I Graduated!

Dakota has completed her puppy class with flying colors (although she lost the puppy Olympics, and got 2nd place, due to Grandpa Bruce and his love of rough-housing with her!!!)

If you think puppy class taught me to actually wear this hat, you haven't met me yet. I'm way too excited to sit still and tolerate something on my head. So I guess we'll work on that in future classes. I am 100% puppy still, and I will run around like crazy any chance I get. Sitting still to be petted is about the worst punishment I can imagine. However, if I get to lay on my back while you scratch my belly and I can chew on something, then you are speaking my language!

Oh yeah, and it is NASTY weather today. So I am opening my own business. I am the newest snow removal (and leaf removal) company in town. I will eat right through any snow or leaves that are in the way. I can't think of many tastier treats than snow and leaves. Maybe the liver snaps the Vet gives me (you should have seen me race into the vets office and go right for them before I was even offered one), but I only see the vet once in a while, so the snow wins out.

The Field!!!

Yes yes yes, I know. I'm terribly slow at updating the blog. I just have so much fun out and about with Dakota that I put it off. Oh yeah, and that whole thing called having a job.

To start things out with a bang!

Yes, that is lots of mud. Kyle and Dakota thought it would be fun to play in Grandpa Bruce's corn field right after the freeze thawed out. I'm not sure who got muddier, but it did require both of them to take a shower, and then Nicole had to clean the tub out with all the mud and corn still in it. This exercise started out with Kyle shooting some clays to get Dakota used to gunfire, but we've now learned that when mud is involved that takes precedence in Dakota's mind. Although I would like to brag that I was 100% on the clays two days in a row and Dakota did really quite well with the noise (although many will claim that while in the house you really can't hear the noise).

How muddy did they get the tub you ask? Hopefully this picture will give you an idea of what the tub looked like.

Yes, it was quite a disaster.

Dakota is having mixed results in the field. With short grass or with lots of distraction, she loves it in the field. She absolutely loves being outside, but would prefer it be the backyard and familiar territory. So we are trying to push the tall grass. So, it is time to play Where's Dakota, to infringe on Waldo's copyright.

She is there if you can find her. She did very well this day and we love the field and have been back a couple of times. Not too far from here is another water collection area and she did a great job of sneaking up on the ducks with daddy, we didn't even chase them and scare them off. Hopefully this bodes well for Duck Hunting adventures in the future. She's even started to hear the wings of the ducks as they fly over (see post 3 for how happy the sound of duck wings makes her dad), as well as the call of the Honkers during their flights over the house.

Did I hear the crow "caw"? Or was that cousin Aaron and his crow imitation or Buckwheat and his cat meow? Either way, I'm hot on the trail and I will find them. Next time you see my cousins ask them to do their animal impersonations so you can see how much fun it is when I chase them in the field. I will tackle the toughest hill to chase them, break through the toughest brush, and pounce on them when I find them.

The next time we visited the same field Dakota didn't really do as well, I guess she needs more friends to play with.

Well, I'm going to close this post so I can start another one to talk about Puppy class!

First SNOW!

It's been a while, but we are back. Between caring for the puppy, grading my students, preparing their finals, and working on my chemistry I've been slow on the updates. Dakota is growing like crazy and having lots of fun! Although she isn't allowed out at school anymore, so she doesn't get to play with all my students as much and we are all very bummed about that.

The big event of the last two weeks was probably the first "snow". We really didn't get much and it didn't stay long, but Dakota loved it as you can see from her snow mustache!




Another big event was that we went on a two hour exploring trip into the underbrush in a nearby reserve. She prefers to take the easy route, but every once in a while she tackled the tall grass head on. Sadly, I forgot the camera so we don't have any good pictures. But it was a lot of fun (even if I had to crawl in a few spots to get wear she could). This trip led to her first brushing and the jury is out as to whether or not she survived it! She did pretty well with it, but would have much rather chewed on the brush then let it chew on her.





Apparently I take lots of pictures of her sleeping, although she isn't doing as much sleeping as she used to do when we are awake. We are much too exciting to let something like naps get in the way of playing. So if you ever need a cute picture of a puppy sleeping, let me know, I've got a lot of them!



Here is one of Dakota's favorite spots to explore. She also is a fan of going under the table and finding creative ways to get under/over/around the legs of the table and chairs. This knowledge came in useful when she had her first play session with her cousin Cooper. Cooper is a Westie that is pure muscle and could push her around pretty easily. So she would hide under a chair so he couldn't body check her and then take some swipes at him. After the two hours of playing I don't think either of them had slept more soundly. We'll be arranging more play time soon!


I'm told it is too early to start hunting with her, but we've got her working on this duck! Look at this retrieve! She is a huge fan of the duck and loves to chase it. The retrieving part comes and goes, so we are going to wait a while to really start working on fetch and games like that. She does do much better at fetching her rope chew than balls, so we'll work on that as she gets bigger.


I suppose I should get back to working on tests. Hope everyone else is having a little bit more fun on their Saturday morning!

Week One

Dakota has decided to keep us it would appear. We came to the end of the first week and everyone survived. I think a lot of it had to do with her Grandpa Bruce spoiling her rotten! She had a great visit from family and then even won my mom over and was the first dog my mom has held in her lap in many many years! But, even Grandpa's get climbed on.

Although, I should tell you we are really pleased that Dakota does seem to understand when she has to be careful. She met some elementary kids while at work and did a very good job of letting them pet her and she said hi to them without biting or getting wild. Then the proud moment came when she met a baby at the vet's and was extremely gentle finding out what this little person was. This is good news as we are exploring the possibility of having Dakota be a Therapy Dog. Both Nicole and I would get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of helping others heal through some dog therapy! Hopefully Dakota would enjoy it as well.

Would you believe that Dakota doesn't know what to make of the shower yet? She loves to get in and get some water, but she always reaches a point when she has just had enough. So we are trying to get her in every once in a while in short sessions since our lakes are frozen and who knows when she'll get to try swimming out! The part that makes us laugh most though is when she tries to bite the stream of water. This is quite entertaining. She also likes to wade for a little bit, but then she'll decide the water is trying to get her and she'll bark at it and jump out of the tub. Good thing she dries off really really fast.

Well, Dakota suffered her first lose on the golf course. I guess we'll stick to other sports like soccer which she is quite good at. I guess we won't enter her in the Haberer Open next year, she is too busy chasing the golf ball to chew it and can't be bothered to hit it.

I've got all kinds of pictures as the camera happy daddy, but I should leave it at this so I don't over do it.

Until next time!