Monday, May 31, 2010

Mommy... I dont want you to go to texas.

it was sad leaving my fuzzy bear at my moms house this morning and i will miss him much this week!! Poor thing tried to follow me out the door annd i had to tell him to stay. on a happier note. For the three days i was home, we did spend los of quality time together. Bailey eve enjoyed the nice weekend riding passenger seat in the car with his head out the window. The weather was so awesome.... have a great week everyone! Happy Memorial Day.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

IM BACK

I arrived back in San Francisco last night. One more day of work then.... I get to spend some days with my fuzzy boy and then am hopping back on a plane to Texas on Monday afternoon (there goes half my holiday..). Anywhoo, I went to pick up bailey last night and boy was he excited to see his momma. Bailey is not a very affecionate dog. He is very independent, likes his space, and thinks he can do everything on his own (more on that later). Yesterday, however, he smelled my butt to make sure it was me, and boy did he do some dancing.... and.. he did someting he never does to me... he gave me kisses! I swear i could've started crying. hahahah :) He hardly ever licks my face. never. but i did get some kisses and i didn't care where his mouth had been.. i missed him so much. :) It didn't help that Continental was showing Dogs 101 on the overhead TV's on my flight back... ERR... but, I am sure going to spend as much time with him as I can this weekend before I head off again.

Oh. So i mentioned earlier, bailey likes to think he can do just about anything. like mountain climbing. I just remembered a few weeks ago, taking bailey to the park and he was trying to get up some rock/hard sand edge to get up to where some other dogs were playing. Well, the ledge was just a bit too tall for bailey and he got stuck. he was halfway up but couldnt reach the top. he was wiggling and trying and the poor thing couldnt make it up, he evenutally rolled back down and i could see the embarassment on his face. He could've easily walked a few feet south and take a shorter route, but well, my bailey is one BRAVE, COURAGEOUS dog. He thinks hes some sorta superman. Well he is kinda but not the kind that can fly. hahah

Have a great weekend everyone!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Saturday Checkup

Hey everyone!!! What a nice sunny day it has been so far. Bailey and I woke up wee early this morning.. sometime before 8am, and we ate breakfast and then headed out for his annual checkup at the SF SPCA. Bailey hasn't been to the doc in over 2 years... and i just wanted to make sure everything looked ok. and it did!. This vet hostpial was on the second floor of a two story building that was newly built in 2008. Boy was it a nice facility... and I believe this was the first time that bailey's been on an elevator, and he was a trooper. Anywhoo, when we finally made it off the elevator (and me trying to prevent bailey from peeing anywhere), we sat down and While filling out some paperwork in the waiting room, we spotted a book with... a corgi on it (with the most cute orange bib ever!).. hahahaha

I didn't have much time to read the contents, but it went into what dogs used to eat, and whether or not there was a difference in the life span of a dog that was fed commercial pet food vs. something else. I didn't get very far on that... while trying to read and control bailey at the same time. He was a nervous wreck pacing back and forth, pulling me to no-where land and wanting to sniff everything and meet everyone. We waited a bit longer than we had hoped for. our appointment was at 9:20, but we didnt get to see the doctor until about 9:45. Anywhoo, when we finally made it in bailey had his vital signs checked - normal temp, 36 lbs. The doc feltALL over and checked his teeth, ears and checked for fleas and asked a list of questions to make sure i was on the right track (heartworm, flea meds, food, behavior changes, etc). We really liked her, so maybe we've found ourselves a vet for life. :)

After doing that, we stopped by the pet store to pick up some treats, went to the dog park, and were back home resting the afternoon away.

Oh and i had to give bailey his heartworm pill this morning. I attempted to wrap it in some jerky but hes too smart. thatll have to be a separate dog post sometime in the future. haha

This will be my last blog post until at least next Thursday. I'm heading out of town for work, and bailey's gramma (my mom) will be dogsitting, and unfortunately, she doesn't know how to operate a computer. lol. so i hope to have some stories when i get back to share with you all.... and until then..!!

Have a great week!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Video Friday: Wrestle Buddies

Bailey loves to wrestle. He’s slowly growing out of it though, I think – and I’m sad. He loves to wrestle with big pit bulls and small puppies, no matter any size disadvantage.. well except for Newfoundlands and Great Danes (I think he has a fear of those two breeds.. haha). Here’s a video of Bailey wrestling with one of his good buddies, Finbar the Australian Cattle Dog:



And to demonstrate that Bailey has no fear of being smushed, here’s Bailey wrestling with a Goldendoodle, named Pebbles. This was last year sometime.!! At one point, Bailey tackles Pebbles to the ground!



Anywhoo, nowadays, Bailey will entice other to chase him (strange for herders) and ignore invitations to wrestle. Don’t know why.. just another sad sign he's growing up!... but on rare occasions I’ll still catch him wrestling with another dog, but I sure to miss watching him play like this!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Rekindling his love for ropes and tugging

We went on a long walk yesterday after work and we met a 17 month old corgi named Tug. He was a cute tri-colored foxy looking corgi bailey played chase with. Tug was on a diet and couldn't move as quick, and Bailey easily took advantage of this. Bailey would lay down in a *oh look im not doing anything but just munching on grass* fake-out, and Tug would run over thinking he could ambush Bailey.. well... not so easy Bailey would say. Bailey would jet off in the other direction and lay down again *munches on grass*, and as soon as tug would get within a feet, bailey would jet off again. It was so cute and hilarous. They did this about 10 times, then ran over to one spot together and took turns rolling in whatever they use to feed the grass. How cute!. We hope to run into them again sometime soon. Bonnie & Tug. Tug reminded me of TUG-o-war and Bailey's rope toys. We have a two tier toy box in the living room. Naturally, bailey cannot reach the second tier.Yesterday, I went over to browse around (he came running becuase the handheld vac was right next to the toybox and poor thing was freaking out and attacking it like i was going to use it)... and instead of grabbing the vac, i grabbed an old rope toy. He was so excited! Nearly at the bottom of the bin, he probably hasn't seen the toy in over 6 months! He has always loved to play tug-o-war. I think it might be a manly sorta thing with bailey - he grunts and woofs and likes to show off his strength. Boy.. for a dog less than a foot high at the shoulders.... he is strong..hahaah. Look how happy and excited he is to play with the rope!

We were advised against tug-o-war when Bailey was a puppy since some sources say that tug-o-war leads to dog agression. In intermediate obedience class, Bailey and I learned the proper way to play tug-o-war. You essentially grab the toy so that you have complete control of it (i.e. in case of a rope toy it would be both ends of the rope), and the dog learns that in order to continue playing, the dog needs to drop the toy on command, and will get the toy back as a reward. The dog is never to "win" the game of tug-o-war (thus the need for complete control). Anywhoo, bailey and i do quite well at this except when I'm trying to film him while playing tug-o-war, but he does pretty well with the drop-it command.


The pictures are a bit dark. I took them last night indoors without flash! I also took a video in black and white mode on my digital camera that you can watch here. Enjoy!

Yesterday night I was trying to play peek-a-boo with bailey and he had that bewildered look on his face like... WTH!. :) and, i let Bailey on my bed last night and the first thing he had to do of course was cut some cheese... then jump off. WTH is that?!?!?



Saturday, May 15, 2010

Weekend Photoshoot


So I got my camera back!!! wooo! Bailey and I had a big photo shoot, for our next profile image. The one we had before was outdated, and bailey is much more handsome and grown-up now. Check out our flickr badge on the right to see these pics!. We had trouble deciding which one we liked, but we hope you like it too!   We might rotate a few until we are set on one. :)                                                                    
I bought a bowtie and necktie for bailey at Old Navy today. They have a cute assortment of dog stuff! :) Anywhoo, Bailey and I had fun and I hope you enjoy the pictures! Bailey, for the most part, behaves during photo shoots. I usually whip out the high quality treats, amp him up by doing some cardio exercises so he "smiles" , then placing him in a sit/down position while i snap them and using the "watch me " command in conjunction with a treat waving. I think the photos turned out great, and am sooooo glad to have my camera back.
The house in the background was built by none other than bailey's mom - me! haha. If you had read one of our first posts, I had spontaneously built the house with large pieces of heavy duty TV box cardboard, along with some construction paper (which literally served what it was named after), and pieces of duct tape (Works wonders!), and packaging tape to seal some of the edges (ya know in case i water the plant next to it then bailey wont have to worry about water damage). hahahh I also taped a few pictures of bailey's puppy pictures on the inside... and even fitted it with a small mailbox up front. He doesn't lounge in it much, but I'll find him in there occasionally!
Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Video Friday: Baby Bailey

I won't have time to post Friday PST, but hey, if we're talking EST - its already friday... and you know what that means... Video Friday time!!

Ahh... how I can't remember how little bailey used to be :( early all floppy... all golden-retriever looking. awww. This video was taken minutes after arriving home from the breeders' and our 3 hr drive... he had just had his first bath and enjoying the treat he deserved for being such a calm boy. i miss those days!



And here's a video of bailey enjoying a bit of jerky while i was filming him in his new shirt... at 14 weeks old! :) he is soo cute.. and CALM!!!!!!!... and actually wanted to sit in my lap. I am surprised!!! lol



Enjoy the weekend, everyone! I have the day off tomorrow, so we are heading down south to pick up my camera tomorrow, then probably stop by a random dog park and snap thousands of pictures, and of course do some window shopping at whatever pet stores we see along the way!

Monday, May 10, 2010

sleepover, swimming & mothers day

My camera is repaired!!! Canon covered it under their manufacturer’s warranty, no questions asked. I won’t have time to pick it up until Friday though… and im so excited I might just go picture crazy this upcoming weekend!!

Well, as I noted last week, two of my younger cousins slept over, and we had a great weekend! I picked them up on Friday night, and we stayed up late Friday night EATING doing some crafty stuff (made some mother’s day cards and finished up the scrapbook I made for my mom). Then, Saturday, we headed over to Crissy Beach (bailey’s favorite place!! – he always has this look of excitement on his face when hes here). We did a lot of fetching in the water, chasing/digging in the sand. This time was extra special because we had Faith, a coworker, join us with her two Australian Shepherd’s and one Papillon: Summer (the sweetheart), Catch (the curious sniffer), and Miette (crazed Charlie-bear loving cute-as-can-be dancer). I'll upload pictures of them when I get them uploaded on flickr!

Pictures provided courtesy of The A’s (my three young cousins with names starting with the letter A) camera. Thanks!!!

After the trip to Crissy Beach, we sat on a picnic table near the windsock, and ate lunch. We then went to the local pet store so that Miette's mom could get her a new harness (her older brother chewed it up). Then, we went to Mountain Lake Park for the monthly Corgi meetup. There were a handful of new corgi's this month. We met Madden (6 mo old pem tri) @ crissy beach and told her about the meetup, two red/white pem puppies (I can't remember their names!!) and the usuals bailey, nicholas, mona, kiko, and waffles. There were also a handful of non-corgis at the park too. Bailey didn't run around too much - he was WAY too tired from his outing at crissy beach and spent time laying in the shade and drinking water.

Bailey got a much needed bath after the days events, and we spent the rest of Saturday lounging around watching tv, playing video games, cooking dinner & resting.

Mother's day was spent at grandmoms house (my moms house), where we had dim sum (chinese food) for lunch, and Bailey got to sample a bit of steamed bun and sponge cake and pork dumpling. :) Although Bailey didn't make me a mother's day card or send me flowers, I still love him - of course. I seriously cannot imagine life without him. It's just so cute when they follow you around the house just because they want to go where you are going (or where they think you are going). It's nice to feel needed & noticed. I hope everyone else had a great momma's day!


Friday, May 7, 2010

bailey the corgi's crazy but lovin' momma

So... maybe I'm a little obccessed and am in need of a COA meeting (I made that up). Corgi Obcessed Anonymous. Hah!

Bailey is my first corgi, and first dog ever. He's also my only dog. That pretty much equates to Bailey being the only child as well ... as.. basically a spoiled butt. I can't imagine my life without a dog now. Anywhoo, I thought I'd discuss some of my craziness over bailey, dogs and corgis in general. For example... so what if i bought out the entire stack of thank you cards at the 99 cent store when I saw a corgi image on them? Or that I want to visit every pet store in existence?  Or... that i feed bailey baby food on occasion (not with a spoon though - and just as a kibble topper!!)? One of my coworkers (BARBARA) says I'm just as weird as one of the dog handlers in the movie "Best in Show". I completely and wholeheartedly.............. disagree. :)

Bailey has his own facebook page. Yes. He does. His official profile name is Bailey Bear (apparently you have to state a last name to sign up for an account - figures). hahaah. So, he's got a couple dozen friends and an active wall. He (I) uploads pictures, and he (me) responds to comments. Occassionally, he (I) "likes" things on other peoples walls, and he (I) updates his status to let everyone know whats going on. Sure, I have a facebook page, but Bailey deserved his own. Every corgi should have their own facebook page. Their big personalities deserve one. LOL

Bailey has his own e-mail address. Yes, he does. baileythecorgi@gmail.com. It's not kept up as well as his facebook page, but we do check it on occasion. He (I) chose the wallpaper background and he  (I) deletes the spam and other junk we get on his account, but typically its pretty clean. And so it should remain... bailey is not allowed to hang out with bad crowds and gangs (you know - the chain mailing kind). hah!

So, I've even gone as far as to create some blog labels (address labels with our blog site and email address). They just came in the mail yesterday, 140 of them and only cost me three bucks. For what? Well I make cards, so maybe well stick them on the back of those, and we bake occasionally so maybe ill stick them on toothpicks and make little flags with them.. and we do scrapbook so maybe a couple will go in there ... and we go to dog parks.. so maybe well stick them on people. Heck, I could even tape them around my normal band-aids for extra flair. Yes. That about does it. I am a truly obcessed corgi-loving dog owner.. but not crazy =D.. no no no.. defintely not crazy. Dontcha agree?.

I could go on, but I won't. Have a great weekend everyone! The cousins are sleeping over tonight and we're going to have a blast taking bailey for a swim & then the corgi meetup!

Video Friday: Swimming & Leo

Happy Friday everyone!

Bailey loves to go swimming. It's about the only time he goes fetch-crazy and he just loves the cool water. We're going go to tomorrow! =D Enjoy this video of him taking a dive!




On a post awhile ago, we mentioned that Bailey found his brother, RANDOMLY, at a corgi meetup. We knew the moment we saw him that something was similar - the way he ran across the park once his mom let him off leash, the way he played... and a few minutes later, we found out they were littermates, and blood brothers! How cute! This is a video of them re-kindling the bond they had as puppies. They acted as if they'd known each other for years. It was awesome. We hope to see them again soon. Bailey and Leo were 1 week shy of 1 year old in this video.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Earthbath jetaway to san francisco contest

Enter and then come visit us when you win. :) We entered too.. and I wonder if we'll get a deluxe limo ride to the hotel since we don't have to fly anywhere... haha
http://www.earthbath.com/jetaway/

The contest is sponsored by Earthbath. I've never bought any of their products, but have "sampled" the wipes at dog shows. Seems like a great product.

Monday, May 3, 2010

what a nice weekend it was

This weekend went pretty great! We did many things and Bailey was sure tired, and wasn’t able to get up easily this morning. It was another morning where he just layed there, wondering if I was going to go back to bed after making a trip to the bathroom. I didn’t, so he realized that… moms gotta work today, so like the little trooper he is, he drug himself out of bed (literally) – it looks like hes getting out of bed and stretching at the same time. Took him outside for a short time to do his business, fed him and left for work. I miss him everyday. =(

Anyways, so back to this weekend! Saturday started off, well, with some errands/shopping – then we stopped by Pet Food Express’s mobile clinic (offers low-cost vaccinations – and no office visit fees!), and we got his 5-in-1 annual booster.. which cost us only $12 after a $5/off any vaccination coupon we received in the mail. I love this clinic because well the people who administer the shots are real vets (nice nice people), the prices are GREAT, and they do just about everything except emergencies and checkup (i.e. flea meds, vaccinations, fecal tests, heartworm tests, worm pills, etc). If they don't have this particular program, i would ask your local petstore if they have their own version!!! We haven’t been to the clinic in awhile… so Bailey thought nothing of it. Happy as ever, walking into the store… wanting to say hi to everyone (mental note: easy walk harness is a MUST next time). He didn’t get nervous or anxious and didn’t have a clue until it was time for his turn on the table….. the shot was no big deal.. but the big deal of the day was me asking the vet if he could express Bailey’s anal glands (theres no way one person can do this, and no way I’d even try it at home. Google it. Lol). ! So.. the vet was nice enough to agree without any hesistation, and I had bailey in a body-lock (like a headlock hahaa), and the vet did his thing and bailey all about wanted to jump off the table and bolt for the door – which is practically what he did with me in tow… hahah .  The vet said they were empty, which i was glad to hear. Bailey still has a “normal” vet for checkups… he hasn’t had one since he was a puppy, then when he got tapeworm, but im taking him the end of this month for his annual checkup (and promise to do it once a year now)! We then stopped by the dog park for an hour of romping, sand digging, chase, and fetch (I was only involved in the last). I spent the afternoon catching up with some friends with a shopping trip downtown, and I brought back home an agility tunnel that I found for….. 9.99 lol. Bailey’s not too fond of the chute yet..but he takes to the tunnel pretty nicely. He just doesn’t care to run through it, which is fine. We haven’t tried agility yet with Bailey.. maybe someday. I also want to get him herding-instinct tested. We’ve also tried Rally – but I get too nervous. Hahaha.

Sunday rolled around and we actually went to the clinic again to get Bailey’s bordatella vaccination (don’t ask why we went again.. hahaha), and that went pretty smoothly. No hiccups, the people at the pet store were excited to see Bailey again. I think Corgis just leave big impressions with people. They truly have unforgettable personalities. =) .. that and bailey has a habit of rushing over to the checkout counter in excitement for some free treats.. and it almost looks like hes trying to rob the place… but is just too cute to be taken seriously. We then went to the dog park, and then spent a wonderful sunny Sunday afternoon indoors (heh), relaxing, cooking (bailey loves this part) and watching tv! Anyone watch The Amazing Race? We love that show…. Well I do more than bailey but when your dog cant operate the remote.. then ya know – theres not much of a battle. Hahahahah

Have a great week everyone. I hope to hear from the camera store soon….. =(