Barker Day's

We took Duncan to doggy day at the pool. He loved it as you can see by the pictures.

How's that for retriving?

We're not in France anymore Toto!

I thought I'd share a funny story from this week. We think it's funny -- I guess it could be a "you had to be there" moment but we'll give a shot anyway.

At the Vet with Duncan (aka. Fozzy)
Front Desk: Could you take him over to the scale and weigh him?
Us: OK
Sign on Scale "Please do not change the settings"
Us: He weighs 34.8 kilograms?! (We look at each other and silently ask one another "Uh, how many kilograms in a pound??)
While waiting for the veterinarian we contemplated many witty comments for using kilograms instead of pounds. The following was our favorite.
Wow! 34.8 kilograms that's great, but our dog isn't French Canadian!


PS. For those of you still trying to convert 34.8 kilograms into pounds, the answer is 76.5 lbs. :)

Life Guard on Duty

Now that it is spring and the weather is getting warmer, Nathan and I decided to have a pool put in. Yes, a swimming pool with water. So grab your sunscreen and noodles!




Here is a picture of Duncan enjoying the water.

Note the fancy waterfall feature.

And here is Nathan on duty.

Swimming Lessons

Last weekend, we took Duncan to Cherry Creek State Park. For those of you not familiar with the area, this park is a HUGE off leash dog park along the Cherry Creek about 15 minutes from our house. We thought that we could exhaust the pooch and enjoy the nice spring weather walking around the park. Up until this day, Duncan had yet to go swimming -- baths don't really count. When we found an area that had other dogs playing in the creek, we told Duncan to go play. He was a little hesitant to run around in the water, but quickly decided that it was doggy heaven. Of course, it wouldn't be a true day at the park without a wet doggy shaking all over you! Eww! After a while of frolicking, we walked a little farther and found a marshy area with a pond. I thought to myself, "I wonder if he would swim if I threw a stick in the deep area where he would have to doggy paddle?" I picked up a stick, threw it in, and and told Duncan to go get it. He looked at me like, "Lady, if you wanted the stick, why did you throw it in to the middle of the pond?" He took a few steps into the water, doggy paddled for about 10 seconds, turned around, grabbed the closest stick to him and promptly got out of the water. He looked so pleased with himself that 1. he swam for the first time 2. he retrieved a stick 3. he thought he had out smarted us and we didn't notice that it wasn't the stick. We got a pretty good laugh out of it. Anyone out there give doggy paddling lessons? :)

Perhaps The Smartest Dog In The World

As many of you know, Danica and I recently had a new addition to the family. In early October, we adopted a 3 month old Golden Retriever, who we eventually named Duncan. I voted for Elway or Killer, but Danica vetoed both ideas and we eventually decided on Duncan.

Now, I may be a proud parent, but he has to be the smartest dog in the world. He can already sit, lay down, give high fives, shake hands, retrieve and tell us when he needs to go out for a potty break by ringing a bell. Danica also taught him the word football and he now will "get his football". (Still liking the name Elway)He is such a lover, when we take him to the dog park is happier having everyone pet him than playing with the other dogs.

Hopefully, we can impress our Idaho relatives with our super smart dog when we go out for Thanksgiving. If not, we could be disowned, but we think Duncan is going to knock their socks off.

Until the next post....