Sunday, August 30, 2009

Humble Jumble of Stuff...

Guess who got her homework done? That's right...I did!
Now what does that mean for you?
A way overdue update!
Yay!

Let's see...I left off with the picnic and Betsy's first trip to school.
On August 12 we had a club puppy meeting. I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have any pictures of that. We didn't really find out anything too exciting at the meeting.
On August 14 we went to my grandma's house. My great grandma was there so Betsy got experience around a walker and oxygen tubes. We also practices come on the stairs and she is basically over her fear of stairs. YAY!
On August 15 my club had a car wash fundraiser. We made around $350. Which isn't bad considering it was raining. I had only planned to keep Betsy there for an hour max. But then hardly any of our club puppies showed up! So she ended up staying from 10 to almost 3. She was so sleepy when we got home!
I started school on the 18th so Betsy has been spending a lot more time in her kennel. She has been an excellent little girl in there.
Betsy went for her 4 month shots on the 18th. She weighed in at 28.5lbs. Big Girl! The vet said to just keep watching her eye. But more importantly her 4 month shots means she gets to go everywhere with me!
On the 19th Betsy went to her first soccer practice. She laid on the grass with my mom and watched me practice for 2 hours. She did excellent except I forgot to bring toys so she tried to ea the grass.
The 21st brought her first visit to Starbucks. My mom goes for a couple hours every Friday morning with her friends, so Betsy is going to become a regular attender. She slept the whole time.
On the 22nd we went on a bus ride with our puppy club. Betsy was the youngest puppy in attendance and she did excellent! She actually did better than some of the oldest pups in our club. She is such an angel.
After the bus ride Betsy went home with a puppysitter. She was gone for 3 days and got an excellent report! The puppysitter said she was the best puppy she has ever sat. And she is planning on getting a puppy in September and she said she is even more excited now that she has has a cute younger pup in the house.
When I picked up Betsy on Monday we had to stop by Walmart. I needed a couple of things for school. So we walked in and had to walk to the back of the store. I grabbed the notebooks I needed and when we were walking to check out Betsy laid down and refused to get up. So I had to embarrassingly carry her to the front of the store. Even though her vest was showing, I got a lot of glares from people. One lady even told me not so nicely that if Betsy was a real service dog she would be walking. I calmly explained that she was a puppy in training and that she was tired. Never again will I carry a dog through the store.
On the 28th Betsy was sitting outside Starbucks and she peed sitting down! She never even squated! I didn't know dogs could do that! But she had her vest on :/
On Saturday I watched Anthony. Well my parents did most of the watching. I had a soccer game and so my parents got the honor of watching two 4 month old puppies. They did great though and I won 7-0! I think I found my good luck charms.
And that brings us to today. Me and Betsy spent the day doing homework. School starts again tomorrow so I probably won't have any exciting news for awhile.

Now on to the part you really want...
They are in no particular order...

Anthony and Betsy playing tug.


Me and Betsy getting on the bus.

Betsy jumping off the porch.


Pretty 4 month old.


With the fountain


Hot Dog!


Betsy and Anthony


The pool before.


Cute wet face.

The pool after.


"Sorry mom I didn't mean to roll in the dirt and then jump in the pool."


First day of school. Sorry for the horrible quality. I don't know what was wrong with my camera.


"If there is a bunny in my food dish can I eat it?"


"I was just trying to help!"

Friday, August 28, 2009

I'm sorry I have been a failure as a blogger. I started school and life has been crazy. I am hoping to do a super long update this weekend.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I have updated Gabrina's blog and I plan to update here too. We have a puppy meeting tonight. I'll try to get some pictures!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Problems..

While Betsy's problems are few and far between, there are some I need some advice about.
  1. What should I do to help Betsy get over her fear of stairs?
  2. How can I get Betsy more excited about learning her commands? I can't use treats.
  3. Betsy is a vacuum, how do I get her to stop sniffing and eating off the floor. I have tried super hard corrections, but she doesn't understand.
  4. Betsy loves spilling our pet dogs' water dishes, how do I stop her from doing this. I can't pick up the dishes or my other dogs won't drink.
Thanks so much!

And I end my blogging spree with a funny picture...
It's kinda blurry, but if you look closely you will see that Betsy got her bottom jaw stuck in her black kong. She has done this a few times. When this happens she shakes her head until it flies off and then she goes and chases it. It's the cutest thing!

Bath Time

After playing in the pool at the picnic Betsy had a bath! She seemed to enjoy it even though she was a little to big to bathe in the sink still!

Picnic

The very end of July we had a GDB Picnic at a raisers house. Betsy had lots of fun playing with the other dogs. She didn't understand why I wouldn't take off her leash and let her run like the other dogs.
Unmodest Betsy with me and Anthony with Shawna.
Betsy and Anthony cuddling with the host.
Playing in the pool!
Betsy tried to help brush one of the yellow labs
Betsy and Anthony trying to get the toy out.

School

Yesterday Betsy made her first trip to school...well school registration. She did great. You know how they say "a tired puppy is a good puppy" well I must say that "an exhausted puppy won't walk!" Betsy was super tired when we left for registration. Every time we stopped she fell asleep. There was a lot of walking to do and she just didn't want to move. She would walk so slow! Finally at the end I gave in and carried her to the car. Overall it was a good outing, but I think she needs to get a little bigger before I take her places where she is going to have to walk a lot.
Here is a picture of Betsy right before we left. She looks pretty cute in that vest if I do say so myself!

Growin like a weed

While I was busy with fair, Betsy went to two puppysitters. She was gone from July 31 to August 5 and I swear she gained 5lbs and grew an inch! She is so tall and lanky now. Talk about an awkward puppy!
Betsy got good reports from the puppysitters. Her fear of going down stairs was confirmed. And I was told that she whined when left alone. This isn't something she has ever done for me, but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it. One of my biggest pet peeves is a whiny puppy! Other than those two problems it sounds like they loved her.
Before she left Betsy weighed (unoffically) 22lbs and her shoulder height (unoffically) was 16 inches. Now she weighes (unoffically) 26 lbs and she shoulder heighet (unoffically) is 17 1/4 inches.

What a big girl!

Anthony comes to visit

Awhile ago Anthony came to visit for a few hours. He is such a sweet puppy and his body is so well proportioned! I don't know if he is going to have an awkward puppy phase. Betsy and Anthony had a ton of fun playing together.

Anthony's leash is blue and Betsy's is black...





to grandmothers house we go..

A couple weeks ago Betsy got to to go my grandparent's house. This was one of Gabrina's favorite places. My grandma loves my dogs and loves it when I bring a puppy in training to visit.
While we were there Betsy got to run in the yard. The grass in my backyard is fairly torn up from dogs running laps, so to have a whole yard of grass to run in was heaven for Betsy. My grandparent's HOA won't allow them to put up a fence so Betsy started out running on a long line. She kept getting tangled up and I was afraid she was going to break a leg. I finally took off the long line and attached her drag line. I let her run in the grass while I kept a very close eye on her. She never once tried to escape the yard. She would run to where the grass met the sidewalk and she would turn around and run back. I was very proud of my little girl.



At one point during the day I brought out a bowl of water for Betsy. She took two drinks and then picked it up spilling the water everywhere. I took the dish away and filled in up again. She just picked it up, dumped it, and splashed in the water. I have never had a dog that liked water so this was something new for me.

I went and got the hose and Betsy spent almost an hour running back and forth trying to catch the water in her mouth! It was the cutest thing. I tried to get some pictures but I didn't want my camera getting wet so I only got one kinda good one.

After all the running in the water it was time to dry off. Betsy loves to curl up in towels and cuddle.


She also has a tendency to fall asleep in towels. Especially in funky positions.

When Betsy woke up from her nap we practiced stairs. I live in a Ranch Style house, so we don't have more than 4 stairs in one spot. At my grandparents we discovered Betsy has a fear of going down stairs. She isn't afraid of heights because she will look down through the railings. But she will not go down the stairs. She loves to climb up but refuses to go down. We even tried putting her at the very bottom and having her go down just one. When we did this she just turned around and ran back up. We have a problem...


At the very end of the day we took pictures in front of some flowers. In almost every picture Betsy looks super old!


Busy Bee!

I know I have been a horrible blogger. It is completely understandable if I get kicked out of the blogging world. I have been super busy with fair. Anyone in 4-H understands the weeks before fair and the week of fair you hardly have time to think, let alone get anything productive done! Anyways here comes some updates!

And a quick thank you to everyone who shared their knowledge about Betsy eye. I'm happy to know that she isn't the only PIT this has happened to. And that she shouldn't get Career Changed because of it.