Harley

This is my dog Harley. He's an almost 9 year old English Mastiff. He was quite a handful when he was younger, but now he is very well trained. I hope that he is able to help me train the new puppy I'm getting Christmas day. He still acts like a puppy when we go on walks, but most of the time he's just a big couch potato. He's been even more sedentary since my Saint Bernard Bubba died back in March this year. I hope that the new puppy will lift his spirits. He's lost quite a bit of weight since Bubba past, but the Veterinarian thought he was perfectly healthy, and couldn't believe he was almost 9! Most Mastiff's don't live that long (6-7 years), so I guess I'm doing something right. Bubba, my Saint, made it to 13. I was blessed with having such a long friendship with him, and hopefully Harley can make it that long too. He does seem more depressed lately. Maybe more trips to the Dog Park, Petco, and the new puppy will cheer him up.

Dang those are big dogs!

Harley loves horses, but I'm sure he thinks they are big dogs! This group loved him too, very interested. My blackberry doesn't take the best video, and I'm not very steady when I'm walking, but here's the video nonetheless. I think they startled him!

And that's that

Harley and I walk our country roads often, and one of his favorite past times is barking at the neighboring horses. This one lives right across the road from our house. He was extremely interested in Harley and came running to the fence to meet him. He wasn't impressed I guess, and showed us exactly what he thought of the whole experience! I thought it was hilarious!

New puppy preparations

I'm getting a new “Shichon” puppy Christmas day, and I have been making a puppy crate for her for the last week or so. She’s a Bichon Frise- Shih Tzu hybrid that I also like referring to as a “Frise Shit”.

The first picture of the crate is the rough version. I found 8 foot 1x2’s and 2x4’s for $1 each, and 4x8 sheet of plywood on craigslist.com for super cheap. The smaller side of the crate is her bedding area, the larger is for her "potty oops's". Since she is 8 weeks old, she won’t have much bladder control, so I wanted to give her the option of pottying somewhere other than in her bed. The traditional crate method has never really worked for me since I cannot be home all day long. It seems that when a puppy is very young they cannot help but relieve themselves throughout the night, and if you give them an alternative to pottying inside their bed they usually take it. All dogs want to be clean so if you can help them stay that way; this is a good crating technique. It worked really well with my Mastiff Harley. This rough crate isn't very cute, or waterproof.

To make it so I caulked the seams and painted Kilz primer over and over and over. I then used high gloss latex paint, at least 2 coats. I made 2 different size slats to separate her bedding area from her potty oops area. Once she is able to hold it for longer I will install the taller slat so that she will eventually only use the bedding area for bed time and won’t need the potty area. I did mess up a bit when I painted the slats... latex paint adds considerably to the thickness, and then the slats didn't fit! I had to sand them down to make them fit again, and it's still really tight! Oh well, design flaw. Live and learn!

I am soooo happy with my color choices! How $#@& cute! I know dogs are color blind, but I don't care, it is adorable. I painted all of it. Blue latex first, then the dark pink, then used a sponge for the light pink. It looks fabulous. I also installed rollers underneath for easy moving. The high gloss paint I used is very easy to keep clean, spray and wipe! That's it! Now all I need is the puppy!