KALLEMANNs private life

Hi Dad,

I am still alive – eventhough you haven’t heard from me for quite a while! By the time you read these lines I am almost 5 years old, but Mom says I still behave like a baby.

Okay, I must admit, most of the time I can achieve everything I want by being ‘Mom’s little baby’. A new toy, for example. I love to play with softtoys. When we go shopping, I always have this special ‘may I have this toy’ – view on my face. Mom sees this and immediately she buys the toy for me. At home I have a huge basket full with the most beautiful toys. I do not chew on them or pull out arms and legs – I just love to carry them around. I told you already about my orange toy-pony which Mom bought me during our vacation in France. Recently she bought me a beautiful Birdy for my birthday. It chirps when I shake it – isn’t this lovely? I was so exited that I carried it around for days, even when I went for a walk or when I went to bed. I just couldn’t get away from it. It is still my favorite toy. Mom said, I am a little crazy and that I would have been a good mother to the dog puppies – I might have to tell her again that I am a boy!

I am also an expert in begging for something I want to have. It’s a little trick and only Mom understands it, so it is not so embarrassing if other people are with us. I sit down and act like I have to sneeze. This sounds like ‘pfftt’. I carry on sneezing until I get what I want and everybody thinks, I have a bad cold. Isn’t this fantastic?

I am also extremely nosy. At home, when we stand in front of the elevator, I can hardly wait until the door opens. I then jump right into the elevator (or out of the elevator when it stops again) and other people get frightened. I do not want to frighten other humans but it could be that another doggy is inside or outside the elevator. If it’s empty, then I put my nose in the air to find out who might have been in there before.

One of the things I hate are running kids. And if the wear rubber boots, I would love to bite into them (the boots!). Mom is then mad at me, but I get so frightened when I see kids running by me and somehow I have to try and stop them from this stupid running.

Sometimes Mom annoys me as well: She always says I have ‘Teddybear’ – feet!, and when I sleep and lay on my back, my feet up, she tickles the hair between the pads. I then have to kick at her very badly – it’s so awful beautiful! Sometimes she pinches my nose, because she says I have such a sweet nose… And this is how I got some of my nicknames: Petznase (Pinchnose) and Kitzelfuß (Ticklefoot)! But I hate when she tries to blow air into my ear. I rather jump off the sofa when she starts this ‘funny’ game. I am not that stupid…

I also know immediately when Mom is planning a longer tour with us. Whilst she gets our leads I run to my waterbowl in the kitchen and have a long drink. You never know if they serve any water on the tour. I have to admit, Mom always carries a bottle of water for us doggies. But I rather be on the safe side. Chico is starting to do the same now. You see, even the older dogs can still learn a lot from me!

When I am extremely happy or most excited, when we go for a walk or for Agility or when Mom comes home from work, it may happen that I pinch her into her left knee. She well understands that this happens only because I feel supergood.

By the way – Agility really gives a lot of fun. Have you tried it out yourself in the meantime? Sometimes I am so excited that I do not properly listen to Moms commands, when she tells me of the hurdles I have to take. I am jumping over the one which I see next to me – and we will be disqualified, if it was the wrong one! Luckily, Mom is never mad at me for a long time, since she knows I am not making a mistake on purpose. But she also knows that I am ‘playing deaf’ when she yells at me. Then I just sit back and don’t do anything anymore! Either she is friendly to me or I go on a sit-down-strike! Well trained! Other than with the big dogs I usually never cause a hurdle-bar to fall down. I love to jump and I jump much higher than necessary to overcome the hurdle. I even manage the big ‘wall’, an obstacle which only the big size dogs have to jump. I love to see people being surprised how high I can jump. "Kallemann can fly!" they say.

I am usually always ‘in action’. I hate to stand still when we go for a walk and Chico cannot make up his mind where to sit down. This may take up to 10 minutes before he finds a place suitable for his deposit. I lay down to demonstrate how boring it is to wait for Chico before we can continue our walk. Off course, I only lay down when the weather is fine – I don’t want to get wet on my tummy. Isn’t it stupid to make such a big fuss about a daily activity? I usually just sit down where it smells good and use my nose to find out who was sitting there before me. Don’t waste time…

A few words about Chico: I let him to believe that he is the Boss, so he doesn’t beat me again. But if he lets his chewing bone unattended for a few seconds… it will disappear. I act like I if I would sleep and when Chico is a bit careless – the bone is mine! Smart, isn’t it? In the mornings I have to push him away a little bit in order for me to get the breakfast biscuit first. I am that fast that I am usually back in my room before he even notices what is going on! I was a lucky boy that I could stay with my doggy Mom for quite a while when I was a puppy. I learned these ‘first come – first serve’ tricks amongst my brothers and sisters.

Now I have written you a lot about myself and what is going on here and I still know almost nothing about yourself! I would appreciate to hear from you again or, even better, come and visit me here in Germany.

Yours