The Birthday Dog

Somebody just turned 1! We think Binsey was born around July 4 (the guy we got her from did not remember when the pups were born). It is crazy that the 4.5 pound roly-poly pup we brought home last August is now a 62 pound nearly-grown dog. We've been keeping a chart of her growth. Hopefully the slowdown will continue because I struggle to lift her!


She is getting a bit too large for the dog bed we bought last year (and had to hide from her for a few months because she was eating it). You can see she is unsure of how she feels about it.



In people news, we have been grilling out a lot. Last week, we tried out our new rotisserie with some pork. The rotisserie has a motor on one end, so you just put it in there with the rotisserie burner on, push the button and let it cook. Yum!

Time for bed

Here's what Binsey does when she wants to go to bed. I should note that she sleeps in her crate with this blanket, however she won't settle down in there until you give her a treat and rub her ears. She'll tote the blanket around wherever you are until she gets tucked in.

From Binsey

From Binsey

Training Continues

We're about half way through Canine Good Citizen training at Hacker's Creek Kennel here in Bloomington. We decided after boarding Binsey there over Christmas that we just had to go there for training beacuse she came back behaving WAY better than when we dropped her off. Jeff is a fantastic trainer and has basically devoted his life to training dogs, particularly labrador retrievers. He sells some of his trained dogs to families, so if you're in the market for a dog and don't have time to deal with all the puppy shenanegans, this is a great option! Since we've been working with him, we've even noticed that Binsey is listening to us more because we've learned how to be better leaders for her.


Sure, we did the PetSmart puppy class, but Binsey is such a strong-willed dog that she needs some extra training (or at least we needed extra training in how to deal with her!). Positive reinforcement only (treat training) is a great way to go if you have a mild-mannered dog, but for a brute like Binsey we needed more variety. Remember that Yuppie Puppy harness I was so excited about? It is not a good solution and I think it just brings out her husky instinct to pull! So we started using a choke chain (I hate that name), but Jeff explained to us how it's actually more humane because it distributes the pressure around their neck rather than just on the front with a regular collar. It's true - she stops pulling and doesn't cough/choke like she did with the regular collar. And now that we can "communicate" with the collar, she's listening to us more even when she doesn't have the chain on.



She's still a work in progress, but she's turning into a real sweetheart who loves to fetch and chew her toys and lie at our feet for belly rubs.

Here she is fetching for Paul (she decided for the past few months that she didn't want to fetch, and then one day she randomly decided she loved it):

A Domestic Experiment

Today we decided that Binsey is finally old enough that we can comfortably move her crate from our bedroom to the living room downstairs. As she's gotten bigger, there is more of her that smells like a dog and as much as we like her, we'd prefer to have our separate sleeping spaces.

We moved her crate down there late this afternoon and put her in there after dinner. So far, she's been pretty quiet there apart from a few grumbles and some whining. Hopefully tonight will be a quiet one!

Puppy Graduation

Today Binsey graduated from her puppy class at PetSmart. She's really come a long way from jumping/nipping constantly while ripping our clothes to shreds, to now when she can sit nicely to meet new people.

Here's the little trooper (she still has to wear the donut for another week or so):


And here's the whole class - there was just one other dog, a lab/terrier mix the same age as Binsey, named Luna. They became good buddies through the class and I'm sure they'll miss each other!

Packing on the Pounds

Guess who's tipping the scales at almost 25 pounds now!


She eats so fast we have to give her her meals in that green/purple thing next to her. It's a food-dispensing toy that she has to push around to get her kibble. It's great because this way she has a "job" to do and it occupies her for up to 45 minutes - much better than the 15 seconds it takes her to inhale a meal from her bowl.

That's Pants!

You might not be familiar with the phrase "that's pants" since it's used only in the UK. It means "That stinks" or "that's awful". Well, it certainly applies to things around our house right now as Binsey is learning not to jump up on us. We took her to her first puppy kindergarten class this Saturday, and the trainer said she acts just like a normal puppy, but when she jumps up she also tries to bite and tug on our clothes, frequently ripping our pants. Not so much fun. In fact, that's pants!

And related to the puppy class, once again we were the only ones in the course. That sounds like a good thing, but really the classes are important for doggy socialization etiquette so you really want to have other "students". So the trainer gave us a private lesson, but signed us up for a different class that starts next week with at least 3 other puppies. We've already started to notice a difference in her behavior since that lesson, so we feel really good about this trainer!

Cutest Dog Competition

Binsey, despite being free to take home, does not come cheap to take care of. So, I entered one of her super cute puppy pictures into a "cutest dog competition" so she can help earn her keep. Please vote for her so we don't have to throw her out on the street*!



*we won't really throw her out on the street, but we do want you to vote for her!

Rain and more Rain

This past week we've had rain every day, but it really has been all for the better for us. Paul is very happy about it because prior to this, he was out watering the new grass seed three times per day. With the constant rain and cloudiness, there's been no need to water the lawn for about a week now.

I would have thought I'd be more productive with the poor weather, but really it just makes me want to have tea and cookies all day and listen to the thunder. Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny with a high of 75, so we'll see how that affects productivity around here...


In Binsey news, she's growing fast! We were worried she wasn't fattening up, but considering all the worms & fleas she came with, and the fact that she's doubled in weight since we got her despite her ever-extending spindly legs, we're not too worried about her thin build. I'm sure she'll fatten up once she slows down growing. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a normal, healthy puppy!

Puppy Nutrition

You probably can't tell from the pictures, but Binsey barely has any whiskers. We had thought that maybe the guy we got her from had cut them off for some bizarre reason, but we were wrong. It seems that she was so malnourished that not only was her coat rough and dull, but (we think) her whiskers became really brittle and broke off leaving stubby split-ends.


But, we've been feeding Binsey some really good puppy food since we got her. It's called Horizon Legacy, and it's supposed to mimic what they'd eat in the wild. It stinks of fish, and Binsey LOVES it. She loves it so much that she eats her entire bowlful within 5 to 10 seconds no matter how much is in there. So, we're trying the muffin tin approach today, where you divide the food into the muffin tin cups to try to slow her down.

Her whiskers are definitely growing back and the new growth looks a lot thicker. Plus, her coat has gotten all shiny and soft. Amazing what a good diet can do!

Binsey the Huskador

You may be wondering what in the world a huskador is. Well, it's not a real word but it does describe our new lab/husky mix puppy. She comes with a crazy story too. We got her for free out of the back of a pickup truck in a parking lot after we saw an ad for free puppies in the newspaper. The guy told us he had wanted to breed his purebred lab with another lab, but he brought her to his cousin's house where she got pregnant by a husky.

From Binsey

We're calling our new puppy Binsey, which is another Oxford reference. She's about 8 weeks right now (the guy wasn't sure when they were born), and she's very different from Rewley in more than just looks! It could be that we're just better at dog training now that we've been through a course, but she's already pretty darn good with "sit" and "stay", which of course I videotaped.


She's getting totally spoiled by our neighbor's two girls who are just head over heels for her and love to stop by to play with her. And of course we just love having someone else to tire her out and get her used to kids.

Puppy ills

Well, it's not just me & Paul who have been ill recently. Rewley just had two stays at the Indianapolis Veterinary Emergency Clinic. It started a week ago when he got violently ill overnight. We took him to our local vet, who had him on an IV all day for dehydration. At the end of the day, she recommended we take him to an emergency clinic since he was still in bad shape. He wound up spending 3 days there, then getting sent home, then getting called back up due to some new x-ray findings, then discharged again the next day.

So now Rewley gets to take antibiotics for a month and eat a special diet of venison & potato canned dog food for the next 2 months. He LOVES the stuff, which is so awesome because he was refusing his food before we took him in. We're hoping to make friends with some avid hunters in the area so we can get our hands on some good deer meat.

It's been a real emotional rollercoaster, and we're hoping that this will finally keep our puppy well.

Teething Begins

Given that Rewley is a puppy, he's wanted to chew on EVERYTHING from the beginning, and we've been working very hard to make sure he knows what he can and cannot chew on. We thought there would be a clear signal when the teething process began, like incessant chewing on furniture, but today while playing with him, I noticed he had 3 missing teeth already!

In some ways, I'm hoping he has a time with very few teeth, because I'm always having to pull things out of his mouth like bark, leaves, cigarette butts, and whatever other garbage people have left on the ground. I've even pulled out used chewing tobacco pouches from his mouth! (I had no idea what they were, and when Paul told me, I was none to happy to have something in my hand that had been in both a person's and a dog's mouth. Gross!) The worst had to be the toad he tried to eat, but he spit that out on his own.

It's so cute to look back at our first pictures of him, but I am definitely looking forward to having a grown dog who chills out a little more and doesn't feel the need to chew on everything he sees!

Rewley's Graduation

Tonight was Rewley's graduation from puppy kindergarten. Here we all are, diploma in hand.

From Rewley

Here's what he had to do. Walking on a loose leash (in the store - so distracting!).

From Rewley

Sit & Stay (here with the trainer's dog)

From Rewley

Down stay:

From Rewley

And a few other commands, like "watch me" and "leave it".

For his special trick, we had him learn "take a bow". We say "take a bow" every time he stretches after sleeping, so he'll eventually associate it with the command. So far it's working most of the time.

We're so glad we did the training, and I'm impressed with the quality of the training we got at Petco. There was another puppy in the class for a couple weeks, an Italian Greyhound named Lady, but she dropped out. What that means is that we pretty much got private lessons for most of it. Not bad!

Cheap Entertainment

With an empty milk jug and a puppy, we've got lots and lots of entertainment around here. It just cracks me up to watch him chase it, roll around with it and pounce it. I guess we're recycling this way!

Walking the dog (or not)

One of the things we've been really looking forward to is going on walks with our dog. Especially now, while Paul and I have a lot of time on our hands, walking is one of those free things we can do together that's also fun. But, with Rewley in the picture, we've had so much trouble with his fear of trucks/SUVs/buses that walks have been pathetically short. Coaxing him with treats (as our vet and our trainer recommended) hasn't worked at all.

But, today we had a bit of a breakthrough. We coaxed/carried/played chase to get Rewley across the apartment complex to the sidewalk (which is still about 20 feet away from the street), and once up there he ran into one of his dog friends, a 7 month old lab/golden mix. Seeing the example of another calm dog seemed to have an effect on him, and this evening it was much easier to get him to walk. We got all the way to a big grassy area where he could relax while still hearing the traffic. On the way back, he didn't whimper or freak out at all! Fingers crossed that we'll all be able to go on longer walks more often!

The puppy is growing!

Rewley's now about 24 pounds, which means he's gained 9 pounds since we got him. To give you an idea of how that means his size has changed, take a look at these pictures from 8 weeks and 12 weeks of age.



Yes, that's what 9 pounds on a golden retriever puppy looks like! I'm so glad I'm taking lots of pictures because he's growing up so quickly!

We went to another park in Bloomington, Olcott Park. Here's a video of him trying to catch some falling water after his walk.

Liver Brownies & Obedience Training

We're trying really hard to get Rewley to go on walks with us. He was great at first, but now since he's developed a fear of trucks and other large vehicles, we have to lure him along with a treat, and the crunchy puppy treats aren't exciting enough to distract him from his fears. So, we found a recipe for "Liver Brownies", which contain liver, corn meal, wheat germ, eggs and a little garlic. They do look like brownies, but thankfully once cooked they smell like popcorn (from the corn meal) and not stinky meat. We tested them out tonight with some obedience commands.

Griffy Lake & Puppy Kindergarten

Today we checked out the Griffy Lake Nature Preserve, which is about a 5 minute drive away from us. They've got a series of hiking trails around the lake, and you can rent boats or kayaks for $6 per hour. We took Rewley on a woodsy walk there, and he loved it! He didn't pull on his leash too much either, which made the walk a lot more pleasant! We'll definitely be doing more trail walking with the pup in the future.

Tonight we went to puppy kindergarten at Petco. The trainer has 30 years of experience with dog training and has shown dogs competitively. And strangely enough, Rewley was the only student! So we basically will be having private lessons for all 6 weeks. What's even better is that she brought her 12-year old former agility dog along to help with the training. The part we're reluctantly accepting is that it's treat training, but Rewley responded really well to all of it, and so quickly that we're encouraged by it. He's still not quite sure how to take a treat from our hands, sometimes missing it altogether, but he'll pick that part up quickly.

Our trainer confirmed what we'd seen in Rewley - he's very sound sensitive. Trucks and busses seem to startle him the most. We'll have to give him some more "noisy" toys to get him used to loud sounds. Paul recently gave him a guitar concert, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

From Rewley

We're getting more and more excited about our life with the pup!

Mad Skillz

So far, it seems like Rewley has learned a few simple commands/actions. The best is that he sits by the doggy gate in the kitchen when he needs to be let out. Whew! And he is becoming a real champ at "go potty", so that's fantastic. He's also got the "sit" command down fairly reliably, as long as he's not distracted by a bug, bird, piece of grass, mulch, cigarette butt, etc. It's the same with walking with us on the leash when we say "let's go", "heel", and "stop". When we've got his attention, he's great. He likes to prance when he's doing something we're happy about, or when he grabs something like a branch and trots off with it. Cute stuff.

The hardest part so far is getting him to calm down at night. Last night before bed he wanted to be let out what seemed like 10 times. We think it's because it's been so hot and humid during the day that he's not thrilled about being outside until it cools off at night. And then the party starts. It gets frustrating because he's so easily distracted and it seems like our neighbors all like to go for night drives between 9PM and 2AM, meaning doors opening and closing, engines starting, brakelights flashing, etc... all things that Rewley loves to watch and wait for.

But, once he comes in and gets in his crate, he goes right to sleep without a peep. We have to keep reminding ourselves that although he's making a lot of progress with basic training, he's still a puppy with a super short attention span.

Today's Anne's last day with us. She seems to have really enjoyed playing with Rewley, which is awesome because we can't go out too much with all the puppy care!

Here's Anne discovering that Rewley really thinks he's a lap dog. We think he's grown already; we had to loosen his collar yesterday!

From Rewley

Anne did a great photo shoot for us with the pup. We dressed him up for the occasion.

This one's our "Hello from the Simaceks in Bloomington" one.

From Rewley

Rewley says "I'm tired and hot, can I go inside and sleep now?"

From Rewley

Exploring with his bandanna on

From Rewley

Trying to cool off with his tongue out

From Rewley