Second class

Practicing homework with Hershey demonstrating.



Today was Guinness’s second Grade 1 class. We joined a Saturday class as a makeup session since we missed Tuesday night. He did fairly well on the class activities. Between exercises, he sat at Grant’s side, though he needed a lot of coaxing to stay there. The strange thing is that Grant had different teachers today than on our normal Tuesday class, yet they all knew Grant’s name without being told! During the final 15 min., we moved to a small classroom for a lecture where he was incorrigible! Grant didn’t hear a thing that was said as he was too busy controlling Guinness. I missed most of the information. We came home *exhausted* -- including me who just sat and watched! LOL

Brotherly love

Since staying in the villa together, Hershey has been found lying close to Guinness while in his crate. Just before I shot this photo, Hershey was snoozing and Guinness was licking his back through the bars.

Guinness, the flower dog

This evening, I received a beautiful bouquet from my dear daughter and son-in-law. It almost turned to torn petals and ripped stems. When I brought Guinness in from his final potty break, he spotted my flowers and ran straight to them on the coffee table. Before I could nab him, I envisioned that he would spill the whole thing, perhaps break the vase as well as the glass top table, and try to rip the flowers off their stems as a snack. My typical reaction to potential disasters is to scream, which I did. I managed to catch the vase midair as some water was spilling, drenching the books and magazines on the table. I wonder if he will always be attracted to posies?

Brothers sharing a villa

We returned from NC last night and drove to the pet hotel as early as we could this morning to pick up our precious puppies. I amused Grant by running from the car to the front desk. I was eager to find out if Guinness had been able to remain in the villa with Hershey where they enjoyed a four poster bed, decorations on the walls, and the Animal Channel from 7 AM to 7 PM. The report was that he had stayed there several days before gnawing on the mattress pad which placed him in his own private kennel with no TV. Grant jested about Guinness being a “well disciplined machine.” The staff did not comment until he admitted that he was joking. I requested that they put Guinness back in the villa with Hershey to take their picture before they realized that we were there. When the staff person returned, she said that they recognized my scent on the camera. Here they are just before coming home –

And then there was Guinness

Tonight was Guinness’s first Grade 1 class. Daddy had to take Guinness, now nearly 20 weeks old, alone as Mommy is in NC with Grandson Kevin. There were 20 puppies in the class including a half dozen yellow labs and one other chocolate lab who was only 17 weeks. Since Hershey was a super active puppy and flunked his puppy class, it seems normal to us for a lab puppy to be wild and crazy, though we thought we had better control of him than we did of Hershey. Daddy says that all of the other puppies in the class, even the labs, were docile and laid at their masters’ feet during class. Guinness never stopped running. When he should have been lying quietly, he was racing in spirited circles while Daddy held the leash. Twice he was used as an example of how a puppy should not behave. By the end of class, the only names anyone knew were Guinness’s and Grant’s.

Don't read unless you enjoy bathroom talk

Guinness had some bouts of diarrhea today when he went out to go potty. In the middle of the afternoon, Karin called to share that Kevin is running a fever. As she was talking, I heard a phliffff and turned to see that Guinness had emitted a huge brown puddle in his crate. I exclaimed, “Guinness has diarrhea! I have to go!” and dropped the phone. The cesspool was at the entrance to the crate, so I started to pull the tray partially out, keeping him in the back where it was clean. I tossed his dirtied toys into Grant’s bathroom sink, a mere three feet away, splattering chocolate drops on the mirror and counter. Then I tried to lift him over the poo pool, but he dropped his hind paws into the mucky mess. I carried him to the door, clutching him to keep my clothes clean. To accomplish unlocking the door, I inadvertently held him close enough to the wall that his dirty paws slimed the textured wallpaper. After clipping him to the cable wound around a tree, I returned inside to mop up the mess. He usually barks continually while tied up, but he was amazingly quiet. He must be sick! The guck had squirted onto the wall beside the crate plus I had created a mess around Grant’s bathroom sink. Grant’s toothbrush went into the trash as a precaution. Once the house and crate were sanitized, I fetched shampoo and a towel to bathe the “widdy boy” outside with the hose. Grant arrived home and sat on a terrace wall to watch. I warned him that his dressy-casual clothing would get wet, but he stayed there anyway. When I released Guinness, he ran under Daddy’s bent legs for loving pats, soaking the back of Daddy’s pantlegs. He topped it off with a healthy shake showering a howling Daddy. Love is very forgiving.

Relaxing together

Guinness lay down next to Hershey while they both enjoyed chewing a stick.