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Freyja is 18 weeks old now, and getting bigger and more beautiful every day. We got her together again this weekend with Spencer the Dobie pup, and they had an awesome time playing. This time we let Freyja off leash, so the two puppies really got to go at it, chasing each other back and forth, running after balls and frisbees, and wrestling. Here are some pics of the fun:

Spencer is growing up quick, and he is already starting to get that characteristic Doberman look. Ruby, as always, was eager to ensure that the dogs were well hydrated. Spencer is still quite a bit smaller than Freyja, so he couldn’t quite keep up with her, but that sure didn’t stop him from trying. He’s a confident little guy!

I love the way that mischievous little imp is gnawing on Freyja’s sturdy ankle, and she doesn’t seem to mind a bit.

Freyja’s favorite outdoor toy is the frisbee, hands down. When she sees that come out, she knows she’s in for some fun–you should see the way she immediately perks up and tries to come get it. She’s still working on her catches, but in the meantime, all the running back and forth is a great way to wear her out!

Here Ruby is getting a frisbee lesson from her dad, while Freyja politely offers her assistance.

They played for an hour straight, and even though they were both clearly exhausted, I think they would have kept trying to play as long as they were together. They absolutely had a blast, and it was just an ideal socializing experience. We couldn’t be happier, and will definitely have to keep up these playdates.

Our eighth wedding anniversary was yesterday, so we took the opportunity to take part of the week off and spend a little quality time with each other and Freyja and the new car. On Monday we went on an afternoon trip to Silver Creek Falls for some hiking. We forgot to bring along the camera, but we had a very good time, hiking about three miles along one of the dog-friendly trails and letting Freyja have an ecstatic romp in the river afterwards.

Yesterday, after a breakfast of homemade banana pancakes, we harnessed Freyja in the back seat and headed off for a day at the beach. We originally had it in mind to go to Newport, but when we got as far as Lincoln City, Freyja was about bursting to get some exercise, so we ended up just going to the beach there.

It was a gorgeous day. We could hardly have asked for nicer weather—70 degrees with a slight breeze and a beautiful blue sky, not too hot or too cold. The ocean was cold, of course, but that’s just how Oregon beaches are. Freyja had a great time, getting used to the sand, running into the shallows, meeting and greeting the various people and dogs around us. Here are a few more pictures of the fun:

When we looked back through the hundreds of pictures we took yesterday, it was cracking me up how a large percentage of them included Freyja looking or running straight at the camera. She worked very hard the whole day to keep the three of us right together, and every time Jeremy or I backed up to get a wider shot, she would come and shepherd us back in a hurry.

She had a great time exploring and sniffing everything, and met a very friendly 1.5 year old yellow lab who played with her for a while, so it was definitely a good experience that we’ll have to duplicate soon. We think, however, that Freyja still prefers fresh water to the ocean. She seemed a little uncertain what to make of the waves coming and going, and the water must have been really cold for her, short as she still is. Fortunately, we came at the right time of day for tide pools, so we spent a lot of time hanging around one that had less wave action and warmer water, and she seemed to have more fun with that.

So now that we’ve had the Prius for a few days we’re starting to get a feel for it. Here’s a few thoughts…

We’ve rented many different vehicles over the past year and none have we enjoyed driving nearly as much as the VW Jetta we previously owned. There really is something to that German notion of fahrfignugen.

The Prius is different. It doesn’t respond or corner like the Jetta did, but that isn’t why one buys a Prius. In fact, I’d have to say that the Prius has really changed the way that I drive. Not that it won’t drive the way any other car would: it has a full internal combustion engine, so you can drive it just like any other gas-powered automobile. (Although it does use a more efficient Atkinson Cycle engine instead of the more ubiquitous Four-Stroke engine.) But the Prius gives you more information and presents it in a very visual, easy to understand manner.

Here’s a look at the most common screen on the Prius multi-function display…

These aren’t the most typical results, but are real numbers earned during a return trip from Silver Creek Falls. You can see that there was a fifteen minute period where we averaged 100 miles per gallon (even with the A/C blasting). Since we’ve taken possession of the car we’ve put 177 miles on the car including a round trip to Portland as well as a round trip to Silver Creek Falls. Lifetime we’ve averaged slightly more than 48 miles per gallon. That works out to just over three and a half gallons (about a quarter tank) of gas or about eleven dollars of gas.

Having that sort of instant information about current consumption really makes you want to drive in a more fuel-efficient (and no doubt safer) manner. You really start to notice where the road, that looks completely level, actually has a slight gradient… It’s almost like playing a video game where your high-score is a number based on your lifetime miles per gallon.

So, while the Prius may not make you yearn for those curvy mountain roads you only see in car commercials, it does make it fun to drive up I-5; which may be about the straightest bit of road in the country.

– Jeremy

So now that we’ve got a puppy who requires regular veterinary visits (and trips to the dog park), it has become necessary for us to find a regular means of transportation. Until now we’ve been making do with the occasional rental and ordering whatever we needed from the ‘net.

No more—three years without a car was enough.

For several months I examined the options: we would be remiss not to at least consider a hybrid model, and of those the best option at present is clearly the Toyota Prius. We’re probably the only family to purchase a hybrid vehicle and increase their net carbon emissions, but there it is.

After putting our name on a list and waiting three weeks, our very own Prius is finally in….

You can see that Freyja has already decided she likes the car. Fortunately, she hasn’t deemed it necessary to mark it as her own (at least yet), though the back windows are covered with doggie noseprints. We’ve ordered waterproof nylon seat covers in anticipation of regular excursions with the dog.

More to come, I’m sure…

- Jeremy

A friend and co-worker of mine got a long-anticipated 12-week old Doberman puppy last week, and at the first opportunity, we got him together with Freyja for a little puppy play-date. Socialization is so important for young dogs, both for interactions with people and other dogs, and we definitely want our pups well socialized. First a few introductions:

Right now, Spencer weighs about 15 pounds to Freyja’s 30+, though we anticipate that by the time they are both full grown, they’ll be about even in terms of weight, somewhere in the vicinity of 70 lbs. But because she’s currently twice his size, Spencer was a little tentative of Freyja’s play solicitations.

Before long, they started getting the hang of playing pretty nicely with each other. We kept Freyja on her leash this time, just in case, though. She can be pretty enthusiastic, and we didn’t want her to bowl over Spencer or little Ruby, who is 3 years old. Ruby was a great help making sure the puppies had plenty of water and treats available, as well as pointing out whose toys belonged to whom. (Below she’s letting Freyja know that is Spencer’s ball.)

I think a good time was had by all, and we’d definitely like to get the pups together for more play-dates in the future, especially as Spencer gets a little larger. It won’t take long…I hear he’s already up to 17 lbs.!

We have a pressboard barrier between the living room and the bedroom/bathroom area that has been there ever since we got the ferrets. One way we’ve been gauging Freyja’s growth is how tall she is compared to that barrier: When we got her, she could just barely peek over the top if she put her paws up on it. Now she can basically look over the top of it just sitting down.This morning while Jeremy took his shower, I was brushing my teeth and throwing a rope ball for Freyja, who kept bringing it back and dropping it over the barrier for me to throw again. After 5 or 6 repetitions of this, she came back without the ball, put her elbows over the barrier like she usually does to get a better view of what we’re doing, and then just leaned forward until she was able to slide her front paws to the ground and her back ones over the top of the barrier. No leaping or faceplants, like we were anticipating… just a big calm dog overcoming an obstacle and sauntering into the bedroom like she owns the place. None of our clothes and shoes are safe now… (gulp!)

We took Freyja to Minto Brown Park this morning for the first time. Minto has a leash-free dog park section, and we wanted her to interact with some other dogs. Sure enough, there were a ton of other dogs there running around playing. Freyja started out really well with her introductions, but unfortunately a pit bull and a boxer got into a pretty serious brawl right in front of her, and after that she was very cautious about interacting with other dogs. She seemed to do better one on one, or with dogs that were very calm. By the end, she had at least made friends with a lab mix.

After the excitement of the dog park, we took Freyja to another part of Minto Brown, where there is access to a lake. We wanted to see what she would think of the water. It didn’t take long to find out. After introducing herself to the other people that were there with a dog, she plunged right into the water and proceeded to leap to and fro ecstatically. She went in and out of the water several times, sometimes going out deep enough that she got to actually swim a little, and bouncing adorably all over the place in the shallows. I think it’s the happiest we have ever seen her. We played frisbee for a while afterwards to give Freyja a chance to dry off a bit, and then headed home with an exhausted and still damp, but very happy puppy. Below are a few pictures of the fun.

Freyja is 15 weeks old now, and she is doing great. We took her to the vet this morning for vaccines and she weighs 30 lbs. She’s had lots of good experiences in the past few weeks, and is growing fast and learning faster. We are definitely going to have to get her into some agility classes when she’s old enough: She loves playing on jungle gyms, going down slides, across bridges, through tunnels; she is attracted to stairs like a magnet, and is a champ going up and down stairs of all sizes and shapes and types. Jeremy’s also been working with her on going up and down short ramps and walking on top of low walls like the ones all around campus that get used as benches. We’re taking it slow, though, because we don’t want to damage her joints, so no jumping or sustained running, as far as we can manage.

Ears up again

Freyja has also started playing with us outside, which is a blessing, because she is getting too big to roughhouse with in our small rooms. She loves playing Frisbee, which right now consists of us tossing the Frisbee to each other, and Freyja running back and forth between us trying to grab it. It took her a while to get the hang of it, but she is starting to improve: She didn’t catch anything the first day, knocked a bunch out of the air and actually caught one the next day, and now she catches it at least five or six times every session. I was very impressed, especially since the weather has heated up and temps over 75F don’t seem to agree with her, poor furry puppy.

Right ear down again

We’ve been doing lots of training, and she is doing quite well. She’s getting quite reliable with sit; she knows down, but often needs a clear hand signal (thumping the floor) to do it. She is very familiar with no, off, out, leave it, and drop it, especially since she is tall enough now to see on top of many of our piling surfaces. (Yes, we’re pack-rats, and we tend to build up piles of stuff on all flat surfaces in our house. Freyja is doing her darndest to break us of that bad habit, and it’s starting to work.) We’ve been familiarizing her with directional commands also—left, right, straight, go around—and she is starting to get the hang of those too. Yesterday she was a big help when we were playing Frisbee in the backyard and Jeremy tossed it way back under our back porch or in the weeds on the side of the house; we pointed and guided her with directional commands, and she was able to fetch it and bring it back to us.

We’ve had some good experiences with other dogs as well. Freyja has several good buddies that she always wants to visit when we walk through the neighborhood: There’s Spike the Jack Russell, Bingo the terrier mix, Macho the basset hound, Kipper the yellow lab, the happy huskies (that’s what I call them since I don’t know their names), a friendly black mix that lives with two unfriendly Dachschunds, and now Layla the mastiff. We finally met Layla on an evening walk a few nights ago, having seen her inside her house and spoken with her owners. That night Layla was out in the yard with one of her owners, visiting with another (teeny tiny fluffy) dog named Mandy, who was not thrilled with the company. Layla and Freyja hit it off right away, although Freyja was just a little wary of the huge mastiff’s play solicitations. They ran all around the yard (Freyja managed to wrap her leash around everybody; Jeremy had his hands full) and had a good time. When we get a car, I think it will be really fun to take her to the dog park and let her interact more with other dogs, not to mention getting her into group classes.