Bad blogger...

Wow, I've been pretty delinquent lately w/my blog posts. My apologies! There's a lot of ground to cover but I'll start with our fantastic training session a few weeks ago with Melissa (check out her blog). I shouldn't really say "Parker's session" because lets be honest, dog training is almost more about the people then the dog.

We learned a lot about Parker's behaviors, specifically how to handle his jumping up, eating grass, mulch, wood chips, etc....destroying things while I'm in the shower, and beyond. Probably one of the most helpful things that Melissa told us is that Parker is a smart little man, and we need to keep him busy. To quote her: "He's one of the smartest pugs I've ever met, and with all intelligent dogs, they can get bored and destructive if left to their own devices! Keep his brain going, and he'll be wonder-dog!"

One of the games that Melissa showed us, is "find it." It's basically hide and go seek with treats...and also makes him work on his sit/stay. He LOVES it. You can see the little wheels turning in his head, and his nose going crazy as he searches the house for the yummy goodness. The cutest part is that once we're done playing, he goes back to each one of the spots where I hid the treats to see if there's any remnants. Smarty pants.

Anyways, I highly recommend Melissa if you're in need of a dog trainer. Plus, having her come to the house was definitely the way to go. It was really helpful for her to see us and Parker in our environment. Plus, it was hysterical to see Parker sitting on the couch (aka his couch) next to her giving her this look like "who the hell are you and what's up with all of these weird boundaries?"...and then not even a minute later, he was doing exactly what she wanted. Genius I tell you, genius.

In other news, Nik and I went away this past weekend and Parker stayed with Sarah, grandma and grandpa (they HATE when I call them that, but I can't help it!). As you can see from the following photos, he had a very relaxing weekend.

Happy as a clam on grandpa's shoulder:

At this point, he probably gets excited when we go away because he usually gets to go stay with the dog walkers for a few days (which in his mind is "parker's playhouse"), and then over to my parents'. Talk about a spoiled boy.

Back to school

He had a break, but it's time to go back to school. It's been quite a while since the Parkster graduated from puppy kindergarten, and he needs some brushing up on his behavior (here i would like to reference nearly all of my previous posts as supporting evidence).

So, tonight we have a home visit with his doggie trainer. In my head, she's going to come in, teach me how to be cesar millan...and we'll be good to go. "Calm and assertive" - me in a nutshell.

Favorite day of the week

Though it's a dreary, rainy friday in Boston, it's still Parker's favorite day of the week because it's Bob day! Wahoo. It's kind of mine too because I love getting photos of them while I'm sitting at work.

Mornings

Between 7:00 - 8:20 am, Parker and I are at war. Typically my girlfriend gets up in the morning, walks him and then gets in the shower. While she is in the shower, he acts like an angel. Zero problems. Then it's my turn. She leaves for work and I'm in charge. Lately, I haven't been putting him in the pen when I'm in the shower...I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt...c'mon he's 10 months, he should be able to handle a miniscule amount of responsibility. We're talking 10 minutes here.

Some days he goes for the toilet paper roll. Some days he takes a pillow off of the couch in the living room, drags it onto the floor and chew on a corner. Some days he goes into the spare bedroom, jumps up on the bed (NOT ALLOWED) and rolls around in the clean laundry...if he's lucky, he finds a dryer sheet and chews on that for a few. This morning, he left me a nice big poop right in the middle of the kitchen floor.

As I yelled at him for offense #1, he ran into the study and grabbed my girlfriend's dirty softball sock out of the laundry pile...and ran around the house with it. Exhibit a:

As long as I didn't have to clean up anymore sh*t, he could have spent the rest of the day in the laundry pile for all I cared.

Until tomorrow am...

Hot.

Welcome to the beginning of summer for a pug.

Cute pug puppy-ness

see more dog and puppy pictures

growing up i admit that i was a pug hater. even in college, i thought they were hideous dogs. obviously now, i am a total convert. i want to squeeze all of them -- especially the pug puppies. it makes me think about parker when we first brought him home. one of my girlfriend's co-workers used to call him GORDITO!! (spanish for 'little fatty')....because he had the cutest buddha belly, which was totally disproportionate to the rest of his mini doggie body.

even though the picture above is a fawn, it reminds me of parky when he was a tiny little dude. he used to get so excited about eating that his back paws would come off of the ground and he would practically face plant into his bowl of kibble. those were the days.

Cheap thrills

Mmmmmm...ice.
parker pants has taken to playing with/licking/chewing on ice cubes this summer. FINALLY something that's cheap and easy.