7 months and some change...

Sorry it took a while for a new posting.. my summer classes require a lot of homework plus I had a test, plus it was mine and twinny's birthday so yeah.. lots of stuff but here is Bob's 7 months and another post-op update.

So, first off it has been pretty un-eventful on Bob's frontier... he is stuck in his cone until he gets his stitches out, which will be on Sunday so yay. He'll be able to go to class with me on Monday and Wednesday and then my other two classes on Thursday because I have a test Tuesday. Yay me. Oh - on that note, Michelle worked her magic and Bob is now 'allowed' to go to all my classes! Ok, now you may be wondering why he has to be stuck in his cone for so long.. basically its a rule at GDTx that the dogs stay in cones until their stitches come out.. doesn't matter if they notice them or not its a precaution just in case they decide to rip them out. So yeah, stitches = cone.
Speaking of this cone - it has caused quite some mayhem in our apartment... First, I have confirmed my professional diagnosis that Bob has Pica... Why? Because he has slowly been eating away at his cone and even though that is probably normal I'm sticking with my diagnosis! So yeah - in order to stop him from continuing to chew/eat that yummy plastic we decided to put packing tape on his cone where it has been chewed and broken. Yes broken because Bob just hasn't realized that his head is now 5 times the size that he's used to, and this boy has a pretty big head so that can't be easy to adjust to... poor kid.

Bob has also been banished to the living room because his cone makes me cranky.. it does this because every time he moves around in his crate his cone scrapes against the bars and it sounds like he's trying to blow the thing up.. at least thats what flashes in my head at 3 in the morning when I'm woken up from it. So yes, he's in the living room and keeps forgetting that whenever he is told to go to his bed - he automatically runs for the bedroom when I have to remind him. Once he sees his crate though he remembers and charges in - most of the time hitting his cone on the top and being flung backwards but hey - a little whiplash is good for a growing puppy right?

On a much happier note, we have been using this down time to further set in Bob's obedience and to work on his heel - which is now great and would be better if he didn't slap me with that darned cone on his turn-around. Yay Bob! He has also started automatically waiting at doorways (to outside) without me asking everytime, now I can't test this out yet but hopefully it will transfer over easily to outside work too. Yay Bob!

Also, not that its really necessary to tell but since I want to - here ya go, I made cake balls for mine and Erin's birthday :) Darrell helped, he rolled out all the little balls. It took me a couple tries to get it right but once I changed from cake balls to cake pops it went much smoother lol. Basically I just stuck a lollipop stick to all the things and then dunked them. Had to let them dry in some foam but it was worth it :) I have a few pictures of the process on my facebook so if you follow that link up in the top corner (the picture of Bob laying down on brown tile) you should be able to access that album. Just incase you wanted to see ;)

Oh, and his 7 things: Hmmmmmmmm..... We'll change this up and add some future things in there too...

1. His down stay will hopefully improve greatly with the help of my lab class that I will be taking him to every Monday and Wednesday. He will be tied down in a corner for the entire class period, its chemistry lab so he can't be under my table - too dangerous. I hope to get him to the point where the tie down is not necessary, we'll see. lol.

2. I have no idea how he is going to handle being at school for such a long straight amount of time every Tuesday and Thursday. Hopefully it won't wear him down too much - I know I feel like poo when I leave for home those days lol. Maybe its just mental strain... hmmm

3. His house manners have greatly improved since he has been stuck inside - yay Bob!

4. I still think he has Pica.... lol just kidding... kind of

5. He is settling down so much quicker lately.. he gets excited about things like normal but it doesn't take him as long to just chill you know?

6. He really likes fetch - with bones... I don't like fetch with bones.. I exchange for kongs and he finds another bone after a while.. we need a yard lol.

7. He really really really likes the smoked knuckle bone Michelle gave him for his... well nothing special really.. Michelle just hearts bob :) But seriously.. he's obsessed.

Ok so on to the real pictures that you were all waiting for - I wasn't going to post them because the wacky tape job on the cone is just embarrassing but you convinced me so ok.

Please try to ignore the damage and focus on the cuteness inside :) 

Ok, now you can focus on the damage ;) 

I heart that face :) 

P.S. Did you know that the hair on the tip of his tail swirled? P.S. did you know he has 2 black spots all the way on the back of his tongue? P.S. Would you believe me if I told you the leg in the background is not mine?

He has the prettiest eyes ;) That blob of stuff covering the bottom of his face are his legs by the way. 

P.S. Did you see that really cool picture of the bird taking off from a tree branch? I took it this morning :)

Recuperation is a plastic head cone

So, as we all know, Bob had his 'manhood' surgery yesterday... you'll be happy to know that he is doing just fine especially considering his special circumstances... Oh you don't know? Yes, Bob had special circumstances, you see he was born a "monarch" which pretty much means only one of his testicles descended. Ok - puppy embryology lesson for you... When male puppies are in the womb their testes actually form up in the region around their intestines/kidney area, they must travel all the way down and chill out around the tail area until they mature. Well, one of Bob's testes didn't want to make that trip so it stayed up there... It's not usually a terrible thing in dogs but in Bob's case it attached to something and they had to make a second incision to retrieve it.. The doctor actually said it was his personal 3rd hardest retrieval he has ever had to perform... so now poor baby has two incisions and is being treated like he was spayed because of the one deeper incision. I have never had to do after care on a spay or neuter so I can't really tell you the difference in treatment, I just know he's a bit miserable....

Here are some pics so you can see how he's doing - this was last night - he was a bit loopy.


Ok, First thing he did when he got home was eat dinner (well only half..) then he went and picked up a bone (I actually had to hand it to him because he hadn't figured out the cone yet.. Well, he took his bone and stood there for about 2 minutes just standing and staring and holding his bone. Then he went over and dropped it in his food bowl...

I actually think he was looking for more food.... hmm

Then he changed his mind and wanted it back...

Well, Egypt wanted it too.. Bob didn't seem to care much...

He doesn't like his cone of shame :( He just stood around staring at nothing - I assume its upset due to the cone and groggy-ness due to the drugs - poor boy.

Well after about 5 minutes of him just standing around I had him go to his bed, I didn't lock him in just in case he wanted to come out and do something... he fell asleep in about 2 seconds.. I left him there :)

 There was one instance where Bob came trotting out into the living room, he went straight to the patio door so I thought he had to pee.. I let him out, he stood there for a minute and then walked back to the patio. So, we came back inside and Bob began trotting around like he was looking for something, he went in and out of a couple of rooms and was just looking... but was looking with a purpose lol. He finally stopped and laid down and just flopped over and chilled for a bit - he was a bit loopy.

This was him this morning - I think he has become one with the cone lol...

Also - Tangent story :

The microwave thinks I am immature.... We had to put on new sticky buttons for Darrell and in the process of testing them out to make sure they were all in the right place the microwave started name calling - I didn't know how to respond... lol.

Can you see Darrell's sticky buttons? They are in all the important places..

Then I get message from Mr. Microwave - how rude! lol. I guess I pushed the buttons one too many times...

It's too quiet..

I dropped Bob off this morning (at 7:30 AM!) my summer brain didn't like that but it will get over it... Oh - dropped him off at the vet's office for his operation - now its too quiet here lol. Everyone wish him luck!

This is us at the Vet's office.. the car was parked and he got all excited to get out of the car - its funny because when he's on the floor in the front (too much stuff there right now lol) he wouldn't get up until I opened that other door - in the back he gets up when the car turns off.. funny kid. 

Also, wanna hear what happened with the whole school thing?! Well I got another e-mail asking me to contact another person because they wanted to verify that I was an actual volunteer associated with an actual organization..... Because bringing a big hyper 6 month old lab to school is just soooooooo much fun :/

Also, please note that I had shown each one of my professors my GDTx ID card, written down the laws and Michelle's contact info for 1 professor, sent an email with the laws and Michelle's contact info to another lady (the written information was supposed to be given to her btw). So, to get another email telling me that (my translation) no one read my information and no one believed that I actually do what I do - really irritated me. So, I tried to call lady #2, she didn't answer, I left a voicemail. Got mad a second later and decided to email her - so I did... basically I didn't want to have to be nice again so I said Hi, gave my name and then gave Michelle's information (this is the 3rd time - maybe it will work this time..) and sent it... 

Well, I get an email back saying that she will have to verify with Michelle that I 'work' for them and then I should be good to bring my dog... Well thanks.. So, I started my reply email which pretty much said thanks, I appreciate that you want to check for that kind of thing (so 'illegal trainers' don't bring their random pets onto campus) however I was upset with the way that the entire process played out... I mentioned that I had shown my GDTx ID to each one of my professors and that I had given Michelle's information twice already and blah blah blah... Well right when I was about to press send guess who calls me back!?!? Dang it!!!! lol. So, I'm forced to tell her everything in my email but not as mean-ish because I just can't be like that over the phone / in person.... darn me! Actually my email wasn't even that mean, I just like to pretend it was.. Well, she tells me that she had no idea that I had an ID with GDTx and that all I need to do is come over and make a copy of it and I should be good....... Now I can't even be mad at her... whatever - *pouty face* lol.

So I run over to the lady's office before class and she makes a copy of my ID and says something about "We have never worked with GDTx before so we just weren't sure..." I want to say something along the lines of "it shouldn't matter who you're working with, just because you don't know who it is doesn't mean you can question it - do some research! (I gave the web address to everyone!) " But I never said that.. I just smiled and nodded.. told her they were here in San Antonio and around where and she got all excited that they were so close to her home (?) anyways - little rant is over I guess... just had to get it out..

Don't get me wrong - I do appreciate that they are trying to stay within the rules of their 'no pets' policy but that shouldn't have been that hard - which it wasn't.. mainly just a miscommunication I guess.. but still! lol.. maybe I just want to be mad at someone but now there isn't really anyone to be mad at lol.

Also - disclaimer about saying Bob isn't fun to take places - he is, I like going on training walks with him where focus is on him the whole time and learning and stuff - school however is not fun... mainly because I have to write down EVERYTHING or else I won't understand what is going on and he sometimes won't let me do that - but I know its good for him so I deal with it lol.. its not always bad... just if he doesn't get enough energy out before we go (which I know is my fault lol).. anyways.. yeah, thats my disclaimer - hope you enjoyed!

P.S. Does anyone want to make these for my birthday? If not I guess I will force Darrell to roll out all the little balls for me :)

Red Velvet Cake Balls - find the recipe here: Click Me! 

College makes you smart

Guess what! Bob now knows heel! For the past month (or two) Bob has started to become a puller, on Monday I stopped by GDTx to give them a CD of pictures and Michelle taught me a figure-8 trick to get Bob back into the correct position while walking.. Well, turns out that I haven't actually needed to use it the past couple of days because I haven't needed it (He confuses me...) Anyways, today he did need it and I did it a few times the first time we went somewhere and he was good until we got home. Well, the second time we went somewhere I had Bob sit at the door like I usually do, opened it, walked through and then turned around and instead of telling him 'lets go' I had him 'heel' again, and he did it!!!! He didn't do it perfectly but he still did it! He kind of walked out nicely, turned around and stood crooked to me and looked up :) I got him into the correct position and had him sit and he got his treat and then he walked nicely all the way to the car! Yay!!! I am however a little bit depressed because he gets neutered on Tuesday and Michelle told me he would probably forget a bit of stuff that he has learned recently... dang! lol. I guess its not that bad though, because he really is pretty much the smartest dog ever... haha. No really, show him something once and he has it down! His issue is listening.. which I guess is really my issue, I need to get him to pay attention thus need to find ways to engage him more - either way he's smart though - you can tell he was born to work. Plus the fact that he's (normally) really good when he's working but he's not so good at home (only recently actually) - He's actually started stealing things, he used to just sniff things and then get told to 'leave it' which he did and normally wouldn't go back to whatever it was, now he has started bypassing the sniff phase and goes right into snatching - ummm not good... At least he's constantly supervised though so he gets corrected right away..

Anyways, about college I started my summer semester at a community college here and am having another slight complication - not nearly as bad as this past semester but just people not listening I guess... I have a chemistry class, a chemistry lab, and a physics class... The lab professor (of all people) was the coolest with it - he was a bit depressed when I told him he couldn't pet him though lol. The only thing I'll have to do is tie him up in the back away from the traffic flow of dangerous chemicals. The physics teacher was pretty excited too - both teachers made announcements to the class to help me out :) The Chemistry class teacher is the complicated one though - not really him exactly, he seemed excited as well but when I went to class the next day (without Bob because I hadn't told the class yet) the teacher said he had mentioned it to his head of department (or something) and they wanted to check out some things first... ok - well here is my ID card (again) with the laws on it and if you want you can photo copy it and give to your person... well he asked me to write it down for him so he could just give it to her and it shouldn't be a problem - :) - not really.. I get an email the next day asking me to contact the head of student success because she had some questions and concerns... ok. So, I emailed her and told her exactly what I wrote down and told her to contact either me or Michelle with any questions... So, now I'm just waiting till Monday to hear a reply.. great - at least he's getting neutered on Tuesday so theres a little bit of time to get things settled... I'm taking him on Monday though! The lab professor is cool with it so bring it on! This situation doesn't really bother me but it just annoys me because I gave them the laws and they are still asking questions!!! Ah!

P.S. Have you ever had Oma's spaghetti? It's like the best stuff ever :) I need to make some.

Sorry no doggy pictures today - haven't taken any :/ lol.