Our New Years Resolutions

Cleo and I have been together for almost three months! So much has changed from when I first got her, and she is so much calmer and is a very happy dog! However, there are some things that I am going to have both of us work on for the new year. Here is my list!

Off Leash Manners

For obvious reasons (living in the city) Cleo doesn't have that great of off leash manners. We need to work on some sort of hard recall that has her come no matter what interesting thing she has found to smell.

Skijoring as a whole

I need to get better at cross country skiing and being more confident about stopping on my own and gaining speed on my own. Whenever I am nervous Cleo can tell and takes advantage of it! Cleo also needs to learn her voice commands better, and not veer off to the side every time she smells something yummy!

Learn some new silly tricks!

Cleo knows 'whisper', lay down, and roll over and that is about it. For some reason tricks seem to make people think that a dog is smart and well behaved (they don't, I know plenty of stupid bad dogs that can do tricks) but it would be fun to work on a few more.

Go on More Walks!

This is one for me more than Cleo. We go on a walk twice a day, but they are typically a short 'go to the bathroom Cleo' sort of walk. I enjoy walks about as much as she does so I should go on more! I got a backpack for her for Christmas, so I can have her carry my water and stuff!

Skijoring attempt 3

With a new xcountry ski setup that I got for christmas and an actual tug line, Cleo and I started trying Skijoring again. She certainly has the desire to pull and work, but needs more direction and training. I also need more confidence in my skiing ability. I always find it a little frustrating, and the tug line is a completely different method of communication for Cleo and I. Typically she wears a gentle leader which I can communicate with her pretty much all non-verbally. Now I have to try to teach her voice commands, as I have little control with the tug line itself.

Happy Holidays!

Cleo got to see santa this year at my apartment's holiday party. She ran right up to him but when he grabbed her leash she got kind of scared. She still loved the party and getting to see all of the people. I hope you are having a great holiday too!

The Dog Park **warning gross**

Cleo loves the dog park. Sadly, where I live there are no parks that are anywhere nearby. I need to drive to Littleton (45 minutes in a direction I never go for any other reason) or 15-45 minutes north towards the Boulder area. Since it is about the same amount of driving for Cleo to go slobber on other dogs, I have decided to 'catch em all' and visit all of the dog parks. So far I haven't found a favorite, but I have found several I will never go to again. Winter and Spring is a pretty terrible time to be trying out dog parks. All of the grass is gone, and it is cold, wet and muddy. Still, I treat her to the park especially on days when I know I will be spending a lot of time away from her or busy around the apartment.

I went to the Louisville dog park. Now getting there was a story in itself, because on google places on my phone it brought me downtown Louisville and told me the park was there. After circling around the tiny downtown of Louisville that to me seemed like a Durango or Silverton sized town but full of angry city people driving Audis, I gave up and started home. Of course as I left town I saw the dog park on the right. I could tell just at a glance that it was absolutely a bog of dog poo and mud but Cleo had also spotted it and I couldn't let her down.

I parked and we wandered in to the park. There were only about five or six other dogs there, and Cleo bounded over to where most of the dogs and their owners were standing. I tried not to act nervous, as the last time we went to a park I ended up leaving because Cleo was picking on another dog. She seemed to do fine, running about and meeting all of the people. Of course, the second I let Cleo off the leash ever she poops. In the same situation on the same day I could take her on a walk and it takes fifteen to thirty minutes for a poo, off the leash it is the first thing she does. I had a bag, was prepared and now she could go about running through the mud and going from a white dog to a crumbly brown one.

After several minutes of standing huddled near the other owners, I looked across the dog park and saw her pooping again. I sighed and walked over to the doggie bags, which were on the complete other side of the park from her. I grab one, and turn around. I see her walking very slowly towards me, still in poop stance. She then stood up for a few moments and walked, just to squat again. She walked all the way across the park like this, as the other owners watched. Finally she came up to me, almost on my feet and squatted again. I looked and there was a little piece hanging from her bum by what looked to be a piece of MY hair. I was horrified. I looked over to the the bench where the other owners were. Should I pull it off with the bag? They all will be watching if it do, and it would be so gross. Right when I was about to walk up and do it anyways, she saw a young man about my age a few yards away. She happily ran up to him, still hunching her back a little. The whole time the little poo bouncing around on her butt. He didn't noticed that she had a little passenger and greeted her, telling her how pretty she was and she sat down. Right on his shoe. She was trying to rub off the poo on his shoe, and I was pretty certain it was going to work. I said her name in a scolding tone and she dangled her big pink tongue out at me and moved to the other side of the man, and began scooterbutting deep into the muddy sand. The man laughed, and as far as I could tell had no idea that he almost was used as toilet paper. When she stood again the poop was gone, probably buried in to the sand.

I never found the rest of her poo, and she got a good long bath when we got home.

Holiday Cheer...Or Not

Cleo has waged a war on the holidays. She doesn't like to go outside when it is -2 degrees (neither do I) and makes her point by limping pathetically when we have walked too far (her paws are fine, she is just being a drama queen). The other day I came home and she had found an empty carton of eggnogg and torn it to piece right in the middle of the living room. Today I put up lights around the big living room window. She got terribly offended because I moved her bed which typically sits next to the window, and then just for fun I set the lights on her. The face she gave me looked like I had just defiled the graves of all of her grandparents and then ate all her dog food.

Painful Paws

I had noticed when I first got Cleo that her paws are very soft, so I was taking it really easy on her as far as outside activity goes. I think that we overdid it the other day at the dog park. We went to the dog part in Littleton for about an hour, and of course Cleo ran the whole time and had a wonderful time. That night I noticed that she was limping a little bit and saw that her paws had a few holes in the pads and were a little swollen. She was a good sport about me cleaning the up and putting musher's wax on them but I am still surprised at how sensitive her feet really are. She must have been in a pen or wasn't walked much by whoever had her before.

She also split one of her toenails. I went to Petsmart and a man working there brought her in to the groomer's area and filed it down for free. My concern is that her toenails seem to split even when they are well trimmed. The pads seem to be healing quickly and hopefully they will heal a little tougher than they were before!

Food Hound

Cleo's appetite has completely flipped around since I first got her. When she first came home I would have a bowl of food out and she would maybe finish it in a day, taking a few tender nibbles here and there and then walking away while looking at me warily. Now she eats twice a day and gobbles all of her food up. She also wouldn't take treats from strangers when I first got her. She still won't always take them but now she is more interested, especially if it is a treat she likes.

I was at Petsmart the other day standing in line, juggling her leash and a huge bag of food. I felt a little tug on the leash and turned around to see Cleo wagging furiously at the man in line behind me. I was surprised because she will typically wag at a man and then as they walk up tuck her tail firmly between her legs but her tail kept wagging as he pet her head and started playing with her ears. He started talking to her and she stared at the bag of treats in his hand and sat down, tail still swishing back and forth. I told Cleo "No Cleo he won't give you a treat" and turned back around. I felt her tug again and looked back. The man was opening the bag of treats he was waiting to purchase and dropped a few in Cleo's mouth. For some reason this moment is stuck in my head, it was so sweet. Cleo was reluctant as I lead her to another cashier. It gave me hope that she would get over her fear of men. Then again nothing could ever go wrong in Petsmart, she loves that place.

The Great Escape

On Friday I had a crazy schedule. My birthday party was that night and I also had to work an event in Boulder (about 40 minutes away from where I live). I carted Cleo around with me during the day as I bought decorations for the party and picked up my cake (which she made a dive for as I walked around to the drivers side of the car). I then drove to Boulder, since I could not find a dogsitter for the evening. I finally convinced my friend to come pick her up once he got off work so she wouldn't have to sit in the car at a gun range for six hours.

Once I got to the range to set up (they do themed matches and they hired the D20 girls to 'act' before the shooters went on the range) they invited Cleo inside. This was preferable over her sitting with her muddy paws in the car. She was terrified. A cold building full of men in jackets. At first she cried every time I walked away from her and was shaking. As the men slowly one by one came up to her and made good she got more comfortable, and by about 6:30 she was perfectly happy to sit in the ever growing crowd of men while I sat next to her. I still didn't want her there when they started shooting in the indoor range in the other room. I was relieved when my friend finally showed up and took her away. She seemed to remember him and happily went along.

I continued with the event. It was loud, crowded and I did not get cell phone reception in the building. I still checked my phone every once and a while, and at about 10:00pm I look down and realize I have eight text messages and a voicemail. I didn't think much of it but as I was walking out of the building I started to read the texts, which didn't seem to make any sense (I later realized that the voicemail came first and the texts built off of it). They were all saying 'she won't come near me still' and 'ok she came up to another dog and I was able to get her'. I sat down in my car and listened to the voicemail. In it my friend explained how he let her off the leash to go inside and she bolted. He didn't want to chase her, but he followed trying not to scare her. He said she wouldn't get near him and he was really sorry. My heart sank. Cleo was gone? What if she gets hit by a car or someone nabs her. I then read the rest of the texts, that said everything was fine and he had caught her but she still was really spooky.

Two steps forward and one step back, she did great in a room full of men then ran away from one. Still I see progress and I think she just tricked my friend into thinking she was a perfect pup. At least we didn't lose her!

Cleo the Couch Potato

Cleo might absolutely love going and going and going when we are on walks, but she also likes to be a couch potato. One of her favorite things to do is to sleep on the couch while I am doing homework or browsing the internet (and snore). She is still very in tune to what I am doing though, if I get up or even shift a little bit she is right there looking at me with those big blue eyes. She also loves it when I have a friend over and she can sit in between us and have a head in on lap and her butt up against the other person (and hopefully she doesn't fart during this time, but of course some times she does).

I really wanted to make it clear to her that being on the couch is OK, but because I am the alpha in our 'pack' that if I'm already sitting on the couch that she must ask before she gets up too. So far this has worked really well, she will sit down and stare at me until I pat the cushion next to me. It does not work quite as well with the bed though, she will start sleeping on her blanket on the ground, and when I wake up the next morning she is all curled up around me. Yes, around me. My dog loves to spoon.

My husky doesn't like snow

I would like to dedicate this to time spent since it snowed two days ago.

Time since Cleo last pooped: almost 24 hours
Time it took her to pee: over 16 hours
Time I spent walking her to get her late at night when it was below freezing, in the snow before she pooped: about an hour
Time I spent today trying to get her to poop: About 45 minutes twice today
Time it takes Cleo to do her business: about 20 seconds
Amount of times Cleo usually goes a day: once, and pees 3/4 times

Just by looking at that you see I have a problem. I thought wet grass was bad, Cleo hates the snow. She acts like she has never seen it before, and won't walk on it. When we walk on the sidewalk she sticks to my leg and almost knocks me over before she dares walk in the snow next to us. If you lead her into the snow she will stand there with a look of disdain on her face and hold one paw in the air, and then try to bully her way back to the sidewalk.

My dreams of skijoring might be rather far fetched, when walking around in a snowy park for ten minutes consisted of her tripping, prancing and standing looking miserable in the snow. She best get used to it or she will be one constipated dog with a bladder infection. Oh, and I will continue to drag her about in it whether she likes it or not.

The Wet Grass Theory

Cleo is a very picky potty dog. She won't go on dirt, she won't go on shaggy grass, she won't go until you have walked her around the block at least three or four times or taken her on a half mile walk. She will not pee on wet grass. In fact, she won't even stand on wet grass. If you make her, she will stand there with one paw in the air and just stare at you with the most miserable look on her face.

Princess dog will have to pee on wet grass soon, or she will be holding it for five months of wet and snow covered grass.

The Cone of Shame

On Sunday, I decided to finally take Cleo to the vet. I came home on Friday from the ballet and she had been chewing at her stitches where she had gotten fixed a few weeks before. The wound was almost healed, but it was swollen and red with little bite marks all around it. She might have just realized how itchy it was in that last stage, or was bored when I was gone. Worst possible thing was she was mutilating herself because she was so upset that I was gone. I don't think she gets quite that upset (but upset enough to eat dirty tampons from the trash, but that's another story).

So $90 worth of a vet appointment, expensive ointment and...a cone of shame Cleo is no longer able to bite at her stitches. She also refuses to pee or poop while it is on, or eat or drink. I discovered this after I had been walking her for 30 minutes and decided to take it off and see what happens.

Meet Cleo

Cleopatra "Cleo" is a husky mix. She was found as a stray somewhere in Denver. When I adopted her she had only been up for adoption for about three days (lucky girl!). She weighed about 50 pounds when I first took her home. She has brilliant blue eyes and no matter how much I wonder about it we can't seem to decide what else she is mixed with. Primarily she has many traits of a husky personality and looks wise, except she has short fur. She is absurdly cuddly, and loves to just be pet and talked to. She weighed about 6 or 7 pounds under what she should, and looked it for sure (skin and bones) but also has a healthy amount of muscle on her.

I was in a daze after realizing what I had done. At Petsmart where the humane society she was from was keeping her for the day, I had to buy all of the basics for a dog as I got her. Brand new collar and leash, I walked my new dog out of the store. As she readily jumped in to my dusty 4runner I sat down in the drivers seat and realized what I had just done. I had just had a baby. A furry baby, but instead of having 9 months to prepare for this, I had an hour and a half gestation period. She would probably live about 15 to 20 years longer if I was lucky, much like the amount of time a child stays with their parent. I brushed off this thought and drove back to my one bedroom apartment. I was a dog mom.