Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted by Animals at 5:21 PM Monday, November 30, 2009

Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Posted: 30 Nov 2009 08:26 AM PST

We had a great holiday weekend with Miles the grand dog. Miles got together with Alice and Tyrone for several hikes up on Boston Hill and we followed most of the recommendations I made for a safe holiday with our dogs and cats. We did manage to lose Miles's dog tag with all his contact information. Not sure how that happened, but Claire is going to have to deal with that back in the ABQ.

I noticed that Miles got a few hand outs around the dining room table on Thursday but not too many. He didn't skip a beat and it's obvious he is well house-trained. I was surprised at how well he could hold it. I took him out for a walk one evening before bed and he didn't do anything. He slept with us that night and the next morning he did his business first thing. He has a big bladder.

Miles was a little put off by all the hubbub on Thanksgiving day. We had eighteen people over for an excellent pot luck dinner and the poor dog was a little leery of all those humans. He would run off into one of the rooms off the kitchen if things got too busy for his tastes but all in all he did a very good job putting up with us.

I gave him some good lessons walking on a lead without pulling. He's a big boy now, almost eighty pounds and still not a year old yet. If he wanted to, he could pull me off my feet. Whenever he got rambunctious with me and started to pull. I'd simply stop. Fun over until the lead was loose and he was walking at my side. He got lots of praise for walking with me on a loose leash and by this morning he was doing a lot better. Claire will have to maintain that strategy with consistency back home.

One thing I did notice is that he needs more exercise.

Claire is in her third year of law school and she spends most of her time studying. While Miles is not fat, he is one click over ideal on my body condition chart. He has a slight layer of sub Q fat over his rib cage. I'd like to see a hint of rib during this critical phase of his development. I don't want him coming down with any hip or shoulder problems in the future.

He's going to head home today over snowy Emory pass and back up the Rio Grand Valley to Albuquerque. I'm going to miss him. He's such a good puppy and we've really enjoyed spending time with him. He met Chris each morning at the top of the stairs to our bedroom. I could hear the greeting. Chris is going to miss him most of all.

"No one is ever that happy to see me in the morning," she would remark.

I can't tell whether that comment was about the joy of a loving dog or a possible dig at yours truly.

Lots About Dogs

Posted by Animals at 3:05 PM

Lots About Dogs

How to Teach Your Dog Not to Jump on the Furniture! – Part 2

Posted: 30 Nov 2009 05:00 AM PST

Here’s what you do to teach your dog not to jump on the furniture: - First of all, supply him with an attractive alternative. Being asked to get off a comfortable couch to lie on the unadorned floor is hardly something he’s going to respond to with enthusiastic obedience: set him up for success, not failure, [...]

The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

Posted by Animals at 4:08 AM

The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

A few things I learned from my hike!

Posted: 29 Nov 2009 08:05 AM PST

I was thinking the other day that there's a lot to learn about life from a hike (at least from a dog's point of view :).

Hikes can be made up of some very contemplative and eye opening moments if you let 'em....so I thought I'd share a few of the things I was thinking about after our six mile hike yesterday:

Live life with anticipation and take in all the good stuff. You don't want to miss a thing!

Take time to smell the good things in life...you can learn a lot about yourself and others in these moments.

You never know what lies ahead, so be prepared to enjoy it!

Clean up your messes, you don't want to leave doo for others :)

Make sure to look up, you may miss something if you've always got your nose to the ground!

When you're not sure which way to go, follow your gut and your heart!

No matter what, keep on smiling, it will help you get through the challenging times.

Life's a lot like a river, it just keeps on flowing...fast and slow, ruff and smooth, around and over ...and it never gives up.

Don't take life too seriously, you may miss out on all the fun!

If life throws you a curve, flow with....there's lots to learn in the curves.

If you're unsure about something, why not investigate...it could be the best thing that ever happened to you! (What is that?)

Follow the rules, but make your own rules too! Being unique makes you special.

Life's a journey, not a destination. Enjoy it, you never know what's around the bend.

When the time presents itself, jump in with all fours, believe me you won't regret it!

Above all, have fun! It's the only life you've got :)

Hope you enjoyed my little hike this past weekend :) And I hope you had a pawsome weekend too!

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All the Creatures

Posted by Animals at 5:16 PM Sunday, November 29, 2009

All the Creatures

Never, but never, give a pet as a gift

Posted: 29 Nov 2009 10:22 AM PST

I learned to never give a pet as a gift. About 15 years ago it had a tragic end. It was just before Christmas and my nephew had been bugging his mother for a pet. I knew of his requests and talked to my mother about the possibilities. My mother was living with my sister [...]

Free torrents

Posted by Animals at 11:28 AM Saturday, November 28, 2009

The queentorrent is a protocol widely used for downloading on the Internet that enables download music files, videos, games and software quickly and securely download these files makes it easy for anyone. Many users do not use torrent networks due to the way to make the downloads. Unlike other networks where files are located and simply downloaded the torrent files that need a small file with the source data is loaded in advance, generating a suspect who is to lay the matter, has the best free torrents for you download whatever you want with quality and security, and find everything you want, you need not look elsewhere, come now to queentorrent.com.

All the Creatures

Posted by Animals at 5:24 PM Friday, November 27, 2009

All the Creatures

The Christmas card fiasco

Posted: 27 Nov 2009 09:19 AM PST

It’s Black Friday, and like most Black Friday’s I am staying well away from any store. I don’t mind a few people or even a slightly elevated traffic count, but I don’t like mobs of frenzied shoppers. Years ago this day was also my day to sent out a pile of Christmas cards. Then I [...]

The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

Posted by Animals at 4:07 AM Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

It's time for...Johann's Annual Howling Howliday Giveaway!!!

Posted: 25 Nov 2009 04:34 PM PST

Yep, that's right, it's time for Johann's Annual Howling Howliday Giveaway!

The contest begins at 12:01AM tomorrow, Nov. 26th (that's one minute after midnight, tonight) EST, and runs through midnight EST Christmas Day, Dec. 25th, 2009.

Last year was such a success, Mum and I scrambled around the past couple of weeks getting everything ready for this year's big event.

Like last year, it's a Holiday-themed photo contest, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes. The photo with the most votes and views will be the winner, second place number of votes and views gets second place...(well you get the idea)! The prizes are gift prize packages made up of some of the most amazing dog products on the market!

And this year, we've added in a way to help some pups in need! We encourage every one who enters to help out the shelter and the nice folks, that rescued me from a life on the streets. They helped Mum find me and give me the most amazing life a dog could ever have.

My shelter is the Southside Animal Shelter, a no-kill non-profit shelter, located here in Indianapolis, that rescues pets from all over the city. They take the unwanted ones from shelters that are full, find them roaming the streets (like I was, with my Mum, sisters and brothers), and take in all kinds of unwanted kitties and pups, then finds them amazing homes, just like I have. They will keep them all fed, healthy and happy until they get adopted if it's one day or even several years.

We're not asking for much, just a dollar if that's all you can spare. We know it's tough times, so if you're participating see if you can spare some to help out the needy pups and kitties, K? And ask your friends and family who are voting for ya to make a small donation too! The shelter sure could use some foods and supplies to help the pets find their furever homes!

We want to siriusly thank all the companies for their amazing generosity in making some pawsome contributions to the prize packages. Thank you to....

Furminator
Dr. Harvey's
Dog Tag Art
Floaa Dishposables
4 Paw Creations
KoKos Pet Spa
Coryelle Kramer, Animal Communicator
Big Paw Designs
Camp Run-a-Pup Deer Antlers
Petit Four Legs
K9 Yard Patch
Sew Crazy Dog Lady
Best Bully's
Animal Translations
Pop Dog Art
TrueBlue Pets Natural Grooming Products
Simon and Schuster - "Inside of a Dog"
Ark Naturals
Canine Earth
EcoSMART
Rock Star Pooch
Punk Rock Dogg
BiologicVET
2HoundsDesign
PetSmart
K9 Klear Up

And we expect more next week! You can see and visit all the sponsors (and check out their generous donations) on the contest page. Be sure and visit them, support them, K?

To help get you some votes, we made a cool button you can put on your website or blog to promote your pawticipation! Just right click and save to your 'puter. Then add it to your blog or website. Or you can click to the contest page, find the button, click on it and grab the html code.

Head on over, register, upload your photo and get your friends and family to start voting. (Only one vote per person per day, K?) There's no need for visitors to register to vote for you, or add a comment to your photo. The earlier you enter, the better chance you have of racking up those votes!

So what are you waiting for? Get goin! (Well, starting at one minute after midnight, EST that is :)

Great weekend hike!

Posted: 25 Nov 2009 04:40 AM PST

Amazing weather this past week for this time of year. I think it was in the high 50's, no wind, and kinda sunny this past weekend. How lucky are we?

So what did we do? Yep, we went hiking on Sunday!!! Can I tell ya how much I love hiking? Arrroooo!!!!

We went to the River Road Park again, since Mum thought we would enjoy hiking in the woods more than anything. Can she read my mind or what? She had us sit again at the canoe launch, but we were most interested in getting going!

The first thing we did was venture into the dense. Lot of great smells in there, burrs up the wazoo, even some thorny bushes that didn't bother me as much as Mum, BOL!!

This is the only blooming thing we saw on the entire hike, a little woodsy flower, with an amazing purple color.

We stopped to take in the White River views. Without the leaves on the trees you can see a lot further. The river wasn't too high or too low, and wasn't flowing very fast. So it was super quiet...and we just took it all in.

Gracie had this odd mesmerized look on her face all day, guess that's what nature does fur a hippy girl, BOL!

We hiked about a mile through the woods, then we got on the walking path. We walked the entire path which is five miles. At the end of the path, before heading back there is another woodsy area to hike through. So we ventured on.

There were a lot of squirrels back in here, which made us go bonkers, of course :) And it ended at the little creek that flows into the White River.

We stopped and Mum saw this tree that had dead leaves, but they hadn't dropped yet. We thought it was a very cool nature work of art.

Speaking of art, on the walking path back we saw these vines that had lost all their leaves. There were probably 50 or so birds rattling around in there. And you know how much I love birds! We would make a little sound and they would fly out, then immediately come back. Then, we'd be quiet, and it would start all over again. Such a fun game!

Walking around the neighborhood, I've recently become obsessed with drains. This time of year, they have very different smells than other times of the year and I just can't stay away from any of them. Thankfully for Mum, we only had one drain on the walking path...

After the five miles on the walking path, we got back into the woods for another mile hike through there. Gracie was wide eyed on this trip, but not nearly as manic as her last venture into this woods. She was really enjoying herself. And Mum found out how helpful she can be, when Gracie pulled her up a steep hill, after Mum slipped. Sometimes leash pulling can come in very handy, BOL!!!

Mum loves moss, it's so artistic in nature she says. There was moss everywhere in the woods this time, even on the south side of the trees. Whoops!!! Here's one of her favorite moss pics from Sunday.