Fill in Friday

I like blogs that have a "theme" for some or all days & thought I'd give it a go. On Fridays I will try to give a little update (or FILL IN ;o) of the week that I may have missed with any other posts.

I did post about our walk the other day. Yesterday I thought about our walking & what could make it more relaxing. I thought yesterday afternoon I would try to walk the boys alone. It was the same scenario as the day before with Zander out on the front lawn but wouldn't you know that there was NO barking at all? The walk was much more relaxed & they did great. Marley even kept up for almost an entire mile! When we came back we spent some time sitting in the grass with Zander. Marleys "meeting" with him the day before had been a little too stressful for a first meeting of a new dog so I wanted to try to make up for that & hopefully will help any future meetings go a bit more smoothly w/o as much stress. Zander finally calmed down enough, even though he was happy to see the Chi's. He lay down & they were able to mingle a bit & Maxwell was his happy playful self with Zander. It was such a nice visit!

Now the task....working with the girls I'm thinking one on one with the walking. Maribelle is just so yap happy - that is something we've always worked on & I need to take the time to work with only her on this. Matilda needs some one on one as well. She has become increasingly more anxious & "flighty" (which has gradually been increasing for months now). It is unhealthy for her & I've talked with hubby about it since I'm sure it's because her "special treatment" she gets from him. She used to be FANTASTIC with letting me clip her nails - she'd always just sleep through the whole thing & I made the mistake of one day, doing it while hubby was home. She was a complete drama queen & yelped & all (I'm always very careful & know I didn't do anything to hurt her). If I try to correct her for anything she immediately runs to hubby and on walks she walks ahead of me & if I stop & walk toward her with my hand up (what I have always done to get them to sit) she acts like I'm going to eat her or something. It's very frustrating for me & makes me feel bad, even though I'm not being mean or doing anything differently. This is why it is SO IMPORTANT for EVERYONE in the family to treat all dogs the same & ALL be pack leaders!! So point being, I think I will focus on walking the boys together since they do great but the girls are going to need a little special treatment. Should be interesting!

Marley - Marley, Marley, Marley! I just love this little guy and today he completely made my day by going out the doggy door ON HIS OWN not once but TWICE! The first time I was watching him in the living room & he went to the puppy room door way. So I took him down the 2 stairs (he still is a bit nervous about going down the stairs even though he comes up just fine), put him on the floor & he ran right out the doggy door & poo'ed w/o me saying anything. Then this afternoon, I took all the pups down in the puppy room with some toys, gated it off & had Marley practice going down the stairs a few times in between playing fetch with everyone. I knew he'd have to pee soon & was curious what would happen. I was in the middle of playing when I looked at the doggy door to see his little tushy going out the doggy door (to pee)!! I was SOOO happy & proud of him!

I did a little doggy supply shopping yesterday. Got a few new toys & FINALLY invested in a bed. Any beds we've ever gotten the pups they've ripped apart & eaten the stuffing in no time so I've been hesitant in putting the money into one they possibly will ruin, get sick or bound up from the stuffing & not be able to use. They do fine with blankets on the floor so we always keep a couple around. At the store they had these HUGE quilted pillow beds for $40 which I thought was a terrific price! The cover comes off & is washable so I thought we'd give it a go. The pups love it & did dig at it for the first few minutes but they seem to just lay chewing toys or sleep on it now so I'm **crossing fingers** it works out!

To close - I took a video of the pups getting their new toys. I swear these guys are just like kids. They were so excited about them. And I love how they were all squeeking away after a minute. TOO FUNNY!