Christmas Present Practice

After all the nice things I have said about Sammy, only tearing up or chewing things that aren't a big deal (paper notes) and never messing with things he shouldn't. Like he had a special sense about what would be too far, like my shoes! Like the time he pulled each peice of gum out of a gum packet and set it around the room, but never chewed any (that I can tell) or hurt anything. It was just a reminder that he was lonely and so I had to pick up gum for going to class. Or the fact that he just drinks the tree water. He has sniffed the tree itself, but never any more. I believe that it because he has this sense that it is very big on the naughty list, that his mom loves Christmas and needs the tree to be pretty! He chews bones on top of my flip flops and (faux) berkingstocks almost in a way to remind me he is a good dog and knows his limits, and that I need to always remember that. He doesn't attack any hanging decorations for any holiday, no electronics, doesn't chew on any furniture, nothing. A very well mannered pup. He is very responsible while we are gone, which is why he has never been kennel trained at home.
Well, maybe it was the last blog where I talked about how he wasn't a "normal" dog for not attacking the bones on the tree. Or that when he did get a human candy cane, he didn't even eat it, but got it stuck in his rear end. Now I have meant all these things as compliments. In our house, weird and weirdo are (98% of the time) compliments. Weird is usually a different way of saying unique, proud individual around here. Maybe I need to sit Sammy down to explain that to him. Anyway, with no further ado I present Sammy's mischevious side. Here is what I came home to yesterday:  (it's cell phone photos, all I had at my fingertips at the scene of the christmas crime)

I sent the photos to my mom, and the first thing she said was how innocent Sammy looked. Why yes, he looks very innocent there doesn't he? He isn't even looking at it, like he is above such destruction! Just after the picture he looked up at me like, "But mom, it's my first Christmas, I just wanted to practice opening presents even if it wasn't mine! And you wrapped it so pretty with the gold Merry Christmas paper, green ribbon and poinsetta...."

To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question

I have said this before, and I have absolutely no doubt I will say it again. Sammy is a weird dog.
He does all sorts of things everyday that I have come to get used to, knowing that is my pup. Then we travel somewhere, or I talk to a friend with a dog, or even remember the dogs I grew up with and then I realize, he is not ordinary, but extra ordinary. One thing he has enjoyed recently, drinking the tree water. Yep, the water was only put there so he could have a bowl closer, so he would not need to go all the way to the kitchen for water (an extra 5 feet from the tree). He gets under the tree and around the presents ever so gently as to not disturb a thing. Some dogs feel the need to test the tree, not Sammy. I don't think he even realized it was weird to have it there, even though we did have to move his toy box. Furthermore, on our tree, we have rawhide candy canes, not regular people candy canes.  Yet still he does not feel the need to climb to get a candy cane, just to slink under and get some water. Now the back of his head is sticky and crunchy from the sap. Weirdo. 
The other day, when I was leaving for school my overwhelming backpack knocked one of the three people candy canes (to the twelve dog candy canes) off the tree. Erik was still there and I asked him to just check the floor before he left. He didn't see the candy cane, and I know this because Sammy did. Now I know that this is the part where some crazy story comes from his eating the candy cane, like he stained the carpet red from the dye or he got sick or something with the plastic, but this is Sammy. Sammy broke the candy cane into a few peices, but apparently didn't think it was a tasty treat. I found three large chunks on the floor with the wrapper still wrapped around it. From the three peices it had to make up at least 90% of the original candy cane. When I come home, Sammy always needs to say hi, he hops up on his hind legs onto my leg with his ears back and puppy eyes. This with a little scratch on the leg means he wants to be held. (Sounds crazy but if you don't do it he follows your walking jumping on his hind legs until he gets his hug! Even more weird "hold you" is one like 10 words he knows and jumps on my leg when I ask him "do you want me to hold you?") When I picked him up upon my arrival I felt candy cane on his rear end! The little peices got stuck on the back of his legs and hips! There were like 4 or 5 peices that all together made the size of a hershey kiss. Not a single stain on the floor, nothing. Weird!
Yet the night before that, while I was writing my paper, I had to pull a q-tip out of his throat while he was trying to swallow it!
Anyway, I will finish with a couple pictures:
the first is of Sammy anxiously awaiting his giant candy cane rawhide (we didn't put this size on the tree),
and the second and third are Sammy helping me with school work on the worst couch ever!
the fourth is Sammy and his Santa in front of the tree
the fifth is me and Sammy in front of the tree
and the last one is Sammy and Erik at my mom's watching the Nebraska game couple weeks ago

Snow Pup

Last night was the beginning of the snow storms expected this week. Currently we only have maybe an inch to two inches on the ground, but that is certainly enough for Sammy to play in. We had snow before on his sixth month birthday, but that was nearly two months ago! I wasn't sure how much he would remember from then, I just hoped he would still enjoy it!
The snow began yesterday during the daytime, but it wasn't really accumulating. Not until late, late in the night. When we went out for our potty trips, each snow flake became more and more inticing! He bounded like there was a foot of snow, not centimeters. He didn't want to come in! By the end of last night Sammy learned the word snow. That means his word recognition is now up to: Sammy, sit, kisses, treat, walk, breakfast, dinner car ride, Petco, walk ....and snow! No, not stay, lie down, up, or down, come, or any of those other "normal" doggie words.
This morning enough had accumulated that I told him as soon as I got home from class we would go to the park next to our complex and play in the snow. It's a nice little neighborhood park that has very few visitors. There is a little playground where Sammy has learned to slide and sit on my lap to swing! He usually goes right for it so he can run in circles in the sand. There is a pool in one corner with a basketball court and tennis court next to it. Behind those courts and next to the playground is a baseball field, which currently is covered in snow, so it looks like a big snow field. On the other side of the baseball field is a small incline covered with trees and picnic areas. The baseball field is a nice place to let Sammy have his freedom, no leash, so he can run like a crazy dog on special occasions like today!
When I came back, we (Erik and I) got suited up while Sammy paced in front of the door just waiting for us to hurry up!! He couldn't understand what I was doing getting two shirts, a coat, two pairs of socks, waterproof boots, hat and gloves on when he could just walk out the door. He pulled and pulled as hard as he could down teh parking lot right into the drift  made by the plows. Then once we got to the end of the tennis court, I let him free. He ran and ran and ran as if it was his first and only day to run. It's amazing how fast his little legs can go! I know I couldn't keep up with him, but I tried.

He had so much fun running around and eating the snow! He would bury his head and then shake it! He just loves to run around in it. Almost too distracted to do his business, I hope that wears a little in the future. Sammy ran and ran in big giant circles. I ran after him, then he ran after me. We raced, and he won everytime! The cold didn't bother him a bit. Then he started following his own trails, sniffing like a little hound. Just so much fun!

We are expected to get more snow today and many inches through the night as well as into tomorrow, so I am excited to take him back out. He was upset we had to come in so fast, and wouldn't come in the door! I had to pick him up and bring him in because I was too cold to mess around with that! It should be interesting once we get a few more inches and his legs are too short to just barrel through! Hopefully it will happen at a good time, it is dead week at school, so I don't have the most flexible schedule to entertain him in the snow unfortunately. It's a good thing he is a good pup and will love it no matter when we get to play in the snow!

Dear Santa...

First, before I start my blogging of the day, I should mention Sammy told me he was jealous of all these other corgi sites we have visited and how beautiful they look. He is more jealous that the other corgis get their pictures right at the top and it's personalized. I told him I would try to make our snappy, and put his cute little puppy face right at the top. He was elated. How hard could it be right? Well, I'm here to say that after about 2 hours of reading crap and clicking buttons I thought correlated to what these site were saying, and a little bit of frustration, I ended up with a photo of Sammy that was about 3 times the size of the screen! I asked Sammy how hurt he would be if I just clicked another template and called it good, he said he was ok with that. Thus, we have this brighter, snappier blue thing on our page. (Better than the white I almost went with. Another day I will give it a go.)
As for our Santa story...
Petco was sponsering Santa coming to the store and getting pictures with the PALS members' animals that make a purchase! Boy have I been counting down the days for this event. The flyer has been on the refridgerator for almost a month. I held off the Christmas shopping for Sammy's cousins until this day! We went in and I can never make it past the darn seasonal display, so Sammy got his holiday sweater. Sammy's cousins are older dogs and don't enjoy sqeaking on toys for hours upon hours like him, so we picked out the bones we are going to give. Then I was a little sad that it meant we weren't getting the package of toys, meaning Sammy couldn't have one. So I narrowed it down to three. Sammy ended up with two: a tree that has a squeaker and a rope that runs through it (perfect for tug of war), and one of the long loofas in the shape of Santa (it also squeaks). Next was hitting up the cat section for his kitty cousins. I made an observation there, and that was kitty seasonal toys, not nearly as fun as the doggie toys! We did get kinda seasonal cat toys. Our animal Christmas shopping is done! No Petco trip is complete without a trip to the buffett! We got some Christmas pretzels (red and green) and a couple of his other favorites. I wanted to get him rawhide candy canes, but we have found them cheaper at Hy-vee.
After making our purchase, we got what we came for: Sammy's picture with Santa! I don't have a scanner to upload the real pic, so my cell phone photo will have to suffice:

And here he is after:

I think he had a good time! The second picture came out blurry, but he did not enjoy sitting still for a picture. I wanted to try to capture his "unbridled" excitment! Cute little puppy! It was really fun to get his picture taken with Santa. I'm sure it makes me one of the crazy dog people, but it was cool! There were lots of other dogs AND cats (yeah, people brought their cats) there at the same time! Sammy went ADD dog. I've learned that his ADD dog loses cuteness with age, sad...I don't think the ADD moments will go away. We ended up spending more time walking around so we could go up when there were as few other animals as possible. When it was our turn, there was one other dog there, and Sammy couldn't take his eyes off him! I had to resort to asking Sammy if he wanted to go for a car ride behind the lady taking the pictures to get him to look that way. That was after the squeaking toys, yelling his name and making barking sounds had no effect. Santa seemed to enjoy him though, I think they bonded.

I hope Sammy asked him for a yard.....