As Told by Athena: Busy Ladies

Hi Guys!  Athena here.  You're probably wondering where this little brindle butt has been because she has totally been slacking on her blogging duties lately (ok....let's be honest, it's been like a month)!  Well friends, I've been a busy lady and so has my mom.

Mom and I take a second out of our busy schedules to pose for a photo last weekend

Mom comes home every night and says that life is crazy in the garden with her 31 gardeners.  I don't get how gardening could be so difficult, but apparently it's hard when the gardeners are only 5 years old...and when there are 31 of them.  Mom says she's a bad blogger because she promised one blog post a week, but she didn't even succeed at that.  She hopes that you all understand that gardening has taken over her life for the time being.

My mom's busyness means that my social life has soared through the roof!  That's right.  I get to go to my favorite doggie daycare THREE days a week now!  Mom says this makes for one super duper tired Bean every night, but it also makes for lots of cute picture in my mom's inbox.

I'm also still flyballin' regularly at practice and I recently raced in two tournaments.  One of the tournaments was held at a big ole' doggie event where there were agility demos and a lure course set up.  Mom paid $3 for me to give lure coursing a try, but she wasn't sure if I'd be interested in chasing a silly little plastic bag around.  Of course, this Bean thought that lure coursing was the most fun thing in the whole wide world!  After my turn was over I kept trying to pull my mom back to the course for another run, so she gave in and paid another $3 to let me do it again.  Mom says she sees lure coursing in my future.

Flyball is still my most favorite extra curricular activity and I'm getting pretty good at it with all of this practice that I do every week.  I'm even now known as a FDCh-S which stands for "Flyball Dog Champion Silver" because I've won over 1,000 points at tournaments!

So yeah, that's a little update on the life of the Bean.  I really miss all of my doggie friends out there and I'm so sorry that my mom has let gardening take over her life.  As you can see though, I don't mind one bit because it means that I get to play with my doggie friends more often!

What's up with you guys?

One of Athena's Biggest Fans

Over the summer Athena has discovered a new favorite location to frequent that includes a constant game of ChuckIt launching and all of the love and attention she could ever desire.  Really though, Athena is only interested in the ChuckIt, and accepts the love and attention in between games of fetch only because we require her to take breaks.  This new favorite location happens to be my grandma's house and is one of the last places that I ever thought Athena would fall in love with.

You see, even though my grandma and I are extremely close, I'm pretty sure she thought I'd lost my mind a year ago.  I remember telling her over the phone that B and I had gone out and adopted a pit bull.  My grandma couldn't believe what I'd done because, "don't you know that one day she's going to snap?!"  Yes, my grandma used to be someone who gave into the crazy pit bull myths much like most of the population.

It must have been at least a month before my grandma actually met Athena in person.  Athena and I had been on an outing walking around Laurellhurst Park and popping into local pet shops when I all of a sudden had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad.  I didn't want to leave Athena in the car while I ran into a store to use the restroom, so I called my grandma who lived only a few minutes away and asked if she'd keep an eye on Athena in my car while I used her bathroom.

When I arrived at my grandma's house I did the potty dance and explained to my grandma that she wouldn't even have to meet Athena because I knew she was afraid.  My grandma decided that she'd be ok to hold Athena's leash in the house while she waited for me.  When I got out of the bathroom I found my grandma escorting Athena around the house on leash and telling her all about the house.

From then on Athena slowly began to visit my grandma's house with me here and there.  When Christmas came along Athena was even invited to my grandma's house for our Christmas Eve celebration.  My grandma has become one of Athena's biggest fans and dedicated blog followers.  Every conversation with my grandma now includes an update on Athena and a discussion about when she will visit next.

For Labor Day we visited my grandma's house and Athena spent the afternoon lounging in the spacious yard and enjoying LOTS of time with her ball.  I know that Athena is going to be sad when the weather starts to change and she's no longer able to play ball in the yard, but I actually think it's my grandma who will miss Athena's visits the most!

*Thank you to everyone who took last week's poll!  I'm glad that so many of you enjoy reading about Athena's everyday happenings!"

Gotcha!

Boy, how time flies!  It's crazy to think that it has already been one year since we adopted Athena from the shelter.  Last week I got a bit sentimental thinking about where we were at this time last year and how far Athena has come since then.

Over the weekend we celebrated Athena's "Gotcha Day" with a one-day flyball tournament in Albany and a mini-pawty.  The flyball tournament was GREAT and Athena had some great successes.  There was one little incident where another dog ran into Athena's lane and started chasing her in the ring during a race, but Athena handled herself well and ran right back to me.  She was in a bit of shock over the incident, but I was SO proud of her for showing everyone what a good girl she is.

In my head I had grand plans for Athena's "pawty" filled with a homemade dog cake, party guests, and lots of gifts for her actual Gotcha Day on Sunday.  However, with my recent busyness (blame it on me landing a teaching job this week!), the party wasn't as lavish as I had anticipated.

Of course, Athena didn't notice the lack of decorations and presents.  She was in her glory just playing ball and eating a homemade Frosty Paw that I dug out from the freezer.  Even though the party wasn't much of a pawty to brag about, I think it was perfect for Athena.  She spent the entire day with her humans doing Athena things and getting lots of love.  What more could a girl ask for on her first Gotcha Day?

Happy Gotcha Day Little Bean!  Here's to another great year filled with love, treats, smiles, and balls!

Athena and the Big, Bad, Fireworks

Well, last night we experienced the big booms and bangs of fireworks with Athena during her first 4th of July spent with us.  In the first few months of having Athena, I was sure that we would never be able to enjoy the 4th of July again.  With her fear of pretty much everything, I figured we'd have to drug her and keep her locked up while we watched fireworks on TV.  However, more recently Athena has put on her big girl panties and has really shown us that she's not afraid of EVERYTHING, just a few things (like skateboards...and certain people...and rolled up rugs...).

Our first indicator of how Athena would react to fireworks came on New Year's Eve when a few people in our neighborhood lit some off.  Surprisingly, Athena showed no reaction to the loud noises.  As the 4th of July approached, part of me thought that Athena might not be bothered by the fireworks, but another part of me knew that with the 4th of July comes many more fireworks that are much louder than they usually are on New Year's Eve.

Fireworks went on sale here in Portland a little over a week ago, so many people have been lighting off their loot in the days leading up the the 4th.  Athena showed no reaction to any of these pre-4th festivities giving us hope that she'd be calm on the actual day.  The thing about fireworks here in Oregon is that we can't light off any of the big cool ones that shoot in the air.  That means that all of the fireworks that are actually legal here are pretty quiet and can't go more than a foot in the air, or six feet horizontally.  The catch is, we are a ten minute drive to Washington where the big loud fireworks are legal.  MANY Portlanders buy their fireworks in Vancouver and then light off the illegal fireworks on the 4th and risk getting the $750 citation.

Even knowing that many of the fireworks in my grandma's neighborhood would be loud and illegal, I brought Athena to my usual family get together last night.  Being the helicopter dog mom that I am, I packed a bag full of goodies including a deluxe frozen Kong, frozen beef marrow bone, jumbo bully stick, multiple Nylabones, bull horn, toys, balls, and lots of treats to prepare myself just in case Athena had a meltdown.  While my family barbecued and played badminton, Athena played ball and dressed up for the occasion.

Puffin' as usual

Once it got dark, the fireworks really started booming all around us.  Athena spent some time in her crate with a tasty treat while the TV and radio blocked out the noise.  My family and I lit off our own fireworks outside (I promise they were wimpy and legal) and Athena stayed completely quite and content in her crate (at a place where she's never been crated before!).

Athena on the swing with her great grandma

I can't believe that Athena really had zero reaction to the fireworks.  I know that so many people struggle to keep their dogs calm and free of anxiety on the 4th and I thought for sure that Athena would be one of those dogs.  But, as usual, Athena showed me that I don't have to be such a worry wart all of the time!

Lady, why are these on my head?

How did you spend your 4th of July and what do you do to keep your dog calm while the fireworks are booming?

What's Up With Athena?

Ok, so we've been a little MIA the past few days here on the blog besides some random pictures posted on Facebook of Athena's daycare shenanigans and our warm Portland weather.  Sorry about that!  Life seems to just be busier and this heat doesn't help my motivation to write.  I decided that today should just be a catch up day to let everyone know what Athena's been up to.

1.  Who's a Canine Good Citizen?

Not Athena.  Nope, we haven't yet tested for CGC.  As many of you know, over the past couple of month's Athena has been enrolled in a CGC prep class and has been working hard to master the ten test items.  The five-session prep class was Athena's best training class by far.  Usually Athena is the class clown, always trying to rile up the other dogs and not pay attention to her parents.  However, during CGC prep, Athena was an absolute star student and our trainer used her for all of the test demonstrations.  We have REALLY been looking forward to testing Athena for CGC because we feel that she's ready now more than ever.  We were suppose to test on the last day of class which was suppose to be on June 16th.  But, June 16th has come and gone and Athena is still just a CGC in training.  Our trainer decided to postpone the test until late July or August to give the other class participants more time to practice before testing.  At this point, Athena is probably the only one ready to test from her class (I'm not saying that's she's necessarily ready to pass!) and so we will wait until our trainer schedules the test in the next month or two.

Getting yummy treats in CGC class!

2.  Our first flyball tournament is in 10 days!

I just looked at my calendar and had a mini panic attack when I saw that our first flyball tournament is in only 10 days!  We've been hard at work practicing to get Athena ready to run as a green dog (she won't actually be in he tournament, she'll just be with the team practicing as a dog in training).  Athena has had some ups and downs in flyball over the past few weeks and the ups definitely make me so excited for our first tournament, but the downs (not bringing her ball back over all jumps, running around hurdles, putting pressure on other dogs, acting like we've never practiced before...) totally frighten me.  Alas, I'm sure that our first tournament will be quite the experience and we'll have plenty of stories to share when we're back.

Flyball practicer!

3.  Athena's belly bumps are a mystery...

It's been a few weeks since we shared about Athena's most recent trip to the vet to get her bumps and scabs checked out.  She went on two weeks of antibiotics and Benadryl and things cleared up pretty well.  However, some bumps and scabs were not completely gone and a couple of new bumps appeared, so we called up the vet and Athena is now on a second round of antibiotics.  We also took her off Benadryl for the time being and put her on a steroid to help with the itching.  It's been a little over a week since the second dose of antibiotics and steroids, and things were REALLY starting to clear up until she developed a couple of new belly bumps the other day.  We have an inkling that the grass is triggering the tummy bumps, but we're not 100% sure.  Our vet has suggested seeing a dog dermatologist if we can't get things under control.

Thean loves to eat grass...

4.  We're SO hot!

Us Portlanders are milld weather people.  We look forward to the summer for 70 and 80 degree weather.  Personally, when the temperature starts to creep past 80, I am miserable.  This past week we've been having temperatures in the upper 90's (like 98!) and it has been pretty awful.  Seeing as this hot weather is rare, the majority of people here in Portland don't have air conditioning in their homes so it gets REAL hot.  It's tough to take Athena out during the day because the pavement is just too hot for her paw pads, and the sun is too bright at the park.  She doesn't seem to mind too much that she's been lacking in the exercise department though.  The mix of steroids and hot weather makes for an extra tired Bean!

This girl is jumping for joy because it's starting to cool down!

5.  Athena is a midnight muncher

On Friday night Athena did a little something that she's never done before.  She crept out of the bedroom and into the living room while we were asleep and found a bag full of dog treats and food samples.  When we woke up in the morning, we noticed four treat bags and two food samples had been ripped open and demolished.  Athena also looked like she put on a good five pounds over night.  Our little skinny Bean was a BIG fatty all of Saturday with bloat.  I of course freaked out and Googled all of the signs and symptoms of dog bloat.  Luckily Athena didn't exhibit much besides being a big lug all day. Nine poops later, Athena was back to her normal self and ready for Sunday!

I took this picture on the day of Athena's bloat.  Can you tell how bloated she is?

Well, that's about all of the major updates I have for you.  Athena wishes everyone a very happy 4th of July and hopes that you will cross your fingers that she's not too afraid of the big booms (AKA fireworks)!

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!

Athena isn't a very noisy dog.  She rarely full-on barks but instead will just give a soft woof if she feels the need to speak.  However, for what she lacks in the bark department, she more than makes up for in the yodel department.  That's right, Athena is a yodeler.  You know, like "yodel-ay-hee-hoo!"

You just really need to watch this video in its entirety to see the yodeling in action (or at least make sure you get to my favorite part starting at 0:50):

Athena's yodeling isn't so much a problem in the house as it is when she gets in the car.  Whenever Athena thinks we're in the car to take her to one of her favorite places (the park, doggie daycare, flyball practice, etc.) she starts to yodel.  It usually starts as a whisper yodel as she stares out the car window in hopes that the car turns down a street that will lead her to one of her favorite places.  If the car in fact turns down a road that goes to the park, doggie daycare, or one of her many other favorite locations, Athena's yodeling will increase in loudness until she completely drowns out the stereo and our conversation.

I love Bean - yodels and all!

I find myself saying, "shhhhhhhh" "shhhhh" "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," during most of the car ride, especially when we get REAL close to the park (or other favorite place) because that's when Athena goes totally ballistic.  As you probably saw if you viewed the above video, 0:50 in the video shows the exact instance when Athena has realized that we are in fact driving to the park.  She yodels and dances all the way until we stop the car.

Bean LOVES the park

Now, there are many other locations that we frequent that just so happen to be along the same driving path as some of Athena's favorite locations.  This means that we get to hear yodeling even if we're not planning on stopping at the park.  I then feel guilty when Athena stops yodeling because I know that she's pouting that I so rudely didn't take her to a favorite place.

Is your dog a barker, a whiner, a yodeler, or something totally unique?

Click here to go to the giveaway

A Trip to the Vet: Scabs, Puss, and the Itchy Scratchies

Many of you are well aware of our most recent trip to the vet from our Facebook update on Monday.  We called the vet on Monday morning because Athena had an allergy flare up that got a bit out of hand and we figured that we'd better get it looked at.

Athena shaking as she awaits her turn to see the vet

On occasion, Athena will break out in little red bumps on her belly if she eats something that she's not suppose to (we are thinkin' she's allergic to white potatoes, possibly chicken, grass, and who knows what else).  Every time that Athena gets the little red bumps, they just go away on their own after about a week.  Well, a month ago Athena got the usual little red bumps after eating one too many chicken treats at the Doggie Dash.  However, we noticed that the bumps weren't going away and some were getting bigger.  Most recently we noticed that Athena had little scabs all over her body (mostly around her tail, backs of her legs, and her tummy, but a few popped up on her chest and even a gigantic one on her head).  I thought she could have fleas, but we didn't find any and still thought it strange that her belly bumps weren't clearing up.

The event that caused the bumps...

Now, you're probably thinking that we're horrible dog parents for letting the situation get that far (we're talking about three weeks of bumps and then scabs).  Well, we already had a vet visit scheduled for the end of June to get vaccines, so we thought that we might be able to wait it out seeing as Athena really didn't seem bothered by the belly bumps or the scabs.  Things got worse over the weekend, however, and Athena developed new belly bumps with puss.  We knew that we needed to get it looked at right away.

After three of us pulled a shaky Athena out from under the chair, the vet was finally able to examine Athena's skin and determined that her recent allergy break out probably just got a bacterial infection.  It's a good thing that we went in though, because since some bumps developed puss, we definitely needed antibiotics to treat the infection.

Benadryl is EXPENSIVE when Athena has to take 4 tablets a day!
 I got the mega-sized bottle making each pill only $.05.

Now Athena is on an antibiotic for two weeks and will be taking 50mg of Benadryl every eight hours for the rest of the summer (or as needed for her year-round itchy scratchies).  The Benadryl is making her drowsy, but overall she's in good spirit.

Things are starting to heal up after 2 days of antibiotics

Does your dog get the itchy scratchy allergies?  What do you do to keep them at bay?

Click here to go to the giveaway

How Thean the Bean Got Her Name

During the time when we were dreaming about the day in the far, far future when we would adopt a dog, we found it fun to look at "Popular Dog Name" lists to choose our future dog's pretend name.  Originally we loved the idea of naming our make believe dog a Spanish name like Leona because B and I both have a love for the Spanish language.  Then B became obsessed with Greek god names and thought that Athena had a nice ring to it for our future (remember, we were thinking YEARS in the future) dog.  Seeing as he eventually wins all battles, we settled on Athena for our future pittie.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #1

So, back on that warm summer day when we walked into the shelter and asked to play with June (Athena's shelter name-- she was also called Penelope by the family who adopted her before us.  Confusing, right?) we had found our Athena.  The next day we picked up June/Penelope from the shelter and officially changed her name to Athena.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #2

Over the last ten months our goddess of wisdom has kept her official name, but we now call her by a handful of nicknames that reflect her silly personality.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #3

First, Athena morphed into Theana for short.  Then I began calling her Thean.  As she started to come out of her shell, she turned into Thean the Bean because she's such a silly jelly bean!  Nowadays, I mostly call her Thean or Bean.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #4

Recently her nicknames have gone in a whole different direction.  Bean turned into Beanie, which turned into Beanie Bop, which has now become Bop.  So, if you hear a crazy lady calling her dog "Bean" or "Bop" while walking her dog, that's me!  I don't think that someone walking by us on the street would guess that her actual name is "Athena" from our silly nicknames.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #5

It's fun to think that Athena started out as "June" when she was taken in by the shelter a year ago as a stray, then she was named "Penelope" by her adopted family, then she was returned to the shelter and renamed "June," and then we adopted her and named her Athena-Thean-Bean-Bop (which I think is much more fitting than June or Penelope)!

Athena's YBH portrait choice #6

Has your dog's name morphed over time like Athena's?  How did your dog's nicknames come about?

* All of the photos above were taken during our Yellow Brick Home photo shoot for our custom pet portrait that we just ordered thanks to the generous coupon code offered over at Our Waldo Bungie.  Hurry on over to their blog because the discount expires today (June 7th)!  Can you guess which photo we chose to use for our custom portrait?

*Don't forget to enter our Scout & Zoe's Elk Antler Giveaway.  A winner will be chosen tonight (June 7th) at 9 PST!

Water Baby

Recently the weather has been very summerish here in Portland with temperatures in the 70's and 80's.  Not only has Athena been spending time soaking up the sun in her Andy Randy chair, but she's also been splish splashing in her new baby pool.

After the swamp incident, we thought that Athena might enjoy her very own pool (with clean water!) to take a dip in on warm days.  We already know that she LOVES the sprinkler, so we figured that the kiddie pool would be just the same.  It turns out Athena is in LOOOOVEEE with her kiddie pool too!

Of course at first, Athena was a bit afraid of the pool.  She initially thought it was a gigantic water bowl, but after we threw in a few treats, she got brave and poked her head under the water.  Athena didn't do a full splash in the pool until we threw her ball in though.

To make pool time more fun, we recently purchased a water toy make by ChuckIt that floats in the pool.  It turns out that Athena loves the thing almost as much as she loves her ball!  We like to toss the bumper toy into the kiddie pool, and then Athena chases after it.  It also make a great tug toy for practicing "drop it" and "tug."

All of Athena's pool splashing has got us thinking that we'd like to try dock diving in the near future with Cascade Dock Dogs!

Does your dog love the water?

Blooming Confidence

For those of you who have been following our blog since the beginning, you know what a scared pup Athena was when we first brought her home.  We were sure that she must have been locked in a closet for her first year of life, because she was afraid of just about everything.  Garbage cans, sprinklers, orange construction signs, skateboards, bicycles, vacuums, cameras, people, etc.  Thankfully, we've been able to overcome many of these fears through positive reinforcement and by exposing Athena to lots of new experiences.

Even though she has come so far, Athena still has her nervous moments and we continue to help her to overcome her fears everyday.  However, recently we've noticed that Athena has had an extremely large boost of confidence.

Bench practice:

For months and months we've been trying to get Athena to jump up onto a park bench.  She-would-not-do-it for the life of her.  Even with the tastiest of cheeses, Athena would back up at the sight of a park bench (she has no fear of jumping on our bed though...).  But, just last week we had a breakthrough.  While walking through the park, I asked Athena to "up" onto the park bench.  SHE DID IT!  And then she continued to do it over, and over, and over and will now gladly get up onto the park bench each time we are at the park (she will even do "down" and "touch" while sitting on the bench).

Roll over:

Has anyone out there struggled to teach "roll over" to their dog?  My goodness, I thought Athena would never get it.  We'd been trying to practice with her for months, but she would just whip her head around trying to grab the treat from my hand instead of following my hand onto her back.  I was completely shocked when Athena actually rolled over for the first time a couple of weeks ago!  Now we practice "roll over" in our training sessions and she continues to make me laugh every single time she does her floppity roll.

Walking on the wall:

Each time we walk with Respectabulls, there's a particular part of our walking route that has a short wall that many of the dogs like to jump up and walk on (see photo below).  Although we've tried time and time again to get Athena to "up" onto the ledge, she was always too afraid.  Much to our surprise, as we were walking during the last Respectabulls walk, Athena just jumped right on up there!  She had no cues from us and just decided that if the other dogs were doing it, she was going to do it too!

Swamp swimming:

If you read our post earlier this week, then you know all about Athena's fun swim in the swamp last weekend.  The girl who is afraid of everything jumped right into a swamp like it was her own personal swimming pool.  I'm still baffled as to why Athena even went into the muddy water, because she is definitely not a girl who likes to get dirty (or maybe that's just her mom...).

Flyballin':

As much as I was excited for Athena to get started in flyball, there was a part of me that assumed she would be too nervous to actually jump over the hurdles.  Of course, Athena proved me wrong on the very first night of flyball training when she jumped over the hurdles multiple times.  As we've progressed in flyball, Athena just keeps improving and she continues to show her confidence every week.

I'm still trying to figure out what it is that has made Athena blossom into such a confident dog recently.  Maybe she has finally realized that she's here to stay, or maybe all of our training and persistence has started to pay off.  I do think that Athena's confidence comes from a variety of things, but I think that flyball has been the biggest factor in building her up.  One of our main goals for starting flyball was to help Athena to gain more confidence and I dare say that I think it's working!