Abby

We picked up Abby in Alpine, Texas from Ghost Dance Malamutes. She came from a litter of 9 and was 1 of 7 girls. We brought her home on August 7, 2010. It has been a long time since we had a puppy but so far everything is going well. She loves playing in her kiddie pool in the yard and is learning about house training. She has been pretty good for a puppy. We took her to the vet on August 14 and she weighed 15.5 pounds. The following Thursday she was up to 18.6 pounds. She is a happy little girl with a very sweet temperament. We began puppy kindergarten today (August 22) and we are learning as much as she is. She was the youngest in the class and we think she is the smartest so far. We also learned a lot about starting her training and as long as she still loves those treats and she is hungry enough we think she will continue to do well. She definitely loves the air conditioning and likes sleeping on the a/c floor vents in our house.

Abby at 10 weeks of age. She is housebroken - we take her outside all the time so she always has a chance to go out to take care of business. She still hasn't gone to the door or given us any sign of how she plans to tell us when she does need to step out.

As she is getting her top coat her coloring is getting darker. She loves to play in her wading pool. As of August 30 she is 24.8 pounds and growing. She gets the hiccups a lot and the vet jokingly told us that it is just a sign she is growing.

Watch a movie of Abby and the Green Beetle

Abby at 4 months of age - her top coat is coming in over her baby fur and is black - she still has a touch of reddish brown on her head around her ears. At 4 months she is almost 33 pounds. At this rate she may outgrow her crate - here she is sleeping with her toys all around her. She now tells us when she wants to go outside and for a walk. She can walk at least 2 miles a day - sometimes more.

    

    

Abby at 4 1/2 months

Abby (4 months, 3 weeks of age) with Richard - posing by the new mailbox. The mailbox was made of leftover rock from Mike & Sandy's workshop. Abby has finished puppy kindergarten and we want to take some more classes with her but that will have to wait until after Christmas. We are enjoying our new fence (boy this dog is expensive). The old fence was pretty worn out. I took her out the other morning while it was still dark - she let me know that something else was in the yard so I snapped her leash on and shined the flashlight and yes - there was something - a skunk. Abby didn't show any interest in going after it - in fact she turned and ran to the front door to go back in. Thank goodness.

Abby at 7 months - she can be a couch potato some of the time. We have been taking her to Dog Boy's Ranch for play days and charm school. She really has a good time there. She is becoming calmer when meeting other dogs. She always comes home tired and sleeps a day or two after all the play time.

At left Abby is 7 1/2 months old. We had her weighed at the vet's office and she is now at 65 pounds and growing. At right she is a few days before her 8 month birthday. We had snow and she is enjoying eating a block of ice that came out of her water bowl. She ate lots of snow and really enjoys eating ice. She is becoming quite the charmer. We had to leave her at Dog Boys several days while we went to Nashville. She had a good time and made good friends with the maintenance guy - she follows his cart around when he is working in her play area. Although she likes playing with other dogs she is mostly a people dog. We start another training class soon. We want her to be a very polite little girl.

Above left: Abby at Mike & Sandy's fish fry
Above right: Abby shares a stick with her friend
"Sweetie Girl" from Victoria.

April, 2011

Abby is 10 months old now and she has been keeping us busy. We just graduated from Level I Obedience class at Dog Boy's Ranch. She still likes to go about once a week to daycare to play with the other dogs. We have a neighbor dog that has been coming over to play and they have lots of fun together. Abby has actually learned how to fetch. In typical Malamute form though once she is bored with the game she starts throwing it to herself instead of returning it to us.

 

 

 

Abby on Mother's Day, 2011 at my sister and brother-in-law's house - romping in the flowers.

Abby plays peek-a-boo with the squirrels who live in the tree in our front yard.

 

I am so behind in posting pictures. Abby will be 14 months old August 8, 2011. She is 80 pounds small and such a sweet girl. She needs some more schooling but it has been too hot and we are waiting for cooler weather to enroll in another class. We need to work on distance recall (a tough accompishment with a Malamute). She hasn't won over the cats yet but they won't give up their spot for her. The cats once again rule the roost. She really wants them to be buddies but the cats don't agree. It is more like peaceful coexistence. Abby plays with her friend Schatzie 3 mornings a week and with the heat those play dates have become shorter ones and we walk Schatzie home when they start to get warm. Is it ever going to cool down and are we ever going to see rain again? These 100+ degree days and extreme drought are really getting monotonous. We have had 52 of those 100+ days (8/6/11) and we are well on our way to more with record highs being set almost every day. Picture above left: Abby with her friend Schatze. Above right: Abby with her friend "Sweetie Girl." We went to visit our friends in Victoria recently and they had their dogs Sadie (a black lab puppy) and Sweetie Girl there. After 3 days of play Sweetie Girl and Abby were sleeping as hard as they played.

We are now at 77 100+ degree days this summer (9/1/11) - still waiting for a cool breeze.