Sleeping Zombie

Okay so I know, I am way behind! There are some great pictures of Penny on our hike Memorial Park but those are on my camera, and some how connecting the camera to the computer is just to much work tonight...yes, I know I am being lazy.

What I have to share with y'all is this hysterical picture of Penny sleeping. First let me say, she has the option to sleep on my bed, or her super nice dog bed, but for some reason she loves to sleep in her crate. Some where in the middle of the night she will move to a more comfortable spot but I can't get her out of the crate when we go to bed. Anyways, now that you know I am not the prison warden, here is the picture of her SOUND asleep on Sunday. She didn't move when I turned the light on at 2am to take this picture and then she stayed like this for atleast 30 minutes.

I hope you enjoyed this picture as much as I did! I am still laughing three days later.

Teething.....4 Months Old

Penny is teething and everything in the house seems to be fair game! She has only gotten the furniture once and luckily it was the yard sale coffee table. She has already lost four of her small front teeth and her big dog teeth are poking through.

She apparently got spoiled over the holidays since Cynthia and I both had alot of vacation days in December. This was our first full week of work without one of us being home and boy did Penny hate being couped up all week. I decided to try out Pawtropolis and she LOVED it!!! http://www.athenspetropolis.com/daycare.html They have doggies day care and she got to run around with other dogs all day. When I picked her up she was completely worn out and all of the staff was gushing over her. Apparently she was a crowd favorite that day. I am hoping to take her back at least once a week so she has time to run with other pups and not be in the crate while I am at work. (P.S. they have web cams in the daycare rooms, totally addictive!)

Any who, heel training continues, sit stay and come are a daily exercise and retrieving is on hold until she is done teething. She loves to barrel after the dummies but has decided its way more fun to chew on them after she retrieves it then it is to bring it back to mom! I am also going tomorrow to observe an obedience class taught by one of the Atlanta Golden Retriever Club members to see if it would be a good fit for Penny and I. Puppy Boot Camp has begun.

As promised, pictures from Christmas are below....

Christmas Morning in her Christmas Collar

Waiting on Santa Christmas Morning

On her new big dog bed from her Grandparents with her mallard duck - better get used to that duck call Penn!

Hello 2010!

It is officially 2010 and it is so hard to believe that this year is over. Some great things have happened this year, I finished my MBA at the University of Georgia, Penny arrived in my life, both of my parents turned 60 (hello senior citizen discount!) we had a wonderful family Christmas and I brought in the new year with 3 of the best friends a gal could ask for! Having Penny has been such a great way to spend time with my parents and I am so blessed to have them in my life. They are both a wealth of knowledge and teach me something new about dog handling every day.

Alot of things have happened since the last blog, sorry about that the holidays were a bit busy this year. She is shown above at Graduation in mid December - I won't be able to hold her much longer :( she is growing so fast! She has started teething and her big dog teeth are coming in - they can't come fast enough those puppy fangs of hers are brutal!

Penny LOVES to retrieve and goes nuts when she even sees a dummy. Dad and I have been working with her and she has made some great long retrieves. I wish I had a video for you to watch, she takes off with so much speed and force. It is impressive to watch. After she got comfortable with long retrieves I added doubles to the mix. Doubles are a great mini lesson for her and something I can do at my house without alot of space. You chunk one dummy while holding Penny back and then chunk another dummy the other way and send her after it. Once she brings the 1st dummy back you take it from her while she sprints to the 2nd one. She has such great eyesight and makes the drill look easy.

I made a great new contact and found out that several Speaker kids and grand kids live in the metro Atlanta area. Sandy lives near Athens and has been so wonderful to invite me to come and train with her and her dog Chili. I can't wait!!! She is training agility and also does field work. She introduced me to two trainers in the area, Terri Everline and Elizabeth Downey, both of which own the only two MACH Goldens in Georgia. Terri has been a wealth of knowledge and is going to work with me so I can learn a few things that Penny can do to get ready to train agility once she is fully grown. I also learned more about the Atlanta Golden Club from them and recently joined - hopefully it will be a great way to meet other people in the area.

Heel lessons have also officially begun full force! Thank Goodness!!!! Penny has gotten so strong and I don't know if my shoulder could have taken many more walks. She is doing great! Mom (who is awesome at handling puppies) decided it was time for puppy boot camp to commence while I was gone for New Years Eve. Two mini lessons later and I have a heeling machine. I am constantly amazed at how fast she learns and how eager she is to please. Today we took the basic heel up a notch and we worked on heeling at varied speeds and she caught on so quick. We are also working on sitting from heel, especially as we cross the road so she stops wanting to dash into the street on walks. Plus it will be a great thing for her to know when we are in city areas. It has made our walks much more pleasant for us both and I make sure to add in times for her to "be a dog".

I wish I had pictures of her working but we haven't had the opportunity to have a "photographer" yet since I am busy handling Penny. I will do my best to get a video of her on the retrieve - it is awesome to watch. Happy New Years Everyone - Hopefully this will be the best year yet!

Stay tuned for Christmas pictures......