Howloween 2012

We had our 2nd annual halloween party yesterday. It was a blast. :)

Not so much for the dogs, though. We had to keep them pinned up in our bedroom. They behave pretty well, though. We gave them some chew treats, and pet on them whenever we walked by the door (we just had a tall baby gate blocking them in so they could still see all the goings-on).

Anyways, the dogs have been well. Samson has good days and bad days with his knee. Mostly good, I think, but he'll go through an especially "limpy" handful of days every now and then.

Abby threw up yesterday. She ate her supper then yacked it right back up. She later went on to eat a rawhide treat and had no trouble keeping it down, so I think it was probably nothing.

Other than that, Abby's been fine. Very happy and affectionate as always.

A Walk in the Grove

We took Samson and Abby to the Grove on campus today. Coach Nutt was giving a welcome speech to all the incoming freshmen, so we thought it'd be a good opportunity to socialize the dogs. Anyways, we harnessed 'em both up and loaded them into the car and drove out to the Grove. Samson always sits patiently in the back seat and looks out the side window. Abby on the other hand stands up the whole time and sticks her head in between the front seats and looks out the front windshield. Once we got on campus, Samson started whining eagerly as he saw people walking around outside; he gets so excited. lol

After we parked and got out of the car, we walked the dogs around and Abby saw her first squirrel. I hadn't realized it, but she's never really seen a squirrel before! She wanted to chase after it, but she behaved and was easy to hold back. It was pretty funny, though.

Samson behaved really well as usual. He loves meeting new people. He usually wears out pretty quickly in this humid heat, though, and it wasn't even all that hot today. So we just made a small circle through the Grove, then headed back to the car.

In other news, Oscar kinda chewed up our camera. Nothing major, just superficial damages, but it really pissed off Travis so now we're in the market for a new camera. lol C'est la vie.

Four-Month Update

Abby Stats: 1 year old

Abby has turned into a very confident and happy dog. She’s not afraid of anything. She is a regular barker and guards the house well. In fact, just yesterday my mom came to the house while we were at the neighbors’ and rang the doorbell. Both dogs barked of course, but Abby also stuck her head through the cat door to see who was outside. Mom put her face to the window, and Abby, head still stuck through the cat door, growled menacingly at her. I had to laugh when I saw her do it; she looks a little ridiculous with her head sticking through the cat door. It makes me feel good to know that Abby will do a good job intimidating would-be burglars.

Abby walks really well on the leash, though she tends to try to lead. When we take her and Samson out to the square, she will sometimes bark at other dogs when we try to pull her away from them. I think she is just doing this because she is confused or is unsure of how to behave around other dogs that are leashed. It’s definitely something to do with the leashes, because she is always very friendly when she meets dogs when she is free in the back yard.

Other than that, she eats really well, has gotten into a regular schedule about going out, and plays with Oscar regularly. She loves digging in the yard (to our chagrin) and playing with Samson. She gets jealous when he is outside on his own and will bark and whine wanting to go out where he is. She doesn’t seem to mind as much when the situation is reversed and she is outside on her own.

She likes to cuddle and play with us in the floor. Her personality is so much like Ellie's sometimes, but minus all of Ellie's fearfulness. Abby really has been a Godsend for us.

She is very fond of chewing on her toys; we bought her a Kong Extreme about a month ago, and she’s already chewed off a few pieces of it. She also really likes the bones that she has, and has done a very good job of not chewing up much that she is not supposed to. The Christmas tree, however, had its trial by fire not long after we put it up. Somebody (probably Oscar, but possibly also Samson since he likes to get into tight spaces…) knocked the tree over, and we came home to find a bunch of chewed-up ornaments. Luckily none of our good ones were destroyed (it was only the inexpensive decorative ones), but we scolded her really well and she hasn’t paid any attention to the tree since then. She seems to learn very quickly when she does something wrong, and rarely does it more than once.

Also, we discovered today what appears to be a third dew claw on one of her hind legs. It looks so weird and is not like the others. It's sort of soft and looks as though it could just be pulled out or something. Gives me the heeby-jeebies just wrting about it. We might have to have it removed just for being so... creepy. lol

Abby Meets the Fam

Abby Stats: 8 months old, 65 lbs.

Abby is already starting to act very comfortable in the house. Travis’ mom came over, but we did a poor job of introducing Abby to her, so Abby didn’t really want much to do with her. We did a better job when my mom and dad came over; we met them outside in the garage before they came inside and let them both give her a treat. She took to them very well. We’ll have to retry it with Travis’ mom the next time she and Jimmy come over.

Ellie Goes to the Square

We took Ellie and Samson to the Square (it's the middle of town where there are a lot of shops, bars, and restaurants). Ellie pulled a good bit on the leash, but she stayed consistently on my right side. She wasn’t afraid of noise or people.