Too Much Water

We took a trip to the ocean one Saturday a while back. Guinness needed to meet the owner of the doggie day care she wants to go to near my work and it's right by the beach. She was a good dog and got approved for a half day. I found out from the owner that she had to send a wheaten away one time - resource guarding. I'm finding out that sometimes wheatens have . . . issues.

Anyway the beach was right there and I couldn't turn down an opportunity to introduce puppy to the ocean. She looooooves water and I thought she'd enjoy the waves. She's still not coming when she's called so I resisted the temptation to take her off leash and just walked her along the shore for a while letting her pounce on the waves rolling in. She loved it. I had heard, but never read, that salt water is bad for wheatens so I wanted to make sure it got rinsed off. How handy that there was a fountain at the plaza by the beach?

She also played in the hose when she got home. It's so fun to watch her run around and chase it and she's never happier than when in the water, plus there was that rinsing thing I was worried about.

This is a cautionary tale because I don't think she got all the way dry. It was into the 80s but not really hot enough and she wound up with an ear infection even though I used the hair drier on her. She was a sad puppy shaking her head and scratching the next day and had to go to the vet. She had a week's worth of ear medicine and antibiotics before she was roo rooing and back to her old self.

As soon as she'd let me I trimmed the hair that is under her ears so it would stay dry. I also cut her little top pouf. My SO called her mullet head - which we both took offense to.

Fur Blur

We had a dog party for Easter! Guinness' sister Mia and nephew Potter attended the festivities and even joined in the spirit by donning appropriate headgear.

Guinness had the best time running around the yard with them. One of the (human) guests who had been tasked with taking pictures said all she could get was a fur blur.

It's so exciting to have friends over. We're working on being polite to guests, but it's a challenge. She has a tough time letting them catch their breath because she wants to play and play and play.

Springtime with Puppy

Springtime brought some beautiful blossoms to our neighborhood. I would have loved to have some nice pictures of her with the blossoms. It's hard to do on a walk alone with her. I managed to get a shot of her admiring the beautiful blossoms.

Another walk took us by a local lake where we saw our first swan. Since you coulndn't see her eyes at this point the front and the back of her head kinda looked the same.

A trip to Fresno gave me an opportunity to have a friend with actual photographic ability and a smokin' hot camera take some pictures of her amid the nectarine blossoms in a surviving orchard.

My sister helped me trim Guinness so that we could see her eyes, but I took this shot of her before hand and it's one of my favorites.

You can see the patch where she was shaved for hernia surgery she had at the same time she was spayed.

She had a great time in Fresno playing with Hank the black lab and having close encounters with a curious desert tortoise and a disdainful kitty.

She would have loved the waterfall in the yard if she could have gotten to it but my sister did let her play in the hose. We had to lock her outside while she dried off and she got to practice her jumps. She definitely catches air.

Soaking wet and happy. You can finally see her eyes. My sister said her eyelashes look like Who eyelashes.

Solvang

We took a weekend trip to Solvang and found out that is a very dog-friendly town. We stayed at The Royal Copenhagen Inn and were certainly not the only visitors with dogs. The loft room let us crate her away from outside passersby so she wasn’t tempted to bark. Again the crate came in very handy but we took her almost everywhere with us. The hotel was right in the middle of town. We walked to breakfast on the patio of a restaurant and they even brought a dog biscuit out for her. Miss picky-eater didn’t touch it but the thought was there. We ran into a group of tourists who were on a scavenger hunt and had to take their picture with a dog and Guinness was glad to oblige. I couldn’t resist taking her picture next to the bulldog at the Bulldog Café coffee shop. Buttonwood Winery does their tasting outside so that’s where we went to sample some local wine. Los Olivos is also dog-friendly. By the time we got to the third stop Guinness was used to hopping into my S.O’s arms ready for her next adventure. The proprietress of one olive oil shop was outside and had to laugh because she thought my S.O. was carrying a teddy bear before she realized it was a dog.
We went on two hikes that weekend. The trail to the wind caves in Gaviota was too sunny for her so we didn’t make it very far with her, but the walk along a shady path to Nojoquoi Falls was more her style. It was flowing nicely after the recent rains.

She is becoming a good traveling dog. My dog photography has not improved.

Valentine’s Day

I tried getting a cute picture of Guinness holding a Valentine’s Day flower. It’s hard to get her to sit still for a photo. Here’s a sample of what I usually get.
This is what I finally managed to shoot. It's a lovely shot of her, looking scroungy, hiding under the table - as usual when she has something illegal.

This is what I had in mind only with Guinness as the puppy. Again, reality and my plans diverge...

Here’s what I Photoshopped together for my S.O’s Valentine’s day card. It actually looked OK once I'd added a filter or two.

Hikin’ Dog

My sister was here on a beautiful January day and we decided to take a little hike. Guinness was fine in the shady spots but just stopped once she got a little warm. Oh, and my finger was broken from an accident with the retractable leash the previous week ... We, OK - my sister, wound up carrying her about half the time. At this point she, Guinness that is, was 13 pounds. My sister used to have a dog named Millie we think was a wheaten mix that reminds us of Guinness. She did the same thing when she was done walking. When Millie stopped my sister would put her in the stroller and one of her kids would walk. Unfortunately we didn’t have a stroller handy.

At this point puppy’s eyes had started to disappear.

A Walk on the Wild Side

We got a chance to take Guinness off leash when we visited Reno after Christmas. She met her cousin Cane, a Rotweiller mix, her new boyfriend.She stuck close by him and explored a trail along an icy stream. She was not at all sure she liked the slippery ice.

After all she’s a SoCal wheaten and had

only seen the stuff come out of the front of the fridge in little pieces. We practiced having her actually come when she’s called. I had read so much about how wheatens like the snow and was happy to let her outside to play when there was a light snowfall while we were there. Her muzzle was all snowy after snorfling around in the snow. She was not too happy however about being put outside while Cane had his prime rib leftovers. She was saying many bad words in dog language as we wrestled her outside.

Later on the trip there was another chance to take her off leash at Mono Lake. We felt fairly safe having her walk next to us along a wooden walkway over the marsh and out to the lake. Well, we don’t know whether she jumped or fell but she wound up in the slimy marsh. Her halter made it easier to haul her up again, but she sure needed a bath afterwards. She didn’t care that she was all slimy when she romped in the snow.

We discovered dogfriendly.com where we found a hotel that takes dogs! Who knew?
The crate helped a lot and she was very secure there for an hour or so when we went to dinner. She’s very good in her crate. It’s been a big help when traveling.

On the way back home we got to take her off leash one more time in the Alabama Hills with a fine view of Mt. Whitney.