Picking him up from vacation

Today I returned from Denver. He didn't recognize me, he had grown, his bark had changed from that of a puppy to that of a man, and he barked at everything. I called Brian. "He doesn't recognize me, he's grown, his bark is like that of a man (I'm sure I said that differently), and he's barking at everything." Again, Brian knew what to say, "He's probably just tired, of course he's grown since he's a puppy, of course his bark is deeper, and we expected him to lapse a little in some of his training while at the dog hotel. Don't worry, once you get him home he'll remember everything again." Brian was right.

In addition, the dogs had taught him not to jump up anymore. I had had little success with this since he'd blindside me from the back when I was least expecting it. Very hard to correct a surprise attack like that. However, the pack had taught him that he was too old to do this and he had learned his lesson. Success!

However, I soon had new frustrations.

When I fed Tailor lunch then dinner he wasn't hungry either time. He looked at the food then looked at me and just stared at it for a bit. He ate it, but not with the hunger that he used to.

Tailor's #2 early evening was complete soupy diarrhea. Hmmm, when checking Tailor out of the place I had asked for his bag. I was wondering why it took her so long to retrieve it and now I understood: I think they hadn't fed him his food all week so when I asked for the bag, she had to find it and remove the right # of food bags so I wouldn't know he was fed regular food (and probably only 2x per day). Now his body needed to transition back to puppy food, so it was causing diarrhea and his new/original eating schedule was confusing.

I looked at the bill. The $32 bath cost $38. Not a deal breaker, but the breakdown in communication doesn't make for an incredibly happy customer.

When I was pet sitting my mother's last dog I learned that it was difficult to find a good pet sitter. Even though Tailor is a relatively low maintenance dog to watch for a place such as a pet hotel, it looks like we'll have to keep looking.

Dropping him off for vacation

Today our family had separate logistical plans:
Brian's drove from Trinidad, CO to Denver,
I flew from Boston to Denver,
the cats stayed home, and
Tailor went to a dog hotel.

I researched about 30 different dog resorts to find a great one for Tailor. My first two picks were already booked, but my 3rd choice was available. They have doggy daycare so Tailor can spend his entire day with dogs. They had been around for over 20 years. They are outside of the city in a quiet, rural area. They love dogs.

When I dropped Tailor off, I gave the employee directions: "Tailor's toys, treats and food are in this bag. He needs to be fed this food 3x per day and I separated the food into individual serving bags to make it easy." The girl tilted her head, looked at her colleague and said, "Do we feed 3x per day?" Immediately I thought I'd need to pull Tailor out and cancel our trip. Any place not willing to feed a puppy 3x a day is the wrong place to be. Apparently she was new b/c her more well seasoned colleague responded, "Of course we do. Puppies need to be fed 3x daily." Whew, looks like I could still go on my trip. I asked them to bathe Tailor on the last day and they quoted me $32 since he's a short-haired puppy and she noted that it will cost $38 once he's an adult. Excellent.

While driving home I called Brian. "I dropped him off. He's gone and I miss him already. What do you think he's doing (this would become my common question all weekend)?" Brian knew what to say, "He's playing with the other puppies and having a blast. Don't worry, he'll love his vacation, will be so tired from playing, and will be excited to see you when you return."

He's a swimmer!

He did it! We took Tailor to a pond today and stood at the edge. Brian grabbed a stick, got Tailor excited then tossed it into the water a few feet away. Tailor walked in, grabbed it and ran back. After a couple tosses, Brian tossed it deep enough so Tailor had to swim. He hesitated a little but went for it and was soon going crazy.

He did it! He's a swimmer!

Awkward Teenager

Well, he's an awkward teenager now. He's pulling hard on the leash, trying to hump everything, has lanky legs that are growing faster than he can keep up with and is starting to challenge me as if he doesn't know his commands. Figures.

Month 2

Wow, it's been a long 2 months. I couldn't believe I'd only had him 2 months until I revisited this blog and looked for the first blog entry. Tailor is 3x his original size, is close to being potty trained, knows a host of basic commands as well as a few special tricks, graduated puppy kindergarten, has completed a road trip with us, and is about ready to be fixed (don't tell him!)

I just can't believe it's only been 2 months.

Road Trippin'

Tailor is an excellent road tripper! We took a week long trip which included driving 5 hours to/from VT, staying in 3 different hotels and him riding behind our bicycles for hours.

He still chews seatbelts and such in the car so we got a crate for him. He quickly realized we were on a long road trip so he fell asleep after a few minutes on the freeway. We stopped frequently at rest stops, so he'd potty, thank his adoring fans for also stopping at the rest stop to greet him, and we'd move on.

Our first hotel wasn't anything fancy since we were just there for a night. However, it still had a lake, so I was hoping he'd try swimming. No luck.

We rode our bikes from hotel1 to hotel2 and Tailor tried his trailer for only the 2nd time ever. We quickly learned that he was fine as long as one of us cycled behind the trailer so he could see one of us. Otherwise he'd howl...and it was true, ear piercing howls. The only time one of us didn't have to ride in back was when Tailor would fall asleep.

Hotel2 really made me think of New England. We had a cabin right on the lake and were surrounded by acres of grass. The grass included an excellent golf course, fine dining, tennis courts, children's daycamp, and more, but still had plenty of doggy running space. Again I was hoping Tailor would try swimming but he didn't want to. On one day, per the recommendation of some other dog owners, we chose the tough love approach. We walked him out on a dock and threw him in the water. He was only a few feet from shore so it was easy to swim back, but he wasn't crazy about it. For the rest of the day if we walked near the water he'd back up and not get near it.

That's it. We've officially traumatized our dog.

Tailor really took to the trailer and people thought it was adorable. Brian had a different opinion. Often he was the one right behind the trailer comforting Tailor. While we were sweating and torturing ourselves up hills, Tailor would look at Brian, lay down, give a slight yawn and go to sleep.

He was quiet in the hotel rooms. I'd typically give him a chewy treat to work on while we slipped out of the room and by the time he realized we were gone, he was ready to sleep. Hotel3 actually provided a plate of treats every morning for Tailor, so I think he liked hotel3 the most.

Our cheaper trailer taught us that you really do get what you pay for. Our trailer weighed twice as much as a high-end one and didn't roll as smoothly, which effected us on the hills. The spokes weren't even so we suffered through tire bulges, slight tire wobblyness and a fun-filled flat. The zipper wasn't durable so Tailer chewed it before we even started on our road trip to VT. On a positive note, it was easy to clean as evidenced by Tailer throwing up inside of it, and there were ample mesh windows providing good ventilation. Oh and we rode on a really rainy day and the inside of the trailer didn't get wet even though Brian and I were soaked through our water resistant cycling clothes.

07/13/07 Note: I'll add pics when I get on the other computer.