Friday, September 2, 2011

Long overdue...and long awaited....MERLIN UPDATE!!

OK, OK, OK......I know that we are excited about our recent marriage....and our upcoming wedding (April 21st everyone!!!)...and our Labor Day weekend/week trip to Walt DisneyWorld and Disney cruise (we actually arrived yesterday and I started writing this post in our hotel room while Jason and Kimberly got ready this morning).....and I know that many of our followers (all of YOU!) are also excited about those things...

...but there's one other thing that many people have been waiting on, as well....

...a Merlin update!!  And so, before I start posting blogs about our time in Florida at Walt DisneyWorld and our first trip on Disney's newest and biggest ship, the Dream, here is a little update for all you Merlin fans....

...Merlin is doing very, very well.  He's approaching his 6-month birthday and we've not even had him for 3 full months yet...but it's hard to imagine what we ever did without him!!   He's been doing well behaviorally...entirely house trained, sleeping through the night, friendly, cuddly, well-socialized....not really destructive (he has too many toys to destroy to really care about destroying anything else! LOL)...he's such an amazing little companion, it's just incredible!

So the two big new things with Merlin of late are puppy obedience class and his first REAL grooming!

So in early July we started puppy obedience classes with Merlin.  The classes are taught at a doggy day care near our home called "Dogs at Play" and are taught by a local dog behavioral specialist named Bob Minchella.  On our first night of class, I wasn't really sure how this was going to work.  Merlin is the smallest dog in the class by a MILE!  All the puppies in the class are about his age...but some of them are seriously about 8-10 times his size....and I'm already not a big dog person...so going in with my tiny little puppy I was kinda scared and intimidated.  Merlin really adjusted quickly, however, and he quickly became one of the most playful and popular puppies in the class.  Everyone wanted to pet him and talk to him and he was actually super social with the other dogs----even the big ones!  Even more exciting, he did very well in class.  Unfortunately we had to miss the last two classes in the session because of scheduling problems....but in the weeks we went, he learned SIT, STAY, DOWN, COME and a HEEL position-----and he also learned how to walk on a leash much better, too!  We are probably definitely going to sign him up for another series of classes in the fall.

The next big exciting thing is Merlin's new hairdo.  He has been to his groomers, Bark Avenue Dog, in downtown Rochester 3 or 4 times now for a puppy grooming---which is basically a trim of his paws and a little around the face, just to get him used to being groomed.  But we decided it was time to do the works so we took him last week for his first full grooming and they cut his body very short.  At first I thought it might be too short, but then the new look really grew on me and now I think it's totally adorable (and he doesn't really like being brushed so it's going to make his upkeep WAY easier!).  Here are some photos:


So that's our puppy update.  Now he's staying with Jason's parents while we're in Florida...so he's hanging out by the lake with his older sister, Maggie, and Jason's parents have fallen as in love with him as we have......but they can't keep him!!! hehehehe

2 comments:

  1. How excited was Merlin when you finally came back from vacation and picked him up? Did he "go crazy?" Our puplet would get so excited she would piddle. We miss having her welcome us home, even though it's now been 5 years. Enjoy Merlin and give him a big hug from me.

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  2. He was pretty happy to see us....although not as happy as if we'd left him in a kennel I think. I think our absence was softened by the fact that he was home with Jason's step-mom, Sheila, who doesn't work during the day so she was home most of the day and he had company. Plus our niece and nephew were there playing with for a couple days AND he had Maggie (his older sister) to rough house with and a huge yard. In fact, I was half afraid that when we went to get him he wouldn't want to come home at all! LOL But he did....and he's doing great at home now :)

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