Random Pictures

All taken today, mostly out of boredom. Especially the ones with Rumor.

Zen and I went on a short walk through the woods. I could hear loud music coming from the school and wanted to check it out. Turns out it was just the soccer team practicing and we couldn't get anywhere near the field so we walked back. I snapped these pictures in front of my house before we came back inside. He's waving to you! Well, in one of them he's waving with both paws, but still. The collar pictures are the new collars I ordered for everyone. I didn't block out my phone number because it's on my website anyway, so I figured if you wanted it, you would already have it.















Carrie's collar, girlie skulls.


Rumor's collar. The company calls those "pink monsters" I call them cuddle bugs :)


Zen's collar

Happy Hounds Trial Video

Of Zen anyway. One day I will get all of our agility runs up!

Road Closed!

After class today I took the dogs out to Wright Patman Lake to run. I usually walk in one specific spot but today I decided to try the other side of the road. Both areas have "Road Closed" signs, but are open to foot traffic. At least, I've never been told otherwise. I wanted to walk all the way down to where the water covered the road. I think it ended up being about a 3 mile walk total. It took us 2 hours, but that's with me stopping to catch things with the camera. Plus throwing the ball every now and then. I got some really good shots today.


Zen


Shot of the day. It's Rumor. Check out her reflection in the water!


Carrie




He just loves Rumor. Should I be scared or happy?




Carrie








Puppy Butt!


"I like to go fast!"

They had such a good time! It really made up for me skipping our walk this morning. I'm going to bed earlier tonight so I can get up in time tomorrow.

If you want to see the pictures a little larger you should be able to click on them. The right side of the picture gets cut off a bit when posted on this blog. I wish I knew how to fix it, but alas, put that index finger to work and just click them.

Herding!

I got a text from Debbie H. asking if we wanted to go herding this weekend. YES YES YES! There hasn't been an opportunity to go since I got Zen, and I have been dying to see what he would do. I also wanted to get Rumor back out and work some more with her. Debbie's place is SO much closer than Linda's. Linda is about 3 hrs one way and Debbie is about 1.5 hrs one way.

Both dogs did well, I thought. Rumor seemed to be a little more confident this time than she has in the past. She still dives in and splits the sheep when she gets overly stressed, but Debbie said don't correct her. She isn't biting, or being aggressive, just stressed. We want to build some confidence in her, not shut her down. Let it be said that Debbie's pen is a lot larger than the one at Linda's. I do not know what "walk backwards in a straight line" means, and I also can't walk and carry a stick and encourage my dog all at once. This is going to take a while to come together.

Zen was funny. At first he barked. Ever since I have had him, if he isn't sure of a situation he raises his hackles. The first minute or so he had his hackles up and was barking and chasing the sheep. Then he realized, "Oh, I'm supposed to do this!" and was a little quieter and the hackles went down. The second time out there he knew what to do and went right to chasing them. I'm not too sure what to look for in a puppy, other than the instinct to chase. Debbie said she saw a lot of gather instinct in him. I did notice that he isn't afraid to go to the heads, or at least try to.

Here are the videos. I figure country music is appropriate for herding.


Rumor



Zen!

Mr. Poopy Pants Stacked

Taken today. I think he is right between 14 and 15 weeks. He was 3 months (13 weeks) on the 9th of this month. Im bad about counting the weeks, since he was born in a month with 5 of them :)





There was a minor incident involving my finger being mistaken for a treat. He got me right on the cuticle, and it was a blood bath. The line on his back is from his harness.

Hello, stress!

Oh. My. Gosh. I have been so busy lately. I truly hate this time of year. I don't much care for the holidays, then all of the first of the year stuff is stressful, add to it my grandfather's death, family obligations, car trouble, college, and a puppy. Wow. I just feel like I need a breather.

So you guys had to hear me rant for a bit before talking about Zen.

Zen has had diarrhea since Sunday afternoon. I wasn't worried at first, but then when I withheld food Sunday evening, and again Monday morning and he was STILL pooping, I started to worry. I really wanted Harley to take him to the vet for me Monday, but he said he thought it would be best to wait and let Zen's stomach settle some more and then take him Tuesday if necessary. I was giving him Imodium and kaolin-pectin that is supposed to help with diarrhea. Well he threw up in the car and so I thought, great, it could be an obstruction. I went ahead and fed him dinner, as he was still drinking and acting completely normal. He ate fine, played with the girls for 30 or so minutes and then went with us on a half-mile walk. He had a little more diarrhea after dinner, but it was looking better than it had been. This morning he ate fine, no more throwing up, but he did have some diarrhea. I took him in to the vet and they did two fecals because they could not find anything wrong. Dr Old listened to his bowels and felt his tummy and said since he is still eating he doesn't think there is an obstruction, but to bring him in ASAP if he refuses food. He sent me home with wormer and flagyl to rule out giardia.

I started Zen on some digestive enzymes to see if that helps. Maybe he just has a sensitive tummy.

I also scheduled Carrie an appointment for this Thursday. She has another lump on her stomach, that doesn't feel good. She had mammary cancer removed once before from a similar location, so I'm pretty worried about how that will turn out. Poor girl, she has the worst luck with health issues. I also really hate having to put her under, but I bet they are going to want to remove and biopsy this lump.

I had some issues with my classes this morning, since they didn't want me to pay the day I registered, they knocked me out of my classes and I had to re-register this morning. It's all fixed now, but I didn't get to go to my first day of classes because of it.

Here is the latest video. Zen figured out how to jump on the bed last night! Sorry I didn't feel like editing my voice out, as well as all the barking.



Does that look like a sick puppy to you? This is what he was acting like last night and this morning. Happy as can be. Also, he gained 1.8 lbs in a week!!! It had only been a week since his last vet visit and he really gained 1.8 lbs.

Be Back Soon!

Leaving for an agility trial tomorrow. Be back Sunday evening. Will try to get new video/pictures while we are gone!

Spoons

Not much exciting going on today. Zen worked on his "place" behavior for both breakfast and dinner. He got to go to Dustin and Mollie's house again and hang out. I think the only thing new that we did was go through the pharmacy drive-thru. Zen wasn't paying any attention until the lady slipped a milkbone into the drop box. He liked that.

His ears are almost totally up now. Just the tips are bent over a little. In his ears' defense, they really can't stand up yet because they are SO big! It's adorable, Zen and his satellite ears.

Zen and I played with a spoon today. It's a tip from an obedience friend. She puts peanut butter on a spoon and lets the dog lick it off. The idea is to get him used to having metal in his mouth. Some dogs don't like to retrieve the metal article in obedience, and this is an easy way to get them accustomed to the feel of metal. Well, I didn't bait our spoon with peanut butter. I had eaten oatmeal with it earlier, but Zen was keen to play with whatever I offered. Don't know if we will ever compete to that level in obedience, but as I say a lot... "It's one more thing he has experienced."

He's Hefty!

lol Not really. I still pick him up a lot, but he weighs 20lbs now! He got his shots finally! He had NO problem getting them and really, I don't think he even noticed. After his shots he spent 3 hours in my car while I registered for college. The line was insane and their computers were down. So much for going in to work yesterday. I had to call in because after two hours waiting in line I didn't see being able to go in and make it worthwhile. I did get my class that I wanted, with the teacher I wanted, so persistence payed off. I also got my car out of the shop. Yesterday turned out to be a good day.

Zen went to PetSmart again and got to go to the Kennel Club meeting. At the meeting he was SO good. He met an Old English Sheepdog, a collie, and an aussie pup thats a bit older than he is. He was awesome, and he greeted them all appropriately, but didn't bother any of them. He spent most of the meeting laying in front of me while I played "It's yer choice" with him. It was pretty short, as meetings go, only about 40 minutes, but I was proud of my pupper.

3 Month Birthday!

Zen turned 3 months on Saturday. He went to PetSmart with Deidra and me.

I house sat for Mike and Brenda this weekend. Me and the dogs stayed over there from Thursday night until today. We had to watch Marlee and Java since Mike and Brenda went to Glen Rose and only took their two boy dogs. Since Mike and Brenda live so close to the lake we did a couple of two mile hikes out there. We also tossed the ball out at the model airplane strip.

I only did one real shaping session while house sitting, but Zen got to play with his toys and worked on waiting until released to tug. I got this on video so it will be up later.

Here are the pics!




Playing with Marlee




"oof"


He hasn't quite figured out that the ball is the toy, not the chuck-it.




Rumor's feet were wrapped because she ripped her stop pads the day before when fetching on gravel.


Carrie and Zen wresting.

Back Home

We got in late last night. Well, not late, but by the time everything was unpacked and the dogs were fed it was bed time.

The funeral service was nice and I enjoyed the time we got to spend with our family. I always enjoy my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. Bryan and Destiny have a 7month old baby boy and he is adorable. The dogs were all relatively good. There were so many people in and out that the big dogs spent a lot of time in the crates. They got a couple of good sessions of fetch in the backyard though. Savannah (my 3rd cousin?) is 7 and she LOVES dogs. She wanted to play with them every moment she was there. It was pretty cute. Lots of good socialization for the puppy as she was loud and rambunctious. I will have video later.

Zen got to hit the dog park twice. He was so good. He stuck by me a lot, he has great eye contact and attention. It wasn't very crowded either time we went, and most of the dogs were polite. I think we only saw two dogs who didn't have very good manners and both of their owners had them on leash. He still doesn't like when big dogs approach him, they intimidate him a bit. He doesn't freak out or run away, but it takes him a moment to be completely confident around them.

Now for pictures.

First dog park trip

He liked her. She looks a bit like Terra.

Eating an ice cube at my granddad's house.

"Please, can I come in?" I liked the effect of taking the picture through the back door glass.

Rumor wants in too.

Yum, tail.

This is a picture from an old photo album. It's my uncle, I just loved the facial expression.

Puppy is tired.

Breakfast from the bob-a-lot.

2nd dog park trip



I'm lookin' at you!

"Me no like!" He just jumped right in and then had to swim back. He did not like it.



"Stop rolling it into the water silly lady!"

Leaving.

I'm leaving for Houston in a couple of hours. I might be back tomorrow evening, but more likely it will be Tuesday. I won't be updating while I'm gone, but I will try to take some pictures and video to post when I get back.

Recap.

I'm getting behind. A lot has happened over this weekend and I'm really feeling scattered with my thoughts etc. It just feels like everything is moving so fast and slow all at once.

Yesterday I took the dogs to run, then we came home and Harley took pictures of Zen stacked. Finally. I have been wanting to do weekly shots, but time/camera help is short.

After the stacked shots the dogs took turns on the springpole. I made mac and cheese to take to a small dinner get together. Zen came along. It was at Mollie and Dustin's house. They had about 7 or 8 people over and Zen just mingled around with everyone and the other dogs. After that, the guys wanted to go play with the remote control cars. We rode to the college where Zen played fetch and tug with me and also with Will. He chased Dustin's car a bit and gave everyone a good laugh. Then he got to nap in the car while we all went bowling.


Today Zen went to PetSmart. It was adoption day, so there were a ton of people and dogs. He met a couple other puppies and saw plenty of other dogs. He loved on a few kids and really just walked around and got treats. I did make him do a few sits and downs. His sits are lovely. His downs still need work. He isn't catching onto verbal commands like I had hoped. Maybe I'm just not working it hard enough.

He slept in the car while I ate with Jenn, Terry, Deidra, and Luke. Afterwards Jenn needed dog food, so she and I went to Tractor Supply. Zen came in and it was his first time that he walked on his own in there instead of riding in the shopping cart. He was really good. Then I went to Jenn's house and he met 4 shelties and 2 collies. He played with Luke, although he was a little rough. He wasn't meaning to be, but he doesn't understand that toddlers are short because they can't help it, not because it gives puppies easy access to the face. Luke did not like playing tug with the puppy. Luke should own all toys, not Zen. Zen got the zoomies and was really a little wild over there. He is getting more and more energy as the days go by.

Tonight I wanted to work his little brain to exhaustion. He worked on going into the crate on command and laying down until released. I ordered the crate games DVD by Susan Garrett, so I'm hoping to get that next week. I hope it has some good self control games and stuff to work on. He also play "It's yer choice" again, which is basically a "leave it" type game. Then we worked on eye contact. I was holding a treat in my hand and out to my side and would click him for giving eye contact instead of staring at the hand with the treat.

He's sleeping now, so I think all the training worked. I want to get started on massages and having him relax for them. I was never very successful at that with Rumor or Carrie. They will both relax and do it, but it was a long road, and they don't do it in a distracting environment. Maybe if I start with a puppy we can accomplish a little bit more.

Oh, we walked a mile tonight before dinner and all three dogs got their nails dremeled.

My grandfather passed away on Jan 1, so I will be headed to Houston very soon for the funeral. The dogs will be going with me to Houston. It's one more opportunity for Zen to meet more people. While I'm there I may seek out a dog park for Zen to go to. My other two aren't "dog park material", but I think it could be a good experience for Zen.

I think I covered everything, so I will leave you with a picture taken yesterday.

He has such a cute butt.

It's late!

Zen had a big day today, but I'm ready for bed. I will leave you all with a stacked photo, taken today. I will write about his day later. I'm sure Sara Jo is interested to see a current stacked pic.