Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween from the zoo gang.  Today Winston is celebrating Halloween as 'SuperPig' and the dogs are dressing up as Minions.  It's the puppies first Halloween and they were not all that thrilled with the whole dress-up experience.  It's Emma's 14th Halloween and she wasn't really feeling it - and as the queen bee around here, we mostly let her get her way.  The littles - I gave up dressing them up years ago - the cats are way too indignant and the ferrets flop down like they are unable to move when you put something on them - so no dress-up for critterland.

I hope you have a happy and safe Halloween:



It's a bird...

It's a plane....

No - it's Super Pig...

I am shocked to say that Tango was the most cooperative:

Charli was her regular spazzy self - I got like 27 blurry pics and 2 that were reasonable:

Juliett was really not a fan - I figured she would be easy peasy since she is the most mellow of the three - not so much:

And last but most certainly not least - The Divine Miss Em:

Happy First Birthday Puppies!!

Can you believe that Tango, Charli and Juliett are one year old today??  Holy Moly!!  We got them when they were about 10 weeks old - their gotcha day will come up in December.

Today we have done a few special things.  Each puppy (and Emma and Winston) got a birthday cupcake.  Tango got to wear his birthday bandana and the girls had their birthday shirts - Charli did way better with the shirt than Juliett.  They each got two new toys as well

Tonight they will get a special dinner and special treats when they go to bed.  As I type this they are outside playing - chasing each other around the backyard. They seem like happy and healthy little pups (little  - haha) and they are all three progressing with their training.  Leash training is next on the docket - wish us luck.

TANGO

CHARLI

 

JULIETT

Emma and Winston enjoying their birthday cupcakes:

New toys:

New Collars

So - the pups and Emma got new collars today.  Their old ones were getting pretty snug (at least the puppies' were) and I had their tags on them for ID purposes.  They are so rambunctious when they play that the tags got pulled off over and over.  I wanted to have their names and at least one method of contact available in case for some reason they got separated from us so I found these little gems.

The collars have their names embroidered on them and under those blue boxes is our phone number (no offense - love you guys but I don't wanna chat on the phone).  You can't really tell but the collars are quite thick.  They are lined with a lovely, soft fleece which seems like it would be very comfy if you were a pup who had to wear a collar.

I am happy with my purchase and the pups don't seem to care that I swapped out their neck wear.

In keeping with their assigned colors - Juliett is pink, Charli is purple and Tango is blue.  Emma is also pink - but she was pink for many years before Juliett showed up.  I think she is okay with sharing!  :)

Training Day

So - it was day one of puppy training.  Of course - like when you take your car to the shop because it makes a noise and when you get there the noise is gone - the puppies were perfect little angels while the trainer was here.

We worked on methods for training - using body language and vocalizations to get them to do what we want.  There are no treats, clickers, collars or even touching the dog in this method of training.  I can see a change in them already.  Just little changes in the body language and how you tell them to do things is amazing.

They worked on sit and stay.  They did sit pretty well before but never really worked on stay.  They even passed the test of sitting for me and being told to stay while the trainer dropped keys in the other room making noise to try to distract them.  They looked in the direction of the noise but did not get up to investigate.

We worked on interfacing with Emma and trying to get them to engage with her in a calmer fashion. We also worked on getting them used to being around the car - not getting in yet but getting comfortable about the vehicle - baby steps.

We have our homework to do every day and the trainer will return on August 26th.

All in all I think our first session went well - the pups were totally tuckered out:

Tango

Juliett

Charli

Puppy Pool Party

The pups are doing well with learning the pool - how to get in and out - and they are getting much more comfortable with swimming in general.  Juliett is by far the best swimmer of the three.  She loves it and when we let her out in the mornings she makes a bee line for the pool to go for a swim. Tango is next - he swims fairly well and will occasionally get in on his own.  He loves to swim with his daddy and won't leave the pool when the hubs is in there.  Charli is still a bit apprehensive - she will get in on the top step and some days on the second step but unless there is a human in the pool she won't go in for an actual swim.  I love that they are learning that it really cools them off on a hot afternoon.  I also love that it totally wears them out!

Tango

Juliett

Charli

Charli jumping in with an assist from dad

Even Emma got in on the action

Tango

Splash - Juliett

Juliett and Tango

Tango

Juliett

Tango - Splash

Tango

Charli

Tango and Juliett