Bad Timing and Good Times

This week has been a tough one on Parker. My first week back at school coincides with Monkey's professional conference in San Diego. This meant two things. First, I had to scoot home for lunch each day to feed and walk the canines (one hour minimum time commitment). Second, Parker had to spend way more time than he's been used to the past two months in the crate. Not to mention that this week's heat and humidity have made walking the dogs even around the block a sweaty uncomfortable chore and spending time in our bedroom upstairs (where Parker's crate is) a warm (but breezy thanks to the floor fan) proposition.

Needless to say, the little bit of time we have spent outdoors has been greatly appreciated by the little guy. Yesterday, in a sort of celebratory TGIF moment, he spent at least twenty minutes just tearing around the backyard as fast as he could, looping around, and jumping low walls and flower pots. I think he really needed to blow of some steam. Good dog!

Today, it is not so terrible. There is a nice little breeze at the moment, but, when the breeze is gone, the stickiness fills up the space right quick. However, I am trying to give Parker as much time as possible out of the house, since plans this evening will call for more crate time. I feel bad doing it, but he doesn't complain much.

By the way, his trip to the vet last week to remove his stitches went swimmingly. He is now over fifty pounds, and he is consuming five cups of food a day! (Not all at once, of course.)

A Quick Recovery

The above picture gives you an idea of what Parker may have felt like on Monday afternoon when I picked him up from the vet. Still a little drug-addled, bordering on sore. He slept most of the day and was pretty lethargic, in general. There was no wrestling with Ripken, no hi-jinx, not much of anything but snoozing and looking sleepy-eyed.

Tuesday, it was back to normal. I had to physically convince Parker not to jump on Ripken at least twice. He tore around the back yard at full speed for a few laps, he tugged his usual tug on the leash. We did our best to keep him from rupturing his sutures. We were successful.

By Friday, the puppy and we were behaving as if he were as good as new. He gets his stitches out on Tuesday, and he has resumed normal activity as of yesterday. His stitches look good. There is no swelling or weird coloration. He is recovering just fine. On Tuesday, he'll be one hundred percent, no doubt.

After only a few days, Monkey and I both see a slight change in Parker. This might be due to some new equipment (a control collar--just like his big bro's), or a slowly progressing maturation process (he is creeping up on six months), but we are finding Parker to be a bit more tame on walks and a bit more compliant as well. He still tries our patience several times a day, and I secretly (well, not so secretly) suspect that he is not quite as sharp as Ripken. But, I think we are going to have us a fine dog--a big (he is now fifty pounds!), fine dog.

In about five years.

Disappointing Our Friends

This morning, we dropped Parker off to get neutered. This is a no-brainer decision for Monkey and I; however, a couple of our friends don't know why we'd do such a thing. They would like to breed Parker with their dog, when he is old enough. But, well, no.

I don't know why I am so against the idea. It's not like I can say that bringing another litter of dogs into a world full of already unwanted dogs is wrong, since we got both of our dogs from breeders, leaving a host of pound and rescue dogs to the rest of the world to take care of. I think it's mostly just that, that's what we did with Ripken. He turned out wonderfully. I want the same thing to be the case with Parker.

Of course, more and more, Parker is proving himself to be very un-Ripken. That in itself is also great. The dog has to have his own personality. But, there are a number of things about our old dog that I would like our new dog to pick up on. Given time, perhaps he will.

But for the rest of the Lab loving world, there will never be any tiny Parker's out there for them to take care of, for better or worse.

Just Like We Expected

We returned from our trip to Colorado in the late afternoon, yesterday. After unpacking the car, we ran over to Aunt Eva's to pick up the pups. When we arrived, we found that Aunt Eva had several other dogs under her care. More than we had imagined. Her house was mayhem, and Monkey and I were surprised. There were, it seemed to us, more dogs than she could adequately care for at one time. Even she admitted that she had too many. It didn't make me happy, nor did it fill me with confidence that Parker and Ripken had been supervised adequately.

When we returned home, Parker's week of puppy excitement, coupled with his excitement at returning home from his first experience at Puppy Camp, and added to Monkey's and my exhaustion after a long travel day, conspired to allow Parker to have two accidents in the space of three hours. Bad accidents. It was like the day we brought him home from the farm all over again.

Which was disappointing, but just what we expected.

So, this morning brings us back to square one, putting Parker on his schedule again, reminding him what sit and leave it mean, and, perhaps, finally breaking down and buying a bell for the door, because I don't think this dog will ever get the handle of alerting someone with his voice that he needs to go outside.