Adult Training

For those faithful followers of our blog, you know that we are working hard to get Moose trained properly. We want to make sure that Moose minds his manners and is enjoyable for everyone once he is the size of most of us. J Our desire is that one day he will be able to be a therapy dog to hospital and nursing homes. We still have a long ways to go, given that he is still afraid of wheels, but his temperament is right on par for where he needs to be.

This past Monday was our first day of adult training with Moose. He is not even 6 months old but he is already considered an adult for training purposes. Or trainer Alex, with Sit Means Sit is great. You can tell that he is truly a dog lover. I think that he might do this even if it wasn’t a job. Moose loves him and responds really well to him. I think that if Alex was something in a previous life it might have been a mastiff. Not because of his size, but he demeanor is spot on with Moose. However, Alex is far from lazy and I think that Moose still gets in much more nap time each day.

This week we worked on heel with Moose and some with dealing with his distractions. I have to say- by the end of the hour session I saw improvement with him. He’s still Moose a big, clumsy dog with a sweet personality, but he was learning to ignore some of the more exciting things around him that would distract him from doing what we ask.

We also worked on Place with him. Basically, that means that he must remain in the place that we asked him to stay. In most cases it would be an object that we would ask him to sit on. The idea is that he will not move from 'place' until you let him up. We have a long way to go on that.

We will continue to work with him over the next week in spite of our busy schedule. Moose may not know it yet, but we have high aspirations for him. Maybe we are naïve, but we think that he will do great!

Alex’s dog Jackson does things that we will never see Moose do, but that we thought was rather impressive nonetheless. Check this out. Alex told Jackson to ‘place’ and he jumped up on top of the fire hydrant! He didn’t move until Alex told him he could. There was a couple of times that Jackson had to sneak in some Brad and Becky lovin’ but other than that, he barely moved an inch without permission from Alex. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Something had me tickled in this picture of me walking Moose. I don't remember what- but I'm SURE that it was well worth the head tossed back laugh. And NO, I do not exaggerate, nor do I add drama to any situation. ;-)

Spring time

My Mom found this super sweet little bunny in their yard the other day. I think that my mom almost mowed over it- oops. However, she spoted them and went around. And then promptly called for my sister to take the pictures. I thout that they were so cute and wanted to share with everyone!

This one made me smile too. The little guy found his way back to his home, with the help of my sister, and found the rest of his family. It looks like they are laying on top of each other! How sweet.

I love Spring time! Everything is new. The air is new and it feels fresh. In Georgia, we've been blessed to finally get some rain so it feels very fresh in the air. Fresh and muggy. :)

Brad & I have an outdoor tomato planter that we've been trying to get some tomatoes to grow on. I think that they are coming and in a couple of weeks we should have some tomotes worthy of eating. In the mean time, we have a few visitors that have made this their home. There are a couple of little birds in the top. I tried to get a good picture, but I do not have a steady hand. Here is one that you can at least tell that there are two little mouths wide opened, hoping that I was bringing them some food.

Moose Update!

As some may already know, Brad has not been feeling great this past week. I got a few pictures of Moose being sweet and sympathic to him. I love the paw on his face!

Who wouldn't start to feel better after you dog sleeps at your side while you rest up in cow pants?? That, along with an antibiotic & extra fluids seem to be doing the trick. Unfortuantely the resting period is over- he is working long days for the next 5 days. Maybe there will be rest in his future next week? Good time to cash in some of those fabulous sick days??

Moose continually surprises me with all of his crazy stunts that he does. Mostly he slides down a stair or two, runs into the walls, hit the door stopper in the hall or manage to drag his stick all along the wall when going up the stairs- only on the right side mind you. I don't know that he has ever gone up the stairs on the left side. Silly and entertaining to us.

His sleeping position are another thing that never ceases to amaze me. Look at this one. I don't know how this can be comfortable. But he slept like that and seemed to have gone into a deep sleep when we started to hear him snore! I've never had a big dog, so this might be perfectly normal for all, but I find it cute and endearing.

Here is one of his sweeter sleeping positions. Partially on the hearth and partially on his bed. Taking advantage of the good life. He'll just lay there for awhile resting, get up and move a little and go right back at it. It must be a rough life being a dog- more importantly, Mr. Moose.

So here is one of those priceless moment with Mr. Moose... the flung drool around the nose. :-) I captured the moment so we could

share it with all! It is just not right to keep all of the great moment to ourselves!

The other weekend we went to a great little weekend for jeep owners. It was mud 4 blood. People there donate blood for LifeSouth and jeep parts distributors bring their scratch and dent parts to be sold at discounted prices. All of the proceeds go to LifeSouth and their efforts collect blood donations.

The day was rather warm for April, reaching 90 degrees that afternoon. Here is a picture of Moose's experience there.

He would dive to get under any jeep just to find some shade. I don't think that this was he favorite jeep outing. Brad and I enjoyed it though and walked away with some really great deals.

And in closing I thought I would share with you a picture of Moose and his favorite toy- a stick. He goes into a small wooded area near our back yard and doesn't want to come back out until he has found a 'treasure'. It is ALWAYS a stick. :)

5K Race

I hate to disappoint most of you, but there is only 1 picture of Moose for this blog- and this is it. :( 

After a long hiatus from running I finally got back in the game- sort of. My friend Jody and I ran a 5 K this past weekend and had a great time. 

In my usual Becky style, I made everyone arrive at the race with more than enough time for us to register, walk around and observe the area, time for a potty break and STILL have plenty of time before the beginning of the race. 

We had time to help the Blimpe Bear 'get ready' for his day in the spotlight. He even took some time to take a quick picture with us. I didn't even know that Blimpe had a Bear mascot. 

Here is a picture of my gracious husband. He willing got up  well before dawn to come and cheer us on.  Oh, and take a few pictures for us. :) It was really cool to come back and see the entire race fully documented for us. 

The course basically took us through a small community of homes for the first .25 mile and then along a trail in a wooded area. We probably ran 1 mile of the 3.12 miles on a boardwalk through flood plains.  You can spot me and Jody here on the left just at the start of the race.

We ran together the entire time and enjoyed our race until we hit the last .5 -. 25 miles which was entirely up hill. Since it was an out and back course we knew what we were up against, but it was still a great challenge for us nonetheless.  

Jody has one strong finish! She picked up the pace like a pro and made me kick it up a notch up the last hill. 

We crossed the finish line at 31 min and 26 sec. We were both proud of our come back race finish time. It gives us both a starting point to grow from. Who knows where we will go from here?

Just because the race was over didn't mean that the camera stop clicking :-) It's a good thing that neither of us are camera shy. Here we are recovering from our run and enjoying the moment of success. We did what we set out to accomplish. 

Hopefully we'll get some more pictures of Moose up next time :)