The true meaning of Walkies

After I took her out for a roll around the block, Emily refuses to come out of her new rolley luggage.

Snuggly radiator tent

We took a long walk in the December drizzle,  so Bunbun came in wet, muddy and all aaround bedraggled. So into the tub for a quickie bath. 

Why does mommy's good intentions always strike in the worst of weather? 

The old sweatshirt traps the heat coming up from the radiator behind the sofa.

But anyway, yay, it's beef stew day.

Oh, Go Jump In the Lake

Holland thinks it's Spring, and so does Mommy and the Bumster.
After teasing Timmy and the MinPin, H. and Emily decide it's a nice day for a free romp, without the leash. Remember the island?

While Mommy is busy picking up pieces of broken glass (%&@!!!), Emily sees DUCKS! shoots after them without warning, and jumps right into the water, and swims across to the other side.

Emily says: but that's why they call it DOGGY PADDLE, Mommy!

[I get to roll on Daddy's side of the sofa now?]

H. has to confess that only 10 minutes before this happened, she'd told Emily that little doggies wouldn't be getting any swimming lessons, as Mommy's heart just couldn't handle it.

---

In less exciting news, last night, Emily had a huge chunk of broken branch stuck in the back of her teeth, and had to be rushed to the emergency night vet in Rijnsburg.

Oi, Cujo Hours.

Pre Spring

Remember our Guilermo del Torro Park?
Last weekend, we brought Bunny (aka, Emily).

[Carry me!]

[Huh, I walked just fine!]

Bunny can't wait till it's spring -- no more clothes!

Foraging on Walks

Emily (aka, Bunny, short for Hunnybunsweetiepie) picks up all sorts of junk on walks. That seems (to her) the sole purpose of walks anyway.

[Bunny the Vampire Slayer]

Mini-Ice-Age Immobilizes Europe!

but first, a public service announcement:

[World's Yuckiest Fruit]

Some of you may have been drawn to a spiny, bright marigold colored fruit in your grocery store and thought: Tropical? Rich and fragrant? Let's try it out!

A Few Words of Warning: Do Not EAT. If, foolishly, already purchased, use only for decoration!

Described as tasting like a banana and a lemon, the Kiwano is actually weirdly watery, sour and bitter, like cucumber seeds gone bad.

***

Now for the snow. Many of you have seen news stories on the winter that has frozen Europe. Okay, so maybe in Germany or Poland or somewhere more inner continent.

H&M went to grad school (7 long years) in the snow states of New York and Illinois, respectively, so yeah, this is a snowfall to snicker home about.

[The world is Emily's snow cone]

[What? Clothes???]

At least it's cold for the dog. Maltese are single coated, so we bundle her up in fleece underwear and the red check coat when we go out for walks. Emily hatesesss!!!

December Wrapup

December Wrapup

Emily is relaxing and resting her head on my foot. It seems like a good moment to pound the keyboard and post a brief recap of the Emily universe.


- First 4 weeks of puppyhood. You should know that puppies generally do not have bladder control during their first 4 months, so you have to take them out to potty just about every hour. This means essentially no sleep for the humans.

- Spaying - for a month afterwards, you have to be extremely careful with the dog because she will try to lick at the surgery incision which could open up the wound again.

- Sickness - Emily became sick for a week. Small dogs are often finicky eaters so they don't have fat reserves to depend on when they get sick and aren't hungry. The Vet had to give Emily special liquid food to get her weight back up. Now we try to keep Emily a bit on the plumper side of life so she will have a bit of breathing room if she becomes sick again - not so easy because she is finicky.

- 12 weeks of dog class - we both have read the books on raising dogs, but it's good to see how fast the training should go by comparing to other dogs in the class. You also get a good idea of what can and can not be taught to a dog.

- Teaching Emily the critical commands: Sit, Potty, Come, Down, Stay, and No. The key is consistency in the command (both verbal and hand motion) and the reward - say the command in the exact same way each time and always give the dog a reward (i.e. a food treat) when she does the action. For me, Emily would do Potty #1, Sit, and Down on command. She would also stop whatever she was doing if I said No.

- Learning to walk correctly on a leash. This was quite an adventure. Small dogs often have weak necks for their first 6 months while they are growing up. So, most good books will suggest using a harnass or a Halti, which are devices which focus the control to other parts of the dog instead of the neck. The problem with using a harness is that it also teaches the dog that its OK (and even fun) to pull on the leash. Around month 8, Emily could correctly walk using an adult collar and leash nicely. I highly recommend Brian Kilcommons' book for help on the right technique for leash walking.

- One of the dreams of having a dog is to be able to walk with the dog (on a leash) down a crowded street or hall. This is much harder to do than one might initially think because a shopping street will have thousands of interesting smells and sounds and colors and people and in general things to get distracted by. A dog which can walk on a crowded shopping street or department store and behave in a calm manner is a very well trained dog. Around month 9, Emily was able to do this and we were very happy we could take her on shopping trips.

- Emily is also protective of the house. Anytime a stranger walks in, she will be a good little guard dog and bark up a storm until we show that we are OK with the stranger and she gets treats. Note that she doesn't bite, but she is a good alarm.

- Right now, Emily is very happy, playful, affectionate and fully potty and leash trained. She has a mixture of Orijin kibble and chicken for meals.

- For 2010, we will work on the other commands (i.e. Stay), see if there is a safe way for her to play with other dogs. Also, we'll replace the small (1 foot high) trashcans - Emily seems to think that anything within 1 foot from the floor is her domain.

Dry Day

Aaak!
H. and Emily come back from a long walk that included:

1) huge gloppy poo that stuck to her butt
2) wet muddy paws and legs
3) and a muddy stomach from running around in a rain drenched field,

to find that CRUD, today the building's going through a routine pipe and drainage check, and water is off until 5pm. (we'd been warned a week ago, but it was in Dutch, and I forgot. Shoot)

Drat. And I'd given Emily lots of dirty romping time, thinking she'd get a half bath afterwards. I used up a dozen diaper wipes instead, and it still feels icky, all around.

Will post on homemade chicken jerky tomorrow then.

Rose Rustling

[The lower shoots are all new]

The slips (or cutting) are 10 weeks old now, and I transplanted them into larger pots for the fall. The new shoots are coming along nicely. (I didn't shake all the dirt off to see the roots while transplanting, but what did show was pretty stable)

[Needs to grow into the pot some more]

*

This is before I trimmed Emily's face on Saturday:[Hairy faces fit in everything]

Puppy cut, after:
[Mommy scalped me]

Of course, after she got a bath, and we realized the sheer critical extent of her matting, I ended up shaving half the fur off her left hind leg. H. really has to sit squirmy puppy down every evening and run a brush through her, no matter how bitey Emily is.

*

At the tail end of today's walk, H&M spotted some other dog's dried up poo, attracting 3 dozen flies in the corner of the parking lot. We go, "Oh Yuck, some people" and walk on, not realizing for 1 whole minute that the reason Emily's not following us, is that she's stopped and EATEN IT ALL UP.

OH YUCK.
When I washed her mouth and paws in the sink, her burp smelled like farts. heh.

Wanderlust

Emily's Message to the World, Saturday Edition:

[I'm not coming out of this bag until you take me somewhere nice, not the VET]

[What? You knit a two-tone guard and then sewed it on the opening, so I couldn't jump out of the doggy-carrier, Mommy? Yum!]

Birthday Beach

It was my 9 month birthday, so Mommy and Daddy took me to the beach!

[I'm the best puppy ever!]

I ran around and chased all the other puppies. They weren't that much bigger than me. Just German Shepherds and Boxers. No biggie.

[I also found all the secret Nucwear Vepons]

[And a Jellyfish!]

[Daddy needs someone to show him around. Lucky he has me]

[And I fell in a puddle]

[But it was way fun]

[And the sea was so pretty]

[You should see the other guy.]

[Then I brought home some take-out]

Daddy dropped me in the bath as soon as we got home.

[Sleepy now]

Emily was feeling boo since Thursday, so we took her for a walk on the beach on Friday. She was a happy puppy, then.

[Marching Puppy]

It was seriously windy, which is why she wore the blue-t. Also, makes her more forgivable when she goes up to lick unsuspecting people's ankles.

[Brave Pilgrims]

[Wets]

[What d'you expect me to do with this?]

[A face only Mummy could love]

Oh, very funny, Mommy. I have ugly pictures of you, too!

Emily was boo all through the weekend, and still is. Did runny poos every day (and one good one every day, too), and finally threw up this morning after eating grass. She perks up for nice, interesting walks, but is listless in the mornings and won't eat even chicken.

Walk, no Walk & Pottering Around

Emily hates her Halti, but it's the only way to get her to walk. She still pulls and sits in the middle of the road and behaves as if we've broken the last remnants of her free spirit, but at least it doesn't press down on her windpipe like a garrote and choke her so she makes hacking noises as she chases after a wrapper. (UGH)

We, silly putty-in-her-paws parents, are considering "the shoulder harness," decried by all dog-training manuals as "USELESS."

Looks like a well-behaved puppy, hanging out in her crate-y:

(Guess the caption for this picture)

Actually: after running away and avoiding the Halti, Emily squats in her crate and says, "walk? what is this walk you speak of?"

--

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince had a few good bits, but was overall sadly incoherent and lacked theme, drive, and most of all heart. Where was the tension and suspense, David Yates? I thought you were good at that! And the "romance" was so clunky. Sad for a past Potter fangirl to say. (Cuaron, come back!) Even Draco being all conflicted didn't make up for the overarching blah.

But the 12 minutes of 3D at the beginning was rather neat. Was that only for the IMAX theaters?

Our Yard

[Who me?]

is not really our yard, just three large grass plots shared by the three condo buildings. But Emily thinks the one in front of our house belongs to her, so when she's not outside, she stands up in her comfy chair and barks at every dog and bird that dares run around in it.

She eats daisies.

Next up (if Mommy's lucky): H. discovers the meaning of Bichon Blitzes. That's what a quarter of a dog will do for you.

Castle Sunday

(also known as: the Day Emily ate something weird on one of her walks and got massive runs for the next two days and drove Mommy and Daddy nuts)

but she looked perfectly fine before all that. Trufax!

[Pretending to be good]

[Hound Dog Emily]

[Magic Forest Puppy]


Mommy was looking at some old baby baby pictures of Emily and getting all aww-nostalgic.

DOGnets: What do you do when you've read all the news stories on Bo, the Obama Puppy?

Emily is on Twitter!

Duckling watch is on.

The Emily Mobile

[Funner than it looks]

Much as Emily's barking and crazy and brattiness drive me bonkers some days, I feel I'm going to miss her hyperactive naughty Highness when she's all grown up.

'Cause watching her FRAP and try to dig a hole through the bottom of her crate while upending the pillow so she looks like a giant white turtle, on the car trip back from puppy class? Pretty effing funny.

------------------------------------------------
Emily Notes

During March we had been actively working to minimize Emily's barking at people and dogs.

The principle has been to keep her from going into a state of fear. When the warning signs appear, we either feed her yummy treats, or make her focus on us by dancing with her, or give her affection and stroke her tail.

In the last 2 weeks, she has become much friendlier and at dog class she was finally happy with the other people and dogs.

At class, we also found that it helps Emily to meet other dogs by distracting the other dog with a treat so Emily can gently sniff around the strange dog without getting into a wresting match.

Basket Cases

The Emily Mobile! (powered by Mommy pedals)

[And I can play innit, too]
The black cover had gaps wide enough for Emily to poke her head out and jump (since she believes she can fly). Mommy's crafting skills make it harder to escape -- really useful when the bike is moving.

[Hippy Space Dome]

It hooks over the handlebars -- M. got the headlight removed, and taped around the bars so it wouldn't wobble. We bring the basket inside after we park the bikes. Turns out, Emily loves goofing in baskets.

[Sorting through the recycling]

Sunday in the Park with Emily

Getting up at the crack of dawn means breakfast, potties, playing fetch, e-mail, newspapers, and first round of chocolates(for us) are over by 8 am. H&M are sitting around with puppy going, hmm, what now?

So we started off Sunday with a drive to the nearest large park (not teeny dog park).

[Prisoner Transport 1124]

And hey, there were black swans! Like effing Swan Lake!

And first signs of spring. Crocuses coming up under dead leaves, and all that. Of course, while H. is thinking, oh pretty! lilies of the valley! M. goes "Woo hoo! Alien Pod Plants!"

[Too much Star Trek on the brain]

Then again, he is right on with: "this park sure looks weird."
Straight out of a Guillermo del Toro film.

All the while, Emily was on her happy walk. We bribed her with treats not to bark at joggers.

Of course, some of you might have noticed the sharp drop in Emily pictures (or posting of obscured ones). Yes, you're right on. Mommy went scissor happy on her face, and now Emily looks like Max Headroom.

- Puppy Walks: must not be too strenuous or will strain growing joints and muscles. 5x number of months old, and adjust for energy level.

- Thursday (2/26), H. walked out the door without her keys, and so she and Emily had to walk 55 minutes to M.'s department and get him to drive us home. H. tried to carry Emily part of the way, but the puppy would have none of that.

New Frontier

Emily, with a lot of coaching, climbed up the stairs today! Twice!

As her Daddy says, uh, don't know if this is a good thing.

(also went on her first walk of the day before noon, and is now schmacking on her chicken snack)