Alan's Friend Cassius

 Morena tamariki mai. Today I thought I'd introduce you to another one of my friends. Most of my friends are either people friends or dog friends but I do have some cat friends as well. You remember I was born at the Guide Dog Breeding Centre - well they have cats so that we learn not to be scared of cats right from when we are born. I'm glad about that because I like having lots of different types of friends. 

Cassius is a handsome cat as you can see. I've known him since I was about three months old and I visited his house for the first time. I was a bit naughty that time and tried to eat his dinner but I've learnt not to now. I'd still like to though! Cassius is a bit older than me but I'm not quite sure how much. He lives on the North Shore so we don't get to see each other a lot but it's always fun when we do. We have a chat and a play in the garden and then both have a sleep which is an activity we both enjoy! 

- Alan 🐾

Alan Celebrates International Dog Day

Morena tamariki mai, did you know that yesterday was International Dog Day?! I didn't until I started getting congratulatory emails from my human friends. Very exciting - especially as I got some extra treats to celebrate - always good! 

I thought I would celebrate this special day by putting up some photos of me and some of my friends. Some are friends from Glen Taylor but don't worry if you aren't there - I love everyone at Glen Taylor!

- Alan 🐾

 

Alan Wants to Play

 Morena tamariki mai, well it's a bit of a slow start to the day today - Mrs Cox decided she needed to have a little bit of a sleep in this morning ( I think she stayed up too late knitting....) and she didn't get out of bed till 7.30am!! Well I have my breakfast at 7am sharp (Mr Cox feeds me in the morning) and when I finish it at 7.01am I'm ready to play! So I ran in to the bedroom with my favourite dinosaur but she just didn't respond! So I had to hang around looking as cute as possible - not difficult for me - for half an hour until she got up! Then we ran around the house and she tried to get my dinosaur off me but I'm far too fast for her!

Actually I can hear her calling.....something about a walk! I'm off - talk to you tomorrow!!

- Alan 🐾

Alan Works on his Alphabet

 Kia ora tamariki mai, I had a lot of fun looking at the Glen Taylor class sites yesterday and I saw another great activity some of the juniors were doing. They have a letter of the alphabet and they find objects at home that start with that letter. I couldn't decide which letter to use but after much deliberation I asked Mrs Cox and she suggested the letter t. I thought that was a good idea because I remembered that treats starts with the letter t and they are one of my favourite things! Have a look at the photos and see if you can name all the objects I collected. I had a lot of fun running around the house collecting everything and arranging it. Of course some of the treats did spill onto the floor so I felt obliged to eat them...just so there wasn't a mess on the floor!

    Which is your favourite out of the things I collected?

   - Alan 🐾

 

Alan Does his Spelling Words

 Morena tamariki mai, I hope you all had some fun in the weekend and are ready to do some school work today. I've been looking at the class blogs and I noticed that some of you are practising your spelling words by cutting out letter to make the words. Mrs Cox has some magazines and scissors and a glue stick so I thought I would do some words. Mrs Cox helped me write a list of some of my favourite things but I did the rest. It was so much fun even though I did end up with quite a bit of glue on my paws! I think I did a good job though and of course I washed my hands afterwards!

I'll be looking out for some other interesting activities to do this week too and reading some of the class blogs to see what you are all up to. Have a great week!

- Alan 🐾

Alan is a Superhero

 Kia ora tamariki mai, I'm so excited. As soon as I've written this I've got an invitation to visit with Room Two (Room Three might be coming too...I'm not sure. They are having a dress-up day and I have they perfect outfit to wear. I got it from the pet shop when Mrs Cox brought my dog biscuits. They love me so much they just gave it to me!! (It was a free giveaway - everyone got one Alan!) 

As you can see it's a superhero cape!! I love it and now I just have to convince Mrs Cox to let me wear it to the park so I can really run around so it flares out at the back. The other dogs will all want one when they see mine, won't they?

I'd love to see photos of some of you wearing your dress-up outfits!

- Alan 🐾

Alan's Rainy Day

 Kia ora! Well it's been a very rainy windy day today so I've had to amuse myself while Mrs and Mr Cox worked for most of the day. I couldn't find any dog biscuits lying around so I had to make do with chewing my bone. That was okay for a while but then luckily Mr Cox stopped working to have a cup of coffee - so I trotted over and nudged his hand repeatedly until he got the message and rubbed me under the chin. Most of you probably know that that is one of my favourite things. He seemed to think he could stop after about five minutes but I wasn't having that and made him do it for ages. I'm the boss in the house after all.

Mrs Cox had to go out and buy something so she took me for a ride in the car which I always like. Luckily the weather had calmed down so she let me out on my lead to go for a walk - we even saw some teddy bears like we used to the last time we couldn't go to school. This time one of them was wearing a mask!

Then we went to the park and I got to run around off lead for a while - another one of my favourite things.

All in all - a pretty good day!

- Alan 🐾

Alan Demonstrates How to Wear a Mask

 Morena tamariki mai, I hope you are all well and enjoying working from home this week even though it's not quite as much fun as being on site. I've been noticing lots of work appearing online and I love to read it. 

I've been noticing humans are wearing masks when they are out and about - I'm not sure why but it's quite interesting as they look a bit like muzzles! Dogs don't have to wear them according to Mrs Cox but we have some here so I thought I'd try one on to see what is was like and to see if I looked cute.

It was quite tricky but Mrs Cox helped a bit ( quite a lot actually Alan! - Mrs Cox) and I managed in the end!

I think I look quite handsome but it was hard to get my nose and mouth covered properly.

Anyway it's nap time for me and then I think I will look at some more class sites to see all the fantastic work you are doing!

- Alan 🐾

Alan Goes to Waiata Practise

Morena everyone - the past few times I've been at school have been so busy. There's always something interesting going on at Glen Taylor School - my favourite activity since my last post has been going to whole school waiata practise. The singing was amazing - I loved listening to the students singing with such enthusiasm. Mrs Cox is definitely not the best singer but even she had a try. I was extremely impressed by Catherine's singing - she is the leader and has to sing parts of the song by herself. That's a real challenge for anyone even if they are a confident singer. She must be very brave.

I'd love to join in the singing myself but dogs can't really sing actual words and I think if I just barked I might not be very popular!

- Alan 🐾

Alan Meets Friends Wherever he Goes

Kia ora everyone - gosh I've had a great weekend. I was feeling a bit grumpy when it started because I hadn't been to school since Tuesday ( something about level 3 but I don't really know what that means apart from that it seems to mean I don't get to go to school) and I was missing my friends at Glen Taylor. 

However we did go for a walk on Saturday and Sunday which is always a good thing. The best walk was on Sunday because we went to Waiatarua which I love  - it has muddy water to swim in. I did hear Mrs Cox object to me heading off to have a swim but I just ignored her which was naughty but I just couldn't pass up the chance for a swim. The other highlight of the walk was that I met two people I knew. One was my friend Helen who was in charge of the Breeding Centre at Guide Dogs when I worked there - I'm always pleased to see her. Even better than that was when I was trotting along minding my own business and I heard a familiar voice call my name - and it was Ms Elena!!! I don't know which of us was the most pleased to see the other. She was with her family and they have a dog too. He seemed nice so I hope a bump into him again. 

Unfortunately Mrs Cox forgot to take a photo of this great event but here's one of me resting after my great adventure!

- Alan 🐾

  

Alan Does Cross Country

Hi everyone, I had such a great time at school last week. Not only did I get to see Room nine's fabulous assembly - so organised and professional and extremely interesting ...but I also got to do cross country! A couple of times I got to walk out on the streets around Glen Taylor School but actually my favourite times were when we went around the new bike track! The reason I enjoy that is because I can count how many laps I do and see how much I have improved. The students run around the track but I have to walk as I'm not allowed to run when I'm on my lead. I don't see why I can't run off my lead with the students but Mrs Cox said something about food on the field....as if I would touch it!! ( Alan, you know you would eat anything you found - Mrs Cox )

I was very pleased with myself on Friday because I did 5 laps which was 25% more than the time before! If you are very clever you might be able to work out how many laps I did the time before.

I wonder if I can do six laps next time?

- Alan 🐾

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Alan Meets a Friend from Glen Taylor!

 Hi everyone,

in the weekend I went for a lovely long walk at Waiatarua Reserve with Mrs Cox. I've been visiting there since I was a little puppy and it's one of my favourite walks. That's because I get to run free which I always enjoy and generally there are lots of other dogs there so we all stop and say hello and catch up on what we have been doing. I also love jumping in the muddy water and having a quick swim. Then downside of that is that I have to go have have a bath afterwards but it's worth it!

This outing was extra special because when we were about half way round and lo and behold, who should we run into but Lara and her family. What a great surprise that was! I had been sniffing in the undergrowth but I bounded out to say hello when I saw who it was.I just love bumping into my friends from Glen Taylor School.

- Alan 🐾

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Alan loves the Beach

Hi everyone, I was having a little bit of trouble posting video clips for a while due to technical difficulties which got sorted out when Jacqueline came home to visit .... she is very skilled in that area. So, I thought you might like to see a clip of Jessie and Loma and I running about when we went to the beach in the holidays. The water was quite cold but my dense thick fur kept me warm and I do like a dip in the sea. Loma likes it even more than I do but Jessie is only four months old and she is still a little bit unsure of the sea. I'm sure next time we go she'll be as keen as mustard!

- Alan  🐾

Alan at Orakei Basin

Hi everyone, you know that I just adore going for walks - well one of my favourite places to go is Orakei Basin. We have to go in the car to get there but when I was a guide dog I could go on the train and get off at either Meadowbank or Orakei station ...that was exciting but since I'm retired I'm not allowed to do that anymore. 

Anyway, Orakei Basin is fun because half of the way round is an off-leash dog area so I can run about and play with other dogs that are there too and also go swimming in the basin. You can walk around the whole basin but for half of it I have to be on leash which is okay but not quite as much fun..

This picture is of me on the dock at the sailing club - Mrs Cox said I could jump off and go for a swim if I like but I prefer to wade into the water not jump!

- Alan 🐾