Ellie and Tule on the Trail

They should be mush dogs -- MUSH!

Ellie is 11.5 Months Old

Ellie is almost a year old.  Her birthday is April 7.  Right now, she weighs a solid 35 lbs.  She's a strong, playful girl.  Her favorite activities are chasing balls, squirrels, bugs and anything else that moves.  Birds are particularly attractive.  She barks at black crows and will chase them at the beach.

We've been working on fetch, and she's a superstar.  She always brings her favorite red ball back to us.  Sometimes, she wants to play tug-o-war with it, but most of the time, she drops the ball at our feet and waits for us to throw it again.

Ellie loves her grain-free salmon Canidae dog food.  She's also fond of her organic chicken/veggie dog treats.  I haven't made her any dog biscuits lately, but I'd like to try out some new recipes.  Other than dog food, she still likes to chew on Paul's socks when she finds one on the floor.

She's still a puppy at heart and loves to play, play, play.  Some of my favorite recent photos of the last couple of months are below.

Ellie and her favorite red ball

Ellie at Sharp Park Beach

Naughty puppy

All fluffy after her bath

What's that you say?

Hey, what's up?

Sporting a snazzy sweater

After chewing on a throw rug, this makes a good hiding place

If I stand here a while, will you give me a cookie?

Ellie, Princess of Montara Mountain

Ellie Catches Balls Flying Through the Air

This is a new phenomenon.  Ellie has always been a ball chasing fanatic.  She loves playing ball relay; when I throw a ball, she retrieves it and drops it at my feet, and then I throw another ball.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, forever.  Now, she suddenly has begun catching the ball in the air.  This appears to be something she's been practicing in private.  I'm duly amazed by her special talent.

Ellie, Macy and Sadie on Montara Mountain

Ellie and Macy

Ellie loves her puppy pal Macy. They have fun every weekday, chasing each other up and down the trails on Montara Mountain. Ellie's become a real teenager, with selective hearing and stubbornness, but still a sweetie that keeps us entertained. She is getting a thick winter coat, especially around the neck and shoulders. Her waggy tail and wide grin makes us smile every day.  She weighs 31 pounds.



She's had a couple of trips to the vet in the last two weeks, once for a tick and once after eating a Bird of Paradise flower. These can be very toxic to dogs (news to us), and we've got them in our yard. Time to rethink landscaping and puppy proofing! We never had to worry about it before with Duke, our previous dog. He was older and never botherered with eating flowers and odd things. Ellie's eaten or torn up: shoes, a couple of area rugs, paper napkins, a cardboard box, a kitchen sponge, and assorted puppy toys and other things.

Paul says that squeaky toy manufacturers should hire Ellie as a product tester. She has killed every squeaker in every toy we've bought for her. Some do last longer than others, especially Kong toys and Ruffians. We feel this experience qualifies her as a master squeaky toy tester. I'm sure there must be a squeaky toy company who would pay for this service.

The Ruffian rubber chicken finally passed away, after at least a month of daily chomping.  This may have been a squeaky toy record in our house.

The Kong toy definitely lasts and lasts, but the squeaker died after only a week.

She maintains a fondness for bully stix, but we try to limit those to a couple per week.  After all, she's a young lady and some appearance of propriety is in order.

Two months later ...

Wow, I can't believe it's been two months since Ellie graduated from puppy school! She's gotten bigger (30 lbs), smarter, faster, and dare I say, cuter than ever. She's become an expert at fetch, and she's mastered the art of getting the ball out from under the coffee table.  She's also grown a very thick winter coat!  Here she is, playing with her favorite toy, a red rubber chicken that squeaks.  She'll wait for me to throw it, then bring it back and drop it at my feet.  Then, when I try to grab it, she'll try to grab it first.  How entertaining!  Just watch the fingers.  I actually think she smiles when we play this game.

Aside from her talents, or maybe because of them, she's exceptionally skilled at causing all sorts of trouble. She can jump up and grab things from the top of the dryer in the garage (her outdoor toys and my gardening clogs found a new place to live). She's extremely good at darting past me, into the bedroom, to grab Paul's slipper that wasn't put away.

She also likes to pick up Paul's workout gloves from where he left them, on the floor next to the weight bench. We've tried looking stern, no tug-o-war, and saying in a loud voice, "DROP IT." This usually does the trick, but sometimes it's just an exercise for me. In the past, my discipline has been proffered in a quiet manner to whomever would receive it. Now, I find myself using my outside voice in the house -- very disconcerting.

But Ellie takes everything in stride. Even during loud fireworks after the Giants won the World Series, Ellie seemed unperturbed. Her ears perked, but no running and hiding. Very good girl!

Ellie loves her doggie pal Macy, whom she sees on her daily walks. She politely sniffs new dogs and people, and always wants to playplayplay.

Puppy School Graduate

Ellie is now a puppy school graduate. She and her puppy classmates including puppy pal Chun Li successfully completed an eight-week class. Ellie learned, sit, stay, down, come, shake, leave it (sort of) and rollover.



She impressed us by obeying a down-stay command for a total of 45 seconds! It wasn't long enough for the grand prize -- a new squeaky ball -- but terrific nonetheless.

Congratulations, Ellie!