Paper or Plastic??

Let me guess...If I give chase your only gonna run? 

I'll never quite understand it but Cleo is completely obsessed with paper products. She'll dabble with paper plates or the occasional paper towel tube what really gets her all worked up is paper towels, toilet paper, napkins and tissues. Once she has stolen your goods she sneaks off with it bunched up in her cheek like she's got a wad of chewing tobacco. She never eats it but has the best time shredding it everywhere and sucking on the wads she forms in her cheek. She's been doing this since the first week we brought her home.

Hmmmmm...stolen toilet paper and sitting on the couch like a mountain goat. 

I wonder how that got there....

This behavior is frowned upon which only seems to encourage her more. Cleo thrives on pushing buttons (especially mine). Once Spottyrella gets a hold of a good roll she's damn well gonna drag it all through the house. Everyday is mischief night for this dog. Our house is her canvas and her brush is TP.

As such leaving toilet paper on the roll holders in the bathroom in our house is legit taboo. It has to be stored as high as you can manage to put it to keep theft to a minimum but since she is full grown its become almost impossible to get it high enough. It always makes for interesting conversations when we have guests over and the toilet paper is kept in weird places.

Just because your looking off into space doesn't mean I can't see that TP stuffed in your face. 

Ahhhh the old wedge ourselves under the dining room table routine. Well played dog face.



She loves paper products so much if you left a piece of food on the counter unattended next to a paper towel she would steal the paper towel long before the food. She has also perfected her pick pocket routine and doesn't hesitate to nose her dog beak into hooded sweatshirt pockets, jacket pockets or purses to steal tissues from people. She even baited me into making the paper towel in my hand vulnerable the other night so she could steal it. There's nothing like getting outsmarted by your sassy hunting dog. It'd be easy to get annoyed with her over it but I kind of appreciate her ingenuity and wine always helps. She's also obsessed with stealing and hiding my socks which I feel is part of some personal vendetta but that's really for a separate blog post.

AH HA!!! Caught Red Pawed at the scene of the crime!

The two pics below were taken when she was just a puppy, I think around 3 or 4 months. The house Jim and I own has been fully gutted so the pic was taken during that time. But the pics show just how much trouble she can get into with paper products when given just seconds. I was painting the hall bathroom at the time and popped my head out into the hallway to see Cleo being mommy's little helper.

                                                                         

Having a Field Day....

Finally after a few nice days in row most of the snow and thick ice in our area has melted. Jim and I thought it would be a great morning to get Cleo out in some fields and just let her run off some energy. So we packed her up and drove down to the Nocamixin State game lands. Temp was about 26 degrees but the skies were blue and it was a really nice day for a walk in a field.

Jim hunted her here this past fall with some success. The fields go on forever and almost open up into each other. Each one having a different type of brush or ground cover than the one before it. Cleo had a blast and it was good to see her working and thinking in the field.

We spent about an hour and a half tromping around the fields. We didn't see any sign off birds. We saw alot of deer tracks and poop and one dead possum which Cleo wanted to roll on which sent me chasing her off and yelling at her like a lunatic. Regardless....she got a bath as soon as she got home.

What a happy bird dog. :)

The Truth about Cat's and Dogs

Yesterday I was on facebook and saw in my news feed a post from the German Shorthair Rescue listing a link to story done by the Examiner called, "Great dogs in rescue, thanks to ignorant prioir owners". Here is a link to the actual story: http://www.examiner.com/dogs-in-national/great-dogs-rescue-thanks-to-ignorant-prior-owners. The article is mainly about a GSP named Lody who was turned over to the Great Plains GSP rescue a month ago. To make a long story short Lody attacked her family's cat and they ended up giving her away because of it.

I have two cats that I love dearly. The first one is Bailey a milk chocolate point Siamese who is about 8 years old and the second one is Little Man a chestnut oriental who is 4 years old.

 

When Jim and I decided to get a GSP my biggest concern was how it would be with my cats. I would never put them in danger and was very concerned because GSP's have such a high prey drive. The first thing I did was discuss my concerns with the breeder. Bob Corsaro who is the owner of Nobelle's was very informative and honest with me. He told me that it was possible to have them coincide in peace but it would take training and ground rules. Jim and I then contacted a couple who live about 40 minutes from our house who have two GSP's that hunt and also have 2 cats. Jim and I went and visited them to see the interaction first hand between the two and also to get some advice on how to train our dog to not want to eat my cats.

We have never had an issue with our cats and Cleo. She was trained from the first day to "Leave it" when it came to the cats. If she ever overly sniffed the cats and pushed them around with her nose she was immediately corrected. She will let the cats lay on her and walk across her. The most amazing thing I ever witnessed with her is when her sister Molly came to stay with us this past summer while her owners where at a wedding out of town and she protected the cats from Molly. See Molly wasn't raised with cats and through no fault of her own thought they were fair game. Molly cornered Little Man on the counter and it was Cleo who pushed Molly out of the way and barked at her frantically as if she was saying, "Leave it". I was astounded. Cleo clearly protected the cats from danger.

I do want to say that Cleo is smart...almost too smart. She understands that when cats are in the house they can not be touched. She displays no aggression to our cats or to the cats that roam her daycare/vets office. But make no mistake...if a cat is outside its fair game and she knows it. She wouldn't hesitate twice to run it down and do bad things. Which brings me to my point....Lody the rescued GSP did nothing wrong. She is a product of years of prey driven breeding and was just doing what she does best which is hunt prey. That whole situation was caused by her owners ignorance. They clearly didn't research the breed or take the steps to train Lody correctly and sadly Lody paid the price.

So in case anyone is wondering cats and dogs can live together in peace....and that's the truth.  Cleo is the living proof.

Gone to the Dogs...

Twice a week, weather depending, Cleo goes to Mill Pond Doggie Daycare in Quakertown. She goes from 8:15am to about 12:30pm. She runs all morning with her doggie friends and comes home tired and happy. Jim and I love the days she's at daycare because its a phenomenal outlet for her and she gets to be with other dogs which is one of her most favorite things. Below are some pics of her taken at daycare this past summer.

Clearly she is in all her glory. So today I pick her up and Ryan the guy who watches the dogs at the camp brings her out to me and I ask how she made out today. Ryan said it was pretty windy but other than that they had a great day. I mentioned to Ryan that Jim and I didn't have her wear her fleece vest today because we were afraid that it would get wet because of all the rain yesterday and she would be stuck in a soaking wet vest all day. He looked at me and said, "So far Cleo is the only one who's vest has held up." I went on some dissertation about how its such a nice quality vest...blah blah...has a zipper...blah blah...velcro's...blah blah.  Ryan looks at me like I have lost my mind and says, "Have you ever seen your dog play with other dogs?" I cringed and said yes...knowing full well where he was going with this. Ryan says, "I'm pretty sure the only reason Cleo's vest has survived is because she is the one wearing it." Apparently, Cleo has a habit of ripping the other dogs vests off so they can play tug of war with them.

I can't help but wonder if the outward destruction of the others dogs vests is some passive aggressive outburst to how mush she hates her own vest. Either that or the white sash on her forehead really is the mark of Satan. Regardless I called Jim to tell him about it and we both laughed like hell. That dog is beyond sassy. 

Ice Storm

I've been a slacker with my blogging this past week. After my fight on Saturday I came down with the stomach flu and spent several days in bed swearing that I would never consume food again. Anyway, we got hit with a huge ice storm yesterday morning that left us with no heat, no electricity and no running water. Everything was completely encapsulated in thick ice.

Trees in our neighborhood lost limbs and fell down, bushes were matted to the ground it was a pretty crazy scene. Cleo thought it was a blast. She loves to chew on sticks and she thinks ice is a special treat...put the two together and you got one happy pup!

I personally like when she nibbles on the ice sticks like they are Popsicles. Jim and I just laugh at her.

What a silly GSP. :)