I love a tired 'houla

Bayou was really tired after daycare Friday. She came home, ate, went out to pee and came in and plopped down. That was all she wrote. She slept the whole night on the couch. I love a tired 'houla.

Love that look

Snow doggy

Tired but still has energy to play in the snow!

Then again,  maybe I am tired...

"Dog Tired"

This is what they must mean when they say someone is dog tired! Look how contorted she is. LOL

Aspen Meadows 1st Anniversary Party

Today is the 1st Anniversary Party at Aspen Meadows Pet Resort where Bayou goes to daycare. I'm looking forward to going and celebrating with them. I really like this daycare and want to be supportive. If David goes with me we'll bring Bayou. If he doesn't go I'll leave her home with him. They are asking the clients to paint pictures of their dog(s) on the wall in the daycare. If they have someone who can help me I'll be happy to do it. I printed out a picture of Bayou as a model. I'm not much of a real life artist so we'll have to see how it goes. I hope they have a lot of people to show up at the party. Bayou really wanted to go to daycare today but it's her day off so she's home with us. She's doing okay. She'll be there tomorrow though. She loves going to Aspen Meadows. It's her favorite place!

Bath Day

Bayou couldn't wait to get to daycare today. She wouldn't even eat her breakfast from her tug-a jug. I had to put it in her bowl so she could eat fast so we could get out the door for daycare. lol When we got there Debbie took her in and Bayou was so excited to get in the door that she almost wiggled herself to death. haha she got a bath today. She was bathed, had her ears cleaned and nails clipped. They even put the cutest bandanna on her. It has "boo" all over it. I've never seen her in a bandanna before and she looks so cute. Aspen Meadows Pet Resort is the best daycare I have ever taken an animal to, ever. If you live in Colorado Springs and need daycare or boarding for your pet (any kind of pet, I've seen a turtle there before) please check with Aspen Meadows Pet Resort first. Beth, Debbie, and all the other ladies at Aspen Meadows are so nice, great with the pets and the customer service is incredible. You also can't beat their pricing! Give them a call if you have a pet daycare, boarding or grooming need. I highly recommend them.

By the way Bayou smells and feels great and looks cute too!

Great time at daycare

Bayou had a great day at daycare. One of the workers hugged Bayou before she left. Of course that made her pee on the floor. LOL. No leg problems though which made me happy. She'll go again on Wednesday.

Off to see the daycare...

Little Miss Bayou went down the yellow brick road to daycare today. She was so excited when she got there. She was jumping all over the place. I really need to work with her on not being like that. It's like having an unruly child in a store. Thankfully they understand at Aspen Meadows and they treat her kindly. I'll probably pick her up a bit early today so she doesn't wear her leg out again.

Go for a ride!!!

We took Bayou for a ride on Saturday. She loves sitting in the back seat.

Stiff legged puppy

Bayou was a bit stiff this morning but not limping near as bad as she was yesterday. It's snowing out and she went out on the porch and played in the snow. She was rolling around on the deck. It was funny. When she goes out again, I'll try to get a video of her if she plays again. She's on the couch right now. I'm glad she is better though.

Limping Lizards (or is that 'houlas)

Little baby Bayou isn't limping as badly tonight as she was this morning. It's supposed to get cold tonight so I'll have to make sure she stays warm tonight in bed. I think we'll all be under the covers tonight since they are saying we might get some snow. I'll keep Bayou out of daycare until Monday, I think. It will depend on her activity level. We can probably get her out on Sunday for a walk at Garden of the Gods if she needs it. I don't want to over do with her since her leg is still sore for her. She's sleeping on the couch again (still!). She started walking better when David got home. She was so excited to see him that I think she forgot about her leg a bit. She is still limping though. I'm sure this is just an issue of her doing too much at daycare this week. I'm glad she's doing better but my hunch is that she will be stiff after sleeping all night. We'll see how that goes. Have to keep her warm though.

Poor little pupper dawg!

Bayou woke up with a sore leg this morning. She's been favoring it and just spending her day snoring and dreaming on the couch. I kept her home from daycare. I'm sure she must have played too hard yesterday in daycare and then it was cold last night so she probably is just sore. I'm sure the sun today will warm it up for her and laying on the couch will give it a chance to heal. If she's still favoring it on Monday, I'll call the vet for an appointment. She did do some artwork this week.

I love the enrichment they do at the daycare. Aspen Meadows Pet Resort, here on the east side of Colorado Springs, is the best daycare I've ever had a dog visit. They are very caring and do lots of fun stuff with the pets they care for (including a turtle they had one day!). I'll leave Bayou just for a bit this afternoon for an appointment but other than that I'll be with her all day today. I'll go to the store later when David gets home. I don't want her spending too much time alone since she is not feeling well.

I want to start taking her hiking but I can see that I'll have to go slow with that. I don't want to hurt her. So we'll start out slow and see how she does. Because she only has a single coat she gets cold easily so I will have do get a doggy coat for her. I'll get something that will work well with hiking.

I think she'll be on the couch most of the day today so it will be a quiet day for both of us. It will give me some time to get some things done around here since she's not asking to go out every 5 minutes. lol

Computer is finally working

It's been too long since I blogged about Bayou because of computer problems. Things have been going good with her. I think we've really bonded over the last couple of weeks in a way that we hadn't bonded before. She is such a sweetheart and I love having her. We don't have training at SMS this week. We'll have class again next week on Wednesday. Clay wanted to give us time to train together and for Bayou to grow up some. Obviously she's still a puppy but she is maturing. I'm really looking forward to the things that she and I will be able to do together. I do need to get her out though. I haven't taken her for a walk out in the neighborhood and I haven't taken her to Petsmart yet either. Mostly I haven't done that because my allergies have been so bad that I've been miserable and sleeping a lot because of the allergy medicine. Anyway, she's getting so big. It's like she grows over night. She's been great sleeping with us and when I nap during the day she sleeps with me on the couch. She's going out on her own but still bringing things in though less often. I'm still working with her on that. She's in for the night now and needs to lay down so I'll be going for tonight.

Training is going well

We had our 3rd lesson this week with Mackenzie. We worked on "place", walking along side me and coming to me. We worked with other dogs there for distractions. Bayou is doing so well. Things at home are a lot  better too. Hardly any biting, she gets down when we tell her to and she comes to us most of the time too. The platforms David made this weekend are awesome and we get to practice place with them. My laptop crashed again so I won't be blogging much this coming week or so but I wanted to update about training. Our next session is on my birthday at 1pm. I'm really looking forward to it. I put her new bed in her kennel and now she goes in there on her own. How ironic. Maria came to clean the house today and I felt like Bayou did a much better job. She didn't bark the whole time and when I let her out she wasn't totally crazy (just a little bit crazy lol). One thing we have to work on is her bringing "stuff" into the house (tumbleweeds, poop, bark, sticks, etc). It's something we really have to work on. It's 8:30pm and she's already asleep in her kennel. Almost time for all of us to go to bed. I'll post when I can.

Oh! My! Gosh!

It's taken me hours to get the software installed to download some pictures of Bayou. They are definitely worth the time it took though. One of the pictures is the one that is now at the top of first page of the blog. Here's a couple more.

This one is Bayou on the bed that I got using my AGC's that I earned on Swagbucks. I only had to pay $1.50 (one dollar and fifty cents) for the bed (it's a $40+ bed too).

David took this one of me and Bayou sleeping on the couch. I of course am wrapped in my Snuggie.

Here is a video of Bayou eating food out of one of her puzzles. She's pretty quick with it. She learns fast.

That's it for tonight. I need to let Bayou out to potty and then head to bed. I'm glad I was able to get some new stuff on here. Can you see how big she is getting? Goodnight.

What a day!

For some reason today was difficult. I think Bayou was just not wanting to wear her collar today. I kept it on her until just a bit ago though. She's sleeping now. I think maybe I had it set too high and it was annoying her instead of getting her attention. Even when we did the long lead exercises she just wasn't wanting to participate. I guess it's only natural that she would want some time off. There are just so many teaching opportunities every day that I think it overwhelms her (and me too sometimes). She is learning though because even with the collar off she listens better than she did before we started SMS.

One of the things that was bad today was she was constantly trying to bring poop in the house. I'm still using the For-Bid but if I forget even once, we're in trouble. I purposely didn't clean up the yard today though because I wanted to work with her on not doing that. I'll clean up the yard in the morning so tomorrow isn't as bad as today (poop wise LOL).

We have our lesson this week at the SMS facility on Thursday at 4pm. I'm thinking we can be a bit more focused there, even though there may be more distractions. (Does that even make sense?) What I'm trying to say is that she'll be in a "work" environment and not home where she's used to everything. I know that I need more training on how to more effectively use the collar. There is a learning curve.

Overall though, things have been great since we started with SMS. Bayou has only been in her kennel once for 2 hours (when I was out at an appointment) since last Wednesday. Other than that, even when we eat, she has been out of the kennel. I like that she is tiring herself out now. I don't have to put her in the kennel to "force" a nap. She even takes naps with me on the couch now. I love that. It reminds me of Huxley and Blitz. It's a good memory and feeling. Especially after a day like today I need to remind myself of how much things have changed for the positive in less than a week. It was a rough one today but better than most good days we had before.

I have taken some pictures of Bayou. I just need to download them to the laptop. I'll do that in a just a bit and then post again. No videos yet though. I should try to get one on Thursday when we are training. I can let David train and I'll shoot video for a portion of the lesson. That will be fun.

Okay, off to download some pictures. Back in a bit.

Where does the time go?

It's already Saturday, March 26!! Clay came by on Wednesday as planned and we started working Bayou with the collar. It has made a huge difference. She's no longer going after the bushes when she's out, she's not going after the wires and plugs inside and the barking is a lot less than it was. The biting has almost stopped. When she gets real excited she tries it but with the collar we can settle her down and get her to stop. I'm amazed that in just an hour of training we were able to accomplish so much. She hasn't had to spend any time in her kennel when I'm home. Before Wednesday she would spend hours in her kennel because she would get into so much mischief when she was free. Now she plays with her toys, chews on chew sticks (bully sticks and a bison bone) and actually lies down to sleep all on her own.

We're still getting used to how to use the collar but I think we have a pretty good handle on it in the short amount of time she's been wearing it. She doesn't seem to mind the collar much. Getting it on her in the morning can be a chore but eventually we get it on her. She wears it all day. I don't take it off of her until she goes out for the last time at night before bed. One night I took it off before I let her out and it took forever to get her back in. One of the issues that is always brought up when using a training collar is that the dog will not behave without the collar on. I'm finding that when I say "off" of "come" when the collar is not on that she pays more attention to me than she did before. "Off" especially is really working well.

Today she's full of energy so she's kind of crazy but not as bad as she was sans collar. Next Thursday we're going to the SMS facility to do some training. I wish we could train more but I know we need the practice time in between sessions to work with Bayou. We're using a long lead to work with her on "come". One of us holds the lead and the other holds the transmitter and we call her back and forth, ping pong style. It works really well. We spend most of the time saying "off" though because that has a few meanings - get off, stop, leave it alone. It's nice to have just one command for all of that instead of having to teach her a different saying for each thing we want her to do or not do. It makes training a lot easier and it helps to move things on quicker too.

I find that I have more trouble than Bayou does. I'm so used to saying "leave it" that it's hard to transition to "off". I'll get it eventually though. lol It also makes it easier for David and I to say the same commands since there aren't so many of them.

I used my AGC's from Swagbucks to buy Bayou a bed big enough to go in her kennel which is 42" long. I paid a whole $1.50 for it. I love Swagbucks!! Only thing is we're not putting anything in her kennel right now because of potty training issues. It's in the living room right now. She seems to like it and how big it is. She still uses her tiny beds too. Or the floor. She's lying on the floor by the back door right now. I think she's ready for a nap. It's really nice, since she's not in her kennel all day, that she actually tires herself out by playing, training and going outside. She's becoming a regular, normal dog now instead of a crazy lunatic dog.

I haven't taken very many pictures of her lately so I need to get on the ball with that. Videos too. I want to get some training videos to post on the blog. I also want to take a picture of her on her new bed to post on the Swagbucks Facebook wall. SB's likes when people post pictures of "prizes" they've received. The trick is to get her on the bed. We don't know place yet so we can't use that command and we don't have a command to make her stay somewhere (beside "sit" which she only does for a few seconds). I'll put some treats on her bed. That should keep her there long enough to get a picture.

I think while she is sleeping I'll clean up the living room. There are beds, blankets, toys and chews everywhere. It will only take a minute or two to do it so it's no big deal. I also need to clean the yard today. There's not much out there because I'm really doing well keeping up with it. It's a lot easier to do a bit every other day instead of waiting a week and doing it all at one time. As she gets older that will become more important.

Today a little girl, a toddler, came running over to the yard to see Bayou. I think she scared Bayou because Bayou came around the deck and ran inside. She really hasn't met any kids. April 4th she gets her last set of puppy shots and then I can take her to Petsmart so she can be around other people and other dogs. She needs that. Speaking of socialization, I haven't emailed Rebekah yet. I was wondering if Bayou would be better this week because of the training, but without the collar on I don't think there would be much of a difference right now. She's not allowed to wear the collar in class. Without it, at this point, I think I would just be holding her back from the other dogs and watching her choking herself by pulling on the leash the whole time. She's too big for me to hold her now. She's got to be close to 25 pounds. They only time I pick her up is to put her in bed at night. I'm going to fix that though by putting the blanket chest at the end of the bed again and teach her to get up there and then up on to the bed. Of course that means she can get out of bed too but I think she'll be okay with that. As long as she doesn't get out to pee on the floor, things should be okay.

I have to decide today whether I'm going to go to the Puppy Class or not. I want to be able to let Rebekah know ahead of time. I won't just not show up. That would be rude. I'd like to give it a shot but if all we do is sit around while Rebekah talks, I won't be able to take it because Bayou will be bored and that is stressful for me. I guess I could ask Rebekah what the plan is for tomorrow. The thing is I just really don't want to go. It's just not fun. When we used to take Watson to Christine, it was at least fun and we learned things every session. I think Rebekah could go over all of this stuff in an orientation session with humans only. Then the 6 puppy classes could start the following week. But, it is her class, not mine.

I'm so excited to go to the SMS facility on Thursday. I'm sure Bayou will love it too. She loves new places. I don't know if any other dogs will be there. Either way, I'm looking forward to learning more. David and I need to spend more time training though. It's been hard this week to get the training in because I have a sore back. I had to get a 2nd shot in 2 weeks on Friday. This time is was in the sacroiliac joint. I couldn't have sedation because I didn't have a driver (David was working, Lisa is in China). I felt everything that Dr. Jenks did. It wasn't horrible or unbearable but it did suck. No more shots without sedation. For 5-7 days I have to watch my activity level but the training doesn't take too much physical energy so I should be able to get back to it now.

Bayou is slowly learning to retrieve. She will go after the ball or toy and bring it back to your general area but doesn't give it to you. She may drop it close enough that you can get it but she doesn't really bring it to you. Of course, she's not a retriever so I'm not expecting miracles from her. She'll get it though. Eventually.

That's it for now. I'll do my best to get some pics and vids to post. Later.

What a pill?!?

Bayou was a total pill today. When she was outside she was tearing apart that bush that Watson tried tearing apart. When she was inside, not in her kennel, she kept trying to chew the wires and plugs to the lamp and laptop. I sprayed Fooey on it and she still went after it. When she was in her kennel she was barking or whining. Yeesh! I couldn't catch a break today. Tonight though she got tired on her own and laid down on the floor and fell asleep. I took her to bed at 9pm. She went right to sleep after figuring out where she wanted to position herself. She always starts out up by my head, or on my head, and then moves down to the side of my legs. She's all about being comfortable. I think I was frustrated with her today because I know that there is a way for us to get her to stop doing things we don't want her to do but we just haven't learned the techniques yet. We're getting close though. Wednesday afternoon is fast approaching. I'm a bit nervous about the remote collar and how it will feel to Bayou. I also worry that I won't be able to do the training correctly and efficiently. I know it's just jitters from knowing knowing the plan yet. Once we get going though, I'll have a lot to do with Bayou everyday getting her to stop things she shouldn't be doing and to do things that I want her to do. That pretty much takes up my whole day. lol

I'm looking forward to when Bayou will sit and stay put or place so we can take some good pictures of her. I need to get outside tomorrow and try to get some outside shots. Her colors will show up a lot better in sunlight. Her eyes too.

We're investing a lot of money into this training so I feel a responsibility to make sure that our investments pays off. We'll start working on that Wednesday.

It's almost 12:30am so I better get back to bed. More later.

2nd Puppy Class

Today I took Bayou to her 2nd puppy class. It wasn't much fun for me or for her because I had to keep her on leash the whole time and away from a couple of the dogs (one was aggressive, the other the tiny dog). She did get to play with a Labradoodle and had fun doing that. There really wasn't much for Bayou to do since there was more talking than training. I'm not worried though because we start training in private one-on-one lessons with Clay on Wednesday. After a few weeks, when she is ready, Bayou will start going to group classes. The puppy class just isn't a good fit for Bayou. I only took her because we've paid for the classes and I hate to waste the money but that hour or so takes everything out of me and Bayou (and not in a good way). So, anyway, I'll email Rebekah and let her know that we won't be coming back to puppy class. I know we will get a lot better results with Clay in private sessions.

I don't even know what I've blogged about or when I did it so I may be repeating some info. Thursday the carpets were cleaned and they pee stains actually look worse now than they did before for 2 reasons. The first reason is because the rest of the carpet is so much cleaner now, the pee stains show up more and second, when he cleaned the stains they all just got bigger. It didn't remove any of them, just made them bigger. Oh well. At least most of the carpet looks better. Bayou has peed in the house since the carpets were cleaned but not very much. We catch her in the act and make a big fuss to get her to go outside. It works for the most part. I think that even though the carpets have been cleaned I'll still need to use some Nature's Miracle to remove whatever it is that Bayou is still able to smell.

Through another dog training website I found out that a new daycare is in where Preppy Pet used to be. It's called Aspen Meadows Dog Resort. I'm going to call to see if I can go and check it out before Bayou goes there. She has to wait until the first week of April, at least, because she has to have her rabies shot. And I'm not even sure if Clay will want her going to doggy daycare. Lots of bad habits can be learned there. I don't want to undermine what Clay will be doing. We're investing a lot of time and money into Bayou's training and I want to make sure that we follow what Clay says we should do (or don't do). If she's able to go to daycare at some point, at least I know there is one closer than Lucky Dog.

I'm up but David and Bayou are in bed. She goes to bed without a problem and stays there until I take her out to pee in the morning (usually around 4:30am when David is up getting ready for work). I'm not sure if we'll train her to sleep on the floor or if it will be okay to have her sleep in bed with us. She's well over 22 pounds now and she's only 15 weeks old. I don't know how big she will get but I don't think she'll be a small dog. That reminds me, when Clay got Watson out of the truck the other day to show us how his training is going, I thought it was a different dog. Watson has really filled out and looks like an adult dog now. He is absolutely beautiful. He did great with the training demonstration. He missed a few things but I'm okay with that. I don't want a perfect dog, I want a happy, obedient dog.

Today when Bayou came in the back door she ran and leaped up onto the couch where I was laying. I couldn't believe the air she got. lol We'll definitely not have that happening once training starts. She will only be on the furniture or us if she is invited. No more jumping, crazy dog. Maria comes on Wednesday morning to clean the house and I'll be glad when she comes back 2 weeks later and Bayou has made some improvement. Maria will be a good judge of how Bayou is doing with her training.

I'm really looking forward to Wednesday afternoon getting here so we can start the training in earnest. The puppy class that we went to today seems to be more of an informational class than a training class so I think working with Clay is the better way to go. There are all kinds of things that Bayou is doing that I can't wait to get her to stop (biting, digging, chewing on power cords, running away from me). I know I have to be patient though because she only is a puppy and training takes time. I just want to get on with it. I'll finally have some guidance and can work with Bayou more often with the specific training behaviors we're working on. I think it will be great for Bayou because she'll get more energy out during the day and learn to be more focused. It will be good for me because I'll have something to do and a plan to follow. So far all I've done is try to stay a step ahead of Bayou and for the most part, that's really not happening. She's running things right now. She's in for a rude awakening when private lessons start. Not that it will be mean or anything, it's just that she's so used to being in charge that once I'm in charge she'll know things have changed. And they do have to change.

At the end of puppy class, Bayou was finally calm enough to do "sit" and "down" with treats. I think she was just worn out from choking herself at the end of the leash all class long. She'll sleep good tonight though. Then we'll be one day closer to training with Clay. I don't want anyone to think that the puppy class is bad, it's just not a good fit for Bayou and me. We don't need all the new puppy info. We need training techniques. I don't think this class will do a whole lot of that. We did use the clicker today but Clay told us we won't be using a clicker with his training. We'll still mark the behavior but it will be with a verbal clue ("YES!!"). I'll be glad to be done with the clicker. It's too hard to hold her leash, hold treats and click the clicker. One less thing will really help. I'm thinking too that we won't have her on leash much in the private lessons so I won't have that to hold onto either. Once she gets comfortable enough with training and we are doing the right techniques (after about a month or so) then she'll be able to go to group classes. That is going to be a lot of fun working with other dogs who are being trained the same way. It will give me something to do and it certainly will give Bayou something to do that will tire her out. I think there are a couple of classes a week. I'll probably try to attend whatever classes are available to me. It will be nice to have a focus again.

Tomorrow I have to go out and clean the yard early because I think the lawn guy is coming to fertilize. I didn't clean today but I did yesterday so it shouldn't be too bad. I let the Scott, the yard guy, know that we have Bayou so he doesn't use any dangerous chemicals. He'll have to pull weeds instead of spraying them to kill them. I may have to get a sprinkler at Lowe's for the fertilizer since the sprinkler system hasn't been turned on yet. I'll have to check with Scott on that too. I can't wait for there to be moist, green grass in the backyard. Right now it's all dry and gets tracked into the house so easily. And fresh grass is so much more fun to play in. It makes cleaning the yard a bit of a challenge but between Scott coming every week and we cleaning up at least every other day it shouldn't be a problem.

I need to get some more pictures of Bayou to post and a video too. I want to tape our classes with Clay. I need to get a before video of how crazy she can get and then a week later video again if she's made improvement. I wish I hadn't sold my camera tripod. I could really use it now. I'll have to look for one on craigslist or online. Speaking of online. I ordered the bed that fits in her whole kennel. The little round beds I got still work but there not as comfortable as they could be for her. Clay also suggested with put a divider in the kennel so she doesn't have as much room to keep her from peeing in there. Right now she has so much room that she can pee on one end and sleep on the other. Not good. I couldn't find any dividers at Petsmart so I'm going to see if I can come up with something from Lowe's. Her bed will be here this week so I need to find a divider soon.

I guess that's it for tonight. I'm getting sleepy and swagbucks is calling my name to Midnight Bucks! lol

Busy, busy, busy

I've been so busy with Bayou and other things that I forgot to update the blog. She got her Bordetella shot on Monday so I could take her to daycare at Lucky Dog on Thursday so we could get the carpet cleaned. She weighs over 21 pounds now!! She was at daycare all day and had a blast but she's still tired today from all the playing she did yesterday. SMS is coming over in about 15 minutes to do their demonstration. I'm also going to check out another trainer (Rick Walkley @ Focus Dog Training) before I make any decisions. He said he would work with her for an hour and then we can decide whether or not his training is for us. He's going to call me today to set up an appointment. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

We're able to let Bayou out on her own now. We just leave the door cracked and she comes and goes as she pleases. It makes life so much easier for me and more enjoyable for Bayou. She is going under the deck so we need to get the rocks put around it. We also need to finish the fence between our yard and Mike's. David's going to try to do that this weekend.

SMS will be here soon so more later.