Happy Spring!

Stevie continues to "sit" more and more, and has even "stayed" a couple of times. Megan is very excited about it. It's that big pay-off for all her patience and persistence.

Friday afternoon Stevie will go back to the vet to have her teeth checked. Seems her baby "canines" aren't falling out, but her new ones are coming in already. She looks like some kind of alien dog with extra rows of teeth! OOoooh, scary. :)

Megan wants to make sure the baby teeth don't need to be pulled. Me personally, I've never seen a dog with extra teeth like that, but then, I've only raised two puppies. To be honest, I don't remember how their teeth came in, but I'm pretty sure they never had four canines on the bottom and four on the top...

I'll be sure to report out on the outcome yesterday.

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Woohoo! Another first today: Megan called to tell me that Stevie SAT for the first time on command. She was very excited (Megan, not Stevie -- not sure what Stevie thinks, but it's probably something like "I don't know what all the fuss is about.").

I've had my dogs for so long, I forget how cool it is when a puppy "gets it", although I'm dealing with some of the same issues with my foster Min Pin, Star. At five years old, she's like a puppy in a lot of ways, too, because no one ever took the time to teach her. She has been more consistent with "sit" and today, she actually did "stay" -- a much more difficult proposition. :)

It's an amazing world, and we dog lovers are so easily pleased.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day, for whatever that's worth.

Today I made the trek into Austin again to visit Megan and Stevie. Megan and I are working on a poster for another volunteer gig I do at the Highland Lakes Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force in Burnet, TX. Megan is the genius PhotoShop mastermind behind the endeavor; my main job was to keep Stevie entertained while she asked me questions about tweaking the fine points of our poster.

We worked on the poster while Stevie ran up and down the dog stairs, chased after toys and ate my camera string. When we'd worked on it for as long as Megan could stand, we went out to lunch. Then it was time for a trip to The Stevie Tree. Stevie does very well on the leash with her training collar, and she looks like a show dog out there prancing along. She is doing much better with changes in color/composition of the terrain, as those don't seem to bother her quite as much as they used to.

Once at The Stevie Tree, off comes the leash so she can run around inside the white stone circle that surrounds it. The grass had gotten quite high because of all the recent rains, and I don't think she liked how it tickled her tummy. But that didn't stop her from having a grand time running around in circles, sniffing, snuffling, and checking stuff out in general.

Then it was off to the mailboxes and home again. I keep forgetting just how much energy puppies have! That dog makes the Energizer Bunny (c) look like a slacker! She continues to be WAY too cute for her own good, a slim little bugger who steals hearts and charms everyone she meets.

Come nail trimming time, she was still wound up. Megan accidentally nicked the quick on one of her claws, but Stevie didn't even notice. She didn't flinch, yelp or squirm. We got out the styptic powder, and Megan kept telling Stevie "I'm so sorry", but Stevie just jumped down and ran around looking for Lucy.

All of us who trim our dogs' nails ourselves have done this, and, more often than not, it's much more traumatic for the human than the dog. Fortunately, it didn't phase Stevie at all; and of course, we'll be that much more careful next time. (Although there must be something in the air... when I returned home, I trimmed Newt's, Darlin's and my foster Star's nails, and damned if I didn't nick a quick on both Darlin' and Star. Geez, makes ya feel like a novice and I've been doing this for 18 years!)

Ah, well. Happens to the best of us, and thankfully, our dogs love us in spite of ourselves. That's what keeps me going some days!

Be sure to check out the Gallery (click on "Gallery" on the right) to see photos from yesterday's visit.
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Rain, rain, go away. I know we need it, but so much in such a small space of time.

Today, Megan's neighbor (the one who lost her dog) came to visit... with her brand new puppy. She said to Megan, "You know, this is all *your* fault!" I wonder how it feels to have the shoe on the other paw?

Remember the orange "devil ball" named Lucy? Stevie carries it around SO much, it gets all slobbery. SO slobbery, in fact, that Megan doesn't want to touch it. So now, Lucy has a towel. Hmmm. Megan, former cat person, has a dog who has a toy who has its own towel.

Yesterday, Megan fell asleep at an unusual time. When she woke, she saw that Stevie's crate door was open. She thought, "Oh, no, I've left her door open and while I was asleep, she's gotten into who knows what!" She got up and looked all around. No Stevie. She finally pulled back the blankets on the bed, and there she was... lying her back, head thrown back, legs all in the air, just dead to the world, snoring away. Megan said it was hysterical to see, and Stevie was just clueless in puppy dreamland.

Now you know what they mean when they say "I slept like a log". Or is that "slept like a dog"...
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Back story: I have a 6-year-old red male Min Pin named Newton who I adopted from IMPS 3 years ago. He has a propensity for making astounding leaps off of and onto things: couches, chairs, bath tubs, counter tops (!) and the occasional table. I asked my good friend Annette Betcher about him (Annette is an animal communicator who has helped me with several animals). She told me Newton thinks he can "fly", so those amazing jumps just seem natural to him.

Fast forward: Megan called me yesterday to tell me about the latest exploits of Stevie.

Megan: "Stevie has a Newt Complex".

Me: "Excuse me?"

Megan: "Stevie has a Newt Complex. She thinks she can fly."

Me (laughing): "Oh, yeah? What now?"

Megan proceeded to tell me how Stevie has gotten so bold that she will literally take flying leaps off her bed onto the floor now. That's just how comfortable she is with her surroundings. I reminded Megan it wouldn't be long before Stevie would figure out how to jump *up* too. So more stories to come!

After some thunderstorm activity last night, today turned gorgeous. Megan is on spring break, so they took two walks today. I had raved to Megan about the "Good Dog" collars that I had learned to use for training when I took Newt to Triple Crown Academy for obedience. We talked about it and I ordered one for her. It came the other day, and Megan read all the instructions and decided to give it a try. She said it was amazing and the difference was immediate. Stevie is much more responsive to direction from Megan and it makes their walks more enjoyable.

Stevie pooped out again part way through the first walk, so Megan picked her up to get back to the apartment. But on the second walk (a shorter one), she made Stevie walk the whole way. Megan said she didn't want Stevie to think that every time they go on a walk, she's going to get carried back!



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