Yesterday while Ryan did some work I got out in the sweltering weather with the pups. They had free reign on the front porch (Fitz stayed inside mostly but Buddy loved watching people walk by). While they did their thing, I painted! I got the second coat of green on after I caulked the frieze board. Once the green was dry I got the first coat of yellow on the trim (finished it up just as it was getting dark). It takes a while to cut in the yellow around the siding but we love the effect so it’s worth it.
Front - almost done!Just to get an idea what the panels will look like with the green, what's white will be yellow.
Today Fitz is at daycare and Buddy came to work with me again. Tomorrow they’ll both be home all day (probably a short day since Buddy can’t hold ‘it’ for 10 hours likes Fitz can). I’m hoping Fitz will be tired out from daycare (hah) and Buddy will be more comfortable alone now that he has been for short periods (plus I’ll put up the camera so I can watch them).
Fitz and I started Agility class last night. He’s been really into treats and food lately so I was optimistic that he would do well. Until we got there. All the other dogs around distracted him and he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with treats. He wanted to play with the dogs (it doesn’t help that the last time I dropped him there it was for a daycare (day of playing).
He did pretty well though, mostly without taking treats. We started with recall (he has to run up to the directed side that my hand is at. It helps it showing them which tricks to do (they follow the hand). He didn’t do it exactly but he ran to me when I called him.
Next up was the tire, I’ve got him jumping through the hoop at home so he knows the concept but at home he likes to chase the treat I throw. He was not interested in the food and he was definitely the dunce at this one. Finally someone gave me some cheese which he was a bit more interested in and he jumped through. After a few slow ones he got into it and started doing very well.
We moved on to the tunnel. Slow to start (but not the worst in class), he finally came through the tunnel to me. After that he was a pro, running through the tunnel, not caring a bit about a treat at the end. What really happened was some new dogs showed up and were playing in the corner, he wanted to get to them so badly he’d do anything I asked 🙂
So class was not horrible at all and I’ve got to start him on understanding the clicker now. Next week I’ll bring cheese and hopefully it will go smoothly from the start.
This morning I took the boys for a nice long walk to tire them out. Fitz is home by himself today and Buddy came to work with me since he’s not ready to be left alone for such a long time yet.
Out for a strollPlenty of grass to walk on but these city boys prefer the blacktop walkways through the park.
They walk really well together, I use the extending leashes so that I am not getting tangled too much (if they’re too close they go back and forth). When they’re in front they walk pretty confidently forward. Until they see squirrels 🙂
Today is chock full of puppies (well mostly dogs but they seem like puppies). First, my office mate at work brought her adorable 10 week old puppy in to work! He’s a snuggle bug and very fluffy. He slept most of the day but who can blame him, it’s hard being so cute!
After work I picked up my aunt’s dog Buddy for 3 weeks while they’re in Africa. He had a comfortable ride to my house and a huge shock to find out that I now live with another dog (last time he came up it was just him). He and Fitz sniffed each other and Fitz decided Buddy was a toy when Buddy ran down the stairs (he likes to throw his toys down the stairs and chase them). Once they got comfortable enough to ignore each other I took them for a decent walk and then back in to chill in the A/C.
Fitz has now confiscated Buddy’s toys as his own and Buddy is passed out in my lap. So far so good, I’m optimistic that they’ll both sleep through the night ignoring each other and tomorrow working from home will be interesting (Fitz usually sleeps all day).
Fitz: What... aren't all the toys mine? Buddy: Tuckered out
Yesterday I took a half day off of work and went down to visit my sister and nephew. He’s just over 2 months old and he’s such a cutie. He’s tiny but he’s very alert and was looking around at everything all day yesterday. It was a great time to visit because he decided to stay awake all day again for me. Say Hi Jason! Let me help you, take that pacifier out so you can say hi. Waving hi 🙂
It was a hot day so he spent the evening in just his diaper to cool off a bit and then it was on to muscle shirt number two for the evening and some tummy time (at which time he promptly fell asleep). Tummy time! And he's out 🙂
I even got to spend some time with him this morning (he was hungry though) before heading in to work.
Bye bye little jason, I will definitely see you soon! bye bye for now
While I was over I added the tabs to the wall hanging for Jason’s room so they can hang it up. I also remembered to take some pictures of it finished since the only time I did it was with my dad’s camera. Wall hanging for little Jason Closeups - I designed the monkey based on one of the fabrics in the quilt. The rest of the animals were part of the pattern.
Just one last thing to sew, a skirt for the crib. Should be a quick one and I was tempted to do it last weekend but it was too hot to go up and spend time in the sewing room!
I think Fitz prefers when I go to work for the day instead of working from home. When I’m home I make him hang out with me and he’s used to sleeping the day away, saving up his energy for the evenings so he can whine and bug us to go outside.
Today I left to go to the chiropractor around 8, came back by 9am and he was laying in bed just looking at me like ‘what, you’re back?! I haven’t even slept yet!’. There was evidence that he may have pulled a toy out (which is unusual), but he hadn’t slept yet. He couldn’t even get out of bed to follow me to the kitchen, he just watched me like he didn’t know what was going on (maybe he thought he was dreaming).
Now as I’m working I’m getting huffs and loud sighs from his side of the room. That pretty much means he’s fed up with me and is giving up on waiting to see what I’m doing (outside? no. food? no. play? no? sleep? no. computer? not interested (sigh) ).
Sorry Fitz, at least I can take you for a lunch time walk when I work from home, the rest of the day you just have to put up with me typing away 🙂
It’s been a crazy week and a half! First and foremost, my sister is now a mother! 2 months earlier than expected but she and my nephew are both doing well so Happy First Mother’s Day to my sister!
Aimee and little Jason
Last weekend while my sister was in the hospital my family all went down to their house to help out by finishing the nursery and of course offering support in any way we could. The nursery really came out great and by the time my dad headed home we had even put in the new rug and moved in the furniture.
The nursery 'finished' (just waiting for mommy and her baby!)The dresser and changing tableRocking chair
This weekend Ryan and I found ourselves unexpectedly home so we spent some time working on the house (what else).
Saturday we got chores done and then made the face frame for the cabinet that goes in the gym and got that attached, as well as some feet.
Gym cabinet with face frame addedFeet for the cabinet
Ryan also finished the base for the TV room built-ins. Which made it easy to jump into continuing work on the built-ins today. While I sanded the gym cabinet, Ryan got the pieces for the boxes to the built-ins all cut and ready to go. Then we put the boxes together. We can finally get an idea for how they will look!
The right side cabinet box in placeBoth sides inCabinet boxes in place!
Next on that project list is to make the face frames.
One other little project we did today was give Fitz a bath (well a hose shower).
No pictures from this weekend unfortunately but we did get some small things done and we had lots of family up to visit.
Friday night Mom and Dad came up for dinner. Fitz was mostly the topic of conversation and attention.
Saturday morning we got a few small things done around the house. Ryan hung the tv in the gym. Dad fixed the bathroom door latch so it would close (deja vu), then he also chiseled out the door frame of the gym so that door would latch shut as well. So we had some fully functional doors for the weekend!
Aimee and Jason came at lunch time (although both have a very bad cold right now) and we had lunch. Fitz and Jovi got to meet and kind of play (Fitz wanted to play, Jovi not so much). They were good though. PJ and Erica came a little later and after everyone settled in we headed over to my uncle’s for easter dinner.
Dinner was wonderful and it’s always great hanging out with the whole extended family. Fitz did great (although he stayed on the leash, mostly laying under the table). It was a little loud for him and I didn’t want him to mark anyplace in the house so we kept him close. Aimee was really looking miserable so she and I headed back a little earlier than everyone else. Of course on the drive home my check engine light came on (yup, could have checked it at my uncle’s if it came on during the drive there instead of home!).
Sunday was a relaxed day, after a big breakfast everyone headed home and we relaxed for the day, although Fitz did get a nice long walk too (he gets about 2 a day on average). Unfortunately sitting around watching movies all day gave me a migraine so it was an early bedtime for me and Fitz (he was tuckered out for sure).
Not going to be a lot of house progress the next 2 weeks, since we’re away both weekends and I have some sewing for my soon-to-be nephew that I need to get cracking on, plus a dog bed to make. I anticipate more house progress in May though 🙂
I was in charge of drop off for doggy daycare today, which means I couldn’t leave too early (we drop him off around 8:15). So i had some time to kill this morning and with nice weather forcasted for today and tomorrow I decided to get the deck stained! Wasn’t hard since it was already sanded, just a vacuum, then stain it.
Deck in front of door - stained!
Fitz is at daycare for the day, hopefully getting tired out and a bit more house trained (it’s hard to house train a dog that doesn’t go in our house but does in other people’s houses) 🙂 This is the first week that Fitz had his new schedule, tues and wed he had the dog walker come over to play for an hour and thurs he goes to daycare. Fridays i work from home so he should be good, i can take him out at lunch time to play and every other week his trainer will come over.
Family weekend coming up! I can’t wait to see everyone and have Jovi meet Fitz finally. Going to be interesting 🙂
The week has just flown by! But not without some house progress to show however. Thursday was a day of errands, Ryan had his leadership thing in the morning so I ran errands. At lunch time we went over and picked up more decking now that it was in. Then we took Fitz to the vet (while he seems house broken at our house, he certainly still marks at other places – he peed twice at the vet) 🙂
Then we packed up and headed down to uncle mark’s for a sleepover (with Fitz). He got to meet Buddy and we kept a very close eye on him so he wouldn’t pee in the house (he did lift his leg once the rascal). He was very good however and even the car ride back didn’t seem too scary for him.
Home friday, Ryan got to work laying the new decking!
New decking down!Halfway across the front door.
While he worked on that, I puttered around the house, doing some small drywall patches in the bathroom and gym so those could be really finished. And I finished stripping the first side of the gym door, vacuumed, did laundry etc. At 1pm the trainer came over to discuss our contract and to do some training.
For the first two weeks we are working on sit, stay, come as well as how to walk on a leash properly and some relationship building (humans lead the way out of (and into) the house, he sits for food and basically anything and he only has 15 minutes to eat in the morning and night or else he doesn’t get his food. Also eye contact, we need to build his confidence by making him look at us more. We were working on most of these things already so we have seen some progress and hopefully in 2 weeks we’ll be ready for some more advanced training (sitting while there are distractions around etc), staying for longer, laying down.
The training session was very good and now I know how we should be walking him and I’m more comfortable with our long walks. Speaking of walks, the spoiled boy gets 2 long walks a day during vacation. During the week he’ll have the trainer come by twice a week to walk him as well and one day a week we’ll try out doggie day care. Spoiled! We’ll see how this goes throughout the 12 weeks of training and then re-evaluate his needs.
Anyway, today Ryan is back to the decking, I’m painting touchups and the trim around the gym door (wanted to wait until the treadmill was in). We have company coming today, Sarah is coming up and Uncle Pete is going to stop by with the Georgia to meet Fitz and see the progress. Too bad it’s cold out today 🙁 Well I’m going to run down to the corner store quick before Sarah comes, then finish my painting. I plan to get some stitching time today for sure!
