virtual walks & I <3 maps
I am not sure why…but I love maps. I think I’ve liked maps for a very long time, too. I LOVE modern technology + maps..like Google maps and Google Street View. I’m often “accused” of being a carrier pigeon…while I’m pretty sure that’s not true…I am pretty good with direction. However, I do make efforts to go back and look at places I’ve been on the map, too. It seems to enhance my knowledge of an area…
So, doing just such a thing moments ago…I was revisiting a jet lagged walk through some allotment gardens near Tantolunden park on Södermalm when we visited Stockholm last year. As I began my stroll (actually much longer than a stroll lol) back home, I walked along the Årstaviken bay and kept thinking how fun it would be to take Cooper swimming there. So, as I’m virtually recreating this walk I saw this –
and this simple thing makes me SO happy today!
*EDIT 3/23/17 apparently, the original street view along my walking route is no longer available on google maps 🙁 So, originally – you could actually see what looked like a black lab swimming & playing with its owner. So, instead of the black box saying “no street view available” here’s a new embedded image of the walking route…and someone walking their dog.
Cooper turns 1
Where did the last year go?!?! Seems like they go faster & faster these days. I made a little tribute to our first year with Cooper…we’ve all come a long way in our training.
Puppies & Rainy Days
I suppose Hendrix is still a puppy at almost 17 months. Since she’s small breed, she seems pretty mature already. Cooper is at 18 weeks now. Honestly, he’s clearly very much puppy- but he’s no wild child. It seems the hormones are just kicking in for adolescence – so we’ll see if he gets a little more riled up or not…
This past weekend presented some special challenges! It rained most of the weekend, and that provided for some pretty stir crazy puppies. Hendrix generally is pretty energetic, and has several opportunities to train agility during the week. So, she can get amped up or settle down pretty quickly. On her own, I think it would take weeks of rain to really get her bored. However, Cooper is very young and that means he can easily get bored being cooped up all day. His first line of entertainment is to mess with Hendrix…and then the crazy running in the house games are off! By Sunday afternoon, our dynamic duo was about to make us crazy. Thankfully, both my pups like to play free shaping games with the clicker. I love that the mental challenge seems to wear Cooper out as much as a walk. Hendrix just loves clicks & treats period.
So, here’s a little video we made featuring Cooper learning the “speak” command. Training for puppies and playing with iPhones for Ronald & I = everyone is less bored! (I love the iMovie app for iPhone…they have some fun trailer templates that you can just fill in or customize.)
Just a typical morning with the dogs…
I think we’ve gotten into a rhythm now with the morning routine. Cooper usually wakes to have his morning outing and eat around 5am. I keep hoping as he gets older this can start happening a little later… Funny thing is – as soon as he takes care of business and is fed, he goes RIGHT back to sleep. Can’t complain too much – at least he sleeps pretty much 7-8 hours through the night. Hendrix just goes with the flow – she knows food, exercise, etc. will all happen in their own good time.
About an hour and a half nap – Cooper’s ready to get up and have some activity & Hendrix is happy to join in. This week, I’ve been trying to walk the two dogs together*, and then give them a little run around time. This morning, in lieu of the walk – we went to the dog park. As long as they get a little rowdy play time, they seem to settle in between 8:30am and 9:30am. Fortunately for me, they’re pretty much chill the rest of the day…until dinner time of course.
Earlier this week, Cooper picked up a discarded water bottle on our morning walk. We were on our way back home, and it was just a few houses down – thankfully. This has become THE featured play toy in the backyard.
I can’t say I used to be much of a “morning person”, but I think the dogs might have converted me. It’s so nice to get up when it’s still dark and get stuff done before some people even leave their houses. Shhh…don’t tell my Dad I said that. My little Hendrix & Cooper sure help me appreciate a lot of the simple pleasures! I love them for that!
*Training note- Although walking the dogs together requires some diligence and special leash configuration on my part – it really seems to have smoothed out some of the rough edges between Hendrix & Cooper. I’m a little worried about these walks impact on Cooper’s learning to heel properly. Even though I have not started him with a formal heel behavior, he walks very nicely on a loose leash on my left. He’s received reward/reinforcement when he’s making eye contact at my immediate left, and he’s realized the value in staying there and checking in with me. When we have our little “pack walks”, he’s a little more focused on keeping up with Hendrix & she’s a bit of a forge ahead walker. Interestingly, walking with him adds some complexity to the walk that slows her down and keeps her from forging too much. So, I think the group walks do a lot of good, but I’ve got to make sure I keep reinforcing Cooper on walks with just him. I’m actually thinking to get a back attach harness for him for the group walks…so he associates that set up with have a little more freedom on the walk.
Hej Hej, Puppies!
On our trip to Stockholm last year, we learned that “Hej!” is the endearing and very common Swedish greeting equivalent of “Hello”. It sounds a lot like the English “Hey”. Sometimes, you hear “Hej hej!” which sounds like “Hey hey!”
I think my last blog was about our new puppy Cooper meeting our existing puppy Hendrix. I had really hoped to keep a sort of diary on the blog of our progress with Cooper, but it seemed it took the last 7 weeks just to get things going smooth enough to be able to sit and type a new post! I’m happy to say as we’re nearing the 16 week mark – we’ve got potty training and a lot of house manners firmly in place. The title of this post comes from the fact that my “command” (more like a call) to get both dogs attention (usually mid puppy wrestling) and have them come over to me is “Hey Hey ,Puppies!” It reminded us of the Swedish greeting and became (informally) “Hej Hej, Puppies!”
I recently purchased a DSLR camera, and I’ve started playing around with Photoshop this afternoon. Hopefully, I can make some visually appealing updates to this site.
So, hang in there with me…there may finally be more content coming soon. In the mean time, here are some of my favorite recent puppy photos. (Clicking on the photo will make it larger.)
Hendrix & Cooper, an introduction
So, there’s lots written (and *gasp* even conflicting opinions) on how to introduce new dogs. Initially, I really wanted Hendrix to travel with me to Louisiana to pick up Cooper. I thought it’d be great for them to ride home crate by crate. However, it was such a long drive & it’s July hot. I thought trying to juggle both dogs on such a long/hot trip might break us all. So, Hendrix got a long play day at Rover Resort on Monday. Then, she hung out part of Tuesday (while we were driving back) with dad as he worked from home.
As we neared home, I asked Ronald to walk Hendrix to one of the parks near our home. I met him and Hendrix there with Cooper in tow. Hendrix was thrilled to see me. I think we’ve actually only spent one other night apart. She was a little more suspicious about the little black fur ball I had with me. I set him down, and he enthusiastically went for her. He was sniffing and licking submissively at her muzzle and under her neck. She stood sort of still & indifferent, but tolerated this behavior pretty well. So, then Cooper, Hendrix and I took a short walk together (about a block) back to the house. Hendrix was aloof and sort of led the way…she seemed slightly like “Mom, WHAT have you done?!” Cooper enthusiastically trailed along. When we got home, I took everyone in the back yard and we had a little short off leash visiting time. We should’ve known to be armed and ready with the video camera. There was more submissive & calming behaviors displayed by Cooper, and Hendrix seemed to accept him and started to give some play postures.
We did capture this footage, but we missed the cute doggy donut laps Hendrix started doing around Cooper & the yard. She kept buzzing him as she whipped by, and he looked truly impressed with her speed…maybe thinking “Whoa…none of the litter mates could do that!”
For now – they seem to be pretty accepting of and interested in each other. I don’t think it’s age appropriate for them to have more than a few play minutes here and there. Hendrix has staked her claim to higher rank, and she is clearly rating her play to be more gentle with the puppy. Cooper currently accepts this scenario, but I’m sure it would only be days before he started to test her. In the last 2/3 days, he has gotten a lot more comfortable in the new setting and has shown increased “feistiness”. I’m sure she’d put him in his place…but I don’t want to be constantly managing that rank game. More importantly, I don’t want him spending TOO much time bonding with the other dog in the house because I want him to believe all the awesome stuff comes from me.
So, *I* think we had a successful introduction. We’ll see how it goes…I’m convinced the toughest part of this whole scenario is going to be juggling the two dogs at the same time. Wish us luck!
Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper
On July 17, 2012, we welcomed a new edition. He is a precious little black Labrador retriever just under 8 lbs. Welcome home Cooper!
