Stop and Smell the Roses

Over the weekend, Hush and I took a few really long walks. At one point, it got really hot, so we found a clean part of the creek, and I let her get her paws wet. Dogs "sweat" through their paws (they don't actually sweat, but they release heat through their paws), and wading in a nice cool stream can really help them cool off. I try not to let her drink out rivers and streams, but I couldn't pour her portable water fast enough! So here is my little troll under the bridge.


After we played troll under the bridge, we continued on our walk until we got to one of Arlington County's many, many, many parks. This particular park has lovely rose gardens, and beautiful benches where you can sit and relax. We walked around the gardens, sat on a bench, picked and shared blackberries, and then took a nap in the grass together under a large shady tree.



Hush is a big fan of roses. First she wanted to smile with the pretty pink ones. Don't you just love this picture? When I showed it to her breeder she was blown away by how beautiful Hush is looking. She just gets better every single day!



But, Hush still does not have a very long attention span, so it did not take long before she was sick of playing photo shoot amongst the pink florals. Next we came to the yellow ones, and she decided it was time to stop and smell the roses. Of course, with all this trolling, posing and sniffing... we were exhausted. So, we collapsed in a ball of Lydiahushness under a big oak tree, and didn't wake up for over an hour! When we woke up there was a snow cone truck parked on the side of the road, so I bought us each a snow cone. Hush has hers with no flavoring, just shaved ice, but she doesn't seem to mind, and the snowcone salesperson usually discounts hers since there is no flavoring on it. You have to be careful feeding frozen treats or ice cubes, because of bloat, but the occassional frozen goodie is safe... just make sure you supervise your dog, and your dog does not eat the shaved ice too quickly.

It's Swimsuit Season!!!

For most people, you hear the words "Swimsuit Season" and start looking into gym memberships, spending more time exercising, and substituting a large salad for a big bowl of pasta. It seems everyone around me always loses weight during the summer, and sorry for calling friends out, but most of them gain a few pounds in the winter.

But then, there is me. I am the opposite. In the winter, I shed the pounds. Of course, you wouldn't know it, because I'm buried underneath oversized sweaters, big scarves, and cords that fit when I bought them in October, but by January are 1-2 sizes too big. I hear summer, and I think "Sangria while sitting in a rocking chair on a porch!" As soon as the weather starts to warm up and the flowers begin blooming I yearn for the smell of cheeseburgers cooking on the grill, and day dream of holding a ginormous Ben & Jerry's cone under the blazing sun, racing the rays to eat it before sticky droplets of Mint Chocolate Cookie dribble their way down my fingers, passed my wrist, and somehow land on my blouse. For me, summer is socializing time, floating in the pool, and indulging over lobster tails drenched in lemon butter.

But, this year is different. I have Hush as my motivation. She recently started swimming (and by that I mean going in the deep end and actually swimming), and she loves it. I've taken to walking her on long walks, we stop half way to lounge under the shade of a large tree and snuggle... usually sharing some granola while we do. So far, I seem to have not gained any weight, and if anything, may have lost a little. Ideally, I want to lose about 3 lbs and tone up a bit. Not too lofty goals, and things that should be easily attainable with my furry friend at my side.



As soon as she heard the pool was opening, I walked in my living room and found her like this. I didn't have the heart to tell her the pool does not allow dogs. She looks so good in a bikini that I think I need to work on my own body now!

Back from Vermont

Everything about my trip to Vermont was amazing. The state has been bombarded all spring and summer with rain, but the sun came out and we had beautiful days my entire vacation. The plants are growing like crazy – my parent’s lilies are literally over 6’5” tall! I spoke with a local farmer who said crops are actually really hurting, because the rains have caused a 4-6 week delay in harvesting, and while plants are tall and green, the slow fruit protection is throwing a real curve ball in many locals’ incomes. But the easy going, friendly Vermonters just seemed happy the rain had subsided and the sun was shining.

The water levels in rivers are also insanely high, and all the rain has caused a lot of erosion of dams creating dangerous water conditions in many areas. My very first day of the trip I left Milly with her Polish Lowland Sheepdog (PONS) cousin Minka, her human aunt Amanda and human cousin Cecelia and went tubing with my boyfriend Bill and my brother Drew for a few hours. The river was insane! We hit many rapids, and in one spot Bill was actually stranded on debris in the river, with the cooler caught in rocks. The river was moving way too quickly for Drew and me to stop – we would grab onto low hanging branches that would 1) break off or 2) we’d get a hold of a large branch, only to have our tubes swept out from under us! It took us almost 30 minutes to get down stream to a safe beach to pull off on and wait for Bill. I use the word beach loosely as the place we pulled off on was actually someone’s yard, as their entire beach was submerged in 4’ of water! There were definitely moments where Drew and I were really worried that Bill would lose his tube in his efforts to get back on the river, and to make matters worse, the keys to both Bill and Drew’s cars were in our cooler, which was stranded along with Bill! Despite the rapid filled river and somewhat frightening water conditions, we were able to enjoy our tubing trip, and this is just proof to how relaxed and easy going Vermonters are. The rains have really caused a lot of problems for them, but the river was filled with locals (by filled I mean we passed three sets of people – so nothing like the “filled with tubers” my DC area readers can identify with from tubing excursions) and lots of smiles.

Minka has been great about sharing the house with new baby Cecelia!

If you have never been to Vermont you must go! It is a very dog friendly state, and there are so many wonderful outdoor activities to do with your four-legged friend. With the exception of mud-season, Vermont really makes you want to just get out and walk/hike! In February, Milly and I spent an entire day (with some indoor thawing sessions mixed in) hiking through the deep snow and across the frozen lake. She had a blast! But, she had just as much fun during our recent summer trip! She was able to run across grass filled fields, romp with neighborhood dogs, hike a small mountain and even go for a canoe ride. At one point she decided to apply her selective hearing, stop listening to me and darted to the local resort’s beach to frolic with the children catching minnows and crayfish! It was impossible to be mad at her for not listening when she was clearly having so much fun!

You can really see Milly's age in this photo, but she acted like a young puppy the entire trip! I think there is something very regal and wise about her expression in this shot.

We spent one day running errands in Burlington, a very dog friendly city, and I believe home of one of my favorite bloggers – Life with Dogs (correct me if I’m wrong). If you’ve never been to Burlington there is a lot to do! First, I suggest going to Church Street, a street with traffic blocked off that creates a large walking precinct filled with shops, restaurants, food carts, crafts, musicians and lots of dogs! I stopped counting at 30 dogs. You’ll also want to make sure you at the very least drive by Lake Champlain, but if you can make a day on this should-be Great Lake, I highly recommend it! We then hit up the Girlington Garage (owned by an old family friend), so if you make the trip to VT and have car trouble, this is the garage to go to! When we arrived at the Girlington Garage we were greeted by two adorable, friendly and blissfully happy toy breeds (I know one was a Yorkie, but I’m not sure what the other was). The Girlington Garage is wonderful – the vision is to have a six bay garage with all female auto mechanics, and it is well on the way to being a reality.

I am sure I will fill you in on so much more about my trip, but with out further ado, here are some photos taken by Bill for you to enjoy!

Beautiful sky in Greensboro, VT

Red barns are all over Greensboro, VT

We spent a large chunk of our time on Caspian Lake, here you can see the picturesque water, and the amazing horizon filled with wild-flower filled pastures.

Guest Blogger: Rachel & Hershey

I wanted to share a guest blogger post written by my dear friend Rachel. She was one of my very first blog followers, and it is so much fun having a local friend with a retriever too! I've dog sat Hershey, and she is just an amazing, spunky, dog that is still in that seems like forever Labrador puppy stage! I hope you enjoy reading her post!

I was asked to guest blog and I didn’t know exactly what to write about. I have learned so much from reading all of the posts and knew that I wouldn’t be able to provide such an informative, helpful post. Instead, I am going to share with you my dog, Hershey, and what I have taken away from the blog to help with Hershey.

First, let me introduce you to my pride and joy, Hershey! Hershey will be one years old on August 20^th. I first met Hershey while I was visiting my family in Idaho for Thanksgiving last year. My cousin had bought her for $50 outside of a grocery store, so we don’t know too much about her. Obviously she has some Lab in her and we are guessing she is part German Short-Haired Pointer as well. I loved her instantly and my cousin said I could have her if I wanted. After a brief discussion with Dave, I agreed to take her and arrangements were made to have her flown out to Maryland the day after we moved into our new house, December 31^st, 2008. I have been working on training her since we got her and will go over our progress to date.

Luckily for us, Hershey was practically housebroken and only needed some reinforcement to end that stage of puppyhood. Additionally, she knew to sit when told. I have her now trained to sit when I snap. To train her for this, every time I told her to sit I would snap my left hand and raise it slightly. She will now sit whenever I snap; ultimately I want to get her to sit when I just raise my left hand up. Occasionally I still need to verbally tell her to sit, but I highly recommend training your dog non-verbal commands. It was very easy for me to do and she picked up on it rather quickly.

Since her previous home was in the country, she was HORRIBLE on a leash. She just didn’t get it at all. We started off with retractable leash, a body harness, and a typical lead. We found that the harness resulted in less pulling. I think Hershey felt we had more control over her (which we did) and that resulted in less pulling. Key word is less. She still pulled quite a bit. After reading Lydia’s post on training your dog to walk properly, I decided to stop using the retractable leash and the harness. I took Hershey out for a walk on the lead and when she started to pull I used the “Lose it” method. I immediately yelled “no pull!” and lightly slapped the leash on her back. This may seem extreme, but it got her attention. After doing that a few times, she stopped pulling whenever I said “no pull!” Because I believe in positive reinforcement as well, whenever she was walking next to me and not pulling I would tell her what a good girl she was being and pet her occasionally. We had a few more walks where I was constantly saying “no pull” but it eventually sank in and we can now walk without pulling. Occasionally I still need to remind her with the “no pull” command, but things are MUCH better than before. We still have the occasional pulling when she spots something to chase, but she is learning that chasing is for when she is at the park and not on the leash.

Speaking of chasing and the park, Hershey has a lot of energy. Though we have a yard and she is not crated during the day, she still needs to go to the park to run and get some energy out. Annapolis has an excellent dog park at Quiet Waters. In addition to the fenced dog park, it has a dog beach for them to swim, but the beach area is not fenced in. This park has a $5 daily admission fee or a yearly pass for $30. We go there a few times a week and love it. For the days I don’t feel like driving there, I take Hershey for a run or go to the school down the street. We are so fortunate the Annapolis is such a dog friendly town!

Chewing. Puppies love to chew. Especially Labs. From day one I knew that this may be a huge issue for us. I didn’t want to set Hershey up for failure, so I purchased a lot of toys and continue to purchase new ones frequently. I figured if she had things of her own, with a little reinforcement, she would leave our stuff alone. Though there have been some instances where she has chewed our stuff, I stand behind this method. Hershey LOVES her toys. We have an excessive amount I am sure (well over 30), but she loves them and plays with them daily. Without them I think we would have had a lot more damage done to our stuff and the house. We have not had a problem with her chewing the wrong thing in the last couple of months and I am hoping we have conquered this (knock on wood). When she did chew something she shouldn’t have, I would show it to her, lightly tap her butt and yell, “No!! Bad girl!!!” Most time she would walk/run away and then crawl over to me and want to sit in my lap and give kisses to apologize. It didn’t take her long to learn the word “bad” and I can now apply it to other situations besides chewing with no physical correction.

A few days ago I decided it was time to teach Hershey to lay down on command. My verbal command for this is “down” and I move my right hand down towards the floor. To begin the training, I did my combo command and had to physically make her lay on the floor. Once she was down I repeated “down” and praised her. After three or four times of that, she got the point and would lay down on command. I plan on working on this every evening for 30 minutes for the next few weeks until she really gets it. I eventually want her to lay down when I lower my right hand, so this will take a lot of time.

We are very fortunate that Hershey aims to please us and has trained pretty easily. She is truly a joy to be around and I can’t imagine not having her. She loves to play and be active, but yet other times she is content to cuddle up with us on the couch or bed. Since she is such a lovable, fun dog and loves to get out of the house and meet other dogs and people, we are going to join the Pets on Wheels Volunteer Program in Annapolis. After I attend orientation in September, we will visit residents in long-term care facilities or the hospital. I cannot wait to start that with her. Not only will we be giving back to the community, but I think Hershey will enjoy it as well.

I cannot end this post without mentioning the Furminator. I absolutely LOVE this grooming tool and am so grateful that Lydia posted about it. Hershey’s coat isn’t too thick and she doesn’t shed that much, but this brush has definitely helped with what she did have. She did not love being brushed at first, so we started slowly and gave lot so praise and some treats. Though she doesn’t love it yet, she will let me brush her without running away. I have passed along the Furminator tip to others as well who find it amazing. If you missed her post on it, click here. I highly recommend it as well!

Greetings from Vermont!

Greetings from the small, picturesque town of Greensboro, VT! Milly and I arrived yesterday and are having a blast! We spent our first two nights in Arlington, VT where Milly enjoyed romping around the countryside with my brother's Polish Lowland Sheepdog and sniffing at my infant niece's feet - it was very cute! I'm telling you, there must be something in the water in Vermont, because Milly is acting like a puppy! She has the "zoomies" multiple times a day, and yesterday enjoyed a picnic lunch and hike up a small mountain/large hill with my parent's dog Lucy.

As I've briefly mentioned in the past Milly does not like swimming (or did not) and is very hesitant about getting in the water. We are lucky enough to have a sand bar on our beach at the lake up here, and Milly was able to walk out for quite a ways, actually it was more like a hopping, splashing run, and actually ended up swimming! She swam for the first time yesterday, only about five feet before she turned around for shallow water, but today she went out about 20 feet, and really seemed to enjoy herself! Lots of treats and coaxing got her in the water initially, but after that I just let her do what she wanted, when she wanted, and she started swimming! I was thrilled! She still is unsure about just walking right into the lake near our boat house (it gets deeper quicker there), but she really seems to enjoy the security of going in off of the sandbar, and I'm more than happy to let her have that sense of security. It has been really neat to watch Lucy (she is almost one year) gain confidence about water after seeing Milly gain her own confidence regarding the lake. Lucy is now wading up to her belly, a big feat for her!

On a sad note, I took Milly to the vet on Friday for her semi-annual exam. About 7 months ago I learned Milly had a few (minimal) crystals in her urine, but the vet assured me this was probably nothing and we should wait and re-test at her next exam. Well, I got the call on Saturday that Milly's latest urinalysis shows an increase in crystals, and she now has moderate urine crystals. I was pretty upset, to say the least. The vet explained there isn't much beyond diet change we can do for this right now, and she is hesitant to change Milly's diet because of all of the skin allergies Milly has had. Just when we finally get the right food combination and this happens. I am in contact with an animal nutritionist, and hopefully she will have some ideas. In the meantime, I am continuing to force/bribe Milly to drink as much water as possible. Milly hates drinking when I am not home, and even when I am home she wants me to sit with her while she drinks. I am now adding her food to almost an entire bowl of water, and sit on the floor and hold the water bowl for Milly an addition three times a day. I'm hoping this will up her intake of water, and perhaps this will help.

As you all know I am slowly hunting for THE PUPPY to be my first show dog. I am hooked on Golden Retrievers, and the process of finding the right breeder has been long and slow. I found an amazing litter, and was offered a male, but turned it down because I really wanted a female. I found another litter, sired by an amazing dog, and I've seen an amazing dog from the same breeding, but decided to wait for a breeding with fewer outcrosses on the bitch's side. Now I am really regretting this decision. I told the breeder two days ago I was going to pass on a female from this litter, but I really want to e-mail her and say I changed my mind. I know down the road some people might turn up their noses at this dog's pedigree, but having seen a puppy from the first mating, and really trusting this breeder, I am starting to think I made a big, big, big mistake. My boyfriend really does not want me to get another dog, but I am dying to start showing, and I think I will just have to follow my gut. I'm going to reflect on my decision for the next few days, and talk to my parents about it a bit more, and then decide if I should e-mail the breeder when I return from vacation. There is a big chance all puppies will be spoken for by then, but I really am regretting passing this one up. On a happy note, I have found an incredible mentor of sorts in a woman from Michigan that I met through the Golden Retriever Forum. She has really helped guide me down the right path in finding my future puppy, and I am incredibly grateful for her insight as she has guided me away from some novice mistakes I was close to making.

I want to publicly thank all of my guest bloggers for their posts. I have a few more guest blogger posts to post in the next week or two, and I am sure you will all really enjoy them! If you e-mailed me a post and haven't seen it published yet, please be patient. I have a very slow internet connection and some of the guest bloggers e-mailed me some GREAT photos! I'd hate to publish these posts without the photos, but with the slow internet connection I'm having trouble posting more than one or two photos at a time!

Well, time for me to get back to vacation! There are three Golden Retrievers across the street that Milly is telling me she wants to go play with, and afterall, this is her vacation too!