Labradoodle & Goldendoodle Forum
20 weeks old, and 12 weeks in!
Penny has been with us for 12 weeks already? Sheesh! Doesn’t seem that long, although sometimes it feels like she’s been part of the family forever, a contradiction I know, but hey you know what I mean. Last week I mentioned that in puppy obedience class we learned a new way (well new to me) of training your dog to walk on the leash without pulling, by letting the leash out and when she starts to pull, you stop until the leash slackens then walk on...kinda works, but kinda doesn’t too. It’s great in an open area with no distractions, but if I’m walking down the sidewalk in our sub-division, she doesn’t pull so much as dives into other people’s front yards, or towards anything that moves, whether it’s a person, dog, cat or a leaf blowing in the wind. Not to mention all the garbage she can find in the gutter and pick up. I feel I have no control over her whatsoever. So I’ve gone back to the tried and tested method, she hardly ever pulls that way, although she does stop and sit down for no apparent reason every now and then. I can’t understand that, and if I jerk the leash to get her to come, she gags and makes an unholy choking sound as If I’m strangling her. Any suggestions on how I can overcome that would be much appreciated.
Isn’t doggy daycare a wonderful thing? Normally we don’t do much at the weekend, money is tight, more and more people on the roads are lunatics, so it’s a lot easier just to stay at home or thereabouts, have fun with the dog and watch TV, but not this last weekend. I apologize in advance for going off topic, but I thought you all might be interested, if not let me know. Here is a brief rundown from Saturday to Sunday: Saturday morning, took Penny to doggy daycare (more on that later), drove into Portland, picked up Jeri’s mom and took a trip out to a Dahlia nursery, I never knew there were so many different kinds of shape and colors, took over 150 photos, which include at least 100 stunning close-ups, even though I do say so myself, here’s one:
Then back to Jeri’s mom’s house and back home. That evening we went to party, again a drive to Portland, I have a friend in the music business and he was celebrating his 40th birthday, fifteen years late.
But let me interject. On our way to the party, we were cruising nicely down the freeway, a cop passed us with all lights blazing. About 2 minutes later, we exited the freeway onto a 2 lane highway, and we saw the cop ahead, now with another cruiser pulling over a silver pickup. As we approached, they’d all come to halt and one of the cops stood in the road to stop the traffic, we had a ringside seat to what happened next. The cop’s buddy had already drawn his weapon and was pointing it toward the pickup. The cop who stopped us, ducked inside his cruiser and brought out a semi-automatic and also pointed it at the truck. Then 2 more cruisers pulled up, they also pointed their weapons at the truck....This is interesting, we thought! Jeri who was driving that night couldn’t see what was going on because there was an SUV in front of us, so I gave this running commentary: “OK, his hands are out of the truck, his door’s opening, he’s getting out, he’s facing the cops, he’s pulling his shirt up (I’m assuming to prove he wasn’t armed), he’s turning round and pulling his shirt up again. Now he’s clasping his hands behind his back, he’s walking backwards towards the cops, he’s reached the cruiser, he’s dropping to his knees”....by this time Jeri could see what was going on. The cops then were all over him, handcuffing him, throwing him in one of their cars. Then they all approached the pickup again, weapons ready....”Uh oh!” I said “there must be someone else in the truck”...but I, and obviously the cops were mistaken, because they reached the truck, pointed guns through every window, but found nothing. Then we were waived on.....no fight, no shooting, but exciting all the same!
Meanwhile, back to the party. There were about 50 people there, and we were treated to a very intimate outside concert in my friend’s back yard. Jennifer Batten, an outstanding guitarist, who toured with Michael Jackson for 10 years and more recently with Jeff Beck, played for us. All on her own, with digital back up tracks and appropriate video in the back ground. She says it’s helluva lot cheaper than putting a band up in hotel rooms and listening to their whining...ha ha! Just awesome, she is incredibly talented and was a hoot to boot. For more info about Jennifer, go to: www.jenniferbatten.com.
Let me tell you about this doggy daycare. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, we took Penny to a daycare called Woof World. It was OK, but for some reason, neither Jeri or I were happy about taking her back, bad vibe or something, who knows? Anyway, a few days before the party, Jeri remembered Brenda, the vet’s assistant to the vet she used to go when she had her Doberman, had left the surgery to start her own doggy daycare, we’re talking about 12 or more years ago here, so we were skeptical that we would find her. But after a bit of searching on the good ol’ world wide web, we found her and her business Happy Puppy Park. We called and Brenda’s business partner answered and said that Brenda was out but unfortunately they didn’t have any vacancies, but as Jeri knew Brenda, would get her to call Jeri back on her return. A couple of hours later, Brenda called and said that as she knew Jeri and remembered her Doberman, Ivan the Terrified, that if we’d like to bring Penny up on Saturday morning, she could spend the day and night with them. They are not a boarding kennels, but they do have a select number of dogs owned by doctors and nurses etc that stay over the weekend. This place is amazing, on our arrival at 9am Saturday morning, we took Penny into the compound, Brenda and her partner Robin greeted us, they opened a door to their house and about 9 dogs piled out to greet Penny, she was a little intimidated at first, for about 15 seconds as they all sniffed her, then they all ran off into the compound with Penny in hot pursuit. The compound, as you’ll see in the following photos is massive, there’s all sorts of big assed toys scattered around, a separate area with 3 paddling pools of various depths of water including a life guard chair. Brenda and Robin don’t just let the dogs out and let them get on with it, they supervise activities, games and pool time etc. They also have another compound for over spill, and an indoor arena for those bad weather days. Penny was in doggy heaven, running and wrestling with the others, and she really didn’t notice when we drove away. When we picked her up the next morning, we were given a guided tour of the whole facility, and got a chance to watch Penny interacting with the other dogs, she’d buddied up with a Pugle (cross Pug and Beagle) called Bodie and was so happy. The even more amazing thing was that Brenda and Robin live in this 5 bedroom house in the center of the whole area, they live on the second floor, and the first floor is dedicated to the dogs well being, feeding station etc, They have a room full of crates if the overnighters prefer to sleep that way, but most of them just sleep together in a room full of blankets on the floor, and that was what Penny did. She was all dusty and grubby, but so happy, it was awesome. When we got home, she slept for 5 hours solid with a big smile on her face...hee hee! Brenda said they have 158 dogs a week staying at various times, but as Penny was such a great dog and a real winner we could take her any weekend, and on Wednesdays if we wanted, so we might try and do Wednesdays every couple of weeks. Personally, I could have stayed there forever, great atmosphere.
"Boy oh boy!" Running with the pack
At last, I’ve managed to do my first portrait of Penny. I have to say drawing a short haired dog is somewhat easier, as getting the look of the unkempt fur takes a lot of time. But I enjoyed doing it.
Isn’t doggy daycare a wonderful thing? Normally we don’t do much at the weekend, money is tight, more and more people on the roads are lunatics, so it’s a lot easier just to stay at home or thereabouts, have fun with the dog and watch TV, but not this last weekend. I apologize in advance for going off topic, but I thought you all might be interested, if not let me know. Here is a brief rundown from Saturday to Sunday: Saturday morning, took Penny to doggy daycare (more on that later), drove into Portland, picked up Jeri’s mom and took a trip out to a Dahlia nursery, I never knew there were so many different kinds of shape and colors, took over 150 photos, which include at least 100 stunning close-ups, even though I do say so myself, here’s one:
Then back to Jeri’s mom’s house and back home. That evening we went to party, again a drive to Portland, I have a friend in the music business and he was celebrating his 40th birthday, fifteen years late.
But let me interject. On our way to the party, we were cruising nicely down the freeway, a cop passed us with all lights blazing. About 2 minutes later, we exited the freeway onto a 2 lane highway, and we saw the cop ahead, now with another cruiser pulling over a silver pickup. As we approached, they’d all come to halt and one of the cops stood in the road to stop the traffic, we had a ringside seat to what happened next. The cop’s buddy had already drawn his weapon and was pointing it toward the pickup. The cop who stopped us, ducked inside his cruiser and brought out a semi-automatic and also pointed it at the truck. Then 2 more cruisers pulled up, they also pointed their weapons at the truck....This is interesting, we thought! Jeri who was driving that night couldn’t see what was going on because there was an SUV in front of us, so I gave this running commentary: “OK, his hands are out of the truck, his door’s opening, he’s getting out, he’s facing the cops, he’s pulling his shirt up (I’m assuming to prove he wasn’t armed), he’s turning round and pulling his shirt up again. Now he’s clasping his hands behind his back, he’s walking backwards towards the cops, he’s reached the cruiser, he’s dropping to his knees”....by this time Jeri could see what was going on. The cops then were all over him, handcuffing him, throwing him in one of their cars. Then they all approached the pickup again, weapons ready....”Uh oh!” I said “there must be someone else in the truck”...but I, and obviously the cops were mistaken, because they reached the truck, pointed guns through every window, but found nothing. Then we were waived on.....no fight, no shooting, but exciting all the same!
Meanwhile, back to the party. There were about 50 people there, and we were treated to a very intimate outside concert in my friend’s back yard. Jennifer Batten, an outstanding guitarist, who toured with Michael Jackson for 10 years and more recently with Jeff Beck, played for us. All on her own, with digital back up tracks and appropriate video in the back ground. She says it’s helluva lot cheaper than putting a band up in hotel rooms and listening to their whining...ha ha! Just awesome, she is incredibly talented and was a hoot to boot. For more info about Jennifer, go to: www.jenniferbatten.com.
Let me tell you about this doggy daycare. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, we took Penny to a daycare called Woof World. It was OK, but for some reason, neither Jeri or I were happy about taking her back, bad vibe or something, who knows? Anyway, a few days before the party, Jeri remembered Brenda, the vet’s assistant to the vet she used to go when she had her Doberman, had left the surgery to start her own doggy daycare, we’re talking about 12 or more years ago here, so we were skeptical that we would find her. But after a bit of searching on the good ol’ world wide web, we found her and her business Happy Puppy Park. We called and Brenda’s business partner answered and said that Brenda was out but unfortunately they didn’t have any vacancies, but as Jeri knew Brenda, would get her to call Jeri back on her return. A couple of hours later, Brenda called and said that as she knew Jeri and remembered her Doberman, Ivan the Terrified, that if we’d like to bring Penny up on Saturday morning, she could spend the day and night with them. They are not a boarding kennels, but they do have a select number of dogs owned by doctors and nurses etc that stay over the weekend. This place is amazing, on our arrival at 9am Saturday morning, we took Penny into the compound, Brenda and her partner Robin greeted us, they opened a door to their house and about 9 dogs piled out to greet Penny, she was a little intimidated at first, for about 15 seconds as they all sniffed her, then they all ran off into the compound with Penny in hot pursuit. The compound, as you’ll see in the following photos is massive, there’s all sorts of big assed toys scattered around, a separate area with 3 paddling pools of various depths of water including a life guard chair. Brenda and Robin don’t just let the dogs out and let them get on with it, they supervise activities, games and pool time etc. They also have another compound for over spill, and an indoor arena for those bad weather days. Penny was in doggy heaven, running and wrestling with the others, and she really didn’t notice when we drove away. When we picked her up the next morning, we were given a guided tour of the whole facility, and got a chance to watch Penny interacting with the other dogs, she’d buddied up with a Pugle (cross Pug and Beagle) called Bodie and was so happy. The even more amazing thing was that Brenda and Robin live in this 5 bedroom house in the center of the whole area, they live on the second floor, and the first floor is dedicated to the dogs well being, feeding station etc, They have a room full of crates if the overnighters prefer to sleep that way, but most of them just sleep together in a room full of blankets on the floor, and that was what Penny did. She was all dusty and grubby, but so happy, it was awesome. When we got home, she slept for 5 hours solid with a big smile on her face...hee hee! Brenda said they have 158 dogs a week staying at various times, but as Penny was such a great dog and a real winner we could take her any weekend, and on Wednesdays if we wanted, so we might try and do Wednesdays every couple of weeks. Personally, I could have stayed there forever, great atmosphere.
"Boy oh boy!" Running with the pack
At last, I’ve managed to do my first portrait of Penny. I have to say drawing a short haired dog is somewhat easier, as getting the look of the unkempt fur takes a lot of time. But I enjoyed doing it.
Comment
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Comment by Jenn on September 9, 2009 at 2:17pm
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I love the portrait!!! If I hadn't read that it was I would have thought it was a photo at first!
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Comment by F, Calla & Luca on September 3, 2009 at 4:51pm
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And to think you were thinking of ending the blog! The portrait is truly wonderful and the photo is great. Keep up all the good work. No wonder nothing gets done around here, I'm too busy reading on DK.
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Comment by Jane, Guinness and Murphy on September 3, 2009 at 4:12pm
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Your portrait is so amazing. Penny is a beautiful doodle, and you've captured that! Something in the eyes that makes her come to life.
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Comment by Adrianne Matzkin on September 3, 2009 at 2:28pm
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I Samantha & Charli want to know when their reservations are set! They are pleading with me to have an overnight at such a wonderful doggy park! They are also begging for a portrait of their own so maybe they will sit so I can take a picture where you can actually see their gorgeous faces!! Pray for me!!
What a wonderful time you and Jeri had as adults! It doesn't happen often with us now with Charli - I am very jealous. I am going to have look into a puppy-sitter so we can also go out without having to rush home to a puppy potty break.
Your photograph of the dahlia is just magnificent - mine in person don't look as nice. Maybe feeding it would help - HAHAH. I forget to feed the plants and flowers but as long as I don't forget to feed the doodles it is all okay! Have a super weekend!
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Comment by Kevin Poole, Penny & Ozzy on September 3, 2009 at 2:25pm
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Hi Leigh. Glad you like the portrait. I use oil pastel smoothed out with mineral spirit for the base color. Then colored pencils for the most part, and for the highlights i.e: the light in the eyes, shine on noses, whiskers etc I use white gouache, which is paint that is thicker than watercolor paints, but more water soluble than acrylics.
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Comment by Allyson, Peri & Taquito on September 3, 2009 at 2:20pm
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Love the blog update and especially the painting. Great!
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Comment by Leigh & Allie on September 3, 2009 at 2:17pm
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Amazing portrait!! What did you use? The detail is awesome. I love it!!
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Comment by HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08 on September 3, 2009 at 1:43pm
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WOW that puppy daycare puts every place I have seen around here to shame...now that place should be called Almost Heaven for dogs....Sounds like Jeri and you had a fantastic weekend also..with a little added excitement. I love the portrait of Penny, it is absolutely beautiful. The eyes are so expressive...what detail to her nose and coat...goregous portrait. Email me please with your prices....2 dogs in 1 pic....1 dog in 1 pic...Thanks Kevin....
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Yes it is Les Paul's autograph, I wish I'd asked what the other autographs were. She was gracious enough to answer questions between songs, actually not songs, between instrumentals!
Penny from heaven....hee hee, I like that...it works!
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Comment by Michele Barton on September 3, 2009 at 11:50am
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Kevin, you, Jeri and especially Penny are so lucky to have found such a wonderful place for Penny to have good times! Hey, every time she comes home from Happy Puppy Park she'll be "Penny from heaven" (groan, I know). I love Jennifer Batten's guitar - is that Les Paul's autograph? Wow, you had quite the weekend - flowers, parties and puppies! Penny's portrait is beautiful -such detail, especially her nose...I think if I touched the computer screen it would feel cold and wet! Money is very tight for me as well right now...but as soon as I can swing it, I'd love to have my good friend (you, silly!) do a Gus and Molly portrait.
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