It was over 6 years ago when we first met Cookie.

On a beautiful day in the late spring in upstate New York, we watched as Cookie and her littermates, at merely 4 weeks of age, playing and tumbling on the breeder’s sunny porch. Among the pack was a little kitten of similar age but much more agile, prancing around the wobbly puppies. We were both giddy from the cuteness overload, but we didn’t realize that when Cookie finally came home with us a few weeks later, she would bring along something more than the typical puppy playfulness.

Cookie was just a little peanut back then, but we noticed the feline streak in her right from the start. She liked to communicate with her paws, and she would stalk a toy from a distance then pounce on it. I think growing up with a kitten at the early stage of her life really did have an impact on her behavior, and it was certainly an interesting thing to observe. Even to this day, when Dobby, her little brother, is being obnoxious, Cookie would not be shy about giving him a good smack on the head to remind him who the boss is.

We call Cookie our sassy girl because she is not only athletic but is also full of spunk. And being a toy fanatic, she makes sure the rules are known: 1) All toys go through her first, especially the new ones and, 2) No toys should be played without her, um, “supervision.”

Cookie is extremely smart. From a very young age, she was able to identify her toys (and there were LOTS of them) by name. She also has incredible problem-solving skills. An example would be when we bought a new bed for her a while back, and her little bro immediately planted himself in there and refused to move. Cookie tried to negotiate a deal with Dobby so she could have her bed back. We think she gave a pretty good shot despite Dobby’s shameless butt.

We didn’t know a lot about dogs when Cookie first came into our life, but she has taught us so much about what it means to love and be loved, to understand and be understood. She’s very loving, always craves attention from anyone and everyone, and most importantly, she is a wonderful big sister to Dobby by putting up with his silly antics and smothering Frenchie kisses without a complaint. She’s amazing, beautiful, and will always have a special place in our heart.

Breed: Boston Terrier
Place of Birth: New York
DOB: May 14, 2002
Nickname: CookieMon, The Little One, Magic Cookie
Likes: Falling asleep sucking on a toy, sun basking, and smacking Dobby on the head

Pet-Peeves: Cold weather, getting wet, and mommy & daddy having disagreements
Quirky Tid-bit: Complete belly makeover when season changes

Our Similarities: We both embrace the inner cat in us, frown upon cold weather, and we think girls rule!
Trivia: The Boston Terrier is the first genuinely American breed. A result from selective breeding of the Bulldog and the white English Terrier in the Boston area during the 1870s, the breed was recognized by the AKC in 1891. Lively and highly intelligent, the Boston Terrier has won the nickname “the American Gentleman” not just for the dapper appearance, but also for the excellent disposition & winning personality.

Ingredients
1 organic egg
1/4 cup freshly pressed peanut butter (unsalted)
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup organic honey
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
3. Mix flour and baking soda, keep aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat the egg, and then add the peanut butter, melted butter (make sure is at room temperature) and honey. Mix well.
5. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly.
6. Sift the flour and baking soda mixture slowly into the cake mixture and fold.
7. Spoon the cake batter into prepared pan.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Test the center of the cake by inserting a toothpick, if it comes out clear, the cake is done.
9. Let the cake cool in pan for 10 minutes; then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing
Whip up Low Fat Cream Cheese. I used 3-4 packs of cream cheese to cover the entire cake and make the decorations. Make sure the cake is at room temperature before icing. After icing, keep the cake refrigerated.

Variations

• For larger cake molds, like the bone shaped cake, you can double the ingredients.

• Create a layered cake by baking two cakes and layering peanut butter in between.

• Add organic unsweetened apple sauce to the cake batter. I am still experimenting on the proportions, stay tuned for my final analysis!

Warnings
May cause loss of appetite of daily routine dinner.
May cause eyes to get larger and droopier, which may result in “The Puppy Face”.

Sources:
Original recipe is posted on numerous dog websites.
Icings, variations, photos and modifications to the recipe are added by me.

Rated: K9-G (For All Dogs and Humans)
Genre: Comedy/Adventure
Synopsis: Rijndael, the fun loving Samoyed, is bored of his current town and persuades his friend, Lego, a quiet but mischievous little French Bulldog, to move to a new groovin’ town. Rijndael starts packing their belongings, but doesn’t foresee his little friend Lego’s playfulness as Lego steals and attempts to hide the belongings. After their playful antics, they both are faced with the dilemma of how to move all their belongings to their new Funky Town.
Starring: Lego (French Bulldog), Rijndael (Samoyed)
Trivia: The jump scenes were the easiest and the Happy Halloween picture required lots of retakes :).

At the beginning we wanted to have a purebred dog, but once we visited a shelter and saw many wonderful cats and dogs, and how they looked like in the kennels; bored, sad or looking at you with their special looks, we decided to get a dog from the pound. Soon Puppy Pound Rescue had a litter of pit/lab puppies — 3 males and 4 females.

Bim was the biggest puppy of the litter, most playful. Later actions revealed the secret that he was definitely ‘Alpha puppy’ of the litter – first to play, first to eat, always in the middle of the action. This did not change much – he still has energy like a small power plant, curious, ready for adventure, outgoing and friendly.

Breed: Mutt
Place of Birth: Somewhere around Lake Tahoe.
DOB: Probably beginning of December 2007
Nickname: Bemoleh, Bambushka
Likes: Explore new places, play “catch me – if you can” games with other dogs or people, chase rabbits and deer.
Pet-Peeves: When Bim is in the crate and the cat teases him with her fluffy tail walking slowly around the crate
Quirky Tid-bit: Loves fruits: peaches, watermelons, plums, and overall is pretty much everything.
Our Similarities: I think Bim has more similarities with my teenage son, than with me: they both like junk food, both love to play with their friends despite it being not a right time or right place, both need strong, firm discipline.
Trivia: Mutts or mixed breeds are combinations of different breeds — one-of-a-kind dogs with unique looks and characteristics. Mixed dogs are, as their name suggests, a cross between two pure breeds, and it has often been observed that the crossed dog often times acquires the best characteristics from its parents. Mutt’s lineage of course, is much further from purebreds, however they are less likely to get sick and they have less health problems than many purebreds do.

After our 2-day back-to-back first RE “A” attempt in July, where Lego had decided it was more fun to run in the ring than perform… I gathered my courage and signed up for 2 more back-to-back trials on September 27 and 28.

September 27, we arrived at the location 40 minutes prior to the starting time. I took a walk with Lego to get him acclimated with the environment. We were the last entry in RE, which made us the 1st dog to honor.

In Rally Excellent, there is an Honor exercise where a dog either does a sit or down-stay (depending on the judge), while another dog-handler performs the course. The honor dog is selected in a round-robin fashion — the last dog in the list of entries honors for first dog-handler team. And after the dog-handler team finishes the course, they in turn honor for the next team.

I was happy to be the last entry on the list. I felt that doing the Honor exercise first might help in getting Lego acclimated to the ring — at least we would get a chance to walk in the ring before our actual show time. The Honor exercise was a down-stay. Lego is very consistent with his downs, I was very confident it would not be a problem. Following the judge’s instructions, I put Lego in a down, told him to stay and walked at the end of the leash. Lego did very well in this exercise.

As our show time approached, I grew more nervous. The dog that went before us took off and ran out of the ring in a playful prance. Lego and I were lined up at the entrance of the ring, and that dog’s playfulness excited Lego a lot. This made me very nervous and gave me flashbacks of Lego’s “run-and-jump-for-joy-routine”.

The judge invited us in the ring and asked me to hand over my leash to the steward. “Are you ready?”, the judge asked. I asked Lego to watch me, took a deep breath and said “Yes” to the judge. On the judge’s command, we moved forward. The first sign was a broad jump. This was a very hard sign for many dogs because the dog doesn’t have much time to react to it. I asked Lego to go over the broad jump, and he did! This was a good start and it boosted up my confidence.

We then approached the “Evil Temptation 8” which had 2 food distractions. Lego was always by my side and performed perfectly at this exercise. However upon finishing the figure-8, I lost track of the direction I had to exit from! I started walking towards the wrong sign… luckily I saw the number of the sign and immediately turned towards the right sign. This threw us off a bit.

The next few exercise where close to the honor dog. But Lego didn’t even look at the honor dog — he was entirely focused on me :)! The last exercise was the hardest one, it was the “Backup 3 Steps”, where the dog walks backwards as the handler takes 3 steps back. With a small dog, it’s hard to get their attention. I asked Lego to watch me, took three steps back while asking him to back up, and he walked backwards perfectly, in a straight line next to me — it was a great finale for us! I was ecstatic that Lego was focused on me the entire time and didn’t take off! I put back the leash on Lego and left the ring with a huge smile

I looked at our score, and was in complete awe… we got 98 points and earned First Place! We were awarded 1st place Blue Rosette, Green Qualifying Ribbon and a gift.

RE Attempt #4

Day 2 – September 28, we arrived at the location 30 minutes before the course walk through time. The stewards were running late, which resulted in us waiting for quite some time.

I checked in and received the copy of the course. The course was more straight forward than the previous day’s. But the judge made 2 last minute changes to the course which she announced at the walk through.

I wasn’t as nervous as the previous day. Lego and I were again the last entry in RE “A” class, which meant I would get to honor first in the ring. After the judge finished judging the RE “B” class, she took a break. And just like the previous day, I assumed they would do the award ceremony for RE “B” class before they proceed with judging RE “A” (my group).

In this break time, I decided to take a walk with Lego and do some warm up exercises. After a short while, I returned back and saw a RE “A” dog-handler team entering the ring to be judged and a volunteer dog doing the honor. I rushed to the ring and told them that I was supposed to do the honor and I explained how I thought they were going to the awards for RE “B” before they started with RE “A”. But they told me that the judge decided to do both class awards together and that I should now wait to do the honor exercise after I finish the course.

It wasn’t a big issue, but it just threw me off a bit. I had planned on getting the ring exposure prior we were judged for the course. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference, but nevertheless, my nervousness started to kick in.

Our turn arrived. I walked into the ring. The judge asked if I was ready. I looked down at Lego and asked him to watch me, but he was focused elsewhere. I took a deep breath and acknowledged to the Judge.

“Forward”, the judge said. At that very moment Lego looked at me as we proceeded to the first exercise. We finished the course smoothly and stayed to do our honor exercise, which was a sit-stay.

We eagerly awaited our scores, and I couldn’t be happier – we got 97 points and were awarded first place

I am very proud of my little Lego – he did absolutely everything I asked, and more

After reading about therapy dogs and talking to friends that volunteer with their dogs, I was very interested in participating in this program. I looked up several therapy dog programs, including Therapy Dogs International, Inc.

The TDI test had a long waiting list and I was told that there was no guarantee I would be able sign up for it.

Last week I got a call from the dog training club informing me that there was an opening for the TDI test on September 2nd at 8pm. I agreed to be on the list knowing that I was still allowed to back out if we weren’t ready for it.

Lego had passed his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) when he was about 11 months. But after receiving his CGC certificate in the mail, I slacked off and wasn’t consistent about how he greeted strangers and I allowed strangers to encourage his frenchie-power-launch-kisses.

The TDI test consists of all CGC exercises, with a few more additional tests. My biggest concern was the “Say Hello” exercise followed by the sit for being pet.

“ Test 11: Say Hello
The TDI Certified Evaluator will test the willingness of each dog to visit a person and that the dog can be made readily accessible for petting (i.e., small dogs can be placed on a person’s lap or can be held, medium and larger dogs can sit on a chair or stand close to the patient to be easily reached.) ”

I never trained Lego to sit calmly on someone’s lap. With friends, he gets super hyped-up and gives them frenchie-power-kisses… I had planned on getting off early from work and taking Lego to public dog friendly locations to practice on this exercise. But of course, I got tied up at work and didn’t have that option.

I came home, picked up Lego and decided to try out the test. We arrived at the location around 6:45pm. We checked in and took a walk around the facility. There were a few volunteer kids that were part of the TDI testing. The kids LOVED Lego! They petted him while he sat calmly next to them.

The testing began. The evaluator approached me and asked if she could pet my dog. I acknowledged and as she approached Lego, he stood up from his sit in heel position. I asked the evaluator whether he should sit or stand, and she directed me to have him in a sit-stay for being pet. I asked Lego to sit and stay and he warmly welcomed the evaluator to pet him while he sat calmly.

Lego did well on all the other CGC exercises and the TDI food distraction test. We then reached the “Say Hello” exercise. Another evaluator was sitting on a chair and as I approached him, he asked about Lego’s weight. I told him Lego was about 22lbs, hoping he would not ask me to put Lego on his lap…

The evaluator first asked me to have Lego on his side on the floor while he petted him. The evaluator then said, “Lets try putting him on my lap”.

Not knowing what could happened, I carried Lego and placed him on the evaluator’s lap. Lego was about to give his frenchie kisses to the evaluator. I asked if he could do that, and the evaluator told me that some people might not like it, hence I need to “turn off” his kissing. I told Lego to stay, while on the evaluator’s lap, and he stayed! He didn’t give any kisses and the evaluator gently stroked him.

At this point I was ecstatic! That was the first time I ever put Lego on a stranger’s lap!!!

The next exercise was the 3 minute separation test, which was the last test. I put Lego in a down-stay and left the area. After 3 minutes I returned and saw Lego in the same down position. The evaluator watching him told me he never moved nor broke his down-stay. I was so proud of the little guy !

The stewards informed me that I had passed. I need to fill out a few more forms before we get our TDI badges and can then start volunteering!

Lego and I came home with huge smiles on our face
Lego got a special dinner of beef, pork spare-ribs, Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried beef steaks, and his favorite treat, baby carrots! And he also picked out a new rope toy — his favorite!

Dobby is named after the bat-eared, sock-loving, pillowcase-wearing, house-elf in the Harry Potter books. House-elves are servants in J.K. Rowling’s words, but in our world, we, the humans (muggles), are really his servants, and we’ve been serving him faithfully since 2005.

Dobby is what we call a Velcro dog, and a mama’s boy especially. If he can’t be attached to me, he would at least have to be close to me. If he can’t be close enough to me, at least he would need to be able to see me. If he can’t see me, well then he would just wait by wherever he last saw me. On the couch, Dobby is my mobile armrest, and if I try to move him away, he slides right back as if I had embedded magnet in my thigh. I knew there was a reason we got an armless couch. Who needs armrests when you’ve got a Frenchie?

Before Dobby came to our life, Cookie the Boston Terrier was our only furkid. We toyed with the idea of getting her a little brother to keep company, but it wasn’t until Cookie turned three that Dobby waddled into our world with a silly grin on his face. As it turned out, we couldn’t have found a better match. Dobby plays with Cookie wonderfully and lets her be the boss; he doesn’t mind getting swatted by her iron paw every now and then and still always wants to snuggle up with her. Looking back, I don’t think Cookie was all that thrilled when Dobby first came home, but now I’m pretty certain she at least thinks he makes a very nice pillow

Dobby has brought us so much happiness and makes us appreciate all the simple joys in life. He entertains with those silly antics and showers us with love in his own special way. I never knew I would find it soothing to have a dog snore right into my ear at night, or how amused I get when he sniffs my face with such enthusiasm that a nice wet “nose spray” inevitably follows, and I just love it.

To us, Dobby is something very special, and we are truly blessed to have him in our life.

Sits with legs sticking out from behind.

Our Similarities: Easily amused, dance when happy, and we both love to eat!

Trivia: French Bulldogs are also affectionately called Frog Dogs. The exact origin seems to be a topic of debate, but when I first saw Dobby lying like this, the answer became quite clear. Just look at those little frog legs

I like to say that Scout and I chose each other — he was the first born of a litter of 8 boys and one little girl, and when I saw that very first picture of him as a newborn, I said that he was the one for me. However, many people wanted him just as I did, but the breeder could see, as he grew, that he had chosen me too!

The litter was named the BoysNBerry litter, with the little girl being named Berry. All of the boys have Boy in their name, and Scout is Javahill’s Boy Scout. I showed Scout in AKC conformation, and we just finished his Championship, so he is now CH Javahill’s Boy Scout.

I am learning a new training system called S.A.T.S., which uses a bridge and target technique for communication.

Scout is a great sport with my training experiments. What is most important is that we have a great time together.

Breed: Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever
Place of Birth: Pleasanton, California
DOB: December 26, 2005
Nickname: Scout or Scouty
Likes: Scout is very friendly, and he loves people, especially children and babies. He also loves meeting other friendly dogs, especially tiny ones and young puppies.
Pet-Peeves: Scout is fed a raw meaty bone diet, and his biggest pet peeve is when the meal is not what he was expecting. When this happens, I get a pathetic look of disappointment that asks “Is that my dinner?”
Quirky Tid-bit: Scout loves his many fluffy toys, and he keeps them in a toy basket. He still has the very first fluff toy that I gave him when I brought him home at 9 weeks. After his dinner he takes several of his toys outside, and there he settles down with his favorite — White Rabbit.

(This litter had to be weaned at 10 days of age because their mother got sick. I think that might be why almost all of the puppies from this litter like to suck on their toys or blankies when they want to relax.)

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Trivia: The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (N.S.D.T.R.) was first referenced as Little River Duck Dog in the 17th c. in Nova Scotia, Canada. The little red dogs were unique dogs who helped the hunter by luring the ducks close to shore. They did this by playing on shore, retrieving a stick thrown by the hunter who was hiding in a blind. The dog would repeatedly run out, and then disappear, making the ducks curious. The ducks would swim in closer to shore, to take a look, and then the hunter would appear. This behavior of the dog is called “tolling”. The dog would then do a land or water retrieve of the shot duck.

This dog became recognized by the Canadian CKC in the early 1980’s, and by the AKC in early 2000. Modern breeders have valued keeping the hunting instinct and drive strong in the “tollers” that they breed; and at the same time breeding dogs that are very loving and loyal.

For those that met Lucy remember her from her silly cute puppy-scooching around the rally course and capturing our hearts by performing her “wash your face” trick. Lucy came from such an incredible life — her life story is like a movie with a happy ending (Lucy’s life story).

We all watched Lucy transform from being shy, knowing very little about obedience to being a star on the rally course and welcoming all new K9TL Members.

Lucy, you are a star, we miss you dearly.

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