Ralphie vs Jazz

While walking Ralphie this evening I was thinking of differences between my first Vizsla, Jazz compared to Ralphie....both the same breed....but just so different...

Obviously, Jazz was a girl and Ralphie is a boy.  Ralphie is a real boy, boy...muscular, strong but a big baby.  Jazz was an extremely slender lady and at times independent.  Oh boy, Jazz was vocal.  Ralphie just speaks when he feels it's necessary...he is not a barker.  Jazz loved to hear herself bark...not to mention, a very shrieky bark!  When I walked Jazz, she would walk proud, head straight up, pranced almost like a pony.  When walking Ralphie, you can say he's in stalking mode the whole time...body lower to the ground, neck straight out, tail pointing, every step so meaningful.  He definitely has more hunting blood in him compared to Jazz.  Jazz was more of a protector; Ralphie thinks everyone is his friend.  Ollie liked Jazz better than Ralphie.  Maybe because Ollie grew up with Jazz.  Ollie is a grumpy 'ol man now who just tolerates Ralphie.

There is one thing that is similar between Ralphie and Jazz ... both are Velcro dogs ... clingers, need to be touching you...both love humans.

So different, but also the same...BEAUTIFUL RED DOGS!
                                                    

My Workout

So I'm on the floor...doing my crunches...sweating...hurting....pushing myself...and then there's my audience...

Ralphie is on my bed, looking down over me as I'm crunchin'.

Ollie peeking around the corner, making sure I'm doing my exercises the right way.

Ralphie is getting way too excited...thinking its play time!

Lazy Sunday Evening

It's a lazy Sunday evening....

Exhausted Ralphie after a fun-filled day with his friends at the dog park, still holding on to his bone.

Two lazy dogs snoozing away.

Challenges of Two Dogs

Although there are many benefits of having two dogs, there are quite a few challenges.  These challenges can be more work and more stress at times.

Ralphie and Ollie pretty much just tolerate each other.  Most of the time little Ollie is the alpha dog in the house.  Ralphie knows Ollie really doesn't like him.  So most of the time Ralphie pretty much stays away from Ollie.  But there is a time every evening from 7:30pm - 8pm Ralphie whines and barks, pawing Ollie as if he wants to play or maybe just annoy him.  Ollie gets frantic and starts barking and yapping, sometimes needing rescuing from me.  Never fails...happens every evening.  This stresses me because Ollie gets so upset and he's too old to put up with that behavior.  I know Ralphie is just acting like a puppy as he is. I'm hoping he outgrows this stage soon.  But after his annoying puppy antics, Ralphie plops himself on the sofa and just falls asleep.

Another challenge I have is feeding time.  Well, I gave up trying to feed them separately.  Ralphie eats out of Ollie's little Disney bowl and Ollie eats out of Ralphie's big stainless bowl.  I've tried to put Ralphie's food in his crate to keep their food separated and this is what I saw this morning...

Yep, I caught Ollie eating Ralphie's food in his crate...Ralphie just watches.  So now I keep both bowls full all the time and hopefully they won't over-indulge. 

Yet another challenge...walking both dogs at the same time.  OMG...this is a HUGE challenge!  Ollie always wants to direct the way.  Most of the time I'm being pulled apart...Ollie one way...Ralphie the other way.  Ollie loves to bark at everything and everyone especially other dogs.  This gets Ralphie excited and he pounces on Ollie playfully, Ollie doesn't like that, leashes get all twisted, it just a crazy scene.

Even though I have these challenges and several more...I love Ollie for who he is and I love Ralphie for who he is.  One is old...one is young...one is slow...one is fast...one is small...one is big...one is yappy...one is quiet...one is my 'cwunchy'...one is my 'skinny-minnie'.....but both give me the most LOVE ever!

The Big Scare

Every time I'm in the backyard whether relaxing by the pool or doing chores, Ralphie is out there with me.  Of course he loves the outdoors, he's a sporting, hunting breed!  This time I really needed to focus and clean my neglected pool.  Geesh and that's a lot of work!  As I was vacuuming and skimming the pool, Ralphie is just romping around in the dirt and bushes having a good 'ol time.  Although my back yard is fenced in, I'm always paranoid that Ralphie is going to escape.  He's a digger plus he is dying to get on the other side of the fence where the cute pitbull lives.  So as I'm doing my thing with the pool I'm always looking up, yelling 'Ralphie, where are you', just to make sure he's within his boundaries.  I got busy cleaning the pool filter on the side of the house, taking it apart, hosing it down, putting it back together...what a job!  I finished! Again I yelled out, 'Ralphie, where are you'.  I didn't see him anywhere!  I began freaking out.  Screaming like a mad woman, 'Ralphie! Rallllppphhiiiieeee, Rallpphhiieee!!!!.  No Ralphie in sight.  Now my yard isn't big and there aren't many places he can hide.  I looked under all the trees and bushes.  I got a chair to stand on and looked over the fence to see if he made it through to pitbull.  Nope he wasn't there.  OMG, I began calling his name more and more.  My heart is thumping and thumping.  In the meantime, my little Ollie is yapping and yapping knowing how upset I was.   I'm sure if my neighbors heard me they thought I was crazy.  Then I heard another neighbor's dog a couple doors down barking.  I began to think Ralphie is over there somehow.  I know Vizslas move and travel fast.  So I ran into the house to get my keys to drive the neighborhood and hopefully find him.  Before leaving I happen to glance around house and this is what I found..........

                                                                         

                                                                                  

                                                                                   

 

Ralphie was in his crate the whole time while I was frantically calling him and so scared I lost my puppy!!!  

That little stinker!!!

Vizsla (Vizh-luh)

This is from a cute children's book called, The ABCs of Dogs.  Looks like a great book for a child to learn about all the different dog breeds. (Click on the picture to enlarge)

Ralphie is now 8 months old, 51 pounds!  A big boy!!!

Vizsla, The Nurturer

The past few days I've been dealing with a terrible cold.  It started the first day with stomach upset, then the next day I woke up with a terrible sore throat and achy, the third day I was a sneezy mess, and today I'm congested with a cough and no taste buds!  During this time we haven't had the best weather in FL...rainy with very little sunshine.  Knowing the Vizsla breed, poor Ralphie's energy is probably building up inside him.  He's getting few walks because I'm feeling terrible and unable to go to the dog park (with Erica) because it's rainy.

But I am so impressed with Ralphie during this time!  Although his schedule has been obscured this past week, Ralphie has been at my side at all times.  There is something about animal instinct...they just know when you need that extra loving.  He's been an extremely calm puppy, keeping busy chewing his bones.  He let me sleep in today, sleeping next to my side.  As I lay on the couch, he sits above me with his paw or head on my shoulder.  Every once in awhile he'll lift his head and gives me a little doggy kiss.  I truly believe he knows I'm not feeling well and he wants to be there to comfort me.  Love.

Sometime today I will manage to get out of this house once the rain lets up and take Ralphie to the dog park.  He definitely deserves to have fun!

Ralphie is the BEST!!!

Ear Problem

Ralphie seems to be shaking his head periodically.  Obviously his ears are bothering him.  When I had him neutered a couple of months ago the vet noticed the beginning of an ear infection.  So he flushed his ear and gave me some medication.  At that time I didn't notice any problem with Ralphie's ear, never scratching or shaking his head.  Nevertheless, I still used the medication just to make sure Ralphie wouldn't develop a full-blown ear infection.  Well now it appears he's having some problem.  I'm going to first try home remedies before contacting the vet again.  Today I cleaned his ears with a cotton ball saturated in hydrogen peroxide. Holding the cotton ball and rubbing his ear I noticed some it was a little dirty.  I did both ears.  Boy, Ralphie just loved his ears being rubbed.  I'm sure it felt very soothing for him.  Ralphie hasn't shook his head since the cleaning!  I've also done some googling on dog ear problems and I read good things about Zymox Otic dog ear solution. Tomorrow I'll pick some up at Petsmart and try that along with the ear cleaning.
But other than this small problem, Ralphie is very healthy, happy, and content.  He's just so sweet!