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.