Lapham Peak with Unkie Rob

Today we drove up to Lapham Peak with Rob. Keeley and Teagan love going on adventures. They were so excited, they couldn't even hold still for a picture. They wanted to get our walk started right away!
This year Keeley made it all the way to the top of the observation tower. If you remember, last year he was afraid to go up very high. The view is great up here!
We got started on the Ice Age Trail.
Now that we're having a spell of warm weather, all the squirrels are active again. Teagan is determined to catch a squirrel to impress Keeley, but so far she hasn't had much luck.
It was a really nice day but the sun didn't break through the clouds until later in the day.
Keeley and Teagan got to meet a couple other dogs that were hiking at Lapham too. Meeting other dogs on walkies is the best!
We switched trails a couple of times and ended up on this nice paved one that they just call the Accessible Trail.
Then after a while we decided to follow the signed back to the tower where we had parked the car.
Now that the dogs were tired, they were able to pose nicely for a picture with their Unkie Rob.
It was a nice little outing.

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.

Doggie Bootcamp

On Friday and Saturday we went to doggie bootcamp with PK. Things were getting out of hand with Teagan's resource guarding and fear aggression. We needed an intervention because we were scared for Keeley's safety. Plus she had growled meanly at the kids that came to our Pumpkin Carving Party the week before and she probably would have attacked them had I not been there holding her back.

PK was Keeley's SATZ trainer when he was still a puppy. SATZ is a way of communicating with your dog using simple language so that you can get along in harmony. For more information, you can check out PK's website: For Love Of Dogs. For Keeley this was a SATZ refresher course, but Teagan had to learn everything for the first time. It's a good thing she's so smart and was able to pick it up rather quickly.

With SATZ, it's sorta like that game of Hot & Cold that kids play. You know like, "You're getting warmer. Warmer..." But instead of saying warmer or colder, we use the letter X since it's an uncommon sound in English. So if I tell Keeley to come here to me, the whole time he's moving towards me I'm saying "X, X, X, X..." and if he turns away then I stop giving him that guiding signal. It works really well.

The first thing we worked on at bootcamp was to get Teagan to stop barking and growling at people. This took a lot of work since she's a pretty darn vocal little girl. Whenever she'd bark, we'd all run into a different room and close the door leaving her alone. Then we'd make a lot of noise in praise of Keeley for NOT barking. If Teagan wanted us to come back, she had to be quiet. At one point she almost bit one of PK's assistants in the butt as we were running out of the room because of her growling.

Next both Keeley and Teagan had to learn to wait at every door until I told them they could go through and also to not run up ahead of people on stairs since that could be dangerous. My dogs still need a lot of work on this at home now since old habits are hard to break. They also have to come to me immediately if I say "Here" because that's a safety issue too.

Another aspect of SATZ is "Get Easy". It's like this, basically dogs have 2 options every time they're in a scary situation: Fight or Flight. SATZ gives them a third option of just relaxing until the scary thing has passed. That's what "Get Easy" is. We need to practice this everyday till it's second nature for my pups.

Amazingly, Teagan excelled at this at bootcamp. Since she had growled at kids a lot, PK made her get easy while there were loud and fast moving kids in the same room. Oddly, Keeley who loves kids, was the one who had a hard time with this. We kept having to do it over and over until he got it right.

Another great thing Keeley and Teagan are learning is to "Check In". When they're off leash, they're supposed to "Check In" with me, meaning that they run past me and make eye contact. They have to learn that it's their job to watch me, not the other way around. We've still got a lot of work to do with this but I can see it's going to be great once they master this. I won't have to worry so much anymore.

Keeley and Teagan are also working on walking with a loose leash. I'm walking each separately until they're really good at it. On Sunday, Keeley walked the best he's done in his entire life. I was so proud of him!

And Teagan is also learning not to jump up on visitors. She really needs work on this. Sometimes when people ask what breed she is, I tell them that she's part jumping bean. She's got so much energy!

Already my dogs seem to have a new respect for me. At first, I wasn't thrilled about having to go to bootcamp but I think it's really paying off big time. People always say how cute my dogs are, but now they're going to be saying how well behaved they are!

I think that's about it. Oh yeah, I was also going to talk about some other changes around here. First, Teagan is back to sleeping in her crate since she lost the right to sleep in my bed. She may regain that right sometime in the future if she continues to do well with this new training and learns some manners. I've told her that she's relied on her looks for far too long and that now she has to learn some discipline.

The second change is my dogs' diets. Teagan had been eating Narure's Variety Instinct grain-free kibble and Keeley was eating that kibble in the mornings and Nature's Variety raw medallions in the evenings. But now both dogs have been switched to an all raw diet. This morning they each had a raw chicken leg quarter, the bones and everything. I thought it would take them a long time to eat something like that but Teagan was done with hers in about 5 minutes! I almost threw up in my mouth because the sound of her gnashing up the bones sort of grossed me out.

Also I was worried about the bones since anytime Keeley swallows anything larger than a dime, he throws it up. But so far, so good. There's no throw up yet. It's so weird to be blogging about puke but I know all you DWBs understand.

I'll end this rather lengthy post with a cute picture of Keeley that I took a few days ago.

Dog Park at Estabrook finally open

Whoops! I've been really falling behind on my blogging lately! I can't blame Mitch for that but I do blame Facebook. I was all set to blog about the doggie bootcamp that we attended last Friday and Saturday when I realized that I had started this post about Estabrook 3 weeks ago and never got around to finishing it. That's lazy I tell you! So I decided that I better finish this before starting another one. Here goes:Alright, so we finally heard that the dog park at Estabrook Park was open for business. Keeley, Teagan, and I went to check it out.
This dog area was supposed to be open by Memorial day, but didn't actually open till sometime after Labor day. That's very behind schedule if you ask me.
I think Keeley and Teagan thought it was okay. But I'll say that there's not much too it. It's supposed to be 3 acres, which in my opinion is already fairly small for a dog park. Plus once you subtract out the small dog area, the entrance gates, and the pavilion, it's probably more like only 2 acres. There's already a few mud pits too. I'd like to know who is in charge of planning these things. Do they even have a dog themselves? Have they ever been to other dog parks? I just think it could have been done so much better.
At least Keeley and Teagan enjoyed it for variety's sake. They like going some place new. There weren't many dogs there to play with but Keeley still had fun sniffing everything. I would think that for being so small that people could at least clean up after their dogs a little better. I was disappointed that there was poop everywhere. I really had to watch where I stepped.

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:

Teagan's Boo-boo

On Thursday I was petting Teagan's belly, as I do most mornings, when I felt a weird lump. I looked at her belly and didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I figured it was just the scar from when she was spayed at such a young age. On Friday, the lump felt bigger and I started to become concerned. But I'm still unemployed and since Teagan was acting perfectly normal, I decided to ignore it in the hopes that it would go away on its own.
No luck. On Saturday it was bigger still and I considered calling the vet for advice but ultimately didn't. Then on Sunday, as Teagan was getting loaded into the car to head to Minooka, I saw that the lump had changed greatly. It now looked like a big blister or boil.
The trip to Minooka was great and Teagan took a long nap when she got home. When she awoke, I noticed that she was licking herself more than usual. I looked and of course the lump had burst and the sore was all bloody and puss. I cleaned the wound as best I could and bandaged her up.I think she looked like a little sumo wrestler.
First thing this morning we went to see Dr. Katie. Teagan's boo-boo got a thorough cleaning and she was given some antibiotics to prevent it from getting infected. Teagan really wanted to lick her sore so she ended up in one of those Elizabethan collars.
Poor Teagan. It's all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone.
She didn't like that thing one bit. In the movie UP, the dogs refer to it as the "cone of shame". I think that's a fitting name for it since Teagan looked pretty ashamed when she was wearing it.
When we got home, I took the Elizabethan collar off since Teagan didn't seem to know how to walk or lay down with it on. I put her little sumo wrap on again since that seems to do the trick. For the most part she leaves it alone but I'll have to keep watching her all day.
The unfortunate thing is that we still don't know what's wrong with her. We're trying antibiotics first since that's the least invasive thing to do. The vet said it could be a foreign object got under her skin some how, some weird reaction, or something inside her causing the hardness and the boil. I asked if it could be a bee sting because Teagan is a bee hunter. The vet said that yeah, it could be a bad reaction to a sting but we just don't know.
So for now we'll see how the antibiotics work. The good news is that Teagan is acting perfectly normal so it doesn't seem to be causing her any pain. I hope she doesn't end up requiring surgery.

A Fine Fall Day At Minooka

This afternoon we took a trip to Minooka. When Teagan was younger we always went into the small dog area because she needed socialization but was scared of any dog that was bigger than her.
She's still timid around dogs that are bigger than her and she always sticks close to me at the dog park. But overall, she's doing much better with other dogs so now we go into the big dog area.
Keeley just loves going to Minooka. He starts whining in the car as soon as we get close to the park.
I hate standing around and not doing anything at the dog park. When we go to Minooka now, the dogs and I walk around the perimeter several times. For me it makes the time go by a lot faster. And it's a good way to make sure my dogs are moving the whole time instead of just standing around sniffing butts.
Doggie daycare must be paying off because now Teagan is more able to make friends with other dogs.
It makes me so happy when I see she's made a friend.
Still most of the time she's totally focused on Keeley.
I take the dogs on a little path through some trees and when we come out into the field, then I tell them to "find mama". They are so happy when they spot their grandma and they go running to her.
I'm very pleased when they come when I call them.
Some how they can run and play bitey face at the same time.
Check out that ear action!
It's been about 40 minutes and Keeley is looking tired. It must be time to go home. The dogs are sleeping here in the computer room with me while I'm blogging now. This was a great trip to Minooka.

Washington Bark Day and other news

Last Sunday was Washington Bark Dog Day at Washington Park.

Last year we got tons of free stuff: treats, samples, balls, can lids, a dog coloring book, a bandanna, etc. It was well worth the $6 admission. But that was last year....

This year it cost $11 admission (two dogs with Teagan now) and we got just about nothing to show for it. We were really disappointed. I told Keeley that it must be because of the economy. Boy, that economy is really reeking havoc on our lives.

The only good thing about Washington Bark Day this year was that we met Keeley's friend Oliver there with his mom and his new dad (they just got married last month). And then we all came back to our house for a visit.

I thought Teagan would love Oliver because he's so sweet like Keeley. But no, she seemed to absolutely hate him and I have no idea why. She growled at him almost the whole time. They kept staring at each other with stink eyes.

Maybe Teagan thought she was defending our house and yard even though I explained to her that Oliver is our friend. Anyhow, I don't know what their problem was. Keeley is smart, so he just kept his distance from all their shenanigans.

Sorry, no pictures since my camera is still lost. I'm beginning to think it is gone for good. Bummer.

Later that same day, Keeley and Teagan were rough-housing in the backyard and they injured Keeley's bad leg. He's been walking around on 3 legs. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it so I think he just needs to rest it. We sent Teagan away to daycare twice this week so that Keeley could get some rest.

Also, yesterday Keeley threw up 6 times and had diarrhea. I was just going to ride it out but then I got a little freaked and decided to take him to the vet afterall. They gave him fluids and some pills. He seems to be doing much better already now.


Well, it's almost lunch time here so Keeley and I are going to go sit out on the porch. He loves to watch all the people walking around on their lunch hour. We live right next to Miller Brewery so I figure they are Miller employees.

Where does the time go?

I've been really slacking off when it comes to blogging lately. Here's a quick update of things that happened in the last few weeks:

Keeley got the weird growth removed from his foot. It was benign. He just got his stitches removed last friday and seems to be doing good.I thought it looked like he had a little race horse leg when he had this bandage on it. But I sure am glad that it's all over now.

We went up to Madison to visit with Romare and his dads last Saturday. Keeley and Teagan had a great time. But we have really bad news to report: It turns out that Romare needs both his hips replaced. He hasn't been acting like himself for quiet some while and now we finally know why. Poor Guy! We totally love Romare and it makes us sad to know that he's been in pain. Now he's on medication to help control his pain until he has the surgery. We brought him some Buddy Biscuits and a Tug-0-war toy to cheer him up. His dads said that was the first time they saw him want to play tug in a very long time.

Also, Irish Fest happened. Her are just a few quick pictures I took of some of the Irish dogs that were on display there this year. They always do hand stripping demonstrations on the Irish Terriers, so that's why they're all looking so scruffy. This was only the second day of the 4 day event and so these dogs haven't been stripped yet. They had other kinds of Irish dogs there too, like these Irish Wolfhounds.Celtic Canines also include: Irish Setters, Red and White Setters, Irish Water Spaniels, Glen of Imaal Terriers, Wheaten Terriers, and Kerry Blue Terriers.

I'm worried that I might actually get hired sometime in the near future and I have no idea how my dogs are going to be able to deal with that. They've gotten really super attached to me over that past 6 months. Anytime I leave them home with my mom, she reports that they are all out of sorts and unable to settle themselves while I'm away. She keeps telling me that I should put them in their crates and leave for several hours each day, but like where am I supposed to go? Today I took Teagan to daycare and went grocery shopping. When I came home, Keeley was so happy to see me that he threw up his breakfast. Maybe he's a little sick or maybe it's his way of expressing some kind of separation anxiety... I don't know. I've decided that I really do have to get serious about getting them adjusted to me not being around all the time. I'm planning that I'm going to start on this tomorrow and really try to stick with it. We'll see how it goes.