I've Been Missing Out.........

I have had some great photo ops lately, but everytime I grab my camera the batteries are dead. I have two sets of rechargeable batteries that will not hold a charge. I can take pictures the same day I replace the batteries but the very next day the camera is dead and the back up ones are dead too!
For example, two days ago we had a dozen Canadian geese (who were just casually strolling up the middle of our street) stop to have breakfast and a little rest in our front yard. It was so cool! I grabbed my camera to take a pic, and of course it's dead!
Kylie was going nuts at the front window barking and wining at the geese, but Taryn and Payton were just fascinated and just sat there and watched the geese do their thing. The geese were watching us through the window too. I think they were used to being fed by humans because I was eating dry cereal out of a bowl and one goose looked like he was waiting for me to toss him one. They were in our yard for about 20 minutes and then got up and walked off down the street.
A couple hours later I took the girls on a walk and the slow poke geese were only at the end of our street. I said "look, there's those birds!" and the dogs sped up a little bit. The geese got nervous and walked a little faster, then faster, then faster, and then all 12 took off in flight. It was cool to see. We have a lot of Canadian geese here in Denver and I just love them. It's fun to see them in the parks, and in peoples yards, but the best is seeing them in flight. I love their "honk" too!
The next morning the geese strolled by the house... but didn't stop. Off to greener yards I guess. Wish I had some photos to share. I need to get the camera some new batteries.


Peace,
Jamie

If You Are What You Eat.......

Then Payton would be a Turkey sandwich! Wait, No, she would be a fillet mignon, raw and perfectly seasoned waiting to be put on the grill. Yep, Payton has been guilty of counter surfing. Both times Mark's meal fell victim to her stealth maneuvers and shark like jaws. She strikes fast and mercilessly. Mark left the kitchen very briefly on both occasions only to return to an empty plate and Payton licking her chops in satisfaction. I think she ate a banana peel off the counter once as well. I couldn't be 100% on that one, I may have thrown it away and just forgot. Luckily she hasn't had an episode of counter surfing for a while, and we learned to put our plates on top of the toaster oven when we leave the room. : -)

Happy New Year Everyone!

Peace,
Jamie

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi all! I know this is a few days late, but I wanted to wish my friends and family a happy thanksgiving.
I don't have time to post much today. Payton, Kylie, and Taryn are all healthy, happy, and hyper. We have had a little bit of snow the last few days and the dogs are currently romping in the back yard enjoying it. Payton seems like she has fully recovered from her accident and is making up for lost play time with her sisters.
Gotta run, have a great day!

Peace,
Jamie

Baby Payton Turns One!

I know it's been a while since I've blogged but I haven't forgot about posting. I can't even come up with a legitimate excuse. Just haven't blogged.
This was a big occasion so I needed to share it with our friends that check in to see what the labs have been up to. Our "baby" Payton turned one! Of course we got her the obligatory dog birthday cake from Three dog Bakery. I got the cake a few days before we served it since the bakery is close to work and I was going to be off for a couple of days. I swear all three dogs new exactly what I had in the bag the second I walked into the door. The cake sat on the lower shelf of our refrigerator and the dogs took every time the door was open as an opportunity to sniff the cake box. The excitement built until the day the cake was served. As you can see Payton tried to eat the cake in one bite. She looks like a big girl in this picture, but to us she still has a baby face. I haven't weighed her for a while but she is visibly bigger than Kylie who is about 16 months older than her. I don't think she'll be as big as Taryn. We'll see. Taryn looks pretty small in her first birthday photos.
Payton has been with us almost 8 months and I couldn't imagine our house without her. She is such and character, warts and all, and is such a good little sister to her lab sis' and such a good dog for us humans to be around. Happy Birthday Pay!

Peace,

Jamie

P.S. Promise I'll try to post more often!

More space claiming

One of the issues that we are having with redecorating the living room is that our dog crate is getting a little squished and creating a tight space in our entryway (pictured above). So we have been thinking that it would be great if Payton could sleep outside the crate when we are away and we could move the crate to another part of the house where it wasn't so in the way. I have mentioned our challenges with housebreaking Payton in a a previous blog and I will let you know that we have had accidents since that blog. Kind of makes it hard to give her free run. Mark proposed that if Payton could go 30 days without an accident that we could start giving her some time out of the crate when we are gone. I am happy to report that Payton has gone four days without an "incident". GO PAYTON!

Peace,
Jamie

Claiming Our Space

We have a pretty good sized house for just two humans, but sharing the space with three dogs makes things a little tight. Mark was worried when he agreed to look for a lab to rescue, and add a third dog to our household, that I wouldn't know when to quit. I remember telling him right after Payton joined us that "three dogs is max for this house".
We really haven't used our living room much since we moved into our house. There are a couple of other rooms that are better options for hanging out and watching TV or visiting with friends. One of the rooms was our office. We had a TV and a couch in the office and there was only a couch in the living room. With no TV we just really never went out into the living room. Lame, huh? We can only hang out in a room that has artificial stimulus? So the living room became the dogs "flop house". They have had free run of the living room while we are at work. They (meaning Taryn and Kylie, Payton is still in the crate when we are away) are really good girls and don't destroy anything, but they have been sleeping on the couches. I keep the couches covered in sheets so that they don't get damaged. This has worked until now.
We recently had to add another desk to our office because I am having to work at home alot more. Adding another desk meant taking the couch out of the office and we had to move our place to hang out into our living room. TV and all the comforts moved into the living room. Unfortunately the dogs have not gotten the message that we have moved into their space.
We were getting frustrated with the dog hair every where that we wanted to sit in our newly claimed territory so we have resorted to drastic measures. These pads are supposed to keep the dogs off of the furniture. We just implemented them today. So far they are 1 for 2. Mark came home and one prickly pad was on the floor and there was hair all over the couch. I came home later and everything was as I had left it. Funny thing is that we are only trying to claim the love seat. We are letting the two dogs sleep on the sheet covered couch at their leisure. I'll let you know how it goes.

Peace,
Jamie

Spring Snow!

Hi guys! Well, per normal, just when you think we are in full Spring mode here in the rocky mountains we get snow. This picture was taken just a few minutes ago. We might get 4 inches before tomorrow's commute. The crazy thing is that it was 80 degrees yesterday. When the snow started this afternoon the thermostat in our house was reading 75 even though we had the heat off all day today. Still haven't turned it on because the bricks soaked up all of the sun we have had the last two days. This is really typical in Denver. I am reminded every April why I wait until after mothers day to plant any flowers. The dogs are excited to see that the snow is not totally gone yet for the season!

Peace,

Jamie

My Birthday!

Actually we have two Dog Birthdays in March so we celebrate both Taryn and Kylie's Birthdays on the same day. We usually pick a day that is about half way in between both Dog's Birthdays (you could NEVER get away with this if you had human kids!). I'm kind of silly and I like to make a little bit of a big deal about the Birthday "party". I made a trip to PetSmart and bought some doggie staples. I then stopped by Three Dog Bakery to see if I could by a couple of cakes or individual "special" baked treats. This bakery is really fun, they make all kinds of baked cakes, cookies, cupcakes, s'mores, carrot cakes, and a ton of other dog safe treats. I have bought cakes from this bakery for the last three years, Taryn's 1st B-day, Taryn's 2nd and Kylie's 1st B-day, and now Taryn's 3rd and Kylie's 2nd B-day. This year we had two other guests at our party. Payton of course was a party goer and also our neighbors golden retriever Baily. We have blogged about Baily before, he is such a great friend to our girls. Baily also turns 3 this month so it is appropriate that he joined our party.

I usually order our cakes ahead of time from the bakery, but I wasn't able to this time. Luckily they had two cakes ready to go and it just took a few minutes to personalize them. I had to buy some party hats at the bakery and also a party favor for Baily to take home and enjoy. The dogs had a blast per normal. Taryn really seemed to know what was up. This is her third party. She recogognized the smell of the yummy doggie Birthday cake.

I hope to post pictures later of the dogs in the party hats. Those are on my neighbors camera. We of course will be having a party for Payton on July 6th! What a joy all of our dogs are to us!

Peace,

Jamie

Size Doesn't Matter!

I've mentioned before that Kylie is the Alpha Dog in our house and pretty much has been since she joined our family. The funny thing is that her older sister Taryn weighed about 70 pounds when we brought Kylie home and Kylie was probably pushing 10 pounds. What made Kylie the Alpha Dog? Attitude! Attitude is everything Baby! Little Kylie came into our lives with a big attitude. She knew that she was second fiddle to Mom and Dad, but she wasn't going to be second fiddle to another dog. Since we have added Payton to our household Kylie seems to be a little unsure about her place in dog society. She definitely shows signs of being threatened by Payton's confidence. Payton just turned 8 months old and I have been noticing that she is giving her older sisters a little bit more heck these days. Payton settled into our home really well and Mark and I believe that she is fully integrated and her past is a thing of the past. One of the reasons we believe this is her feisty nature with her Sisters. It's fun to watch the dogs do the "dance" of play fighting. They are just testing each other like puppies do in a litter to see what the pecking order is. Lately it has been hard to identify who is doing what to who because it seems like it's always the three of them wrestling. Sometimes it's individual, sometimes they gang up on one, and then change who the target is a second later. Don't worry, everyone is "smiling" and having fun playing, but we know that it's more than play. There is a rank being decided and reinforced every time our dogs play like this. The top picture is of Payton and Kylie playing. Payton is the one on top, obviously not intimidated by her older Sister. The bottom picture is of the two of them a few seconds later right before they curled up and took a nap together.

I guess that the reason I am sharing this is that one of our Dog friends Mango has just been introduced to his new little brother Dexter. Mango is a full grown Mastiff who I think weighs 130 pounds. Dexter is an adorable Black Labrador who weighs 15 pounds. Mango's Mom posted some cute pictures of their first afternoon together on Mango's blog. In one of the pictures it looks like Dexter is getting feisty with his gorgeously massive brother Mango. I think Mango has his paws full. It makes we wonder if Dexter will be top dog in his new home.

Peace,

Jamie

*Just got a message from Mango, he is a little offended that I described him as being 130 pounds, he is actually 230 Pounds!!! Whoa, even when Dexter is a full grown Lab Mango will still be at least 100 pounds heavier. That is one big Mango Man!

Cute Pictures

Hi Everyone! Not much going on around here. We did take Payton to the Dog park for the first time on Sunday, but in all the chaos I didn't get a chance to pull out my camera. Someday I will elaborate on the dog park experience, (why do some people have to get so upset when your dog wants to play with their dog? It's a dog park! They should be able to do what they want!) but I'll save that for another blog. Let's just say the dogs had a blast. Some of the humans needed to take a "chill pill"! Anyway, since I don't have much to report I thought I would share some cute pictures of the girls. Top to bottom this is Taryn, Kylie, and Payton. I think these are about the best pictures of them individually. Still waiting for that killer group shot.

Mark and I are celebrating Valentines day today since I will have to work tomorrow night. We are going to our favorite Sushi restaurant, Japon. It is such a fantastic restaurant. We usually only go there for our special occasions because it is easy to walk out of there with a $100 check. Sometimes the bill gets so big because our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and we end up with a sushi doggie bag. Sushi is not very good the next day, so it is a real treat for the dogs. Taryn has had the pleasure of sampling sushi, but it will be a first for Kylie and Payton. I'm sure they will dig it just as much as Taryn does. Have a good Valentines Day everyone!

Peace,

Jamie

Sister Sweetly

One of Taryn's favorite things is sitting on our ottoman and looking out the front window (as seen in a previous post). She sits there for hours watching the world go by. Mind you, we live on a very quiet street so there is not a lot of action. She was window gazing this morning when Kylie decided she would like to join her. Pretty funny since Taryn takes up the whole ottoman! I snapped a couple of cute pictures of them together and wanted to share them. Heart warming isn't it?

Peace,

Jamie

Can't They Just Sit Still?

We have been trying since the day we brought Payton home to get a great picture of the three dogs together. I keep getting pictures of their backsides while they are waiting for Dad to throw them something, or pictures of nothing because they all have moved. This morning I thought I had the "money" shot lined up. It was the most calm and focused the three of them have been for the camera. I took the shot and just as I did Kylie looked away and Payton lost focus on me. Taryn, bless her heart, was the only one cooperating. Oh well, it's still a really cute picture. I love the snow on the end of Payton's nose. She always has her nose down in the snow looking for buried tennis balls or frisbees. We just got a fresh snowfall last night for all of them to play in. They're just like kids when it comes to snow. It's never too cold to have a good romp! I'll keep trying for that elusive portrait of the three of them.

Peace,

Jamie

I Hate to Leave!

Mark and I have been off work for the last three days. We were celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary and both of us were due a few days off together. The time off was fantastic. Just what I needed. I obviously would have liked another day off but I needed to go back. The hardest part is always leaving the dogs. They do not have separation anxiety, or worry when we are leaving for a few hours, but they always seem to turn on the cute right when we are getting ready to leave. You look at a face like the one to the left (Kylie) and think "How can I leave these guys? I want to call in sick and take them to the dog park, or on a really long hike!" The problem is that not all of us have the priviledge of working from home (I'm really envious of people who work at home even though I know it has it's disadvantages) and we have to leave the house to go make a living. If we didn't we wouldn't be able to pay for dog food, frisbees, vet bills, and the hundreds of other expenses that come with dog ownership. Still, my dream is to spend all day every day with my husband and my three dogs. I wonder if the dogs think that too, or are they tired of us being around the house and can't wait to get back to their regular napping schedule? Either way, they seemed really happy to see me when I got home. Our family is most content when we are all together.

Peace,

Jamie