Here’s video that used to be linked in the Gallery page that has since stopped working. It’s me as a 3 month old puppy!

Guess what Friday was? Maybe these will give you a hint.

And finally, this year….

I turned 6 years old! As you can see, every year Amy makes me a special birthday cupcake made of Natural Balance (this year it was beef), cheese, Evo dog food, and peanut butter. It looks pretty good don’t you think? Amy, can I eat it now?

As usual, this year’s cupcake was delicious.

AND as my present I got another type of cupcake!

Here it is up close, I’m not really sure why it has that strange face, and I wish it tasted more like a real cupcake, but it squeaks and I can play tug with its arms and legs, so I like it.

This past weekend, my flyball team, FBI, had our annual Flyball Derby Days tournament. While I didn’t compete in regular races, I did participate in single dog racing, the first time I’ve been in a tournament setting since September 2008.

Regular racing started the next day on Saturday. Amy was really busy helping out and her cousins Mary and Kathy were there to help out too. Mary was the official folder delivery person and Kathy made sure that everyone knew what races were on deck.

Even though I didn’t race during the tournament, I had a great day because I got to play lots of frisbee, Amy would take me out and play during her breaks. After racing ended Amy, Kathy, Mary and I headed to Amy’s parents’ house for a family BBQ in honor of their grandmother’s birthday. AND I got to play even more frisbee! Amy’s second cousins, Alex, Samantha and Anthony, aka Mango’s Frisbee Posse, LOVED throwing me frisbees. They were all fighting to be the one to throw me a frisbee first, it was great! All in all, it was a great day.

Amy has finally uploaded new videos of me and my new tricks. This one is “Are you ashamed?” Amy first saw it on Patricia McConnell’s web site. Here is my version.

You can see the original video of Patricia’s border collie, Willie, by clicking here.

And here’s a trick that I’ve known for a while. One of the other trainers, Pam (I’m her Mango Papaya), mentioned it to Amy and now it’s in my trick rotation.

Okay, so I know technically the first day of summer isn’t until June 21st but I know that summer has arrived. And do you know how? It’s not that it was so hot and humid over the weekend that I wanted to take breaks in the shade and grass during our long walks. It’s not that Amy actually turned on the air conditioning. It’s not that the little grass we have in our backyard is growing like crazy, even taller than me! It’s…TOADS! They’re back! Well, one is at least. I saw my first toad of the season the other night during our evening potty walk. I was so excited, I can’t even express how my heart leapt with excitement.

So Amy practices yoga and has for almost four years. One of her favorite poses is called feet up the wall, she does it every night before bed. Here are Amy’s niece Kaitlyn and cousin Kathy demonstrating the human version, along with Vancouver 2010 mascots Miga and Quatchi.

Of course it took till recently for Amy to realize that dog’s have always known about the pose (we call it paws up the wall of course) and its benefits. The most well known yoga pose is named after a dog for goodness sake! Have you ever heard of downward dog? Anyway, in addition to downward dog, I make it a habit to do paws up the wall at least a few times a night, it feels so good for my little hush puppies.

And here’s a close up. Lucky rabbit feet? Nope, Mango paws!

Are you thinking, what I’m thinking? Yeah, I definitely do not have enough bubbles.

Amy’s always asking me if I think I’m a cow. She asks me this because during our walks, I occasionally like to eat grass at the edge of the sidewalk. She’s always saying, “Just because you’re black and white like a cow, it doesn’t mean you are supposed to eat grass like one.” Well, ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mango the Cow….”Mooooooo.”

The snow has finally melted (well, most of it) and flyball is back in full swing! We have had flyball practice for three weekends in a row and this weekend, we are having our fourth! It’s quite exciting because all of us dogs, and maybe our humans too, were getting a little stir crazy without our favorite canine sport.

Even MORE exciting has been how I’ve been performing during flyball practice. During our first practice, I raced in a team of three with Simon, a Jack Russel Terrier, and Fable, a Smooth Fox Terrier, against a team of four which included my arch nemesis, Max. I didn’t even look at Max! Then during our second week of practice, we had an incident that could’ve turned really ugly when, as I was coming back from the box, Simon decided to go down the lane and we met halfway and stopped. I could’ve done something bad, but I was so confused that I just looked at Simon and ran right back to Amy. And during week three I raced against Max again and was very good.

This past week, Dave, who owns Po, Jackie and Quark, took photos. It’s been a while, so here are my flyball action shots.

First jump, I’m going to get that ball! That’s Dianne in the background cheering me on.

Dogs can fly!

I’m trucking along.

Catching some air!

I’m coming ball, I’m coming!

Look at that box turn! The box loader is Eileen, she’s also an AAD trainer like Amy.

Gotcha ball! Watch out, here I come Amy!