Layin' Low in the Shade

A gorgeous day in PVE.

Hardy, Hardy, Where are you??

I fed Hardy his dinner, then David and I were studying the take-out menus for my last night of vacation. I looked up and didn't see Hardy, so I went looking in the usual places. I found him on our bed. We usually invite him up and he rarely, rarely will come up without lots of extra encouragement, but he had gone up there on his own and was hanging out.

Almost a doggie

Hardy is looking less puppy-like. And he is now eating from his big-dog doggie-table that Wil used for raised eating.

Hardy Meets Anna

Hardy and I drove out to Pomona to meet Anna. He was really good in the crate in the lovely rental car. He complained a bit at first, but I kept saying, "How's that workin' for you, Hardy?" and he eventually figured out that I wasn't going to move him up to the passenger seat, and relaxed. On the way home, he was perfect.

He liked Anna (of course) and Anna liked him. She is very optimistic about his future, and felt he is likely to develop the same way his Grandpa did. I was dazzled at how easy she made it all look, but I did read somewhere that the easier it looks, the harder the handler is working. I believe it! Hardy starts his show career 4th of July weekend.

Pool Party

I went to Target and got Hardy a wading pool. He was fascinated and romped around trying to figure out just what to do with it. He's not so very spoiled. It was only $15 ... but I do need to buy a patch kit already.

Hardy Grew

Here are Hardy and Sunny playing. Hardy sure got a lot bigger since the first video of them playing together.

Please ignore the hat

It is a beautiful day today. The house was too chilly for me, but outside it was gorgeous. We practiced sit, then down, then stay. Please ignore the scary hat. Yikes!

A Slow News Day

Hardy wasn't much interested in his frozen rolled wash cloth for soothing his teething, so I tried giving him an ice cube.

A hot one

It was really hot today. Here's Hardy sitting by the window in the evening, hoping to catch a breeze. I'm on vacation this week, so I imagine there will be lots of blog entries.

Hardy with a Bully

It has been so long since I took a photo of "Hardy with a bully stick." Thought it was high time there was a new one.

Let's Get the Day Started

Hardy loves to play in the sprinklers of every house on the street. Sometimes I let him, sometimes I don't - depends on how much time I have before I have to hop in my own shower. Today I let him because he is going for a bath and a nail trim.

First Down Stay Lesson

David was at Petco getting cat food, and I'd been lying on the sofa reading for ages, so I decided to get up and do some training. I read something that said "down stay" was a very important thing to learn, so we tried it. He did pretty well after about 15 minutes of lessons. We hadn't even tried the "stay" part until filming began. He was pretty expert at that first time out of the gate.

Non-performance

Well, I took the camcorder with us on our walk this afternoon, because he has so much fun in the ivy that I thought it would be fun to catch on film. He romps in it as if the ivy was snow. Not this afternoon - he seemed to know I had the camcorder with us, and therefore looked at me with a look that said, "What? This is just dumb old ivy..."

Sorry to bore everyone (except Kristi)

Sorry for boring everyone. I'm making these clips so Kristi can keep an eye on Hardy's development. I did not request a show quality puppy, but we think he might be show quality and we think we might want to show him. All those "mights" are pretty unimportant, since we are just having fun anyway, and you all know how much I enjoy a project.

Pretty Doggie

Hardy and David play alllllllllll day. He (Hardy) is pretty good at just chewing on what he's supposed to chew on, but he still requires a lot of supervision. He likes to grab dirt and run across the lawn to see if we'll chase him. So, of course, we have to chase him to take away the dirt. He must be growing radishes in his tummy by now. JUST KIDDING.

Hardy's Second Movie

I was able to loosen up the leash for most of the trotting around. Still leans a bit into me on the home stretch. He is a very fast learner, and I'm sure later this week he'll be even better. I think I must be off on Wednesday, since I'm working Saturday, so not such a very long stretch between trainings.

Hardy's First Movie

Here is Hardy's first try at trotting in a circle, and my first attempt at "movie making." Ha ha.

Another Bath at Tidy Dogs

I gave Hardy another bath yesterday. Hooray for Tidy Dogs. It is a very nice set up and very friendly staff, and extremely reasonable in price for all the amenities. It is strictly do-it-yourself, but he's small enough that it is still fun and easy. That's a plug for them. They deserve it.

This morning Hardy had to play in every single sprinkler up and down the street. So much for my nice sparklingly white doggie. These photos are from BEFORE the trip down the street to sprinkler-heaven.

Hardy the Retriever

Well, I finally spent a single night away from Hardy. David and Hardy managed fine without me. I was in Las Vegas overnight for a work function (no kidding.) Sorry I haven't blogged for a few days as a result. Here is a video of Hardy-the-retriever. If you go to YouTube and search for videos from Mattuvok, there are actually 4 in this series, but here is one.