"Touch" and "Paw"

 Winston has learned the "touch" (with his nose) command and the "paw" command. So, now we build on those commands by pointing to other objects and asking him to "touch" or "paw."

"I can do it! " Paw

Mark and Winston also worked on "wave." Looks like Winston is getting the hang of it! 

Also, Winston worked on "crawl." Can't wait to build on these blocks and teach more cool tricks.

Well done, Winston!

HO! HO! HO!

So we took Winston to see Santa Claws at Petsmart today!  We were afraid to take the whole clan...we thought we may be banned from Petsmart forever!

So here are some candid shots with Ole Saint Nick:

 Winston looks so cute! Santa did not think Winston would wear the hat but he did! He is a good boy!

 Winston was a tad leery of Santa a first.

 Soon Winston warmed up to Santa!

Santa looked pretty authentic.

I think Winston liked Santa! He asked for an unlimited supply of dog food for Christmas!

A busy week with the Thanksgiving holiday.  Winston helped with the cooking! Just kidding! He does like the texture of celery but did not really want to "eat it" just chew on it some.

Winston does like raw carrots! Poor guy is always hungry and these make good  low calorie snacks that he can munch on.  It is tough to keep his weight in check with his voracious appetite coupled with his in-ability to exercise much while his legs are still healing.

We also headed back to PetSmart for class and Winston tried on a jacket. It fit OK but Mark did not really like it. On to training...

More practice with other dogs, "crowds," strangers, loose leash walking, etc as we prepare Winston for Canine Good Citizen.

 

meeting a "stranger and a neutral dog

"come" when called 

Winston has become an official tracking dog!! He is going to the woods all the time now and he was successful this past weekend in his first live field tracking experience! He loved getting dirty, too.  More great adventures to come...

Grooming Day!

Everyone went to the groomer today.  Don't they look adorable?!

Carly is really happy that Winston is not touching her!! 

Carly Girl! 

My big man, Elliott! He looks so happy. 

An added advantage to our groomer http://bellapoochgrooming.com/indexMain.html  is that the dogs have doggie day care, too! This is great fun for the dogs and it makes them exhausted all night! All three of them have not even moved tonight! 

Mark took the first four pics with his new camera! The last ones were with my iPhone. Now, we must convince Winnie Pooh to wake up so we can practice for class tomorrow.

Busy week

Winston had class again this week and he had to practice stay with distractions. Lindsey, our instructor, threw toys around as the dogs were placed into "stay."  Winston was especially intrigued by this screaming monkey toy but he did great and held his "stay" until he was released.

Jackson and Taz looking cute at class.  Overall another great class and we hope Winston is another step closer to becoming a Canine Good Citizen! 

Back to work:  Winston sorted the mail at work.

Then he needed a nap.

Winston also  helped with recycling.

Elliott was caught in one of his favorite poses on the back on the loveseat. He thinks he is a cat!

Elliott catches up on current events in the Wall Street Journal. 

Mark got a new camera this week and Winston is always a willing subject!

Carly and Winston still struggle to get along and I am not sure why she wanted to get right here when Winston was sitting all quietly by himself. I think she was jealous and wanted attention. She still looks at Winston with utter disdain! Winston practices the Riley patented head tilt!

Winston checks out his blog and maybe a little online shopping!

I am sure lots of adventures await Winston and Company as we move into Thanksgiving! Wow, the year has gone by quickly.  Look for lots of experimenting with the new camera in the coming weeks!

New Training Video

OK, we had some technical video problems with our iphone cameras.  Note to self:  You can't take a vertical video and convert it to landscape without making your instructor look like a midget and your Glen a dachshund.  However, if you do, it makes for a very comical result.  Please enjoy Winston's last obedience class as we try to get our pets ready for CGC and TD.
http://www.vimeo.com/16810084

Our Best Pictures of Winston So Far!

Today, Winston is 7 weeks post op.  He is still sometimes lame when he gets up from a nap or after walking a fair distance.  We know Winston's elbows are better, but we were concerned that maybe we didn't get the 100% correction we were hoping for.  The only way to know for sure was to shoot some xrays and see what our vets had to say.

We took Winston in today and below are pictures of his xrays.

What you are looking at is Winston's forearm, the radius (curved bone) and the ulna (the broken one).  The problem Winston had was the the round looking bone wasn't mating right with the radius and this was causing pain.  The radius did not fit against the ball evenly at all.  Now you see the spacing between the radius and the socket is uniform.  Yipee Ky Yay!  Our local vet who shot the xray said he was looking at a perfectly normal doggy elbow.

I emailed the above copies to our surgeon, Dr. Mother Mary, and she happily concurred that Winston's elbow looks frigging great.

I guess you also see the ulna is still broken.  Mother cut a piece of bone out and to delay the healing, she inserted a fat pad.  Well, the delay tactic has worked and allowed the radius to relax and to fit back into socket.  The ulna still has a lot of healing to do and, sadly, Winston will be on restriction for at least a couple more weeks.  However, this is a tiny price to pay for a lifetime of an elbow(s) that work right.

I can tell you we are breathing a huge sigh of relief this evening and want to give a huge amount of gratitude to our local vet, Dr. Coy, and, especially to Mother Mary who has proven to us she is not only a great breeder but a fantastic vet.