Swiss Lick Swissies

About My Dogs

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• Alex
• Beowulf
• Gryffindor
• Indigo
• Ozzy

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 | Beowulf, Dogs, Indigo, Ozzy

That’s right, it’s Swiss Lick Swissies’ anniversary! I’ve been blogging, along with assistance from dogs and a few guest posters, for two whole years!

Calm down. I’m worried you’ll throw your back out or something…

Now, I know you’re happy for me and all, but you really should be more happy for yourselves. Because if you remember from last year, anniversary time means FREE STUFF for you!

What is this free stuff, you ask? Well, it’s a 2 Hounds Design collar*! They are without a doubt my favorite place to get fabric collars. Indy has a couple and Gryffin did too – I imagine his will fit Ozzy one day, but I think he’ll probably need his own too. They are well made, and as a company, they do a fair bit to support rescue organizations and donate to osteosarcoma research at OSU.

And, yes. I know Gryffin had hemangiosarcoma, not osteo…but cancer research is cancer research. And cancer sucks.

So, here’s what you do. You need to comment on my blog posts. Any comment made on blog posts from today through 5pm central time on Thursday, 9/9/10, are eligible to win! You can comment multiple times, although the comments must actually have some sort of content to be valid. If all six of you go absolutely nuts and there are freakish amounts of comments, I will give away more than one collar.

So, start looking at 2 Hounds today. There’s plenty of time to get that nice, fall collar (see Ozzy’s pic from yesterday). Or maybe you want an every-day martingale. There are some really cool collars available!

If I had to pick one, I think Indy might get the Freesia-Copper-Floral collar.

Or maybe Ozzy would get the gorgeous Arabesque-Sapphire collar.

Start commenting today!

*Collar must be valued at $50 or less.

Ozzy updates

Friday, August 13th, 2010 | Alex, Beowulf, Dogs, Gryffindor, Indigo, Ozzy

You know, it occurred to me that I’ve been posting lots of pictures lately, but I haven’t given too much detail about life with Ozzy. I’m sure you all love the pics, but I think I’ll just talk about him and how he’s doing. It may come out as one giant stream of consciousness…my apologies in advance if it comes out as goo.

Ozzy is a fantastic dog. To be honest, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. He’s a well-mannered (well, usually), happy dog. He has a fantastic appetite, hasn’t chewed on stuff he shouldn’t (unless Indy counts) yet, and has been very easy with house training.

Actually, I jokingly mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I should rename the blog to “The Daily Swizzle” because on average, that’s all we get. We’ve had a few multiple-accident days, but he will go for four or more days without having any at all. He knows he’s supposed to go outside, and he has very good control for a Swissy. He just hasn’t figured out how to tell us he needs to go. We are pretty good at watching his signals, but we don’t always get him out in time. Of course, it happens during or post play, right when we are trying to usher him to the door. He’ll get there soon, I think. (Or is it I hope?)

Ozzy is doing very well in our household in general. I do believe I’ve mentioned before that Indy loves him, but it’s important to note that I believe Beowulf, the old curmudgeon, actually enjoys his company. I have caught them cuddling and – gasp – playing just a little bit.

His socialization is going quite well. We have completed four weeks of Puppy K, and I believe he is the star of the class. Perhaps that’s what happens when you actually work with your dog on the basics before class starts, and when you work with him daily when it’s going. I could be wrong.

There is one thing about him that worries me. While Gryffin was a great dog for obedience because he WANTED to please us, Ozzy is just plain smart. The obedience comes quickly, and he enjoys it. But I have a feeling he’s doing it because he wants to and he likes it, not because it makes us happy at all. The reason this is worrying is because this is how Alex was-extremely smart, frequently extremely obedient, but cunning beyond belief. While I say I’m worried partially in jest, it’s not all funny-although I don’t believe this is the end of the world. Put Alex’s mad skillz into a dog that will likely end up near 140lbs and tall enough to graze counter tops, and you can see why we might have issues. I guess this means training, training, and more training.

In other news, the small puppy (we brought him home at eight weeks and around 13lbs) is no longer small. He’s around three and a half months old, and weighs in at 37lbs. Our vet met him this week and believes he’s around a quarter of his eventual size. We initially thought it was possible that Ozzy may end up on the smaller side, but we have since revised our opinion. Please send help.

That’s all for now. I hope all three of my readers have a fantastic weekend! Stay cool!

Playtime for everyone!

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 | Beowulf, Dogs, Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends, Ozzy

While someone was playing around in Vegas this weekend, I took the opportunity to socialize the dogs and introduce them to new situations. Are you at all convinced that I was super glad to be at home for 4 days with a puppy that doesn’t like to sleep past 5:15am? I should probably work on my delivery.

Despite my sarcasm, I did actually have a nice time at home with the dogs. As you already saw, Ozzy and I spent some time with puppies on Thursday. On Friday, we went over to Indy’s sister’s house for some play time.

Vasey and Ozzy had some fun first.

Vasey trampled her human’s plants.

She was kind enough to show Ozzy how to do it.

Indy and Vasey had some “adult Swissy” play time, which included running around like crazy dogs.

Indy rolled around while Ozzy cuddled.

Vasey thought that looked like fun, so she tried it too.

Why is it all Swissies love to roll around on their backs? There was no raccoon poop or anything…

After we did that for a couple of hours, we went home to recharge for Saturday. That was the big day, as it included our first ever trip to a house with a pool! I was hopeful that after Indy’s introduction to water in May (Lake Michigan at Bark in the Park) that she might be someone who enjoys swimming. So we tried to lure her into the pool. (All Saturday pictures courtesy of Jodi and Clare May.) It’s setup for dock dog diving, and has a nice ramp.

(Please ignore the lady in the bathing suit.)

She went in very slowly her first time, but was completely willing.

Although once her feet were off that ramp, she was not too pleased. She enjoys water, but likes her feet to be on solid ground right now.

See?

But I didn’t keep her in long. She was able to get out on her own, and wasn’t too upset.

She actually came back on her own a second time and went most of the way into the pool with a float coat on. She was most of the way down the ramp on the third try, but then changed her mind. I’m not sure if she was distracted or what, but I was very happy with her.

I did bring Ozzy into the pool for a “swim,” but I did not let go of him at all. He wasn’t entirely pleased, but wasn’t entirely upset either.

(Again, please ignore the funny looking person.)

We also met Toby the Swissy (who won our pack giveaway last year!) and his humans, in addition to our hosts Leonbergers, cute mutt Huntley, and new ESRA foster, Sierra.

None of the host dogs are worried about the water at all, as you can tell by the lovely and damp Cleo.

Thanks for looking!

Things you wish breeders did…

Monday, June 28th, 2010 | Dogs, Ozzy

I’m starting a list. It’s kind of a silly list. And it’s short now with only two things on it. It will get updated over time, I’m sure.

1. Walk the puppies on a leash. Maybe they do, but every Swissy puppy we’ve ever picked up gives us the WTF look when we put them on one for the first time. Although it is kind of cute.

2. Let the puppies visit you while in the can. Yes, I know that’s kind of a weird request. But since there are only 2 humans in my house, we both have to have Ozzy with us in the washroom from time-to-time. He’s with me in the mornings when I shower and get ready for work because Dan is not up yet and I can’t have him running around. And he was in with me on Saturday when I was doing my business. The toilet paper spinning around freaked the heck out of him and he tried to scamper under my legs. Again, very cute. But is it perhaps avoidable?

Have any silly requests like this for your breeder(s)?

Swissy prep

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | Dogs

As I mentioned, we are in Swissy puppy preparation mode. The little bugger comes home tomorrow… We are excited, stressed, and tired, but it’s all good.

We decided the our house needed a bit of an overhaul, so we’ve been working hard. We shampooed the carpet upstairs repeatedly trying to get rid of what our incontinent Basset had done. I think we had the main breakthrough (at least in odor since you couldn’t see anything) last night when I used the Simple Solution cleaner meant for carpet shampooers. It did an absolutely fantastic job!

We also worked on the wood floor in the dining room – another area that has fallen victim to the dogs in our house. The polyurethane in a few places had worn away, so after trying repeatedly with enzyme cleaners to get rid of the smell, we decided it would be best if we fixed the floor. So we scraped, cleaned, stained, cleaned, and polyurethaned the floor, and we’re ready to go.

We’ve been placing some area rugs around the first floor (cheap ones so we don’t mind if they’re ruined) to allow for better traction with soft puppy paws.

And, this may be the most important thing….

We charged and replaced batteries in all the equipment that takes pictures or video, so we are ready to go!

Check back for puppy pics!