Wordless Wednesday

I call this "Woe is Zoltan", the poor boy has such a "ruff" life you know. Ok no not really!

He visited his first human doctors office today when I had to take my mom for an EGD, at first I couldn't figure out how he could fit for an "under" underneath of the chairs but then I found the perfect access point and voila! He laid under there the ENTIRE time we were there which was about 45 minutes. He fell asleep an didn't make a peep. I was so proud of my boy!! :D

Side Note: His nails are getting shorter again!! yay!! I'm so excited that nail trimming isn't a HUGE ordeal anymore. It's still somewhat of an ordeal but it's tolerable (for all parties involved) and we can get it done over a day or two!

They grow up so fast!

I'm pretty sure it was just yesterday that we drove over 7 hours up to Long Island, New York to pick up Zoltan from the CCI campus for the North East Region (aka the NER). No? It wasn't just yesterday? I guess that explains why he doesn't have any puppy teeth left and he is now wearing his "big boy vest" and can take trips into public buildings now. *sigh* my little guy is just growing up so fast!! Zoltan is a little over 5 months old, we picked him up at 11 weeks so I guess it really has been a little while since we've had him. Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

Zoltan and I have been working super hard lately on getting better at the commands he already knows and we have introduced a few new ones as well! We've been working on his "heel" and "under" as well as "stand" and my personal favorite "bed", although he's not to fond of  being told to lay on his bed when he doesn't really want to. Oh well, we shall just keep working!

It amazes me how attentive he is during our training sessions. Not only does Zoltan love to work for his food, but this boy absolutely loves it when you praise him verbally. He can't get enough of it so that works to my advantage as well so I don't have to keep shoveling out food like I'm a PEZ dispenser!

In other news, Zoltan has also developed a stubborn streak recently, mainly when it comes to "counter surfing", for you non dog folk that's just means jumping up on a counter, but doesn't counter surfing sound like so much more fun? He wants to see what's up there constantly and he has even successfully knocked food down in an attempt to eat it. Up until this evening he wasn't successful in actually eating anything. Sadly, he got lucky tonight and got part of a turkey wrap which just means we need to be extra vigilant and making sure he isn't popping up to see what he can find.

Until next time!
Stacey and Zoltan

Oh and since I haven't shared any pictures of the handsome boy himself recently, I guess you should look down so you can see his handsome (not so) little face!


Checking out some different surfaces down at the playground.



                                       First outing in a big boy vest at Grandma's nursing home

Vacation and 4th of July!

This week marks a bunch of firsts for Mister Zoltan. It is his first vacation with our family, his first 4th of July and the first time in over a month I have been able to trim all of his nails without him  having a meltdown!! Yayyyy Zoltan!!! :)

First things first. Vacation!! We have a not so fancy trailer at the beach in Fenwick Island, DE. It's a smidge cramped with 3 adults and 4 pups but it is our place and we love it. We stay down for a whole week in July and just relax and do whatever we please. We don't have a fenced in yard at the beach place so everyone has to go potty on a leash or on a longer cable "tie out" if we humans are outside to supervise. 2 out of our 3 girls have some not so nice leash manners and then of course Zoltan kind of has to have nice leash manners so I try to take him for at least 2 walks a day even when we are at the beach place. It's hard down here since there are no sidewalks (just asphalt) so we have to go early in the morning and in the evening so nobody gets their footsies hurt!

Next up, on Wednesday Zoltan celebrated his very first 4th of July! He wasn't even phased by fireworks, cracks and pops throughout the day and in the evening when the big shows put on by the town were making all kinds of boom noises he just laid on the floor and slept. He was tired and I'm glad the noises didn't bother him. On the other hand our boxer mix Penny has an aversion to loud noises of any kind and she spend the evening curled up on the bed buried between some pillows. I gave her a bone with some peanut butter but she wanted no parts of it.

The third (and possibly most important) "first" of the week was that Zoltan let me trim his nails!! He has had serious issues with us trimming his nails almost since we brought him home at 11 weeks old. He would always squirm and try to nibble on our hands or he would whine, cry and bark. It would take forever (I'm talking over several days) to get all nails on all four paws trimmed. A little over a month ago I accidentally hit the quick on one of his nails (which I think was more traumatic for me) but after that he would literally FREAK OUT when I even came near him with nail clippers. He would run and hide under the dining room table. If I was lucky enough to lure him out with some food, his ears were pinned back and his tail was usually tucked under too. My poor boy was scared but I knew I couldn't give into his fear and so we plodded along on our nail trimming journey.

So began what I like to call the "OMG! Nail trimming is so fun!!!" experiment. Two or Three times a day I would take some super yummy tasty turkey or ham and I would break a piece up. Then, I would take out the nail trimming supplies and sit them about 5 or 6 feet away from us. Each time Zoltan let me touch or hold his paw I marked it with a "good!" and then gave him a tasty treat. Slowly we moved the nail supplies closer and closer until I was touching his paws with the clippers while holding them. Again we marked with a "good!" and then he got a tasty treat. A few weeks ago we moved up to trimming a tiny bit of a nail before releasing him to go have fun and then Wednesday and Thursday I was able to trim all of his nails on all four paws!!! I was so excited. We still have some work to do and we need to keep it positive but I'm hoping that he doesn't freak out anymore and we can keep those nails nice and short!