Beginning to be a Good Boy!

Today, I hired a young girl to prune, plant annuals, and spread mulch. Since Guinness has been doing fairly well at staying in the yard, I allowed him to be loose while I did my projects and Ashlee worked. He stayed in our yard, watched us work, played with empty pots, and kissed Ashlee a few times. After about an hour of freedom, he began wandering and had to be tied to the tree.

Doggie Park

We have been lean on the number of dogs each morning this week. Several are away. Today we had four: Riley, Holly, Marley, and Guinness. Here is Guinness head wrestling with Marley.

Zombie

I am a total zombie today – more than usual after a trip. I have not driven that far alone in a couple of years. But I wasn’t the only zombie today. He is on “off” speed today.

Beta - Hemolytic Staph

This morning we surprised our friends by showing up at doggie park (since I told them we wouldn’t return until Wed.). Our friend Douglas thought he saw red on Guinness’s tummy (probably when he jumped up on Douglas). There was no way we could get him to focus on “down” and “rollover” commands. So I checked at home. Sure enough! Scary looking!

Red circle welts almost the size of quarters!

Off to the vet to discover the diagnosis. Dr. C. says “the clown” has picked up a staph infection. He is on anti-biotics and I need to wash everything he has slept on. Also he has lost 5 pounds since the last time he was weighed several months ago. He is only 70.8 pounds – bordering on skinny, the doc says. Dr. C. says he only has two speeds – on and off – so his weight is not surprising.

Guinness became a Retreiver today!

Ruth, Guinness, and I had another great beach walk. This time, we tried throwing a stick in the lake. He retrieved! So we kept throwing, and he kept fetching! Wonders never cease! Ruth tried to throw it far enough to make him swim. He gave up and left the stick. I tried to throw far enough to make him swim, but only once or twice did it seem he actually swam to reach the stick. Eventually, he pooped out, but he did many, many retrieves! (And I forgot my camera)

Then we were off to the farm. Guinness loved having the freedom to run. He ran in the pond (on the back left) a couple of times. He ran into the neighbor’s field.

He ignored the little dogs, Sam and Picasso, but Picasso played the big cheese and tried to tell Guinness off for being present at his farm.

Expelled

Guinness and I drove to Michigan on Friday – all the way to my brother’s house on Lake Michigan. We had three huge slow downs due to accidents which stretched our 6 hour drive into an 8 hour one. I used Grant’s new GPS which was wonderful to have – especially on the detours!

As soon as we arrived at their house, I had to start Guinness-proofing it: removing shoes and gloves from his reach, etc. Their little Yorkie, Sam, always has food in his dish. Well, that can’t happen with Guinness around or poor Sam will NEVER eat. I had planned to let Guinness sleep in the kitchen, but Gary thought there was no acceptable way to do that. He thought Guinness would jump the gate, which is possible but doubtful. So they allowed Guinness to sleep in my bedroom.

Saturday morning, Gary informed me that he did not appreciate Guinness’s Guinny-ness. “It is rude to bring an undisciplined dog to someone’s home.” How could I be offended? He is goofy! But we love him just like he is. While Ruth and I walked the glorious beach for over an hour with Guinness, I told her that I would leave Sunday after going to Mark’s farm, instead of Tuesday. The plan for Saturday was predetermined: Jim and Patty were coming for the afternoon. Guinness could, and did, spend his time in the backyard; more specifically – on the deck staring through the door, doing a fair share of barking.

Gary took Jim and Patty for a ride in Queen.

They perused the beach from above while Guinness had a chance to play again (this time with my camera in hand!)

We all (including Guinness) enjoyed the myriad birds in their yard. We determined that one nesting in a bush is a Savannah Sparrow. Several bird houses are full of House Sparrows. Another bird, yet to be determined, is in a smaller bird house. I spied a catbird which I have not seen since Missouri days. Guinness sent several birds airborne as they hopped through the grass.

Mother's Day

My flower dog.
He no longer attacks and eats flowers in the house! Another sign of maturity!

Watching

Tonight, we left to go to a friend’s for dinner. I had to run back in the house for something and found Guinness in the kitchen watching out the kitchen windows! I assume that maybe he was watching for us to drive by? It reminded me that we had a dog that did that. It was Hershey! When we lived in Naperville, IL, as we backed out of the garage, we could see Hershey watching us leave from the dining room window!

New Level of Maturity

This evening, we BBQd on the deck and brought Guinness out with us without setting up the baby gate. He never thought about running away! Twice I had to go down to the driveway and he came with me unleashed. He didn’t run away but stayed with me and went back up on the deck. He was behaving just like Hershey! Ü

No Dog in Our Bed

Grant has decided that we would sleep a whole lot better without a dog in bed with us. That is true… yet it is nice to have his company. So I closed him in the den overnight for the past few nights. He seems to do just fine with no complaining, and our rest is improved.

New Friends

Holly is a 4 month old Golden Retriever. We have run into her a few times in the past couple of weeks and she has even come to doggie park to watch. Guinness fell in love immediately. Today her mommy let her off leash and she had a ball! She and Marley, a giant golden, were very cute together. Guinness is a bit too rambunctious with the puppy, but her mommy says they are fine, that Holly can take it.

After everyone had left and we were about to leave, a shelty walked by. Guinness was unusually calm meeting this new dog. They sniffed each other with no craziness, then he went to the master to have pets from her. He also did not try to jump in her, thank goodness since she was wearing whitish slacks. She said her dog does not like other dogs and that she was surprised that her shelty was tolerating Guinness. I told her that Guinness’s behavior was also highly unusual. Obviously, there was some dog communication going on that told Guinness to be slow and easy which made the shelty welcoming of the refrained attention.