* Thinking of my friend, Max Dog in South Africa and his family, at this difficult time – wishing them happiness, peace and love in their time together.
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Can you believe it – twice in the last few days, the Postman Human stopped by our house and said he had a package for ME! 
Max & JD the Schnauzer Brothers
How exciting! The first package was from my blog friends, Max & JD, who live in a faraway place called England. Their humans had been travelling to another faraway place called Egypt and they had got a little present for me from there…a personalised bandana!
See? The bandana has my name on it written in ‘hieroglyphics‘ which are special writing pictures used by humans living in Egypt a long time ago…how cool is that?! 
Well, as some of you know, I have a LOT of bandanas - my humans love to put bandanas on me when we go out walking – and this new one is a great addition to my collection! I couldn’t wait to try it on…and then I had an idea! Remember that clicker training game “Fun with a Box”? Well, I could do my own version: ‘Fun with a Bandana’! 
Starting with the traditional look…
Then how about a bit of rustic ‘peasant style’?
Or I could do a cute retro Minnie Mouse look:
Or how about an elegant corsage?
Then there is the hot pink miniskirt… (oh, la! la! )
…or maybe a bit of Ascot flair - work those accessories, dahling!
Not forgetting (Hsin-Yi’s favourite!) – the evil Emperor from ‘Star Wars’ (er, pink version!) 
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"The force is strong in you, young Jedi...but do not underestimate the power of the PINK Side"
Kasha the Dainty Dane
And as if that wasn’t all exciting enough, I then had another package from my blog friend, Kasha the Dainty Dane, who lives in a faraway place called Chicago.
This was a little thank you for me helping her to set up her blog…you’re very welcome, Kasha! 
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Ooh, I love opening presents…
What beautiful wrapping paper!
Yay! A tug toy! I LOVE tug toys!
This is me doing my “Happy Dance”: When I’m happy and excited – like when my humans come home - I always have to grab something in my mouth and do a little “prancing walk” around the room…do you do this too?
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Nothing like a good game of tug! Grrrrrrr!
Of course, I still have to remember my manners even when I’m playing tug – like I must always immediately let go when my humans say “Give” – I learnt this from when I was a baby puppy, otherwise they just won’t play with me anymore and it is no fun. I also learnt that I must never put my teeth (even accidentally!) on their skin – if I did, the tug would “go dead” and my humans won’t play with me anymore…so now I’m really careful when I’m grabbing the tug toy.
Some people think that we doggies must never win a tug game otherwise we might get a bit bossy but it’s no fun if we lose all the time! My humans let me win sometimes – as long as I will always let go when they tell me to. And they always end the game when it’s still really exciting, so I know that they are the boss and they decide when to start and stop.
A lot of humans think that it is bad for us doggies to play tug – some even have silly ideas about it making us dominant - but as long as we are taught these important rules for playing, then it is a great game which most doggies LOVE playing and is a fantastic way for us to bond with our humans.
And guess what? There was also a present for Hsin-Yi in the box: special cards with our names and pictures on them! Isn’t it gorgeous! We love it! Personalised bandana…and now personalised stationary too!
Whew! And then as if all that wasn’t enough excitement, I also found out that I had got 2nd place at Niamh’s ‘Train Your Dog Photo Contest’ and the Reader’s Choice Award in the MangoMinster ‘Hard-Working Group’!
Congratulations to all the other winners and thank you to Niamh and Mango for hosting such fun competitions!
That stationary is just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! What a great present.
Love the bandana & tug toy too. Oreo loves a good game of tug every morning.
Honey, you are such a good model, doing all those silly poses with the bandana.
Personalised stuff, that’s pretty awesome! You did get spoilt :p
Cobgratulations on your awards! I saw the photos, they are fantastic!
Licks,
Lexi
Congrats on your wins! Some stiff competition out there for sure and you did great! Awesome pressies too! Moose does the toy prance more for visitors than for me. After he is done with the full on Momma’s home wiggles leanings and walking through the legs he will go get his jug but that is different he does that because he wants dinner!
As for tug… Moose wins all the time when he plays with me. I actually feel bad because I am not strong enough to make it really exciting for him but he still looooves it so guess I should not feel too bad! Sometimes when he is playiing with smaller doggies it even seems like he lets them win. Probably because he has learned it keeps the game going longer and really that is all he wants!
p.s. marching ants are what you see when you are cutting out a shape (or doggie!) in photoshop so I was just joking that I was seeing them around every doggie I looked at because I cut out at least 100 doggies to do that Key West sporty dogs adventure!
p.p.s. that stationary could not look more like you and honey unless it was a photo! Pretty cool!
Honey -- the photos of you modeling your new bandana are hilarious!!!! Poor girl -- the things your mom makes you do! You’re such a good sport!
Congratulations on your wins in the contests!
hello honey its dennis the vizsla dog hay hmmm i like the wun of the ascot and the hat!!! yoo no i hav a thing for hats!!! ok bye
Excellent modeling and tugging, but, well, uh, no edibles???
personalized hieroglyphics and note pad!! aww… you are most lucky! poor honey gotta pose like that, i’m sure she didn’t really mind? evil emperor is best! ;p
Wow, Honey…you’re a SUPER model! You should be strutting your stuff down the DOG walk!
Woof!!
Honey!
They sent you pawesome presents!
I am sure you are enjoying them a lot!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza
Hi Honey!
Well, if there’s ever an Australia’s Next Top Model Dog, you’re certain to win! Those poses! That attitude! Mom and I loved it!
Congrats on your win at Mangominster -- you won our vote for the girls!
We too are saddened by Max’s news. We’re just grateful for every day Max gets to share with his wonderful family. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve been getting more hugs and kisses and treats lately.
Your pal,
Petey
P.S. Mom loves Hsin-Yi’s stylish writing paper! Of course, Honey needs to be about twice as large!!
How nice of your Mommy’s blogging friends to send you a hieroglyphic bandana! It looks smashing on you! My favourite look is the headscarf.
What great gifts!
That bandana is pawesome!
It is surely khwite sad your furiends khan’t send woo nom noms -- I understand the Australian import rules are furry challenging!
Thank woo fur thinking of Max and his furamily -- all of us have them in our thoughts!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
What a busy life you lead. Great presents and we like your modeling poses.
Your personalised bandana and stationery look really cool! I want something like that too!!
Also, thanks for your advice on how to learn ‘Come’ correctly. He he, you are right. I was just choosy, to tell you the truth…
Love,
Cinnamon
I LOVE that stationary!!! What a special gift!
Your gifts are nice too, Honey!
Congrats on your win in Mango’s contest! I voted for you in one of the category’s, don ‘t remember which one.
I’ve been praying for Max too.
Hi Honey,
Oh, those personalised notes are simply wonderful! What a great gift -- and that tug toy too, you looked like you were having a great time playing with it.
We’re glad you liked your bandana -- and those photos of you modeling it are hilarious! You are such a patient girl -- we’re very impressed! We like the ascot look the best -- you look simply divine darhling!! It’s a shame we can’t send you any yummies -- we found out the hard way when we sent an treat advent calendar to Sasha and Bertie & Oliver and it was destroyed by customs -- so not fair!
We posted about our lovely new collars yesterday -- we love them, thank you SO much!
Schnauzer snuggles -- JD and Max.
That is a very very cool and lovely bandana, you look toally stylish modelling it (ok mabe except the evil emperor one)!!
Oh wow.. your own personalized stationary too? Ok I think you need to start sending out some snail mails soon…
My favorite was MINI MOUSE!
right again about tug games! they tell you NEVER to play tug with an “aggressive/dominant” dog. HA! I had been told I had one of those kinds of doggies and I play tug with him and he’s not one ounce aggressive or dominant at all!
I let my dog win a lot (and sometimes he wins for REAL cuz he’s so strong). It’s actually really good for what I’m training him in to teach him never to ever let go of his grip unless i tell him to let go. It’s for other training down the line with us.
another thing i do when I end tug is either i throw a ball to end tug for another fun game or i end the game with a treat or some tricks for treats. so the game never just ends on a sad note.
nice gifts Honey!
Gosh, Honey, I think you are very brave to wear that bandana in all those different ways. I don’t really like to wear clothes (my cousin Bertie taught me that clothes are evil, and that the best way to get rid of them is to stand very, very still until your human takes them off you. So when it’s raining very hard and my human makes me wear my raincoat, it can take us a little while to get started on our walks.
I don’t have a happy dance, but whenever we come in from a walk, I have to grab the nearest toy and run round and round the coffee table while my human chases me! Sometimes the nearest toy is the cardigan my human put in my bed when I was little, so I could smell her when she wasn’t there. When I grab that, it trails behind me and then I stand on it while I’m running. Then my human can’t catch me, because she’s laughing too hard!
I always let her catch me in the end, though, because then I get a tummy tickle and a cuddle. I think I’ve trained her pretty well!
Puppy kisses
Sasha
Honey, you have real good manners! And you look pretty in your special kerchief!
pink is so your colour
and that a very very coool bandana
and that card with you and your mom is fantastic!
congrat on the mang minster reader choise !
you deserv it!
kissslobbers
El’bow & Hauwii
What gorgeous presents. You and Hsin-Yi certainly have some generous friends from faraway places …
Hi Honey & Hsin-Yi,
I’m glad you both love your presents, you both deserve them! I’m glad they made it safe and sound all the way down under.
I love that bandana you received…what a great idea! Your pictures modelling it where a hoot! I just love the peasant girl one and the mini skirt..oooh la la….you go Honey girl!
AARF Kasha the Dainty Great Dane
Wow Honey what great gifts!
woof -- Tucker
Love the fashion show!! Hilarious! And my favourite is the star wars pic too!!!
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Funny -- I too must grab something and dance around when my humans come home. And if they sit on the floor, I “accidentally” sit myself down on their lap
Bundy
Oh Honey! You are pretty in pink! You are such a model!
Enjoy! and say hi to Mrs. Cohen.
Love,
Lady
Your success in our contest and in Mango Minster is well deserved Honey! We love your Star Wars bandana impersonation. We so agree that tug is a fun game and dogs can learn to play it appropriately. Ambrose really loves to tug and it can be a great reward in training.
Your friends,
Niamh & Ambrose
What great pressies you got, Honey! Those personalized notes are so nice. And we think our favorite bandanna pose is as Minnie -- you look so cute. We like to play tug too and we have the same rules too. Thanks for sharing your new lovely gifts in such an entertaining way.
Woos, Phantom and Thunder
I LOVE your new bandana, but oh, I would have been SOOoooo sad doing all those poses with it!
The tug toy looks like TONS of fun -- and WOW! I love those note cards! You two are FAMOUS!!!!!
Very thoughtful gifts! I know you’ll enjoy all of them! How very sweet of your friends.
Congratulations on MangoMinster and at Niamh’s contest!
Love,
Ammy
You look so cute in all those fashions Honey….even the Evil Emperor look. And what great gifts you received!!!
Gongrats on the contest! My vote is for the rustic peasant style… you should wear that to the dog park.
WOWOWWOWOOOOO!!
)))))))
Personalized gifts for you and your mommy???!!!!
What a great great day you had girls!!!!!!
And Honey….
You look sooooooooooooooooo beautiful in ALL your pics with your new pink bandana!!!!
We love all of them but our preferred is you wearing it like a mini skirt!!!!
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SEXY!!!!!!
AND….YEPPYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!
Congrats on the contest!!!!
You deserve all the prizes!!!!!
We’re very very very proud of you!!!!!
Have a great day!!!!
WE LOVE YOU AND YOUR HUMANS A LOT!!!!!
SMACKKKKKKKKKKKKK
Yes we really do have puppies playing foot ball on TV here. It is really rather crazy but shockingly popular! It comes on once a year at the same time as the Superbowl and they have done it for the past 6 years! Moose gets really excited for the first few minutes then tries to lie down and watch then falls asleep. If I turn it back on a little later he gets all excited again. If Honey will watch videos of doggies I think you can watch clips of it at the link I included in that post. The whole idea of it is pretty ridiculous but like I said tons of people watch it every year! It is nice that it is just puppies playing as they naturally would, they are not dressed up or posed to do certain things they just turn them loose on a pretend field! And roaching, yes squirming around with your feet in the air
I am not sure the origin of this word but have heard even non-blogging folks say it so think it is kinda common here in the states.
Congrats on your wins!
And yes, some humans are silly about tug. Duke and I used to play WILD games of tug, with the same two rules: release when i say so, and no teeth. He learned real fast that the fun ended if his teeth even touched me.
thanks for your wonderful long comment and words of sympathy -- it warms us :O)
and congrats of the award! we voted for you at Mango’s..:)
Hot pink mini skirt! Oh baby!
I get to play tug sometimes too, but it is hard on momma with her little chicken arms.
Slobbers,
Mango
Wow nice presents! You look very nice in your bandanna. I love that stationary!!! That is just too cute!
Jackal
What great pressies! I loves your stationary! Mum would like some like that! I had to learn that give word as a puppy too and if I hit Mum’s skin she would make an awful screechy noise. I gentle now and can even play bitey hand with her a bit, cos I know not to actually bite.
Congrats on all your wins!!
~lickies, Ludo
Hi Honey, I hope you enjoy your holiday, I wish you could come to Australia and visit me xx Major
JD & Max got me a wonderful bandana like that too. Aren’t they great freinds!