Thanksgiving was fabulous. Matt's folks came into town and his siblings came over. Matt's mom helped me cook and we had a great Thanksgiving meal, it was great to finally be home for Thanksgiving after the last couple of years, when I had to spend holidays thousands of miles from home. I love hosting events and I love having family around.
But this Thanksgiving is even more special because not only did I get to spend it at home w/Matt and Brovi, but the next day I headed out to Europe. I have to go to France for work, but I only have to be in France for 2 days for work, but since I have to go to Europe anyway, I asked work if I can go to Germany during the same trip and visit my sister. My work had no problems w/such arrangement, which is awesome. So, this Thanksgiving holiday I get to spend w/Matt's family as well as w/my sister and her hubby in their new apartment in Stuttgart.
I am very excited to get there, but as always when you are counting minutes until you are at your final destination, something gets in the way....I was flying from Minneapolis-to Cincinnati-to Paris-to Strasbourgh where my sister will be picking me up. Well, I made it to one flight w/out delays....However, when I got to Cincinatti, well, things didn't go as perfectly as I was hoping. I was hoping to get on the flight, I was hoping for the flight to land early in Paris so I can make my next connection (only had 1 hour between flights). Well, instead, my flight to Paris got delayed by 2.5 hours...Needless to say, there is not chance I can make my connection now, so I am on the next flight to Strasbourgh....The reason for the delay is maintainance of the plane, so I guess I shouldn't complain, because I would much rather board a safe plane than take a risk...But I am a bit disappointed by the fact that I have to wait a few hours more until I see my sister.
Oh well...Thank God for iPhone, computer and interent connections at the airport, although I had to fork up some money for the latter, but it was only $7.00 and I say that's worth it, otherwise I wouldn't be able to write a few emails, check work emails, facebook, and chat w/my sister as much as I wanted to :)
Looks like I should head over to the gate area (had to leave the area because there is a shortage of electrical outlets at just about any airport, and my computer's battery doesn't last forever). I hope for the plane to show up soon so I can take a nap soon and so I can get over to Germany, spend some time w/my sis, drink beer, wine, visit a few Christmas markets and do all kinds of other fun stuff!!!
Cheers!
PS: Hope everybody had a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Training
Well, we have had our puppy since September 9th, 2009....
He is a mini labradoodle and is incredibly smart. He is housetrained at the age of 4 months (w/very occasional accidents) and he knows a few commands (shake, sit, down, come). I say that it's because both poodle and labs are very smart breeds.
Anyway, as soon as I agreed to have a puppy, I realized that it would take a lot of time to train the dog, take it on walks, attend vet appointments, etc. However, I didn't quite realize how much time you have to spend on training. See, I thought I would go to training class, they will teach the dog what to do and then I would reinforce it during the next couple of days and voila....Wow, was I living in a dream.
We's already been through one obedience class and we are on the next level and even though he is doing great, oh my goodness, he requires a ton of time.
Unlike my assumption of what training will be, we go to class once a week, the owners are taught the tricks and behavior that dogs need to learn, the owners are trained on how to communicate w/their pets to obtain the right behavior and then the class is dismissed. We are given homework, where we have to train our puppies EVERY day...Yes, we have to dedicate about 30 minutes every day to train our dogs! It doesn't seem like 30 minutes is that long, right? Well, when I wake up at 6am (keep in mind, I am not an early person), then go to work, come back for lunch only to take my puppy out for a break and a quick walk, and then head back to work until evening at which point I rush back home...take my puppy to the off-leash dog park for an hour and a half (or until his energy runs out) and then come home...Brovi loves attention even when he is tired, so we usually play for about an hour after we come home...So, during the whole day the first time I get to sit down and just relax for a few minutes is at about 7:00pm....by then I really have no motivation or energy left to try and train him on any tricks or obedience....Well, last week has been not so good, we haven't done much training....But usually I try to make a point during the day to dedicate sometime to just training....Next week will be better!!!
He is a mini labradoodle and is incredibly smart. He is housetrained at the age of 4 months (w/very occasional accidents) and he knows a few commands (shake, sit, down, come). I say that it's because both poodle and labs are very smart breeds.
Anyway, as soon as I agreed to have a puppy, I realized that it would take a lot of time to train the dog, take it on walks, attend vet appointments, etc. However, I didn't quite realize how much time you have to spend on training. See, I thought I would go to training class, they will teach the dog what to do and then I would reinforce it during the next couple of days and voila....Wow, was I living in a dream.
We's already been through one obedience class and we are on the next level and even though he is doing great, oh my goodness, he requires a ton of time.
Unlike my assumption of what training will be, we go to class once a week, the owners are taught the tricks and behavior that dogs need to learn, the owners are trained on how to communicate w/their pets to obtain the right behavior and then the class is dismissed. We are given homework, where we have to train our puppies EVERY day...Yes, we have to dedicate about 30 minutes every day to train our dogs! It doesn't seem like 30 minutes is that long, right? Well, when I wake up at 6am (keep in mind, I am not an early person), then go to work, come back for lunch only to take my puppy out for a break and a quick walk, and then head back to work until evening at which point I rush back home...take my puppy to the off-leash dog park for an hour and a half (or until his energy runs out) and then come home...Brovi loves attention even when he is tired, so we usually play for about an hour after we come home...So, during the whole day the first time I get to sit down and just relax for a few minutes is at about 7:00pm....by then I really have no motivation or energy left to try and train him on any tricks or obedience....Well, last week has been not so good, we haven't done much training....But usually I try to make a point during the day to dedicate sometime to just training....Next week will be better!!!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Silence....
...interrupted....Haven't been writing for quite sometime, that is not to say that nothing has been going on. In fact, there has been too much. But that's ok, that's the way I like it.
thought i would share my thoughts about my puppy...he is extremely entertaining, there is not a day that goes by w/o Brovi making me smile....My sister the other day asked me what I think he does when I am at work (everybody remembers now that Matt is gone during the week and I work during the day)....Well, I wish I could say that I have no clue what he does during the day, however, I think I have a pretty good idea. First half of the day he sleeps, of that I am positive. Anytime I come home for lunch (in reality there is no lunch involved, it's just me coming home to take Brovi out and feed HIM lunch)he is waking up from his sleep....When I am by the kitchen he takes his time to stretch and yawn and then he runs to the door (he is very good at house training and goes up to 5 hours w/no accidents!!!)In the second part of the day however, I do think that he gets bored and that is when he keeps himself busy w/playing w/his toys (that take a huge beating from him, we are having a hard time finding toys that he won't destroy w/in a couple of weeks), but when toys aren't interesting enough he proceeds on spreading recycling cans around the kitchen, chewing up my recipe that he had to jump to get, tearing apart boxes that hold soda cans, destroying his bed (there will be holes in it soon enough if he doesn't stop digging) and I am sure he finds other mischeif that is just not that visible to my human eye :)
Overall, he is a very busy guy (Brovi, the puppy that is), when I come home at night he knows the routine: i take him out for 2 minutes to do his business quickly, we proceed to go inside and go immideately upstairs for me to change into comfy clothes so I can take him out on a long walk. If I go in the kitchen after taking him out instead of going upstairs, he will sit on the stairs and bark. If I change into comfy clothes and don't go out immediately and instead contemplate of grabbing a quick bite to eat, he will bark! After our long walk we come home and he goes absolutely bonkers in the house for about 10 minutes, after which he is ready to play w/me and his toys (mind you, he doesn't want to play w/his toys on his own, he wants me to play w/him)....How is he so energetic, well, I am guessing all the sleeping that he does during the day, but the time it's 8pm I am exhausted. Thank goodness, he crashes around 8-9pm. It's amazing, he will be super hyper and than all of a sudden he would just plop on the couch or floor and fall fast asleep...amazing.
Anyway, he certainly does keep me company during the week, I think I haven't been bugging Matt as much in the evenings, because Brovi doesn't give me much free time to do whatever I want to. I do enjoy Brovi, he is awesome and we spend sometime learning new skills, he knows: sit, down, shake! Down was a bit tricky, he really doesn't like to lay down....He finally figured out how to do it on command, but even now he will bark before he will lay down and sometimes he will attempt to jump up before laying down...I think it's his way of trying to protest, but he is losing, because the only way he gets a treat is if he lays down....he is slowly coming to terms to such harsh regime though :)
thought i would share my thoughts about my puppy...he is extremely entertaining, there is not a day that goes by w/o Brovi making me smile....My sister the other day asked me what I think he does when I am at work (everybody remembers now that Matt is gone during the week and I work during the day)....Well, I wish I could say that I have no clue what he does during the day, however, I think I have a pretty good idea. First half of the day he sleeps, of that I am positive. Anytime I come home for lunch (in reality there is no lunch involved, it's just me coming home to take Brovi out and feed HIM lunch)he is waking up from his sleep....When I am by the kitchen he takes his time to stretch and yawn and then he runs to the door (he is very good at house training and goes up to 5 hours w/no accidents!!!)In the second part of the day however, I do think that he gets bored and that is when he keeps himself busy w/playing w/his toys (that take a huge beating from him, we are having a hard time finding toys that he won't destroy w/in a couple of weeks), but when toys aren't interesting enough he proceeds on spreading recycling cans around the kitchen, chewing up my recipe that he had to jump to get, tearing apart boxes that hold soda cans, destroying his bed (there will be holes in it soon enough if he doesn't stop digging) and I am sure he finds other mischeif that is just not that visible to my human eye :)
Overall, he is a very busy guy (Brovi, the puppy that is), when I come home at night he knows the routine: i take him out for 2 minutes to do his business quickly, we proceed to go inside and go immideately upstairs for me to change into comfy clothes so I can take him out on a long walk. If I go in the kitchen after taking him out instead of going upstairs, he will sit on the stairs and bark. If I change into comfy clothes and don't go out immediately and instead contemplate of grabbing a quick bite to eat, he will bark! After our long walk we come home and he goes absolutely bonkers in the house for about 10 minutes, after which he is ready to play w/me and his toys (mind you, he doesn't want to play w/his toys on his own, he wants me to play w/him)....How is he so energetic, well, I am guessing all the sleeping that he does during the day, but the time it's 8pm I am exhausted. Thank goodness, he crashes around 8-9pm. It's amazing, he will be super hyper and than all of a sudden he would just plop on the couch or floor and fall fast asleep...amazing.
Anyway, he certainly does keep me company during the week, I think I haven't been bugging Matt as much in the evenings, because Brovi doesn't give me much free time to do whatever I want to. I do enjoy Brovi, he is awesome and we spend sometime learning new skills, he knows: sit, down, shake! Down was a bit tricky, he really doesn't like to lay down....He finally figured out how to do it on command, but even now he will bark before he will lay down and sometimes he will attempt to jump up before laying down...I think it's his way of trying to protest, but he is losing, because the only way he gets a treat is if he lays down....he is slowly coming to terms to such harsh regime though :)
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