Who else watches the Dog Whisperer?

Make sure your sound is on:-)

Poly

Poly and her brother were found by a friend of my sister's about 4 years ago (she's 4 right?)- well I might be off on the years, but I know it's been more than 2. They were found living behind a Cracker Barrel dumpster. I think it took two attempts before they were able to catch them because they were both so frightened. The friend rehabbed both pups and spread the word of needing to find a home for the brown one, as they decided to keep the black pup. My sis thought of my parents when she heard the news.

They named her Poly and my mom thought she finally had her a lap dog. But as previous pics showed, Poly liked to sit at my dad's feet on his reclining chair. She also grew a bit more than expected and wasn't quite a lap dog after all. My mom taught her all sorts of tricks though, you name it and she can probably do it! She's a very smart dog.

So any guess before I reveal her identity?

She came out as Level 2 with both Bulldog and Beagle and level 3 or 4 (I forget which) Husky.

Not sure about those results. Beagle I can kind of see, but the others not at all. I'm surprised she didn't come out part cat or fox because she looks like a fox and little tiny cat feet:-)

Stay tuned for Bailey's story and future DNA results!

Matt must really...

love me or he was just really sick of me using his laptop all the time:-) He got me a one for Christmas :-o It's a Dell Inspiron with Windows Vista and the keyboard is so nice I swear I've typed less typos! The best part is I can download photos right off the smart card and don't have to use a stupid camera adapter- I lost the cord anyways! Thank you Matt- I love it!-when you read this....I also got an 8'inch digital frame at which my family joked that I will only put pics of me on it:-) Ha, they're half right, it will be me and the animals....

after I opened the laptop my family was like "well, damn, everything else under the tree is crap", lol. It wasn't though, we all had a fantastic Christmas. We spent Christmas eve over at my parents' house with the dogs and I'm happy to report that Peanut did very well. Last time we stayed she cried all night and wouldn't settle, much like the first few days we had her. She slept in the middle of all the festivities just like any other good greyhound would.

Limo got me back shortly after this pic was taken...I left the hat on the table while we went to Matt's parents' house and she ate it. Luckly the Santa hat was safely put away so it's still intact.

My Mom made Peanut a beautiful new doggie coat, it's fleece and snuggly!

The little brown dog is Poly, my parents' mixed breed...I got them the DNA test for Christmas (results are in), anyone want to take a gander at what she is? They listed 3 breeds and you'll never believe what they are. I'll save the results for another post!

This is my mom and her dog, Bailey, I got the DNA kit for her too as she's mixed also, but she's a fraidy cat and we decided that my mom doing the swab in her mouth would be the least detrimental to her progress trusting and liking humans:-) I'll have to post her story when her her DNA results arrive...it's a cool one I think.

Here is Poly in her favorite spot with my dad.

These were the only couple of "human" pics I took, lol, of course they had to contain their dogs in them. My mom had her camera too so she got some human shots;-) I don't say it enough, but I have the best family ever, including Matt of course even though we aren't married yet :-)

...Limo is spreading Christmas Joy to my BIL, Stephen.

I hope you all had as Wonderful a Christmas as I did!

I'm off to clean stalls now in 60 degree weather, OK, I know, that was mean!

A Grey in a manger...

Well, in a stall I mean. Both girls took shelter from the wind Sunday morning while we cleaned stalls. It's gotten cold again, the high today is only 36! That is COLD for us. I bought the girls hats for Christmas just haven't put them on and taken pics yet, guess I better do it! The wind kept blowing Lester's off yesterday so I was lucky to get a good shot of him in it.

They stayed warm other ways too... Peanut may be a lab in a greyhound's body, but Limo is a midget mutant of one....

O' the weather outside is frightful...

The horse is more festive than the house as you can see. We've been bad this year, we don't even have a Christmas tree:-x But we spend the Holidays at the parents' houses so I don't really see a need for a tree. Last week it was in the high 60's and even hit 70 degrees:-o But today it went down into the 40's and is steadily going down into the teens. I hope it's not too much of a shock to the ponies. We turned their night feed into warm mashes and added some electrolytes. And of course blanketed them. After dinner I gave Lester a bucket of warm water which he quickly drank so he should be well hydrated. He's always loved warm water on cold nights. When Lester lived in my parent's backyard he always made me a little mad when I would carry 2 steaming buckets of hot water out to him to leave with him for the night and he would drink them so far down I had to go back to the house and get more and it was no easy task. I had to But of course I was happy to see him drink.
I hopped on him again yesterday and we walked around the dog pasture with Laura and Polo. My legs are sore again and it feels good.
I know you Canucks are laughing at my title saying I have no idea what "frightful" weather is:-) but I am jealous of your white Christmas!

Is there something on my leg?

Christmas came early this year...

Lester is one of those horses that devours his hay, doesn't stop till it's all gone. But I guess I'm alot like him though, I can't sit at a table full of food and not eat it. So in an effort to try and slow Lester's eating down Laura bought him a hay bag for the feeder. It's def' more "our" present than his;-) Thanks Laura!
Per Dr. Jason's suggestion we like to mix the bermuda hay with timothy when we can because it's courser and less likey to compact like the bermuda can. Having a choice of the bermuda and the timothy we usually found the timothy scattered around the stall the next day so this way it's all mixed and each bit should have a little of both.

The other night Andy, one of the barn owners' horses coliced (he's perfectly fine now) and so the vet and all of us were standing in front of Andy's stall talking which is next door to Lester's. I had just given out the night time hay of both bermuda and timothy and (this was before we had the hay bag)I had to laugh at Lester because each time he popped his head out to check on things he had a mouth full of the timothy, almost like he was trying to impress Dr. Jason that he was being a good boy and eating the courser hay. Once we left the stall area Lester resumed to eating the bermuda again, lol.

Peanut says "please don't eat me"

So, I did it

I didn't get any "riding" ( I use that term loosely) pics, but yes I did hop on him Saturday. It was the first time I'd been on him since late July. Friday I put the saddle on him again and hand walked and trotted him and he seemed comfortable enough. He even seemed a bit proud. So Saturday I didn't have to do any barn chores so I thought it was the perfect day for it. I did clean Lester's stall though because I had time and he's so messy:-) Course about that time I realized I wrenched my neck again- I think it was from Friday night when I was walking back to the car in the dark, up the long driveway I got on all fours and did my own walk, trot and cantering- BAD idea, LOL. I'm just too old for that anymore:-( But I was determined to get on Less anyways. I hobbled up that long driveway to get him, he was on the far end of the pasture and after 3-4 yells of "LESS"!!! He popped his head up and mosied to me, finally picked up a jog the last few yards. I was disappointed to see him trip on his way to me, but that's just him. We got half way back down the driveway and he stopped and was like "wait, it's too earlier to come in, are you sure?" Then he spotted Fella and Basanje (sp) up at the barn and felt better. Less was pretty dirty so I brushed him off some and of course gave him tons of carrots. He's the tackroom troll as we call him, I ground tie him and he expects a carrot before and after you enter the tackroom. Again he had no problem with the saddle and being girthed- I have always taken it very slow and a few holes at a time, walk, couple a more holes, walk, but even so there are times that he panics about the girth.

It was in the 50's and chilly so I warmed his bit by holding it under hot water, it needed to be cleaned anyways. I've never had a problem with bridling Less, as soon as I held the bridle in the right place he opened his mouth and took the bit, one of the many things I love about him.

We walked and trotted in hand a few strides and then it was time to mount up. I walked him over to the mounting block and he stood stock still like he always does. I stayed off his back in two point for the first 5 mins and I didn't feel him "sink" at all from having a weak back so I was very pleased by that. He was a good boy. We just walked of course for about 10 mins on a long rein. He still doesn't want to turn right though and that's fine, he doesn't have to. He will go right and can circle right just fine- I mean he doesn't stumble or go completely off, he just grabs the bit from me and fights going right first before he will turn. It's kinda weird actually.

He almost got to "goose" Limo on the way back to being turned out:-)

Take the rough housing outside girls...

Finally playtime not in my living room! Spooky and Limo used to play like this too and I can't believe that I never got any video of them playing outside. I'll have to find video of them later, but I did find a video of the barn owners' puppy terrorizing Limo last October.

PeaNutSo

The other day I was in the barn and I turned around to see Peanut in a perfect sit and I bent down to kiss her on the top of her head and I pulled away at the last second. Weird huh? I guess I'm still not ready to "let her in"... I have no framed photos of her and non of her pics hang at work. I still only have Spooky's pictures on my bulletin board. Limo only recently was added.
But I'll admit, I do like her alot. She's become a pretty good dog and she has lot's of personality. She always has such a "happy with life" look on her face. When you pet her and scratch her neck she closes her eyes in complete and utter contentment. She is a great companion for Limo. There are times we have to step in and referee their playtime cuz they're pulling on ears and throats, but for the most part I don't worry.

She's turned into a pretty good farm dog too. To my amazement she does not chase the horses and has never tried- squirrels, deer and the heron and geese are a different story though. They are all fair game.

She cleans the buckets after the horse's have been fed, usually she knows better than to eat/ lick out of a full bucket of feed, but sometimes I have to remind her.

She's got a decent "recall" on her now, she's surprised me a couple of times when I've yelled her name and she's actually listened (I know you are just cringing Jen). Since the barn owners have 10+ greyhounds it can get a bit noisy and exciting and Peanut dashes over to check it out- as long as I catch her before she starts fence running with someone she stops in her tracks and comes flying back to me...

She also keeps tabs on me and if I go missing she runs around till she finds me.

Now that it's Winter time I've started going home at lunch around 3:30pm, pick up the girls and bring them back to work with me and let them wait in the car on the days that I go to the farm. Much to my relief Nut seems OK with this and hasn't eaten my car. Limo has done this before and knows the drill, so I wasn't worried about her.

She's weird though. I'd swear she had a herding breed in her if she wasn't a registered greyhound. When she gets excited she likes to bite at your feet. I still think she is a lab in a greyhound's body though because she LOVES the water and will lay down anywhere- cement driveway, hardwood floor, we laugh at her because her favorite place to lay down is the hard tile in front of the fireplace. When we're on the road I constantly hear "thuds" coming from the back of the car and the occasional squeal- she's spotted "something" and is trying to get at it, hitting her head on the window. Just yesterday after I got in the car after work and started to drive off, Peanut leaped from the back of my car and landed on my arm in the front seat- hitting the dashboard and all the junk I had piled in the seat and console. What was she after you ask? It appeared she was going for a dead cable spool that was laying on it's side:-x Gotta love, er "Like" her.

Credit must be given to my sis, Jen for the fabulous above photo

No Sugar for you!

I swear I feel like the soup natzi from that Seinfield Episode when it comes to Lester and his sugar:-(... Alot of you have asked about results I've seen taking Lester off sugar and sugar processed treats...

Lester begging for a peppermint:

Lester begging for a carrot:

any questions?

Seriously, I haven't seen any noticeable improvements- trust me I would have blogged about them by now! ;-) Per the suggestion of the Equine massage therapist/ chiro I took Less off all (except for the occasional Holiday treat) sugar treats and put him on Supple Horse, an herbal supplement. She also suggested MSM which I have yet to get, I know- I'm terrible and lazy. I just don't think it's gonna make a difference for him. I'm seriously thinking of giving him sugar again, he loves it so much. I haven't made up my mind yet though.

*Quick recap on Lester- I've had him for 12+ years, he's been "not quite right" since I've had him- hitchy in the hind end in the early years and becoming short strided on his right front and tripping/ losing his hindend for the last 5 years. After injections in his stifle twice, right knee and right fetlock (at different times) to no real improvement it's thought that Lester has an old spinal cord injury that cause some neurological problems for him. He's not hugely uncoordinated that makes him dangerous, it just became clear that he was no longer comfortable in his work.