New Bed(s), New Bone, New Training

The weekend after Memorial Day, we did some more spring cleaning. Jen and I took a trip to the laundromat to wash the large cushions from our kitchen chairs and our comforter. THANK GOD we have a washer and dryer. Regular trips to laudromat would s-u-c-k. Our comforter didn't get all the way dry, so Jen hung it out over a couple lawnchairs rather than spend another hour at the God-forsaken laundromat. Sanders decide to use the lawnchair/comforter tent as his own temporary doghouse and took a nap in there.

While we were out doing laundry, we made a stop by Mendards and while we were there, we bought Sanders a HUGE bone. Jen calls it his dino bone. Let me tell you, he loves it. We just left it in the backyard, but he became obsessed with it. When we let him out to go to the bathroom, he'd just run straight to the bone and lie down with it rather than using the bathroom. Then when he came inside, he'd keep standing at the door and barking wanting to go back out and get it. So we had to pick it up and hide it from him. We still give it to him every so often, and he hasn't made a dent in chewing it up, yet. We also gave him a large rawhide bone, which he has eaten. I've recently found out that rawhide is BAD for your dog, though, so please don't buy any rawhide. It can form a blockage inside their intestine and cause major damage. Luckily, no such blockage with Sanders.


Also, a funny thing happened while we were at the dog park. There's a gazebo at the dog park with a wrought iron railing around it, the base of the railing extending down to about 6" from the ground. Sanders was playing with a small, white terrier. Sanders was chasing him and was right on his heels. The terrier ran towards the gazebo and ducked under the railing... SMACK. Sanders hit it at full-on. His head stopped and his hind end kept right on moving forward until it looked like he was doing a handstand. HILARIOUS!!! I wish we'd had the video going.

Jen also bought a nice bed for Sanders at Pet Smart. He has not yet started using it, as he's taken to sleeping on the couch after we go to bed. Now, he never gets up on the couch while we're up unless we "invite" him, and we only do that if we first lay out a blanket for him. Now, having said that, I got up the other day and he was there sleeping on the bare couch after apparently removing his blanket from it. Since he has so much hair, I think the bare leather is "cooler" for him than lying on a blanket/bed/carpet. GRRRR.... We'll see how we deal with this little issue... Here he is looking at me after I found him on the bare couch.

Lastly, Jen enrolled Sanders in another obedience class. This one is only about 1 1/2 miles from our house, and she did it with the mind that once he completes this class, she can enroll him in agility classes there (you know, running through an obstacle course... jumping over barricades and through hoops. On that note, Jen's mom bought Sanders a hula hoop that we're teaching him to jump through. He seems to like it, and its fun to watch.

Yes, I DO have eyes!

Sanders has been having a pretty good time lately, and so have we. This Memorial Day weekend, we have been home the entire time. Saturday night, we walked over to our neighbors John & Judy's back yard. She had some family over, going to the race on Sunday. Here is a picture of Judy's niece and a fish she caught out of our pond.


We spent most of the rest of the day Saturday and Sunday working around the house, inside and out. Jen really worked hard on Sunday vacuuming and shampooing the carpets in the house. Sanders' fur has been picking up a LOT of debris lately, and it all ends up on our carpet. After she got done, we took him to the dog park while the carpet dried. Our carpet has not looked this good since we moved in! Jen really did a good job. But Sanders has already been leaving more debris, as shown here.


The other thing Jen has been doing is trying to get Sanders to catch a floppy, cloth frisbee. He already wants to chase anything that we throw, so it's really just a matter of throwing it right where he can catch it and then slowly making it further and further. To help him, she pulled his hair up out of his eyes and put it in a little pony tail. It really helps him see the frisbee better, he even caught it a few times! It will be exciting when he gets good at it. Plus I like the way he looks with his hair pulled back. He looks to me a little like a sumo wrestler, and a little like Gene Simmons from Kiss.

Best of all worlds!!

Sanders has been having a blast lately with his travels...as have we! He got to spend a week at Gma and Gpa Thackery's while we went and toured Costa Rica. We have become the spokespeople for the Costa Rica Division of Tourism. Check out our fun filled 9 days in a few pictures below!

Day 1 - Rafting the Picuare River. They filmed some of Jurassic Park on this beautiful River. We saw a toucan here-but couldn't get a picture because of the wet conditions!
We are in the front row of the pictures above!
Day 2-Arenal Volcano, Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve and Thermal Hot Springs

I guess we were one of the lucky few who actually got to see the entire Arenal Volcano. When we came in the night before, it was completely cloudy and the day we left it was also cloudy so we couldn't see the top!! The area is often under cloud cover or raining....so seeing the smoke coming off the top of the volcano is a rare sighting. This is the view from our porch when we got out of bed in the morning!
We then took an 1.5 hour drive to the Cano Negro Wildlife Reserve. We stopped at a restaurant that had Iguanas hanging out in the trees behind it.....pretty cool. Check out this guy who was looking at me.We also stopped at a Pineapple Plantation for Dole and took some pictures of the pineapples growing.
When we got to Cano Negro, we boarded a boat and went up and down a small river to try to catch a glimpse of some of the wildlife. We spotted a lot of cool things! Tony was really good at spotting the Caimens (relative of the crocodile/alligator).

Below is a Basilisk. Yes, my first thought was also Harry Potter when the guide said it was a Basilisk. I was looking for a huge venomous snake that I should not look in the eye. (ironic, isn't it?)...anyways, it was this little green guy! How cute....

Then we saw some bats on the underside of a log in the river. They are camouflaged pretty well, aren't they? Later in the week, we'd visit a bat museum and learn more about these little guys.

Of course....we saw some monkeys too! This is a white faced monkey which is an omnivore (eats meat and veggies). We also saw some howler monkeys here..but my pictures from later in the week are better and are posted later on.
See the white faced monkey carrying its baby in the picture below?
Shhhh....don't tell the government. We stepped foot into Nicaragua while we were on vacation and didn't tell them! We discovered that Nicaraguans do a lot of the manual labor for the Costa Ricans.
To finish the day off, we went to a Thermal Hot Springs which was heavenly! The pools were heated naturally by the volcano...and the water was so crystal clear! We spent a couple of hours relaxing.


Day 3 - Traveling to Monteverde (the Cloud Forest)

We woke up and took a boat across Lake Arenal which is known for its windsurfing. I think this is one of only 2 activities that Costa Rica offers that we didn't try! haha! After we crossed the lake (which was about 30 minutes), we proceeded to board a minivan that was to take us 46 km. Yes, that is right only like 28 miles. That shouldn't take us any longer than an hour, right? WRONG!! It took us somewhere between 2-2.5 hours to get through the countryside...which was absolutely beautiful...but the roads were exactly why we chose not to drive from place to place and instead hire drivers. No pavement....no gravel....just a dirt road that has rocks (or boulders) sticking out of it because all they did was shovel out a path and let people start going. I can't even imagine this during the rainy season. It has to be nearly impossible to traverse. Thank goodness we stopped halfway through just to catch our breaths. We stopped and used the bathroom and grabbed a snack...and of course, Tony found a friend...as he always does in each country. I think in spanish you can call this a Perrito....[Sanders...please don't blame me for this. I tried to stop him]

After finally arriving at the hotel in Monteverde (which was only 11:30AM, but felt like we had been in a car for over a day!)...we walked around the town, had lunch and visited the bat museum. Tony suggested we do a sunset horseback riding tour...which was absolutely amazing! We even got the horses up to a gallop for a little bit!
This was truly an amazing sunset...
The perfect end to the day was dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. If you see Tony....ask him if he likes his steaks medium rare in Costa Rica :)
Day 4 - Monteverde Reserve and Zip Lining!

We woke up early the next morning and went into the Monteverde Reserve. We saw a lot of birds here. This was our first experience at birdwatching...it was kinda fun..but very attention demanding. I'd say the attention paid off!

Below is a nest of baby hummingbirds:
And our luck hadn't run out after seeing the volcano...we got to see the Quetzal which is an endangered bird and which many never get to see when they visit Costa Rica! Absolutely beautiful!! Below is the male:
And we were fortunate enough to also see the female. We saw these beautiful creatures 4 times through our nature hike:
Then we visited the hummingbird gardens where the birds flew out from the forest to the feeders. Below is a Violet Sabrewing. Absolutely beautiful. We also saw a toucan and lots of other birds...but didn't get any really cool pictures.

In the afternoon, we went ziplining. Our wildlife viewing had not yet ended when Tony spotted this thing walking in an open area just down from where we got dropped off. We braved it and walked down to see how close we could get:
Here we are all suited up and ready to zip! Yes, those belts are the only thing holding us to the line!

Here is Tony zipping across from mountain top to mountain top, 100 feet above the tree line!
Day 5 - Travel to the Pacific to Playa Conchal

We spent the day in the car (down the same bumpy road for 2.5 hours) traveling to the beach to meet up with the people I work with who also won the incentive trip to Costa Rica. After the 2.5 hours of riding down the bumpy road where we could have no conversation because all of our senses were jarred out of us...we got to pavement just outside of Liberia where we had another 2 hours to travel to the beach. We'd never been so glad to get to our hotel! When we checked in, we found out we had a butler and that the resort was completely all inclusive. So we spent this day just relaxing and hanging out by the pool .

Day 6-Fishing!
After spending the afternoon vegging out...we decided we still had things left on the list to fulfill the entire list of Costa Rica Tourism. We were OK missing out on windsurfing...but we heard it was Marlin/Sailfish season in the pacific ocean...and that people were catching lots! Unfortunately, we couldn't find a boat to take us out for the entire day to do the sailfish thing..so we fished about 6 miles off the coast. We caught some amberjack and Tony also caught a Ray. It was just the 2 of us with the 3 locals out on the boat. It was really relaxing and perfect weather. I let Tony do most of the fishing...while I just soaked up the sun and watched the birds fish. Below is Tony's big catch of the day....
We walked back up the shore to the resort and watched the sunset. It was so nice and relaxing.

Day 7 - Lounging around and the Mangrove tour

Tony spent the day lounging around the pool, and I went on a Mangrove tour. A Mangrove is an area where the salt water from the ocean and fresh water from a river meet and make a briney environment. The trees that grow in this area are called mangroves also. I saw a little bit more wildlife in the mangroves:

Below is a crocodile...Eerie isn't he?
Here is a howler monkey just lounging around:
We came upon a barrel of monkeys....errrr....wait...I mean a family of adolescent monkeys. These guys were hanging and swinging just like the little red toy monkeys we've all played with. They were hilarious. These were howler monkeys also.
These cows were so funny! the long ears and humps in their backs were completely distinctive. I think they are called Braman cows...like the kind they have in India. This one just wondered right up to me while I was walking through the forest!
Day 8-Snorkelling
OK, yes, this brings me to the only other thing I can think of that we didn't do. We didn't SCUBA. We just didn't have enough time. *sigh* So, we did the next best thing....we went snorkelling. If you've been spoiled by the waters of the Caribbean...the waters of the Pacific coast around the area we were staying at left a bit to be desired unless you skin dove (which we did). We saw some puffer fish, little crabs, trumpet fish, and lots of other little colorful creatures. We did see this from the boat....my first Manta Ray! This guy had about a 13 foot wing span. Absolutely beautiful!!




We spent the next weekend celebrating Tony's 30th birthday party. Sanders (this blog is about him, right?)....spent the Saturday with Gma and Gpa Halsey. He loves playing with their dog Alexis. And on Sunday he got to play with Tony's sister's dog, Kona (A rottweiler). We spent Sunday visiting with Tony's family/aunts/uncles and everyone...and Sanders loved all the attention. Here are the people who were at Tony's party:

To show me his love this past week, Sanders decided on Thursday morning that he was going to sneak into my bedroom, grab my left shoe that I use every day for work and try to clean off some of those pesky mud spots that were on them. I think he scrubbed a little too deeply, and thus I have to make the conscious decision to put the shoe away in the closet to keep him from trying to help me out any more. This will be fine until he decides to grow thumbs and figure out how to open the door.



This past weekend, we went to the Kentucky Derby, and Sanders went back to Gma and Gpa Thackery's.

Here are Jessica and I, decked out in our Derby attire in our seats:
One of the horses running in a race:Here is Sanders when we picked him up from Grandma's house. Sooo filthy! He needs a bath!

Since we'd been spending so much time doing other things....we thought Sanders could use a visit to the dog park yesterday. He has this new found love of letting the wind blow his hair back in the car...it is soooo funny looking! But at least he can see!
And we spent some time in the front yard yesterday, nosing around all the pretty flowers and smelling the new smells.....evidence on his face that he was in my flower bed where I'm trying to teach him that he can't go!

GUHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! While I was writing this.......I just noticed that Sanders has destroyed the first piece of my clothing! An $80 sweater. What a stupid dog! OK....I guess the time has come when the dog makes me be a tidier person. This is going to thrill Tony...because now he won't have to deal with all my clutter laying around. Secretly, I know Tony and Sanders are working together against me!

More Dog Park, Dog Sitting, and Baths

Sanders has had a fairly busy couple of weeks. To begin with, he's had a few more trips to the dog park, which of course he loves. During one of the trips, we ran across Dungy again, the golden retriever puppy that I posted about awhile back. Dungy had gotten quite a bit bigger than Sanders, but they seemed to recognize each other and played together a lot. He was with different people this time, I think they were his owners' cousins. THEN I took him to the park again about a week later and was talking to an older lady with a small white dog (West Highland Terrier?? Maybe?). Anyway, she was telling me that her niece has a puppy that she brings to the dog park, and it turns out it was Dungy. I swear he's getting to be as popular as Sanders. A video of these two can be found at the bottom of the post.

This past Sunday we went to the park again, and they had taken the fence down from around the pond at the east end of the park. YIKES!! There were dogs jumping in and out and out and in, shaking and throwing mud each and every time.
We were terrified Sanders would jump in there (or get knocked in), but thankfully for now he seems like he'd rather run circles around the water than go barreling in. We'll be sure to nurture that healthy fear-of-water trait in his personality.


Also, we spent all last week dogsitting for Jen's friend, Kim, who has a golden retriever named Valerie. So we were back and forth between our house and Kim's a lot, and Sanders spent a lot of time tussling around with Val, both inside and out, making sure that every inch of him was well covered with drool. Here is a picture from the first time Sanders and Valerie met. You can tell it was from back when Sanders had his little cast...awwwww......

The down side to all of the action with other dogs, is that it has been very muddy around here due to the snow melt and all the rain we've had. Sanders has therefore spent much of the past two weeks either 1) getting covered in mud, debris, and drool or 2) drying out from having been covered in mud, debris, and drool. So he's gotten a couple more baths, which he is starting to do pretty well at. He's getting especially good at drying off afterwards!

Oh, one more thing. We started last Tuesday night taking him to an obedience class in Anderson. The class is 5 weeks long and Sanders was ahead of the curve in week 1. We mostly wanted to do the class to make him better at listening even in loud, chaotic situations; and to get him better on a leash (i.e., not pulling out hard ahead of us). It does seem like it will be a good class for that.