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Life and Times of an Adorably Cute Puppy

Tumalo J. Dog: Aged 18 Months

Reading over those diary entries from two winters ago sure was a blast from the past. I do miss my tiny little puppy, but I am quite happy with my big galump of a pup as well.
Tumalo tips the scales at a scrappy 56 pounds and looks to be half pointer. Leggy, thin, footy and nosey. A bird dog through and through. She completed a puppy kindegarten class and a puppy agility class last year and is really a very well behave dog. She is exceptionally mild mannered and at times straight up wimpy.
Yes, I said it, my bold little puppy grew into a wimpy dog. She is afraid of loud noises, men in hats, new buildings and unknown inanimate objects. A month or two ago she got hit by a car and escaped with much more serious psychological damage than physical. Some road rash and bruises plus 10 times more fear and anxiety. She is now deathly afraid of traffic noise and other loud noises. We're starting a new obedience class soon and hopefully that will help her get a handle on her fears. I'm afraid my dreams of being a therapy dog team are slipping away with every cringe.
On a brighter note, she has turned into a world class retriever. Her favorite thing in the world is to chase tennis balls, sticks or rocks and bring them back to you. Not just in your general direction, but to your feet. And I say your and not mine because at dog parks thats what she does.. bring them to your feet and ignore me. Humph.
We don't live with Lucky any more but she still spends lots of quality time with her big sister. She is about an inch taller than Lucky but still spends most of her time there chewing on Lucky's ears. They are awful cute :)
Enjoy your puppies while you still can, they don't stay little for long!

It's a bird, it's a plane - it's an Italian Greyhound!

Tummy went to the dog park today and met the darndest little thing. It was a 14 pound Italian Greyhound named Spiro. Spiro would start runing and Tumalo would give chase, as best a black lab puppy can give chase to an Italian Greyhound. We could just hear Spiro taunting "That's the best you can do??" It took only a matter of mintues before Tumalo was exhausted. At one point her feet slipped out from under her on a sharp turn and she fell flat on her side, ear flipped over, panting. "Gosh, Mom, I did't know a dog could run so fast!" Shortly after that another puppy came into the park and Tumalo desperately wanted to play but she was so tired. At one point the puppy pinned Tumalo down and she made the most awful set of snarling, growling, yelping noises. I decided that was an exhausted-toddler temper tantrum and so we had best go home. She could hardly make it to the car! Yup, hours later she's still asleep :)

It sure is wet!

It has been raining cats and dogs here in western Oregon over the last few weeks. Tumalo hates going out in the rain but luckily we have had breaks in the weather most days. On Monday we went up to Sauvie's Island for Tumalo's first beach experience. The beach there is the Columbia river and after padding around in the shallows a bit I thought she was ready to go deeper. I tossed a stick in just out of reach and she plunged in, and went completely underwater! The look on her face when she surfaced was clearly "Dang, I didn't know water was so wet!" She wouldn't even get her paws wet after that :) I hope I didn't ruin my lab for life! :)