Dog Greetings

Cody is all about etiquette. Proper doggy etiquette, that is. Whenever I come back home or to my office, Cody will make sure he picks up his nearest toy or treat and bring it over. He will do this with any guest as well to make sure they feel welcome. This greeting is similar to him saying "Hi, you're important enough for me to get up, look for a treat, pick it up (no matter how long or cumbersome it is to pick up), and come over to you while holding it." Please do not confuse it as "Welcome, I have brought you my most prized possession as a gift to honor you." But of course, if you accidentally misread his intentions as the latter, he will correct you by turning his face away and helping you follow through with the next proper etiquette step of petting him.

Drooley Face

One of the nicknames I give Cody, especially when he's riding in the car, is "Drooley Face". He will drool like a leaky faucet and it's a bit disgusting. I need to teach him to lick it up or something. There are marks all over my dashboard from splatters of drool. Sometimes there will be too lines of drool that will look like water fangs. And then if I'm doing "creative driving", Cody's drool will attach to the windshield or dashboard. Yeah, it's about as disgusting as the teeth pictures I posted but you can't always have cute pictures.

77lb Vizsla

On Saturday, we met a HUGE 77 lb. Vizsla. That used to be 82 lbs (the owner had recently put Dante on a diet). When I first saw Dante, I freaked out. I mean, Cody is already more than I can handle (he outruns and outpulls me any day), and if he doubled in size, well, he'd be able to knock me over.

I'm 5 feet tall (well, not even that tall if you want to be precise). The reason I got a Vizsla was to get an energetic, playful, intelligent dog that was MEDIUM size. My definition of medium has been stretched recently, but it does not encompass the 80 lbs range.

Dante saw a bird and jumped over a 4 foot fence (the fence at the dog park). Oh boy. So now my new prayer is that Cody is normal and doesn't exceed 60 lbs. Maybe if we all pray together, he won't exceed what my books say is "average" Vizsla range (45-60lbs for males). Since he's already 43 lbs and only 6 months old, I'll be realistic and not hope that he hits the 45lb side. But please please please, nothing over 60!

My Little Guard Dog

In the last few weeks, I've left Cody home for a few hours. Besides being welcomed by an unexpected puddle near the sliding glass door, Cody has been very good at growling as soon as I come in. Once he realizes that it's me, he calms down and goes back to sleep. Since he is normally so friendly to everyone, it's nice to know that he has a little guard dog in him. Granted, I don't know exactly how he'll act if some random stranger comes in and greets him with a squeaky toy or a pig ear, but good help and definitely good security is hard to find. Just with Cody, the bribe is probably a bit cheaper than with most humans.

Glamour Shots

So Old Navy is looking for a new mascot or something like that. So we decided to try to get some poses to submit. Unfortunately, Cody (and vizslas in general) just look sad (jowls probably make them look that way) so I decided not to enter him. However, as my co-worker commented, Cody's already used to fame since his pictures and biography is on this blog. Point well taken. Maybe I'll enter him in some contest that's looking for the saddest looking dog.

Tivo Puppies

I ran into a 2 month only golden lab puppy yesterday. She was SO cute. Too bad we can't hit the pause button when they're at a certain age. Or fast forward through any disobedient phases. That would be awesome.

By the way, he's 42 lbs today. He's got all his basic commands down, but we are practicing recall (coming when he's distracted) and I'm trying to teach him catch. Right now, he just lets the item hit his face - whether it be a treat or a toy. His reflexes themselves are pretty good since he's excellent at playing keep-away once he steals toys from other dogs at the dog park. The little thief.

My Poor Ear Buds!

I left Cody for one hour while I went to dinner and Cody chewed up one half of the new headset that I got with my new IPod Nano (my very first IPod). I just needed to vent before I go home. Bad Cody!

Cody and Miya

It's been awhile since I've mentioned Miya, and given that she is the dog that Cody spends the most time with, she deserves more blog mention. Miya is the black Portuguese water dog that colleagues of mine have. She's about 2 weeks younger than Cody and they pretty much grew up at work together.

She spends about 1-2 hours a day with Cody, either in my office or my colleague's office. When Cody escapes from my room, it's predictable that the first place he runs to is Miya's room. Even if she's not there, he'll sniff around, just in case.

Cody and Miya play like siblings, or comfortable companions. If they aren't together, they try to go to each other's room (When I pick up Miya from her office, I don't even need to leash her because I know she'll try to run straight to Cody's room.)

However eager they are to greet each other, within 2 minutes, all the playfulness is gone. They each find their own chew toy in the room and sit a few feet apart from each other chewing on their respective toys. Sometimes, I have to look away from my desk to make sure they are still in the room because they are so quiet. Once every ten minutes or so, one or the other will get up and try to take away the toy that the other dog has. They may play tug of war or a casual chase around the room for a minute, but then will settle back down with their respective new chew toys.

Sometimes, if they are feeling feisty, they'll follow each other around the room at a casual place for a few minutes. Rarely will they play like normal dogs. I think they've just gotten used to each other. When they were both new to each other, they played a little bit more. Now they're just an old comfortable couple.

Attack at the dog park

Yesterday I slept for most of the day (week of intense workouts) so I took Cody to the dog park so he can have some exercise.

A large half wolf puppy played pretty aggressively with Cody so I was watching them pretty closely. All of a sudden, Cody's yelping and they were mouth to mouth.

The other owner was able to get her puppy away from Cody and I noticed that Cody had done his "scared" elimination. After some further examination, it looked like the other puppy had clamped down into Cody's mouth and bit into his gums.

I took him home and he seemed ok - a bit emotionally exhausted, but bounced back like the puppy that he is.

I feel so torn about taking him to the dog park. He absolutely loves it and I think it's good to have him have experience with more aggressive dogs, but there's a line between aggression and straight out attack.

Yesterday we also saw another Vizsla and she was beautiful. I think the key differences were that Cody was more dirty and that Cody had more scabs and scars that she did. Cody seems to attract aggression (or bring out the worst in dogs since he has more energy and playfulness than most dogs at the park). Now that the weather is better, I think we'll limit our times at the park and maybe just leave interaction time for doggy day care.

Bad Habits

Yesterday evening, I re-skimmed all the Vizsla and puppy books I had bought before I got Cody. I had realized I hadn't looked at them recently and wanted to see what I was in store for (for example, the "teenage years" are coming up...).

While flipping through Versatile Vizslas, I read that Vizslas like to be around their owners at all times (which explains Cody's desire to follow me into the bathroom every time). They also like to be on the same level as their owners and said that it would be hard to prevent your Vizsla from sleeping on the bed. I guess with Cody's vertical jump increasing by the week, it just makes it easier for him to try to sit on my desk chair at work or on my bed at home. I don't feel so guilty for spoiling him and letting him stay on the bed (after all, it is terribly cute). I have to admit, however, I used to sleep a lot better when I didn't have to share the bed with Cody. If only he would stop tossing and turning!

Come Fly With Me

Cody has discovered that birds exist. I don't know why it happened suddenly, but over the past couple of weeks, he's suddenly developed his hunting dog instincts. He will crouch down and wait. Of course, he will stay and wait forever, until the bird flies away, in which case it's really too late to catch it. So all birds in Mountain View are safe from Cody until he learns to fly (and given how long it took him to roll over, I don't think he'll learn to fly anytime soon).

Cody Talking!

Someone at work forwarded me the ability to let Cody speak for himself!

This link only works for 14 days...

http://veepers.budlight.com/service/RetrieveCard?id=lo1qXqJM2HgIJ_0t9QHodG

To make one of your own, go to http://veepers.budlight.com/service/Start (It only works in Internet Explorer I think)

(Warning: You may start getting addicted to spending time on silly things like this)

Before and After:

Cody under the Bed at 14 weeks:



















Cody on the Bed at 5.5 months:

How to Turn a Vizsla into a Weimaraner

On Friday, Cody had playtime with one of his best friends, Tina (7-month old golden lab).

Tina showed Cody her favorite "fun" place - a pool in the creek behind our buildings. Except that this is California, so "pool" means "mud" at this time of year.

Cody loved jumping in, but he smelled rank and was pretty dirty (gray).

It may be hard to tell, but this is his post-romp in the mud pictures:





































And here is his post-many-baby-wipes (dirty baby wipes on the table) picture:

Happy Mother's Day!

To me. As a present, he finally learned how to roll over. After 3 patient (and impatient months), finally!!!!

Yesterday, I left him home for 7 hours - the most time left unattended (we had run 11 miles earlier that day). He had a little accident, but other than that the house was intact.

I've taken some interesting pictures this past weekend so I'll be posting new picture this coming week.

Then and Now.

Cody at 12 weeks old (12 lbs):
















Cody at 24 weeks (38 lbs this morning)

Cramped spaces

So lately, I've been feeling guilty about not giving Cody enough space to sleep (and thus the previous post about letting him sleep outside his crate). I've also ordered a new pet bed that is much bigger so it can fit him even if he sprawls (when he's full-grown). I feel guilty when he can't sprawl on my bucket seats in my RX-8 so that he has to use the middle divider as his neck rest and have his legs hanging off the edge of the seat (of course, he would comfortably fit if he curled up like a normal dog).

Today, after lunch, no longer do I feel guilty. I found him like this. Choosing to hang off the edge of my office chair rather than sprawling on his blanket or floor (where he normally lies ever since he chewed up his old office pet bed). And he did it every time I would leave the office. Here are also some pictures of him trying to look innocent (when he knows he's not supposed to be on furniture).

Crate-free

Lately, Cody has been a little grumpy in the mornings. Also, since he likes to sleep in weird positions (usually stretched out), he isn't able to fully stretch out in his crate.

Last night, I decided I'd try to see how he'd do without the crate. I put his crate away and left his pet bed in the same location. He was able to sleep right away. The only problem is is that he woke up at 1 or 2 and put his front paws on my bed. I think he just wanted to play, but I let him out to use the backyard anyways. After he finished doing number 1 and number 2, he came back inside. I went back to sleep and let him do what he wanted.

I think he went back to sleep on his pet bed and woke up around 6am. The only reason I wasn't sure is because he entertained himself until about 7 when he started whimpering a little in the other room. I heard his whimper and woke up, and found him sitting next to the sliding glass door to be let out.

He was pleasant and "normal" this morning so other than the midnight restlessness, I think I'll continue to let him sleep without the crate.

Hmm...These photos uploaded without any problems. It may be that the others have been "checked out" (I'm trying to lighten them using Picasa)

Take it Easy Pictures

Here are some pictures of him after our runs. We're running a bit more now (to help my exercise routing). I've found that it exhausts him enough and is much cheaper than doggy day care (The one day of Doggy day care last week made me miss my Thursday runs to and from work, as well as our Friday work out since he was still pooped).

I can't seem to get the photos uploaded. Well, I'll try again, but until then, you can imagine the pictures...

Cody's 5 months old yesterday!

He had his first trip to the beach. I used a non-digital camera so I need to finish the roll before I can see if the pictures are any good. Here's a recap of the last 3 months with Cody and where he's at now.

He has calmed down a lot (when we were running today, people were commenting at how "well-behaved" he was for a 5 month old.) I think he is play acting "Good Dog", but I can always hope it's permanent. If this is permanent, I would give credit to Cody feeling more comfortable napping during the day in the office now (before, he would get too excited about what's going on), and better weather so we can exercise/play more.

He's also more confident. On Friday, I took him to the dog park and 3 larger, aggressive dogs ganged up on him. I was pretty upset at the owners as they did not call of the dogs. However, I was not too worried about Cody as he normally will crawl between my legs when he feels like he needs protection from me. After cowering a little bit, he fought back and was able to hold his own.

Here are our accomplishments to date:
All shots are completed
Started attending Doggy Day Care
Completed puppy classes (thinking about agility training next)
Got neutered and microchipped
Has Pet Insurance
No more accidents (can hold bladder for at least 4-5 hours)
Comfortably plays in the large dog section of dog park
No more aggressive biting
Silent commands mastered (sit, down, stand, High 5)
First visit to a beach

Still working on occasional barking
Still working on jumping on people
Still working on heeling
Still working on rolling over (silent and voice)
Still working on recall ("come" command when he's distracted)

Planet Pooch

Wow. I was skeptical when they said Cody would be tired after a day at doggy day care, since Cody rarely gets tired. Yesterday, he went to bed early (around 8), and refused to wake up until 8 this morning.

Planet Pooch has a shuttle that picks Cody up on Thursdays at the Shoreline Dog Park at 7 or 8:30am and drops him off at 6:15. The facilities are in Redwood City (about 15 miles north).

You need to sign forms, prove that he had various shots, neutered if older than 1 year old, and at least 5 months old to attend this day care.

You need to provide a quick release collar, a leash, and a seat belt harness (if you use the shuttle). You can also give them meds and food to give to the dog without any additional charge.

They have various rooms, a large area to play, and a pool.

They also have the option to board (the dog must attend the day care at least once first), salons, and training classes.

Of course, you can just go one day, but hey have multi-user packs or one-month unlimited use options.

The best thing about being an owner is that they have a web cam for each of the doggy rooms so you can check in on your loved one.

I'm pretty pleased with his first visit and I think Cody gives them a 4 paws up!

Little Rascal

Last night, I left Cody in the car for a couple of hours while I was at a friend's house. When I came back, I found that he had opened the center console and tore through his ziplock baggy of treats. I blame the fact that he was not exercised enough yesterday.

Since we had run to and from work on Tuesday, neither of us were interested in doing our morning workout Wednesday. He did have a half hour playtime Wed morning and we did a half hour run at the end of the day, but clearly it wasn't enough to keep him out of mischief. I wasn't that concerned about tiring him out yesterday because ...

He has his first day at Doggy Day Care t
A dayt without Codyoday!!!!

He's at Planet Pooch and there's a webcam so I can check him out. I'll post more on it tomorrow after I pick him up and get a complete view/review.

A day without Cody! I'm already going through withdrawal...