MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Are Breton and her Sister, Sydney, Communicating Telepathically?

I was aghast a few weeks ago when I read about Sydney counter cruising and stealing her human's dinner; "three" out of their four uncooked filet minot steaks! We had a repeat of Phew Puppy, a blog posting from July, where Breton ate her poo and puked it up all over our cream colored carpet in the wee hours of the morning, on the same night that Syndey ate poor Debbie and Don's dinner. The difference between our July incident and the December incident, was that poor Greg had to go outside into the freezing cold night this time to find the shop vac. in the garage. We had a rough night too.

I just read the newest blog posting about Miss Sydney. Today, she took poor Debbie's glasses and put a hole through the lens of her $300 glasses! The good news was, Sydney proved herself by giving them back when Debbie gave the command GIVE and, Sydney didn`t eat any of the glass from the lens either. Well Breton got up to some antics today too. I was wrapping gifts on the kitchen table and when my back was turned, Miss Breton put her little paws up on to the kitchen island and took the blade end of a paring knife into her soft mouth. I heard her when her paws touched back down on the floor, and when I turned around she looked at me with one foot headed towards the kitchen exit. Me, in my sweetest puppy voice too, said GIVE and thank goodness, with a tail wag, she too dropped the knife like Syndey gave back Debbie's glasses. Fortunately she didn't hurt herself and I'm not stuck with a bill for a new pair of glasses.

It seems like these two girls are in sync with each other's antics!

Fire Station Visit with My Brother Rigger's Human, Andrew

Hiya, it's me, Breton! I'm helping my human with this posting cause she has been real busy this month. We've been shopping a lot, had lots of visitors and been to more restaurants than I could ever imagine. When she's busy, that means I'm busy too. I got to go for a weekend at the Hank's for a mini-vacation because my human turned thirty, what ever that means. All I know is that when I came back, there were a lot of new human smells in my house, flower smells in the kitchen and a bouquet of balloons in the corner of my living room. I was happy to party at the Hank's while she partied at home. The day we went to the fire station was her birthday and she said she will never forget where she was on her 30th birthday. It was pretty cool! Rigger's human, Andrew, is a firefighter and we got to go to his station to smell the trucks, fire suits, oxygen tanks/ventilators and equipment. We also got to hear a fire truck siren up close (a call came while we were there) and it was loud, but I just sat and watched. Andrew is a good guy for taking the time to help us from being scared of firemen later in our lives. It's also reassuring to know that his station has an oxygen ventilator for my kind too, so I hope if I ever need that kind of help, Andrew will get the call. Maybe other fire stations around Edmonton and the country will have doggy ventilators soon too. Thanks Andrew! Woof, woof, tail wags and wiggles,

Breton

Puppy Park

Some one deocrated a tree at the puppy park. I couldn't get the whole tree in the picture, but thought it was so nice that some one did this. When we were there, it was a calm, quiet, warm day. We had a great walk!

Terwillegar Park

Last month, Breton and I were walking back to the parking lot at Terwillegar Park, practicing loose leash walking when a very excited, young, English Sheep dog came charging towards us from the parking lot. When he got close and wasn't slowing down, I stomped my feet to get him to back off, but he went around us and then he was on top of Breton, growling with way too much energy. I let go of her leash, and all I could see was this big hairy dog on top of Breton, while I could hear Breton crying. The owner was able to call his dog off of her, and I examined Breton, and she seemed okay, just shaken up. It wasn't a moment later that another excited, young, Bernese Mountain dog who was in the background during the attack came barreling towards us, and of course, Breton who was nervous tried to run away, and the Berner, chased her and then was on top of her too. The Sheep dog attacked her, but the Berner seemed more playful, because he got off of her when she wasn't reciprocating play. I was shaken up too, but didn't want to share that energy with Breton. When she was safe in her kennel, I drove to Safeway and went in by myself and shopped alone so that I could calm down. It was a helpless feeling, not being able to stop the attack myself. The next morning, I noticed a big scab on Breton's shoulder and took her to Dr. Scott four days later, when the scab fell off and I could see a puncture about an inch deep. I have never experienced having a dog with a bite wound, and so after I let DWW know what happened, we wanted to make sure it wasn't going to get infected, or that she didn't need a stitch. I am so proud of how well DWW takes care of all of their dogs. Too me, it looked like she needed at least one stitch, but Dr. Scott said, nope, she's fine and that it will heal on its own, and of course he was right. She wasn't bothered by it at all, and it did heal completely fine. Unfortunately, she's been acting very submissive around bigger dogs at the off leash park and progressively worse, to a point where our girl pees, tucks her tail and or runs away from big dogs. I've been trying to ease her through it on my own, but in the new year, we're going to hang out with some of the dogs at the office and build her confidence up again. For now, we aren't going to Terwillegar Park anymore either. Maria doesn't want her to associate the negative experience she had there, with other dogs there. Eventually, Maria and I will take her to the puppy park with some of DWW dogs to help her feel confident. So, for now, we're going to hang at the puppy park (when it warms up)!

Play Day with Schooner!

I had the pleasure of puppy sitting Schooner today. Having three dogs in the house, two of which are still puppies, made for an exciting day! I had visions of all three of them laying quietly on their dogs beds while I decorated the Christmas tree, and although I did get in 45 min. of stringing lights on the tree, the rest of the day seems to be a bit of a blur. The cold spell over the weekend had stopped us from getting the dogs out for their regular exercise, and so all dogs were in fine form for a day of wrestling, tugging and romping around the backyard. The weather is still bitterly cold outside, so even the play time they had outside had to be watched as their paws got cold so fast (funny how they get cold faster when they are outside by themselves though).

Around mid-morning, I tried to get them to all relax on their beds with a nice raw hide to chew on that Leah brought over as a treat for them. The only one who was in to that was Breton, being in the comfort of her own home, and on her doggy bed, she had no problem settling in (and stealing Schooner's bone for a chew when he wasn't watching). Unfortunately, Schooner wasn't quite settled in enough to get in to the "chew zone", so every few minutes, he would get up and see what I was doing (trying to relax on the couch) or watch Breton chew her bone. Mr. Bentley was too grumpy to handle chewing with the group, so he had his morning kennel time instead (part of his routine anyway).

In an effort to drain some of Schooner's energy, I piled on the layers, warmed the van, dug out the dog booties and decided to try and take them for a quick game of fetch in the field behind our house. The temperature had warmed up to -19 with a -28 Celsius wind chill which was "better" than the -35 wind chill earlier in the day. When we got to the field, Schooner had no problem with wearing dog booties, but Breton on the other hand wasn't so sure about having "socks" on her dainty little paws. I threw the ball twice before it was lost and had the dogs back in the van, racing away from the field with numb finger tips (they still hurt) straight to Starbucks for a much needed pick me up. Schooner sat like such a gentleman on one of the captain's seats in the back seat of the van, and as I kept looking back at him in the rear view mirror, it was all he could do to keep his heavy eyes open - but he did! When we got home, he was relaxed enough to chew his rawhide. I offered Breton half of another one to keep her busy, but instead she "buried" hers under the Christmas tree and curled up for her first nap of the day. When Schooner finished his bone, he fought back sleeping, and woke Breton up for another wrestle. The three of them spent the last 45 min. of the play day tugging outside with warm up and water breaks inside in between.

I had the best day with them! I am shocked at how similar Breton and Schooner's mannerisms are. After spending the day with this good boy, I can see why he is loved so much. Come back any time Schooner! All four of us will have a good sleep tonight and the Christmas tree will wait until tomorrow.

Breton is 10 Months Old Today!

time n. 1 the unlimited continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future...in time 2 time will tell the truth about something that will be established in the future.



timekeeper n. 1 a person who records the amount of time taken by a process or activity.

time-lapse adj. (of a photographic technique) taking a sequence of frames at set intervals to record changes that take place slowly over time.