Nom nom nom

Mmm... apples...

Mollie gets spayed!

Mollz recently turned 6 months and finally got spayed! The first night she was extremely drugged up.

"Huh...? My ovaries are gone, you say? Wait... what's an ovary..... are they yummmyy?"

"Sleeeepy....... sleeeeeeep....is goooood."

She recovered quickly and was back to bouncing off the walls within two days.

She even had a little bonding experience with a (empty) trash can:

At first, she didn't quite know what was going on... and then...

"O NOES I'M IN A TRASH CAN!!!!!"

Couch dog

Recently she's discovered a new hiding place -- under the couch. Though soon she's going to be too fat to fit.

Drumsticks, anyone?

Tricks at 5 months

And why it takes 5 minutes for her to learn a trick but 5+ months to potty train is beyond me. She's doing better but will still have an occasional accident when we're not watching her. And I KNOW she can hold it; she just doesn't want to. A few days ago she pooped in the living room, and that was the last straw. Being the tech geeks that we are, we decided to take some drastic measures and set up a surveillance system in our living room to spy on her from another room (to trick her into thinking we aren't watching her) and then catch her in time when she has an accident. Every angle of the room was covered. We used 6 Skype accounts, 4 computers, and 2 virtual machines. Yes, I know - we are ridiculous, insane, and evil. But frankly, it doesn't matter how cute a dog is or how many tricks it knows; if it's not potty trained, nothing else matters!!! It's been our biggest headache ever since we got her, and we've tried everything else - so just doing whatever it takes!

"Hmm... I feel like I'm being watched..."

Mollie visits Stanford

It was a gorgeous Saturday, so we decided to head to Stanford for some doggy exercise and fun. As usual, there were hordes of tourists and wedding photoshoots near the Oval and quad area.

Mollie's first order of business was to take a dump! Clearly, she has her priorities straight. It's OK, I'm sure Stanford can afford some good fertilizer for their lawn.

"Uh oh! I hope I'm not in somebody's wedding shoot!"

That's alright, Mollie. Even if you were, at least you look cute taking a crap. It'd be a bonus in any wedding photo ;-)

"Ahh... all done now. That felt good. Now let's go explore!"

Later that afternoon, being fans of Steve Jobs, we headed over to the Apple store on University Ave. in Palo Alto to pay our respects at his "memorial." Mollie did too.

It's OK, Mollie. Mommy misses Steve Jobs, too :-(

Calendars are ready!

The 2012 calendars are ready for purchase! Hooray! I'll be ordering one from Zazzle because that one has nicer typography and it looks cleaner (Zazzle also has a 25% off coupon for calendars.) All proceeds go to a corgi rescue -- so buy one to support a good cause :) Mollie is also on the front cover -- woohoo!!!

Last weekend we went to Fort Funston, a dog-friendly national park near San Francisco with scenic coastal views and trails, and a beach! We saw a few corgis and corgi mixes. Mollie played with a 7-month old corgi puppy for a long time. Too much cuteness.

Oh, and a somewhat amusing yet unfortunate thing: I've realized every time we trim her nails she vomits afterwards from all the "trauma". Poor thing. She'll yelp in pain when we trim them, but I don't think we've ever cut into the quick because she's never bled and we're really careful. I guess she just hates it. Last night we cut her nails and expected her to vomit, but she just went to her crate and slept away the distress (or so we thought). And this morning after breakfast, she puked! Delayed reaction! The amusing thing is her puke is solid kibble, but just really soggy. She doesn't chew her kibble! And then she'll try to eat it back up, like "OOOOO, goodie, more food magically appeared! Nom nom nom! I should just puke all the time!!" -_-

Somebody's already ready for Halloween...

BzzZzzzzzZzz!!


And there I am trying to use bribery to make her like being in the costume. Can't wait to have a proper photo shoot later for her!!!

"Trick or treat???"

Also need to find some doggy Halloween events around here... hmm...

Some of her favorite toys

She wants to somehow have both toys simultaneously, and figures out that she just needs to sit on one of them. Greedy corgi...

And of course, there's Mr. Fox.

"What? Don't you like my new hat?"

She's a winner!

Few weeks ago we entered Mollie into a 2012 corgi calendar contest on a whim. After she was chosen as a finalist it was put to the public vote, and she's one of the winners! Hooray for Mollie! Thanks to everybody who voted for her! Her photo will be used for the month of May, which is also coincidentally the month of her birthday. I'll post info when calendars are ready for sale...

In other news, she's become more and more cuddly lately. She'll come curl up in my lap when I'm sitting on the floor, or she'll roll over on her back and ask for a belly rub.

Tricks at 13 weeks

Afraid of the stairs

Another thing we need to work on... going down the stairs...

Last night she fetched properly for the first time, something I've been trying to teach since she was 10 weeks old. (I sound ridiculous in this video, but was just overly excited =P) But today, she seems to have lost it again! D'oh...

1st puppy social

Mollie attended her first puppy social today at Klub K9. She did great and made some new friends! It was so fun to watch! I was reminded by her vet how important it was to be exposed to other dogs at this age, so we'll try to attend often.

We also reached a housebreaking milestone today! She's been accident-free for 2 weeks using umbilical cord training. Routine and vigilance pays off. This means now we can begin giving her off-leash free time around the house... carefully and methodically. I'm such a potty training nazi.

She also learned "Shake" (shake hands). Still working on curbing the jumping up and nipping habits. Been debating whether or not to take her to puppy classes -- since everything they teach I'm already teaching her myself. Perhaps I'll just do proper obedience training when she's older. Nonetheless, good progress at 12 weeks!

Mollie vs Mr. Fox

Daddy got Mollie a new toy - a fox with squeakers! She'll squeak it for hours. Removing it from her crate at night is a wise thing to do, otherwise Mommy ain't getting any sleep.

Mollie's first encounter with Mr. Fox:

She can smell her prey from afar...

She sees it!! RAWR!

"Time for lunch!!"

"Look, Ma! I can fly!"

"I'm gunna EAT YOU!!!!"

"Nom nom nom..."

"Oh, it squeaks??" *Squeak squeak squeak*

It's bath time!

Mollie got her very first bath today. She was relatively tolerant of being in the tub and being wet. But the hair dryer she was TERRIFIED of. Looks like we have some desensitizing to do...

"Mommy, what did you put in my ears??"

I felt sorry for her after her battle with the hair dryer, so I gave her a huge yummy carrot as a reward, which she soon lost behind her crate and went frantically digging for it to no avail:

After she lost her carrot, she proceeded to go bonkers and performed her daily ritual of running around in circles which we've coined as "Mollie laps":

In other news, she's been accident-free indoors for 3 days in a row now. That is a record for us! I hope I don't jinx myself for saying this. But I'm definitely getting better at detecting when she needs to go and making sure she has plenty of opportunities for potty breaks.

She's also pretty good with basic commands: sit - down - stay - come. At only 10 weeks old, too! I'm a proud momma. 

Fetch, on the other hand, is a different story... she doesn't understand she's supposed to bring the ball BACK! And I thought fetch was something dogs instinctively knew how to do...

Afraid of the kitchen

Normally we play with Mollie in our carpeted living room. But few days ago I decided to bring her to the kitchen with wood flooring. And for some reason, she wouldn't step onto the wood for the life of her. I kept tugging on the leash but she would just cling on to the edge of the carpet for dear life. When I finally convinced her to step into the kitchen her whole fuzz-ball of a body was quivering with fear. And this was not her first time in the kitchen either -- so, very odd behavior. I read puppies at this age can develop phobias of the strangest things. Anyhow, after a day or two of lots of counter conditioning, with LOTS of treats, she's finally okay with the kitchen again.

Speaking of treats, I learned she loves carrots. (In the kitchen!)

"Ehhh.... What's up, Doc?"

Feeding-wise, I finally realized the reason she wasn't eating out of her bowl was probably because the bowl wasn't ergonomically friendly for her, since she's short and the bowl is tall/deep. So I've switched to a plate, which seems to work better.

Still focusing on the housebreaking... she's been having at most 1 accident per day. I suppose I could live with that... for now. However, now we're also trying to get her to not "mouth" us with her teeth. Though she doesn't do it as often as other puppies I don't think.

Ugh, puppies. Train, train, train. Correct, correct, correct. I'm still hoping I have the patience for this.

Goin' a swimmin' in the water bowl

Apparently corgis like to do this for some reason.

Next summer, I'm dumping her into Lake Tahoe.

We survived the first week!

Whew... what a whirlwind of a week. As a first-time dog owner, I knew having a puppy was going to be a ton of work. But it wasn't until after she arrived and spent the first few days with us that I realized HOW MUCH WORK it was actually going to be. And being the impatient person that I am, I had episodes where I almost just threw my hands up in the air and gave up out of frustration (this was even while I was taking time off from work to take care of her). But, I'm slowly learning that it'll just be a matter of time for housebreaking and I just need to trust the process. So, baby steps!

Progress/observations this week:

• She is crate-trained now
• Learned basic commands: "Sit", "Down" (lie down), currently working on "Stay" - she's a smart cookie!
• She can follow/run with me on leash
• She lets Mommy trim her nails without much fuss (thankfully)
• She'll do almost anything for a Zuke's treat
• She loves peanut butter
• She loves mangos
• She loves giving Daddy kisses
• She likes Daddy more than Mommy, because Mommy has to train her and shoves her into a bag to go to the vet
• Vet costs are expensive! Sheesh.
• She sleeps... a lot! Even snores and dreams (her arms and legs wiggle)
• When she looks in a mirror, sometimes she'll think there's another dog and will jump up and lick it
• She's a fussy eater - doesn't always eat out of her bowl so Mommy has to hand-feed her
• Sometimes she goes bonkers at night and runs and runs and runs around in circles (maybe because of pent up energy from being crated)
• Overall, she's a friendly dog with a sweet personality - rarely barks nor shows aggression

I suppose at 8 weeks old, this is good progress, so I'm glad. But main thing we're focusing on now is having her learn NOT to voluntarily pee on the carpet!!!