A little bit of this and that

We're enjoying this summer.  The weather has been very nice for a change.  Varick is growing up and just turned 6 months old on July 26th.  Our household has been slightly disrupted this month with our house getting a new roof, new siding, new gutters, etc etc thanks to the major hailstorm we had in April.  SO the dogs have been pretty good about dealing with lots of strange guys around and LOTS of hammering and banging all day.

We have had a lovely "urban deer" hanging out on our street this summer.  She appears to be fearless, and completely ignores the dogs barking at her.  If you get too close, she will slowly wander away. 

See how close Travis got to her while taking pictures.  She is right there between the pine trees in our neighbors backyard.  Prior to this picture, all the dogs were clamoring against the fence at her.

"I got this!"

 

 Jamie is SO cute, gotta love him.  These pics are from Spring, but had to share.

 

"Stripes on Stripes"

 Enjoying his new outdoor bed.  I got tired of dragging his crib mattress in and out everyday.

 

 Varick did some swimming.

And some tugging...

It's hard to see, but here he is being "buzzed" by Travis' RC Helicopter.

 

Varick got a new waterproof swim collar.  It dries quickly, is color fast and doesn't stretch.

He looks awesome in it at the dock diving pool or the creek.

 I did find a little spare time to do a painting of the silly boy.

Varick's fur is super shiny and he gets compliments on it all the time.

Remember he was the only one in his litter to have a white spot on his chest?

Well, this is all that remains.  THREE HAIRS, can you see them?

 

And interestingly, he has tan hair between his toes now.

Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone.......

I swear I blinked once, and POOF, my little puppy turned into a "big dog".  Granted, Varick is still young, but you can totally see the handsome, strapping German Shepherd he is becoming.  The traces of puppy hood are fading fast.

My little kitchen helper, age 9 weeks..

 In the kitchen 19 weeks, and crazy ears.

Look at this handsome dude!

He has his adult coat now, and it is glossy black and gorgeous.

Learning the fine art of guarding the yard....

 

  

 Guarding can be hard work!

  

 Jamie showing him how to select the best sticks.  

Jamie considers the wood pile his personal stick collection.

  

 Jamie, please don't show him how to destroy bushes..*sigh*

So this is how it's done huh?

Varick has moved into his 48" crate, so we had to move it to the living room.  

Here is my new DropCam view...

Varick says "I'm gonna lay just like YOU"

PS - Bayden is 104# of Beauceron, Varick is catching up quick!

And it looks like his ears are up, finally!  

More teething to come, but we hope they stay high.

I caught these two playing in the evening before bed.  

Photos shot through the door, because if they saw me, they'd come running!

Jamie is my gentle giant, and still spunky. He turns 9 later this month!

Can't have an update without Shine.  She is always off doing her own thing in the yard.  (Hunting!) She misses out on a lot of photo shoots. 

She also has a birthday this month and will be 8!  Not a gray hair on her.

And she had her annual checkup with the vet.  The vet was very impressed with her health.  She doesn't have any of the lumps and bumps that old dogs can have.  She gets so bored waiting....

Say CHEESE!  She weighs in at 42#. a surprising weight for someone so short.  But boy is she stout!   Just imagine lifting a 40# bag of dog food, and that's her.

And lastly, a little video of Varick practicing his heeling.  This was Mother's day, we had a picnic at a new park.

From Crooked Creek to Cool Creek

Fun Facts - I have learned that it's pretty hard to take pictures of a black dog inside the house, so a majority of Varick's pictures are outside.  However, he does live in the house, of course.  Lot's of people ask us "do they all live in the house?!" when they see our dogs.  It always seems like a weird question to us, where ELSE would they be?

The best present I got this Christmas was my DROPCAM.  It's a wi-fi camera that I can view anywhere, anytime via my iPhone.  It is SO awesome for checking up on the puppy/dogs.  It will "alert" me anytime motion is detected.  Most of the time, it's one of the dogs ROLLING OVER, because they are lazy BUMS when we are not home.   Here are a few hilarious screen shots I caught of Varick in his crate.

You can see he's pretty comfortable in there.

And a note to Varick's breeder, Karen Belcher of Crooked Creek - we do have the "toe traps" under the doors blocked :)

Varick's had a couple of adventures this month.  First, he outgrew his "gold" puppy collar and graduated to a nice light leather collar from Ella's Lead .  It's their "tag collar" in 1/2 inch.

I think he looks handsome!

And best of all, we FINALLY got a break in the cold, rainy weather to visit the park that is literally across the street from us.  It features a free-flowing artisian well, where many locals come to fill up their water jugs, and also Cool Creek winds it's way through.  There are 17 acres of trails and the creek runs along them.  Varick has CREEK water in his blood, coming from the beautiful Crooked Creek Ranch.  He got his first taste of flowing water EARLY, and he STILL loves it.  We hope he will be our future dock-diving star. 

He had a ton of fun going over there, and played in the creek with Samantha.  It was hard to get the two of them to go home!

Not sure what is going on in this photo, but that is not a black bear cub with her!  Sure looks like it though.

 The first time we went, I used a leash.  We quickly changed that to a harness and a flexi-lead.

And a little digging for treasure!

The park had severe flooding about 2 weeks ago.  Our street was flooded as well, first time that has ever happened!  It's been WAY too rainy this spring.  There is a LOT of debris along the creek right now.

Photo taken of our TV News that morning.  You can just barely see the top of the bridge railing!
♦

The bridge!

Video of his first visit to Cool Creek

Another quick video of him splashing

 

His first Water Retrieve!

 and his second

And lastly - sleepy, sandy puppy!

Next month, hopefully the weather will be even better and I can catch some pics of ALL the dogs!