We're still here!

Ok. I know I told you all that I would probably be bad at updating this thing, but i didn't think I would be quite this bad! No update in 2 months, yikes! You all probably thought I left the country with Zoltan to avoid turning him in next year ;) ok, maybe you didn't but don't worry we are still here!

Zoltan will be 9 months old in 4 days and is doing fantastic with his training. I've recently observed that it takes a lot to truly rattle this young man even in new situations. Yesterday in the midst of frankenstorm (aka Sandy) he wanted to play fetch outside in the yard. I happily obliged him and even praised him for not being afraid. What else you ask, well shopping carts slamming together? Nope, doesn't phase him. Balloons popping? Nope not even that. He is such a wonderful puppy and I have a feeling that when our time is up next November, and he has spent some time being polished by the pros in puppy college that he will make someone an amazing companion.

I promise to try and update with some of our adventures in the next week or so. Tomorrow is Zoltan's first Halloween, and he plans to get dressed up to accompany me to school and the mall. I'm sure there will be pictures involved so I will be sure to post them! :D

Get your motor runnin'...

Well friends, I'm sorry for my lack of updates Zoltan and I were busy planning an epic road trip with my mom. We left last Sunday (August 12th) to head out to California to spend a few days. The reason for our road trip was meet our new found CCI friends and attend our very first matriculation/graduation ceremony in the Southwest region in Oceanside, CA.

We have had an absolute blast seeing our gorgeous country and meeting so many awesome new people! Tomorrow we are leaving to start our drive back home, we are shooting to stretch it out over 4 days so we should be back home sometime late Sunday or on Monday. When I get settled in back home and start school (on Wednesday :O ahhh) I promise to post some stories and pictures. For now, these should hold you over!

Zoltan and his siblings/half siblings. From L-R (front) Yollie, Zhi, and Young and in the back Zoltan and Yarrow

Me and my handsome guy at Lake Arrowhead, CA

Zoltan staring at me while I swim in the pool at mom's friends house

Is He A Good Puppy?

I'm pretty sure if you were to pose that question to Zoltan, his answer would be "well of course I am!!" Obviously I think that Zoltan is a good puppy, and I'm almost 1,000% certain that he thinks he is a good puppy, but it really makes me feel good when other people compliment me on how well behaved he is.

Over the last week Zoltan has been on quite  few outings and he has worked so well. Always being a good listener and standing or sitting (and sometimes even laying) quietly while I have talked to people (along with my mom). Everyone we came in contact with made such nice comments including "he's such a good puppy" or "I love the way he stares up at you when you are talking". On Sunday we took a walk with two of our fellow puppy raisers around downtown Annapolis. I switched dogs with one of the PR's Mike who has an11 month old pup Nyak who was a joy to walk. At the end of our walk Mike switched pups back with me and said that Zoltan is a special guy with a great disposition. It made me feel good to hear that from somebody with a bit more experience than me.

We have been working on introducing new commands into Zoltan's routine and he is having a blast! This boy loves to learn and he is so attentive whenever we are practicing or even working So far we have introduced about 20 of his 30 commands and most of them even have meaning to him which is amazing! Some of the commands that I have just introduced don't have a name yet but he gets the idea of the motion and what he should be doing.

I'm so proud of my boy and the work we are doing together! Zoltan is turning out to be an amazing puppy and he's quite the handsome boy as well!

Handsome boy @ 6 months old.

Mister Zoltan and his sister Zenda

Wordless Wednesday!

Sorry I've been so terrible at updating this last few weeks! Here is a fantastic wordless Wednesday picture for you. I call it "Zoltan and the cone of shame" My sweet boy is almost 6 months old and he underwent the "big snip" on Monday.

He is no longer wearing the cone, but it was amusing while he was!

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!