School Days, A Tree That Can't Be Peed on and Mirror Ball Vests

What a past couple of weeks it has been! And to think I thought the holidays were hectic before Doppelbock and Mackenzie arrived! Back in the good old days, we were actually able to sleep in on our days off. Sure, we had a "Boo-larm Clock" (God rest his crotchety little soul), but the snooze on him was easily activated once we fed him for the morning.

"I'll be back before noon!"

With the puppies there appears to be no snooze button... In fact, they seem to have a little contest to see whose bark can be the most efficient at waking us up. While Doppelbock had good volume, Mackenzie has achieved that certain "nails on a chalkboard" effect. She doesn't sound like a dog, she sounds like a cross between a chainsaw and a the last dying gasp of a Sasquatch. You know how your mom used to wake you up in the morning with "that tone" that made you want to punch her? Yeah... your mom has nothing on Mackenzie.

"And clean your room while you are at it!"

Luckily, it was time for puppy classes. We have them enrolled in separate classes, so Doppelbock was the first to go, with Mackenzie starting off two weeks after. Separating the two dogs was probably the most difficult part of the evening. I tried to distract Mackenzie as my fiance took Doppelbock outside. We would have succeeded except that Doppelbock freaked out and began screaming right outside the window. Mackenzie looked at me, and her little lips began to quiver. She frantically ran around the house crying out for Doppelbock... until I pulled out the Pup-Peroni. This worked, however she spent the rest of the time apart moping around the house.

"I have no one to chew on..."

Doppelbock handled class as well as we expected. He cried on the way there, shook the first 15 minutes of class, but then warmed up to the whole environment. He tried making friends with a larger dog, and the larger dog was happy to meet his acquaintance. However with the dog being five times as big as Doppelbock, a friendly swipe of the big dog's paw meant that Doppelbock's face kept getting shoved into the floor. Doppelbock did really well during the training portion, and he even began to learn some tricks like sit, stay, and apparently french kiss.

"Ooo-la-la!"

Christmas went really well! We had to leave the puppies home from my fiance's family celebration because one member of his family has a dog that isn't very well behaved. The dog would probably kill our little doxies, so this was for the best. However my family celebration was VERY dog friendly, as in a 3 year old and a two year old who have NEVER seen puppies before! The dogs and the boys really do not know what to make of each other, and they chase each other around and play and have so much fun!

This brings us to New Year's Eve. This would be the true test of the puppies and their ability to adapt to new situations. We transformed the living room into a party space that could hold about 15 people. My fiance and I were sure that the puppies would be scared of all the people but they proved us wrong again! They made their rounds to all the laps that would have them, and messed around with everything they could get their little jaws on. At midnight, they became the stars of the show as we had the lowering of the puppies to coincide with the countdown to midnight. They even wore little mirror ball vests to ring in the New Year!

"Elton John would be so proud!"

As the night wore down, so did the puppies. They began sleeping in very unusual places like:

And:

And some not unusual places like:

And:

So, it appears as though 2012 is getting off to a good start. The puppies adored all of the attention they received, as well as a whole slew of new situations. Mackenzie is our little social butterfly, so I have no concerns for her first day of puppy classes. Our resolutions for the year are to have the puppies potty trained, get them to be even more social, and stop them from chewing everything that is left on the floor.

Timestamp on the picture: 1/1/2012 at 3:14pm. I guess we will strike the last one.

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Happy New Year, My Indoxienated!

"I'll smooch Mackenzie, you smooch your dogs, ok?"