Happy Thanksgiving

Penelope enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. We spent Saturday in Gravenhurst playing in the leaves. Sunday on Georgian Bay exploring the waterfront and Monday sleeping off an event filled weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Love Amber, Marc and Penelope.

Covered Bridge Trail

I took Penelope on Covered Bridge Trail for the first time. This trail is next to our house, its short but feels like you are escaping from the town for a peaceful walk. It was so quiet I even let Penelope off leash and she followed me across the bridges, over the walking paths and through the long grass. After a stressful day it was the perfect escape.

 

Close Encounter

A few weeks ago I was taking Penelope outside before bed. We went to her normal spot in the front yard and like normal sniffing was more pressing then emptying her full bladder. We wondered around the yard and finally she went pee. "Good Girl". She then became very interested in out solar light in the front garden. I let her play sniff around it then told her we were going inside. She would not leave it alone. I came closer and saw she was sniffing at something just beside it. Something with two white strips standing out in the darkness. AH! Never releasing my breath I steadily pulled Penelope in close picked her up and ran inside. My heart was racing as a little skunk scurried across onto the neighbors yard. Even now I do not know how we got away without a coating of oily stench. I am so grateful my little one did not startle the skunk!

Trip to the Dog Park

I was reviewing the photos on my camera and realized that I have not blogged about Penelope's recent adventures. Since I last wrote Penelope has had two successful trips to Kerr Park to play at the Dog Park. She has definitely grown even more attached to Gnarly the Great Dane puppy. The whole car ride to the park she cannot even contain her excitement, jumping up and licking his face. It's absolutely ridiculous how cute they are together. I love that she comes home and sleeps after her trips to the park!

Resourceful Little One

Once a week Marc and I make Penelope's home-cooked food together in the kitchen. I get ahead start and get the liver and ground beef cooked, then Marc joins me. Of course Penelope is usually at our feet with her nose up in the air smelling all her favourite baking smells. This week things got pushed back a meal due to busy schedules and Penelope had to have dry food for breakfast this morning. No big deal, we have some just in case things arise. 


When we are done measuring and mixing everything together and dividing out the weeks portions, we let Penelope lick off the spatula and clean out the mixing bowl. It's adorable, especially when she looks up at you and has a little on the top of her nose that she hasn't realized is there yet, too cute!


Everything was going its normal way and then Marc went out to the living room... where we found Penelope had stolen and been chewing one of our cat's cans of food. Okay she's a puppy she is going through her chewing stage, a little odd that she had never bothered with the canned food before, it hasn't moved in the time we've had her. However, Marc noticed next to it she had also decided that a screw driver might be a good thing to hoard and chew. 


Is this just a crazy coincidence? 


I stand by that she was so disappointed in her dry kibbles for breakfast she decided to steal cat food. After realizing she couldn't get into that pesky can with her razor sharp puppy teeth, she had to search for a suitable alternative... the tool box would be the first place I would start, wouldn't you?


Luckily we have a full week supply of home-cooking prepared so we will not have to test my theory. We'll just have to make the assumption that she is too smart for her own good, we should keep her belly full of liver and ground beef so she stays out of trouble.

Penelope, Chiara and Khoti!

It was a laze around in bed kind of morning, not sure what I wanted to do today. Then I got a phone call from Shauna that perked me right up. We had taken our dogs to play off leash on Friday and it was a blast watching Penelope finally show her submissive side and wear off some of her excess puppy energy. How could I pass up a chance for round two. We got together and took them to the same baseball diamonds where we could let them off leash. They got to chase each other around, play and dig. Shauna and made the same comparison that Penelope is just about as graceful as I am as she would continually trip over Shauna and I. Wait... on reflection of this comparison... was I being called clumsy? :)

Thank you Shauna for making my Sunday (and weekend) great. Your dogs are amazing and I am surprised how fluffy they look after leaving tuffs of hair all over the baseball field.

A Groom and A Haircut

Today Penelope had her first haircut, she went from a scruffy puppy to a gorgeous Scottish Terrier in just one afternoon. Its amazing how much different she looks with her ears all trimmed. While Penelope was having her spa treatment, I decided to get my own hair cut. So of course this morning we took a before picture in the bathroom mirror and after when we were all done.

Marc was so impressed with our hair cuts we even went out on a date to Wabora for sushi. I am reminded of the song that Shauna was sing at work just yesterday "I feel pretty". I've been wearing a pony tail every day for the last 2 months, a change was needed. Penelope's first hair cut inspired me to just do it. I don't think I've had hair this short since grade 2 when I had the classic mushroom cut.

Before                                                                                                               After

Wilson's Falls

Today Penelope, her Grandma Wood, Uncle Andy and I went to Wilson's Falls. We walked on part of the Trans-Canada Trail and played around the water. I had so much fun taking photos of Penelope and Andy playing, smelling, and leaving foot prints along the trail. I absolutely love hiking with a dog and a camera. Great way to spend the first of my three days off.

Puppy Playtime

Our social butterfly Penelope made another new friend today. She got to play with a handsome fourteen week old Argentina Dogo named Che. Che is such a sweet heart! 

Penelope had a great time. I was having a blast during the play date, however after when I was playing with the photos on my camera that I had taken it became very emotional for me. Penelope and Che have so many things in common, they are both adorable puppies, doing great with their socialization, have concerned loving owners, but its hard because they both have parents who in the last year have lost a dog to Lymphoma. I can't help but be reminded of what we went though with our last dogs and the strong bonds we had with Winnie and Biff. These dogs will never be forgotten and will always be in our hearts. Not a day goes by when I don't think of Winnie and how much I love and miss her.

I hope Che and Penelope continue to have play dates and grow up together to become great friends. 

Penelope and Che

Butter Tarts

Last night Marc and I could not figure out what was all over Penelope's head. She had been playing with her Uncle Andy and he was drooling so we though maybe that is what was on her. However on closer inspection she smelled sweet. We later noticed that some bake goods we picked up at the Gravenhurst Bakery had tipped over. We guess little Miss Penelope decided to treat herself to some butter tart filling, don't worry no raisins. She was covered. Marc was jokingly trying to convince me to leave the filling on her since she smelled so sweet. Of course I took her today to have a bath. She is so good for her baths and dries so fast. Now she smells good to me, she smells like a clean adorable puppy. 

 

Penelope and Gnarly

Penelope made a new friend today, a handsome 14 month old Great Dane puppy named Gnarly. At first her eyes went so wide it was as if she didn't quite know what Gnarly was. She quickly realized he was a new friend was play bowing and running under his legs. His owner Christine and I took them out in front of work for a photo on the steps. Penelope kept backing up underneath his legs, they were so cute together. I knew puppies come in all different sizes but WOW there is such a huge difference in their sizes.

Gnarly, Christine, Penelope and Myself.

 

Up the Stairs and Over the Falls

This afternoon Marc and I went on a picnic with Penelope to the falls. She's come a long way since our last trip. She's been walking very well on her leash, frequently going to pick up Marc after work and walk him home. She has gained 2 pounds so she was able to move from her cat collar to her martingale training collar. We are now working on umbilical training in the house, she helps me do chores and feed the cats.

After we enjoyed our picnic lunch, which included really great 2% chocolate milk from Kawartha Dairy (yum!), we made our way around the park. We played on the docks and there was very little if any hesitation for Penelope to jump from dock to dock. We went over the small bridge to the platform where we got married. The platform was as far as we made it last time before we decided we had better turn around. This time we looked at the large flight of stairs and realized our baby was ready. Marc headed up the stairs first as she had been actively following him around since we arrived at the park and I took the leash. She made it up every stair on her own, quite quickly. At the top we could cross the bridge or take a side trip over to a platform by the higher part of the falls. We opted to go spend sometime at the platform. We sat down and played with Penelope and took some pictures of our little family. Then made our way back to the falls, where we crossed the bridge. My plan was to go ahead and take a picture of her crossing with her dad... she was moving quite quickly as there was no hesitation on her part to cross the bridge over the falls. In fact, she was finding it so much fun to chase me she never even really noticed we were doing something new. Hmm, wonder what we can do on our next trip, investigate the other side of the river? It won't be much longer until she can walk all the way there from our house, that will be so exciting! 

Crossing the Docks

Leaping up the stairs next to the Falls.

Playing on top of the Falls

Family Photo

Over the Falls

Skeleton Lake

Last Monday, Marc's mother took Penelope, Marc and I to Skeleton Lake. This was Penelope's first experience with water. Though she was to interested in swimming she had so much fun with the soft beach sand between her toes, up her nose and all through her fur. She had so much fun following Marc on the dock and chasing us back and forth on the beach. Marc and I found that our feet were safe from nipping if we ran though the water. Penelope's favourite thing about the beach... digging! She dug a hole as deep as she is tall in no time! It then became a game to cover it up and watch her dig it again. Then we would bury our feet and she would frantically uncover them. Hilarious! Marc however... had the great idea to show her that if you dig closer to the water you can actually find water in your hole. Which of course she though was perfect for drinking. 

The trip was so much fun, I even bet Marc at a game of crib! Thank you so much to Joni, Aunt Mary and Uncle Barry for having Penelope over to play. The only side effect from our Skeleton Lake trip was that Penelope ate so much sand that the next day her poops looked like the beach. No harm done I guess. I can't wait to take her back to play again!

First Trip to the Falls

Last Sunday, Marc, Penelope and I went to the Bracebridge Falls. This was Penelope's first trip to the Falls! She got to see meet lots of new people including a very nice man who decided that he was going for a dive right after meeting Penelope. Still watching the man leaped into the water and was no where to be seen. Penelope thought this was alarming at first. Marc and I both looked at each other since the man was under for quite awhile. Finally he came up but he was too far away for little Penelope to see him. When he same back to the dock where we were standing and reached his hand up to hold on for a minute, Penelope ran over and licked his fingers, she was so excited he alright. After this we sat on the dock and she watch some younger divers and realized that they come back so it was not as scary as she originally had anticipated. The younger divers made comments about how cute she was and asked if she was indeed real... convinced she was a robotic cartoon dog. 

After playing on the dock we took a family walk though the park and walked the pathway up to the falls to the first landing. The landing has so many memories for Marc and I. This landing was a common place for us to go when we were dating, the place we tied the knot, and the place where we worked together to get the best photograph of our Winnie. Sunday we made yet another memory as our little 4 lbs puppy made it all the way there. We took turns taking photographs of each other holding her. The falls will always be a special place and with every memory it gets better and better. When she is a little bigger we will take her up the second set of stairs and across the bridge that extends over the falls.

On the way back as we were crossing the park again, little Penelope started protesting. She saw a group of kids. She loves children and was not budging until someone came to play with her. Next thing we know we have a mother and three children asking to play with our dog. Marc and I aren't really kid people but its great when they ask if they can pet your dog before rushing to do so. Penelope is such a social butterfly and played with each of them before continuing our walk back to the car.

A successful first trip to the falls for Penelope!

Pop Bottles Beware!

Penelope has decided that pop bottles are extremely interesting. She manages to steal them from the recycling and drag them around the house. She actually appears to try and unscrew the cap with her teeth. (Of course prior to correcting her and giving her something more appropriate to play with, I did run for my camera).

Pop Bottles Beware!

Uncle Andy and Auntie Annette

This morning we awoke to find Penelope's left ear was standing completely up. Marc is thrilled, she may have both ears up by tomorrow. We have a soft spot for erect ears. 

Today is also the first day Penelope was left home while we were at work. She did so well, I am so proud of our little one. I came home on my lunch break and she was quiet and had no accidents in her crate, she went outside with me and peed. Yeah! The success was repeated in the afternoon but she was more vocal.

After work we had another play date with her Uncle Andy. This one was much more successful, they played and Andy is learning to correct her a little bit better each time they meet. Penelope also got her first visit from Auntie Annette, they were both so excited!

Uncle Andy, Auntie Annette and Penelope.

On-going food issues continue she is still not eating enough calories per day, so we've added in some high calorie dry puppy food (Medi-Cal Gastrointestinal Puppy) to get her going and we will transition her a little slower to the home-cooking. She really does like her new home-cooking recipe but it is so low calorie that she has to consume such a large volume. Better to be safe and give her what she wants. Tomorrow is her first veterinary examination and signing her up for pet insurance. My fingers are crossed hoping she has a good walk into the clinic, it will be her longest walk yet. 

She's a Puppy Alright.

Our first night together was a little noisy... she decided to cry all night, and was pretty adamant that 4:30am should be when everyone gets up for the day. I gave in at 6am after she quieted down enough that I wasn't rewarding her for hanging from the top of her crate yelping for attention. 

Shortly after awaking we went outside and played. We then came in for breakfast, she hadn't eaten much of the home-cooking the day before so I was anxious to see what she would do for breakfast. She looked at the bowl and appeared to be saying not this again, she licked it a few times and resumed playing. I was wondering if I should give it more time, but she's a puppy I didn't want her to go to long without food... I ended up making a grocery store run at about 7:30am to get the ingredients for a few more recipes from the Hilary Watson cookbook, thinking maybe she is just not liking one of the flavours. The recipe did smell very strong of vegetables since sole fillets were the main protein and though they are tasty they don't smell much. With the morning spent baking the next recipe when I put the bowl in front of her I was already prepared to start on the next one, so much I had already boiled the eggs and started on it. All of a sudden she started eating it! Perfect! I walked away to the kitchen to clean up... and a little black puppy followed me. No, no, no, she wasn't done already. I brought her back to her bowl and she ate some more. I sat with her and she licked the bowl clean. I think I was repeatedly telling her she was a good girl, but really I was patting myself on the back for making something worthy of her delicate palate.

Throughout the day she ate more of her food, however I am a little concerned that she is not eating as much as she should. The recipe book recommends she eat about 440 grams and she is eating about half that. I ended up emailing Hilary Watson who wrote the book, to see if she has any suggestions, maybe I can increase the calories per gram so she can eat less, or if she will moderate herself. She's not hungry, but I want to make sure she is getting all the nutrients her growing body needs. Hopefully I will find an answer soon.

Today we also had our first puppy play date with her Uncle Andy. I was very amusing to watch Andy try to figure out what exactly Penelope is. Andy is a great 10 year old Shih Tzu who lives at my parents house. Actually he was the last puppy I trained since my last dog came to us at about 5 months old. I would trust Andy with anything, he is great with rabbits, chinchillas, even the rats and mice we've had. This endearing feature of his however was not so useful when it comes to a nippy Penelope. He had no idea how to respond to her tugging on his ears, leg and tail. Luckily for Andy Penelope hadn't slept at night, she was quickly tired out and thought our play date would be the ideal time for sleep... Err.


The rest of the day consumed of trying to keep the puppy up, crate training, and leash training. I need to grow a little bit more confidence. The keep walking even if she is dragging behind concept, I really need to work on that! I give in to easily which will just make training longer and more difficult. 

Puppy kisses at the end of the day, make every sleepless moment and hours spent baking worthwhile... just don't ask me to repeat that tomorrow morning.

Penelope Is Home!

Today we brought Penelope home! As you can tell from my husband's post its been such an exciting day. She was a good little traveler and made it all the way from Hamilton to Muskoka with no concerns. 


Marc put her new collar on her, she's quite sure about having it on yet, but she will get use to it. This weekend she will get to meet some new friends and practice our leash walking. I'm Penelope will also be learning that cats are a little different to live with then puppies. Kirby, Flight and Crackers don't seem to mind her at this point, but she is pretty tired out after her busy day. We'll see what happens tomorrow when she is recharged.

Puppy Acquisition: 1/1

Today has been a rather interesting day.  Trying to keep Amber in bed until 8 am was a feat in and of itself, only to go downstairs to find my mother freaking out because she locked her car keys in the trunk.  This particular fact amused me because she had reclaimed them from me the night previous, citing a desire to not lose said key.
Four phone calls later, coupled with serious consideration of joining CAA, we were eating omelettes I had made when the tow truck arrived.  He popped the car open easily enough, but the key wasn't in the trunk.
5 minutes later, the key was found on the table in my aunt's backyard...
We collected the dog an hour later, and she is so adorable...  worth every single moment of stress and waiting.  You should see Am's beaming smile!

So Excited!

I remember when I first started a count down the number of days until would get to bring my new puppy home was so far away it seemed like it would never come. Today my count down is at two days and I couldn't be more excited.

We've purchased her collar and identification tag, lined up pet insurance, puppy proofed the house, washed our dog toys, set up our first veterinary visits, arranged our first grooming appointment and play date, today we even made our first batches of dog food... all that is left is bringing home the wonderful new addition to our family.

Tomorrow my husband and I will go to work like normal, then after we will head to Hamilton for the night with his mother and Aunt Mary. We will then make our way to the breeders on Saturday morning to pick up Penelope and take her home!

What's In A Name?

My husband and I had thought of names for our new little one quite a lot in the last year. Searching baby name sites, writing lists, comparing names much like expecting parents. We like to choose a nickname and then work to find what that name would be in a longer form. Our last dog's name was Winnie, we were originally thinking we were going to be getting a boy and name it Winchester after my favourite MASH character Charles Emerson Winchester the Third. When she ended up being a girl we thought we could still make it work and called her Winifred. Though I have to admit she rarely heard the long form and simply became Winnie.  

I was leaning towards names like Gertrude (Gertie for short) but it didn't click. I knew when I heard the right name it would just be perfect, so we kept searching. My husband Marc actually came up with the name that we are going to use for this puppy. We chose Pennie. Before we knew we could get a girl we had a name for each it was either Penelope or Pennington Bear. We are still not sure if Pennie or Penelope will be used more but are going to start with Penelope and see how it goes. All her medical records, identification tags and pet insurance will stay Penelope. 

Everyone at work was asking how we came up the name, quoting what the name meant "weaver", and its relation to Greek Mythology. Actually its from an adorable anime hamster from the series Hamtaro. You should see people's expressions when you tell them its an anime hamster, its priceless. Just makes me love the name that much more!

4 more days until Penelope comes home. (I am so excited!)

Picking Penelope

This weekend I traveled to our breeders to pick out our baby. We had been on a waiting list since March of this year. The breeder had one small litter of two boys, but we decided we really did want to have a female again. Lucky for us, the next litter was of 5 puppies (2 of which, were girls). Since we were on the waiting list the longest, we got the opportunity to come and pick our puppy (pick of the litter). Prior to this visit all we had seen were photographs of when the litter was 3 days old.

How do you choose which puppy? 

Well it was narrowed down to two before we even started, gender, I wanted a girl. Okay down to two... I was presented with two puppies, and my brain was stuck on "Awwww" for a good 5 - 10 minutes. Choosing didn't even seem important they were both adorable Scottish terriers. We watched them play and nibble my mother's painted toes. We met their parents Bruce and Maud. Both were amazing. Maud was excited and happy to see everyone. Bruce curled up beside me and enjoyed getting attention. I began to notice small differences between the two females. Bruce corrected both puppies at some point during our stay, the puppy we chose seemed to learn faster (only needing corrected once, where the other needed to hear it two or three times and had a little yelping fit). They had slightly different appearances, the one we chose had a larger frame, and a bigger nose. She also was more interested in playing with everyone in the room where the other was a little more shy. The shy one also would back up when you reached out to pet her where the one we chose didn't flinch at all. The choice magically became clear. Apparently to pick a puppy, sit on the floor and watch them play and interact with everyone in the room, each other, and their parents. Then look at the subtle differences in features and personality.

Puppy picked!

This upcoming Saturday we will welcome home our new puppy. However this week is frantically finishing puppy proofing as many areas of the house as we can. Gathering the ingredients and making her first batch of food, and spoiling our cats because they have no idea what they are in for!