First Snow

For the past 24 hour it has been slowing slightly. This is actually a rather rare occurrence in the Seattle area. Given Elway's breed, Michele was eager to see what he'd do in the snow. As these picture show, he seems go get along fairly well with the white fluffy stuff. Actually, it wasn't long until Elway was gleefully tearing through the snow, fresh powder flying everywhere.

First Puppy Grooming

Ah, the joy of being a Lhasa Apso. Enough fur to keep warm all winter. Unfortunately, that means being brushed daily. And still having matts. So it was decided that Elway was going to spend some time with the traveling groomer, Chris. He spent 2 hours and managed to not only please Michele (who has strong opinions on how her puppy should look), but made Elway look adorable (and smell great!). People are raving about being able to see his eyes again.

It followed me home!

Elway was trying very hard to convince us that we should adopt a stray kitten for him to play with at home. The perfect little kitty even showed up at work, needing a home. Kitty and Elway were best friends from the start. She slept best curled up with her new furry protector.

Michele decided to bring the kitty home for the weekend, the cuteness of the two together was just too much to pass up. Alas, allergy's got in the way of Elway getting to keep his new pet.



Elway had to say good bye to the kitty after the weekend, but he gets to see her every once in a while. She was adopted by Michele's coworker and visits the clinic and Elway periodically.

Elway is once again any only-puppy.

It was a dark and stormy night...

...when we decided to carve pumpkins. Garrett spent a long time trying to draw a good looking imitation of Elway, but in the end it was Michele who settled on this modern interpretation of the Lhasa Apso form. As Elway's uncertain look indicates, he was none too happy to have this pumpkin sitting on his back porch! Over the three days that it sat there, he barked at it several times and would run by quickly on the way to his daily bathroom breaks in the back yard. To say that he misses that pumpkin would be a gross overstatement.

Elway Gets a 7

Elway has been a great dog. As his name would suggest, he loves watching football and is generally just a great member of the family. Unfortunately the lack of Broncos games on local TV means he rarely gets to watch a Broncos game. However, in keeping with game day tradition Elway, like the rest of his family, finally got his own Jersey. As you can see in the following pictures, it clearly shows his name and number. We did have some brief discussion on whether he should actually have a 7 or double zero on the jersey. In the end we decided that if other people can run around trying to impersonate John Elway with replica jerseys while having never seen Colorado, Elway the dog could certainly be allowed the number 7 on his jersey.

Elway's bad day at work

When clients walk into the veterinary hospital that I help manage, they are greeted by Elway's smiling face. He has quite the following among our clients, many will ask where he is if I have him in the back. He loves his counter spot, watching over me while I work and inspecting all the dogs that come in.

Today started out like a normal day of work for Elway. He raced from the parking lot to the clinic, excited to see everyone and start his day. Unfortunately for him, Michele had made a quick decision yesterday, and he was on the schedule for his castration and dewclaw removal.

Michele stayed with Elway during the procedure, helping out when needed and making sure he was doing ok.

He did really good, and he was awake enough afterwards to protest being put in a kennel. He put up a fight so Michele would cave and let him sleep on the front desk counter like normal.

After leaving work with his new bandages (Denver colors of course) Elway deserved to get extra love. Rough day for a puppy.

Baths, I hate baths

Elway the dog does not like baths. It doesn't matter if he's cold, dirty, and wet already. He wants nothing to do with lukewarm water and his special puppy shampoo. Just look at that face. It's saying, "Get me out of here! How can you just stand there and take a picture? Can't you see I'm getting a bath here?" Somehow we doubt that is going to change with age. His ability to get the one bathing him wet with a well timed shake will increase with hair length, and with added size he will become more and more of a trouble to rinse (It took both Garrett and Michele both working together to get him bathed last time). After all, he did try and "tub break" on more than one occasion. Unfortunately for Elway, it is a long way to the floor for such a small dog. Climbing wet tub walls while covered in slippery suds is also something of a problem.

Pomp and...well... a bandanna

Our little puppy just graduated from puppy kindergarten today with yellow bandanna honors.

Today was the last day of puppy kindergarten and each dog was supposed to present one trick of the owners choice. Being a droopy eared Lhasa, Elway's ears frequently flip back, leaving him a little bedraggled looking. As such, we've taken to teaching him the command, "Ears," upon which he will shake his head and correct any misaligned ears. Amid a sea of "shake", "sit", "kiss", and "high five", Elway's trick was unique. As a result the instructor rewarded him with the yellow doggy bandanna saying, "That is the most unique trick I've seen!" Elway was such a champ!

Of course being a champ at class has become Elway's moto. I had the pleasure of taking him to one of his makeup classes (He missed the class so as to not miss the Monday night Broncos game) at which he was all but the smallest dog. This wasn't his typical class but rather the large dog class held at the local ranch. In a room of Rotweilers, Great Danes, Golden Retrievers, and Giant Snauzers Elway didn't really stick out. To make things worse he was attending a more advanced week than the one he missed.

The exercise of the day was the "recall" on a long line. In this exercise the owner stands 30 feet from the dog and, while the instructor distracts the dog with treats, the owner attempts to call the dog. Elway and I watch as dog after dog, when called, either reluctantly walked slowly away from the instructor, or, more frequently, was dragged away by the owner like a large four legged fish. Elway sat like a little gentleman watching the entire show before confidently trotting up in front of the class.

The instructor soon had Elway distracted with a tastey treat and signalled that I should call him. Upon hearing his name, and before even being ordered to come, Elway dropped the treat from his mouth and, hair blowing back from his little face, came tearing across the room faster than I could pull in the line. The instructor was so impressed with Elway! What a great little dog.

Doing the Walking Dog

Elway likes to walk. Actually he loves to walk. He likes it so much that it has been a major chore to get him to view walking as something other than a sprint. Sure, he'll go the general direction you want to go, he just wants to go that way about twice as fast as you want to go. However, his puppy manners class, from which he will graduate soon, has managed to instill in him some basic respect for the leash.

Elway's problem with the leash began early in class when they had him learn the phrase "Let's go!" with beginning a controlled walk. During this exercise all dogs walked around the room in a large circle as if on a pleasant stroll down a boardwalk or park trail. Not Elway. With a competitive nature like his hall of fame namesake, Elway assumed that the circular walk was not a park stroll but rather the Daytona 500. His mission: pass the other dogs. While all the other dogs were content to walk around the guiding cones, Elway insisted on cutting the corners and working the inside line to set up the perfect pass. Away from the other dogs he's a great walker (see the photo), but with other dogs he's sure that the green flag is out and paydirt is just another lap away.

Puppy Kindergarden

First day of school!

Elway made sure none of the other puppy's though he was a momma's boy. Oh no. He didn't do ANYTHING he was supposed to do. He could barely walk he was trying so hard to ignore Michele. With all his ignoring and attempts at mouthing his parents he still was at the top of his class. (Golden Retriever Puppy had been given catnip before class...)

We're practicing extra hard this week so we'll have some sembelence of control on Monday. He's coming quite well now and we've set up bells to train him to ring to go outside. One of the problems we had in class was his treats. He likes to chew his food VERY completely, and if given a treat needed a good 2-5 mins to completely chew it up before moving on to the next task. Luckly we found some tiny, almost invisible cat treats at the doggy health food store for him.

I really think next week he might obey us! (at least once....maybe...hopefully...sigh)

Rude Awakening

He was sleeping in the living room, and started quietly barking in his sleep. Its something he does quite often, so I watched in amusement. He was really getting into it though, and let out a couple real barks. Thats what woke up him, his own bark. Then he was sleepy and out of it, so he wandered over to the glass door and proceeded to let out some of his best barks to date. He finally decided it was his reflection that caused the problem and he's still over there wolfing away.


I wish Garrett was here to see this, its just too funny.

If you can't run with the big dogs...

Elway loves big dogs. Seriously. No, not labs or other mid sized dogs... BIG dogs. Today Elway attended the Des Moins Pet Festival as an unofficial as an attache to Michele and unofficial representative of McMonigle Veterinarian Hospital. During his eventful morning he got to greet and catch up with three of his big buddies from work.

It's only natural that Elway should like St. Bernard dogs. After all, his breeder also raises these large dogs. (Not the specific ones in this encounter though)

After greeting such large animals, and showing an amount of interest proportionate to his large companions (Can't have them figuring out that he's just a Lhasa Apso now can he?) Elway needed a nap. Good thing he had Michele around to sleep on. And yes, he prefers to sleep on his back.

Garrett has taken to calling Elway the "Allen barkless". Allen after the town Elway was born in and "barkless" because he rarely woofs. For a breed which generally barks to excess, this little guy is quite silent. No bark, all nibble.

Elway on the move

Once he was done sleeping away his first weekend at his new home, he decided to spend the rest of the time pretending to be a bunny rabbit.

It was hard to take him out in public, he attracted such a crowd.

Elway moves to Kent!

We wondered if I would be able to sleep the night before we took Elway home. I somehow fell asleep, little puppies dancing in my dreams. Allyn never seemed so far away as that morning, it seemed like we would never get there. When we were finally on our way home with our new furry bundle of joy it seemed so scary, all this waiting and planning, and now it was time to start living with him! He slept most of the way to Kent, and when we stopped at an ATM for Toll money Garrett didn't want to give him back to me. It was definatly love at first sight for both of us. Being the puppy planner I am, we had a kennel, food, toys, and all we needed was a little collar to fit him.

My parents visited us that weekend and took some pictures, which I am so greatful for. Looking back, I can not believe how tiny and fluffy he was!

He ran around a bit that first weekend, showing some of the puppy energy we would come to know very well. Most of the time he just adjusted to his new home and slept. He was only 3.1 pounds when we brought him home.

Visiting Elway: take two

At four weeks, the breeder let us visit him again. This time I dragged my parents along for the drive (Allyn is a drive. Best done by motorcycle).
He was bigger, but still not fluffy yet! I loved him (of course) and I think my parents tolerated my craziness. Garrett was starting to really like the little guy, mostly in deference to my obsession with him. Halfway through our time with him he and the rest of the litter ate breakfast from mom, and we found out how messy a puppy can get.


How could Garrett not love something that looked as cute as Elway did?

Elway meets Michele and Garrett

The first meeting:

When he was just 2 weeks old the breeder allowed us to visit him for a short time to check him out and make sure he was perfect for us.
Elway looks so excited to meet his new mommy. He was so small, and becuase we where cold from our motorcyle ride I was scared that I would get him sick. Puppies can't regulate their own temp, so they stay in a puppy pile to conserve wormth. When he got back in the pile I made sure to help him to the good warm spots in the bottom of the pile.





He was just so little that first visit. We both marveled that this tiny little being would one day go home with us. He didn't have much of a personality, but I was still in love with the little guy.