King of the House

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.