Dog grooming

After a muddy adventure in the rain we decided to put our brand new grooming table to the test.

I may have mentioned in the Pyrapalooza post that we learn new things each year. NEPR does a wonderful job of not only placing Pyrs in good homes, but they also provide ongoing support to help you to be a better Pyr owner. As a perfect example, this year there was a grooming lecture and workshop that they ran on Sunday. It was the perfect close to the event since most of us had happy, tired, and dirty dogs to take home after a weekend of romping in the rain. It continues to amaze me that such gentle fluffy white dogs can turn in to such muddy, dirty, wet, matted specimens. But, for the record, Pyrs are often happiest while they are getting into such a state.

Back to what we learned at the grooming lecture: lots! We signed Buddy up for personal grooming with Nicole in addition to the lecture so Todd and I got to comapre notes.  While Nicole worked miracles on the snarles in Buddy's pantallons she explained many grooming tips.  First she recommended getting a grooming table.  That way the dog is gently, but firmly held in place and they're up high so you can get to the dog all over.  This simple step can be overlooked, but anyone who has had to chase a dog around with scissors and a brush to remove a mat will be pleasantly surprised to find that using a table makes grooming less stressful for everyone involved.  Plus the table puts you and the dog at eye level which makes alot of the aspects of grooming less threatening for the dog.  In terms of the mechanics of grooming, we learned that much can be achieved with just detangler and cornstarch.  I watched in amazement as a matt that previously would have had to be hacked off was deftly removed.  We also learned about some tools that make grooming much easier.  Once you have the cornstarch and detangler applied a matt razor and a coarse toothed comb do magic to remove loose fur and matts. 
After Pyrapalooza we ran out and ordered a table and new grooming tools and after a very muddy walk we used them to great success.  We really can't deny that Pyrs shed and require significant grooming, but after the lecture and Nicole's help, I think that it will be much easier for us to keep Buddy and Dakota looking their best without having to spend a ton at the groomers. 

The Cape reprise

This year for my dad's birthday we spent a weekend at Cape Cod.  Clint's parents very generously let us stay in their house there.  Their house is very nice and just a block away from the beach.  We don't have any vacation days left so we had just the weekend so we headed out on Friday after work.  Unfortunately we hit awful traffic and it took us almost seven hours to get there.  Upon arrival we got the dogs situated and Buddy set out to explore the upstairs.

Dakota didn't have any interest in exploring, she just laid down on the rug to chow down on her bones.

My parents and Sofia and Clint came up early on Saturday and I baked up some oatmeal cranberry pecan cookies for breakfast.  To work up an appetite for lunch we took a long walk.  Buddy wore his pack.

This trick never gets old!

I think this is a bog.

The trail went through the woods and across a bog and ended at the beach.  The beach was nice.  The dark dot in the water is a seal.

The dogs enjoyed the wind but were not interested in getting wet.

After the three miles to the beach, the dogs were extremely pokey on the walk back.  After our walk we stopped for a seafood lunch at a place with excellent clam chowder and seafood.
We took another walk on the beach before dinner.  There we played with a little tiny crab.  The dogs didn't know what to make of it.

Buddy doesn't usually like water, but he had fun investigating the tidal flats.

From the beach we watched a beautiful sunset, then headed home.

For dinner we had lobster.  Before we ate we played with our food.  The dogs were not amused.

On Sunday before breakfast we went for another walk on the beach - the house is a block away from the beach, it's hard to resist.  Buddy has pretty good recall so we are comfortable letting him go off leash.

Dakota is less reliable, but we've come up with a good compromise: we leash them together.  It works out well.  Buddy plays anchor and Dakota tries to get him into trouble.

The house is a neat two story building with a sizable, but unfenced backyard.  The dogs were excited to stay outside as much as possible, but they have a tendency to wonder without fencing, so as a compromise we let the dogs stay outside on leashes unless someone was there with them.

As previously mentioned we had to get back for work on Monday so we packed the tired, sandy dogs back into the car and headed home.  Buddy has even learned to share the back seat!

Thanks again to Clint's parents!  We had a great weekend!

Adventures in homemaking

When we returned home from Italy we finished writing our thank you cards and then we got to play with our gifts! Everyone got us such great things we barely knew where to start first. In the end we were swayed by our culinary adventures on our honeymoon to do more cooking at home.

First off Todd set out to become an expert barista. With our handy espresso machine Todd turned out many tasty coffee beverages which compared favorably with the genuine Italian article. We were compelled to buy real espresso cups to complete the effect.

Next we got bread going in the bread maker. It smells so good to come home to baking bread! We read the recipe book cover to cover and bought lots of yeast. So far we’ve made pesto bread, olive and parmesan bread, cherry bread, sun-dried tomato mozzarella bread, Stollen, and honey whole wheat bread. Everything is delicious! And it is hard to resist eating a slab of warm bread with butter right when the loaf comes out of the machine.

Todd was particularly excited to add the pressure cooker to the registry and I have to admit I was a little skeptical. I hadn’t had much experience with pressure cookers so I didn’t know what all the fuss was about. After our first pressure cooker experiment I knew! It cooks everything extremely quickly and keeps the contents moist and tasty. For our first experiment we made risotto. Ordinarily risotto is a treat reserved for long weekends because it take a long time to cook and requires constant vigilance. But in the pressure cooker it took 7 unattended minutes to yield a delicious result. Taking advantage of this time saver we used the risotto as part of a larger recipe and made cheese filled risotto balls from the vegetarian cookbook. Not content to use just one appliance we also used to fryer to cook the risotto balls to crispy perfection with gooey cheesey centers. Yum.

An appliance that is totally underrated is the rice cooker. Such a simple thing like making unscorched rice is harder than you’d think, especially when you get distracted while cooking dinner. What better than to be able to insert rice and water and then get perfect fluffy rice. Better yet, you can set it up ahead or time and it keeps the rice perfect and warm, without drying it out for hours. Now I sound like an infomercial, but it is true. This is another appliance that allows you to make a more complex meal in much less time than you’d ordinarily be able to.

We also ended up with an excellent array of barware. From glasses of every variety to a shaker with recipes we are ready to make drinks to go with every meal.

Now we just need more time at home to enjoy all our fun stuff.

P.S. This is where I make an embarrassing confession and admit that despite what I’d like to think of as my uber planning abilities, we don’t know who gave us one of our gifts. We got a lovely cream colored tea pot and tea and we have no idea who gave it to us. If you know who did, please tell us so we can thank them properly!

Where cowlicks come from (dogs chew on each other's heads)

On dogs, cowlicks come from other dogs. Don't be fooled - doggie drool is like Elmer's glue.

It is hard to belive that this:

Turns into this:

And that this is an 8 month old puppy that weighs more than most 8 year old children:

Pyrapalooza 2009

Here we are enjoying a early morning romp with other Pyrs and their owners.

This is Buddy with his costume on.  Thirty seconds later he was only wearing the ruffles around his neck.

Buddy and Dakota guard our lunch table.

Here we are in the rescue parade.

In preparation for the workshops we listened to lectures about the activities.

This is the area for the canine good citizen test on the first day.  Todd talked to the facilitator and then Buddy took and passed the test on the second day.  The test was run by a very nice lady with two beautiful wolfhounds.

What a ham!

Step 1 of the LGD test - make nice with the goats from outside the pen.

Step 2 - get in side and show them who's boss in a firm, non-threatening way.

What a day!

We had another fantastic Pyrapalooza experience this past weekend! Each year this event seems to get even better. It is really nice to spend time with such a fun, knowledgeable and interesting group of people and their Pyrs. This year I think we signed up for just about every event.

Unfortunately we were out of vacation days so we couldn't drive up to Westfield until after work on Friday. My parents have been wonderful about all of our travel and again, graciously agreed to have the dogs over at their house during the day so that we could take off right from Manhattan. The drive wasn't so bad and we treated ourselves to burgers from Five Guys, but we still didn't make it to the fairgrounds until nearly 11pm. When we finally did get there the gate had been pushed shut for the night and we were the last people to arrive. And of course we woke up everyone - humans and Pyrs alike - when we we pulled in and then did noisy things like blowing up the air mattress. Sorry everyone!

We got started early on Saturday morning and Buddy grudgingly took part in the "fun and games" portion of the morning while Todd helped out by setting up tables and making signs. Buddy nimbly avoided all the pins in Pyr-pin Bowling and managed to loose most of his costume before we'd even made one side of the circuit.

The bulk of the activities took place in the afternoon and from noon to nearly 5pm we participated in workshops. The workshops we actually managed to get to were carting, tracking, rally obedience, and livestock guardian testing. All the workshops were terrific and although we had done some of them in the past there was something new to be learned in all of them. We have done the carting workshop three years running and Buddy now has his own carting harness - courtesy of All Things Bright And Biothane (www.allthingsbiothane.com) - so he was a shoe in for that workshop.

[That reminds me that I need to buy appropriately sized wheels for the beginner cart that I built for Buddy before the AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day last year. Right now it has wheels from a Weber grill which work, but lack a little something...]

Our first year we tried rally obedience and in that workshop there was an advanced course which Buddy was only moderately interested in. This year there was more on the obedience and a smaller portion of rally, but it worked well since most dogs, including ours need assistance with obedience and the rally part is a fun challenge. Both Buddy and Dakota did well in this event and we had fun doing it.

The two new events to Pyrapalooza that we tried this year were tracking and livestock guardian testing. Interestingly Buddy seems to have excellent tracking potential and according to the lady running the workshop he had the most potential of the dogs she tested. She even offered to help us to find a tracking workshop near us. She is actually from the Birkshires and we might be able to do her workshop sometime when we are in Kent. It is exciting that Buddy seems to have such an apptitude. The unofficial theme of this Pyrapalooza was Pyrs as livestock guardians. Mary Gloster of Hallelujah Kennels came to conduct a workshop to evaluate the potential of Pyrs as livestock guardians. The workshop involved live goats borrowed from a nearby farm. Step 1 was to walk the dog along the perimiter of the goat enclosure. If the dog seemed interested but not aggressive they got to go to the next step. Step 2 involves taking the dog into the enclosure to meet the goats. While Buddy is absolutely not allowed near livestock and was the only dog not allowed to go into the enclosure, Dakota turned out to be one of the dogs with the greates LGD aptitude and Mary advised us that we should get her livestock to guard. 

The great things about Pyrapalooza is that it is such a great opportunity for learning. For humans to learn and for Pyrs to learn. One of the things that many people don't realize is that to train a dog the human has to do most of the learning. It is nice to see the event growing and to see people and their Pyrs returning each year.

*Special thanks to Mark Vogel for sharing his pictures with us.  All the pictures in this post were taken by Mark.