You could say we've been busy

Grant's out of town this week so wish me lots of luck being a single kid and puppy mom :) Rooney has seriously grown (you can tell from just picking him up that he's just getting heavier and heavier). He loves squeaky toys and gets really rough with them and it's just adorable to hear the squeaks and puppy growls. Anyway, I have sooo much stuff to do tonight before I get to bed...goodnight!

OH, and by the way... I think this RULES... it's ABOUT time! Petland's business model completely disgusts me. Petland is accused of scheme to sell sick puppies. It's about time it's in the headlines and hopefully some quick action will be taking place!

Life just went from 0mph to 300mph in 2 seconds flat!

Rooney has been a joy and also quite a handful! Neither of us have ever raised our own puppy from 8 weeks of age, so it's been a journey to say the least. It's like having a newborn that can walk around and get into trouble already. We've been doing obedience training at home with a clicker, and some treats. He's not a very food motivated puppy, so we do have to time training just right between or long enough after meals. For the most part he seems to understand "sit" "lay down" "off" "leave it" and I'm working on "wait" especially when I open the door to his crate or ex-pen. He loves human attention, and he is skittish when he hears one of our neighbor dogs bark. We just pretend it doesn't bother us and we're hoping that rubs off on him. Sometimes I just distract him when he's all frozen stiff just to get his mind off of it. On top of watching everywhere he goes and making sure someone is paying attention to him every waking moment he's out of his pen, we are suddenly dealt with shopping for a new sofa (we've only had the one sofa since before we ever met), and getting our broken master shower torn down and remodeled, which also includes the fun process of hardware shopping. Oh, and soccer season started for Dylan again a couple of weeks ago. Such chaos for such a normally chill household. Next week, I'm going out of town for business--hooray! Poor husband. :)

Vet day!

Here's some pictures from our first trip to the vet on Monday, February 9th. Rooney got his first negative worms test (yay!) and the vet was impressed that Rooney's breeder, Julie, used high-quality vaccinations. He weighed in at 5.9lbs. We were there for approximately 2 hours, and Rooney spent most of that time sprawled out on the floor sleeping.





He was a sleepy puppy after his big day out!

Eats, poops, and sleeps.

Day 3.

Exercise Pens Escaped from: 1
Exercise Pen cage-tops ordered: 1
Live video streams: 0
Puppy poops left on carpet: 2
Hours of consecutive sleep at night before waking up and taking puppy out: 4

I think he's starting to understand that the word "Rooney" somehow relates to him. Housebreaking is going slowly, but at least we've had no messes in the crate.

I hope to post some video of him outside if I can capture him in a playful mood. He's hilarious! If you walk away he'll chase and herd you, but if you stop, he instantly lays down calm as can be. Walk away and he's back to the chase!

Finally--Pictures from D(og)-Day and Today + a setback with the doggycam

Here are photos from selection/pick-up day at the breeder's home yesterday. I kept having to change my settings for the bright sun and then the shade over and over as the puppies were running back and forth between both, so I didn't get too many photos lol :) It was all good fun.

(above & below) Rooney's blue merle sister digging away at her cooling hole.

Mama Sydney

Rooney's brother who we were also trying to decide on.

One last run with mama *tears*

All pooped out after a long crazy day. This lasted all of 5 minutes and then came the crying. What a tough thing it must be for a puppy to leave one family and join another!
TODAY

I took these pictures today as I sat down to get the other pictures uploaded. He followed me into the

office and plopped onto Dylan's Spiderman chair (after permission of course) :)

Webcam Woes

So the webcam won't be ready yet! :( Yesterday, I bought a wireless IP camera to setup as Rooney's webcam. Unfortunately, due to my lack of research, I found out there was no easy way, or no way possible, to turn that type of camera into a webcam as they are quite different from your everyday USB webcam or modern day camcorder. Either we're going to have to move a computer or have a dedicated laptop out in that area just to have a webcam going. I found a 133ft USB cable for $289.00 as a possible solution. Um... that's just a little too much.

The Great Roodini

Rooney somehow managed to get out of his crate last night and left us a puppy surprise on the carpet! We've spared you the pictures (you're welcome). Still working on photos...stay tuned.

We're home!

Houston? We have puppy.

Pictures to follow!

Thank you so much to Julie at Texas Star Aussies for making our experience so wonderful.

Rooney was a good bit smaller than his brothers, but is very stocky and well built. There was a


*** NEWS FLASH ***

10 minutes in the exercise pen and he's managed to get out. Be right back.

*** /NEWS FLASH ***

I Guess we need to buy a cover for his exercise pen. Into the crate for now!

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Rooney is a good bit smaller than his brothers, but is very stocky and well built. He looks to be in great shape, and is obviously quite clever. We watched him play with his litter mates after sizing him up compared to the other two boys, and he loved herding even the bigger dogs around. Looks like we're going to have our hands full! Hopefully the vet will tell us more on Monday. Roz is processing the photos right now to post. We'll have another play time and bathroom break before bed. It's been a big day for the little guy, and for our family, too.

D(og)-Day

We'll be leaving in about an hour. We're going to talk to the breeder a bit about the pups' temperament evaluations, but I'll betcha we're bringing Rooney home today! I must remember to stop by the pet store for bowls and a collar. More pictures this evening!

Four Days and Counting!

I received another email from the breeder, who said that Rooney should be getting his eye and temperament exams this week. I hope to hear from her on Friday, so we should have good information with which to make our final decision. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we'd be absolutely gutted if a situation arose which would keep us from taking Rooney home on Saturday.

We're comin' for ya Rooney!

The Setup (sort of)

Everything arrived as expected, and it was ridiculous how easy it was to setup the crate and the ex-pen. They were literally ready to be unfolded simply snapped into place. For now, we are going to keep them in the breakfast room that we've never used as a breakfast room. I couldn't figure out a way to place the ex-pen flush against the wall without it blocking the backdoor, being in the way of going to the TV room, or being too close to the wall outlet. I'm going to cover the outlets and move the things plugged into it anyway, and then try to reconfigure the setup. For now, it's not too in the way, and makes use of our poorly utilized breakfast room. And yes, the rug will be moved elsewhere since we'd prefer not to have it chewed up and made into a meal.

Doggy Items, other than books

Our first dog items should be all arriving today by some miracle! When I ordered them originally, the arrival dates for all 4 items were 3 completely different days. Now, due to the icy weather we had yesterday, and whatever other acts of God caused the shipments to align, all of the things I ordered recently will be coming on the same day--TODAY. :)

What we ordered this round:

Midwest Life Stages Single-Door Folding Metal Dog Crate 24"x18"x21"





Medium sized FURminator deShedding Tool (dog version of course-Amazon had -the- best price I'd seen)




24H" x 24" 8 Panel GoGo Black Epoxy Exercise Pen w/ Walk Thru Door



3-pack Karen Pryor i-click clickers

(images © Amazon.com, DigItPet.com, and Clickertraining.com)

Still on the list (some things are really just on my personal wishlist) -

• Collar
• 6' lead
• Water/Food bowls
• Food - We will be feeding Diamond Naturals Lamb & Rice puppy formula as the breeder is
• Doggy car seat or pet carrier
• Toys (Kong, teething toys, etc)
• Bed (though he will at first be mainly sleeping in his crate)
• Whistle (maybe) - for recall training
• Wrist coils for easy access to clickers
• Nylon bones
• Nail trimmer (though we might have one at home that might work for his size)
• Dog tearless shampoo/creme rinse
• Les Poochs brush (way off from needing that)
• Slicker brush (since I probably won't get the Les Poochs right away)
• Thinning shears
• Treats (hotdogs, dry treats, cheese)
• Tray for sod (potty training while indoors)
• Wireless webcam (to watch Rooney while we're not home) - for now we'll have to use our handycam
• Pooper scooper
• Smaller pooper scooper

Less than a week and a half to go till homecoming!

Are you ready for some FLYBALL????

Flyball:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1tiujThcEE

Flyball training:
http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~stone2/flyball_training_videos.html

Upcoming tournaments:
http://www.flyball.org/tournaments.html

NEAT

Visit to the breeder's home

Today, we drove a good hour or so and had lunch in a town near the breeder's home. We got to the house, and she had set up an ex-pen for the puppies. It was their first time outside! Sydney, the pups' mother, was sweet as anything, and very friendly. She welcomed us checking out her little ones (still only 5 weeks old), and liked to stop next to us to get some lovin'. Rooney was absolutely adorable, and I was surprised at how attentive he was. He was outgoing, but not as much as his black bi brother, but too outgoing isn't necessarily a good thing either. When we held him, he loved to cuddle and acted like he could just stay in our arms forever. I imagine that will change as he becomes more mobile. He filled out quite nicely compared to his littermates, even though he was the runt at birth. He seems to be built very well, and I can't wait to see how different he looks in about 3 weeks when it's decision time. The husband is a little worried about size right now, but I think it'll be fine as long as it's a little smaller than the mother and as long as his eyes don't get that bulgy small-dog look. Anyway, I took some pics of Rooney. I was SO happy too, because I couldn't get any of the other puppies to look up at me.

ROONEY!

You can really see the copper coming out in his face in this one.




Here is Mama Sydney trying to read Pesto's shirt.

WOOF

I cain't wait to bring home pookums!

The hunt is on!

Here's the little guy we've got our eye on. He'll be about five weeks old when we visit him on Sunday.