My dogs keep me humble

My dogs keep me humble.

No matter how great I think things are going, there's always something that humbles me.

This time, it's Astra. Now she's a pap, so it goes without saying she's way brighter then me. I can usually figure a workaround to her shenanigans though.

Not this time.

Every year, come fall and winter, she wants to "critter hunt"! She gets obsessed about finding the critters that may or may not have been under the deck when she wasn't out there on patrol.

When she's in 'critter hunt' mode, everything else vanishes in her world. Her recall becomes non-existent, her food drive is gone, her play mode is gone, she even ignores her leash and the chance to go anywhere else fun. She will stay out there and 'critter hunt' until she's ready to fall over from exhaustion. She doesn't even care about how cold or rainy it is out there.

The only solution I have is to take her out on leash. So, from sunset to sunrise, I have to take this little 5 1/2 lb papillon out on a leash for her sake and mine.

You know what's most humbling about it?

She has to be on leash simply because I can't catch her otherwise!! That little bundle of fur can zig and zag and zip better than any other dog I've ever spent time with. In this circumstance at least, she has me beat. Luckily, I'm bigger than her and can use the leash!!

The Garden Stone

I had to get a new cell phone recently. So I spent some time looking through all the photos I had on my phone. I'm pretty sure every picture I ever took, going all the way back to my first cell phone photo was there. 

Then, I came across this picture.

 

I had seen this while out shopping and just had to snap the picture. I then proceeded to send it to each of my kids. I thought this was the cutest thing!! You have to admit, it's a nice play on "We are staying together for the sake of the kids."

Well, for reasons unknown to me, my kids didn't find it funny or cute. I think it's adorable and would love to get it. My husband thinks its great also! I don't know why they didn't like it.

It got me thinking though. What if???? We even talked about it. Seriously though, it was a VERY short conversation. All the dogs would stay with me. There's no doubt about it. Not that I could ever imagine being in that situation. It's good to talk about it or think about it. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Jackson!!

I don't normally do this. But Jackson is S-P-E-C-I-A-L and his story must be shared.

I remember the day we met. This little fluffball puppy eagerly greeted us and immediately went after Rick's laces. Countless pairs of laces later, Jackson no longer has access to Rick's shoes. Mine are safe most of the time.

That first day, he met a bunch of strange people and strange dogs. He was introduced to a crate for the very first time. See for yourself what that was like.
Crate Training 
And now, he happily spends time in his crate at home. He happily sleeps in his crate at trials.

We weren't in car for more then 5 minutes before he got carsick that day and every car ride after that for over a year. That didn't stop him from wanting to go in the car though. Today, he even jumps in eagerly. In spite of being so sick in the car, once he was cleaned up at our destination, he was always ready and eager for whatever we were going to do.

Countless number of puppy classes and puppy socialization. (His neuter was even scheduled around his classes so he wouldn't miss out. We spent a long time waiting for the other berry to finally drop.) Oh, I remember puppy rally bootcamp classes! He earned his APDT RLP title that weekend, in spite of a nervous handler, and he loved it.

There was more and more classes after that. I got more and more nervous at trials. He still earned his RL1 title, in spite of me. Finances have kept us from classes and trials since then. But he still loves to train at home. He still has the ugliest left pivot you've ever seen. He's just so darn proud of it, I can't do anything to fix it. #$%^ it, it's worth the points off to keep him smiling you know!!

I remember his first seizure, how it didn't seem like anything weird really. I remember his first grand mal seizure and every single one after that. There was medication that didn't work and turned him into a zombie. Countless tests and trips to the vet, all of which he just takes in stride. The seizures still continue, regularly, 2x a month, with medication.

He got a bug bite one evening which caused his face to SWELL!! A frantic call to a friend and having to shove massive amounts of meds down his throat while he was in pain caused us not to be able to go near his mouth for a VERY long time after that. Yet, even then, my grandson was able to play with his mouth and Jackson was fine with it. (He really does love that little boy. He can do anything and Jackson just moves away if he gets uncomfortable)

In the pictures you can see one of his ears never went up properly. Even now, it's a mood indicator. The more the one ear droops, the sadder he is. I can't get a picture of that though since he loves the camera.

Happy 2nd birthday Jackson!! Some would say he got lucky with us. I would say, we were lucky to have found him.

The Bark

When I was fostering, I especially liked taking in puppies. I was a stay-at-home mom, so why not! I have a nice deck to hang out on and a fairly decent sized yard. I always let the puppies learn on their own how to navigate the stairs. This meant having to carry them up and down for potty times. I didn't mind it at all.

 Here is Brandon, on the left, and Brianna, on the right. They had not learned how to walk down the stairs on their own yet. I was taking pictures of the other dogs and turned around to hear Brianna barking.

It was a bark that has become known as the "MOM, I can't get to you!!" bark. It's very distinct from her other barks.

My mom's dogs were here one day and they were sleeping in the hallway. I stepped over them to go into another room. There goes the bark! She couldn't or wouldn't try and get past them on her own.

It comes in REAL handy though for those times she gets closed in a crate. She'll go into a crate on her own sometimes for sleep. One of the others will pass by and manage to swing the door closed. It's a little funny that she won't paw the crate door open, while at the same time, I'm glad for it. So she just uses her bark to alert me.

Puppy Pictures

I have this cute little widget on my desktop that goes through the My Pictures folder and gives me a slideshow. This picture of baby Kali came up and I knew I had to go hunting down the girls' puppy pictures and post them!

Baby Kali

Baby Tina

Baby Brianna

Baby Astra

Rally cones, my great thrift store find! They're not heavy duty or 12", but they don't need to be for practice. So for now, since Jackson can't go to class, I can just bring class to him!!

Oh, how he's grown!

Quirks

Just like people, my dogs have quirks.

Quirk - a peculiar trait; idiosyncrasy.

To me, it's their quirks that make them so lovable. I don't mind indulging their quirks, sometimes. It does make for a much happier household. With four females and one male, happy is definitely something we want around here. Their little quirks make up much of their personalities.

Some people feel that indulging this side of their dogs makes them spoiled. Well, I happen to like them a bit spoiled. Even though it can make life difficult at times.

My crew eat their meals in crates. Well, all bowls are in crates is a more accurate description. Locking Brianna in the crate with her food bowl is a surefire way to assure she doesn't eat. Unless of course she was absolutely starving... Those times are rare. The rest don't care. They'll go running to their crates and eat to their heart's content. They don't care if you close their crates, leave the room, heck, leave the house if you like. Only Astra would then care, after she's done eating of course.

But Bree? Nope! Again, unless she's starving, you better be prepared to plant your butt down in the room with her until she's done eating. She's eats quickly so this isn't a big deal to me. If I absolutely have to be in another room at the time, I just take her food bowl with me and she'll eat wherever I am.

That's just one example, I have tons more I'm not sure if I'm going to share now or not.