Archive for September, 2010
RIP Troll
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Rare is it that a life touches so many people – especially those they’ve never met in person. Troll the Neo definitely fits the bill.
The big guy went to the bridge last night. He had a rough couple of weeks, and now he is at peace. I hope Gryffin met him with a big Baroo. Please think healing thoughts for his family during this difficult time.
Troll will be missed.
Quick break…to earn money!
Monday, September 20th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Once again, work is getting in the way of my life! I am traveling this week and next, which makes it kind of hard to blog about the dog. I’ll try to squeeze something in over the weekend. Please check back! Ozzy will probably gain 20 pounds while I’m gone.
Teething
Friday, September 17th, 2010 | Ozzy | 2 Comments
Yup, Ozzy’s been teething for a few weeks now. Not only does he look rather silly and snaggletoothed, but he has decided that the humans in the house are the best chew toys ever. Lucky for us, he’s very gentle.
Our main issue is his sleeping. He’s had quite a few days in the last several weeks that he has not been at all interested/willing to stay in his crate overnight. We think it’s related to teething and his general discomfort with it. It’s not been great for us, and it’s hard not to get upset until we see his cute little face with the “I’m too cute and cuddly for you to be mad at me” look. I think he maybe got a little overheated with it the other night, so I put a fan next to his crate and aimed it right on him. Either the cool breeze or the sound calmed him down.
Please send sleep. The humans need it.
First day of school…
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 | Ozzy, Training | 1 Comment
Sunday afternoon was Ozzy’s first day of school. Well, his first day at a NEW school, I guess.
We started our “Puppy 2″ class at Wiggles-n-Wags in nearby Lombard. This is the facility that I visited a few weeks ago. Granted, I watched a novice rally class with a different trainer, but it was enough to tell me that it was a good place for us to try. The class is an extension of their “Puppy 1″ class, and is also a great next step for us after Puppy K. Ozzy seems to be a little advanced in some areas, but there are other areas we haven’t really focused in at all, so it works out quite nicely.
I was very interested in one thing they reviewed, although it was new for us being the only pair that hadn’t taken the previous class there. It’s the “emergency” word for come. You chose your word(s), and you train with the best treats and in a controlled environment so you always have a positive response. You use it in an emergency only – so not when you want the dog to come in from the back yard and they are not responding to “come.” A few people in the class had used it recently. One in particular had her dog run out the front door when she let the plumber in. She made it close to the street before the emergency word was used (she picked the word scary), and the dog did abrupt about face and ran back to her human. Other words/phrases used were bacon, party time, and danger. Dan decided we should use the word pizza.
We’ll start training on that emergency word this week. We also have a few other bits of homework, including trying to get Ozzy to go into sits, downs, etc, without a food treat. Actually, he’ll do everything but down without a treat. We’ll try to start rewarding it with a toy or something and see what happens.
It was definitely a positive start. I haven’t felt this way about a training class ever, to be honest. I hope it continues to impress.
Congrats and Thanks!
Friday, September 10th, 2010 | Random Stuff | 1 Comment
Congrats to Gina and her Beagle pup Sully and Breanne and her Swissy pup Bennet! Both won 2HD collars! I hope that they will be kind enough to send us pics of their pups in the collars!
Human emotions
Thursday, September 9th, 2010 | Gryffindor | 2 Comments
I can talk about human stuff, right? Don’t worry, it still has to do with dogs. Swissies even. Gryffin in particular…
So, I was going through some of my old, saved emails. Heck with spring cleaning – I’m all about the fall cleaning. I came across some saved emails I have from friends and blog readers from January. Early January to be specific. That’s when we had to let Gryffin go.
*sniff*
*sniff sniff*
OK, I’m back.
I decided to open a couple up to read them, and guess what? I started tearing up.
For the record, it’s great when that happens at work. I fully expected that guy from the corner office to chose that moment to stop by my desk. He is a dog lover, so I suppose he might have understood. Except he’d probably wonder why I was reading emails from January in September at my desk during normal business hours. Valid question, I admit. But I digress.
I know I’ve said this before, but it is important enough to me to say again.
Thank you.
Yes, you.
You are probably one of the ones that sent me an email or submitted a contact request through the site to tell me how sorry you were. And although I’ll probably never meet more than half of you, I want you to know that it still helps brush the cobwebs off my heart when I read those messages. And although I still tear up when I read them (heck, I’m tearing up now just thinking about reading them), it still makes me happy to remember just how many lives Gryffin touched, even virtually.
And just so you know, Gryffin would want you to comment on my blog posts. Frequently. And he’d want you to win a collar from 2HD. So make sure you get an entry (or 5) in by 5pm central time today!
Play time!
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends, Ozzy | 3 Comments
There are some days, like today, when I just want to get away with posting pictures. I’m feeling rather sickly, so I’m not even sure if you’ll get any witty commentary along with the pictures…so I guess I’m saying no promises.
We decided to go hang out with Mardi and Shiloh the Swissies yesterday. And their humans. It was a fun way to spend time on Labor Day. We’ve met both Swissies before, but this was Indy’s first time with Mardi, and Ozzy’s first time with Shiloh. Ozzy and Mardi have a history, if you remember. Beowulf hasn’t really spent any time with any of them, except for when he was a bit stoned one day.
There was the normal butt sniffing with a surprise visit from a Rottie. (Can’t remember her name!)
Then Ozzy and Mardi picked up where the left off over a month ago.
Crazy kids!
Pretty girl Shiloh posing.
I got Mardi to sit still from a distance one time.
If I crouched down for a picture, she’d charge. It was a great game.
Ozzy’s head is under there somewhere.
I feel like I’ve seen them do this before. Oh, wait…I have!
Pretty Indy.
And Ms. Shiloh ready for her dancing debut.
And then just smiling.
Thanks for looking!
Don’t forget, you have until 9/9 at 5pm central time to comment on a post. Each comment enters you in the contest to win a 2HD collar!
Someone has a new cart!
Monday, September 6th, 2010 | Indigo | 1 Comment
We finally broke down and got a cart for Indy. I had been meaning to for about a year. It’s pretty cool.
You can’t tell too easily from these pictures, but the shafts are removable, and the crate folds up, which means it will be somewhat easy for me to transport…even in my small SUV. So I don’t need to steal the Avalanche (and have more the one person to get it out of the vehicle) if we’re going to take it somewhere.
Yes, I will take it apart and some point and take pictures. And yes, I’ll even post them. But you can see pictures of one disassembled and collapsed here.
Since we had gorgeous and cool weather this weekend, aka Swissy weather, Indy got to try it out. She was slightly concerned at first. It’s been a while since she’s done anything with a cart. But after about 60 seconds, she was cool with it and you’d never know she took an extended break from carting.
I believe this is her concerned face.
She and I walked up and down the block to get used to it. We’ll do more soon, I promise. But I don’t think there will be pics of Ozzy or Beowulf in the cart…
Poop!
Saturday, September 4th, 2010 | Ozzy | 2 Comments
Since Ozzy starts his new puppy class in just over a week, I needed to get a fecal sample from him for the vet. You think this would be easy, right? Well, notsomuch, actually. Someone thinks it’s the best thing ever to go far under the deck and go poop instead of in the yard. So the vet tried the swab. For the first time in history, Ozzy was poop free. There was not a lick (ew) of poop on that sucker when it came out of the rear of the Swissy.
That is all.
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