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?

Bubbles!

This weekend we received our March PawBox in the mail which was filled with lots of goodies that Athena was very excited about (mostly because everything was food related).  Personally, I was most excited about the Toy of the Month that was included in the box.  It wasn't necessarily a toy, but was fun none the less!

We got a bottle of super fun IncrediBubbles!

IncrediBubbles are non-toxic bubbles specially formulated for dogs and cats.  The bubbles dry in the air and land on the ground without popping (waaaayyyy cooler than kid bubbles if you ask me!).  Not only  do these bubbles have special un-poppable powers, but they smell and taste like CHICKEN!

At first Athena didn't know what to think of the bubbles flying through the air.  She was clearly nervous while I was blowing them.  However, she couldn't resist the chickeny smell, so she stuck out her tongue, licked a bubble, and she was hooked!

After licking all of the bubbles flying through the air, Athena decided to get right to the source and wanted to taste the bubble wand.  Like most new experiences, Athena was unsure about the bubbles at first.  But, as always, she quickly got over her fears and started to have lots of fun with the bubbles.  I'm so proud of this girl!

Does your dog like bubbles, or are they afraid of them like Athena was?  Have you ever tried IncrediBubbles before?

Training a Scared Pup to 'Hup'

Athena is a scaredy dog, there's no doubt about it.  New situations, experiences, and objects bring out her timidness and I am often left wondering how she spent her first year of life because it sure seems as though she must not have gotten out much.

Over the past 6 months Athena has come a long way and has become tolerant of many of the things that she once found fearful.  When we first brought Athena home, there were times when I literally hugged an orange construction sign, talked to our garbage can, and gently pet the vacuum cleaner, all in an attempt to show Athena that "if I can do it, you can do it too."  Often Athena would gain the confidence to approach these fearful objects after lots of encouragement and tasty treats.

You gotta do whatcha gotta do

As part of our New Year's Resolutions, B and I agreed to teach Athena a few tricks during 2013.  So, we bought the book 101 Dog Tricks to get us started in our endeavor.  After scouring the pages for "Athena appropriate" tricks (i.e. not too difficult), we found a handful of tricks that we want to try out in the coming months.  One of these tricks is 'jump through a hoop'.

Athena attempts to jump walk through a hoop!

But, Athena is not the jump through a hoop type of dog at this point in her life.  I swear that she thinks her paws will be eaten off by an invisible monster if she lifts them too far off from the ground.  So clearly 'jump through a hoop' is the trick that we decided to start teaching Athena.  Well, sort of...

Athena is actually really afraid of hula hoops.  She will not go near one, or heaven forbid step through one.  How do you teach a dog to walk through a hoop if you can't even get them within 5 feet of the dang thing?

Is that hotdog you have there, mom?

Well, you offer looooooooooots and lots of hotdogs, cheese, and mini pepperonis is what we found out.  This food encouragement helped Athena to successfully zoom through the hula hoop (meaning that she walked super duper fast through it just in case it tried to eat her on her way through).  She was then motivated to go through it (very quickly) over and over again as long as there was hotdog on the other end.  We added the 'hup' command each time Athena went under the hoop and she seemed to be more confident in the situation.

Ok, I'll go through this portal to another world if there's hotdog on the other side

But then something happened.  Athena decided that she was afraid of the hula hoop again.  After tons of success, Athena digressed.  We have tried bringing out the hula hoop again on multiple occasions only to have Athena run to the opposite side of the room and shut down completely.

Noooo way am I going through that thing again!

So, here we are taking a break from 'hup' training.  We never expected Athena to learn how to actually jump through the hoop, we simply wanted to set up a positive experience to build her confidence by simply walking through the hoop.  Clearly something went wrong.  But, on a better note, we found out on Sunday at our first flyball practice that Athena is not at all afraid to jump over the hurdles....go figure.

Does anyone have any tips for training a fearful dog and helping them to build confidence?

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Overcoming Fears: Water Play

Some of Athena's best pictures came from the photo shoot during her first time in the sprinkler on a hot day in Portland.  Today we will share some of the best pictures from yesterday's water play!

We have noticed a pattern in Athena's fear of new things and experiences.  The first time that Athena experiences something new she is usually very afraid, but will then be all for it the next time around.  This has been true for experiences such as playing in the sprinkler, approaching orange construction signs, watching the garbage can be rolled out to the curb, and drinking from the hose.

Last week B was watering the lawn and offered Athena a drink of water from the hose.  Athena was so afraid of the hose.  She kept running around it and wouldn't get close to take a drink.  When Athena is afraid of new things we show her that we are not afraid.  For orange construction signs we have gone up to them and hugged them, talked very gently to the garbage can, and drank from the hose.

Yesterday we busted out the hose again after a walk to see if Athena would take a drink.  She went right up to the hose and took a very long drink.  B began to water the lawn and Athena decided that she wanted more and more to drink.  This turned into quite the water play and we ended up with a soaking wet pooch (there goes the nice smell from her first bath!).

The many faces of not-so-fearful Athena!

Like the day Athena pranced around in the sprinkler, yesterday's hose play left us with some HILARIOUS photos.  Could Athena make funnier faces?  We don't think so!

What?!  A new pink towel?  I'm so spoiled!

Ok, you can rub my tummy if you insist!

Still showing off some pretty crazy faces even when drying off...

 What do you do to help your dogs overcome their fears?

-A & B

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