Big Ollie -The Silly Golden

Vaccum Cleaner

2010-02-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

As you can tell, Ollie has a new job around the house which is more than happy to do. As Zach is learning to eat independently, Ollie likes to help clean up afterwards. Instead of the constant pleading, we just gave in.

Shame on you!

2009-07-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Oliver has been very sneaky. Since I'm home with the baby, there has been a confusion to who feeds Ollie in the AM and PM.
Usually it's my husband, but when he leaves really early, sometimes he doesn't get a chance to feed him. And Oliver has this internal clock that knows EXACTLY when it's 7AM or 7PM. It's actually quite amusing. He would usually come up to us, grunt then lead us to his bowl, or sit right by his bowl, grunts and sighs to let us know it's time to feed him. Since we've made a mistake and have fed him twice (once by each of us)we devised a plan on our board to indicate if Ollie's been fed. It only works when we BOTH participate.
Lately, I've just asked my husband if he's fed him because when I go out there and I'm not sure, usually I'll take Ollie's cues. Well, he has us trained so that every time he grunts or sighs around his bowl we think he needs to be fed. Tricky tricky!
He's tricked both of us several times and gets fed twice as much! No wonder this dog isn't losing weight! Oh Oliver! Shame on you!

Haircut

2009-05-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

It's been quite hot in northern California so I decided Oliver needs his first hair cut. My friend suggested I get him shaved for the summer. She referred it as wearing a sweater in the middle of the heat. With that in mind I thought I would do Ollie and favor and help regulate his body temp. This is what we get.
What the heck happened to my dog?!?! Same personality but he looks like a LAB! Well, not even. It's like he morphed into a rhodesian ridgeback/wiemeranier/Labrador mix! He used to be considered a "red" golden but as you can see only his head is the red part. Poor thing is not loving his new look, but as soon as I took out the B-A-L-L, he forgot all about it. I just keep telling him it's just hair, it'll grow back.

Icky

2009-04-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Oliver went into the vet a couple of months ago because his ear infection has come back. It was kinda routine because all we really needed were antibiotics for the infection. While we were there, Oliver was weighed and to our surprise he has gained way too much!
When I first brought him home he was a skinny 65 pounds of fur. Now he's at his top weight of 100 pounds! Holy cow!
The doctor suggested the normal diet and exercise and to really watch his intake of food. Especially treats! We went home with the mentality that Ollie needed to go on a diet and exercise plan.
Doc started off cutting back his food amount. So Oliver went from four cups a day to three. A cup and half in the AM and same at night. What a mistake that was! Though Oliver started to loose some weight, he picked up a BAD habit!
One afternoon when Doc let him outside to do his business, doc found Oliver eating his own poo! So he was rubbing himself on it, instead he was eating it! We were horrified!
We figured out it was the cut back on food and that Ollie was just plain hungry. Obviously hungry enough to eat his food.....again! We've gone back to the regular schedule, but have added a little more exercising on our end. We've also leashed him when he does his business just in case he decided to go back to that habit.
No pictures were taken since I'm sure everyone can just imagine.

Play Time

2009-03-25T21:41:00.000-07:00

Ollie is a butt-in-ski. As baby Zach is growing and developing, Ollie has made it his duty to be a part of it. When I have a free moment during the day, I'll usually bring out Zach's play mat to lay on and get some tummy time. Ollie likes to come over and sit right on top of the play mat. He sniffs around at all the dangle toys and gets right in my face to be sure and include him in the activity. Since Zach's toys have lots of bells and whistles(literally), this of course has Ollie ready for play time. Doc and I have been really careful about not confusing Ollie's toys with Zach's toys. We'll have to keep a sharp eye out just in case Ollie gets confused.

Big Brother

2009-03-05T19:35:00.000-08:00

Oliver is now a big brother to little Zachary.

Zachary arrived on Feb 6th but didn't come home till a couple of days later. Meanwhile Ollie stayed with Grandma while Doc and I recovered from delivering little Zachary and made our way home from the hospital.
At first the meeting was a little tense since I was still recovering from the delivery and really wanted some rest. Oliver was quite inquisitive and sniffed out Zachary for a while. Checking out his car seat to all the other baby smells that came along.
Since Zachary's arrival, I've been so busy with him that unfortunately Ollie has been a bit neglected. Luckily, Doc has been fantastic at spending time with him.
So far, Oliver has been behaving well around little Zach and I'm going to try and spend more time with him. Hopefully once I'm completely healed from the delivery, I can take Oliver out for his favorite activity. A nice game of Fetch!

Ringing in the new year.

2009-01-04T05:09:00.000-08:00

Ollie and I rang in the new year with nothing more than a quite house full of baked goods. Since I've been home with this pregnancy, Ollie had been by my side most of the day and I think he's loving it. Since this is my first pregnancy with Oliver, I'm getting a great sense of how he may be when the baby is born. My friends Stephanie and Hayden were in a similar predicament with bringing a baby into a doggy household and gave me a nice book to read and understand how best to train Ollie for our new arrival.
Being home with Ollie has given me such a deeper sense of how much I love him. He is truly a sweet soul and amazes me everyday with his little acts of doggyness. A couple of things I've started to pick up on is his habits of following me everywhere I go. Even when I hop in the shower, he'll follow me in and sit right outside of the shower stall till I'm finished.
He's developed this habit of sleeping on my side of the bed, blocking my way to the bathroom. Which in my case is every couple of hours in the middle of the night because of the pregnancy. I'm more worried I'll trip over him and land on my face in the dark!
Since my sleep schedule has been on the fritz as I finish up my last trimester. So when I wake up at 3am for my ice cream cravings or baby kicks, Oliver is right by my side out on the living room floor just hanging out.
One last thing I will never forget is the first time Ollie came up to my baby belly and got kicked in the chin from junior within. Before I ballooned up, Oliver would rest his chin on my stomach to get some attention or a scratch behind the ears. Well for the first time, he was kicked back and had the most puzzling look on his face! I giggled with laughter, but I'm sure he was not sharing the humor.
I wish my telepathy would kick in and I could understand what is going on in his little doggy mind. Does he know the changes that are happening? In our home? To my body? Does he sense the hints of baby powder and the baby gear that we bring in? I guess I'll never know.
For now, we take it one day at a time and I'm hoping to cherish every minute of it with this silly golden.

Alive and Kicking!

2008-10-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Many apologies to the Ollie fans out there that haven't seen a updated blog entry in quite some time. Life in our household has been more than busy and therefore Ollie's parent(mom) has neglected the postings.
So to catch you up so far... As of today, Ollie is now official not an orphan in our household. As of September, Mom and Dad are official and Ollie will be assured of his "first born" status in the house hold. Though Oliver could not be there because of the venue's rules of having dogs on premise, I made sure he was there in spirit and on some images.So now that Ollie can hold his head high and proclaim that his parents are happily married and his is the first and only child in our home. Of course that statement demands all the attention in the world since Doc and I wake to this face most mornings. Weekends especially. During the early weekday mornings, I'll be getting ready in our bedroom with the light on and this is the typical scene at 6:00AM. Ollie is NOT a morning dog. He will sleep till he's kicked out into the living room when I leave in the morning. Oliver prefers to wake at his leisure, or when ever he's hungry. Feeding time is usually at 7am.

Day at the beach.

2008-08-06T10:26:00.001-07:00

I decided we were long over due for a family vacation, so I though a quick day trip to Carmel would be a lovely adventure. Carmel is a quaint little beach town that favors our four legged friend. They allow dogs to roam leash less on the beach and have hotels and restaurants that cater to them as well. They provide restroom facilites for all legged mammals!

Most store fronts had dog dishes with water for our furry friend. There were dogs all over!

It was a gorgeous day so we grabbed lunch at Forge in the Forest.

http://www.forgeintheforest.com/

Doc and I both got sandwiches and Ollie dined on his very own "Quarter Hounder". We got sit in the back patio with many other dogs and Ollie was behaving very well. There were a couple of moments of excitement with other dogs fighting over food, but generally everyone was really nice and calm.
After lunch we decided to head to Ocean beach to check out the crowd. Since the day was full of sunshine, there were plenty of folks out to see.

Ollie is always up to making new friends. With all the new butts to smell, he was having a great time!Playing a game of fetch is always a treat!

And tromping in the water to cool off makes for a smelly dog.

See you later, Alligator!

2008-08-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

So three weeks have passed and Cosmo is ready to go home. At first we didn't know how Ollie would do with a new dog in the house. We were skeptical about his territorial behavior and possibly jealousy that would ensue. Of course the latter happened but in the whole scheme of things everything worked out.

King of the House

2008-08-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ollie has certainly made sure that this is HIS house. He knows every corner and crevice of our home and has certainly made himself comfortable. Along with having great house manners, Oliver has had his test in limits but for sure since the arrival and departure of his friend Cosmo, Ollie is back to being the king of his home.
Lately Doc's had some run ins with mice on our property. Though we humans aren't fans of them, Mr. Oliver Stanley has been the BEST hunter! I'll take him over any cat ANY day! When we say the phrase "Get the mouse!" he's frantically sniffing and searching for any scent trails of the little critters. Though I cringe at the day that he catches one and decides to give it to us as a gift, I'm glad to know he's willing to "Protect and Serve" us proudly!

Only Child

2008-07-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

It has certainly been proven to us that Ollie prefers to be the only child. Since we've adopted him from Homeward Bound, we didn't know too much about his history. Whether or not he was raised in a home with many other animals or that he had be the only dog. None of this was clear to us. It wasn't till recently that Doc and I discover that he really PREFERS to be the only child. Especially with his new roomie around.
Much jealousy has ensued in the Ollie household. I'm not too keen on dog behavior but the best way i can describe it is to equate this animal behavior to humans. For example, the past few nights, when Doc and I head off to bed, we have a ritual of dragging Cosmo's bed to the hall way near our bedroom. Two dog beds in our bedroom is too many beds. There is barely room to walk around, so we just put the bed in the hallway. Ollie's bed is already placed in the corner but of course Cosmo will most likely be in it. Ollie refuses to sleep in Cosmo's bed for some reason. He would rather cope with the hardwood floors than to sleep in Cosmo's bed. Recently Ollie's been pacing back and forth in the middle of the night because Cosmo is in HIS bed. A couple of nights he would wander out to the living room to sleep in his other bed and be "away" from us.
The biggest indicator to us of course is the several mounting session that happens in our home. Back and forth the two dogs would try to mount each other. The best was last night. Ollie went over to Cosmo, who was laying down. Sat his butt right on top of Cosmo's head and started humping his head. Doc and I looked at each other with huge question marks on our faces and then of course busted out in laughter. We certainly need to get this on film.

Summer Fun

2008-07-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

With the hot and dry weather, Ollie was happier than ever that I came home with this new toy. I bought the boys their own pool.
When we first met Ollie, he showed us how much he loved the water. He sat in a large horse troft with 3 inches of water and rolled around with such joy.
Here is Ollie cooling off in the heat. He's usually the first one in and last one out.

Bad Mommie

2008-07-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last week Ollie and Cosmo went for a walk and game of fetch. We usually play on the grassy area near our home, but with two dogs I wasn't sure how Cosmo would behave with out a fenced-in area. Instead, we met up with a neighboring dog, named Maveric(golden doodle) and headed to the back of an abandoned warehouse that had lots of room to safely roam. Or at least I thought it was safe.
Ollie has gone to this area many times to play with other neighborhood dogs. Fetch on the hard gravel wasn't too much of a problem, but I did notice his paws would become inflamed when we got home. Doc warned me it was probably not a good idea to continue this, but Ollie always seem to be having so much fun!This occurrence was not much fun at the end. After twenty minutes of fetch, I noticed Ollie limping. He didn't dart off to chase the ball any more. Seeing that he was tired, I began to head home and take the dogs back. We live about three blocks from our home, so it was still quite a trek back. While walking back, Ollie darts onto the soft grassy area. Still stumbling and then all of a sudden, sat down. Would not move!
I kept pulling, not know what was wrong? Did he break his leg? Did he hurt himself? or was he just lazy and wanted to rest? I really got concerned because he has NEVER done this. He's sat down after a good game of fetch, but his legs never shook or in a sense collapsed. It was frightening. I sat down and examined his paws. They were torn up! Poor thing! The pads on his feet were separated from his foot. Like when you get blisters on your hands from playing on the monkey bars too much. Three out of his four paws were torn like this. Poor Ollie was injured, but he still was brave enough to not whimper or whine. We ended up sitting on the corner of this apartment complex while I called my brother to come pick us up. We were still a couple blocks from home, and there was no way I would make Ollie walk. Plus, there was no way I was lifting him up since he was a hefty 70 lbs. Luckily I got a hold of Billy and was able to get a ride home. Ollie was out of commission several days after that. He certainly was not himself and had difficulty walking. David wasn't too pleased with my decision to run Ollie on the hard concrete, but was still helpful in nursing Old Ollie back to health.

New Roomie

2008-07-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Ollie's got a new friend staying with us for three weeks. My friend, Shannon is in the middle of moving to another state and needed us to pet sit for their 7 year old German Shepard mix. Cosmo is such a doll. He's really docile and submissive and really easy to care for. Maybe the fact that he's older and has "been there, Done that" kind of attitude, he's more interested in sleeping than playing too much.
Ollie on the other hand wasn't too happy with sharing his mom and dad with a brother from another mother. I've never had two 70 pound dogs in my home before so it's been interesting to get adjusted to. Ollie has certainly displayed territorial traits that I'm not to proud to report. Along with the marking of territory in our back yard, he will physically try to get in between Cosmo and I. When I go to greet Cosmo and give him a belly rub, Ollie would squeeze right in between us and gesture my hand to pet him instead. On several occasions he's tried to mount Cosmo when they are playing outside just to show "this is my house!" attitude.
I'm finding that I have to feed them separately because Ollie will inhale his food and attack Cosmo's bowl right away. Poor Cosmo just walks away and lets Ollie bully him out of the kitchen. So I've learn that one dog eats inside and the other dog gets a picnic outside.
The first night was the toughest. Cosmo came to stay with us and brought his own bed to sleep in. Cosmo decides he like's Ollie's bed better. Though Cosmo sleeps in the living room and Ollie sleeps in our bedroom. Ollie decides that he must walk the grounds to make sure Cosmo was in his place. All night long, all i can hear was the scratching of dog paws trotting back and forth down the hallway. Being a light sleeper didn't help either. "GO TO BED OLIVER!" I finally screamed since I was fed up with the Ollie's new nocturnal activities.
Finally the second night was a lot better since I moved both their beds into the hallway for Ollie to keep an eye on everyone. Some of my friends have said that two dogs are easier than one. They've never lived with my Ollie.

Hungry like the wolf.

2008-06-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

One thing I certainly notice since we've brought home Ollie is that he LOVES to eat. If you watch him eat, some might think we never feed this dog! Ollie get two meals a day, and a handful of treats. So he's certainly not starving. I also read that Golden's tend to be piggies and can gain weight very easily. I swear that every person that comes into this home is automatically on a diet. We monitor the amount he gets and makes sure he's at a healthy weight. So why does he inhale his food? I will get footage and you'll see. I worry that he's not getting the nutrition out of the food because it goes through him like a hot knife through butter. I'll have to figure out my next method of portion control. Right now, our routine is that i pick up his dog bowl, walk to the garage where his food is. I scoop two cups of RoyaL Canine for Goldens, tell him to sit, then stay while I Set the bowl down. Here is a shot of his pathetic look of desperate hunger.

Here is a shot of his mug and the look he gives when he's hungry and the picture next door is a close up of the drool that drips from his mouth during those 5 seconds of waiting for my "ok" command. Below you will see the pools of drools that form because I might have made him wait 2 seconds longer that usual. Good thing our kitchen floor is doggy drool friendly.

Mother's Day 2008

2008-06-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day 2008

Mother's day weekend was spent up in San Francisco at the beautiful Crissy Fields.
The whole clan headed up there for a picnic and some sun. What a gorgeous weekend we picked to have this activity! Ollie was so excited to see so many other doggy friends. Most were off their leashes and running around. I didn't want to take a chance that Ollie might dig his teeth into any wiener dog, so I kept him on his leash most of the time. Here he is with mom and the Golden Gate behind them. Ollie is always up to something or another so I made sure he had plenty of toys and chew sticks to keep him busy. Once the sun got a bit warmer we headed to the water where Ollie was true to his retriever self and dug right into the fetching part. Bill and I would toss the stick around in the sand and eventually Ollie would head straight into the water. THE BAY WATER!
He's got mad swimming skills when it comes to diving in and fetching ANYTHING! This dog LOVES the water, no matter how cold it was!

Not only is Ollie a great swimmer, he's super smart. As the day wore on, the sun got hotter and started to heat things up. We were wise enough to bring hats and tents to cover ourselves, but Ollie found the best place to cool off. Not only did it give him shade, but with the kid's messy eating habits, he was in for some dropped treats as well.Here is Tyler trying to finish his lunch. One bite for Tyler, One bite for Ollie. Oh yes, I got that on film! Don't think I didn't smell the food on Ollie's doggy breath!
Ollie also seems to be very popular with the little people. I don't know if it's their short stature? Their interest in all things furry? Or just that Ollie is always smiling that draws the little kids to him like white on rice. Here is a little boy that came over to our area and was obsessed with feeding Ollie anything he could get his hands on. Ollie was not a fan of the handfuls of grass that was fed to him. He opted to just lick cookie filled kid hands.
All in All, it was a fun fill day of swimming and fetching. Ollie went home tired and ready for his dinner. Which of course is always a treat to come home to.

Bath Time

2008-04-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Here is Oliver AFTER his bath and blow dry.

Last weekend I took Oliver to a fantastic place called "Country Pet Wash" in Mtn View. This is Ollie's second bath with me, so I think he was getting used to things. Though he isn't a huge fan of getting a bath, He's still a trooper.

You can check out my review of this place on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/pet-wash-country-mountain-view#hrid:EtbmL5EAeOGtQlaJe4EhkA

One thing I've noticed about Oliver, is that he's a patient dog. He'll sit there and wait for me to wash his entire body. Then blow dry him from head to paw. Then he lets me trim up any loose ends like gnats and "danglers" from his back side. At the end, I spray him with some doggie cologne and he smells delicious! I know it's a bit much to pamper your pooch this way, but I actually enjoy this bonding time with him. Sure I can drop him off at the local groomers and pay $50 bucks for a wash and blow. But to lather him up with bubbles, brush out his boy parts and trim his nails is priceless!

This is the water bowl they have for all their doggie customers. I think we need one at home.

No Greasy Chicken for Ollie.

2008-04-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend I visited my friend Sarah and her family.

Knowing her husband Matt was a big fan of dogs and hoping the kids would get a kick out of him, I decided to make an appearance with Oliver.
Here we are in the back yard with Alexandra and Cameron. It was a warm Saturday so the kids decided to head out back with swim gear and make a splash in the pool. The day was going great.

Oliver was such a trooper while the kids decided to squirt him with the water guns over and over again. The grown ups decided to have lunch in the house while the kids and Ollie played in the back yard. After the third time of Cameron asking for a piece of chicken, Sarah questioned why he would want a third piece?! for a small kid, three pieces of fried chicken usually results to a big tummy ache afterwards. So Matt asks if they are giving the chicken to the dog and low and behold. The kids were feeding Oliver drumsticks of fried chicken. I don't know how many the dog ate but it was enough to make anyone sick.

Not thinking too much of it, I left the house later that day and took Ollie home to rest. Later that night, David and I went to bed as usual till EARLY Sunday morning.

Oliver isn't a barker at home. So it hard to know when he needs to go outside because he just walks to the door. I need to teach him a trick to let us know he needs to go outside. Because poor Ollie couldn't hold it any longer. He had several poo accidents on the kitchen floor through out the night. At 3:30am David woke up to the smell of the diarrhea mess and a very sorrowful dog with his tail between his legs. David is a light sleeper, so he ended up cleaning the mess with a mop at 3:30 in the morning. I woke up a half hour later to all the racket being made. I go out to the kitchen still sleepy asking what is wrong? "Your dog was running for the border."

Awww Poor Ollie! I felt so bad for him. So for the entire morning, I stayed up with Oliver while he puked and had gassy diarrhea every half hour. So since we didn't have a doggy door, I stayed up to let him out and clean up any puke that he barfed up. His stomach started settling down later that morning and he was on a strict diet of water and bland food. Of course the endless belly rubs made things all better. That greasy chicken went through him like a hot knife in butter.

Old Tricks

2008-04-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Ollie is up to his old tricks again.
He has chewed up the most indestructible toy he owns. His Kong Bone is suppose to be the toughest toy he's got and take a look at the destruction ensued.
I find bits and pieces of red Kong strewed all over the house. David thinks he does this to destroy. but I was told by the vet that this form of chewing is a great stress reliever for dogs. It helps them unwind and relax. I'm just waiting to see traces of red Kong in his poo.

Dog Park

2008-04-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, we brought Oliver to the local Dog park. We really wanted him to get friendly with other dogs while we seeked dogs owners with answers to some of our dilemmas. The evening started off well. Oliver met many other dogs his size in the big dog park area. He sniffed around and marked his spots where needed. Unbeknownest to us, this place was littered with tennis balls for all the dogs to play with. Once he got a hold of one, the fetching obsession began. I will admit our fault in fueling it, but Ollie does get obsessive and possessive of the balls.
As we are tossing the balls around, two little pugs(who should really belong in the small dog park)keep running up next to Ollie to catch the ball and play. Ollie, being so concentrated on retrieving the thrown balls, shows his true colors of not wanting to share this game with the other dogs. Immediately we have concerns. Though Ollie is not possessive of his food, treats, other toys. He's really possessive of tennis balls. Next thing we known, Ollie is in a full on fight with the pugs, and barks turn into squeals and yipes. We ran towards the commotion and broke up the dust ball. We immediately separated Ollie from the other dogs and took him for some cooling off period. What a disaster. The pugs were fine, a little shaken up, but up and running right afterwards. We are working on this bad habit. Hopefully we aren't banned from the park.

"I didn't do it!"

Chewie

2008-04-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Oliver Stanley giving me the tongue.

Ollie is chewing up his toys. I know it's a great stimulator for the pooches to chew on things, but since his first toy Mr. Cow, he's gone through a bunch of other toys. I mean, at least two dozen toys that had to be thrown out because they were chewed up. His favorites are the soft squeaky animals or soft rubber toys. He chews those up in a flash. We introduced the Kong to him, but he's not too interested. He's a fan of the ropes. Which we find remnants of all over the house. And of course the tennis ball. He LOVES tennis balls. So here are the two issues we are facing right now.
1. Chews up 99% of the toys given to him. We have yet to find a indestructible toy. We bought the following toy, pictured below. It claims that it's rated at a 9 of being a really tough toy. It lasted a whol 10 minutes till Oliver ripped it a new one and pulled all the stuffing out of it.

2. After CC's suggestions, we still CAN'T get him to give up his toy (especially tennis balls) from his mouth. Unless we are literally holding a piece of chicken in our hands, this dog holds on for dear life! I'll be online checking out some new tricks to get him to give it up.

Allergies?

2008-03-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

After taking Ollie in to get his sutures removed, I explained to the vet that when I take his collar off, he goes straight for his front paws. He'll gnaw an bite that them like he's trying to get at this one itch. I had strong concerns because his paws would end up red and tender. The Vet concluded that it would most likely be a sort of skim allergen that is caused by the food he is eating. ALLERGIES?! Goodness sakes?! I guess since we are both mammals, it's most likely that we (dogs and humans) can develop allergic reactions. So to help with finding out the allergen, the vet put Ollie on a hypoallergenic diet. Which means he is to stop feeding on anything thing we used to give him. Completely eliminating that. And start him on this Iams, hypoallergenic dog food for skin and coat.

Iams® Veterinary Formulas Skin & Coat Response™ FP/Canine Dry Formula

As for treats? Carrot sticks. Yup.
Along with having to buy fresh organic carrots, this dog food is NOT cheap. Keep in mind, Ollie eats about 4 cups a day of dry food. So we go through a 15 lb bag pretty fast. At $50 bucks a bag, the dollar bills are adding up. OOOOOOF! I knew that getting a dog would cost us money, but this dog is eating better than I am!

I wonder if I can put him to work pulling weeds or washing dishes? hmmmmmmm....

Kids are mean.

2008-03-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

Every morning I take Ollie for his poop walk. We'll go around the corner towards the park and circle around. This morning we past by some kids at the bus stop.

"Look! That dog looks like a flashlight! Hey Flashlight Dog! Hey lady, if you pull on his tail will he light up?! Ha Ha Ha ha ha!"

Oh how they teased poor Ollie and his orange collar. He's only gonna have this thing on till his ears heal up. I am NOT paying for therapy bills because he has self image issues! Ok, So maybe he doesn't care one bit what he looks like with his little bonnet. I'm thinking his mommy maybe the one with the issues. He's still a cutie in my eyes!OK, Maybe he does look a bit flash lighty.

If you can't Beat em, Join em!

2008-03-20T14:14:00.001-07:00

I must admit. I've become one of the those pet owners that have gone Koo Koo over CoCo puffs. In this case, I'm obsessive over my dog. I think he's the cutest, sweetest, funniest, smartest, best behaved dog in the whole wide world! And of course I need to capture all this on film. So last night around bedtime, I drag Oliver's bed into our room and he sleeps at the foot of our bed. One thing we've been trying to teach him is that whole settling down period. He still doesn't understand that, so he insists on "play" time. Which of course involves his favorite "Cow" friend. He will sit at the foot of the bed with Cow in his mouth looking at you with those big brown puppy dog eyes. Like he's begging you to pick up the cow and chuck it as far as you can. I'm usually the strong one and will ignore the cuteness. David of course caves in a may throw it out for Ollie to fetch. Well last night, Oliver was sick of waiting for us, that he fell asleep on his bed with Cow tucked under his ear. Trust me, he did this himself because of his collar. Of course like any doting parent, the first thing I grab is the camera and start shooting away. Of course, by the end of the photo shoot, his look of " Are you done yet? Can I go back to sleep?!" is priceless.

New Friend

2008-03-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

While walking Oliver this morning to our near by park, we came across a little dog named "Goose". The owner explained, "Like in Silly Goose!" Gotcha! After their initial "doggy" hand shake, also known as the butt sniffs, their tails were a wagging! Ollie really liked Goose! He wanted to play with her! Goose's owner said that Goose just lost her partner in crime. And seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to other dogs. Well, hopefully Ollie will break her out of that and they can start to bond. Goose's owner invited us out to the dog park at Shoreline. Hopefully we'll be able to make the play date!

David did inform me that on a walk they did last night, Oliver came across two statues of ceramic lions in the front driveway of a nighborhood home. Feeling very unsure, Oliver was on full guard of these two statues! I wonder what he was thinking?! I'll have to get some pictures to post.

Chewy

2008-03-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ollie's got this chewing fetish. Whether it's his feet or tail or crotch, he's chewing on those parts?!

I don't know if these are just grooming techniques that all dogs go through or if it's a habit that he's forming. He's got an appointment with Dr. Singh, so we can finally get down tot he bottom of this. Other than that, he's peachy keen. Check him out here spread out with his chicken legs.

Yappers

2008-03-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

The house next door has three little dogs that love to bark at Oliver. Actually they are small dogs, so it's more like a yipe. The pitches are high and frequent, so when ever Ollie goes out back to do his business, they smell him and start the yapping. The owners do nothing to discipline the dogs, so they are left barking up a storm. We hate to fuel the noise ordinance, but we don't feel like we are to blame. Especially since Oliver doesn't bark back at them.
Till today.
He went out to do his business and as they were barking up a storm. Feeling fed up with all the noise these guys were making, Oliver headed over to the fence area and gave a loud ferocious WOOF! Two seconds later, even the crickets were silent! It was actually quite funny!
Though Oliver remains quite when he's out back, the house next door remains loud and obnoxious. Three little ones yelping non stop into the night would drive anyone crazy. Luckily our double pane windows help. David does love it when we take Ollie out first thing in the morning to pee, and our neighbors get woken up by their own yappy dogs.
Good Dog Ollie. Good Dog.

Kennel Cough

2008-03-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ollie has Kennel Cough. He's been retching for the past three days. Though his energy is fine and he's eating all his food, he has this awful cough that seems bothersome. from what I've read, I will let this cough take it's course. He's got an appointment to see the Vet next week, so hopefully he will be done with this.
Other than a little cough, Ollie has been great. He's learning to walk very well on a leash. I've found that he LOVES to play fetch. It would be a perfect world if he could chase after a ball all day long. I just need to figure out how to get him to release the ball once he retrieves it.

Welcome Home Oliver!

2008-03-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

We are so proud and please to announce the newest member of our family.Oliver "Big Ollie" Dog. On March 8, 2008 My brother Billy and I drove to Homeward Bound in Elverta to Pick him up and bring him home. The past week of waiting for Oliver to come home was the longest week ever! We arrived at Homeward Bound early this morning with so much hope and excitement. Along with A crate, a bed, a brand new collar and leash, and of course several chew toys, I also had to think of a name for the dog, and thought it was a great idea to make it a contest at work! After several great suggestions, David and I agreed with "Oliver" or as he's now known around the house as "Big Ollie". We walked in the front office area and told the folks we were here to pick up "Oliver" aka "Chandler". Oliver pranced out excited and happy as a clam! Even though Ollie had underwent neutering and ear surgery, this boy was full of energy and spunk! My brother looks at me and asks, are you sure this is your dog? I looked at him with a little hesitation and said "Yeah, I think so?!". Ms. Jody then explained the medication Oliver is currently on and suggested we take him for a walk before taking that long drive home. Still a bit nervous, I tried to elude confidence that i knew what I was doing. So we proceeded. Here are the boys. Billy, Oliver and my little cousin Tyler all excited to take a little walk down to the pond. Billy had bit of a difficult time leading him. Oliver was all over the place, since walking on a leash was not his first choice. It was certainly fun to watch! As you can also see, Oliver had to have a cone around his neck so that he doesn't scratch up his surgery wounds on his ears. Poor thing, it was not fun for him either. After our long walk to burn off some steam and we headed back to Tyler's home to drop him off. Back at Tyler's house, his little sister Haley was so excited to see Oliver! She was all over him! Though she stood a bit shorter than him, he was happy to lay down and let her rub his tummy. He sure was a softy when it came to little ladies! I have a feeling he will be breaking lots of female hearts. When it was time to head home, Miss Haley was not too pleased to see him go. I did promise to visit real soon so that she can spend some time cuddling up to him. After two long hours in the car, Ollie was fantastic. Very calm and quite. He seemed very comfortable in the car, which is always nice for us to not worry about car anxiety. Once we arrived back home, Ollie was greeted with excitement and open arms to David. We guided him in to check out his new home and he was the best guest! I proceeded to show him the back yard and even gave him some water to quench his thirst. Ollie wandered around and just made himself at home. Here is Ollie and his favorite toy, "Cowie". Since coming home, Ollie has had this squeak cow in his mouth pleading for us to play with fetch with him. He's such a retriever! As for his first weekend home, everything went very smoothly. We discovered that Ollie, may have been house trained before.No Jumping on the furniture, or the bed. He's got great manners but needs some coaching on his walks.He tends to pull and tug. Ollie loves to be brushed and rubbed after a good meal. On Sunday we gave him a quick bath and a long jog in the park, Ollie was pooped. With my Cesar Millan book in hand, all the training is paying off. Ollie has become our little angel.

Homeward Bound Golden Rescue

2008-03-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

When Doc and I came across the idea of adding to our family, we had our four legged friend in mind. I researched online what kind of dog would be best for our little family and I came across the ever famous Golden Retriever. We were looking for a dog with similar energy level, house trained, good with little people, good watch dog, and furry companion. This search also lead me to the best adoption/rescue center ever! Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue is located just 30 mins north of Elk Grove in Sacramento. I quickly put in my application and crossed my fingers. Several months later I get a call from Ms Karen. After a home visit and some patience, she came through with finding us our Dog. Ms. Karen invited us up to the Sanctuary to visit a dog that was just brought in from Bakersfield. They called him "Chandler". On March 1, 2008 we headed up to pay a visit to Chandler and possibly any other dogs that would be a good match. The drive was about 2.5 hours from our home. I picked up my nephew to bring him along as a "kid" test for the dogs and of course a fun trip for Tyler as well. When we got there, Chandler was brought out. What a vision! Not only was he beautiful, but his eyes we captivating with a longing look that screamed "Take me home!" He caused such a ruckus and excitement, I looked over at Doc and said, "Uh oh, What did we get into?' Doc grabbed a hold of the leash and off we went to the field to "test drive" Chandler. Without a leash to connect with and a whole field to run around, Chandler took off like a six year old after too many CoCo Puffs. We called out his name, we tried to play ball, we even tried to walk with him on a leash. Chandler even managed to plop himself in a tub of water and get himself and our gang all soaked. It was close to impossible to get a hold of him, so immediately we decide to look at another dog. We met one other golden and one golden mix. Not feeling the connection with the last two, I convinced Doc that Chandler is the one for us and the chance needs to be taken. After some instructions from Ms. Jody, We were told that Chandler needs to stay for another week to get his ears cleaned, and his neutering wound to heal. We were also instructed to pick out a new name since "Chandler" was just given to him when he arrived to the Sanctuary less than a week ago. With excitement and nervousness, we drove home with the hope that Chandler is our little angel. Stay tuned for the Pick up day! Many thanks to all the wonderful volunteers at Homeward Bound and especially with Ms. Karen. Her kindness, understanding and patience lead us to our faithful companion.