Visiting Owen and Cerys

Just before Christmas, Darcy went to visit her friend Owen at his Nan's house. It was an extra-fun visit, because she also got to meet Cerys:

It was a very lively afternoon, but they had a good time playing together. At least, they never stopped playing long enough to pose for the camera:

(Keep scrolling, there's another new post today!)

Tug of War

Duncan and Darcy have played together nicely right from the start, but it's mostly been wrestling, stealing toys from each other, and running. But in the last few days, they've started playing tug of war.

Sometimes Duncan starts the game, by moving in on a toy Darcy's got:

And other times Darcy starts it. Sometimes she crouches down and stalks Duncan (haven't caught that on video yet, but she's good at sneaking up on him!), sometimes she just pounces at him:

We've noticed that when Duncan and Cerys play together and get tired, they just play slower. Well, it looks like Duncan and Darcy might do the same:

Merry Christmas 2015!

Duncan and Darcy had a very happy Christmas. They saw all their special people – Erin and Megan were home for two whole weeks, Evan was here for a few days, and there were grandmas and cousins to visit with (human and canine)! And, for a house with three dogs and a cat in in it on Christmas day, it went surprisingly well.

Christmas morning was exciting, and probably a bit puzzling for Darcy:

Now what do I do?

They had lots of presents to explore:

Darcy especially enjoyed the box the gifts were stored in:

But they each found a moment to just pose for the camera:

Meanwhile, Jax – who simply doesn't DO toys or treats – showed his usual level of excitement for a while...

I don't understand why humans get so excited about this catnip stuff.

... and then went back to bed:

Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree

Let's go, Megan. This way!

Christmas started officially yesterday, when Erin arrived home. The first thing we did was to go to the Christmas tree farm. It was a bit crowded in the car with five people, two dogs, and a crate, but we made it, and set off to find the perfect tree:

Sniffing out the perfect tree

 It was snowing a bit, and Darcy found the snow quite interesting. But the wind can really mess up a girl's hairdo:

There were lots of Christmas decorations around the farm. Duncan found the life-sized Santa doll a bit scary, and Darcy seemed worried by Noah's Ark:

What happened to these animals?

The tree is up and the part of it that's out of puppy reach is decorated. Darcy has taken this strange behaviour in stride. It will be fun to see what she thinks of her first Christmas!

Santa's Newest Reindeer

Darcy the Red-Leashed Reindeer!

Darcy had a vet appointment this afternoon for her second vaccination. Afterwards, Dr. Susan took this great photo of her posing beside their Christmas tree. And last year they took a great photo of Duncan posing there as well. 

It wasn't easy getting this picture, but after a few wiggly, blurry attempts, Darcy spotted Mary-Kate the cat on the counter, which held her attention for a moment or two!

Best & Worst Ways to Celebrate 73 Days

Yesterday Darcy was exactly 73 days old. Not exactly an occasion we would normally celebrate, or even notice, is it? EXCEPT that it's the exact age Duncan was when he broke his leg – a day we will never forget! So I thought it might be fun to see photos of them at exactly the same age. Interesting how different their coats are:

So here's Duncan, sound asleep at the vet after some creative Christmas casting:

Duncan - 73 days old - December 7, 2012

And Darcy, exploring the deck (and looking positively scruffy despite her grooming session not long before):

Darcy - 73 days old - December 10, 2015

Yard Work

Over the last few days, we've been getting the yard ready for winter.

One day last week, Darcy was astonished to observe a man on the roof (Duncan was enjoying a treat in his crate at the time, and was happy to stay there. Men in trees are strange enough!) Never, in  all her weeks of experience, have men been up on roofs. Still, it turned out to be harmless – he was cleaning the eavestroughs, and when he came down she discovered that he was very nice and fond of puppies.

Once he was done, we had to put the hose away and turn off the water. Duncan, who is an expert on drinking from bathtubs and other running water, gave Darcy her first lesson.

With the gardens cleaned out, we wanted to spread a few last bags of mulch in an (probably vain) attempt to limit the amount of mud the dogs track in. Darcy checked out the bags carefully, but decided they were too big for her to carry:

Or even to open:

, 

But once the work was done, the result is a nice place to play:

(Apparently some of the videos don't play on ipads, so here are links to YouTube: Sizing Up the Job, Helping with the Garden, and Much Ado about Mulch.)

Field Trip

We've been trying to give Darcy some kind of socialization outing almost every day. So far, we've visited three pet stores (she likes the big fancy goldfish, whereas Duncan preferred cichlids), had a couple of short neighbourhood walks carries, looked at Christmas lights, watched the noisy creatures who inhabit the PJ schoolyard at recess, and a few other things.

But today was our biggest outing yet. We drove all the way to Guelph to give Megan and some of her friends an excuse for a study break!

Since we arrived a few minutes early, we started by introducing Darcy to the horses who live beside the parking lot. (You've got to love a university with horses. And cows, and sheep. But they stay in the barns.) She seemed quite fascinated.

Then we met Megan and her friends, and Darcy ran around and played with them. (She doesn't usually get to walk around in public until she's had all her shots, but we thought the front steps of the vet college should be healthy, if any place is.)

And speaking of the steps, she had a wonderful time running up and down them:

It took almost an hour of playing before Darcy got tired, then we headed back to the car. On the way, we noticed another puppy, trapped inside a mirrored door. She was almost as cute as Darcy.

Darcy was exhausted, and slept all the way home. Meanwhile, Duncan enjoyed an afternoon of peace, quiet, and no sharp teeth while we were gone, but he seemed glad to see us when we got back – even Darcy!

Almost Two Weeks...

Well, it will be 2 weeks tomorrow since little Darcy joined the family, and life Chez D&D is beginning to settle into a routine, though still a bit (quite a bit!) chaotic at times. Darcy is adorable – cute but feisty – and I could have posted a dozen fabulous photos a day, if I had a spare hand to hold the camera.

We have several playtimes a day in the yard, because this is when they enjoy each other the most. They run and run – sometimes with each other, sometimes away from each other! They chase toys, and seem to enjoy stealing the toy du jour away from each other.

Darcy won this round of "Steal the Purple Squeaky Toy"

Darcy loves exploring the garden; she has trampled the big patch of ribbon grass in the corner almost completely flat pouncing around in it.

Indoors there are a few disagreements, mostly caused by Darcy's sharp little puppy teeth. They didn't have to connect with Duncan too many times before he decided she was dangerous and should be kept at a safe distance. He's also appointed himself Chief Disciplinary Officer, and comes running from anywhere to bark at her if he hears one of us yelp when her teeth connect, so we try to yelp quietly.

Yes, she's blurry. Blurry photos seem to be the norm!

She spends some of her indoor time playing in her "play pen" in the living room, and some of it learning things like Sit and Down, which Duncan is happy to demonstrate (for a small fee, payable in kibble). Next week, she's starting school at Duncan's alma mater, Scholars in Collars. Stay tuned...

Darcy's Busy Day

Darcy had a very busy day yesterday. First, Duncan's friend Owen came to meet her!

Owen is so good with animals - he made sure to spend lots of time petting Duncan so he wouldn't feel left out, and he even brought Duncan a toy donkey. Duncan loves his new toy - in fact it's the first toy he's really played with since Darcy arrived, and one of only a couple he doesn't want to share with her. Thank you, Owen!

Owen also brought Darcy a new toy, a puppy-sized Wubba with ears and a nose that are perfect for chewing:

Just a few hours later, Darcy met her first cat, when Jax came home for the weekend. Jax was unimpressed but very patient, and Darcy was surprisingly polite, so the introduction seemed to go well, although it's a bit hard to see a black cat in a shadow under a chair:

The busy day must have tired her out, because she slept in until almost 6:00 this morning, which was a treat for all of us!

Darcy Settles In

It's been a busy couple of days, as Duncan and Darcy get used to each other, and we start settling into some new routines.

Darcy had her first experience of the grooming table, where she munched on some kibble while getting a very brief comb-over:

"Hey, kid, the more you wiggle, the more bribes you'll get!"

They've been getting along beautifully while playing in the yard, which we try to do several times a day. Darcy was quite interested in the dusting of snow we have. And on the whole they're doing well in the house too. Duncan has been extremely patient with her stealing his toys (and quite enjoys stealing hers!), but he does give her a few growly corrections when she annoys him too much. Yesterday they cooperated to kill a carton. Darcy was nibbling in a gentle, ladylike fashion on one corner:

So Duncan showed her how it should be done, then let her carry on:

After all that playing, they get tired, so there are a lot of naps. 

Darcy is beginning to get used to sleeping in her crate and her playpen – though she throws back her head and lets out a howl that would do a husky proud if she doesn't want to nap! But she's also found a few other spots, like the gap between her crate and the fireplace:

Duncan Meets Darcy

People! GUESS WHAT!! My puppy is here! I found her in the back yard this morning.

Well, of course there is a certain amount of sniffing and sizing up that needs to be taken care of first:

She seemed to be satisfactory, so I tried playing with her. She's a feisty little thing! I think we'll get along just fine:

We even got the obligatory Gotcha Day Puppy-in-the-Leaves photo, just like mine, over on the right there:

Just when we were tired of playing in the rain, Aunt Marnie came to see me. She was very nice and pretended to be interested in the puppy too. But she brought Aunt Merideth, who threatened to steal MY puppy in her purse. You've gotta be careful who you let in the house!

Our New Puppy!

 

This morning we visited Edie and her puppies, so we could choose the one who will be joining the family. We had four adorable little girls to choose from - what a hard choice! But the little sweetheart with the pink collar was our unanimous favourite. Doesn't she have a cute face?

She seemed to like Megan (and vice versa)!

She settled in quite happily on Megan's lap...

... and defended her place there against her equally cute sister:

She's not quite old enough to leave her mom yet, but we can pick her up next weekend. Stay tuned to see what Duncan thinks of the new baby in the family!

More Strange Creatures

This is getting worrying...

The number of creatures lying in wait for children in Burlington's playgrounds is growing! First it was the sea serpent and the hippo.  Now Duncan has found a whale and a bumble bee. I wonder what will be next!

Food, Glorious Food!

Duncan's allergies have been pretty good lately (except when Jax visits), so we've been running a few food trials to see if we can introduce something beyond kangaroo and oatmeal into his diet. Since a food trial consists of giving him large amounts of a new food for a couple of weeks – deliberately trying to provoke a reaction – he is very enthusiastic about them!

The results: a little bit of bad news, but a lot of good news as well:

The Bad News

Duncan loved the week he spent eating enormous quantities of chicken. But unfortunately he spent equally enormous amounts of time scratching. Not quite the old "scratch 'til you bleed" level – that must have been a cumulative effect from all his many allergies – but far more than we want.

So chicken is off the menu permanently. Unfortunately, chicken seems to be a very common ingredient in most dog foods & treats, so a lot of things are ruled out, but it's good to know what to avoid.

The Good News

Scarfing down two large lamb meatloaves plus a batch of dehydrated treats made from stewing lamb over the course of a couple of weeks didn't seem to cause any extra scratching – great news!

We celebrated by going to Ren's and buying a bag of Orijen's lamb treats.

It's easier to "Leave It" for the photo op if you don't look.

The really exciting news is that he doesn't seem to be allergic to beef! This is wonderful, because let's face it - stores that sell kangaroo are few and far between. Even lamb isn't all that easy to find. But beef is in every supermarket, it goes on sale, and there are even some commercial dog treats that are beef-only. And his lordship loves it; after gobbling down his "final exam" (a big bowl of stewed beef), he was caught counter-surfing in search of more!

Fish is a "maybe", simply because he really hasn't had enough to be 100% sure. But a few packages of freeze-dried fish treats didn't seem to cause any problems, so at least in small quantities it seems okay. This might be helpful if/when we try to switch him to a non-prescription food, since some of them have fish as an ingredient.

With meats pretty well covered, we will probably move on to test some veggies, and other goodies like peanut butter or pumpkin. It's slow going, because it takes about 4 weeks to test each item, including "recovery" time. Sometimes it's easier to see a reduction in scratching when the food is discontinued than to notice a gradual increase while he's eating it, so we can't just jump from testing one food directly to another.