Up to Here in Puppyness
Today was full of puppy stuff.
This morning was sleeeeeep filled as is only right for a vacation day. I think I got 11 hours or so. Yesterday was the local dog park and wore me out after a few hours. Today, we left for the dog park in Gilbert around 11 and got there sometime around 11:45 or so. There are three parts - one for timid dogs (didn't go there!), one for play with some agility stuff, and one for swimming and diving! Sadie got about chest-deep, Chester fell in twice, and Sadie pushed him in once (or at least that's what it looked like!) and there was lots of running around in the wet beach gravel. We got lots of video! Must make puppy montage...
We're total a-holes at the dog park, because our dogs look and sound vicious when they play with each other, but really they are very good. Also, our dogs are very affectionate and will jump up on complete strangers. Chester has a weird fetish of sitting on people's feet and rubbing against them, cat-like. He does this even after getting soaking wet in the lake, and it being a chilly, overcast day the other people at the dog park didn't appreciate this much. They were snooty people dressed pretty nicely for a dog park, with their well-behaved, personality-deprived golden retrievers.
Another man had brought his two Aussies, Hagrid and Weasley, also brother and sister. They got along with Chester and Sadie, but there was some confusion about who was herding who and there was mild chaos.
Chester got mean with some dogs right before we left. Not good! I'm not sure what exactly triggered it. He had jumped up into my lap and other dogs came over and he snapped and lunged at them. Of course the only dogs that he picks fights with are the ones that are likely to rip his head off: pit bulls, labs, giant mixed breeds. The Aussies seem to have a thing against Boxers. It's like rival gangs.
Afterwards, we took them over to my mom's house so I could eat Thanksgiving leftovers that they could interact with Sugar and Buddy, since they haven't been over in a couple weeks. It went surprisingly well, I think that their experience at the dog parks these past few weeks made them a lot more calm. S and B are still confused at the "other dog" concept but C and S were very ingratiating and rolled over and tried to lick the older dogs' muzzles. All went well, until we were leaving, Chester started whining and flailing his right front paw around wildly. He kept that up and we took him right to the vet - I'm always paranoid with medical things. The vet said he probably got stung/bitten by something, possibly a spider, and she gave us an antibacterial/anti itch spray. That plus the visit means I'm out $75. Ah, well. The joys of puppy parenting.
On a side note, we've been listening to The Golden Compass on audio the last two days and it's FANTASTIC! More on that later.
So worn out.
This morning was sleeeeeep filled as is only right for a vacation day. I think I got 11 hours or so. Yesterday was the local dog park and wore me out after a few hours. Today, we left for the dog park in Gilbert around 11 and got there sometime around 11:45 or so. There are three parts - one for timid dogs (didn't go there!), one for play with some agility stuff, and one for swimming and diving! Sadie got about chest-deep, Chester fell in twice, and Sadie pushed him in once (or at least that's what it looked like!) and there was lots of running around in the wet beach gravel. We got lots of video! Must make puppy montage...
We're total a-holes at the dog park, because our dogs look and sound vicious when they play with each other, but really they are very good. Also, our dogs are very affectionate and will jump up on complete strangers. Chester has a weird fetish of sitting on people's feet and rubbing against them, cat-like. He does this even after getting soaking wet in the lake, and it being a chilly, overcast day the other people at the dog park didn't appreciate this much. They were snooty people dressed pretty nicely for a dog park, with their well-behaved, personality-deprived golden retrievers.
Another man had brought his two Aussies, Hagrid and Weasley, also brother and sister. They got along with Chester and Sadie, but there was some confusion about who was herding who and there was mild chaos.
Chester got mean with some dogs right before we left. Not good! I'm not sure what exactly triggered it. He had jumped up into my lap and other dogs came over and he snapped and lunged at them. Of course the only dogs that he picks fights with are the ones that are likely to rip his head off: pit bulls, labs, giant mixed breeds. The Aussies seem to have a thing against Boxers. It's like rival gangs.
Afterwards, we took them over to my mom's house so I could eat Thanksgiving leftovers that they could interact with Sugar and Buddy, since they haven't been over in a couple weeks. It went surprisingly well, I think that their experience at the dog parks these past few weeks made them a lot more calm. S and B are still confused at the "other dog" concept but C and S were very ingratiating and rolled over and tried to lick the older dogs' muzzles. All went well, until we were leaving, Chester started whining and flailing his right front paw around wildly. He kept that up and we took him right to the vet - I'm always paranoid with medical things. The vet said he probably got stung/bitten by something, possibly a spider, and she gave us an antibacterial/anti itch spray. That plus the visit means I'm out $75. Ah, well. The joys of puppy parenting.
On a side note, we've been listening to The Golden Compass on audio the last two days and it's FANTASTIC! More on that later.
So worn out.