Just a quick little update...  I called two nursing homes on Wednesday to see about visiting with Riley.  I haven't heard back from either one.  I'll give them both a call again on Tuesday and see if we can't get something set up for sometime soon.

On another note, I don't know if I posted this already, but I taught Riley to "Say Hello."  This will come in handy when visiting the nursing homes.  Basically you just hold your hand down at your side or in front of her face, wherever you want to really, and tell her to "Say Hello" and she'll nudge the back of your hand with her nose.  It's a cute little trick and pretty easy to teach your dog.

I took Riley today to the vet to get her nails trimmed and her Bordetella shot.  They told me on the phone they could do her Rabies shot (due 6/10/2010) today too.  So I said great, go ahead.  Then when I got there they told me they could also do the rest of her shots that were due July 1st and her wellness exam.  Good, they could do it all in one visit instead of three!!

Let's just say the vet isn't one of Riley's favorite places to go...  She was all good until the ladies from the back came out to get her.  Then she hid under the chairs in the waiting room.  I had to walk back to the door with them for her to go with them.  They said she was good in the back getting her nails trimmed but that she likes to move around a lot and is hard to hold still.  They didn't have to tell me about how hard she is to hold still...I know that...!  Then the doctor came in and we all had a heck of a time holding her still for her exam.  She didn't want to face the vet, she wanted to face me.  She was pretty good after the exam was over.  She kissed the vet on the lips and snuggled up under his chin.  He said he doesn't know why she gets so nervous at the vet and that she was just chilling out in the back and doing obedience commands for them.  He also said that she's a perfect weight right now (53 lbs.) and is all muscle.

Two of the people that work at the vet had to ask me about her Therapy Dog tag.

Well, we now know that (almost $200 later) she is a happy, healthy (not so fond of the vet) puppy.

Riley's tag and badge came in the mail today so she's cleared to go on visits now!  Here are some pictures:

So I went for a consultation with the new dog trainer I was trying out.  I was very impressed.  We hopefully have a solution for her fear of larger dogs, jumping up on people that come in our house, and wanting to eat our food when we eat on the couch.  I've already tried out how to keep her away from my food while I'm eating on the couch and it worked well.  I had her sitting in front of me on the floor while I was eating a snack on the couch and I fed her a treat every so often if she was being good.  She wasn't a problem at all.  Eventually we can wean her off of the treats and she should just sit on the floor and leave my food alone.  We have all the tools we need to succeed and I don't need to take her in for training unless what we do doesn't work.  Anyway, I will be in touch with this trainer and hopefully we won't have any issues.

Riley and I are going to try out a new trainer next Tuesday to help her get over her fear of larger dogs.  She's fine with smaller dogs but if a larger dog approaches her from the front she'll sniff them for a few seconds then tell them to back off.  Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

I thought it was time to give my blog a much needed face lift!

Since it was 90 degrees outside today, and since my dad and I were still working on home improvement projects out there (on a side note, let me just say I hate caulk and caulking...), I decided to put the kiddie pool out back for the dogs.  Riley got to spend maybe a minute and a half in it before my parents' dog, Chloe, hijacked it.  Chloe wouldn't let Riley anywhere near the pool.  Riley didn't seem to care too much that she couldn't get in the pool.  Chloe would bark incessantly at Riley when Riley would come within 10 feet of the pool.  I finally got Chloe to shut up and about a minute later she started barking at Riles again.  Riles (as I like to call her) was just laying down on the patio.  Later she started playing with her big ball in the yard and it rolled right next to the pool.  She was scared to go near it and get it so I had to go kick it away for her.  Chloe wouldn't stop barking so after about 20 minutes of filling the pool up, I dumped all the water out and put it away.  Problem solved.

I had to give Riley a "half bath" (washing her chest and legs) because she got so muddy from where the water had run off into the yard.  She had it literally caked on her legs and chest.  Luckily she doesn't give me any problems getting into the tub.  All of the other dogs in our family have to be dragged into the tub.

Then later on in the day we were out back again (painting this time) and Riley got pretty quiet in the side yard.  Riley being quiet never amounts to anything good...  I found her nosing at a dead bird on the ground.  I'm pretty sure she didn't kill it because it wasn't bloody or anything and I didn't see any tooth holes or bite marks on it.  Luckily she didn't have it in her mouth because I doubt I would have been able to get it out.  Thank God she didn't eat it...yuck.  She did eat a newborn bunny's head when she was 3 or 4 months old...gross!  I (just for the record) do not touch dead animals...or (for the most part) live animals other than dogs and cats.  I held on to Riley while my dad picked it up and got rid of it.  Thanks, Dad!  :)