Heavy Eyes....

Hmmm! It's a good job I burned off all my energy yesterday. Today has been largely spent in the car and lying around.

We set off this morning on the big fast zoomway to Bournemouth. I got a very quick chance to stretch my legs and empty my tanks in the park by the golfcourse before we went into the seniorhumansvetkennel place to visit Granny. She was in bed and I was worried about her. I squeaked until Mum let me hup my front paws onto the bedside to check her out. I gave her front paw a big kiss and then a nuzzle on her front leg kind of reassured me a bit and it made the corners of her mouth go up a tiny bit. Then I laid down for a snooze while Granny did a whole load of mumblygrumbling. Mum and Dad were leaning in close to her trying to hear and understand her yacketying but I don't think they succeeded with much of it.

After a while, Granny's eyelids got heavy and so we left her to snooze and I took Mum and Dad on a nice long workywalkies to find a human yummyery for them. Then, of course, I had to do more lying down under the table. Apparently I did a good job of staying nicely under the table - at the end, when Dad was doing his thing with that funny little plastic rectangle and the button-box that he feeds it into, the man who brought the buttonbox jumped when I nudged his knee! He didn't know I was there! I didn't mean to scare him. I was only having a stretch to get ready for Mum to harness me up again! It got me a nice eartickle though. Heehee!

We went back again to visit Granny again and so, more lying down for me. I was quite happy with that after the long workywalkies back.

After a while, Granny's eyes got heavy again, so it was time for us to leave. That gave me the opportunity to persuade Mum that I really needed a bit of a run around in the park again! Well.....I did need a download! I got to have a bit of a sniff around to catch up on all the latest weemails, and had a brief play with a chocolate lab called Max.

We then went to Granny's flat, where I got my dinner while Mum and Dad sorted out a few of the things that were lying on the floor inside the door when we arrived. Then it was back into the car for the ride back to Papa's again.

Dad dropped Mum and me off at the huge Tesco's though, so I had to guide Mum around in there before workywalkiesing her in the dark back across the megazoomybusy road at the crossing, then along the pavements to Papa's home. Now I have just completed the task of warming up Papa's bed for him (he told me to - I wasn't being naughty!). Now, having been evicted from there because Papa wants it all to himself now, so it is time to warm Mum's bed up! It's a tough life!

The Most Fantabulous Day!

The bestest day! Today has been the bestestestestest day for aaaaaaaggggeeeesssss! I am one very happy boy!

I took Dad for a nice longish walkies this morning while Mum was helping Papa to sort out all of Nanny's fursubstitutes. Then, when we got back we almost immediately got into the car and went for a longish drive. I recognised where we were, but was a bit disappointed when we stopped and got out of the car too soon. We did a little bit of waiting around outside a human yummyery. This was rather boring so I just laid down on the ground and watched the cars go by. Then a car went by containing humans I recognised. This made me sit up and squeak a bit! I was sooooooo excited to see my PuppyMummy and PuppyDaddy!

They parked their car in front of ours then got out and I may have gone just a tad berserk - I couldn't wait to greet not only them but also Guide Dog Puppy Raymond too. Raymond is now as big as me, but he needs to do some more eating - he is a lot narrower than me!

We had to endure a time in the human yummyery while the humans all did some yacketyyacking and noshing. Raymond and I were supposed to be behaving but it was soooooo hard to do that when we had so much fun pent up inside us. I did do my bestest to set the example of the mature and sensible (ahem!) qualified Guide Dog. I did achieve it some of the time! Raymond was a bit noisy though. He has some learning to do about how to misbehave quietly so that the humans don't notice!

Then came the fantabulousest time: we completed the journey to the bestestest place in the world: West Wittering Beach! Yayhayhayhay! Ooooooh! Boy! Did we have some fun running and chasing and chewing and rolling and splashing on that most wonderfullest long walk all the way around the whole sandy loop!

I did have to endure the horrors of the squirtysnake and froth attack in Papa's garden when we got back, but I think it was worth it! A while of a good bone-gnawing and I am now super-shattered! Now.....Mum's not looking and the bed is very appealling.......zzzzzzzzz

Five photos of me and Raymond (both black labradors) enjoying a fantastic freerun together on sandy beach and in the shallows of the sea. Then the last picture is a portrait of Raymond.

Me (right) and Raymond chasing and chewing!

Raymond and Me (right again) coming out of the sea.

Me on the left this time with Raymond splashing in the sea!

I'm back on the right, running with Raymond.

Chase!

Guide Dog Puppy Raymond.

Squeaky Wriggly Humanpuppy....

Cor! Carpet for face massage. Garden for freedom to wee without a lead! Yayyhayyy! We are at Papa's!

When we arrived, Rosie was here too, along with little microhuman neice Hallie. I got brave..... I got close enough for a sniff. She smells OK but that was enough risk for now......I'm not sure what else to do with such a squeaky wriggly little humanpuppy. She seems to make human mouths go up at the corners though.

Bang, Crash, Wallop!

Bang. Bang, bangbangbang. I nearly jumped out of my fur! And Mum let out a kind of squeakpip and jerked off the ground too.

We had been enjoying a lovely long workywalkies around Newbury. It was going great. Mum was saying lots of 'Good boy' and 'Good working'. We were heading along the pavement next to a busy main road and, all of a sudden a car vroomed past and went bang bang bangbangbang. It was scary. The humans in it were laughing lots and yelling out "Yeaheeey! Jump blind dog. Jump!" Then, the car did a sudden screechy turnaround that made other cars bark loudly at it, then it came back and did it again but on the other side. Then from behind us again. These times, we didn't jump so much, but I was still a bit scared. The next moment, there was a loud crunch and some naughty shouty words from the humans inside the bangbangcar. Mum was holding her paw over her mouth and making strange snorting noises, then this developed into laughing. She asked me to go 'forward' to the car that was sort of joined to the blue and yellow car in front of it. Then blue flashers started on the lid of the blue and yellow car and two men got out of it and put flat hats on. They were both wearing black padded fursubstitutes with all sorts of danglings on them.

One of them asked Mum if she would mind waiting just a moment, then they got the humanboys out of the bangbangcar. They put shiny tugtoy things around their front paws and then put one of them inside the blue and yellow car. The other one stayed with one of the black padded men. The other black padded man came to yacketyyack with Mum. He asked Mum's permission, then gave me a lovely ear-rub. I like him! He did some squiggles with a markystick in a little markybook, then said we could go, but he might talkybone Mum later if he needed to.

We finished our walk to that blimmin Dullelm place but, it seems they didn't have what Mum wanted so we escaped quickly and finished our walk home via the nice quiet towpath route.

The rest of the day has been mainly snoozy for me while Mum and Dad did ooooooooodles of yacketyyacking with a nice manvisitor called Graham. This snoozing was partly under the table in our floatyboatyhome, and partly in a human yummyery. This, of course, brought an extra and welcome workywalkies there and back.

Lots of workywalkies....

Two days to catch up on.

Yesterday - Bags packed. Car packed. Back home to floatyboatyhome. Car unpacked. Bags unpacked. Workywalkies to Lidl's where I found my favourite checkout - the one with Jerry doing the bleep-bleeps! Fusses and happy greetings. Workywalkies back to floatyboatyhome. A brief play with Bella the Staffie from another floatyboatyhome in the boat-kennel. Then.......a car arrived......my tail wagged me off my paws! It was Debbi and Ryan! Yipppeeeeee! That meant more workywalkies to a human yummyery and back. Then they left again.....boooooo! Nice sofa snuggles with Mummy in the evening.

Today - Daddy abandoned us! He left early taking his big black box that has his long-necked-noisebox with four thick whiskers along it. Mum and I left a bit later to workywalkies to church. It was a good walkies. Mum was pleased with me (only pleased enough for one tiny bit of edible proof though! Huff! I'm sure I worked gooder than that!) and I found Daddy again, so it was all ok! I had to look after Mum through all the human howling bit of the service, because Dad was up front tickling the thick whiskers on his long-necked noisebox.

After that, we went back to floatyboatyhome, then off for a long car ride, followed by some nice workywalkies along an old-familiar canal. We went to a tiny and very old building at a place Mum says is called Stoke Bruerne, where we met a nice humanman called Martin. Apparently, if we had gone yesterday, we would have met Martha, Martin's ladyhuman's Canine Partner. Huff! Miffed I missed her! Mum says we will go another time to meet up! I hope so. I did meet a few doggypals along the way but wasn't allowed to play coz I was working. It was nice to sniffgreet though!

Now we are back in our floatyboatyhome and I have just noticed that the bed is made and vacant. So.....scuse me....I have a warming service to provide!

Mum and me with Martin Farrant at Ark Stained Glass Commissions Restorations Lamps and smaller items at Stoke Bruerne Old Stables.

Yacketty-Flippin-Yack.....

Oh my goodness! These humans never seem to run out of Yacketyyack! Two rooms full of it today!

We went to a big building where we had to pose in front of a big green blob thing. Then we went into one of those little rumbling rooms where the outside changes when the doors open. Next we went into a room full of people and tables full of yummies! Oooh! It did smell good but I didn't get a crumb! Huff! Once the door was closed, Mum removed my bra and my lead, and I got to go hoovering and greeting all around the room! There were lots of fusses to be got!

After these initial greetings, Dad stuck a tail onto his clicketyfingerstoy, pictures of our floatyboatyhome and of me appeared on two big black windows on the wall and Mum went into yackety-yack mode. I settled down for a snooze!

After a load of Mum's yacking, lots of the other people joined in too; asking questions that just made Mum do yet more yacketying! Then, when that was all finished, it was back into my bra again and off we set following another nice man, into the scene-changer-rumblebox, then outside and through a tunnel into another building......and then a repeat of the same whole yacketying thing with a different set of people. So, it was another snooze for me!

At the end of each of the two sessions, the nice people put shinydisks and floppy rectangles into a little model of a yellow me. Apparently this will all be counted and added to my fundraising total. This is to help train another furry lifechanger Guide Dog Puppy. So that means all the snoozing and fusses were very worthwhile today!

We also went to visit Granny again today and she was up and in her wheelieseat in a dining room. She sounded a bit blurred when she was yacking but it was better than yesterday when she was in bed and very fuzzy!

After that came a very very welcome freerun on the golf course. I found a few friends to play with, including a mega fun pal called Beagie the Beagle. This gave me chance to demonstrate the much simpler means of communication: sniff, pee and play chase! Dogs are so superior!

Photo of Mum and me standing in front of the big green heart shaped blob at LV office building.

All in a Day's work!

Mum went way up high! I got a bit worried and nearly got flattened when she came back down. Oops!

It was in a big indoor shoppyplace in a town Dad says is called Poole. I had workywalkied all through the town and, of course, when Mum asked me to 'Find Boots', I found it straightaway! I then had to 'find the stairs' and take Mum 'upsteps'. We then had to do a bit of waiting before going into a little room with a nice lady. It seems this lady was very interested in Mum's back paws. She got Mum to sit in a big black chair with her back legs up on stickyout bits on the front, then she pressed a button and Mum went up and up and up. She stopped going up when her back paws were sticking out towards the lady's face when she was sitting in a normal chair. Nice lady then poked and prodded lots at Mum's paws and some of the pokes and prods made Mum's face go all squiffy! I know that squiffy look means Mum is ouchy! That's why I got a bit worried. So, as Mum started to come back down again, I wanted to get to her to check she was OK. It seems that I couldn't get ot her from under the chair as it was coming down! I had to 'back back' and wait a moment but, as soon as they were within reach I went to Mum's hind paws and gave them lots of kisses to make sure they were OK.

I think I heard stuff about going back again sometime soon. Mum seemed pleased with all the yachety-yacking that went on in there anyway.

We also went to visit Granny today - twice! The first time, she was lying in bed doing lots of zzzzzing. Her nose was making some peculiar growling noises! We stayed for a little while and Dad tried to wake her up, but she was too well zonked so we left and went across the road. THAT was an excellent manoeuvre! It gave me a lovely chance to catch up on lots of weemails and to play with a few passing poochpals on that golfcourse place. There were a few humans doing that strange thing they do with long sticks. I really wanted to help them find their little white bobbly balls that they so carelessly thwacked a long way away, but spoilsport Mum wouldn't let me! She put my lead on me and told me to 'leave'. Humph!

After the trip into Poole, we went back again to visit Granny. This time, she was still in bed but was just about awake. Mum lifted Granny's front paw over the edge of the bed so I could give it a kiss to tell Granny I love her. She liked that!

So, all in all, it seems to have been a day all about paws and kisses! oh, and, of course, most importantly, a freerun! I think that means it counts as a good day's work!

Eating Bones leads to Bigger Dinners.......

Bone Bum.

That's what Mum says I've suffered from today.

Mum also says that she ought to buy shares in the poobag company after picking up so many bagful of concrete conkers.

I'm not aware that I have been suffering from anything. I've simply worked hard doing workywalkies over many miles of towpath, doing nine locks and three swing bridges with Mum, then another wotkywalkies this evening through part of Newbury. Now we are at Granny's flat after a long car ride.

Mum says that I must've shed several kilos today with all the bone bum downloads. Now, last time I lost kilos I started getting bigger dinners. So.....eating bones leads to lots of downloads.......lots of downloads leads to losing kilos......losing kilos leads to bigger dinners.......I think I should eat lots more bones!

Who's a Good Boy?

I must've did good!

I guided Mum to a little shop in this Woolhampton village place and safely home again. Now I have serious work to do on this yummy big bone I got for reward!
Scuse me while I get on with my job...

Two photos of me lying on grassy towpath enjoying a big Jurassic bone.

1st pic shows a wider view of the trees and grass with me lying down, bone in front of me, looking to my left down the towpath.

2nd pic is a close up of some serious munching work tethered by my megalong yellow lead.

Watching the World go By.....

My world today:
Quite a lot of workywalkies with Mum along the towpaths, but also lots of lying down. Lying on the back deck of our floatyboatyhome watching the water and trees drift by. Lying on the locksides supervising Mum while she did all the windy-uppy-windy-downy-pushy-pully stuff. It's a tough life!

One of the locks seemed to get Mum a bit scared. There was a huge wooshy sploshystuff thunderflow and she had only done a little bit of the windy-uppy thing. I really couldn't work out what all the worry was about. I just got a bit bored waiting! I will post a separate video of that later.

Me lying on the back deck with my paws almost over the edge of the deck. Pic shows the side/back of my head as I watch the world drift by.

Me lying by the lockside watching Mum doing all the work. This is a huge lock at Aldermaston. The edges are scalloped and the lockside surface is red bricked.

I should Coco......

💓💓💓💓
I ❤️ Coco

Coco is the black lab puppygirlie that I met at a lock. We had a fandabbydooooozzee game of chase and swim and roll and box and chase and run and....... Ooooh it was all too fast and too good to remember it all! She is 14 months old, born as a Guide Dog puppy but now training to be a Hearing Dog for a deaf person.

That was immediately after a brief play with a 14 week old Cockapoo puppy called Holly, at the same lock. It is always nice when Mum lets me off duty at the 'in the middle of nowhere' locks, but this one today was just super good.

I had worked hard before all this fun! I guided Mum the three miles to and from church this morning, and around some other locks too.

And it IS Sunday! So it is supposed to a day off isn't it?

Ooh....Sunday..... Muuuuum.....Sunday - bone day..... Ahem......
Waddyamean it's too late now?

Well......actually....my eyelids are a tad heavy......your lap is comfy......zzzzzzzzz.....

Shopping....

Rude! Very rude awakening!

Dad was doing sizzly stuff in the kitchen. I was enjoying a lovely cuddle snooze with Mum in bed (shhhh....don't tell!). All of a sudden I jumped right out of my fur! The little round thing on the ceiling started megableeping! It was nasty! Mum tried to tell me it was all right, nothing to worry about, but I wasn't hanging around to find out! I hid in the safest place I know - the warmrainbox!
Dad waved his paw at it a couple of times and it shut up, then he carried on sizzling. I didn't even get any sausage or bacon to reassure me either!

Things got better after that when I got to take Mum on a nice long workywalkies to Morrison's. I don't think she was entirely impressed with my efforts to read and send weemails all along the towpath route. There are soooooo many trees and bushes that really do demand urgent communications but I had to ignore most of them and 'Head up. Do your job'. Once we got onto the street bit of the route I registered my protest with a ploddypaws demonstration. I didn't keep it up once we got to Morrisons though. I thought I should relent a bit and be nice to Mum. After all, there was always the hope of a carrot...... but Nope! Not a morsel!

Mum's command of 'Find the way out' did not exactly fill me with enthusiasm. I didn't want to just go straight back. I was, therefore, perhaps just a tad more enthusiastic at the next command: 'Lets go find Pets at Home'. Well, that is much more exciting! Head up. Nose forward and vvvvvrrrrrooooommmmm!

'Steady' seemed to be a predominant command after that! Well, I thought I had best make up for the plodding earlier!

I think I must have averaged out to a good day's work overall - I got a new toy!

Photo of me with my new pink fluffy grunting pig with a tuft of ginger headfur. I am looking slightly cheekily sideways towards the shot.

Chicken Bones....

Huff! Such injustice! All night long the sky was growling. Not a murmur from Mum or Dad. Today, I growled once at a passing pair of dogs and I got told to 'shush' and 'leave'! I was only trying to tell them I didn't like the looks of them! They made my fur go all spiky!

That was after a day of lots of little bits of workywalkies, a very important visit to Guide Dogs HQ to collect a bag of my nosh, and lots of car-riding. We also visited another boat; the floatyboatyhome of humanfriends Peter and Lin. I came very close to achieving a delicious job. I was trying to save them the trouble of emptying their bin. Peter was a meanie though; he took the bag out and hung it up out of my reach! He said something about chicken bones being bad for me. Those chicken bones smelled utterly delectable and I'm sure they would have been much better for me than they are for the bin......but I shall never get to prove it! Humph!

Yack Yack Yack Yack and Flippin' Yacketty Yack Yack!

Workywalkies, sausages (well....one little bit of sausage that Mum dropped within hoovering distance), workywalkies, bus ride, workywalkies, looooooooong bus ride, workywalkies, car ride, workywalkies, yackety-yackety-yackety-yack-yack-yack.......picnic tea, more yackety-yacking, freerunnnnnnn! Yayyyyyy! That made the car ride home much more acceptable! The freerun was along a stretch of towpath that I guided Mum along last year when we did our MegaWalk. It was nice to check it all out again.

Four photos of all the yackety-yacking stuff. Apparently it was a meeting - something to do with important people on the canals - I just enjoyed the fusses that I got from some of them, and endured all the yacketying....

Meeting new friends from Reading Buses.

Apparently this is the Top Man of the Canals!

Martin - he helps at the locks at Newbury!

Some other boaty people Mum yacketty-yacked with.

Boil Me Bus....

The Chase. That's what Mum said we were going to. Well, there wasn't the slightest hint of any chasing going on! I think it should have been called The Lie Down and Snooze! That was what I did anyway. And rather a welcome snooze too. It was nice and cool in there, and I was very hot and pooped after working my paws off guiding Mum there. I did sit up a few times to peer between the heads of the people in front of us. (We were sat right at the very back so I had room to stretch out). All the humans in the rows of seats had lots of bursts of banging their paws together, so I thought maybe something exciting was going on. Still no chasing though, but a very ear to clean on the man in front! Heehee! He seemed very appreciative of my services!

It it was a big day of workywalkies and train rides and bus rides. The train bits were OK. Actually the train home was great! I got a bit space to sprawl out and ut was wonderfully cool too. That was VERY welcome by all if us after the humdungously bus ride. Dad said it was called a Borisbus. I think it was a BoilMeBus. It was super crowded and I got squashed sort of under the seat and against Mum, and all the humans had leaky skin.

I enjoyed having my picnic tea outdoors tonight! I got to munch overlooking that big long wide stream in the middle of that big London place.

1) Me sitting, in harness, beside Mum, who us standing at the top of all the seats in the TV studio. Behind is the stage set of The Chase show.

2) Mum and me beside the big blue and yellow train that brought us into Paddington Station.

3) Waiting for the bus in London. Mum standing, me sitting in harness in the shade by a bus shelter.

4) Me guiding Mum across a road in London.

5) Me guiding Mum along the busy Southbank walkway beside the Thames.

6) Mum and me on the Southbank with a very big house in the background. Mum says it is called The House of Parliament. It has a mega huge tickydisk up high on a pointy tower.

7) Me in harness waiting patiently while Mum is yackety-yacking with two people on the Southbank.

8) A taxi driverman stopped to say hello. He said he is a Guide Dogs supporter. I had to give him a kiss yo say thank you for doing that! Happy to oblige!

Now, we have made it all the way back to our floatyboatyhome home. The bed is unoccupied.......Mum and Dad are occupied by that squawkybox on the wall, and with some of that niffy red water they like...... I'm a very tired doggy who has worked very hard today......heehee! I think I shall indulge myself.....shhhh! Don't tell......

Mischief....

Woohooo! I like this mooring! It comes with doggypals today! We have new neighbours moored behind us: a pair of collies who are great fun to play with - oh and their humans too!

I also got to enjoy a lovely freerun this morning all around the nature reserve beside us. Mum was a bit mean though - she wouldn't let me go into the giant puddle in the middle. There were quacky featherballs in there that I really wanted to go play with but I wasn't allowed. Huff!

I managed to make up for it a bit later though when Dad let me off my megalong lead (a yellow one that is longer than the boat. Mum tethers me to it sometimes so that I can chill out on the towpath without 'getting into mischief' - I don't know what she means by that........). Dad released me to play with the collies. Well..... I DID play with the collies. It was great fun! Then I just slipped off to investigate the river..... it was lovely and cool in there! Heeeheee!

Ouchies!

"Stay on the boat" Mum kept saying. Well, I had no blimmin choice did I? We were moored against that nasty floor stuff that is made up of lots of little squares of nothingness. The grid of grey ridges around all those holes makes my paws ouch! I tried to walk on it but it made me go down on my belly like a commando. I backed back onto the boat again! Dad walked off across that ouchy grid though. I suppose that is the advantage of human pawcovers. When Dad left me behind though it made me squeak coz I couldn't get to him. He walked off and left me! Apart from which, I needed a weeeeeee. I had to wait until after we had been inside the lock and finally bobbed up to the top so I could jump off the boat and water the bushes. Phewwwwww!

Holy Moses!

We went to church. Then I met Moses!

It has been a good Sunday! A nice long workywalkies to church. Lots of humans to meet n greet. Another nice long workywalkies back, but via a different route - The one that runs through a park! That was where I met Moses, the little fluffy scruffy Jack Russel pocket rocket! We had a fantabulous game of chase! His human dad didn't seem too keen on doggy-style greetings though. He just doesn't understand the importance of our sniffing of various bits of each others' anatomy! Never mind, we just did a bit more chasing instead.

When end we got back to the boat, I was glad of my nice big bowl of water. Much better than that hot brown stuff Mum and Dad insist is good to drink! The rest of the afternoon has been spent busily getting stuck into a wonderful big juicy bone. I do like my Sunday bones!

Moses (Mo) and me playing!

Moses & me having a breather!

First Court, then Prison!

Naughty humans. Today seems to have been predominantly about naughty humans.

We set off for workywalkies under a very leaky sky, but didn't go far. We went into a huge building where there were lots and lots of humans; some just wandering around and some wearing strange fursubstitutes. Outside, there were some cars and a big vroombox, all with blue and yellow squares on them. Mum says it was an Open Day at Reading County Court. To me, it was just a fab fuss-fest! Of course, I worked hard too guiding Mum in and out of lots of rooms and up and down lots and lots of steps and stairs. In one of the rooms, there were people dressed in peculiar headfur things and they were all sitting behind lots of desks. There was some yackety-yacking going on around the room and it was all rather strange. Then, in another room, Mum and Dad took it in turns to sit on a huge chair behind a huge desk. They also put on a funny headfur thing while Dad's one-eyed-clickybox did it's thing. Then Mum asked me to 'hup' my paws onto the huge desk and she put the funny headfur thing on me. Apparently that funny headfur things makes the wearer a very important person who gets called 'Your Honour'. I think I prefer my own gleaming black fur and my name, but I do quite like the 'very important' bit.

Next, we went to another mahhooooosive building that didn't have so many people in it but we looked into lots and lots of tiny rooms. Apparently this used to be a very special kennel block for very naughty humans who got sent there after going to the funny headfur things place. It was, Mum says, an open day there too. Again, I guided Mum along lots of long corridors, in and out of lots of tiny rooms and up and down lots of horrible clangy open-backed stairs. I also managed to snaffle do few fusses from impressed humans. Well....it would be rude to ignore their admiration wouldn't it?

When we headed back to the boat, we met an old friend, Maffi. He disappeared for a few minutes to his boat, just along the towpath from us, then he came back. Better than that, he was accompanied by Molly, my little doggypal! Molly and I spent some fab time getting reacquainted (last year, we had some great time together during our Megawalk). This afternoon, we enjoyed a chewstick each and I allowed Molly to have a chew on one of my bones too. I also enjoyed some great ear-cleaning duty on Maffi!

Me with my paws up on the huge desk, wearing the creamy coloured funny headfur thing.

Mum and me behind bars in the naughty humans kennelblock place.

Mum and me looking into one of the tiny rooms, containing a two-tier strange bed thing with no mattress and a little desk.

Me almost on Maffi's lap, enjoying some wonderful fuss. Molly, the White-with-black-patches Staffie X Jack Russell, is on my bed beside us chewing my bone.

I Thought We'd Finished with MegaWalking......

Mega-mega-workywalkies today! It went on and on and on - aaaaaaaaalllll along busy roads (of course I kept Mum safely on the pavements!). Four miles of it with the hotball in the sky making my tongue hang out. We finished at the Guide Dogs big house place. Mum says it is called the headquarters of the Reading Mobility Team. I called it miffing! There were doggy pals there - I saw several of them - but I didn't get to play with any of them! Huffff! They were going in and out with various Guide Dog Mobility Instructors (aka OMOEs - Obey Me Or Else). I was with Mum and Dad and a nice lady called Maxine and all I could do was squeak to them from the inside of the see-through wall. Actually, maybe it was a bit too hot to play anyway, and maybe I was just a bit pooped from that big long workywalkies.

Nice Maxine brought me a lovely bowl of cold water. I was making a good job of sloshing it all over the carpet but she spoilt my fun by getting a big towel and putting it underneath the bowl. I left it then and settled down for a little snooze while the humans did their inevitable yackety-yacking.

Mum gave a white floppy rectangle to Maxine. Inside that were some other floppy rectangles with squiggles on them. Apparently they were given by people instead of flowers at Nanny's funeral and that will add to our Name A Puppy fund. Mum says that means we are now less than £400 from our total of our second £5,000 so we hope to achieve that very soon and name a Guide Dog Puppy in Nanny's memory. If you would like to help us reach the target, then please click on the link below:

www.justgiving.com/GuideDogOakley

Photo to of Mum and me outside the Guide Dogs Reading Mobility Team HQ

Redid my walk into Reading!

Just like old times! I took Mum workywalkies on exactly the same length of towpath that we did last year - the very last bit of our MegaWalk from Bath to Reading.

It was a great walk today but last year was better because I had the company of Andy, a Guide Dog Puppy in training and my Puppymummy and Puppydaddy Sue and Mike. Andy is now well on his way to becoming a professional like me and Sue & Mike are now training another puppy, Raymond, who is named after my Grandpa.

Sorry seems to be the Hardest Word....

OOPSIE! Sorreeeeeee! Mummy I do love you really...... I just could not stop myself - that water came up to drag me in....it was utterly irresistible..... Thank you for the treat for being a good boy and obeying your first 'Oakley stay out of the water' command. But......it was so yummy it made me forget why I got it! The next thing I knew, I was up to my shoulders in that looooooovely cool water! Ohhh! It was so nice in there.....

You weren't impressed with me were you? I could tell that from the way you barked loudly at me. I didn't like that. :( It made me sad. I think I really got the message that I had got it all wrong when you put my lead back on and marched me off to the other end of the lock. Then having to 'sit and stay', with you ignoring me just made me sadder. I was very glad when the lock was nearly empty and you came to my end of the beam. That gave me the chance to give you my very bestest I-love-you-I'm-sorry-chin-on-knee-please-love-me pose. Your scratch under my chin at that moment was just bliss. That told me that you know I was sorry for being a bit naughty.

I hope that soggy patch I so lovingly left on your knee cooled you down as much as my dip in the lock-side cooled me down. Oooooh! It was lovely in there....

Now - I need to remember......
I must obey my mummy
I must resist the lure of the water
I must obey my mummy
I must resist the lure of the water
I must.......

Cruising and Relaxing!

Watching the world go by. This is more like it! Just lying on the back deck as we cruise, inspecting the quacking featherballs as we pass them on our way. Plenty of this today, interspersed with working a few locks and bridges (and a few yummies for remembering what I'm supposed to do).

After all of this hard work and relaxation, when we moored up, I took Mum for a bit of a walkies just along the towpath. It just happens that there is a field there. It just happens that Mum brought along my ball launcher. It just happens that Mum was daft enough to hope that I would stay dry when this field just happens to have several places where I can go paddling into the canal/river...... well..... OK...... I may have just happened to wade in just a tad further than paddling point......just maybe I may have happened to enjoy a good swimming session! Well, I had been good..... It was hot..... that water was lovely and cool......

Heehee! Mum gave up and started her daft game of launching my ball into the water so I had to go rescue it - over and over again! It's a tough life being me!

Photo shows me lying on the back deck of the boat gazing at the water as it glides by.

Team Oakley!

Yayyyyyy! The awesome towpath team - BACK in action!

And a very 'rewarding' day it has been! Yummmm!

We started off with a good workywalkies into town where I got to reacquaint myself with my friend Pauline, the bestest checkout lady in Wilko, plus a few other human admirers in other shops too. That was all good. Then, on the way back, we met a Guide Dog Puppy in training. He is a lot bigger than last time we met. I think I heard Mum saying something about meeting up sometime for a playdate. I hope so. We tried to have a bit of a play this morning but we weren't allowed to get away with much.....something to do with best behaviour in uniform.....huff!

After that, we set off for our first cruise for ages. It was sooooooo good to be back doing our thing. Mum seemed to think that a bit of a refresher session would be a good idea. A reminder of all the adaptations to my work that we developed to deal with the towpath environment. Of course, I hadn't forgotten a single dot of any of it, but I was quite happy to go along with Mum's plan. After all, it involved lots of yummy rewards for doing my stuff!

I also got to enjoy a good game of chase with little Jack, the Jack Russell whose humanmum was working a few locks together with my Mum. He might be little, but he is super fast and great fun! I managed to nip back aboard our boat to get a ball to share with him. He even managed to get his little jaws around it!

Series of five photos showing a sequence of Jack and me playing by the lock.

Support for Molly Moo :)

Huffffff! I wandered away for a few moments to rest my aching chompers, came back, and my bone had vanished! MuuuUUUUUuuummm!

Oh well, I shall have to save up some jawwork for tomorrow!

In in the meantime, I would like to introduce you to a doggy pal who, like me, writes a dogblog. Her name is Molly and she used to be a very sad doggy before she was rescued by K9 Rescue and then moved to live with Mum's humanpals, Stella and Graham. Molly is now very happy and healthy and getting to eat all sorts of things I can only dream about.

Stella has promised that, for every page Like Molly gets, she will feed a piggy with some shinydisks. Then when her piggy, Bank, is full up, she will give half to K9 Rescue to help more doggies like Molly, and half to me for my fundraising to train another Guide Dog like me. Isn't that fab?!

So, please check out Molly's great blog, LIKE her page, and spread the message too by sharing it. Hopefully this will also mean that I will get yo enjoy a good playtime with Molly soon too. That would be a bonus!

https://www.facebook.com/mollymoosadventures/

Bone Time!

It's tomorrow now! I got my bone! Yummmmmy!

Well, actually, I only got half of it but this will do for now! Thanks Mum.

Now - serious gnawing underway. DO NOT DISTURB.

From last night......

Is it tomorrow yet? May I have my bone please?

Waddyamean it's the middle of the night? I've been asleep! I've been dreaming about my bone.......  

Close up pic of my nose when I rolled over on the sofa!

Bone Torture

Yummy workywalkies and a soggy freerun on Greenham Common. Happy day!

I took Mum workywalkies into town this morning. It seems my nose led us to exactly the right place. It was a day when all the flappy-walled shoppythings are in the town centre. The yummiest smelling one was at the end. It didn't have flappy walls though. It was a big white box on wheels, with a high-up counter. I was a bit miffed because that counter was far too high for me to reach it. My nose just pointed straight up at it and all I could do was dream of all the deliciousness up there. Mum asked for things like steak, chicken, lamb, sausages.......ooooooooh! It was torture! When the lady handed down a bag full of all those delights, I tried very hard to offer my services to help Mum carry it all. She was mean though. She just me to 'sit' and get my shnozzle out of it. Then she zipped it away in her backpack bag. Huffffff!

Next stop brought further hope: it was the shop with the red and white striped flappy bits outside and similar tantalising smells from within. It was torment sitting waiting in the queue. In there, Mum got the sausages and mince that she couldn't get from the high-up-box. That too got all-too-quickly zipped into that backpack. But then hope returned: Mum asked for a bone. The red and white striped man said 'yes' and even asked 'how big?'

'The biggest you've got please' was Mum's reply! She does love me! Yayyyyy! That bone didn't get zipped away. I was able to keep it under close scrutiny all the way home! Mum just carried it in its bag, in her right paw.

On on the way back, we came across two blue manhumans. Well, they were wearing blue fur-substitutes on their top bits. Mum stopped to yacketyyack with them. I got mega fusses from them - and yummies too! (With Mum's permission first). This yacketyyacking went on for like forever........ I did manage to snaffle a few super fusses from passers by though. That made it OK. It would've been even OK-er if Mum had put that bag down, but she failed to recognise the potential benefit of such an action.

This afternoon, we went out in the car. I thought it was going to be boring, but I was wrong. We pulled into a carpark that made me squeak! My favouritest place in the whole of Newbury! That enormous freerun paradise; Greenham Common! Yippppppeeeeeeee! I really didn't care a poop that the sky was leaking! it was a fabbydabbydoozee afternoon!

I was was a tad soggy afterwards but the lady in Lidl's seemed to think it was cute when I used her leg to dry my face a bit! Heehee!

i think Mum has hidden my bone in that white cupboard with a light inside. She says I can have it tomorrow. So......sofa now.......sleep......then tomorrow will come sooner.....right?

Looking after Granny

Home again! Yayyy! Floatyboatyhome!

It it has been a heck of a day leading up to this homecoming though. Bag-packing, car-packing, workywalkies, meeting up with Bella the yapping puffball that I played with a long time ago, a trip to Pets at Home to sit on the shiny platform to check my numbers again (Mum says there is a discrepancy between branches and I'm not as skinny as she thought I was getting. I think this means a little less extra rations. Huffffffff!), a couple of other stops in the Worthing area. Ooh! I did manage to divert Mum to the all important pic-mix section in PAH. I did a bit of essential hoovering duty and persuaded Mum to dig deep with that big scoop. Well.....it would be unthinkable to run out of good boy rewards wouldn't it?!

We we finally left Worthing and began the long car ride that took us to visit Granny in Bournemouth, via a stop at a human yummyery where I made friends with two minihumans who are Carers for their Mum who has something called MS. I don't know what that is but Mum was telling her all about Canine Partners. I hope she gets one to help her. We working dogs just love to transform the lives of our humans and their families. When we arrived at Granny's kennelblock, she was sitting in her wheelieseat just inside the doorway. She was snoozing. I woke her up by plonking my head in her lap! She liked that. It made her laugh!

After a little while with Granny, we went into Bournemouth town where I had to strut my stuff through the crowds to "Find Boots". Of course I did! Straight in the magic doors! My bum may have bounced a tad as it hit the floor maybe a bit harder than intended - in triumphant expectation of my due reward for being Mum's smartybotty! Heehee! We went right to the back where a nice man mended the little tiny twiddly thing that came out of Granny's earole.

A visit to Granny's flat was a bit baffling: there was a strange long cover over the carpet right through from the front door to the bathroom. There was neither of the two human spending seats - just holes where they should be. There was a new bath, new bowl-on-cupboard, and a new flat square bath-thing that looked a bit like the bottom of our warmrainbox but without a front yet. The walls have new cover-rectangles all over too. We only stayed long enough for Mum and Dad to pack yet more stuff into bags. Then it was back into the car again, another brief visit to Granny to give her back her earole twiddly thing plus a few other things, then another longish drive to floatyboatyhome in Newbury.

I finally got my dinner, very late, and only after a long wait for a Dad to get the box out of the car. I thought I was going to wilt away! Phew! I then had to take Dad for a leisurewalkies while Mum unpacked and stroked the boat's floor.

Now, I hear my sofa calling me....... Budge over Mum....

Oakley - Official Bed Tester!

Another new bedroom tonight! Life never stays predictable or boring!

Tonight, after bag-packing, a long workywalkies, and a long car-ride we have arrived at Papa's home again. We're not in the White wheeliebox outside this time though. We are inside and my bed is on the floor between Mum's and Dad's little beds. They normally sleep in one big bed but tonight they are separated by me! I have, of course, first of all, checked their beds out for them. I approve! They may be declared comfy!