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.