whiskedaway

Gorgeous photo of Jamie, TLC is right, she really doesn't look her age. Week 34/52 Akira nice and clean and fluffy after her bath.

Akira sleeps like that all the time, but I haven't caught her while I have the camera for a while, so these are baby puppy photos. Edited for link fail.

Oh that is such a good photo! Great work.

My Sibe was exactly the same when we got her, and she spent a week petrified of us and months scared of the dishwasher/washing machine, etc. She's still afraid of the microwave. I second treating whenever he does something sociable. Let him get used to new things slowly and treat straight away. We got Akira used to the sound of the heater by sitting next to it with her and treating her every couple of seconds. Basically you make an unpleasant situation into a pleasant one. And slowly getting them used to lots of new situations is important. At that age you'd prefer them to have been socialised already, but you can still do it now. Like Akira, he's probably never been inside before.

Haha, well unless I move to the US I won't be getting a biscuit. I still have to convince OH on the merits of Sammies anyway, so it's lucky I've got a few years to do it.

I think I had a photo on my computer at home, but I'm at work at the moment. I've found this one, which is meant to be full biscuit, though looks like there's a few white spots, but that could just be the light reflecting off his coat.

Ah okay. It's funny how the two standards are different. Pity, I love the full biscuit colour.

The breed standard says that a Samoyed can come in white, cream, and white and biscuit. Does this mean that the biscuit colour is a fault? It seems to be okay in the American standard.

Yeah, we are friendly with the neighbours. They're both older, and he often checks on Akira for us during the day when we're not home. She and Casey have met each other a couple of times, but she's a lot bigger than Casey and he gets a little nippy. I might just try and keep her away from that area.

I have both an Olympus FE-4000 12MP and a Kodak Easyshare Z1012IS 10MP. The Kodak is older and was more expensive, and tends to take better photos than the Olympus due to the fact that it's a lot faster, but if your subject isn't moving, the Olympus is really good. I really want a DSLR, though.

The only zoomies pic I have of Akira was taken by the wonderful Tokkie at the last DOL meetup - my camera is definitely NOT fast enough to catch her doing zoomies! Ruger and Eve are chasing her.

Our houses are actually attached, so the kennel is actually right next to our house, it's just also up against the fence between the two properties. It's the best spot for it because it doesn't get wet there and it's not in the way. I also don't think moving the kennel will stop Akira from going over to the fence when Casey is there anyway.

My neighbour's girlfriend comes around every second weekend, and with her she brings her eight year old SWF, Casey. Every time he comes over and Akira is at her water bowl or near her kennel (which is next to the fence on their side), Casey starts sniffing the fence line. As soon as Akira puts her nose down to sniff him back, he starts growling and barking and that of course gets Akira started. We normally take Akira away when she starts barking, but because she knows he's there she often goes back to the fence line later and the whole thing starts again. The neighbours know that Casey is the one that starts it so they have no problems with Akira barking in reply, but I'd prefer it to not happen at all. Any advice or suggestions? After all, it is HER home, not his.

Week 33: Akira is loving the sunshine today.

I get puppy clucky until I remember how much of a handful Akira is! We won't get another puppy until we've had kids, which means Akira will be at LEAST five years old by then.

I would say she was telling the puppy off.

Oh, it looks brilliant! Are you thrilled? Does it feel nice to walk on? Please keep me posted on how it holds up - if it survives your dogs, it HAS to survive mine.

My pup is pretty active, though I suppose that's what you get with a Sibe. She gets two walks a day and training and playtime, so at the end of the day when we want to relax, she's all tired out and fast asleep either in her kennel or beanbag. We're fairly active too, though.

I HATE that. I used to get so angry when my work would do that for someone who was a right pig and shouldn't have gotten anything. I'm so glad that I'm out of retail.

Awesome to know that Jenni87. I think we'll make sure to get one with a good warranty as well and ask them "If our dog manages to dig through it, what happens?" and possibly get their answer in writing. Akira is very good at destroying things so I want to make sure we have all bases covered with this!

I'm a bit late! Here's week 32: It was taken two days after Akira was desexed last week.

Interesting little fact - my boss told me the other day that insurance companies are what keep the stock market viable. So of course they make money, and LOTS of it. We don't have pet insurance - Akira's most expensive vet bill (other than her desexing) was $350 and that was when she was throwing up, and that included an emergency Sunday visit, an x-ray and an injection. We keep a just-in-case credit card.

Akira doesn't, though our old Viszla, Elley, had "Da da da duh da daaaa! Puppy Power!" and she would howl whenever we did it. Not sure where it came from, I think it must have been a TV show my parents used to watch. My friend has a Chi called Mia and her theme song is "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt.

Akira loves banana peels for some reason. Every time she finds one she makes a mad dash to grab it.

Akira is a "practice baby" I suppose. Dogs are definitely different to kids, but you need the same responsibility with both. You can't go out partying with a dog without the dog acting out (not that we were ever partying people anyway) and you can't with a baby. You deal with the baby stage of dogs for a much shorter length of time, but you still learn slightly what it's like when a human baby comes along. I hate dogs being banished outside when a baby comes along too. It makes me sad.