Sunday, August 23, 2009

The Week that Was

Another wild week to report on from the home of Bella and Baxter.

Last Sunday, we took the kids to the Hawthorne Street Fair. Once again, they were the hit of the parade! It took us an hour and a half to walk down one block, cross the street, and up the other side. While it doesn't offer us a chance to really look at our surroundings, it really helps get these dogs socialized. I think they've got that trick down pat!

Afterward, we took them to the Blue Moose Cafe on Fremont (one of our favorite restaurants). We're able to sit outside and feed them their lunch and order up some great food for ourselves. Apparently, the Hawthorne Street Fair wiped them out!

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Sometimes, ya just have to sleep by your poop bags.

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Bella, proudly presenting her up ears. She's got quite a ways to go before she grows into them.

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We're still working on potty training. Will it ever end? Bella is pretty good about not going in the house - an occasional accident (or was it?) on the carpet, but Baxter, well...he's not even trying.

For the most part, we don't have any accidents if we have them locked up in the kitchen because they have the trusty dog door, but still, every now and then, Baxter will just forget to go outside! We'll be washing the dishes, the dog door is open, and Baxter just pees. WHAT?! Looks like we need to bone up on the potty process. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! We don't want to have dogs locked up in the kitchen their whole lives!

Case in point: Here is Baxter all cuddly and cute sleeping with Bella. Maggie thought it they were so adorable so she snapped this picture. She tried to open the gate but Baxter wouldn't move out of the way. It wasn't until afterward she noticed Baxter had pee'd and that's why he wouldn't move!

This picture is cute, yeah, but notice the puddle in the upper right corner! GAH!

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Bella is not without her own monstrous habits. I glanced out in the back yard to see Bella with her head down, wilding digging in a hole about half her size. When I walked over to it, it was so deep I swear I could smell Chinese take-out. She looks innocent, but don't let that fool you. Look at that nose! And those feet! And that hole!

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While BnB haven't completely learned the art of peeing outdoors, they have learned some essential language:



It was in the upper 90s so I decided to fill the pool to see if BnB would be interested in taking a dip. As it turns out, Bella isn't afraid to jump in for a swim, but Baxter doesn't want anything to do with it. I was quite pleased at how Bella didn't seem to mind getting wet, until afterward. I'll let this video do the talking.



Bella and Baxter have outgrown their first collars; Baxter especially. We bought him a new collar, one 8-14" thinking that was plenty big, I mean, 14" sounds like a lot, right? Not so! It's too small, too! So, in light of this momentous occasion, we present before and after pictures showing how much they've grown. And, oh...the clothes comparison was Maggie's idea so don't blame me!

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At the end of the week, we took them to the thriving metropolis of Troutdale (which isn't so thriving these days so go check out a few of their shops!). Not only have they outgrown their collars, but it appears they have outgrown the idea of sharing a crate in the car. There was a lot of snarling and yelping and at one point, I had to threaten to pull the car over.

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Even still, they're two pretty cute puppies - impossible to love any more than we already do.
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3 comments:

Kelly said...

Wow, so much to comment on! :)

Do you crate train them? The thing that helped speed up Gibson's potty training the most was keeping him in a small crate w/no bedding while I was at work instead of keeping him penned in a small area. At first I had bedding in his crate, but he was continue to pee in there because the bedding absorbed the pee. But as soon as I took the bedding out he started to hold it and this trained him to hold it for longer periods of time. It really worked great! Also, I always gave him a treat after he pottied outside, and I did it immediately so he knew what he was getting the treat for. Hope that helps! :)

He also does the same thing as Bella after he gets out of my parent's pool.. It is infuriating!! Luckily, my parents don't mind a dirty dog in their pool!!

betty said...

they are soo cute! loved the video with the cookie; corgis and food go hand in hand for sure! Koda can hear the rustle of a bag of cheese and can discern between that rustle and a rustle from veggies.

because I work at home and probably because I was a bit "anal" about it all, Koda did pretty good with not too many accidents inside the house, BUT it was a lot of hard work for the first few weeks. I would take him outside literally every hour or so. with our first corgi, the trainer had said take him out first before he plays outside and tell him to "go potty". reward him when he does then let him play. she said sometimes dogs get so excited to be outside to play they forget why they are out there. so I did the same with Koda. I would also watch him very carefully inside the house and if it started to sniff around a bit more, I would immeidately take him outside and usually 9/10 he would go to the bathroom pretty darn quickly. he will sit by the door now (we don't have a doggy door) when he needs to go out but because again I'm a lot, I just let him out every so often and he takes care of his business.

Kelly is right to try to crate them too. the vet said that the dogs usually don't like to mess in their bed area.

I would have to put him in his crate at times I really had to work and couldn't watch him for long periods of time, and it did help too.

good luck!!!

betty

Aj said...

I loved the cookie video! They've grown a lot, they're growing too fast!