Molly goes to North Carolina - Outer Banks

The whole family went on vacation, just got back this past Sunday. We had a fantastic time, even if the weather was a little iffy for a few days. We had fun in the ocean, long walks on the beach. We also visited Duck, NC and attended Yappy Hours at OuterBarks. Molly had her paw printed (it will be framed - then posted). We also went to Salty Paws Biscuits and had a great time there with Molly sampling all their homemade goodies. We bought lots of treats to bring back home! The drive was long, but worth it. We stayed in a beach house, right on the beach in Nags Head. Truly, an unforgettable vacation. Sleep tight!

Summer 2009

Molly is a little over 3 years now. She is very healthy (albeit a little overweight ;-o ) so I'll be cutting back on the baby carrots dipped in hummus, les oeufs au miroir and whole wheat toast!! Ahem...

We have continued agility training and she is now in "advanced" classes. She is very good, but not very fast. Hooray!! this week, we finally mastered the see-saw!! She does all the other apparatus, from A-frame to Weaving.

We continue to go for long walks in the woods and through les Forestiers. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful walking paths around where we live. We can walk in the woods for hours, never see anybody, except for chipmuncks (which Molly absolutely adores!!!), the occasional horserider and other dog walkers. We also go to the sand pit, where Molly can go swim. It's actually an open sand pit, where they've dug down so deep, the water table makes a small lake. Molly loves diving in after her ball. She swims so elegantly bringing her ball back to me. I have to back off fast, because she's already shaking off the excess water, ready to plunge back in. Last week, the owner came by in his pick up and told me to leave 2$ in the mailbox at the entrance next time I come. He was nice enough and I don't mind. It's such a great place to take Molly swimming during the warmer days of summer.

Agility training begins

I registerd Molly and me for agility training, I'll be off for a month soon, and training will be on Tuesday mornings. I thought it would be fun to try. I'm not interested in doing all kinds of competition. We are both way too lazy for that!

We finally have a dog park in the area. The owner of the petfood store we go to, managed to have a nice area all fenced in with toys and water, on the grounds of the shopping complexe where his shop is. No shade, so not to good in the middle of the day, but we've been a few times in the late afternoon or after suppertime and it's very nice. Some dogs are nicer than others, as are their owners, but overall it's great fun and the dogs have a ball (the tennis kind!).

I'm having trouble with Molly running away from me to great people. I'll be in the yard and if she spots one of our neighbours out, she'll bolt right towards them and won't listen to me. So now, when I'm outside, I have to put on a 30 foot lead that is tied around my waist. She doesn't like that. For that matter, neither do I, it's always getting tangled around something ot caught in the front wheel of the wheelbarrow, grrr @#*&^$, if you know what I mean. I figured I'm the culprit of this bad habit. Andre and I have this thing we do: when the other one comes home, we let Molly out as soon as the car is parked in the driveway. She runs over to greet us. Makes me forget anything bad that happened at work to see that smiling face coming at me full speed. I realize this is exactly the same behaviour she displays towards our neighbours or who knows, soon it will be to people walking by on the street. What if a car happens along... I don't even want to think about it. We are trying to change that, so no more greetings in the driveway :-(

On another subject, going for walks is becoming quite the workout, for me that is! She pulls so much on the lead, my arms are sore after a while. Yesterday, I figured a way and it seems to work. I tie the lead just above my knee and have the other end in my hand. Molly then has a 3-4 feet lead to walk off. If she strays it jerks her and she comes back right away. At first, I had it below my knee and I didn't have enough strenght to hold her back - as was demonstrated when she decided she wanted to go see three little girls who were running over to see her. She responded by running towards them...with me in tow. I ended on my ass and was not as amused as the kids were.

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Molly can now be found in Dogbook! With her new found friends: Luna, Bay, Chili, Bosco and Tia.

Our Molly was a 1-year old yesterday!! How time flies. We have such a good dog. I think not a day goes by that my husband and I don't comment on our luck of owning such a beast. She is playful and gentle, smart and, most of the time obedient (she'll do anything for a treat!). She loves to cuddle, which I really enjoy. For her birthday, she got a stuffed squirrel toy and a big cookie. She is training for the real ones as spring is just around the corner (I hope!). Actually, she will never catch one and I'm not sure what she would do to it...probably play. This squirrel was christened Van Gogh II (another of her stuffed toys in Van Gogh) as she was quick to remove an ear! I had to do some emergency sewing sutures on the poor thing. She loves to rip things, what can I say.

Molly now weights 53.5 pounds and measures 22 inches at her shoulders; we figure this is it, she is done with growing, we'll see.

I'm going away for 6 weeks (work) and I am going to miss Molly and my husband horribly. I'll be using my spare time to plan our summer vacations!

It's been awhile...

I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post...I don't know why. Time flies, seems so many things are going on at the same time. Or maybe I just got lazy or forgot about it. Anyway, to catch up...

August 2006
Molly is enjoying corn season, running in the new park at the end of our street. Just having a great summer!!

September 2006
Molly completed "Basic Obedience" this month. At the end of September, she got spayed. She did very well and even returned to her obedience training within 10 days. It's amazing how these little beasts bounce back easily, she is so healthy. I think her breeding as well as what she eats contributes to her good health. She eats "Wellness Super 5-mix", she loves it! Molly was 6-months old on September 21st 2006.

October 2006
Molly completed "Obedience and Performance" training. Enjoying the fall season, more playing in the park . She follows us around everywhere, loves going for walks and playing with her toys. Everyday she is on squirrel watch, from the living room she has a the greatest view. But she now knows how to follow them by going to the different windows around the house.
Molly's first Halloween, Madison, Luke and Vivian came by in their cute costumes, Molly loves it! She is now a little over 40 pounds!

November 2006
Walking on our dirt road, makes a mess with our puppy. Can't wait for Molly to see and taste her first snow.

December 2006
December 4th, Molly's first snow. Of course she loves it. Andre took some great pictures. On Dec 13th, Molly had a little accident...while I was walking her, she cut the top of her foot on some glass garbage that was on the street. At first I though it was ice! It took a little while for me to notice she was bleeding. Molly didn't make a sound when it happened, what a tough little dog. We took her to the vet that evening and she had a few stitches put in. My poor bubby.
Molly's first Christmas. She had fun opening her presents, but I think she enjoyed more the ripping part, than the actual gift!

January 2007
Now we have more snow, it's fun to walk her and she doesn't get too messy.

Molly is a great assistant chef. When we cook, she always go to lay down on her little bed and waits for offerings. Mainly, I'll give her any vegetable I'm cutting. She loves green beans, zucchini, romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, cabbage, clementines, apples, banana.

February 2007

Okay, I've had it with winter. We have had so much snow, my husband has shovelitis! Molly loves it, but enough is enough as far as I am concerned.

Check out the pictures...

Molly on the beach

Molly is a little over 4 months now. She weighs close to 30 pounds. She has lost all of her front top and bottom baby teeth and her new teeth are beautiful. My husband thinks I am crazy, but it's one of those things, I am fascinated by that wonderful scissor bite. I try to brush her teeth everyday, but she ends up licking all the doggy toothpaste off.
Housebreaking is basically done since 2 weeks now, no more accidents in the house.
We have a sand pit close by and we took her swimming last week for the first time. She immediately loved it and she is an excellent swimmer. Sometimes she likes to paddle above the water. The bigger the splash, the better she figures! Everytime we go, she meets new doggie friends.

Molly goes to school

Molly is a little over 4 months now and she weighs close to 30 pounds. On July 25th she completed kindergarten for puppies at her school, Guides Canins in St-Lazare. Not to brag, but I think she was the top of her class. This puppy class has done wonders for her in many ways. I can remember her first class, she was shy and timid towards the other dogs. The weekend after her first class we took her back to the school, as there was a whole weekend of AAC sanctionned agility trials. She met so many people and dogs that Saturday. The following class, she was playing with the other puppies, completely happy to be around so many friends and dogs. There was some free play time, she was just so energetic and playful!

Pictures

January 21st 2007 - What a life!

August 16th 2006 - What a face II

December 13th 2006 - Stiches

December 4th 2006 - First snow
October 7th 2006 - Running in the park

July 15th 2006 - One of her favorite spots

June 6 2006 - What a face!

Molly at 3 months

Our puppy is still growing stronger. She now weights 20 pounds (she was 14 pounds when we first got her 3 weeks ago!). She received her booster shots, so she can now go to puppy kindergarten. Classes start June 27th 2006, but the first class is just for me and Andre (I guess we have to be trained first, especially me!) Molly enjoys going outside and loves the water. She has a very good appetite and enjoys playing with her toys. Her favorite ones are, her purple tennis ball, a bone, a stuffed bear. I rotate her toys (she has many more) to keep her interested. She is always happy when she is given a toy she hasn't seen in a few days.... her mallard duck or oriole bird, her Kong, her sock, her rope bone...blah blah blah...

Housetraining is continuing, some days are better than others. Now she is able to climb on my bed, but she never strays very far from me, when I'm in the house that is. When we are outside with her, she runs as far away from us as she can, getting into some mischief or another. She loves digging in the yard, eating rocks and pine cones, jumping at the peonies and breaking them off their stems (the little shit) and then starts running around in a frenzy. No more of that, I almost had a heart attack, because I was afraid she would run into the street. We live on a very quiet street, but accidents happen so quickly. So from now on, it's the lead on at all times! We go for walks and that's how she gets her exercise and spends her energy.

I don't seem to remember too much with Murphy as a puppy (except for chasing her around the neighborhood) and I am 11 years older now. Also, Andre pretty much is the one who raised her, so he remembers more. I had forgotten how much energy you need to keep up with a puppy. Overall, I think we are doing a good job of introducing her to new things and situations, socializing with new people, children, other dogs.

She gets special treats of blueberries, tomatoes and lettuce (she only likes the crunch part of the romaine). She also loves granny smith apples, carrots and broccoli (oh! and chicken too)

Walking down the street

June 5th 2006 - Molly get's her first taste of being on a lead. No surprise...she doesn't like it. We are doing this gradually, so we can start enjoying going for walks together. The next day, it's a little better, but she is not very happy with the contraption! June 7th, wow, what an improvement. She enjoys going down our street, but the encounter of a few garbage cans (it's garbage day) make's it a short run. Nevertheless, she is walking without running away like a fool. We found some good tips on the internet and that helped. We just have to watch out, she loves to pick up rocks and we live on a dirt road! Most of her days are spent sleeping, with play and mealtimes between her naps. Housebreaking is on going (I'm running out of paper towel here!!). She spends the night in her crate and has very calm nights. Joy is back in our household, we sing silly songs to her, talk to her in silly voices and she makes us laugh! She is not always an angel, but overall she is great! We love her very much...

Molly is going home

May 27th 2006 - Molly is on her way home, but we to make pit stops, because it's quite a long drive to Montreal. This was taken at a truck stop an hour east of Toronto. She was not afraid of the trucks and all the action going on, enjoying a nice bowl of water.

In memoriam

Our beloved Murphy (1994-2006), was our first golden retriever. I still think of her everyday and love her so much. Losing our dog was, and still is, very painful for me. A while after she was gone, I realized our home just wasn't the same without having a dog around. Along with my husband, we decided we would have another dog...of course, it will be another golden retriever!


Murphy, sadly missed, never forgotten...my muffin