Our new Celltei dog carrier - a guarantee well worth the money!!

While looking for Pyr Shep videos (what else!) on Youtube, I found a video of Hemi and her new bag. Was it a Sturdibag? Aluna has one for her flights to Germany. I got in touch with the owner who pointed me in the right direction: Celltei has an absolutely incredible line of airline approved soft-sided pet carriers, but what's even better, they can custom make any bag for you! I mean, literally ANY bag. Check out the bag they made for a bulldog that expands into a play pen once in the air!! You have to see it to believe it.

Being that I have looked up and down the internet for a bag that is exactly the max. measurements allowed by Lufthansa ever since I brought Aluna home with me, I contacted them right away. Could they make a bag that would fall under my unfortunately very rigid max. weight and max. dimension requirements that was also expandable with zippers like expandable luggage so Aluna could have more space once in the air? Yes, Lufthans allows me to get on board with Aluna in the Sturdibag, but all it takes is one over-zealous employee to try to measure the bag out and then what?!? Granted, their measurements are a joke and finding a bag that falls within them is impossible - but this bag would be my ticket to absolute piece of mind.

An over-patient Angie corresponded back and forth with me for weeks until my bag was finished - Angie, if you read this, thank you thank you thank you!! The designer was about ready to give up on the impossible task, but luckily persevered after all, and this is the result: An expandable bag that fits exactly LH requirements, unfortunately minus wheels which would have made the bag too heavy. Our new Celltei carrier has the colors of my choice, the measurements of my choice, the hardware/pockets/carrying straps of my choice - it's a perfect custom made Aluna carrier!! She took to it right away an cuddles up in it when I am at work :)

I must have taken hundreds of pictures, so it is tough to pick only one...

Links: Celltei and the awesome expandable pink bag that I am still drooling over

Frizzzbe

I found the world's most awesome frisbee: the Booda soft bite floppy disk. It actually was a recommendation when I was desperately looking to replace the soft rubber disc we were using after noticing that her teeth suffered from it.

Aluna loves everything that flies, but there must be soemething special about this thing. You think it's a toy and useless because it's made out of nylon? Wrong! This is like a mini flying saucer!! The range is unbelievable. It flies, and flies, aaaand flies...

Kayaking!

I have been waiting for this all year: Aluna and I went kayaking together in Connecticut. She did very well, settled down after a bit and enjoyed the water. Of course, "we" still had to bark at the other dogs. A Pyr Shep is a Pyr Shep - even in a kayak :)

One Friday afternoon after a loooooong week, I found this in my house:



Aluna must have stuck her nose where it does not belong, somehow gotten the handle of the bag around her neck and had no clue how to get out of it - if she even tried. Poor thing! She acted like nothing had hapened, probably "thinking" that I did not know she had been doing some things she was not supposed to.

What a scare! But what a laugh!!

The grass is always greener....

Some sheep eat grass - some dogs do too. If you try to read up on it, you will find that "everybody knows" dogs eat grass when they feel unwell so they can vomit. I watched my dog run up to nice juicy grass and eat and eat, then run to another patch of grass and eat some more. She seemed perfectly fine, well, maybe a bit obsessed with the grass, but no vomiting. I thought she was thirsty and offered water, I thought she may need greens in her diet and added vegetables and fruit. Alas, the grass obsession continued. I turned to the only two books I could find on Pyrenean Shepherds (see links below) - no mentioning of this strange habit.

As a last resort I asked on the German Pyr Shep forum, and, voila, Aluna is not alone. So is this a Pyr Shep thing?

Links to the books (unfortunately only available in French):

Le Berger des Pyrénées byJacques Coly (and what an undertakling it was to get my hands on that one on my only day in France last winter!!!)

Le berger des pyrenees by Herreros/Joel (out of print but I found a used copy on amazon.fr)

Can Pyrenean Shepherds swim?YES THEY CAN!!

This summer is either hot and rainy or hot and humid. So what exactly is one to do? Hang around the house? Not likely with a Pyrenean Shepherd. This last weekend was literally unbearable, so making her chase balls in this heat would have bordered animal cruelty. I decided that it was time she spent some time in the lake instead.
Until now, not even a ball could make Aluna leave behind the ground beneath her paws. Luckily, I had found a canine flotation device at Petsmart a while back, so I put the swim vest on her and gave her some "swimming lessons". At first, she needed some help jumping into the water, but once she realized that she floats, she started jumping in herself on the second day already!!

I am so very proud of her...

Segelohren - "Sailing Ears"

Though it seems that Aluna is ready to sail away with those ears of her ... sometimes she tries hard to look like a "real" Pyrenean Shepherd. I managed to captivate those rare moments on two pictures ;)

Winter Wonderland

After a long silence, we're finally back. I finally managed to shoot some nice snow pictures.

No idea what the whole deal with those sticks is...

So what's with the bells?

People find it amusing that Aluna has bells on her collar. Of course, she is usually jumping around like crazy, and all you see if fur, so that probably helps to add to everybody's amusement.

I first thougt of putting a bell on her collar when she was a puppy. That way, I would know at night that she is up and needs to go outside (I sleep like a rock) , and during the day I'd know where she was. Their use has since shifted: now these bells allow Aluna to roam as she pleases when she is off-leash because I know at all times where she is. When the jingles stop, I know I should check in case she is in alert-mode or up to something :) The good thing is that I usually don't need to turn around and check if she is following me because I can hear her. That keeps her on her toes, because she knows I will keep on going no matter what, so she better catch up to me. Reversely, when she runs ahead of me and disappears from view, I can hear that she is stopping to check for me. Looooove those bells...

I bought them at a regular pet store (Petsmart I think), and also found larger ones for ferrets that are much louder. The bad thing is that they tarnish really fast, so I am looking for stainless steel ones... unsuccessfully so far...

Nov 29-30

I woke up at the news that it was going to snow today, so I figured, we'd get out the door early to get to the farm before it would start to snow. Turns out, it did not snow at all: we had tons of wet snow, and I was the only crazy person out there today. I did not even bother taking the camera, so these pictures are from yesterday. I stopped at a store on the way home, and since here in the US dogs are not allowed inside.. well..really anywhere... I left Aluna in the car for an hour. It was around 2 degrees Celsius and she had blankets and towels around her.

When I got back to the car, my poor baby was shivering and had not dried a bit and I felt like a complete a$$ for leaving her there like this. So now I only have two options: not ever stop anywhere with her in the car in winter, or get myself a remote starter and leave the car on for her :( Since she was curled up on the seat, I turned the seat heating up full blast and she was almost dry by the time we got home. Poor thing!!

Nov 22-23: Aluna's first ice!

It was Northpole-cold here this weekend - what is it with this weather? It's either sunny but freezing or warm but rainy! Our favorite lake was half-frozen (you can see the line where the lake was frozen on the first two pictures) , and Aluna made her first attempts to walk on ice. So cute! I am always torn between letting her explore and keeping her safe, but being a careful little girl, she did not venture too far out onto the ice.

Nov 15-16 can you tell how windy it was?

On the way back to the car, I met a woman whose dog had run away. It got scared by some kids shooting rockets in the field. I heard her shout out his name from far away, tried to help look for him, but ultimately gave up as it was getting dark. What would I do if Aluna got scared and ran off? I have to find a way to desensitize her to .. everything!! I always carry a whistle and she is trained to come running to it, but what if she got so scared that she would run too far away to hear me?

I am so proud of her to not freak out with so many people and dogs around!!