Puppies on holiday.

I think it is my destiny to be the crazy old dog lady when I hit my really-senior years. Kim and Oliver decided that the time had come for them to take a mini-holiday and frankly, if you have to try and manage the needs of a toddler and two dogs, it pretty quickly becomes a non-holiday and sinks more to the level of a "chore away from home". Believe me, I know. This year was the first time that our dogs spent a week in a kennel, but I have to say that Don searched out a place that is more like a five star doggy hotel. Anyway, Kim asked me if I would mind having her two doggies for a few days and because I'm a mom, I said yes ( because isn't that what moms do?). When she asked, she mentioned them staying in our barn so that they wouldn't drive us crazy and part of the reason being that her little Boo has a reputation of being a bully and horribly cranky.

As you can see from the photo above, they are not in the barn, haven't been in there for a moment, and they are getting along famously although Max is quite disappointed that neither of the visitors is particularly playful. I have to thank Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer, for the great relations going on here. After Kim and Oliver had left, very shortly after in fact, Boo tried to get a little snotty and she was treated to the "Milan bite" and a very stern "hey", and that was pretty much it. I've reinforced it a couple times, but always with a descelarating sternness. For those of you not familiar with Cesar Milan, he uses the tips of his fingers to give a badly behaving dog a poke just where the side of the neck and shoulders meet, and in a very firm way says no, or in his case, kind of hisses at them. Almost without exception, a couple times of this puts Fido in his place and the bad behaviour soon ends.

So as you can see Kim, your doggies are doing good (or did good depending on when you look at this) and I think it might even have been good for them to have a change of scenery. By the way, do you have any idea how difficult it is to spend time on the computer with buddies like this?