first snow of the season

Can you believe it was 64 degrees last weekend, and now this!  26 degrees but with a windchill feels-like reading of 13 degrees!  That's cold!  Good thing Teagan loves winter!  Here are some pics of her at the dog park this morning.  I made her wear a sweater because it was so cold, but she wasn't happy about it.  She hates wearing clothes, but she looks so cute!

First some roaching.  This wool sweater is a little itchy!

This is how we walk:  Erin leads the way; Teagan follows; and The Dad brings up the rear.

Teagan:  "It sorta seems like this guy wants to play with me... what should I do?"

Teagan:  "I know - I'll chase him away from my people!"

No squirrels out today.  Too cold.

At the dog park this morning....

she likes to stay hydrated

Teagan takes a selfie

walking with the dad

Teagan at the dog park

Drinking her water on top of a picnic table.  "I'm the doggie queen of this here dog park!"

Looking good, Teagan Boo-boo!

"Hey, Dad!  I could use some water right about now!"

Happy New Year from Keeley & Teagan

Here they are at the doggie park this morning.  Running around and being silly dogs.  Keeley is still a play-baby even though he's almost 9 years old.

Teagan loves to eat frozen sticks.  It's troublesome because what goes in must come out at some point.

There's Keeley with his Grandpa.  There weren't any critters for the dogs to hunt today because it's too cold out.

Weekends at the dog park

Autumn at the dog park

I took some pictures of Keeley and Teagan at the dog park yesterday. It's been several months since I've blogged so I think it's pretty obvious that I'm taking a break from it. I'm going back to school so that is taking up most of my time. However, I will still try to post some pictures occasionally.
Keeley and Teagan are adjusting fairly well. They don't like the days that I'm in class all day and they don't like that I'm always telling them that I have to do homework. But they're good little dogs and are trying their best to be patient with me.
We still go to the dog park everyday but the schedule is a bit unpredictable. Keeley and Teagan have become quite a pair. They are always together and don't often allow other dogs into their little group anymore. Teagan still thinks she's the boss of Keeley but he has become more assertive with her and will only put up with so much now.
I think this picture is hilarious. Look at Keeley's expression; the poor guy! This is how Teagan chases Keeley. She really sticks her head under his butt and then like lifts up. It looks ridiculous! No wonder, her noggin always seems to smell like butt!

At the Dog Park

This is what Teagan does at the dog park. She chases tennis balls. For 45 minutes, she chases tennis balls.This is how she looks when you're about to throw the ball. Isn't she cute?
And this is what Keeley does at the dog park. He walks around sniffing things and peeing on things.
I'm not kidding. He pees on benches while people are sitting on them. He pees on trees, fences, clumps of grass, toys, posts, old dog poop, etc. He pees on other dogs if they're not careful about where they're putting their heads. He pees on water dishes. If someone sets their bag down, he'll pee on that too. Well, to each their own I suppose. Maybe peeing on things makes him happy. I don't know.
They are 2 very different dogs with their own agendas.
After Keeley is done sniffing and peeing, then he makes the rounds and gets petted by every human at the dog park. He's so freakin' charming that they usually give him treats too!
The whole time Teagan is still just chasing tennis balls. I tried to teach Keeley to fetch when he was younger and if I tried really hard I could get him to do it like 3 times in a row before he walked off and ignored me. Now I just let him do his thing. I'm too busy throwing balls for Teagan now and Keeley really seems to enjoy his independence too.
After he's done sniffing, peeing, and making the rounds, then he just watches things for a while.
Teagan chases tennis balls. But she won't chase just any ball. It has to be one that's thrown by me or her grandma. Sometimes someone else will try to throw one for her but she doesn't even budge for it.
I always thought it would be cool to have a dog that fetched. It's certainly one of the coolest things about Teagan. And she's so tired afterwards.
Before we leave the park, she drinks a bunch of water and then goes right to sleep once she gets in the car.

How strange is this?

Today at the dog park there weren't many dogs around. At one point it was just me, Keeley, and Teagan. Then a guy and his dog showed up.

If there were like ten dogs there, I probably wouldn't have looked twice at this other dog, but since it was the only other one there I was paying more attention to it. It was the same size as Teagan, all long legs and tiny waist.

So I asked the guy what kind of dog it was and he said it was a lab. I responded that it must still be a puppy because labs generally get to be twice as big as Teagan when they're fully grown. He agreed that it was still a puppy.

So then I asked how old it was. I was guessing like 6 or 7 months but the guy said no, it's over a year old. He also said that he still expected it to gain another 6-8 inches in height over the next year and fill out. I thought that was kind of odd since I thought dogs were, for the most part, done growing once they got to a year old, but I held my tongue and didn't say anything.

I sat there watching this dog for a couple more minutes. It was a shiny jet black color with a tiny white spot on it's chest. It liked to run fast and play chase and was just as fast as Teagan. It's tail was about the same length as Tess's and had a slight curl to it. And it's body shape was exactly like Teagan's.

So I asked the guy if he got it from the Humane Society here and he said he did when she was just a puppy. Then I asked if her birthday happened to be March 10th and he looked surprised and asked how could I know that. I told him that's because it's Teagan's birthday too and told him I think they're sisters. But he refused to hear it and insisted that his dog was a black lab, not a mutt. So I let it drop.

I sat there watching the dogs run and play and the guy continued to talk about his dog. I became more and more convinced that this was another one of Teagan's litter mates. He said he got her when she was 10 weeks old and that her name was Mandy. So I asked him if her other litter mates at the Humane Society all had names that started with M's too. Again he was surprised that I knew this so I told him that Teagan's name used to be Mona but I changed it.

Still he insisted that Mandy and Teagan were not sisters. He said that his is a black lab and that the other dogs in the litter were black too but that there were only 3 of them total. But if Teagan and Tess had already been adopted before he got there, of course it would look like there were only 3 dogs in the litter. And for that matter, I've been saying that there were 5 dogs in the litter but I don't know that for a fact either since there could have been more that were adopted before I got there and I wouldn't have known. Anyhow, I decided not to argue with the guy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me today, but you can be sure I'm going to be bringing one from now on in case we ever run into Mandy again.

Meet Tess

Looks like Teagan. Acts like Teagan. But it's not Teagan, because it's TESS! Today at the dog park we ran into one of Teagan's biological sisters and her name is Tess.

They came from a litter of 5 girls and the Humane Society gave them all names that started with M's. Teagan's name was Mona before we got her. Tess was obviously renamed by her new parents as well.
I've always hoped to one day run into one of Teagan's litter mates. I knew she was Teagan's sister the moment I saw Tess. They do look an awful lot alike, don't they? Teagan is a little taller and longer. Tess is a little more blond and more sturdy. Teagan's tail is longer and curlier. Tess is more well adjusted and doesn't have any hang ups about other dogs or resource guarding. However, it is clear that they are related. They both love to run fast and chase balls. Also they both can entertain themselves for hours with just 2 tennis balls.
It was hard to get a good picture because Tess was moving so fast but here's a shot of the two sisters together. I wonder if some day we'll run into the other 3 girls in the litter. I hope so because it was so cool meeting Tess at the dog park today!

New dog park at Currie Park

I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never!

We were driving around and noticed that there's a Dog Exercise Area at Currie Park now.We decided to go check it out. Apparently it opened in October last year.
We met this cute dog named Cola there. He's a cross between a Westie and a Miniature Schnauzer.
Unfortunately, it was all icy and frozen on the day we went and conditions like this are hard on Keeley's bad leg. But I think he did alright.
Teagan was her normal goofy self.
The only problem with this dog park is that they built it on a hill. So on the day we went, it was an ice slick. And when it melts, it becomes a mud slide. Sometimes I really wonder who they've got designing these things! Do they even have dogs themselves? Have they ever even been to a dog park before?
There's Keeley getting a butt rub from his grandma.
Keeley really likes to explore new places so I think he had a good time even though it was icy.
After Keeley had sniffed all there was to sniff, then he played a little with Teagan before we left.