I'm weary of the dog treats you can buy at your average super market. The cartoon drawings and the marketing that makes me feel like I'm 5 years old is nauseating. Not to mention that I have no idea if the crap they are composed of will kill my dog.
Our training book had a recipe for beef liver treats that dogs supposedly could not resist. It involved cutting the raw beef liver into small chunks and then cooking. Gross. I decided there must be a better recipe that involves beef liver. Enter Google. I smartly typed "homemade dog treats" and the first hit was a treasure trove of recipes. It even contained a couple beef liver recipes. This one seemed the most appealing. I wouldn't even need to touch the beef liver, thanks to the magic of our KitchenAid Food Processor. Five minutes later, I'm putting the best smelling mixture ever into the oven. Zuul's nose was going crazy. 20 minutes later, I'm pulling out the best smelling flat meat cake ever. Zuul was definitely curious. I let everything cool and then chopped off a piece.
Zuul has been learning to sit. She's been doing alright with her crappy store-bought treats. Not great. She's not what I would call "food motivated". Boy was I wrong. Apparently she's just not crappy treat motivated. I let her sniff her new treat. Showed it to her. Said, "sit!" She could not have sat fast enough. She enjoyed her reward. I decided to try three more times and she sat each time. Now she's sitting when my hand is at my side. Awesome!
We spent two hours at the park yesterday. We mostly had a great time. Towards the beginning, one of our regular dog friends brought a friend with her. Her friend brought her eight year old son. He seemed a little odd right off the bat. They were self-professed "cat people". For the sake of the boy, I think they were trying to come to terms with dogs. Which I find odd since our dog friend has two awesome dogs. One of which is the Belgian Sheepdog I've mentioned before. Anyway, Zuul is not quite up to speed with behaving around people. We are doing our best to inform her that people generally do not like being jumped upon. We even find ourselves training people about this fact. If anyone says they don't mind Zuul jumping on them, we politely inform them that she needs to learn to not jump on everyone before she can learn to jump on some. I have yet to tell this to someone have them disagree with me.
Back to the boy. He was crouched on the ground and Zuul decided he certainly wants to play with her. She jumped on his back and his response was to cower and crouch smaller. Of course, this is a terrible thing to do with a dog. I quickly got Zuul off of him and he was crying. He called our dog a monster. Our dog friend did her best to tell him that the dog is a puppy and she was just playing. He continued to call our dog a monster. Then it go ugly. I can't remember if he told our dog friend to die or said our dog should die. Either way, our friend reprimanded him which set the boy off. He said he hated her and blah blah blah. Wah. I love the Urban Dictionary. It defines all of my non-Webster words. Our dog friend told him to leave. He and his mom walked off. Our dog friend informed us that this boy has always been like this. Megan's convinced he's going to grow up to be a sociopath. I said he was going to remember that moment and stalk her. Sleep well, Dear!
The rest of our time was awesome. There was a steady stream of great dogs for Zuul to play with. One, Gifford, is a year old black lab. He suddenly took off like a bat out of hell. We turned to look and just then, Gifford realizes he is heading right for a chain link fence at full speed. This is a fence that is surrounding a nearby baseball field. This realization comes just before he makes contact with the fence. He has just enough time to jump and turn sideways. He bounces off the fence. Unphased, Gifford finds the hole and begins chasing after one of those motorized styrofoam airplanes. It was fairly entertaining.
Three or four other small kids came strolling through the park. They saw the group of dogs and wanted to play with them. We were a little worried after our earlier incident and warned them that Zuul hasn't learned to not jump on people yet. The kids said the didn't care! We told them she shouldn't be doing it anyway. They had a great time. They even had Zuul chasing them. They were very polite and were sure to ask me if they could do this or that. One of them asked if he could carry Zuul. I figured, why not. He barrel hugged Zuul and carried her for a moment. She wasn't phased a bit. It was nice to follow up that negative kid moment with a some very positive kid moments.
Zuul is learning how to sneak. She's realized she is neither fast nor big, yet. So, she plays nonchalant. Then she creeps. She got a stick from Gifford and also managed to get her entire head into Gifford's owner's treat bag, following a few failed attempts. We're going to need to keep an eye on her.
Which reminds me. We've begun using vinegar diluted in water to discourage Zuul from eating potting soil, dirt, and bark chips. It's working pretty well.
photo credit: me
Monday, August 27, 2007
Mmmmm, beef liver
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Training and walking, oh my!
Zuul and I have been busy working on good puppy behavior. She is getting the hang of who is in charge with "long downs" for 30 minutes a day each day. Today we started working on the sit command. I've also been taking Zuulie for walks. On our first walk I felt like Zuul and I were playing tether ball- she was the ball and I was the pole. She is quickly improving, however, and even knows her own block and house already.
photo credit: Tom
Monday, August 20, 2007
Bridal Showers and August Showers
Zuul had a great weekend. We spent most of Saturday playing and training. Sunday, Megan hosted my sister's bridal shower at our house. I was kicked out, but I've heard from Megan, my mother and my sister that Zuul was the best behaved dog evar. Zuul was also spoiled and received some awesome toys. She now has a rope for tug-o-war, a rubber flower ring thingy, and a very large binky. She's been thoroughly enjoying all of them.
Zuul met Hobart, my sister's cat, a mostly Russian Blue, last night. I was holding Zuul in my arms. My sister was holding Hobie in hers. We introduced them. We've decided that may not have been the best way. It went something like this:
Zuul: I'm sleepy and this house is new. Where can I sleep?
Hobie: Oooo, something to sniff.
Zuul: Sniff. Meh.
Hobie: Sniff. Sniff? OH DEAR GOD WTF IS THAT!!!?!?!??
We went home and played with Zuul in the house with her new toys. She was especially enjoying her frog stuffed animal.
This morning Zuul barked for the first time. We were playing with her binky and rope. Some people walked by on the street outside. Zuul stopped. Looked up at the window and barked two great barks. I've read that Weimaraners are more than happy to defend their home. Apparently playing with the binky and her rope brought it out. I'm hoping to channel this passion. I don't want her to be one of those dogs that barks at every damn thing that walks by the house. It was fun, though, to see her finally becoming more comfortable with her new home.
She's watching you, btw.
picture: me Read more on Bridal Showers and August Showers
Friday, August 17, 2007
Potty Time
Zuul is awesome. She has been sleeping wonderfully in her crate the past two nights in our bedroom. Each night she wakes us up whining to go to the bathroom! This whole crate thing has something going for it. One of us stumbles out of bed and takes her outside. She pees. She comes back in and goes to her home. Unfortunately I didn't get her down the hall fast enough last night and she had a tiny accident. I distracted her long enough to get her outside and finish her business.
I'm wondering, thoough, if she is starting to play us. Last night she went out three times. She peed each time (and took a big dump the third time!). Hopefully she legitimately has to go to the bathroom and isn't just doing this for the attention. The third time I was planning to ignore her protests but then I heard the sniffing...
We took her to the park again last night. Megan wasn't home yet so I was there alone. I decided it would be good for Zuul to watch some co-ed sand volleyball and get used to the commotion. We sat for a minute and she decided it was more fun to nap. She also learned a new trick: Babe Attract. I always new puppies had this super-power. I've never had a puppy before so this was first experience of this amazing power. Before long a couple of babes walked up and asked if they could pet the puppy. I obliged and learned that one of them had a Dachshund. She had just found out that it loves the massage setting on the shower nozzle during baths. We'll see what Zuul thinks of that. I never liked that setting much.
As an aside, we've given Zuul one bath so far. She liked the treats. She didn't like the water so much at first. She tried jumping out a few time but I held her steady. Once we started with the shampooing she realized her life wasn't all that bad. And then started falling asleep.
Anyway, there was a Belgian Sheepdog puppy there this time. The thing was all hair. If you got it wet it would lose half its volume. Anyway, this puppy was pretty rough with Zuul, doing all the typical pack stuff with submissions and whatnot. Pretty soon Zuul figured out this thing was all hair and started charging back and chasing her around the park. I was impressed. I'm glad to see my dog hold her own.
There were some different dogs and owners there as well. They are all super nice and I'm really glad we live near Brentwood Park. Zuul will be a well socialized pup!
I'll see ya next time.
photo credit: my sister
Thursday, August 16, 2007
There is No Puppy, Only Zuul!
Welcome to my blog all about the best dog ever, Zuul!
She was born May 25, 2007. She is a purebred Weimaraner and is the cutest puppy you've ever seen. We adopted Zuul on Monday, August 13, 2007 at about 6pm. She is very well mannered and loves to be with people and other dogs. We'll see how she is with cats when we take her to my Sister's place this weekend. She has an awesome Russian Blue.
Her breeders did a wonderful job of starting out her training. They had named her Rosie, a fine name, but, as you can see, Zuul suits her much better. She was one of two puppies left out of a litter of ten. She was the largest female of the litter. She caught my attention when she was carrying the end of a bone chew while playing with her parents and sister. It looked just like she was carrying a ball around. My kind of dog! Now, like a good puppy, she is quick to follow us everywhere. She is also quickly learning some valuable commands.
She has her very own crate for her home within our home. My Nana has been very kind to me over the last few years and has supplied me with many, many fleece blankets. Zuul found two waiting for her in her home and loves them. She has slept in her crate the last three nights. Last night she whimpered for mere moments before falling asleep. At about 4am she woke us up crying a little. She needed to relieve herself and almost made it out the front door. She was quick to stop when we called out her name and finished up outdoors. Yay!
We are planning a trip to the new Portland, Oregon IKEA to pick up her very own dog bowls and I'm sure we'll find some toys she is sure to love.
That's is for now! More stories and pictures soon.
Thank you for reading.
photo credits: me!
