Monday, August 13, 2012

Who has 8 paws, no tails and loves road trips?

These boys! Hooray for road trippin'



Friday, August 10, 2012

Have I told you the brothers have a new cousin? That's right, my sister had a baby... puppy that is.  The bouncing baby boy is a Border Collie named Benji and he's already bigger than Bear (say that three times fast!). 
We met Benji for the first time a few weeks ago when my sister and brother-in-law drove to Houston from Austin with Benji in tow.  There were a lot of "firsts" that weekend:
  • First road trip for Benji
  • First time another dog had spent the night at our house, besides Uncle Snickers
  • First time Cooper was around another dog bigger than him (since the dog park days)
I was a bit apprehensive about the visit, knowing how Cooper gets a bit grumpy when put in unfamiliar-dog situations.  I actually did a bit of research to see how to properly introduce the boys to their new cousin and found a great reference here.  I sent the instructions to my sister and a plan was created!

Once Friday night arrive, I had the boys' harnesses on, poop bags in hand and we were out the door as my sister pulled into the driveway.   Just like I imagined, there was a lot of barking (from my dogs) and a lot of "protecting" and poor little Benji was terrified.  TERRIFIED. of his new cousins.  After about 30 minutes of dragging the dogs down the street, a small truce was made and the new found cousins were walking side by side down the street.  A small miracle, indeed.

I will say that Cooper was still not super happy about Benji hanging out in his house.  There was the occasional low growl and fang flash over the weekend, but no all out attacks.  Progress is good.  We even had them all sitting next to each other for the photo-op Sunday morning (swoon).

While Benji was in town, my sister wanted to take him for his very first experience at the dog park.  Houston has some great dog parks, and we love to go to Congressman Bill Archer Bark Park just a few minutes from our house.  Benji had the TIME OF HIS LIFE rolling around, jumping from mud puddle to mud puddle, play-stancing, swimming and running.    I'm pretty sure that dog was in heaven with every mud hole he found - and lucky for everyone in the car, we brought dog shampoo to hit up the showers afterwards.


We all talked about the first time the little boys went to the dog park - Lindsay and Luke were there! Memories!! (those boys were so scared - ha)


All and all, it was a great weekend.  I'm glad Benji came so Cooper could get a grip on dog fears, and now Lindsay and Luke can visit anytime knowing that all the dogs get along. 

Thursday, August 9, 2012

It's Been A While!

Wow, so took a little two year hiatus.  Sorry about that - I'm surprised I could even get back in this blog after so much time has passed.  Can I get a Woot Woot for Google+ remembering my password?! Since it has been a while, thought I'd write a new post to update on all the dog shenanigans that have been going on over at the Baker household.

First off, the sweet boys are now three years old! My, how the time flies.  I took a photo to commemorate their three year birthday and also sent an email to the breeder that we bought the boys from.  In my note, I mentioned how they are so different, despite being brothers and described their little personalities.



Cooper is such a protector.  I'm sure he would sleep outside all night guarding the house if he could.  I also went into detail on the possum incident, where Cooper trapped and "killed" four baby possums that were living under our deck about four months ago (that deserves an entire post alone - it was super gross). The breeder was nice to respond back and mention Cooper sounds just like his dad, Rascal.  I met the boys parents, but don't remember them very well so it is good to know the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.


Bear cracks me up.  He is probably the most chill Australian Shepherd you'll ever meet.  First order of business when he gets up in the morning - go right back to bed.  Brian will let the boys out of their kennel and Bear immediately comes and jumps into bed with me.  I love it for sure, but it still cracks me up.  He also gets along great with other dogs, which is great when dog friends come to visit.  Bear's one big flaw - he hates doing his business outside in wet grass.  So anytime after it rains, Brian and I have to follow him around the house until we have a visual that the "kids have been dropped off at the pool" -if you know what I mean...

I'll try to get better about posting more images and recapping funny stories of the boys!