Logs and Dogs

Another week has come and gone without a dull moment.  On the log home front, our future house is now starting to look like a home.  Matt sent us the attached picture to which Russell added the description of the main rooms.  The foundation was poured last week and the forms are coming off tomorrow. The drilling to install the geothermal closed loop will be done this week. Russell and Cooper will be going to visit with Matt this week to get an overall update on the project, and will then go to Huntsville to get pictures at the lot.  I will stay at home with Maxine and have a girls day.  Although we have been very busy with the dogs for the past two weeks, the construction of our log home is never far from our minds. In the next few weeks, we need to lock down the supplier for the roof and flooring.  By end of year, we will firm up our appliances as well as firm up the order for the harvest table and accent pieces.

On the dog front, I have lots to report.  Cooper has now been with us for almost three weeks and feels completely at home.  He knows his way around, he knows our habits and most importantly he recognizes the sound of the measuring cup I use to measure his food!   As for Maxine, she has been with us for almost two weeks and also feels at home.  Being younger, she is more tentative about exploring our home but she discovers something new every day.  She also recognizes the sound of the measuring cup!

This past week, we started feeding both in the same room.  It is a bit of a challenge since Cooper gobbles down his food in less than 30 seconds, while it takes Maxine about 3 minutes.  So the challenge is to keep Cooper away from her bowl. Whatever we are doing is working.  Once Maxine is done eating, Cooper "vacuums" the floor for any crumbs - we were thinking of changing his name to Hoover.

Something knew happened this week:  Maxine sought refuge in her crate for the first time.  We have two crates set up in the dining room, and the doors are always opened. Up to now, neither of the dogs had used them.  The crate is really meant to be a "den" for the dogs if they want to be alone during the day. So, when Maxine feels a little overwhelmed by Cooper, she now goes in her crate.  The trick is for her to keep Cooper from entering the crate....Maxine also now hides under one of our chairs in the family room, again to get Cooper away from her!  It may sound as if Cooper is always chasing her but the reality is that their puppy play can somewhat be challenging for Maxine at times, given her size, so when she's had enough, she sends him the message by hiding or retreating somewhere. To be fair to Cooper, I should add that more often than not, Maxine starts the "fight".  It is really funny to watch.  This is probably a good place to say that Cooper and Maxine have different personalities.  Maxine is very independent and has no issues having a nap in another room, away from us, while Cooper must be near us all the time.  As I am writing this blog, she is having a nap in her doughnut bed in the dining room, while Cooper is sleeping at my feet, although their preferred nap zone is the bay window where they can watch the birds, squirrels and get warmth from the sun.

We have been going for walks every day.  We have also been practicing using the leash on Maxine in our backyard.  She is getting more comfortable with the leash now.  She goes for her second shot this coming Friday.  After that, we can take her everywhere on a leash.

Last Wednesday was Cooper's last Obedience Class in Ajax.  He received his diploma and also won first place in the "Fastest Sit" competition.  Way to go Cooper!

Finally, on Friday, as we were coming back from our walk, Russell took a tumble in the backyard.  Of course, his first reaction was about whether he had fallen on Maxine or not.  My first reaction was whether Russell had hit is head on the concrete or not (I love our dogs but I love Russell more).  Russell is fine although he had to get Active Release Therapy yesterday to relieve the pain in his elbow/arm.  A few more treatments to come but all is good.

So, another week is about to begin.  Have a good one everyone!

 I attach a very short video of Cooper and Maxine's Retrieve game this morning.

A day in the life of Cooper and Maxine

Wow, what a busy week it has been!  On the log home front, not much to say other than things continue to progress.  It is now the race against the snow....we hope to have the shell of our house erected on the foundation and enclosed before winter sets in for good.  We will get a progress update from Matt his week.  But all is progressing well.

Our priority has somewhat shifted since the arrival of Cooper and Maxine.  Before I go into too much detail about these two little darlings, I want to say that, although I had intended to start a "dog blog" just for the dogs, I find myself with little time to do so. I was really fooling myself to think that I would have time to blog every single day....between the dogs, Russell and the household (in no particular order), I find myself quite occupied - even as a retiree! I would be remiss if I didn't add that it is the same for Russell.  Having two dogs is really a joy, but to be fair to them, we owe them our full attention, which is what we are doing. So, we changed the name of this blog to reflect Cooper and Maxine, as such, I will spend time talking about them in my weekly blog.  Once things settle down (when???), I may have more time to do a blog just for them.

This past Wednesday, we picked up Maxine and we are now one big happy family.  Both dogs are adjusting quite well to one another, although, when they play together, it is a bit on the rough side for my liking, but I am getting used to their dog play.  They are not harming each other, but we have to be mindful that Maxine is only 10 weeks old, compared to Cooper who is 6 months.  He has the weight and height advantage on her.  Having said this, Maxine is one feisty little gal. She stands up to Cooper in more ways than one.  Once she is more grown up, we believe that she may overpower Cooper, but time will tell.  From my perspective, I am happy that little Maxine is a tough little puppy.

They both sleep through the night, for the most part.  We have had to take Maxine out twice during the night (around 3 am).  I think that she is still adjusting to her new home and her previous routine has been somewhat upset.  As for Cooper, he sleeps through the night, no problem.  Our day starts around 6 am, and the first thing we do is take the dogs out to do their business.  It is dark at 6 am, and although we have spot lights on in the backyard, I am still afraid to run into skunks or other animals.  So, I take a quick peak through our bay window to make sure that no critters are out there, then I go out with the dogs.

A day in the life of Cooper and Maxine is quite simple:  get up, poop, eat, play, nap, go outside, go for walks, and this goes on and on.  This routine will be more or less the same for the next few weeks, until Maxine gets her second set of shots, which is on December 2.  At that time, she will be protected against viruses that can live in all public places where dogs go (parks, pet stores, streets, etc).  Until then, we must put Maxine in a pouch when we go for walks so that she doesn't touch the ground.  The virus, called Parvo virus, can be fatal to any puppy who catches it.  Cooper is totally protected against this virus since he has had all of his shots.

We are also working hard to housebreak Maxine.  She is doing well so far, but we must always be vigilant for any signs that she needs to go out.  This takes up a lot of our time, but it will all be worth it in the end.

So far, it's been what we had been hoping for.  Cooper and Maxine bring us a lot of joy, laughter and they are just so sweet.  I particularly love it when either one of them will have a nap in my arms.  So far, Cooper appears to be a mommy's boy but that could change.

I must talk about the training that we are doing with both dogs.  I say "we" but Russell does a lot more than I.  He is really good at training the dogs to "sit", "stay", "heel", "down",  and "come". Cooper is much more advanced than Maxine since he has already been at training school, but I have seen a huge difference since he has been living with us.  Russell is patient, but he also has a great voice for calling the various commands, which is key to this training.  As funny as this sounds, it is important to sound very entusiastic or animated when you train and call your dogs.  The tone of voice has to be friendly, happy.  This is something I have to work on.  Not that I am not happy or friendly when I talk to the dogs, but I have a hard time acting silly or animated when I train.  It doesn't come naturally with me, as it does with Russell.  I will work on it this week.

We have already enrolled Maxine for training, starting second week of December.  Cooper will also join the class.  You never get enough training and socialzing.

Finally, everyone that we talked to said that our lives would change once we would have the dogs.  That is true.  We now have wet wipes in our cars, and every room in the house, in case there are accidents.  We carry poop bags in every coat pocket and in our cars.  We also carry treats in our pockets for training.  I have squares of paper towels lined up on the kitchen counter to wipe their little faces when they drink water, so the water doesn't drip on the floor.  Cooper doesn't seem to mind but Maxine hates it - with time she will be conditioned to love it!  I have towels on the back porch and by the front door, ready to wipe their paws if the weather is bad. So our lives have somewhat changed...but we get so much from both of them.  We truly love our dogs and look forward to many years of happiness with them.

So much to say and more to come. I must go and hug the dogs now (oops...and Russell too). Until next blog, have a great week.

All is Well!

This past week has been exciting in many ways. Let me start with the building of our log home. The forms for foundation walls were erected on the foundation footings. Concrete should be poured into the walls this week, assuming all hunting has been had... Most importantly, our water supply has been secured: the "Well" has been drilled to a depth of 365 feet in pure Canadian Shield Granite, with an amazing flow rate of 6 gallons per minute! This is quite amazing considering that the average flow rate is 1 to 3 gallons per minute and no well driller will guarantee a flow rate in excess of 4 gallons per minute. We are very happy with this as there is absolutely no way to predict what the flow rate will be. It can vary from one lot to the other. This, for us, means luxurious shower times with simultaneous toilet flushing!

So, all is on track with the building of our home in Huntsville. Matt and Ali came back from vacation last Thursday. It looks like they had a great time. During their absence, more progress was done on the actual log home, as witnessed by us today when we stopped by. Everything is going as planned and we are getting closer to the day where we will move to Huntsville.

Of course, the biggest event for us this past week was the arrival of Cooper, our first dog - a Talemaker Havanese. We picked him up on Wednesday and he has been a joy for us even since. He is such a wonderful dog, well behaved, socialized, trained and so more fun to be with. Most importantly, he brings us so much love and happiness that words cannot describe how we feel about him. I could go on and on but I will not. Instead, I plan on starting a blog just for the dogs, in the next few days. This coming Wednesday, we are picking up Maxine, so we will have our hands full until Maxine, like Cooper, adjusts and settles into her new home. Both Maxine and Cooper will get along just fine, they already know each other and Cooper will be a great big brother. Cooper, at the moment, is getting our full attention, 24/7, and this will continue when Maxine comes home. Both dogs will be well loved, no doubt about it. At the moment, Russell and I are overwhelmed with how we feel about Cooper. He is everything everyone could hope for in a dog, and more. We know we will feel the same about Maxine. It will be even better to know that Cooper has a buddy to play with. But, like in real "human" life, when a second child is born, the first child may become "jealous" so we will need to be mindful of this, especially since Maxine will be so much younger than Cooper . We are confident that we will manage very well.

As I am writing this blog, Russell is playing retrieve with Cooper. He just loves this game. Did I forget to mention that Cooper loves eating...he eats his meal in less than 60 seconds. His favorite TV channel, which happens to be ours, is the Food Network. Who would have thought???

So, all is "Well" with the newly extended Duncan family. Until my next blog, I wish you all a good week. Once my "dog blog" is up and running, I will give you the link. I plan on updating the dog blog as often as possible, maybe daily.

Anne, Russell & Cooper

Random thoughts....

Week of October 31, 2011....Halloween night. We had about 45 young and older kids, gave away all the candies except for a few that we kept for ourselves :-) As usual, Russell was kneeling on the floor by the front door and scared the little kiddies even before they got to ring the door bell. He always does that, one older kid even remembered Russell doing this last year. On Wednesday, we went to Washago to meet with Matt and Ali for a quick meeting. They are currently on a well deserved vacation somewhere warm. We then went to Huntsville to meet with our lawyer to sign off on some papers, additional bureaucracy related to us having to release the right of way to Hydro and Bell so that they can complete the task of supplying power to our property. We visited our site and there was more progress. I attach two pictures: one of the Stone Slinger and one of the foundation which is one step closer to being done. The Stone Slinger is used to dump sand and stones, rapidly, in the foundation in order to build up the base before pouring the concrete floor. We met Glynn Robinson, aka "Blackie", who was overseeing the work being done. We had met Blackie before as he did our septic system. By the way, Blackie is a prime hunting outfitter/guide. Speaking of hunting, not much will happen at our lot this week at it is hunting season and most of our tradesmen, actually most all tradesmen up North, are hunters. As long as they do not go after the deers or turkey on our property, we wish them good hunting!

Wednesday night, we took Cooper to his second training class. Cooper was good, although he was a bit tired and not as focused, but....he had a good reason for being tired. Fiona, one of our breeders' damns, had her 5 puppies early Wednesday morning. As a result, the Talemaker family, dogs and humans, including Cooper, were up most of the night and morning. I am happy to say that the five puppies are doing well, although Darlah's maternal energy and reserves are being used to the maximum as these pups need extra TLC during this critical early phase. Cooper was nonetheless happy to see us and we had a good time with him. We are, of course, waiting for the big day, Wednesday, November 9th, when we will bring Cooper home for good. We cannot wait as it feels like Christmas will arrive on Wednesday. We do not know what to expect when Cooper first steps into our home but he will certainly be well taken care of and pampered, without overwhelming him. Our home is ready for him.

Today, we came back from Montreal, where we spent the weekend with our respective families. It was nice to see everyone again. I had a nice lunch with my parents at the Willows Inn in Hudson. The weather was beautiful. Saturday night, we had dinner with Russell's mom in the old Pointe-Claire Village. It was also very nice.

A few other thoughts: our fall pots are planted, they look really nice with some twigs and magnolia branches. I will soon start Christmas baking, including baking for the dogs....more to come on that. Tomorrow night, we are going out for dinner, just the two of us, our last evening out, for a little while until the dogs can stay home alone....having dogs really is like having children, in some ways. They will change our lives, no doubt about it, but not for the worse. We are really looking forward to welcoming Cooper, then Maxine, to our home.

Until the next blog, have a great week.