Nine Things at Nine Months

Today is Paris' 9 month day! This morning, I made the mistake of getting her really excited while wishing her a happy 9 month day that she lunged at my face and her very hard skull made contact with my not so hard nose and resulted in a fairly intense nose bleed. It took a good, solid hour to get it to stop. Woops, totally my fault. Happy 9 month day to my awesome little girl.

Here are 9 things she does well (in no particular order):

9. She can sleep anywhere, in any position, no matter how uncomfortable.

[Paris laying on the floor with her head flat on the floor and angled to the right her front legs going to the left and then her back legs sticking straight forward and under the rest of her body. (Hope that made sense.]
[Another of Paris sleeping, she insisted on sitting on the seat so I put my overly large back pack on the seat to discourage her. She is sleeping in a sitting position with her head on my bag, squished into the corner of the car.]
8. We have finally found a relieving schedule that we both agree on. No more daily arguments about when she thinks she should go and when I think she should go.

[Okay, no I am not going to put up a picture of her squatting, lol. This is Paris pacing and sniffing the grass before going potty. :D You can really see her zig-zag design in this picture too]
7. She is doing SO much better at walking on a loose leash. I keep having to tell her that we aren't in a race and there is no rush to get anywhere. She is finally getting it.

[Paris walking beside me in her puppy coat, with a nice looking J in the leash]
6. She is doing fantastic at food avoidance and not picking up everything in sight.

[Paris laying on the floor with a piece of cheese between her legs, she is looking off to the side and not at the cheese. Good girl, Paris!]
5. I love that she sits on her tail so it is always tucked underneath her. Nobody steps on her tail. All my other pups get stepped on quite often, its sad. She is smart and knows how to protect that sensitive tail. :D

[Paris sitting on her tail so it is sticking out between her front feet.]
4. Paris is absolutely fearless. We haven't run into anything that this dog is afraid of, she tackles everything like a pro.

[Paris sitting by the railing of the second story at school.]
3. Paris is doing great around distractions and ignores them for the most part.

[Paris laying on her side with my nephew sitting on top of her. She just looks utterly bored.]
2. She is really quick with her commands she doesn't have to think about it at all she just does them.

[Video of Paris doing her commands. At the beginning she is laying down and when I say "Paris, let's go" she pops up and we start walking, the I give her the "sit" command and she sits and then I tell her to "down" and she does and then she flashes her beautiful brown eyes at the camera before the clip ends.]



1. She is earning more and more freedom. She is loose in my room all the time and I have left her in there for up to 20 minutes by herself and my room is still intact. She has also been sleeping loose in my room for the last few weeks and she is loose around the house for a small stint every day. (No picture for this one sorry)

I am really proud of the progress she has made in the nearly two months she has been here. I can't believe she has been here that long it feels like I just barely got her. She is an amazingly smart dog and she has so much potential. Can't wait to see what the next five-six moths has to offer. Bring it on!

Fall/Winter Photo Shoot

A few days ago I decided to take some cute pictures of Paris in the fall leaves. I am glad I did because the next day we had a layer of snow on the ground. One thing about Utah is that Fall does not last very long, usually we have snow a week or two after all the leaves have fallen. :D I love Winter thought, the cold and the snow are the BEST! Anyway, here is the product of our fall photo shoot. ( P.S. I have been trying really hard to add descriptions to all my photos, I hope I am doing okay and that's it helps visualize what they look like. But bear with me as I am not a very good descriptive writer)

First, I want to try to describe what Paris looks like: Paris is an average sized female Yellow lab. Right now she weighs about 54 pounds and she is only 8 months old so I expect her to be around 60 pounds. . . maybe when she is full grown. Her color varies from an almost white color to a dark caramel color. (I absolutely love her coloring!) She has big floppy ears, probably the biggest ears of any puppy I have raised and they fold out on the front edges. (and always dip in her food and water when she eats) Her ears, tip of her tail and a stripe down the center of her back are the darkest part of her and are an almost redish color. Down her back is mottled, if that makes sense, it's ummm. . . dark but has lighter flecks of fur throughout it. From her mid back to her pretty little fanny is a zig-zag design, I'm not sure how that happens but it's cute. She has a long, thin tail that is the same mottled color as her back and never stops wagging. Down her sides and tummy her fur is really light and almost white. She also has a lightish face with a couple darker patches on her forehead (I love those) She has a dark black nose (although the cold weather is making it a little lighter) and it looks like she wears eyeliner because the skin around her eyes is really dark. She has very expressive eyebrows and worry wrinkles on her forehead. She has a very droopy face that I love. She also has a small black spot in the center of her tongue. It is kinda in the back so I don't see it often but i am still trying to get a picture of it. :D Anyway, I hope that gives you all an idea of what she really looks like as pictures just never do her justice. :D Okay and now with no further ado here are the pictures:

[A side view of Paris looking at the camera laying in big leaves with her puppy coat on]

[A picture from above she is looking up at the camera with big yellowed leaves all around.
[Here is Paris laying down with her nose buried in the leaves, the light from the sun is making her glow a bit too.] This is one of my favorites for the day.

The next day:
Now here is a picture of the lovely lady in the snow. No puppy coat worn this time.
[Paris sitting in the snow looking at the camera.]

AND BLOOPERS!!!
What is a photo shoot without bloopers. Unfortunately I have more blooper pictures than the nice ones. :D

I am honestly not sure how this picture came about. I think I was carrying my camera up the stairs and must have accidentally snapped a picture and although it looks like she is stating her opinion (or barking) she is not.

[A view of Paris from below at the top of my stairs. Her left ear is flapping out to the side while her right ear is flush with the side of her face. Her mouth is open in a rounded position that makes it look like she is barking.]

[Paris bored of the photo shoot is letting out a big yawn while laying in the leaves]

[Paris goes belly up on the grass with her feet in the air]

[Paris laying in the leaves, looking very innocent with a leaf sticking out of her mouth]

[Paris laying in the snow licking it, tongue out and everything]

[Paris winking while sitting in the snow. I think a snowflake got in her eye, poor girl]

I wanted to get a picture of her in the snow without her leash on. . . mistake! lol I snapped off her leash and put her in a sit/stay then I backed up a couple of steps and turned my camera on and as soon as I hit the button Paris took off. Goofy dog! ha ha. I told her to "come" which she did and then I put her in a sit/stay again. She stayed that time and then I gave her the okay to run around. She had a ball romping in and eating the snow.

[Paris (from the side) springing out of her sit, back legs ready for take of and front legs curled up under her, and ears flying wild in the wind.]

This one wasn't part of the photo shoot but it makes me smile anyway. She fell asleep while chewing on her big Turkey Leg Nylabone.
[Paris zonked out with her head hanging over the edge of her dog bed and face smashed into the floor, with the Turkey bone by her mouth.]

That's about it from here. Hope everyone and their puppies are having an okay Monday.

Oh my, it's been two weeks already. . .

These past few weeks have really flown by and I don't know why because we haven't really been up to much at all. So, I guess I will do a little catch up. Here are some pictures of Hobbs and Patriots last day here. They were perfect house guests and me and Paris really enjoyed having them here. :D

Hobbs and Paris running around the backyard.

[Hobbs in the lead and Paris close behind]

I absolutely love this picture. Paris is such a doll!

[Paris in mid stride with her front half in the air, ears flapping up in the air, mouth open, and tongue lolling out the side of her mouth, she looks VERY happy]

Hobbs and Paris had a good time running around together while Patriot just did his own old man stuff.
[Patriot pacing the yard.]

The dogs are done playing.
[All three dogs lined up by the door waiting to be let in.]

[Patriot and Paris sharing a bone. Patriot facing away from camera and Paris facing camera both with half the bone in their mouth]

[Patriot on his back with Paris standing triumphantly over him, she got sick of the bone game it was so funny to see Patriot (who is at least twice Paris' size) go belly up.]
This is what I call trust. I have been working on Paris' food avoidance since she is horrible about picking things up off the ground, and I am happy to announce that she has made vast improvements. :D
[Paris sitting in my car with a bag of Wendy's food between her legs, she doesn't even seem to notice it.]
I did get a pretty funny comment from the drive through lady at Wendy's though. She leans out the window, takes a LONG look at Paris and then says: "you know, you are not supposed to drive if you are blind!" I responded: "It's okay she tells me when to turn." I couldn't resist, and I laughed nearly the whole way home. People just don't think sometimes.
Anyway, last Wednesday I puppy traded Paris for Meade. This is the first time Paris has been with another raiser since I got her. It sounds like she is being pretty good though, I am definitely happy about that. I am really excited to get her back tomorrow though, I really missed having her around, I didn't know I was this attached to her already. :D

Here is a big headshot of Meade sitting in my car on the way to school. He is a big, beautiful black lab who always looks surprised.
Here is is running around my backyard with a Nyla Ring in his mouth. The backyard is so much funner with a toy. That's what my pups have taught me. :D
I guess my final bit of business is Fullerton news. Boy do I miss my little, red dog! Anyway, I have forgotten what it's like to have a puppy in formal training. My last pup to even make it to recall was Sherman and he only lasted two or three weeks. My leader has called me a couple times and she says I sound so expectant and leery. lol Each time she called me I answer the phone and hold my breath. It's weird. So, Fullerton has been dropped from breeding. I can't say I'm not disappointed as I would have LOVED to raise Fullerton babies. One of his brothers has gone into the next phase of breeder evals so maybe there are some Fuller nieces and nephews in the future and that would be awesome too. :D He was dropped last week so he was already neutered and now I think he is just waiting for a string to join. I am really excited to watch him on the phase report, (I don't know if he will show up on the one today or not) Thursdays have a whole new meaning now. :D So, everyone watch out for my boy, I hope he does well and studies hard.

Not a very good hostess

Me and Paris have enjoyed having some weekend visitors, although Paris is not being a very good hostess. She doesn't like to share her things, especially not her pretty puffy princess bed as you can see in the picture below.
[Paris lounging on the double layered dog bed with Hobbs (a black lab) and Patriot (a HUGE yellow lab) laying on the floor next to her.]
Hobbs and Patriot are both career changed dogs from GDB who were raised by Brittany. It has been great to have them both here. Especially Patriot as he is the brother of the first puppy I raised, Prudy. Although he is making me miss her so much. They act very similar to each other. All three puppies have been getting along just peachy, Hobbs and Paris really like each other. They have had so much fun romping together in the yard. Patriot just kinda does his own old man stuff while the youngsters play.

[The three dogs waiting for dinner. Hobbs and Patriot both stare intently at their food while they wait and Paris looks at me. She is so funny, because she tries not to look at the food while she waits for the okay to eat.]
[The three puppies eating. Hobbs, Patriot and Paris]
Today Paris got to meet my nephew Cannon. Actually she has met him before but I didn't get pictures because she would treat him like a puppy and try to nip at him and get way excited so we have been working on her being calmer with him. I think today we had a breakthrough because she was phenomenal with him crawling all over her. Here are some pictures of the two of them. Cannon can never get enough of my puppies. Oh, and today he finally stopped calling her Fudder (He can't pronounce his L's yet) and he now calls her Paewis. (he really cracks me up cause he says everything so funny)

[Paris laying down on her side with cannon sitting on top of her. She doesn't seem to mind too much.]

[Cannon is now laying across her trying to get her to lick his hand.]

[Cannon laying on his back next to Paris watching her play with her bone.]

[And just because she is so cute here is my niece Hazel sitting on my sisters lap. Hazel has a huge smile on her face and big rosy cheeks. I love her chubby little arms and legs too.]
And Paris had a great first Halloween. We went to two Halloween parties and then the movie theater to see Paranormal Activity. By the second party she was pretty sacked out. She didn't mind any of the strange creatures running around and slept through the whole movie. (which really didn't scare me that much. . .) Everyone loved her and doted on how cute she was. Who am I to disagree? She had a great night!