Sunny Sunday!

We woke up this morning to a sunny day for a change.  We haven't had a lot of sun lately and I must admit that I miss it.  We just got back from a nice long walk with Cooper and you can really tell that the sun is getting warmer.  I know we still have a couple of months of Winter but if the sun is around, somehow it makes it easier to handle (although we can't complain about our weather lately).

This past week was good.  We were not able to go to Huntsville as planned due to the bad weather in that area so Ali sent us the kitchen drawings by email and we were able to review them. Great job Ali! The design looks really good, with lots of counter space, drawers and our kitchen window by the sink will be huge! We made some minor changes to the drawings, so we're good to go now.  We need to finalize the appliances but we pretty much know what we want.  On Tuesday, we went to HD Threshing Floor Furniture in Cambridge and placed our order for our Harvest table and a few other pieces.  It will be beautiful furniture made from reclaimed hemlock and pine barn-board .

I attach a few pictures taken by Matt last week of the log home.  Great progress has been made.  Weather permitting, the log shell should be erected on the foundation by end of February. Things are coming along nicely.  

Cooper is doing fine, full of life and enthusiasm about everything. This is very obvious when he goes to his Obedience class.  He is very eager to be "put to work" and doesn't care much for the theory part of the class (which of course is for us).   The instructor borrowed Cooper to demonstrate the "Down" command on verbal rather than just using treats and hand signal. She was impressed by how well he did.  She also commented on how social and full of life he is.  She actually said that Cooper is a Border Collie in a Havanese body.  She has a Border Collie herself (which she also brings to class for some demonstrations) and those dogs are known for their superior intellect and an intensity and almost obsessive zeal for working.  That's our Cooper!

We will be looking for an Agility class for him in the next few months.  This is something that he will really like. We have set up a makeshift hurdle in the basement and he's been jumping over it and just loves it.  We found an "agility set" that we may buy for Huntsville.  

Weather permitting, we plan on going to Huntsville tomorrow or Tuesday to check out the site and meet with Matt and Ali.  This will be our last trip until end of February.  On Friday, Cooper will be getting his blood work done for his February 15 neutering.  I know I've said it before, but we will be glad when this surgery is over and done with.  We found a soft cone, which he will wear after his surgery for about 10 days.  More comfortable than the plastic cone (Thanks Nathan and Darlah for suggesting this).

That's about it for today's blog. Have a good week!

Anticipation....

In the picture below, Cooper is truly anticipating our next move....we play Retrieve with him but make him wait before we throw the toy.  He is learning to be very patient.  Russell and I are also in anticipation mode as we will be meeting with Matt and Ali tomorrow to review our kitchen design in more details and discuss next steps in the project.  Ali is the one designing our kitchen so we are very much looking forward to seeing her work. We now also have a very good idea how we want our kitchen to look, from a colour scheme perspective i.e. colour of the cabinets, countertop, colour of appliances, etc.

This past week was uneventful.  Last Sunday, we took Cooper to the indoor dog park.  He had a lot of fun and he played with many dogs, two of them were Havanese.  One of the Havanese dogs is 3 years old and weighs 12 pounds.  Cooper is 8 months old and now weighs 14.8 pounds!  We did a weigh in this past Friday.  He is visibly bigger than when we got him 11 weeks ago.  But he is still lean, we can easily feel his ribs and his two pelvic bones when we rub him without applying any pressure.  He is simply bigger than the normal Havanese both from a weight and height perspective.  Darlah, of Talemaker Havanese, actually told us that Cooper's brother, for another litter, is 24 pounds!  We doubt that Cooper will get that big but one never knows....one thing I know for sure is that we do not feed him junk food, except on the day where he has obedience class (that will stop in 3 weeks) and he gets plenty of exercise.

On Wednesday, a friend from work came for lunch.  It was nice seeing her and she was happy to meet Cooper.  I must say that I have not been back to the office since I retired last October but I will stop by one of these days.

On Friday, we visited a supplier for our countertops and Cooper was invited to come along. The owners of the store have a dog (although he wasn't there) and had no issue in letting Cooper walk around the showroom.  We wish more places would be pet friendly. Yesterday, we went to Toronto for our hair cuts and Cooper came along as well.  This time, we did not use the sherpa bag.  We either carried him or kept him on a leash.  Dogs are not allowed in office buildings so we had to be careful, although one security guard saw us and didn't say anything.  Cooper was very good and waited patiently for our hair cuts to be done.

I finished reading "Following Atticus" and I truly enjoyed the book.  I now follow both Atticus and his owner Tom Ryan on Facebook.  I started reading another book called "The Body Language and Emotions of Dogs".  This book is about the emotions that both owners and dogs exchange and how to use them to create a lasting bond.  Very insightful book.

As I am writing this blog, Cooper is trying to get my attention by barking a little.  He seems to be going through a phase now where, if we are both busy doing something, he wants our attention.  This will pass and we simply have to ignore him when he does that (although not easy to do).  For the past week, he has also started to sleep on the mat by our bed.  He starts out the night by sleeping on top of our bed, then wakes up and asks to be put down (our bed is too high for him to jump).  Interesting, as he will not start out the night by sleeping on the floor....Funny what dogs do sometimes.

That's about it for this week's blog. Another Sunday has begun, the weather will be nice so we will walk this morning and go to the indoor dog park this afternoon.  In between this, I will do a few things around the house and cook a little.

Have a good week.  Time for us to give Cooper some attention! Below is a small video of Cooper playing.

Deep freeze.....

Baby, it's cold outside!  This cold weather has not enabled us to take long walks with Cooper so we've had to resort to playing with him in the house but it's not the same.  So we've had sort of a lazy day yesterday and all three of us had a couple of naps during the day.  As a result, we were up at 5 AM this morning, Cooper being the first one up. So here I am, having a coffee and writing my weekly blog.

It is -16 at the moment, with a high of -8 today.  We will go for a short walk this morning but that's it.  Until we find Cooper a proper snowsuit, we have to be mindful of the cold for him.  We did buy a Muttluk snowsuit and we were hoping it would work but, although it fit Cooper perfectly, he was not able to walk in it.  He was walking like a zombie, it was actually funny to watch but no fun for him.  So we ordered another bodysuit, the one worn by Atticus, from the "Following Atticus" book I mentioned in my blog last week.  We hope this one works. In the meantime, we have a sweater that can keep him warm but  not warm enough for long walks.  Since we will be living in Huntsville next Winter, we have to make sure that Cooper is well equipped for the snow and cold. As for Russell and I, we have been to the Quebec City Carnival so many times, that we have all the necessary Winter gear.

This past week was again quiet as most weeks are in January. On Thursday, we went to another Obedience class and Cooper did very well.  This was probably his best class so far.  He did the best "Heel" and was very good with the "Distracted Come" and "Down Stay".  The school is very good and there are only 4 dogs per class. The class lasts one hour and I can tell you that Cooper is very tired at the end of the class but he seems to like it, especially the high value treats that he gets out of it (chicken meatballs and hot dog wieners).

On Friday, we took Cooper to a grooming salon for the first time, for a bath, ear cleaning and nail clipping.  Although Russell has given him three baths so far, and is very good at it, we thought it would be good conditioning for Cooper to be given a bath by someone else.  At the same time, it allowed for some separation between us which is also a good thing to do from time to time, although we do not necessarily like it....  We dropped him off at 12:15 and picked him up at 3:45.  He looked absolutely beautiful, all fluffy and smelling so good.  We made sure we told the groomer not to trim his hair, under no circumstances.  She did a very good job, although we didn't like his top knot, neither did Cooper.  Once we got home, he was desperately trying to remove it, so we did and I did my own simple top knot.  I should mention that, while at the groomer, he was put in a crate for a little bit of time and there were no issues.  Although we have a crate at home, Cooper does not use it to sleep in, but he was crate trained while he was growing up with his breeder so he is used to it, which is a very good thing.  Before we took him to the groomer, he had lots of fun in the snow that fell that morning.  He was trying to catch the flakes as they were falling down!

So far, this blog is only about Cooper....there are so many little stories that I could tell about him.  He truly is a wonderful dog and he is such a character.  He's been with us for 10 weeks now and he is truly comfortable in our house.  He roams around everywhere, upstairs, downstairs, but he is never far away from us.  Havanese dogs are often referred to as "velcro" dogs for a reason....

On the log home front, things continue to progress.  I attach a picture that Matt took last Friday, at the end of his work day.  He plans on erecting the house on the foundation first week of February.  We will be there with Cooper, camera and video camcorder in hand! At the site, the concrete was poured over the radiant tubing in the basement.  Hydro is installed but Ma Bell is slow coming....

That's about it for this week.  We will have breakfast soon and get going with our day.  I just noticed that Cooper has split the rubber of his Kong bone.  He is one hell of a chewer, but only chews on his toys, nothing else in the house, lucky us.  We will buy him another Kong bone today then go to the indoor dog park this afternoon.  Good day for indoor dog fun!

Have a good week everyone and stay warm!

Cooper's Muttluks....

The first week of January came and went and it was a quiet one.  The weather was certainly good, especially yesterday.  We went on many walks with Cooper this past week, yesterday being probably our longest walk so far, 70 minutes, at a brisk pace.  Cooper now walks almost perfectly on a loose leash, as a result he walks quite fast and we find ourselves having to keep up with him.  Russell and I figured that we now walk about 11 hours per week. We continue using his PawZ rubber boots, which work well, but we also bought Cooper Muttluks,  fleece lined booties made of nylon exterior and leather soles, with self tightening velcro reflective straps.  The first time we put them on, he hopped like a jackrabbit for about 5 minutes, and we weren't sure if he would like them but he does.   Although the rubber booties work well, they do not protect from the cold and do not have traction.  Many people were impressed with the fact that Cooper actually likes his Muttluks. The secret to his liking the Muttluks was to condition him to booties using the PawZ which he adapted to right away. Not many dogs like booties - maybe they need more conditioning. These booties will certainly work well in Huntsville. So we alternate between both types of booties, depending on the weather.

Some blog readers may find that I am rambling on about the booties and Cooper. I actually find that this is good information to share with dog owners for future reference.

Cooper now has many friends that we see on a regular basis during our walks:  Cosmo (6 year old Springer Spaniel), Buddie (13 year old miniature Poodle), Mickey (7 year old Pomeranian cross), Titan (4 year old Rottweiler), and Willow and Wilson (4 and 2 year old Great Danes).  I will have to invite them all for Cooper's first birthday in May!

I don't have much to report on the log home front, other than the Hydro is about to be hooked up to our lot. This process took longer than expected, mostly due to some bureaucracy that got in the way.  This week, we plan on having a conference call with Matt to get an update on the construction of our home and timing of next steps.

Before I end this blog, I must tell you that Russell and I are currently reading an amazing book entitled "Following Atticus".  A must read!  The book is about an extraordinary friendship between Tom Ryan and his miniature schnauzer companion, the "Little Buddha", called Atticus.  Together, they hiked 48 peaks in New Hampshire and went through a lot of adventures.  We are not done reading the book yet but it has brought many tears to our eyes so far ( I expect to finish the book in a few days).  This book gives a new meaning to the friendship that develops between a dog and his owners and to life in general.

On that note, I wish you all a great week ahead.

Happy New Year!

I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year.  I have enjoyed sharing some of my stories with all of you this past year and I look forward to continuing to do so this year.  So, another year has started and it will be a busy one for us, with the construction of our log home to continue in the coming months, the sale of our home in Mississauga sometime late spring, the move to Huntsville scheduled for early July,  Russell's birthday on February 12 followed by Cooper's neutering on February 15. I will be glad when the neutering is done and over with.  We are told that Cooper will need to take it easy for about 10-14 days following his surgery.

The week leading to today has been relatively quiet.  We had some friends drop by to see us and meet Cooper.  We equipped Cooper with rubber booties (brand name Pawz) and a sweater for the cold weather.  He has been wearing his booties every day for the past few days and he doesn't mind.  They protect his paws from the salt and ice, so it's a good thing.  They are red.  He looks really cute in them.

We also took Cooper to a groomer to have his nails clipped and the fur on his pads trimmed.  He didn't mind the nail clipping but did not like the pad trimming.  He will get used to it. What a difference it made though.  We need to do this on a regular basis, probably every 4-5 weeks.

New Year's Eve was quiet.  We were hoping to stay up until midnight but Cooper and Russell fell asleep at 10:30 so I called it a night.  This morning, we went for a nice long walk, the sun was out and it was mild.  It is now raining so we will stay in for the rest of the day.  As I am writing this blog, Russell is watching football with the inside of his eyelids.  Cooper is also asleep, by the kitchen door, close to the oven where a turkey is roasting.....he doesn't miss a beat when it comes to food and cooking.

We go back to a normal routine tomorrow, with Cooper's obedience class to resume on Thursday.  We will also go back to Doggie Central for play sessions.  Russell will resume his workouts with his personal trainer on Tuesday and I will continue to do the same as I have since we got Cooper:  walk, walk and walk.  Walking seems to agree with me and I like it.  It is especially nice to go for walks with Cooper now that he is much better on the lead.  We actually find ourselves walking quite fast with Cooper leading the way on a loose lead, so it's good. Speaking of working out, I attach a link of a video  with Cooper and his balancing act!

We look forward to an exciting year.  Until my next blog update, have a great New Year's Day and week ahead.