Fun with Photoshop!

Mum and I had a little fun with Photoshop today!

Remember that cool new little point and shoot camera I got? You may remember that I wrote that it has this neat little feature; 30 shot-per-second high-speed burst shooting for some fun action shots.

Mum got me running toward her back in September and used the feature. Today we did some Photoshop on the photos and put them all together!

Fun stuff! Maybe we need to add it to a directory submission service and try to win a prize, BOL!

Interesting to see how I run...ears up, ears down...tail up, tail down (makes a good rudder/balancer, I would guess)...mouth open 'cause I remember it was kinda warm that day. Also looks like I'm a 'lean to the right kinda guy', but I do remember that it was a bit uneven terrain, with a little slope to my right. Interesting!

We may have to try and get a side view of me running next time.

ArmPocket is very handy!

This ArmPocket is so handy!!!

The nice folks at ArmPocket.com sent us one of their ArmPockets for free to test out not too long ago, and I have to say that we love it!

Mum has tried it out on many occasions during our walks and hikes. It's really great when she doesn't have a pocket to put her BlackBerry in, or the new camera we recently got. And it would make a great Holiday gift for anyone that's active like us - for hiking, running, walking, even at agility trials!

And the best part is that it's eco-friendly and very affordable. It's made out of bamboo fabric and recycled materials, moisture-wicking sports-performance mesh and a patented memory foam "V - Strap" with Velcro closure to ensure a snug fit that won't chafe or slip, allowing consumers to go green and stay cool and comfortable while they're working up a sweat. And Mum does work up a sweat, believe me!

Another cool feature is that the vinyl front pocket and speaker slot allows you to control a touch screen and take calls without removing the device, offers a full 30 cubic inches of additional pocket space (for money, cell phone tissues, etc) as well as and extra secure pick-pocket safe strap.

ArmPocket is available in a variety of styles and colors retailing for $23 - $36 and is available at select retailers, check their website for more info!

Very cool, and we thank ArmPocket for sending us one to test out!

It's almost time for Johann's Annual Howling Howliday Giveaway!

Yep, it's almost time! Time for Johann's Annual Howling Howliday Giveaway!

If you read my blog pretty regularly, you'll know that every year we hold a big, big giveaway, with lots of super cool dog stuff for folks to win, while helping to raise funds for needy pups!

This year is going to be a little different than previous years. While you're getting those Christmas Cards ready, decorating around the house, and baking up some goodies, be sure and follow my blog, Facebook page, and Twitter all during the month of December to keep your eye on the prizes!

We've got lots of super cool stuff to giveaway and we don't want you to miss out on the action. More details coming December 1st!

My deer friends!

Look what we saw this morning!!!

It's a frosty morning about 25 degrees, but promises to warm up to almost 60.

Mum looked out the window this morning and look what she saw! My deer friends! (Someday Mum is going to get pawsome photos of these two, but for now...these will have to do.)

The deer are out a lot now...maybe bulking up for the Winter? We see them all the time on our walks and hikes. Last night we saw them run up the ridge, makes me and Gracie super crazy. I bark, she screams her fool head off. And Mum has to keep a super tight grip on our leashes. She's wondering if she'll ever get us to not pay attention to them, but she works on it with us.

Mum went outside without us this morning and they didn't run off like they do when we're around. She tried to get closer to them, but they were skittish. She did manage to get within about 50 feet of them, before they took off up the hill.

I hope they stay on our property where there's no hunting. So many hunters on the adjoining properties. We're taking lots of precautions when we're out hiking to keep very visible. Mum is wearing bright and orange, and doing everything but putting out osha signs, BOL!

Hope you are having a pawsome Thanksgiving weekend if you're in the US. If you're one of our International readers, hope you have a pawsome weekend with your pups!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my friends in the US! And to those of you all over the World, we wish you a thankful day too and hope that all of you are having the most pawsome day filled with fun, friends, family, food and frolic!!!

Our morning started off great today with a nice hike in the woods, and we got in a lot of exploing today. Nope no snakes, no rats, no mice...check.

Gracie had fun in the pond today, got all sorts of muddy. Most people would want to put Gracie in an ergo baby carrier to keep her outta there. But Mum? No way! She likes to let Gracie be able to be a dog. Anyway, we hiked for over an hour and a half and by the time we got home, most of Gracie's mud was gone.

I'm super thankful today for my Mum, my sis Gracie, my kittie bros Wolfie and Wiggy, my active, healthy life, and the fact that I get to go hiking every day and do more agility...but I'm especially thankful for all of you guys and gals. Just wouldn't want to imagine my life without ya! Hope you are having a pawsome day, and that everyday is filled with all the blessings you could ever wish for.

Ever wonder where burrs come from?

Never thought about it myself. Never wondered where burrs come from. I get 'em, Mum gets 'em off me. That's it, right?

If you get in the brush as much as we do, you also find lots and lots of different kinds of burrs (also spelled, burs). Here's one plant we found just ripening it's burrs. It's so late in the year that we've had a hard time identifying this dude, many of it's leaves are spent.

And from that plant is the result of some deposited on the Grace-ster...

Burrs may be a nuisance, but you have to give 'em credit for being the inspiration for velcro, which comes in very handy. BTW, velcro makes a great stocking stuffer for any dog lover, when you're out and about on Black Friday, BOL!

It was George de Mestral who in 1941 (some say 1948) came up with the idea of velcro after coming back from a hunting trip with his dog who had picked up some of the nasties. Genius dog that was, I must say :) Just think if he wouldn't have picked up those burrs that day, just like Gracie, we may not have velcro in our lives!

Fun new Squidoo lens!

Oh, we think you are gonna love this, especially if you love agility as much as we do!!!

We got all inspired yesterday to create a Squidoo lenses entitled, Holiday Gifts for Dog Agility Lovers, and it's loaded with great ideas that you can add to your wish list, share with your friends and oh, yeah, buy something for your agility buds, too!

Oh, and whether you love agility or not, there's some cool stuff there, worthy of a check.

Remember anything we make through your purchase through our links we add to a pot and donate 10% of the profits of that pot to dog rescue! So better get those Cyber Monday paws ready....

...and get shopping, BOL!!!

Our trip to Fall Creek Falls State Park!

We woke up early last Saturday, and knew something was up. Mum got on the computer and got some work done, then she started gathering stuff up...our water bottle, our backpack, extra jackets and shoes.

We all loaded in the car and headed out to Fall Creek Falls State Park. The park is about an hour away, even though it's only about 33 miles. It takes a longer time to get there because we had to drive over the mountain that's just to the west of us. Much of the drive was 20 MPH and twisty/turny.

But very beautiful!!!

We finally got there and Mum went into the visitors center to get a map.

We had heard there was a 3 mile trail, but had trouble finding it. We're finding that the parks in Tennessee don't have a lot of signs and directions. Mum asked a nice man and we finally headed out on the Paw Paw Trail, very fitting, don't ya think?

The trail was one person/one dog lane, so Mum let me take the lead (since I don't pull her down hill, BOL)! She went second and Gracie followed behind Mum. We had a nice little train going and finished the three mile trail pretty quickly. We took a couple of off trail trails to some overlooks, but couldn't really see much because of the trees in the way, but Gracie tried!!!

After that trail, we wanted to check out the Falls that everyone had told us about. To get there we had to cross a 120 foot suspension bridge. We took a little break at the smaller falls and watched all the people crossing the bridge. Not a lot of water in the falls since it's been so dry this summer.

Mum decided that we'd give the bridge a try...if we can't handle it, no biggie, we'll just turn around.

Everyone hanging out around the bridge saw that we were going to give it a try, so they all stayed off the bridge and let us wait until it stopped swaying...then we ventured out. I went first and was doing well, Mum went second with Gracie behind her, just like on the trail.

We got about a sixth of the way across and Gracie bellied down on the bridge with all her paws out beside her and wouldn't move. Have to say it was kind cute, poor girl has some issues (but we knew that :). So Mum turned around and got Gracie up on all fours again, we turned around and walked back with Mum's hand on Gracie's back. That helped her a lot!!! She walked right back like a pro.

We saw a couple of dogs go across, but I have to say that they were not happy about it, and Mum wasn't going to make us, that's fur sure!

So we hung around the entrance of the bridge and watched the people, and talked to some nice folks. One of the nice folks wanted to take photos of the three of us, which is way cool...since Mum is always behind the camera! (We are grateful to the 'girls' from McMinnville, for taking our cool pics!)

Since we couldn't get to the Falls from the bridge, Mum decided we'd jump back in the Rover and drive to the other side, see the Falls and do some hiking over there. Good thing she stocked up on her vitamins online! We got to the railing where we could see the falls and the first thing I did was stick my head out the railing and try to get down the cliffs. OK, that's about 20 stories down...such a silly boy!

Then I looked up and WOW!!!

More WOW!

And to the left, WOW!

After hanging out and looking around for a while, talking with some folks and getting some nice head pats...we ventured out on a shorter hike. Then it was getting close to dinner time, so we headed home.

On the way out of the park, Mum stopped and we got to see this super cool old schoolhouse. Mum loves these old log cabins, can't get enough of 'em!

We got home about 5 PM, got dinner and headed out on our evening walk. Got in about 7 miles that day. Fun, fun, fun!!!

One more pic of me and my pack :)

We're hoping that we can check out the park in the Winter, we hear they get snow and the Falls turn to ice, that would be so cool! Literally, BOL!

I'm donning my Santa hat!

It's November and almost Thanksgiving...so you know what that means, right?

Mum and I have working our paws to the bone, breaking out the cigars (just kidding :) and getting the site - JohannTheDog.com - all ready for the Holidays!!! And we've found some super cool dog stuff!

Be sure and check out...

Gifts for Dogs
Gifts for Dog Lovers
Toys (of course!) - Interactive, Plush & Tough
And all the other sections on the left sidebar - bowls, beds, green stuff, agility gear and lots more!

And watch here in the coming week for a big 'ole super secret announcement!!!!

Can dogs climb trees?

Can dogs climb trees? Well that depends on how much they want the squirrel, BOL!!!

There we were...minding our own business on our walk through the pasture the other morning. Mum is always keeping an eye out for critters...snakes, deer, skunks, stray dogs; well, you get the idea.

We were walking by the creek, when Mum spotted a squirrel playing around the trees near the creek. She didn't tell us about it, 'cause, well, we get kinda wacky when we see squirrels and she didn't want to loose all the ligaments in her shoulders.

Just then, when it was about four feet from us, I saw it!!! Little squirrel-y thing needed an anti aging product that works, I tell ya! I pulled Mum right up to the tree and started to try and climb it. Got about four feet up the tree and wouldn't you know I was within a couple of feet of that squirrel climbing up the tree!

Who knew dogs could climb trees? But now I know I can, at least a little, BOL!

Almost had me one!!!

Mushrooms!

Went on a hike the other day...taking the usual path up the ridge. DOG was it a nice day!

Made our way around the ridge and started into the pasture when we saw these white things dotted throughout the field. Some of them were about 5 inches in diameter! Huge 'cause you know that's bigger than my head, right?

We had to check them out, but weren't all that interested in them. Mum says that's a good thing, since we don't know what kind of mushrooms these are. If they were good ones there sure were some jobs retail to be had collecting and cooking these things up!

Some four-legger liked them...check this one out! These were the white things we saw all around the pasture. Half eaten mushrooms. Now that's something you don't see everyday, least we don't!

More to come tomorrow....got lots to tell you about our big hiking trip last Saturday, and other stuff...stay tuned!

A few things from our trip to the trial!

When we went to the trial a couple of weekends ago...there were a few things I wanted to share from our trip!!!

First up is a photo of me in my crate with my nice blue ribbon, BOL!

Oh Gracie was a bad, bad girl at the trial. She busted out of her crate when Mum was away walking my course or something. Luckily someone noticed pronto and put a leash on her. Mum found someone today that is going to sew in some pet screen to replace the other screen in her crate, so she can't bust out again! Now, Mum knows better than to put Gracie in a softside at a trial. I don't know what she was thinking, but she had us all crate switched. Grrr....guess she's got to get back in the swing of things!

Here are the results for my Snooker run. I always find results pages very interesting. You can see that I did the four 7's, but the points total that I only made it through the 6 in the closing, cause the buzzer went off when I was going up the final frame. Only one other tried the four sevens, I think, and they missed an a-frame contact, so lost those points. And the other dog that got the SQ only did three sevens. Very interesting! Strategy is everything...

On our way home on Sunday it was a really nice sunny day. We stopped in Nashville and picked up some food for the kitties and gassed up the car. Thank DOG for our GPS in our BlackBerry, have no clue how we got along with out it!

On the trip back we had to go up and back down a pretty big mountain, which was hard for the 18-wheelers, so they have their own slow lane. When we were driving home we saw there were two 'runaway truck lanes' just in case the trucks lost their brakes going down the mountain.

We didn't see any tracks in the runaway lanes on Friday, but we did on our return trip on Sunday. So someone needed that lane. Sure glad it was there for them...that sounds very scary! (You may have to click on the photo to see the lane going right in front of the van on the left). The lane is filled with deep sand so it slows down the runaway trucks. (Oh and excuse the dirty windshield, we just ordered new wiper blades, BOL!)

It was a long but fun trip. You can see the mountains in the photo above, we saw lots of those!

Even though we haven't seen a tick on our property for a couple of months now, I picked one up at the trial site. So we're keeping on the regimen.

Mum got Tether for her BlackBerry before our trip. DOG is that cool!!! Now we can hook up our Netbook to the BB and get safe, firewalled Internet access through our cell phone service. It's pawsome and it's fast! Got in a little work at the trial in between some runs on Sunday. Oh and it's inexpensive too, (only $49.99, one time for the app)! Not at all like managed hosting, by any means! Sure wish Tether would have been around when we first moved here, that would have come in very handy waiting for them to lay that cable. Now we can work from anywhere, even up on the ridge if we wanted to, BOL!

When we got back on Sunday it was still light out, but starting to get darker. When we drove up the road towards our lane, Mum looked over to the field across from our property and saw this...

A family of deer in the field. They were young ones and they were actually frolicking through the field. Now that's something you don't see everyday! Mum stopped the car and they stopped to look at her. But you should have seen them jumping around and teasing each other, it was amazing! (Sorry for the bad cell phone pics :(

We drove up the lane and ran inside to feed the kitties; and get our dinner too...then we headed out for our evening walk. Something got hit in the road again and those big birds were everywhere. Made me crazy! 'Cause you know how much I love to herd birds.

Oh they dog me so....

That's it for now! Hope you all are having a great week. Happy Hump Day, BOL! 'Cause us dogs like that, you know :)

USDAA this past weekend!

Mum and I enjoyed our USDAA trial this past weekend!

We went to Franklin, Tennessee which is about 2.5 hours from our cabin. We went on Friday and on Sunday, 'cause Mum thought it would be a good idea to give me a rest day in between because of my last muscle strain. And we only entered three events on Friday and two on Sunday, since when she entered she had no idea how I would feel.

My first run of the weekend was so pawsome! It was Snooker and had the tunnel, frame as the seven. You could do 3 or 4 reds, and since I need a few Super Q's for my ADCH Mum decided we needed to go for it. So she planned out four reds, and four sevens.

I have a pretty doggone good frame, so Mum felt kind of confident, except she was super rusty on remembering lengthy courses. But it worked out pretty good! We got through the four sevens and through the final six before the buzzer went off on my last frame. Good enough for a Super Q and first place!

Mum was super excited for both of us, only two more SQ's and two more gamblers for my ADCH!

Here's the run...

Hee, hee...we're both in black, get it? Mum thought I was wide on many of the jumps and that we need to work on some tighter turns.

My second run on Friday was Steeplechase. I knocked a bar, and then seemed slower after that, then I stepped on the long jump and started a little limp. Mum worried and carried me off the course, walked me out and massaged me, didn't feel any heat. So she decided to give me half a Traumeel pill and see how I looked for my next run.

She got me out for our Gamblers run and I was raring to go. She planned out a course for Gamblers but kind of miscalculated the timing on the opening (she's a little rusty on that from not running these games for a couple of years). I was so speedy that she didn't even get in the blind cross after the tunnel she planned, and it took her and me off guard. We had enough points but missed the gamble, it was a jump to an out jump to a tunnel to the right and then another jump. We found out that I'm rusty on my distance with just jumps so I didn't make it through. NQ :(

So we drove home, and got home about 9 PM, long, long day! And a lot of driving in the dark through the mountains which is kind a weird. Mum got stopped by the coppers about 15 minutes from home. Guess our headlight was out, no ticket, but Mum had to go and get a bulb for it on Saturday and got some help from some nice guys at the oil change place to install it. They did it for free!! Nice guys!

So we headed out again on Sunday. And had my first run about 30 minutes after we got there. It was Snooker again, Mum decided to go for it again, with a 6 and three 7's. Took us a little long since the 7 was three jumps, but we made it through to five. Mum had thought about replacing one of the 7's with a 4 tunnel, but decided against it. Think we may have gotten that SQ if we would have done the tunnel instead. But alas...no SQ, but we got a Q and Mum was happy to see me running speedy.

My last run was Gamblers, Mum put a plan together and tried to time the opening a little better. I bobbled the tunnel, and got sideways coming out of the chute, so it got our timing off going into the gamble which was another jump to an out jump, then right to the teeter and another jump. Again, I'm rusty going on an out jump, so we didn't get that gamble either.

So we learned some things. Mum needs to plan better for our Snooker/Gamblers runs...you really can get out of practice on the timing if you don't do it regularly. And we learned that I do well on outs/sends with contacts and tunnels, but not so much with just jumps...so something to work on!

Mum gave me 1/2 pill of Traumeel before my first run on Sunday and after the run too, before my Gamblers run. It really, really helped...loosened me up and took any kind of edge off that I had. And it didn't whack me out either.

Oh another thing, I broke my start line stay on every single run this weekend. Took Mum off guard on every run too...I never break my stay in competition, so something new to work on!

Hope you all had a great weekend!