It’s been a while since the last training update, so I thought I’d do a post to get things up to date.

Ursa is doing pretty good on her training and next weeks training day is a dry run for her Canine Good Citizen test in two weeks.  I would be real surprised if we have any real problem. The only problem that I for see is Ursa just shutting down because we can’t use treats to have her do her commands. We’ve slowly been weaning her off of the treats and it’s caused the Pyrenees mentality come out. The “your not showing me why I would want to do this attitude” has started to raise it’s ugly head. Hopefully we can make it through the test before she gets an attitude.

Fargo has been a bit of a challenge the last couple of weeks. It’s become very clear what other Newf owners have said of this age. The hormones have started kicking in and the brain shuting down. Last week was a complete waste as he just didn’t want to cooperate. This week he wasn’t too bad but still wasn’t 100% there.

Sadie, usually our wonderpup in training must have been hanging around her brother a bit too much this past week. She just didn’t want to do a thing in training today. Very unusual for her but even the wonderpup is allowed an off day. Usually she picks up a new command in minutes. It took me 10 minutes to train her to go lay down on her bed but today she wouldn’t hardly even sit on command.

Both Fargo and Sadie have graduation next week which will be nice as we will have a couple of weeks off for them. Yea!!!

This last couple of days has been a bit different for us as winter finally got to Dallas in the form of an ice storm.  At our house we got somewhere between a quarter of an inch of ice and a half inch!  Needless to say we did not go to work that day. Not because we can’t drive on the ice but rather, why drive on it if we don’t have to. Of course the pups loved the fact that we were staying home and they could go out and play in the ice. 

Fargo and Sadie out in the ice (the white clumps are a stuffy that got destroyed right before the ice storm hit)

Ursa and Fargo

The bad part for them was that after getting to go out, we quickly realized it was just too slippery out there for them.  So they had to stay indoors which made for along day for Ruthanna and I.  After getting out in the cold and ice, they were all worked up all day and the usual take a nap from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, just wasn’t going to happen.  It was a full day of barking, chasing and rough-housing!  Every so often we would have to break things up and separate the pups to get them to calm down as it was getting a bit too heated.

Here’s a small clip of the more calm house play that went on through out the day.

Luckily the ice melted by the next day and everything was pretty much back to normal. Of course all that melted ice meant mud bog in the back yard which has made for some muddy pups but that’s a whole different story!

Lately we’ve been having some problems with the pups having loose stools.  It has gotten so bad, we decided to take the three into the vet to get checked out. On the day we were to go to the vet, Sadie and Fargo got sick. So it was a good thing we had the appointment.  They were both throwing up quite a bit during the night and by morning it was obvious neither of the three didn’t feel well as they were not their usual perky (or should I say pesky) selves.  So off to the vet we went. 

Now let me explain that while Dr. J is seems a very good vet, his bedside manners are not the best.  In fact at times a bit irritating but he seems to know what he’s doing, so we’ve put up with it.

When we got to the vet, he ran his usual fecal exams and came out to tell me that he didn’t really see much wrong with the poop and that maybe their food just wasn’t right for them and maybe we needed to look at a different food.  I explained to him that this was the third dog food brand we were using in the last four months and all had the same results.  He just shrugged and went on to discuss their throwing up. He told me that this was usually due to eating something that didn’t agree with them.  He asked me if they had eaten anything unusual lately.  Now all of this sort of ticked me off because we have been monitoring their food and sadly, their poop for the last several weeks (months actually) and I could tell you exactly what they had eaten on most any day.  None of it was "unusual" I assured him.  Of course he gave me a bit of a disgusted look and went to the back to get some medication.

So after spending a couple of hundred dollars for a vet visit, I had some medication but absolutely no answers as to what might be our problem. Needless to say I was not a happy camper with the vet!

So onto this morning and everyone seems to be doing much better. They are their usually pesky selves, wanting in and out every couple of minutes. Rough housing and barking, you know, the usually puppy stuff.

Ruthanna gets up, goes out back and quickly does a u-turn to come and get me. "Have you seen the backyard lately" she asks. I respond, "not really, I’ve been busy with everything else." She then tells me I might want to get out here to see this. So out I go as she points to a spot in the backyard. A spot where our 4 foot Hibiscus tree resides.

Only now it’s…

I look around the yard and I further realize that there are no branches laying around.  No twigs.  Not even a leaf!  Those dogs have eaten a TREE!!!! It is completely without question gone!

Then I remember Dr. J’s question…."have they eaten anything unusual lately?" Hmmmm, I don’t know, maybe a tree.

Sigh, add that to the "dogs have eaten" list. Oh, and one last thing, with all that fiber in their system their poop this morning was like a rock!