Speed Racer

Here Pickles is enjoying his new bike trailer and all the treats that fall from the sky whenever he rides in it.

I wanna be like you ou ou

Copper is visiting Wed-Sat this week while Scott and Shanon are... we actually realized that we have no idea where they went.  Maybe they're really just hiding out at home and gave Copper to us for a break.

In any case, Pickles is thrilled!   Copper is sooooo cool.  First of all Copper has really cool toys and has been generously allowing Pickles to play with them which Pickles does constantly.  Copper has this one green frog that squeaks!  We've never bought Pickles a toy with a squeaker and the only one he has is a present from Brandy and Mike.  Copper also has this rope toy which is a little plastic ball with several ropes coming out of it. What fun.  In exchange Pickles is sharing his treat bone with Copper, the rubber kind that you put kibble in and they have to shake it to get it out.  Copper takes it in his crate and gives Pickles a good growl whenever he comes near.  I'm not sure if Pickles understands growling yet, he just stands watching copper directly outside the crate only inches away.  Pickles also enjoys following copper everywhere.  He makes sure to sniff everything that Copper sniffs.

I'm not sure how Copper feels about it though. Copper is used to a relaxing stay at his vacation home where he gets to go on lots of hikes, tries to eat chickens in the backyard, and enjoys nightly full body massages.  Sadly for him, things have changed and now he has to deal with Pickles.  To his credit he is being very very tolerant. Having a puppy, I kind of forgot how much adult dogs like being petted.  Copper is happy to sit and get a butt rub, neck rub, ear rub, etc. while Pickles needs to be playing constantly.

We took them to South Boulder Campus last night and early this morning to let off some steam in hopes that I might actually get some work done at home today.  Copper did some serious high speed laps leaving Pickles in his dust and then continued to sniff and mark throughout the walk.  Pickles just wanted to play.... oh so badly.  Usually Copper just increased his speed so that Pickles could no longer keep up, but he also resorted to a couple healthy growls and teeth flashes telling Pickles to bugger off.

They are now both sound asleep.  Copper enjoying the bed and Pickles on the floor at my feet.

Walk the Plank

 

He is pretty good at "stay"

Family Reunion

 Yesterday, we had to pick up some bee supplies in Loveland so we arranged to stop by Brandy and Mike's place in Greeley to see some of Pickles' family.  When Brandy opened the front door, the big dogs: Stella (Pickles' dad), Claudia, and Fred mobbed Pickles on the front porch.  At first he tucked his tail and was spooked by so many large dogs, but then he must have caught a whiff and recognized them because he started his happy " I REMEMBER YOU" whine and wagged his tail furiously.  His bother and sister, Cider and Roni are still living there and his sister Mia who lives in Greeley came over for a visit.  The puppies played at full speed for about 90 minutes.  Afterwards he slept for 4 hours straight.

Pickles on the bottom with sister, Roni, on top and brother, Cider, standing by

Mike, Brandy, and Mia's Mom Darby

Catching their breath.  Sister Mia on the right is still full of energy.

Attack!!!

On your mark, get set, ... GO

All of the other puppies were pretty jealous of Pickles' gorgeous tail.  They spent much of their wrestling time pulling on it.

Vet Visit

On Thursday, Pickles went to the vet to get his second set of shots.  We chose Boulder Natural Animal in the Table Mesa shopping center because they are very very close, once they gave us free cotton candy before we even had a dog, and I went to visit and everyone there seemed nice and open-minded.  Our vet was Liv Brockman and she was great.  First Pickles got a thermometer stuck up his butt while I fed him treats one after the other.  I don't think he even noticed anything but the treats.  Then the vet brought in a toy bird with rope legs for him to play with while she examined him.  He loved it and played very loudly growling and pulling and generally having a blast.  He showed off his sit, down, drop it, and shake.  She was very impressed with drop it.  For the shots, she brought him a can of baby food to lick while she injected him.  I held the jar and he licked away.  I don't think he noticed either shot.  So all around he had a 100% positive experience.  Hopefully, he'll be excited when we go back in 4 weeks.

Biker Pup

We bought a kid's bike trailer off Craigslist so we can take Pickles with us without having to drive. Mark took out the kid's seat in it and put a piece of plywood across the bottom for him to stand on then added one of his pillows on top of that. We coaxed him in with treats and fed him about at least 5 treats a second for staying in it. He is now in love with being in his trailer and will get in there for a nap when he's hanging out in the backyard. We've walked him to the park and around the block in it always with a constant supply of treats. He doesn't seem to mind at all that it is moving; all he cares about is the food.

Snow Day

This past weekend, we took Pickles up to Hessie Trailhead so he could play in the snow.  The trail was really packed down and more like ice than snow, but eventually we reached a spot with nice fluffy snow and he had a blast playing in it.

He also got to practice stream crossings, have a snack in the meadow, and climb some snow banks.  He has developed a strong affinity for pine cones.

I am so Cool

I think this picture says it all. 

Agility Puppy

We have been discovering that Pickles loves playgrounds, tunnels, and climbing on things.  At puppy class he was the first one to climb up the slide onto the little tykes play structure.  He also loved running through the holes underneath the structure.  We've taken him to the playground down the road a couple times and he voluntarily goes down the little slide; he also enjoys running up the stairs and across the bridge.  Recently we bought him a little kids play tunnel from target.  He absolutely loves running through it.  He'll chase any toy through there, grab it and run back through the tunnel to bring it to you.  Outside if you get him running with you and then run past the tunnel pointing him in the right direction he'll run right through it and come out jumping and smiling on the other side.  Sometimes, we leave it up in the dining room and he runs through it just to entertain himself. 

Pickles hits the Trail

Today we did our first "hike" with Pickles. Hike is in quotes because it was about a half a mile walk, but it was outside of Boulder and on a trail. Pickles had a lot of fun running with his big buddies Copper and Daisy. Along the hike we found a stream where Pickles got his feet wet and had a drink. After playing by the stream Pickles needed a little break and decided the muddy trail was the best place for a nap.

Copper, Daisy, and Pickles

Happy Puppy

That waters a little cold!

Tired Puppy

Learning Down

We've been working on teaching Pickles to lay down on command.  We started with a treat touched to his nose to get him interested then you move the treat down slowly to the ground and towards his front paws and he will lay down to get it.  The next step was removing the treat and just touching the ground.  When he laid down, he then got a treat from the other hand.  This is the point where we got stuck.  We had to touch the ground every time to get him to lay down.  At puppy class on Wednesday, the trainer, Gigi, showed us to say Down then start moving our hand slowly downwards and as soon as he looked like he was going to lay down stop moving and wait for him.  He always waited until our hand was all the way on the ground to lay down.  So next she told us to just move our hand down until it was a couple feet off the ground and then wait.  After a good minute of waiting he laid down tada!  The key was just giving him enough time to figure it out on his own without touching a hand all the way to the ground.  After a day of this, I tried holding my hand at my waist and pointing down but not moving my hand at all.  Just standing there and saying down, pointing, and waiting.  Pickles stared at me for a good 30 seconds then he barked, jumped up to bite my hand, pawed at it, whined a little and then laid down.  It was very fun to watch.  He knows exactly what Down means, he just does not want to lay down and has a little temper tantrum, but still really wants a treat so he lays down eventually.  Since this first time, we have progressed to only a couple barks and whining before laying down.  I no longer use any hand signal at all, I just wait him out and he always lays down.  Interestingly, when I revert back to touching the ground, he lays down immediately without any fuss.  Maybe he just doesn't like laying down by himself and wants a hand to accompany him.  This video is after considerable progress. 

Ghost

At night Pickles has been getting really riled up by his reflection in the sliding glass doors.

The Most Beautiful Puppy

Here is one happy puppy.

Bath Time

We've been slowly trying to get Pickles accustomed to the bath tub.  We started out with a dry tub and lots of treats.  We eventually moved to a couple inches of water and a ball to play with.  His treats floated in the water and the really fun part was that when he dunked his snout in to get them he inadvertently blew bubbles in the bathwater.  If you listen closely you can hear it, especially with the first treat.

This past week we gave him a full fledged bath, shampoo and total soaking.  He was very tolerant, but not too happy about it.  It is amazing how skinny he is under all that fur.

 

 

Soooooooo Big

Pickles has gotten noticeably bigger in the two weeks.  It's amazing to look at him and see such a big brave puppy.

Pickles on the Farm

Sunday we drove up to Niwot to get some compost and Pickles got to play on the farm for a while. He bravely met Mischief the horse and then played with two rambunctious labs: Niwot and Eldora. At first he was terrified and hid under whomever he could find and growled and snapped at the dogs, but after about 5 minutes he was chasing them through the grass, wrestling, and barking at them to come play with him. He thought he was one of the big dogs climbing all over the big rocks.

New Friends

Colin and Kristen came over yesterday for breakfast and dinner.  Pickles was actually quite friendly with them, greeting them enthusiastically and playing a little bit.

Lunch from a Kong

Kong's are actually designed for wet food, the dog is supposed to lick all the food out, but Pickles tongue isn't quite long enough for that yet, and he likes a more engaging meal.  So we fill his Kong with kibble and put it on the wood floor.  When he rolls it with his paw it makes a great rattling noise so he knows there's something in there.  If he rolls it hard enough kibble comes out and makes a delicious sound as it hits the wood floor.  This helps him know he was successful and that he should find the food that fell out.  When it gets down to the last couple pieces he has to work really hard to get them to come out over the lip of the Kong.  Usually, we can keep him occupied for about 15 minutes eating this way.

A Good Night's Sleep

Amazingly, Pickles sleeps all the way through the night. The first two nights he woke up once at 2am to go out and potty, but went back to sleep when I put him straight back into his crate. Now he sleeps all the way until 6am. I can actually hear him wake up before that, but he just quietly chews on his Kong or his Bully stick even if there isn't anything in his Kong.

Puppy Class

Pickles has been super shy around people and other dogs so we decided to take him to his first puppy class tonight. The class was offered through the Boulder Humane Society for 8-12 week old puppies. To start out there was only one other puppy there, a fluffy little guy named Marti. Pickles curled up under the bench terrified. For some reason there were at least 5 trainers there. It took about 15 minutes for Pickles to come out and say hi to the people and start sniffing the other puppy. By then Seri, the husky had arrived. Then Pickles started to play a little bit. There were a couple of little tykes play slides that he absolute loved playing on. He kept running back and forth under then and was first to go up the slide. A wild lab mix showed up last and Pickles came out of his shell a little bit more. By the end he was walking up to all the people hoping for a treat and running around with the other puppies. He still had amazing recall though, I could go to the corner of the big room in the middle of him playing and call him and he would come running to see me. It was a super great experience, but I was very unimpressed with the training staff there, they didn't actually do anything except give the puppies treats. I think next we'll try the other Puppy Socialization class in town offered by Gigi Moss.

Really Cheap Puppy Toys

Pickles loves playing with toys especially really really cheap ones.  Here is his first time playing with a tennis ball; we think he will grow up to be an excellent retriever.

And this is a plastic yogurt container that he found in the backyard that we use to feed the chickens.

It's Alive

Pickles first time playing with his Nylabone toy.  He is very good at entertaining himself.

Coming Home

And so we brought Pickles home with us.  He howled a bit on the way home, making an incredible loud noise for such a small puppy.  I hope we don't hear that all night long tonight.  Eventually, I was able to distract him with treats and after that he laid down at by feet and went to sleep.