Poodle-Hound?

Hi All!! Vinnie here. I think it's time for me to blog. Here I am - one little Poodle - living with three sighthounds. They tell me that sighthounds hunt by sight, rather than scent (like they're all superior or something and a Poodle can't do it!). Okey dokey - so how do I go about hunting by sight? First I need to get secrets from the master... this means some sucking up.

He says I must run FAST... quick like a bunny. And I should practice a LOT. See my SHARP puppy teeth? I will use them to catch the RABBIT!!!

Practice pays off!!! I got the bunny!

I don't know why the old guy is giving me the stink eye... a blue rabbit is just as good as one of the brown ones.

Ok... I know it's not the real thing, but I need to start somewhere.

C'mon dude - pay attention - I need pointers!

Spring Cleaning

(Can you stand it? TWO posts in one day!) It's that time again - the Ames agility trial is next weekend and I decided that Shorty needed an overhaul of the interior. Frank, Betty and Vinnie will be going with me, so Robin's crate needed to come out to make more room. First step - empty and clean out Shorty. This is what he looks like without anything in him - seems like so much room!

Once everything was clean (heck, I even shampooed the carpets up front!), it was time to start adding stuff back in. First you need to decide on a crate configuration. This takes a lot of thought. The dogs need to be in the front of the van behind the driver's seat. Then two more crates for storage. The bottom crate is my closet (or junk drawer). All the stuff that would be rolling around my van in one spot - dog coats, rain suit, slip on shoes, clamps, bungees, fleece coat, etc... The top crate will have other misc stuff in it for the weekend. Then it's time to start putting in the larger items - ex-pen, chair, mesh screens, and blankets. Still seems like a lot of room, but later on this week I'll add: sleeping bag, camp mattresses, pillow, cooler, CB, lantern and anything else I can think of to make my "bedroom" more comfortable.

Play Ball!!

I thought it would be fun to get Vinnie a ball and teach him to push it around with his nose. This ought to be interesting!! I clicked him a couple times for showing interest and then he just took off. If you listen closely, you can hear him growl at the ball. Now we just have to figure out how to get it out of a corner!

Vinnie's First DQ

I took Vinnie to the Fairfax Dairy Queen for some... uh... socialization. Yep, that's it... socialization. Of course, while we were there, I bought us some ice cream - just to make it all legit, of course.

Tammy and Bill met us at the DQ (socialization - remember?)
Vinnie LOVED his ice cream... a LOT!
He's not the neatest ice cream eater in the world...

but he does pretty well with a spoon.

I'm sure we'll have to make more trips to DQ in the future for socialization (and to perfect his ice cream eating style!)

Cooties!!!!!!

Vinnie has them... cooties, that is. The weasels are sure of it. They are not mean to him (no name calling!), but they avoid him. They don't want to catch his little puppy cooties. If he comes close to them or, heaven forbid, actually make physical contact, they scramble to safety. Can you really blame them? Here's the poster boy for cooties:

One of the side effects of cooties is the ability to move at a high rate of speed - in order to infect other dogs, of course:
Now, I know this is just a temporary thing. It happens every time I have a new puppy. Puppies apparently carry a particularly deadly strain of cooties. This strain must only be contagious for a short period of time. I wondered who would be the first to "cave" to Vinnie's charm. He is really a sweet little guy and just wants someone to play with him. Today Robin decided that Vinnie was now "safe" and not potentially harmful to the general population: Vinnie was VERY happy to have a playmate.

Vinnie chased Robin all over the yard until Robin finally stood in the middle of the yard and Vinnie had the puppy "rips" in huge circles around him...

Now if he can just convince Frank and Betty to play...

Vinnie

Meet Vinnie! Melinda and I went to pick up Vinnie from Chicago O'Hare (he flew in from Portland, Oregon). O'Hare is quite the place. We went into the airport to find out where we were supposed to be. "Uh... not here" says the airport guy, "You need to go to cargo. I don't know how to get there, but if you just go across that parking lot and into that little building, they'll be able to tell you how to get there." We go to that little building and explain what we need. The nice lady at the counter whips out and map and proceeds to add to it (a lot!). She very nicely highlights it and explains that we are to basically go out of the airport and around to the cargo area behind the airport. "It's really easy to get there" says she, "but, I have not been there for years." (years??? this is not sounding good! does she realize how much can happen in "years"???) So we drive around the airport and eventually find the cargo area. We are about an hour early, but check with the folks in cargo to see if we are in the right place. Yep... it's the right place. "So" I ask "how long after his flight lands will he get here?" "Oh, about ten to fifteen minutes." replies the airport person. I'll believe that when I see it! Melinda and I entertained ourselves for the next hour watching some guy rearranging the FedEx trucks across the street. Vinnie's plane was due to land at 4:55, so at 5:05 we walked back inside (figuring the puppy would be no where in site). Well, he wasn't in site, but we sure could HEAR him! That boy has a set of lungs that could peel paint off your walls (ask Melinda, but speak up - she's a little hard of hearing these days!)

We sprung Vinnie from the hands of United and took him out to the parking lot to check him out. He recovered from his flight in about thirty seconds! He played and chased a ball of tape off of his crate and just generally had a good time - ignoring all the trucks and loud noises around him. We put him in the van after trying to wear him out a bit. Off we went - trying to find our way OUT of Chicago (gotta love Garmin!!!). Vinnie was NOT ready to be back in a kennel at all and he let us know about it. Melinda was stuffing food into the crate to keep him quiet. Once we got out of Chicago, we both wanted dinner and the van needed gas and GLORY BE - there was a Petco and a McDonald's right on the side of the road!!! Vinnie got a new Kong and some Kong stuffing for the road (hopefully to keep him quiet!). Martha and I got fish and chicken - she got the fish - I got the chicken (which was NOT all that good!). We got gas (for the van!) and we were off again.
We made it home at 10:30pm (after dropping Melinda off at her car), made brief introductions and headed to bed.

How to clean a tunnel... or NOT

A couple weeks ago at agility class, Betty was really having some issues with the tunnel. She didn't want to go into it at all. Plus, I know she's not very comfortable with me rear crossing the tunnel - this is on my list of things we are going to work on this summer. So, I decided to drag the tunnel out from under the deck. It is absolutely filthy. There are leaves and spider nests and all kinds of nasty things stuck to it and in it. I remembered Tammy saying that she and Bill had taken their tunnels to the car wash to clean them. Off to the car wash! Since it's kinda nasty and rainy today, I'll have the place all to myself!! Now, obviously, I am not going to be putting that tunnel in my precious Shorty (yep - my minivan has a name!). In the truck it goes:I get to the car wash and I do, indeed, have the whole place to myself. I pulled the truck through a bay and rolled the tunnel out all ready to wash. I am all ready to deposit a wealth of quarters in this dandy machine - so what setting do YOU wash your tunnel on?? I ended up opting for a high pressure soap (no clear coat protectant thankyouverymuch!!)

Did you know that car washes use WARM water???? Me either!! And thank doG they do, cause it was getting colder and I was getting wetter by the minute! (FYI - they really MEAN high pressure - that water can shred the skin right off your hands!) There has to be a trick to washing a tunnel - I was soaked from head to toe in seconds and the tunnel was not any cleaner! About half way through, I abandoned my glasses to the tailgate of the truck (note to self: do NOT squash your only pair of glasses with that tunnel when you put it back in the truck!!!) Trust me - these jeans are absolutely SOAKED!! However, my feet are nice and toasty warm (and dry!!) thanks to my LL Bean stormchaser clogs! I love these things!!

Doesn't my tunnel look fantastic??? (it's still a bit dirty, but it's a HUGE improvement)

Now, I am soaked to the skin and need to drive back home. I think I saw a towel in the Brian's truck... nope - just a rug and a tiny bit of paper towels. If I had had my van, I would have had multiple blankets, a whole roll of paper towels, at least two towels AND my rain suit! Oh well - it's amazing how much you can dry off with three paper towels and I sat on the rug on the way home!

Ok - I DID consider this for just a minute when I realized that I didn't have a towel!!

Oh yeah... does anyone ever think about those drains and what is down in them???