The difference between Bailey and Churry

I stayed home from work today because I was sick.  So this morning when Pat was getting ready to leave for work, Bailey refused to get off of her bed, which is beside ours, to go out to her kennel where she stays during the day.  She just sat there and kept looking up at me and refusing to move.  Every now and then she will get up and lay her head on me.  Bailey has always been VERY perceptive of our moods and knows when we are sick.  Churry, however, being the puppy she is, kept sprinting in to our room and jumping up on top of me and trying to pull the covers off.  At one point she got so irritated at me for not getting up that she BARKED at me!  :)  She had no sympathy for me whatsoever!  At least she misses me!

What in the World is that Giant Bath?

We finally got to take Churry to Bailey's favorite place, the lake!  She was very curious about it when she first saw it and was pretty timid about going in.   Pat dumped her in a couple of times in the really shallow part and she just stood there and stared at him like "Why in the world did you just do that?"  She didn't rush out, but she just didn't know what to think.  One thing she did do was run from me, and fast!  I thought she was running away, but we figured out she was chasing the waves down the shoreline.  She just couldn't quite catch the wave!  It was a pretty busy weekend and everywhere I wanted to take her required her KSDS Service Puppy vest...so I hope I get it soon because she ended up being stuck at home when she could have been with us.  :(  She is getting so big and more energetic by the day!  She's really needing a LOT of run and play time these days!   She and Bailey have a great time in the backyard each night, but we noticed she is trying to chew poor Bailey's neck off.   So maybe she needs to calm down just a bit with her rough housing!

Churry's brother Perdido and her sister Avalon also have a blog I follow if you are interested.  They are in my blog lists.   Perdido must be a very good boy because he goes to church every Sunday.  I cannot imagine taking Churry there!  Great job Daisy (Perdido's raiser)!

Churry, the golden skunk!

Churry had a fun time at our friend Gentry's birthday party this weekend.  The people were very nice to her and she did a good job laying beside me the whole time, even when the wrapping paper would land on top of her.  There was also a very small baby there that she REALLY wanted to go check out, but I wouldn't let her.  I didn't think the mom would have appreciated a puppy kiss on her son!  Every time the baby made a sound Churry would sit up and look at it and then me and back to it and then me.  She was very confused!

And yes, Churry looks like a golden skunk right now!  She has a stripe of adult fur going down her back.  I can't believe she's big enough to be losing her soft puppy fur!  Her adult fur is just slightly darker than her puppy fur, which I kind of expected.  I'm glad she's going to be a light colored golden.  I think that's prettier!  She's also lost 2 teeth!  She's growing up so fast!

Last of the puppy shots!

Churry got the last of her puppy shots today!  Hurray!!  She also got the most car sick she's ever been...that was a nice mess to clean up.  But, she got to play with her buddy, Cooper, tonight.  That's my Dad's puppy that's a couple of weeks younger than she is.  They have a great time together.  I didn't get home from work in time to get any pictures, but Cooper will be here tomorrow again, so I will try then.




Look at this "stay"!

Churry and her best buddy, Bailey!  They are listening very intently to something Pat is saying. 

Thanks mom!

Churry thinks it's fantastic that Mr. Hageman, my boss, hands out a gift card at every staff meeting.  Because when I win it, guess who benefits...Churry, of course!  She's enjoying her brand new bed!  She thinks it's much better than going on these little car rides to get over car sickness!  Churry has been busy already this week.  She went to the kids' 4-H meeting on Monday night and was SURROUNDED with love from kids.  She thought she was pretty special.  Then, she went on an extra long walk last night and met some birds for the first time.  Churry thought they were pretty neat and thought she might want to fly around with them, but she couldn't jump up quite high enough.  After that little workout, she got an extra long brushing and went to bed.  I thought about taking her with me to pick out her new bed and drop the kids off at church, but I just don't trust the other dogs at Pet Smart yet, so she hung out at home playing with Bailey and Pat.  She's such a good dog!  She's learning so fast and makes me feel so good every day.  I love how she's so excited to see me every day when I get home from work and would just sit for hours letting me snuggle and pet her.  She very much wants to please me and learn more every day!  She's a pretty special dog!

Churry, the sock thief

Yes, Churry has discovered the joy and wonder of socks this weekend!  I've decided to give her some more freedom in the house off of her leash so she's been able to explore.  The result of that was her finding socks, socks, and more socks.  It's hilarious watching her try to hide them from me.  She thinks if she prances through the living room with her head turned away from me I won't notice the sock hanging out of her mouth.  After confiscating at least 30 socks, nerf gun bullets, and various other odds and ends she has found during her "free" time, I decided she must be bored with her toys.  So I made a trip to Pet Smart and she has 3 new "big" girl toys.  She's been bored with her other toys for about a week now, so it was time for some new ones anyway.  She now has a  couple of squeaky toys which are very entertaining!

Churry also took 3 field trips this weekend.  Unfortunately, I learned why she has an aversion to the vehicle...apparently, it's making her tummy hurt because she got sick on 2 of the 3 trips.  :(  The first night she went to a landscaping night at my school.  She did really well with the kids that were there.  She sits very calmly and lets them pet her.  I was going to let her play on the playground equipment because there are pieces of equipment with very different surfaces that you can see through to the ground as well as moving things to play on.  But, it started raining, so we'll go back another night.   The second field trip was to the Huff and Puff Hot Air Balloon Festival.  It was the biggest event she has been to and she did wonderful.  She was very calm around all the people and was not bothered at all by the balloons.  She did pull a LOT on the leash trying to eat everything in sight on the ground....sticks, leaves, etc.  Then today, she went to school with me to work.  Not too many distractions, but good for her to get out of the house anyway.

And Churry can "stay" for 30 SECONDS with me about 3 feet away from her!  I was very excited that she seems to understand this command!  It seems to take her about 2 weeks to really catch on to things pretty well.  Now, if she can extend that and work on it with distractions...

Have a great week!

A visit to the vet

    Churry had her second visit to the vet today for another round of shots and a check-up.  She is up to 13.7 pounds.  On her first visit, which was a couple of days after I brought her home, she was 9.2 pounds.  She's growing fast!  The vet thought she looked fantastic though.  In 3 weeks she goes back and will get her last round of puppy shots and her rabies shot.  I'm excited for that, because after that she gets her cape and we can actually go somewhere! 

   Churry has shown a great distaste for a couple of things this last week.  I don't think it's fear, but a definite distaste.  The vehicle and the stairs.  So tonight when we got home we hung out at the top of the stairs for about 15 minutes.  I gave her a couple of little pieces of food to get her to sit there with me and pretty soon she started to very slowly creep down them.  She got all the way to the bottom.  I was proud of her for overcoming the fear so quickly!  We will have to keep working on the vehicle.  I really think it's just too hot for her taste when we first get in and she'd rather go back inside.

    I took Bailey and Churry on their first walk TOGETHER last night.  They did wonderful.  They both do really well on the leash individually, I just wasn't sure how it would go together because they like to play.  Churry changed from walking right beside me, which is where she generally prefers, to walking out in front beside Bailey, which is where Bailey prefers.  She had to trot along very quickly while Bailey was walking really slowly.  Churry kept on looking up at her as if she was looking for her approval for walking so well.  It was pretty cute!  I do miss the workouts that Bailey gives me with her normally quick pace.  She doesn't pull on me at all, we just walk fast.  Bailey has been getting her exercise with runs out back instead of walks so I guess if I want a workout, I'll have to go on two separate dog walks until Churry can keep up with us.  I also decided it was time to get rid of her puppy "playpen" because I'm tired of my house being clogged up with our dogs' furniture.  So I'm using a trick I learned this weekend to keep track of her.  I have her hooked to my beltloop.  It's working really well!  She's much happier being right by my side.

     I wanted to post some new pics, but when I went to download all of the pictures that Pat took of her last night, I saw he didn't have a memory card in the camera, so I'll have to take more this week.