Cool news: Spike - phase 6

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I just simply haven't had the time.
Well, Spike is now in phase 6! And will possibly be in 7 by tomorrow. I am increasingly getting more and more excited!

And now for the totally awesome news-- Spike was the demo dog at the Oregon Fall Luncheon on November 5th. Kyle's raiser saw a post someone wrote on a yahoo list about the event, which mentioned Spike as the featured dog. He was demonstrating "Intelligent Disobedience" in front of the audience.

Since Kyle's raiser told me about it, I've been watching Guide Dogs' flickr like a hawk for the last couple weeks, and last night, they finally posted some pictures! So here is a picture of my handsome boy in his harness on stage at the Luncheon!




I promise I'll post part 2 of Kyle's visit soon!

A weekend friend

Kyle joined us this weekend, and we had a blast! Clyde finally got someone to play with, and he thoroughly enjoyed having him over.

He came over on Thursday, and that evening, my family decided to go to Cornbelly's. We ended up taking both Kyle and Clyde. Kyle was a TOTAL angel. My 9-year-old brother was able to walk him around with no problem whatsoever. And Clyde actually did pretty well. Not nearly as good as Kyle, but pretty dang good.
At Cornbelly's, they have this giant rocking chair. So I hoisted the pups up and squeezed in between them. It was pretty cold outside, and being between the two of them, I was extremely warm, and didn't want to move!
We also went through a corn maze, which was pretty fun, except that it was so dark we could hardly see!
We also went on a hayride and a weird tractor-pull type ride. The pups seemed to enjoy themselves. Especially Clyde, who was trying to eat the straw!

I love this picture, because you can see
a piece of straw sticking out Clyde's nose!

That was our first day with Kyle. I've got some more to tell, but I am really tired! So keep an eye out for part 2. :)

5 things at 5 months

YES! That is correct. Clyde is 5 months old today!
I CANNOT believe I've already had him for this long. I remember the day Spike turned 5 months.. I can't believe that was over a year ago. And now my 2nd puppy is 5 months.

1. I LOVE the wavy hair on his back. I just think it's so cute and adds personality.2. He STILL hasn't had any accidents while out in public, and hasn't had any accidents in the house for about a month and a half.
3. I love that he warns me when he needs to potty while we're out. When he needs to go, he'll usually walk in front of me to get me to stop walking, and look up at me. This is probably a big reason why he hasn't had any accidents yet.
4. He seems to love "holding hands" with my sister. The other day, he kept putting his paw on her hand. She kept trying to drop it, but he would immediately bring his paw back up and into her hand. I thought it was so stinkin' cute! I wish I had a video camera when he was doing it. My sister claims that she hasn't been trying to teach him "shake", but I'm starting to have my doubts..
5. He his now pro at "down" and does it about 99% of the time, even when in public! (Though, I haven't tried it in the presence of other dogs, aside from my own, yet.)

Spike: Phase 4

Spike is in phase 4! So he is half-way done!

Go Spike!

My sister says Spike made a great chair. :)



In other news:
Clyde lost both of his top canine teeth today, one of which he lost as I was uploading the picture. I think he was determined to lose it. He had been chewing his nylabone non-stop for 10 minutes straight, and as soon as the tooth was out and on the ground, he laid on his back and fell asleep. (This is where his "weirdo" nickname comes into play)

Wordless Wednesday

Where did my puppy go?

How did this 23lbs baby

turn into this 40lbs monster in 2 1/2 months?

I got ripped off! I didn't get enough baby puppy time. ;)

Weigh in: 21 weeks

I have been really terrible at keeping track of his weight. But this week, he weighed in at exactly 40lbs, which means he has gained 9lbs in about 5 weeks.


Since his growing has obviously slowed down, I'm just going to start weighing him bimonthly. I'll be weighing him on the 8th and the 23rd of each month (his month day[23rd] and half-month day[8th]) starting on Saturday.

Nothing terribly exciting.

Clyde and I haven't really been up to anything out of the ordinary lately, and honestly, it's getting boring-- for the both of us. We will be puppy-sitting Kyle for a day next week, so hopefully he'll bring us some excitement!

About a week ago, Clyde and I walked to WalMart to get some cream cheese I needed for dinner. I thought he looked especially cute that day, so I took some pictures of him. :)

Here is Clyde in front of the pumpkin display in WalMart. I thought the little scare crow kids were cute.

Clyde sitting outside of WalMart.

Clyde walking back from WalMart

A couple days ago, I loaded up the pups and took them to the high school football field where I let them run around and burn off some energy. So here are a few pictures. The charger for my better camera has been misplaced.. so the pictures aren't as good as they could be.
It's kinda sad, because my two dogs only play with each other, and ignore Clyde. Clyde just chases them around while they play with each other, which is the same thing Spike used to do. Hopefully when we have Kyle, Clyde will actually have someone to play with.

The sprinklers had been on just before we got there, so the dogs were kicking up a lot of water, and were soaking when we were done! I also love this picture, because you can see Clyde hanging onto the leash my Boxer, Jake had on.

Clyde doing "Come"

Waiting for his treat. You can see how wet he is!

My sister had told me about a weird witchcraft store. Now, I don't believe in witchcraft in the least, but I had been wanting to check it out for some time, just to see what kind of ridiculous stuff they have. So yesterday my friend and I went to "Gypsy Wagon"

The store is in an old, small house. The whole store was only two connected rooms. They had all kinds of stuff.. Cauldrons, Spell kits, all kinds of herbs that you either burn or put in your bath... It was really weird, and it took all I had to keep from laughing. The whole store smelled like Sage, and it was really strong, I started to get a headache, and we left. They lady that owns the store gave us little witch's broom pens right before we left. I have to admit, they are pretty cute, and totally fit the Halloween theme. That alone, made the trip to the witch store worth it! :)



One more thing-- Clyde has been losing teeth like crazy. Over the course of 5 minutes, he lost (at least) 3 teeth. I wouldn't doubt that he lost more and swallowed them. I was able to save 3 from being eaten.

He has been bleeding a lot, I don't remember Spike bleeding this much when he lost his teeth. Most of his toys have a good amount of blood on them. I'm going to need to wash and sanitize them all when he's done losing teeth.

Phase 3!

Spike is in phase 3! Only 5 more to go! This is getting exciting. :)


Spike almost never held his tail completely straight. It almost always had a little kink in it.

Puppy collar

Clyde is on the last notch of his puppy collar! It's not fair how fast he's growing.

In other news, today is 10/10/10. How cool. :)

Spike: Phase 2!

He's in Phase 2! I'm glad he's starting to move up the phases.

From now on, I'm going to say something about him every time he moves up a phase.

When he licks.. say.. your foot (He's a big foot licker). He doesn't just like.. stroke it. He'll lick, lick, lick, pause with his tongue still on your foot for like 5-10 seconds, then continue licking. It's not like his tongue wouldn't do anything though, he would.. I'm not sure how to describe it.. flex his tongue? My sister called it tongue humping, haha. Really random. :)
I unfortunately never got it on video.

No Phase Report..

No. I have not yet received the phase report, and I'm a little upset.

If anyone would like to be my hero, please send the phase report to libertygirl_91@hotmail.com, and if possible, send it to me every week. My leader has been extremely slow at getting it out since her dog graduated (it can't be coincidence!)

Thank you in advance. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Colorado group?

My Grandparents have invited me to come visit them in Colorado for a week or two. I'm in the process of convincing them to allow me to bring Clyde. If I were to succeed.. are there any groups near Littleton/Centennial City? I think it would be fun to visit another puppy group. :)

Phase 1!

Spike is finally in phase 1! I am now at ease, knowing that he is actually finally starting the training.

Apparently Spike wasn't technically in phase 0 until 9/10. So he was showing up as being in phase 0 on the 9/2 and the 9/9 phase reports, when he wasn't.. I guess he wasn't even at the Oregon campus at that time? Or he was recovering from his neuter? I didn't fully understand what my leader said. I pretty much stopped listening after she said the CFR said Spike would be in phase 1 this week. haha

Just because I am so happy right now, here are a few pictures of Spike.

Here he is at puppy meeting a few months before recall.

We were taking a walk along the canal. We had to get to the other side of it, but there were no bridges. So we crossed the big metal pipe thing. I didn't think we would have any problems, but I got so dizzy looking down at the stationary pipe with the water moving below it. I thought I would fall in haha. Spike did fine, though.

Spike at Antelope Island less than a week before recall. There is a bison in the background, but he was more interested in the people to his right.

Spike at Antelope island again. This was after we were done playing in the Great Salt Lake. If you look carefully, you can see the salt crusted on his fur. I'm curious to see what black Clyde would look like after a dip in the Salt Lake.

Mini Hike

Today, my family went for a short little .6 mile hike round-trip to Grotto Falls in Payson Canyon. It was a lot of fun, and the perfect first hike for Clyde.
My cousins tagged along, and one of them took a bunch of pictures for us. :)


Here is me and Clyde at the beginning of the hike.


Clyde in the fall leaves


Clyde sitting on a tree stump.


Here is Clyde on a little mini bridge across a creek.


Clyde and I on the mini bridge. He wasn't a big fan of it.


So instead of trying to get him to walk forward on them, I let him walk in the creek below while I walked across.


Here he is navigating his way through some rocks.


And here he is in the water at the Grotto.


Here is me, my sister, my dad and Clyde leaning against a fence at the end of the hike.

Clyde by himself, putting his paws up on the fence. :)

And here he is, tied up to the fence while we took some pictures of just the humans.

It was a fun, short hike. My brothers and my little cousins had fun running up and down the trail, and Clyde thoroughly enjoyed exploring the mountains for the first time. He thinks he's a mountain dog now!

When we got home, I put Clyde in the tub to rinse off the dirt from his legs and tummy. When we were going down the stairs after his bath, he decided to try to randomly dash down the stairs, and as a result, I was pulled forward and down. I landed on my already-damaged ankle*, and I am now wearing a splint. yay!

*In March 2009, I was riding a green-broke horse. The horse spooked and threw me. I landed on my ankle and thought I had broken it. So my mom picked me up and took me to the emergency room, where I had an x-ray. There were no broken bones, so they called it a sprained ankle, gave me a splint, and sent me on my way. A week later, it was still hurting like crazy, still very swollen, and I had a VERY hard time walking on it. So I went to my regular doctor. He took an MRI and said that I had torn all the ligaments in my ankle (also called a 3rd degree sprain). He said that torn ligaments often hurt more and take longer to heal than broken bones. He also said that it can sometimes cause permanent instability. He gave me an ankle-foot boot and sent me home.
Ever since then, my ankle gets sore when I take long walks without breaks (about 3 miles+), it gets sore when I ride horses (which is why I don't do it nearly as often anymore). And also, as a result of this injury, my right ankle is slightly larger than my left (I'm assuming it's scar tissue?), and wearing closed-toed shoes is sometimes slightly uncomfortable. (Which is why I wear flip-flops all the time, weather and activity permitting)
A month and a half after all this, I went to my first puppy meeting. :)