Manly Monday - Studmuffin Version!!

JD - Hi everyone - this post has a x-rating! He he he!

Max - Oh yeah baby! Just set the "wacca wacca waah waah!" music and enjoy....

JD coyly turns turtle!

Whereas Max immediately lets it all hang out!!

JD relaxes into the moment!!

JD and Max sure know how to kick-back!

In a more' family-friendly' photo Max shows the best way to use your brother as a pillow!

JD - Well, since we've both had the op the photos aren't really that shocking we suppose, he he he!

Max - Hey, before we go we'd just like to apologise for not getting round to visiting your blogs over the weekend. FH wasn't well - she had a migraine that totally wiped her out and she only managed to get out of bed yesterday afternoon. We had a fun weekend with MH - all boys together!! - but it means we've fallen behind with you all.

JD - FH is now rather grumpy. She was muttering about 'a waste of a weekend' as she headed off to work this morning. Poor FH!!

Max - Poor FH?? POOR FH?!?! What about US? We're missing all our blog pals - I say it's 'poor JD and Max!!!' HUMPH!!

Fashionable Friday!

JD - Amongst the great treats that Scottie sent us a few weeks ago was also a couple of really cool bandannas.

Max - Aren't they great? There was a red one for me and a blue one for JD - they're traditional Malaysian print and we love them.

Traditional Malaysian print - and Scottie even knew our colour preferences - thanks Scottie!

JD - So we thought we'd do a fashion shoot to show everyone how amazing we look in them!

Max - But be warned - we both look so good you're going to want one of these bandannas for yourself!

Max - "How's this for a jaunty angle?!"

JD - "This is my finest 'catalogue pose', he he he!"

Max - "Hey JD, turn your head bro', our fans can't see your cool bandanna!"

JD - "You mean like this Max?"

JD - "Hey FH, we'd like a photo from the top if it's not too much trouble.....!"

Max - "Hey JD, how cool do you feel wearing your new bandanna?"
JD - "Put it this way Max - I'll be STRUTTING when we go on our next walk - oh yes!"

Max - Thank you so much Scottie - we love our new bandannas. In fact, we felt so good wearing them that we requested FH leave them on for our evening walk...

JD - ....and we also asked for a splash of the manly scent that Santa, Minnie and Christmas sent over to us so we could REALLY pose!

JD and Max - "Yes please FH - a liberal squirt of manly aroma for each of us if you'd be so kind!"

Max - Look out Clacton - the Schnauzer Brothers will be strutting their stuff past your doorways soon, he he he!

JD - Thank you so much Scottie and your mom - we absolutely love our new bandannas, you're the best!

Wordless Wednesday - cutie booty!

(Our homage to our handsome bloggie pal Groucho....)

Camera Critters - Mud Glorious Mud!!

JD - Hi everyone! Now, we had quite a confusing day yesterday!!

Max - We sure did! Do you remember the exciting parcel we got from Singapore?

A parcel all the way from Singapore!

JD - Well - this is what it contained.....

Ooooh - a pot of dead sea mud - excellent!

Max - It's dead sea mud - a special spa treatment for us doggies!

JD - Our great pal Cobi sent it to us after we commented that JD suffers a bit from itchy skin. Isn't Cobi - and his humans - wonderfully kind and generous?

Max - He's the best! Anyway, yesterday our humans decided it was time to try it out!

JD - So they scooped some into a bowl....

JD and Max - "Sniff, sniff! Oooh, can we eat it?!"

Max - ....and then mixed it to a lovely, sticky, muddy consistency with some water....

Gooey messiness - doggie heaven!

JD - .....they took us outside - and proceeded to slather it onto us!!

JD and Max - "Are you SURE we can't eat it?!"

Max - To say we were confused was putting it mildly!

JD - You see, only the other day we rolled in something equally muddy and got told off very sternly!

Max - So why, a few days later, are THEY rubbing this glorious mud into our fur!

JD - So, let me get this straight.... When we do it, it's WRONG. But when THEY do it, it's perfectly okay? You know Max - sometimes I think I'll NEVER understand humans....

Max - Oh - I hear you bro!! Anyway, this mud stuff was wonderful! It felt so good!

JD - It sure did - you can't really see it very well in the photos below - for some strange reason our humans didn't want to get too close to us after we'd been slathered....!

Max - "Aw, go on female human - let me run into the grassy part of the garden and roll in the leaves! I'm sure it'll make this mud pack even more organic!!"

JD - "Sniff, sniff! Why Max - you smell divine! He he he!"

Max - Our humans took us directly to the groomers wearing our mud packs - they said it was quite hard to wash off, he he he!

JD - We now look wonderful - our coats are so shiny and we feel great! We can definately recommend this 'being pampered' malarkey - thank you SO much Cobi - we feel everso stylish and everyone we've met since has told us how soft and shiny our coats are!

Max - We also want to show off the GREAT present we got from our wonderful groomers for our birthday. Look.....

Exciting birthday presents from our groomers - our humans are delighted at just how squeaky the toys are, he he he!!

JD - Look, look! Two squeaky toys and a MASSIVE bag of doggie chews - how lucky are we?!!

Max - We LOVE our groomers!!! We're not allowed to play with our toys until tomorrow as it's not our birthday until then.....sigh! Our humans are so strict with us......humph!

JD - BUT - one thing that female human did today was bake some cakes for us and our friends.

Max - Yup - male human couldn't believe what he was seeing! Female human doesn't 'do' kitchens, apparently, so for her to actually bake - well, needless to say she must obviously love us VERY much!

JD - She used the recipe that Oskar posted and baked a big cake and lots of little ones for us to share with our pals....

Scrummy peanut butter and honey individual birthday cakes - super yum!

Max - They smelt SO good that we DEMANDED to try them! Well, we wanted to make sure they were definitely okay before we served them to our pals...

JD - Yes, we were only thinking of our friends.....

Max - ....we're good like that you see, he he he! In the photo below we are snarfling them down at about one hundred miles an hour - oooh, they were fabulous!! You can't even see one crumb on the floor - we didn't want to miss a tiny piece!

JD and Max - "Snarfle, snarfle - burp!! Hey - look how SHINY our coats are in this photo! That's the mud treatment y'know!"

JD - They were wonderful, one of the scrummiest treats we've EVER had! We could hardly believe that they had been baked by female human....

Female Human - Hey!

Max - ....which just goes to show how great Oskar's recipe is, he he he!!

JD - Before we sign off today we'd just like to say that - thanks to many of you - we have now donated £192 to Dog's Trust! That was due to 50 comments being left on our 100th post....

Max - ....and 46 signatures being left on our guest book....

JD - ....timed by 2 - because there's 2 of us - which equals £192!! We are very proud.

Max - Have a great weekend everyone - if you can, please swing by tomorrow to see what we get up to for our first birthday!!

Find out what all the critters are up to at....

International Schnauzers And An Award - Sofa So Good!

JD - Hi everyone! We feel that we should warn you that this has ended up being quite a long post!

Max - It's because we have a lot of news!

JD - It's been a really busy week for us, what with us helping our humans with the sheds and the building works! And you know what - today we're having a tremendously exciting day!

Max - We sure are - and it's not even lunchtime yet!

JD - It all started off with our usual morning walk....

Flossie - "Wah! I wanna play with Ty!!!!"

Max - ....we met up with a lot of our friends - Ty the husky puppy (hasn't he grown?!) and Dylan the Tibetan Terrier with his little sister Flossie (who got a bit jealous of Max and Ty touching noses!)

JD - Dylan asked female human if he could have a close-up photo - she was happy to oblige as he's super cute. Do you know, at a local country show Dylan won first prize in the 'puppy the judges would most like to take home with them' section?!

Dylan - "Cheese!!"

Max - Our chum Neo was there - you might remember him as the doggie who is a little obsessed with his tennis balls. He was very happy this morning as he had TWO!

Neo - "Back AWAY from the tennis balls! The tennis balls are MINE, okay...?!"

JD - And I made the wonderful find of a discarded sock! Oooh, it was smashing to play with!!

JD - "Mmmmm - discarded sock! Hint of cheese with just a tang of athletes foot - my favourite!!"

Max - So, after all this fun we eventually decided that we had better take our female human back home as we know she can start to get a bit grumpy if she doesn't get her morning cuppa by a certain time....

JD - ....indeed! We find that humans are usually happier if we train them around a set routine you see, he he he!

Max - And do you know what we discovered when we got home? Do you?

JD - Erm, they probably don't Max! I think you'll probably have to actually tell everyone or we might be here for a while....

Max - Oh, okay then JD! Well, we got home to find not just one, but TWO parcels waiting for us!

JD - We were SO excited! One of the parcels was from a far away place called Singapore....

JD - "Oh, what is it, what is it?" Max - "Sniff! Sniff!" Hmm, smells familiar, but I can't quite put my paw on what that smell is JD...."

Max - ....and the other parcel was from another far away place called Australia!!

Max - "Oooh, smells divine!" JD - "Hey - have you seen this little sticker here Max....?"

JD - On this second parcel was a small address label, which also had the picture of the most beautiful Schnauzer nose in the World, so we knew immediately that this parcel was from the wonderful, the intelligent, the beautiful and amazing Sasha - sigh!!

Max - "Oh yes! What a pretty little nose....sigh!"

Max - We know that the parcel from Sasha is for our birthday next week so we are not allowed to open it until then! We're so excited - we're going to take loads of photographs of us opening it and we'll be blogging about it next Sunday when we're all mature and grown-up as we'll both be one year old!

JD - We have to say though, we're a bit grumpy with our human because not one of the parcels that we sent out over 4 weeks ago (to Sasha, Oskar and Ruby and Penny) to celebrate our 100th post has turned up yet!

Female Human - Well lads - I can't do much about the speed of the postal service you know!

Max - Humph! Anyway, we knew that the parcel from Singapore was from our lovely pal Cobi - and it was a wonderful spa treatment for the two of us, some dead sea mud!

JD - We're booked in to have a grooming session on Friday and our human has already told the groomers that we'll be turning up with this treatment applied! They'll wash it off and then give us a lovely haircut.

Max - We can't wait to be pampered with it! We're going to look so handsome - almost as handsome as Cobi!

JD - Is that possible Max?

Max - Well, I did say ALMOST JD! I don't think that we could ever look as stylish as Cobi.

JD - Very true! Anyway - female human told us that she's never had a parcel from Singapore or Australia - ha!

Max - We truly are international Schnauzers, he he he!

JD - Stylish Cobi and sweet Sasha - thank you both so much! We're so excited and we can't wait for 'part 2' of our blog about each of your parcels!

Max - Also, something else very exciting happened about a week ago and female human has been very tardy in getting this news onto our blog!

JD - Yes - we might have to have stern words with her about it!

Max - You see, we got an award from Dennis the Vizla dog! It's the CLASS ACT AWARD and he presented it to us in recognition of the charitable donations we will be making at the end of September in honour of our 100th post!

JD - Thank you Dennis - we are honoured to accept this award! Next weekend (end of September) we'll be posting about how much money we've donated to Dogs Trust - we're very proud to be doing this!

Max - The only requirement of this award is that we pass it onto 6 other class acts!

JD - Gosh! We think ALL our buddies are class acts, so we thought what we'd do was to pass this award onto our 6 newest blogging buddies. So, please accept this award Mr Darcy - hearing about how you help your daddy with his push-ups by sitting on him and falling over him is clear evidence of how helpful and classy you truly are!; Clive - we aspire to become PAT doggies and we view actual service doggies as super-class-act doggies!; El'bow and Hauwii who are the classiest 'little and large' double act we've ever seen; and Nellie and Calvert, whom we feel like we've known for years which is surely a sign of true friendship and makes them a star class act in our eyes!

Max - So please accept this award - we think you all ooze class!

JD - Whilst we're on the subject of our wonderful blog friends, can we please ask you all to pop over to Munchkin Memoirs and vote for our Schnauzer pal Santa in the 'Most Ear-resistible Contest'!

Max - Please DO take the time to vote! We would like to uphold the honour of the Schnauzer and Santa has the prettiest, most amazing pair of ears that we have ever seen on a doggie - he he he!

JD - Finally, we have what we think is really thrilling news to share!

Max - Yes! Recently we have been showing our humans what good puppies we are by no longer chewing or scratching the furniture or trying to eat the newspapers and the CDs, so they have decided to award us the ultimate privilege...

JD - ....oooh, I can hardly say the words I'm so thrilled about it....

Max - ....our humans have FINALLY allowed us to join them on one of their sofas!

JD - Isn't it exciting? Female human really enjoyed how much we cuddled up to her when we visited Pippa at home recently and were allowed on the furniture there, so she really wanted those schnauzer snuggles to continue back home! BUT she also didn't want us climbing up onto ALL of the furniture, so she had a plan!

Max - She sure did! She bought several blankets and introduced them to us as something we were allowed to snuggle on - ooh, they were comfy!

Comfy blankie snugness!!

JD - After about a week our blankets were moved to cover the sofa - and since we knew that these were OUR blankets we knew that it could only mean one thing!

Max - We were finally allowed on the sofa!

JD - We were, we were! We were finally being promoted from the floor....

Comfy blankie snugness on the floor!

Max - ....up onto the furniture!

JD - "Are you SURE we're allowed to be up here Max?" Max - "We're on our blanket aren't we JD? I'd say that was a 'code green'.....!"

JD - "Okay then Max - if you say so I'll kick back and relax!!! Ahhh.....bliss!"

The boys get their heads together for a comfy sofa snooze!

JD - Female human says this has been a good move - we know we're only allowed on the sofa where the blanket is and it means that whenever they have to go out we're a lot less stressed! In fact, we don't even give them a backwards glance when they leave now, he he he!

Max - To show you what we mean here are a few still shots that have been taken from this week's puppy-cam....

All puppies must point the way of the chicken!!

Max relaxes full stretch slap-bang in the middle of the sofa - no room for JD!!

King JD and Prince Max! JD loves to be 'king of the castle' on the sofa and often tries to take the higher ground!!

JD - Female human has realised just HOW much I love to snuggle. As you saw from the photo above I DO like to be 'king of the castle' - he he he! But there is a practical side to me sitting on the sofa like this - it's because when I'm perched a bit higher I REALLY can snuggle up very close to female human....bliss!

JD and Max cuddle into Female Human - Max is looking especially pleased with himself but let's just have a little close-up of JD's snuggle technique....

JD - "Sigh....!" And closer still....

JD - "Snuffle...."

Max - So, as you can see, we've had rather a nice week this week! Busy, but very nice!

JD - We sure have - and next week is our first birthday so it's just going to get better and better!

Max - Thanks again to Cobi and Sasha - we can't wait to blog about your parcels next week!

JD - We know this has been a long post so we hope you stayed with us to the end, he he he! Have a nice weekend everyone!

Find out what all the critters are up to at....

Our summertime fun!

JD - Hi everyone - we finally got our female human to finish our 'catch-up' post.

Max - Sheesh - she took ages to sort out our photos! We might have to sack her, he he he!

JD - So here it is - there are a lot of photos so it's kinda long, but we hope you enjoy seeing all the things that we've been up to over the past couple of weeks.

Max - And hey, who wouldn't want to look at loads of photos of us?! *snigger!*

JD - About a month ago our female human found out about a beach that dogs are allowed on year round. It's only a 5 minute drive from our front door - how lucky is that?!

Max - It's a great place, especially since there is a small nature reserve that backs onto it - it's called 'Holland Haven Country Park'.

"Holland Haven Country Park -this park is situated on the coast between Clacton and Frinton and is managed to conserve the landscape, coastal grazing marsh and wildlife quality of the area whilst providing for the quiet enjoyment of visitors. In addition to some interesting breeding birds in summer, the Country Park is an important point for Spring and Autumn migrants. The SSSI designation recognises the rare and varied fauna."

This park is usually very quiet and peaceful - we're often surprised that we don't meet more people or dogs when we're over there!

The park at sunset - isn't it pretty?

JD - We feel lucky to have found such a great place to walk.

We love the park - so many interesting things to sniff!

Hey - male human! Stop playing with the flashy box and come and join us!
That big thing we're walking towards is the radar tower that is used by those out at sea.

Max - One thing I really like about this park is the rabbit poo - ooh, it's everywhere! Mmm - it's yummy! I always pretend I can't hear when my humans shout at me to 'leave it'.....

Mmmmm - rabbit poo!

JD - As you can see from most of the photos we've been having great weather in the UK recently so our female human takes us down to this park most evenings as we like to have a dip in the sea to cool off.

"....so I said to her, I said 'I don't care if you're coming too - I'm only getting in the car if you're taking us to the beach'....!"

The start of the park - behind the fence that runs along the back of this picture is the beach that dogs are allowed onto all year round - this is now JD and Max's favourite place!

"The sea, the sea - we can see the sea!" And if you look very closely you can just about make out the wind turbines that make up Gunfleet Wind Farm that is being built just off our coastline - you can see them better if you 'biggify' the picture!


Here's a close-up of the wind-turbines - our female human got this photo from the Internet, she didn't swim out to take it!!

Max - So our time recently has been spent romping with our pals in the field close to our house on our morning walks, sleeping our way through the heat of the day and then going for a cooling splash in the sea in the evenings.

"Oooh, oooh! We can see the sea, we can see the sea!" Note from female human - Max gives us heart failure at this point by wandering close to the cliff-edge and peering over! We are now training them not to stray quite so close to the edge - for the sake of our sanity more than anything else!

"Come on human, come on - keep up!"

"Nearly there - hooray, hooray!!"

"Finally! Ahhh - we love the sea!"

"That's it JD - you test out the water temperature and I'll just wait here and - um - protect the humans....!"

"Hey - Max! You coming in or what?!"
"Yes - um, give me a minute, I'm just - erm - getting my paws used to it....!

"Right-oh! I'll keep on going then if you're just behind me....!"

"Yup - I'm RIGHT behind you bro! You keep wading right in there!!"

"Ahhhh - this is sooo refreshing! The sea ROCKS - he he he!!"

"Umffff - that was a bit of a big wave....!"

"Hey Max! What do you think of the Loch Ness Monster impersonation that I'm doing with my tail? He he he!!"

"Ooh, you've made it look like such fun, I'm coming in too!!"

"Right - I'm now wet enough to officially become a 'nutty puppy' -*splosh! splosh!* Rarrrrr!"

"Rarrr! Rarrr!" Two wet Schnauzers = two nutty puppies!

JD dries off on the grass as he trots back to the car.

JD - So, we've been having a good time recently. Mind you, it has been a disruptive week for us.

Max - Firstly, our humans went away last weekend and left us! It's true - we couldn't believe it either!

JD - We were left at a lovely house with a great chap who took very good care of us - but still! It's simply not on!

Max - Indeed! It's just not cricket!!

JD - Still, that's all behind us now and we're sure our humans will never, ever leave us again....

Female human - Erm, er - how can I put this boys.....?

Max - Yes, they wouldn't ever be that cruel again would they? *glares at female human!* Also, over the past week our humans had some work done in our house.

JD - They had the lounge carpet replaced with a new hardwood floor.

Max - Something to do with a certain puppy chewing the carpet, which meant we couldn't be trusted to be left in the lounge on our own.

JD - As if we would! We kept on telling our humans that it was another, bigger puppy that wandered in, chewed the carpet and then ran away! But they don't believe us.

Max - It's not fair - especially since this rogue puppy looked JUST like me!! Anyway, we're not too sure about the new floor just yet - it's a bit slippery!

"Wooahhh!! Where are my brakes?! This new floor is a bit slippery....!"

JD - We keep on skidding on it. Because of this we're staying on our cushions and doggie sofas and our humans seem to really like us doing this - humph!

Max - It IS nice and cool though which is soothing, especially in this weather.

JD - Yup - it's been incredibly hot here recently. And we hear that next week the temperature is going to hit the 90's - whatever that means.....

Max - ....I just know that it makes me really sleepy! I can't even manage a long walk any more, I have to keep on finding a nice cool hedge or some long grass to go and lie down in to try and keep cool.

JD - So our female human took us to the groomers for our first ever grown up Schnauzer hair cut.

Max - She's wanted us to have this cut for quite a while but our male human wanted us to stay looking fluffy and cute.

JD - But our female human won this time - he he he! - and now we look like big, grown up Schnauzers! This is what we looked like at the begining of the week....

Before - fluffy puppies!

JD - ....and this is us now!

After - smooth and sleek, beautifully groomed puppies!

Max - Our female human was so excited by how handsome we looked that she treated us to some lovely new collars.

"Mmmm - snuffle! This new floor IS nice and cool to snooze on....zzzzzz!"

JD - I got a nice denim-look collar with some cute bones stiched into it!

Max - And our female human knows that red is my colour so I got a new red collar - with that same cute bone design.

JD - Phew - it's been quite a week! I'm really tired....

Max - ....me too! Struggling to stay awa.......zzzzzz!

JD - Zzzzzzzzz!

"Zzzzzzzzzz!"

Find out what all the critters are up to at....