Minooka on Christmas Morning

I took Keeley and Teagan to Minooka on Christmas morning in their holiday outfits.

The pups really dislike wearing clothing, especially Teagan. But everyone there commented on how cute they looked.


It was a cold morning, so it was probably good that they had doggie clothing on.

I had to wash Teagan's dress when we got home because she got it all muddy while roaching around.

Minooka with Mom

We went to Minooka with my mom today (Keeley's and Teagan's grandma).
We are having a very mild (chilly) spring here in Wisconsin this year.
Lots of people are still wearing their winter coats but the dogs think this is like the perfect temperature because it's warm enough that THEY don't have to wear coats but still cool enough that they don't get overheated.
I've been taking the dogs for a lot of walks lately instead of going to dog parks because in the spring the dog parks get all kinds of gross with mud from the snow melt and spring rain showers. So this was a special treat today, going to Minooka.
It's good for them to run around at top speed without having to drag a human behind them on a leash.
They had a lot of fun! Keeley tried to entice other dogs to chase him by picking up a stick.
It's like he's saying, "Hey! Look at me! I've got a stick! It's a great stick! Don't you want it?!" but there were no takers. Poor Keeley!
Teagan is always willing to chase him though. But he doesn't like that because she's too fast and she gets mean about it sometimes.
Isn't this a great shot of Keeley running fast? I think the pups look quite happy.

The winter blahs, an update, and blogs

I've really been slacking off when it comes to blogging lately. I think I have the winter blahs. I've been very sleepy lately, more so than usual. Anyhow, here's a little update of whats been happening:

Teagan seemed to be getting better for a while but recently she's relapsed back to her psycho bitch behavior. I know it's my fault because I started slacking off and not making her "get easy" everyday like I should have. So now I've got some more work to do with her. My mom has had it with her and says if I can't fix her than I'll have to give her up. But that is like totally out of the question if you ask me. Yeah, she's a little crazy and she has had a bad couple of weeks but I think it's just a little set back and that overall she's still getting better. I really love her and I think she's got a lot of good qualities. She's smart and sweet and can entertain herself for hours on end and she seems practically indestructible. Her problems are that she bosses Keeley around, goes psycho killer on him, she's a cry baby, and she is scared of kids and threatens to go psycho on them too. I don't think there's much I can do to make her less scared of kids because who's going to lend me some kids? But I do think I can get her to stop going crazy on Keeley. It's just going to take some work and I need to be more consistent.

Here's an example of a typical psycho Teagan situation: Keeley hates it when I used a particular colander when I'm cooking. He will bark like crazy and even nip at me if I reach for this colander in the cupboard. Teagan thinks she needs to protect and defend me so she will attack Keeley when he does this.

Now what I've got to remember to do is to tell Keeley in advance when I'm going to reach for the colander and also reassure Teagan that I'm in control of the situation and that she doesn't need to protect me. It's always a tense situation but as long as I remember to be the one in control, then everything goes fine and we don't have an incident.

In other news, Keeley and Teagan lost their off leash privileges in January because they ran into the ravine at Lake Park and would not come back when I called them. I yelled that I was leaving, ran across a field to the car, got in and even started driving down the street and they still didn't come. Then I freaked out. I was screaming for them for what seemed like a really long time to me, but was probably only 5 minutes in reality. Finally they came. I loaded them into the car and yelled at them all the way home. I thought they got the message because they looked pretty miserable and ashamed of themselves but then just a couple days later they ran across the street in front of our house.

Are they trying to give me a heart attack? We live on a really busy street with semi-trucks exiting the freeway all day long. When it's warm we put up a gate across the driveway but in winter we don't use the gate because of all the snow and we are putting the car in the garage. I tell them we're using winter rules and they're supposed to go directly from the back door to the yard and back so it's usually okay. But now after they ran across the street, I've had to put up the gate again. It's a pain but better safe than sorry. I've had the unfortunate experience of seeing what happens when a dog gets hit by a semi because a couple of years ago it happened to a dog that lived across the street. It's really horrible. There's basically nothing left but a blood stain when that happens. I think my heart would just break if that happened to one of my fur-babies!

So it's been a trying few weeks since I've last posted. Perhaps it's just that we're all sick of winter and eager for spring to come. My pups are tired of being cooped up indoors. Me too!

Wow, it seems I had more to say than I thought I did! We also want to tell our DWB friends about some new dog blogs:

Keeley's friend Lojack started a blog where she offers advice to humans and dogs who may be having troubles in their inter-species relationships. Here's the address if you wanna stop by to check it out: http://lojacksdownlow.blogspot.com/

Also, we found out about another Irish Terrier blog by a dog named McGillicutty. He's super handsome, of course since he's a terrier! Check it out here: http://www.themcgillinator.blogspot.com

We've encouraged both of them to join the DWBs. We love DWBs!

I'm going to try to make the rounds tomorrow and get updated on what's been happening with everyone else's blogs.

Finally, here's some pictures of Keeley and Teagan at Minooka on Monday. We've gotten another foot of snow since then!

Winter at Minooka

We went to Minooka on Saturday. There's Teagan and her grandma.For some reason I was surprised that there were so many dogs there because it was pretty cold out. But I should have known better. I mean this is Wisconsin, afterall. A little cold is not going to keep people (or their dogs) indoors.
Keeley and Teagan had a great time. These conditions are hard on Keeley's bad leg and he often resorts to his 3 leg hop, but he never complains and is always happy to go places like this.
Teagan always sticks close by to me, her grandma, or Keeley. I feel bad for Keeley since little siblings can be so annoying sometimes.
Keeley likes to walk all over and meet every dog at the park. Here he is sniffing another dog's butt. He's such a friendly guy.

our last 2 trips to Minooka

Here are some photos from our last two trips to Minooka. I know I've taken more than enough photos of my dogs here, but it helps to keep me entertained while we're there.
On this day, my dogs were testing out their new Land's End fleece jackets.

It was pretty muddy and I had to wash them when we got home. At least they looked good!

Keeley and Teagan always have a good time at Minooka.

The next time we went, the dogs wore their Xmas tee shirts that their grandma bought for them. In the small dog area, lots of people commented about how cute their shirts were. I guess small dog folks just understand more about dressing up your pooch. People in the big dog area always make rude remarks about what my dogs are wearing. They just don't get it.

Minooka with Unkie Rob

We got an early start this morning and headed out to Minooka. You can see from these photos that Keeley and Teagan are already getting along better since doggie bootcamp. Teagan is a little less aggressive towards Keeley and Keeley is more empowered now and stands up for himself more.
We were surprised to run into Keeley's friend Kirby there. No not our DWB friend Kirby, but a frenchie named Kirby that Keeley plays with at doggie daycare.
Also, Unkie Rob is in town for his yearly visit. Keeley just adores him. And this was his first time meeting little miss Teagan.
I know Keeley loves me, but sometimes I think he would have been happier if a guy was his owner. Keeley just really respects men more. How did I end up with such a sexist little dog!?! Woe is me.
Anyhow, the weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Rob really lucked out.
We walked around the park 3 times and then the pups really started looking tired.
Keeley was especially tired out and is still sleeping it off as I'm blogging now.

update

Teagan has been taking her Clavamox antibiotic for almost a week now and there is no longer hardness on her belly around her boo-boo. So I think things are going well. The sore is healing and she leaves it alone. So that's the good news.

The bad news is that Teagan's resource guarding is escalating and my mom has become scared for Keeley's safety. Teagan always did this food guarding thing since I got her but she only does it to Keeley. I can take anything away from her and she doesn't care one bit, but if Keeley even looks at her from across the room she'll go psycho killer on him.

I supervise their breakfasts and mornings are the most peaceful. Their dinners they eat in their crates so that's not a problem either. It's when they have treats that it happens most often. If Teagan finishes a treat before Keeley is finished, she takes the rest of his away and eats it herself. But if Keeley finishes before Teagan and he even just looks at her, then she goes insane.

This week it started happening for apparently no reason at all. Neither one has a treat but for some reason it's like Teagan gets it in her head that he's got something and she just goes crazy. I've had to separate them several times. I don't know what to do so I'm going to have to ask Keeley's SATS trainer for some advice.

On a different topic, Keeley is super ripe! Boy he's a stinky dog! He was just bathed 2 weeks ago, but he's already really stinky and dirty too. The vet says to only bathe him every 6 weeks or so, but everything starts to stink around here in the meantime. Do any of you DWBs have some advice? Do you have a stinky dog too? What do you do to make them not smell so offensive? Plus, when I pet him and then wash my hands, the water is all brown. I don't know how he manages to get so filthy so fast!

And last but not least, my aunt and uncle gave me a new digital camera. Woohoo! This morning we tested it out at Minooka. Here are some of our pictures: