That's a Kitty Bed

So now that Jet can scale the baby gates with no problem, he is getting into the computer/kitty safe room just fine all on his own. As I said, it’s not a big deal except for the kitties, and other things that may not be safe. And my husband asked how much cat food is okay for a puppy to eat…

So my husband snapped this picture of Jet as Jet was trying to look innocent in one of the kitty beds on a dresser in the computer/kitty room.  Yeah.. it’s a cat bed, not a dog bed, and so it’s a wee bit too small for our Jet boy.

He’s a goon, and a teenager for sure. Getting into shoes and everything he can wrap his mouth around. LOL. Maybe I’ll need an outer banks vacation rentals package before he’s all grown up! But he’s a cutie, and we don’t mind, we just give him things he can have. We are working on how to make the baby gate Jet-Proof, too. My husband has great ideas so I look forward to what he comes up with!

Sleepy Jet

Well, our house is no longer safe from the puppy monster. Jet is so smart, and so agile, that he can climb out baby gates. Or jump them, if he gets a good collection before hand.

Just a few minutes ago he was laying in front of the one here in the basement, and whining and looking at me. He knew I didn’t want him to go over and tease the cats. But he wanted to so badly! So I gave him a chew bone instead. It made him happy.

Maybe if we put up some exit signs then he’d know where not to go…. hehe. The only reason we really don’t want him in the cat room is, well, because it’s safe for the cats. And he gets too excited by the cats. He just wants to play but they really don’t want to play with him. And there are cords and other non-safe things for him in there. But he only does it when we are home, fortunately.

He is such a good boy.  Hopefully the bones will be more fun than the cats!

Sweet Chase

I just have to toot my husband’s and my horn just a little bit. Four of our dogs are rescues, and if I do say so myself, we are good at building their confidence. This picture is of Chase. And though he didn’t come with too many problems, he does have good confidence now and is much more self assured than he used to be. This shows in his ability to tell dogs to keep their distance in a respectful manner. Instead of attacking, like he used to do. He’s not aggressive, he just has space issues like many dogs do.

Tatum is also one of our dogs that has come a long way. She was so scared when we first got her. I’d take her out anywhere and she’d tuck her tail and skitter around afraid. Now.. she nips people to get them to play and interact. She’s got spunk and she wants things her way. She has a lot of attitude and confidence! She very rarely gets scared anymore. I’m very proud of her!

Angel also came to us afraid, and she’s so confident now that she’ll jump in our laps to steal our food. We just laugh at her. No punishment for Angel, EVER! She is still timid enough that any punishment would shut her down.

And Muffit is also more confident and doing well. Going to the park and on hikes with my husband, he’s getting used to being out and he’s getting along with people and dogs. Now i just have to get my husband to bring his cell phones with him when he goes out so I can get in touch with him!

I’m proud of our dogs, and of us, to give our rescues such a great chance and much needed confidence!

Levi and Jet

Ten years ago today my baby boy, Levi, was born. Pembroke Faded Glory at Pembroke kennels up in Idaho. I remember going to visit him when he was just tiny. My husband and I were not married yet, but we were getting closer. We had Lucy and Kip and we packed them up and stayed at Lava Hot Springs… it was my first ever trip with dogs in a hotel. And they did great.

Levi was the puppy that ran under the table to hide, but my heart just loved him from the beginning and I had to bring him home. We had to wait until he was 12 weeks old, but it was worth the wait.

Now when I get a puppy I use fun iphone accessories to document the trip, like I did with Jet! But back then I didn’t do the internet very much at all. And I don’t think there was even a Facebook.

In this picture Levi is grudgingly sharing the bed with Jet.  Levi is getting used to Jet, but Levi thinks all Mom’s attention should just be for Levi.   But Levi still gets a ton of attention!

Levi gets extra spoiled today with extra treats and hopefully a Birthday Pizza for dogs.    I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since my baby boy was born.  Time sure flies.  We have done a lot together, him and I, and I treasure every moment. And will treasurer all the time we still have together!

Angel March 2009

We are pretty worried about our sweet Angel… Angel Pumpkin Spice Girl. We got her in 2002 and in the last few months she has really, really slowed down.

She’s loosing her footing more often now, and having a hard time standing up. She moves really slow. She is eating well, though, and pooping well so that’s good. She eats more than the rest of our dogs and she’s not fat. We worry that she’ll end up being one of those old skinny dogs so we feed her a lot to keep weight on her. She’s not fat though. She is just fine now.

We are afraid she is not going to be with us much longer, though. We will not let her suffer. I’ve learned a lot since I had Kip and kept him alive a bit longer than I should have. She won’t be spending any time in metal buildings, she has her soft beds and comfy places to sleep. She likes to be in the basement in my husband’s computer room where it’s safe and cozy and dark.

I love my Pumpkin Girl… I don’t want her to go. I hope we’ve given her a good long life. We are assuming she is about 13, but we don’t really know how old she was when she came to live with us.

She likes the couch, too, as this picture shows.

I love you sweet Angel.

Tatum in Summer

I am, actually, really excited to just stay home! I don’t have any trips planned for the next three months. Yay! I have travel clear across the country twice this year, going back east first to pick up Jet in July, and again in October to take him to the dog show. They were both really fun trips and I am so glad I went!

Now it’s time to stay home, do some house cleaning and maybe painting, and take a well needed rest. I’m sick, too, going on a week now. And so I need some down time without stress. I will still train, of course. I want to get Tatum going on sequencing agility obstacles (this is such a cute picture of Tatum!) because I’m toying with the idea of entering her in ASCA agility, PreNovice, next February, if she’s ready. Would be so fun to see how she does!

I’ll still be posting about my dogs, training, and all the fun daily living. I’m also going to soak in some hot baths, get some good acne treatments, nice lotions and moisturizers, and take it easy. Yay!

Handsome Jet

Anyway so Chase got 2 Qs this weekend out of 12 runs. I’ve been told (since my math is horrible) that’s about 15%. For a fast, long strided dog, in ASCA, I think that’s too low. It’s too low for my tastes, anyway. We almost got a gamblers Q but he didn’t do what I wanted on the A-Frame so I left the course early. Ugh.

Chase is awesome, and I need to pick it up. It’s not him, it’s me. Well except the A-Frame. He usually has a stellar A-Frame contact and he was blowing it last weekend. Only going in one direction, though. I don’t know what it was about that direction. Bleh. Maybe it was because it was a slatless A-Frame but I don’t think so. He knows how to control himself on those too.

Anyway I’m working on my handling skills a lot and I am getting a lot better. Maybe I need to get away from the dog stuff for a bit, look for some term life insurance instead, and just relax!

Here’s one of his jumpers runs. Very pretty runs. He knocked a bar early on so I didn’t really work the end peice and he back jumped where he shouldn’t. That sequence confused me anyway since I knew I wouldn’t be up there between those jumps. Oh well, we did good anyway and I was happy with the runs.  We don’t do much ASCA that’s why he’s still in the lower levels. In AKC he’s in excellent A.

We go again tomorrow, maybe we’ll be better. I am still pretty sick though and I can’t hear out of my left ear. Everything is off and my head is stuffed. We’ll have fun though. I did a lot of sitting around today, even out in the van surfed the web a bit on my phone looking for home insurance to see if we can get a better rate. Tomorrow I’ll do the same. It’s hard for me to just sit at dog events. I get nervous and am always on my feet.

Oh and as for the title of this post… Chase loves agility, he doesn’t know when he does bad or when he knocks a bar. He’s just a nut and loves the rush. I think he likes the structure too, and the learning we do. But he doesn’t know if we Q or not. He’s just happy to do this weird thing that his human Mom likes.

Jet the Vampire

Went to flyball last weekend and had a great time. It’s the annual Jumps and Jackpots put on by Touch N Go Flyball Team from Las Vegas, Nevada. They have it in Utah because there’s a really nice location here which is easier to us because we don’t have to drive so far.

I put this little costume on Jet. It’s nothing special, just a Vampire costume I got from Petco. And it’s hard to hold him on a leash while taking pictures.

I bought some dog supplies while I was there, some stuff for dogs’ feet in the snow so the ice balls don’t get bad in their pads. Chase needs that the ice balls get terrible in his feet in the winter when we go on walks. Hopefully this will help.

We have agility this weekend but I’m down with a cold. I really want to go, though. It’s ASCA and I was sick for the last ASCA trial in the spring, dangit!  So I only went one day and even then I did terrible because I was feeling awful.  So maybe I’ll go tomorrow and if I can’t handle Chase then we’ll just come home. Bleh. I was really looking forward to this trial.

Chase Little Bed

I am one of those odd people who think that dogs don’t feel guilt. I think guilt is a human emotion. I am more of the mind that the dogs know Safe and Dangerous. And when you come home and your dog has gotten into the garbage and scattered it around, and he cowers… it’s not guilt. He just knows that you coming home with garbage scattered around is dangerous because you might explode for no reason that he can understand.

(oh and this is Chase trying to fit in the teeny dog bed I got for Jet. LOL)

Jet is in his chewing age now… he’s six months old and that’s to be expected. We do not, ever, get mad or punish him for chewing. Ever. We don’t do that with any of our dogs. We just direct him to something more productive. I do want him to know that some things are off limits, like cardboard displays or chairs or furniture, but I just push him away, tell him Leave It, and give him a bone that is a good thing for him to chew.

Lucy has Mega-esophagus and often regurgitates quite a bit. She is also pretty incontinent and will pee accidentally while she is laying down if we don’t take her out frequently.  But Lucy never, ever acts guilty for either of these acts.  I believe it’s because we have never punished the dogs for there being pee on the floor, or poop, or throw up… or the act of any of these.  So none of the dogs think these things are dangerous in any way and don’t show the ‘guilt’ signs that people interpret as guilt… but I interpret that the dog is afraid of something dangerous might happen.

I’m very proud of this.  I don’t want my dogs to think there are things dangerous in the world… mainly me or my husband.  I want them to feel safe at home. We train in other ways. We encourage success. We DO set boundaries and limits and the dogs have good manners.  But a growing puppy needs to chew, an incontinent dog is going to have accidents.  These are not reasons to punish… actually, there are not really any good reasons to punish.   Redirect, encourage, and set up for success. I love positive training!