it's been a great year JR! I look forward to a couple more but I sure hope you grow out of this digging, chewing, plant-destroying phase that you're in. It sure makes things interesting now, but I would eventually like to see a garden of mine grow to fruition. I know you love me, right after your tennis ball, and am so glad that you're my little buddy.


PS-Thank you Sarah and Bryan Geiger for breeding such smart, fun and athletic Queensland Heeler's! I love both of you, and I love Janie too (JR's mom)!

Doggie Graduation x2

Yep, you guessed it. Johnnie Reb graduated from her Intermediate Obedience class at PetSmart last night! She can officially sit and lay for 30 seconds...and with distractions!! She can bow, with some encouragement though. She knows to get "on her bed" although she only obeys this command occasionally. She can sit, stay and then come when I'm not in view (i.e. hiding in another row at PetSmart or in another room at home). She can also wait when told to wait at the door until permission is given to come. So smart, I know! I may be biased, but I also think she's the cutest one in the picture!

Merry Christmas

A merriest Christmas to you and yours! I pray you had a blessed day celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My little graduate

Johnnie Reb (JR) and I have been attending puppy obedience class for the past eight weeks, and last night JR graduated after passing her eight "tests." She had to demonstrate her ability to follow commands for various things like come, sit and stay, lay and stay, walking on a leash, the "leave it" command and shake. We are going to start our intermediate class in three weeks where we will continue building on these skills. Tracy, our trainer, says one of the primary goals of intermediate obedience is to develop self control. JR will have to demonstrate the commands I listed above with distractions and with me leaving her side.

I had so much fun doing this and I felt like I was the getting trained at times too. Enjoy the picture below....JR knows she's a star:-) Have a great weekend!