Puppy graduation

Last night, Eden and Rai graduated from PetSmart Puppy Obedience class! 8 weeks of driving up to Tucson with two puppies, practicing sitting, down, stay, leave it, and take it. Well, the last class was full of fun and games. The first game was a scavenger type hunt, where each puppy had to go to 4 places (in different orders for each puppy), and do one "trick". Rai came in first place, due to an excellent sit-stay and some crazy fast puppy pushups (sit, down, sit, etc.). Tessa (our puppy classmate) came in second. Alas, Eden came in last, because of her inability to not try to attack the woman in the cat food aisle, completely failing to sit-stay. But the next game was a puppy push-up contest (the most in 30 seconds), where she came in first place, 1/2 of a push-up MORE than Rai...so close! Then we played musical chairs, where when the music stopped, we had to get the puppies to do a certain "trick". Eden got first place again (I loaded her up on the treats!...redemption was important.) Tessa got second place, and Rai got last place...but still performed an excellent "sit". Then we got to have our puppies' pictures taken with the graduatioin cap on...uh-oh...

Eden went first, and after a little bit of coaxing, sit with the hat on...her first hat picture...probably her last.

This is Eden's diploma. Kind of reminds me of graduation for a kindergartener...

Here's Rai's picture. Notice that the hat is not REALLY on his head, probably because he did not want to behave. He went nuts when the hat actually sat on his head. We almost gave up...

Rai's diploma. They spelled his name wrong because on his initial paperwork, a counter person filled it out, and she did not know how to spell Raisin. Chris was offended, so I fixed it.

Anyways, our puppies are officially trained (it may be official, but that doesn't mean it's true.) 

Happy Birthday to Christopher!!!

Yesterday was Christopher's birthday. He turned 32 years old. For dinner, I made prime rib (Thanks, Mom and Dad for the GREAT cooking tips!), oven-friend parmesan crusted zucchini, peanut butter cupcakes, and pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting. We had friends over and ate a lot! I tried to put 32 candles on the cupcake (but really only got 31 on), and then tried to light them all. I got about half of them lit, before they all began to melt and then the cupcake started on fire, so we just had Chris blow them out with only half lit. Here's the aftermath...

Notice the little candle nubs in the cupcake? They melted all the way down to the cupcake, and then the cupcake started on fire...

Chris did NOT eat this cupcake. He did eat another one...and some cookies... 

Now, Doggie Peanut butter Nose

So, in an effort to keep Rai happy in his crate, I began to use a lot of peanut butter. I grab a spoon, take a big scoop of PB, and run it along the bars of Rai's crate. He and Eden go to town on it! Ahh, blessed quiet.

Rai and Eden not only lick the bars, but they also serve to clean each other's faces off for the extra peanut butter.

Ms. Eden Peanut butter Nose, still licking away (you can see her tongue licking away at the bottom of the picture.

Mr. Rai Peanut butter Nose, getting the most of the treat.

Notice, the PB on Rai's nose is in a different spot from the previous picture (he had a lot that Eden licked off), and Eden still has hers on her nose. Good (quiet) puppies! 

Chasing the food toy

When we stayed with George and Lindsey, they had this great orange ball for Toby. You put a couple treats in it through a hole, and he would roll it around until the treats fell out of it. He was super cute. So, when we got Eden, we got a ball like that, but the hole was too big, so all the treats fell out at once.

I gave Rai and Eden the orange ball filled with some Iams dog food. They rolled it around until the treats fell out and then gulped it down.

They loved the ball, and figured it out pretty quickly.

In other news, I took Rai to the vet yesterday for the puking and limping. (On Sunday, Rai picked up this limp in his right back leg. Only sometimes.) Anyways, we got some doggie pepcid for the tummy, and we found out that Rai has a sprained tendon in his right knee. He got a shot for the pain, and is required to stay in his crate until Sunday. Therefore, we have a very unhappy dog on our hands. He whines, cries, barks, and whines some more. We put his travel crate in the living room so that he can watch TV with us. This creates an Eden problem, who barks up a storm if left out. So I moved her travel crate in the living room, too, and we'll see how that goes. I wish time moved faster and it were Saturday. Argh. 

Rai, Mr. Rice nose

So, on Saturday, we fed Rai rice and hamburger to help his stomach. Well, he shoves his face in his bowl to gum at the food (due to his missing teeth), and sometimes, has some hanging out for later. Eden does it, too. Food will just hang from their lips, nose, cheeks. I think I saw some on Rai's ear once. Cute, but makes for dirty noses.

Here's Rai with a big glob of rice on his nose. Later, Eden walked up and licked it off. She's so helpful.
Here's Rai Rice-nose again, oblivious to his leftovers on his nose. 

Rai's (not) teeth

So, on the same day that we noticed Eden lost a tooth, we also noticed Rai lost multiple tooths (aka teeth). He seems to be losing them faster, probably because he's more aggressive in his hanging on and pulling. I figure he lost half his teeth pulling on his own leg, thinking it was Eden's.

Here's Rai's mouth and Chris's hands. Rai's picture is less blurry because he's much weaker (in a relative sense) than Eden, so Chris can hold him still more easily. The teeth he lost are the bottom two in the center. Later that day, we also noticed that he lost one of his center top teeth. He's probably lost more by now, but I haven't pried open his mouth to look.

Here's another picture of Rai's mouth. Maybe he also lost a tooth by his long one. I can't tell. But you can see here also that he is missing some in the middle. He's on his way to adulthood. Hurry up! 

"Eden lost a tooth" and "Chris and Rai (and Eden's Paws)"

I was sitting in front of the computer, catching up on all the latest Hollywood gossip (did you know that India.Arie outsold Dashboard Confessional in a totally hyped, but unrealized race for the top?), when Chris yelled that Eden had lost a tooth! Now, for those of you who don't know or never had a reason to care before this, puppies lose their teeth starting around 4 months old. Since puppies are not careful like human children are (probably because the tooth fairy can bring kids BANK), puppy teeth are hard to find when they fall out. I know one friend who said she not only found all her puppies teeth, but kept them. Absolutely amazing. Alas, we were unable to find Eden's tooth, though there is a good possibility it is in Rai's back somewhere. Anyways, the tooth is gone, it looks like a new one is already poking in, and there was only a little bit of blood. (I remember once that I had a loose tooth and I wanted it to come out, so I twisted it and twisted it until it came out...obviously all that twisting indicated that it was not quite ready to be removed from my gums, but I didn't care. Unfortunately, my timing could have been better...I was in church, and it was someone's first communion...I can't remember who's, but there was a lot of blood...oops...)

Here's Chris holding Eden's mouth open. Sorry that the picture is a bit blurry, but did you know that dogs don't like being held still, and especially don't like people pulling their lips away from their teeth? So, see the big pointy tooth? See the tiny little tooth to the right of it? There used to be a bigger tooth there just like the one to the right of the baby tooth. Also, do you notice all the extra lip skin that Eden has in her mouth? I think she grew it specifically so that she could drink water, hold some in the lip skin flaps, and then come over and put her face all over my pants so that it looks like I had an accident.

In other news, here's a great shot of Chris with Raisin (and Eden's paws in the background). If you look at our ugly orange patio couch, you will notice the strips of white. They used to be orange, covered in strips of something (bamboo? Rattan? leather? We don't know, and don't really care, since they're not there anymore). Anyways, they have all been removed because the puppies realized that they could gnaw them off with their little puppy teeth, and then eat them. And then poop them out. It was weird to see puppy poop with little orange flecks of paint perfectly preserved in them. (For those of you who think it's gross to look at dog poop, let me tell you that it is the best way to figure out what the dogs have been into, and get some good laughs over it. The other day, Rai pooped out a red button. We have no clue where he got it from, but someone's missing one somewhere, and they probably don't want it back).

Rai hasn't been feeling well since last night. He started throwing up again...but this time, we figured out the culprit pretty quickly. Grass. Bright green, cost us $400 to lay, finally growing grass. He threw up some grass. Then he was fine, so we thought he got it all out. So we fed him dinner (I know...how dumb can we get?). And then we fed him some treats and ran him around for a bit practicing our emergency recall. (Obviously, we CAN get dumber). And then he threw up everything he just ate...and more grass. So we gave him some Powerade to keep him from getting dehydrated. And he threw that up with even MORE grass. So we didn't give him anything else. And then this morning, Chris gave him a bit of food. And he ran outside and threw that up (no grass there, but I figure all that puking yesterday irritated his stomach.). So Chris fed him some rice, which Rai doesn't like, but Non-Puking Eden does. So when I got up, I mixed some chicken broth with the rice, which Rai liked more than just plain rice. And then I boiled some hamburger meat and mixed that with the rice and Rai LOVED it. (I got that menu from a dog health book). Anyways, he kept that down, and doesn't seem so hungry anymore. Hopefully, he's on the mend.


Chris and Rai (and Eden's Paws), looking dapper on an early Saturday morning.