Summer fun with your English Golden!

Summertime is such a great time of year with your four legged friends.  My dogs love to be outside running, playing and being in the water.  If you have a ball, they have the will to play fetch any time!   They also love sitting inside in the cool air conditioning in the 100 degree days of summer.  In NC, there have been many 95+ degree days as of late.   In areas around the globe it's even hotter.  So what are some things you can do with your dog in this type of heat, and what precautions should you take?

First, you should always bring lots of water for both your dog and yourself.   Their coats act as built in air conditioners but they will need a lot of water to keep cool.  It's good for you too!

Avoid playing in the hottest part of the day if possible.    As with people so with dogs and they can get overheated just as we can.   If you have to be out in the hottest part of the day, make sure you take a lot of breaks for water and rest.  Again, you don't want either of you to become overheated in super hot weather.

And if you're like me with English Goldens, water is a great place to spend time.  My dogs love the water whether it be a lake, an ocean, a pool or a garden hose!    You may not like the mess that comes with a day at the water, but you're sure to have a lot of fun together!

Oh, and be sure to bring lots of sunscreen for you!  A non-sunburned owner makes for a much happier day!  Enjoy the weather and your furry friends.  Fall will be here before we know it!

Talented English Goldens

Most people know that dogs bring joy and unconditional love to their families.   But did you know dogs can be quite humorous with little personalities all their own?  Take Zoe for instance.   She's sweet and quiet and oh, so obedient until there's something that catches her eye.   Then she morphs into "S Squared" or "Super Sneaky" as we like to call her.     Let me explain what I mean.

The above image is a photo of my son, Harrison jumping on the trampoline.  Zoe LOVES to do what Harrison does so she decided to jump up on the trampoline with him.   Now I told her five times to get down because I didn't want her to injure herself.  But the minute I went into the house, the above scene in the photo happened.

Really, it's quite humorous.  Here's a girl with a mind all her own.  She's sweet and obedient, but by God when Harrison jumps on the trampoline, why should he have all the fun?   So up she goes and shows the rest of us she can do what we can do.  That takes talent!

But all of my dogs have their own personalities.  Max will play fetch until my arm falls off.  He has a retrieving instinct like nothing I've ever seen.  Emma is the "alpha" and if she doesn't like something one of the other dogs does (ie. try to take her toy) she lets them know.   Reagan just wants you to pet him.  He's such a little love bug!   He looks at you with these beautiful brown eyes and begs you to love him.  There's no way you can say no to that!

Like people, dogs have their own personalities and idiosyncracies.  And some are multi-talented.   I would love to hear about what your talented dogs can do!

English Goldens....too smart for their own good at times!

 This is my boy Finn.  He's gorgeous, talented and super smart.   He's gorgeous both inside and out.  I have yet to find a sweeter golden.  He's talented because he can find a ball in 5 seconds flat.  You throw it, he'll retrieve it.  Yes, he is an English Golden Retriever so he should be good at retrieving.  And he's super smart because he can do things regular dogs can't.  That is except for my other goldens.  And the English goldens some of my friends have.  And of course, my Bernese Mountain Dog, Sadie, but that's another story.

Now I have been saying how I really need to get back in shape.  It's so hot outside in NC in the summer that it's hard to get motivated.  I could be wrong, but I think my goldens got tired of hearing me complain about my weight so this morning, they decided to help old mom out.

Some how my babies figured out how to open the gate to get out of the backyard.  That in itself is a feat.  You have to lift up a bar that locks the gate into place.  You have to open the lever.  AND you have to unhook a dog collar that I put in place that serves as a second lock for my gate just in case.   Somehow the little buggars figured out how to unlock all three and all of the sudden I hear my six year old running down the street saying, "Mommy!   Get the leashes!!" 

In a panic I immediately grab the leashes and head toward the door.  Thank goodness two of mine came right back home and were happy to drink water and be in the cool air.   But the other three were half way down the neighborhood with my six year old  in tow.   Bionic Mom took over.  Here comes Jamie Summers toting her leashes running as fast as she can to catch three English Goldens and a six year old.  

When they saw me running toward them shouting their names they came right to me with their sweet smiling faces.  And Emma just smiled as if to say, "We just wanted to help, Mom."  I guess that's what I get for complaining about needing to lose weight.   My English Goldens made sure I was the one who was going to start my weight loss program whether I wanted to or not.   Gotta love those smarty britches!!

Puppies and the Christmas Tree

I sent out an email the other day to some friends with a photo of my sons by the Christmas tree with one of my dogs.  A friend of mine emailed me back to ask if the dogs had access to the Christmas tree.   I hadn't thought about it like that, but yes, of course they have access to the Christmas tree because they live with us.  The funny thing is the dogs reaction to it.  Emma, our oldest, noticed it right away and barked at it incessantly as if it were a person who might play with her.  It took her a few minutes to learn that the tree just stood there and didn't do anything so she got bored and doesn't even notice it anymore.

Bella hid behind me when she first saw the Christmas tree.  She wasn't sure what it was or if it was friendly or not so she was very cautious.  As with Emma, after about five minutes she went up to it and started to sniff around it.  She hit a couple of ornaments (the ones that don't break) with her tail and they clinged together which caused her to jump for a moment.  And then she noticed the bows on the presents.  My goodness, did she have some fun with the bows!  I have noticed that she gravitates to blue bows.  Fortunately I only had two of them under the tree so I let her tear them apart and I put new bows on the presents.  Now she isn't that interested in the tree or the bows, but she's also not afraid of it either. 

Max was hysterical.  Max is my explorer.  He went right up to the tree, walked on the presents, sniffed everything around it, knocked the ornaments with his tail and when he realized it wouldn't play fetch with him, talk to him or pet him, he passed right by it and hasn't looked at it again since. 

Finn had a similar reaction.  He went up to it, sniffed it for a moment and then came to me to try to sit in my lap.  He hasn't seemed to notice it since either.

We put up three Christmas trees in my home because we love the holiday.  Perhaps my dogs are just used to seeing Christmas trees as they've been up since before Thanksgiving.  Or perhaps they are so smart they understand who can actually play with them and what just stands there all day.  Whatever the situation, the dogs and the tree seem to be able to happily co-exist in the Martin family. 

Happy holidays to all and to all a good night!

Puppyhood with English Goldens

Puppies rock!  They are sweet, full of boundless energy, loving and such joy to be around.   I can play fetch with mine until my arm is about to fall off.  They never tire of fetching.  It's that gundog instinct in them.   But my puppies can be a challenge too.  Take for example the garden I used to have.  I had the most lovely backyard complete with blooming azaleas, hibiscus and hydrangea.  My Indian Hawthorn plants were thriving and my laurels were growing quicker than I ever imagined, some surpassing six feet in just three years!   That is until puppies landed at Goldensglen.  Now my yard looks like a barren wasteland.  All of the shrubs have been trampled or eaten.  Even some of the trees were not safe.   And I always thought about putting a pool in my backyard, but now I don't have to worry about excavation.  My dogs are professional diggers!

Teaching puppies can be a challenge too.  Thankfully for me, the Golden Retriever is a very intelligent animal.  They learn quickly and want to please their owners.  In fact they are in the top four of the smartest breeds there are.  The thing they don't tell you is that the owner needs proper training to be able to train their dogs.  I'll let you in on a little secret...dog training is less for the dog and MORE for the owner!    But it's necessary because you want your dog to be a part of the family where he/she can be enjoyed and not continually scolded for eating furniture, jumping up on people or using the bathroom on the floor.   Now if children could be so easily trained!!

One issue we are dealing with now is my five year old and our new puppy, Zoe.  Zoe is only nine weeks old and she's sweet as sugar.  But she is a puppy and puppies teethe.  Zoe likes to put anything and everything in her mouth.  In the past two weeks she's eaten through my computer power cord (unplugged of course) and the power cord to the dog bowl that filters their water.   Yes, I was thrilled about that!   But she is constantly looking for things to put into her mouth.  As my five year old would have it, he thinks it's funny to put his arm in her mouth....until she bites down too hard and he cries!   We are trying to teach him that she's a baby and she doesn't know any better and he would be better served to put toys in her mouth, but that hasn't stopped a few alligator tears for teethmarks in his arm.  Gosh it would be easier if children and puppies came with instructions manuals!! 

Perhaps the most interesting interaction we've experienced has come this past week between Emma, our oldest who is in her first season now, and Finn and Max.  For the first ten days of her cycle, they didn't act any differently around her.  They played, fought, chased and did all the normal puppy things they usually do.  But on day 10, EVERYTHING changed!  Max, our Camrose with a pedigree to die for, suddenly found his inner stud.   Now at 7 months old, he's not doing much, but he's trying really hard!  Finn, our lovely Majik boy from Finland with another amazing pedigree just stays by her side and sniffs her every time he sees her.   It's times like these that I wish I was a dog whisperer.  Oh, to be in the mind of these young dogs at this time in their lives!