Second Position

Did any of you take ballet lessons when you were young? I took them for a couple years, mainly because my friends were taking them, not because I dreamt of being a great ballerina. I even remember the music and costumes for our recital. We danced to the Waltz of the Flowers and wore pink tutus and pink leotards with sequins up the side.

If you took dance, do you remember the positions?

 Second position looks like this.

Do you think I have a budding ballerina here? 

Or maybe two?

 

Rain Delay

We had planned a back yard barbecue for Dad's Day. The weather dude said it would be a nice weekend and not to cancel any of our outdoor plans. Ha! We woke up to thunder and lightning on Saturday and it rained buckets all day and most of yesterday. The same stupid weather dude apparently forgot his Friday forecast and told us we had 10 inches of rain on Saturday. Then guess what, the same thing happened this morning. Thunder and lightning and lots of rain. Bummer!

The back yard thing was out. We spent the whole weekend laying around.

But it was OK because we spent the weekend laying around with Dad.

Mom made barbecued steak and bleu cheese potatoes and broccoli and even a blackberry pie yesterday. We all got a taste of everything so it wasn't so bad and we can still have out outdoor party when the rain stops.

Rise and Shine

OK, so it may have been my own fault that I was too tired to do much of anything yesterday but sit around and drink coffee. I admit I stayed up too late the night before, but I had a good excuse, at least for part of the time. Remember I'm a hockey fan and Wednesday night was the first game in the Stanley Cup finals. It went into triple overtime.

That meant that we sat up till the wee hours watching dueling goal tenders make amazing saves.

Between the end of regular play and the first overtime I gave everyone their yogurt, sent them outside for last call and put the girls and Mac into their crates with goodnite cookies.

The game finally came to an end and I can only imagine how tired those players were. I was pretty tired just watching. I called  Morgan, the boys and Sydney and we headed for bed.

But that wasn't the end of the night for me. Oh no!

When you have a large pack of dogs you must master many jobs. You learn to cook healthy meals and treats and to read ingredients from processed dog foods and treats. You learn to recognize and treat various injuries and illnesses. You learn to recognize which ones need professional treatment. You learn the signs and symptoms of illnesses you never heard of before and can barely spell and how to deal with them. You learn the basics of grooming and how to bathe an uncooperative dog. You learn about types of collars and harnesses and which ones work in which situations. You learn about training and you learn to soothe and comfort dogs who need special attention.

Sometimes you learn to be a traffic cop. Take Wednesday night or Thursday morning for example. We humans were tired and wanted to go to sleep. The dogs had skipped most of the game and had been napping for hours. When we entered the bedroom they all went to their sleep spots. I got in bed and turned off the light. Then Morgan decided she needed a drink of water. I keep a bowl of water in the bathroom so she went in and had her drink. The problem started when she headed back to her bed.

Sebastian had moved and was blocking her way from the bathroom back into the bedroom. She can't jump over him and didn't want to step on him, so she stood in the doorway barking till I got up and asked Sebastian to move. He did and she walked back to her bed. I got back in bed.

Miss Sydney had gotten out of her chair and come to see what Morgan was barking at. When she got up, Noah climbed into her chair so when she went back her place was occupied. She started whining.

I got up again and moved Noah to his pillow where he usually sleeps. Then Sydney was able to get back into her spot. I went back to bed.

Then Noah growled because Sebastian was still wandering around looking for a place to sleep. I got up and found a good place for Sebastian. He likes to sleep with his head hidden so I found a place where he could get his head behind a table and he settled down with a sigh.

I went back to bed only to find Fudge sleeping contentedly in my place with his big head on my pillow. I was tempted to just walk back downstairs and sleep on the couch but instead I sent Fudge to the foot of the bed where he curled up on my feet and we all went to sleep.

Morning came much too early when the girls who had all had a good night's sleep woke up ready to eat and play. Ok, I'm rested and ready for game two on Saturday. Go Bruins!

Hot Times InThe Old Town

Why are we humans never satisfied with the weather? If it's raining we wish it was sunny. If it's dry, we wish it would rain. If it's cold and snowy, we wish for summer. If it's hot, we wish it were cooler. Today the temperature hit the 90s and it looks like it plans to stay there for the next couple months. I like my days to be approximately 68 degrees, so I plan to do a lot of indoor projects over the next couple months. See, after several false starts, I have one in progress.

My furry friends, of course, don't quite understand this temperature thing. They ask to go outside at regular intervals expecting to find a cool sunny day to run and play. When they hit the wall of heat, they turn around and want to come back inside again.

We are trying various things to make the heat more acceptable. Today I filled the pool for them to splash around.

We'll also set up the sprinkler for them to run thru.

And best of all there's a big juicy watermelon cooling in the fridge.

I don't think there'll be too many complaints.

Who"ll Play With Mac?

Look what a beautiful day it is to play outside. Too bad Mom is on this stupid training kick. She thinks we should all pay attention and do what she tells us. Syd is doing it but I think it's a real waste of time. Oh well, I'll find something to do out here.

Look, there's Sebastian and he's not doing anything important.

He's just rolling around. I bet he'd like to play with me.

Hi Sebastian, do you want to play?

Let's run and wrestle. Why do you just want to roll?

I can roll too. I'll join you.

It's OK Tess, Sebastian and I are playing.

This is fun, but don't you want to run and wrestle?

Wait Sebastian, why are you going in your house?

Can I come in?

I have to wait out here?

Gee, why doesn't anyone want to play with me? I didn't mean to bite Syd's face and make it bleed.

Wow, those pups can be a real pain when a guy is trying to relax.

Beware The Chair!

We've been missing in action all week with an emphasis on action. Sydney and Mackenzie have recovered from their operations and now that they are officially big girls we decided it was time for some serious lessons on manners. I think the big dogs wanted to leave home when they realized what we were all going to go thru this week.

Having one puppy in the house isn't too bad, but two has been a real challenge. I even found it easier to train when I had eight pups because if I was working with one, the others all had each other for company. But if I take one of these two with me, the other screams for her sister.

Our training tools this week were a couple of leashes, some treats, a spray bottle filled with water, a couple of crates, and a kitchen chair. I know you're asking yourself about the kitchen chair and I'll explain in a bit.

At first both  girls were on leashes and the leashes were attached to Rob and me at all times. I usually had Syd and she accompanied me everywhere I went and I do mean everywhere. At times the two were permitted to play together but all the while with leashes attached so we could grab them if they got too rowdy.

After a couple days one was allowed to wander around, leash on but not being held by anyone. The other was still attached to one of us. We alternated so that each pup got some free time. They were rewarded for good behavior such as not attacking each other or the other dogs or not chewing things that weren't theirs etc. The were sprayed with water if they had barking contests or attacked each other. This does not work with Porties who love being sprayed and will keep coming back for more.

They were occasionally put in their crates for naps or quiet times and had to be quiet  in order to be released. They were fed separately from their own bowls and if they didn't eat, they were put into their crates with their bowls. Dinner is not play time.

Because of the surgery they were escorted outside on leash until today when they were finally allowed to run.

Wednesday Rob and I were having dinner and Mac was starting to get too wound up, so I tied her leash to my chair. She had no choice but to sit quietly and wait for us to finish eating. At one point I got up to get something and forgot that she was attached to the chair. She saw that as her chance to race into the living room and attack her sister who was quietly playing with a toy. The chair fell over and went bouncing across the floor behind her. She ran faster and so did the chair. Rob jumped up and grabbed the chair and released Mac. When I got to the doorway both pups were sitting very straight and very quietly on the couch. They stayed there without making a sound for several hours. They have a new respect for the chairs.

At bedtime Mac goes into her crate in the laundry room with a cookie but Syd is now allowed to sleep in the bedroom with us. She claimed the easy chair and as soon as she receives her cookie curls up in her chair. We don't hear a sound from her till morning. We hope that someday Mac will be able to join us, but for now there's no shame in sleeping in a crate.

Being a puppy is hard work. There's so much to learn and being bad can be so much fun, but we're getting there. There's another new puppy in Blogville who will be facing some of these issues soon. Go visit Brutus. He's a very big, very cute boy.