Bullysticks.

Ugh. This morning, I woke up to find Snick and Ava gnawing on bullysticks. They were perfectly happy, of course, but I hadn't given them the bullysticks. After looking around, I find my "hidden" stash of bullysticks from the store yesterday is empty. The local petstore had a sale last week on the bullysticks, so I bought my limit of 10, gave the dogs each one, and had them stashed. That means that there were eight bullysticks missing. After asking mom about it, she said that she managed to save three sticks from them, but still. Overnight, five 6" bullysticks managed to disappear and I'd bet money that Ava got them down, then Snickers scarfed most of them, since he can polish one off in about 15 minutes.

Totally my fault of course, since my hiding spot wasn't as wonderful as I thought, apparently. But still, neither dog was hungry for breakfast. And I think it'll be a few days before anyone gets another bullystick....

So, that whole "teaching an old dog new tricks" thing..

Sigh. Snickers is still having issues with the whole paw/shake thing. He has yet to get it even once, which I just don't understand. He's never had any issues with learning stuff before.

Ava, on the other hand, has learned some new tricks. She managed to chew her bed - which I made for her - while I was gone today. I was only gone for a few hours for class, but she nommed it up nonetheless. Tomorrow, she's downgrading back to a different bed for a while so we can stop the problem. She also got into a bag of treats - that I had no idea she could get to - and emptied it, then shredded the bag. And then she got in the trash. All of which are very un-Ava actions, but the only thing I can think of is the fact that today was the first day since the end of April that she'd been crated for more than a few minutes. Its so frustrating!! And then, of course, that worsened my bad mood from earlier in the day, so we weren't able to accomplish much tonight. I did some leash work with her outside, working on heeling and such. Or trying to at least. I'm finding out that I'm really not as great of a trainer for leashing stuff that I'd like to be...

Put your left paw in, put your left paw out....

Lately I've gotten back to working with Ava several times a day on little random training things. Today, in about three 5 minute sessions, I taught her to distinguish her left paw from her right. "Paw" means left, and "shake" means right. She's picked it up really easily - much quicker than I'd expected. After I showed her once that "shake" meant she had to give me her right paw instead of her left, she picked up on it. Its amazing! In all the times that we've practiced it so far today she's only slipped up on her paws twice, which is just utterly amazing. I'd be embarrassed to admit how long it took me to get my left and right's, well, right. I still have to remind myself that I "write with my right..." to figure it out. Sigh. Ava's smarter than me, really, she is.

Snickers, on the other hand, is a bit slower. Whenever I work with him on training, he gets so excited at the prospect of food - even if I don't have anything - that its almost like he flips the switch on his brain to "off." He goes bonkers. Really. Think of a dog going bonkers and that mental image will be Snickers. He can't figure it out. We're still working on it though!

I'm hoping to really get serious about Ava's training though. I've been looking into trainers nearby to do some more obedience work because she really needs something for when we're in an area with distracts. For a husky, she listens surprisingly well (after all the expectations I had, anyways), but if something distracts her and breaks her focus, its nearly impossible to get her to zone back into me again. And since I'm in what I'm fairly sure is the least dog-friend place in the US, I'm having some issues with it. I found one woman though - she's about an hour and a half away and does obedience and intro to agility, so I'm hoping that'll work out. Ideally, I'd love to see Ava getting into agility and possibly rally work. It'll be great for both of us, but namely her and her boundless energy that I'm so jealous of. Wish us luck!

Long time no see!

Hey everyone! Its been a while since I last posted, but we survived our roadtrip and everything. I have several long, picture-packed blogs to update with, but I'll have to find the time to. Tomorrow my summer session starts - just a chemistry course, but at nearly $700, I don't think I could afford to take any more classes. Ugh. And to think, my adviser told me it'd be "around $200-$300" for the course. Ha. But that's unrelated, really. Anywho! Until I can get something decent put together, I'll leave you with some pictures that I just found after dumping my phone before getting a new one. I totally forgot about all the pictures I had on it.




Snick lounging on my bed before we had Ava.


Rusty, the maltese puppy that I puppysat for a friend right after she got him. And yes, he is wearing a pink polka-dotted dress.


Bubba, one of my kitties.


Teddy, the stray that we took in for a while, and Kit Kat getting acquainted.


My very first picture of Ava. This is what was listed on Petfinder when I found her and its been my phone's background since the day we left to pick her up.


I had just gotten Ava a few weeks before taking this picture. She had laid on our air vent just right and her ID tag slipped through, then she stood up and brought it with her. And yes, I did snap a picture on my phone before freeing her from it...


Snick seeing me off to class one afternoon.


We told Ava to get in her box and she hopped into whichever crate was closest - it happened to be my aunt's minpin's crate. She managed to pretzel herself into that tiny crate just barely.


When she turned six months old, I bought Ava a permanent crate. This is the damage from day one...


Dad and the dogs going for a dip at the park.


That's the special "yes, I know that I'm in your chair but its terribly comfortable so please don't make me leave" look.


Snickers in his favorite spot in my car - the drivers' seat.

Ava's Gotcha Day - A Year in Pictures

I’ve always wanted a husky, at least since I was in the second grade. That’s when I read the Call of the Wild and I was hooked on the idea of a husky. About five years later, I got Snickers, a mix with mostly German Shepherd in him, and then a few years later, I finally got Ava. I spent a few years reading up on huskies and found out that they were much more than just really pretty sled dogs, but I found all of their weird quirks endearing – and I still do. I contacted some breeders, and because of that I learned that there’s a huge difference between a “good breeder” and a “breeder.” Because of Ava, I learned everything about the world of dog breeding, about holistic care, and even about good foods because, before I started researching for a husky, Snickers was eating Beneful. I was saving for a husky from one of three or four breeders (in fact, I dubbed my first bank account The Husky Puppy Fund). Then I spotted her on petfinder when she was 8 weeks old and that was it.



Two days later, my Dad took a few days off work so we could drive from WV to SC to pick her up since I’m so bad with directions that I’d never make it there alone. We finally made it to the rescue about three hours later than we’d planned – and four hours later than mapquest had said we would. The rescue was really based in someone’s house. He was a musher who had several huskies himself, as well as several rescued huskies up for adoption, including Ava’s two littermates and her parents, and a few wolves rescued from people who thought they’d make cute pets. It was storming so bad that we’d had to stop several times and we still couldn’t really see, so we had to run into the house where he already had her inside and waiting. He was cradling her when we came in and dried off a bit. We talked for a little while, although I don’t actually remember any of the conversation because I was locked onto her and resisting the urge to snatch her and cuddle her myself. He stopped midsentence, looked at me and smiled, then went, “Here, I suppose you want this?” and handed her to me. We stayed for about an hour, just talking about huskies in general before finally deciding to head home. She spent the entire 13 hour ride home curled up in my arms. Even the guy from the rescue said he’d never seen a puppy take to someone so fast and so completely.





And here’s the weird thing, or perhaps the perfect thing. As we were leaving to get her, I had the extreme sense of déjà vu, reminding me of a dream that I’d forgotten. In the dream, I had been going to South Carolina to pick up a small female husky puppy, with a red coat and blue eyes. And there wasn’t a single breeder in South Carolina that I’d considered going to.


When we finally did make it home, she immediately made herself at home and stole Snick’s bone while he was trying to figure out what the little ball of fluff was, why it was in his house, and why it kept wanting to chew on him. It took him about three weeks to completely warm up to her. First of all, he’s a pretty shy, timid big guy – really the epitome of a gentle giant. Secondly, Ava had no concept of the hierarchy of the house, so to speak. She moved right in like she owned the place and was absolutely merciless to Snickers when it came to playing. He was almost too nice to put her in her place, but he finally did.


Back when she was small enough to fit in the bathroom sink, she had her first bath. That was also the first time I heard the Husky Death Howl.

The next week, we had some family drop in with their min-pin mix, so he and Ava got to play while they were about the same size. This was also when she discovered that she loved to swim in the waterbowl outside.

The Gimp.

Poor Miss Ava has become my Wondergimp Pup within the last few days. Sunday we had a playdate with Jake, my friend Cati's lab mix, and then on Monday we had to get the dreaded rabies shot. On our playdate she managed to slash her front right pad, giving her a bit of a limp, and now she's favoring her back right leg after the rabies vax. Ugh. I hate vaccines. But that's another matter entirely.

Sunday with Cati and Jake was great though! Since we don't have a dog park anywhere, we use the local high school's football field. There's the football field, two softball fields, a tennis court, and a walking track. If we're lucky, we get there when no one is using the tennis court and we can let the dogs off their leashes to play. So far, yesterday has been the only time that someone else was in the tennis court so we just walked around the walking track until they left. I'm thinking that might be where she picked up the slash in her pad, but I'm not sure. If I think back on it, she limped a tad bit as we were walking around, after she pulled me through a patch of mud and I hit the ground with a lovely split. It was only two or three steps though, so I assumed she was trying to get the mud off her paws, just like I was trying to get the mud off my pants xD

After our laps around the field, we finally got into the tennis courts. Since the gate to it wasn't made to fit to the gateway very well, we've got a system down pretty well. Cati takes Jake's leash and ties the gate shut while I set out their water stuff where they hopefully won't tip it. "Hopefully" is the operative word in this situation, seeing that Ava usually flips the bowl and then lays in the puddle to cool off. She's such a resourceful little thing! Its amazing!

Her and Jake get along so great together though. I don't know what I'd do if we didn't have him and Cati to hang out with, honestly. Everyone else that I know has small dogs, with the exception of one friend and my grandparents. My friends are convinced that Ava is a monster dog who doesn't want to play with their small dogs, but would rather tear their heads off and nom on their brains. Its insane really because Ava has never once shown any aggression while playing with anyone, but she hasn't been allowed to play since she was about four months old. Cati and Jake are the only playdate that we can have regularly, and our only means of socialization except for random meetings at the vet, petstore, and the bigger park that's farther away. And, even better, Ava and Jake are about the same size and age so they're perfectly matched. Ava's a bit taller, but she's leggier and must more nimble. Jake's shorter and built more solidly, so he's more of a battering ram. So they can run themselves silly playing, collapse for a while to cool off, and then do it all again. Its awesome! I've never seen two dogs play so hard together. And all the while Cati and I can sit on the ground by the gate and watch and catch up since we hardly ever see each other. Yesterday I introduced her to Dogster on her iphone. I've gotta get one of those things - they're so spiffy! I wish I would have remembered my camera because I could have gotten some amazing pictures.

Monday was a different story though. First of all, I hate vaccines. They make me nervous and they piss me off because they're so overused and so few people know about the dangers associated with them. We've always been really lax with Snickers' vaccines and Ava will be too. She's due her yearly booster cocktail of poisons soon, but I have no idea if I'll be able to get titers or if I'll have to just skip it altogether. But anywhos! Ava's been due her rabies shot for about six months so I went ahead and got it yesterday. It went off without a hitch, which was a huge load off my mind because I was so paranoid about her going into anaphylactic shock since she seems to be a pretty sensitive pup. But she didn't and she even screamed at the vet while they trimmed her nails afterwards, so I knew it was all good. Then we hung around for a little bit to talk to the vet about her heat cycle and to make sure she didn't have any immediate reactions since I live so far away. After that I took her to the petstore to pick out a nice big braided bullystick for being good. Its like a little kid that has to go get shots and gets an icecream cone afterwards, isn't it? I also got a few nommy cans of food for our trip and a free bag of Taste of the Wild! Since we bought our 12th bag of TOTW a few weeks ago, our stampy card was full and I returned it before the card ran out on the 31st so viola! Free $45 bag of bison and venison filled nommies for Snick and Ava.

And then today, Ava was whining at 5am and woke me up, which is odd since I sleep like the dead and she usually has to stand on my head to wake me up. Then she starts favoring her back leg and won't even sit or lay on it. Right now she's wrestling with her deer antler while Snickers tries to steal it, but I'm going to make her a cold compress in a few minutes and then call the vet tomorrow if she's still limping. I might update this with pictures later, but right now, she's not even looking good enough for pictures. Poor baby.

Later this week we're trying out Belly scRubs, a sorta self-groom groomers that opened about an hour away from home. It sounds like a long drive, but when you live where I live, nothing is closer than forty-five minutes away. And they clean up the tubs when you're done! Ava's blowing her coat right now - for the first time, I might add - and there's a whole new level of fluff in our house in addition to Snickers' usual fluff deposits. Ava's getting ready for a roadtrip this weekend so I really want to make sure that she's defluffed as much as possible since its just rude to let her make someone else's house into a snowglobe.

Nommies in the mail!

We got some wonderful doggy nommies in the mail the other day! Enough to keep Snick and Ava satisfied for a little bit, anyways. It's really weird to think back to how the dogs used to be before they learned to equate delivery men with treats. Snickers, being the huge gentle giant that he is, has a bit of a scary-big-vicious dog bark and he would literally scare anyone dropping by to deliver anything. He wasn't menacing, but he just barked to let us know that he was seeing something outside - and that something that was outside generally got scared. But then the magic happened and one of those "somethings" outside gave me a cardboard box holding 100 bully sticks and everything changed. Now, if someone comes to the door, they still bark and all, but if said person has a cardboard box....Well, the barking stops and the tail-wagging begins. Now they don't even tell us when the Fedex or UPS guy pulls into the driveway, so half the time I don't even know when something is delivered. But anyways, I'm babbling. Sorry! Onto the goodies!!



First, we got a Merrick Hungry Dog Value Pack - aka the awesome grab-bag of goodness. Its two whole pounds of awesome, namely in the shape of random Merrick treats. I was a bit nervous to order it because, being a grab bag, I was afraid that I'd get a two pound bag of just pig ears or something. Which would suck. But it turned out pretty good. There’s a bunch of stuff that is apparently quite tasty but I have no idea what it is. I'm thinking lung puffs and pig snouts, but I'm not entirely sure. There's also quite a few really thick bullysticks that are about six inches long, a huge bone of some sort (that I'm going to throw out or give away. But still!), several tendons, some tails, and a ton of little chunks of stuff that looks suspiciously like jerky. I haven't tasted the jerky-esque noms to be sure though....The best part? It was only $7.85 online, which is way way way cheaper than I've ever seen the bags before, even at my usual online shopping places!



Then we got a boatload of Zukes Mini Naturals to replenish our stock. I was really excited because I found them supercheap, compared to local petstores anyways. I paid less than $3.35 for the Salmon noms and $2.85 for the chicken noms - compared to the up to $6 price I've seen locally and online. I got multiple bags, but still not as many as I would have liked to get for that price. And did I mention that the shipping was .99 cents? Yes, it was. Awesome.

If you haven't heard about Zukes treats before, they're great. They have good ingredients with no corn, by-products, and other such nasties. Plus the mini naturals line of stuff has small bite-sized treats that are perfect for training and are good and moist. I have yet to try any of the baked treats because I haven't seen them stocked anywhere locally yet, but I'm sure they're great as well. My pups have also had the fillets and jerky that go over great too, but I prefer the little tiny treats that I can pop in a Kong ball or use for training. You do have to be careful though because there's a line of Power Bones, which supposedly boost energy. We haven't tried them, but I've almost accidentally bought them before because they look like the other bags. We'd be in trouble if I gave some of those to Ava though...Jeebus. I can just imagine the world ending or something like that when she has more of an energy spike than normal. I think it would probably look something like this, only in better quality -