Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tommy graduates from puppy obedience school

Tommy graduated from obedience training last night! He had a final exam that consisted of walking on a leash and then obeying several commands on demand with lots of distractions. Tommy now knows how to Sit, Lay Down, Sit and Stay, Lay Down and Stay, Drop It, Leave It, Front (coming to us when we call) and he walks on a leash without pulling. He's not perfect and sometimes he can be stubborn but he's learning. :)

Here are some pictures from the graduation!


Tommy tests the sit command














Tommy's graduation swag














Tommy practices walking on a leash














Tommy is starving after graduation!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Tommy searches for the brotherhood of the white temple

Tommy was supposed to visit a cornfield maze and help us navigate through it with his amazing hound sniffing capabilities. However, the cornfield maze didn't allow pets. How annoying is that? What kind of OUTDOOR cornfield maze wouldn't allow dogs too? Very discriminatory if you ask me. Then we decided to try the Castle Rock Art Festival in the middle of downtown Castle Rock. They also didn't allow dogs! No dogs?!? No dogs in the middle of a downtown STREET festival? Who are the people who make up these stupid rules? They are obviously cruel, hateful people with cold, bitter hearts.


So, after driving to Denver AND Castle Rock all for nothing we decided to head to Sedalia to hunt for the Brotherhood of the White Temple, which is in the Oddball Colorado book. This was a rather uncomfortable trip. The paved road ended abruptly. Then we turned off the nice wide dirt road onto some mountain roads that were washed out and very, very steep and narrow and that took us to someone's home...someone who could very well step out onto the porch with a shotgun when they saw us turning around. We only bottomed out once on these roads. When we finally got to a sign that read, Brotherhood of the White Temple College and Church, we snapped a picture and got the heck out of Dodge. Driving around a secluded mountain looking for the church of a cult isn't exactly like navigating a cornfield maze at a city botanical garden, you know?


Tommy is back home safe and sound and none the worse for wear although I'm sure he would tell you that driving around in a car all day is not very much fun. He would have much rather helped mommy and daddy through a cornfield maze. He's taking a siesta. Napping all day in the car is exhausting.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Tommy rings the bell!

In house breaking Tommy we have learned thatas he is so small we don't always realize that he has gone to stand by the door to go outside. A few times Tommy has waited by the door and then given up and just gone right there. And he is a rather quiet dog so we needed a way to help him make some noise when he needs to go pee. We bought a call bell from Office Depot, the ones that sit on hotel desks and have a sign beside them that reads, "Ring bell for service." We have been making Tommy hit the bell every time he goes outside. Mark said that this morning, he was trying to train Tommy to hit the bell by holding a treat right at the bell popper so that when Tommy tries to get to the treat he rings the bell with his nose :)

I was sitting by the door reading emails and out of nowhere I heard the call bell ring! Tommy is so quiet that I didn't realize he had come to stand beside me wanting to go out. But he rang the bell to get my attention! He's such a smart little puppy :)

Monday, September 1, 2008

Tommy goes Oddball Colorado Hunting

Today we decided to take Tommy on a little day trip adventure to search for Oddball Colorado landmarks. So, we packed up our Subaru and our Tommy and headed north to Ft. Collins and Estes Park. In Ft. Collins we visited the Swetsville Zoo. As Tommy soon discovered, this was no ordinary zoo. Instead, it was a zoo filled with industrial art created by former farmer Bill Swets. Bill has created two-headed dragons, a dragon rock band, a beetle spider and many other fantastic pieces. Tommy, Mark and I took a stroll through the zoo, which is actually Bill Swet's property. We wanted to see the Bungled Jungle, which is a faux museum of papier mache artwork also on the Swet property but as it was Labor Day all of the buildings were locked up. Hopefully, we'll get back to Ft. Collins sometime soon to see this jungle of paper aliens. I'm sure that Tommy would have enjoyed it.


After Swetsville and a lunch on the roadside (Tommy loves gala apples), we headed for Estes Park to see the famous Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for Stephen King's, The Shining. We had just recently watched the 2nd episode of Ghost Hunters featuring the Stanley Hotel so we were all pumped to see it. (OK, maybe not Tommy as he had to stay in his backpack for the self-guided little tour.) We were also disappointed to discover that the Stanley charges $5.00 for tourists who want to visit the hotel but are not guests there. We were not prepared for this and had to scramble for some cash. We came up with $4.00 before the guard got tired of waiting on us and let us go on through (a 20% discount!). We were pretty disappointed all around with the Stanley. It was a lot smaller than we had imagined and the grounds were not very well kept up. It looks like it could use some new management, in my opinion. We didn't stay long, mostly because we wanted Tommy to be able to be somewhere where he could get some exercise.


Next, we visited the Estes Park River Walk. Tommy was amazing on his leash! He walked with us for quite a while saying hello to other doggies and letting small children pet him. He had his paws dipped into the Big Thompson river (but only just! It was cold!) We was the star of the river walk. Everyone thought he was adorable and cute and tiny and fun :)


After the River Walk (not included in Oddball Colorado, we were just letting Tommy run around for a bit) we headed up to the Bald Pate Inn to see their famous key collection. They have thousands and thousands of keys from all over the world. They have the key to the Frankenstein Castle, a turkey, the key to My Old Kentucky Home, the key to room 217 at the Stanley, the key to Hitler's house and many, many more. After the key collection, we had dinner at the Inn. They had a gorgeous view of Estes Park from high up above and a beautiful old dining room.


Tommy had a very full day of driving up and down Colorado! But he doesn't seem to mind one bit as he just climbs into his backpack in the back seat and curls up...or rolls out on his back (pictures to come) and goes to sleep :)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tommy graduates from puppy obedience school

Tommy graduated from obedience training last night! He had a final exam that consisted of walking on a leash and then obeying several commands on demand with lots of distractions. Tommy now knows how to Sit, Lay Down, Sit and Stay, Lay Down and Stay, Drop It, Leave It, Front (coming to us when we call) and he walks on a leash without pulling. He's not perfect and sometimes he can be stubborn but he's learning. :)

Here are some pictures from the graduation!


Tommy tests the sit command














Tommy's graduation swag














Tommy practices walking on a leash














Tommy is starving after graduation!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Tommy searches for the brotherhood of the white temple

Tommy was supposed to visit a cornfield maze and help us navigate through it with his amazing hound sniffing capabilities. However, the cornfield maze didn't allow pets. How annoying is that? What kind of OUTDOOR cornfield maze wouldn't allow dogs too? Very discriminatory if you ask me. Then we decided to try the Castle Rock Art Festival in the middle of downtown Castle Rock. They also didn't allow dogs! No dogs?!? No dogs in the middle of a downtown STREET festival? Who are the people who make up these stupid rules? They are obviously cruel, hateful people with cold, bitter hearts.


So, after driving to Denver AND Castle Rock all for nothing we decided to head to Sedalia to hunt for the Brotherhood of the White Temple, which is in the Oddball Colorado book. This was a rather uncomfortable trip. The paved road ended abruptly. Then we turned off the nice wide dirt road onto some mountain roads that were washed out and very, very steep and narrow and that took us to someone's home...someone who could very well step out onto the porch with a shotgun when they saw us turning around. We only bottomed out once on these roads. When we finally got to a sign that read, Brotherhood of the White Temple College and Church, we snapped a picture and got the heck out of Dodge. Driving around a secluded mountain looking for the church of a cult isn't exactly like navigating a cornfield maze at a city botanical garden, you know?


Tommy is back home safe and sound and none the worse for wear although I'm sure he would tell you that driving around in a car all day is not very much fun. He would have much rather helped mommy and daddy through a cornfield maze. He's taking a siesta. Napping all day in the car is exhausting.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Tommy rings the bell!

In house breaking Tommy we have learned thatas he is so small we don't always realize that he has gone to stand by the door to go outside. A few times Tommy has waited by the door and then given up and just gone right there. And he is a rather quiet dog so we needed a way to help him make some noise when he needs to go pee. We bought a call bell from Office Depot, the ones that sit on hotel desks and have a sign beside them that reads, "Ring bell for service." We have been making Tommy hit the bell every time he goes outside. Mark said that this morning, he was trying to train Tommy to hit the bell by holding a treat right at the bell popper so that when Tommy tries to get to the treat he rings the bell with his nose :)

I was sitting by the door reading emails and out of nowhere I heard the call bell ring! Tommy is so quiet that I didn't realize he had come to stand beside me wanting to go out. But he rang the bell to get my attention! He's such a smart little puppy :)

Monday, September 1, 2008

Tommy goes Oddball Colorado Hunting

Today we decided to take Tommy on a little day trip adventure to search for Oddball Colorado landmarks. So, we packed up our Subaru and our Tommy and headed north to Ft. Collins and Estes Park. In Ft. Collins we visited the Swetsville Zoo. As Tommy soon discovered, this was no ordinary zoo. Instead, it was a zoo filled with industrial art created by former farmer Bill Swets. Bill has created two-headed dragons, a dragon rock band, a beetle spider and many other fantastic pieces. Tommy, Mark and I took a stroll through the zoo, which is actually Bill Swet's property. We wanted to see the Bungled Jungle, which is a faux museum of papier mache artwork also on the Swet property but as it was Labor Day all of the buildings were locked up. Hopefully, we'll get back to Ft. Collins sometime soon to see this jungle of paper aliens. I'm sure that Tommy would have enjoyed it.


After Swetsville and a lunch on the roadside (Tommy loves gala apples), we headed for Estes Park to see the famous Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for Stephen King's, The Shining. We had just recently watched the 2nd episode of Ghost Hunters featuring the Stanley Hotel so we were all pumped to see it. (OK, maybe not Tommy as he had to stay in his backpack for the self-guided little tour.) We were also disappointed to discover that the Stanley charges $5.00 for tourists who want to visit the hotel but are not guests there. We were not prepared for this and had to scramble for some cash. We came up with $4.00 before the guard got tired of waiting on us and let us go on through (a 20% discount!). We were pretty disappointed all around with the Stanley. It was a lot smaller than we had imagined and the grounds were not very well kept up. It looks like it could use some new management, in my opinion. We didn't stay long, mostly because we wanted Tommy to be able to be somewhere where he could get some exercise.


Next, we visited the Estes Park River Walk. Tommy was amazing on his leash! He walked with us for quite a while saying hello to other doggies and letting small children pet him. He had his paws dipped into the Big Thompson river (but only just! It was cold!) We was the star of the river walk. Everyone thought he was adorable and cute and tiny and fun :)


After the River Walk (not included in Oddball Colorado, we were just letting Tommy run around for a bit) we headed up to the Bald Pate Inn to see their famous key collection. They have thousands and thousands of keys from all over the world. They have the key to the Frankenstein Castle, a turkey, the key to My Old Kentucky Home, the key to room 217 at the Stanley, the key to Hitler's house and many, many more. After the key collection, we had dinner at the Inn. They had a gorgeous view of Estes Park from high up above and a beautiful old dining room.


Tommy had a very full day of driving up and down Colorado! But he doesn't seem to mind one bit as he just climbs into his backpack in the back seat and curls up...or rolls out on his back (pictures to come) and goes to sleep :)