Mush!

Nate, looking sexy as ever!

Well, we finally caved and bought a nice pulling set up. Dalton has a new pulling harness, a new rope with some spring in it, and a sled. We've gone up Millcreek Canyon a few times this week, and Dalton has been loving it! He knows "easy" when we need him to slow down, and "leave it" when we pass other dogs. This time we let Dalton run and play on the way up and Nate had the lovely task of pulling up the sled, and carrying his skis. They way down was worth it though! Dalton pulled me most of the way, and Nate skied down next to us.

Snow day

New harness, time to pull.

I think he's done now.... 

A little play time.

FOOTBALL!!!!!

Desert Dog Daycare is having a football pool! Football is really over my head, and if I have to I’ll watch it but I prefer to do just about anything else. (Unless it’s the Bengals, I love the Bengals! WOOOOO!) Anyway, Nate has been making picks every week, and last week he won the survivor pool! The staff at Desert Dog was amazing before, but as a prize Nate won a Bengals leash and collar. Not only that, but we received a wonderful bottle of wine, and a snack bag with delicious cheesy spread, crackers, dips, pretzels mustard and a salami we have yet to break into. It helps that one of the owners is an avid Bengals fan, and we happen to be the only other people that like that team, but we feel pretty spoiled!

I didn’t take a picture of the gift bag because I didn’t think about it, and it would be pointless to show you an empty bottle of wine, but I will be sure to get some pictures of D sporting his new leash and collar! Nate and I need to step up our game; Dalton has more Bengals gear than the two of us combined.

On another note, because it is a blustery, rainy day I leave you with this:

Rain sucks.

I pitty the fool

Why is my dog hiding in shame and wearing a shirt you ask? Apparently, between last Wednesday and Friday he hurt himself. He’s pretty clumsy, and when at daycare has been known to go and go and go all day. I wouldn’t be surprised if he scratched himself on, well anything really. It’s like when your kid hits his head on everything, and you just laugh because it looks like you beat him, when really, your kid is a klutz. The cut is really pretty small, but it’s in an area that I couldn’t wrap up unless I wrapped around his whole belly. And knowing him, it would last all of 5 seconds before he ripped it off. So I threw a t-shirt on him instead so he couldn’t bother with it.

I know that it’s hard to see, but I would like you to notice what shirt he’s wearing. Since most of my shirts would have been too small, I had to steal

 One from Nate that was old, and rarely worn. I hope you can tell that it’s a Mr. T shirt, and I hope that you can see it says “I pity the fool”. I felt that it was appropriate given that Dalton absolutely HATES wearing it. He arches his back, and runs around the house like a mad man. If he wasn’t so annoying while he did it, I’d probably think its funny or cute or something.

We took him to the vet Monday, and they said that it is healing nicely, and to keep Neosporin on it, and use the shirt to keep him from bothering with it. Hopefully he will be all healed up by next week

Get a Leash- A rant, and a terrible accident.

I am warning you now; this will be a bit of a rant.

Monday evening Nate and I were sitting on the couch being lazy. Nate heard a commotion outside and looked out the window to find that a dog had been hit by a car. We live next to a busy 4 lane road where people drive way too fast, and this is the second dog we know of that has been hit on this particular road, the first one fared much better.

There was a crowd of people standing around the injured dog, so we ran out to see if we could help. It was still able to hop around, but it was apparent that its back leg was severely injured. It was also bleeding, but I couldn’t tell from where. Naturally the dog was in quite a bit of shock, so it was lashing out at anyone that tried to get close to it, almost biting several people. Finally, between 6 or 7 of us, we were able to block traffic, and herd it out of the road and to the grass in front of our house.

I should mention now that the owners of the dog were not present. There were two girls, probably about the same age as Nate and I that were watching the dog for their friends. It appeared that they had been playing ball with the dog across the street in the grassy divider. I had seen this dog a few times, her name was Harley, and she and Dalton decided when we encountered them on walks that they would do the leash dance, and get tangled up because they wanted to play so bad. She was probably about 7-9 months old.

The people watching the dog apparently didn’t have a leash for her, so I ran inside to get that and a towel so we could cover her. We were finally able to get her to lie down, so we wrapped her head in the towel so she couldn’t bite, and slid another blanket under her so we could lift her in someone’s car and get her to the emergency vet. Nate as well as another person that was helping, who happened to be studying to be a vet, helped get the dog in the car,  and hold her steady on the drive to the vet. The two girls watching the dog, for obvious reasons were hysterical; one of them was crying and yelling the other was silent and frozen. I can’t imagine the pain that they are going through; having this happen under anyone’s watch would be an awful and traumatizing experience.

That being said, I am so mad that this happened, and I feel like it was preventable. First of all, there is an enclosed area not 1 block from where they were playing ball with this dog, which would have been safer than where they were. And second, why wasn’t this dog on a leash?! Seriously? They didn’t even have one to get the dog from the house to where they were playing? As a dog owner, and especially a husky owner, a leash is something that you cannot go without. Sometimes it is the only thing that keeps Dalton around, and I would never want to risk something as terrible as this, for the sake of letting my dog have a bit of “freedom.” We have put too much love, energy, and time into him to not take that extra step. And really, what is the big deal with people wanting their dogs to be “off leash.”  It takes 1 second for the dog to get distracted, and have something awful like this happen.

Nate called the animal hospital last night, and from what little information they could give us, the prognosis was not good. She was still alive, but it didn’t sound like she would recover. As I said before, I truly feel for the girls who were watching the dog, the owners, and the people that accidentally hit the dog, what a terrible burden to have on your shoulders. Honestly though, I think a little thought could have prevented this whole situation, whether it was playing ball in the park instead of next to the road, or having a leash, the situation was preventable.

I am done ranting now, but I seriously hope those that read this think twice before letting your dog roam without a leash. It really isn’t worth it.

Lately

It has been a very busy month and a half; hence my lack of posting. I don’t know what we have been doing, but whatever it was; it didn’t allow us to do anything else. Dalton is now going to daycare 3 times a week since Nate is getting close to crunch time. In a few months’ time, we’ll only see him in the mornings when I leave, and at bed time. I have a feeling it’s going to be rough on everyone.

This weekend, we actually went out and did something fun, and of course, we took Dalton along. Our friends Jord and Ry have a tailgating spot for the U of U football games, and Ry happens to be a phenomenal cook. We do our best to make sure they like us so we can continue to enjoy their company, and partake of his wonderful food.

The top photo is mine, but the rest are borrowed from my cool friend Dean. Don’t be mad, he takes better pictures than I do.



Our tailgating mascot





Andy and Dalton
Photo taken by Dean Chytraus

 

MMM
Photo taken by Dean Chytraus

Double MMMM
Photo taken by Dean Chytraus

Tripple MMMM
Photo taken by Dean Chytraus

Photo taken by Dean Chytraus

Latest submission- dog shaming

A few weeks ago, I submitted a photo to http://dog-shaming.com/. It hasn't been posted, but today I decided to submit a second photo, were hoping this one is put up!

I'm not looking, I swear!



Shame!

Hello everyone! (All 5 of you that is)

The last couple days I have been obsessed with checking the website http://dog-shaming.com/. I find it highly amusing, and I like seeing the evidence that my dog is not the only naughty one out there. As I was browsing yesterday, I thought to myself “Man, I need to get one of Dalton up there. Too bad he’s been so good lately.” It was a non-daycare day, so when I got home, the first thing I did was put down my pile of stuff, grab the leash, and take Dalton outside to go potty. I am rarely coherent this soon after work, so I didn’t notice that anything was amiss.

What did I find when I came inside? Well, I found this:

This is the photo that I sent in to dog shaming. I walked in the door, and noticed that our rug was MIA, until I looked over by the kitchen. There was fluff and the rubber backing, and little particles of stuffing everywhere. It was actually sort of surprising. Generally Dalton isn’t destructive, and the things he has chewed have been either a strange texture (he favors rubbery things) or they’ve been left on the couch, because anything on the couch is apparently fair game.

Anyway, hopefully I don’t have the opportunity to submit many more photos to dog shaming. I have a feeling I will be a frequent visitor to the site though. You can’t tell me, as a dog owner (if you are one) that you don’t giggle a little when you scroll through. And if you didn’t giggle, perhaps you shouldn’t be such a weirdo cat person….

Exercise

The weather has finally started cooling off. Time for laps around Liberty Park!

Random Photos

Yes, that came out of you

about 30 seconds of brushing,  this is nothing, really.

Sometimes he sleeps...

In weird positions

This is Dalton's new favorite spot to stand. Between our legs. Very helpful when vacuuming.

What do you call a cow jumping over a barbed wire fence? UTTER DESTRUCTION!

First of all, I apologize that I have not written or posted pictures in a while. As soon as I am home tomorrow, I will do what I can to get things rolling again.
Now, here's why I haven't written:

I have been house/dog sitting for just about 2 weeks. They are both lovely well behaved dogs, but one of them has severe separation anxiety. I have done everything possible to try to calm, and relax this dog, which is not a  small feat. He was walked several times a day, given bones, locked in an area of the house where he could do the least damage, he wore a thunder shirt constantly, I have been giving him beneadryl, and an herbal relaxing supplement. He's also been wearing a pheromone collar that is supposed to help with anxiety.

The first day or so, he was alright. His owner (the son of the people who own the home) had been gone a few days, and the rest of the family had just left, that was Thursday the 14 th. By Wednesday of the next week, he had escaped the enclosed area that he was to be kept in, and went into the office. This is what I found:

By Friday, he had yet again, gotten past the barriers and into the front room. While there, he decided the custom front door, made in Napa valley, would be a good snack. not to mention the rug in front of the door.This is what I found:

Generally he does fine as long as I am there, and will hang out and relax, but Saturday morning, I woke up to this:

This is the second time the garage door (above) has been ruined by this dog. I knew that he had anxiety, and that this would be a rough one for him since his poppa was gone for about 2 and a half weeks. However, I did not anticipate just how bad. 

There was another door, but for some reason the photo is MIA.

Thankfully, the homeowners are sweet, wonderful people, and knew what they might come home to. Looks like their son, will be doing a lot of repairs the next coming weeks! Wish me luck for the last 24 hours of house sitting!

Skateboard

I have decided that if you are going to have a husky, you should also have a skateboard. Nate has a few of them, and we use them to exercise Dalton at least once a week. Lately we’ve been using a skate without the wheels and trucks for Dalton to practice pulling. I will post pictures later, but Nate, as always came up with the idea. He glued an old rug to the bottom to minimize noise, put and eye bolt at the top for the string which we attach to his harness. Right now we have a small weight on the back to keep it from bouncing all over the place, and on a straighter path. Plus, if it helps tire him out a bit more, I won’t complain.

The best ice cream in the world.

This is my story about how the heat wave ruined my life:

 It’s hot as hell out, all over the damn world. I am not much of a cold weather person; generally I say that if it’s going to snow pretty, fluffy snowflakes, they should be warm and snugly like a blanket or something. But right now, I could really go for some freezing rain, or snow or whatever, as long as it’s cold. All we have is a dinky swamp cooler, and it does basically nothing to cool our house. It will however humidify it, so it’s like were vacationing in Florida, except without the beach and old people.

 Anyway, lately when we take Dalton to the dog park on our non-daycare days, we bring a spray bottle or cold water, and soak him so he stays cool while running around. Except that none of the dogs are running around, they just hang out and sniff butts the whole time. Not that I blame them, they are covered in fur and run at a hotter temperature naturally than humans, so I wouldn’t necessarily want to do anything but chill out either.

Yesterday Dalton and I went to the park, hung out for 2 hours, and then came home (mostly because I was hungry.) Dalton ran a little at the park, but he didn’t get a good play sesh in, so he came ready to annoy us. We threw him (not literally, although I considered it) out on the porch, brought out our books and read some until it cooled off enough to walk him. We walked a couple blocks, avenues blocks, which was probably equivalent to 4 normal blocks, but it was enough to put a damper on his punk attitude. It helped, but I can’t stay up till 11pm every night to walk the dog. That’s way past my old lady bedtime.

I don’t know how I am going to survive. I am so used to our wonderful dog (due to daycare and dog park play time.) I can’t go back to our pre-daycare dog. Having Dalton tired from daycare/ the dog park is like tasting the best ice cream in the world, it’s so good, not too sweet, and all the flavors are perfectly balanced. Having Dalton not tired is the equivalent of being told you are lactose intolerant, and you get the runs every time you try to eat the delicious ice cream. Sure, you get the ice cream, but the aftermath is not what you want, it’s the opposite of what you want. Nobody wants the runs, ever.

And with that, I will end my story about how the heat wave ruined my life.

Happy Thursday Y'all!

Shower Time

A few weeks ago, while Nate was out I figured I should probably get in the shower because I was smelly (that’s probably the reason Nate was gone…). I was sort of worried that Dalton would get into trouble while I was in there, so every couple minutes, I would call him and make him come get a scratch on the head. I figured, if I kept distracting him, he couldn’t screw shit up too bad. Anyway, he sort of became interested in the water, and where it was coming from. He would stick his face in the curtain, get splashed, and then remove his head again. He did this a few times when I would call him in, and at one point he ended up just sitting next to the tub with his face as far in the shower as his brontosaurus neck would allow.

 Turns out, I have created a monster. At first it was funny how curious he was about the magic waterfall, but now, within 5 minutes of being in the shower, here comes long neck, sticking his face in and biting at the water, and consequently anything under the water. Bad news bears. He also thinks it’s pretty cool to get into the tub after we’ve showered and lick the walls. Is licking mildew bad for dogs? I am going to assume it is, so it looks like we’ll be cleaning our tub and shower more often!

Yay! Magic Waterfall!

Mmmmmm Mildew and soap.

Lake Day!

The past few weekends we have gone up East Canyon to get out of the 90+ degree weather. Because it’s like, 1 degree cooler up there… Anyway, we go up to the lake, hang out in the relaxation station, and drink adult beverages. The first time we went up, Dalton was so excited to see our friends out in the lake that he jumped in the water, and swiftly realized that there was no ground underneath him. He swam great, but there was a look of confusion on his face that told me he did not intend to swim. This week he would only go in enough to cool off, and spent most of the day wandering and trying to find a nice shady spot to hang out in.

This last weekend, we finally remembered to bring up our camera! YAY! Here are some pictures of our little trip!

(Pease ignore my pasty skin, and weird hairdo. There are no mirrors at the lake, so how could I know it looked so funny?)

Thanks Jord and Ry for letting him ride up in a car with AC!



Contemplating whether or not to get in the water.....

Family portrait!

Yuki, Daltons girlfriend.

My favorite guy (besides Nate, that is)

Flip Flop

Thus far, Dalton had been fabulously well behaved (since we’ve had him in daycare). We haven’t had anything completely destroyed, and we've been able to have a lot of trust in him.

At night we have been letting him have the run of the house since he’s been so good. We’ve left our remote out, (which is brave on our part, see 2 hours) shoes, jackets, and then there are the kitchen chairs, tables couches etc. All has gone un-touched.

Until last night.

Nate rarely wears flip flops, but we went up to the lake last Sunday, so they were sitting in the living room in what I like to call the “shoe pile”. Its where all the shoes we normally wear live once we get home. I walked out into the living room this morning, and Dalton had chewed up one of the flip flops. The weirdest part about it is that he had a reindeer antler, an esophagus and several toys just lying on the floor. He’s honestly never chewed shoes, so we didn’t think that it would be an issue.

This is what I found this morning.

No remorse.

Sorry, it's a bit hard to see

Notice all the toy options? Still thought the flip flop was a good snack.

Looks like we'll be putting our shoes away at night!

Our Kennel set up.

We realized fairly quickly that Dalton was not a huge fan of his kennel. It’s sized correctly for his weight/height, but he always looks so cramped in there. Not only that, but he just can’t relax in the kennel. We tried our darndest to make it a happy place, somewhere he wanted to be, but it just didn’t work. This is where my brilliant boyfriend comes in. We had borrowed a doggy “play pen” from our neighbor who didn’t use it much. Generally we would use it to contain him in one room or another, or we would take it to friend’s houses so we could keep him contained there. Eventually though, our neighbor needed it back, so we invested and bought our own. Here is the one we have. It’s Top Paw, wire and about 36” high.  

Since D is not a fan of the kennel, but we didn’t quite trust him to have the whole house, Nate devised a genius plan to hook the play pen to the kennel, and section off part of the living room for Dalton. We have about 12 feet between the kennel and the west facing window in our living room, so we spread out the play pen in such a way that it stands up on its own, loops behind a chair (for support), and sits right underneath the window, holding it in place. It’s fairly escape proof, but  if he wanted to he could easily jump over the gate and have free rein of the house. BUT were pretty sure Dalton hasn’t realized how high he can jump, nor has he really had the opportunity to figure it out. Were crossing our fingers that it stays that way!!

 Anyhow, this is how we set the room up. Unless he starts tearing into the molding or walls, or develops a taste for the radiator, were pretty safe as far as chewing. He always has a bone, toy, kong or all three to occupy his time, and it has worked very well for us so far.

Facing West

Facing East, Attached to the kennel

Luckily our windows are the perfect height to wedge it right underneath.



This is facing south, without the play pen set up.



I wouldn’t recommend something like this if your dog has a propensity to jump, or try chew things just outside the wires. The yellow chair (seen in the first photo) has been safe as of yet, but if he wanted to, I think he could really tear into it. We like this set up, because it gives him a bit more freedom, but he is still confined enough that he can’t get in too much trouble.

The play pen is also great for other things too. As I said, we’ll take it to our friend’s homes and use it to corral him and any other dogs, sometimes we have even used it outside when our friend’s yard isn’t completely fenced. This particular style attaches great to the wire Top Paw kennel that we have. It also comes with stakes so you can use it outside. We haven’t tried that yet, but I imagine that you would still need to watch as I doubt the stakes are super sturdy.

We’ve really loved the play pen, and all the different uses. It’s pricey, but it will last us years, and so far has been totally worth the cost. If your pup is struggling with the kennel too, and I really think that some dogs just aren’t cut out for it, this is a great option. (if you have a safe space where your pup can’t get into anything nearby.) I will reiterate that you should have quite a bit of trust in your dog before doing a set up like this. If your dog is high anxiety, or tends to get really restless and try to escape, it wouldn’t be the best option.