Labor Day Fun

It has been requested (off line) that more pictures be posted. I will do my best.

Zuul, Megan and I all had a great holiday weekend. Zuul spent lots of time training, playing and napping.

First, though, I need to briefly catch up with events from last week. We went to the Hedge House with our friends Justin and Ranjani. It was super busy, but Zuul was mostly well-behaved. Have I mentioned she's a total babe magnet?

Zuul is now able to Sit and Leave It. She's cute as can be when she's training Leave It. We haven't worked up to putting a treat on the floor, but she is able to Leave It treats we hold in our palms. We are also training her to Sit before entering the house, before meals and when greeting people. She'll almost always sit on her own before entering the house, otherwise just looking at her will remind her that she needs to sit.

On Saturday, we had a great time at the park. Twice! Zuul is very accomplished at reaching the water fountain. I had to hold her up the first couple times but she's growing so fast she can reach all on her own now. Speaking of growing fast. She was 21.2 pounds at the vet on August 20. As of Sunday, September 2, she weighs 28 pounds! I weighed her at my sister's house. She gets to go to the vet tomorrow for some shots, so we'll get a more accurate weight. Her appetite has really kicked in to high gear. She licks her food bowl clean and goes looking for more.

Megan snapped some shots of Zuul with her puppy friend Percy. I misidentified Percy in a previous post. He is a Belgian Tervuren. Forgive me. They had a great time. A lot of her other dog friends showed up as well. Harry, Percy's unrelated brother, Tallulah, Hannah and Jake.

Sunday Zuul, Megan and I went with my sister to the Swan Island Dahlia Festival in Canby, Oregon. I've only recently learned that Dahlia's exist (I have some in my yard) and I now know that there are tons of varieties. Zuul was super well behaved and received many compliments on her appearance and behavior. She met another dog and I figured she should probably sit for this greeting. I told her to sit and she sat. The other dog's owners remarked that she is already ahead of their dog. It was some ugly small mop of a dog that was probably several years old. I was proud of my girl! She had her picture taken and even some repeat visits from people that found her irresistible. Zuul met a young child, about 12 months, and she was very well behaved. She sniffed gently and made no attempt to jump up (probably because they were the same height). Zuul suffered (napped) through an hour and a half of a class about Dahlia arranging. We walked around the fields a little more and finally she was hot and pooped. She lay down in the shade of some dahlias and stretched out in the cool soil and grass. We left and she had a hot car ride home (after stopping at the Shane Co.), napped and then we were back at the park a few hours later.

We made another attempt with Hobie on Sunday night. He made it all the way to Zuul's outstretched toenails (twice!) and sniffed. Progress. Zuul expressed a little more interest but was weary whenever Hobie hissed at her. We'll see what happens next week.

We found ourselves at the park again on Monday evening. Zuul's friend Tallulah was there. Tallulah isn't very happy about having to share, but after some convincing, she shared her squeaky toy with Zuul. Zuul thought it was the greatest thing ever. She fetched it several times. She has yet to be consistent with fetching, but this time she brought her game. We gave her another bath afterwards. Then she passed out.

That's all the Zuul news for now.

Peace out.
Photo credit:
Justin
Megan
Megan
Megan
me