Monday, January 28, 2008

the good the bad & the disgusting.

the good:
we're all going to seattle on the weekend of Feb 8th! visiting with beefs auntie juju & maybe even a boston terrier playday? who knows...we're excited to take the trip & bring beef, tho. since hes terribly big for his first carrier, tho, i got him a nice navy blue sturdibag for the adventure.

also, this past weekend, we left beef at home for the full day so we could go snowboarding a few hours away. we limited his food & water in the morning, took him on a solid walk so he could get everything out early on & took off, hoping for the best...we were gone almost 12 hours & beef was fast asleep when we got home & a very happy boy. in the future, for these day trips, im going to make sure we planned ahead for someone to come walk him, or to watch him for the day so we dont have to stress about having him alone for so long.

the bad:
at the park yesterday, it was very very muddy. Beef got very very muddy & i wish we took pics, coz it was very very adorable, of course. i dont even recall what happened, it all happened in such a flurry of dogs rushing past me, but i lost my balance & fell butt first into a huge puddle of mud & whok nows what else. im not sure who was dirtier that day, beef or myself.

the disgusting:
i heard beef rustling around int he kitchen & walked in on him fully IN the litterbox, eating...well, everything he could eat. and then we have everything that was mushed and smeared all over his face. sigh. a truly low point right now.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Beef in Training

Friday we had a visitor to the apartment, a nice trainer named Melissa from SuperDog Inc., a network of trainers in the bay area, all utilizing the same "dog psychology type of skills". She met with us for close to 3 hours and taught us some very valuable lessons about certain body language when dealing with Beef, and also certain ways he reacts to these gestures.
The basic idea was to establish yourself as the dominant pack animal above him, and to not allow his overtaking, reacting as the alpha dog would when a lesser pack member would act up..sorta.
What we ended up was instant results with jumping, biting, heel commands & really honing the social dynamic we expect.
Mack & i were very pleased in the results we had & will continue to work with beef on these aspects. his next class day is the night of the Feb 1st.

Friday, January 11, 2008

choppy chop



so this morning, we got up bright & early to drop beef off at the vet's office to get fixed. not that we thought he was broken, but his manly bits had to go. he was so clueless when we dropped him off, he just dorked out & was all over the vet tech that took him away.. he didnt even look back or seem to notice we werent with him.
On one hand, it felt kinda like dropping your kid off to school the first time or something & getting all stuffy in the chest...a smidge of separation anxiety, i spoze is what this is.

At home, Orange dosn't seem to mind at all. big shock. He's celebrating by sleeping on the bed. in the same place he sleeps all day regardless. He's very festive.

The city fo berkeley offeres a spay/neuter voucher program for $25, thru a select few vet clinics or the local humane society. The majority of the reviews i read on Yelp for any of the places offered were borderline crappy when it came to anything surgical was brought up... i figured that it was best not to seek discount surgery when its the health of my baby pup at stake & just took him to our current vet, where the procedure will be what im estimating at about $300, including his microchip alien implant. I feel that i made the right choice for our peace of mind that he'll be taken care of by a staff we're familiar with.
Im dreading bringing him home tomorrow... what sort of condition will he be in, will he be in pain, how shitty is that lampshade going to be, etc... i really have no idea what to expect. I dont remember ever nutering any dog ive ever had.. most of my pets have come to me prix fixe.

Im just hoping the lil bugger dosnt hate us after all this.