It was a white Christmas...

...in Montreal.  Plenty of snow for Cooper to play in and get snowballs all over his soft coat.  We all had a great Christmas and our family was very happy to meet Cooper.  The drive to Montreal was uneventful. Once we got to my parents' place, Cooper was a little disoriented, having to get used to a new place and new people to meet, but he was very well behaved once past the "snooping around" stage, which lasted just a few hours.  He did not go near the Christmas tree, it was as if it didn't exist. Cooper behaved the same way at Russell's mom's place.  We were extremely proud of him for behaving so nicely, but then again, we were not surprised.  Cooper is a well balanced dog, sure he has his moments like all dogs, but he is also very calm.  This was his first major trip and it was a success.  It was a lot for him to handle, two new houses to sleep in, Christmas smells, many people to meet, non-stop disruptions during the day from the comings and goings of all of us, having to find new favorite spots to do his "business", but he took it all in stride.  I would be remiss if I didn't add that we treated Cooper to a few small pieces of turkey....he sooooo enjoyed that!

As we were driving back home yesterday, Russell and I were reflecting on the past few days.  It was nice to spend Christmas with our family and Cooper added a bit of "je ne sais quoi".  We both felt a surge of pride for Cooper for having been such a good dog.

So, we're back home and a more normal life has returned for Cooper.  One of the things that we must do this week is buy him a winter coat and booties.  Although he probably may not need those in Toronto, he certainly will in Huntsville.  The snowballs caused by the snow in Montreal were not a fun thing to have, it was even worse when salt got in his pads and the snow formed iceballs.  We were as careful as possible to make sure he didn't walk where there was a lot of salt, but it is a winter reality and we must be prepared.

On the log home front, the sub floor is now complete and I attach a picture sent to us by Matt.  This picture was taken at dusk on December 23.  After the Christmas break, the work for the geothermal heating will start, Matt will continue to work on the log home, with an expected delivery to the site around mid-January.  It will be very exciting to see our house erected on the foundation.

I hope you all had a great Christmas.  I attach a picture of Cooper taken at my parents' house, by the fireplace. He is such a poser..... Until next blog, have a great week.  I will write again in 2012.

Merry Christmas to One and All!

Well, this is it.  One week today it will be Christmas. This means that Cooper gets two weeks off from Obedience school...he is happy about that! But we will keep at it, at home, every day, for short sessions at a time.  Training is actually fun and the best part for Cooper is that he gets to eats lots of treats, and some of those treats are quite high value for him!  I have to share with you a funny story.  This past Thursday, we attended his first Obedience class.  It was very good, 6 dogs with one instructor and the class lasted one hour.  During the class, Cooper got a bit tired of the treats he was getting, as such he was a tad excited and disrupting...to distract him, the teacher gave him a beef bone filled with Cheez Wiz.  He went crazy for the bone and ate all the Cheez Wiz.  Just imagine, his little face was yellow with gooey cheese.  It was actually funny to look at but very messy (personally, I didn't care for that look but I let it pass).  Needless to say that once we got home, the first thing we did was washed his face with soapy water.

I have to say that all the training that we are doing with Cooper is paying off (thank you Russell!).  We are seeing a HUGE difference when we take him for walks. The teacher says that, ultimately, when walking with a dog, we should not "feel" the dog at all, in other words, it should be as if the dog is walking by our side, with no leash.  Well, we are probably 80% there.  I went for a walk with Cooper twice this weekend, alone, for one hour each time, and I totally noticed the improvement.  It was as if we were just both out for a walk, walking side by side, looking at each other from time to time. I was very impressed.  I should add that during this afternoon's walk, Cooper and I came face to face - rather nose to nose with a Rottweiler.  I asked Cooper to sit, the owner of the Rottweiler asked his dog to do the same, and both dogs were just looking at each other, no barking, no pulling on the leash.  Then they nosed each other for a few minutes and that was that.  Nothing more, nothing less - doggie heaven.

This past week, we took Cooper to daycare for 2 hours at Doggie Central, The Garage.  This was our first time away from him since we got him 5 weeks ago.  The experience was very good for Cooper.  As for Russell and I, we had lunch at a restaurant literally 3 minutes away from the daycare.  It was actually nice for the two of us to enjoy a meal in a restaurant and we did have a good time, although we looked at our watch more than once. We both looked at each other at one point and realized that we really missed Cooper.  He is truly part of our family unit.

Other than that, it was a good week for all of us. My Christmas baking is complete, we are getting ready to go home for Christmas.  We first have to go to Huntsville this coming Tuesday to meet with Matt and tie up a few loose ends before the Christmas break. Matt is actually working at our lot all of this week, getting the sub floor ready.  We will bring Matt some of our Christmas cookies.

We also have to give Cooper a bath before we go home.  He will be smelling sooooo good and be all fluffy.  I just realized that, so far, the blog has been about Cooper, well almost.  He is just such a big part of our lives now that everything we do involves Cooper. Yesterday, Russell and I had to run a few errands so we took Cooper, and we each took turns to wait outside with him while one of us would go in to a store.  That reminds me, yesterday we had to throw away his favorite toy, a crinkle newspaper.  It was getting too dangerous for him to play with. So, while running errands yesterday, we went to every pet store possible to try and find this same toy.  No luck, until we found Pet Value, which had 4 "newspapers" left.  It turns out that this toy is now discontinued.  I bought all four!  I was like a kid in a candy store, so happy to have found Cooper his favorite toy.

I guess this is all the news I have for this week.  Cooper is now watching football with Russell, patiently waiting for his dinner. I now have to fill Cooper's stocking, and Russell's!  I hope you all have a great Christmas.  I will do my next blog around December 27.

Merry Christmas, from Anne, Russell and Cooper!  xoxoxo

It's beginning to smell like Christmas....

I started the Christmas baking today and Cooper is guarding the oven,  patiently waiting for crumbs to hit the floor...either accidentally or on purpose...he doesn't care.  I am actually very careful to make sure raw cookie dough doesn't hit the floor as I read that it is bad for dogs and humans alike. In any event, the baking has started and I still have more to do, including a batch of dog cookies for Mr. Cooper.  Unlike other years, where I would do all my baking  in one day due to time constraints, as a retiree I now have the luxury to spread the baking over many days.  Very nice!

On the log home front:  the foundation was inspected and approved, therefore backfilled.  Geothermal drilling is finished.  We contracted with our snowplower in Huntsville, just in time for all the snow that fell this past week. Huntsville was to get up to 20 cm of snow this week.  Can't wait to live there! We need to keep our driveway clear for Matt and the crew over the coming months.  All is tracking fine for the house and we expect to go to Matt's Yard and Huntsville one more time before Christmas.

This was a very good week for all of us.  Cooper kept busy with lots of walks,  lots of training and he is "getting it".  I have to say that Russell is doing an amazing job at training Cooper and it is very noticeable, even by complete strangers - one fellow with a Weimaraner even said he'd trade dogs with us. When we walk, the leash is loose and he constantly "checks in" with Russell. We don't overdo the training but we keep at it. We used our 30 feet leash a number of times so that Cooper just could "run like hell", a Havenese trait, and boy did he!  I tried to get a video but he was too fast for me.  I will try again this week.  Russell and I had our monthly haircut appointments in Toronto this past Saturday.  We took Cooper with us, although we were debating on Friday night if one of us should cancel and stay home with him.  We didn't know how he would behave, especially since the hair salon is in the Commerce Court building, below ground level.  In the end, we decided to bring him with us.  What a good dog he was!  We took him in his sherpa bag since dogs are not allowed in the Toronto buildings, but he was on a leash at the salon.  We were there for almost two hours and he sat/slept on either of one of us almost the whole time - while stealing kisses from almost everyone who walked by.  We each took him to the street level once for a bio break.  As an aside, if you wonder why it took two hours for both of us to get a hair cut, it is because Russell's hair cut takes as long as mine, if not longer.....I know, it's hard to believe but it's true!  Our hairdresser was over the moon with Cooper and so were other clients.  We were very proud of him.  But we did something very important:  when we take Cooper to a new place, we now ask people not to make a big production about meeting him, so that he doesn't get all "jacked up". This may sound like we are taking the fun away from him and the people he meets, but it is a good way to make sure that he behaves properly and doesn't get too excited.  It is a win win win for us, for the people we meet and for Cooper.


I want to add that the downtown Toronto experience was a very good one for Cooper.  He came to us 4 weeks ago and his socialization process had been very well begun by our breeders, and I will say that they did a super job at it.  One would think that being in the downtown core, with traffic, sirens, streetcars, and all,  that he would be somewhat scared.  Not at all.  For Cooper, downtown is no different than living outside the city...romping in the park.  We had to take an elevator and he loved the ride.  The only time where he felt a little funny was when we stepped on the lobby floor of the Commerce Court building.  That floor is super shinny and he was afraid to walk on it.  He also barked at the large elephant sculptures in the Court yard....once I kicked them...he figured oh, these are nothing!

Today, we took Cooper to another play session at Doggie Central.  This time, there were about 15 dogs and he had a great time. The dogs were his size or smaller. Cooper was by far the most behaved, and I am not saying this because he is ours.  It was obvious to other dog owners that he was well trained.  Some people could not believe that he is only 7 months old. Also, I have to add that everyone that meets Cooper cannot get over his majestic looks.  If you know about Havanese dogs, you will know what I mean.   We will keep going to the play session every week as this is very good for him to meet and play with other dogs.  This coming Wednesday,  we will also take Cooper to daycare for a few hours, which is also at Doggie Central.  This will be the first time that we are away from him but it is very important to start working on the separation process, to avoid separation anxiety down the road (both for Cooper and us).  Not that we intend to leave him, but it is inevitable that there will be times where we will have to leave him either alone at home or in daycare for whatever reason.  This will also give Russell and I a chance to have a few hours alone, and perhaps enjoy lunch out somewhere or run errands. I already know that the first time we leave Cooper at daycare, we will be totally thinking about him, but we must do this.  I will report on this next week.

Russell's arm is doing much better and he probably needs only one or two more treatments.  All is good with me, I haven't slept this well in months.  I used to think that I probably had insomnia but if I did, I no longer have it.

This week, we start Obedience training with Cooper.  It will be every Thursday afternoon, for 8 weeks, with a break between Christmas and New Year.  The training will take place at Scholars in Collars in Burlington.

I have to end this blog by saying, again, that we just love Cooper so much.  He is everything we had hoped for in a dog, and more.  He is truly a delight and brings us so much joy.  He will be meeting our families for the first time at Christmas.  They are looking forward to meeting him.

Have a great week everyone and I hope that your Christmas preparations are doing well.

Not an ordinary week...

Russell and I come from the school of thought that, in life,  things happen for a reason, and the reason is always revealed in time.  This past week was a very difficult week for us.  We came to the realization that we were not equipped to have two dogs.  There is no other way to say it.  No need to get into details as we would not have made this heartbraking decision without giving it a whole lot of thought.  So, sweet Maxine was returned to Nathan and Darlah, our breeders.  What we want is to care for Cooper wholeheartedly, fully, completely, and give him the best life that he deserves. And we know that we can do that.   We also know Maxine is well taken care of with Nathan and Darlah until her forever home is found.

So what did we do with Cooper this week:  we played retrieve and he is very good at it.  He also learned how to do a "high five".  We practiced the various commands and he is now much better with Sit, Stay, Come and Down.  On Thursday, we went for a nice long walk in downtown Oakville.  He truly is  a "chick magnet".  Women adore him and just want to pat him. Even one older senior man said he was a cutie. Truly, everywhere we go, he gets the attention. We particularly like to plan our afternoon walks with the end of the school day so that he gets to see all the high school children leaving to go home.  Many of them will stop and ask if they can pat him.   On Friday, we took him to the Vet  for a general health check. That was a first experience for us, not for Cooper.  He did very well, the Vet could not get over how well socialized he was and how quiet he was when he put him on the examining table.  Although he thought Cooper was taller than the norm for Havanese, he liked the fact that he is very lean, which is a good thing.  He weighed in at 5.4 kg. The Vet was very nice, he took the time to answer all our questions.  We are planning to have Cooper neutered in February - ouch!

Today, we took Cooper to Doggie Central, the Garage, in Mississauga.  This was our first time there.  We took him to the Small Dog Play session, where dogs of all breeds gather to play, without a leash, indoors. For some reason, today Cooper was the only dog there so he had the whole place to himself.  He hurdled, ran like crazy, played retrieve with us and ran through an agility tube.  He had a lot of fun, we were there for one hour and I can tell you that he was dead tired at the end of the play session.  We plan on doing this from time to time as it will give Cooper exposure to a different environment, and other dogs (although none today).  It was a lot of fun for all of us.  As I am writing this blog, Cooper is crashed out on the floor, but have no fear....he will wake up for dinner in 15 minutes or so....the second he hears the food bowl and measuring cup.

Russell is getting better following his fall but he had to get more treatments than we anticipated.  He is getting some acupuncture, ART, physio, the whole nine yards.  His range of motion is getting better but he is not quite there yet.

On the log home front, we went to Washago and Huntsville yesterday.  We first had a meeting with Matt and Ali and went to the Yard where our log home is being built.  The build is coming along very nicely.  It is very impressive to see the detailed work in those logs - Matt is a true artisan and a master carpenter.  Then we went to our lot to look at the finished foundation which is ready for inspection this week.  Huntsville had 6 centimetres of snow.  This was Cooper's first time walking in snow.  He hopped through the snow like a jackrabbit, bouncing up and down, while gathering little snowballs on his hair which he nibbled on as an added source of water.  Quite funny to watch.  I must shop for a little fur coat to protect him from the cold.

So things are progressing as planned, and we expect the log shell to be erected on the foundation in January.  2012 will be a great year!

I attach a few pictures taken yesterday and a short video of Russell and Cooper in Huntsville.  Have a great week everyone.