Love to brag

Well I love to brag about the little girl, and she's doing great. She's more energetic than ever and doesn't even notice the staple behind her ear. Our newest human friend is our neighbor Chris. Chris and his wife Shelby are the owners of a gorgeous boxer, Sake (saw-key). Sake is a 5 year-old male and Echo just loves him. We get Echo out to play with Sake as much as possible so she won't be scared of dogs after the bite incident. There are a couple smaller dogs that come out to play when Echo and Sake play, as well.

We thought Chris and Shelby were probably 26-27 years old, but Chris just told us last night that he's going to turn 31. We never see Shelby because she's always at work when we see Chris. Chris is the closest friend we have right now, and he just told us they're moving April 1. So sad, but Shelby's job is taking her to some extremely ritzy dude ranch in Wyoming called Brush Creek Branch. Got to find more friends quick before we lose Chris and Sake.

Today, Chris, Nick and I took Sake and Echo to Fort Funston. We walked a couple miles on the beach and chased tennis balls. Echo was very playful with Sake, but pretty cautious with all the other dogs. I'm really hoping with frequent exposure to other dogs, her shyness/nervousness will go away. It probably will fade as she gets bigger and can stand her own ground. Such a shame because she wasn't nervous at all before the bite. Before the bite incident, I didn't think twice about socializing her, but today I was super nervous anytime a dog ran up to her to play with her. I even picked her up any time a pitbull was around, which I hated doing. It was a great day, though. We hiked up the bluff, and the trail was straight up toward the top. We were so proud of Echo for climbing up all on her own. Nick had to give her a boost at a particularly sandy/steep spot. We also saw the biggest German Shepherd ever. His name was Max and he was 130 pounds. He looked like 160 pounds. His paws were twice our Max's and he had really long hair. He looks like a bear. Here are 3 pictures from the beach:

Max the Bear Giant

We found this tiny wind break hut. Look how big Echo is getting.

Sake put his butt in the picture

When we got home from the dog park, everyone took a nap. This is how pooped our puppy was:

A sleepy puppy is a cuddly puppy.

Somehow we got a puppy that isn't cuddly. Tragic, but if we wear her out and get her real sleepy, she'll let us give her kisses. If she's not sleepy, she just bites and claws. She wants to play all the time. She prefers to play tug with one of us over entertaining herself.

Her training is coming along so nicely. She doesn't behave on the leash very well, trying to weave in and out of our feet. She behaves so well off the leash, though, so we are putting off the leash training for the sake of her off leash behavior. We don't want her to loose her habit of sticking close to us off leash, so we let her weave while on the leash for now. We'll have to start it soon, but it's the one training I'm not looking forward to. So here is the latest training video. She did extraordinarily well tonight, except with leave it. We're still working on leave it, but usually she's pretty good about it. We try to say random words and get her to keep "leaving it" until we say "free". She definitely knows it, we're just working on patience and consistency. Click here for Echo's video

Our car is doing really well. No issues this time around. We've named this one Cali. Nick has always wanted a rear wheel drive, turboed car, and he finally has one. We replaced the air intake and the blow off valve ourselves. It was fun to do. The air intake gave us better mileage. 

Have a good weekend!