Say hello to big Cooper! He is a three year old, ninety-nine pound, Labrador Retriever/Rottweiler Mix that we assessed today. Cooper is no stranger to the dog daycare scene. He attended a doggie daycare in Virginia regularly, a great thing for us!
Being extremely socialized and well versed in "Dog Speak", Cooper did amazingly well in our Big Roll Pack. It's almost as if he had been here in the past, this canine fit in that good.
Cooper has a very unique and impressive look, although this picture doesn't do him justice. He is all back with a hint of white on his chest. His body is inherently Rottweiler and his head is all Lab. It's pretty neat, we've never come across a dog with this appearance.
You are welcome back anytime Cooper, we hope to see you again soon.
Meet Arly! She is a ten month old, about forty-five pound, white/light peach colored, Goldendoodle that had her assessment a few weeks ago. Arly has been by The Fort once a week for a couple of sessions now... She is here to sharpen and hone her "Dog Communication Skills" and become more social with other canines. Arly has been spending her time in our Medium Roll and hasn't done half bad. She doesn't mind the others and isn't fearful or anxiety ridden about the situation. She just won't play, yet! We will never count her out. It would be of no surprise to us if one day, Arly busted out into rigorous play with members of the Medium Pack.
The wily one-eyed Marley, almost got Arly to play last Wednesday. He pulled out every trick in the book (Exaggerated Play Bows, Spins, Butt-Pushing lol, etc...) to entice her into activity, however, it didn't quite happen. Arly is a great dog with a striking look. She is wonderful with people and is welcome to Fort Fido anytime. Hopefully, with consistent attendance and time, she'll "let her hair down" a bit and enter into that realm of play which is the heart of our operation. Luckily for her owners, although she isn't "playing" much, she doesn't just lay around. She's big on prancing about, getting a quick rear-end sniff in and generally being active. That's mainly why we think there is still much hope for this fine doodle gal.
Whoa! Woke up this morning to the sound of crunchy ice under car tires... I thought to myself, "No way!". But sure enough, it snowed last night lol, just in case you didn't notice. Luckily the light dusting we received didn't put a damper onto any Fort Fido plan, twas smooth sailing today. Very nice!
Pops (David) went on a trip to get some new dogs toys. The majority of our toys come from a "cash and carry" type of place that specializes and only carries pet supplies. Ahhh Toy Day. It's a bit of fun and work rolled into one. You have to budget, pick out what you think will sell, what you think people will like, price each item and then organize the whole lot into our small retail space. It takes a couple of hours and we usually take turns. I'll post up a picture with some of the new merch soon.
In the very near future, we will be carrying an absolutely outstanding line of locally made collars and leads. They are made, by hand, by none other than Jinx's dad, Mike. He specializes in custom work and I assure you, these are the coolest dog leads and collars ever! Not only do they look awesome, they are extremely functional, comfortable and super-heavy-duty yet light. All of us at The Fort are quite excited about getting them in and we think y'all will enjoy them too . Gibson is going to get a custom one made for sure! :)
I'll leave ya with a few clips.
From the Big Roll... Love was in the air, Golden Retriever Love that is! Benny and Mollie were a hot item haha.
The Medium Roll was more fun than a barrel of monkeys!
In the Little Roll, Dwayne hooked up with Little Pearl and busted out even more! Every dog upstairs seemed to be having a blast today.
Little Lucy had a great time getting the pack to play chase games her. She took a few seconds to play with Bear, Emily, Gordon, and Winston, before taking off to rip around the play area and see who would follow.
(Sorry about the weird audio--our camera is on the fritz!)
The ceremonial start of the Iditarod was today, with the real race beginning tomorrow afternoon. These dog athletes have a heck of a race in front of them! 975 miles from start to finish, the Iditarod is one of the most grueling races a sled team can compete in. If you are interested in watching live streams or learning more--check out www.iditarod.com
Meet Sammy! He is a three month old, twenty-one pound, black and white colored, Puggle (Beagle/Pug Mix) that had his assessment this morning. We put Sammy in the Medium Play Area. He really wasn't sure what to think of things at first, we weren't even sure that he would "bust out" in play... Lucky for us and his owners, he did! After about an hour in the Medium Roll, Sammy not doing too much, Gus arrived. He began to pull out all the stops (Playbows, spins, face-licking etc...) to get the new recruit to play and wouldn't ya know it, Sammy went for it. From that point on it was "game over" for the sitting-around stuff. Sammy began to play like there was no tomorrow, with several different pack members. He truly enjoyed himself. Swell job this morning Sammy, you are welcome to The Fort anytime. A special thanks to Gus for helping us out, he really got this Puggle-guy moving in the right direction. I'll end this post with three fine clips of the Sam Man warming up to the gang.
Enjoy your weekend,
-Grant P.S. Another Puggle that is a friend of Fort Fido is Buddha. When that fella comes, look out! He's always tearing it up. :)
Pupcake celebrated her first birthday last Tuesday. I have been meaning to mention it but have been busy. Luckily I saved a picture of the cute pail her owner brought in. It was filled to the brim with snausage treats for all to share. On behalf of all the dogs that scarfed them down, thank you Diane, that was incredibly thoughtful and kind.
Now for a random shot of the Little Roll from this morning. The littles were in their not-so-rare form today, galloping about and chasing down toys. A fun time was most definitely had by them.
