Ollie is now 2 years old! I can't believe how fast the time has flown. So I guess officially he is no longer considered a puppy. But he will always be our sweet puppy in our eyes. Unfortunately we were gone in Hawaii for his birthday, but Lizz our trainer and her team did a great job celebrating him and making him feel special. He even got a special doggie cupcake for a treat. Plus he was already at the farm (aka Dog Heaven) so he had a great birthday.
Here are some things about Ollie right now that we don't want to forget:
- He still loves his stick. The very same stick we started giving him early on as a puppy. He still loves to cuddle up with us on the couch and have us hold his stick while he chews on it. Still one of his favorite pastimes.
- James and Ollie have full on conversations with each other each day when James gets home from work. James says "tell me" multiple times and Ollie actually "talks" to him through noises and grunts to tell him about his day LOL
- He loves to go for walks and sniff a lot. He especially likes going on the trail behind our house--lots of good smells back there
- Every morning he has soaked dog food with cheese sprinkled on top. At night he has soaked dog food with a couple scoops of Fresh Pet as a topper
- He goes to "camp" at the farm in Fall City twice a week and loves it....and is absolutely exhausted for the rest of the day after he gets home. There is another Cavalier that goes to the farm named Maui and they are buds. Sometimes Ollie gets to go into the large meadow field at camp and he is especially tired after that.
- Ollie is still a pretty good water dog. He'll get into a body of water and swim around for awhile He doesn't like to be in the water for a long time, but he'll do a pretty good swim--especially if people are in the water with him to help. He also likes baths. He gets the zoomies after he gets wet so try and dry off
- At night Ollie likes to come up with us and lay on Cam's bed while we're helping the boys with the bedtime routine. He'll even sleep on Cameron's bed with Cam for awhile, but eventually gets off and wants to go in his own crate
- We can now leave him in the house for a longer period of time. He's really chill usually and just curls up on his spot on the couch.
- He definitely barks more now which we're trying to nip in the bud. He mostly barks when other dogs walk by the front of the house--he gets very protective. We're working a lot on being calm when seeing other dogs on our walks and he's gotten much better at that.
- Ollie loves to play fetch with the ball and with any tug of war toy
- Ollie loves to lay in the sunshine--either on the desk or as it's streaming through the window.
- We brush Ollie about every other day and even more when he's shedding. He gets groomed every 2 months. A mobile groomer comes to our house to do the service.
- Ollie has now had to go to the emergency vet 3 times because he's ingested either my sock or multiple pieces of my underwear he chewed up. Luckily each time we got him there early enough for them to give him meds to vomit. But still every time was a scary situation. That resource guarding just doesn't want to go away....even with age
- Our next door neighbor has a Bernese Mountain Dog named Maggie. Maggie and Ollie are buddies because they go to camp together. Sometimes Maggie is in her backyard and when I'm taking Ollie for a walk he always wants to go say hi to Maggie if she's outside. They touch noses under the fence gate and it's so cute.
- Ollie has the most calm, sweet demeanor. He is the happiest when he is with us and serving as our companion. While I work he's close by laying on the carpet taking a nap or just chilling out. If we're watching TV or a movie he's right on the couch with us snuggling. He is such a snugglebug and we love it!
