Labor Day Mischief! Office Dogs!

You can't contain me! (Zoe) Meanwhile, Phoenix is the good girl.

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you're all having a fun weekend!

With the way I train my dogs: positive reinforcement, clicker training, shaping, puzzle toys, etc, both of my dogs ability to problem solve would knock your socks off. I encourage them to try stuff and I never want them to be afraid to work things out. They are active thinkers and doers. They are both very quick to pick things up and sometimes because of this they can get into mischief. I do pride myself on my ability to use management to keep them out of trouble but occasionally they outsmart me. Zoe is typically the ring leader and she is the smartest of the two.

Recently I was asked to hold the fort at my work for a pet massage clinic. I didn't need to help out with the clinic, just keep an eye on the building and do some cleaning. The girls went with me.

I knew that when I set up that expen (in the photo above), one if not both of my dogs would figure out how to get out of it. Directly behind Phoenix is a sitting bench that they've both used. I left them in there for 10 minutes so I could air out the building and when I came back and Zoe had escaped!

It was actually pretty hilarious and not a big deal. There's nothing in that office that they can get into. I already did my preliminary sweep of the place before I left them alone. I was just using the expen to keep them away from the glass to prevent barrier frustration with the other dogs walking by and I wanted to see how long it took them to escape out of it if I set it up in the corner.

They are actually really well behaved in there for the most part. They both fell asleep while I was getting some work done for my boss people and we had a pretty awesome afternoon.

Have you ever noticed any problem solving behaviors in your dogs? Tell me about it in the comment section below!

After A Long Day...

The last thing you want to happen is this:

The indignity of having a cat snuggling with you is more than Zoe can handle.

"Somebody get this damn thing away from me!!!"

Zoe does not appreciate cuddling with Lilly. It was so funny! 

No Fetch, Squirrels!

Saturdays are hard. On Saturdays we have to get up at 5:30am to take my husband to work so I can have the car. Both dogs hate getting up early and I'm right there with them. Most of the time I can barely get Phoenix out of bed.

We recently changed routines as well. The past couple of weeks, I had been taking the girls hiking but they've been eating too much grass and becoming sick. They were also getting really stressed out there to then have to go and be at my work.

So this past Saturday, I decided to try playing fetch with them at the school that's near our apartment after dropping my husband off. It worked out pretty well until somebody (**cough** Zoe **cough** **cough**) saw the squirrels running around.

Zoe dropped the ball and took off after the squirrels. Luckily the whole place is thoroughly fenced.

Structured "training" fetch or squirrels? It was an easy choice for her. On the bright side, Phoenix did not take off with her and she held her stay. After treeing the squirrels, Zoe came when she was called. I rewarded her for coming and promptly tied her up to the bench.

"I'm the GOOD dog!"

I was able to move further away from the trees and Zoe did have some successful retrieves even though the squirrels were still really distracting. After we played fetch I released them back to the squirrels and let them be dogs for a while. Then we went back to playing fetch. Before we left the school we did a short training session practicing recalls.

The school yard seemed to work out way better than going to the big park for hiking! I'm pretty happy with how everything went, despite Zoe taking off. It was so early in the morning that we had the whole place to ourselves so it didn't really matter if Zoe was a little naughty. The dogs were so much less stressed at my work, too. 

Happy Monday Mischief everyone! What's everyone been up to?

Caught in the Act...

... of snuggling with a kitty! Sacrilege! 

Generally Zoe does not cuddle with cats. She doesn't really like them and I'm pretty sure she thinks they are pests. (Sometimes, I would agree with that last part! LOL) Anyways, if you can't tell by the look on her face she is not that thrilled about it but what is a girl to do when the cat steals your bed? 

Phoenix is actually much better with the cats! It's so funny that she's better with them because when we first got her she was really bad and spent a lot of her time trying to hunt them.

Do you have a multi-species household? Do your furkids get along with each other?

Who Killed The Gingerbread Man???

Somebody killed the Gingerbread Man!

Zoe says, "It wasn't me! He's my friend!"

"Just kidding! It was TOTALLY me!"

"He's fine, really! I swear!!
..... for now."

Well Zoe, I guess... No blood, no foul? 

Well in Mr. Gingerbread Man's case no stuffing, no foul? 

Wind Blown!

We've had a few days of beautiful sunshine but with that sunshine came some really horrible wind! In some areas they were saying it would be hurricane force winds up to 75mph! We've got a lot of branches down over here and the leaves are blowing around like crazy. Luckily we didn't lose power! The girls are not a fan of freezing wind so wearing their pajamas is a must! We were all super happy with a break from all the rain, though!

Are you having any crazy weather where you are?

Zoe Makes A New Friend!

We were out at Thousand Acres the other day when we happened across this young shepherd, unfortunately, I didn't get his name! Zoe really enjoyed playing with him! It's very unusual for my dogs to make friends with shepherds. Traditionally, they have not really liked any of the ones we've met. For some reason they are both really wary of dogs with ears that are all the way up and Zoe's had some bad experiences with them and usually Phoenix will screech in fear at a shepherd.

It definitely surprised me that both of my dogs were happily playing with this guy. He was a young intact male and they had a blast running around with him. I hope we get to see him again some time! My dogs need shepherd lessons that not all of them are going to be aggressive with them.

Does your dog have a breed they don't like?

Too Tired for Mischief & Nosework Fun with Identity V+E!

Zoe says, snooze!! ZZZZzzzz

We had a very busy weekend and both of the girls are just too tired for mischief! On Thursday night we went to dinner at my friend's house and Zoe got to visit with her best buddy, Marley. Sadly, I didn't get any photos. It was just too dark.

Here's an old photo of Marley & Zoe

Then on Friday, I went to a nosework trial with my friend Lia from Identity V+E and her fabulous pup, Riko. While I was at noswork, my husband took the girls to the big park to play.

Riko and Me! Photo Credit: Identity V+E

I'm so glad that Riko liked me! He's so cute and funny! He really wanted to snuggle even though his mom was telling him to get back! LOL! (My face looks grumpy but I was actually really tired and sick with a cold in this photo!)

Riko got 2nd and 3rd place at both of his trials! Congrats to him and his mom! 

Photo Credit: Identity V+E

After nosework, Lia and Riko came over to my place and stayed the night. Here's Riko making friends with my husband for some spaghetti! :D My husband was very taken with Riko. He and I are both huge fans of the malinois breed and we loved having Lia and Riko over. The way Riko's mind works was fascinating to me. I was so excited for a chance to work with such an amazing dog. Lia let me do some shaping (clicker training) with him and it was so fun.

Phoenix resting after a long weekend.

We had a fantastic weekend! There was some mischief with Phoenix. She and Zoe were a little stressed out with Riko in the house. They are not used to sharing their space, so we kept them separated and at one point we did have a little bit of a lunge and screech from Phee at Riko (they were both on leash) but they did really well other than that. We also had mischief with my cat, Pandora who kept trying to escape from the bedroom. Overall though everyone did so well!

Weird Pumpkins!

Do you remember the other day when we were at the Apple Festival? On our great search for Apples we came across some very odd looking pumpkins! Yep, in addition to apples and pears the nursery also had a ton of very odd looking pumpkins!

Neither of the girls were that happy to put their butts on scratchy straw bales, either! Unfortunately, we decided that none of these pumpkins made the cut and we just left with apples and a bag of food grade Diatomaceous Earth.

Chicken Nuggets

We've always wondered where chicken nuggets come from! Zoe thinks she might have found out where they come from when we were at Pet Expo! Do you see it?

Possibly a live "chicken nugget"

Yep! You guessed it right. Zoe found the parrots!

We did tell her that parrots are not for eating!

Has your dog ever had an encounter with a different species they weren't familiar with? 

How did it go?

Where Are the Apples?

Here we are at the Apple Festival... where are the apples?

 

No Apples here! 

What's with all the pears? We thought this was the Apple Festival!

We did finally manage to find the apples, though! 

Sadly the bins were so high there wasn't a way to get good photos!

Happy Monday everyone! 

Ouch & New Trick Video!!!

Happy Monday Mischief everyone! This past weekend I managed to get into some mischief all by myself. I accidentally sliced the tip and corner of my middle finger open on a blender blade. Of course it's my right hand, too. Sigh... I forgot it was in the dishwasher and stuck my hand in there to put dishes away. OUCH. It's deep and really sore.

So my fellow blogger friends, if you only get a few words and a sentence or two from me when I visit you this week, you'll know why!

One thing that I did manage to get done this weekend, before the disaster that was my finger, was the production of our newest trick video and YouTube channel trailer! I am really excited to finally show it to you! We did have a minor hiccup with a copyright issue on the first song I chose, so I had to take it down and redo the video with a different song. I don't like the replacement song as much as the first one but it works okay.

I hope you guys like the new video! Let me know what you think in the comments below!

If It Fits, It Ships!

Christmas came early at the ZoePhee house!

 We recently received a rather large package from my inlaws, so big that both dogs fit in the box! 

Mom's Little Helper!

Zoe is the most helpful dog! We trained her to pick up things that we drop and hand them to us. Utensils are a huge accomplishment because most dogs do not like putting metal things in their mouths! 

I had her bring the spoon to the dishwasher! :D

Good job, Zoe!

Professional Dog Models!

My dogs are complete professionals when it comes to photo shoots! They are so well behaved!

Phoenix would never think of dive bombing her sister during a shoot!

They are so professional that they would never wrestle or mess up the sheet!

...and Zoe would never bite her sisters neck off or show her butt to the camera! 

Phoenix would never dream of making any funny faces!

Nope! No funny faces here!

They are total professionals!

Just another boring day in front of the camera!

 If you know anyone who needs very professional dog models, tell them to email us! 

There's no mischief going on here!

Down

The past week was a pretty rough one for me. I have not been feeling well and you all probably noticed the lackluster posts. Right now I'm so low on energy but I'm trying. Thank you all for your patients. I hope next week is better.

The girls are being really good and I don't really have any mischief to report other than it rained both weekend days and they were pissed. It was pretty funny. The look on their faces when we went outside and they saw it was raining. They were unimpressed and did not want to step into the wet grass. They wanted to go back inside almost immediately but I was able to convince them to go and we went for a shorter walk.

Hopefully things will be better soon and we can get back to our regular programming.

Hide the Toy! Monday Mischief

After rescuing her toy a bunch of times from the river, 

Phoenix decided the best course of action would be to hide the toy from me! 

I don't think she did a very good job!

Back into the drink for you, toy! :)

Too HOT for Mischief!

It's way too hot for any sort of mischief! We've had upper 90s all week and our apartment hasn't really cooled below 80 degrees. That is really hot for the Pacific Northwest. The average temperatures for this time of year is 75-80. This coming week we're supposed to have triple digit weather and no one is looking forward to that.

Both of the girls are hot and sleepy. As you can see Phoenix is getting ready for our party on Saturday! She was trying on her beads and fell asleep!

I hope everyone has an awesome week! Stay cool!

SPARCS Conference

This weekend there wasn't a whole lot of mischief going on for us! We stayed home, parked in front of the computer watching the FREE stream of the SPARCS Conference! Even though I didn't have any mischief going on, they sure did at the conference! On the first day, after lunch, they were evacuated from the building! There was a problem with the sprinklers and it caused the fire alarms to go off! Everyone was okay and the conference continued the next day in a different hall.

Not A Retriever!

Even though I've taught both of my dogs how to retrieve stuff, sometimes because they have minds of their own, they don't always follow through. Recently Phoenix has been running off with her sticks instead of bringing them back! I think it's probably because other dogs keep trying to steal them from her. It's not a big deal and there will always be more sticks! It's pretty funny though!

A video posted by Lauren Miller (@zoe_and_phoenix) on Jun 12, 2015 at 10:08pm PDT

Here is a video I posted on instagram of Phoenix running off with her stick!