Therepy Dog Winston <3

My family is amist some very trying times right now, and in attempt to help my aunt out we offered for their youngest, Dani, to stay the weekend with us. She spent the weekend playing with all of the dogs and hanging out. I was delighted to see how Winston took to the situation. Like i've said before he isn't a very social or overly friendly dog. He is sort of a loner and likes his space. Well, all of that went right out the window this weekend. He was glued to Dani. He followed her EVERYWHERE. Had to sleep at her feet, or on top of her.



He still worked for me and made a point to "check on" me, but it was very obvious to me that his priority this weekend was Dani. The first night he slept half way between us, at the bottom of the stairs that led to her room. The next day, he was laying on the couch with her when a friend of my mom's boyfriends came inside. Winston about had a cow. This man has been around for two years at least once a week. Winston leaped off of the couch barking at him. Obviously I ended the behavior and put him in a "down/stay" back on the couch. It didn't alarm me until I noticed that the ENTIRE night Winston insisted on following this man's EVERY LAST MOVE. Even if it was just with his eyes, he didn't let him out of his sight. He promptly laid on top of Dani and held her down.

I've had Winston for four years now (almost five) and I have never seen him bond with someone like this. It is truly amazing. Dani is going through a lot right now and although she isn't showing it to us, I think Winston can sense the toll it is taking on her.

Classic Look From Winston

Winston often appears as if he is thinking that he is better than this. This what? Oh take your pick. This dog, this puppy, this common task, this location...the list goes on and on. I have finally captured that thought in a photo! I was trying to get him to "Watch Me!" for a cute picture outside, and he was more interested in watching the bus. He turned his head toward me and I swear he is such a snob!!

Proof!



Love always.

"Nurse!"

I'm suffering from a pretty bad respiratory infection that has caused me to lose my voice. This morning my mom and nurse were in the kitchen, and couldn't hear me calling for them. So, I sent Winston out to get them. Apparently they were not thinking because they kept saying "What?? What do you want Winston???" and then they opened the back door and told him to "Go out and go potty!!" Apparently Winston finally stood his ground and wouldn't go out. He usually does! He instead ran back into my bedside and put his head down. I gave him another, more excited "Nurse!!" and he ran back out into the kitchen to try again. My mom and nurses conversation continued as they made a comment about how he is being so weird. So for a second time Winston came back to my bedside, head down, and waited for what to do. This time when he ran back out there someone realized what was going on and came in! He is such a great dog. You'd think after this many years i'd stop realizing that over and over. I swear he just gets better and better though!

Demo's & Therapy Work

Today Winston and I went to visit my old highschool. Aside from the fact that I had a wonderful time seeing all of my old teachers, the day turned out to be GREAT. Three classrooms wanted demo's! Two of them were IU-13 and Winston did wonderfully. At the end I undressed him and he was so wonderful with the kids. He even did a gentle "up" onto one of their laps and surprisingly enough STAYED while he was pet. All in all a great day for him. One thing that I was interested to see was that Winston didn't show any signs of remembering my HS. He did react to one teacher that I was close to, but other than that he showed no signs of remembering it. Oh - one more thing to note! At one point we found ourselves in the hallway during period switch and he was freaking EXCELLENT! It was so cramped he was walking behind me a bit, and he ignored everyone!! That's all for today!

Shedding MANIA & Paws Abilities '06

I took advantage of the 70 degree weather today and brushed Winston for awhile. I can't believe how much he's shedding. Oh, and where in the WORLD did this dander come from? He's never had any before! I am thinking about starting him back up on some supliments.

I was so pleased w/ Winstons general behavior at Paws Abilities. He responded 99% of the time to my voice only! When Laura got a minute to come see him, he turned into his old happy silly puppy pants self. It was such a kodack moment, and guess who didn't bring her camera! He is honestly the perfect SD to me. After a few minutes of being allowed to socialize he stopped on his own and went back to maintaining perfect eye contact. He is such a great dog.

He has been a huge huge huge brat about me training the puppy. Instead of locking him in another room while I work w/ him, I've been cutting his breakfast in half and giving it to him in his Busy Buddy with some nice frozen peanut butter to hold it in longer.

New Foster Puppy!

Last night we went to pick up SSD Torino our new puppy!

Winston is so funny with puppies. He gets whiney.



My mom and I are going to be keeping the puppies training and photos in his own blog. Anyway, time to go to the bus stop! (Winstons new favorite place!)

Interesting Point

Last night I was suffering with a terrible headache, and when it finally subsided, I got very hyper. Tammy and my mom and I started cracking jokes and laughing non stop. I took an ugly cat stuffed toy from the daycare and tried to get Winston to play. To my surprise, he went crazy with it. He started running around the house, from one couch to the other and waiting for me to tell him to "Go find Grandma!" at which point he would sprint across the house and leap on her. Tammy later said that in her year and a half of working here she has never seen him so "playfully out of control". I laughed and said if i'm in a crazy mood he seems to loosen up a bit. It was then that Tammy said something and made a connection that i've never made before. I am a pretty serious person. To some, I am incredibly serious. If you've ever met or been around Winston, he is exactly the same. Maybe he follows my moods more than i've ever noticed before.

Mister loves to work, and knows when play time is appropriate. Just like mom.


Winston a few weeks back, ignoring all of the toys around him to retrieve a glove for me.

Winter Blues = Lack of Updates

No, no, no. We can't blame my laziness on the Winter. I will recap with a photo entry though!

Winston and I had some lovely friends stay for a few weeks over the holidays.



Winston (as some of you know) is not the most playful chap around town. He also is not always very fond of other dogs. I would go as far as to say that he generally "tolerates" having other dogs around. He's never been aggressive, but rather anti social.

That being said, Winston's closeness to Max Fisher, is quite the exciting happening.





Winston loves going to the bus stop for one of our daycare children. It got to the point this fall that he would pull ahead for most of our walk if I said "Where's Maddie??" He stands at such attention looking down the street, waiting for the bus. We went up a few weeks ago for the first time in months.



We went to Joni and Dave's with Christina and SSD Ross and eee, I was so proud of him. Dave wanted to get a photo of all three of the dogs, so he put them in a sit/stay.

Apparently he didn't release them because when I walked over about 10 minutes later, Winston was sitting there still and alert.

Not much else to write about. We've been going to Matt and SSD Owen's for poker. Winstons only mission is to get the larger than a lab stuffed dog and curl up on it. Haha, he wasn't so sure about their grandfather clock the first day, but that wasn't an issue after the first few kongs.

We're getting our new foster puppy next week! I'll definitely post pictures then! Until next time...