Bailey's Progress Report

I don't even know where to start with this week. Bailey has had great days, and not so great days.

Training

Bailey is doing very well with her training. She's showing lots of progress with her "roll over" although, she still gets mixed up sometimes. When we try to get her to play dead, she'll sometimes roll all the way over after falling over. She does this after she's done the trick several times correctly. I'm not sure if she does it because she's bored or because she's confused. We're starting to let her on the patio without her leash sometimes now. She has done very well for the most part. She's not allowed to step off the pavers. They are mostly lined now. Our raised beds block her on one side (although there is an opening for a walkway) and bricks and plants line one side (eventually, bricks will line both sides). She is pretty good about not stepping off them. She did leave the patio one time on Saturday just to pee, then she came right back. Once I realized what she was doing, I let her go. I was so proud of her. Then...

Sunday, we decided to take her back out with us while we went to water and weed the garden. There were kids a row behind us playing in one of those small inflatable pools. She looked at them but she was fine, she was more interested in the water hose. Then...the dad picked up the pool to dump the water out. As soon as he started shaking it out she took off toward them. She thought it was play time. Josh chased after her and she REALLY thought it was play time then. I realized what was happening and yelled at him to stop. We called her to come and she came back to us, after running a few circles around us. We put her back in while we finished up outside. We still take her out with us, but we leave her leash attached so we have something to grab if she tries to run off. She hasn't shown any interest in trying to leave the patio since then, but the only distractions she's seen have been birds. We'll do this more gradually after Sunday! 

Bailey took her Star Puppy test yesterday! She passed with flying colors! We just have to send off for her certificate now. 


Here are the requirements:

20 STEPS To Success: The AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy^sm Test

S ocialization

T raining

A ctivity

R esponsibility

OWNER BEHAVIORS:

1. Maintains puppy’s health (vaccines, exams, appears healthy)

2. Owner receives Responsible Dog Owner’s Pledge

3. Owner describes adequate daily play and exercise plan

4. Owner and puppy attend at least 6 classes by an AKC Approved CGC Evaluator

5. Owner brings bags to classes for cleaning up after puppy

6. Owner has obtained some form of ID for puppy-collar tag, etc.

PUPPY BEHAVIORS:

7. Free of aggression toward people during at least 6 weeks of class

8. Free of aggression toward other puppies in class

9. Tolerates collar or body harness of owner’s choice

10. Owner can hug or hold puppy (depending on size)

11. Puppy allows owner to take away a treat or toy

PRE-CANINE GOOD CITIZEN^® TEST BEHAVIORS:

12. Allows (in any position) petting by a person other than the owner

13. Grooming-Allows owner handling and brief exam (ears, feet)

14. Walks on a Leash-Follows owner on lead in a straight line (15 steps)

15. Walks by other people-Walks on leash past other people 5-ft away

16. Sits on command-Owner may use a food lure

17. Down on command-Owner may use a food lure

18. Comes to owner from 5-ft when name is called

19. Reaction to Distractions-distractions are presented 15-ft away

20. Stay on leash with another person (owner walks 10 steps and returns)

The requirements for the Canine Good Citizen test are much more strict. We eventually plan on doing this too. If you do it as a puppy, you're supposed to re-test when your dog is an adult. Also, our trainer doesn't do the test until they're a year old anyway. And, most importantly...Bailey gets WAY too excited to sit still when a stranger pets her right now, we still have a long way to go for that! Until then, I'm so proud of our STAR Puppy!

The Upstairs Problem...Solved?

Bailey has continued to break into the upstairs. Our first solution was to move her larger crate to the foyer to block the stairs. I didn't think she would be able to move it. I was wrong! She's a strong, smart puppy. I'm still not exactly sure how she's been moving the crates, but we assume she's been pushing them with her front paws. We finally got a baby gate from Lowe's We put it at the top of the stairs, going to the 2nd floor. We were originally going to put it at the bottom of the first set of stairs, but we didn't want to drill into the stair banisters, drywall is MUCH easier to repair. She has open access to the stairs now, but the gate is doing well to keep her out so far! I'm SO glad we did this. She was chewing on the rug every day, so it is just horrible now. I'm still not going to get another one until she's more mature and I'm confident that she won't try to eat it. Rugs are expensive! 

Potty Training

Overall, we've had a lapse in this are this week. She went almost 2 entire weeks with no accidents! So disappointing. Bailey decided it would be a good idea to pee on the floor a little when she got scolded for jumping on me. In the past, she's peed when she's been mad at us. Spiteful little puppy! She did pee upstairs one day when she broke into the living room. Other than that she's been pretty good. She is pretty consistent about sitting at the top of the stairs to let us know when she needs to go out. She still doesn't bark or whine...we just know that look she gives us now. Haha. She used to sprinkle a little when we got home from work, even without us talking to her or petting her. She would just get so excited! She has gotten a LOT better about this in the past week or so. I will rub her head a little when we get home now. She has only sprinkled once in the past week...HUGE improvement!

Teething and Toys

Bailey is still teething and we're actually finding some of her teeth now. At first, we would notice new teeth in her mouth or blood on some of her toys, but she was eating the teeth. We've found 2 so far. I was playing with her on the floor one day when Josh noticed one of her bottom canines on my shirt. Earlier this week I noticed her bone was looking awful pink and that she had broken a piece of it off. When I went to take it away from her, I realized the piece was actually one of her molars that she was about to eat!  We gave her a new toy that I think is helping. It's rubbery so I'm sure it feels great on her gums. It's a squeaker that has lasted her for more than a few days so I'm excited about that. She kills the squeaker in most of her toys pretty quickly, then she just bites and bites on the toy trying to get it to squeak. I feel bad when that happens. Haha. It also bounces a LOT, so she loves chasing it. We're still giving her ice. It soothes her gums and she likes to play with it as well, the hard part is keeping her off the carpet. 

Pin It!

I've been meaning to post about Pinterest forever now...I just haven't been motivated enough to do it. Basically, it's the best thing since computers themselves. So...what is it? It's a website with TONS of pictures of just about anything you can think of...food, travel destinations, art, fashion, home decor...you name it. The pictures have links to recipes, project instructions, blogs, etc. You pin things and save them to boards. The boards are saved on the Pinterest website. That way, you can access them from anywhere (that's my favorite part). You can follow friends...or if you like, you can just follow certain boards. 

I REALLY wish it would have been around when I was planning my wedding. It would have made life so much easier. It was very inconvenient saving things on certain computers, having to remember to carry a flash drive, or e-mail things to myself when I wanted to save an inspiration picture. Even though I didn't get to use it during my wedding planning, I'm definitely taking advantage of it now! You should check it out...but we warned, it's a huge time suck!

Let me know if you need an invite. I'll be glad to send you one! You can request one from the website itself, but I've heard it can take a while to get a response. 

RIP Tyke

When I was in 6th grade, my dad bought my sister and I each a Chihuahua puppy. I got a male and named him Tyke. My sister got a female and named her Cocoa. We decided they should get married. We used Barbie and baby doll accessories to dress them up and have a proper wedding ceremony. I wish we had pictures of this. They were the happiest married Chihuahua couple I've ever seen. We decided that they would have one litter of puppies before we spayed Cocoa. My mom wanted a little Tyke. The puppies were born and there was a little black Tyke. My mom named him Harley. Not long after the puppies were born, Cocoa began to act weird. Once we realized she really needed to go to the vet, it was too late. She passed away just as my mom and sister got her to the emergency clinic. This was a very sad time for us all. I felt so bad for my sister. 

Tyke was the saddest of all of us. He moped around for longer than I can remember. He was never quite the same after Cocoa died. He didn't want anything to do with the puppies...or really anyone for quite a while. We ended up keeping a puppy that was the color of Cocoa, but had long hair like Tyke. My sister named her Cheyenne.

Tyke went on to have a pretty tough life.As he got older, he got a little meaner. He never realized how small he was. He tried to fight a pit bull over a large female dog...2 times. Both times he came out with some stitches and other major injuries. He was blind as a result of the second occurrence. Since that second brawl with his big brother, Tyke was blind and Stitch had to find a new home. (Just a side note, Stitch was actually a very sweet dog, my dad still has his sister. Tyke probably attacked him on a daily basis and he would just lay and let him chew on his big lips. Finally, a female was involved and he had had enough. With his size, it didn't take much at all for him to hurt Tyke.) At this point, no one could touch Tyke except my dad. For whatever reason, he was very tolerant of my niece though. I could not even pet him without him trying to chew my fingers off, but she could. It's funny how dogs know to treat the little ones differently.

Tyke turned 12 on Valentine's Day this year. He passed July 1st. Although this is a very sad time for me, it's also a relief to some extent. I could tell that his health was declining each time I saw him. I was worried about my dad. I knew there would come a time when a decision would need to be made, and I didn't think Daddy would be able to make that decision. The last 2 times we visited my dad, I cried when we left. I couldn't tell Daddy, but I told Josh...he just looked pitiful and I hated to see him that way. I missed when he was a feisty little thing running all over the place.

I miss you Tyke Tyke.

Bailey's Progress Report

So...you know how I mentioned Bailey breaking in to the rest of the house last week? Well...she's gotten upstairs every single time we've left the house since last week. Some days, there was absolutely no damage, I think she just wanted to lay on her favorite step. Other days, we weren't so lucky. She didn't mess up any new things really. She just made them worse. Haha. One day, yesterday I think, we decided to just not bother with putting the crate in the way of the stairs. We knew she would get up there anyway. That day, she ripped up a travel brochure Josh left on the coffee table. She also chewed on the rug some more (she did this several days this week). The rug is already ruined from its run in the washing machine and Bailey's first attack...it's just worse now. We're definitely going to replace it, but not until she realizes eating rugs is frowned upon.

 This is what I came home to see every day this week. She would be at the bottom of the stairs waiting for us.

Potty Training

We're doing great in this area. No accidents, even when she had free range of the house all week. I was worried every day that I would come home to pee all over the carpet. Her bladder is definitely better than mine! I hope I don't regret saying this. Usually a good week is followed by a not so good week. Her last accident was over a week ago and it was when she was excited to play with the baby and didn't want to stop! 

Training

We're still working on Bailey's basics...we don't want her to forget. We're also going to take the Star Puppy class. We eventually want to take the Canine Good Citizen test, but she's not old enough yet. The Star Puppy is as close as she can get to that right now. Hopefully we'll do this in the next week or so. We just have to set up a time with our trainer. We're still trying to decide what direction we want to go in next. Possibly taking the Basics 2 class with her current trainer, or finding out what else is out there. 

Bailey is doing really well with Play Dead but she gets bored now. She will do it the right way 2 or 3 times then she just stares at you like "I'm NOT doing that again...give me another trick!". So stubborn. We just need to work on her speed and we'll be all set. Josh got bored one morning this week and decided to teach her to roll over. She is doing well with it, but only with treats for now.

Speaking of treats...I found a new treat that Bailey loves! The best thing about it...it's dirt cheap! I mentioned a while back that she loves ice. She'll run in the kitchen any time she hears us getting ice to ask for a piece. So cute. Well...I was reading something online about dog treats and ice and I got the idea to freeze flavored ice. Broths were an idea I saw that I thought was cool. You can freeze canned broths, but I had some real broth from when I cooked chicken for a meal. I decided to give it a shot. I will admit, yellow ice in an ice tray does NOT look appetizing at all, but Bailey LOVES it! I put them in her Kong sometimes and it keeps her entertained for a while. I usually rotate using one of these with PB in her Kong when we leave for work since PB isn't exactly a low fat treat for her. The only bad thing is that I have to keep her in the kitchen with these so they don't stain the carpets or anything.

 I just put these in a Ziplock bag and keep them in the freezer.

YUM!

Dinner Cruise Date Night

Josh and I were originally going to go on a dinner cruise on the Inner Harbor for our anniversary. I found a great Groupon deal so it was even going to be a cheap dinner cruise. Silly me forgot to book it until it was too late. We finally went on it this past weekend. We got downtown a little early and we were planning on walking around the Harbor. It was SO hot, we ended up walking through the pavilions near the harbor so we wouldn't be gross and sweaty. We picked up our tickets and had a little time to kill before we could board our boat. We just went inside the Visitors Center since it was the closest air conditioned building. We found a few new restaurants we want to check out, so it was fun. 

Our cruise was from 5-8 and we could board the boat at 4:30. I was SO hungry and I didn't think we would be able to eat until after 5. I don't think I've ever been so happy to be wrong! We were allowed to eat as soon as we boarded and got seated. It was a buffet dinner. There weren't as many food items as I expected, but the food was good. They had salad, seafood pasta salad, a carving station with beef & pork, chicken, stuffed salmon and some veggies. My favorite was the stuffed salmon and the chicken. Josh said there was too much stuffing & not enough salmon. I thought it was just right :-) We ordered a bottle of champagne. Even though we were over a month late, we still said we were celebrating our anniversary. There were a lot of people celebrating anniversaries on the boat. There were several 1 year anniversaries and a few that were 25+ years. 

During the 2nd hour, the entertainment started. There was a DJ and our waitstaff were also singers. I wasn't impressed with this part of the dinner cruise. The DJ played mostly older music and only part of the waitstaff had any musical talent at all. We decided to go on the upper deck after being forced to slow dance. Haha. Luckily, it turned a little cloudy and there was a nice breeze, so it wasn't too hot. We saw a cruise ship departing while we were up there. It made our boat look tiny. 

We stayed up there for a while then went back inside for dessert. I was still full from dinner, but I didn't care. We had 2 small desserts. One was a chocolate cake with mousse and the other was some sort of lemon dessert. They were both good. Josh doesn't like lemon, so he gave me his. I was way too full for another dessert, but I didn't want to waste it and it was SO good...so I ate it anyway. That was a horrible idea. I felt really bad for the last 30 minutes or so. We went back to the top deck to take some more pictures anyway.

 One of my favorite places in Baltimore...the Aquarium!

 Ft. McHenry

The show, Homocide: Life on the Streets used to be shot here. We watched some of it a while back. It's a crime show, but it's older. Munch, a character from Law & Order SVU is on there...he plays the same character he does in SVU. We love SVU so that was really cool. Anyway, this is the police station from the show. It's in Fell's Point.  

<3

We had a great time. We eventually want to go on the dinner cruise in DC. We've heard it's a lot better. There's a lot more to see. While I love Baltimore, there are so many factories! Not so pretty ;-)

Bunnies Bite!

I used to think bunny rabbits were some of the cutest little creatures. I never really understood why so many people hated them, even farmers. I figured there was no harm in a bunny eating a few plants, he's just hungry. Well, my opinion of them has changed quite drastically. Sure, they start out very cute...like this...

but then they decide to demolish your lettuce...like this!

My previously lush leaves of lettuce are now bunny leftovers!

Since I took this picture, he has been back and has completely eaten all of the leaves off the top half of my largest plant. He has also eaten more zucchini and some tomatoes! We're considering putting chicken wire around the raised beds, but we're trying a few other options first. I wish I could get a fox or something to keep in my back yard so the stupid bunny would stay away...or become fox lunch...either way, I don't care.

If you have looked at my 101 in 1001 post, you know I wanted to start meal planning again. Well, I've started doing that and last Wednesday we were supposed to have grilled chicken salad. Stupid rabbit ruined my menu for the week!

Chicken Spaghetti

I recently finish reading Pioneer Woman's book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. I loved it BTW! In the book, she mentions Chicken Spaghetti. I was interested so I looked the recipe

up on her blog. She has a detailed step by step on her blog, so you can check that out if you like. I made one change (I used Chili Powder instead of Cayenne Pepper, because I didn't have any Cayenne). 

Ingredients

 - 3 cups dry Spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces 

(While breaking these I discovered that Bailey likes dry pasta)

 - 2 cups Cooked Chicken, (I used leg quarters)

 - 1/4 cups each of Diced Green Pepper and Diced Onion (I added Diced Red Bell Pepper too) For the peppers, I used frozen, because I have a TON of them in my freezer

 - 1 4 oz jar Diced Pimentos, Drained

 - 1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt

- 1/4 teaspoon Chili Powder

- 1/8 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper

 - 1 can Cream of Mushroom

- 1 can Cream of Chicken

 - 2 cups Shredded Cheddar (reserve 1 cup for topping)

Cook pasta in chicken broth (either reserved from cooking your chicken or from a can). I used the broth left over from cooking the chicken. Strain pasta.

Mix all the ingredients together and pour in casserole dish. Top with remaining cup of Cheddar Cheese. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Cover if your cheese starts to burn. I served this with little crusty french bread rolls. It's delicious!

This was quite time consuming (I shredded my own cheese, so it could be faster if you used the pre-shredded stuff) but it was worth it. I made a double batch and froze the second one. PW says you can freeze it for up to 6 months, but it definitely won't last that long around here! Since this is a time consuming dish, I definitely recommend making a double batch.

Bailey's Progress Report

Bailey has had another super busy week! On top of our trip home, we had our first house guests that were not family. Our friends Thomas and Kaity stayed with us one night on their way to New York. They had their little baby with them and Bailey just loves him! This is the same baby she met while we were in Raleigh. He is so precious and has the cutest smile. She's really good with him, she just licks him a LOT! We also have to watch her tail. She wags it a LOT when she's excited. It's big, he's small. Not a good combo. He's just the right height so that it will hit him in the face if we're not careful. 

We were practicing "stay" here. She wanted to turn around and lick Rick so bad. Nice distraction. Haha.

Thursday morning before we left for work. We were playing with Bailey and her toy. Rick thought it was just hilarious. Every time she would run back in the living room he would laugh so hard. Too cute!

Potty Training

While Bailey doesn't have accidents like she used to, she still has them when she's in a new place or around new people. It's like if she's playing with someone new, she doesn't want to stop long enough to go outside, so she just goes where she is. It's frustrating, but we're trying to be patient. She still holds it while we're at work, so at least we have that going for us. She definitely knows she's not supposed to go inside. We thought she just didn't want to go on hard floors and that's why she held it all day while we were at work. Well, she had some accidents on hard floors while we were in Raleigh, so that isn't it. Also, one day last week when we got home...we found Bailey sitting on the stairs. She had pushed our crate out of the way (that's what blocks her from getting upstairs) and gotten to carpeted areas of the house. We searched everywhere for destroyed items and pee. No potty! I was excited about this. However...another item fell victim to her jaws :-/. 

Luckily, Josh doesn't love his Rainbows as much as I love mine.

Training

Bailey is doing great in this area! She is doing WAY better with "play dead". She just gets bored. After she has done it 3 or so times...she's completely over it. We just need to work on speed and we'll be good to go! Bailey graduated from her puppy class this week! We were a little worried because she was set to graduate during the Thursday graduation (since Monday was the 4th). We knew there would be new puppies there and we didn't want them to distract her. When we got there, there were only 2 other puppies! I was surprised since it was supposed to be a graduation for both classes! One of them was Brutus, the Bull Terrier in our class. The other was another Bull Terrier. Bailey was completely fine! She got an excellent on everything! In order to get an excellent, she had to complete each task the first time she was asked. We were not allowed to tell her to do anything more than once. She wasn't allowed to break during her stays or anything like that. She was the only puppy that did this! We were so very proud of her. After everyone graduated, we let the puppies run around and play for a while. I was so happy for her. She has been dying to play with Brutus during every class. Haha. 

 Straight E's!

Haha, yes. I'm that mom.

When we work on "heel" in class, we walk the length of the shopping center our training class is located in. There's a nail salon in the area. While our dogs were sitting (they have to automatically sit when we stop) one of the employees ran out with a huge stuffed dog (really huge, if it was a real dog, it would weigh about 200lbs) and said "my dog sit too!" it was hilarious. Our trainer's mom owns a pet shop beside where we train. She said a while back called the pet shop saying "Your kitties escape! Your kitties escape!". She told him not to touch them. She went down to the nail salon and some raccoons had broken in! Haha. I thought this was so hilarious!

Catching up and Making Memories

Josh, Bailey and I packed our bags and headed to Raleigh to celebrate the 4th with some great friends. We left last Thursday afternoon. Luckily, we had a very smooth ride down. I wasn't sure how traffic would be Thursday, but we knew we didn't want to chance traveling down Friday night. I'm SO glad we left early.

We stayed with our friend Chris. We decided to just hang out with him Thursday once we got in town. We were both tired so it was nice to just relax a little. Friday was a very busy, but very fun day. I had not one, but two lunches with old friends. Silly me for double booking. The first was with my old co-workers. I haven't seen them in well over a year so it was very nice to catch up. The second lunch was with one of my bridesmaids, Brittany. This was the first time I saw her since my wedding day. We've been catching up via phone & such but it's not the same. We  caught up on old times, talked about her recent trip to Mexico (where we honeymooned) and talked about when her boyfriend would propose. She thought it would be that weekend...and he DID! Congrats hun! 

After lunch we met Anna & John on campus with the puppies. We wanted to walk around and see how things have changed since we left. It was so great to be back there and for the puppies to finally meet. Bailey and Carter are about 2 months apart so he's a bit bigger than her. They played great together. Bailey hasn't been around many puppies so it was nice for her to be around a dog with as much energy as her. There are puppies in her class who want to play, but they're so small we're scared she'll hurt them. 

They were SO happy to meet!

 They played...

 And played...

 And finally stopped to share a quick sip of water.

 Sitting for treats...so cute!

 Kisses in the Wolf Ears!

 Our adorable little Wolfpack puppies.

 In front of the Murphy Center

Precious!

We really wanted to go see the bookstore since we knew it had been demolished. It was kind of sad...

 It's ok though...we got  a commemorative brick :-)

The temporary bookstore is below Harrelson. It's actually really nice.

Friday night we went to grab a quick bite to eat at one of my favorite places ever, then we went to see our friend Brad play at a bar we used to go to pretty often. We saw even more friends there. I was slightly bummed at first because I realized we could have brought Bailey with us. I thought about it and she would have been way too hyper...it was probably a good thing we didn't have her. That doesn't mean I might not bring her next time though :-) 

Crappy pic...great time!

Saturday we had a cookout at Chris'. This is when we REALLY got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in a while. Anna & John brought Carter over with them. He and Bailey had a great time playing. We let them go swimming with us for a little bit, but I don't think either of them really care for it. Hopefully Bailey will learn to like the water one day. She has a little lab in her, she has to! Haha. 

 They were SO dirty! We had to rinse them off before they could get in the pool.

 Trying to coax Bailey in.

Aww hugs! Haha...she just didn't like being left alone. 

Carter making his way out.

This is Rick, the youngest baby Bailey has ever been around. He was infatuated with her food container, and she thought he was going to feed her...this made them best friends. Bailey didn't even get upset when Rick bit her tail. Haha.

Sunday, we decided to just relax. We went to Zaxby's for lunch. It was delicious as always. After lunch we picked Bailey up from Chris' and went to the park. We walked around one of the trails for a bit and stopped by the lake. We wanted to see if Bailey would get in. Of course she didn't want to. It started thundering and raining a little so we left. It was really hot anyway so I didn't mind. Once we got to Chris' everything looked fine, so we hopped in the pool and just relaxed for a bit. I read my book and played with Bailey. She wasn't interested in swimming, but she did lounge around the pool with us for a while.

I thought she might actually jump in for a second...

 I was wrong.