Respect the environment y'all

Almost everyday I take Scamp and Rooney for a walk down in the woods behind our neighborhood. Here lately the kids (and even adults) that live next to the woods have become...well...trashy. 

Everywhere you look, garbage. There are balloons hanging from trees, bottles, milk and orange juice cartons, posters on the ground, and even boards with rusty nails sticking out of them laying right next to the trail. And they use this stuff to shoot at. Do their parents say, "Be sure to clean it all up." you ask? More than likely not, they probably encourage it. Not to mention the people across the street from them are cutting down trees not on their property.

This really makes me mad. I've lived here practically all my life, and these people feel they can come in and do whatever. If they keep this up, there will be nowhere for me and my dogs to go for walks other than on pavement. And that's not fun. They're dogs, dogs like to walk around and smell things. And I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want my dogs (or me) to step on a rusty nail buried under leaves.

And the tree cutters, have set up a deer stand down by the creek. First of all there are no deer in these woods, and if there are, they're just passing through. And right under their stand, in the creek, is garbage.

This is just so aggravating, no one cares anymore...

Doggie photoshoot and bios

Today, like any other, I was working with Scamp and Rooney and taking pictures of them. And when I was going through the photos I picked out pictures I thought showed Scamp and Rooney's personalities. So here are their bios...

Scamp 

Scamp is the first dog I ever got. He was born on May 15, 2003; and he got his name from the rascally character Scamp, in "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure." He is an Alaskan Malamute mix, I'm not entirely sure what else he is mixed with. I sometimes say he's Alaskan Malamute, German Shepherd, Yellow Lab mix. Because he loves to be in water, so that's why I think lab, but the vet wasn't sure if he was Malamute or Shepherd. After doing some research, I think he has more Malamute than Shepherd. Because he is a major howler, plus he sheds big time in the summer. Scamp is a complete 180 from what he was as a puppy. When we first got him, he was wild and unruly. Now, he's calm, obedient and willing to please. Scamp knows a number of commands and tricks, including: Sit, Stay, Come, Down, Leave it, Get it, Stop, Back, In, Out, On, Off, Up, Speak, Bow, Pose (beg), and Shake (with both paws). And not long after we got Scamp, he learned how to open gates. He'd open the gates and let himself out of the yard, even at the vet. So now I only use that "trick" for whenever my hands are full and I can't open the gate.


Rooney
My second dog, Rooney, is a German Shepherd, (possibly) sheltie mix. Who was also born in May, on the 8th of 2010. He is all energy. He's always moving, can't sit still...at all. So getting that picture you see, was one of a hand full where he was sitting still. For, like, 5 seconds. Anyways, Rooney is a smart puppy. Because of his high energy and high level of excitement, he gets easily distracted, therefore it takes time to train him. But little Rooney has learned a few things, he knows the basic sit, down, come, and stay. I'm always working with him, trying to burn off all that energy he has, which is gonna take a long time. But on the plus side of have Rooney around, he has helped Scamp lose weight. And Scamp has helped train Rooney.

So there's a little bit about my dogs, and I'll keep posting as long as they keep learning!

Crate training

I'm always working on training my dogs, even with commands they already know, so that way I am able to give the command once and they do it. 

Well, crate training for my dogs isn't as important as it is for other dogs, simply because Scamp and Rooney live outside and don't have to be crated when we leave or go to bed at night. However, it is very important for transportation. Because, as we all know, dogs should never roam around a truck bed while driving 45 mph down a road. Not safe. 

Between the two of my dogs, Scamp is more crate trained than Rooney. If you give the command "crate/in" he goes in, no problem. I still work with him on it, even though he knows the command, I want him to know it in different situations. Example being, if I have him in a room with strangers and the crate is on the opposite side of the room. I want to be able to tell him to "crate" and he goes into it and stays until I say otherwise, without getting distracted either.

Now Rooney, on the other hand, will not just go into the crate on command. He knows the command and what it means (a little).

I've tried coaxing him with treats and the whole baby voice routine, but that doesn't help...at all. I've also tried just picking him up and putting him in too. But that has no effect either. What I have found that works, is a combination of both. I'll toss a few treats in the back, and as he goes in halfway, I block him from backing out. I don't shove him in, just sit there, quietly, moving up occasionally so he doesn't get any ideas that I'm backing down. Once he walks all the way into the crate, and turns around, I block the door with my body, I don't shut the crate door. I sit there, without saying a word, and wait for him to sit down on his own. With no commands given. Once he sits, he gets a reward. Then he will be able to put it together, "if I go in here and sit down, I'll get a treat."

And once he becomes comfortable going into the crate, I'll work in the "crate" command. 

As of right now, Rooney will go into the crate with no problems, but we are still working on putting the word "crate/in" into the training. And Scamp is learning the command from a short distance, hoping to go further soon.

project DOG logo

I was playing around in photoshop and made this. I'm just gonna say this is the "project DOG logo." After all, photoshop was giving me the hardest time ever. And not to mention I didn't have a silhouette picture of Rooney, like I did Scamp, and the only full body picture of Rooney I had was of him in the woods. Not a good combination, black/brown/tan dog plus leaves. Thankfully there was some snow on the ground, made a little more easy...a little.

And after all the trouble photoshop was giving me, I started thinking, this blog is gonna be all about dogs (not that it wasn't before). Ok, maybe the occasional concert story too. But mostly about me and my dogs, and other dogs we, I, know too.

Backstory

Here's a short little blog on how Scamp and Rooney got their names...

Scamp
In August/September-ish of 2003 I got my first puppy. He was small, playful, and had the cutest floppy ears. I got him at a small pet store not far from my house. A lady walked in with him to buy some puppy food. She told us his story, of how he was a stray found in her boss' yard and they were trying to find him a home. I begged to get him. And the answer was yes every time I asked.

She said his name was Jack, and I didn't like that name, at least not for a dog. And around this time I was obsessed with "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure." So, guess what I named him?

3 years later, I ended up loving Rascal Flatts. How does this tie in, you ask. Well, one day I was on dictionary.com for homework (or something), and I looked up my dog's name, Scamp. In the first sentence of the definition was the word 'rascal.' Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I just found it to be interesting...

Rooney
Now I already told how I got Rooney (blog before), so I'll just cut to the chase here. When I saw his name was Johnny, I knew it had to go. Now, yes, I will admit, I did name him Rooney after Joe Don Rooney, BUT there's more to this story.

I also wanted a name that wasn't "common" around here. But not too bizarre either. Almost all my friends have dogs with names that end in -y or -ie. So I wanted something that had a flow to it too. So, Rooney just seemed to fit what I was looking for.

And that's pretty much how my dog's got their names...

Meet Rooney...

7 years ago I got my first dog, Scamp, an Alaskan Malamute mix that fit his name perfectly. He was the kind of puppy that loved to bite when...well, whenever. Mostly play, but at some points, aggression. It didn't take us long to break that behavior. He was a quick learner, for the most part. Got basic commands down, learned to proper way to walk on a leash, and plus a trick or two. And recently I had noticed that he was just slowing down. Just would lay around in the yard, waiting for someone to play. So I, who had been wanting another dog for 5 years, started looking online for another pet.

I went to the local shelters web site and saw this little puppy. Johnny, his name at the time, was a small 5 month old (until the vet verified he was 4 months) German Shepherd mix. Now me being a HUGE German Shepherd lover, I wanted this dog....BAD! So I begged, and begged, and begged. And after days of asking, plus the five years before, I finally got my second dog.

September 10, 2010 was the day we brought Rooney (his new name) home.


Scamp, at first, was like "Oh, yeah I got a new friend!" now, some days, I think he looks at me like "Why? Why did you bring this home?" The reason I say this, is because we soon found out, not only does Rooney have German Shepherd in him, but possibly Shetland Sheepdog "Sheltie". First of all, that makes determining his size harder than usual. You look at a Sheltie next to a GSD and it's like, "Yeah, I don't know..." So picking out the right size crate, has been a challenge.

And since he's been with us he's been through 4 collars, in 5 months. The first one (an ajustable snap kind), the plastic clip broke. The second one (a plain nylon), he chewed up. The third (choke chain), he out grew. And number four (another plain nylon), he chewed up...again. How he managed to chew those two up is unknown, because he was wearing them... Plus, not to mention, he chewed a dog tag, ON his collar, up. So now, he's on collar number 5, and has managed not to chew it up...

And for about 3 months now, I'm pretty sure he's planing an escape route out of the dog lot. He is always jumping on the doghouses, let me remind you, these are igloo houses. Not that it's not impossible, but how he does it when it's iced over, I don't get. Plus he's made several attempts to jump the fence too.

And when he eats, I can guarantee you, he can eat a whole bowl of dog food in 2 minutes or less. He's a speed eater. Not aggressive, you can take the food from him, but he just wont slow down. No matter how many times he's fed a day, either.

It is nearly impossible to drain his energy. I ride my bike with him, where he is running, and when we are done he's like he's been pinned up all day. I road my bike around a mile and a half with him, and it hardly did anything...

So other than all of that, he's a pretty good dog. Weird, but good.

Rascal Flatts Nothing Like This Tour -- Raleigh, NC 6.25.2010

Well, let me start off by saying Google is always right. Normally whenever we go to a concert we use Google Maps; well this year we used a GPS. The thing took us WAY out of the way, through downtown Raleigh and 20-30 minutes later to our destination. When we finally got there, we got all our stuff together and walked to the venue. We walked up to will call and there was a short line, 3 or 4 people at the most, but it took forever because some guy had ticket issues.

We finally got our tickets and saw we had section 1 row F seats 6-7. My mom was like “If we have row F, we must be 3 rows back from the stage.” Once the gates finally opened, we had to walk all the way to the back of the line (because the GPS made us late…). But lucky for us, the line was moving pretty fast.

So we got in, and security had the lawn and the seating areas closed off for another 30 minutes or so. During that time we bought an RF sweat shirt and a T-shirt. Oh and did I mention it was about 100° out there? Well it was. When security opened up the lawn it was a stampede! People were taking off to get the best seat possible, which I can’t blame them, at my first RF concert we were at the very back of the lawn.

So my mom and I walked to our seats, we were expecting third row, but instead we had front row on the far right of the stage. So we’re sitting there and one of RF’s crew guys comes out and gave drum sticks to four people. I was just staring at him because I had nothing to do. So he signals at me to catch one, so I stuck my hand out and he tosses me a drum stick, a well used drum stick at that. And now I’m sitting in my seat looking at this drum stick when I saw something on the ground. It was out of my reach so my mom picked it up for me. What was it you ask? It was a guitar pick that belonged to Jay. Well I said to my mom “The concert hasn’t even started and it’s already going to be an awesome one!”

Then Chris Young came out and did his performance, which was really good. And then we watched the hosts for the RF shows this year talk to fans, have water chugging contests, and all kind of other things. Then they announced Kellie Pickler. Kellie’s performance was good, and I was recording her singing “Red High Heels” when everything went wrong. First off my camera decided that it didn’t want to record that song. And second, this is disgusting so brace yourself, a girl walked by and just blew chunks everywhere. Right in front of a security guard at that. I felt bad for her, me, and the security guard. Plus everyone else who witnessed it… :P

So once that was cleaned up, everyone waited for Flatts to come out. The wait felt like forever too. Because of the heat, people puking, excitement (not over the puke) and just the fact that it was the first show of the new tour.

And when they did come out it was ahhhmaaazing!! And during the show Joe Don came over to where our seats were and tossed a pick right over my head. I was at least an inch away from catching it. But I didn’t :( At least I had a drum stick and a Jay pick.

They performed most of their hits, such as “Prayin’ For Daylight,” “These Days,” “Mayberry,” “Feels Like Today,” oh you get the picture. Plus they threw in a surprise! Their new song “Why Wait!” Which I recorded :)



Other than the fact that the stage was 2 feet higher at the end which is where our seats were, the heat, the nastiness, and camera issues, it was a really good show. And I’m not gonna say anymore about the awesomeness of their tour because I don’t want to ruin it for everyone else whose goin’ :)

Oh yeah, and on the way home from Raleigh we got behind one off Flatts semi’s :)