Aston was obsessed with this bug for a while...until he killed it

He kept staring and barking at it and occasionally trying to hit it with his paw. He would move around as it advanced and retreated, trying to get a better angle on it. Finally he hit it with his paw one too many times and the little bug was no more. But it was fun while it lasted and we know think that the solution to keeping Aston busy would be to release bugs throughout the house for him to chase...

Bye Bye Birdie

Today we were playing out in the garden and there was a little baby bird sitting on top of the pool cover. It couldn't fly - it could only go across the pool cover. Aston saw it and tried to get at it. He ran round the pool and attempted to go on the cover but he doesn't like the feel of it beneath him. Finally the bird (who we couldn't see a way to help) managed to get off the pool and onto the area surrounding it. Aston was there in a flash, before any of us could get him. He scooped the bird up into his mouth and ran away. Andrew and I both tried to get him, but we couldn't. I ran inside and grabbed some treats to try and get him to drop it but he refused. I scattered a ton of them on the ground and he didn't care. Finally we realized that the bird was no longer in his mouth. He had completely eaten it.
Needless to say, we wouldn't let him give us kisses for the rest of the night. I gave him a Kong with some puppy toothpaste in so that his breath wouldn't stink. I now vacillate between calling him "Killer" and "My little murderer."
I was less than pleased with him and I'm not looking forward to tomorrow when the bird will have gone through his system (ew!).



Does this look like the face of a killer? Well it is!

Haircut time

Aston was getting excessively fluffy and hot during the nice weather so we figured that it might be time for him to get groomed.
We probably shouldn't have asked for "short all over"....
Aston before:

and Aston after:

Next time we'll leave him looking a little less scrawny. At least he'll be cool this summer....

P.S. Mum was previously concerned that he was overweight - surprisingly, she no longer has this concern

Such an athlete

Thanks to the lovely weather that we've been having lately, I've had a lot of time to play outside with Aston. He likes to play frisbee, but I don't think that he's quite got the concept of it down yet. I'll throw the frisbee for him, he'll run after it and then sit down to chew it, refusing to give it back. So I inevitably have to trick him to get it back. Often this involves me kicking a soccer ball around to distract while I step on the frisbee so that he can't run away with it. Other times I'll throw a another ball to him, but his tennis ball met an untimely end on Friday when the gardener ran over it with his lawnmower.
I found a big green ball that he enjoyed playing with. I went back inside for a little while and I could hear Aston barking so I went to see what he was wrong. The ball had become stuck in the corner of the fence. I kicked it out for him and went back inside. He started barking again just a few minutes later. When I went outside, he was sitting at the side of the pool barking at the ball because it was on the pool cover that Aston refuses to walk on (he doesn't like the feel of the water moving beneath him). So I got the pool skimmer and grabbed the ball again. Then later on, he was barking once more. This time, however, the ball was flat - he had burst it and was apparently not too happy.
I've also taught him how to jump over things. I set up two of our outside chairs and put a foam noodle that we have for the pool in between them. He got that down really quickly, with the help of some treats. I showed it to Mum and Dad and they suggested that I add a second jump, to make it kind of like hurdles. He immediately understood that he was to jump over both of them in a row. We cheered and gave him lots of treats.

Here are some pictures of him having fun in the garden:

Aston: Then...And Now

This was taken on our first day with Aston:

This was taken tonight:

He's become a lot bigger and an awful lot fluffier!

Freedom!

Aston was neutered last Wednesday (the poor thing) and had to have one of those Elizabethan collars - which we call a lampshade - to stop him from licking his stitches and getting an infection. He was not a big fan of it. He kept bumping into things and trying to get through spaces that were too small for him. Mum has bruises on her legs from when he would run up against her. He was getting frustrated with not being able to hold his chews and toys with his paws to chew on them, so we had to hold them for him. One day he was playing with his ball, which is a sort of mesh of rubber so that he can carry it around, and we have taught him to drop it for a treat. Well he did try to, but the ball got stuck in his lampshade and he had to swing his head around to try and get it out. It ended up looking like he was doing a very big flourish to get the treat!
Yesterday was his first full day without it. Previously we had just been taking it off him for walks and when we were sitting next to him to make sure that he wasn't licking. So he enjoyed himself being able to do all the things that he normally could. And we enjoyed him not running into us or the walls with the lampshade!

Here are some pictures of him with his collar on:

Hiding places

Lately Aston has been hiding his chews all over the living room - behind pictures on the fireplace, the TV stand, couch cushions, and on windowsills...
The thing is, he's not actually particularly territorial over his chews. I can easily take one of him when he has it and he doesn't growl or get angry. I can also pat him when he's eating and he's completely fine. Sometimes I even hold the chew for him and he puts his paw on my hand to put against it so that he can get more leverage to tear pieces of the rawhide off.
I think that he just likes to have a stash of chews around the room for whenever he wants to have one. He reminds me of a squirrel at times.
I wonder what he's going to be like in the summer time out in the garden? He hasn't started digging yet, but he's never had a chew outside. Hopefully we'll be able to avoid the garden being dotted with holes!