Congratulations to Stout's uncle!

Stout's uncle, GCH C-Myste Baledwr Free To Disagree, was Best of Breed at Westminster Kennel Club Dog show today!

Pilot is the brother of Chase, Stout's dad.

Stout will have a bone in your honor tonight!

First Trip to the Barkery!

Right before puppy class Tuesday night, I realized we were almost out of Stout chow (he didn't even have enough left for breakfast the next morning!). I looked at the clock, thought "surely there's enough time to run by the Barkery before class..."

So Stout & I hopped in the car for his first trip to the Bluegrass Barkery!

Yep, it's Porter's favorite store, even featured in his birthday video.  I hated to go without Porter, but it was an emergency...

Stout was photographed by Drew & added to the Barkery's Facebook page!

He only shoplifted 1 cow snout. But he did crawl all over the dog food bags & into a box of bones.

I ended up buying the snout once he chewed through the plastic...

He even met the new Barkery ambassador, Sprout the Brussels!

So much time was spent gawking & petting & photographing that we had to rush to puppy class afterwards!

Oh, and I have continued to take a photo of Stout everyday so far, just haven't posted them in the "Stout A Day" series... Falling behind...

New Puppy / Tricks Class!

Well, I did it.

I signed Stout & myself up for our first long-distance class: Sylvia Trkman's Puppy / Tricks Class!

There's even another Cardigan in the class! It starts February 27th. So be prepared for lots of videos as we try to master all these tricks  :)  And of course, I'll be training Porter the same things, he just won't have his videos submitted to Sylvia for review.

Big Brother / Little Brother

Porter says "First you sniff..."

"Then you roll!"

Synchronized bone chewing.

Watching the fishes.

"I can walk him!"

Stout loves broccoli bones too!

Stout's First "Hike"

Last Thursday, Stout went for his first "hike." It wasn't a real hike, more of a puppy version of a hike. But it included dirt paths, water crossings, & unusual smells.

First we had to pick up Stout & Porter's friends, Dally & Mesa. 

"Wait up girls!"

"Come on, they're leaving us behind!"

"Be careful down there Matt!"

More chasing of the Valhund...

Puppy paws are too delicate for the cold creek.

I'm sure you noticed the lack of Porter in any of these photos  :)  Porter has his own trails he takes at the park. They consist of going through bushes, over rock fences, under logs, etc. His trails go from groundhog hole to rabbit nest to creek. His path crosses mine a lot, I just didn't get any photos  :(

Herding Cats...

And we have play!

On Monday morning, 01/30/12, at approximately 7:15 am, Stout finally succeeded at getting Porter to play with him! I actually had the iPod handy and was able to record a clip of this momentous occasion:

And it happened again Tuesday morning:

And it has happened pretty regularly since.
I think they are finally friends! It only took about a week & a half  :)  I knew Stout would wear him down eventually!