Eat Snow

"Weeeeeeeeeee!"

"Can't catch me!"

"But I can....

....catch YOU!"

Tibby: "Eat snow, little puppy face!"

Dhali: "Mghrdhkl!"

Tibby: "Eat some more snow!  Here have a pawful in the FACE!"

Dhali : "I eated snow."

Dhali 6 Months Agility

Look at what Dhali can do!  He's six months old and so much fun!

Please ignore my bad handling with the tunnels :)  Poor Dhali!

Cabin Fever Is Here Again

Now I remember why I remodeled the basement - winter is nasty.  It's dark, all the time.  It's wet, all the time.  It's cold and wet and dark.  I would like to see the sun again!  It's dark when I go to work and dark when I get home and then it gets darker.  It has rained/drizzled for days and days.  I can't remember how long!  That's a long time.  

So it was good to get out of the house tonight with Dhali and go shopping at Runnings again.  We just wandered around and eventually bought some puppy food which conveniently was both on sale and something I needed to get.  Dhali was good, which I sort of just expect from him now.  He got to meet some people, a man and woman that asked to pet him.  He was soooo good.  He sits right down and snuggles up to them and then he wanted them to rub his belly.  He thought the man's cowboy boots smelled really, really good.  LOL!  The check out girl remembered him from one of his first visits when he was a puppy.  They are pretty nice to us there :)  Some of the customers are surprised to see a dog in the store - I had one weird reaction from a woman when Dhali was a tiny baby and I was carrying him, but the store employees are all pretty relaxed about seeing us in the store.

It was nice to be able to walk around in the light and not be rained on.  I am starting to feel like I live in a dark shoe box with two furry WWF fighters.  Bitey games are fun, but not when they go on for hours.  If you have somewhere to take your dog weekly and train - well you are lucky!   It's going to be a long winter of cabin fever for us.

In Runnings we did some 'look at that' Control Unleashed sort of stuff.  I don't really understand the whole game, but Dhali was looking at weird stuff and then I would say, 'yes!' and give him a treat.  Then he was offering looking at weird stuff (tractor parts, chicken feeders, hoses, other farm stuff that I don't recognize) to get his treat, so I think he is starting to understand the game.  We've worked on the beginning steps at home, which are sort of boring and Dhali gets too into it and wants to run at the object or do something like hit it with his paw. 

I made the mistake of wandering into the brush department.  Dhali LOVES brushes, brooms, sweepers, anything with bristles.  He was trying to pick out his favorite one and then he found one he liked and tried to carry it away!  I would have bought it, but it was almost $20 and he has a ton of toys already.  I would like to find a cheaper one, that he likes, to use as a playtime/training toy.  Also, a smaller one would be good too :P

One thing that is good about the rain and mud - Dhali has learned to wait.  I taught him the same way I taught Tibby (and she has a pretty good wait).  After he gets his paws washed off in the bathtub I let him jump out and then I dry him off.  Then he has to wait while I open the door, shut off the light, walk out of the door and walk around the corner.  Then I come back and release him with 'okay'.  He runs out of the bathroom like a shot!  Very cute.  We worked up to all those steps - he gets his feet washed a lot, so lots of practice!  The next step is to lengthen the time I'm out of sight and then I come back and leave and come back and leave - 'ya know proofing stuff.  He's generalized this to other things too - like waiting while Catty drinks her milk snack and then getting released to clean up after her.  

I was drying his feet tonight after a wash off and a tooth popped out of his mouth!  It was a big side tooth.  It just shot right out on to the floor!  His canines are still all there and I wish they would fall out already!  They look so weird.  He doesn't seem to be bothered by his teeth at all - chews bully sticks, bites on Tibby and tugs the same.  I try to be careful when we are playing that the toy doesn't get caught on his teeth.  I don't want him to stop tugging or associate pain with tugging!  

Happy Rad Tech week!  I celebrated with my co-workers today and we had a potluck.  I brought Cha Siu Bao - Chinese barbecued pork.  It cooked slowly all last night and the puppies thought they needed to check on it multiple times during the night.  I swear, Dhali woke me up and I let him out of the bedroom and he ran directly to the oven and stared at it.  I also made the regular recipe for the buns, but I pretzel-ized them.  OMG!  I love pretzel buns now and they are so easy to make!

This time next month we will be getting ready for Dhali's first real dog show!  Very exciting!  If you are in St. Cloud Dec. 8th or 9th come and visit us!    

Dhali the Acrobat

No pictures of yesterday's adventure.  Of course, the one time I don't take my camera Dhali does something amazing. 

I left work early and took the dogs for a hike.  Note to self: End of Oct., while beautiful, is not a good time to go hiking.  Tick-splosion.  Yuk.  I picked a ton off of Tibby and a ton went down the drain when I gave Tibby and Dhali a bath.  I only found one crawling through Dhali's fur pre-bath, but I think some of his probably went down the drain.

It was still a nice hike.  We had the whole place to ourselves.  So we hiked a long way, because I wanted to get to the lake.  Tibby doesn't like water, but Dhali does!  We finally got to the lake and went down to the shore.  The lake was beautiful - completely still and glassy.  Dhali had fun ripping up and down the sand beach, jumping in and out of the water.  It was cold, but he still went wading up to his belly.  Tibby was willing to walk on the beach - which is a big difference.  She even had her tail up.

There is a branch that hangs out over the beach and over the water.  It was about 4 feet off of the sand.  I had to jump up a little to sit on it.  And it wiggled up and down when I sat on it and my fingers met when I wrapped my hands around it to measure it.  Anyway, there is a point to this story......

So, I'm sitting there watching Dhali run around.  Dhali sees me sitting there and comes running full speed, jumps up and lands perfectly on the branch.  He stands there looking around, walks up and down the narrow branch and then sits down and looks around and then jumps down and tears around the beach again.  OMG!  How did he do that?!  He is really not afraid of anything. 

Then he was running around in and out of a marshy area and instead of running underneath a big root sticking into the water.  He jumps right over it - like 4 feet high again!    

Water and sand really get him revved up.  He was a crazy puppy all the way back to the car.  Tibby did not appreciate his craziness, because it ends up with him trying to wrestle her and their leashes get all wrapped up.  Also, he bites her feet.  Stinker.

So they got baths and brushed and were beautiful.  Then Dhali went outside and came back in covered in stickers and mud.  Where does he keep finding these stickers!?!?!  Argh!

I noticed this morning that he is taller than my knee when he sits next to me.  He's getting so big! 

Come To Order

"The Meeting of the Bully Stick League will now come to order!"

Meeting business: Chew bully sticks.  Aaaand go!

Another successful meeting of the Bully Stick League.

Although they only last about 5 seconds before one of them tries to steal the other's stick and then it is game on!  Much chasing, barking (Dhali), growling (Dhali), squealing (Tibby!)  and paw pushing/smacking (Tibby).

What Makes Them Want?

This is a little video of Dhali and Tibby 'training'.  Dhali just playing and throwing in a tunnel or jump wrap.

Tibby?  Still trying to find out what makes her tick.  A couple days ago I was playing with Dhali out in the yard and Tibby acted like she wanted to play too, so I sent her to a jump and she ran over, wrapped it and ran back to me.  I was about 20 feet away and very surprised that she #1 knew how to do that and #2 WOULD do that.   So I tried a tunnel and directed her to different ends of the tunnel and different sides of the jump to wrap.  All without me moving at all.  She likes that.

Strange dog, huh!?  She doesn't want me to move OR to touch her.  A couple times in the video I'll reach down to pet her and she's like, "Eww!  Keep your hands to yourself!"

So I wanted to see if it was just a one time thing that she felt like doing the other day and we tried it again last night.  First I got Dhali out and played with him and when Tibby started to bark and act like she wanted to play too I got her out.  And she did it again!  Not quite as well as she did the other night, but still I was impressed that she wanted to do ANYTHING at all.  It's been a long, long time since she acted interested in anything agility related.

So what can I do now?  At least I know that she #1 knows how to do agility - wrap jumps, send, take directional directions (?), ect.  (So I guess I'm not THAT bad of a trainer LOL!)  #2 she has at least a tiny desire to do agility.  Now I try to build on that tiny desire without smothering it.
This is going to be interesting.  I wonder if I just stood in the middle of the yard and directed her to do stuff.....how would that go?  Guess I'll just have to find out!

In other news - Dhali is loosing his teeth!  And he hasn't lost his love of tugging!  Yay!  Or biting me in the leg, arm, butt.... I now have exactly ONE pair of pants without Dhali bites in them.  ONE.  And I have a lot of pants.  He reminds me of an aussie.  Jump, jump, jump!

Parvo and a Fall Walk

Yesterday, I took Dhali to the vet for his Parvo vaccine.  It was a little bit scary walking into the office, because there were big red signs everywhere saying, "If your puppy is under 5 months old, please DO NOT let them walk on the grass.  Please carry your puppy into the office.   DO NOT set them down.  We have a SEVERE outbreak of Parvo virus in this area."  and "If you dog has vomiting, diarrhea or lethargy please DO NOT bring them into the office.  Leave them in your vehicle and come into the office to talk to the vet." 

So we went in and had to wait again - 45 mins.  Even though we were right on time!  I hate waiting there, but Dhali didn't seem to mind laying against my chest and resting.  He had been up since 6am running and playing, so he was ready for a little nap.

Someone waiting with their black GSD thought he was a full grown dog...again.  Not sure why everyone thought/thinks Tibby is a baby puppy, but at 8 weeks people thought Dhali was an adult???  He looks like a puppy to me!

Had an exam and he did great showing his teeth (we have been working on that), but flipped out about having his ears looked at.  Although, after he had his little fit he relaxed and let the vet look in his ears with out a peep or movement.  He has some big teeth coming in and has lost a bunch of baby teeth.  Mostly in the front.  This morning I noticed that he'd lost a couple more, so now he doesn't have any little teeth on the bottom!  Looks very cute :)

Vaccine was not an issue at all, I don't think he even noticed. 

He weighs 15.5 lbs!!!  BIG boy!  Tibby weighs 22lbs, so he is catching up to her.  He's almost as tall as Tibby too.  So 4 months old and he weighs 15.5lbs.  Although the .5 might be from his new leather collar LOL!  It's heavy!

After the vet we went to Runnings and I let Dhali pick out a reward.  He picked a pig's ear.  Not what I would have chosen, but he grabbed it out of the bin and was SO HAPPY with his prize that I let him keep it.  He was really good in the store.  They were washing the floor with a big machine and he just looked at it and kept on trucking after me.  hee hee 'trucking' - his litter name was Convoy....hee hee.

Then we went on a long, long walk to look at leaves and take pictures.  My Mom went with me, which was really nice, because I got to take some pictures with my pups.  I have a lot of pictures to post now!

Tibby wants to show you that she isn't scared of leaves any more.  Last year she would have freaked out about just one leaf on the deck, but now it's not even an issue!

Family picture from our hike.

Superpup

Not sure if I say this enough *wink*, but Dhali is Mr. Super-Awesome-pup.  He is so much fun. 

 Remember this spring when we took that seminar with Daisy Peel and she said Tibby was a party girl?  So wrong, so very, very wrong.  Tibby is a rule maker and rule enforcer.  Things that do not fit in Tibby's set of boxes must get away!  Far, far away!

Now if someone told me Dhali was a party boy I would say, "Ya, duh!"  

He plays with toys.  He likes to tug.  He brings the tug back to me, because???  OH I'm fun!  Wow.  Simple things that make me so, so, so happy. 

  He did tunnels and tugging and running and fetching balls.  He ran until his little tongue was hanging out of the side of his tiny mouth.  And he still wanted more.  He wanted more PLAYING WITH ME.  What?!?   But I said, "No.  We have to leave you wanting more.  Don't want to burn you out."  So he bounced off of the walls, couch, ran around barking, dug in the toy box.  Finally I gave in, "Ok a little more playing won't hurt.  In fact it might save the house from being torn apart!"  More fetching and now he is content to chew on a nice bully stick.

One of my biggest, important things that I worked on when he was little(er) was fetching.  I think it has payed off :)

Beach Baby

I took Dhali and Tibby to the beach at the cabin today.  I was trying to find a calm day, so the waves wouldn't be big and loud.  Tibby is scared of the lake/waves/wind/leaves.  She came out for a while, but she wasn't having very much fun, so I let her wait inside while I played with Dhali.  She did actually come down on to the beach, which is a big change for her.  Before she wouldn't even some down the first step to the beach.

Dhali and I had a lot of fun playing.  We learned a new trick too!  Well, sort of.  Dhali jumps and I catch him!  And I even caught it on video!  He did it a bunch more times, but I edited down the video, so it wouldn't be too long.  There are also a lot of misses in the video LOL!  Sorry Dal-baby.

"Mommy, is the water scary?"

"I'll just stay here for a while."

Instead of going yesterday when it was 80 degrees, I went to day when it was 50 degrees!  It was cold!

Dhali likes to dig holes in the sand!  And eat sand....we had a talk about that.  Apparently sand doesn't agree with him, so he stopped doing it pretty quickly.  Throwing up sand - ouch.

Sandy nose!

"Yum!"

He found this black walnut and thought it was his precious.  And then I threw it in the water.....and I had to go get it.

He was doing a cute head tilt, but I missed it!

Dhali's Tour of Dogs

I took Dhali to Pot Hole Day yesterday, Saturday.   It was fun.  At first, he was very nervous, but he perked up and had a good day.  It would be very over whelming for a puppy.  Tons of people, screaming kids, gunshots, lots of dogs, yummy smells.  The gunshots didn't bother Dhali at all.  I'm not sure that he even noticed them.  I did avoid the black powder range and getting too near the rifle range, but the sound was all around - bb range, starters pistols for the slough dog trials, plinko game LOL!  We left right before the trick shotgun show.  They were doing a warm up and I couldn't stand the noise.  Very loud! 

The first thing we did was head to the food tent.  I think this was a good move, because then Dhali had a chance to sit and look around, take it all in and get use to it.  He was very happy to find all the 'snacks' people had dropped underneath the table!  

Funny thing one: Dhali saw a display of deer heads and growled at them.  It was really cute.  Puppy growls :)

Not so funny thing:  a guy bent over to pet Dhali and the man's iphone fell out of his pocket and the screen smashed into a million pieces.  Sorry stranger about the phone!

Just to give you a tiny idea of the noise level.  This is when we first got to the tent.  I wish I'd done one later when he was all cocky and jumping around.  He's pretty cute when he thinks he's hot stuff.

There were kids EVERYWHERE.  And dogs too.  There were dogs sitting all around us.

Chilling underneath the table.  He was laying completely flat, but of course moved when I took a picture!  Completely flat is his 'This place is ok.' body language.

2 week old lab pups.

There were lots and lots of labs at Pot Hole Day.  Dhali was one of the few 'not real' dogs.  You know, 'cause "real" dogs are hunting dogs :P  

Everyone thinks he's a full grown Lhasa Apso and no one knows what a Tibetan Terrier is.  I think I might start saying that he's a Tibetan Mountain Dog.  Technically true and easier for me to say.  I must have trouble with the terrier part....or the Tibetan part.  One woman thought Dhali was a Button Terrier.  Cute as a button!

There was dock diving, but we only saw one dog try the dock diving and it skipped the diving part - just walked into the water!

It was $2 to do the dock diving.

"Welcome!  My name is Dhali and I will be your tour guide for the Tour of Dogs.  Please watch out for leaping Labradors."

The one dock diving dog.

In the middle of everything there was this little squirrel eating bird seed.

Dhali thought this bridge was amazing - something smelled REALLY good in these rocks.  I think there was a burrow or some animal or something.

Dogs and kids and deer (you'll see)

Deer!  There was a display of live deer.  They are captive deer kept for their urine.  It's actually the females' urine that they collect.  They are bottle fed and very tame.  Beautiful animals.  I didn't know that deer only live 7 years - even in captivity.  There was a lot of information and you could tell that the deer were complete pets.  They roam on several hundred acres and star in documentaries.

I swear he was posing for the camera.

Leaping Labrador #1

Leaping Labrador #2

Tibby was waiting at home.   She wouldn't have liked the gunshots or the little kids screaming.

"Come on in!"

Bonus pictures, because blogger is messed up and I don't want to fix it - too tired.