Cesar's contest - check it out

Cesar is having a contest to find a photo of a dog reading his book or watching his show to use in a future newsletter, so I'm trying out! Here's a link to his contest:
http://www.dogster.com/forums/group/thread/388973

Wish me luck!

Woof, Daisy Mae

My Tail of Devotion for Bella

This is a special Tail of Devotion

See All Tails of Devotion

terrible news

On June 25, 2006, Bella was hit by a truck. The internal injuries she suffered took her life on July 10, 2006 at 12:30 PM.

Bella will be missed deeply and sorely. As her parents, we are total wrecks right now, but know that in time, this horrific pain will settle down to a dull ache and we look forward to that time. Until then, we celebrate and honor her by telling stories of her every time we cry. And as soon as we are ready, we will rescue another. That is the deepest way to honor her and her glorious personality and breed. She touched our lives and showed us how to truly love.

The only good news is that we saved a female pit bull puppy walking in the road on our way home from the emergency room. Her owner did not know she was out. Later that week, the same thing happened with a German Shepherd too.

Dressed Up Doggie Parade

This weekend, one of our local companies, Big Dog Sportswear, sponsored a Big Dog Parade where the doggies dress up in costumes and some of the people match themselves to their dogs! Here's a link that has tons of photos: http://www.bigdogs.com/

Bella dressed up in a pink dress with rhinestones and she used her matching pink leather collar and lead with rhinestones too. Since she's 55 pounds, I like to make sure that she looks approachable and pink does the trick! She was so cute! She got to meet tons of doggies in silly costumes too, so she didn't feel too out of place. It was the cutest event. I will put pictures up soon!

Springpoles are great!

Several weeks ago, we went to the hardware store, spent under $20 and got a 2 foot length of chain which we attached together with a carribeaner. We also got a strong (75 pound strength) spring and a length of rope to hang from that by attaching to the end of the chain. Finally, we added a small doggie chew tire to the end of it and now she can pull, pull, pull all day long when we're not home! My roommate caught her using it by herself even and I was so proud!

We have had the toy for 3 weeks and have already gone through one spring. I should have gotten a stronger one, but started out with a 40 pound weight bearing spring and Bella stretched it all out. We also added a little safety feature now (an extra piece of rope) to make sure that if the spring should ever break, it won't fly into her face.

Now, when she's hyper, I just call out "Spriiiiiingpooole!" and she goes running toward it, jumping and pulling immediately. It provides all the pulling resistance that she constantly craves and she is so happy jumping onto it that it's adorable. Her tail wags while she play growls and pulls. Someday, I want to raise it up so she can jump on, wiggle in the air, then launch herself off of it. We just switched from the tire to a deflated volleyball as the grabby part of it too and she seems to like it a bit better. We'll see - good thing there are lots of different ways to mix it up!

Rollerblading Rules of the Road

I got a few inquiries about Rolleblading rules. Bella loves Rollerblading with me, but we have a few rules. I live in a beach town & we have a bike path that runs along the waterline and out into the sand for a bit. It's about 4 miles round trip and stretches along our wharf and harbor areas as well as a kids' skate park. Bella absolutely loves birds! Stalking them, watching them, chasing them. There are pelicans down there and so she has to abide by all rules and when she's good, I'll let us park near them so she can stare for a while. She also gets way energized by the sound of skateboards, so it's great exercise.

Our main rule is:
She has to always stay to my immediate right (off the cement path and on the grass/sand) or in front of me to the right. I use the four foot leash.

The verbal commands that we use are: "OK" or "Let's Go" to start, Stop, Up, Down, Leave It, Go Go Go! (for go faster). That's about all we need besides a baggie for poops & a plastic fold up travel waterbowl for fountains along the way. She takes off like a bullet at first, completely pulling me for a good 3/4 mile, but she peters out pretty quick. About 15 minutes is all it takes to get her pretty tired since she holds nothing back ever. I rest her, give her some water, let her watch birds for a few minutes or smell for possible mice in the landscaping if she's good, then we take off again. The whole outing takes about 40 minutes.

When we arrive, I put her in a down stay or sit stay while I put my skates on and I do that again afterwards. I don't even need to bring treats on these outings, since running/pulling is a treat to her!

We get lots of compliments on her great behavior. I think that because she's actively running (and often in dry sand!), it sort of "takes the edge off" her and she can concentrate on following my directions. I try to have her go "Up" onto the wide cement guardrails along the path and "Down" into the dry sand during those sections. She always follows orders perfectly although when she gets tired, she'll start fussing and biting the leash. Usually a water or rest break will cure that.

Try it - you will love this! She will curl up and nap on the way home from 30 minutes of Rollerblading and then she'll take a fat nap AND she'll pass out early that night, making her ripe for cuddling. Joy!

Splish Splash Surprise

I had just drained and refilled the hot tub. The hose was still in it and it was almost full and ready to be turned back on, etc. Bella enjoys sunning herself on the hot tub cover and on this afternoon, she didn't do any investigating before just hopping up on it. Only it wasn't there! She fell right into the fresh cool water and immediately she started sounding the alarm! Luckily I was nearby in the backyard to hear her high pitched baby squeals and fish her out. If she hadn't been panicking, she would have realized that she could have just put her feet down since our hot tub isn't deep at all. She's just a big baby though.