Added to the end of the album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby
Evidently you can also upload video too because it added his dog park/doggie olympics videos.
(I plan to blog more later--I didn't forget about y'all!)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Training for the Dog Olympics
Also known as "no man shall come between Gatsby and his toy".
I mean, would you put him winning the high jump past him after you see this?
I mean, would you put him winning the high jump past him after you see this?
Gatsby goes to the dog park
You know it's a momentous occasion when someone other than Laura updates the blog...
It was a beautiful day today, so we decided to reward Gatsby for being such a good dog last night when Laura and I went to the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Raleigh Boychoir (probably worthy of a post on its own, but I'll let Laura handle that) by taking him to a dog park near our old apartment in Raleigh. As you can see below, he certainly made good use of his time...
But, as you might imagine, all that running (45 minutes worth!) tuckered him out, so this is what transpired about fifteen minutes after we came back home:
It was a beautiful day today, so we decided to reward Gatsby for being such a good dog last night when Laura and I went to the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Raleigh Boychoir (probably worthy of a post on its own, but I'll let Laura handle that) by taking him to a dog park near our old apartment in Raleigh. As you can see below, he certainly made good use of his time...
But, as you might imagine, all that running (45 minutes worth!) tuckered him out, so this is what transpired about fifteen minutes after we came back home:
Thursday, October 9, 2008
OK, OK, OKAY!
Everyone has been sending me nasty e-mails and Facebook messages, so here I am for an update! (Some of you need to get a library card or something and get some new reading material!)
Everything chez LeBlanc has been going really well, but we've been super busy. I've been really busy at work and we've been really busy at home actually having someone to take care of!
Little Gatsby has been adjusting pretty well. He absolutely hated the crate. We couldn't get it to work and all he did was completely freak out when he was in it. I've been around dogs barking, so I know what's pretty normal and what he was doing wasn't the least bit normal. He was shaking and panicking and doing other nonnormal doggie things. So, on Sunday when he had a major freakout before church, we decided to let it go and since then, he's been a lot more normal and he's been very good.
We've put up a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, so now he just stays downstairs 24/7. He hasn't torn anything up and he's had very few potty accidents. (And when he has had an accident, we've pretty much realized that it was our fault and that we didn't take him out soon enough! "Oh, so that's what that means when he does that! :-))
He absolutely loves raw hides. It's a bit ridiculous. We give him one and he won't rest until it's been destroyed. He's like a super-duper chewer. (At least it's his toys and not any of our stuff!)
He's also an unbelievably fast runner. I usually let him off the leash after our morning walks (from about 5:45-6:30 a.m. on the days that I go into the office) at the beginning of our cul-de-sac and he just takes off flying to the house. He's so fast that he can run to the front door, look back and realize that I've only taken (literally) 5 steps and then he runs around the house 3 times as fast as lightning, realizes I'm only about half way up the cul-de-sac and then comes flying back running to me, and then runs back to the door. It's pretty freaking cute, but it's unreal how quick he is. I think he's going like 20 mph. Hopefully, we can get it on film some time.
In the house, he's really calmed down quite a bit. Last week, I taught him "sit!" and he's sooo good at it. When we say it (even without a treat) he sits immediately. If we have a treat, he'll hold the sit for as long as we hold the treat. It's pretty impressive. Sometimes we'll be getting ready to get him a treat and he'll already be sitting! On Tuesday, we start our beginner doggie training class at PetSmart, so we're really excited to see how that goes. I think he'll be an A+ student! He's basically motivated to do about anything for food.
He's pretty timid around new people and dogs at first, but as soon as he warms up, he gets very excited and loving. He's already had a playdate with one of the doggies down the street (Hudson). And he's been pretty good when my family has stayed with us on the weekends. We think that he'll continue to improve as we go through the doggie classes.
On the house front, we finally have a green front yard! Yes, we actually have sod! (Ironically, it arrived a few days before the Parade of Homes started! How convenient.) We've watered it pretty frequently and it's looking really good. They also completely redid our backyard and laid more hydroseed, which is also coming up quite nicely. It seems to have a bit fewer weeds than the first "yard." The other nice thing is that we haven't had to mow for quite a while! (And by "we," I mean "Brian," but you probably already knew that.)
I am COMPLETELY loving working from home on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is so nice, I get so much more done, and I only have to get gas every two weeks.
The mighty Apps are 3-2 on the season and are actually playing away for the next two weekends, so I'm going to be in town! Saturday's game is at Samford in Alabama (who suck) and next week is at Georgia Southern in Statesboro (who are usually pretty good, but only fair this year). This week's game isn't on TV.
Next week is on SportSouth, which we used to not get, until I Internet-ed up DirecTV and added the sports pack ($12/month) and now we pretty much get every sports channel in the country; see, for example:
Everything chez LeBlanc has been going really well, but we've been super busy. I've been really busy at work and we've been really busy at home actually having someone to take care of!
Little Gatsby has been adjusting pretty well. He absolutely hated the crate. We couldn't get it to work and all he did was completely freak out when he was in it. I've been around dogs barking, so I know what's pretty normal and what he was doing wasn't the least bit normal. He was shaking and panicking and doing other nonnormal doggie things. So, on Sunday when he had a major freakout before church, we decided to let it go and since then, he's been a lot more normal and he's been very good.
We've put up a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, so now he just stays downstairs 24/7. He hasn't torn anything up and he's had very few potty accidents. (And when he has had an accident, we've pretty much realized that it was our fault and that we didn't take him out soon enough! "Oh, so that's what that means when he does that! :-))
He absolutely loves raw hides. It's a bit ridiculous. We give him one and he won't rest until it's been destroyed. He's like a super-duper chewer. (At least it's his toys and not any of our stuff!)
He's also an unbelievably fast runner. I usually let him off the leash after our morning walks (from about 5:45-6:30 a.m. on the days that I go into the office) at the beginning of our cul-de-sac and he just takes off flying to the house. He's so fast that he can run to the front door, look back and realize that I've only taken (literally) 5 steps and then he runs around the house 3 times as fast as lightning, realizes I'm only about half way up the cul-de-sac and then comes flying back running to me, and then runs back to the door. It's pretty freaking cute, but it's unreal how quick he is. I think he's going like 20 mph. Hopefully, we can get it on film some time.
In the house, he's really calmed down quite a bit. Last week, I taught him "sit!" and he's sooo good at it. When we say it (even without a treat) he sits immediately. If we have a treat, he'll hold the sit for as long as we hold the treat. It's pretty impressive. Sometimes we'll be getting ready to get him a treat and he'll already be sitting! On Tuesday, we start our beginner doggie training class at PetSmart, so we're really excited to see how that goes. I think he'll be an A+ student! He's basically motivated to do about anything for food.
He's pretty timid around new people and dogs at first, but as soon as he warms up, he gets very excited and loving. He's already had a playdate with one of the doggies down the street (Hudson). And he's been pretty good when my family has stayed with us on the weekends. We think that he'll continue to improve as we go through the doggie classes.
On the house front, we finally have a green front yard! Yes, we actually have sod! (Ironically, it arrived a few days before the Parade of Homes started! How convenient.) We've watered it pretty frequently and it's looking really good. They also completely redid our backyard and laid more hydroseed, which is also coming up quite nicely. It seems to have a bit fewer weeds than the first "yard." The other nice thing is that we haven't had to mow for quite a while! (And by "we," I mean "Brian," but you probably already knew that.)
I am COMPLETELY loving working from home on Wednesdays and Fridays. It is so nice, I get so much more done, and I only have to get gas every two weeks.
The mighty Apps are 3-2 on the season and are actually playing away for the next two weekends, so I'm going to be in town! Saturday's game is at Samford in Alabama (who suck) and next week is at Georgia Southern in Statesboro (who are usually pretty good, but only fair this year). This week's game isn't on TV.
Next week is on SportSouth, which we used to not get, until I Internet-ed up DirecTV and added the sports pack ($12/month) and now we pretty much get every sports channel in the country; see, for example:
- FSN Ohio
- FSN Rocky Mountain
- FSN Houston
- FSN Wisconsin
- Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
- Altitude Sports and Entertainment
- NESN
- FSN Cincinnati
- YES
- FSN Arizona
- The MTN.
- SportsTime Ohio
- NBA TV
- TVG--The Interactive Horse Racing Network
- The Outdoor Channel
- CBS College Sports
- ESPN-U
- Fox Soccer Channel
- GOL TV
- FoxSports en Espanol
- Comcast Sportsnet New England
- MSG
- MSG+
- MSG2
- MSG - Buffalo
- SportsNet NY
- FSN Pittsburgh
- Comcast SportsNet Mid Atlantic
- Sun Sports
- FSN Florida
- FSN Detroit
- Comcast SportsNet Chicago
- FSN North
- FSN Southwest
- FSN Midwest
- FSN Northwest
- FSN West
- FSN Prime Ticket
- Comcast SportsNet California
Yeah, that might be a bit excessive, but it will be awesome to watch the Apps play on SportSouth (the only channel that we really wanted [and by "we," I mean "me," but you probably already knew that]) and we kinda like sports (in case you hadn't noticed), so I'm sure we'll find some stuff to watch.
Oh yeah, and a lot of those have HD feeds, so we really get two channels for a lot of those.
AND, we got Center Ice, so Brian will never miss a hockey game again.
All is well in the world.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
And the gold medal for hurdles goes to...
GATSBY LeBLANC!!
Yup...he's totally London bound in 2012. We bought Gatsby this neat-o pen to use to contain him during the day, so that he'll have enough room to walk around and play with his toys, but not be able to scratch up the walls.
Unfortunately, it won't be here until next week. So, to help keep him under control, we put him in our spare room that doesn't have a bed in it and put up a baby gate to keep him in.
So at lunch Brian went home to see how he was doing and make sure he didn't need to go on a short walk.
Therefore, he was quite surprised when he walked in and Gatsby was chilling downstairs. Yup, he totally scaled the 26 inch baby gate, completely unscathed, and spent the rest of the morning exploring the house. Brian quickly realized that it was futile to put him back because he'd just jump out again and might hurt himself (remember: he still has stitches from his surgery). So, instead, Brian put the gate at the top of the stairs and just let Gatsby chill downstairs all afternoon.
When I came home, he was laying on the very top stair beside the baby gate taking a nap. He then got so super excited and spent the rest of the early evening going crazy and playing. Very cute. Not nearly as much humping today, but he's a bit rough when he plays, so we're working on taming that down and playing nice (it should also help when we start our PetSmart obedience class in a few weeks).
He also stayed by himself for about 3o minutes when I went to pick up my dinner. I tried to take him with me in the car, but he freaked out and didn't want to ride. In hindsight, I realize that it's probably just too stressful to do any driving for him right now because he has no idea where he's going and if he'll get to come back home.
Gatsby and I also had a very nice walk this morning, for about an hour to help burn off some energy! (Oh yeah, and he slept really well last night! He cuddled up between us in bed and slept the whole night through except for a few minutes around 4 a.m.)
Now you're probably thinking...if Gatsby could scale the baby gate, he can probably scale the baby pen too. Yup, that's what we're thinking too. So, it will be going back to Amazon when it arrives :-)
And we've decided that we're going to crate train him. After reading a lot about it and getting recommendations from people, it seems like a good idea and really appeals to dogs' native "den" instincts. If you don't believe me, google "crate training" and there are tons of recommendations from many reputable organizations (SPCA, Humane Society, etc.). It's been a hard thing for Brian and me to accept, but we've pretty much figured out that we have to think about it like a dog and not like people.
Fortunately, next week I start working from home twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), so there will only be two days in a row that he'll be home by himself. On the other days, he can run around and chill while I work. We just want to make sure to eliminate any temptation for him to get in trouble and we want to establish ourselves as in charge and him as not-dominant. In doing so, it should help him chill out a bit when he plays and stop the humping :-)
BTW, he's now destroyed a second toy.
Toys - 0; Gatsby - 2 (although he does have two toys that he hasn't destroyed yet--we'll see how that turns out after tomorrow)
Oh yeah, and we're getting sod tomorrow! They came today and dug up our yard and all the weeds (even the back yard where they had previously seeded) and put the hydraseed down again in the back. This is good news because we've pretty much sucked at the yard thing so far, so it's nice to start anew.
The bad news though is that they cut our phone line with the back hoe (not so good!), so if you need to call us, call our cells until you hear otherwise. Hopefully, BellSouth can get it fixed quickly. Centex will then reimburse us for the wire reconnection.
And, finally, Shaba Shabu has really good sushi...but they have the absolute hottest wasabi paste that I've ever had (not the stuff the put on the side--the green liquid-y stuff that goes on a wasabi roll). I was literally crying so hard. It was fantastic! (I love that quick, unbearable pain that ends immediately.) :-)
Oh yeah, and some new Gatsby pictures are up and linked on the left side of the blog.
Yup...he's totally London bound in 2012. We bought Gatsby this neat-o pen to use to contain him during the day, so that he'll have enough room to walk around and play with his toys, but not be able to scratch up the walls.
Unfortunately, it won't be here until next week. So, to help keep him under control, we put him in our spare room that doesn't have a bed in it and put up a baby gate to keep him in.
So at lunch Brian went home to see how he was doing and make sure he didn't need to go on a short walk.
Therefore, he was quite surprised when he walked in and Gatsby was chilling downstairs. Yup, he totally scaled the 26 inch baby gate, completely unscathed, and spent the rest of the morning exploring the house. Brian quickly realized that it was futile to put him back because he'd just jump out again and might hurt himself (remember: he still has stitches from his surgery). So, instead, Brian put the gate at the top of the stairs and just let Gatsby chill downstairs all afternoon.
When I came home, he was laying on the very top stair beside the baby gate taking a nap. He then got so super excited and spent the rest of the early evening going crazy and playing. Very cute. Not nearly as much humping today, but he's a bit rough when he plays, so we're working on taming that down and playing nice (it should also help when we start our PetSmart obedience class in a few weeks).
He also stayed by himself for about 3o minutes when I went to pick up my dinner. I tried to take him with me in the car, but he freaked out and didn't want to ride. In hindsight, I realize that it's probably just too stressful to do any driving for him right now because he has no idea where he's going and if he'll get to come back home.
Gatsby and I also had a very nice walk this morning, for about an hour to help burn off some energy! (Oh yeah, and he slept really well last night! He cuddled up between us in bed and slept the whole night through except for a few minutes around 4 a.m.)
Now you're probably thinking...if Gatsby could scale the baby gate, he can probably scale the baby pen too. Yup, that's what we're thinking too. So, it will be going back to Amazon when it arrives :-)
And we've decided that we're going to crate train him. After reading a lot about it and getting recommendations from people, it seems like a good idea and really appeals to dogs' native "den" instincts. If you don't believe me, google "crate training" and there are tons of recommendations from many reputable organizations (SPCA, Humane Society, etc.). It's been a hard thing for Brian and me to accept, but we've pretty much figured out that we have to think about it like a dog and not like people.
Fortunately, next week I start working from home twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), so there will only be two days in a row that he'll be home by himself. On the other days, he can run around and chill while I work. We just want to make sure to eliminate any temptation for him to get in trouble and we want to establish ourselves as in charge and him as not-dominant. In doing so, it should help him chill out a bit when he plays and stop the humping :-)
BTW, he's now destroyed a second toy.
Toys - 0; Gatsby - 2 (although he does have two toys that he hasn't destroyed yet--we'll see how that turns out after tomorrow)
Oh yeah, and we're getting sod tomorrow! They came today and dug up our yard and all the weeds (even the back yard where they had previously seeded) and put the hydraseed down again in the back. This is good news because we've pretty much sucked at the yard thing so far, so it's nice to start anew.
The bad news though is that they cut our phone line with the back hoe (not so good!), so if you need to call us, call our cells until you hear otherwise. Hopefully, BellSouth can get it fixed quickly. Centex will then reimburse us for the wire reconnection.
And, finally, Shaba Shabu has really good sushi...but they have the absolute hottest wasabi paste that I've ever had (not the stuff the put on the side--the green liquid-y stuff that goes on a wasabi roll). I was literally crying so hard. It was fantastic! (I love that quick, unbearable pain that ends immediately.) :-)
Oh yeah, and some new Gatsby pictures are up and linked on the left side of the blog.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Gatsby's Here!!
Yay!! I got a call this morning that they were able to do his surgery yesterday, so he was available to come home today. He's all up to date on his shots now and the animal shelter gave him a little microchip. They also removed the dewclaws that were on his hind legs.
Brian and I picked him up around 6:30 p.m. and he's been really awesome ever since. He was very, very, very excited to see us and did a lot of running around in the parking lot at the animal shelter. He saw a couple dogs out there and basically just sniffed them out. No barking or growling and he didn't show his teeth.
He was all over the place in the car and very, very excited. He stayed in the back, but he did demonstrate a behavior that we're now working hard to nip in the bud. We took his bed with us for him to have in the car and once he saw it he started humping it like crazy!
When we got home, we took him on a walk to explore our yard and then eventually brought him inside on the leash and took him around to show him the place. After he calmed down a bit, we took him off the leash and we've let him run around without it ever since. He won't go off away from us and he's following me around everywhere :-) We played with him for a bit and then Brian went to pick up dinner from Applebees. After he left, I sat down to read the paperwork we got from the animal shelter and he crawled up on the couch beside me and took a nap. When Brian got back, we ate our dinner and pretty much ignored him so that he wouldn't beg for food. He basically just walked around the table a couple of times and then chilled at his food bowl and drank a lot of water. We gave him some food and he's been eating it a little at a time.
We've pretty much just been chilling since dinner and Gatsby has been doing the same. We've taken him outside twice since we brought him home and he's really liking his exploration of our cul-de-sac and empty lots. :-)
He hasn't gone to the bathroom inside at all and the only issue has been that he likes to hump the pillows. So we've just taken them away and given him a toy for his aggression. The first toy we gave him was a cute little turtle...but evidently it wasn't really the right one for him because he chewed up the little turtle arms in about an hour. So now he has a new (stronger!) toy and a tennis ball and he's been really happy with those.
Currently, he's taking a nap between us on the floor. On Saturday, he has an appointment with the vet (free of charge from the animal shelter) to get his routine checkup.
Yay for good dogs! (But, if anyone has any good tips to eliminate the humping, let us know!)
We haven't taken a ton of pictures tonight, but I added the ones that we took to our Gatsby album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby
He's a very happy dog!
Brian and I picked him up around 6:30 p.m. and he's been really awesome ever since. He was very, very, very excited to see us and did a lot of running around in the parking lot at the animal shelter. He saw a couple dogs out there and basically just sniffed them out. No barking or growling and he didn't show his teeth.
He was all over the place in the car and very, very excited. He stayed in the back, but he did demonstrate a behavior that we're now working hard to nip in the bud. We took his bed with us for him to have in the car and once he saw it he started humping it like crazy!
When we got home, we took him on a walk to explore our yard and then eventually brought him inside on the leash and took him around to show him the place. After he calmed down a bit, we took him off the leash and we've let him run around without it ever since. He won't go off away from us and he's following me around everywhere :-) We played with him for a bit and then Brian went to pick up dinner from Applebees. After he left, I sat down to read the paperwork we got from the animal shelter and he crawled up on the couch beside me and took a nap. When Brian got back, we ate our dinner and pretty much ignored him so that he wouldn't beg for food. He basically just walked around the table a couple of times and then chilled at his food bowl and drank a lot of water. We gave him some food and he's been eating it a little at a time.
We've pretty much just been chilling since dinner and Gatsby has been doing the same. We've taken him outside twice since we brought him home and he's really liking his exploration of our cul-de-sac and empty lots. :-)
He hasn't gone to the bathroom inside at all and the only issue has been that he likes to hump the pillows. So we've just taken them away and given him a toy for his aggression. The first toy we gave him was a cute little turtle...but evidently it wasn't really the right one for him because he chewed up the little turtle arms in about an hour. So now he has a new (stronger!) toy and a tennis ball and he's been really happy with those.
Currently, he's taking a nap between us on the floor. On Saturday, he has an appointment with the vet (free of charge from the animal shelter) to get his routine checkup.
Yay for good dogs! (But, if anyone has any good tips to eliminate the humping, let us know!)
We haven't taken a ton of pictures tonight, but I added the ones that we took to our Gatsby album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/Gatsby
He's a very happy dog!
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