Doggy Photoshoot

See what they can do when they understand 'Sit' :)

Wee Wee Wee Wee All the way around the home

A few week-ends ago we had some friends over after dinner b/c they wanted to meet the dogs. Here's how this visit to our house went:

1) Ralph goes out to potty

2) Paul lets Coco out of her play pen (she should have been carried outside to potty)

3) Coco proceeds to jump around and pee all over the rotunda

4) Ralph comes in and jumps around like a jumping bean on fire

5) Coco squats down to get petted and again pees all over the floor

6) Everyone comes into the living room

7) Someone pees on the carpet

8) Someone pees again in the rotunda

9) Someone pees on the dang couch

10) Mom steams cleans the couch and says "So glad you could come to Pee Pee Ville tonight"

Now I've heard of excitement but seriously!?

P.S. Coco started level 2 training and proceeded to pee 6 times when the instructor was working with her and trying to give her treats in b/t my working with her. I think we have a possible problemo and know who was leaving their sparkle treats everywhere that night. I may be investing in a doggy diaper! :)

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Seven, Etc.

Guess I missed this post. The main teacher that owns the training company had to head to California to open a branch out there so the back up teacher is a bit different. Very nice and good with basics but very introverted and meek. Needless to say the classes ended for Coco on a good note with learning Down which has 7 levels to it in order to get a full down with the hand command. Ralph has not gotten this down after weeks of re-inforcement. He'll dive down for a piece of food but stares at you with a blank look like "what? give me that treat, I am sitting after all". We'll keep trying.

The newer folks in the class (with the exception of one couple and dog) seemed to come to class and mingle while they comforted their scared, anxious puppy dogs that they claimed they wanted to train and socialize. It was the oddest thing. One couple with a little schnauzer kept admiring Ralph's ability to come, sit and stay. I had to remind them that he had weeks of practice b/c of his sister attending class first and that they could get it down too. Needless to say the last few classes with Ralph were kind of a snore b/c of this. If you want your dog to socialize, let the dog off the leash and out of your lap people! :)

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Six

Focus: Leave It

Pointers: Food to the nose, when they quit trying to get it - the doggy gets to eat it

Not too many exciting things here. Coco seems to get leave it and Ralph a little bit as well. Coco does not really listen that well at home unless it's focused training so we'll see if we continue to the 2nd level class how things go. It is pretty funny that Coco would rather go around to all the humans in class and say hello than play with the other dogs. Probably because she smells all the yummy doggy treats. Ralph tends to play pretty well with the other puppies.

Coco graduates next week and then we'll wrap up the last 3 classes with Ralph solo which will be good so he gets some unique attention away from Coco. They don't like to be apart - cute but......

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Four/Five

Focus: Loose Leash Walking

Pointers: Must be patient! (that is an understatement with a 9 month old)

This class was more listening and watching. We paraded ourselves up and down the runway a few times. Class Four, Paul and I had to walk Ralph a second time together b/c he wouldn't walk with Paul by himself. Class Five today - Paul walked Ralph, I walked Coco. Seems easy enough.

Wrong! We have been trying to enforce loose leash walking since the first class on it and I am not sure where the patience is going to come from. Coco likes to pull, pull, pull and Ralph seems to like to pick up her bad habits. We'll have to walk them separately for a month (apparently) until they really get it down before we walk them together.

Sooo, here comes the testing of our patience!!! :)

P.S. The only entertaining element was that just about every dog in class pee'd on the floor this time at some point and Coco was going nutzo anytime Ralph and this other larger puppy got close to one another. I'm not sure if she was jealous or being protective. Thank goodness for raw hide to keep her little mouth busy.

Ralphers Joins the Chenuau Family

This post is a couple of weeks late but here it is!!! We now have Ralph Lauren with us (super cheezy name but it goes well with Coco Chanel). He's a wire haired dachsy and red in color. I would never have thought that I would have taken interest in a wire hair. I'm not a big terrier kind of gal and when he gets older he'll have a little terrier or schnauzer looking face when his whiskers grow out. But, when I picked him up and held him that was it. He's very calm and quiet compared to our hyper active Coco. Very sweet and timid demeanor.

Of course, he's been at home with us for two weeks and after hangin' with the Coco beans, he's a little bit nutty when he plays. He's also picked up some of her nosey habits. They shared a kleenex the other day (I swear I was gone from the room for 5 minutes). Our only big issue right now is potty training - boys are tougher to figure out. We take Ralph out about every 30 min's and apparently sometimes that isn't enough for his boutique bladder. It will happen over time if we just stay consistent. The other item we are working on is interrupting play when it's too rough b/t the doggies. They love to bite one another's ears too hard while the other one squeals (I'll never understand doggy play). Coco seems to think Ralph is a football sometimes and will literally run from the other room as fast as she can to tackle him - he just goes rolling across the floor. Trying to stop some of that.

Overall though, they seem to love being with one another and are doing pretty well. Ralph starts puppy kindergarten next Sunday. Should be interesting!!!

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Three

Focus: Come, Sit and combination Come/Sit; then a little bit of stay (50 min's of class)Off Leash/Leave It (20 min's of class)

Pointers: Not anything fresh here but a reminder of the 'Leave It' command and approach

So Coco did a great job with the commands. She has picked them up so quickly that she gets easily bored and full of treats. Then, she usually just lays down on the floor and looks up at us as if to say "C'mon really? Come/Sit Combination again, booooring". Also, when the off leash play time starts we don't see her diving in to play. Of course the more frisky, dominant dogs always seem to come and pounce on her. As we've seen her play with Ralph, it's apparent she'd rather do the tackling and beating up herself!!! She did growl and show her pearly whites with a male dog that was almost 3 times her size that was only 4 months old or so. For some reason all the dogs congregate at my feet and I've been told not to move - they should. Kinda nice to have all this growling and teeth and fussing by my ankles (not really). All in all, kind of a boring class but the ending was interesting when this ignorant couple asked if they really should neuter their dog. Do we really have to ask ourselves about this??? Of course this was coming from the girl that left and came back into the class maybe 4 - 5 times during and let her boyfriend work with her dog. Good luck sister!!! She did want to know if she would get a little certificate for the dog at the end. Guess we know what her motivation is. Maybe she'll get a gold star sticker next time (if the dog ever sits).

Puppy Kindergarten - Class Two

Focus: Come, Sit and combination Come/Sit Review (50 min's of class)Off Leash/Leave It (20 min's of class)Misc. Pointers: I don't remember anything nostalgic.

Basically this was a total repeat of the class before.....yawwwwn. I guess it's great for reinforcement and thankfully Coco did not have any terrors tackling her this time. The biggest thing was my question "She does great indoors and outdoors unless there are distractions". Jeff (the trainer) says "She's in kindergarten, what you are expecting is 5th grade". Ok, I get it. :)

We've done pretty good to use the commands almost everyday. We'll see though.

This post is a couple of weeks over due. :)

Puppy Kindergarten - Class One

Focus: Come, Sit and combination Come/Sit (50 min's of class)

Off Leash/Leave It (20 min's of class)

Misc. Pointers: Dogs need to work for their food and toys or they don't appreciate them. Hmmmm

Coco did a good job with the commands. She also has done great at home with them (when she wants to listen). I'm not sure when we'll get to the point that she hears us in public. :)

Now the Off Leash part of the class was a bit nuts. Someone had a very nutty terrier and someone else has a larger breed dog and the terrier kept tackling Coco, the maltypoo (however that is spelled) and another white dog kept humping her. Thankfully the trainer asked for those 2 dogs to go to the earlier class going forward. Not sure what we'll do about those dirty boy puppies. I feel like getting Coco a shin guard and a chastity belt for next time. Needless to say she was looking for Paul or I and not really into the off leash doggie play. I can't say I blame the girl.

We'll see what's up next in class #2!

What is it with the TP?

Running and grunting, grunting and running, sliding and running - stop - drink 1/2 a bowl of water, running and grunting - pause - quiet.........(which usually means Coco is into something she shouldn't be).

Look over around the desk and there it is. The toilet paper from the guest bathroom pulled off the roll, drug across the hall into the office and put into a circle, time to chow down. I liked to pull the toilet paper off the roll myself when I was a toddler. However, I never took the time to also eat my prey. What is it with the TP? We'll just have to add that door to our list of "must shut when not watching". :)

Dogs and poo poo

I have no idea why, but it's only a matter of time before you little dog follows her little nose to the little cat box to bring pieces of poo out to the living room to have a little snack....groooosssss!

Coco loves to get into our laundry so we bought hampers. Guess what? She can not reach the laundry. Guess what else? She has now turned to playing around in the cat's litter box and picking out little treats. Paul a few nights ago said "she must be pooping in here" as he started to pick up something off the living room floor. I said "leave it there and I'll come take a look". I thought maybe something was wrong b/c it didn't look normal. I then decided to take a closer look. Yep, just what I thought - doggy has found the litter box. We have gone back to keeping the laundry room door shut when Coco is out now. Problem solved right? Nope - we had someone clean out the yard and put down compost so now the yard is one giant poo poo treat apparently. I think we'll going to the open field next door until it settles in more. :)

If only our human diets were so simple. ewwww

The start of our public personal life

Hi friends and family -

It's interesting that I work in technology and am just now immersing myself into some of the already well known social community tools that are out there but as you know - something has to give. Not everyone is on facebook nor wants to be on facebook and I'm proud to say that although I have a twitter account - I'm not much of a tweeter! :)

So here goes a lot of catching up on Coco's charades and our own as well. Until we have a human baby you'll just have to settle for hearing about our hairy dog baby for now. Cheers!