Teagan's first trip to Minooka

On Monday we took Keeley and Teagan out to Minooka in Waukesha. It was Teagan's first visit to a dog park. We went into the small dog area for Teagan. Keeley came with even though he's not a small dog. The sign says small is 15 inches or shorter. Teagan just has more confidence when Keeley is with her. She really needs to get socialized because she's fearful of other dogs.
When Keeley was a puppy, I read that the way to socialize a puppy is to make sure they meet 100 different kinds of people by the age of 3 months and 100 different dogs by 5 months old. It worked great for Keeley. He loves all dogs. He even loves dogs that don't like him. And with people, well... Keeley loves people as long as they're not walking on crutches or wearing masks or holding umbrellas. It's hard to think of everything, but still I think we did a pretty darn good job with him.
So now we're doing the same for Teagan. She loves people so much that I'm not worried about that goal, but she's super scared around dogs, so that's the goal I'm focusing on. At Minooka, Teagan got to meet about 14 small dogs and she did pretty good with them. She did hide under a bench a few times and sometimes went to her grandma for protection, but she was pretty brave and didn't bark or get her hackle up.
It was a good trip. Both Keeley and Teagan were smiling and had fun.
Continuing with the socialization, today I took Keeley and Teagan to Lake Park. There Teagan got to meet 9 other dogs. They were all bigger and older than her which made her very scared. She positioned herself between my legs most of the time. At first her hackle was up and she growled at any dog that came close to her. I told her that wasn't acceptable and soon she gave it up. After about 20 minutes she started to get more comfortable and would run off after Keeley every now and then. She let out a scream 3 times when she felt like a dog had gotten too close to her and then she'd run back to me for protection. I don't know why she's so fearful of other dogs but I'm going to stick with the socialization goal and hopefully she'll get over her fear. I think she's met about 41 dogs so far, not including Keeley. There is still another 3 weeks or so before she's five months old so we'll keep working on it.

Visiting friends in Madison

Today we took a day trip up to Madison to visit our friends that live there.Keeley got really excited when we told him that we were going to Romare's house.
Doesn't he look happy?
This was Teagan's first time meeting Romare and his dads.
We thought she'd be scared of Romare because he's so big and she's scared of most dogs, but she warmed to him immediately. Maybe it was because she had Keeley with her that she was feeling more confident.
This is Louie. He stopped by for a visit too.
Arnie is Romare's pal. He lives across the street from him. And soon, he came over for a visit too.
Teagan loves to hide underneath furniture.
Keeley always looks so serious.
The dogs had a great time together.
Teagan was impressed by Romare's wonderful yard and spent a lot of time exploring.
Romare is a great guy. He likes having visitors.
I don't know what Teagan thinks she's doing in this picture. Oh, the things Keeley has to put up with!
After visiting with Romare and his dads, then we stopped for a quick visit with Belle and her moms. It was a lovely day full of dogs. Now I think it's time for a nap.

Oh how time does fly!

I guess I forgot how much work having a puppy is and I've been totally neglecting the DWBs and blogging. SORRY!Keeley is still somewhat in shock by the arrival of Teagan. She can be so very annoying to him at times. Still other times, he seems quite happy to have another dog around to play with. He is awfully good to the little munchkin. Mostly, the only correction Keeley gives her is to turn his head away from her or try to walk away.
I continue to find scabs on his ears, chest, and cheeks from her sharp little puppy teeth. I feel bad that he has to suffer but also feel that I should not intervene too much and just let the two of them work it out. Every once in a while Teagan will manage to get his Irish up and then she comes running to me for protection. I offer her none since she brought it on herself and think maybe she'll finally learn but as soon as Keeley calms down again, she's right back at him.

It is very interesting to me how Keeley and Teagan are turning out to be so very different.
1.) Keeley has several toy boxes that are overflowing with stuffies because he doesn't destroy them. The most damage he has ever done to his stuffies is to chew off their noses if they're made out of hard plastic. Other than that, occasionally a seam might split here or there and I just sew that back up. But Teagan is quite different. Sometimes I think she's taken it upon herself to single-handedly control the stuffie population. She SHREDS them! All day long I'm picking up fuzzy stuffing off the floor. The stuffies that Keeley or I particularly like had to be moved into Keeley's "housey, housey" for protection from Teagan.
2.) Keeley goes crazy when he hears thunder or fireworks. He gets so worked up, there is just no calming him down sometimes. Teagan, on the other hand, would sleep though them (if not for Keeley's uncontrollable barking).
3.) Keeley HATES to have his nails cut. I pay to have other people do it because I don't want him associating it with me. Still, it's a 3 person job and he cries though the whole thing. But Teagan doesn't mind it in the least. Heck, she'd even sleep though it.
4.) The only time Keeley ever barks is to alert me to something. He barks whenever he hears a noise at night. He barks at other animals he sees in the yard. He lets out one sharp bark if I fall asleep at a time he thinks I shouldn't (it pisses me off but I know he's only trying to protect me). And he barks if he hears someone at the door or a car in the driveway. He feels like it's his job and other than those situations, he never makes a peep. Teagan though, barks all the time. Or I guess I should say she yaps all the time. It's so loud and it's so annoying. She yaps at Keeley. She yaps at me. She howls in her crate. She whines if I leave the room. She grunts when she scratches her ear. She growls when she roaches. She squeaks when she stretches. She's ALWAYS making noises.

The three of us have pretty much settled into a daily routine of napping, playing outside, eating, napping, and playing outside some more. Teagan is at her most annoying right after breakfast, after dinner, and right before bedtime. So I think those would be the ideal times to start taking her for walks. I've decided that I'm going to walk Keeley and Teagan separately. For one thing, I've already tried to walk them together and it was horrible. I swear I don't know how Noah's dad is able to walk 4 dogs at once! The other reason is because I don't want Teagan to learn Keeley's bad habits since I think she's got a shot at being one of those dogs that walks nicely by their master's side. I can hope, can't I?

New Sandbox & Dog Entertainment

If you knew nothing about me and saw my backyard, you might think that I have human children. There's a wadding pool, a pop-up play tunnel, a toy box filled with balls, and now there's a sandbox too. It's all for the dogs though (aka my fur-children).Since Teagan likes to dig and has been digging holes all over the yard, her grandma decided to get her a sandbox for digging. And I bought Teagan some plastic toys to bury in the sand for her to find.
Oh-my-dog! She totally LOVES the sandbox!
Keeley thinks it's pretty cool too.
Teagan really loves to dig and the good thing is that it really wears her out.
Often, Keeley just watches Teagan's antics. I wonder what he's thinking.
In other news, I went to see the new Pixar movie, UP, in digital 3D yesterday. It was really cute and funny. It's got a lot of dog humor in it, which I probably wouldn't have been able to appreciate 3 years ago (before I got Keeley). I'm so totally a dog person now! I love anything with dogs in it.
Also, there was nothing on TV tonight so I was flipping around and came across Heidi 4 Paws: A Furry Tale which is a retelling of Heidi only with dog actors instead of people. It was really goofy but it had both Keeley and Teagan completely mesmerized.

The Monster Under The Chair

Our morning begins at 5 AM. First we go outside so all the dogs can do their business. Then we come inside and I give the dogs their breakfast. And then the early morning antics begin. It's a game that Teagan invented all by herself and I call it "The monster underneath the chair".
She crawls under her favorite chair to hide. She starts yapping like crazy. I mean really crazy and for like several minutes on end.
She waits for Keeley and I to stick our heads under there to see what all the commotion is about. Then she lunges at us like a little demon with her teeth showing and her growl going.
Keeley gets the worst of it because I quickly pull my head up and away from her.
Poor Keeley.
He literally lets her walk all over him.

Silly Teagan

Keeley went to doggie daycare yesterday so it was just me and Teagan hanging out together all day. I have to blog about some of the funny things she did before I forget about them.

Since it was nice out we bummed around outside for a good part of the day. She's pretty good at entertaining herself since she loves to chew and play with toys. I was just relaxing while reading a book and every couple of minutes I'd look up and check on her. At one point she started walking really erratically all over the driveway with her nose to the ground. At first I thought she must have caught the sent of some animal that had come through the night before. But as she continued this erratic style of walking for nearly 5 minutes, I got up to inspect the situation more closely. I discovered that it was an ant that she was following around. She was being so cute! Finally the ant disappeared through a crack in the concrete and Teagan was quite disappointed. She sat down and waited hoping for Mr. Ant to appear again but with no luck.

Then later on, she found a worm and proceeded to bark at it for a good 3 or 4 minutes. When I looked closer, I found that it was a dried up, dead worm. It wasn't even moving and she was barking at it! What a weird dog!

She also caught her second bumble bee. Keeley has never been able to catch one of those, but Teagan has already got two of them. I had to quick take it away from her before she got stung.

When Keeley was a puppy I was so busy and stressed out that I didn't get to enjoy his puppyhood. But with Teagan, I'm grateful that I have the time to notice and appreciate all the goofy little things she does.

Two Good Dogs

I love it when they're calm and quiet.Teagan relaxes in Keeley's old dog bed with Keeley's old stuffies.
Keeley hops up onto the daybed to relax because Teagan can't jump that high yet. (But she does try!)

MKE CO PARKS: Estabrook Park

On Saturday Keeley and I took our morning walk at Estabrook Park. It is 126 acres and runs along the Milwaukee River between Capitol Drive and Hampton Avenue.
Its got several soccer fields, sand volleyball, a skate area, a couple of playgrounds, a softball diamond, and more. According to Residents For Off-Leash Milwaukee Parks, there's supposed to be a new dog park at Estabrook too.
They said it was supposed to be open by Memorial Day and it's what we came to check out. But we were disappointed because this is what we found. It looks sort of smaller than what we were expecting. There's no fence up yet. Heck, there's not even any grass yet. Major disappointment.
So Keeley and I just continued our walk instead. We walked around this pond even though there was a sign that said "No Dogs".
I used to catch tadpoles here when I was a little kid.
Old train tracks cut the park in half almost.
This spot along the Milwaukee River is supposedly good for fishing.
Keeley loves to sniff stuff on his walks.
This little tunnel goes under Estabrook Drive and emerges at the Eastside Bike Trail where it runs along Wilson Drive.
There are also little paths through the trees but Keeley and I didn't go exploring any of those this time. Instead we just stuck to the Oak Leaf Recreational Trail which is all paved.

Teagan in a box

Teagan just discovered one of Keeley's toy boxes. It wasn't enough for her just to look into it. Instead she decided to hop right in. She burrowed around amongst the toys and every now and then she'd plop down a chew on one for a while. Keeley just watched the whole thing. I think he's baffled by many of her behaviors.

Memorial Day Cookout

We have a cookout every Memorial Day. This year Piper came to visit with Keeley.
But he found that he was often the odd man out since Keeley and Teagan have quickly become inseparable.
They're constantly going at it. Teagan even did her first play bow this morning.
Keeley has a very strong sense of fair play and allows Teagan to have a turn pinning him.
They're acting just like siblings now. When one of them is relaxed the other one goes over to them and starts something up. I've had to separate them a couple of times because they both just don't know when to quit.
We'll get back to a normal schedule tomorrow now that the holiday weekend is over. Until Teagan has all her shots she can't go for walks with us. So Keeley and I will continue our normal walks, just the two of us. I think it'll be good for both Keeley and Teagan to have some time apart. When Keeley is at daycare, then Teagan and I can have time alone together too.
Lastly, I wanted to say thank you to Jane for these awesome WFT playing cards! Aren't they just so cute? I love them!