Charlie the Goldendoodle

Dec 30th

Dec 29th

Dec 28th

Dec 25th

Dec 22nd

Just a bit of Bean

Bean out in the woods with Mika the wolf-hybrid.  :)  Very adventurous!  We went for a little hike out in the snow and B kept up well.  Although, as you can see below, he was quite happy to also snooze on the window seat once we got back to the house.

Sheldon part 2

 

 

McKay's Mammoth Visit (late January)

I had a bit of a scare with McKay.  

Now that I look back on it, it was quite silly to be so worried.  And it also taught me a lesson as a pet care provider.  Always be more thorough than you think necessary when checking a pup out during your initial contact with him or her!  

The story goes:  McKay's mom let me know that he'd just had surgery on his tongue.  But at the end of the first day, when we were out playing in the yard, while I was shoveling piles of PooSnow, I looked down at M playing with the others and noticed that his front leg looked bloody!  I stopped the fun and made him sit still for a minute (which was not easy, since they were all playing so hard), and while he wasn't gushing, there was definitely some "ooze" happening, and it appeared as if he'd scraped his leg against something hard or sharp and it had sliced off the top layer of skin!  Yikes!  

Went inside to wash his leg, see what sort of damage was done and if we needed to go to the vet... and all the while I'm thinking, "What did he get scraped by?"

Try To Put 2 and 2 Together...

Did he slip on the edge of the deck?  The two steps to the yard are still icy, maybe...  Did another pup somehow bite... nah, bites don't look like scrapes.  I don't remember him yelping out in pain... is he that tough?  Was it the chicken-wire fencing?  Well, he did fall through the snow over in the corner (which was really funny, btw, he was so clumsy and kept breaking through the top layer of snow as he tried to run!).  Maybe there's something buried under there?

That's when it hit me.  "Oh, wait.  He just had surgery.  Maybe this was from where the IV was placed and him breaking through the crusty snow has irritated the skin."

Yep, that was it.  Mystery solved.  

And you know, I could have avoided all of that worry by simply doing a more thorough "check-in" when he arrived.  Checking for bumps, scrapes, dry skin, tender or sore spots.  I usually do give the new pups a good rub-down when they first arrive to help them calm down, which allows me to notice these types of things.  But McKay needed no soothing.  He was thrilled to go run and play with the others as soon as we got back to the house!  So I got lazy and didn't do my normal check.

A big thank you to McKay for reminding me to stay on my toes!

Jake's walk

Jake has some SPUNK today! 

And obviously Bella and her "brother" Hunter had a blast, too.   Jake even went #2!  :)  You know how happy I get when he actually goes.  I'm guessing he's going to be exhausted today, since this "old man" sure didn't act his age.  He leapt around in the snow, which was surprisingly packed down, which allowed me to follow around in the meadow.  Had to tell Bella, "Bad Water" as we approached the stream! 

Naz in December

Here's Naz with a few buddies: Charlie the golden doodle, Nellie the puggle and Winston the english bulldog.  She and Charlie definitely burned off some energy together.  Thank goodness the trail had finally been groomed - much easier than plodding through the powder!

Mika (my sister's husky/wolf) joins in on the fun in the video above.  And below is Naz "helping" me with Charlie, who needed his MidDay walk.  They would sprint up and down the street, skidding all over the place.  :)

And then, the next day, she came out for Jake's walk.  These two are similar, gentle souls.  Of course, Naz gets along with everyone, so I knew they'd be buddies.  He was so happy to meet a new friend.

Nellie in December

Below is Nellie with her little buddy, Winston.  We'd just finished up with a long walk, and these two were pooped when we got back in the car!  Check out the photos below of our walk and of a few other friends (including Naz the bernese mtn. dog and Charlie the golden doodle).

SO exhausted!  Nellie would nuzzle my arm until I let her rest her chin there.  She slept like this the entire way home, and didn't even move when we parked.  Such sweet, sleepy eyes.

 

Charlie's Christmas in Mammoth (Part 1)

Happy Charlie guy, and Bella had a blast playing with him, too!  They loved destroying the pine needles they found in the snow.  More to come, since I took a LOT of video and pictures during those two weeks around Christmas.  :)

Winston in Mammoth (Dec 2010)

Sheldon loves Smelly Ears

(late January boarding)

What a cutie, and what a great way to clean out your pup's ears!  :)

Sheldon worked on his Bella Ear Project for about 45 minutes, and then he started in on her eyes and lips.  I think by that point she was getting a bit raw, because she started giving the "Hey, I've had about enough" growls, which I think S is a bit too young to understand, since he just ignored her and kept jumping on her face.  I had to intervene and get Mr. Licks to settle down.

By the end of this second day, Bella was avoiding Sheldon like the plague!  :(  Poor S with no buddy to play with.  Sometimes I feel like a bad "mom" forcing B to interact with all these new pups.  It must be hard on her, knowing that there's a new batch of friends to meet each week, and each time she has to figure out how to let them know her comfort level when it comes to play and when "enough is enough."  And just when she works out the kinks with her new friends... they go home!

Tomorrow we've got another 7 month old puppy for Daycare, so we'll make up for the lack of play this evening then.

Bella trying to teach Bieken a lesson in play etiquette...

(mid- January 2011 visits)

Well, she still hasn't quite succeeded, but she's pretty tolerant and keeps trying!  Dogs are amazingly tolerant, trying over and over to get their friends to play in a way that makes everyone happy and comfortable.  They try so hard to say, "Hey, I don't like that.  Stop it or I'll stop letting you play with me."  I believe there's a lesson in that for us humans and dog owners.  Bella doesn't try to be Bieken's pack leader or show him that she's the dominant one - therefore he must obey her.  She works with what he wants (play time) to try and get what she wants (a fun play buddy, not one that jumps all over her). 

You can't see it in the video, but before the barking, she shows her teeth and gives him a warning growl.  But Bieken is having such a blast, he doesn't see it.  He doesn't really know yet to pay more attention to how she is doing and how she feels about this situation, since he's so young and is just paying attention to his own fun.  Eventually, if he has enough practice and has play buddies who are patient like Bella (and that includes the humans around him), he'll be able to learn doggie etiquette. 

Bella loves climbing the steps up to Bieken's place!  She is so happy to see him and they leap into the snowbank for some good ol' fashioned play and fun.  I can't wait to see how their friendship grows as he grows up and learns to respect her needs.  :)

Bella in the Powder

(Christmas 2011)

Here's Bella sprinting around in the yard.  Even Ozzy makes a little appearance at the end.  Bella really started to open up after the first day, which was great to see.

What a crazy couple of storms we had in December.  Can you believe we got 209" that month?  January is quite strange, with only 17" so far, but let's make up for it with lots of powder in February!  Come on, "snow gods," bring it on!

Sookie & Logan

(mid-January 2011)

These were just a few videos from Sookie & Logan's third day with us, we had an hour to wait for an appointment in Mammoth, so we headed out to Shady rest and hung out for a bit, went for a snow stroll for about 45 minutes.  Lots of bird watching and plowing through the powder!  I'm sure the two would have loved to have really run around... but they're typical huskies and would have also loved to have taken off!  :)

Exploring with Bella ... I couldn't get a good shot this day for the life of me.  :)  So... we get Logan's ears...

Sookie's BIRTHDAY!  Her present was to get to take this "egg" and completely destroy it, no questions asked.  And... yep, she did just that.  She spent around an hour totally fascinated by the egg play!

 

 

Well, you play hard... you nap hard, too!

Logan really loved finding and playing with the Busy Buddy toy, it was so hard to get a photo... as you can see... since he was rolling around, and flipping it all over the place, pawing it...

This was their last day with us... yeah, I've sort of let the carpet go... you can see the results of toy destruction (fluff!) next to big Hunter.  Sookie's such a funny sleeper.

I know it's hard to see, but in the photo below of our walk, can you see the random little snowman in the middle of the field?  S & L were on high alert, and it took me a bit to figure out what they were staring at!

The third quick one is just of S & Bella near my home.  S was on a 30-ft leash while we walked around the neighborhood one day when the weather was SO nice, and she got to sort-of run "free."  The yard was fine for running and playing, but I only had my own pups and one other small one, none of which were really interested in playing like these guys like to play, so I kept turning around to find Logan just snoozing out on the snow all bored.  Well, then!  When we have high-energy pups over, they definitely need other high energy pups to hang out with.

Little Katie

(January 2011)

What a cutie pie!  Katie would pick up tiny snowballs to play with, so funny.  She really made the most of her time in Mammoth.

Hunter & Baxter

Thank you to H & B's Sitter, Angie, for sharing these!  Baxter was definitely more of the supermodel here, huh!?  But he's such a character, so goofy and a lover of life!  Who doesn't like a good shot of a pretty pup?  :)

See you next time, boys!

Oh, look!  A frozen Crowley Lake in the background.

Hanging out in the backyard.