My dog can FETCH!!!!

Today was an even MORE fulfilling day than yesterday! My dog went insane again (this means he runs maniac-ly around the house, up and down the stairs, on and off the couch, skidding to pick up his toy.) Mimi came over and we went on a walk with Kusy. Then we went to the park by the school to (attempt to) play fetch! Instead of yesterday's "I throw, dog runs tries to get ball falls over in circles gets ball runs like maniac lies down chews ball, I run after dog yelling name and trying to get ball back finally succeed I throw, dog runs tries to get ball falls over in circles gets ball runs like maniac lies down chews ball, I run after dog yelling name and trying to get ball back finally succeed, I throw...." routine, today went more like "I throw, dog runs after ball picks ball up runs back sees treat in my hand drops ball conviniently near me eats treat, I grab ball throw, dog runs after ball picks ball up runs back sees treat in my hand drops ball conviniently near me eats treat, I grab ball throw..." Which is VERY amazing in and of itself! But what is even MORE amazing is...
        wait for it.......
That Kusy was (semi) off leash! In an Un-fenced (or partially fenced with 2 openings only, one with a gate that was opened and one with no gate at all) area! His long, new red 20 foot leash was attached to his collar but not in anyone's hand or otherwise attached to anyone or anything! And he didn't madly follow nose to heaven knows where and run off! Except once, when he darted off with ball in mouth and started to sprint madly oblivious to Mimi and my shouts of utter panic, with his nose not glued to the ground but up in the air with a mad gleeful smile on his face. He veered from the field on to the sidewalk and kept running running running until he dropped the ball by some miracle. Then he turned around in semi-mid-air to grab the ball.... and then I POUNCED on the leash and he was back! We kept playing fetch after that, but with Mimi standing guard to make sure if he DID dart off again, he would be stopped. If such was his intention, it never happened. Mimi was armed with treats.
It was a great afternoon, and 2 out of 2 tennis balls returned safely and unharmed, without so much as a chewed off thread! Kusy was too busy fetching (or running away with) his one blue tennis ball to stop and chew. And, miracle of miracles..... the second ball was completely UN-NEEDED!!! As you may recall, yesterday we needed 2 balls to trick him into giving us one while he was lying down and chewing it. Today, all it took was a treat! Kusy knew he got a treat for dropping the ball by me, so when I threw it again, he ran for it, picked it up, and brought it back, leash dragging behind him. I showed him the treat, he dropped the ball, and I gave him the treat. Then I threw again! It was pure fetching bliss, and my absolute dream! Teaching Kusy to fetch was easier than expected. I was preparing to go out and buy a special ten dollar toy for him to fetch if need be! Turns out there was thankfully no need.
After we noticed Kusy getting a little tired from fetching- he stopped sprinting to and from me to get the ball, instead he mostly trotted- I clipped his blue 6 foot leash back on, rolled up the red 20 foot one (I think Kusy's favorite color is red for some reason) put the tennis balls away and we left happy and contented. Common sense may indicate that Kusy was tired and wouldn't pull madly every which way after a long 45 minutes of fetching and sprinting, but he sure did just that. With tongue hanging out of mouth, he sniffed crazily but a tad less energetically. On the short way home, he left a stinky, gooey brown mess on someone's front lawn. I tried to pick it up, I really did, but 2 bags only managed to pick up about half the mess, leaving the other half on the lawn. I couldn't do much else, and the rain tonight will likely clean it off a bit. I think it's probably because Kusy has started eating grass and throwing up- he's done it twice today. And after reading about why dogs eat grass (they don't know for sure, but some vets say its to induce vomiting or make themselves throw up because they have an upset tummy), I guess maybe the half box of Chinese food Kusy stole off the table last night didn't agree with him.
But back to today. We came back home from the park and then Mimi and I went on another walk, this time to the pet store a few blocks down, without Kusy. I promised Mimi she could pick out a toy for Kusy and I'd buy it. We had a hard time deciding, but settled on an AKC brand 'hare' (or rabbit) with a sqeaker and another 69 cent tennis ball to replace the one he chewed up yesterday. Well, Kusy just loves that rabbit. I don't have a 'before' picture, but look at it now:

My mom and I are going to sew it up and give the rabbit back to Kusy. If I hadn't taken the rabbit away when I did, it'd be in shreds by now. But Kusy absolutely loves it! Here are some pictures of Kusy playing with it:

num num num!

:)

Crazy dog!

Insane, actually :-P

I consider my point proved

Quite.

I just love Kusy so much!

Well, it is time to wrap this up, since my idiot brother Karol is (once again) complaining that I should, well I'll not repeat what he said. But he is blaming me for his stupid computer game lagging since I'm uploading pictures and whatnot. And I've just barely got on my laptop while he's rotted his whole day away in front of his computer. Ahh. Sorry for the rant. Until next time! Thanks for reading!

A (somewhat) Fulfilling Day

Today was a great day. Despite being woken early- too early- at the wee hours of 6 a.m. (by my dog of course), it was amazing. The day seems so much longer when you've got a whole extra hour of time. I love the mornings because after my mom takes Kusy out for a walk, he rushes straight for my room, puts front paws on my bed, and snuffles me awake. It's breakfast time! He learned so quickly to sit before I put down his bowl of Canidae kibble. You'd be surprised, really, since it's been more than 3 weeks and the only way you'll get him to sit is to show a treat. "SIT" means nada to him. The treat.... that means sit. Even when I'm trying to teach him to jump through a hoop or weaving through my legs. Anyway. It took a day and a half for him to catch on that he won't get his food without putting that butt down on the ground.

This afternoon, my dad and I went to the pet store to get a new bag of food and a long leash, 20 feet long exactly. I found at least one toy that I think Kusy will like- the Kyjen Fire Hose Tug n' Fetch toy. Since Kusy LOVES bean bags (I found out the hard way, while playing bean bag toss, him chasing the red bags wildly), and this toy is sort of like one, I think he may like to fetch it more than the tennis balls he just wants to CHEW! In the evening, when it was cooler, my mom, brother and I went for a walk with Kusy to this field by a school. We brought the long leash and 2 tennis balls. Kusy had a lot of fun playing... something somewhat resembling fetch. Instead of the 'I throw, dog runs gets ball brings back, I throw, dog runs gets ball brings back, I throw..." it went more like "I throw, dog runs tries to get ball falls over in circles gets ball runs like maniac lies down chews ball, I run after dog yelling name and trying to get ball back finally succeed I throw, dog runs tries to get ball falls over in circles gets ball runs like maniac lies down chews ball, I run after dog yelling name and trying to get ball back finally succeed, I throw...."

It was an amazing evening nonetheless. I regret that I didn't bring my camera, but it was much funner without needing to click pics. Maybe next time we go to play fetch, I'll bring my camera. One of the funniest parts was going to the park with 2 tennis balls and coming back with only one functional one. Kusy tore up/chewed the other one completely!

Also, something semi-non-dog-related. Tomorrow, I finally get to see Mimi after more than a month! After summer ended, neither of us could see each other because of parents working, me getting a dog, etc, and then Mimi went to South Africa (wink wink Mimi, do you want me to say where? okay, she went to Poland). She came back last week and now she *finally* gets to meet Kusy! I promised her she can come with to the pet store and pick out a toy for me to buy for Kusy. I can't wait!

A Week

A week passes so quickly. Time in general passes quickly. Tomorrow is 2 weeks from when I got dear Kusy. I have gotten so many comments from people about my dog when I go for walks- usually from elderly (not hobbly elderly that can barely walk, the elderly that have gray hair but are more physically capable and are no older than 65 or 70) women. Usually from elderly/older than middle aged people in general.
I haven't even had Kusy for two weeks, and already it's hard to imagine life without him. I love the way his ears flop in the wind and they way he rolls around in the grass. The way he twitches in his sleep and snores and grunts. The way he coughs- although his kennel cough has gotten much better. The way he freaks out when he sees a rabbit and the way he goes insane and runs in circles like a little puppy. And so much more about him. That's not to say he's the perfect dog- far from it. He's afraid of men and has horrible seperation anxiety- if we leave him alone for even ten minutes he slides the bottom out from his crate, shreds the towel underneath, barks and howls and whines, and pees. He's stubborn as a mule and he goes crazy- too crazy- about food. Much as I love him, he's not my dream dog. My dream dog would be a tad larger, less stubborn and more open to learning (despite his low rating of intelligence, the Beagle is quite quite smart, I assure you, it's just that he's a little reluctant to learn commands). I feel a little guilty saying that- but it's true. I love Kusy so much, but despite his charm and loyalty and love and everything else, he's not my dream dog. I'm not saying I'd rather have a different dog than Kusy- I'm not. I don't want to be. I love Kusy and the way he runs and jumps after food, the way you can trick him into sitting without a treat, and the way he slobbers all over you when he puts his head on your knee. I love Kusy in general. And I can't wait to see what else dogdom has in store for me.

Day.... 11 of Dogdom

"Oh hai! Am I not... supposed... to.... be here?"

(Don't worry. He gets this expression a lot)

"Must...eat...treat...that...is...very...big...and...has...button...and...lens.."

Everyone needs their beauty rest.

Especially those with such, ah, 'beauty' :)

Gorrgeous, huh?

" hallo! please stop stickin' camera in my face."

"please. stop"

 Some pictures just totally sum up a dog. Like this one.

Or this one.

Or this one.

Or this one.

He looks so dignified. Except when he pees on the rug. (His own, personal rug!)

"ooh treat treat gimme treat!"

"yum that was good treat"

He's always wanted to be a golden retriever :)

"hai... I'm sorta busy right now chewing my {empty} Kong so I'll get back to you... later"

Kusy loves Kongs... even when they're empty.

 (Kongs are hollow rubber toys that you put food in and the dog has to figure out how to get the food out)

Kusy doesn't particularly like his crate.

He does, however, like just about anyone else.

My family and I had to leave the house for a couple of hours and when we came back we couldn't get into the kitchen, the door was blocked. Poor Kusy had pushed out his crate bottom thing and it was blocking the door. He had also peed and shredded the towel that was under his crate. I left him a Kong stuffed with food but he didn't even touch it.

And while I was writing this post... he peed on his special rug that my mom bought for him. He hadn't been out for a couple of hours so it's understandable.

Sorry that I posted so many pictures, but I had a bunch I wanted to share. Hopefully next time I post there will not be so many. It takes a while to upload and caption 19 pictures. :)

Oh... and Happy belated 4th of July!

PS: I've been thinking about starting a book review blog, called (what else?) Beagle Book Reviews. What do you loyal followers and readers think?

Ahh, dear Kusy

 

Sorry for the lengthy post, I just wanted to share all my pictures.

We just found out that Kusy has worms. He has to take a pill every day for the worms. He still has kennel cough and needs 2 pills per day, and he also needs to take 1 vitamin each day. He went to the vet yesterday, and got carsick on the way there. He also threw up in his cage last night and now he stinks to high heaven. Unfortunately he just got Frontline applied- for fleas and ticks- so we can't wash him until tomorrow.

So How is Dogdom so far.....

There isn't really any way to prepare yourself for getting a dog.

Except getting one.

It's the kind of experience you just jump into... nose first.

You never really get enough sleep (at the times that you're supposed to).

So... you multitask: sleep, read the newspaper, and snore.

 

See that jowl hanging just so over the newspaper?

Kusy is smart. He uses the pile of papers as his personal pillow.

Too bad the poor dog has kennel cough. His cough sounds... too human. He probably likes the getting-a-piece-of-hot-dog part. It's just that it's supposed to be the getting-a-piece-of-hot-dog-with-a-pill-for-kennel-cough-inside part. Thankfully, he's never not eaten the pill.... except once, when he ate some of it and spilled the rest of the yellow powder inside on the floor.

More pictures to come soon!