Well, We're in Florida...

We've been in Florida for just over two weeks now. We have a house under contract, just did the inspection and appraisal on Thursday, fortunately both went very well. Now we're just waiting to close on May 5th so that we can move in!

Meanwhile, we've been *very* busy. We went to a doggie Easter egg hunt with Jilly, who cleaned up. I swear, we're not going to be able to take her out in public to things like these if she keeps winning everything!

We went to the zoo and ended up becoming members because it was so neat. We've been checking out nurserys for plants/pots once we have our house, looking at all of the stores in the area that we didn't have in Ohio to get a feel for what's out there, and picked out new furniture. Craig and I have been running a lot (with Jilly) to get us in shape and help compensate for not having a yard right now for Jilly. If she goes two days without a run she starts to get hyper in the house.

We're staying in a 3 bedroom temporary lodging facility for now, unfortunately we have to move out of it on April 25th, so will be boarding the animals for two nights while we live in a regular room one night and then move into a smaller facility for the remainder of the time until we have the house.

We're trying to decide between private training lessons for Jilly or joining a club. We got her some little agility props and she *loves* them. It'd just be better if I knew what the heck I was doing, so I'm hesitant to try too much on our own so that I don't teach her the wrong thing.

Craig's in England right now, so I'm on my own for a few days. I found a horse that needs riding, and I'm in need of a horse, so I'll be spending time at the barn taking care of her and getting familiar with her. I do have pictures to post, which I'll do eventually, of the house and doggie Easter egg hunting.

Picture Time!

Jilly got a bath today and it was nice out, so I decided to take some pictures. She's 6 months old tomorrow! And we've had her for 15 weeks. Crazy, it seems like we've always had a dog, lol.

We've been going on hikes and she loves them, even 2.5 miles. On hikes we work on teaching her that not every new person has to stop and greet her as much as she wants them to and that it's ok to walk past new people without being petted first. She's also gotten good at approaching and walking past dogs without barking at them. She's still mommy's girl, but since puppy class ended C has been doing a lot of training with her (even taught her to roll over really good!) so now she misses him more than she used to when he leaves.

Speaking of puppy class, we were kind of the Grand Champions, we won two of the contests and got second in the other, only one other dog placed in two and it got two seconds I think. We won puppy push ups (sit, stand, down as many times as you can in the time allotted), fastest down from a walk, and got second in fastest sit from a walk. Our trick for the last class was for Jilly to jump up on a stool, turn a circle, and then jump off and crawl under the stool to the other side. She did it great there and everyone was very impressed.

It was kind of hard getting pictures because it was just me and she liked sitting in the shade more than anything, which didn't make for good pictures. So...I took a bunch of balls and we played fetch and I tried to get pictures as she ran back and forth.

Tuckered Out...

Oh my, we had a *busy* day today. Craig and I went to school in the morning like normal. Then late this afternoon took Jilly to the barn to see Sophie and the other dogs while we dropped off a new container of Raspberry Leaves for Sophie. Jilly *loved* Hammer, a huge Lab mix. He liked her too. I was surprised because he's gigantic and bigger than any of the dogs at puppy class, but she wasn't scared of him at all. But now that I think about it, she liked the French Mastiff the best out of the other dogs at puppy class by the end of the classes too.

After the barn we went to Carriage Hill to go for a hike. We did somewhere around 2.6 miles and had a blast. We walked mainly, but would jog for a minute or two every now and then. Jilly did great on her stretchy lead, better than the last hike. She stayed even with us or ahead of us the whole time and when she did stop she would start walking ahead of us again as soon as we reached her, never causing *us* to stop or move her out of the way.

Toward the end of the hike we were getting back over to "our" parking lot Craig said, "There's a little dog over there, did you see it?" I hadn't seen it and asked him where it was, he told me we'd walk over so I could see it. I'm thinking it's across the pond on the trail or something. Then a little white and sable dog pops out from behind the shelter right by us...it's a Papillon!!!!! It looked like Jilly's mom. It was very cute, wearing a little pink cheerleading outfit. It was very friendly and her name is Skeeter. I didn't have my camera, so no pictures, but she and Jilly really enjoyed meeting each other. She was very tall though, like a supersized Papillon!

Jilly didn't seem tired by the time we were done, she was still racing ahead and greeting new people left and right, but she actually went up to the car on her own and walked right up to my door once I was sitting down in the seat. She also jumped up into my arms a little when I picked her up, she sat right down on my lap and after I gave her a drink in her portable water bowl she laid right down for the rest of the trip home. She did whimper a little on the way to the barn and on the way to Carriage Hill, but on the way home...not a peep.

As soon as we arrived at home our neighbors were just arriving home and Mitch was in the front yard, so Jilly chased Mitch around for a couple of minutes before he went inside. And I thought she'd be tired! We put her in the yard while we walked around the front of the house, let her in, she chased Kitty a bit, got something to drink and eat, and she is now zonked out on the couch...flat on her side. I think she is going to sleep *very* soundly tonight!

In other news, we will have to house hunt once we make it down to Florida in April. Unfortunately there was a problem with the house we were buying and we were unable to resolve the problem with the sellers. So, we're still looking.

"Grand Champion" of Puppy Class!!!

Wednesday was our last puppy class. It was "graduation" night. We started with a puppy push ups contest, where we had to have our dogs do sit, down, stand, sit, down, stand, etc. Jilly did 19, the next closest dog did 15 though most did less than 10. So Jilly got a little donkey stuffed animal.

Then we did a fastest sit competition, where we walk around with the dogs like we're just hanging out in the park or something, then the instructor says "sit your dogs" randomly and the first dog to sit wins. Jilly won her heat (there are three heats of 3 or 4 dogs each) and came in second in the final round. She got a bag of treats for that.

After that the instructor brought out a partial chute where each person got to bring their dog over and have it walk through. Despite the chute being huge and Jilly being small it still took her a few seconds to come through to my side, but she did it!

Then we had a fastest down contest, same deal as fastest sit, just walk around aimlessly until the instructor says "down your dogs". Jilly won her heat. Then she won the finals. She got a stuffed turtle for that one.

After that we were to demonstrate the tricks we'd been working on since the beginning of class (on our own). We went first, since the instructor asked who had a trick prepared and then who wanted to go first (I was raising my hand to confirm we had a trick) right away. So Craig handed me our little stool and I went to the center of the ring and put it down, then asked her to get on the stool, turn one circle, jump down to the left of the stool and crawl under it to the other side. It's so low that we have to take her harness off and put her collar on for the trick because otherwise she scrapes the harness on the bottom of the stool and she hates that. The other dogs did shake, fetch, play dead, and danced by standing on their hind legs.

Then we got our certificates and the dogs each got a stuffed animal, Jilly's looks like a sun, which the instructor thought was funny since we're moving to Florida. I really wish we could continue classes here, I did contact a dog school in Florida, but haven't heard back yet. I really want to do agility with her.

But, if you add up the "points" for the contests Jilly won, one other dog got two seconds, no one else placed in the top three of any competition more than once. But Jilly had two firsts and a second.

Jilly probably thought it was the best day of her life. She got to go for a run that afternoon (she can keep up with my jog *very* easily and loves running), then a shower, and then during class she got nothing but high value treats for performing plus she got to play with lots of toys since the dogs "picked" their prize when they won a contest.

Or maybe she thought today was the best day of her life...she got to go on a 30 minute hike in a local park with DH and I, then she got to go to the barn and smell all sorts of neat smells while I groomed Sophie. After that we set up a couple of agility jumps from the barn and she loved going over them with me. We only did a few, since we had no treats, but she enjoyed it a lot.

Poor Craig...

I just put his silver chair from Ikea up on craigslist, already had 2 emails about it and it's only been up for a few minutes! He's heartbroken about losing it, but he is getting to keep his black recliner. We kept it after moving because Craig and I each have our "own" rooms here, but our two rooms are going to be compiled into one in the new house, so extra furniture has to go. Plus, it matches *nothing*!!!!!!

We Aaaare the Champions My Frieeends...

Jilly rocked puppy class tonight. The first half was spent talking about doggie health care. Then we got right to heeling and about turns, she did great. Then we did some puppy push ups...Jilly was *amazing*. We did 23! The next closest dog did 17, a few were still in the single digits. She was on fire. We got an extra few in because I only gave her a treat for every other full push up, instead of every push up (tonight's push ups were sit, down, stand, in that order, as many times as possible). Even the instructor was impressed. Our only real problem was whenever she stood up from the down she would take a couple steps toward me, so I had to back up (though I couldn't back far because I was so close to the fence), so instead I had to have her back up instead. Next time we'll start further from the fence so that I have room to back! I also think that next time we'll do sit, stand, down because the instructor pointed out that going from stand to down is harder when we first added the stand.

After the puppy push ups we worked on a fastest down contest. The previous week we had done fastest sit, where a small group of dogs just walked around aimlessly until the instructor said sit your dogs and we would stop and have them sit. Jilly tied for first last week with it. This week we were supposed to have our dog lay down as soon as he told us to stop. Jilly won her heat again, and tied for first as well.

After that we did a recall exercise, which Jilly did very well with. She would stay sitting while held by the instructor as I walked away, but she did run straight to me and sit a couple feet away, right in front of me. The instructor had the rest of the dogs start working on sitting a couple feet away instead of running all the way to the owner, so it was nice that Jilly already does that.

We did some more heeling after that, and then worked on staying while the dog was in the down position. Jilly did awesome at that, didn't move at all. Then class was over.

After class we worked on her trick for the last class (which is next week!!!!). Her trick is to get up on a little stool, turn one circle, jump down, and then crawl under it. She doesn't like doing it with her harness on though, so I'll have to bring her collar for that segment of the class so that it's not interfering with her (she scrapes the clasps of the harness on the bottom of the stool and she hates that).

We also worked on our stay and recall a bit before heading home. Overall she was terrific. I think this time was better because I practiced more with her leading up to class. Last class was right after our house shopping trip, so we weren't able to work with her Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. And just didn't have the time on Tuesday.

Next class is the last class. We'll have a puppy push up contest, fastest sit contest, fastest down contest, and demonstrate the trick we've been working on since class started.

Our New House!!!

This is our new home in Florida! We love it and it's nearly perfect for us. As usual, you can click on the pictures to see them full size.

This, of course, is the outside of the house.


The entry way, we're hoping to put my parents piano where you see the shelves off to the side.


This is the hallway between the two guest rooms and the bathroom between them.


Guest room number one...


The guest bathroom...




Guest room number two...


The living area...one of the highlights of this house for us is the wide open floor plan, because we want the animals to have lots of room to chase each other around. Our current living room is a good size, but the Jilly and the cats can't run around the couch or anything, because it's against the wall.






The dining room...


I think we're going to put my bookshelves in this area, with a couple of chairs pointed toward them to make a reading area, since we don't have the furniture for a sitting area like the current owners have set up.


The beautiful kitchen! We love everything about the kitchen.






An extra room, not sure what we're going to do with it, maybe put the elliptical here?




Laundry room...


We're looking forward to having a pantry because we don't have one currently.


The backyard...we really like the backyard (and *love* the view), we just wish it had some kind of fence for Jilly. So we're going to build one, once we figure out what kind of fence we can build. We were initially worried that we wouldn't be able to put up *any* fence, because we thought our house was pondfront, but while the view is there, it's not technically considered to be pondfront. So, we'll be allowed to put up a fence!












And finally, the master bedroom. It's smaller than the one we have now, but the bathroom makes up for it.






C and I will each have our own closet (one on each side) on the hallway leading to the master bathroom.


The master bathroom is huge...






Craig and I will each have one of these sinks all to ourself! We have double sinks right now, but this seems a little nicer than even that, lol.






Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tour! My grandpa was nice enough to supervise the home inspection for us and the house pretty much passed with flying colors. He's living in Florida for the winter, which is nice, because we got to see him while we were in Florida, and we'll be able to see him in the winter while we're living in Florida too. There are a couple of things the current owners are fixing (actually, fixed yesterday or the day before). Right now we're just waiting for paperwork, we'll be closing in April and should be able to move straight into the house, that way we won't have to board Jilly and the cats because we need to live in temporary lodging on base.