One year ago...

One year ago today we adopted Pepper. And boy, he has changed during that time. The little teenage rascal has turned into a wonderful companion.

For giggles, I'll revisit this post from January 6th:

"Walking on the leash - A (as in awesome!)." - Yeah. I had no idea what "awesome" really means ;). In this year we've gone through a plethora of harnesses to find the one that works best for him. His problem is, as always, his nose: 

 When he smells something he MUST follow that scent, and that means a lot of back and forth (and often a "let's just see how this tastes" finale). In addition, he was super-excited when he saw other dogs. So to combat both we had him on a Halti/Gentle Leader for a long time. During that time I practiced the "Leave it" (treat), "Come" (treat), and "Pepper, watch me" (treat) over and over again, until he did all of these on the loose leash, at least when there were no other dogs around. I then switched him to various chest harnesses (he hated all of them), continuously practicing the "Watch me" (treat) when we encountered other dogs. And by now he's on a flat collar. No pulling, typically. If he gets a bit too excited I can always call him back to me to ease the tension on the leash. Pretty remarkable. I'd call that an "A" now.

"Riding in the car - A." He was (and is) pretty good with that. We did have the occasional climbing over the back seats to see if there's more fun in the front area of the car, but a safety barrier took care of that too. He usually just sleeps while we're driving. Good :).

"Being calm in the office so that I can get some work done - B+. Being alone in the office or his room - B+" That has improved significantly. I still have his kennel in my office, just in case, but he hasn't been in there for a good half year or so. A simple "Not now." usually does the trick. And no barking or whining when I leave the office. He usually just takes a nap under my desk. So, up to an "A" from a year ago.

"Feeding time - by now A-." I can move that up to an "A" without hesitation. He walks (sometimes runs) to his blanket and waits patiently until I tell him to "Take it". We've also switched to exclusively feeding him from his kong toys - he LOVEs them. And it keeps him busy for a while.

"Lastly, moving around freely in the house while respecting the kitties: C+." I'd bump that up to an "A-". He has gotten much, MUCH better, but every once in a while he is still interested in chasing the kitties up the stairs. Rarely though. And, I can usually call him away from that. By now, Abby and George have also begun slowly approaching and sniffing him. In another half a year or so things have probably fully calmed down here.

So yeah, all in all we couldn't be happier with him. I'm very much looking forward to taking him backpacking next year!

Poor pooch again....

Pepper woke me up this morning at around 1 am. Since I had not let him in the yard after our evening walk (sometimes he holds back a little urine during the walk), I figured it's my own fault and let him out. Sure enough, that's why he was up. When he came back inside I noticed that his tail was hanging down, and that he was repeatedly biting it as if something irritated him. I didn't see anything obvious and decided to check again in the morning. Well, turns out I couldn't get back to sleep. After some tossing and turning I got up at 2 (urgh) and settled on the couch with the second book of the Hunger Games series. At least I was not bored (although pretty tired today)! I even got doggie company.

Turns out, Pepper's tail was still pretty limp later this morning. A quick check on the internet (amazing!) revealed that this is most likely a condition known as limber/cold water/flaccid tail. And breads that are most often affected are - drumroll - labrador retrievers and beagles. Of course. Looks like our little pooch welcomes every little ailment out there with open paws. 

We've decided to keep an eye on it for now since it most often clears up on its own within a few days, and since he does not seem to be in pain when I touch his tail (there is a little discomfort, but no whining). In the mean time, we kept his butt warm with a hot water bottle and blankets which he seems to enjoy. He just looks so sad with his droopy tail. I sure hope I'll see some tail wagging tomorrow!

Christmas 2011

One last picture before Jule, Juri and Soso headed back home again:

Christmas Eve

Santa was here!

Christmas 2011

Jule, Juri and Zoe (Soso) arrived last Thursday night, and we're looking forward to spending Christmas with them. 

The tree is decorate:

we had some AMAZING food at VQ on Friday (sorry, when we remembered to take a picture all that was left was an empty plate!):

and lots of fun on the playground:

 

 

And now we're waiting for Santa!

New computer room!

Earlier this week we finally decided to redo our computer room. One of the desks and several of the shelves were still from Rochester, and the rest was bought to sort-of match what was already there. So - after some online shopping at ikea.com, we headed to Portland to pick up our new toys. We've spent most of our time the last two days assembling everything, but it is well worth the effort. The whole room looks MUCH better now!

Icy spider webs

I brought my camera to work today to take pictures of our recently declared physics majors (we have a board in the hearth area with our students' names and graduation year). That's when I saw these gorgeous spider webs and couldn't resist. Because it was so cold last night, they were covered with a thin layer of ice and looked very pretty (I bet the spiders beg to differ!).