Yesterday was a glorious day!  I am told that 82F in March is an unusual thing but it was absolutely wonderful!  Little did I know that the day was going to hold excitement!   A little after mom’s lunch we set out for a walk.  It was really, really warm and being a black dog, the sun LOVES me.  I just soak in the heat the moment I get outside.  So I wasn’t interested in pulling and investigating everything.  I was happy to plod alongside mom, showing off my best loose leash walking.  (As a side note, did you know that when you consistently walk calmly beside mom she gives you treats?  I don’t know if she does this with humans, but for dogs, this is HEAVEN!)

We walked up the cobble brick path to the big hotel on the hill.  Then we walked down a lot of stairs (I am getting very good at walking beside mom when we go down stairs, going up is an entirely different matter.  I like to bolt up the stairs!).  Then we crossed a couple roads and ended up on the boardwalk.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  The warm breeze was salted by the ocean.  The water glittered as the sun it the waves.  Dogs and their humans were enjoying the beach (some were in the water too), and mom and I walked up the boardwalk, enjoying the sites.  We passed soooooo many dogs yesterday.  I saw grey hounds, great danes, other labs, yorkies, shitzus, a german shepherd pup, a standard poodle and a whole host of other dogs I didn’t recognize.  I am proud to say I did a much better job of walking past all these dogs than I usually do!  Mom had to help me stay focused on her with treats, but I did better!

And then, when we arrived at the Neptune Statue, what did my eyes behold?  My friends Whimsey, Thor, Adam and Marcus!  It was a wonderful sight and I couldn’t contain my joy!  I tried to lunge at Thor to play with him, and when that didn’t work I tried to get to all the other dogs.  But mom was a spoil sport, so were the other humans. They just wanted us to hang out.  So we practiced auto-settling and reclined in the shade as the breeze blew over us.  Every so often the humans would get bored of where they were sitting, so they’d drag us dogs with them.

After awhile we moved up to the benches by Starbucks.  There we had to sit super close to each other.    Two dogs (and their humans) to a bench, we got the floor, the humans got the benches.  (Just once I would like to see that reversed.  I think us dogs deserve to be up on benches too!)  Me and Whimsey were sitting side by side (practicing our settles and closes).  For the most part we did a great job, we stayed focused on our humans and ignored each other.  But after awhile, (it was about 1.5 hours by this point), I was tired of sitting and being good.  I just wanted to play, so I started barking.  A few times mom managed to distract me and I settled down again, but I was tired, and hot and thirsty (even though mom brought water for me).  So it was time to go home.  Thor’s human gave us a ride back to the house and I had a good long nap.

It was a perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon!

 

Mom had her camera, but sadly she forgot to check the battery before she left, so we didn’t get any pictures.

At class on monday we learned something new.  And I am such a good, excited puppy that Teacher Jodi used me to show everyone our new skill.  It’s called auto-settle.  And I won’t go into all the details, but basically the humans think it would be good if we figured out how to settle ourselves down by ourselves.  No command, just us smart puppies figuring out what we need to do on our own.

Initially I wasn’t super interested in this.  But then I figured out the calmer I got, the more food teacher Jodi gave me.  That is always a good thing.  Since then when friends of mom and dad come to the house, they show their friends how to “auto settle” me (although I do all the work, they just sit there) and then they take a turn trying me out.  There are two bonuses for me.  First, FOOD!  And second (and just as important if not more so), after I am all calm and relaxed, I get some good loving!  Pets, scratches, rubs, ATTENTION!    It’s pretty fabulous

So if you are a friend of mine through my blog, but haven’t met me, common over and I’ll show you my stuff.  If you’re super new to me, it may take a little bit, but I am SLOWLY figuring out how to be calm around new people so that they can love me (I’m a little overwhelming otherwise!)

 

I have been feeling a little off the past couple days.  Mom and dad are both pretty sure that my body is “changing”.  In fact mom sat down with me to have the chat.  She told me at some point every little girl pup finds that her body starts to change.  That I may feel like hormones are taking over my body, but that’s no reason to start barking at everyone.  She told me about birds and bees too, but I didn’t understand that part of the conversation.  Bees are not useful at all.  And birds are fun to chase, but otherwise I don’t understand how they relate to me.

Two days ago mom took me for a walk with her friend.  It was a l-o-n-g walk and really close to dinner time, so I having a lot of trouble staying focused.  So I was pulling …. alot.  But when we saw dogs on our walk, mom was pleased that I didn’t get as excited as usual.  I didn’t stay calm by any stretch of the imagination, but I didn’t pull mom over in my attempts to get to them either!  So that’s good.  I also peed on the walk twice.  And that’s a big no-no.  So two strikes against me there.

Yesterday mom was out of the house all day and I was beside myself.  I was restless all day.  I am pretty sure I drove dad nuts, because I was constantly getting into stuff.  In fact, I was so out of sorts that I went into my kennel and tore up my bed for no good reason.  What kind of sane puppy does that?  Well I really regretted it last night.  Mom and dad wouldn’t let me sleep in their room with them in the kennel because my nails make too much noise on the plastic.  So I had to sleep all alone in the study.  Do you know how lonely that is?  I like to listen to the gentle breathing (and sometimes not-so-gentle snoring) of mom and dad.  Dogs are pack, not solitary, animals.  And this is especially true for labs.  We labs like to be with the rest of our pack.  Its our favourite thing ever.  But last night I was alone, so I cried myself to sleep.

I am also finding myself very attracted to cave like atmospheres.  The best spot is under beds.  The are dark and cozy and safe.  Don’t know why I am so attracted to those places, but right now I am.  Maybe this is all precursors to this “heat” starting.  Maybe not, I don’t know.  But its been a couple crazy days.

 

Well actually I never really left, well not for long anyways.  The problem is that mom went out of town and when she left my inspiration did too.  Well sort of.  Mostly I was just very concerned with keeping my eyes on Dad.  Mom just up an disappeared on me and there was no way I was going to let that happen twice!  Especially not when Dad is the one who feeds me.  I know who pours my kibble for me!

But now mom is home and I’m home and dad home and all is right with the world again.  I am doing my best to stay on mom’s feet whenever they stop moving.  I figure if I stay cuddled on her as much as I can then she can’t disappear again.  This morning I was so excited that she was still here that I jumped up on the bed to say good morning.  They kicked me off pretty quick.  But i did a good job staying on my place after that!

In case you are curious:  I am 7.5 months and 57 lbs.  Mom said when Buffy was a year old she was only 62 lbs, so she is guessing that I will be around 80 lbs give or take.  Also apparently a lot of dogs in the region have gone into heat recently, so teacher Lynne said to watch me.  I don’t know what heat is, but I guess I’m going to find out!

For those of you who knew Buffy, her pups have grown up healthily and have gone through their first round of tests at GEB.  They are being placed in different homes around the country for puppy raising and rumour has it one of them will be in this area.

I just wanted to give you a quick update, and promise that my stories of my adventures will continue very soon.  I’m sure there will be all sorts of things to share.

Recently mom and dad have been teaching me something new.  I’m not sure exactly where this is leading yet, but it’ll be interesting to see.  They moved my crate back into their room.  The first few nights whoever put me to bed would just close the door too, not lock it.  I am usually so tired at night that I didn’t try to get out of bed once they put me in.  Unless my favourite parent had to get up to use the toilet, and then I would join him or her.  Then after a few nights of that, the door stayed wide open!  The only time it got locked is if I got out of bed to wake up my favourite parent before I was invited to leave my crate.  He or she would put me away without locking it the first time. If I escaped (to try my luck with the other one) they would lock me in.  For some reason neither parent likes being woken with my nose in their ear or tongue on their hand or cheek or whatever is hanging out from under the covers.    Today I figured out that they wouldn’t lock me up if I stayed put, so I stayed in my crate after mom put me back until dad invited me out.  I am interested to see where this develops to.  I thinking (hoping!) that maybe I will get to sleep in their room without any crate.  Truth be told, I willingly nap in my crate throughout the day.  I will walk in, open the door (if its fallen shut) and go in an curl up for a snooze.  So really, I am ok either way.  Mostly I’m just happy to be sleeping back in their room again!

You may notice that I referred to my favourite parent above.  Well mom and dad have had a running bet going to as to who was my favourite.  In their defense it was hard to tell before.  I would spend all day with dad and then was really excited to see mom when she got home from work.  So some might think that she was my favourite, but who can tell what’s a favourite and what is a novelty.  Well now mom is home full time.  And while Dad feeds me all my meals (almost), and is freqently the one to let me out to “get busy” during the day, he’s not my favourite.  He says I’m ungrateful.  But I can’t help it.  I like to be with mom all the time and now I can be.  So once she’s up in the morning (and early bird she is not by choice, unlike me and dad), I follow her, sleep on her feet and just bask in her presence.  My life is now complete.

Mom is making a concerted effort to take more photos with her camera and get better at photography and I am a somewhat willing participant.  I get excited when she crouches, so while she practices her photography I am also practicing my sit-stays and down-stays.  I thought I would share that I liked the most of the recent set of photos.

 

So recently Mom and a friend of hers have started running again.  (Mom was running with me and then she stopped because she’s not always as…. motivated as she would like to be when it comes to running).  So the three of us go running together.  Well after one time mom’s friend came into the house after the run to shower and change before she went to work.  I was very excited because I like mom’s friend.  So I was trying to hang out with her, but when she used her hair dryer I couldn’t contain myself.  I just started to bark and bark and bark.  So mom proceeded to herd me out of the room and into the hallway.  I don’t know what I did but all the sudden I hear this loud “thunk” and mom howled (honest she did!) and starts hopping on one foot and clutching her toes.   Her hopping and making noises made me excited.  She didn’t like that.

It turns out she either broke or badly sprained her toe.  It’s an interesting colour right now — kind of bluey purple.  Apparently it’ll turn green and yellow too.  She said its my fault, which makes me sad.  So I am doing my best to give it love taps — you know step on it, put my paw on her foot to brace a bone and then put pressure on her toe, sleep with my head on her foot, the injured one.  I also like to lick her feet while she’s trying to put tape around her toes.  I am not sure that she understands that I’m trying to tell her I’m sorry, in fact I don’t think she likes my “thinking of you” taps at all.  But I’ll just keep stepping on her foot to tell her I love her until she gets it!

The Virginia Beach Puppy Raising Region of GEB not only raises Black Labs like me, but also some super cool German Shepherds as well.  Mom and Dad disappeared to Canada for Christmas Vacation, so I got carted off to Cape Charles to spend some time on the the “peninsula” to hang out with Peyton and Talon for a week.  Talon is a 3 year old GSD who is not part of GEB other than to be a big brother to the GEB pups that come through his house.  Right now his little brother is Peyton, a 3 month old GSD with a lot of spunk.

Me and Peyton had a lot of fun playing together.  We tried to dig a hole to China, as Peyton’s mom said, but got tired before we got there.  There was a huge snow storm while I was at the Cape, so we ran and rumbled in the snow and got thoroughly soaked!    Then Peyton’s mom put me on a dog’s equivalent to a “salon” and used a blow dryer on me to dry me.  I stayed pretty still… for the most part…. maybe.  Me and Peyton loved playing with each other.  From the time we got up until we went to bed we played — when we weren’t in our respective crates that is.  And when we play we can get pretty noisy – both by using our voices, and by running so hard it sounds like Elephants are running down the hallways….. or a train.  Well Talon put up with us for awhile, but I guess the rambunctiousness of two puppies under 6 months got too much for him, because came over to us and in no uncertain terms told us to cool it.  I’m not going to lie, he scared both of us so much that we sat down side by side and didn’t even look at each other.  and we were quiet.  For a little bit anyways.

Then the snow disappeared and Mom and Dad came back and I had to go back home.  There’s no Peyton there.  So its not as much fun.  But do you know what?  Peyton came to visit me!!!  He stayed with me for almost 4 whole days!  It was wonderful.  We did our best imitations of a freight train as we lumbered up and down the house taking turns chasing each other.  And we wrestled.  And we played tug of war.  And we ran around some more.  And finally on day three we figured out how to sit.  In fact on day three mom and dad took us for a walk and we did a pretty good job of loose leash walking!  Though they cheated, they took us for a walk right after a huge running session in the house!  But on the walk mom used it as an excuse to take some photos of us, so I thought I would share them with you!

Here’s my playmate Peyton:

Here we are demonstrating our loose leash walking skills walking together with dad:

Looks can be deceiving, Peyton’s not having a nap in this photo, he’s just blinking.  Mom snapped the photo a just the right moment.

And finally…. in case you are curious to see a little closer the size difference between a 3 monthish GSD and a 6 month old black lab (who is 50lbs!), look at this:

It was great to have time with Peyton and I’m excited because now he’s in my class at puppy school so I’ll get to see even more of him!

 

It snowed….. do you think I like it?

And while I detest dressing up…. even I can get into the Christmas spirit!

Hey everyone

The photos from Charlottesville are up in my album   So head over and take a peak!