Sunday, September 30, 2012

Day 104: Sunday 9/30/12

Lets me just start off by saying that today was the most perfect day. It was so beautiful and sunny, the temperature was a moderate 67 degrees and there was a light breeze. We went for a walk in the woods near the doggie park and Charlie was off the leash. He frolicked around the whole time. We met up with a few other doggies on the paths and he made some new friends. We also stopped for a little while to eat at a diner. We tied Charlie up outside but we got a window seat inside so we could watch him while we ate. He was looking at us almost the whole time whole he laid there calmly. He had a few visitors and he let them pet him for as long as they wanted. We noticed he started getting antsy and we had been in there for a while, so it worked out.

We spent our first three waking hours outside today! It was so lovely to get so much fresh air! Charlie was pooped when we got home...

He's been responding very well to "Where's your toy/ball?". When we ask him, he looks around and when we tell him to go get it, he usually does. This is a HUGE improvement from before when he didn't even know what his toys were! derrrrrr!

Mark and Charles cuddling in bed the other night
4 month old Golden Retriever named Brogan.
Doggie playtime!
Digging!
Dirty nose.
Dirty paw paw!!
Halloween Yard!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Day 100!! We made it!

We are officially in the tripple digits, folks!

Charles has made a lot of progress since his first day with us. We've witnessed him act stubborn, depressed, scared, indifferent, mischievous, defiant, curious, loving, and of course happy and excited and smiley. All normal doggie emotions. We are still learning to read his expressions (ears, eyebrows, tail, mohawk, etc...)

I just ran across this interesting article on Psychology Today. It's written by Lee Charles Kelley and it's  about our relationships with dogs and how they react to our emotions. It's a quick and easy read and very insightful and helpful if you have a doggie! His website is here.

More on dog training at a later date... This girl is tired!

Charlie doesn't know how good he has it, see?

;)


Looking at Mark returning from doing laundry in the basement




Pre-bedtime face scrunch

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

DAY 99!! Tuesday, September 25

Home Sweet Home!!

Mark and I were in Ohio Since Wednesday evening and we returned to the city Monday afternoon. My cousin had an absolutely lovely wedding!! Congrats again, Emily and Shannon!. Marks sister graciously picked us up from the airport and we spent the evening at her house.

First things first: CHARLIE REMEMBERED US!!! He got all hyper and excited and he had that familiar look in his eye.

Second: Lisa's new puppy, Daisy is the most adorable thing on the planet. She's also the softest. If I could have one wish right now, it would be for photos to be 3-D so that you can feel how soft she is through the computer screen. But alas, you'll just have to imagine it. Her fur is basically white and she has blonde hair freckles on her face and her front legs. She's the same size as Charlie right now but she's going to get pretty big. I can't wait to see her all grown up!!

Charlie seems happy to be home. The time away from us did him some good - especially the time away from me. This morning, I put his food out for him to eat while I was in the shower and he ate all of it. Usually when I get out of the shower, the bathroom door is pushed upen because he will peek his head in to make sure I'm in there then go lay in the hallway, facing the door so he can see me when I get out of the shower. Lol. That was not the case this morning! He was laying in a part of the hallway where he couldn't even see me! Progress!!

A major thing that bothers me right now is that he doesn't listen. Sometimes we play out in the hallway before we bring him into the apartment. I brought him in from his walk earlier and made him sit and stay on the landing across the hall. Then came over to our landing and stood in front of our door. He got distracted by the noise of someone coming down the stairs and he would not come to me! I feel like an idiot standing there and calling him all excitedly and patting my legs. I don't know what to do... I should probably start keeping treats on me at all times and associating a treat with coming when he's called. I supposed it's just going to take time. It's most frustrating when we are someplace where he has a large area to run, run, run. I'm worried he will run into a busy street! Maybe it's time to buy that 25' training leash...

My Guys :)


Charlie and Daisy



Cylon Radar cleaning his paw paws



aaaaaaaaaaaa smiley doggie

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Day 94 (apparently) - Charlie's on vacay

Hey!

This is Lisa, Mark's sister.  Meaghan and Mark are off living the good life in Ohio for a few days, and Charles is crashing at our place.  We have a new puppy so I was a little nervous how these two would get on.  At first, Charles was having none of the puppy's nonsense.  She'd get a little too in-his-face and he would growl at her.  Him! Charlie!  I could barely believe it.  But I'd tell him in a stern voice to mind his manners and he'd shut right up.

Well, that was yesterday.  This morning while I was making my kids' lunches I hear them growling at each other in the living room.  I went in thinking I needed to break up a little tiff, and they were playing!  Charlie was doing a little play-bow and everything.  :)  However, as I'm sitting here typing this, Charlie's laying near my feet and Daisy came over to try to hang out with him and he acted like a prick again.  Dumb dog, she's just a baby and she wants to be your friend.

A bunch of our neighbors have met Charles so far and they've all remarked at his goofy looks and his very mellow demeanor.

He also took the longest pee in the history of everything last night.  My husband and I were in quite a state of disbelief.

Charles looking at something the puppy was doing

Sharing the water bowl (when the puppy's not trying to dig in it)

Charlie acting all mellow while my toddler, Katie, acts like a spaz.  He will put up with anything from the kids but that damned puppy irks him to no end!

I tried to get a little of the quick bout of playtime but I caught them at the tail end.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Day 91: Monday

Mark is visiting his sister and nieces and nephew for the night, so I have Charles all to myself. I got home and he was on the other side of the gate... "the other side of the gate" consists of a 3.5'x13.5' hallway leading to the front door. If he stays on the side he's supposed to stay on, he's got the whole apartment! And I found evidence that he was laying on the couch! (he left his bone up there, not very sneaky if you ask me). But nothing was disturbed. We leave some paper out on the floor for him go do his business on if he needs to. If he goes, which is most of the time, he always does it on the paper.

The past few weeks he hasn't been walking on his leash very well. All that means is he's pulling more often than we'd like. He's still the most well-behaved dog I've walked. But for our liking, he's pulling a little too much. I think we are going to have to purchase another Gentle Leader. It really works wonders if used properly! I recommend it to dog owners all the time. I don't know if I wrote about this, but he chewed his first Gentle Leader. Hated it that much! I can just imaging him angrily chewing at it "I'll show them. Nobody teaches me how to walk on a leash, see."

We've given him this silly voice. It's inspired by 40's gangster movies with Jimmy Cagney. An example is here. It's Dave Chappelle impersonating the voice (Sorry about the dumb video to go with it. It's just a sound clip.)

Okay, enough talk. Onto the photos!!

Mark with Little Charles. What a big baby!


















Cylon Radar in the alleyway after playing a nice game of fetch with the tenis ball. He's smiling and panting.



















Mark, with his sisters newly adopted pup.








Sunday, September 16, 2012

Day 90 and going strong

Good morning!! Help yourself to some big, happy doggie smiles!


Saturday, September 15, 2012

Day 90: Charlie in motion

DAY 90!!

OH!! And I almost forgot to post this.

Since I started the blog, I regretted not taking a screen shot of Charlie's post of Petfinder, where we first laid our eyes on him. Well... I was looking through old e-mails and low and behold, there was an e-mail I sent to Mark, showing him Charlie (Then named Radar)!!

So here is a first look at a nervous and lonely doggie looking for a stable, loving environment.

He looks like such a little freak! One major thing we've noticed with him is that he doesn't look like that anymore. The photos of him on Petfinder are of a scared and very nervous dog. You can see that his stub of a tail is curled under and his back is hunched, showing that he is uncomfortable.

We've been looking back at old photos of him and taking the time to reflect on his journey. He's come so far in 90 days!

Happy three months of happiness and love in our safe home, Mister Radar Charles Houdini!!

He's so happy living with us. He smiles all the time and wags his little stump and prances all around :)

I joke that I have nothing to talk to my therapist about since we've gotten him, but it's 75% true! It's so lovely to wake up to a wet nose in your face and a little waggy tail and a big wide open mouth smile. The favorite part of my day is waking up early and taking him for a nice long walk. Jogging around with him and getting that fresh, crisp morning air is such a great way to start the day.

Thanks for reading <3

Day 89: Photo Post!

The last time he was in his cage, this happened. Yes, that's poop.




Below, telling him he was a bad boy. Although I was extremely annoyed that I had to clean up this mess and give him a bath (it was super late on a work night), I know he didn't do it on purpose. I didn't yell at him, just asked why he couldn't have waited, or not made such a mess (haha). He looks more sad than I made him feel, I guarantee it. He's so good at looking forlorn, it's misleading. But I love, love, love this photo of him. He's so gosh darn beautiful :)



Cute little guy in a towel after getting a thorough scrubbing. :)




Two cute doggies we met at the dog run at Madison Square Park.



Mark posing with a copper statue (in front of the Polish Consulate General building in the city) and a Cylon Radar dog.


Cute little guy!!


My guys :)

Day 89: Saturday, September 15, 2011

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written! Lots of good and annoying things have happened...

We cannot seem to keep Charlie contained. We stopped trying to keep him in the cage while we're gone because it doesn't do any good. He's an escape artist, and a good one at that. Even when we have the webcam on him it seems to skip out on the escape part. I seriously think he figured out how to apparate (Harry Potter reference) out of it.

I came home one day to find that he had actually broken one of the locks off of the cage. He's got some sort of super power strength or something hidden in that tiny body of his. I don't know where his muscles are hiding. Or maybe there is a ghost in the apartment who unlocks the cage for him, lets him out, then locks the cage back up again. Nah.

One of the last times he was in the cage was when he made a huuuge poop mess in it. Poor puppy. That was the night he got a serious bath, and I took the whole cage apart and had to scrub it from top to bottom...

He's been sleeping in bed with us but only sometimes. I'd say he sleeps with us about 4 nights a week. He knows how to jump on the bed, but he can't figure out that he needs to get a running start first. If he jumps on the bed with his front two paws, he doesn't have enough leverage to get his whole body up. Sometimes we don't let him up if he can't figure it out himself. It's like a baby bird learning how to fly...he's got to learn on his own.

He's still completely fixated on me. When I'm getting ready for work, he'll lay in the hallway and stare me down whether I'm in the bedroom or the bathroom. And I noticed that he's caught on to the sound of my keys signifying leaving. I read that I should pick up my keys and carry them with me around the house, or pick them up then sit down and read for a little bit, just so he gets used to the sound and doesn't associate it with me leaving. He's been really good at the "go" or "go lay down" command. I use it when I want him to get out of the way or if he's laying in the hallway staring at me. I say "go" and point in the direction I want him to go in and he goes!

He has been playing with ALL of his toys except the braided rope we made him. He loves his orange toy and will pick it up without encouragement from us. We are constantly refilling it with bits of his food because he knows how to get them out now. :) We are proud parents!

OH! I have huge news!! We think we know what type of dog he is, or at least we think we know a huge part of his ancestry... Mark was watching dog videos on youtube.com the other day (yes, we are obsessed with doggies, no we aren't ashamed to admit it) and he came across a doggie called an Anatolian Shepherd aaaaand we are positive that he's got SOME Anatolian in him somewhere because of the coloring and demeanor. They are Turkish dogs that were used for hunting!! Some can grow as big as a Saint Bernard! I mean, LOOK at this little puppy face and try to tell me this isn't what Charlie is! We also think he's part basset hound because of the size and howl/bark (even though he isn't all droopy like they are... I don't know how DNA works!!). So, although we are sad that we didn't get to see our guy as a puppy, we pretty much know what he looked like. Oh, it just breaks my heart that he's so sweet and loving and calm, but there's a chance that someone was mean to him!! It makes me sick to my stomach.

In other news, back to the confinement strategy: we bought a gate to go across the hallway. We figured that he didn't like having such a small amount of space to hang out in all day. Also, we stopped using the iCam every day, since he was getting out of his cage and we were at work, it was less stressful for us to just not know what was going on at home. BUT we had to use it again the other day. After having the gate up for two days, he managed to escape from it on the second day... so we watched him on the third day. Mark went to work in the afternoon so Charles only ended up being home alone for 3.5 hours until I got home and was on the other side of the gate. We didn't use iCam, we used Photobooth so that it caught every second of it. You can watch his great escape here.

Mark took him to the baseball fields a few weeks ago so that he could run around off the leash, and boy did he take advantage of it! You can watch a silly video of Charlie running here. He looks so silly and wobbly!! lol. And here is a video of him running around in the doggie park.

I'll post all photos in the next entry. This post is too long as it is!

Thank you for reading :)

Friday, September 14, 2012

Happily Day 89 :)

I know it's been a while since I posted. I have half of a long post already written for tomorrow, but I wanted to quickly post the link to "10 Things Your Dog would Tell You". If you know anyone who is getting a dog or thinking about getting a dog or mistreating their dog (or any pet!!!), please pass this along!! Pets everywhere will thank you :)

<3

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