169 posts tagged “dogs”
This past weekend I took some photos of the dogs playing in the snow. They were like little kids running around. Haven's happy jumping as she catches a snowball in her mouth.
Here Beacon's fetching his Orbee ball and Haven's "attacking" him.
After getting tired and hot from fetching Beacon decided to cool off in the snow.
Starting tonight another storm will hit us. It'll last until Thursday afternoon or evening! There will be rain, freezing rain, and snow so things will be a mess. Eventually we'll get a decent dumping of snow before it's all over.
This morning was the annual running of Bailey's Doggie Dash. Andrew hasn't been running much at all this year due to a back injury so he decided to enter the costume contest. He has had this idea for a couple of years but finally got costumes this year. Andrew's race number this year was a cool one. His birthday month and year.
Since we call Haven Miss B when she's naughty (get it - Miss B Haven) the bee costume is fitting. Andrew had to be a sunflower to go along with her. They ended up placing fourth in the costume contest.
These two collies have creative costumes each year. One year they were "collie flowers" with head gear similar to Andrew's! The football player took first place and the cheerleader took second in the costume contest. A pirate was in third place even though we thought Haven should have been there if the collies were going to be first and second. Haven was doing her screaming while being *judged* so we told her she got points taken off her score for her behavior. You can see video of Haven screaming here.
Once the race started Haven settled in. But Andrew said that she was mad that they weren't running as fast as they usually do!
After the race we hung out while waiting for everyone to finish. Haven was all over getting treats and watching the people. She didn't mind all of the dogs but they weren't as interesting.
Back at home we took our yearly photo of Andrew and Haven in front of the burning bush with whatever they took home from the race that year.
After throwing a ball at the bumper it eventually came down. Now both dogs are happily sleeping - Beacon in a sunbeam and Haven on a double decker soft bed.
More photos that I took this morning can be seen in my Doggie Dash Flickr album.
My parents and Zeke came for a visit yesterday. When we went out for lunch we left Zeke uncrated. This is the first time that he has been uncrated here. He's used to being out of a crate at my parents' house so we decided to try it out here. Only one thing was disturbed when we got home.
Well, two. One was Haven though. She took the exercise ball off the love seat. Miss B. likes to get up there when we're gone and has discovered that if she knocks a ball off she can get up there. Stinker. The only thing that Zeke did was pull stuffing out of one of the dog beds. The beds are old so it wasn't a big deal. When we went out for dinner we moved the beds into a room where the door was closed. Nothing was disturbed the second time other than Haven once again removing one of the balls off the love seat.
Both times we set up to the Pets Eye View camera. Overall nothing interesting was caught. There are a couple shots of Beacon chewing on Haven's ears though!
It was finally not raining and some sun was shining in the afternoon after about a week of rainy weather. Beacon enjoyed some fetching. Haven sniffed around and tried to avoid Zeke nipping at her legs. Zeke was either chasing after Beacon or Haven trying to get them to play.
By the time we were done playing with the dogs in the backyard they were all tired.
We went out this weekend and got Haven's costume for the Doggie Dash, which is the end of October. Since Andrew hasn't been able to run this year he wants to still be able to make the race fun (although how can any race with your dog not be fun) so he's entering the costume contest. In past years he has thought about this and has had this idea but finally the pieces are starting to come together. Haven's all set. Andrew still needs to work on his part.
Haven tolerated the costume and didn't look too sad. Andrew will probably work with her taking her out on a leash while wearing it so that when it comes to running with it on she's not wigged out. Although if she's feeling a bit weird maybe she won't "scream" before the race (although I have my doubts) or go out too fast and be worn out by the end. We'll see if Haven's a good little bee or one that lives up to her Miss B Haven nickname using mostly when she sneaks up on the couch.
It's fair week in Lowell. We rode our bikes to the fairgrounds yesterday to watch some of the dog agility.
There were lots of cool dogs there. And it was fun watching the kids and dogs do their stuff.
My parents picked Zeke up yesterday. After spending 10 nights with us we weren't sure he would want to go home. He loved being around the big dogs and playing with them. Although now Beacon and Haven seemed happy to have their quiet house back. Zeke's a good dog and they like him but he's a little busier than they are.
Zeke liked trying to get Haven to play with him. His way of telling her he wanted to play was to bite her feet and legs. Haven's so patient and kind that she just let him do this without telling him that she was annoyed. Zeke would try this approach with Beacon, who let him know this was unacceptable behavior. Consequently Zeke "annoyed" Haven a lot more than Beacon. Eventually Haven would put Zeke in his place a little but not enough to get him to leave her alone.
There are white things floating down from above but it's not snow. It's cottonwood seeds. On the side of our yard we have a cottonwood tree behind out house in the woods off to the side. Every year for at least a couple of weeks the seeds float around. At times they look cool. At times they're a pain, especially when mowing.
This tall tree started dropping seeds last week. I don't think we've reached the height of all of the things floating around. There are still a lot of cotton clumps all over the tree.
I was on my belly in the grass taking photos of all the seeds in the grass. Andrew and the dogs were also outside. The dogs started playing and kept trying to use me as a home base. In order to not get jumped on or have the camera knocked out of my hand I decided to go vertical. There were a few stare downs next to me.
Although I've lived in Michigan since I was 13 I had never been to the Detroit Zoo. Andrew and I decided to go this past Monday. He took a couple of vacation days and we spent some time with my parents, who also went to the zoo with us.
It was fun seeing the animals but I wasn't entirely impressed with the zoo. We've been to the big zoo in Chicago within the past year and liked that one much better. Even the little zoo in Grand Rapids isn't bad. I wish the Detroit Zoo had more animals and wasn't so spread out. We did a lot of walking! It was a nice day to be out though.
One of our first stops was to see the butterflies. Lots of different kinds flying all around. The exhibit was similar but I think a little smaller than the one at Meijer Gardens that we went to years ago.
Watching the seals swim by and over the water tube was cool. We weren't in the tube when the polar bear was swimming around. That would have been neat to see.
These were kind of cool for kids to be able to see prairie dogs up close. For some reason I was reminded of those whack a mole games and was waiting for the prairie dog to whack the kid.
We also saw a peacock family wandering around. This is one of three chicks.
I took almost 200 photos while we were at the zoo. I uploaded some of them in this Flickr album if you're interested in seeing the others.
While we were visiting my parents we of course got to spend time with Zeke. The three dogs did fine when they were left at home alone. This was the first time that all three dogs were at my parents' house. They all remembered each other. Zeke seems to like Beacon more than Haven. He'll follow both dogs around but he's much more attached to Beacon. It's funny to see him look up to Beacon so much.
Amber went home a day early since her mom was home and ready for her. It was fun having Amber in the house while she was here. She seemed to like playing with our dogs. And they liked having her around. Although I think all of the dogs are happy to have things back to normal.
When we dropped Amber off this morning she was happy to be back at home with her mom where she could be a spoiled only dog. Beacon and Haven are happy they can go back to their lazy ways without having to "entertain" a guest.
At some point during most days that Amber was here I was chasing a dog or some combination of dogs off the couch. I never saw all three of them up there and suspect that only two were up there at a time. And likely never Beacon and Amber at the same time.
Both Beacon and Haven liked playing with Amber. Beacon and Amber have the same physical style of play. When they're chasing and being chased there's lots of moves and lots of contact. Haven and Amber liked playing tug o war.
We've actually had to teach Haven how to play this. And going against training techniques we have to let her win. When we've fostered puppies (we're talking 8 weeks old) she would let them all steal toys from her without asserting any kind of authority. So we play tug o war with Haven and let her win. Not all of the time but enough to where she's finally starting to tug back and get into the game. We were surprised when she actually played with Amber.
It started with a stare down. Well, I should back up. It actually started with Haven squeaking a toy. Amber got interested in the noise. Haven noticed another dog wanted her *prize* so she shook the toy around to show off her possession. THEN the stare down happened.
They were like two kids trying to see who could last the longest. Amber kept moving closer. They would continue to stare. Amber started making noises. And they would continue to stare. Haven sat there calmly watching Amber. Haven's the master at "stealing" toys so she knows all of the tricks. The stares and moves by Amber went on for a few minutes. Andrew and I were trying not to laugh.
Eventually Amber got close enough to touch the toy and try to take it. Haven actually "fought back". There was tugging. We could tell that both dogs were having fun and while serious about wanting to have the prize possession of the moment neither was being mean. We continued to watch and tried not to laugh because we didn't want to distract them. We egged them on. Andrew held Beacon back because he would have jumped in, taken the toy, and the fun would have ended. Typical boy, right?
I like to say that the two girls were fighting over rights to kiss the frog in hopes of it turning into a prince. The frog doesn't look like he's too eager for either girl to win him. But no such thing happened or was even attempted. Haven won the battle. There were a couple rounds of the process of staring, Amber getting closer, and the eventual tugging. We ended up putting the frog out of reach so that we could hear the hockey game we were watching rather than squeaking.
All of the antics tired the girls out. Soon they were both napping. Of course on some softness. There always has to be softness.
I'm back home now and was greeted by a happy girl. She sniffed me and Beacon up and down and looked into the garage to make sure there wasn't another dog with us. She'll get to meet Zeke next weekend when he's here with my parents.
During the rest of my time at my parents' house Zeke continued to follow Beacon around wherever he went. He continued to pee every time Beacon peed. He'll probably wonder where we are for a day or so.
Beacon was very good with Zeke. Unless Zeke stepped on him or was bouncing around in an unpredictable way Beacon didn't mind having a little dog around. At times he did seem to wonder why he was being followed all of the time but he took it in stride. He let Zeke play with his toys and even sat and watched Zeke eat before it was his turn.
This morning while we were eating breakfast Beacon decided to be like Goldilocks and try out Zeke's bed, which looks exactly like his only it's two sizes smaller. Zeke still hasn't discovered soft beds and now nice they can be. Perhaps that'll be a lesson he learns from Haven. And maybe after seeing Beacon on his bed he'll decide that he should try it out as well.
There are a few more photos of Zeke from my time with him here at the end of my Flickr set if you're interested in looking at them.
