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.

Happy 6 Month Birthday Levi!

I can't believe Levi is already 6 months old!  Time sure has flown by. 

So 6 things I love about Levi:
1. He is a snuggler with his toys/blankets.  He really likes to curl up against things as well as to rest his head on his toys. 
2.  When he is tired he plops down onto the floor like it would take too much energy to lay himself down softly.  He has done this ever since he first came home at 8 weeks old.
3.  He is so well behaved in his crate now and he doesn't even whine anymore (I never thought that would happen).
4.  He loves coming to school with me and getting attention from everyone.
5.  He loves playing with other dogs, big or small.  It is really cute to watch him play with little dogs or younger puppies because you can tell that he is trying to be gentle with them.
6.  He is getting so much more interested in retrieving.

Sorry this has to be a short post today.  Tomorrow is the first test of the quarter, Oncology, so I have to get back to studying.  I think I have a new appreciation/interest in oncology since Kobe died.  It's kind of a double edged sword though because that is also what makes oncology class hard for me emotionally.

Flyer Day

This past weekend Levi and I went to the Norcal Golden Retriever Club's Flyer Field Training day.  Mom and Melissa were visiting me in Davis for the weekend so they came along to watch for a little bit too. Christine and Don were there with Thistle, Ronan, and Sport.  We also got to meet Levi's sister Avalon (pink girl) as well as her humans, Bill and Miche, and their other golden, Sammie.  We had a little puppy group with our four from the same litter and a black flat coated retriever pup, Sam, that was only 4 months old.  She was very cute and did so well!

(from L to R: Avalon, Ronan, Thistle, Sport, Levi)

We started out doing short retrieves on a gravel road with dead pigeons.  Levi hasn't had any exposure to birds since his bird test as a small puppy so I was very happy with how well he did.  He seemed pretty interested in the birds and actually retrieved a couple of the pigeons.  There was one pigeon in particular that he seemed to like, but the other two he wasn't as fond of for some reason and he didn't really want to pick them up.

Then we took the retrieving into light cover (grass/plants).  He seemed really interested in the birds and was very excited watching his siblings have their turn, often doing acrobatics trying to get free from the leash.  He retrieved one of the pigeons on the first try but the next two he picked up and then dropped so I had to keep encouraging him to pick it up.

Next we went to the water (or more like the mud).  He wasn't as interested in retrieving in the water, and I think that as the day went on he got more worn out and less focused.  Towards the end of the day we were able to practice in water that was deep enough to swim in and he retrieved the first bird but not the second.  You could tell he really wanted to get the second one because he kept swimming back to it but he wasn't so sure about picking it up.

His brothers and sisters did great, especially Ronan and Avalon, who really loved the birds.  We got to watch the adult dogs do the real thing, retrieving ducks that were either shot down or already dead ducks that were launched to retrieve.  We got to see his mom, Sport, go as well and she did fantastic.

It was such a fun day (although a little muddy, I'll be more prepared next time).  I can't wait to get Levi some more bird experience.  It probably won't be for awhile though because in about a week and a half we start our intro to agility class.

And a picture from our walk on the green belt this past weekend with mom and Melissa.