Sick little corgi

Lord Gimli isn't feeling well today.  He's been mopey and clingy all day and its because of these little booboos he has on his skin.

We aren't sure how he ended up with this little sores?, I guess, on his leg by the elbow or on the underside of his belly, but we are wondering if it could be a sort of allergy since on our walks we come into contact with weeds of all types.  He could have come into contact with one of the prickly ones and its irritated his skin.  He has no other irritation anywhere else, thus fueling our theory.  He's fine otherwise, plays with toys and eats, drinks and poops normally, which is a good sign.

We're going to give him a quick belly bath this evening to wash away anything that could irritate him further and see how he fares tomorrow, else a quick vet visit may be in order.

This is what he looks like today...

He's going to get lots of kisses and snuggles to help him get better and back to his silly and energetic self.

Squigly bear

Yesterday, I came downstairs for a snack and I found Gimli like this...

He was kind enough to stay still long enough for me to stifle my laughter and urge to pounce on that belly so I could grab the camera and steal a few pictures.

If you look close enough, you can see a piece of his tongue sticking out.  Every once in a while, we'll find him with his tongue sticking out and turning blue.

Such a silly little corgi!

ahem

Everyday as part of my breakfast I have two slices of whole wheat toast with margarine.

And everyday, when a little creature hears the toaster oven beep 3 times, he suddenly appears in the living room and nonchalantly glances over at me in the hopes I offer a crust or two or three.

Well, recently, this creature hasn't been coming around.  I'm not sure why, but I didn't read too much into it.

This morning, I sat eating my toast as usual and had to clear my throat.  A loud, "Ahem", came out and Gimli, who was hanging out in the foyer, slowly walked up the hall and into the living room.  He sat in front of the armchair staring at me in anticipation of his crust.

Then, because, you know I was chewing and not gobbling like a certain corgi, he became impatient and decided to wave at me to get my attention... because the corgi mind meld wasn't working.

 

It seems Lord Gimli is starting to take his nickname a bit too seriously...

Wordless Wednesday - Come on Sir Hiss!

Sir Hiss

I had been meaning to get a snake for Gimli.

Not a real snake mind you, but a stuffed toy snake for him to sneak around with and drag around.  I figured the only place I'd find it would be the zoo, so off we went this past weekend.

There were a bunch of differently colored snakes there for sale, a ghastly hot pink rattler, a yellow and blue one and a purplish looking one.

I feel I made the right choice...

I shall name him Sir Hiss.

This is my security squeaker

Gimli has never been the type of dog to go around on the walk with a toy in his mouth, so imagine my surprise when today, Gimli went for about half of our walk with one of his toys, a plastic squeaker thing, firmly in those little furry jaws.

I was getting ready for our evening walk and trying to be quick because the rain was threatening and Gimli already didn't want to go outside for fear the water would make him melt.  He came bounding into the mudroom with a toy and held onto it while I put on is collar and leash.

"Ok," I thought to myself and decided I'd just take him as is instead of wrestling it away from him.

We started our walk and he only set it down twice.

The first time, he had to pee.  He set it down next to those above ground transformer boxes and then walked about 6 steps away to pee on the grass near the curb.  Once he remembered he came out with a toy, he snatched it up and off we went.

The second time, he set it down in the middle of the dirt path and went looking for a place to poo.  Afterwards, I tried giving it back to him, but he would have none of it!  He looked at me as if I was a weirdo, I mean, why would I bring a toy on the walk?  As if!

We walked home with Gimli proudly walking along and me holding onto a squeaker toy.  I really am his slave...

Back to back

This evening I lay on the rug watching MasterChef when suddenly I felt a small body curl up behind me.

Gimli and I lay back to back for about half an hour.  My shirt was up a little in the back and his hair tickled a little.  My ponytailed hair tickled his face and we kept turning to see the other and sneaking kisses.

This is why I have a dog.

Wordless Wednesday - How you doin?

i am threeeeeeee!

hewo, Lord Gimli hier,

sunday wuz my bir-day!  i iz 3 years old.

i had a gud day.

Candy let me sleep in a little und when she came to open da crate i wuz too seepy to come out.  she thoght sumting wuz wrong wid me becuz i wuz walking sooo slowle.  But i wuz ok.  she put me on da bed so i could snuggles with her und Mike.  i got the first of my bir-day kisses on da bed, cuz i'm cute.

den we went for a walk und i wuz a good corgi und i didn't misbehave, i iz a big boy u kno!

Candy put on my spechul red bandanna so i wuld look nicee on my bir-day.

i had my usual food but also a surprises.

Hier i am waiting for my eeg

i must eat it bery dainty like

yum yum

after breakfast i took a lie down to rest

and i rested allll day long.

latur in da day, i got one of my prezzies.  i oberheard Candy say to Mike that i got 4 prezzies in total, but i only got one on sunday.  bery bad indeed!

what iz dis?

can i eat it?

i can't wait to pull out da stuff

den, becuz it wuz my bir-day, i got brushed and that evil clippy thing came out. i don't like the clippy thing and i alwayz curse it and make ugly faces to scare it away, but it neber works. don't you tink my face is scawwy?

 go away clippy thing!

i am so handsum with my wabbit! although i much prefer the real wabbit dat libes outside.  maybe dat's one of my other prezzies?

---

That was Gimli's birthday.

He was very lethargic and worn out all day because we went to class on Saturday morning, he did not have an afternoon nap afterwards and he had two doggie guests to play with on Saturday evening.  Thus, Sunday was a very quiet day indeed, with Mike and I taking advantage of his unusually subdued demeanor to snuggle and kiss him at every opportunity.

We love this little pile of fluff so very much and its hard to believe he's now 3 years old.

Wanna bet?

The Universe works in mysterious ways.

The other day I came across this leaf on a usually reddish brown leafed tree.

Just when we think we have it all figured out and all plans made, the Universe chimes in to say, "Wanna bet?"

We've had a strange bit of occurrences over the last number of months, nothing bad, just unexpected good things happening.  Things that I never imagined would happen, have.

Leaps that we'd never taken because we thought, 'nah, I'd never win this,' have paid off in spades.

The moral of the story?  Carpe Diem.

And now a bonus shot of Gimli, who doesn't make plans for his day... other than cookie time, dentabone time, dinner time, snuggles with Candy time, walkie time and look out the window time.

Wordless Wednesday - Silly puppy

Training wheels

Back in June, I wrote about Gimli's misbehaving ways on Father's Day.  See the post here - Dr. Corgyl & Mr. Hyde.

That Monday, I happened to find an Obedience school, Bold Canine.  I conversed with Amber and she recommended the Dog-Tastic class because Gimli was social but he had some issues that needed work.  Our first class was that Saturday.

Contrary to our classes at Petsmart when Gimli was a puppy, no treats were used.  The class was all about building up your leadership in the dog's eyes.  We were taught about "cycling", which is a tool used to focus the dog's attention on you.  We were to walk and whenever the dog strayed or turned his head, we had to jerk the leash and change direction sharply.  After a few days of practice, Gimli slowly started to understand.  Although, he was not happy about the changes and he did rebel a great deal in the first couple weeks.

(Foolish mortal, I am Lord Gimli.  Bow before me!)

We've been working toward what I call the Big 4:

• Toy/item possessiveness
• Barking in general
• Focus on me/Mike when walking
• Stay with distractions

We have 2 classes left in this session and I can see already the following changes in Gimli:

• I am most proud of his change towards me.  Its going to take time and practice and consistency, but I'm glad he's starting to recognize and act when I give him commands.
• He's getting better on walks.  He's not completely oblivious to other dogs, however when dealing with calm dogs, he's fine.  If the dog he comes across is hyper, then he reverts to his old behavior.  This we need to work on.
• We've started using the phrase, 'no bark', with him.  Gimli barks at anything and everything that stirs outside.  While this is a good practice, we need a way to silence him after a few barks.  I've found that if I calmly walk up to him, say 'no bark' and then move him away from the door, he quiets down much faster.  This is still a work in progress in that I cannot give the command on its own, but that's a level for us to achieve.
• I've been practicing with him in the park across the street from our house and making him stay while I walk away or jump up and down or provide some sort of distraction.  I also did some practice with him sitting about 15 feet away from a dog, as well as close to children and the volleyball players.  He's getting better, although I feel we need to up the ante a bit.
• The toy possessiveness continues to be a work in progress.  We are not where I want him to be, but we have moved past the crazy obsessed dog.  He still goes after toys if he "feels" you are going after them, but we are quick to stop this behavior.  I feel the biggest challenge to overcome will be telling the rest of the humans in Gimli's life that the tug of war and possessiveness he used to show is not a game and should not be treated like a game.

I can see the following changes in me:

• I realized by accident one day that if I make eye contact with him and maintain it, he is more likely to succeed and follow my commands.  This is great and I'm going to use it to my advantage wherever possible.
• Now that Gimli has made some strides, I feel more confident because I know Gimli and I can work together.  This in turn raises my self-confidence and so I'm less likely to become frustrated and annoyed when Gimli backslides a bit.  I remain calm and restate the command.  This state coupled with the eye contact works wonders.

Based on where we were and the tools we now have at our disposal, I'm confident we can get Gimli to a higher level of behavior.