Christmas Sweater

While shopping at Target the other day I happened to run into the Christmas isle for pets.  They had Christmas dog sweaters that I thought were so cute (and funny) and there was one in particular that I just had to get for Levi.  It's a little nerdy looking (like he could wear it to an ugly sweater party) but it just said "Levi" to me.  I know this may seem a little early since it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but I think the holiday season starts in October and I couldn't wait until December to post these pictures.

I'm pretty sure he was hating me at this moment.  He thinks I should have gotten him a cooler looking sweater.

This may end up as our Christmas card photo.

 

 He thought it kept him nice and warm in the chilly fall air.

He didn't seem to mind it after awhile.

He may or may not be wearing this sweater more as Christmas nears.

Happy Halloween!

Do you see a resemblance?

Levi was supposed to be superman for Halloween this year but then I saw this Shrek costume and I thought it was too cute. He put up with it pretty well for pictures.  Maybe he'll wear it when we hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters on Sunday.

7 Months

7 Things for 7 Months

1. He loves running circles in the grass
2. Every night when we go to bed he always comes and cuddles with me for a couple minutes before moving back to the floor.
3.  He is potty-trained and i don't have to worry about him in the house anymore.  It's so much more relaxing letting him wander and not having to keep an eagle eye on him in case he looks like he needs to go to the bathroom.
4.  He is doing really well at our beginners agility classes and seems to really enjoy it.
5.  He wants to please/ isn't too mischievous even at this age (rebellious stage)
6.  He hardly ever barks except sometimes when playing
7. He is getting better about settling down (although we still have some work to do).

For his 7 month birthday I got him a little squeaky rubber football toy.  He likes to bat it around with his feet and nose since it squeaks so easily.  I'm probably going to regret getting him such a loud and annoying toy but he seems to enjoy it so I guess I'll just have to get used to it.

Levi Meets ChaCha

Each year our school gets about 15 dogs from local shelters that we use during the year for animal handling labs, ultrasound labs, etc. to teach us how to work with real animals, and then they are adopted out at the end of the year.  Students can sign up at the beginning of the year to be dog walkers and they are assigned a dog (either on their own or with one other student).  They are responsible for taking the dog out of its run for at least an hour a day as well as taking it to a behavior/obedience class once a week.  Most students end up spending a lot more time with their dogs though since you are allowed to take it out for as long as you want provided that they are back in their run before the are scheduled for use in a class.  Many students take their dogs home on the weekends and for holiday breaks.

My roommate Alicia has "joint-custody" of one of the colony dogs this year - her name is ChaCha.  She is a 1-2 year old pit-terrier cross.  She and Levi met briefly a couple weeks ago when we took them for a walk together at the arboretum on campus.  Today Alicia brought ChaCha home for the first time and she and Levi got to play.  They had a blast and I'm sure Levi would have liked to keep playing for another hour (or 5) but we made them stop before ChaCha got sick of him. :-)

Levi can't wait for ChaCha to come over to play again.

Our Visit Home

Levi and I had a wonderful time at home this weekend spending time with the family.  It was so relaxing to not study for 3 days, I only wish it could have lasted longer.

Thankfully the weather was nice on Saturday morning and Mom, Levi, and I headed to Avila to go for a walk on the Bob Jones Trail.  It has become a favorite walk of ours at home.  I can't believe how much more grown up Levi looks now compared to the other 2 times we walked on this trail over summer (posted here and here).

(Our failed attempt at a group shot)

One thing that I found pretty funny at home was that Levi couldn't figure out how to get on the bed.  He is used to having a step to climb up so he doesn't really know how to "jump" onto the bed.  I thought it would just be intuitive for a dog, especially since he loves trying to jump onto everything else, but even after a day he was still trying to climb onto the bed rather than jump.  I wish I could have gotten it on video because it was pretty funny.  He would get his front end up and then try to step up with his back legs but it was too high of a step up.  I ended up having to help lift his butt onto the bed.  Finally on the second day I got him to jump up there on his own.  He was so proud of himself after that.

Tomorrow morning we are driving back to Davis where real life awaits us. Only 4 weeks until we are off for Thanksgiving break (we get a whole week off of school!).  We also don't start classes until 11am for the rest of the quarter (except days when we have exams), so I can't complain too much.  That gives us lots of time for walks, playing fetch, and riding Gypsy in the mornings.

Halloween from the Past

I was just going through some old pictures and thought i would post Kobe's 1st Halloween Pictures. He was 7.5 months old.

Finally a Break

I just finished a few weeks of never ending tests and now have a little break for a few days before the studying starts up again.  Nothing too exciting has been going on with Levi and me lately, but we are going home to Templeton this weekend to visit Mom, Dad, and Melissa which will be a nice little vacation.  Hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can go for a hike or something while we're there.  I know Levi will love all the extra attention!

His Halloween costume arrived today and I already tried it on him.  He looks so cute!  I'm sure he probably hates me for making him wear it. :-)  There is a dog costume contest at the vet school TG (bbq) tomorrow evening that I was going to enter him in but I didn't realize it was the Friday that I was going home so now it looks like he is just going to have his costume for fun/pictures.  I think I'm going to keep it a surprise for now, but there will likely be pictures posted next week sometime.  I know I won't be able to keep it a secret for very long. :-)

I ordered a Perla bed for Levi a little while and it was on backorder at the time but it was supposed to get in the next week.  Well, it's been over a month now and it is still on backorder. :-(  Levi is hoping that the bed will hurry up and be in stock soon so we don't have this old blanket sitting in the corner by itself anymore.  It really wants a bed to go in.

 

Here Levi is trying to decide which Everlasting Treat Ball to play with.  The medium sized one was good when he was a puppy, but he recently graduated to the large sized one.  He still likes to play with the empty medium one though for whatever reason.  He really loves these chew toys but he can occasionally pop the chew part out of the blue holder and then I have to try to squeeze it back in when it's all slimy which is pretty difficult. 

Sorry for the lame blog posts lately...hopefully we will have something more exciting to talk about soon.

Intro to agility class

I am obviously slacking on blogging lately.  School is getting a lot more intense so my free time for blogging is limited.  I have Pharmacology and Bacteriology tests this coming week and then Virology and another Oncology test the week after. 

Levi and I started an intro to agility class last weekend, so today was our second time going.  It is a lot of fun and I am learning so much.  It's nice that it is really low key and there are only 4 of us in the class.  The class is through Precision Chaos in Dixon which is only about 10 minutes away.  Levi seems to really enjoy it as well.  I can't wait until he is full grown and can start doing real agility training. 

No pictures from our doggy class, but here are a couple random pictures from my phone that I thought were funny.

Levi decided he wanted to shield his eyes from the light when I was studying past his bedtime.

My crate that was in the car is really dirty and needing cleaning so Levi has been getting to ride loose in the back of the jeep.  Most of the time he lays down but occasionaly he likes to rest his head on the seats in front of him.