Pictures

Just some photos from yesterday and this mornings walk at the park...

"Can I please sit on your lap, mom?"

"Ducks!!"

Still up in the air...

We decided last night that taking Ramsey to both Confirmation (show) and Obedience classes is going to be too much of a commitment, both time and financially. I opted out of last nights class until I could figure out a time to talk to the breeder (who also runs the confirmation classes) to tell her it's just too much. She emailed me today asking me to drop Ramsey off at her place to get groomed and do some photos and she'd meet me at next weeks class with him. This would be a 45 minute drive to her house, and 45 minutes back straight to work... and then another 30 out to the class directly from work. This directly following work is one reason I can't keep doing this. I just feel guilty that she is willing to put so much work into my dog, and I'm not. Am I a bad parent?

Little Man's Growing Up!

We have been tracking Ramsey's weight every Saturday since we got him to see how quickly he grows. We missed a few Saturdays during the holidays because we were traveling so much, but I estimated according to the change over the longer duration (The estimated weights are marked with a star on the table). Also his age in weeks is actually 2 days off since he was born on a Monday and we weigh on Saturdays... I didn't the dates were as meaningful as age on the charts unless you figure out his age anyways!

Date (M/D/Y)	Age (weeks)	Weight (Lbs)
11/5	12	15
11/12	13	17
11/19	14	19
11/26	15	20.8
12/3	16	21.6
12/10	17	21.6
12/17	18	22.6*
12/24	19	23.6*
12/31	20	24.6*
1/7	21	25.6
1/14	22	26.2

*Estimated weight based on change from week 17 to 21.

Also want to thank Vanilla Bean for mentioning me in her blog for the Liebster Blog Award! I'm supposed to then pass it on to five more newbie blogs. Unfortunately, I don't follow enough other blogs to pass it on just yet. (Is it too late for another New Years Resolution?) Even if I didn't follow the rules of the award, I did want to give a shout out to Vanilla Bean and thank her for the thought! You can check out her blog at: http://pinkpixie786.wordpress.com/

To Show or Not to Show?

We attended our first confirmation class on Tuesday! This was rather unexpected.... The breeder contacted me Tuesday afternoon asking us to attend just a few hours later. We have been up in the air about showing Rams.... but I agreed to bring him to the class anyways. (I honestly thought we were just watching for social purposes, she has invited us for this reason in the past). When we got there, she tossed us in the ring with the others! Oh man oh man!! I wasn't as embarrassed as I thought I would be luckily, haha. The treats she gave us must have been much better than what I have at home because he actually paid attention to me for them. :Sigh of relief:

We had been up in the air about showing for a few reasons:

1) What are the financial and time commitments necessary to show? Can we meet these commitments?

2) There are precautions in having an un-fixed male dog...

2.5) We are also co-owners with the breeder until he is neutered. This isn't really a problem but does that cause complications if we decide to move?

3) Is doing the confirmation classes AND obedience too much on him? We also wanted to try out agility and tracking in the future and don't want to become those parents who over book their child :-)

4) Froofie (spelling?) hair cuts! Ramsey is already on the 'sissy' side of things, having a 'froofie' haircut might not help (This is obviously the most important reasons to not wanting to show him.... just kidding!) However, his neck hair has finally grown so that he doesn't look like a dinosaur and she mentioned him needing a hair cut.

This is from one of my original posts, you can surely see... we got a baby dinosaur instead of a puppy! A fluffy, tiny headed, dinosaur. "Dinosaur Puppy on Day 1"

I'm also concerned that showing will interfere with Coaching. I coach Track & Field and we travel to meets most weekends during the season. I'm assuming that dog shows too are on weekends. We will see. Ramsey really did seem to enjoy himself at the class though. If it's something he enjoys doing, I'm more willing.

There is a lot to think about and I don't think it's a black and white yes or no decision to make right now. We'll see how things progress. I'd love to hear from some people who do show their dogs to find out what the commitments are and try to get some of my questions answered!

One thing I do know is that Ramsey has been feeling a little cocky since class and is often caught staring at himself in reflections!!

"Wow am I handsome!"

Naughtiness continues...

Naughty behavior of the day: Jumping, clawing, biting, crying, and yes... humping me when I sit down at my computer! He starts with jumping on my arms or the computer itself, when I make him get down he turns to biting, clawing, and crying. He will then sit back, sneak slowly closer, and right when I think he is about to snuggle nicely next to or behind me.... hump, hump. This is unacceptable.

I think this is his way of demanding attention, which he gets, although not positive. I can't ignore him humping my arm while I try to type obviously... so what to do? We played fetch for a good 20 minutes, I brushed him and trimmed his paws (probably not the attention he was looking for but too bad), snuggled without the computer for a half hour. Still, sit down and this obnoxiousness occurs.

In a desperate attempt for some 'fun' together, rather than yelling at him, I decided we would go to Petsmart. (He needs a toothbrush and paste because his breath is stinky!). I walked out mortified at how badly he behaved! He pulled me all over and I felt ridiculous for not being able to control my puppy. While attempting to rip my arm off, I did manage to skim a page in a dog training book about pulling. Apparently starting in a small confined space (inside the house I guess?) walk with him at your side. Praise him and talk to him happily while he is by your side and he leash is slack. If he pulls, turn directions so that pulling is not associated with getting to where he wants to go. Praise and reward good walking.

We will try this. I'm just not sure even walking well our living room will transfer to walking well outside on a walk... :Sigh:

Nothing but Naughty!

Naughty behavior has increased tenfold since we've returned to the daily grind, and really been wearing me out!

The behavior: Stealing! Objects of choice... anything that fits in his mouth. Ex: Socks (an all time favorite), undies, pieces of paper (tags, stickers), pen cap, my Vera Bradley wallet, and most ridiculously..... a hotel bar of soap. Yes this was all yesterday morning!!!

Theory 1) Someone/thing taught him how to be bad.

Theory 2) No one disciplined him at all while we were away, leading him to forget how to behave.

Theory 3) He has been possessed by the devil.

It's annoying enough that every time I blink he stealthily sneaks out of the room to reappear with something new in his mouth, but what's worse is that his jaw is just recently too strong to pry open. His eyes turn to devil eyes and his jaw locks shut when you try to pry it open. He even has the nerve to growl!

He does in fact know the command 'Drop it.' He will drop his toys into your hand (half of the time) when playing fetch. This makes it all the more frustrating when he refuses to do so with your belongings! (And now we can add my earmuffs to his list!!)

For nipping we were told to try using a spray bottle. Every time he nips, spray him. We used to do this when he would latch onto our clothes and refuse to let go. The spray worked pretty efficiently, one squirt and he would immediately let go. So, out came the spray bottle again. Squirt, no response.... squirt... nothing... squirt squirt squirt... nada! He had water dripping out of his nostrils, but intently stared me down with those devil eyes! The only thing that works is offering him a treat, which I then evilly refuse to give him..... I don't think this is right, but I don't know what else to do! (Pick up the house better I suppose..... but seriously, I don't know where half of the things he finds ever were, and I swear the house isn't that messy!) He gets plenty of exercise: multiple walks, or jog/walks, etc. I know a tired puppy is a good puppy, but we can't just walk 24-7!

The baby gate has now been put up across the bottom of the stairs to keep him from sneaking up there.... :sigh: I feel like we are regressing with his training!

"Me? Naughty? Never...."

Christmas up North...

We loaded up and took off on Thursday evening for our trip. Rain and fog extended our 7 hour drive to 8 and a half... we got into Penn State around midnight. We spent the night in Greg's family's condo (big Penn State fans!), before driving up to his grandma's house the next morning.

We spent two nights in small town PA with Greg's family. His parents and sister met us there, aunts and uncles also came and stayed. A jam packed house to entertain Ramsey but also the pressure of knowing anything he does wrong is going to get noticed! Originally, Grandma had set up a chair or two to keep Ramsey from the dining room. Luckily he stayed close to us because there was no way a kitchen chair was going to contain him anywhere! He worked his magic like usual, made her love him before sneaking off to the other room and taking over the house. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Christmas in PA.... We did get a pretty nice gift certificate to the local pet store though! Upon going to the store we realized we have one spoiled pup (had everything we needed!). So... Rams got a nice choke collar and a rawhide for Christmas, ha. I'm sure that's what he asked Santa for.... We have yet to try it out though, maybe later today....

We then drove 3 more hours up to Syracuse on Christmas day and met my family at my aunt and uncles house. Again, Ramsey charmed and entertained and for the most part stayed out of trouble.

We got tons of goodies for Rams including: Rawhides wrapped in bacon, cheeseburger flavored treats, Pupperoni treats, a Holiday bandana, an awesome L.L.Bean tote, a doggie cookie jar...

Tired puppy taking over Greg's parents house during present opening... (Thanks to Greg's sister for this photo!)

I should have put his bandana on for this picture...

There's the bandana! And further evidence that Sunny taught Ramsey the chair sitting business...

Post Christmas we had almost a week to relax and play in NY. We saw our first snow and our first llama... ooooh small town, NY.

First Snow...

First Llama... Thank you Greg for this awesome photo!

A few days later he got a better taste of the white stuff!

Love this picture... ears flapping in the wind!

Woohooo! Mid wipe out!

Playing with Sunny!

Pretty girl!

Handsome boy!

What an awesome trip back north! A great holiday with our friends and families! Thank you Ramsey for being on (almost) your best behavior, traveling as well as you did, and providing constant entertainment to everyone who met you! Thank you to our families also for hosting us and our pup!

Now to start off the New Year by looking into obedience classes! Mission: Smart Dog underway!

Christmas! (in Lex)

To set off the season we obviously had to visit Santa...

Despite the emotions that this face conveys... Ramsey was pretty excited to go to Petsmart and rather un-phased by Santa himself. It cost about $10 for the picture and a little Christmas frame. Hey, your child only has one first Christmas....

Greg and I decided to celebrate Christmas here before leaving for NY. So on the 22nd, Santa made an early appearance!

Pretty pumped over our stockings!!

Santa filled Ramsey's stocking! (That's a squeaky horse peeking out... every Lexington child needs a horse of some sort!)

Which toy to play with first!?

Santa found our mini tree!

Trying to guess what's in that big present?

A pretty awesome painting of Ramsey done by one of our favorite local artists, Enrique Gonzalas. We had seen Enrique at several local events and really enjoyed his work. I figured I might as well get a hold of him and ask about his commissioned work. He was amazing, did the painting with 24 hrs and was willing to match my budget. I was astonished at how quickly he finished this!! I went to pick it up at his home and had quite the chat with him. He told me how he had been working on another man's piece, a lawyer, but when he saw the picture of my puppy he had to paint it immediately. The puppy had 'so much charisma.' Apparently, not all paintings get done in 24 hours! Much thanks to Enrique!

And with that... we were off to NY in hopes of playing in the snow for the first time!

Post Thanksgiving - Pre Christmas

I swear that I didn't neglect the pup as much as I neglected the blog this month!!!

As for a month in re-cap:

We adjusted back to life after Thanksgiving pretty easily, although we discovered the family room chair upon return.... Did Sunny teach him this?

Ramsey got a Christmas gift a little bit early.... a fence!

Started sleeping on the back of the couch... apparently the regular part of the couch isn't good enough? Although, it's comfort may have been discovered on accident when a chewy accidently fell behind the cushion.

(The 'Discovery')

Ignore how awful I look in these pictures... focus more on Ramsey's location...

Visited the vet for his fourth set (and last) of puppy shots! Not that I was excited to put him through the pain of shots (although he really wasn't phased at the slightest), I am excited that the shots are done and he is officially a 'vaccinated dog'... meaning less to worry about him catching!

Greg celebrated his vaccinations by heading to the dog park! I was out of town (visiting my cousin in Virginia! Girls weekend!) and only heard over the phone that Ramsey loved the park but it was super muddy and required immediate bathing afterwards. When I got back, I figured I too would take him to the dog park, even though he had a bath the day before... It didn't look too bad, it hadn't rained and I figured it must have dried up a bit. Wrong!

The ride home... exhausted and muddy! Poor car....

Ended up in the tub two days in a row... Can't be good for his skin but he was caked up to his eyes! I even ended up picking mud out of his name tag with a pencil tip!

Snuggled up post-bath..

He had a blast though. There were a few big dogs there to knock him around. If they approached slowly, said hello (sniff sniff) and then tried to play he was fine. If, however, they approach quickly and try to instigate play prior to a proper introduction.... Ramsey cowers and piddles himself. He's getting better though.. learning the command "Man up!"