Happy Holidays!

Wishing everyone a Merry merry Christmas!

More pictures and videos to come...

Teddy Bear Love

When a berner is in a cuddle mode, you'll be unable to tear yourself away. I mean look at Bailey, half her body is on my lap and then she insists that I wrap one of my legs around her to make her feel safe. The one part I think Bailey is actually a human in a dog's body is when she hugs her teddy bear like a child.

Are You Done Yet?

Usually when I'm studying, I'll take breaks in between to cuddle or play with Bailey. But on days when I'm too concentrated, Bailey will trot over to my desk and place her snout on top of the table and sniff around to see what I am up to. And if that does not catch my attention, she'll nudge my arm with her nose and lay her head between the chair's arm rest and my arm. When I finally turn towards her, she'll tilt her head as if to say "Are you done yet? Can you come play?".

Personal Protection

After signing up with Bailey's personal security banking, I feel remarkably safer when I'm using an ATM! When we walk into a bank she will inspect the area for abnormalities. When everything looks okay, she would sit beside me and keep an eye on the people around me.

Not Your Typical Scale

Finally a sunny break during the weekend! The rain has kept us inside for a while and Bailey was excited to take her humans for a long, long walk around the village. During our lovely stroll, we see this unique looking scale with a welcoming note for anyone to step on. Curious to know how much Bailey weighs, we ask her to step on and pose for us. The image of a large dog on a scale caught the attention of many people, some even stopped to watch us take pictures of her! Are you curious to know how much Bailey weighs? She is 94 pounds!

Bed Hogger

I recently changed my twin sized bed for a double just so that I could cuddle with Bailey before bed time and in the morning. At first our cuddling system was working perfectly, until a few weeks ago when she decided to take up more than half of the bed. Leaving me with no room, I have to wiggle my way around her to make room for myself. At the same time Bailey is grumbling noisily (it's no joke, Bailey is a very vocal berner) that I'm interrupting her sleep.

Socialite

Bebe (in the middle) and a friend came over for a visit a few weeks ago. If you can remember, Bebe was the tiny puppy whom Bailey accidentally stepped on during a playful visit a few years back. During the visit, the grown ups went out to have a coffee while the kids stayed behind and had a nice walk around the neighbourhood. The day ended with the three pups splayed out on the rug in the foyer trying to catch their breaths from all the excitement. 

Wild Thing

So last weekend we decided to set aside a whole day to take Bailey up to Lynn Valley for a long hike. Once we reached the parking lot, Bailey was the most eager member to get out of the car. The whole time that everyone was getting ready, Bailey was complaining and whining (quite loudly too, as it attracted strangers attention).

When we finally get on the trail and let Bailey off leash, it was as though we were letting a Tasmanian devil out of its cage! Have I told you that Bailey has a thing for puddles of mud? It goes something like this, Bailey sees puddle, jumps in, lies in mud, rolls in mud, jumps out and then back in. When she thinks she has enough mud on her, she will run over to you and shake her body vigorously then run away with a large smile on her face.

Still a Puppy At Heart

Bailey and I have recently found a new way to cuddle and she seems to like it very much. I hypothesize that she loves lying on top of us and squishing her face into our face is the fact that it reminds her how we use to cradle her as a puppy. A heads up to all owners who want to do this with their berners - your big puppy does not know how heavy he or she is, so beware they will wiggle all over you!!

Happy Halloween!

"Happy halloween! I don't know what that means, but I keep hearing people saying the phrase today. Strangely, if you say to a human 'trick or treat' the human will give you a treat, but I tried that with my humans and they don't give me anything. Curiously, for the last couple of days I've noticed these odd looking humans all around town, and the strangest thing is they don't move at all when I go to greet them! Anyways, I hope everyone is having fun on halloween and staying safe."

-Bailey

Bed Time

On weekends when the whole family stays up later than usual, Bailey is the only family member to complain about staying up. She will actively let you know that it is way past her bed time with glares and grumbles from all corners of the house. She will also saunter in front of you with her head hung low. When you finally acknowledge her, Bailey will herd you to the stairs and indicate with her nose that her bed is upstairs! But when it takes you too long to make a decision, she will bolt up the stairs and go to bed without you.

Thank You!

"I want to thank all my followers who take the time to visit my blog! I'll keep an eye on my human to update it more often."

-Bailey

Relaxing at the Playground

Bailey is an amazing buddy to go for long walks because she knows the best ways to take in the scenery. She loves to take breaks by the water or on a bench to people watch while we catch our breaths. But we've recently found a nice area to rest, the playground!! The jungle gym provides a cool surface for Bailey to lie down. Best part is that the surface is covered in tiny perforations that allow air to flow up to Bailey's tummy. Not to mention I get to act like a 5 year old all over again, while Bailey looks on in dismay.

Waterless Pool

"The kiddie pool is more fun without the water"

During the summer, we decided to buy Bailey a kiddie pool so that she would be able to cool down during hot days. Unfortunately, she refused to sit her butt into the water. She's a bit OCD like that, she loves playing in the ocean and getting dirty, but when it comes to clean water and her bum... no thank you!! On the other hand, when the pool is empty that's when you'll find her sun bathing in the kiddie pool.

We Like Long Walks By the Beach

On a beautiful summer's day, Bailey and I headed to Iona beach. Neither of us had ever visited this beach and did not know what to expect once we were there. To our surprise, there was a walkway that stretched into the ocean! It was as if you're walking on water because if you looked to your left and to your right there would be a vast view of water. It was gorgeous! Bailey kept whimpering and looking at the water wondering why I wasn't letting her off leash to play.

Bailey and I were only able to reach the 3 kilometre mark as we didn't know how far the walkway would go and the sun was starting to come out of hiding. One day, maybe during autumn when it's not so hot out, Bailey and I will walk to the end. When we do, we'll let you know what's at the end of the walkway!

Bad Hair Day

I just couldn't help myself one day after giving Bailey a bath to give her a "new look". And even to this day, this picture still makes me giggle and I had to share this with everyone!

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!!

Over the weekend, we stumbled over a lovely surprise during our visit to the farmer's market in Steveston. Luckily Bailey was with us that day to say hello to the cows, goats, geese, swans, ducks and chickens!

When we approached the fence, we were immediately greeted by the two cows and one of the goats. I believe they were trying to entice Bailey to come closer as the cows followed her wherever she went and kept stomping their hooves on the ground (maybe I'm reading their behaviour signal wrong?). The goat on the other hand, climbed onto the fence to take a better sniff of Bailey which kind of spooked her out a bit. As soon as the farm animals grew bored of their visitor, that's when Bailey became interested in them (did I mention she's a bit socially awkward??).

I have to say, those ducks were very courageous! Some of them came as close as two feet from us to get a better look at the weird looking fluffy tri-coloured animal with the human.

Summer Picnic

A few days before school started, I basically took Bailey out and about Vancouver every single day. We had so much fun that by the time it was only a few days before school started, we wanted to do activities that were more relaxing. So I took Bailey to Queen Elizabeth Park and had a picnic (more like a Bailey picnic...)!

I had to take two large beach towels with me because Bailey insisted that she needed more than half of the covered area to lie down. Leaving me the edge of towel to sit on, and did I mention that she kept trying to push me off the towels? But no matter, because she didn't mind that I used her as a pillow as I read a book.

For Bailey's picnic, she had half of her dried food as an appetizer then for the main course she had a four inch rawhide. And no picnic would be complete without dessert!!! But dessert came after we visited the dog off leash area in Queen Elizabeth park (I had no idea there was a dog park at Queen E... and I've lived here my whole life! ha!).

This photo was taken soon after I gave Bailey her rawhide. As I said before she was so happy that she was trying to eat the rawhide on her back, but got caught up in the excitement that she forgot that she was about to tip over. When she realized this fact, it was oh too late...

Bury? Or not to bury?

It's a love-hate relationship with the toy ball. One minute she wants to bury it and the next, she seems to change her mind and wants it back!

Holes everywhere

Bailey and I spent most of our time hanging out at McDonald beach where we swam in the water, dug holes in the sand and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I've now discovered that Bailey will only start to swim once I've walked into the water with her. So I wonder if she thinks I'm like her...

Bailey's newest game is dig a hole!! The thing is, she won't just dig a random hole in the sand... no, there must be a ball present for her to dig around and this ball must be a toy that she really really likes. Sadly, I think she may have buried the ball somewhere on the beach because by the end of the day she was searching franticly along the water bank looking for her dearest toy ball.

She must really enjoy digging now because when we found an area on the beach just for the two of us with sand untouched, Bailey had dug at least 6 holes... All holes were as deep as the height of her front leg!

No, the picture above was not photo shopped. Bailey really had dug a hole that deep...

"I think I see Switzerland!!!!"

Bobbing For Apples

The title says it all...

Hockey Fever

"Who are these Canucks? I don't like them, they make you scream and it hurts my ears!"

As the playoffs start, we've noticed that Bailey dislikes the loud noises we make as we're watching our exciting game. To her dismay, I took her over to my sister's apartment to watch a game and the farthest part of the place was the shower... Poor baby, I won't be doing that to her anymore!!

Morning Closeup

So I got this new app for my phone and it has encouraged me to take more photos than before (for those of you who are interested, it's called Instagram!)! I absolutely love the filters they offer and Bailey is the best model I've encountered so far.

I envy the fact that she can wake up in the morning looking so cute.

Caught

One afternoon, as I walked through the door, I witnessed a sight that I have seen many times before. Only, that was three years ago... Bailey had found something within her reach and had destroyed it. Her signature is to leave all the evidence scattered around the room. Usually her targets are napkins, but this time she found a plastic bag that contained last nights take out. The motive behind this attack is the fact that she had not gone for a walk the day before.

For Rainy Days

After many requests to see Bailey walking on the treadmill... here it is!

Late New Years

Sorry for being m.i.a for the last couple of months! But I have to admit, I've been a little lazy to finish a post.

At the start of the new year, the family and a couple of friends went up to Whistler to have some fun for a couple of days. We've taken Bailey to Whistler before, but not when it's winter season! The sight of fluffy white snow made her so ecstatic that she darted towards it and didn't care about the fact that I was shivering to death (I was just letting her out to do her business, I didn't think she would refuse to go inside!).

For the two days we stayed in Whistler, the mornings to early afternoon was Bailey's time to play in the snow. But given that dogs were not allowed on the same mountain as the skiers, we found a wonderful dog off leash area just 10 mins away from Whistler village. As you can tell by the picture above, the dog playing area is suppose to be a beach, but it was so cold that the whole lake froze!

It was an amazing experience to walk on a frozen lake! I don't think Bailey realized she was running around on a frozen lake, but she didn't care because she was frolicking in the snow in temperatures below zero... that was heaven for her!

Every time I pointed the camera towards Bailey to take a picture, she would turn out as a blur or that I would only get half of her body. She wouldn't stop zooming past me this way and that way until finally her legs gave out on her and she plopped onto the snow. Even then I still wasn't able to get her to look at the camera because she was too busy munching away at the white, tasteless and cold snow!

Well by the time we got back to the hotel room and got ready to snowboard, Bailey had already passed out on the living room floor. She was out like a light that she didn't care that we left her in the room while it was our turn to have fun in the snow. Surprisingly, she regained all her energy the next morning for round two at the dog park.

A Message From Bailey

Happy Belated Birthday to all my sisters and brothers! I can't believe we're 4 years old! And yet I still feel like a puppy. Also, I hope you all had a wonderful birthday filled with lots of love, laughter and most importantly treats!!

(So sad... my humans only let me eat half of my birthday cake, and a dozen or so cookies.)

-Bailey