I played hooky from class today to go to the Stone Temple Pilots concert at the Hard Rock in Hollywood. Orso’s godmother and dogsitter extraordinaire, Nichelle, was kind enough to take him to class for us! We didn’t want Orso to miss class since we feel it’s very valuable for his social development, so we arranged to have Nichelle pick him up at home and take him. Dee agreed to work with him in class in our absence, thank you, Dee! Nichelle reported that Orso is the over-achiever in the class! That’s my boy! Nichelle also fed all three of them when she got home so they wouldn’t have to wait for us to get home and feed them. Thank you, Auntie Nichelle!!! Nichelle, in true godmother fashion, took photos and a video, see below: Orso in Nichelle’s car on the way to class: Orso sharing a tender moment with Daniella, Cupcake’s mom: Orso in Nichelle’s car on the way home from class:
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Back on September 24th, Dee, our puppy class instructor, invited me to join her at a colleague’s home for a dog trainer BBQ. There weren’t really supposed to be clients there, just trainers, but because we have plans to show Orso in conformation and working and are CLUELESS about what we have to do, she thought it would be a good idea if we went. At this BBQ, we met many very nice people, including a woman by the name of Sheila Lieberman. Sheila has dedicated her entire life to the German Shepherd breed. She educates about the breed, promotes the breed, was a breeder and a successful exhibitor at countless AKC events. We immediately bonded with her and knew we had found a great partner to help us with Orso’s conformation career.
Today, Sheila hosted a 4-hour workshop at her home where she taught the basics of canine structure & movement, how to understand your breed’s standard and how dog shows work. Her family of gorgeous German Shepherds served as eager assistants! So was her Champion Pharaoh Hound, Amber! What a lesson this was for me! I walked out of there realizing that I have TONS of learning to do. Everything from the big picture down to the details is foreign to me. Wow, thank God for Sheila’s selflessness and desire to educate dummies like me! Orso got his 4th set of shots today with Dr. Pane and what an ordeal this was! Dr. Pane is the coolest vet on the planet and always has been. He comes into the exam room and the first thing he does, besides giving me a smooch, is throw himself on the ground to play with Orso. Orso, who is generally not timid EVER, is a bit skeptical about this interaction with “Uncle Pane” since the man usually comes armed with injections and puppy torture tools. After a deluge of treats, Orso is suddenly Dr. Pane’s best friend! He weighed in at 49.8 pounds and started on Interceptor today. We finally gave him his lepto shot, which was the only shot he got today. He is still on hold for the rabies vaccine until 6 months of age, although he may need to get it sooner due to AKC rules when you participate in dog shows. Dr. Pane also checked out his ears and proudly expressed his contentment with how they look – we agree they look beautiful! To visit Dr. Pane, click here or go to http://southkendall.com/.
Today was our appointment with Shelly & Jimmy from Doggy Studio & Boutique to pick the photos from our family photo shoot on the 28th. She had taken almost 400 pictures and we had already had the chance to see them all the day of the shoot. This was good since it gave us a chance to let the images settle into our minds. I swore it would take us hours to get through all the photos and make ordering decisions, but it didn’t. Shelly has a great system in place to help you choose in an efficient manner. We and Orso were in and out in less than 2 hours! We ended up ordering a 12×12 album! We also ordered a couple of portrait enlargements and our holiday cards. We don’t have any low res images to share with the blog, but as soon as we do, they will be up! Now comes the fun part – WAITING! Ugh! The suspense is going to kill us! 8 weeks until we get our album and counting! To visit Doggy Studio & Boutique, click here or go to http://doggystudio.com/. Below is a photo of Shelly and Jimmy that I lifted from their website…
Puppy class tonight was quite the challenge for me! I was there alone with Orso, so there are sadly no photos with the exception of one that was taken and shared with me by Daniella, Cupcake’s mom, see below. Thanks, Daniella! The main reason this particular class was a challenge was because it appears that Orso – who is fully house-trained since the first week he came home – decided to have a pee-pee-party the ENTIRE class! It was awful. Orso had 8 accidents in a one-hour period. He even pee’d on Dr. Pane when he came out to say hello to us at the beginning of class. Dr. Pane and I laughed about it and made joke about Orso taking revenge for him re-cropping his ears last week, but the truth was that I was sooooooo embarrassed! By the end of the night, almost everyone in class had helped me pick up pee at some point. Dee and I started to think about it and came to the conclusion that it might have to do with the meds he is on from his surgery a week ago. I suppose it makes sense, especially since he is on 3 different medications – Clavamox, Rimadyl & Tramadol. The vet tech that stays for our class also confirmed our suspicion. He’s off his meds tomorrow, so let’s see if he returns to his normal, continent self! Everyone except Bongo was at tonight’s class. We worked on getting our puppy’s attention and calling him over while in the middle of playtime. This was not easy. Not even my super duper fancy puppy treats can compete with puppy playtime. I am pretty sure that Orso did not come even once to me when called! I think the only puppy in the class that actually did this exercise correctly all the time was Brinkley. On the other hand, when we worked on keeping your puppy’s attention on you, Orso did great. Once he is engaged, he is very easy to work with, but getting him engaged can be a challenge. It’s definitely something for us to work on. Like always, the puppies had their playtime together off-leash, which is always a riot, but tonight I was definitely a little stressed with Orso’s stitches. I debated even going to class tonight, but considering the WWF matches that continuously go on at home with Mouse and Luna, this would be a walk in the park. WRONG! By the time the night ended, the vet tech had to snip a couple of stitches that had come loose on Orso’s left ear. Thankfully, he is healed enough where it didn’t make a difference. Another treat tonight was that Dee brought Marty McFly, her one and a half year old Australian Shepherd, to class to use as a training tool for the puppies. It was interesting to see the dynamics among Marty and all the puppies. Interestingly enough, Orso was pretty shy and continuously looked to all the humans in the room for reassurance. I thought that was funny since he is always the bold one in the group. I suppose he was being respectful of his elders! See below for a 2 minute clip of Marty and all the puppies in class. Just wanted to post an update on Orso’s healing from his re-crop on Wednesday…. He is doing really well – see below! Doesn’t scratch, no infection, just mole-foamed them for support… BTW, we had to go up to 2 cups each meal. Unbelievable! He is a piglet!
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YVONNE
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