Getting into the Christmas Spirit

The staff at Askey worked a Christmas miracle to get Duncan to sit quietly(-ish) for a photo by their tree while wearing a Christmas collar!

(Why, yes, that does look like a treat-containing hand in the top corner. Coincidence, I'm sure.)

Duncan Cuts a Christmas Tree

Today was Duncan's first experience with cutting a Christmas tree. It's hard to believe that he hasn't gone before, since it's been a (nearly) annual tradition with us since for close to 30 years! But two years ago, he was a broken-legged puppy who was having an off-day. And last year, thanks to a series of bad-weather weekends and the big ice storm, we actually had to stoop to buying a pre-cut tree.

It was a drizzly, muddy day,  which meant that the tree farm had endless fascinating smells. Duncan ran from one tree to another, and sniffed every patch of mud within reach:

It took a while, but eventually we found a tree that everyone liked. Duncan thought Megan was acting rather oddly, though:

He forgave her for her strange behaviour once Dad and Evan lugged the tree away, and he could get back to exploring and sniffing around.

Luckily, we brought several large towels along, because he got very muddy! But he seems to have had a great time. 

Next weekend, after Erin gets home, we'll put the tree up and decorate it. What will Duncan think of that?

Update: After such a busy morning, Duncan is spending the afternoon sleeping off the excitement:

The Start of the Season

It's official: the first step toward Christmas happened this morning, when Megan arrived home from school. Duncan was delighted to see both her and Jax. 

Jax was less delighted to see Duncan, and is hiding behind the big chair. What he doesn't realize is that Duncan hangs out back there too, so it may not be as good a hiding spot as he thinks!

A Walk in the Snow

With all due respect to Pierre Trudeau, sometimes a walk in the snow is not for pondering affairs of great importance. Sometimes it's all about dancing, spinning, running, and towing Mom to the park as quickly as possible, ignoring all the rules of Walking Nicely on Leash.

Like this morning, for example. Duncan was full to overflowing with energy and excitement at the snow we were getting.

He wore his spiffy new red plaid coat for the first time. He wasn't very happy about it, but after a sizeable bribe of meatloaf, we got it on and headed out. He tried to shake it off...

... but only managed to loosen the velcro a bit.

When we got to the park, we went into one of the baseball diamonds to run off-leash for a while, trying to burn off a bit of that energy.  First he chased some imaginary snowballs. He doesn't fall for that game as much as he used to, but when he does it frees up a hand for the camera! 

After he'd had a good long run, we did a bit of obedience homework to bring him back down to earth. Today we practiced waiting for the command "Come". 

I tried to trick him, but he's so smart it's very hard to do. Look at the way he caught himself after "Canteloupe"! (Apologies for the poor video quality; between the dull light and juggling mitts, treats, leash, and camera I completely missed the excellent "come" at the end.)

Crack o' Dawn Duty

People think it's easy, being on Crack o' Dawn Duty:

1. Roust Mom out of bed to open the door.
2. Step outside and pee.
3. Rush back in and steal Mom's spot in bed while she closes the door.

But really, it's much more complicated than that. Here's what really happens:

1. Roust Mom out of bed to open the door.
2. Step outside.
3. Check 437 mandatory smell points:
   
4. Pee, if you happen to think of it.**
5. Rush back in and steal Mom's spot in bed while she closes the door.
6. ** If you didn't happen to think of peeing, repeat from step 1.

Thundershirt

We had Duncan's Grade 1 teacher, Joan, who is also a behavioural consultant, come over to talk about a few issues, especially the way he gets so upset when someone leaves (unless, of course, everyone leaves and he goes into his crate, which is fine.) She did make some training recommendations, but she feels most of his problems are due to high anxiety rather than behavioural issues. 

She suggested several ideas to reduce his anxiety levels, including a Thundershirt. We picked one up yesterday. Doesn't he look handsome? He doesn't seem to mind wearing it at all, and we do think he seems calmer with it on. Fingers crossed! 

(If we find it works, it comes in several colours, with optional sweaters and jackets that snap on. I think he would look quite dapper in the trench coat, don't you?)

In other news, Duncan had a pleasant romp at the Alton leash-free park yesterday. First he played with an enormous but very sweet dog named Jackson, then with 7-month-old Penny. Penny was a bit worried at first, apparently due to a recent encounter with a couple of determined herding dogs who mistook her for a sheep, but she and Duncan seemed to have fun. (You can tell he had fun – look how black his paws are!)

And here is the annual "helping Daddy put up the Christmas lights" photo. We went outside to supervise in person for a while, but eventually Duncan decided that there was no point in all of us standing around getting cold.

Playdate

Cause...

This afternoon, Duncan's buddy Cerys (who just turned 8 months old, and now outweighs him by about 25 pounds!) came to play. Both dogs seemed to have a great time, and Duncan, at least, ended up exhausted. He also ended up soaking wet, since Cerys seemed to lick, drool and/or drip a lot!

... and Effect

Here they are playing together:

At one point, Cerys apparently decided that Duncan might possibly be a sheep, and therefore should be herded:

It took at least an hour, but eventually they finally started to get tired. Even then, they didn't stop playing. They just played a bit slower:

Sherwood Forest

In an effort to give Duncan's furry little brain a bit of exercise, as well as his body, we've gone to Sherwood Forest Park a couple of times lately. It's a big park, with several soccer fields that are now abandoned for the season since soccer has moved into the bubbles. So there's lots of room for us to explore.

We started off by practicing coming when called (even when there's interesting litter):

Then we played hide and seek in the band of trees that separate two of the soccer fields. Duncan cheats a bit; we haven't managed to convinced him to hide his eyes while we hide:

We also learned to walk along the bleacher footboards, and practiced our newest trick "Go Round" on the goalpost, although that one needs a bit of work still.

RIP Lamb Chop

Sadly, Lamb Chop passed away today, at the ripe old age of about 3 months (which is ripe and old indeed for one of Duncan's stuffies!)

Lamb Chop lost his left ear and most of his tail in the course of a wrestling match in the back yard (hence the leaves). This wouldn't have been too serious – he had already survived the loss of his tongue – but somehow his brain seems to have leaked out.

Stuffing? What stuffing?

Duncan's Newest Buddy

Megan and Jax went back to school yesterday, but before they left, the critters met each other for the first time. It went amazingly well. Duncan was extremely interested in Jax, very friendly, and quite gentle (which was sensible, considering Jax's 22 claws).

Jax seemed less excited, but he's a very laid-back cat anyway. He did look a bit taken aback when Duncan licked his face. Who knows where that mouth has been?

Duncan's allergies (and ours) were better than we were afraid they might be. If he was itchier than usual it was only a slight increase; we couldn't really notice a difference. All in all, it bodes well for Christmas.

Mighty Hunter! (Or Perhaps Not?)

Duncan spent a pleasant afternoon this week harassing the rabbit (we hope it was a rabbit!) under the deck. Clearly, he is a Mighty Hunter, albeit one who doesn't quite grasp the difficulty of digging through 2-by-4 decking. Or see a problem with wagging his tail at his prey.

Except...

Well, it's a bit embarrassing, really...

You see, Jax came home with Megan for Thanksgiving. He's spent the weekend so far confined to her room, for reasons of both allergies (human and canine) and Mighty Hunters. He seems quite content; he likes Megan's big basket chair, and seems to enjoy snuggling on her his bed.

The thing is, after almost 48 hours, our Mighty Hunter apparently hasn't noticed yet that there's a cat in the house.

Camping in the County

 

This week we spent a couple of days camping at Sandbanks Provincial Park. You may recall that last year's camping trip at Pinery ended in a driving a hysterical pup home at midnight. This trip was much more successful, probably because we had the park almost to ourselves!

Admittedly, Duncan was a bit unsure about it at first, and hid in the car while we set up camp:

But once he got used to the idea, he enjoyed prowling around the campsite:

He discovered that someone had left some interesting marshmallow sticks near the firepit:

Not to mention the tasty black stick he found IN the firepit!

By this time, he was a bit grubby(!) so we went to the beach. Sandbanks has two dog beaches; the first is at one end of the main "human" beach, and is just as nice and sandy as Pinery's. Duncan had a wonderful time running on the beach and chasing sticks into the water:

The second dog beach, which we tried out later, is at the mouth of the little river that runs through the campground. The water levels seemed low so the river didn't quite make it to the lake, but that meant more room for interesting smells:

We spent a lot of time driving around exploring Prince Edward County. Duncan loves riding in the car, but we discovered that he doesn't seem to like sheep. He barked at them until they ran back into the field they had escaped from (at least we hoped it was the right field!)

The town of Picton has a fabulous leash-free park, so we arranged our explorations to include a stop there on both afternoons. It's 7+ acres, with lots of trees and seats for humans, and Duncan has a wonderful time exploring it and playing with his new friend Clancy:

We made one last stop at the beach just before we headed home. It was quite windy that morning, and the water was rougher, so Duncan didn't enjoy playing in it quite as much. Instead, we played ball:

Cat-ching Up

It's been a couple of weeks since we last heard from our hero. So what's he been up to?

Well, he's been quite busy helping Megan move to Guelph for vet school. We spent a very long day moving furniture (including assembling a bed with a quite astonishing number of parts), and Duncan was a very big help in getting her settled...

Our room is upstairs? Okay, let's go...

Lots of closet space... 

Comfy couch...

Nice cool tile floor...

 The apartment passed inspection, and Dr. Megan moved in this morning – with the newest member of the family. Meet Jax. He's a very handsome cat, with big green eyes, 6 extra toes, and a repertoire of pathetic sound effects that rivals Duncan's. (Duncan hasn't met him yet, and probably won't until Christmas, which will make for very interesting holidays!)

This cushion smells like dog...

But the couch is comfy!

Bath Time

It wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that Duncan enjoys baths (as opposed to enjoying the bathtub), but he does tolerate them much better than Kerry ever did:

And it's a good thing, because he certainly needs them. Did you see his paws in yesterday's post? Look at the rinse water – and that's nothing compared to what it was like pre-sod!

Canada Day (a bit late)

(I found a draft post from the Canada Day weekend that I'd forgotten about. So we're temporarily going back to the pre-sod era.)

Last year, Duncan attended the Canada Day festivities in Spencer Smith Park. This year, it was too hot and humid to hang out in crowded places. So Duncan hung out in the shade of his transplanted grass instead.

Mud is pleasantly cool on a hot day:

Look at those paws!

And there's nothing quite like an ice cube to cool you down:

Flood Damage

It's been a week since the Great Burlington Flood. Our street was lucky, but Duncan and I pass many houses on our walks with dumpsters and piles of furniture, carpet, and drywall outside. To give you a bit more of an idea of how much rain we got, the park path was partially washed out, right at the bridge Duncan likes to take to meet his friends Watson, Ruby and Jasper:

And here's a shot of the damage from the other side of the stream, now back to normal levels. The water was running over the bridge at the height of the flood, not to mention over the path I stood on to take this photo and into the adjacent baseball diamond!