Thanksgiving Puppies!

Thanksgiving is that time when friends and family gather to break bread and eat together in peace and harmony.  Thanksgiving is also the time when some who might harken back to old slights and fights of family members should truly forgive over the calming influence of tryptophan and pie.  

Melisa, another puppy raiser, had invited Fred and me, Willow and Coach, over for Thanksgiving.  We were extremely grateful and I had made a 5 layer chocolate pie and a Jack Daniels Pumpkin Cheesecake as desserts.  

Coach panting by the side of the house.  He is looking off the right at Bo, who is not in the photo.

Willow is pleased as punch and looking up at me with a big smile on her face.

When we arrived, Dave and Petey, St. Pete's first puppy, were already there.  Duke and Lil Bo Peep live there, so they were there too.  Melisa's parents, Judy and Jerry and her partner Ed were also there.  Willow was wearing her pretty princess sparkly pink crystal collar, which she rarely gets to wear, so she was feeling fine.

Melisa is passing around the delicious baked olives. Her mom is on a swing chair to the right and Fred is making a grab for more olives.

Melisa had cooked up a feast: cheddar wrapped olives and stuffed artichoke hearts for appetizers, which were very tasty were just the start.  The weather outside was perfect.

The boys: Fred, Dave, Jerry and Ed sunning themselves on the patio outside.

The dogs seemed to get along, until Petey decided that being head of St. Pete meant that he was the boss of everyone.  When Coach realized that he and Petey weren't actually playing but were doing a dominance contest, Coach was desperate to get out of it.  Coach is a live-and-let-live kind of fella.  So we separated the two unnuetered boys and kept them out of each other's way the rest of the night.  Coach got his confidence back playing with Bo and Duke as you will see in the video.

Petey spent some time in Duke's crate and he got a peanut butter kong later in the evening.  Bo, Duke and Coach figured out someone was getting a kong and it might as well be them, so they tried to influence Dave into giving Petey's kong to one of them.

Dave is at the counter filling a kong with peanut butter.  He is watched by Coach, Bo and Duke.

They even followed him to the door in a last ditch effort.  But it didn't work.  They are nothing if not persistent.  

Bo, Coach and Duke followed Dave to the door and stand outside the door hoping he won't give the kong to Petey and will bring it out and give it to one of them.

In the end, they were able to coexist with each other and here they are at the end of the meal breaking bread, or rather staring at bread and thinking about eating it. 

All five pups in a semi circle around a bowl of rolls.  Of course they are being held back by Fred, Ed and Dave.  Petey is the only one on a loose leash.

It was a photo op, not an actual treat moment. We hope you all had such a lovely and tasty Thanksgiving Holiday!

Enjoy some puppy exuberance in the video. Coach and Bo are BFFs!

 

Christmas Eve Boat Parade

We were invited to a party on Christmas Eve at Duke and Eric the Red's house.  And since a puppy raiser was throwing the party, Jam was invited and this time Willow got to come as well (Willow is our 10 year old chocolate lab)!

Jam lying down on the deck with his Christmas collar on.

 All told, there were six dogs at the party, five big dogs and one little puppy.  Well, let me rephrase that.  four crazy, boy dogs, one lady, and a little puppy.  Whenever the boys got too rambunctuous, Willow would remove herself from the rolling, kicking whirling mass of boy-dog craziness and come sit next to me or Melisa's mom.

Eric the red was too small to be let off leash to run with the big dogs.  So he watched from the deck.  But he's so happy, he didn't mind.

Eric the red sitting pretty with a big smile on his face.

What was so fascinating about this particular grouping was that there was absolutely no aggression in any of the boys at all.  When they played with the toys, they all wanted to play together, but they were all really sweet about it.

All four big dogs (Jam, Dawson, Trapper and Duke) playing with the same blue tug toy.

 When one of them would end up with the toy, that dog would go over to another and wave it in their face until the game was on again.

Dawson, Trapper and Jam with the tug toy.

This game went on ALL NIGHT.

All four of them wrestling with the tug toy again.

We did make them sit for a photo.

A six dog sit on the steps of the deck: Willow, Jam, Dawson, Eric, Duke and Trapper (and various humans).

I may have Duke and Trapper mixed up.  It's hard to tell them apart.  I'm not sure which one is lighter in color.

I was a little worried about having them all in the house, but they actually did pretty well inside.  There was only one incident of puppy crazies (not Jam!) involving couch jumping, but other than that everyone was on their best behavior.

After a delicious dinner during which the dogs acted very good under the table, we went outside to watch the boat parade.  Music, flashing lights, boats driving back and forth, dancing Santa.  None if it phased the dogs.

While Willow was content to nap during the party, Jam would absolutely not!  No napping, no stopping, no turning it off.  So, when we got into the car to go home, he crashed.

Boat parade = successful exposure! (And a lovely party with delightful friends 8-)  A good time was had by all participants.

Crazy School Day

We started the day out at 5 am. We met at Maty's house and took a 40 minute walk before school started. This was Bingo's first experience with a long walk like this and he did GREAT! I have a photo, but I can't find my camera. I hope I didn't lose it when I dropped my purse after school. (It has been an awful day today!)

He was much more mellow in the morning at school. His new thing to do is to just stop. We'll be walking and he'll just stop walking. We'll get to some stairs and he refuses to go up or down. We'll be in a parking lot and he'll refuse to go near the car. I don't know what the proper response is and I'm not sure if it is a dominance thing that he is doing. My first thought was he was fearful of something. But I don't think that is the case. Cajoling him doesn't seem to work. I'm going to give redirecting him a try. My area meeting is on Thursday, so I will be talking with Donna about it.

The big excitement was the fire drill. We had one this afternoon. He was completely unconcerned. It didn't faze him a bit.

I'm going to start having him wait at the circ desk for kids to pass by so that we can practice sitting and being unconcerned. He occasionally will lunge out at a student passing by and that isn't acceptable. So we need to work on that. I want to desensitize him by having all the kids pass him every period in the library and having him sit and be unconcerned. I think this will work. I'll keep you posted.