Merry Christmas and Hello Terrible Twos

Merry Christmas everyone!!! It is hard to believe that Christmas is already here and I am so excited that Penny will be with our family this year. Rumor has it that Santa is bringing her some pretty fun presents so she better be good for the rest of the year.

I think terrible twos set in last week - who knew 14 months was really when terrible twos started! Penny has been testing every rule, command and limit this past week!!!! I feel like the only word I say some days is No! NO, don't drag the bathroom rug out of the bathroom, NO, don't dive bomb Cyn as she is laying on the couch, NO don't eat the coffee table, NO don't run around the condo bouncing off the walls, NO don't try and pull the blinds off the door.....No, No, No......HAHAHA! The hardest part is saying No when half the things are absolutely hilarious. You almost can't get onto her because she is so stinking funny.

Mom did teach me a really good trick - Stop talking. I love to talk to Penny as we go on walks or even just around the house. Good girl, Hey Pen Pen, Watcha Doing....just silly talk as we spend time together. What I didn't know is that this becomes just constant chatter to her and she tunes me out. (sound familiar mom? I think you said this about me a time or two growing up) It is so hard for me not to talk with her but I am trying really hard not to outside of commands on our walks. I practiced yesterday and we went for about an hour and half long walk. It worked so well!!!!

By only using my voice for things I wanted her to hear, she paid attention so much more. She is so smart and is very attuned to my voice so I am going to have to keep practicing using it in the right way. Throughout our walk I threw out commands like SIT and she responded so much faster. What a great tip mom!

Now if only it worked on the terrible twos.....oh boy!

Big Dog Play Date

Penny at 12 weeks

Okay - So I know it is way over due for a post. I know this because Lindsay just sent me a message complaining that she wanted new pictures of Penny.....Well Lins, here ya go! :)

The month of December has just been nuts! Penny has had so many adventures that I need to catch everyone up on. My favorite recently has been her big dog play date! I discovered that you can rent private dog parks out at Sandy Creek Park. They are awesome! The one we rented was 3 acres with a portion of woods and the whole thing is fenced in. A bunch of guys from work and there dogs joined us and they had a ball! All of the dogs were full grown except for Lucky - Mike's adorable 4 month old puppy that is just a few weeks older then Penny. They had so much fun romping and rolling in the dirt. The favorite game was to chase each others tails - this is a great one of Lucky trying to get Penny's tail - it looks vicious, but they were actually having a ball!

Penny also go to meet Duke - Robert's part lab mix, Zack - Carson's rottweiler, Hamilton - Jeff's golden retriever, Ally - Kimberly's golden retriever and Emma - Rachel's Yellow Lab. It was a great chance for her to meet other dogs, run wild and burn off some energy! The parks are only a $1 per dog so we will definitely be going back!!!! (Maybe once it is warmer - it was freezing!)

Here are some other good ones:
Group Playing Football - the pups decided to sit this game out! We had the light weight division off to the side.

Jeff, Hamilton and Penny (Penny is going to be that big one day, my baby is growing up!)

Penny and Mike's Son Mason

Carson, Zack and Cyn - Zack just looks big and tuff, he is a complete teddy bear!

First Dummy!

Penny got to retriever her first dummy yesterday. Her proud grandfather bought her a soft puppy dummy and on Sunday we took her out to see what she could do. She did so good! Our goal was to just get her used to seeing it and retrieving it from a short distance so dad had me take her off the lease and he stood about 10 yards in front of her with the dummy. I picked her front end up so she could watch the dummy and he tossed it out in front of him. She was off like a rocket after it! The retrieve part was easy, now come was a whole different story. She taught the dummy was hers to play with. Dad taught me an awesome trick, each time she retrieved it and would want to chew on it, I ran back a few steps saying her name. It worked like a charm, she hates to be left behind so she would run to me with the dummy! We only did a few reps, each time stepping back further, so that she wouldn't get bored. Now I can gradually increase the distance and continue to work on the come portion of the drill.

Penny has also learned a few other tricks this week, a few intentional and a few not so intentional! Lets just say this pup will do anything for a Natural Balance Training Treat! I highly recommend them, they are soft so you can break off small pieces so over the course of a training session you only use several and your dog doesn't eat to many treats.

She has learned lay down as well as formally learning the word kennel. We are also working on stay while she is laying down instead of sitting up. I read the basics on obedience on the AKC website and you have to sit for 3 minutes across the ring from your handler in the beginning obedience test, lets just say we have a long way to go! We are up to 40 seconds...guess we have some work to do still.

Penny has also mastered the art of jumping on the couch from a full sprint. Just picture Cynthia eating a chicken finger in the chair and all of a sudden Penny supermaned onto the ottoman next to her head and is nose to nose with the chicken finger.....it was priceless! We were laughing so hard we had to recover to even tell her no!

Big Dog Crate

Okay, so I decided that if Penny was going to have to be in a crate during the day while I was at work, then she might as well have tons of room to play. Plus a big fluffy Pillow crate so she is comfortable all day - yes she is spoiled! I wouldn't recommend this idea for a pup that isn't house broken but seeing how Miss Penny is top of her class and was house broken in a week we haven't had any crate issues! Yes, I know she is an accelerated student, her momma is so proud :).

Her other crate is totally fine for her but it is now her car crate/stay at the grandparents crate. I couldn't not post these pictures....I promised Cyn they wouldn't go on Facebook, but she didn't say anything about the blog!

Check out Penny and her Aunt Cynthia in her big dog crate! (Keep in mind, Cynthia is 5'8) What can I say....it is the crate that Petco recommend for a Golden Retriever. I have a feeling she will grow into it one day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! I got to spend the long weekend at Mom and Dad's and had so much fun. We spent Thanksgiving night with the Means Family in Covington and I just loved seeing everyone. The Means are my second family and it was so wonderful to be surrounded by so much love on Thanksgiving. My grandpa is here so penny got to meet her great grandpa! They got along great and she just loves the tassels on his house shoes....so funny! It was a bitter sweet weekend, since we lost Jazz last year the day after Thanksgiving. Having Penny there this year was a great feeling and we know that Jazz is looking out for us all in doggie heaven!

We went for a big walk each morning and Pen did great, walking pretty on a leash is still as work in progress but it will come. The walks also tuckered her out so Mom and I could cook for the Holiday. She found the screened in porch at their house and we couldn't keep her off of it, she just loved watching the other dogs go by while laying in the sun - must be a tough life :).

In between cooking and decorating for Christmas we had a few Sit, Stay and Come lessons. Penny is getting so good at it! She had the jist after one lesson but we are working on consistency and the ability to do it with distractions now. I am continually so impressed with how smart she is. It usually only takes one lesson to pick up on a concept - top off the class all the way! Once she really has Sit Stay and Come down we will start working on it in conjunction with a retrieve! Can't wait to see what my baby girl can do.

Pics from the weekend are below - the one with Penny in the Red Wagon is my favorite, she jumped in while mom was using it to take the recycling out....so stinking cute!

Thanksgiving Afternoon - Penny is getting Big!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Radio Flyer Dog! Best Pic yet.

Lake Time!

Penny went for her 1st swim, and did awesome! She loved splashing around in the water and did great swimming. We will have to work on her water entry....she likes to tip toe in but look at her go! I was such a proud mom! Just wait, one day she will be retrieving like a crazy girl.

The water was still a bit warm and since the lake was down for the winter it was so easy for her to wade in. I went in with her up to my knees to make sure she was okay but she didn't need me! She was a natural. I can't wait to see her plow through the water when she is older.

First Bath

Okay so I had to post two blogs tonight. We went for a walk and got caught in the rain so Miss Penny got her first bath. She wasn't to happy about it but she didn't fuss that much either. I found this awesome shampoo called "Buddy Rinse". It is all natural and really gentle on their skin. It made her smell so nice (I used the lavender mint) but not to nice that you forget she is a pup.Once we were done she was off like a rocket and I guess it was her way of telling me she wasn't stinking around for a second bath! She was adorable when she was done bc it looked like someone had taken a krimper to her (check out her ears below), you know the old school 80's kind! It was so stinking cute. When she dried she became the softest ball of fur you have ever held. All I wanted to do was cuddle with her.