DS as tomato pickers

[johninny]

I just had to share this. TexXander was just making a huge ruckus outside, so I go to check on things. [ Saki was inside, baby Tracer was out -- all by their own choice. ]

at first I see Xan has something unusual-looking in his mouth as he is in a play position, but the sort of play stance indicating maybe a live animal in his mouth. I thought it was a[nother] baby bird. when I said, ''Xander, what do you have?'', he released it just enough for Tracer to move in, steal it and run like hell. [ Tracer is an accomplished thief who despite being superb with ''leave it'' for even juicy beach morsels, becomes quite cunningly defiant when he thinks he has a RARE prize - like neighbor kids' balls that he ''finds'' on walks.] he ran to an inaccessible place at first, but then he could not - in his absolute glee - resist bounding out toward me and now the other 2 DS to share the ecstasy of his good fortune!

I pried his mouth open to find a big juicy, ripe tomato that they had newly harvested. I let him back at it and watched him devour it. then I started seeing other tomatoes with tell-tale tooth marks laying around the periphery of the tomato/herb garden; no telling how many are lurking in the bowels of the garden or are already eaten.

I have been adding fresh-picked, diced tomato to their late afternoon sardines [ along with dill, marigolds, and oregano also fresh from garden as I fix the meal ] and lately, a BIG tomato has been a very popular treat split 3 ways [ cut by me ]. BUT NOW, the little devil dogs have discovered the source of their treat and taken matters into their own paws.

[Sugars Mom]

LOL, funny story.

My new guy Prancer loves to find and eat the (not quite ripe) apples that fall from the tree, the tay berries that have fallen on the ground, the hazelnuts that are falling off the trees and he loved to pick strawberries off the plant when they were growing....

[Raven]

John...just wanted to say that I adore how you talk about your dogs. It's poetry that isn't rhymed and love in motion. I'm not on the forum anymore, but do peek in, and always enjoy reading what you have to say about your beloved beasts.

I know you know that tomatoes aren't generally toxic to dogs; for others as an FYI, the plant leaves, red tomatoes and green tomatoes can be toxic for some dogs. Of course, quantity matters. They are tastier to some dogs than others and therein can lie a (potential) problem.

[johninny]

I appreciate your cautionary note there. I had not consciously thought about the leaves w/r/t the dogs, but had I seen any activity with leaves I would have been on top of it. they are very toxic to humans and dogs, even to the touch - like deadly to get from your hands into your eyes, etc., ....so well worth noting!!! thank you.

I do not consider myself a good writer - just the opposite, but I am moved by the dogs and so I take your words among the greatest of compliments.

to add to that story, the next day I was in the ''garden'' [ where the food grows ]. the dogs are not allowed there; puppy Tracer knows that but does not yet respect my wishes if I am IN the herb garden. he usually lays down quietly on a path and that was the case that day, so I tolerate as long as he is still and quiet. I was harvesting tomatoes and herbs for dinner; I was picking some sungold tomatoes [ orange cherry-like tomatoes that are 1 of my 2 favorite varieties of the 30+ I grow - the other being green zebra ]. I decided he was being so good, that I would give him a sungold. he sat up, took it. he became utterly still except his eyes and his jaws. he went completely bug-eyed. then his eyes started rolling around. when he finished savoring the tomato, he remained still but agitated -- his eyes racing around his surroundings. ''AHHHHH, there a sungold'', and he raced to a sungold bush and started devouring every little bright orange tomato he could reach. a new version of heaven that he could regulate!

[Dutchringgirl]

Hahaha, Very funny. I started a garden in my yard and one day, where i had a pot with some pepper plants, was just some dirt and a hole. Another time, I was in the back and happened to look over, and there was Thalie, very quietly eating my strawberries, now I know why I didnt have any strawberries all year.

[HeatherH]

We have fruit trees and a veggie garden. Dutch will eat anything we kind of touch; tomoatoes, apples, cherries, beans. I have to say when we're out and about like in the dog park it makes it easier to find his poo and pick it up by the season"oh, there it is it's tomoato season"

H

[johninny]

Tracer expanded his taste for tomatoes to tomatillos, of which he harvests 10 to 20 every day. and he and Xander furiously chase each other around the yard trying to steal them from each other. they also try this with regular tomatoes, but they go SPLAT! so early in the struggle for tomato supremacy, whereas the hardier tomatillos can make it around the house multiple times and can retain some tomato identity thru air tosses, tackles, and leaps. my supply of tomatillos usually lasts to March barring horrible blizzards --- no longer. and, appropos other comments, the second season of my strawberry crop went entirely [ minus 2 measly berries] to Tracer puppy who was not here for the first season but who knows a good thing when he sees/smells it. [ apparently bright red set in a green background sets off major signals in his head.]

[Dutchringgirl]

Now that its pumpkin season, my girls are getting a refresher on "leave it". I love to get the tiny pumpkins, but they think its new toys. Last year I had one on each step, every day one little pumpkin would go missing or have new teeth marks on it. I would spy on the hall way to see wich stripy beast was stealing the goodies. Sadie of course. She could not help her self, every day I would catch her trying to steel one.

This year I have more, they are on the outside stoop. so the other day we all go out, as Thalie is leaving, with out missing a beat, she grabs one as she goes out the front door and down the steps.

[johninny]

i love how they do that kind of thing ''without missing a beat'' - like us grabbing the car keys as we leave the house, except with them its the odd thievery and they pull it off in such cool nonchalance. it is so impressive that they make their antics so slick; more coordination and quick-thinking than i could ever hope for.
i remember how you related last year how Sadie dropped a pumpkin [ or something like that ] and scared herself. it was so amusing i repeated the story to various friends. oh, just remembered i think: she was stealing one, you saw her, she dropped it and it crashed into something causing her to scamper in fright.
hope to hear more pumpkin stories, especially now that Thalie is in on the act.

[Dutchringgirl]

Ill have to find that story. Its like a comic scene at my house between Sadie and thalie. Sadie is always doing something silly and Thalie just looks at her in amazement as if to say " please, you cannot possibly be a DS"

Thalie is super stealthy. the other day, my son was making a sandwich, Sadie was on one side and Thalie on the other, and my son was so giggly to have both of the girls there begging. In the time it took me to say "couche !!" Thalie had the bag of turkey from my sons hands, he didnt even feel her take it. So my son was laughing, and Sadie went to the other side and took the cheese.

[Dutchringgirl]

John, here is the thread with the pumpkins from last year with Sadie

http://www.dutchshepherdforum.com/viewt ... it=pumpkin

[johninny]

yes, you see -- last year's pumpkin stories were the best. need a continuing account this year. thanks.

[Sugars Mom]

Come on people, we need VIDEO!!

[johninny]

i need about a month off from everything to bring my [ Sakima's ] video channel up to date. my best DS videos ever are just sitting in limbo right now. need editing, sorting, and 5 days of up-loading! great one from yesterday has the 2 young puppies racing up and down a 70-foot sand dune and chasing each other in continuous circles around a long stand of bushes and grasses part way up the dune. i can't get the images out of my head. really need to do this - you are right. but i am lacking the all important pumpkin videos. i do not even have tomato videos. never am prepared for the little hilarious things they do. for a while after the new pup arrived, i kept a video camera on my night table because their antics as i woke up were amazing, but would end once i was on the move. but then i found that the camera was always in the bedroom when crazy video opportunities came up during the day. never catch the really good stuff.

[Revhendo]

That's the thing with these striped beasts, you just know they're gonna do something, just not when. I always have those, "I should be filming this" moments and by the time I grab the camera, it's over....

[Dutchringgirl]

I would need to have a camera on my head filming 24/7 LOL Sadie is ALWAYS up to something and Thalie is always shaking her head in amaizment