Living The Summer

"You hang up first....no you....no you hang up f..i..r..s...zzzzzzz"

It's a pretty good life for the puppers (and me too!). 

A day in the life of Tibby and Ellie: 

get up early around 6am to potty and a quick game of fetch (Ellie)

Go back to bed for snuggles and get up for real around 9 (or 10.... :)

Play with the flirt pole/whip toy (see below) until Ellie's tongue is hanging all the way out

Tibby and Ellie play chase games and wrestle until Tibby's tongue is hanging all the way out

Go inside to rest up for 1/2 hour

Go outside for more playing

Inside to rest up

Outside for playing

Inside to rest up

Outside playing

Eating time

More playing outside

Play in sprinkler to cool down

Inside to rest up

Outside to play

Inside to rest

Outside to play - getting dark now....more fetching games and less chasing games.

Inside to escape mosquitoes

Last time outside to potty and play a quick game/pick up 5,000 toys from the yard and put sprinkler away

Sleeping time - very quiet in the house....just little snores from 2 tired doggies

And then just a quick little video showing Ellie's nice crate manners.  She's really, really improved a lot!  She's a smart puppy and she wants to be good/do the right thing SO bad.  She is really improving on her self control.  In the whip video you can see how she is able to wait and hold a sit (most of the time!) while I re-tie the toy on to the end of the whip.  A few weeks ago she would have just kept jumping at me.  Trust me....I have the scratches to prove it!  She has the sharpest claws I have ever seen on a dog.  I keep trimming them and they are STILL sharp, but in the last few days she hasn't scratched me once.  OR bitten me.  Before she would be so excited to get the toy that she would bite me as well as the toy.  Now she sometimes still gets my skin/fingers/arm, but she doesn't bite down as hard.  And she's stopped bite kissing me.  She use to run at me full speed, jump up, nip and lick me.  Ow.

She did that to my nose one time.  I thought that I might have a pierced nose.  :P

Prey Drive?

Tibby caught a vole on our walk tonight.  She was grabbing it and throwing it up in the air.  Poor thing kept squeaking, even when it was in her mouth.  As soon as I could, I squashed it and kicked it off of the road.  I can't help myself!  If I see a vole or mouse I have to squash it - even if I have flip flops on.  Anyway, I didn't want Tibby to kill it or eat it!!, she might get sick.  I think that's the 5th vole/mouse I have squashed.  It's a quick death at least.

Now Tibby has to check every mail box planting for voles.  Ever the optimist. 

Oh, yeah -  YES Tibby has prey drive!!  And she is very quiet about it too.  Focused.  Hmmm,  anyone want to make us a vole tug?

Practice Being Annoying

I thought Tibby did great today and I needed to show it off. The first part of the video isn't all that interesting, but the second half when we are practicing wraps is fun. I'm being annoying to Tibby to get her to really want her toy. She is so funny - she acts like she REALLY wants the toy, but when she gets it then all she wants is a treat. Funny dog.

Dancing On the Table

Someone once asked me, "Do you ever say 'no' to Tibby?!?"  Not really.  I've had scared dogs before and I wanted Tibby to be very brave, unafraid and willing to try anything.  I try to redirect her if she is being especially obnoxious to Catty or the bunnies.  If she were in danger I would swoop in - very helicopter mamma, but yelling 'NO!' wouldn't help very much.  She figures things out for herself pretty quickly.  For example, she doesn't push on the gate in the dining room any more, because it will fall over on her and she doesn't like that.  Now she gives it a wide berth.

So last night Tibby jumped up on a dining room chair for the first time.  I didn't reward her, but I took a picture.  Then things got crazy.....

"Hmmm, I was down there and now I'm up here."

"This is where the food is right?  So food me already!"

"Dancing! Dancing on the table!"

Hmmm, I think we'll need to work on this.  Tables are not for dancing dogs.

In other funny Tibby news:  Last night I took Tibby for a walk in the pouring rain.  I had just come home from work, it was about 11:30pm and I was still wearing light blue scrubs.  I took an empty bread bag to use as a poop bag.  After the bag was filled all Tibby could think was, "Bread!  Bread!  Give me some bread!"  She jumped up on me with her dirty paws - "Ah my scrubs!"  Even after I showed her that it was just poop (her's!) she was still convinced that it was bread.  She gave me some nice heeling and loose leash walking -LOL!  But I didn't reward her with the 'bread'. 

We also found a huge toad on our walk.  TT's are supposed to have a low prey drive?  Yeah right.  She tried to eat the toad.  It was in her mouth!  She also tries to eat every squirrel and bird we see on our walks.  And Catty?  Well, she's just a snack that fights back.