I've been a bad blogger. But in my defense, I've been in the hospital, diagnosed with Grave's Disease, suffered a thyroid storm--that's why I went to Emergency and was kept in hospital for a week. Now I'm having reactions to the meds--dizziness, weakness in arms and legs, have to try not to fall when walking. Did you know that at the turn of the 20th century if a person suffered a thyroid storm, the mortality rate was close to 100%? Now it's down to 20%. That's still pretty high, so this a serious condition.
But I digress--yesterday Lanny turned 1!! And I realized we will be having our first Christmas with him next month!! I wondered, "How can this be? Where was he last Christmas? Oh, yeah, he was 6 weeks old and still in Minnesota!! Duh!!"
Lanny is so different from Duffy in every possible way. And some of this is good!!! He sticks by us on walks, his recall is excellent, and considering all the stuff he could have got into, he's been a pretty good boy. He only liked to take Kleenex out of the garbage and unroll toilet paper!! He does chew--he chews through every leash, even the double heavy duty one that I had ordered and lasted the longest. We have to use a chain now, when he has to be tied up. He's not, however, the sharpest tack in the box, the brightest bulb in the package, the sharpest tool in the drawer....you get my drift. His approach to life is "Dumteedum, dumteedum, huh?"! He is not an independent thinker!!! He will not push a door open without coaxing, will stand forever saying nothing when he gets himself tangled up in a leash, and scares himself if he thinks too much!! Two weeks ago, I heard Duffy giving that yip bark that means something is not right, and went out to look and Lanny had hog tied himself by one back leg to the bench and was just standing there. Duffy was likely saying, "Hey, Dummy has himself caught!!" He is scared of his reflection in a mirror. Bizarre. When Duffy was shown himself in a full length mirror, he went up, touched noses, and wanted to be friends with that other dog. Lanny backs away and turns his head.
Lanny spends most of his time on the farm with Dave. It seems to work well at this point to keep Duffy and Lanny apart. I'm hoping that as Lanny gets older, maybe he will be better behaved toward Duffy. Other than that problem, Lanny is a big, lovable lug. He leaps in the air as if on pogo sticks, crashes and shoves himself around, pushes toys into us to play with, and knows how to sit and not much else!! It's so different from having a smart pants dog like Duffy. But hey, that's life!! We love him anyway!!!
The Collie Club of Canada Specialty is out west in 2014--March, in Camrose, and I'd like to have him shown there. He's a fine looking boy and moves well. It's just to find someone to show him--potential candidates are all acting like dipsticks over planning the specialty and are not impressing me!!
In the meantime, here are some of my favorite photos of Lanny. Happy Birthday Big Fella!! ♥♥
But I digress--yesterday Lanny turned 1!! And I realized we will be having our first Christmas with him next month!! I wondered, "How can this be? Where was he last Christmas? Oh, yeah, he was 6 weeks old and still in Minnesota!! Duh!!"
Lanny is so different from Duffy in every possible way. And some of this is good!!! He sticks by us on walks, his recall is excellent, and considering all the stuff he could have got into, he's been a pretty good boy. He only liked to take Kleenex out of the garbage and unroll toilet paper!! He does chew--he chews through every leash, even the double heavy duty one that I had ordered and lasted the longest. We have to use a chain now, when he has to be tied up. He's not, however, the sharpest tack in the box, the brightest bulb in the package, the sharpest tool in the drawer....you get my drift. His approach to life is "Dumteedum, dumteedum, huh?"! He is not an independent thinker!!! He will not push a door open without coaxing, will stand forever saying nothing when he gets himself tangled up in a leash, and scares himself if he thinks too much!! Two weeks ago, I heard Duffy giving that yip bark that means something is not right, and went out to look and Lanny had hog tied himself by one back leg to the bench and was just standing there. Duffy was likely saying, "Hey, Dummy has himself caught!!" He is scared of his reflection in a mirror. Bizarre. When Duffy was shown himself in a full length mirror, he went up, touched noses, and wanted to be friends with that other dog. Lanny backs away and turns his head.
Lanny spends most of his time on the farm with Dave. It seems to work well at this point to keep Duffy and Lanny apart. I'm hoping that as Lanny gets older, maybe he will be better behaved toward Duffy. Other than that problem, Lanny is a big, lovable lug. He leaps in the air as if on pogo sticks, crashes and shoves himself around, pushes toys into us to play with, and knows how to sit and not much else!! It's so different from having a smart pants dog like Duffy. But hey, that's life!! We love him anyway!!!
The Collie Club of Canada Specialty is out west in 2014--March, in Camrose, and I'd like to have him shown there. He's a fine looking boy and moves well. It's just to find someone to show him--potential candidates are all acting like dipsticks over planning the specialty and are not impressing me!!
In the meantime, here are some of my favorite photos of Lanny. Happy Birthday Big Fella!! ♥♥
3 comments:
Ok it sucks you were sick and are still not 100%. Not fun and I hope you get better soon. I pretty much fell over when I saw you had a blog post. Lanny is cute! What's up with the chain? You can get chain-link panels to put around his dog house really inexpensively and probably give him a bigger space than the length of that chain. And then he's not tied at the neck, which sounds like he's not a candidate for anyway. Chaining up dogs, (even if it's not for a long period) can make them aggressive. Also, if he's wearing a sturdy collar, he'll have marks for the show ring. Good luck with your potential handlers! Wished I could show him!
Sorry to hear about the Grave's disease !!! ugh! hope you feel better soon!
Happy birthday Big Lug ♥
Thanks Jolene--I'll have this disease for the rest of my life, so that kind of sucks and apparently I can suffer thyroid storms more than once. I was talking to another employee at Northlands and she's had 3 :(
Diana: we are talking about an extreme need for safety. The house is 10 feet from a major highway and until real fencing can be erected farther back and in a large area with a variety of cover, we simply cannot risk him getting lose that close to the highway. We take him out to the back of the pasture area and he gets to run and run a couple of times a day. The actual chain is short--4 feet. Then it's attached to a tie out cable. Panels might work out by the Quonset where the ground is flat, but not by the house. And remember we have snow, lots of it and that it has to be scraped out of the area by bobcat or dozer. Constantly moving panels around out of drifted snow is not a sensible option. Lanny is fine, he's not going to get aggressive over this. Remember that dogs that live in the city are always on leashes and have collars or harnesses--it's the law and it's the only way to be safe. Duffy pulls out of collars, so he wears a harness. My dogs are safe in my yard in the city, but outside of that we live in a very different situation than you do. I will do whatever I have to do to make sure that Lanny is safe. If he ever got lose and was killed on the highway because I was all worried about a little length of chain, I'd have to put a bullet in my head because I'd never be able to live with the guilt of having killed my dog. That highway has killed too many dogs and mine aren't going to be in that number.
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