Rob's Dogs Christmas Vacation 2008
January 21st, 2009

As we revealed earlier this year, when my wife and I travel, our German Shepherds either stay home and guard the house, or we sometimes leave Shep and Nellie in Garden Valley, CA, deep in the woods nestled between Auburn and El Dorado hills past the famous Forest Hill Bridge (most recently used in the Vin Diesel film “XXX).  

Arnie has been bitching about wanting new pictures from dogwoods, not just the standard “pictures of dogs playing.” Here we have my new favorite picture of Shep. This is dog that could literally rip someone’s arm off with the right command, though most people never see that side of Shep. So here we have the greatest dog I know sitting still and allowing a rubber duck to be photographed on his head. What a ham.

Continuing the theme of never before seen shots of dogwoods, here is my arrival on the day after Christmas at the still festive and decorated resort in the woods.

Upon exiting the truck, Shep and Nellie immediately head for the deck because neither one of them has ever seen snow before.

I hand Helen all of Shep & Nellie’s food for the week and then immediately go into some sort of retarded William Shatner meets Christopher Walken impersonation. What the hell am I doing in this picture?

Continuing with the “never before seen side of dogwoods,” we have mentioned many times on the air that the dogs get their own private pen of acreage, complete with a personal doggie condo. Here is shep & Nellie’s apartment, which comes furnished with homemade doggie pillows (made by the dogwoods gals) and tiled walls and floors. This is nicer than more than half of the homes Arnie has lived in in his life.

As you can see, there are multiple entrances to the house including a main door and a doggie door…

MORE NEW SHOTS! Helen and Theresa have the main office building just off of the deck you saw earlier with snow on it. That’s where the business of dogwoods gets done, as well as always having a few dogs with them. On this day, Shep, Nellie and a Shep look-a-like named Sheela were all in the office with the gals keeping warm. In the shots of all three, Sheela is in the foreground, Shep is between his bitches and Nellie is in the back.

Eventually, Nellie, being the big baby that she is, found her way to the most comfortable spot in the office, given the fact that it was snowing outside…right next to the fireplace.

Next year’s Christmas card

Here we have proof that even the smartest dogs are still, basically, dumb; it’s 32 degrees outside and they all want to play in freezing cold water…dumb dogs.

One of the new traditions at Dogwoods is watch intently as Shep takes over the joint. He generally finds three basic things; A dog to playfully torture, a dog that stands up to him and puts him in his place, and a playmate (or two). It looks as though Shep has chosen a two year old Corgi named Zoey as his first playmate.

Eventually, Zoey teamed up with her younger brother, Chewey, to herd Shep and drive him insane. HA HA

Having been outsmarted by the Corgis, Shep moves on to finding a victim, and his target is a basset hound named Pearly…

Shep even calls in re-enforcements to playfully gang up on Pearly.

Eventually, Pearly stood up to Shep and gave him “the look.”

And even called in a few re-enforcements of her own to give Shep a taste of his own medicine. HA HA.

Okay, okay…I can just hear Arnie bitching about how we’re just seeing pictures of dogs again…scrooge. Here are more different photos. Remember that first shot of Shep with the rubber duck? Every trip to Dog woods ends with a personal bath for each pup…here is the time lapse of how my watchdog wound up with a rubber toy on his head.

Nellie also got a bath from Helen. Both dogs generally love water, but Nellie also loves any type of attention and petting so she just eats this stuff up…despite the fact that she’s sticking her tongue out in a few of these shots.

And now, just to piss Arnie off, here are a bunch of pictures of dogs smelling other dog's butts.

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