Thank crunchie it's Friday

Hi guys! How are you all doing? I'm waiting for Mr and Mrs S to get home and get the weekend party started, so to speak! We are all off to Ruby's old family's new house tonight – another garden to trash and new floors to muddy up! I'm hoping that they don't decide they've missed her so much they want her to move back in, this place wouldn't be the same without her now.

Yes, she does push me about and bite my ears a bit more than is necessary, in my opinion, but I can give as good as I get and I do like having a playmate and a buddy to run through the woods with.

Last Sunday we went on a Cockers Online meet up - its a website for cocker spaniel owners that mum is always on (she's a saddo and needs to get a life methinks!). We went to Shorne Country Park in Kent. It was a hoot - we saw Pebble the blue roan again (we first met by chance at the Hop Farm for Paws in the Park last month - her mum's a COL-er as well and recognised us from mum's posts) and met Monty and Rosie and Coco and Mayhem and loads and loads of other cocker spaniels.

It would have been even better if the hoomans hadn't all been busy nattering away and followed the wrong route to the other half of the group - but we got to go past the dop pond and have a wallow in the mud. Guess who was straight in the bath when we got home?

Winter is a coming.....

.... and hope to doG I don't have to wear this stupid parka thing outdoors - oh the shame! I'm sure I saw Ruby on her back, thrashing about in fits of giggles out of the corner of my eye when they made me put this on. How could they humiliate me like this? I'll get my own back by chewing her new winter boots I think...

I passed bronze!

Took the training class by storm last night - even though I say it myself - and passed level one certificate with top marks! Money for old rope this laying down and staying in one position for ages - AND I get a liver treat for every time I lie still! How easy is that?

I livened things up a bit by snuffling around under the chairs in the church hall between takes - someone had kindly dropped a bunch of grapes down the back - and bogging off for a drink of water during the "wait" to go through the door exercise! But compared with the competition - a silly Labradoodle and a rather badly behaved Hungarian Vizlar who couldn't do a "down stay" to save his life - I was mustard.

So Mrs S is now the proud owner of another rosette and under the misapprehension that she has a cocker spaniel who can obey commands! She just doesn't get that it's a whole new ball game outside of the church hall!!

An eventful walk in the woods

On Saturday, Ruby and I were bundled into the back of the car and driven to our new favourite haunt - some big woods not so far from where we live. We love chasing the squirrels and we can run for miles in and out of all the trees. This week, it had been chucking it down before we got there, and there were loads of wet, muddy puddles to wallow in and masses of leaves to jump into. We were having a great time until Mr S decided to run up a bank and hide behind a big tree - we obviously sniffed him out in a nano second and ran back down the slope, when he came tumbling down behind us letting out a blood curdling yell - silly dope hadn't factored in having only two legs, with less balance, so had stumbled on a hidden log and sprained his ankle! doh!

He gamely hopped round the rest of the trail (apparently just as far back to the car as carrying on, and Mrs S wasn't about to give him a piggy back) but it put him out of action for the rest of the weekend - when will these humans learn - four paws good, two legs bad!!!

Anyway, things got decidedly worse when we got home as we both had to have a dreaded bath - something about stinking to high heaven, wherever that is. Clean, wet and smelling really really iffy, we spent the rest of the weekend confined to house and garden to keep us out of trouble.

Tonight is my 'exam' at dog training - I can't wait to see Mrs S's face when I 'forget' all we've learned this course....

From here to Australia!

It's been a pretty average week really. Sleep, eat, walk, sleep, eat, tear around the house and garden, sleep..... you get the gist! We are down to one long walk a day as it's too dark now when Mrs S gets home from work, so we have much more energy to expend on digging large holes in the garden instead.....

.... hmmm caught in the act!