Summer came and went...

I didn't realize I haven't blogged in the past 3 months or so.  I feel bad because I've been a bit of a zombie lately.  But it's ok because my dogs love me anyways :)

Aspen is starting to show her true colors.  She's getting ornery.  For one thing, she has made it explicitly clear that she does not like the neighbor dogs, and 2 nasty encounters later she is no longer allowed off-leash or outside at the same time they are.  It stinks because we can't even trust her in the yard off leash, due to the fact that I can't guarantee my neighbors will look before they let their dogs out.  They open the door and the dogs charge ahead of them and run straight for the fence - at Aspen.  But Aspen is the staffie so it's all her fault.

On another note, she loves to play tag, and there's nothing she enjoys more than running around with her toy in her mouth.  She frolics!  She will hop like a little bunny too.  Fun to watch.

She learned how to catch treats in the air, and how to sit.  She still tries to pull your arm off when on the leash unless she has her gentle-lead on.  She tolerates Sherlock, the new puppy, real well.  And loves to cuddle with the kids and watch TV - I think that's her favorite.  We're still working on teaching her that jumping on people is not appropriate.

And she looks pitiful all the time, but don't let that fool you: She gets affection.  A lot.  She's no longer that deprived, sad little rescue she was late last year.  That's just her facial expression now; she learned to play you like a fiddle!

She's been camping and hiking with us.  And we all survived to tell about it.  She likes to swim and catch minnows.  She has no kind of recall what so ever so she can't be allowed off-leash.

She loves Paul.  Paul can get her to sit still for a nail trim.  Paul can put eye drops in her eyes.  She'll do anything for Paul; just melts for him.  He's the man of her heart.  I'm ok with that!  She is 50 lbs of rock solid muscle and strong enough to drag me around, so I'm definitely glad she will submit to someone in this household!

I also acquired Sherlock.  He's a purebred Cardigan Welsh Corgi from a real good litter that one of our vets delivered at the clinic I work at.  Darn that sucker is cute!  And he's still just a baby (less than 5 months old), but doing pretty good.  We got the kennel thing down, he's going to dog school, he can hike and play fetch with the rest of us, and he's active enough to keep up.  A bit obnoxious when it comes to constantly playing and constantly investigating... But that's age appropriate.  He has his cuddle bug moments when he'll sit on my lap and get loved on, but more than that he loves going for walks.  So he's keeping me on my toes.  I'm hoping to show him and finally learn to show (scratch that from my bucket list!).  I think he'd also do good at flyball or agility.  He is so smart!  Unfortunately he's also a bit of a butt-head sometimes, trying to get his way instead of listening to you.

We'll see where this road takes us.  To successful dog ownership or bust.