What a Fun, Crazy Week

What a fun week we had. I was actually in town all week, but busy preparing for the weekends activities (two day event where our agility club partnered with the local humane society for fun, games and adoptions). Monday was a holiday, Tuesday had us baking gourmet dog treats, Wednesday we were bagging these delectable goodies, Thursday night we started setting up canopies and marking off vendor booths and the agility ring. Friday started early in the morning setting up agility equipment and putting the finale touches on our gourmet booth.

First Annual Animal Fair and PoochPalooza

Everything came together nicely, however, by Saturday evening, we were all VERY tired.

She didn't move for 11 hours.

Very tired puppies :-)

Bailey was snoozing in her kennel.

Anyway, this blog is about Mariko and she was just awesome. We let her try out the agility equipment and I am so excited to get another month behind us (we don't want to start jumping the dogs until they are at least 10 months of age) so that I can get her going in agility. She will be great with this sport as well.

Sunday was a "catch up on our energy" kind of day. I also needed to catch up on nail trimming. We usually start with cradle and massage, and yesterday, this was how we finished:

Scobby Doo, where are you!

My arm got tired before she decided to wake up.

Look how relaxed those back legs are :-)

She is such a goof!

It's off for some obedience training tonight and hopefully a week where we are getting close to being back to normal. We ran into one of the other class participants from our Saturday class and he reported that training was different without "Super Dog" being there, ha ha. Yes Mariko, you rock!

Next week I'm off to Florida, so she will get some more practice time at home and in the kennel.

Another Busy Week

It was great to be home after traveling last week. I was able to visit beautiful Lake County Florida, and see a little bit of what Isaac can cause (hurricane warning and LOTS of rain). I did have the opportunity to stay in a beautiful bed and breakfast in Mt. Dora, however.

First day back to work was Thursday; however, I was visiting a sister school in Kaysville, so Mariko got to enjoy another day without working. Friday was her first day back to work (and her only day to work) and she was feeling a little picked on, so Aunt Wendy came over to make sure she felt loved and missed.

Don't you feel sorry for this poor working dog?

We did hit obedience training for about 90 minutes on Saturday, this was the end result:

After lots of fun and games for most of the weekend (since it was a three day weekend), she decided that she was going to be good and practice bed Monday evening:

I often wonder what is going on in that amazing brain of hers when I catch her "zoning off" like this. Maybe she is envisioning being a super dog and helping someone achieve their independence!

What an Awesome Puppy

Well, another whirlwind week has come and gone (maybe two). I got to go to Florida for work, so for the first three days this week, Mariko was home practicing being in her kennel. Last week was incredibly busy; but she was with me practicing her skills.

One of these skills is that she thinks, if she has something in her mouth, it's okay to pet her, even thought she's working. This is something we are working on, but she makes me laugh with this thought process.

When she realizes that she is not going to get her way, back under my desk she goes:

 

Last week was packed with meetings again, so Thursday evening when we are at work until about 8 p.m., we decided to sneak away and grab a sandwich and enjoy an hour of down time:

Oh my gosh, this puppy does love her cradle and massage. 

The end of a very busy week, we both had an opportunity to sit and visit with a fellow co-worker. I'm not sure if Mariko understood that it was about time to go home, or that it wasn't a formal business meeting, but she took the opportunity to enjoy a foot pillow after a very LONG week:

 

We are back to work and Mariko is on her best behavior again.

Our Katie Has Moved to Connecticut

Well, the day we have been talking about for four years happened. Katie moved to Connecticut to attend Sacred Heart University in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program. There were a lot of tears at our house, along with a lot of hustle and bustle to get her out the door. Mariko seemed to roll with everything that was happening (and kept growing in the process).

Sporting her new paracord collar.

Being an excellent puppy at Kneaders for lunch

Showing Katie how much she has grown in the last two weeks

Such a beautiful, well-behaved dog

Being a princess for the night

This is what Mariko looks like after two hours of obedience training

She is doing very well. Every place we go people continue to comment about what a great dog she is, a lot of people will say, I have a dog that is ___ months old and there is no way it would behave like this. I would say for an almost nine month old puppy, that you are a VERY awesome dog Mariko!

Roller Coaster Week

Well, it has been a roller coaster week at our house. Katie left for graduate school in Connecticut yesterday, so we have been having a lot of tears and soaking up as much of the puppy as we can.

Katie not wanting to let go of Mariko

Because Katie was leaving, I've taken some more time off work (yes, I do work, usually). So Mariko has been enjoying a lot of relax time.

Practicing under (I think playing with Bailey as well, ha ha )

Not working is exhausting

She misses Katie :-(

Being good

We are back to work today and she's doing VERY well. I had to go into a room and update about 24 computers. I put her in a down(stay) at the front of the room while I walked around and made sure they were all current and up-to-date with software, and there she stayed.

Mariko, you are always an awesome puppy.

Such a Water Dog

I think the pictures truly say everything :-)

Hmmm what's going on here?

I wonder if there's room for me?

Well, if I can't have a bath, I'll watch the neighbor kids play.

We had a great weekend!

First Big Sam's Club Shopping Trip

We took Mariko to Sam's Club on Saturday (I NEVER go to crazy Sam's Club on Saturday). We decided since we needed to go for Katie's going away party anyway, that we should go ahead and see how Mariko handled the insanity. The end result: she did better than we did.

Siting and waiting like a good girl.

Blendtec salesman decided we could have a blender if he could have Mariko.

Quietly taking it all in.

She did very well and surprisingly no one asked if they could "pet my dog." It was a great experience.