New/Old Sadie Videos!

I posted a couple of Sadie videos to YouTube last week!  One of them is from 2008, right after my then-boyfriend and I first got her, and the other is actually from last Wednesday.

I know I can see the difference in the way she was back then and the way she is now.  Can you tell the difference?

From 2008:

From 2012:

Hope you like 'em!

I Guess She Just Knows

So for the past few weeks, I've just been in kind of a slump emotionally.  The last few years, Sadie and I's lives have been improving, but I'm still not where I want to be.  And sometimes the hills I have to climb seem too damn steep, and I get tired and sad.

I'm sure it shows in my habits and the things that I do -- when I get into these slumps.  But Sadie just seems to know when I'm getting into one of those moods.  And she lets me know she knows.

Although she follows me around much of the time I'm home, when she knows I'm feeling down she's right at my heels.  In fact, she's right at my heels annoyingly so.  If I stop to do something around the house, I'll either have a cold nose in the back of my calf, or she'll actually lick my leg if I have on shorts.  When I turn around to look at her, she just sways her tail back and forth like, "Dude, yeah, I'm here.  What?"

Also, she pretty much has the run of the house and the furniture.  She can sleep on the bed, on the chairs ... wherever she's comfortable.  When I get into one of these slumps, though, most of the time she's right at my feet.  Sometimes, she's where my feet should be when I'm sitting in the chair, and I have to move my feet uncomfortably to the side.  And sometimes, she's where my feet should be, and I have to move my feet uncomfortably to the side, and she puts her head directly ON my feet.  And if I move my feet, she looks up at me like I've inconvenienced her greatly.

Also, when she feels she's being ignored, she will gather up one of her toys and start flinging it around.  If that doesn't garner my attention, she'll start barking at it.  And if that doesn't make me start laughing, then sooner or later I'll get a Sadietoy to the forehead.

So it seems I'm starting to come out of my slump here lately, and she is currently sleeping on the bed.  My feet are comfortably sitting in front of me at the moment.  There are no Sadietoys being flung unceremoniously at my head.

If [when] I do start feeling down again, then I'm sure to start getting leg cramps from having my feet to the side, and blinking seconds before some ragged stuffed animal comes flying at my face.  I guess she just knows.

Sadie the pooldog.

Blogville Olympics!

Sadie participated in the Blogville Olympics Marathon Chewing event!  It was pretty fun to enter, and there were a pretty good number of participants!

Click here to see the post over at Murphy & Stanley's blog with photos of all the participants!

In fact, she even won an award!  [So did everyone else, but don't tell her that...]

Here are a few more shots of Sadie's chewing marathon that weren't entered:

I actually bought this thing *expressly* for this event.

She loved it.  In fact, it was gone in about 15 minutes.

The least flattering picture, I think.  Yay chewing!

Can't wait until next year!  Congratulations to all the competitors!

Been Busy!

I know, I know, I've been neglecting this blog that no one reads.  :)

I actually have a post that I'm going to be doing soon about how important it is to keep your dog cool during the summer ... but it will be a difficult post for me to write, so I've been putting it off.

Also, I've been working a LOT due to the storms in on the east coast, and haven't had time to do too much.

In the meantime, here is a video of Sadie performing the blanket dog intelligence test.  I thought it was funny as heck.  Sadie did not agree.

New Video: Sadie @ East Cobb Park 6/9/12

A short video today!  Just Sadie and I walking through the park earlier this month.  It's one of the best parks close to where I live, which makes it pretty busy on the weekends.  Early morning, though, it's not crowded at all, and very peaceful.  There's a small stream that runs through the middle of the walking trails... Sadie refuses to go into the water.  :)

It's More Than Just Brushing...

The video below shows the before, during, and after of me actually grooming the heck out of Sadie.

Okay, so I've said I know how to groom cocker spaniels.

... Sadie is not a cocker spaniel.

So.

The grooming job isn't ... exceptional.  But I bonded with my dog.  And she won't bring in as many pine-needles or dirt.  And it's fur!  It'll grow back!  Really!





Sadie and I have a routine when it comes to grooming.  It's the same thing every time.  I call her over, we brush sections at a time, and when she's done she gets a cookie.  It's such a routine, that she'll turn around for me to brush her other side without my even asking her.

So brushing is just a routine, but I believe that all types of grooming -- for any dog -- is more than just that.  It's part of owning a dog, and it helps with bonding with your pet.

First of all, just even brushing your dog allows for a few different things.  You can check for parasites, skin irritations, and other problems while you're grooming.  It gives a great idea of the general health of your dog.  For instance, when I was brushing Sadie yesterday, I found a burr in the fuzz behind one of her legs.  I was able to take care of it before it became a problem.

Also, it's spending time with her.  I think she actually likes the brushing part (although she's not so keen on the 'haircut', 'bath', or 'blow-drying' parts..).  After a few grooming sessions, and working with her to train her to relax, she almost gets excited when I'm pulling out the slicker brush.

And so the grooming job I did wasn't perfect.  But my point is, even if it's not exactly the best haircut in the world, it's something every dog owner should try.  If only for the experience... trust me, as you learn what works, you'll get better at it.

I know I will.

Sadie Video: Sweat Mountain State Park #1

Sadie and I normally go out to Sweat Mountain State Park because there's an awesome dog park there.  But I was unaware until recently that there are also some awesome trails headed back into the woods at the park.

Here's a neat video of Sadie and I on our first exploration of the trails.  I hope to make some more videos of this at some point... we didn't go on hardly any of the trails, so there's a bunch more to explore.  Enjoy!

Dog Park - Day 1

I can't say Sadie's always been a fan of dog parks.  She didn't start out as a fan of car rides, dog parks, or anything outside our little hallway when I first got her.

Now, though, she's about the dog parks.  Maybe not so much the car rides (unless there's a squirrel outside of the window), but the dog parks ... she loves those.  This particular trip was very early in the morning, so we were the only ones there.  Sometimes it's more fun that way, too.

Here's the video:



You can get a good look at her goofy combination of basset hound and sheltie when she's perched on top of the picnic table.  Soon I'll be posting some pictures of her bow-legged-ness.

Happy Saturday, all!

An Introduction to Sadiedog

I suppose I should introduce the puppy of spiffiness.

She is, after all, the coolest dog evar.*

Coolest dog evar ... if you measure coolness by length of nose.

Back in 2008, I had been living without a dog for just about two years.  For me, that was almost living without breathing.  Dogs had been a part of my life for so long, that without one I felt pretty empty -- like my life was missing something.  So after checking with my significant other at the time, I submitted an application to Sheltie Rescue of Georgia.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Two months later, I made the assumption that they didn't have a desire to adopt to me.  I had been honest, at least.  I mentioned that at the time, I was living in an apartment.  But I also mentioned that having owned Aussies in the past, I was greatly aware of the exercise requirement that a Sheltie would have.  However, I also knew that that was a story rescues hear all the time ... and most of those stories turn out to be not true.  It was true in my case, but they had no way of knowing that.

The first place I looked (after deciding that Sheltie rescue was uninterested) was at the local animal control facility.  There just weren't any dogs there that I felt would have been a good fit, although I wanted to save them all.

On a trip out to see the boyfriend's mother, she suggested we go to the closest animal shelter out there, just to look.  So we loaded up in my car and took a trip out to the Randolph County Animal Shelter.

The place was tucked away down a dirt road, in a town that consisted of a fast-food joint, three gas stations, and a high school.  When we pulled up, I was seriously doubtful I was going to find my dog there.  I thought for sure the only things that we would see were going to be Red-tick Coon Hounds and Pit Bulls.

But as we entered, there were quite a variety of dogs.  In fact, the first dog I had a one-on-one with was a little Jack Russell mix.  He didn't seem to have any interest in me, though, and I thought I was going to be disappointed again.

Then the shelter worker suggested I take out this short, funny-looking thing with Sheltie coloring.  They brought her over to me, and this dog was CLEARLY unimpressed by me.  In fact, she seemed eager to go back in the pen with the other dogs.  She was absolutely nervous to be out of her element.  She was also completely sweet, if not horribly shy, and although she was nervous she seemed to be trying to figure out what to do to ... interact with us correctly.

"That's Sandy," said the lady, looking down at the shaky, funny-looking mutt in front of me.  "We had to put her brother down a few days ago.  I think she's scheduled for a few days from now."

Well, then.

About 45 minutes later, we were in the car with "Sandy" in the back seat.  She was shaking like an epileptic and looking around with huge, brown eyes as the world zipped by us.  I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into.

Sadie, about a month after she was brought home, with her sheep man toy.

The first few months were a whole new experience for me.  All of the dogs I'd had in the past were dogs that I'd either had to calm down and train them to be not so excited, or dogs that were fear aggressive who I had to gain their trust and teach them greeting manners.

Sadie in a 'relaxed state' on the couch, three months after coming home.

"Sandy", who was now renamed Sadie, had no desire at all to interact with people.

She wasn't aggressive.  She wasn't destructive.  She wasn't excitable or ... much of anything.  In fact, for the first three days, she didn't eat anything at all.

After four months of having to bar the hallway with a suitcase so she wouldn't sit in the dark corridor and not move for hours and hours at a time, I said to my boyfriend at the time, "Maybe I should bring her back to the shelter...?"

"What?"  He looked at me as if I'd had two heads.

"She's clearly unhappy here.  Nothing that I'm doing is working.  She's miserable."

He looked at the dog, who at the time was snoozing beside me on the couch.  "First of all, she's doing great.  She's not exactly perfectly happy, but  ... look at her.  She loves you.  She wasn't doing that a few months ago..."

I peeked down at her, and she did seem relaxed, if not overjoyed to be alive.  Then again, she was asleep.  "Yeah, I guess so..."

"And if you bring her back, what do you think will happen?  Who do you think is going to adopt a dog who doesn't want anything to do with them and runs away?  If you bring her back, she's going to be put to sleep.  And that's better than trying to work with her here some more?"

"I didn't think about that."

"Well, you're not bringing her back.  She'll come out of her shell, you'll be able to help her.  You'll see."

Sadie in a 'more relaxed state' on the couch 4 months after she got home.

It's taken three years, multiple moves, a lot of stuff happening in our lives, and I've finally realized that (as a wise person once said) I didn't get the dog I wanted ... I got the dog I needed.

She's still not an 'outgoing' dog when it comes to new people.  But she's come miles and miles.  She plays!  She runs!  She chases squirrels and cats and sometimes bears!  She's funny and one of the most snuggly dogs you will ever meet.  She's smart and probably one of the best behaved dogs I've ever owned.

And she is ALWAYS interesting.  I don't know what I would do without her.

So there you go.  A very short version of the story of Sadie.  No doubt there will be more in the future.  Life with her is always exciting.  :)

EXCITEMENT GALORE!!!

* "coolest dog evar" may be a biased opinion of the author

New Toys

So Sadie and I went to the pet store today.  She needed some food.  It never fails that while I'm there, I get her something else, too.  This time we walked away with 2 toys; a rope toy and a lil' Nylabone.

Over the years, she's had one other rope toy.  She was never that interested in it -- she's not really a 'tug-of-war' kind of dog.  In fact, she is opposite of a 'tug-of-war' kind of dog.  My efforts to get her to play tug-of-war usually result in her letting go of the toy and giving me a wounded, "Fine.  If you want it that bad, just effing take it, mom.  No need to be so forceful.  Geeze.  So violent..."

Shiny new rope toy!

Still, occasionally she'll pick it up and shake it.  Occasionally, she'll shake it and let it go and it will fly across the room and bash into something breakable.  Occasionally, it flies across the room and into my eyeball.  It depends on how vindictive she's feeling that day.

She actually already has a Nylabone.  She's had this Nylabone for about 5 freaking years.  When I got it, I had no idea what kind of a chewer she'd be, so I covered my bets and got a Nylabone for "STRONG" chewers.

Sadie is not a "STRONG" chewer.  Sadie is a "dainty" chewer.  As a result, even after 5 years her old Nylabone looks like this:

The ends could put out someone's eyeball.

So I figured I'd get her a Nylabone for "dainty" chewers:

"I feel pretty!  Oh so pretty!"

I wasn't sure how she'd like it, and I couldn't really pop it out of the packaging in the store to test it.  So it had to wait until we got home to see if she'd like it.  Judging from the video below, I'd say it was a good purchase:







I'm not sure the rope toy will be as much of a hit.  Also, judging from the video, I will have to pre-think before filming to make my bed so I don't come across as a complete slobby-slob when posting videos on YouTube.  Don't judge, it's Saturday!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Sadiefur

I actually had planned to write a post about some sort of breed of dog today.  However, after having given Sadie a bath and brushed her, there is only one thing on my mind; shedding.

O. M. G.

A pile of Sadiefur

What you are looking at is a pile of Sadiefur.  I brush her every other day, and this is also after a bath.  Every day I brush her, I get about this much fur off.  Yet she's still fairly fluffy, and has a bunch of undercoat still.

Where the hell does it come from??  Does she have some sort of super-fur follicles and it grows back immediately after it falls out??  Is she pulling it from a 3rd dimension?  Does she really not have that much fur, but when she does go outside she sucks extra fur from the air that belongs to other tan colored dogs?

You would think, having had Australian Shepherds at one point in my life, that I'd be used to the shedding.  Honestly, I don't remember very well that far back, but I don't remember any of the Aussies having this huge of a shedding problem.  Maybe it's a combination of her basset hound and sheltie that makes her shed like a husky with a dire need of Rogaine.

I -do- remember that the husky was an epic shedding machine, twice a year.  I remember that as if it were yesterday.  The husky shedding made this pile of Sadiefur look miniscule and diminutive and other words that mean small.  When I was living with the husky and it was the time of year for EPIC SHEDDING, I had fur everywhere, even with baths, brushing, and forced-air drying with a professional grooming dryer.  I fur in orifices, people.  Think about that.

So look at the pile of Sadiefur, multiply that by about 10, and then wonder if you want a husky as a pet.  Heh.

I actually did have a de-shedding tool at one point.  During my numerous moves, it appears to have vanished.  Trust me, I looked for it everywhere.

Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, this will taper down.  Until then, vacuuming, sweeping, and epic brushing will be an almost daily routine.

My next dog will be hairless, I swear.