We just received some new pictures of Phoebe, along with this update from her family:
Hi Grammie! Just sending a quick hello from the Rimrock Resort Hotel in Banff. Oscar has a conference so Phoebe and I tagged along. We got in late last night and are hoping the rain clears a bit so we can get a good long walk in this morning. Hoping to find some unique new smells for her to enjoy. Phoebe is like me, a little annoyed by all the sounds of a hotel. Neither of us slept overly well last night. Of course she’s already gotten a lot of love here. I hope you, Bob, and the gang are doing well. You are often in our thoughts!
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Here is an updated post and pictures for Phoebe in honor of her fourth birthday! Her family wrote:
Good morning Grammie! We can’t believe Phoebe is already 4!! Where does the time go?! This morning she opened one present and then it was off to daycare with her birthday cake in tow to share. I’m hoping they snap a few shots of her enjoying her day. Thank you so much for our beautiful fuzzy baby, we love her to bits!!
I was just looking at old photos and found these ones of Phoebe. Who’d have thought she’d turn out to be one of my best friends. This girl just makes every day so much fun. She spoils us!! Our neighbours all love her, and rarely a walk goes by without someone asking about her or kids asking to pet her. She absolutely loves it!! She’s been doing great and loving the air conditioning at home lately lol. It’s been warm but she gets her two walks a day (early morning and late evening) and daycare every Friday or second Friday. Her report cards mention that she’s pretty laid back. I think she prefers the one on one play that she gets at her kennel (Country Club Pet Resort). She still hates the car so we find great places to walk close by that involve shorter rides and she’s happy once we get there. We want to take her out to Banff or Lake Louise yet this summer/fall. I think she’d like to stay at the Fairmont, spoiled pup lol. We’ve not done any more classes. It’s hard to find time but I think we just have to make time. She loves to learn and can still pick up new tricks very easily!! I haven’t given much of an update recently as having a new job with a long commute takes away a lot of time but I just wanted to send a quick hello from all of us to you guys. I hope you are both well, and the farm too. Phoebe is doing great in every which way!! Here are a ‘few’ photos to make you smile!
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The magnificent Phoebe is back again with many new pictures and a couple of videos as well. What an extraordinary specimen she has become!!!
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Here are a few new pictures from Phoebe. The note attached read:
Today is Phoebe’s 3rd b-day and we wanted to say hi and thanks for our fuzzy baby. You were a busy Grammie 3 yrs ago!!
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The photogenic Phoebe is checking in once again! Her family told us:
I’m sure you would love to see Phoebe and she would love to see you too! Oh my lord this girl is a star in the neighbourhood, I tell you. Every second day we are stopped by someone asking about her, or kids approaching to pet her. She loves it! Wherever we go with her people are checking her out! There is one lady that has approached us a couple times. I guess our walk takes us past her house so she came to tell us how gorgeous Phoebe is and how incredibly happy she always looks with her tail wagging, face smiling, and loose leash walking. Not sure how much she knows about dogs but she commented on Phoebe’s hips being good. Today we ran into her and she told us we should think about taking the therapy dog route with Phoebe as she’s so happy, has a good spirit, and people are genuinely drawn to her! I totally agree!! Although she’s quite a wiggly girl lol! It’s definitely something I will look into. As well as beginning an agility class.
Well, there’s not a lot of news to update you on other than Phoebe was petty much allowed free run at my parents place on the farm. She loved watching birds through the patios doors. I’ve attached a whole bunch of new pictures for you. The first four are at the farm (don’t worry we didn’t ride the quad with her on it, we were trying to make it look like she was driving it lol). One is of her doing her tight rope walking hahaha. Then just some random cute ones. And finally a video…this is how good Phoebe is at waiting for treats. All she has to do is look at me and she knows she has to wait to grab her treat and then go enjoy it. Sometimes I have to tell her a couple times to go ahead and eat it though.
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Phoebe’s family sent us a couple new pictures and wrote:
Hey Grammie. How have you been? We are all well here. All 3 of us are heading to my parents farm on Wednesday and staying until Sunday. I heard the ticks are already pretty bad there so Phoebe’s been treated and is going for a trim up tomorrow. She’s going to be too cute for her other grandma to refuse a cuddle.
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We just received an update on Phoebe:
I was so excited to have Phoebe come to us. I’d grown up with farm dogs my whole life and I definitely love Phoebe more than i like most people. Is that horrible to say? She’s really matured in the last year. At home she sleeps most of the day. We can leave her out of her crate while we are away and she sleeps where she pleases at night. It’s usually on her bed in our room or on the floor at the end of our bed. She will not sleep on our bed once we get in it. Even if we ask her (which I know we aren’t supposed to do but I’m curious to see if she will) she just goes to her own bed instead. I’m hoping that means she respects us as her pack leaders. We found an undeveloped area across from our street that is completely fenced off so I’ve been taking phoebe there off leash to practice her recall and play some fetch. This girl LOVES the snow…she loves running through it and laying down in the really deep stuff. By the end of an hour or so she is completely tuckered out. It’s so much fun. She finished her recall class last week. She is an easily distracted girl but made good progress including learning new commands for come…a new verbal one and a physical cue. As well, she learned the signal for down. We are continuing to work on what we learned. Our instructor said she has great foundations to begin agility. We might sign up for the class beginning April 12. She loves to perform!
Here are some captions to go with the pictures above:
Here is Phoebe in Fish Creek Park (within Calgary). All three of us had a nice 8 km walk. We all slept good after that one.
The next day we went to the Okotoks Erratic or Big Rock depending on who you ask. I love this picture. She looks so imposing!
And enjoying her morning coffee. Hahaha, see she loves to perform!
Aaaaand finally a little snapshot of the day in the life of Phoebe. She often sleeps like this…silly girl!
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A nice update today from Phoebe’s family:
Phoebe is doing fantastic! She’s started going to daycare at the same place we are doing classes at. We are doing a Radical Recall class at Superdogs. It’s the organization responsible for all those fun agility shows you see at summer fairs and exhibitions. We’ve been working on foundation skills so far and the instructor commented on how good she was and she could tell Phoebe has done lots of work already! One fun activity we do is get the pup pumped up while an assistant holds them then we run halfway across the room call the dog and keep running so the assistant can run with the dog as it tries to catch their people. And if the dog stops or loses interest we really have to hoot and holler and make fools of ourselves to make our dogs chase us, lol! Last class they added distractions at the halfway point, a line of toys that the dogs had to ignore and run past. Well, Phoebe is an easily distracted girl and went for the tigger stuffy hahaha! I made a complete fool of myself and it worked! She ended up chasing me so we had a a successful class. We will see where we are at with recall and distractions after this class is over but we are going to get get into agility ASAP. When she sees some of the agility equipment in the room during her class, she is very interested in it and will climb up the ramps if I let her. I think she would LOVE it!
She still sleeps with her little tigger stuffy at home. When she’s really sleepy she will lick him like she’s cleaning her baby. We got her a bigger tigger too, she has a big bed so no problem sharing her space.
Phoebe was at the kennel this past weekend and at the groomers yesterday. She was highly praised for her excellent demeanour. Her caretaker at the kennel, or pet resort as they call it, said she was a sweet, quiet, and calm girl in her run and was energetic and playful in the romping corrals and played well with other dogs. She’s such a great mix!!!
As always, a few pictures of Phoebe to make you smile!
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Call this Grammie bragging rights, what a great email about one of my pups. This is what keeps me putting one foot in front of the other. Phoebe was living in Saskatoon but this spring moved to Calgary. I have not seen Phoebe since she was 8 weeks old but they have kept me in the loop and even offered me a place to stay should I come to Calgary. I never tire of hearing how my pups have turned out, this is what helps me decide who to breed to who in my breeding program….I am going to try to keep going for 4 more years, then at 70, try to slow the pace down a little.
Hi Grammie! Have I ever sent you a copy of one of Phoebe’s report cards? She gets them after her stay at the pet resort. She’s been three times now. The girl that checked us out said Phoebe was the calmest doodle (while in her kennel) that she’s ever seen. I have to give you credit for that one. All of your advice and encouragement really helped us to stay on track with crate training and while she never uses her crate on her own (prefers her bed or our bed) she goes in when we need her to and makes no fuss whatsoever. It gives us peace of mind when she is kennelled or goes to the groomer and we know she’s totally fine being crated and won’t stress out. Her handler for the weekend asked if she could have a clone! Makes sense to me!
Today Phoebe went to the groomer who always gushes about her amazing behaviour when I pick her up. That makes me so happy!
Also here are a couple dress up photos. I decided to pick up a Halloween costume for her. I can NEVER find good ones….until today. She did really good with it! I’m tempted to walk her in it on Halloween!
The last picture is us after climbing a steep hill!
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We received some new pictures and an update from Phoebe’s family:
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Ours was fairly quiet. Saturday included a nice long walk through a nearby popular park. We hadn’t been yet since moving here and I think the fall is the best time to go. The colours were amazing. Phoebe loved climbing the trees and watching all the kids.
We are doing well. October is conference season for my husband. Since the beginning of the month we’ve been to Banff and San Francisco. Phoebe was at the pet resort as they call it (it really is gorgeous) for almost two weeks. We missed her terribly but she had a blast and napped 24/7 for a couple days after she came home. This cooler weather is perfect for her, not too hot or cold so we walk a lot! I bought a 50 foot training lead and have been doing more recall work with her. Between my husband and I we can play doggie ping pong and pass her back and forth. She loves it!
Speaking of walking…I’m being summoned! Have a great day and hug some puppies for me!
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Here is a set of updated pictures from Phoebe, along with a short video of Phoebe practicing recall. What a cutie!
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To celebrate the first day of summer, Phoebe’s owners sent us this very cute picture of their “fuzzy baby”!
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Phoebe’s owners sent us some updated pictures and wrote:
Hi Grammie! We have one sleepy pup here! A couple weeks ago Phoebe and I headed to mom and dad’s farm for about a week. She LOVES the farm! She met her first cat that wasn’t a city cat on a leash or in a house. She didn’t catch it and I’m not really sure she wanted to, but she sure was curious. She was allowed free run in the house this time…progress! She was really well behaved. They haul their water out there so I hoisted her up into the grain truck and she was surprisingly calmer than in the car, not sure how that works. She was curious about the dugout but only went in to her chest. I wish I’d taken my camera with me. It’s so fun to watch her burn rubber out there! A few days after we got back home she went to a boarding kennel. I was nervous taking her to a new place (she really is my baby, lol!) but I should’ve known she’d do fantastic and win over many hearts. I was told she had a great smile and was a sweet girl, of course I knew that already. Just love tired cuddles from this girl, she’s always been a hugger!
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Here is a video to enjoy from Phoebe’s owners! They wrote us:
I took a little video of Phoebe chasing the ball. We have a nice area for playing fetch upstairs in this new house . Oh, she now clocks in at 47.5 lbs. Her heaviest yet
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Here is a super-cute new picture of Phoebe!
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Phoebe is up to some new tricks! This is one smart little girl and has owners that spend a lot of time with her. There is no end to what you can teach one of these Doodles if you spend a little time on them.
So as promised we have been working on Phoebe learning to pray. We worked a lot on getting her to put her front paws only on my arm (for now, maybe we will use something else later), and now she is learning really quickly to lower her head! Here are a couple shots of her in action. Sorry for the poor quality…iphone!
We are all doing great, shoveling lots of snow and there are some huge banks in the backyard that Phoebe loves playing in. If I say up and point she will jump on top, then I walk along pointing and she hops along the snowbanks! Its like our very own agility course. I am definitely putting her into some classes in Calgary. I tried getting in touch with a recommended place here in town but they were so terrible and replying that I didn’t think they needed my business.
She’s been going to daycare about once a week. She hates getting there but loves when she realizes where she is! She’s also been to the kennel a few more times. I’m so happy when I take her there (even the vet and groomer) and she is so happy to go that she pulls me in and has no trouble settling in wherever she goes. Its amazing how much she loves all people!
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Another batch of new pictures from Phoebe’s owners! They wrote:
Hi Grammie MA! We had engagement photos done a couple weeks ago (PHOTOS COURTESY OF LAUREN WINTER PHOTOGRAPHY) and I think Phoebe was the star of the show! I would love to do shots of her every year! She is doing amazing, her recall continues to get better but still needs lots of work and she’s learning “out” really well. When its time to brush her teeth before bed we say go to your spot and she goes and waits for that nasty toothpaste hahaha! I make her sit and wait before we leave the house and before we come back in. It’s becoming more rare that she will go out the door until I say so. While she waits I say “look at me” and she does…waiting for whatever comes next, lol! I swear she knows english! Her sit pretty is 100% and she will do it on the couch, on a chair, pretty much anywhere. Now she knows “up” as in front paws up on something. I usually hold my arm out and she perches her front paws on it like a parrot! We are working towards saying grace! She is ridiculously loved here at our place… total heart melter!
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Phoebe is now one year old! Her owners sent us some pictures from her birthday celebration and wrote:
Good morning Grammie MA! I can’t believe our little girl is already 1, where does the time go, lol! Thanks so much for Phoebe and all the work you’ve done with her. She is love wrapped in fur…always wanting to give everyone kisses (whether they want them or not).
Here is a quick picture of Phoebe enjoying a treat this morning. Yesterday we went to the dogpark and met a couple goldendoodles from south of Calgary and romped with some friends. Lucky girl got 3 walks yesterday! She was pooped. Today she is going to daycare and we will do a little b-day celebration after work. Oh, this morning she weighed in at a big 43 lbs!
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Phoebe’s owner sent us this super-cute picture with the caption:
Ok, if this is not the most patient little doggie, I don’t know who is! I wonder how she would do in a Halloween costume? We shall see!!!
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Phoebe’s story continues! Her owner sent us this update, along with a batch of new pictures:
Phoebe is GREAT! She’s loving her walks and sitting so nicely at corners when we ask her to. We’ve been using the park areas around here quite alot. We get her to jump on the benches then sit or jump over the back. There are a few large boulders that she will jump up onto and sit, lay down, or sit pretty on. She still needs to learn to be calm when meeting other dogs b/c she just loves to play. We’ve had her at daycare a couple times and she comes back exhausted. Its really great for all of us, lol!!! We get reports that she plays really well and especially loves to play with the little dogs. We’ve started doing some stuff with a hula hoop yesterday and she’s jumping through it pretty well. I couldn’t get a good picture of that but I sent one of her her sitting pretty inside it. I am headed to the farm this weekend and I really hope mother nature holds off on the rain so I can take Phoebe with. It would be so nice for her to run around out there in the sunshine! Mom’s more likely to let her in the house if she’s played out and dry, haha! Phoebe’s favorite things right now…play hard, and rest hard too (sometimes in the strangest places like under the office desk), look out every window she possibly can and watch the kids playing outside. She’s getting better about barking through the window. She is actually a pretty soft-spoken girl, expect when Oscar gets home she has started running to the door barking as she runs. I don’t get that when I get home b/c she’s in her crate and I let her out. It is cute to see her excited to have him home. She’s always been a natural at fetch and now when the ball goes into the basement (still gated with the baby gate) I open it and tell her to go get her ball. Now she will fetch her ball and come right back up with no messing around. As of yesterday she weighs exactly 42 lbs. She’s a good size…good to snuggle with!
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Phoebe’s owners sent us a few more pictures and told us:
Thanks so much for the advice about Phoebe releasing. As for tuning her in…I sure did when we had the episode the other morning. Today she grabbed a garbage bag and as soon as I went to ask her to drop it she did. So I tried it with food just now. I didn’t have a steak bone (maybe tomorrow) but I just tried a dog treat. I let her bite it in half and start eating it then told her to drop it and she spit it out crumbs and all! So, we will keep practicing and will see what happens when she snatches something on her own and tries to be sneaky with it. Since I got really mad at her that day, she has been a lot less mouthy (though she’s not that bad). She’s a really good girl. She has calmed down a lot, still working on that with strangers but she’s definitely a lover. There is not a mean bone in her body, loves all people and dogs. She was at the kennel again, and they said she is just a sweet little girl and plays really well with the other dogs. Actually she was so tired when we got her home from the kennel that she went and laid in her crate (castle, haha) all on her own and slept for an hour. Usually she just spreads out on the floor.
Yes, we have pulled 5 ticks from Phoebe. They like the ears so we are constantly inspecting her although we don’t go into long grass a lot. I have to say that teaching your dog to lay down on their side is the best thing ever! She let me pull two ticks from in each ear and just layed there. Awesome dog!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just can’t give her enough kisses!
So I’ve attached a couple pictures. The first one is her with the little pink bows from the groomer. The second one shows you how good she is at “waiting”…food is harder to put on her head, not that she tries to eat it, but when it’s food she almost shys away from it. In the last 2 weeks we’ve been doing a lot of practice with me dropping food on her nose and she lets it fall to the floor until we tell her to eat it. As long as I drop it straight down she’s 100% got it. If I kind of toss it towards her that’s a different story, lol! And the last picture is just to show you how long she is now! Do you remember one of the very first pictures of her I send to you with her laying on that bed? Crazy to see how teeny tiny she once was.
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Another update from Phoebe’s owners! After having to leave their beloved Phoebe at a kennel for a few days, they wrote:
We took her to a kennel and she did amazing! The owner said that people always ask him to recommend breeds and he recommends labradoddles and goldendoodles b/c they never have problems with the other dogs or staff. I joked that she would go home with anyone and he said that was a good thing b/c she was really well adjusted and had a great temperament so THANKS Grammie MA (now your new nickname, lol!).
So, I had Phoebe in Intermediate Obedience classes but had to quit as my carpel tunnel began acting up again, as in I couldn’t even zip my coat. Sad but we’ve been working on our own and she is really good now at sitting at street corners. A few times she’s done it on her own. “Drop it” has improved a ton too…it’s amazing the things she will give up for a simple praise or pat on the head! She’s learning “under”, right now I’m using my leg and she will crawl under it! Her little brain still amazes me, lol! Also she will do half figure eights through my legs as I am walking. Hard to describe…I should make a video.
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Phoebe’s owners recently sent us an update (with the pictures above) that read:
Happy Easter to you and your family! I just wanted to send along some more pictures of Phoebe and give you the latest update. She passed Beginner’s Obedience and tied for 2nd place in her class with a 97.5%! The instructor said she was a very smart dog and has enjoyed watching her progress. Phoebe just loves the other dogs and people and when the time comes to perform or work she is so great! She has made one friend in particular and we start Intermediate classes next Saturday. So we did a little spring cleaning with Phoebe and she had a big day at the spa. I think she is the cutest thing on 4 legs! I love how her clip turned out! When we picked her up at the groomer they said she just sat there on the table and was nice and calm and when they had to put her on the floor to answer the phone she curled up and hung out quietly. She said she was a real pleasure to groom …that made me so happy. In general Phoebe is turning out to be pretty mellow considering she’s not quite 8 months! I can’t believe she is almost a year though. She looks like a teenager now and she’s still growing. Yesterday she weighed in at 37.5 lbs! We haven’t done any new novelty commands but two commands that have come a really long way are drop it and leave it. She’s doing really good with those especially when we are on walks. When there was snow on the ground she got ahold of a used diaper (that blended in so well with the snow) before we saw it coming and we had a hell of a time getting it out of her mouth so those ones we practice every day! Heeling and coming when called have gotten much better also but she still loves to play at the dog park and forgets about us poor folks that can’t run as fast, lol! We are just loving her more and more each day…she is an angel!
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This is Phoebe. Her owners seem to be very happy with her. They told us:
Phoebe is not only fine, she is doing great! We are so in love with our (your) little girl, she is just the sweetest little angel! She keeps on amazing us with how quickly she learns! She can, sit, stay (for longer and longer periods of time), come, wait, speak, shake a paw, touch, dance (in progress). We had a bit of a hard time crate training her. I think it was just hard on us to hear her cry but we knew it was for the best. Now we can tell her to go to her castle and she jumps in sits and lays down and will stay with the door open for quite some time. We’ve taught her how to “wait” for food and can toss a piece of it in front of her just outside the crate door and she will leave it until we say “eat it”! She has gotten VERY good at this! The third and fourth pictures are of her demonstrating her amazing self-restraint! She will also sit and wait while we go into the pantry for her food and will stay there un til we put it in her bowl and tell her to “come”. We will sometimes let her eat while we have a hand in her dish and pet her and move her around a bit just so that she will have no food aggression…she definitely doesn’t…she would share her food I am sure, lol!!! We brush her teeth which she loves, and combing her hair is not her favorite thing but it’s getting better. She loves the snow! I am sure she is sad that we don’t have much left. The first thing she does is just lay down in it and look around…then bouces through it. She does very well at the vet, she has never felt a needle yet, what a brave pup! She weighs 20.4 lbs as of yesterday…we weighed her at home. Phoebe is a HUGE fan of going for walks, she gets one every day! She has learned to sit at the corners before crossing the street. She has alot of energy, sometimes she just goes wild in the house and we are thinking of enrolling her in a puppy kindergarden class to burn off some steam and to get her used to other dogs. I know she will do great! Thanks so much for our furbaby, we are so blessed!