Tippy's Day Out

Max needed to pick up some cat food for his cat yesterday, and decided to do it while he was visiting me.  I told him we could bring one dog with us to the pet store.  We decided on Tippy!

We took Max's car, so I got to hold Tippy in my lap on the way there.  He was so excited!  He barked hello to all the people we passed!

Tippy was very excited to sit in the front seat!

Then when we got to the pet store, we followed in a very cute white Akita that Tippy immediately developed a crush on.  He wanted to say hello to her so badly!  But she was busy getting sized for a new collar, so we didn't bother her.  Instead we walked around the toy section...I told Tippy he could pick out a new toy, but he just wasn't interested in anything.  Then we walked around the treat section and I told him he could pick out a treat, but again he wasn't interested.  What was wrong with this dog!?!?  I can only imagine he was heartbroken that I wouldn't let him meet his crush.

"I love this place!!!"

Tippy did get to meet several employees, who all thought he was adorable and a sweetheart.  He got lots of pets and kind words that made him grin from ear to ear!

A Gorgeous Day to be Outside!

A great day to lay in the sun...

...to roll in the grass...

...to scratch our backs...

...and just be all around goofballs!

Looks like someone needs a trim around the eyes!  Good thing this handsome boy is a breeze to groom!

Jett's model pose

Tippy photobomb!

Tippy: Moms Everywhere Approve

Tippy is certainly the kind of gentleman dog you can bring home to mom.  He's polite, housebroken, friendly, and adorable.  I can't think of a single mom (or dad) that would not fall in love with him immediately.

Just look at him in his tie.  Heck, he'd even fit in at the office!

  

You can't resist these puppy-dog eyes!

Wrestlemania!

Ever since Tippy got his hair cut, he has been acting young and spry.  Last night was no exception, as he and Jett wrestled for over an hour.  They are such goofballs!

And then this morning while I was getting ready for work, Tippy was looking for some affection.  I picked him up and tried to get a selfie...he decided to give me kisses instead.  :-)  I love this little bugger!

Jett & Ruthie

We have a few short videos of these 2 from this past week.  First up is a video of Ruthie attacking the vacuum cleaner while I clean up after the tissue incident:

You can see how fearless she is.  She does this every time I vacuum.

Then we have Jett & Ruthie napping one evening.  This is how Jett sleeps every single day.  I like at the end of the video when he rolls over and snuggles up to Ruthie.  :-)

And lastly, 2 videos of Jett playing with toys.  Isn't he such a cutie pie?  In the 2nd video you can see him startle Ruthie while she's napping, but neither one shows aggression.  She just jumps up for a second then they both go back to what they were doing.

Troublemakers

I walked outside for a few minutes and came in to find an almost full box of tissues on the floor.  Ruthie and Jett are only posing in this picture, I did not catch the actual culprit in the act.

All 3 of my potential troublemakers felt really badly though, and decided to cuddle while I watched some tv.  Obviously I forgave them.

Tippy, Ruthie, and Jett

It's been awhile since I've done a group post.  All the dogs are doing wonderfully.  I think this is the first time I've had 3 similarly sized dogs at the same time.  That makes it easy because what works for one works for all of them (in terms of crates, food quantities, and leashes at least). 

Last weekend I took all 4 dogs for a walk...the first time I've ever tried that.  I had bought one of those multi-ended leashes (with 3 ends), so I could walk all 3 of the fosters on that and then Hardy got to walk (except it was too hot and he got tired right away, so I ended up carrying him for 75% of the walk) by himself.  I took a short video to show how that went.  Hint: it went very well.

Tippy is still my wonder-dog.  Since I posted a while ago that we were doing a test run of leaving him out with Hardy during the day, he's spent almost every day out.  The few occasions where he hasn't been out have been his decision to stay in the dog room with Ruthie and Jett.  Usually those are days where I open a new bag of treats.  But he is doing very well left out: no accidents, no destroyed furniture, no fighting with Hardy.  It's also been a couple of weeks since he got his haircut.  I just can't get over how great he looks.  We've had a few people visit, and they say he looks so handsome, and that he used to look homeless but now doesn't...my sister even wanted to take him home with her!  He's a joy to have around, and I just know that his forever family will think he's the perfect dog.

Ruthie is still a wild child.  She's getting very good at listening though.  Like I mentioned last week, she is crate trained.  She'll now go into her crate on command, no treats required (though I still give her a treat on occasion, and I always praise her when she does it to keep reinforcing that she's doing well!).  When she goes outside and I want to call her in, she will come when I call and/or whistle.  Unless of course there's a rabbit or neighbor dog within her view.  In those cases I have to go to the end of the deck and talk her in, but she's still pretty easy in that regard.  And one more exciting thing...even though I'm not specifically working with her on it, she's starting to pick up 'sit' because of all the times I've been trying to get Tippy to do it.  I wouldn't say she completely knows it yet, but she's pretty good for me not trying all that hard.  Now that she's crate trained though, I'm starting to focus more on that with her.

Ruthie obviously has no problem getting herself comfortable.

Jett is really becoming a doll.  He was so shy with me at first, but now he loves to sit by me and get petted, and occasionally he will even lay on me when I'm watching tv!  We had a little bit of a set-back with housebreaking.  I'm really not sure what happened, he was doing so well but then in the last week we had a bit of a relapse.  Saturday I made him wear a diaper (which he absolutely hated), and I think that got him back on track.  Yesterday and this morning were back to perfect.  Jett is crate trained the same as Ruthie, he doesn't require a treat to go in.  In fact, he's so good at crate training, that he is going in any crate on command, not just the one I've designated as his.  So that is great news for whichever family adopts him!

Jett and Ruthie cuddling last night.  They sure look like friends, huh!?

Jett in his diaper.  He stood there for about 10 minutes not knowing what to do.

Jett laying in Hardy's bed, which he is just slightly too big for.  :-)

Ruthie and the Lizard

Ruthie's favorite toy is this plastic squeaky lizard we got from the daycare a while ago.  Enjoy these few videos of her playing with it!

Lucy Update

Lucy (formerly Chateau/Maggie) is doing so well with her mom!  After one week they really seem to be hitting it off.  Lucy is already improving on her walks (no pulling unless she sees a rabbit).  And her human grandma already took her shopping for some gifts.  She hasn't quite taken to playing with other dogs or toys yet, but I know that she will once she's completely comfortable in her new home.  Her mom is really active with her, which is great for Lucy.  They go on runs and walks, and even went in a canoe!

Lucy starts obedience school next week, so let's all wish her luck!

I still can't get over how gorgeous this dog is!  Lucy, you are a beauty!

Rochester Update!

As one of my biggest success stories, I always love to hear how Rochester is doing with his family.  This is a dog who came from a hoarding background, completely terrified of people and occasionally possessive around other dogs...and turned into one of the most loving dogs I've ever met, loves cuddling with his person, and loves to play with his dog brothers and sisters. 

Over the weekend I received a couple new photos of Chester.  I was just thinking about him last week and wondering how he was doing, so it was perfect timing!

Look at Chester, all comfy on the window sill...and sharing it with his sister!

This is such a cute picture.  I feel like he's doing one of those 'aww mom, stop taking pictures of me' faces.

Tippy got a haircut!

After weeks of debating with myself, I finally cut Tippy's hair.  And I love it!  We have a little bit of places we need to do touchups, but he looks so handsome!

And for that lucky family who ends up adopting my Tipster, just know that he was extremely easy to work with.  He sat still for 20 minutes for me.  The complete opposite of Hardy.  To get that amount cut off of Hardy, it would have been 2 hours and one of us would be bleeding.

Ruthie & Jett

I am proud to finally announce that Ruthie and Jett are crate trained!  I crate them at night, and for the last few nights they've been going in on their own when I tell them it's bed time.  That was the last step I needed to say for sure that they're trained.  They have already been comfortable in there overnight (not a peep from the minute they go in until the minute they hear my alarm go off).  So get them while they're hot, folks!  These 2 pups are ready!