4th of July Fireworks!

Each year, the city of Tigard puts on a great fireworks show at Cook Park, just north of our house. This was Quigley's first experience with a big fireworks show. Earlier in the week, Quigley heard some bottle rockets from our street. He was relatively fine with the bottle rockets popping, as he was inside the house. The evening of the 3rd, Q was a bit more jumpy and barky when he saw the sparks and pops from some fireworks being lit in the neighborhood.

Well, the evening of the 4th, we went to a friend's BBQ for dinner, and watched a few fireworks being lit by them and the neighbors. Before we knew it, it was getting much later, so we decided to head home and make sure that Quigley would feel fine during the big show.

We got home with plenty of time before the show, so we gave Q his dinner, and then decided to go for a walk down the main street, away from any fireworks. On our way out, he jumped a bit again when the neighbors lit some fireworks. He'd hide behind the bushes, and jump when he heard a pop. Poor dog. We made it out to the main road and started walking towards the wetlands, since nobody would launch any fireworks there. We had a wonderful view of the show. Quigley was able to calmly sit and watch the night sky glow above our neighborhood. There were quite a bit of loud booms, and Q was alert during those, but he was mostly just looking in the direction of the echoes. Thankfully, we were far enough from it that he did just fine, and didn't seem too traumatized, if at all. =)

Maybe next time we'll get to be a little bit closer. If not, we'll figure something out. It was nice watching the show from where we did. Happy 4th!

Dog Parks x 4

What a lucky dog Quigley is. With the nice weather we took him to the equivalent of 4 dog parks this last week. On Thursday, we took him to Hazelia Field Dog Park off of Stafford Rd. This was a nice park, with bark for the dogs to run on, and a few obstacles and trees. Quigley had a blast running and playing with the dogs there. One dog in particular was a boxer who was 10-months old, I think. They enjoyed wrestling with each other, and she (the boxer) was impressive with the use of her paws and body to take Quigley down. Her owner was very nice as well, and engaged in conversation with us discussing raising a pup, and other dog parks in the area as well.

On Friday, I took Quigley to Memorial Park in Wilsonville. It was a beautiful afternoon that day, and there were a TON of dogs there. One dog in particular was a GSD/Lab(?) mix named Koda that Quigley enjoyed wrestling with. She was quite a collar-grabber, but after a few corrections from her human, she seemed to get the idea that she shouldn't do that. Another one of the many dogs he met was a 5-month old lab(mix?) pup. She was very shy and submissive, though, and didn't seem to want to play with Quigley too much. Poor girl, she must've been kinda intimidated by him, with his energy and wanting to play so much. At least he eventually understood, and went to play with other dogs after.

Saturday's dog park selection was the dog park at Mt. Tabor. This was technically "taking him to a dog park", though I didn't let him off leash there. My friend Vince and I were on a mission to get his daughter Benecia to the playground at the top of Mt. Tabor. Quigley didn't seem to mind, though. He got to play with his friend, Hass, earlier. Quigley didn't quite make it all the way up Mt. Tabor. Luckily Benecia wanted to be carried in her pack, so that freed up the stroller, which Vince offered to Quigley. One of these days you'll make it all the way up there, Q, one of these days. =)

On Sunday we took Quigley to Puppy Romp in Hillsboro. It's more of a private, indoor dog park just for puppies 6-months and under. Quigley had fun playing there, and we had fun watching all of the cute puppies. I think it's more geared towards younger pups so that they can learn how to play with other pups eventually bigger dogs. Quigley has had a bit of experience already, so I think he just thought of it as yet another playground. We saw that he had a little blood in his mouth when we left, so we got a little scared. Turned out, he knocked one of his bottom teeth loose, but it didn't get knocked out. Hopefully it isn't causing him too much paid or anything.

So that's that. 4 "parks" in 4 days. Hopefully he doesn't start demanding this from us. I think we'll be OK though. He seems pretty tired still. That walk up Mt. Tabor is tougher than you think, especially if you're a puppy that's used to flat ground.

Rest up, Q-ball. =)

Puppy Scare

Anyone who's ever felt sick and vomited knows how bad one must feel in that situation.  Being a puppy parent and seeing my puppy vomit without knowing why is a very scary situation.  What did Q eat?  When did he eat it?  Is he going to be OK?  What did I miss that I should've caught?  Did he drink too much beer? (just kidding)  And then on top of that to see him chow down on his vomit as if he hadn't eaten in days....   Absolute horror is all that I can say to describe what I felt last night.

Q actually vomited twice last night.  Once at around 10pm, which appeared to be just a little bit (I woke up too late to really tell).  And the second time was at around 1-1:15am, which was a whole lot.  We decided to give him some plain rice to help settle and fill his stomach.  Not long after, he pooped what appeared to be normal looking poop, so we felt a little more relieved, but still worried and shaken up, nonetheless.

This morning Quigley seemed OK.  He ate breakfast like usual, and barked at everyone outside when I wanted him to just go potty.  He didn't really want to go walking, like usual, but he did play "fetch" inside the house, and then ran his usual laps around the living room, kitchen and dining room for a little bit.  We hope that whatever it was that bugged him last night is now gone, and hopefully can be easily avoided next time.  I just wish I knew what it was....