Miracles do happen!

Winston had another great and fun filled week! He is soo adorable that I can't stop taking pictures of him! He is a total ham and looks up at me with those soulful brown eyes and says "yeah, I am cute!" Of course I had to take a pic of Winston with my favorite beverage!

We did have a miracle this week! Winston and Carly were able to share the pet bed without growling!!! Usually Carly growls at Winston if he is even within her field of vision but they were able to co-habitat here for a few minutes. Winston still continues to be relentless with Carly and has not taken "no!" for an answer with her.

Star Pupil!!!

Winston attended his first puppy training class at Pet Smart last night! Of course, he was the STAR pupil! Here he is with the trainer, Lindsey, where she demonstrated the "watch" command. I think Winston thinks "watch" means "EAT!" because he was rewarded with tasty treats and loved it. He is such a ham! Mark says he is like a politician: always shaking hands and winning folks over with his charisma. Winston had a huge night, meeting both human and canine friends and his first shopping trip, too! He had a great time and was very confident and content. He was intimidated by the sliding doors at the entrance but I know he can conquer those soon.

Winston is rapt at attention--must be the tasty treats Lindsey has! Winston has a new girlfriend: Jasmine the Westie.
Another new friend and fellow classmate: a Goldendoodle!

Winston's Shih Tzu classmate:

Winston's other classmates were a 50 pound Mastiff puppy who was a little leery of Winston. There was also a cute mixed breed dog who had a lot of energy and wanted to play. All in all a great group of dogs. We had a super instructor and we look forward to next Tuesday night. Now to work on Winston's homework!

Cabbage Patch Puppy

Winston is obsessed with my garden-he loves the big leaves on the cabbages. See, babies really do come from cabbage patches!

Always helpful, Winston helps with the garbage. (Looks like an advertisement for Glad bags!)

Winston has learned he can jump now. Not that he goes very high on those short legs but he loves to jump on Elliott. Elliott really enjoys it...most of the time. Sometimes El just does not want to play. Carly still keeps her distance for the most part.
This photo looks really menacing but I promise they are just playing! I took this pic right when they were snapping the air playing. Even though Elliott looks vicious here I PROMISE he plays nice with the baby!

This is a clip of Winston attacking the pet bed. Since Carly and Elliott will not play with him that much, he has to entertain himself!! He will do this for hours but he caught me filming this clip and became shy!

This pic is really low light but Winston looks so cute. "Whaddya eatin?" he asks?

Winston turns in to psycho puppy around 8PM. He is tired, hungry and cranky so he goes a little crazy with the biting and chasing and he likes to fight with the pet bed---I will post a video of that one! So after psycho puppy mode, Winston crashes. He likes to seek the safe harbour under this chair. He uses this same strategy when he plays with Elliott--he will run and chase and then duck under the chair for "safety!" Problem is, he can barely fit under the lowest dowel that he likes to scooch under now! So, I took two pics of him crashed under the chair: the back view and
the side view.

Being a puppy is hard work! Winston needs his beauty rest!

Little Helper

Winston is going places! Here he is on the 4 wheeler with Mark. He is going to learn to drive soon!

You can see how helpful Winston is. Here he helps Carly with her leash. You can imagine why she hates him so... Winston grabs Elliott by the collar but he has not been that brave with Carly... yet.
Here Winston is helping me put away clothes. I wore a black and white wrap blouse today and Winston caught the wrap around ties. He has good taste--it is Ann Taylor.

Yesterday was Earth Day so Winston helped with the recycling.

Toilet paper toys

Winston discovered toilet paper a few days ago. I have(HAD!) a basket full of rolls on the floor in the BR and he helped himself. I wonder why puppies always love paper and especially TP? Carly loved it, too. Winston loves cardboard, TP and paper more than his huge stash of toys.

Winston helped Mark with the sprinklers. I can see a future in digging for him but we really hoped he would go to college. ;)

Carly was enjoying the sun and rolling around outside. Winston thought that was a sign she wanted to play. He made his approach and was rebuffed but she did not seem as intolerant today--no growling. Maybe one day...

The lower one is a huge mess and all the dogs have been running through the red clay. Winston ran through it, rolled in it and ate it!!! Needless to say, they all needed baths. Here he is looking sheepish...and cute. The grass is always greener on the other side. That blur at the end, is his nubbin' wagging!

The war continues, face off : Mano y Mano ! Carly stares Winston down, daring him to walk the hall! In her defense, Winston just spent the last few minutes barking at her persistently and just generally harassing her.

Carly has to chose her battles. For the most part she just ignores Winston which is quite a task since he is so "in your face" and a general bad ass! Elliott is playing with Winston almost everyday. So, I still hold out for peace.

super rhinodog (rhino as in nose!)

We have been leaving tasty little tidbits inside Winston's crate in order to make it a fun place for him to go and find treats. Today when I came home and let beastie boy out, he ran to his crate to look for treats!! It was soo funny! The boy is a chow hound!

You can see him trying to pull up the mat in this pic to check underneath for treats! I love this dog!

In the car for a short trip. He just looked so cute, I had to take a pic. Part of me really wants him to grow up but the other part of me wants him to stay a puppy forever! I love his puppy breath, puppy grunts and crazy antics!

Treats and Tree Bark

Winston received another welcome gift today! Aunt Toni, Uncle Scott, Barclay and Deliah gave him some homemade treats! He will share with Carly and Elliott. The boy loves to eat though!

Mark has always hated this sycamore tree in the yard and threatens to take it down. (Of course this is the one tree Ivan spared!) All the puppies we have had have been drawn to this tree though! Winston loves it and had a blast chewing on it.
Tree bark---it's what's for dinner!

"Who, me?"

This is a HUGE stick from the tree! He loves to carry it around and succeeded in getting one a tad smaller through the pet door but I have no idea how--kid's got skills!
Our life with Winston continues to be filled with adventures! Can't wait to see what his next adventure will be!

Intro to agility 101, part one of two!

I had too many pics to post in one posting so this is part 1!

So, I bought an "agility in the bag" starter kit before we brought Winston home. We were not thinking that we would compete with any of the dogs with agility, we just thought it would be fun for the dogs and allow us more play time with them. Here Winston helps with the "bag" that contains the equipment. Since Winston will not be able to do any jumping yet (have to wait for the growth plates to grow first) we thought it would be fun to introduce all the dogs to the tunnel and chute. We started at first with just having all the doggies enter the tunnel (blue section) first and adding tasty treats inside for them to find. Next we added the chute at the bottom (red part) which makes it a little more intimidating since it is darker at that end. We really do hope Winston will be able to compete in Earthdog so we want him to be used to overhead environments.

Carly checks out the tunnel.

Carly exists the chute--"that was nuttin'! Where is my treat?!""


Next, Mark guides Winston to enter the tunnel.

I had too many pics to fit them all in one post so I have to make 2 posts so see the part 2 post for more pics!!!

Intro to agillity 101 , PART 2

So, in the last pic of the last post Winston was entering the tunnel. Here he is making his way along...
Winston flying at the speed of puppy!

Winston pokes his head out to check things out.

"OK, I did it, where is my treat?"

Winston likes the tunnel and chute so much he sneaked inside with Elliott! Carly searches for any misplaced treats on the outside.

All the dogs had a blast playing today. It was fun to watch them and capture it all.

Vet Check!

Winston had another milestone today: He met our vet, Dr Coy at Pine Meadow Vet Clinic (see the link on the side of the blog!) If you need a new vet, we love Pine Meadow and they gave us some coupons for new clients so let me know and I can share one with you. We have been using them since we moved back to Pensacola and have been clients of Dr Coy's since he and Dr Stafford bought the clinic. They were all so great to us when Seamus became ill and passed away.

Winston was a little trooper during the exam with Dr Coy and Tabitha. Winston really liked the ear scratches Tabitha gave him!
Next up the dreaded needles--Winston did great and never uttered a peep.

Winston was up to 11.5 pounds today! That is over a pound of weight gain in less than one week!! After the exam, Winston preceded to fall asleep. Of course, he got a clean bill of health and will be back in a few weeks for the next trip.

Wanted: a little rubber ducky to make bathtime fun!

First Winston had to get good and dirty!!! He started by helping dad find the sprinkler heads in the back yard!!!

Next ,Winston added some leaves to his look to make sure he was dirty enough! Bath time!!! He looks so pitiful but he was a great sport and did not seem to mind one bit that he was getting cleaned up. Here is Winston in his spa towel!" I'm too sexy for my towel, my towel...."Winston gets brushed, next. I am soo cute! (and clean!)