This Funky Junky

BeiBei spent the weekend at my sister's house, while we were in New Orleans for a wedding.
She blogged about the weekend, here.  She is has a great blog called "This Funky Junky".  Read it!

Bei is growing up!

And now, 9 months old....just about full grown!

 She's about 55 lbs.  

I love her a little too much.

Cozy Bei.

Remember this...

Well, this is a good one too...

This is her one of her favorite spots.  She's not hiding...I think she just feels cozy in there.  

(They say dogs are "den" animals by nature.)

Oh...Bei.

Rock N' Roll Doggie Do

As BeiBei continues to grow bigger and her hair gets longer and shaggier, I'm realizing that I really do have to brush her coat a few times a week.  I have been brushing it 1-2 times a week, and I have been pretty successful at preventing mats, up until lately.  I'm beginning to find small mats here and there.  So I think as her hair gets longer, she's starting to need it more like 2-3 times a week.
She is basically a non-shedding dog, which is very low maintenance, but I guess the trade off is that I have to brush her.  She's fairly cooperative, but still resists me a little bit.

A friend send me a link to a blog called "Simply Seleta" where they gave their goldendoodle, Pippi, a hilarious haircut!  They live near a creek and so their dog was always getting so muddy, which caused her to get very matted.  When they took the dog to the groomer, the groomer said she would have to be shaved basically to the skin.  They came up with this compromise:

She reminds me of an 80s hair band.  

This family was sad to shave their goldendoodle down, but they had a great sense of humor about it!

For now, I hope to keep my little furball..."fluffed"...so I guess I'll bump up my brushing regimen.

   

Hide and Seek

I often find Bei like this...
She loves to be under our bedskirt or curtains.

Tired of seeing pictures of my dog?
Sorry, but no one forces you to read this blog!  Do they?
*If someone is forcing you to read this blog, please report your complaint to 1-877-STOP-FORCING-ME.

Rockin' Goldendoodle

I stumbled across this pic on the web, which coincidentally was taken by my old friend, Troy, that I met when I lived in Los Angeles.  I love this pic, so I just had to share...

Photo by Troy Grover at www.troygrover.com

Though this look is pretty awesome, I don't think BeiBei will ever be sporting that because we cut her bangs so she can see!  She has huge almond eyes and I don't want to hide them or give her a life of blindness.  But this dog is super cute!

Here's some recent pictures of the Bei, herself, cause you know I can't resist...

These are her two favorite spots in the house.

 Sleeping bear...

A good & a Bad!

The good:
I had my first real live paid decorating consulation yesterday with my first real live paying client (a sweet friend from church)! 

I was a little nervous, because when I am decorating my own house, I have so much time to think about how I want things to be.  I was nervous I wouldn't be able to come up with ideas and solutions on the spot for someone else's house.  But I DID have ideas, and solutions.  It was SO FUN!  We worked on her living room first, and made a few small, but impactful changes.  Next we worked on her bedroom and COMPLETELY rearranged it in about 20 minutes.  It was a transformation.  We've still got lots to do in there.  I'm having a blast (and I think maybe she is too!).

Thanks, friend, for trusting me with your home!  Maybe she'll let me blog about the results! 

*If you want to schedule a decorating consulation email me at sara.d.walker@gmail.com!  (Don't worry, I'm cheap $!)

The Bad:

Okay, maybe it's not THAT bad, but I had to take BeiBei to the groomer today to get a summer cut.  I am so sad about having to cut off her adorable shagginess!  We tried to resist it, but as June has come into full swing, it's clear that she is just too hot.  I asked for a puppy cut (which means just a little shorter all over, but NOT SHAVED).  I hope they do what I asked!  I anxious/scared to see how my precious pup will look when I pick her up.   

Shaved Goldendoodle (NOT the look I want)

*I have also read on sites like this one that it's best not to shave your goldendoodle down to less than a 2" coat, because their skin is very sensitive to sunburn, and their coats help to insulate them from the heat.

Goldendoodle with a Puppy Cut (I'm hoping she'll look more like this...)

I'm crossing my fingers.  I'll keep you posted!

They grow up so fast...

Our goldendoodle puppy, BeiBei, is getting so big!  We got her February 28th.  Here are a few pictures from then until now.  

Here she is as just a little tike, taking a potty break on the way home from the hospital place where we bought her. (Feb 28)

Then she grew up, just a little...(March 10)

Now just look at her!  She's getting all growed up!

 (April 11)

Here with a sunkist can for scale...

(I'm a nerd I know)

Is she the cutest dog, or what?

She's 23 lbs now (went to vet today), and she's almost 3 1/2 months old.  The vet says whatever a dog's weight is at 4 months is usually about half their size full grown.  She we are expecting about a 50lb dog.  Some goldendoodles can be close to 100lbs, so we are glad she's a small one! 

She's getting so fluffy.  She is so snuggly, but loves to play too.  She plays with Chris and snuggles with me.  She gets so frustrated she can't fit in my lap in my lap anymore.  Every time she slides off my lap, so climbs back up.

She knows sit, stay, come, drop it, and off.  She's learning fetch, but doesn't have the hang of it completely yet.  She still has a little separation anxiety, but it is SO much better.  We are working with her on not jumping up on people or objects.  She's getting a lot better with it.  

She's not doing it as much anymore, but it's taking us a while to get her to stop nipping us and our clothes for play.  I read that, whenever she nips you you should squeal "Ow!", and then leave the room.  This is what puppies do when their playing with each other.  If one dog plays too rough, the other will squeal and walk away.  I have been doing this with BeiBei when she nips at me, and it has made a big difference. 

She sleeps on her back, by the way...

BeiBei's area is lookin' a little better these days, so I have to post a picture to redeem the mess that was posted on my blog when we first got her...

Here's a video of BeiBei and Niko (the other neighborhood goldendoodle puppy, that's 1 month older than BeiBei) having a little impromptu play date in the back of Chris's truck.  Can you tell which is which?

If you wanna read more about BeiBei, such as where we got her and how we decided to get a goldendoodle, read my posts:

We're Puppy Shopping!

3 States & a Dog

Life with a baby, I mean a BeiBei

Designer Dog Bedding

Life with a baby, I mean a BeiBei.

For the past few days we have been seeing more and more of BeiBei's personality.  She seems to be recovering from the grief of leaving her family and starting to get more comfortable.  The first day we had her, she wasn't playing much, and just wanted to be held.  Chris was worried she was going to be a wimp and not have a lot of personality, but I think she was definitely just in shock from leaving her littermates.  She's becoming so playful and fun, but she still has that sweet cuddly side.  She LOVES people.  She wants to be around us constantly.  If she's playing with a toy, she'll bring it over and play with it in your lap or on top of your feet.  She's gonna be a good dog!

I am getting a little worried about her separation anxiety though.  We are crate training her, and she does great when we're home and we put her in her kennel for naps, or if we leave for a little while and she's in her kennel while we are gone.  We covered her kennel with a blanket and put a sound machine on the heartbeat setting and left it in the room.  This has made ALL the difference!  We also put a puppy edible bone and a soft stuffed animal in her crate.

But when we go to work for 8 hours, it's too long for her small bladder to hold it to stay in her crate.  We can't come home to let her out, so we have to keep her behind a baby gate in our sunroom and leave out a pee pad.  But, when we leave all day and leave her free in the sunroom, I think she cries and cries and cries.  When I get home at night I can hear her crying before I even get to the door.  I don't know if she cries all day or not, but it breaks my heart to think that she might.  From what I've read dogs feel much more secure in their crates, so I guess she feels super insecure out in the open in the sunroom (but I don't think she's figured out she can freely go in her crate).

This morning I read about it online and started working with her on her anxiety about being separated from us and staying in the sunroom.  Here's the site I read online.

I leave her in the room, shutting the gate and saying "I'll be back" (which is supposed to become a safety comfort cue for her).  I give her a treat and leave (she ignores the treat because she is going ballistic barking and wining).  As I'm walking away I keep saying, "I'll be back".  I go out of sight and wait a few minutes, and when she calms down just a little I come back calmly and go back inside the gate with her.  I don't make a big deal greeting her, and although she gets really excited and jumps all over me I wait for her to calm down and remain calm.  I've repeated this 5-6 times until it was quiet as a mouse in my house!  She's starting resting and relaxing instead of crying and yelping.  Each time I left her I waited a little longer.  Finally an hour later when I left for work I shut her gate and she stayed back and relaxed chewing on a toy.  She didn't even follow me to the gate or jump up.  I left and never heard a peep from her!  The website linked above and here explains why I did what I did and says to keep working with her all week.  I hope this will help her to relax while we're gone and not feel abandoned!!!  I'm so proud of our little pup. 

She looked just like this when I left this morning...

To backtrack a little, here's the low-down on her set-up.
We have a little sunroom in the back of our house off the kitchen.  This is now Bei-Bei's crib.

Her kennel is under the blanket under this table.  It just BARELY fits.  

The major players...

bowls from IKEA

We're feeding her Purina Puppy-chow, which was reccommended by the breeder we visited, and the family we bought our dog from.  We're keeping it in old trash can we had in the basement (but this won't last long because she's almost figured out how to open it)...

 pee pads...

The major PLAYers...

She LOVEs those bones, whenever she chews something she's not supposed to I firmly say no and then stick a bone or a toy in her mouth instead.  I hope this works!  We play fetch constantly with the other items.  The bottle is so fun.  She loves the squeeky noise it makes when she plays with it and it bounces all over the place when it slides out of her teeth.

I'm trying not to give her any toys that resemble household items (blankets, shoes, etc.).  This may confuse her and make her want to chew up OUR blankets and shoes.  I read something that confirmed this idea.  (I know a bottle is a household item, but it's disposable anyway!)

We have gotten a lot of great tips from this magazine/book we picked up at the pet store called Puppy Training Basics.   It's by Popular Dogs Gold Series.

I'll leave you with a few more pics..

Thanks for reading,

SW

3 States and a Dog!

After a long multi-part journey...We got her!
I had a dance competition in Atlanta this weekend, so Chris and I left Birmingham friday evening and drove to Anniston to see his grandmother (and his mom was visiting her too).  We spent the night there, and then went on to Atlanta on Saturday morning, making a stop at PetSmart, Wal-mart (for price comparison purposes) and drum roll...IKEA!  Saturday afternoon we went to the dance competition, spent the night and then got up early to drive to Lascassas, TN (outside of Murphesboro).  We picked up our pup and headed back to Birmingham.  Total Driving time:  estimated 9 hours and 43 minutes!

Here are some pics from picking up the dog...
(We got the lighter girl, by the way.  We fell in love with her from the pictures, and so we were pretty sure before we even got there we would want her)

Chris with Hope, the seller.

She's a cutie...

This is Violet, the momma dog.  She is a "petite" golden retriever.  We were so happy to see how small she was, since we are hoping for a smaller dog.  The poodle dad is two pounds smaller than her.

Proud Puppy Parents...

One last playful goodbye with Momma Dog.  

Then we loaded up in the car to take her home.  She was very shy and timid at first, but she was all about cuddling.  She wasn't very playful at all on the ride home.  She just wanted to be held and petted.  (Chris says, that's only because I DID hold and pet her for 3 straight hours!  But my maternal instincts tell me that's what she needed!)  I could tell she was nervous because she was panting and would pant even faster if anything startled her.  

I think that a lot of puppies would have wanted to explore the whole car and would have been trying to get out of my lap, but she was so content to sit with me for the whole ride!  This was great for our bonding experience.  I think it shows that she is definitely pretty calm. I am pretty much obsessed with her now!

She kept climbing up me and trying to get her face on my shoulder...

She finally fell asleep like this after a belly rub...

I LOVE HER!

We named her "BeiBei" (pronounced like "bay-bay") after getting to know her for a 24 hours.  BeiBei is a little town in East Asia where Chris spent a summer in college.  It has a very special place in his heart.  He has returned there three times since, and he took me the last time.  We both love it so much there.  We hope we can go there again soon and may even considering living there one day!  It is close to our hearts, and so our pup is a little walking reminder of a place we love and a reminder to pray for the local people and our friends that live there.  I wish I could share pictures from our trip to BeiBei, but I don't have any because lost my camera (and my wallet, and passport) after leaving Bei Bei to go to another city (that's another story!).

We'll probably call her "Bei" for short.