Day Care for dogs?... yes please!

Buddies.

Yup that's right... Sable went to doggy day care! Probably one of the best inventions for busy people who love their doggies. Only down side to this daycare concept was the fact that I'm pretty sure Sable did not want to leave.

Trying to convince us she really

doesn't need a bath.

This morning she looked longingly at the front door as Jeff and I ran away to go to work and do real people things. I'm pretty sure if she could talk she would have been asking... no... pleading for us to take her to daycare again today. Even though her disappointment could be read all over her face I'm sure she would not have been able to handle two days of daycare in a row. Last night after arriving back home from daycare she literally collapsed into her bed and didn't move until she was sure she could hear the ping pang of food kernels dropping into her doggy bowl for dinner.

Showing us her unhappy wet puppy face.

While movement was minimal we did manage to give Sable a bath. The accumulation of dog park, Dixon drool, and now day care smells was getting a little overwhelming. Although this was not Sable's first bath, I did manage to capture a few priceless images (the last one not for the faint of heart :-P). I'm pretty sure Sable shed a doggy fur coat and left it in a ring around the tub... she's worse than me!

Fuzzy bathtub ring... ewww.

Anywho... still taking weekly pictures and the photo montage of Sable's growth continues. I've decided to share what I have thus far... enjoy watching the rapid growth of our little puppy.

New things to think about...

So now that Sable supposedly has a clean bill of health the new motto is 'no excuses'... although I'm not sure she understands that quite yet.

Peeing inside is still an occasional issue and I think I've decided it's because Sable is psycho (a conclusion I also came to in an earlier post).

I did some research and read up on some stuff and am convinced that Sable has some sort of psychological infatuation with the water in her water bowl. She's got a habit of drinking her water whenever she passes by, walks into the kitchen, before she goes out to pee, after she comes back inside, when she gets bored, whenever she gets up, before she lies down... you get the point, it's a little obsessive.


Other than her mental status Sable seems pretty good. No more puppy classes, but we did buy a 30' lead so she could romp around at the dog park without us worrying that she'd take off following another dog home. The last time at the dog park Sable pulled on the leash so hard she choked herself the entire time... with the long lead she did infinitely better! In fact at one point we dropped the leash to let her roam a little while following us down the trail and she didn't run away! Win!

Slowly we've been trying to keep up with Sable's homework... a little sit, stay, fetch and the like. She's getting really good at retrieving, even bringing it back and holding onto the ball until she sits at your side and you ask for it... although horrible at the same commands when anyone else or any other dog is in the vicinity. So I'm sure with no proof on my side most people probably don't believe me.

Last but not least... we noticed that Sable has lost the first couple of her baby teeth... finally no more razor blades in her mouth!!! Puppy milking teeth are the worst... woo come on adult teeth. Next concern is for shoes, rugs, couches, and anything else that can be chewed on by teething puppies.

Well... until next time! Enjoy the pictures :-)

Rounding out week number sixteen...

Sable is now around the 16 weeks old mark and weighs 18lbs... not showing signs of being a HUGE lab which I think will be a pretty good thing. Plus she's so cute at this size... who can be mad when there are cute little puppy eyes staring back at you.

Dixon and Sable: Partners in crime...

destroying the backyard tree.

Sable had a whirlwind of a weekend (for her), she spent an entire day with her buddy Dixon... whom she usually only sees for a few hours at a time. She pretty much died for the following two days :-P... but of course regained full energy by puppy class time. Made the weekend a little more relaxed for us humans which was nice!

This week Sable officially graduated from her first puppy class! I think both Jeff and I were SURE that she would fail, but she pulled through for us :-)... now it's my turn to graduate :-( boooo... if only they just handed me a certificate after six weeks of class. Note to self: be a cute puppy in my next life.

Sword fighting

Well that's all that's new for this week hopefully more excitement and photos to come, enjoy this week's photos!

Happy Valentines Week!

When she is good, she's so cute!

Today Sable has gone completely psychotic... yes... she's a psycho. It took me a solid hour to eat a simple sandwich all because she could not sit still or stay out of trouble. After all the running around today, chasing the puppy... I am now le tired.

This is Gangsta' Sable

We've also come to realize exactly how stubborn our little puppy really is... initially we began training with a choke collar only to discover that Sable would sooner choke herself than give in to the corrections to stop pulling. It's funny because one day Sable will be the perfect little sweet puppy, obedient and calm. The next day she turns into a small Tasmanian devil with total and utter chaos following her everywhere.

Sable with the flowers Jeff got me

In the midst of all the training ups and downs I wanted to share a few lovely images of the past week... ENJOY!

Sable's Valentines Day heart poop present for me... outside, don't worry.

Lets Socialize!

Last weekend was Superbowl and we held it at our place again this year... with Sable in mind. No sense taking her to someone else's house to pee all over :-P

She's still a little sick, but we're hoping she's really getting better. Due for another vet check up this week and slowly Sable is becoming a very expensive little puppy.

It was funny to see that Sable could care less that there was 8 new people in the house. Initially she was filled with excitement thinking everyone had come to see her, slowly that feeling turned into ambivalence as the focus turned toward the game. She calmed down pretty quickly and seemed relatively oblivious to the loud cheers, which is nice to see.

Puppy classes this week went well enough... we've come to that point in every puppy's life when they realize that the word 'come' has no meaning unless they're attached to a leash. Even then 'come' doesn't mean much if there is something more interesting going on in the general vicinity. Here come the terrible twos....

So in the midst of enjoying our puppy and trying to catch up on sleep, we will be amping up the training regime in hopes of nipping bad habits in the bud!