We love SNOW ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I am up at my brother's house for CookieStock 2010.

We started this tradition the year after we lost our parents. Its something my Mum did every Christmas and we thought it a good way to remember and honour them.

Anyway, I took the dogs with me even though we were going to mostly be baking. A lot of attention goes into our cookies and I wasn't sure what the dogs would do.

We drove through a pretty scary snow storm and when we got to the house it had eased off a little. So we unloaded the car and got into the house and hunkered down. In the late afternoon/early evening it was time for the dogs to go out and it was the first time Emma has seen snow. Sure, she saw a dusting of it on our back porch, but nothing like what she found at my brother's place.

Well, after the first sort of look of shock, she went nuts!! She was bouncing and jumping and leaping and all over the place trying to catch snowflakes. Then she'd fly straight up and come down facing a different direction.

It gets a lot darker in the country than it does in the city. It marked the first time we could see Emma at night, though!

She has been driving Sidney N U T S. She has gotten more playful I guess because of the snow. Now her new trick is to bite his tail and hang on. He turns to bark at her. He growls. He snarls. He tries to bite her. Nothing, she just comes back for more. Poke, poke, poke.

He did finally get her on the nose and you would have thought he had ripped her leg off. She's is like that little spoiled kid that just keeps picking until somebody finally decides to put an end to it. Then its all "Mommy, he's picking on me."

I should have some pictures to add to this when I get home. I'm still at my brother's house waiting for my hubby to come and get me and go home. Emma is right now on my brother's sofa, which would tick him off if he was here. But, they are quiet so I'm okay with it.
 
The really good thing, when I put her outside, is that she stays around the back door as well as Sidney does. She would venture out a little bit but seemed to know she was somewhere new. She stayed quite close to the house. They ventured out to the back of the house a little but never went more than ten feet from base.

She is almost housebroken too. The only problem is that Sidney will bark to go out. Emma just trots off to the door. SO if you aren't watching her you don't know she wants out, in which case she will do her business right by the door. While here, she had three accidents, which for being in a strange place is pretty darn good.


Next time, I'll tell you about her learning to come when she's called.

The Latest

Well, I took the two of them to the Vet last week. Emma needed her shots and I was worried about Sidney. He seems to have put on a lot of weight, suddenly. Turns out it was only a pound or so. I guess it's just that picking Emma up (6 pounds now), before I pick him up (20 pounds, yes he's heavy but he is also a Shih Tzu from a breeder and therefore has some substance to him)  really shows the comparison.

So anyway, I am to keep him on a special diet for a month. It adds bulk but not calories. Then, if he has still not lost weight they will test his Thyroid. She felt that this would be the better way to go as the test is over $100.00 and the food was $35.00. Well, we have to pick one and the food was the better choice at this time.

A month from now they both go back, her for more shots, him to jump (or waddle, if a certain someone doesn't stop giving him the plate to clean off) on the scale. I have to admit I was really scared it was 'C'. I feel better about that part now.

* * * * *

We went to the park the other day and saw a squirrel acting weird. This one was on the ground and having trouble holding his head up. Plus he suddenly started towards the dogs instead of running away. I saw this behaviour once before, and it involved a lot of noise from the geese we owned back when we lived in the country.

We were startled by this explosion of sound from the back yard. The geese were really aggravated about something and in full alert mode. Suddenly we saw a skunk. It was staggering and having trouble with its head. We had an dog house that a mother cat had moved into with her kittens. She shared the house with Jenny, our collie. The skunk headed that way and while I went to hopefully get her the hubby grabbed a BB gun.

I get Jenny out of the pen, without getting sprayed and the skunk heads towards the dog house. Suddenly Mum cat hears her kittens and goes tearing in after the skunk. The skunk did NOT spray but staggered out again and by now hubby was within feet of it with the gun. He managed to kill it with the BB gun and THAT'S when it let loose with the odour. His last gift to us. We called animal control and they came and got it and said they would test for rabies and let us know. Sure enough the thing was rabid and I had to get shots. The reason? I had a hold of Jenny by her fur. She had chased the skunk when it first went in her run. I happened to have touched her down low where she may have been in contact with the skunk, and I had a fresh cut (open wound) on my hand.

The rabies shots were NOT in the abdomen; there were only five of them, and the worst part was getting a massive dose of hemoglobin before the rabies shots started. THAT goes in the butt and they didn't have any large needles for the size of the dose they give you, so I had to have six smaller shots.   A nurse on either side of me doing two at a time.  Fun!

By the way, I DID report the squirrel to the man who does the park maintenance and he was going to call about it.

Next time I see him I'll ask what happened.

* * * * *

Now, Sidney, Emma and I are off to my brother's for three days of serious cookie baking. This is Cookie Stock 2010. We started this as a remembrance of or tribute to my parents, Mum especially. She used to do cookies every Christmas with us and its our way of keeping her alive in our hearts.

* * * * *

I'll let you know what adventures we have, Emma especially. Sid has been there before and nothing really bothers him. But Em is going to find all kinds of interesting smells and stuff.

SIDE NOTE: I am a HUGE MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fan and just noticed a couple of days ago the those are the last three letters in Emma's name.

SIDE NOTE TWO: I m going to record some of the activities at Cookie Stock. If any of it is good I'll have it on You Tube by the end of the week.

Sid and Emma - The 2nd Video

I was really concerned about how this was going to affect Sidney. He's been an only dog for so long and never learned how to play with other dogs.


He's interested in them but the minute they show interest in him he comes running to me to make it all better. I don't. I never have.


For some reason I didn't get my puppy until she was 9 weeks old. I would have preferred her to be between 7 and 8 weeks old as that is the best time for them to bond. But that didn't happen and she has worked out. Sort of.


As soon as Sidney met her he was not impressed. She cried a little on the ride home but settled down pretty quickly. I was concerned when I first picked near up as she didn't seem to recognize me as Sidney had 8 years earlier. He met me at 4 weeks old and definitely knew who I was when I returned to take him home.


As it turns out, the first week she was home, the hubby was going out of town. He only got to spend 5 days with her before he left.


Now, this trip has been on the books for 11 months and 3 weeks. I was going to be by myself at home. I had booked some time off in order to get the things done I had planned. Painting, cleaning up, installing shelves, the backyard, etc. That didn't happen as I did not take into consideration a 3.5 pound bundle of energy.


By the time hubby was gone two hours I was rethinking this whole puppy thing. She was into everything! ! !


She found things I didn't know we had any more. I expected her to drag out Jimmy Hoffa's well preserved corpse ! ! She found an expensive camera battery that hubby misplaced in May! It was even in the spot where we had looked numerous times.


She has become sort of bonded to me but I am glad to see that she is very excited when hubby comes home. I love Sidney to bits, but he is stuck to my butt ALL the time. When I move from in front of the tv to the computer, a distance of ten feet, he will get up and follow me. Right now he's sitting by my foot.

Above, in the video, is what Sidney puts up with. And that's OUTside. You should see what she does to him in the house!

Emma's Three weeks part 2

First off, additions to Emma's pile of  . . . . . stuff. A Beanie baby Little Soccer Kid, three teddies (one as big as she was), a cat, a plastic water bottle, an elephant, a tug toy and a hedge hog. Oh, and a hand knit mouse.

6. Fallen down 8 steps
So she didn't take long to learn how to go up steps,  but now she has to master going down. She was following me up to the second floor which is fifteen steps up. She always runs and sometimes gets her feet out of order. Last week, she was half way up and I was ahead of her when I heard this crashing tumble sound. Sure enough, there she was lying at the bottom of the stairs. I had to carry her up that day, but she's fine now.

7.  Found a battery
Last spring hubby bought a new video camera and an extra life (rechargeable) battery for it. The battery disappeared the first day we were home. We looked everywhere, but no luck. The other day Emma crawls out from under the chair and had a battery in her mouth. It was the one we had been missing since the spring and we had lifted that chair up several times looking for the battery.

8. Played with almost every ball of yarn I have
She is working her way through every ball of yarn I own.
Can I play with the red one? No.
The black one? No.
Then yellow's okay? No.
White? No.
Purple? No.

Literally she seems to figure out she can't touch THAT one but the next one must be okay.

9. Claimed every toy AND bone Sidney ever had
In her 'pile' she has every toy SIdney has ever had. She finds them, God only knows where and they end up in her pile.

10. Tried my patience more times than I care to count
See 1 through 9 above.

11. Been attacked by a mouse trap
She put her nose somewhere it shouldn't have been and set off the mouse trap. When it went off it missed her but she thought the 'corner' of the kitchen had attacked her. At least we know one thing that will keep her out of stuff.

12. Been in two major fights with Sidney (real fights, caused by her)
She has not started but sure tried to finish, now three real 'I mean it quit bugging me' fights. I have never seen a puppy of this age, now 14 weeks old, have that much nerve to go against an older dog. He had her on her back, and she was still snarling and snapping and went after him as soon as she let him up.


All that said and done, we still have her and I am interested in seeing what kind of an dog she grows into. She already knows 'sit' and 'come'. She is working on going down stairs and she doesn't mind being combed. (the first time I did that, you would have though I was removing every hair one by one)


Emma attacking Sid

Three weeks stuffed into one post

So,
since we have had Miss Emma at home she has:

1. swallowed a 1.25 inch pin and coughed it back up.
2. jumped off a picnic table with no warning.
3. been chomped on by Sidney too many times to count
4. increased the size of her 'pile'
5. been spanked (yes, spanked!)
6. fallen down 8 steps
7. found a battery
8. played with almost every ball of yarn I have
9. claimed every toy AND bone Sidney ever had
10. tried my patience more times than I care to count
11. been attacked by a mouse trap
12. been in two major fights with Sidney (real fights, caused by her)

Okay.

1. I had a Remembrance Day poppy that she somehow got hold of. I saw her with it and saw that she had the pin and the centre out and was chewing on it. I walked up to her casually to get it back from her and just as I reached for it, GULP. All I saw was dollar bills, surgery, loss of life, and sorrow. Luckily she coughed and had the pin in her mouth again. I was able to get it, and breathed a sigh of relief. This all happened just as I was getting ready to leave for work. Talk about being stressed.


2. Hubby had taken her for a walk at the park and was petting her on the table when she decided to jump with no warning. Fall of about three feet onto the back of her neck. She yelped like someone had tried to kill her and then was limping. She recovered from that in about 2 minutes. She DID learn not to jump off things though. She reaches down with her front legs as far as she can now, then decides whether to try it.

3. She just will NOT leave him alone. She steals everything he has. She shoves him out of the water dish, even when she has just had a drink. She is one little snot. Anyway Cesar says to wear her out, THEN introduce her to Sidney. That way some of the puppiness will subside a little and give him a chance. Wear her out!!!!??? I'll need a team of people with good arms to keep throwing the ball until she's dragging.

4. From the get go, she started a pile of things she has claimed. It contains at any given time: at least one shoe, a tiger with a squeaker (formally Sidney's), a goose, a duck, a chicken, four balls, a crumpled piece of paper, a jar lid, three small, empty yogurt containers, a toilet roll tube, a paper towel tube, a rag, five or six bones, two large pieces of rawhide, three small pieces of rawhide, two rawhide bones, three rawhide tubes with some kind of stuffing in them, six beef ribs, a teddy bear, a goose with a squeaker. (this is all from memory. When I go downstairs again, I'll take inventory.)

5. The first week or two she was very nippy. She still is a little but the spanking helped somewhat. She had been nipping at hands and I kept telling her 'no'. So she started on my leg. At that point I picked her up and asked her what her problem was, when she bit me on the chin. THAT was IT. I actually put her on my knee and spanked her about four times saying 'don't bite' several times. I then put her down and she sat across the room looking at me. There is nothing but intelligence in those eyes. She actually got the message.
Score:
Emma - 2,973, me - 1

6. She mastered steps within two days, and we have a lot of them in the house. 15 to the second floor and 13 to the third level. She was rushing, trying to pass me one evening and I heard the tumble. She did not get hurt, other than her feelings, but she HAS learned to follow me rather than try to rush past.

I'll finish the rest of them in a day or two.

Its a darn good thing she is so freaking cute.

An Introduction

I have had Sidney for eight years now. He is the best dog I have ever owned. That distinction used to belong to a female collie I had name Jezebel, Jezzie for short. In fact she probably is still the best dog because she was in my life at a different time. She helped raise my son. She kept an eye on him and when he was a toddler I could safely leave him out in the yard because no one was getting past Jezzie to him.

I still tell Sid that he is 'the bestest little dog in the whole wide world' and as long as he thinks that, all is good.

Anyway, Sid and I have gone through a lot of stuff and he has turned into a wonderful, smart, fun dog. I have accidentally taught him all kinds of neat tricks. He gets my husband's slippers for him, he gets specific toys when asked, he will bring me something I have dropped as long as I point it out to him. He knows where to go by looking at where I'm pointing. He will sit on the front porch with my having no fear that he will leave it. I can leave him in the car with bags of groceries and no problems. I can leave things on the floor and as long as I show it to him and say 'no', he won't touch it.

He was a great help to me when I had my hip replaced as there were limitations on my movements. I could send him to get things for me. The only thing he won't pick up is something made of metal. If he is holding something or even if you want to send him for something the command we use is "Ta". That's a word my parents and Nanny used for thanks.

So, anyway, I have been wanting another dog for quite a while. I wanted Sid to have a companion to play with and also as he is now eight, I wanted to have another dog learn from him and to be there when the inevitable time comes for him. (I hope it never does; its going to destroy me.)

As I did when buying Sidney I did a lot of research on which breed I wanted etc. I have always loved poodles, used to breed and show Rough Collies, and have owned several different breeds over the years. I didn't get a collie because of the hair issue. I don't mind the grooming but I am not sure I want it all over my clothes again. Its been nice not having that problem. I came very close to getting a Sheltie, but the breeder I wanted to buy one from just didn't have them available at the time and was not all that encouraging to me anyway. So I started to think another Shih Tzu. Went to the dog shows, looked around, checked them out and found a breeder who has a male she will be breeding to that is distantly related to Sid. Sid has such a wonderful temperament that another one like (?) him would be terrific.

When are you expecting to breed her, I asked in the beginning of April, 2010.

"They're (2 females) due next month, meaning May 2010."

I did the calculations and figured that that would get me a puppy around Canadian Thanksgiving which is when I got Sid and was such a good time of the year to get housebreaking done. So I gave her a hefty deposit. Well, May came and went. Then June, July, August and still no sign of the females coming in heat. This now would mean that if they came into heat the first day of September I would not have a puppy until New Years. Not good, although I agreed to wait.

I wasn't that happy about the timing though so I started to check out other kennels and breeds. Again, I remembered how much I have wanted a poodle, and looked at the Dogs In Canada breeder site and found one not far from here.

I contacted her, she had pups that were due 'anytime now' and that had a grandmother I really, really liked. The mother didn't do that much for me, but the grandmother sold me. She didn't want a deposit and I would pay when I picked up the puppy. Plus, the breeder and I are very similar in personality and clicked right off the bat. So, we would wait and see if there was female and make the decision from there.

Well, I call the Shih Tzu breeder up and say that since the dogs are still not bred, it is now going to be a bad time of the year for me. Long and short of it is that I don't get my deposit back, because she already has a pup reserved for me.


What?????

How can that be? She knows I want a female. What if there are no females born? What if the females end up not pregnant? What if they all die at birth? And did she make a cut off point of how many people can leave a deposit due to expected size of said litters?

Anyway, I have left it for now. I proceeded with buying the miniature poodle pup as I got an email two weeks after I met the breeder that the litter was born. Emma was here!!!