Leo Gets to Model

Nina with Nina's Photography posted on her Facebook page the following plus she messaged me regarding Leo:

Looking for very small dog to shoot in a giant coffee mug or teacup ... this Sat morning at Ridgefield, dog must be comfortable in public, have a good sit/stay, be happy & cute I already have 3 breeds signed up, looking for one more ... let me know your dog's breed & we'll talk. The images will be used in my display at the 2010 Petit Prix (Teacup) Nationals.

She's planning on taking the shots on Saturday at the trial Vegas is entered to run in - and the timing couldn't have been better as Leo has a grooming appointment Friday. Should be a lot of fun and will be cool to see the shots later.

Toy Time!

I've been lax in keeping up Leo's blog as we don't have much going on with him at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with training for him since there hasn't been anything that suits our schedule nor am I certain if I want to enroll him in anything when the boys will be gone for some of the summer. However, he is highly loved at work. So much so that a couple weeks ago my boss came in to tell me they (meaning the management team) made a decision intentionally without me. She said they decided they like having a dog in the office and Wednesdays are lonely without one. Therefore, Leo was requested to add Wednesdays to his schedule from now on. In fact, she said his PPL (paid personal leave) would be docked if he wasn't there. LOL. So that was fun. I'm glad he's loved.

Last week being Memorial Day, he only got to come to work two days. One of my employees said it wasn't fair that Leo only got two days that week and they miss him when he's not there. She said they should all go on strike until Leo can come every day. So flattering - yes that little man has wormed his way into hearts. He's charming them all.

For instance, one morning during our department meeting, I was sitting on the floor. I had just finished my coffee so took the lid off as Leo wanted to investigate. He stuck his face in the cup and before long had the cup "stuck" on his face. Of course I pulled it off - after we all chuckled - and put the lid back on. He proceeded to carry the cup a few feet away then set it down. Then he barked at it like it was scary or something. Yeah, he can be distracting too, the goofball.

At many of the agility trials his big sis and I enter we receive a free toy. Yesterday I brought home a stuffed kitty that Leo took an immediate liking to when I got home. Here are his antics:

Bad Mama...

I find that I'm not very good at updating Leo's blog. Part of that right now is that we aren't in any classes. I haven't been able to find a single trainer whose schedule for the classes we need works for us. I'm starting to get worried as summer is nearly upon us and Zach and Kane won't be home as much to take him to class. Debating on whether I should enroll him and take him anyway...except I want him to work with the kids. It's a real catch-22 for sure and especially since Leo seems to be confused about "sit" versus "down." I'm not sure why but he wants to down more often than anything and getting him to sit is a real challenge. He instantly goes into a down. At first we struggled to get him to sit from a down and now the only time he seems to really just go into a sit without a down and stay that way is at feeding time and, in particular, when Big Sis is being told to sit and he copies her. Something which is really cute, by the way, if not annoying that he follows her instead of when we tell him to.

That said, that is where things are at right now. His healing and leash walking still needs work. He resists when I want him to walk close and tends to just want to pull out about 5 feet away, nearly at the end of his leash, but to the side. He also has a bad habit of going back and forth around you instead of staying put on one side and I discovered his concern over walking across grates and metal in the sidewalk.

Here are some pictures I've taken of the cute boy over the last couple of weeks. One thing is for sure - Leo is a complete joy and a wonderful addition to our family. It's like he's always been here. In fact, I was told in no uncertain terms that he now needs to come to work on Wednesday, too, or his PPL (paid personal leave) will be docked.

Hanging out with Big Sis....

Not concerned about her size i close confines. 

At work...sleeping on Simba whom he is often mistaken for when lying in the doorway to my office.

Leo with Godzilla...Godzilla, believe it or not, provides a great training opportunity for "leave it" because Leo would really like to play rough. 

Pre-Agility

This is some video I took last week while starting to work with Leo on pre-agility moves. I figured it was a good way to gain focus, burn some energy, and keep him relaxed by doing things at home. Very simple, nothing fancy, and as you can see, he's highly cooperative. This is just a short snippet from quite a bit of practice and footage we got.

Coughing, hacking wierdness

Leo has had an interesting week. It started earlier in the week with a strange hacking sound he was making. It wasn't a reverse sneeze. It wasn't a cough, per se. It was just a strange noise like something was stuck in his throat. He would stand with his hand hanging just so slightly and hack and snarfle and make these strange guttural noises and then be done with it. A little while he might do it again. The first night it happened, I was obviously concerned. It was just about bedtime and I was debating on taking him to the emergency room. I checked his color and it was fine. He kept breathing and, while he was hacking like something was wrong, he acted fine otherwise. He was playful, ornery, chewing on stuff, drinking, and happy. So, I ended up going to bed and just checked on him a couple times during the night (He sleeps on the bed so easy enough to do.). He was fine but this strange behavior continued. Finally yesterday I decided he should see the vet. I was becoming concerned about collapsing trachea, although nothing had happened to traumatize him and he's never worn a collar as long as I've known him.

Off to the vet we went around mid-morning. Fortunately they are a walk-in clinic and were able to get us in right away. The doctor examined Leo and, amidst comments and exclamations about how sweet, well-behaved and a-typical he is for a Pomeranian, she explained a bit more about collapsing trachea. It wasn't quite what I thought so it was good to learn more. She tried pressing on his trachea a bit and wasn't able to get a response and send him into a 'fit.' She said it was possible it was collapsing trachea but they really struggle to try to get dogs to exhibit the behavior at the clinic. Plus, she said even when they x-ray, unless the trachea is actively collapsing, they cannot definitely determine that's it. She said they would do the x-ray if I wanted though, but she said it might be a mild case of kennel cough. Based upon the discussion we were having and knowing Leo has not had a kennel cough vaccine yet, I decided it was worth trying the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory to see if we saw a change.

So far so good. Although when we walked out of the clinic Leo immediately went into a fit and then just a short while down the road when we got out at the outlet mall to walk a bit he had the same thing happen again, he went through all of today without a single fit. He's only three doses into the antibiotic but I have a feeling that was what he had going on. I hope Vegas stays well, and it looks like Leo is on his way to kicking this little bug that attacked him.

Basic Obedience Graduation!

Leo has graduated from Petsmart's Basic Obedience class! On Monday night Zach and Leo finished their eighth week of class and graduated. They will be moving on to another obedience class and we now have a goal ahead of us. Leo is an attentive learner who really wants to please. While he could definitely do with less desire to be with "the mom" and focus on his current handler, he is trying and starting to come around.

A Fun Day at the Dog Park

Leo can run! During baseball practice yesterday evening and during a several hour stretch without rain (Yay!), the dogs, Zach, and I headed to the dog park. Leo loves the park and spends time alternately chasing the big dogs and just sniffing around the perimeter independently. Yesterday a lot of people took advantage of the temporary reprieve in rain and dogs came and went the whole time we were at the park. Leo hung around with Zach and I quite a bit, intermittently meeting and checking out new dogs.

When Omar showed up, a Bulldog, he and Leo took an interest in each other. Before I knew it, this is what was going on:



One would have thought Leo would have been tired last night. Of course being the little "midgey" dog that he is, that wasn't the case. Nonetheless, he ate a good dinner after having so much fun.

In addition to his crazy zoomies, we spent some time doing some obedience work in the park. We're fortunate Leo is so good about behind handler focused. We worked on sits, downs, staying, and coming. People in the park were pretty impressed - as was I - that he could focus at all in such an environment.