Whippet in Alaska

Monday, July 24, 2006

Tyler has finally discovered....


My YARN!

We knew he would figure out how to get inside my yarn caddy eventually. Look at his ears -- he knows it is wrong, but so much fun. If I didn't like the yarn so much, I would have made him get out of his self-made yarn lasso.


Of course, what else is there to do on these hot summer days, than to sleep away the afternoons?

Monday, July 17, 2006


Tyler is sure growing up.



He has been making great strides in the last few weeks. Last Monday was a really big day for him. He learned how to go down steps and to go to the front door and whine when he has to go to the bathroom.

I have also been training him to heel on our walks, which has been met with limited success.

We have been having such a good time now that he is part of our household and we are so glad that we have him.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Ten Days

Tyler has been in Alaska for 10 days.

It has been a struggle to get him enough exercise with all the rain we have been getting. The wet weather is good for forest fires, but bad for playing outside. In the intermittent rain, we bring him to the dog park where he gets dirty. The dog park has some grassy areas, but is mostly sand/gravel -- which means: he has had his first bath with us:




We have met some regulars, in fact we have become regulars ourselves. On Monday, Tyler finally had a dog sort-of his size, a dachshund. They were friendly with each other until the big dogs came. Then Tyler decided to be a big dog and challenge the dachshund along with the rest of the dogs. I am a little bit concerned about his dominance issues at the dog park -- but he is a little guy and needs to show his bark in case they decide to be bullies.

I thought that it would take longer for him to get used to his surroundings when we stop the car and open his crate to get out. Not so. He has identified the dog park, my office building, and a local non-fenced in park we go to sometimes. As soon as the car stops, the hatch opens, he starts wagging his tail and nearly jumps out of the hatch.

In other developments, he has learned to climb the stairs in our building. He has a little bit of 'drift' as he goes up, starting from left and then drifting to the right at the top. His legs aren't long enough to go down -- Although, it didn't stop him from trying once. He somersault a couple of steps -- No injuries, but he looked back at the stair as if the stair tripped him. We are going to wait a couple of weeks longer until he grows a bit.

Most of his days are spent chewing and chasing:

Looking out the window:

and sleeping.