Berners were made for carting...

Ok, maybe not. Richie and Christine put my harness onto Toba this evening, and thought they would see if she would pull my cart. 

She let them hook up the cart to the harness, and would stand there with it attached, but wouldn't go anywhere with it. I guess it comes naturally to some Berners, and some not so much. I win.

Mischa

Playing at the beach

We went back to Point Roberts again this weekend, and we had a great time running around on the beach at low tide.

Dog, that Toba, she went crazy there. It was like she went "crazy puppy" and she started chasing me around on the sand. Of course, I'm still way faster and more agile than she is, so I put up a good chase.


Toba and I dug in the wet sand, looking for whatever treasures were left behind by the tide. She would dig dig dig, then lie or roll around in the freshly dug hole.

Here's a cool 360º view of what things look like at the beach when we are out for a play at low tide:


Mischa

Editor's Note: For a better 360º experience, click 360º degree view at the beach using your iPad.

Toba and the wading pool

It was pretty hot here recently, and so Christine set out the plastic pool and filled it up with water. I love going swimming, but this looks too much like a bathtub to me - I don't like getting a bath. It does make a great big water bowl however, and both Toba and I have been drinking from it often.

One day, Toba decided that she wanted to try and get at the little fish and other animals that are lying on the bottom of the pool. It was funny to watch.

Mischa

My new shadow

It seems that I have acquired a new fixture by my side, that follows me wherever I go. When I go outside, Toba follows me. When I bark, she barks. When I pee - well, you get the idea.

She will sit nearby, or lie down on the grass beside me. Here we are lying on the front lawn together, watching the humans walk by. It has cooled down a lot here, and we are able to spend more time out in the lawn, instead of hiding out in the basement (or the garden for Toba).

Here you see how she's followed me up on the bed! We're not sure if this is a normal thing for Toba, but she sure seemed to enjoy lying on Richie's side of the bed.

Mischa

Salut. Mon nom est Toba.

Salut. Mon nom est Toba. J'ai été déposé ici avec ces personnes il y a quelques semaines. Au début, je n'étais pas sûr de ce que je devais faire avec eux. Mais ils ont deja un Berner, de sorte qu'ils ne peuvent pas être complètement mauvais. J'ai eu du mal à les comprendre, comme ma deuxième langue est le français (d'abord bien sûr, ma premiere etant la langue non-dite que nous les chiens utilisent). Je suis un peu trilingue, mais mon anglais n'est certainement pas aussi bon que mon français. Même encore, je suis très sélective sur ce que j'entends "viens ici" ne fonctionne vraiment pour moi si vous avez un cookie pour moi!

Mischa n'a pas été très heureuse de m'avoir autour d'elle au debut. Puis ma nature ludique a finalement déteint sur elle, et maintenant nous jouons ensemble comme de vieux amis. L'autre jour, nous nous sommes débattues dans le parc, et je commençais à avoir le dessus sur elle! Nous nous baignons souvent et je vais patauger dans l'eau jusqu'à la poitrine, mais Mischa, elle, plonge completement dans l'eau! Elle n'y va même pas pour aller chercher une balle ou un bâton, elle y va simplement pour le paisir de nager. Je voulais faire un essai, mais j'ai peur quand je ne peux pas voir le fond du lac.

Il y a autre chose que je ne comprends pas bien ici non plus. Il semble que Mischa entre et sort à l'arrière-cour de son propre chef! Je la vois passer par cette porte magique dans le sous-sol, mais apres qu'elle est passee, la porte de referme de nouveau! Je sais que les humains veulent que j'utilise cette porte magique, mais je n'arrive pas a savoir comment ca marche !!!

En tout cas, ici c'est la canicule depuis mon arrivee! Mais, j'ai dcouvert un endroit genial pour me rafrachir dans le jardin et me cacher pendant de longues periodes. Il y a aussi le sous-sol ou Richie prend ses siestes, Misha et moi y allons aussi. La plupart du temps, nous allons pour notre promenade matinale à un endroit appelé "Starbucks". Il semble que nous sommes pratiquement célébrités autour d'ici. Nous sommes accueillies et reçoivons les animaux de compagnie de beaucoup de gens sur notre trajet du matin. Dans l'après-midi ou plus tard dans la soirée, si il fait trop chaud, nous irons pour une autre promenade dans le quartier. En d'autres occasions qu'ils appellent "le week-end", il y a beaucoup d'activites à l'extérieur et à la plage.

Hey, je viens de comprendre comment utiliser la porte spéciale! Il a fallu un certain encouragement avec des biscuits, mais je me rends compte maintenant que si je pousse sur le rabat avec mon nez, je vois que je suis capable de sortir et entrer dans de la cour en toute liberté! Maintenant Mischa et moi on court tout le temps. C'est génial!

Ce week-end, certains humains sont arrives ici. Ils sont apparemment les parents de Richie, son frère Chris et sa compagne. Les deux derniers parlent français! Ce n'est pas reellement important maintenant puisque je comprends ce qu'ils veulent me dire dans les deux langues. Ca ne veut pas dire que je vais toujours faire ca. Comme l'autre jour a la plage, j'étais occupée a scruter les autres repas autour, ils voulaient que je vienne, .. moi je ne voulais rien savoir.

Je suis en train d'avoir une merveilleuse vacance d'été ici. Je vais faire une traduction par le Québécois pendant qu'ils sont ici.

Toba

Editor's note: English translation in the comments below.

The sunny day rain...

The other morning when we went outside to do our morning business, it was sunny, but yet there was water falling in the yard. The rain would fall on one side of the lawn, then move to the other. So both Toba and I went onto the grass to go, and the rain started to fall on us! But you know, once you start, you can't stop... So both of us got wet. 

Then for some reason, we were not allowed back in the house. Hmmm. Just another thing that we dogs will never understand.

Mischa

Summertime activities

Summer has definitely arrived now. The sun rises every morning and heats things up around here, but we manage to stay cool by hanging out on the concrete patio or lazing about in the shade on the grass in the backyard.

This sunny weather has us doing lots of fun activities. We went down to the beach and swim; ok I swam, but Toba would only go in up to her belly. There was lots of doggies around, and we played in the water until we got cooled down.

Toba and I eagerly await a treat

Then we went back to the grassy area by the Rover and Richie and Christine had a picnic. We had to sit there while they ate yummy bits of bread, meat and cheese. I drooled. Eventually, we got a few bites and we were happy.

One of the other things I like, is eating frozen blocks of water... here I am chomping away on one that Christine just gave me.

We also went down the river on another day; I think the the water is better-tasting here. Again, Toba seems to want to come in and swim with me, but she turns around as soon as she gets belly deep in the water. Maybe she doesn't know how to swim?

Mischa

Where's Toba?

The other day, Richie came downstairs, and while I had staked out my spot on the bed, Toba was nowhere to be seen. Then he went outside on the deck.

What do you see in this picture above? The tree? A beautiful garden? A patch of grass? Look more closely.

There she is! Toba seems to have found a great place to stay cool in Christine's garden... at least she's not getting into any trouble by digging in there.

Mischa

The visiting doggie

This past weekend, a new Berner showed up at our place. I thought this was just some friends of Christine and Richie, but it turns out that the humans were just dropping off their doggie to stay with us! This is Toba - she's apparently my step-niece, or something like that. Anyhow, I don't know how long she's going to be staying with us, but it is nice to have company again.

We got into the Rover and went down to Point Roberts for something called a "long weekend" - we dogs don't understand what that means, but the effect is that we spend 3 sleeps away from home. Just as we were getting to the border however, I decided that something was amiss, and I climbed out of the back doggie area into the back seat. But when I got up there, I found that there was too much gear piled up on the seat for me to be comfortable, so I climbed up into the front with Christine! She didn't seem to like me standing/sitting on her lap, but Richie laughed and laughed. Anyhow, I knew there was a reason why I left the back area, as not 5 minutes later, Toba threw up on the carpet - yuck!

Then when we arrived at the cabin, no sooner had we jumped out of the Rover, when Toba ran straight for the smelly water in the ditch. I know from past experience that I'm not supposed to go in there, but I'm not going to let the new girl show me up, so I ran in there myself! This did not please Christine and Richie, and we immediately got back into the Rover and went to the beach to "get cleaned off".

We did all the usual things that we normally do at Point Roberts - go for walks to the beach, go swimming, look for dead/smelly things to roll around in at low tide, and sleep in the shady areas of grass. It was really hot this weekend, and we spent a lot of time lying around. I think Toba really enjoyed herself - especially having everyone hang out with us every waking hour of the day.

One evening when we went for our walk down to the beach, these two big doggies were standing right by the fence! Toba and I strained at our leashes, as we wanted to get closer for a sniff, but we were held back tightly.

All in all, another great trip to Point Roberts, and I think Toba enjoyed herself.

Mischa