Thanksgiving!

Yum!

This year we had a quiet Thanksgiving at home, so it was just Erland, me, Sprocket and Willow (the cat) Erland cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, we bought pie for dessert and it was all delicious! Willow got an extra can of cat food and Sprocket got a feast fit for a dog! I gave him a Stella & Chewy's brand raw patty, with healthy turkey bacon and dried sweet potato chew dog treats. I took a picture of it to post here, but I lost it. He finished off his meal with some organic pumpkin treats!

Before all that eating though, I took Sprocket to the Token Creek dog park. He had a blast running around and exploring. I'ts much bigger than our home park of Sycamore Dog Park. It has a nice mulched main path with the bigger areas being grassy and the border of the park has a lot of trees/wooded areas. It was a great Thanksgiving for everybody!

Walking to the entrance.

Path leading to entrance.

Huge field!

He loves to run!

Spots some people/dogs up ahead.

Whee!

Meeting a dog.

He ran into their group.

New friends going back to their owners.

Smelling something!

Time to go home.

Howl-o-ween!

Halloween is a fun time for everyone and now, since I have Sprocket, I was even more excited than usual for this year. I decided to dress him up as Link, the hero from The Legend of Zelda video game series. Specifically from Ocarina of Time, which I played on the N64.

Link.

I found a green "Robin Hood" costume on Amazon and decided to use that as the base of the Link costume. I made the Hylian Shield using craft foam and felt, painted a styrofoam ball a glow in the dark blue color, made the wings out of white glitter craft foam to create Navi. I also bought a shirt with hearts on it too wear it along with Sprockets outfit.

Completed costume!

 We decided to go to State Street with Sprocket to walk around. It was not very busy, which was good, because I didn't want Sprocket to get too overwhelmed. He did really well and was not nervous or barky. It was cold ,so I put his regular coat under his costume.  We got a few comments from people who recognized what he was. Overall a very fun Halloween!

Willow checking Sprocket out.

He didn't like the hat much.

Navi: "Hey Listen"

On State Street.

Fluffy Dog Rescue benefit!

We adopted Sprocket from a rescue called Fluffy Dog Rescue based in Hartland, WI. They were having a benefit walk, so Erland and I decided it would be fun to attend & support the awesome place that helped us get Sprocket!

We had planned to wake up early and arrive at the event as it started, but we ended up oversleeping and got a late start. After a quick breakfast and & walk around the block we headed out to Waukesha & Minooka Park. After about an hour long drive we arrived at the park and first ended up parking at the dog park section. I then realized that wasn't the correct spot so we got back in the car and drove down the road some more. That's when we spotted the sign. Sprocket was really excited to get out of the car!

We walked up to the table, payed our entry fee, and I got to pick out a bandanna for Sprocket to wear. I had Erland enter our raffle tickets into 2 of the prize selection boxes. We met a lot of other dogs and a lot of nice people. We had  lunch and Sprocket had some treats from the goody bag that we got. We didn't end up winning any prizes, but we had a really god time! As we were leaving the park we decided to go on a hike on one of the trails, so we parked again and took a look at a map of trails. We kinda lost track of what path we were on, but managed to eventually find our path and head back to the car. It was a gorgeous day and the fall colors were awesome. Minooka Park is a really, really nice and I wish there was something just like it in Madison. We had a really fun day!

More pictures of the event can be found here.

School and Recess.

Class
I signed Sprocket up for "Beginner Doggy School" a 6 week course at Teachers Pet Training Academy. Our first class started 8/14/12 and went through 9/18/12. I signed up for the older dog class, but no other students enrolled, so I was put in the puppy class (5 mo or younger). It worked out since Sprocket is still technically a puppy and has loads of energy!

The class size was small which is great! Other training places have way to many people and I feel you don't get any help from the trainers/instructors that way. I really enjoyed every class in the 6 week course. Sprocket is a very barky dog  during class, so it was tough at times to treat him for doing something correct. I didn't want to do it when he barked, thus possibly enforcing it. My timing had to be very precise at times. It was really cool to see him working things out in class.

For example, when learning "touch" he had it down with my right hand, but when I switched to my left hand he looked at me with the most confused face. It took him a bit but he finally got what I wanted him to do. He did better then the other dogs at sit and down but I think it's because he is older and they are still very young puppies, like in the weeks to 4 mo age.

Our time in the class helped me learn a lot of techniques and it helped Sprocket learn to pay attention to me. He is very food motivated and will do anything for treats! I have to be honest and say I did not spend as much time outside of class training him like I should, but I am now very motivated to get his training down before the holidays pop up so that he is a well mannered pup when guests come and visit. I will be working very hard on teaching him the lessons I learned we went over in class.

I have posted the pictures Erland took of me and Sprocket at one of our classes here. There are a lot and I just wanted to show them all.

Here is a video (watch in HD) of us training and the play time in between the lessons. This was just during one class.
School Days

Recess
Nobody can just study all the time, there has to be some fun mixed in ones life! I take Sprocket to work with me, so he gets to go to doggy day camp, where he gets to run, play, and meet new friends! I have no pictures of him there with me though. (due to having to actually work haha)

We also go to the local dog park near our apartment. We walk there so he is not super wound up by the time we get there, plus its more exercise. We have met many people and dogs and made some new friends as well! I have also taken him to a co-workers house to have play dates with her dog named Zero.

Here is a video (watch in HD) of us at the dog park in the morning and our first play date with Zero  He loves to run so the video was a little shaky. Erland fixed it for me. (When you see the wonky parts that's where it was very shaky) .

Sprocket at play

Cat and Dog

Willow (our calico rescue cat) and Sprocket (our terrier mix rescue dog) are not best friends or anything, but there seems to be a mutual respect in the apartment between the two now. When they first met, there was a lot of hissing and running away with an occasional paw swipe from Willow. Now she has settled down and does not do any of that when he walks near or past her. Sprocket will  stop & pause for a second while watching her whenever he wants to pass her. I guess it's just to make sure shes okay with it. They basically watch each other a lot haha.

They will sleep near each other sometimes and hang out on the couch with us, each on their own sides, but it's slowly becoming a happy animal family in the apartment! We have blocked off our bathroom and now feed Willow in there so that she can feel safe and have her own space where Sprocket can't get to her, her food or her litter.

The following are some pictures of Willow and Sprocket. ( I made a story, kind of.)

Willow sleeping on the dog bed

Sprocket sleeping on his dog bed.

Hey, dog guy!!

Yes, Cat?

Lets sleep!

I can get down with that! Zzzz

My 30th Birthday!

Holy crap I'm 30!

For my birthday, I got the day off from work and decided to have a fun filled day with Erland and Sprocket! I decided that I wanted to do a nice easy hike.  We headed out to Governor Nelson State Park around 9AM and hiked the Morningside Trail. It was a little warm, but nothing that was unbearable.

(The pictures that I took from the day can be found here)

This place has a pet swimming area so I decided to let Sprocket get his paws wet in the very shallow part. I didn't want him to go all the way in because he would get all gross and we had to go the vet right after the hike to get his final Lyme vaccine. The water seems to interest him and I have noticed at day camp, when I put him in the pool, that he swims well but gets out very quickly.

Pet friendly trails!

When we finished with our hike we took Sprocket to the vet, got his vaccine and then headed home. I opened presents and cards and had a great helper in Sprocket. He gently tugged on the wrapping paper to get it off the gifts.

We then left Sprocket at home in his crate, with his kong full of treats, while we went out. For lunch, we went to an "all you can eat" Indian food buffet. The food there is so good! Then we went to hang out at the bookstore where I saw a few books that I would like to read and wrote them down. We then headed to a store that sold Table Top games and such. They have so many cool things there & I want to start getting into playing table tops and such this winter. (Look for that to be added as another hobby on this blog!) Then to end our outing we went and saw a movie called "Premium Rush" It's about bicycles and has action. It was entertaining even if it was really silly.

Overall I had a fantastic birthday & I look forward to what life will bring on next!

A hiking and walking weekend!

Hiking! Part one of our weekend.

On Saturday Erland and I decided to go Devils Lake with Sprocket to meet up with some friends and their two dogs.  We headed out to the lake after I got off work. Sprocket did well on the drive over, but when we stopped to wait in line for the ferry, a guy on a motorcycle in front of us made him get barky!

We finally made it to Devils Lake & met up with everyone else, human and dog, strapped on our hiking boots, put on sunblock, got Sprockets water bowl all set, and headed out. I honestly can't remember the name of the trail we hiked om,  but it was on the South Shore side. It was also very rocky and those rocks were slippery at times. Sprocket had no problem going up at all, what with his long legs, but going down was another issue. I decided to just carry him down since the trail was a little tough to walk on & he was slipping more than I liked.

Every dog pictured here is a rescue!

It was a really nice day and the view at the top was awesome. There where quite a lot of people there and lots were out hiking with their dogs as well. When we made it back down to the bottom I wanted to check out the dog beach. We headed towards our friends car which was near the dog beach and after seeing them off, we walked on it a bit. I took Sprocket up to the water, enough that he could walk in the shallow part. He wasn't too interested in going swimming and  I didn't really want him going swimming since the water was kind of funky looking, but I had brought a towel with us in case he did get wet.

He was really tuckered out and passed out on the ride home. It was his first hike and I think he did well and had fun!

Pooped out!

Walking! part 2 of our weekend.

Today was the Ride the Drive event. I love riding my bike and have always wanted to do this here in Madison, since I did something similar back home in Los Angeles. (documented on a previous blog post under cycling) Erland had an accident earlier this year where he fell off his bike and busted his knee, so rather than try and ride our bikes we decided to walk the 5 mile route with Sprocket.

There were a lot more bikes than what shows in this picture!

This event was a lot of fun and I got to see a part of the city I haven't seen since moving out here. Along the route was the Warner Dog Park. We checked it out and since I didn't have Sprockets dog park licence yet, I kept him on the leash as we walked in the park. As we walked around the dog park, a gentleman walking with his dog called Sprocket a "scruffy chap."

Taking a break.

We ended our day out with lunch for us at Culvers and some water for Sprocket. We both ended up taking a nap when we got home!