Growing Up: Service Dog

Princess Pillow

2007-12-01T16:26:00.000-06:00

When Maeve rides in the car, she cannot just ride like any other pooch. We put two purple pillows where she usually lays, so when she jumps in the car, she immediate curls up onto the pillows. She's such a darling!! :)

Maeve meets the Snoop Dogg

2007-12-01T16:22:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago, Maeve got to meet Mr. Cosmo, the first dog that we trained. It was very good to seem and he looks excellent!!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-28T15:15:00.003-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
Aside from hanging out with the pumpkins, Maeve and my mother are going to be bumble bees at work =) There will definitely be pictures from that! Hah!

Seeing Double

2007-09-29T14:24:00.001-05:00

Miss Maevey has company this weekend!! Maeve's sister, Ivy, is spending the weekd with us. They are constantly playing and it's pretty crazy...but I think that they've finally tuckered themselves out. It's very funny when whatever Ivy picks up Maeve all the sudden has to have. When I gave them ice cubes, Maeve, the Ice Princess of the world (who come running when the freezer opens) finishes hers immediately and then goes over and just takes Ivy's away from her. So I put a coupld ones on the floor for them and i think Ivy finally got at least one.

A Well Syled Chick

2007-09-09T18:19:00.000-05:00

Of anything to have for a favourite chew toy, she loves the purple plastic comb. Of course, now she can't use it for her grooming, but maybe she thinks she is grooming her little soon-to-be-big toophers.

She also likes the ice cream scoop. She knows that she is going to be spayed and that the only men in her life are Ben and Jerry :)

P.S. Sorry all the pics are old. I felt guilted by everyone saying that they check the blog and I haven't been keeping up. I didn't realize how many people acutally kept up with it! Maybe people should leave comments? ;) hah I tried but I grabbed the wrong camera cord. So please bear with me with school starting and my lack of internet at my mother's house.

Some Little Kid Has A Broken Heart

2007-09-09T18:11:00.000-05:00

While walking Maeve one day on a not so hot day in August, we found an orange ball. She was very interested in it. So, I made a bargain. If she would carry it home, she could have it, and some little child would have to go without. And carried it home she did.

hahha notice her little puppy stretching froggy legs :) it would be adorable if she did it forever :)

Where Are The Dog Days of Summer?

2007-09-09T18:05:00.000-05:00

Where has summer gone? It seems like it wasn't too long ago that we got the Little Miss, and we spent the hot days outside with her drinking lemonade...and today when I was at the Fall Into The Arts fair in Edina, I had goosebumps! I
Here is an picture of Maevey from earlier this summer when she was being precious (...well that is a lie. She is always precious. :] ) while laying out enjoying the heat. I think the first snow shall be interesting :)

Sleeping Like A Starfish

2007-08-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

In the article "What your sleep position says about you", Maeve's prefered sleep position would best be defined as a starfish.

Starfish
Lying on your back with both arms up around the pillow. These sleepers make good friends because they are always ready to listen to others, and offer help when needed. They generally don't like to be the centre of attention.

I must say I don't think this applies to dogs.Maeve, is a good friend and a good listenr, but she LOVES to be the center of attention. Acutally, its partially true. She does offer unwanted help, often. She will retrieve whatever, whenever. Silly girl. Good gravey miss maevey

Flip Flops: Fashion For All

2007-08-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

Maevey loves flip flops. when she was a little baby, she renjoyed chewing on them, but now, she enjoys laying by them. She will put her paw in it and rest her face, its pretty sweet. It's nicer when she doesn't chew on them.

See, what girl doesn't love the ever fashionable flip flops?

All Dressed Up and Ready To Work

2007-08-13T16:27:00.000-05:00

Here is the Little Miss in her little working outfit!! We love the hott pink Gentle Leader [thank you Nancy D!!] She still kind of sctraches at her pack like it is ticking her belly! However, she's getting pretty good with ther Gentle Leader! :)

Another Playdate with the Brother

2007-08-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long! I just moved with my dad so I haven't had any time to update! Here's another puppy playdate!!! Reggi has the blue collar, and maeve has the pink. In the picture where they are sitting next to each other, Reggi is on the left, and Maeve on the right.

Growing Girl

2007-08-13T16:16:00.000-05:00

Maeve is now at a whopping 30 pounds!!! :)

My Famous [sorta]Half-Brother

2007-07-22T22:44:00.000-05:00

Maeve's "half-brother",Cosmo's[our first service dog],brother made his big debut tonight on Fox 9 News.

Here is the link if you want to check it out. Very cute story, a little tear jerk thinking about our Mr. Blue [Cosmo's nickname]. You have to copy and paste it into your address bar.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=3849123&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Kongo Kongo

2007-07-06T21:56:00.000-05:00

Maeve is figuring out the Kong. The greatest dog toy ever. She loves peanut butter and jumps around like a maniac when you go to the stove where the peanut butter is. She's even beginning to throw it to get the treats out.
There are three different Kong sizes. The smallest is the puppy kong, which is good for teething and we chose a pink one. The next is the "big dog" size, when she's a little bigger. The football is cool, and a little trickier and we are trying to introduce it to her so that she can be successful. It's fun to watch her succeed. :)

Ohhh Brother!!

2007-07-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

Today, Maeve's brother Reggie came for a playdate. They are pretty neck and neck in weight, both at 19 and 1/2 pounds!! They are pretty big in comparison to their litter when we asked others last night. I must say [even though it's a little off topic] that Beckham has some amazing attention, and it's so sweet. They played for about an hour and 45 minutes. It was some intense playing :) They enjoyed playing in the water dish and digging, or both shoving their darling faces into the dish together. Playing included a lot of wrassling. They enjoyed a couple quick rounds of tug-of-war, which is the green rope in the picture. Here are some wild action photos. They just had to roll in the small patch of dirt. That concluded with a puppy bath. She was quite skinny when all wet!!!!

Beauty Sleep In The Wrong Place

2007-07-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

Little Miss was just exhuasted during class. It was hard to get her up and motivated. She's so sweet. We love her.

Princess Bling Bling

2007-07-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

Cosmo's [Our first service dog that we trained] 3rd birthday is on July 25th, so we went to Target Boutique to get him a birthday present. We found a cute AKC Sporting Squirrell. Very cute. But we couldn't resist the temptation to buy the Little Miss a little something...or two. The best purchase for her so far, [aside from the hott pink collar and leash] was, a big, rubber, PINK ring. Adorable.

Fluttering Eyelashes.So Girly.So Glam.

2007-06-26T22:26:00.001-05:00

Maeve had another uneventful day. A little training, and she got into retrieving today :) She loves the attention. I think that she's starting to learn her name. Her best skill that mom is SO proud of is when she comes in the back door, she sits. It comes in quite handy in the winter or when it rains. It gives us time to wipe off her paws!

And for the title. I just think that her eyelashes are so adorable. They are so girly and glam. They are just little and cute. I can't really get over it!

Neighborhood Exploration

2007-06-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

The Little Miss has been on her first walk since my last written blog. I just got back from a half hour walk around the n'hood with her...and guess how far that took me? Four blocks. Of course, Maeve has to sniff everything. We even found a very cool orange ball!!
She walks well on the leash with a lot of encouragement :) She met two older women, who both offered that "Anytime you go out of town and need a puppy sitter, just knock on our door. And I'm serious about that offer."
...I'd personally rather not leave her with a complete stranger, but it was a sweet offer :)

Wonderful World of Water

2007-06-24T20:17:00.000-05:00

Maeve had a very exciting new discovery!!! We took out the baby pool for her. She had so much fun with her cousins and playing in the water. Her cousins are Maggie [a big Border Collie x Saint Bernard mix] and a mutt of everything [the little black dog]. Maeve got verrry frisky! She's such a little duck :)

It's Hard To Capture A Girl In Motion

2007-06-22T22:03:00.000-05:00

She's already practicing getting the door!

Spotted feet gave her the temporary name of "Spots" while living with her caretaker home for the first 8 weeks of her life.

Maeve was very frisky and really wanted to help "the mother" garden. Mom would rip out the weeds, and Maeve would put it in her mouth for a couple seconds until the next weed was pulled :)

Little Miss with her glove. Is the Tug command next?

Her brother may be David Beckham, but she's Mia Hamm!

Looking pretty cute!!

Hi, [I think] My name is Maeve

2007-06-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

Last night, we went to Maddy's soccer game. Very exciting. Maeve loves to watch the ball go back and forth for an entire one of her attention spans [47 seconds...if even!]. As always, soccer games are a great opportunity to meet other dogs. Maeve and I met a mutt for a couple seconds, before the extremely young handler pulled it in the other direction. She also met Cody, a big black lab who was persistant about humping the little puppy. They played for about 10 minutes before she started to fade. Then we spotted what mom calls a "cousin". There was another 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy there too, named Wilson. Wilson was very interested in playing with her. Maeve, on the other hand, was far from interested...until Wilson bit her neck. She let him have it. She wasn't going to take that puppy's crap :)

On the training part of the excursion, we practiced recalls. She's getting pretty good at them. I'm proud of her. I also practiced her "sits". I just got back from babysitting, so I didn't spend all day with her, but she had a good night.

We are going out to get a digital camera [finally. film is outdated.] so that I don't have to send pictures from my phone to email, save to computer, send to photobucket and to the blog. It makes life simpler. There will be TONS of pictures very soon!!

I Think We've Had A Breakthrough

2007-06-21T16:43:00.000-05:00

I think we've hit a breakthrough with Miss Maeve. She had a very good night in her kennel last night, and my mom got lots of sleep. Around 2 today, we were going to visit my aunt who just had knee replacement surgery, so we prepared a Kong [the BEST dog toy ever created. Maeve is finally understanding the concept of it!!] with peanut butter and put it in the crate, with a Puppy Pacifier, and a puppy sized nylabone, and threw a treat in, said "kennel" and in she went. Turns out my aunt had physical therapy, and we had to wait. So we decided to see how it would go if we just sat there, with her crated. To our greatest suprise, there wasn't a single peep. She was happy as a clam, with her Puppy Pacifier under her, and licking out her Kong. Even better, there was no mess when we got home!!

Nothing too exciting for her today. She slept nearly all day while I made brownies and chocolate chip cookies to bring to my rapdily[i realize that this is spelled wrong, but it's grown on us.she likes it :) ] recovering aunt. Every once in awhile, she'd stretch, and quickly fall back asleep. I woke her up once for a potty break. Oh yes, we also napped this morning. So a lot of sleep for the little growing girl!

As for the training, we're working on the clicker. Unfortunately, we won't be going to puppy class tonight because my mom has CPR training, but hey, we're no longer rookies and we can just about handle a night without training. She's doing perfectly fine, and it's not going to kill her to wait another week to see her siblings. She's finally becoming our shadow, and realizing that we are her "new pack".

So, since "the mother" is at training tonight, and my sister has soccer and is staying with my dad, looks like its me and the little miss tonight, watching the 2 hour Grey's Anatomy re-runs. Gosh I love that show :)

A Whole New World

2007-06-20T21:44:00.000-05:00

Maeve has decided that she only likes the crate when its open. The first night, yes, was good. The second...not so much. I can't quite give the details. I didn't have puppy duty. I caught up on my sleep from the first night :) Let's just say, that overall, it was a rough night.

Maeve had a longer car ride today--driving to Eden Prairie. She whined, and yelped, all the way there. And all the way back. She kind of is beginning to sound like a rooster. Boy, that girl can bark.

She's pretty much been doing a lot of sleeping. It's adorable when she gets an energy burst and is frisky. We have a "frisky ball" that she absolutely loves. It's a plasic ball with a shiny spinning thing in it. She pushes it around with her paws, its crazy and adorable.

Maeve would love side salads if she were human. She has taken it upon herself to trim the lawn. Grazing, like a cow.

Maeve is still itching her collar, but not trying to get it off. We'll be playing in the yard, and she'll just all the sudden sit, and itch her collar. Sometimes we help her itch, and she cranes her neck back and tilts her head, all adorable.

Her new nap spot has been under the bench. We've cleared out the flip-flps she has dug her teeth into and made room for her. All we have to do is put a "puppy pacifier" [frozen water bottle, for those who don't know] under the bench and she'll curl up next to it.

On the topic of water, Maeve loves her water dishes. Sometimes she'll sleep with one of her body parts in it, or next to it. She's also thoroughly enjoying playing in her water dishes. At first, she'll dip her paws in it. Then, she'll start digging in it. The excitement buids and soon, the entire water dish is all over the floor. Believe me, it's a whole lot cuter when it's outside!

Maeve is pretty mischievious though. She just has that look in her eye. If she wasn't so cute, she'd get away with a lot less :)

Welcome To The Family

2007-06-19T15:19:00.000-05:00

MAEVE

My mom named her.

We think it's a beautiful Irish name.

It means intoxicating

[intoxicatingly cute]

My name is Caitlin, and my family is training our second service dog. Our first dog, Cosmo, just graduated in May.

We got Maeve yesterday at 3:30. If you followed Maeve's mom's blog, [www.tigaslitter.blogspot.com], Maeve is "Spots". In all honesty, we were pretty shocked when we were handed a female puppy. We didn't have any good names for a girl. We wanted a boy to name Midas...but maybe that will happen with the third dog...if there will be. I hope. Eileen must have noticed the look of shock on our faces, because after, she said "You guys okay with a girl?". Yes, Eileen, we are. :)

Maeve had very litte time to settle in before there was the first visitor. The first visitor was our next door neighbor, who is going into 6th grade. He didn't really understand the concept that the puppy didn't know any commands. Shocker, right? Maeve also met my aunts, and their dogs, who are older (10 and 8, I believe). Maeve wasn't quite sure what to make of them. My mom's boyfriend also came over, and thought that we should name her Mathilda. Ick.
We ate dinner outside, with Maeve, who seems to already like plate surfing. She epecially enjoyed cleaning up spilled Fresca. For a moment, we debated naming her Fresca. That bird didn't fly too well.

Mom started clicker training last night. Mom's pretty proud.

Everyone, I'm sure, is dying to know how the first crated night away from "the pack" went. Good, acutally. I was the one who volunteered to loose as much sleep as the puppy wanted to deprive me of. She was wonderful, compared to Cosmo, who yelped for four FULL nights(during the school year!!) Maeve slept from 11:30-4:45. Not too bad, I guess.

This morning, I caught up on my sleep, and when I woke up, we went outfit shopping for Miss Maeve. Cosmo's old blue collar and leash gave everyone the assumption that she was he. We quickly fixed that after a trip to 3 different pet stores to find the perfect hott pink collar. We also made her ID tag. It's cute. It's a heart. <3.

As I blog, she is outside, in the backyard, sleeping in her open crate, cuddling with a big beanie baby. It's pretty cute. She likes her crate. Judy, was Spots the one who liked the crate??
We are enjoying our new family member very much :) I will post pictures later.