Mischief Monday - Bad walkers

Lady and Man took us for a walk on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. They took us through the bush. It was so exciting that we  pulled and carried on and were terrible walkers for the first 3/4 of the walk. Lady couldn't hold us, so Man had to walk us. When we go out with Lady alone, we are good. She said we made the walk unenjoyable. We think she doesn't appreciate how exciting it was. Sigh!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, Lady didn't take the camera with us.

Do you ever drag your people?

Black and White Sunday - Bagheera

Enjoying the summer like weather we have been having.

Saturday - Not relaxing yet

Lady got up in a good mood with a plan. Then she had computer problems for like 1.5 hours. It was a swearing under her breath storm here. Wow, those were some very unique combination of works. We give her 8 points for creativity!

Now the computer problems (minus the use of one shift key) seem to be resolved. We are behind so won't get to see you all til this pm, cause Lady has course time and errands.

As promised, here is more about Phod and the octopus.

Phoddy 2: Octopus: 0
Note: The octopus doesn't lose his legs by tugging, he loses them when Phoddy sits and systematically chews they off.

Give me the Octopus 

A leg from above!

Poor octopus

where the 2 legs use to be

Feline Friday - I am waiting

Nin: "I am on the counter, so you should be feeding me or petting me."

Training Thursday - I got this down - by Lee

First my apologize  for not being able to control my Lady's access to the internet and visit you all as much as I have liked this week. Lady has been working crazy days + her course + her training us so she hasn't been as available to push around direct. We have visited some but not left comments on all to allow us time to visit more. She says next week will be better (I don't believe her).

She says, I should tell you to come back Saturday to hear more about Phod and the Octopus. I told her people only want to come for me, but you can't say I didn't tell you.

Now on to me, the reason you all tune into this blog.

Lady and Man have been working very hard with me this week. They are working on a couple things:

1) Not jumping on them when they come in. I am doing better (although last night Lady got home late and was carrying this really good smelling thing and I jumped up to smell it). Lady and Man say I still need a lot of work on this.

2) My relaxed pose. I am rocking this. Lady says I need to learn to stay in it longer . . . I disagree. We will see who wins this.

Relaxed - I got this down

3) More puzzle time. Lady says that is a whole posting of its own and we will write that soon.

So that is how things are going with me. Is anyone else getting to learn cooler tricks?

Wordless Wednesday - Phod and the octopus

What's your style?

Thank you all for your ideas for puzzles. I didn't know Amazon sold them. I had a good look and have ordered 3 to start (I had 18 in my cart at first . . . . . that was way too expensive in one month).

We have gone back to giving Kong's everyday.  We noticed that the dogs have different styles in their approach to eating them.

What's your style?

Mischief Monday - We dub thee "Butter Belly"

The scene: A rainy Saturday night. The Man makes popcorn for the pack to enjoy a movie. The Man and Lady would like to say they are generous in sharing their popcorn. Hailey had a LOT. Once the popcorn was done, Hailey left the moving watching area. Man and Lady thought nothing of it. Then Man went to get another drink and Lady heard "Oh no. No. No. No."

Man had left half a stick of butter on the counter and Hailey had enjoyed eating it. She was never sick, but she was very farty. We called her "Butter Belly" for the rest of the weekend!

Hailey making sure she didn't miss any of the butter! 

What's your fav puzzle toy?

One of the recommendations from the Behaviourist (that I forgot to mention) was to stop feeding the dogs in dishes and to have 6-10 puzzle toys that they get their food from. Now we are not sure if we want to feed the dogs all their food this way (we think Zaphod would starve because Hailey is so smart and fast she would get all the food). However, we are willing to give them some of their food this away. Currently we have a few, including a traditional kong (which is MIA but is here somewhere) and some actual food puzzles. We are looking for ideas of other tough, proven puzzles so please share your favourites with us!

_______
Note from Lee: Lady says I won't get to visit you all until later today, she needs to do some course this morning and then has to go to the city because her (insert words I am not suppose to repeat - lots of them) iPhone is sick. The home button only works sometimes and it has frustrated her and she wants to get that fixed. See you all later!

Feline Friday - Blast from the Past

This picture is from almost 4 years ago. It is of Nin and our beloved Loki. Lo and Nin were good friends and often curled up together.

Sending our thoughts . . . .

Today we are asking everyone to send their thoughts and love to all the people in Ottawa who were affected by the bus/train accident yesterday. We would also like to thank all the rescue workers and medical staff who worked tirelessly to help everyone.

While we don't live in Ottawa anymore, it will always be part of our home (it is only 30 km away) and the accident occurred just minutes from where Lady works part time. 

[For those who don't live in the area - a double decker city bus crashed into passenger train Wednesday morning. At the time Lady wrote this 6 people had died and at least 30 others were injured. It is the worst bus accident in the history of Ottawa].

Wordless Wednesday - Baggy gets some dog cookies

The Behaviourist

Last night was the big night, we drove 1.5 hours in rush hour (1.25 hours not in rush hour) to see the Behaviourist. We had given ourselves a lot of extra time because we were going in rush hour, so Lee had the chance to sniff around a little park before. She enjoyed this. She didn't enjoy being in the clinic as much but because Dr. W gave her lots of treats, she did settle (and periodically check to see if it was time to go home).

Checking out the woods

The issues we hope to address are anxiety over strangers, especially children, and her anxiety over fireworks, thunder etc.

Here is what we learned:

• Hailey is at the age where she can develop separation anxiety (which she doesn't have) or have anxiety get worse.
• It is possible she will never get over her fear of kids
• She should be on leash/gentle lead/in her crate when kids are around to prevent aggression
• Socialization for dogs is most important between the ages of about 3-12 weeks. It is the experiences in this time and her genetics that have resulted in who she is.
• The Man and the Lady experience her anxiety differently and want different solutions (expect we both agree that drugs are the LAST resort. We really don't want to drug her. Please note, this is not a judgement on other people's decision to use drugs. It is our preference with our current experience.)

The things we are doing right that will help:

Checking out the room

• She is well trained 
• We realize she has a problem
• We have given her quiet places to go when she is stressed.
• We use reinforcement procedures and not punishment.

The short term plan:

• As much as possible for the next few weeks we are to avoid situations that make her anxious. [There are some things we just can't control . . . but we will do our best]
• We are going to teach her to "relax" and work on getting her to stay in the relaxed position for increasing lengths of time without anxiety producing stimuli around. 
• We are going to do some research into a gentle lead (Lady likes the idea of this, Man not so much).

Tired out in the car

Last night we got home around 9, and started work on relax. We had done this years ago with her (I had forgotten), so she remembered it. She is going to get it quickly. 

We have a phone follow up next week and one a couple weeks after. 

Do any of you have experience with the gentle lead? Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Mischief Monday - BAD LADY

Our Lady is bad! She said she was away for work and look what we found when we went through her phone (yes, we were tipped off that she had been somewhere fun by her smell, so we spied on her):

Lady with our cousin Lupul

Lady with cousins Lupul and Panda

Liar, liar, pants on fire. No wonder she felt bad and brought us gifts, she sure should have. We are very angry at the mischief she caused. It is worse than when Lee tried to put Phod's ball down the groundhog hole this weekend.

Anyway we are making her feel good and guilty and getting her to give us  lot of treats out of it.

Do your people ever tell you lies about where they are going?

------------------------------

Editor's Note: Hailey goes to see the behaviourist tonight. Will let you all know how that goes tomorrow.

Black and White Sunday - Guilt Gifts

Lady had guilt for leaving us 2 nights this week, so she came back on Saturday afternoon with presents.  She brought us new yummy cookies, and 2 new stuffed toys.  Here we are playing with one of them:

We can't wait to catch up with you all later today!  Lady can't do much because of her ankle. It is very sore cause she didn't rest it enough the last 2 days. 

Feline Friday - Happy Friday the 13th

May lucky black cats cross your path all day!

Note: While it looks like Nin is having a stroke, he was fine just singing and walking!

PS. Lady's ankle is a little sore, so Man did morning walk today. She says it isn't too bad. She says she had one h-e-double hockey sticks week, with lots and lots of HBO words (in her head and out) and she will help us catch up on all your blogs tomorrow cause she is away again all day and overnight . . . . 

Training Thursday - Teaching our Lady to Walk

Apparently instead of spending time teaching us to do cool tricks, Lady needs to teach herself to walk. She missed one morning of walk as she was away for work and today she hurts herself.

We were having a nice walk. It was later in the morning cause Lady got home so late last night she could sleep in a little. We were on our way back, about 1 km from the house. We were around a little bend, with a little curve and Lady could here a vehicle coming. She stared to reel us in and move to the side and somehow in this tripped on a rock and rolled her right ankle.

She says the pain that shot through her leg was terrible and she thought those HBO words but was actually silent. She took a few steps and realized at least she could walk. She really had no other choice,  we were 1 km from home and there was no one to call to get us. So we slowly walked home.

She is icing it and hoping it is just a minor sprain and will be all better tomorrow. But it hurts a lot right now, so it could be more serious.

We are not being helpful cause we are laughing at her and telling her to learn to walk! Although we hope this doesn't interfere with tomorrows walk.

PS We did a good job at making her feel guilty about leaving us yesterday. I, Hailey, sort of gave her the cold shoulder, and Phod acted like he had never been loved!  It was great cause she felt bad.

Wordless Wednesday - Lost in the Mist

_______________________________

We remember.

Lady gets an F - by Lee

Dear Blogville,

Unhappy wet Phod

I am very sorry that I didn't get to visit you all yesterday but my Lady is bad. You see she has started talking a course, so some of her extra time is spent doing that on the computer, instead of letting me visit you. MEAN!


Next, last night the bad bag came out. Lady is traveling some for work and isn't going to be home tonight. It will feel like 87 million years. She said because of this, and her course, we won't get to visit everyone as much this week. She promises us we will have time on the weekend, but I don't believe her.

Unhappy Wet Lee

If those 2 things were not enough, she made us go for a walk in a monsoon today. Lady says that is an exaggeration. She says it was just pouring rain. I think she can say that because she could change her wet clothes. We are stuck in our wet fur all day.

Because of these 3 horrible things, Lady gets an F.

We hope you are all having better lives!

Love Hailey Bug

_______________

An aside: A friend of a friend's child is fighting cancer. Her family have put together this video to raise awareness about childhood cancer. Please take the less than 4 minutes to watch it and learn. Hannah is fighting for her life and needs all the love and support she can get.

Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ljOHzZRerc

Mischief Monday - Hailey and the Hopper

Sorry there are no pictures as I didn't even have my phone in my pocket when this adventure occurred.

The other day while hunting for Goldby, the resident groundhog (who has been MIA the past few days), Hailey was distracted by something else in the long grass. It was a giant grasshopper. Hailey had a great time playing with this hopper. She chased it and pounced it and worked hard to hunt it. Eventually she was successful - the hopper was not hopping anymore.

Next it was roll on the dead hopper and get all that dead goodness all over your fur. She spent the next few minutes carefully positioning the grasshopper and then rolling it. She repeated this at least a half dozen times.

Once the spoils of her hunt adorned her fur, it was time to eat the hopper. This is where I stepped in and  moved her from the hopper. I really didn't want her to throw that up later!

While Lee has not been successful in hunting Goldby, she was very proud to have caught the hopper.

Black and White Saturday - Guarding my Toy

Play Time - It is MINE - by Lee

As you all know, I won a bunch of special prizes from my good friend Sammy at http://onespoiledcat.wordpress.com for being teacher's pet. Lady has made me share my food treats with Phod and tried to get me to share my tug toy with Phod. This is what happened:

Oh no, in coming. 

Phod it is mine. Sammy gave it to me. 

Let GO! 

I got it. 

I am not giving it to you if you stand beside me

I am taking it somewhere else.

Stop chasing me! 

Finally I have it all to myself!

Lady let me have some time with it before putting it away. She says she doesn't want me to be destroying it . . . I don't know what she is talking about . . . . .

Feline Friday brings you "Hug Day" for Benny

Our friend Benny from http://www.twofrenchbulldogs.com is battling liver cancer and on his "Benny List" (which others may call a bucket list) he asked all of Blogville to share pictures of hugs.  So here is our contribution to Benny's Day!

Fight Like a Frenchie!

Lady hugging Nin and Lee and Phod giving her some love

A hug for Baggy

A hug for Lee

Group hug

A hug for Phod

Training Thursday - Phod and crawl

Thank you all for all the Gotcha Day wishes for Hailey. I think she had a great day. There were no fireworks or anything, so that helped! We are sorry we didn't get to all your blogs yesterday but we were too busy celebrating! [Sammy, if you want to see one of the games we played come back Saturday].


Today is training Thursdays and we are going to shift our focus from Miss Hailey Bug to Zaphod.
Zaphod is not as food motivated as Lee and not as eager to do them. However, we still keep working away on them. However, we continue to try. He is working on crawl right now. Somedays he does it better than others.

Here he is getting a little help from the Man:

Here he is getting help from Hailey (no wonder it takes so long to learn a new trick here!):

Happy Gotcha Day Hailey!

Hailey's petfinder picture. Can you believe with a face like that she waited 6 months in 2 different countries for a forever home?

3 years ago today, a whirlwind of a pup moved into our house.

3 favourite Hailey adventures:
-The time Hailey climbed the tree at the dog park trying to get a squirrel
-When she knows she is not suppose to dig in a spot and she walks over all calmly, does a mad couple of digs and runs away so you can't scold her
-Any time she is running - she always smiles

3 Hailey things we wouldn't want to live without:
-Her demanding belly rubs
-Her tricks - she is so smart
-Her smile - she is such a joyful dog

Hailey now!

We love you Hailey!

You Go Girl!

A picture of Lee demanding love -
this is the perfect belly rub position

I am very proud of my girl. We had friends over yesterday (it was Labour Day weekend after all), and the friends had 2 boys aged 5 and 7. Of course when they first came, Hailey was very upset and nervous. She barked and barked and barked.  Hailey barking made these kids who aren't use to dogs very nervous, so they would run and scream and it didn't help.

After a bit (once everyone had sort of settled), we coached  the boys to deal with her. We taught the boys to be assertive with Hailey and Hailey started to listen. It helped that they were giving her treats and chips. So while she didn't want them to touch her and she still wanted to keep her distance, she did calm down.

I was so proud of her! Her calming down was rewarded with a thunderstorm that made her extra nervous, but she did so much better with the kids!  I of course forgot to take pictures.


_______
August Pet Expenses:

Vet: $420.45 - this includes Phod's annual check up and shots, Nin's blood work and the cats food (we have to get it at the clinic)
Dog food and a replacement leash and treats: $91.50

For a total of: $511.95

_______

Tomorrow is a special day, please remember to stop by!

Mischief Monday - Goldby must die!

The bush Hailey went in

Hailey is on a quest to rid our yard of Goldby, the resident groundhog. This is a tough job because there are at least 6 groundhog holes around our house.

Several evenings Goldby has made her job much easier, he/she has been in the driveway. Hailey then knows what hole to check out!

The other day it went something like this: Hailey took off into the deep bush after the groundhog. She got in so deep we couldn't reach her tie out (which isn't attached to anything). From the side closest to our house the bush is was too thick to reach her. Man had to go around the bush on the neighbours side and go in the deep bush and get her. He found her half way down the groundhog hole. He had to drag he up. She was covered in dirt and happy as a pig in poop.

Now Hailey goes out on leash . . . .

Black and White Sunday - Waiting for More Bacon