Intro to Ali.. that's me!

Many of you have already sort of met me thru my other family members' ramblings. I am the littlest one, and I am the cutest one!!! I have been away for a while going to dog shows, but I am home now, so it was time to do a page for me!!! Like Toto, Beanie and Jenny, I am a certified bed warmer for my Mom. Me and Jenny sometimes argue who gets to sleep on the pillow, but actually, I prefer Beanies "poodle" knit blankie, so I give up the pillow and come off as a really considerate gal in Mom's eyes. And, Beanie and I can share his blankie, so everyone is happy.
Mom hasn't started doing any formal obedience training with me... I think she believes I am a dumb show dog, but... I passed my Canine Good Citizen test with no problems. Everyone usually thinks I am a fragile toy dog, but I am really a REAL dog and I can get down and dirty with the rest of them. (I must point out, however, my sister back in Kansas broke her leg jumping off the couch, which Mom never lets me forget!!)
Well, I gotta go find some more photos of me for MY page! Catch ya later.

Obedience class

I got all excited today cuz Mom said I could go to obedience class tonight. I really am smart, in spite of what Jenny says. She's just jealous that she isn't beautiful, too, like me. Well, I was resting up for the class, and Mom was out mowing the yard for the class, and Beanie was mentally practising for the class and, wouldn't you know it, it is now POURING again!!! Mom looked at the radar map and there is rain all the way back for about 200 miles or more so she canceled class, again. Poor Beanie is getting really nervous, he figures one of two things are gonna happen... either it will rain next week too and he won't get to practice at all OR it will rain and rain on both days of his show. After kayaking in the rain, he should be used to it, I would think. I told him that when I was going to shows I had to go show in the rain, too. It was way worse for me, cuz all my fuu fuu hair fell right down into my eyes when the rain came. One time Mom was at the show, too, and it was pouring but we were showing in a fairground building, so Mom carried me to the ring under her umbrella. Rod, my handler, carried Pinki under his umbrella. It worked cuz we both won that day!!! I personally HATED showing in wet grass. They would shave my feet really close, and that wet grass stubble hurt!! I NEVER won in the grass, never at all. Now that I am home again, I run right thru the wet grass and the mud and everything else. I am a real dog again, thank goodness!!!

Fun in the mud!

Mom used to always say I should have been born brown. When I was little, I would run and slide thru every mud puddle I could find. But,for almost a whole year, Mom took me out on a leash if it was muddy so it wouldn't wreak my long, white hair.
Well, now I am done with all that so last night I spent about an hour just running thru the mud. It was sooo nice. It is soft and squishy and it was warm. It smells so earthy, almost like pine or something like that. Mom couldn't believe how brown I was when I came in.... she wanted to take my picture, but it was too dark.
Did you know... "clean" mud falls right out of your hair when it's dry. If you're white like me, it doesn't even leave a stain!!! If Mom had known that, I could have played in the mud whenever I wanted, even with my long fuu fuu hair!!!! However, rolling in dead nightcrawlers does leave a stain and a stink. Not earthy like nice pine, either!!!!

Show dog/house dog

I was a house dog when I was a puppy and first came here. But, when I started growing my coat, I pretty much had to stay in a smaller pen by myself so my coat didn't get ruined. Remember that bbaadd Toto... he ate my coat off when I was almost grown out! Guess he wanted me to stay being a house dog with him. He was only trying to help me.
It's not that bad... I still got to play everyday, and I got to go to daycare lots, and got to watch TV with the family in the evenings... I just never got left alone with any other dogs. I had to be watched all the time I was out. Anyway, it was the same at the handlers... he would take me home with him fairly often and then I got to be his house dog but the rest of the time I was by myself.
But, it wasn't the same as being a house dog. Now that I am cut short, I can run and play and go thru the bushes and let the other guys chew on me and be normal. But, there are some house things I am still learning. For example... Mom's bed. I never got to sleep in the bed before cuz Mom couldn't watch me while she was sleeping. I slept in my crate. Now I can sleep in the bed. It took me only seconds to learn how to jump up on the bed. But, getting off was a different story! Because I am a toy poodle, I have been taught that I am not allowed to jump off high places cuz I could break. The bed is high!!! Beanie always went to the end of the bed and raced down some steps and he was down. I went over and looked once, but it was too high, too. Mom started by making me climb up the steps every night while she held onto me, and in the morning she would gently walk me down them. Didn't work for me... everyone else, (except Beanie), just hopped off the side of the bed. Finally, after a few days, Mom moved the steps over to the side of the bed where the others hopped off. Well, finally, I got it!!! I snuck down the steps the first time and nothing bad happened. Which brought me to the next house problem... when I was on the bed, I just slept all night cuz I don't wet my bed. Now, I can run down the steps if I wake up in the night, so I can go over into the farthest corner and do my business while no one is looking. Apparently Mom sleeps with one eye open, cuz she caught me! Sooo, this week I am learning not to pee pee on the bedroom floor. Mom said if I don't stop she will keep a leash on me all night so I can't get off the bed. Hmmm... that would be like sleeping with all your clothes on!!! Not good, not good at all.

Exploring with Beanie and Chaz

Hi, all.
Tonight Mom took me and Beanster and Chaz down to the big yard to play again. We had loads of fun. First we ran and ran and ran. Then, we decided to fish for a while. Jenny has been trying to teach me how to do it, but there is a problem... I don't wanna get my feet wet! Soo, I have to stand back a bit and try to hypnotize them with my big, beautiful black eyes. I am soo good at that. So far the only one that has come really close to catching a fish is Chaz... check out his fishing photo!!!
Anyway, Beanie is so happy that I am home cuz we run the same speed. Actually, I know I could beat him, but he needs to feel special. I don't cuz I know I am special. Well, gotta go get some beauty rest. Hopefully I will have some kayaking photos soon... have to wait for my hair to grow out a bit so I don't get a sunburn on my butt!!!

A day of play

Mom took Beanie off to his show today and left us all here. I should have been invited to go along for the ride. I could have soothed Beanie when he was upset. Oh well, I stayed home and Chaz and I played outside in the puppy pen all morning. Chaz is pretty cool... he plays nice with me and doesn't even sit on me. I guess those well placed nips that I gave him when I first got home really worked. Anyway, when we are out there by ourselves we are very good. When Mom lets the bigger guys out beside us, I have to run along the fence and bark at them. That makes Mom mad, she hates barking dogs, so now I just listen very carefully and when I hear the door knob rattle, I stop barking so she doesn't know it's me. Unfortunately, I am her only toy poodle, and my bark is different. For a while Chaz sounded like me, but his voice is changing already. Mine is way too high. Almost yappy, as Mom would say! But, that is the ONLY time I ever bark. Well, sometimes after we go to bed, I spy people on that talking box Mom has, and I have to woof at them a bit. Works pretty good, cuz sometimes when I woof, the talking box turns black and they are all gone. Must be magic, I think! Speaking of, it is time for us to go to bed. I will run in and jump on the bed and then Mom will know it's time! See ya later!

Mom's new gray poodle.

This morning I went over to daycare with Beanie and Chaz. Turns out I went to have a bath, cuz I was turning gray! Actually, it was mostly my bracelets. Mom brushed me out and she found enough dirt to plant a flower and sticks and stones and grass and even a piece of pink cloth in there. Hmmm... guess I was playing in the mud too much? Anyway, she washed me all off and used some sweet smelling shampoo. Pretty cool bath after having all that hair before. It only took about 10 minutes for my coat to dry. And, Mom only used the little hand dryer. Now I am all white again and smell really good. After my bath we all three played and played. They have really good toys over at daycare... wish we could bring some of them home with us! And, we visited with a cat in the break room/furnace room. That cat was a wild cat that escaped from a trap when someone caught her and brought her here. She went up into the ceiling and was living up there. After a year up there, Mom trapped her again and took her to get spayed. They let her go back in the ceiling, cuz no one would adopt a wild cat! She wasn't getting in any trouble, and she would even catch a mouse now and then and leave it on Mom's chair. Finally, after a whole THREE years, she is coming down to visit with Mom and the other girls when they go in there. And, she even visited with us, although Mom wasn't sure if she was gonna kiss us or scratch us! We didn't get scratched, but she didn't like Beanie very much! She is way bigger than we are, so Mom shooed her back up into the ceiling while we were in the room. Finally, it was time to go home, and we had supper and I helped Chaz redecorate the living room while Mom was on the computer. It was really fun, and we used white papers from the garbage so I wouldn't get dirty!

A black poodle today!

Mom left me and Chaz and Beanie in the puppy pen today when she went to work. Well, we had a lot of fun and were playing all morning. It was pouring rain the whole time, but that pen has a big, huge cover over it. What Mom failed to realize was that if it rains lots and lots, it runs out of the big pen and right into our pen, right under the covered part.
Mom came home early today cuz it's Wednesday. She had groomed six poodles and said she didn't even want to see any more dirty poodles. Well, she let us out into the house, and I was totally BLACK... black everywhere except my topknot. It only had black smudges all over it. Mom wouldn't even let me walk on the floor...she picked me up and put me in the kitchen sink and hosed me all off. After I was sort of white again, she went and got Beanie. He didn't even have any black mud on him at all, so she checked Chaz. He was clean and dry, too! Sooo, now I am in trouble! I am stuck in a crate again, and being walked on a leash. Dunno what the problem is, I swear I didn't do anything different than they did. How come I got all muddy??? Oh well, don't tell on me... it was really, really fun stamping my feet around in all those mud puddles!!! I was trying to see how high I could make the mud splash. Maybe next time it will reach my topknot? It was worth having to stay in my crate! And, it's supposed to rain again for the next SEVEN days... I can't wait!

More dog shows for Ali, I don't think so!!

I overheard Beanie and Mom talking about teaching me some obedience. Now, what in the world do I need obedience for, I ask? I am obedient.. when ever Mom calls me to dinner, I come running. When it's time for bed, I am the first one in there. Seems like a ruse to get Beanie off the hook, if you ask me!
Mom said it would be alright... I don't need to grow my coat out for obedience, and I won't even need to go stay at the handlers. She said if I was good like Jenny, I would only need to go to six shows... three for Rally and three for obedience, and like Jenny, I may be able to do both Rally and obedience at the same show, so that would really only be three. That sounds like about seven too many for me! I did my dog show time, I am done with that! I am pretty content to stay home and make mud puddles... speaking of, you should see my black feet and legs tonight.... Mom forgot and put me in the puppy pen this afternoon. It was FUN! However, if I have to do that obedience stuff, she better well only enter me at indoor shows... I am not gonna walk in wet grass for any show, breed or obedience. It's not the same as good, clean mud you know!!

A beach day in the bedroom

Mom washed her sheets today. She had to wash out the bottom of the washing machine when they were done cuz there was sooo much sand and dirt in there. Hmmm, wonder how that happened??? Is it my fault that she left my bracelets long? Is it my fault that long bracelets collect sand and dirt??? Is it my fault that it has been raining for forty days and forty nights??? Is it my fault that my genetic makeup makes me want to run and stomp in the mud???
I guess it must be my fault cuz I am stuck in a crate tonight instead of sleeping in the bed with the clean sheets. Not fair, not fair at all!!!