Have A Ball

After the race last Sat. we went to my Mom's house for breakfast.  Dhali found this fun ball to play with.  It makes a funny sound.  I bought it for Tibby a long, long time ago and we left it at my Mom's house.

Dhali's pretty good at playing fetch now.  He thinks it is a fun game to play when he's bored and there isn't anything to do.

He likes this big chair.  Tibby likes this chair too, so it will be interesting to see what happens when they are there at the same time.

Looks like he has a crown - Prince Dhali!

Now You Owe Me....

Mandatory cute puppy pictures!

Now on to the real story.  Dhali is going through a HUGE GINORMOUS EXTREME chewing phase.  He has chewed up so, so, so many toys.  A mountain of toys.  The toy box is getting emptied.  I would not be able to fit all the destroyed toys into one picture.  Right now he is really into squeaky plastic/rubber toys.  He ate the feet off of a bad cuz.  I did not know that it was possible to kill a cuz with too much squeaking.  He haz killed a cuz.  2 hollee rollers, pear ball, ice cream squeaky, green pepper squeaky, 2 wooly dog tugs, green frog's eyes, big blue and orange ball, orange 8 tug, sheep skin tug (expensive piece of junk, ripped apart when we were tugging), his bear baby blanket and more.

However the most expensive thing he has destroyed!!!

This Chris Christensen wooden pin brush. Thirty-five dollars.  $35.  Yes, for a dog brush.  Yes, for a dog brush made out of WOOD.  It works worked so well and I loved it.  Now I have to buy a new one. 

In other news, I have been doing some thinking since last week's puppy class.  Thanks for all the great encouraging comments!  I really appreciated it!  I'm not going to give up.  I realized that I had been lazy with Dhali's training for a few weeks.  I have a hard time choosing what I want to teach him.  There seem to be SO many things that I want him to learn, that I just end up not doing anything, because I can't decided on what we should start with.  I decided to make a dry erase chart with some things I want him to learn.  There are 1000 other things I would like to add to the list, but we have to start somewhere.  It also keeps me honest with how much we have actually trained.  Some times I think we have done so much training, but really we haven't.  Now I have a check list!  

My goal isn't to work on every single thing every single day.  But now I know what we have worked on and when we have worked on it.  We are still doing lots of playing and running around and other tricks.  But now Dhali is back to working for his dinner and I hope we can work on his ADD-ness.  Just a stage, but seriously little guy!  The puppy that wanted to work for an hour, now can only do 3 seconds, before he is running off to do something else.  He can't even concentrate on a kong stuffed with Primal Raw nuggets for more than 30 seconds, before he's off annoying the cat, wanting to go outside or tearing apart another toy.

He still is a little sweet heart though.  He will slow down long enough for a belly rub and petting.  He likes to follow me into the bathroom in the morning and sleep snuggled up next to the shower, while I get ready for work.

Cute little bugger.

I printed out a chart from Word and ran it through the $16 laminater (word? machine for lamination) that I bought on Amazon.

Snowballs

The pups day - in and out into the snow and then they took breaks to melt their snowballs onto the floor.  Thank goodness for heated floors - I'm sure that's what the dogs were thinking LOL!

My floors are now very clean!  And I have lots of wet towels to wash.

Dhali was really busy today.  Cabin fever?  He unrolled the toilet paper not once, but twice!  He's only done this once before when he was a little baby and my Mom was watching him.  I realized today that he doesn't really care if I get after him - uh oh!  He's like, "What?!?  Did you want to unroll it too?  Let's play!"  He also chewed up one of my shoes!  Sad, because I liked those shoes and they were only a couple months old.  Also sad because I didn't think he would chew up my shoes!

Good reminder that he is still a little baby puppy :)

Little Red Ball

This was the first time Dhali ever squeaked this little ball. Then he wouldn't stop!

Dhali vs. the Treat Ball

Bumble Ball Video

I'm not sure if the Bumble ball was a hit, but it was funny! I like the way he slaps his paws on the deck - so cute!

Keep Busy

It's really, really hot here.  Keeping Tibby occupied when it's hot outside is easy - keep the AC on and the couch nice and comfy.  Keeping Ellie busy in the heat is another thing.  She has a lot of energy.  It's too hot for her to spend more than 5-10 mins outside - she runs full speed the entire time when she is outside.  When I make her come inside she is panting so hard that her crate shakes. 

So how do I keep her happy?  Well, in the morning when it's cooler I take her breakfast outside and make a trail in the grass.  I keep the trail in the shadiest area, so she doesn't overheat - even in the morning it's HOT!  This keeps her busy sniffing out each and every tiny kibble, but she isn't running around crazy, so she can stay outside longer.

When it's time to come back inside (and go back into the crate), I give her a big fat bully stick and fill the Busy Dog Ball with little pieces of dried beef.  She works and works for HOURS to get the treats out of the Busy Dog Ball.  When she is exhausted from smacking the ball around her crate, she settles down to chew on the bully stick or (maybe) take a nap. 

She gets quite the work out from the Busy Dog Ball!  She will be panting after a while and it tires her out.  It works her brain and her body. 

Before this I wasn't too impressed with the Busy Ball, because it doesn't come apart for cleaning and it seemed to be VERY easy for Tibby to get the treats out of it.  You can't adjust the difficulty level - for the treats to fall out - and Tibby is an expert at getting treats out of treat balls.  However, it does come with a money back guarantee if the ball ever breaks due to a dog playing with it.  Good thing!  Because Ellie isn't exactly gentle with the toys! 

It seems to be hard enough for Ellie.  She's in her crate which makes it harder to get the treats out and she likes to play with it - ALL the time. 

So far I have let her have all different types of toys and she loves them all AND she will tug with ANYTHING.  ANYTHING.  Hard toys, soft toys, things that are not toys.  Her favorite right now is a soft bumper toy, but she is happy to switch to a different toy.  When she goes outside she plays with ALL the toys.  First with one, then another, back to the first one, then to a new one.....

   She also has a lot of prey drive.  She will chase dandelion fuzz and balls of her own fur across the yard.  Anything that moves - she wants it.

And she's back to playing with the Busy Ball......I'll let you imagine what it sounds like, plastic vs. metal and a determined border collie!

Fighting With Friends

Ruff and tumble play = ruff and tumble hair cut. 

Ellie went all border collie stalky on Zoe here.

"Look at my feet!"  How to judge fun - amount of dirt on dog's legs. 

Ready....Set....

GO!!

Zoe, "Tiny legs don't fail me now!"

Tibby, "Run shorty!  Run!"

Someone adopt this awesome dog!  She's great!  Very sweet, very smart - loves to be with people! 

Minnesota Border Collie Rescue

Ellie Almost Dock Diving!

Ellie fetching at the lake!  She had a lot of fun, even with the big waves. 

Tibby was not involved in this AT ALL - she doesn't DO unfiltered water LOL!!

Bark In the Park

We survived Bark In the Park!

I didn't get to pass out my fliers with Ellie's info.  Everyone that stopped to pet her said they had enough dogs.  But I tried!  They were both good.  Considering the situation - tons of people, tons of dogs, outside, noisy, food every where. 

My Dad with Ellie.  She how cute she is in her vest?

Tibby sees a dog going down stairs.

The girls.  I think it's funny they looked a little bit like that elderly couple in front of us.

This is when we were waiting for the dog parade.  The Bark In the Park was hosted by the local humane society.  They had a lot of adoptable dogs there.  They were jealous of Ellie's cute vest!  You can see the ones that they made for the adoptable dogs - upper left corner.  They are green vinyl adult bibs with "Adopt Me, Please" written in magic marker.  Some of the Humane Society volunteers asked about Ellie's vest and I told them how to make one.  They are going to make some for a parade on Sat.

Ellie!

While we were waiting I taught her a new trick.  "Jump"  She can jump straight up in the air now on cue - about 5 feet up.  I have to get it on video.

While we were waiting Ellie decided that this was the perfect time to try playing with Tibby.  Tibby was not pleased.  I had to separate them a few times.  It's hard for me to tell what is playing and what is going toward fighting.

Ellie is so relaxed in this very stressful environment.  Nothing scares her.

Zoe and her Mom.  They are now an official Hospice therapy team!

At the end of the doggie parade.  SO MANY DOGS.  Wow.  If I wasn't trying to get Ellie adopted I would have never done that.  It was "slightly" difficult to navigate 2 dogs through that crowd, but we managed.

Full stadium of people and dogs.

"I'm cute and friendly!  Adopt me!"

"Wa' baseball?"

She liked to rest down underneath the seat.

Tibby sat on my lap.  She didn't want to play with Ellie.

Tibby is huggable!

Ellie and Zoe say "hey".

They had little events on the field between innings with different dogs.

Zoe and her Mom.

Zoe's Mom had a squeaky toy for Zoe and Ellie was OBSESSED with stealing it.

She is also very good at finding ANY dropped food.

Relaxing.

Tibby!

"I like baseball!  Balls!"

She's resting her little feet on the seat in front of us.

Watching the game

"Is that an old M&M?  Food!"

"Don't forget I'm cute too!"

Ellie watched the people behind us for the longest time.  She was very interested in the little boy sitting a few seats behind us.  She likes kids a lot!

Now I have 2 very tired dogs.  After we walked home I let the girls run their stress out in the backyard.  Zoom!  They had a nice long game of chase.  Ellie also played some fetch. 

Now unfortunately she is in a covered crate.  I gave her a treat of a frozen turkey neck and she had an issue of growling/snapping at Tibby.  Tibby was just walking by Ellie's crate - she doesn't like turkey necks.  I covered the crate and she stopped, so I hope that will be OK.