Welcome, Elliott

We couldn't stop at just one dog. Please say "hello" to Elliott, another Old English Sheepdog. He is the latest addition to the family as of last Thursday.

We essentially adopted him from some friends of ours.  This past summer, Beth was training him.  Once he graduated from school, he was to move to Chicago to be with his owner.  To make a long story short, it just didn't work out for Elliott to move to the big city.  We idly looked for a home for Elliott.  But we brought him to the house and he and Bubbles got along very well. And coming straight from farm life, Elliott has done very well in the house. Therefore, we decided to accept him into the family.

Before getting Bubbles, we originally thought about getting two dogs so that they would keep each other company.  Since Bubbles was a handful at times, we started re-thinking that idea. But Elliott is proving us wrong and they both get along as well as any other big brother and little sister.

Bubbles Update

I've had a few requests on pictures and stories on Bubbles in the past few days.

Bubbles has been a member of the family for 3 weeks now. And she's been getting big... 15 pounds! She's starting to walk up stairs, but can't quite make them down yet. Bubbles has started jumping on the couch too. They grow up so fast!

Night time is not too bad as she sleeps through most of it in her crate. We let her out around 11pm and then back out around 6am. We then take her back to bed with us in the morning. The potty situation is getting better, but we have to stay alert. We don't think she's picked up on the fact that she's to go outside.

Bubbles has been to see the vet and it turns out she's completely healthy. Her heart murmer is gone, there's no sign of hernia and all is well.

This weekend she'll get to meet her Cousin Max and make a bunch of new friends at the Fall Bash.

You can see some more pictures of Bubbles at my Facebook and MySpace pages.

The Adventures of Bubbles

Our first week with our new addition to the family has passed. Bubbles is now 7 weeks old and getting braver, cockier and more feisty. During this time she's met her grandparents, Aunt Shari, Cousin Jack (pictured to the left), Aunt Kerri and Cousin Sara as well as a few of our other friends.

After her first 2-3 days, she has settled into her new home very well and she's exploring new territory more and more. Bubbles is starting to think she's a big dog and that she can jump on the couch anytime she wants. Though we'd give her an A for effort, the fact is there's no way she can jump on the couch just yet. It's just too high. But she keeps trying. She also likes to lay under the coffee table or the kitchen table when she naps. That is if she's not laying next to you or on your lap as Bubbles likes to cuddle.

When it's time to play, lookout! Bubbles likes to chew on your fingers, your nose or ear, your shoe laces or toes. And her teeth are sharp. She doesn't bite down too hard, but she does get carried away at times. This past weekend she made a new friend, Noah (pictured below). Noah is Jennifer Brackney's dog whom we dog sat Saturday night. We took both dogs to the Bradley homecoming/tailgate. Bubbles merely slept while Noah was busy scrounging for food. But the two dogs played very well together.

Bubbles has been doing better at night. She hasn't cried the last two nights and sleeps soundly in her crate. Although, after we let her out early in the morning around 6am, we do bring her into bed with us. And we have to keep an eye on her as she wants to try to jump down from the bed. It's too high for her and we're afraid she'll hurt herself. But this morning as I was sitting on the edge of the bed, tying my shoes with the little Bubbles next to me, she quickly jumped down. It was kind of a clumsy land, but she was unharmed. Bubbles can be fast anymore.

We haven't done much in the area of potty training just yet, but she's learning to go outside. We even suspect she understands the word "outside."

And the adventure continues with the Bubbles dog.

Bubbles' First Day

Bubbles' first day at her new home went well overall. She wined about 3 different times last night, lasting maybe 15 minutes each or so.  At some times, she howled like a wolf.  It was a bit amusing.  But she stayed by herself in her bed in a playpen.  At least until about 6am when put her into bed with us. 

We believe her first encounter with grass was last night before going to bed.  She kind of jumps around on it.  We think it tickles her somewhat since the grass is currently long.  Bubbles likes to chase and chew on leaves.  As the wind blows them, she'll chase them down and chew them.  Wait until she finds sticks.  She also likes doing the "Trixie roll" on the grass, just rolling on her back on the ground.

This morning Bubbles started chewing on my work boots.  A new toy for her I guess.  Her head is so small that she was sticking it into the opening of my left boot.  It was smelly so she had to check it out.

This afternoon she got to meet Grandma Hootie.  The treats will be coming soon!

We'll be going to bed in the next hour and we are guessing tonight will even go smoother.  Wish us luck.

Meet "Bubbles"

Please welcome Bubbles, our 6-week old Old English Sheepdog. We just picked her up today in Bloomington. Since Trixie's passing in March 2007, we knew we always wanted another dog someday. And today was the day.

Earlier this summer, Beth began training "Elliot," an Old English Sheepdog owned by Colleen Callahan's daughter Brittany. Brittany since moved to Chicago and that was part of the reason for training Elliot here. He would then later move to Chicago. But I guess that is not happening. We hoped we could somehow "kidnap" Elliot and he'd live with us happily ever after. Instead, Elliot is going to be staying on the farm, running with the other dogs. But having Elliot come and stay with us for a few afternoons and Beth working with him so often got her wanting a dog really bad.

We had been talking about getting 2 dogs so that they would have a companion, with one of the dogs being an Old English Sheepdog. The other we often figured a Golden Retriever, but if we go down that road, I'm thinking we might rescue a puppy somewhere.

So in the last few days, Beth had learned about a woman who was raising Old English Sheepdogs. There was a web site set up with pictures of irresistible sheepdog pups. I believe we came home a day early from South Carolina so that we could get a puppy.

Bubbles is now at her new home sleeping very quietly. She's wined a little bit but not a lot. Even though, we don't expect a full night's sleep.

It was a tough decision to pick one out of the 9 in the litter. We got it down to about 2-3, but finally settled on London, as she was earlier known, because she didn't seem as rambunctious as the others.

I'm sure all of you will see much more of Bubbles in the days to come.