Meet Harley!

Good Morning everybody!

I'd like to introduce you to Harley!
Harley is a new addition to our family. My mother-in-law got him for Valentine's Day a couple of days ago. He's about 9 weeks old and a little Chihuahua. He's the cutest little dog. Even though he doesn't live with us, I do get to babysit him every now and then. In this picture he's sleeping in my arms while I was watching a movie. He loves to sleep in people's arms. Harley is very playful and attentive; so much so that I was able to teach him "sit" within ten minutes!

For now it is hard to have him and Murphy at the same time because they both want to constantly play with each other, but Murphy is simply to big and playful for him. When Murphy just nudges Harley, Harley goes flying trough the room. But I hope once he gets a little bit bigger those two will be good friends :) For the picture on the right I finally managed to get those two next to each other without being all tangled up. Aren't they a cute couple?
Well, while we're anxiously waiting on Harley to get a little bit bigger, Murphy and I are continuing to go to Obedience Class and using our book "101 dog tricks" (see last post). This week in class we learned "stand" (which we still have to work on a lot!!) and we went trough the first couple of pages of the book. The first tricks were all quite basic and Murphy already knew them ("sit", "down", "stay", "come" - though we are still working on the "stay" and "come" so they become more reliable). He also already knew "shake hands" (left and right) and it turns out that distinguishing between both hands is not as hard as I thought it would be. Now we're working on getting the "fetch it" , "take it", "drop it" and "give it" more reliable and Murphy is having fun practicing all of that each day.
Later today we'll drive out to the lake where a friend of mine lives (she has 3 dogs permanently and fosters dogs every now and then) and go on a walk. I think that is Murphy's highlight of the week, he really enjoys himself out there.
Have a great weekend everybody and I'll catch up with you later!

Hello and Welcome!

Hello and Welcome everybody to my new blog. This blog will be all about dogs and everything related.
I want to tell you a little bit about my background and the dogs in my life.When I was about 13, I finally convinced my parents (more my mom) to get a dog. We went to the local shelter "just to look at the dogs". Well my mom saw one and said "either this one or no one". So that same day we ended up with a dog. On the car ride home we all tried to find a suitable name for our little friend. The one we finally agreed on was Max. Max is a Terrier Mix and is originally from Spain (at that point I lived in Germany). I love him a lot and I taught him a few tricks. Well when I was 19 I moved out and went to college. Unfortunately there were no dogs allowed in my dorm so I had to leave Max behind at my parents house. I went home about once every two weeks to visit. In my second year of college I had the schedule that allowed me to have a dog, so we sneaked Max into my room where he lived with me for about 6 months. It was so much fun! After that I had to give him back to my parents because my schedule got to hectic to try and hide a dog in my room. In the summer of 2010 I had to leave Max behind at my parents house again, because I moved to the United States to be with my now husband. It was hard to say goodbye to my beloved dog.

Once I got here my fiancé (now husband) saw how sad I was, so after me being here for 1 week, he got me a little puppy that we believed to be a full-blood Labrador as a "welcome-home-gift". I loved that little guy immediately and we decided to name him Murphy. Raising Murphy was great and at times frustrating. As soon as he was 10 weeks old I started taking him to puppy classes and he loved it. Now Murphy is 8.5 months old and fully grown. Well, it turns out that he was not 100% Labrador. Instead of getting taller he just got longer and longer. After doing some asking around about his parents and looking at him, we now know that his mother indeed was a Labrador but his father was a Basset Hound! Either way, I love the little fellow to death. In the meantime we finished puppy class and discovered his love for water. Also, for Halloween I made him a little bandanna, turns out he also likes wearing scarves and the like. And, much to my liking, he loves to cuddle with me! Two weeks ago Murphy got to experience his first snow and as you might already suspect, he loves snow! It's very cute to watch him play in it. Also a couple of weeks ago we started our second class. This is the Obedience Beginners and I hope to move all the way up and then start Agility with him. We're having so much fun together.
I am so thankful for my husband that he gave me this dog! Just today I got a book I ordered: 101 Dog Tricks. I can't wait and start to teach him some of those and have him help around the house. This book looks great and I will let you know how it works out once we start learning the tricks. You can buy it at Amazon if you click to the left.

I guess that is all for today. I hope you liked our story and will keep coming back for more. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

Murphy in the snow at 8.5 months old

Murphy in the lake at 4 months old

Graduating Puppy class in October

Halloween Bandanna mommy made

sleeping on mommy!