Cruising the Couch

Mickey has gotten taller/longer. This has enhanced his cruising abilities. Here he is checking out the couch. Since we cleaned the coffee table there aren't as many interesting prizes up there. What is so interesting on the couch? The fleece blanket has a tag... and Mickey can't resist it.

Preparing to jump...

He did have a successful jump right after this picture was taken. I picked him up and put him in his kennel for a short time out and then played fetch with him until he fell asleep. He was just bored of playing with himself and went to the couch for a challenge.

Teething Update

Last night Mickey and I were playing fetch when I noticed there was a little blood on his toy. I opened his mouth and found a very very loose tooth and some blood on his gum.


I stopped the fetch and tug game we were playing and got his frozen fleece piece. He seemed to relish in the cold crunchy treat and worked on it until it was thawed and limp. I checked the tooth and sure enough, it had fallen out. It must have been a big baby tooth because it left a huge gaping hole in his gum! It isn't even one of his canine teeth. Losing them is going to be huge.


Mickey really didn't want me to take a picture of this, he's a little embarrassed and doesn't want the cardboard toilet paper rolls to know he's not working with a full set here.

You can sort of see the dark hole in the void between his teeth on the upper level. I wanted to get a shot of his lower level growing in, but he absolutely refused.

Sun spot

Mickey loves to sleep in the sunbeam. He goes over to the bay window and finds the brightest part and flops down for a nap. Sometimes he brings a toy along with him (seen here is his new football shaped tennis ball type squeaky toy).

Cardboard = Hours of Entertainment

Jamal saved a large piece of cardboard from a laptop sleeve he had recently purchased. Mickey loves to chew on cardboard and this piece was no exception. I would fling it like a Frisbee and he would retrieve it and destroy it.

hahaha look and what I've got!

whoa. kinda tripped there. this thing is larger than I am

~notice his 'proud walk' with his tail and ears held high~

got it back under control, I'm taking this back to my hideout

nom nom nom

Why did I teach Mickey he could go down the stairs?

Yesterday evening I gave Mickey a bath. He had rolled around in the grass for about a week and Jamal had mentioned two nights in a row how stinky he was.

After the post-bath nap I took Mickey outside for a quick walk.

When we got home our neighbor was watering her newly planted seeds in the front 'yard' of her townhouse. At this point it is 85% mud/15% plants. Mickey was very interested in getting in the muddy yard but I kept him out of it. He sat and watched her watering the ground until I grew bored of it and we said good night and left to return upstairs.

I carried Mickey to the first landing and then decided he should walk the rest of the way up the stairs. I often take off his leash for the stairs for a couple reasons: I can do a whole flight at once to give him incentive to do it quickly too, and he doesn't trip over the leash and fall down (has happened on the stairs before).

I start up the stairs. Mickey watches me and starts to follow, then remembers the mud and goes down the stairs! Going down the outside stairs was something we only started practicing today... but he showed great aptitude for it tonight.

He trots down the stairs and I follow. I don't want to chase him and have this turn into the new fun game (run away and Grace chases me), plus I had an idea where he was headed.

from flickr (not Mickey)

Sure enough, right to the center of the mud patch. Luckily he came to me with a simple 'touch' command and I scooped him up. Once home I had to struggle with him, first in the half bath, then the kitchen sink, to wash his muddy paws. He struggled more for the paw rinse for the entire bath... le sigh.

Prepare for take off

source : I like it because it was taken at DCA (our home airport)

In a few weeks Mickey and I will be traveling by air to Chicago. I did a lot of price comparisons and American had the lowest combination of my ticket + fee for Mickey. After I purchased my ticket, I called American Airlines and added a carry-on pet to my ticket. I will pay for his fee when I check in at the counter, but this ensures he gets one of the 7 maximum carry-on pet spots.

This weekend we will purchase a soft sided airline animal carrier. The maximum dimensions allowed by American Airlines are 23" long, 13" wide, and 9" high. The airline rep I spoke with on the phone verified that the max height couldn't be larger than 9 inches. I measured him and was a little concerned that his head is over the height limit if he holds it up high. However, the more I review pictures (such as the one above) it seems most dogs are able to lay down and turn around but not hold their head up while standing in a closed carrier.

I'll keep you updated on all our preparations for this trip including our shopping trip to pick out a carrier!

Rolling

Mickey has started rolling around when he plays with his toys. Not too much more to write about it, but I think its adorable.

He uses his front paws as we would hands, holding the toy in front of his mouth. He moves back and forth between his belly and his back during the course of playing with his toys by himself.

Sibling Playdate - Part Three

The playdate lasted a little over an hour. The dogs were exhausted, in fact Mickey fell fast asleep on the car ride home. Nike's parents and I have agreed we have to do this on a regular basis. Maybe add some beverages or cookout for the humans as well.

It was a great experience for all involved and we can't wait to go back.

Two paws up!

Daily Treasure - April 27

Today's treasure was a very big leaf. It had a nice long stem which is very attractive for our little treasure hunter. I am glad that he chose a leaf because it is a lot harder for bugs to hide out in them.

"I love making messes"

Sibling Playdate - Part Two

It was over 90 degrees for our puppy play date. We even waited until the late afternoon, hoping to get a break in the heat. Even with our precaution, after some romping we had two hot dogs.

They started with two bowls of water, but in the excitement one got dumped almost immediately.

"Can I use your bowl? I dumped mine"

" go ahead"

"I can give you a kiss"

"ewww you're my sister"

"nom nom nom"

"I'll keep a look out"

"okay my turn now"

Teething

I had about 5 outtakes to get a good shot of this. I hope you enjoy.

This weekend we noticed that Mickey has passed into the next phase of puppy hood. Teething. On Saturday, his 18 week mark, we noticed he had two HUGE teeth that had popped out. Those bunny teeth in the front are his first adult teeth. While his baby teeth are really tiny (lots of space between each tooth) and really jagged looking (like a hillbilly), the adult teeth are larger, closer together, and have smooth edges.

I noticed on Sunday he had lost a tooth in a chew toy he was using. I tried to save it to take a picture for you all, but it was so tiny it was lost.

There are probably at least 5 little puppy teeth hiding in our carpet pile. This morning I noticed the entire front bottom row has been lost! He continues to eat his food without any obvious signs of struggle or gum pain. We're freezing fleece pieces to give him some relief, and there are always his other toys to gnaw on during this phase.

Sibling Playdate - Part One

I'm going to break up the pictures I have from our sibling play date over a couple posts because doing them all at once would result in computer crashing 'cute-ness overload'.

Mickey and I arrived a few minutes early for our play date time, but Nike was ready. She had gone to the doggie spa earlier in the day and had a little pink ribbon over her ear. By the end of the play date the bow was lost in the grass, but it was cute while it lasted.

Nike got a lot more of the Lhasa genes. She is a non-shedding little fluff ball. Also, her face/nose structure is different from Mickey.

I don't think you can tell by looking at them that they might be siblings because their appearance is so different. I was a little skeptical that they would 'recognize' each other at all, but I got a pleasant surprise. After an initial sniff they started chasing and romping with each other all over Nike's fenced yard. I haven't seen Mickey start to play so quickly with another dog (usually he has at least 5 minutes of scared uncertainty with new dogs). Maybe they did remember each other ...

Here is a picture for size reference. You can see that these pups are both small. Nike's fur makes her seem a little bigger so the weight difference (10 vs 7.5lbs) wasn't as noticeable as I had feared. We noticed a lot of play bite practice. They were very gently biting at each other's body and face. There were only two 'yips' of 'ow that was a little too hard' over the hour of play. I didn't get too many pictures of the actual play because it is hard to capture two jumping, running, rolling puppies in a frame and because their favorite play area ended up being underneath our lawn chairs.

Busy Weekend

Mickey and I have a busy weekend ahead of us. We have two training classes (one is a makeup) and a play date with Mickey's sister Nike.

I hope my brother isn't a jerk

Nike was the fluffy puppy that was described as being very shy. I'm hoping that the dog training class will wear our little guy out so he acts like a gentleman and doesn't run little Nike over. Since Mickey pushed Snickers around a bit, I hope he takes it easier on his shy sister.

Nike is 7.5 lbs at this point and her owners said she hasn't really met too many other dogs. They do have a large fenced yard so that's where we'll do the meet & greet.

I'll take my camera to get some good shots for you all!

Couch

First it was 'no dog on the couch'

Then it was 'dog on the couch but on a lap'

Now its 'dog on the couch when we're on the couch'

Up to this point Mickey hasn't been able to jump up on the couch on his own, so it isn't hard to enforce the ever changing rule. Once he figures out how to combine his jumping up skills with a little jump forward, the rules will be updated again.

When on the couch, Mickey isn't content sitting on your lap or the blanket anymore. He climbs over to the pillows and seats himself like a sultan.

Then he goes to sleep. zzzzz. Sweet dreams little guy.

Twins?

Thanks Danielle for the picture mashup.

Indoor Treasure Hunt

Sitting at my desk I can hear Mickey sniffing around the recycling. He's just poking his head around checking things out.

Then I hear, "rrriiiiip" followed immediately by the galloping sound of his paws across the carpet and he's racing to the middle of the living room with his 'prize'.

Where did he learn this pose?

He had pulled a shipping label off a box and was happily destroying it. The funny part was after I picked up the pieces from the carpet, I then had to pin him down and pull the sticker bits off his paws.

What are you doing?

"Nothing.

I wasn't going to munch on those shoelaces.

Wasn't even thinking of shoving my face into those sneakers for a really deep inhale.

Certainly don't want to tip over the garbage can to liberate my treasures and dead toys"

Daily Treasure - April 22

This is a silver colored branch from some small plants our neighbors put in. It was laying on the sidewalk and Mickey brought it to the door yesterday. I was in no mood to pick silver pieces out of our gray carpet so I made him drop it (Grace's tip - picking him up makes him lose whatever is in his mouth). It sat outside in the hallway and then today he brought it into the house.

He was running all over the place to keep it from me. As you can see he ended up in the unusual treasure destroy spot under the coffee table. He has learned its harder for us to grab him there and it offers many points of exit for a great escape.

It was pretty fragile so it didn't provide the satisfaction of chewing like a stick does. On the plus side there were no bugs to clean up either!

Mickey from Hiroshima

Saw this story about Japan's first baseball dog. He wasn't working for the team when I caught a Carp game in the summer of 2004. Kinda funny that we ended up with the same name for our dog though.

Hiroshima Carp's lucky baseball-carrying dog Mickey passes away

Mickey, the golden retriever who carried game balls in a little basket held in his mouth at the old Hiroshima Municipal Stadium, died April 8 at the age of 11.
Mickey made his debut in March 2005, and was given the uniform number 111 (one one one), similar to Japanese onomatopoeia for a dog's bark. He carried out his ball delivery duties until 2007.
The Hiroshima Toyo Carp have a record of 15 wins and 7 losses in games where Mickey made an appearance, and the pooch had become a symbol of victory.
Flags at the Carp's new stadium were lowered to half-mast for the team's game against the Yokohama Bay Stars on Monday in mourning over Mickey's passing.
(Mainichi Japan) April 15, 2009

Wilderness Blend

I forgot to blog about the newest wet dog food we're using with Mickey!

The wilderness - it's the call of the wild, the place where these native American flavors were first born. The original flavor of Buffalo, the untamed taste of Venison and the bold fresh taste of Salmon all mixed together for an excursion of the palate.

The wilderness blend is much more 'adult' than the Turducken or Puppy Plate. By that I mean it is mostly processed meat chunks with just a few veggies. The sauce is more clear and less 'cream of chicken soup' looking.

Mickey had no idea what to do with the large chunks the first time we fed this to him. He would pull them out of the bowl and roll all over them on the carpet.

Its funny to think of our little guy eating buffalo and venison when there is no way he could take one of those down in the wild.

Daily Treasure - April 21

We're back with a new treasure! Mickey found this stick in a small plant area at the base of our stairs. He ate at it for a while outside in the sun and then decided to take it back inside.

I did a quick bug check when the stick started to splinter and didn't see any creepy crawlies. whew.

Then I went back after ten minutes to start cleaning up the mess. What do I find? ahhh little red ants! They must have only been in the section he ripped open at the very end. Thank goodness because they didn't get very far. I vacuumed and then dumped the dust in the garbage and took it outside.

yuck yuck yuck.

Snickers

Mickey met his cousin this last week in Naperville. These pictures are from Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2005 and Snickers has done some changing in the last three years. My mom says she is ADD (a dumb dog). She is very eager to please, but doesn't know what you want her to do. She used to be very energetic and playful but her age has caught up to her in the last year and she has put on weight.

Mickey really wanted to play, but Snickers would just stand there and bark (at us and at Mickey) whenever he tried to initiate playtime. By the end of the week they would 'play chase', a game where Snickers would take two steps that would send Mickey into a long loop across the room and back. This gave Mickey a good workout and didn't stress Snickers too much.

Mickey looks forward to his next visit in May and for Snickers to relocate here to Northern Virginia!

Stay warm on a chilly morning

Its been pouring rain outside all morning. Mickey spent the entire chilly and wet hours napping. After a quick lunch he found the blanket had fallen from the couch and decided to nest for a while.

I would see him chewing on the blanket and when he realized he was being watched he would switch to licking it. "nothing going on here, just me being very gentle to this blanket"

I have since put the blanket back up out of reach on the couch.

We're Back!

Mickey and I survived the long drive back to Virginia. There was less throwing up on the way home so we were both happier.

Coming home also meant we got to see Jamal again! Mickey likes when Jamal puts him on his back and spins him around the carpet.

Now that we're back home I will be able to get back to regular blog posts on Mickey and his activities.

Redecorating

Mickey decided to liberate his sleeping bed from the kennel and use it in the middle of the floor. Usually during the day he doesn't get his bed in the kennel, but since we're traveling and I didn't want him to be too stressed while I visited my grandfather, I left it in the kennel for him.

You can barely see that he brought a tennis ball into bed with him. The tennis ball is the same size as Mickey's maximum jaw extension, but he still manages to drag it around.

Road Trip

There aren't too many things to say about an 11 hour journey from DC to Chicago. The weather was sunny and clear all day and Mickey was a perfect co-pilot. He threw up twice but spent the rest of the trip laying down in his seat. I kept him in the bottom half of his travel carrier and lined it with a towel. I brought lots of toys, but he had no interest in playing during the trip. The only time he fussed was when it got a little too warm in the car for his tastes.

Wow, what are we doing here? What is going on? I can't see much out of the window so I'll just stare at you.

Wow this car riding is hard work. I'm starting to get kindof tired over here.

Don't worry, I'm still awake...these are just really long blinks ...

I'll try to stay awake to help you navigate ...

oh, next turn is in 200 miles? hmmm

You've got it under control. This conversation has worn me out. I'm going to sleep again.

Repeat every 45 minutes as necessary.

Shoes

Last week we had some guests stay over at our home. These were Mickey's first overnight playmates so he was exhausted by the time they left for home.

Mickey loved the increase in foot traffic during the day. He loves to lick toes and feet (he'll find that hole in your sock and use it to get to your delicious skin).

He also loves shoes. They are usually too big that he doesn't quite know what to do with them, but he couldn't get enough of Tony's. He pulled them from the door by the laces to his home base and gave them the complete smell down.

Hiatus

We made it to Chicago!

The car ride took 11 hours and we had four bathroom breaks. Mickey did very well in the car. He stayed in his designated seat during the whole trip and only threw up twice.

We are settling in at my mom's house in Naperville and meeting the resident dog, Snickers.

Posts will be lighter this week as I help out with some family stuff.

Formal Duds

I kind of like to think that Mickey is already dressed up. Since he has his cute white shirt under dark jacket and little spats on his shoes he looks quite dapper.

However, sometimes a black tie is called for. So next time I host a large formal dinner party I'll make sure Mickey is dressed the part.

They are sold on Etsy and you can choose from a variety of colors and styles.

In all honesty, I think Mickey would just lay down and chew the tie to pieces. Similar to his tail, it would be a toy that would follow him everywhere, but the tie would be a lot less durable...

Zuke's Bone

Mickey chews on a Zuke's bone once or twice a day. He only gets 15-30minutes with it at a time because I don't want him to eat too much at once. Plus this extends the life of the bone into two weeks.

They are advertised as being good for doggie's teeth and breath. I don't really notice a marked improvement, but maybe his breath could be a lot worse than it is and I don't appreciate it.

It is hard to distract Mickey when he has his bone. If you bug him too much he'll simply pick it up and eat it elsewhere.

Luckily you can take the treat away from him and distract its ab sense with a quick game of fetch. He'll look around a bit to where the bone disappeared to, but won't bug you about giving it back.

Zuke's Z-ridge Dental Bones for Dogs:

Two paws up