It's been a while...

Geez, it's been awhile since we've last posted on here. Quigley's been through quite a lot, meeting his "grandparents" on both sides, a whole football season of home games, staying at Uncle Jo's house, various trips to the Seattle-area, and his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! I'll try and post some pictures and stories in the next few days about the past few months. :)

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. =)

Ballard!

After spending the Saturday in Seattle, I took our barker to Ballard where Kath was visiting our friends LeAnne and Rex. Quigley got to run around like he does in our house, but this time with the luxury of a backyard and patio. He surprised (and scared) me when he jumped from the bench on the patio onto the grass. He'd never been able to jump like that with us, and so I didn't know if he could make it. It was no sweat to him, and he landed it like a champ. If only we had a backyard that he could run around like that in. Oh well, at least with him running around our first floor, he doesn't have to get wet and/or dirty. =)

We had our 2nd 10K training session with LeAnne and Rex that day. Instead of 2 and 5 minute intervals (run/walk), it was 3/4 (run/walk). Q, however, had his own pace in mind. Parts of his pace involved weight-training for myself and resting periods for him.

After our run/walk, we decided it was time to chow down. We went to downtown Ballard to Zak's for some burgers and shakes. Q waited patiently outside with Kath, while we placed our order and then waited for the food to come out. He did very well meeting people and dogs during the wait. Once we got our food, we went to the park next to the Ballard Library. There were plenty of kids, younger and older, and some other dogs there. Once again, he did very well, even some skateboarders came by, he didn't seem fazed, unlike his usual scared-self around skateboarders.

Our final Ballard destination was All The Best Pet Care. This was an awesome pet store with very friendly people working there. I was interested in getting a toy called a "Bob-A-Lot", which is a wobbly, treat-dispensing toy, with the same effect as a Buster Cube. Q wasn't so successful with the Buster Cube (it's just too big right now), and I had no idea if Q would want to play with the Bob-A-Lot, so I wasn't sure if I should purchase it. Well, the pet store had the best thing ever... a toy testing area where your pup can demo various toys sold in the store! We tried to see if Q had interest in some toy, which he kinda did, but when it came to the Bob-A-Lot, it seemed to keep him interested, so that sold me on it. =) Q even met some more dogs while playing around. He tried to play-bite at an older dog, but didn't get too aggressive. He also tried to share the Bob-A-Lot with a more aggressive Golden Lab puppy, who barked, growled, and bit at him. I was happy about that encounter though. He backed away at the right times, but he stood his ground so that he could play with the toy as well.

That last stop was a great way to end our day in Ballard. Q got his new toy, and they actually gave us some different samples of pet food that we could try with it. We walked back to our cars, said our byes to LeAnne and Rex, and then made our way home. What an eventful weekend, Quigley. =)

Seattle!

This weekend, Quigley visited Uncle Jay in Seattle.  After feeding Q a relatively late lunch, his stay started off with a nice long walk with some good hills.  First stop, of course was to go to the bathroom outside Uncle Jay's apartment.  After that, Uncle Jay and I searched for our lunch location.  During our "hunting adventure",.Quigley met a beagle, a mixed-breed with Whippet and Schnauzer, a really fluffy Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and a few other dogs.  After passing various locations, carrying Q when he didn't want to walk, and meeting many people who melt at the sight of a puppy, we ended up at Dick's Drive-In for some burgers, fries and shakes.

Uncle Jay and I walked Quigley down the street to Cal Anderson Park, and found a bench by the water feature there.  Q waited fairly patiently while we ate our lunch, and he met a few more dogs, including what appeared to be a Bernese Mountain Dog.  After the Bernese Mountain Dog said "Bye," to Q, it went to the water feature and waded for a few seconds.  Another interesting thing that was in the water was a photographer and the model he was photographing.  It's crazy what some people do, as it wasn't warm or sunny, and that water must've been cold.

After we ate, we ventured further into the park.  I put Q on his long leash, and found an open concrete area to try and get him to play fetch.  Well, there was too much seeds and bark on the ground, that he had very little interest in his ball.  We moved further in, and found a empty basketball court.  We threw around his floating Kong, since it had a rope.  Now he was playing fetch... sorta.  It was more of run after after the Kong with Uncle Jay holding the leash, run past the kong and turn around to get it, then maybe run back to Dad, and if so, past him.  Silly dog.  Silly, Silly Dog.  Q met a few more dogs, including a 14-year old Golden Retriever / Australian Shepherd mix, and a 12-year old dog before we finally made it home for his afternoon nap.

Later that evening, after feeding Q his dinner, we took him for a nice long walk.  We started off walking a loop at Freeway Park.  From there we decided to look for our dinner, so we walked down to Pike's Place.  Since it was late, it turned out that nothing was open, so we headed back to Jay's apartment.  On our way, we passed by the newly opened "Biscuit Bitch", which serves late night biscuits and gravy.  While it sounded good, it wasn't exactly what we wanted for a late dinner, and we didn't want to have to wait another 10 minutes for it to open (10pm).  While we made our way back towards Jay's place, we crossed a busy intersection.  Then, all of a sudden, I felt a jolt on the leash.  I looked back to see Quigley squatting to pee in the middle of the crosswalk!  Poor guy, I had to pull him to get out of the street, and you could tell he just couldn't hold it any longer.  =(  Q, you need to give me some warning when we're walking, kinda like you do at home or in your crate.  You did so well inside Uncle Jay's apartment, now we just have to figure each other out when we're out and about.

Dog's First Day at the Beach

On Friday, Quigley had received his 3rd shot for Distemper, and also his Rabies shot.  With the great weather, and Q fully immunized, we decided to take Quigley to the beach on Saturday.  We picked up Uncle Jojo in Corvallis and then headed over towards Newport, and then up to Lincoln City.

The first stop in our itinerary was Beach Dog Cafe on the South side of town.  It's a cute little place with limited seating, but apparently it gets pretty busy, so we expected a wait.  We couldn't have arrived at a more perfect time.  We parked right in front of the place, got there just in time to beat a rush of people, and were able to seat ourselves at their only outside table so that Q could sit with us.  We had the stuffed french toast and the Coney Dog.  Mmm, mmm, good!  In all the times we've been to Lincoln City, why hadn't we discovered this place sooner? 

Another thing that brought a smile to our faces, was the cutest little boy that Sonja, one of the owners, brought out to say hi to Quigley and a pit bull who had arrived not long after. He was sooooo happy to see the dogs. You had to see the smile on his face, it was truly infectious.

You can tell that they are very dog friendly there, as the walls are decorated with pictures of their patrons' dogs.  (Picture of Quigley, pending, hehe)  They also offered Quigley a delicious treat that we found out was available at Paws On The Sand, located on the North side of town..

Naturally, our next stop became Paws On The Sand, which was a great little pet store with very friendly people.  We picked up a floating Kong on a rope, and a bag of the Darford holistic dog treats that Q had tried earlier.  The people there absolutely loved Q, and gave him some more cute little treats.

After that, we made our way towards the beach, and introduced Q to sand.  I'm not sure what he thought of it at first since he kept falling and shoving his face in it, getting covered in sand.  It was so cute.  Once he got to the harder, wet sand, walking became much easier.  We let him sorta play fetch with his new frisbee (run after it and try to pick it up), chase after us, say hi to more people and dogs.  We also did a little bit of training, doing sit-stay, come, and lie down, which he did pretty well for being in a new environment with so many new things all around.

After playing at the beach for a few hours, we drove south to Newport for dinner.  We went to the Chowder Bowl at Nye Beach.  While we waited for our food outside, Quigley met even more people, including some kids.  He did fairly well with all the new people, even the kids, though he did jump up a few times, and nipped a little when he shouldn't have.  Overall, though, he did a good job.

After dinner we finally made the long trip back to Corvallis to drop off Uncle Jojo and then bring our fun day to a close.  It was a great trip for the four of us.  Quigley seemed to have a blast exploring his new play area and meeting all the friendly people and dogs.  The coast will definitely be a destination for us when the weather is nice again. =)