It’s been how long since my last post?!

Good grief, I never meant to go this long without posting, but life seems to have happened somewhere along the line.

Simon is now almost two and a half. He’s still only about 26″ tall, but is now pushing 60 pounds. We have been working on his extreme reactivity with some success, and have managed to pick up a few more titles along the way, including his AKC Fit Dog Bronze and Silver. While doing our our Fit Dog walks, we visited some of the sights here in town, including one of the many murals that the Convention and Visitor Bureau has sponsored and the historic Jefferson Theater.

My father-in-law succumbed to cancer in November of 2021. In June of 2022, there was a big memorial party for him in Colorado, Leo and Simon had to stay at the vet while we were gone, but Lily got to come with. While we were there, we managed to record the last entry she needed to become the first dog ever to earn an All Dogs Parkour Level 5(2) title. On the way home, we stopped at the Capulin Volcano National Monument, where a ranger was nice enough to take a photo of the five of us. This spring, she earned her AKC Fit Dog Bronze and Silver titles.

Leo is still doing well, although at eleven, I can tell she is starting to have some mobility issues. Not that she’s letting it slow her down any when it comes to acting the fool. She earned her AKC Fit Dog Bronze and Silver titles earlier this year, and got to visit one of the newer murals that the CVB has sponsored.

All four cats, including 17 year old See-See, 13 year old T-Max and Bigfoot, and 3 year old Lana are still with us, and still causing mischief.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of photography lately. I’m planning on eventually getting all the mural around town photographed, and as many county courthouses as possible (I know I won’t be able to get all 260-odd), along with anything else that takes my fancy.

And that’s the current life with the hellhounds.

Long time no see

Goodness, was my last post really about Leo’s emergency surgery last September? So much has happened since then….

First of all, an update on Simon. He turned a year old in February, and was 25″ tall and 45 pounds the last time I looked. He will continue filling out as he matures, and I expect him to be in the 55 pound range eventually. His color is really starting to clear, with lighter hair running up the back of his legs and scattered throughout his coat. He’s earned a few more titles, including his AKC Novice Trick Dog and his All Dogs Parkour Level 1. That’s the good news.

In the not so good news category, well, he just hasn’t been the same since I had to board him. He was in a fear/stranger danger period when it happened, and ever since then, he has been extremely suspicious of, and reactive to, people and other dogs when we are out an about. Add in his extreme urge to chase anything that moves (bicycles, city busses, blowing leaves, what have you), and it’s been a pretty wild ride at times. We are working on it, but it’s going to be a long process. Other than that, he is a joy to work with, and is such a happy, eager training partner.

Leo continues to do well. In fact, you’d never even know she had been in such bad shape only six months ago. She’s been retired from pretty much everything other than “lay around the house and bark at the mail carrier” and playing with Simon, although we are still dabbling a bit here and there with some parkour.

Lily is one of the few people around here who wishes Simon would just “poof” and vanish. She’s never been too thrilled about the concept of having a bouncy, pouncy puppy brother, especially since he’s now an obnoxious, hormone fueled, teenaged boy brain pest. The are either separated or strictly supervised when they are together. Her preference is separated. She is also retired most things, and shares “mail alert” duties with Leo.

As much as boarding the dogs played havoc with Simon, it was good that we went to visit when we did, since Dad died in November. Even though it was expected, it was still a bit of a shock, since he had been doing better in the weeks beforehand. Joe and Marilyn went out to California for a memorial service in December, and there will be a big family get together memorial party in Colorado this coming summer

Okay, now for the fun stuff, namely pictures and videos!

These are from the latest batch of pictures, taken last month. Simon is in a clip called the Royal Dutch.

These is Simon’s TKN submission.

This is his ADP-L1 submission.

In other pet news, all four cats, fifteen year old See-See, twelve year old Bigfoot and T-Max, and one year old Lana, are all still with us, but we lost Paigliocco, our thirty year old Senegal Parrot, suddenly and unexpectedly last week. We are still in shock.

As the saying goes…

“Life is what happens while you are making other plans”. My plans got thrown out the window the past month, since Simon, along with Leo and Lily, spent two weeks boarding at the vet clinic while the humans went to California. My father-in-law has cancer, so we bumped up our planned Christmas trip to spend my husband’s birthday there. Between the trip, the weather, and now the beginning of the school year, training and recording videos for online titling hasn’t been happening.

Simon and his ten littermates turned six months old on the 23rd. I’m still trying to figure out how he’s gotten that old already. Don’t let the empty water jug fool you. He’s got toys. Lots of them. This is obviously a much better plaything, though. And he’s got some strong scruff-puppy vibes going on. I keep banding his topknot, and he keeps managing to get it un-banded.

This is what he’s supposed to look like with his topknot banded.

In other news, I’m editing pictures. My husband and I have a clear division of labor for road trips. He drives, and I take pictures and panic about traffic. I took about 4,000 pictures on our trip. I’ve also taken roughly 1,000 since we got home. In other words, I’ve looked at a lot of pictures over the past couple of weeks…. I’ve finally made it to the drive home. Then I get to tackle the pictures I took of the dogs, the Union Pacific’s 4014 Big Boy locomotive (that thing is huge, by the way), and the ship channel after we got home.

These are a few pictures from our trip.

Hopefully, we will get a break from the heat (although preferably not in the form of a hurricane) soon, and we can get back to training outside and recording titling videos. Since the AKC has made their Virtual Rally a permanent option, I am thinking of really working with Leo and Lily, as well as Simon, to try and get at least a Novice title.

Adventures in…

Grooming, for starters. I love the look of a cleanly clipped Poodle face. However, it’s been a while (okay, nearly three decades) since I’ve groomed Poodles, and Simon is a very wiggly puppy. Grooming has been something of an adventure for both of us. The good news is that we are getting better, and his face is mostly clipped these days. The bad news is that I regularly see places I’ve missed. Eh, we’ll get there eventually.

In other grooming news, he’s undergone a pretty radical transformation. We were both tired of sealing with soggy puppy fuzz with all the rain we were having, so he’s been sporting a Miami for the past month and a half.

Again with the “We are learning as we go along.”.

We’ve tidied up a bit.

And we are in need of a trim again.

He outgrew his car crate, so he got an upgrade.

We’ve been doing some training, of course, and he’s earned four titles already. He’s got his 2K9 and Novice Trick Dog from Do More With Your Dog, his Beginner Seeker geocaching title from GeoPup Sports, and his Foundation Skills Level 1 from All Dogs Parkour. Plus, he’s graduated from our local Petsmart puppy class. He’ll be 21 weeks old tomorrow.

And I’m trying to figure out just how on earth he’s gotten to be that big and that old already.

More adventures to come.

That’s no Saint

Nope, my Simon is definitely all puppy. Adorable, infuriating, lovable, annoying, wonderful, and frustrating. Sometimes all at once. In some ways, he’s absolutely bombproof, and in others has a few kinks that need to be ironed out. In the good category, he’s only had a few accidents inside, and once of them was because I was dealing with my son having a bit of a meltdown over something. He’s smart. He wants to do ALL THE THINGS! In the eh, he’s a puppy category, I’m not exactly fond of standing out in the yard at 1:30 AM telling him to hurry the heck up am potty so that I can go to bed. Grooming-wise, he’s fine with clippers on his body, but hates them on his face.

By the end of the first week, I could (with supervision, of course) take him outside with both the girls. Leo is mostly delighted to have a new playmate. Lily seems to be thinking that maybe if she ignores him hard enough, he will go away.

“What this?”

“I pull!”

“I pull harder!”

“Uh, what happening?”

“I powerful puppy!”

“Can’t make it move no more!”

Wet feets. It rained ten of the first fourteen days he was home.

“Rawr!”

“See my teefs?!”

“I CHOMP with them!”

“See my teefs? They lots bigger than yours.”

The flying fuzz.

“Seriously, Mommy, could you make them stop?”

Umm…. nope. That is a hunk of GSD undercoat he has in his mouth, by the way.

Flying with fuzz. More GSD undercoat.

Hey, stinker, that’s MY book.

This was too good a picture to not turn into a meme. I sent it to the author, and she thought it was hilarious.

Starting to look a bit scraggly.

That’s all for now. Next post, I’ll catch up on some of the things we’ve been doing besides playing.

Rhymes of the Renegade

It was too good of a song title to not borrow, considering my new puppy’s official name, Birch Creek Renegade Knight, aka Simon.

Yes, he’s finally here. My husband, son, and I made a nearly nine hour round trip Saturday to pick him up. I’d like to say that he’s been an absolute dream, but… well… he’s been a puppy. He screamed in his car crate for the first ten miles or so, and after every stop. He’s screamed in his crate here at home. He’s had some accidents. On the other hand, he’s letting me know when he needs to go out, and has been a real trooper about pottying outside in the pouring rain.

Now, about that name… He was from Birch Creek Poodle’s “Roadtrip” litter, with all the puppies named after towns or cities. His name was Knoxville, which was shortened to just Knox. I am a fan of the author Justin Davis, and one of my favorite books is “Renegade”, from the Coalition Rebellion series. I also liked the TV show Knightrider, lo these many years ago, which was a new twist of the knight errant (fancy car instead of a white steed, and no shining armor in sight, but the same idea). All of them came together as Birch Creek Renegade Knight. His call name of Simon comes from another literary invention, The Saint, aka Simon Templar, who was also something of a knight errant (and named after the Knights Templar, to boot).

I’d love to post some nice pictures of my beautiful puppy, but…. it’s been raining. Pouring. Deluging, even. Since yesterday afternoon, and it’s supposed to rain pretty much all week. So I’ll have to just post what I’ve got.

Right after we got home, meeting my daughter.

Soggy doggy at the vet, being unhappy about not being allowed to eat his leash, and wondering why I’m sticking my phone in his face.

Because of the rain, we aren’t doing much besides playing the “hurry up and potty, already” game, but we have had a couple of short little tug sessions.

So, there we are. Slightly sleep deprived, learning about this strange new world we find ourselves in, and working on figuring out where we go from here. I’m looking forward to it (and sleep… I’m really looking forward to sleep.)