Swiss Lick Swissies

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | Beowulf | No Comments

Tags: Beowulf the Basset

Anxiety Help

Monday, March 8th, 2010 | Indigo | No Comments

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we’ve been trying an herbal tonic, specifically Calm Down Herbal Tonic, to work on Indy’s anxiety around people. We’ve been putting in her food pretty steadily for over a week leading up to our block’s progressive dinner party on Saturday hoping for a calmer reaction to people.

Did it work?

Honestly, I’m not sure. She’s previously met all the people who were at our house. But with the exception of two of the people, she doesn’t see any of them with any amount of regularity. They came in, she barked. The proceeded to the kitchen to eat and drink and pretty much ignored her. (Nice thing was, we didn’t even need to ask them to ignore her. They just did it. SMRT!) We only had people over for about 40 minutes, so she never really had a chance to get used to them and calm down completely, but she did stop barking as soon as they walked away. She wandered around with her ears back in nervous position and sniffed bums. Every once in a while she’d start barking a little, but would stop with a reassuring word from Dan or myself.

I can’t decide whether or not it helped. It definitely wasn’t the miracle cure I was hoping for, but I knew that wasn’t a realistic expectation. But was the improvement due to being hopped up on an herbal solution? Or was it the people completely ignoring her? I just don’t know. It’s worth trying again at another event, so we definitely will give it another go.

Stay tuned!

Tags: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Indy the Swissy, Swissy

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | Gryffindor | No Comments

Tags: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Gryffin the Swissy, Gryffindor, Swissy

IKC Show

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends | 1 Comment

We had a fun weekend! Well, I did. I went to the IKC show at McCormick Place in Chicago on Saturday. It was nice to attend as a spectator only, (well, sort of) so I didn’t have to stay all day. IKC is a benched show, meaning you must be there by the time you show, and you can’t leave until the end of the day (4pm, I think) or until you are dismissed, whichever comes first. I went to see friends, support the Swissies who were showing, and of course, shop!

The Swissies got the short straw somehow and had to show at 8am. I was there around 7:15am. I’m not entirely sure how that happened.

Here’s the very handsome Robert.

Here are a few more. Robert is in the middle.

Of course I found some cute non-Swissies to photograph…

This guy was showing in the ring right after the Swissies. Can you say adorable?

Gorgeous Dobe!

And this is Lars. Lars and I became very good friends.

I asked his owner if I could take him home and she laughed. I don’t know if she realized I was serious. I was. Can you tell I have a thing for blue Danes?

I know I wasn’t the best photographer on Saturday. I was slacking a bit. I spent a fair amount of time shopping without the camera. And of course, I had to talk to people–that’s a big part of the fun for me. I love love love talking to people about Swissies. Can you tell?

TTFN!

Tags: Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Swissy