Exiled to Siberia

We are having record lows - around 12 degrees last night. Even Miles, who loves to be outside, will hurry out to do his business and come straight back to the door. This morning was the coldest morning so far and I expected the same thing.

When Miles didn't come back to the door in 10 minutes I got worried and checked on him. He was on his outdoor bed under the poolhouse porch in the most perfect sit. The pups used to sit comfortably all the time but now are not really comfortable in that position anymore so rarely sit unless I ask them too. I figured it was too cold to lay on the vinyl bed.

Five minutes later I looked out again and he was in the same position and I could see him shivering from the house. I called him and he didn't move. Called again and he stood up briefly and returned to a sit on the bed. Very weird! Miles ALWAYS comes when called and fast. Called him again and he ran to the (off limits) flowerbed and sat there. I yelled at him to get out of the flowerbed and he moved a couple of feet and sat again in the flowerbed. I yelled several more times and he slunk out of the flowerbed very upset and came up on the porch but wouldn't come near me or the door. He returned to a perfect sit on the porch, shivering so hard that he looked like a giant Italian Greyhound.

Then I noticed a big marble sized piece of poop frozen to his tail. I would have picked up on that if he had been doing the butt scoot but he was just sitting. Had to go out in the cold in my jammies and slippers with toilet paper to get it off before he would come to the door and come in. Poor guy had exiled himself to Siberia for getting poop on his tail.


Miles did two Christmas Parades on Saturday - Travelers Rest and Pickens. He did great at both and wasn't afraid of any of bands, loud cars, confederate soldiers shooting muskets and cannons, or the police car with flashing lights and siren right in front of us. He did want to eat the miniature horses that were right behind us in the TR parade:0 He towered over the two the cute little horses. The TR parade was SO long! We walked and walked for miles then had to find our way back through TR to get back to our car. I love to hike long distances but had blisters from this. Am not sure how many miles we walked. Even Miles was tired. That took all morning and part of the afternoon. Later in the afternoon we had to line up for the evening Pickens parade. Fortunately that parade was much shorter. Why is it that few parades make a circle back to their original starting point?

Remember Roo? She was in some early puppy photos playing with Miles. She is a probably a small lab mix that was a week older than Miles and much closer to the same size when they were babies. Roo did the Pickens parade with us. The pups always remember each other and start wrestling right away. This time they were playing "reindeer games" I guess. Roo got pretty dirty after being rolled around on the pavement by Miles.


Now that Piper has been adopted, Miles is having to get used to not having another puppy here to run with every day. He definitely has a LOT more energy without her here. The very cold weather isn't helping because he hasn't wanted to play outside as much as usual and I sure haven't wanted to go for many walks other than the MILES and MILES we walked on Saturday at the parades. He had a sore between his toes that was pretty much healed before the parades but with all the walking it opened back up. With the cold and sore toe we didn't have his brother Otto come over to play today or yesterday so that only made matters worse.

Miles broke the coat closet door when his friend Jann came over. He was NOT behaving calmly at the door like he was supposed to and was jumping around excitedly. Ran into the closed folding door while he was bouncing around and broke one of the runners at the bottom right out of the wood. A big pup that is still working on self control and manners can do a lot of damage without LOTS of exercise every day.

Miles is becoming more and more of a snuggler. He has been sleeping with us most of the time but does still get down on his own bed for part of the night. He likes to poke his nose under your arm or in an armpit much like Streak did or he lays draped over you. He has taken Streak's place in the walk in closet and lays there while I am changing or putting away clothes.

One funny thing I have noticed that Miles really doesn't like is when I am shaking out freshly laundered clothes to get the wrinkles out. He doesn't like that pop and will run out of the room. Have been working on that strange fear and have him stay in the room in a down stay which is already helping a lot. Strange that muskets and cannons firing in the parade didn't bother him but the snap from clothes being shook out does.

11 Months and Piper has a home!

The pups are 11 months old today! Miles sister Piper has a home! Her new family lives on the beach and is coming to pick her up tomorrow. They have already adopted a greyhound from Greyhound Crossroads, our adoption group. They also have puppy experience with 2 whippet pups they raised. They got the horrible greyhound puppy speech anyway just to be safe but it didn't scare them off.

Piper is pretty good for a pup but has been a little more of a handful than the boys. Mainly because she was not raised here with our rules and also because of a few mistakes in her upbringing. We know she was left in her crate all day every day while her family was at work. No way a pup can hold it that long so it taught her NOT to hold it and to potty whenever she felt the urge. She is pretty good about covering it with blankets if she goes in her crate and really does do pretty good about not going in there most of the time. Fortunately she didn't lose the urge to be clean like so many dogs that stay in crates too long as puppies.

When Piper arrived she would go wherever she was when the urge hit though. She still has to be supervised but has gotten a lot better. It is obvious she had some supervision in the past, but just enough to train her to sneak out of the room to potty or even to watch to see if the human is watching her before going. Humans only get upset if they actually catch you in the act, after all. Pups learn that pretty fast if they are allowed too much freedom during potty training. Piper has finally learned to go in the grass/dirt outside instead of on the deck!! It took nearly a month of going out with her 5 times a day and making sure she went to the proper spot. I think she has a stubborn streak in her because she learns things very fast when she wants to.

Piper is an awfully sweet pup and obviously got a lot of affection from her previous owners. She snuggles as much as possible. She is very smart and quickly learned to "kennel up" on command and likes her kennel. She is usually quiet there unless we have company or are playing with the other dogs. She wants to be out to join in the fun then and may whine a bit to let you know. Piper learned how to sit, down and shake very fast and is very food motivated so would be easy to train to do just about any trick.

Piper hasn't been destructive except with stuffed animals. She takes them apart and removes all the stuffing. I made the mistake of putting a comforter in her crate for her to lay on instead of her usual blankets. She removed ALL the stuffing from the comforter in the couple of hours I was gone just like a big stuffed animal. My fault I should have thought about that with a puppy. My Italian Greyhound Pinky would do the same thing when he was a pup. I found out today that she chews rope toys apart strand by strand. It took me awhile to figure out what that big pile of what looked like string was when I found it in the back yard.

I weighed Piper today. I was pretty sure she had grown since I got her and she has. She weighed 40lbs. She doesn't look fatter so she must have gotten taller and longer like the boys. Piper can still walk under the boys and does frequently so hasn't gotten a lot taller. She was weighed at the vet a week or so before she arrived at my house and she was just 31lbs. The boys have put on less than 10 lbs in the last month I think. Ten pounds for Piper is a quarter of her body weight. The pups should really be about done growing by 11 months. The boys will probably still put on some muscle weight because of their hormones. Piper was spayed as a pup so her muscle will not increase.

Congratulations to the Lewis family for picking out such a sweet girl!