Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I wanted to share some pictures from Christmas at our house (pictures of the dogs, of course :-). After sleeping in (yay!) and unwrapping people presents, I gave the dogs some wrapped stuffy toys to unwrap. Our pet dog, Cash, LOVES unwrapping gifts. He will actually rip the paper off until he can grab what's inside and pull it out, and then he leaves the paper and plays with the toys. He's so funny! Then we went out to see Rocky Balboa. So, OMSI got to see his second movie. He did very well and slept almost the whole time. He only tried to get up once at the very end.
Before unwrapping presents, I took a group shot of our dogs. Here's the run-down:
Cash (Australian Shepherd), 11 1/2 years old, completely deaf
Kippy (Lab/Greyhound? x), approx. 9 years old, slightly neurotic
Zen (Weimaraner), 3 1/2 years, my sister's dog
Dakota/Cody (Golden), 1 1/2 years, a dog I'm training for someone
OMSI (Golden), 5 months, my current CCI puppy :-)
Cozy (Golden in picture on Right), 3 years, puppysitting over Christmas
Hopefully from this description you can pick out who is who :-) Merry Christmas!

First Movie

OMSI went to his first movie tonight. We saw the Nativity Story with my parents, and at least it is age-appropriate for a young puppy (it's PG :-). OMSI was a bit restless at the very beginning, and definitely perked his ears at some of the sounds at first. After that he slept most of the time and only tried to get up a couple times (I had my foot on his leash, so he couldn't). I am very pleased with how well he did at his first movie experience! I need to work on longer down-stays, but I'm sure that will come in time. I didn't take my camera, so no pictures :-( We're going to another movie on Christmas day (family tradition), so OMSI will probably get to go along as well. Merry Christmas!

Dog Tag

Tag! You're it! We've been "tagged" by Patience. This means that I have to list three things that OMSI wants to receive for Christmas and three things he does NOT want to receive for Christmas. Then, we get to "tag" 5 other pups by posting a comment on their blog. Fun!

Three things OMSI would LOVE for Christmas:
1) a Quiet Spot for his tags so people don't no notice him when he's out and about
2) Squeaky toys!!!
3) a new bone

Three things OMSI would HATE to get for Christmas:
1) His playmate Cody going home (which sadly will happen sometime soon)
2) a bath
3) a citronella bark collar (well, too late, he already got one :-)

OMSI chooses to "tag" Jaba, Spring, Marcella, Avril, and Juneau.

5 months old!

Wow! Where did the time go? OMSI is 5 months old today! He weighs 34 pounds which seems pretty small. As a comparison, his dad Blaze weighed 33lbs at FOUR months old, and he is only 65lbs full grown. And Baja weighed 45 pounds at 5 months old and is about 72lbs at 1 1/2 years old. So, I think OMSI is going to be a small dog (but, I don't mind! Small is nice!).
OMSI has started going out more places with me, and he's doing fairly well. He seems sensitive to sudden loud noises, but recovers quickly. And, I'm happy to say that I think he's pretty much housetrained...he hasn't had an accident in a while (see, I can't even remember the last one he had :-). He's been having more freedom in the house now that he's asking to go out consistently, and he's been doing very well. We have an x-pen around the christmas tree, so he's not tempted to help undecorate it. He hasn't chewed or ripped anything up, and really the only naughty thing he's done is eat bits of wood that fell on the ground by the fireplace.
We had a huge wind storm here yesterday and our power has been out since yesterday afternoon. So, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of him today before the sun went down, so I'll try to take a picture tomorrow morning if it's not raining.
Yay!! The power just came back on as I was typing!!

Risa

I had the opportunity to puppysit Risa (a Blaze puppy) last week. I had puppysat her for two weeks in July right after she arrived until after her PRs turned-in their first dog, and I was thrilled to have her back again. She is now 6 months old and 50lbs, but still the same sweetie she was as a little pup. Sadly, she had contagious mouth warts (although harmless), so I didn't let her play with OMSI at all. But, I discovered that she liked to play fetch :-) It was fun to see the similarities between the two (and their dad, Blaze):

1) both love to hear themselves "talk" (i.e. bark, whine, "happy growl"), especially when they feel left out of things. Risa also let us know that she usually wakes up around 5:30 or 6 am.

2) both are great snugglers :-)

3) both are lickers (and working on breaking the habit)

4) both love toys and playing fetch

Here are some pictures. It was interesting trying to take pictures of the two in the snow since my cat, Rebel, decided to come see what was going on (he didn't help much, either, since I was having the hardest time getting both to look at me at the same time!). So, I ended up picking up the cat, which worked great.

Our puppy class last week took a field trip to Ben Franklin's, which was where I met Risa's puppy raisers to give her back. So, we took lots of pictures there, too :-)

SNOW!!!!!

We have snow!!!! And OMSI loves it!!! The roads were really bad yesterday, so I didn't go to work (it took me 2 hours to drive home Monday evening - it usually takes 10 minutes). So I got to play in the snow with the dogs :-)

Pictures

Ok, here are some cute pictures :-) I finally remembered to take some pictures of OMSI in his "big boy" cape at church today. Then after church, we decided to go out to lunch. So OMSI had his first restaurant experience, too! He was antsy at first, but then went to sleep.

Jen was asking about how many dogs we have at our house, so here's a picture. The lab mix on the left is our family pet Kippy, the Dobie (Jazz) is a dog that I'm watching for the week (she leaves on Tuesday), OMSI is front and center, the Golden, Cody, is a dog I'm training for someone, Cash the Aussie is our other family pet, and Zen the Weimaraner is my sister's dog. My mom set the limit at 6 dogs, and we rarely have fewer than that. When Jazz goes home I'll be watching another CCI pup for a week :-)

Here are some other funny pictures of OMSI. He crosses his back legs sometimes when he lays down, and I finally had my camera handy when he did it. I've never seen another dog lay like this, but OMSI seems to find it comfortable! I've also been working with OMSI on not eating food off the floor, and here's one of the exercises I've done a couple times with him. He's so funny! He'll look back and forth between the two treats and then look at me, but he doesn't try to eat them! Although I'm sure he would if I left him alone :-)

OMSI's first real outing

OMSI got his "big-boy" cape at class this week, and today I took him on his first outing to somewhere other than pet stores, friends houses, or church. I had to pick up something at Costco, and since I was only going to be there for a short time, I decided to take OMSI. He was sooooo good! He startled at the shopping carts banging together outside, but he didn't try to bolt at all. But, he wasn't bothered by any of the shopping carts inside, or anything else. He had great eye contact (and got lots of treats for it), was mostly calm when people were petting him, and walked next to me with a loose leash the whole time. Once after I had given him a treat he suddenly stopped and was staring at the floor. I looked where he was staring, and the treat had dropped on the floor. But, he knew that he wasn't supposed to eat things off the floor, so he was just staring at it. What a good boy! Before I left we sat outside by the the carts and watched for a little while until he didn't care so much about the noise. I hope this noise sensitivity is just a phase and that the confidence he had when he was a baby puppy comes back! I took my camera, but forgot to take pictures, so here's a picture of OMSI with his baby puppy cape on.

OMSI update

The week before Baja's turn-in, OMSI went to a puppysitter's house so I could spend the last week with just Baja. The puppysitters took OMSI on Sunday night, and I got a call from them on Wednesday giving me an update. They said that OMSI was being good and that if I fell in love with a puppy while I was at CCI I could bring it home since they were going to keep OMSI. Nice try :-) When I picked him up on Sunday they said that he was the best behaved 4 month old pup they've puppysat. He got along great with their dog and didn't have any accidents in the house. And after a week of being away, OMSI definately grew and filled out a bit, and he seems calmer than he used to be. My wild little puppy is turning into a well-behaved dog!
Yesterday, my family went to a friends house for Thanksgiving dinner and I brough OMSI. He was very good and slept through dinner, and he mostly ignored the cats at the house. He did get antsy when it was his dinnertime (I didn't bring his food with me), but he settled down again when he realized he would have to wait. I picked up his first real cape at class this week, and I think he's ready to start going out on short trips in public. I forgot my camera on Thanksgiving, so I don't really have any pictures to share :-( But, here's a picture of Baja during his last week here sleeping by the fire.

Turn-in pictures

I tried to get a picture of Baja's slide during the matriculating pups slide show at graduation, but the picture I took didn't turn out very well. So I thought I'd share the pictures I sent in and a little about why I chose them out of the hundreds of pictures I have of Baja.


This is a picture of Baja in our backyard when he was 3 1/2 months old. It's one of my favorite puppy pictures I have of him.


This is a picture of Baja last fall when he was about 7 months old. This bush was right outside the Psychology building, so I took a picture of Baja there at school one day. The background is beautiful, and Baja looks so cute, too! I love the contrast between is big, dark eyes and nose and his almost white coat. Plus, I love labs with big, blocky heads :-)


This is from last June when I graduated from Central Washington University. I borrowed a matriculation cape from CCI and ordered a kindergarten graduation cap online. Baja's outfit turned out great!


This picture was taken this August at the Evergreen State Fair. I took Baja through the Swine barn, and he sniffed noses with a pig. I was lucky enough to get this picture of it :-)

Baja's Turn-in

Baja is now in California in Advanced Training. Last Thursday evening my Mom and I flew down to Oakland. Of course, Baja flew in the cabin with us. He was perfect at the airport and managed to squeeze into the tiny space under the seat in front of me on the airplane. He slept through take-off and landing, as well as most of the flight. We got in about 11pm and stayed in a hotel in Oakland. Baja slept on the bed with me (shh!), and actually fell off once in the middle of the night! We got up early and drove to Santa Rosa.



Friday afternoon we went over to Blaze's house to visit. He has the nicest Breeder-caretakers! Blaze looks great, although he's already starting to get gray on his face! His BCs found a box of 100 frisbees, and now Blaze's favorite toy is a frisbee (even more than a tennis ball). He'll even jump in the air and catch it! It also seems like the novelty of the pond has worn off slightly (it took over a year), and now he'll even go a day without swimming.



Friday night we went to the reception at CCI. I had multiple people comment on how handsome Baja is (of course!), and he behaved himself very well. I even got to take a picture of him with his grandma Patrice! For those who don't know, Patrice is the matriarch of CCI. Her sons Bobby and Hemet (Baja's dad) are two of CCI's most successful male breeders, and her grandsons Terrell and Baumann have been having lots of pups lately. Of course, there are lots of female breeders related to her as well. So, pretty much all of the labs and lab/golden crosses in CCI are decended from Patrice. What a girl!
Saturday we had pictures in the morning then went out to lunch with another PR. Baja also got to run around the play yard with some other dogs. I noticed Saturday morning that Baja's left ear was goopy, so I think he got his first ear infection ever the day he turned-in :-( So now I have something else to worry about, too. We got to see Blaze again at the graduation, and with 4 dogs graduating from our Puget Sound Chapter and 17 matriculating, there were lots of other people I knew there, too. Sadly, we had to leave right after graduation and head back to CCI for turn-in so we could make it back to Oakland for our flight home. So, there wasn't time for another romp in the play yard or drawn out good-byes. I found out that Baja's roommate is Aris, a very big neutered male LGX who was also raised in Washington. As an interesting note, Aris' dad Zen was raised in WA as well and was my 2nd pup, Jaba's, roommate in advanced training. Hopefully these two boys will do as well! Baja had no problem going with the trainer who took him back to the kennels, and I think he'll have a lot of fun in "college". If all goes well, I won't hear anything until the beginning of January. I think the 6 weeks after turn-in until the first report are some of the longest in the puppy raising process!

Costume Party and Boat Trip

Last Wednesday we had our "Bone Voyage" party for the 17 puppies turning in November 18th (Baja included). We had our annual Costume contest (usually it's before Halloween, but it didn't work out this year), and Baja and OMSI went dressed as dragons and Mikayla, a 7 year old girl I've been taking to class with me, dressed up as a princess. Very cute!
OMSI went to the vet for his last set of puppy shots on Friday, and Baja went to get a health certificate so he can fly to California. OMSI is a light weight at 22.4 lbs, and he is definately tall and gangly and a bit scrawny right now. But he is healthy and now ready to meet the world :-) Baja weighs 72 lbs and is also in excellent health.
On Saturday I went on an Argosy cruise around Lake Washington with our puppy group. I took all three dogs, but fortunately had people to help handle them. Cody spent the last half of the cruise on our leaders lap outside, and OMSI was held by various people almost the entire time. Baja ran around with Mikayla for most of the cruise. All the dogs were very well behaved, especially considering it was a fairly small boat that was full of people and probably 15-20 dogs.

Baja Brag

I've been looking through all my pictures of Baja and trying to choose a couple to send in for the turn-in slide show. I found this picture of Baja when I went out to the Maltby Cafe for breakfast with a friend of mine a couple months ago. We were seated at a table where children had obviously been sitting some time before us, since there were Cheerios on the ground all around the table. Baja laid down in the middle of them and went to sleep, and didn't touch any of them for the entire time we were there (over an hour). What a good boy! Here are some pictures to prove it :-)

"Howl"-O-ween party

Today was the annual Halloween party at my work for clients who have taken obedience classes or done Board & Train with their dogs. We had a costume contest (of course), a "pie" eating contest (actually rice and cottage cheese), a pool where dogs could bob for treats, a Tricks for Treats station, Limbo contests for big and small dogs, some agility equipment, and a Haunted Walkway with motion-activated things that made noise and moved - such as a bat that dropped down and then flew back up again, a dancing/singing skeleton, and a floating ghost.
Baja wasn't afraid or really even interested in anything in the Haunted Walkway, and OMSI was curious about all the stuff for a couple seconds and then just looked at me for a treat. So, neither dog seems sensitive to sudden noises or movements :-) OMSI had a great time bobbing for treats in the pool, and Cody won a pie-eating contest.
All the dogs had a great time on the agility stuff. Baja has been on agility equipment before, but this was OMSI's first experience with it. He LOVED it! There was a baby teeter that was probably 6 inches off the ground, but he wasn't phased by the movement at all. He seemed to really like all the contact obstacles and he would run up them everytime we walked by. So, if a career as a service dog doesn't work out, he has some promise as an agility dog!
I took pictures of the dogs doing agility, but not of the other stuff.

Birds at the Park

Today I took Baja and Cody to a local bike trail/park where there are LOTS of birds - pigeons, ducks, and chickens - who swarm around people expecting to be fed. Cody was very good and only needed a couple corrections before he remembered to pay attention. Baja was great, even though he was just on his flat collar. He was very relaxed and while he looked at the birds, he wasn't focused on them at all. Both dogs got to practice down-stays (separately) while I pretended to feed the birds so they would go close to the dogs. And since it was a nice, sunny day there were other people and bikers around who would walk through the birds and make them fly around. Baja also barely looked at the bikers, joggers with dogs, and roller bladers. All in all, it was a great outing and both dogs did great with their obedience.

Concrete "Hurry" party

After being reminded of how important it is that service dogs will relieve themselves ("hurry") on any surface at the Puppy Seminar, I decided to see if Baja and OMSI would "hurry" on concrete. Baja used to be fine with this while I was at school, but I haven't had him "hurry" on concrete for months. I've never had OMSI "hurry" on concrete, but little puppies don't seem to be too picky. I decided to do this last Sunday after I had already fed them breakfast, so Baja had already done both "hurries" that morning. Well, poor guy didn't go again until that night when he couldn't hold it any longer, and then he acted like he was doing something wrong. So we had a big party after he went. And of course I had to choose a day when it was raining, so I had to stand out in the rain waiting for my dog to "hurry". But, on the positive side I now know that neither of my pups have a problem with umbrellas. The next day at work I took him to the far side of the parking lot every time I took him out, and it took him until 4:30pm before he would go (and he didn't go that morning at all). So we had another party (one of my co-workers even asked what I was so excited about). By Tuesday he was fine and was going immediately when I told him "hurry", both at work and at home. Phew! I'm giving him a couple days going on grass or gravel like usual and then I'll test him again to make sure he will go on concrete. OMSI was much easier. The first time I took him out he whined a little and tried to pull towards the grass before he squatted. It only took him one day before he stopped trying to get to the grass and seemed comfortable "hurrying" on the concrete.
OMSI went to the vet today and weighed 18 pounds! He seems a bit small for 14 weeks, but he's healthy and eating well so I'm not complaining.

Puppy Raiser Seminar

Yesterday I went to a CCI PR seminar. It's the first one that's been held for us Washington PRs, and there was 100+ people and dogs there. I took both dogs along with crates with the plan to have one out with me and the other in a crate. Fortunately, there was a PR there who is taking a break between pups and she volunteered to take one of mine. So we took turns with Baja and OMSI. Both Baja and OMSI were so good! Baja was a demo dog in one of the seminars and he was very good, except for getting one correction for sniffing another dog. OMSI has amazing focus and was able to walk next to me on a loose leash watching me the whole time, even with all the people and dogs around. He also would do this for the other PR that took him. When I stopped to talk with people he would lay down and watch me. He was held by LOTS of people and he participated in an "appropriate play" demonstration. I put him in his crate while I ate lunch and then later to feed him lunch, and he didn't bark at all!!!
I decided to take him to church with me today, and he was a little pistol. He didn't sleep the entire time and he was very busy (fortunately he was quiet). I guess being good all day Saturday left him with lots of energy on Sunday :-)

Puppy class

We had puppy class again last night after a two week break, so this was OMSI's third time at class. He has improved a lot in the last two weeks, and he was so good at class this week! He's doing really well on his gentle leader. When we were practicing leashwork, OMSI trotted next to me watching me the whole time (so he was ignoring all the other dogs and people :-). He also automatically sat next to me when I stopped. I think he's improved most on Stay. When I got him he could barely hold still for a couple seconds, and now he can Sit or Down stay for a couple minutes (getting lots of treats as he's doing it :-), even if I walk around him, squat down in front of him, put some tension on his leash, or toss a treat by him. He also has an amazing recall! We did a recall exercise where everyone lined up in 2 lines about 6 feet apart and we took turns calling our dogs down the center. OMSI came running as fast as he could and ignored all the dogs. He did stop twice and sit in front of someone else until he realized they weren't me (he seems to look for the first pair of legs he can find), but I could tell he was trying to figure out where I was. Our contract trainer even commented on what a great recall he has!
So here's what OMSI knows so far:
Sit and Down on verbal cue only (no lures) and doing well with Stay
Stand with a little help, working on short stays
Shake
Speak (and working VERY hard on Quiet)
Let's go with a GL and lots of treats
Bed (from about a foot away)
Wait
Here
Heel (still needs a little lure)
Hurry
Kennel
Sit while I put his food bowl down and waits for the Okay so he can eat
Back (he's surprisingly coordinated and backs really well)
Dress (with food lure...haven't really worked too much with it, but he doesn't avoid the GL)
Drop (does well when I'm intentionally working on it, not so well when he's outside with a twig in his mouth)
Roll (with lure)

Pretty good for a 12 week old puppy, huh? He is the most food motivated puppy I've had since my first (Pasha), and he is very smart. We have a CCI puppy seminar on Saturday, so I'll try to get some pictures of him in his cape.

First real bath!

I gave OMSI a bath today at work, which was his first time (with me at least) in a bath tub, using a blower, and being in a drying cage. He was really good! He didn't really mind the bath, didn't react at all to the force blower, and played in the drying cage. This puppy is not phased by anything!

Breakthrough!

This morning OMSI was loose playing with Cody while I was eating breakfast so he could burn off some energy before going to work. OMSI then ran into the other room to the door and nosed the bells hanging there to indicate he needed to go outside. I had been working on him ringing the bells before I take him out, but this is the first time he's done it all by himself without me leading him over and standing next to him. I was so excited that I let him outside without getting his leash first (it was in another room). OMSI ran outside, down the steps, through the backyard and into the "puppy pen" where he hurried (my parents don't want the dogs going on the lawn). Yay!! What a good puppy!! So, he got to run around outside for a little while before we came back in.

Nothing much new....

OMSI now weighs 15 pounds! Nothing very exciting has happened lately...just ordinary stuff like work. Since OMSI is too young to go anywhere, he goes to work with me then chills at home the rest of the time. Since I work at a boarding kennel, OMSI and my other dogs get to play with the dogs that are in for board and train (size appropriate, of course - OMSI probably thinks he's a terrier now :-). OMSI also gets to go to the playtime for the kennel's puppy class three times a week, so he's meeting lots of new dogs and people. Since we haven't had CCI puppy class for the last couple weeks, this has been a good place to practice his commands with other puppies around. He's doing SO well learning his commands. I thought Stay would be hard for him because he is such an active puppy, but he has amazing concentration and self-control when he wants to. He is a very smart puppy (ok, I know I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm not right!). But, he still loves to bark. (sigh). I keep telling myself that he is barking less, but I think it's more wishful thinking than reality. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.