Off to San Diego!

It has been a long time since I last updated! Don is about 7 1/2 months now- and 60 lbs! I have lots of pictures from Christmas and the last month that I will put post as soon as I transfer all my photos to my new Macbook (yay!), install software for my new camera (yay!), and work out all the technical issues. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Don had lots of fun and got a Goughnut from Santa. Tomorrow morning, Don will be going on his first trip. We are driving down to San Diego to stay with our grandparents for a week. I am so excited that he can accompany us. He got a bath today so he will be nice and clean for the vacation (and 10 hour car ride). There are many pictures and a much better post to come. I will also be posting about our adventures in San Diego and hope to capture some pictures of Don at the beach!

The Busy Puppy

As you can see from the photos Don has grown a lot this month! He just moved up to a large size jacket. He is now more than 6 months and will turn 7 months on December 7. He is gradually getting friendlier, but no less stubborn. That's just the kind of dog he is :D I've posted lots of pictures about Don- at home and on outings. To begin with, the one above shows Don at a stopping point on our walk. It was a very clear morning and we could see the bay down below. I don't like waking up early, and am by no means a morning person, but I enjoy walking Don earlier in the day when everything is quiet and its cold (my favorite weather). (This doesn't happen very often as I usually can't pry myself out of bed on weekend mornings).

Our walks usually consist of a one hour loop around the neighborhood. Don's biggest issue is distractions, and with the help of the food protocol our walks are running a little more smoothly. Don has been on the food protocol for months now, but is still very distracted by people and dogs. 

While he no longer tries to charge at passerby's, they capture his attention. After getting a "nice" and food for looking back at me, he is learning to stay focused. 

Hopefully we will work through this as he is otherwise well behaved on outings/ walks. His confidence in all situations is incredible. Just the other day, we were walking on a sidewalk-less stretch near a highway, which didn't phase him one bit.

We usually pass the fire station on our walk. Don enjoys watching the firefighters clean trucks and practice drills. Definitely a great socializing spot to have close by! We often practice walking over grates as Don is not a big fan of them. 

Don practicing his sit stay on a bridge. A family of deer caught his attention (though you can't see them in the photo). He is quite the handsome boy :) This is near the church my family and I go to. Don went to church last night and was great- he slept through the majority of it. He also went to his first play this past weekend, which was two hours (long for Don). It was a youth production at our local theater and was excellent. After Don realized that I wouldn't let him eat the spilled popcorn, he drifted off and stayed that way for most of the production. Afterwards, he "did his business" on command in the cement parking lot. I was very happy to see that he had gotten used to cement-relieving!

Don posing near the marsh. Normally there are lots of people and dogs here, but there weren't today. I took advantage of the solitude and snapped some pictures!

Many sights and sounds captured his attention

Don in the kitchen. He got a new blue dragline for corrections inside the house. I am currently trying to break a couple of bad house behaviors (stealing items from various places) and needed a more durable 20 ft line after Don chewed the first two. I ended up getting two nylon leashes and clipping them together. It works quite well.
Don waking up from his morning nap in the sun. He always keeps one foot tucked under his body when resting. 

Fast asleep after his walk. He is actually sleeping on a sofa cushion (which he LOVES) from a sofa that we got rid of a long time ago. My dad recently picked up a dog bed from Costco that I had wanted. It turned out to have a cedar stuffing and smell. Don did not like the smell one bit and wouldn't set a foot on his new bed. So now we're back to the sofa cushion :) 

The rest are just random photos of Don from the past two weeks. Enjoy!

Sleepy boy.

Don says HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

He gives thanks for his Dental Dino Nylabone, his Kong, and stray socks :)

And most importantly, his FOOD!

Happy Halloween!

Don is enjoying his first Halloween! He is now 51/2 months and has had a very busy week. Two saturdays ago, we swapped Don for Peeka, a female black lab being raised in our club. Peeka was a very sweet dog, and such a people lover! Here is a picture of the pretty girl:

It's hard to tell in these photos, but she is a very petite girl. When we got Don back, he seemed even bigger than before. He's 48 lbs at 5.5 months! I know these are terrible pictures :) Just as I was rushing out the door to swap back dogs, I remembered that I'd taken no photos of Peeka. I just had to have something to remember this sweet girl by- even if it was two blurry photos with crazy eyes :D

Peeka was so much fun. She loved to please more than anything. Unlike Don, she loved interactive play. Her whole body would start wriggling when I got down on the floor with her. Don is more of an aloof sort of guy. I wouldn't exactly say that pleasing me is his top priority :) Does anyone know how to get a more "distant" dog to enjoy play? I know I can't change his personality, but want to make sure he realizes how positive human interaction is.

On Thursday, Don went to Guide Dogs for the Blind (CA campus) for the day. The community field representatives were making a film about the food induced recall and needed some pups from our group. I haven't seen the movie yet, but heard that the filming went really well. It will probably take a while for the video to get distributed to all the clubs. I'm really hoping that Don is the demo dog for "what to do if your dog doesn't come"! He hasn't been quite that stellar with his come as he used to be, but were working on it. Spending the day at GDB seemed to help. When we picked him up from the kennels, the staff told us that he seemed intimidated by the kennels/ noise/ other dogs. I was quite surprised as he's never had any confidence issues before (overconfidence- yes). Hopefully he'll be over this when he goes back for formal training.

Don had his evaluations Wednesday. Since Don is such a big puppy (and potentially dominant) a eval was needed just to spot any issues before they got bigger. It was very helpful and Don did REALLY well. In the end, we concluded that his main issue would be distractions and were put on a food protocol. Apparently, Don's father, Bosworth, was also a very distracted pup at Don's age. I am running off to carve pumpkins and decorate the house. I will talk more about the eval and post photos later. Happy Halloween!

5 Months and Blind Babies Foundation Picnic

Don is officially 5 months this weekend. I can't believe I've already had him for 3 months! Don's making progress each day and getting BIGGER and BIGGER (not to mention clumsier- he's doesn't really know where his body is at times). Last week, his "reign" of our house got expanded 1 more room and he's doing fine despite the occasional moment when chooses socks over his toys.

Today, our group (Mt. Tam Puppy Raisers) went to the Blind Babies Foundation 60th anniversary picnic at Guide Dogs for the Blind. It was a great experience for Don with lots of children, working CCI/ Guide dogs, puppies in training, music, and dancing. The event was a resource day for blind, visually impaired, or multi-disabled children and their families. We walked the puppies around and had them greet the children and introduced families to Guide Dogs. Don was really well behaved with the young kids and loved giving them kisses :). I enjoyed talking to puppy raisers from other local puppy clubs. I met Poppy from the "Poppy's Poop Scoop" blog. (I didn't actually realize that the Poppy I met was from the blog until later). I actually remembered my camera this time and took a ton of photos. I'm a pretty bad photographer, so don't get excited :) .

Don in the car on his way to Guide Dogs (I love living close by)

First, we watched the Aztec dancing with Alise (the black lab on the right). I had Alise (now 7 months) for two weeks while her transfer home was being decided. Don was very interested in the drums, but then decided to sniff the grass instead.

Another photo of the pretty girl.

After the Aztec dancer was over, Don and I went for a walk with a potential youth raiser new to our club. She got to walk Don and he did really well with her. The kennels were open, so we stopped in to look at all the adorable puppies.

Next, we met up with Maren, a 14 month old black lab, and Digby, a 10 month old black lab/golden retriver, both from our club. Don spent the last weekend with Maren and his raisers and loves playing with her. (Below Maren and Don pose for a shot together- Don's almost as big as her).

Don, Maren, and Digby got to play in one of the runs.

Sharing a kong.

I love this one :D

Time for some water. Don only wanted to drink out of the bowl Maren was drinking out of. If she'd change bowls, so would she- it was hilarious.

There was a table set up for the kid's handprints. Maren's raisers asked if they could get Maren's pawprint and they said yes- it turned out great. All three dogs were very tired after playtime and waited patiently for Maren to get her pawprints done.

Don used Digby for his pillow :)

We had to stop one more time at the kennels before leaving.

These two boys were adorable.

A dog named Indigo. I recognized the name from one of the blogs I follow, so I took a picture. (Not really sure whos dog it is, but... felt I should take a photo)

After the event was over, we went to do some shopping at eat at Pasta Pomodoro. They were very nice there and even offered Don a bowl of water. Don being a good boy and sleeping under the table :) .

Walking through the parking lot. Don's a pretty good walker since he was put on the food protocol. It's extremely helpful.

I took Don to Old Navy. I've never seen a store more crowded in my life. They were having their giant Anniversary Sale and the line stretched to the back of the store (my mom decided to come back another day to return the shirt)

Finally- home. Don was very tired and crashed soon after this photo was taken.

And, to conclude my long photo-filled post, a picture of Don modeling his new bandana.

Thats all for now,

Lauren and Don

Finally, a post long overdue

Don's growing like a weed these past few weeks. Don was very happy to get his "big boy" medium size puppy coat on Saturday and is going more and more places each day. To sum up these past two (possibly three now) blogless weeks, here is a somewhat accurate list of what Don and I did. 

1. Don went to Sunday school for the very first time. I was a bit nervous because Don's usually rambunctious in the morning and we hadn't had time for a walk. However, the noisy kids didn't phase him one bit (except the one who decided he could pet Don without asking) and Don soon fell right asleep. I didn't even have to pull out his dental dino :D. He went again this past Sunday but was a little overwhelmed- I'd forgotten that their was a big in-gathering brunch being held. It took him a little while to settle down and he whined a bit which I wasn't too happy about. All in all, Sunday school is great for Don- he's really learned to control himself around all the high energy children.

2. Don went to a puppy meeting last sat. We were planning to meet at a park, but at the last minute, our leader called us with a change of plan- the park was being used for a dog show and therefore very chaotic. So, we moved on to plan B- a nearby schoolyard. We got there and all was well, until it started to rain. Puppies and all, we gathered under a nearby awning and talked about the FIR. Don was very good when it was his turn to practice come, even though he was a bit distracted by the rain (he'd never seen it before and kept looking up at the sky then the water on the ground). 

3. Don got a new, comfy dog bed (50% off from Pet Food Express!), two new Nylabones, and a new orange juice carton to bat around. (By the way, the site Omaha Vaccine (http://www.omahavaccine.com/product_list.asp?cid=51) has great prices on Nylabones and other GDB approved toys- more than half off what you'd pay in stores!)

Don with his new Nylabone- as you can see, he's not the biggest fan of it (he only likes his Nylabones once they're worn in :D

And, after all of the shopping...

This turned out to be Don's favorite toy :)

4. Don got to go on a "playdate" with a couple CCI dogs in our neighborhood. He had so much fun with the other dogs and even got to play in the kiddie pool- Don's quite the water lover. As soon as he was drenched with water, he decided to flop down in the dirt- earning him a bath when we got home. 

This was actually Don's first bath as he'd never really gotten all that dirty before. Looking at the water, you can see that it was well needed. 

5. This is Don's highlight of the week- he got bumped up to two cups of  Science Diet a day. Increase in food=

...a very happy puppy :D. 

~And, to end this hopefully not-to-boring post, some random pictures:

Don with his Kong on our outside patio.

Again, with his Kong.

Some downtime in the kitchen.

And lastly, Don in his x-pen before we expanded his reign to all of the kitchen.

That concludes the summary of our very busy last three weeks! Now that I'm all caught up, my posts can get back to the current stuff. Don is going on a hike with the rest of our puppy raising club this saturday, so that will be a good opportunity for photo taking! I can't believe how quickly Don is growing up- he's almost 4 1/2 months now! 

I'm a bad, bad blogger

So sorry- I've been swamped with homework and have been busy ever since the start of school. I promise a very long post with lots of photos is on the way! Maybe tomorrow if I finish this big research project tonight.  

Don is Back!

Don has had a busy week since he returned from the puppysitters. He was very excited to see us (he did his happy little tail wagging, wiggling puppy dance). Then again, he does this to everyone he meets. He got much bigger and a his coat really darkened. Don got a great report from his first puppy sitter. They took him to Fun Day, a large gathering of puppy raisers at Guide Dogs, and he got to see two of his littermates. The report from the other family wasn't quite as stellar, but I was glad to hear that Don behaved well at the puppysitter's work which was at Guide Dogs and at a rehabilitation gym.

The first day Don was back at home he was an angel. He went to Trader Joes and was great with all the commotion and the tempting yummies on the floor. The next day, his friendliness sort of diminished and now he's back to his old, somewhat distant self. I think he reasoned that we weren't going to leave him with the puppysitters anytime soon. Wed. night we took him to California Pizza Kitchen. It took a while for him to settle down and he wouldn't heed even the strongest corrections for licking the carpet. Oh well. Tonight, Don will be going to the mall and then out to dinner again, our biggest outing yet. I'll let you know how that went tomorrow, but for now I'll post some pictures that the puppysitters took of Don at Fun Day. 

The Calming Touch dog massage class at Fun Day

Poor Don...  the only one with a Gentle Leader.

 Don mixes it up with his littermates Donner and (most likely) Delaware.

California Fun Day Crowds