What's Cooper Been Doing in 2011?

I've been a bit lazy lately on blogging about all of Cooper's adventures, so I thought I'd just show some photos to let you know what he's been up to.

It snowed in Georgia in January and everything shut down for a week. Cooper enjoyed the snow!

Cooper got a new bed for the office:

 Before

After

After a few weeks, Cooper decided he preferred his bed near the window in the office so that he could perch on the bed and look out the window. He definitely plays the guard dog role well.

We got a Roomba for Christmas and Cooper likes to follow it around the house:

Grandma Vogel made Cooper homemade dog toys and he LOVES them! She also sends him homemade dog treats, which he also LOVES! (By the way, Grandma, he's eaten the last batch of treats, please send more ASAP!)

 

Cooper took out some aggression (or boredom) on a stair rail. It was the first and only thing he's chewed up in the house. (Knock on wood.)

It was probably my fault though. I decided to give Cooper freedom in 2011 and let him hang out wherever he wanted in the house when I was working from home. This was his favorite spot (I say *was* because he doesn't have this freedom anymore).

And sometimes Cooper jumps up on the couch when he thinks no one's looking:

Here Cooper's saying "Feed me!"

He barely fits in Jeff's lap anymore:

He loves getting his belly brushed:

And we groomed Cooper for the first time by ourselves two weekends ago! He doesn't look too bad (well, except for his tail) and it'll all grow back anyway!

Before

After

Cooper's St. Patrick's Day Celebration

Cooper celebrated his first St. Patrick's Day in style! We started out by attending the festivities in the Smyrna Market Village. Cooper played nicely with all the other dogs and the masses of people, and even got to lick up some beer Jeff spilled!

Then Cooper spent the rest of the evening playing with his friends Otto and Ginger. Below is the only photo of Cooper and Ginger where you can see the dogs, the rest of the photos are blurs of dogs playing! Ginger was only visiting Otto for the weekend, so Cooper maximized his play time.

We did capture a short video of them playing together. Put this on repeat for hours and that's the summary of Thursday night!

Here are some photos of the last time Otto, Cooper and Ginger got together. Lots of playing, lots of love!

Cooper hopes he'll be able to play with Ginger and Otto again soon!

Cooper's Holiday Travels

Cooper traveled to four states during the holidays this year (and rode through several others). While we were worried about his carsickness issue, we learned that one bonine pill per day keeps the vomit and drool and anxiety away!

Here's a map of Cooper's 2010 holiday road trip - more than 2,600 miles total.

First stop: Ohio, to visit Jeff's mom's side of the family. Here is a photo of Cooper and his friend Sammy (Aunt Karen's dog) and a photo of Cooper galloping through the snow. Cooper definitely loved the winter weather in Ohio! Thanks to Grandpa Dillon (and his dog Mandy) for letting us stay with them.

Second stop: New Jersey, for Jeff's grandmother's 97th birthday. Here are photos of Jeff's brothers Kirt and Mike playing with Cooper. Thanks to CJ and Katie for letting us stay at their house!

Third stop: Maryland, with stops at my parents' house and my aunt and uncle's house. Here are photos of Cooper with my brother and his girlfriend Julie. Cooper was definitely smitten with Julie!

Here are photos of Cooper running around with his friends Smooch and Wee (my aunt Lisa and uncle Alan's dogs) and a photo of Lisa, Alan and their daughter Jennifer with Smooch, Cooper and Wee.

Cooper was at their house on the day of the Maryland-ECU bowl game, so he was wearing his game gear for a little while! And the Terps won, so I guess Cooper's Maryland bandanna is good luck!

Cooper also got to meet Stephanie and Eric while in Maryland, and Ashley, Lance and Luke during our last stop in North Carolina (where he got to meet three other dogs). Unfortunately we didn't get any photos of them with Cooper.

Cooper enjoyed his 2010 holiday road trip and can't wait to go on another road trip soon, now that he has doggie friends in so many places! And Jeff and I had a great trip visiting family and friends too!

Happy Holidays!

Cooper wishes everyone Happy Holidays! We'll have a recap of his holiday road trip soon!

Cooper's New Ride

Saturday was a happy day for Cooper. He no longer has to ride in the back seat of a sedan with his crate hanging off the seat! We bought a Honda Pilot, which has plenty of room for hauling Cooper, people and stuff. Cooper's new ride should make our holiday drive much more enjoyable too (and now we might even be able to fit a few presents in the car too!).

P.S. I have lots of photos and stories from the past month that I'll hopefully get posted soon!

Cooper’s Weekend with Mommy

Jeff headed to Las Vegas for Columbus Day weekend to celebrate his 30th birthday with his brothers, so Cooper and I had the house to ourselves. Woo hoo, party time!

Saturday evening we went to our neighborhood block party. The kids there loved playing with Cooper and he was very well-behaved even with so much food around! Here’s a photo of a girl giving lovin’ him up at the party.


For part of Jeff’s birthday present, I bought him Star Wars cookie cutters and pancake molds. So on Sunday afternoon, I decided I’d make a batch or two of the cookies in anticipation of Jeff's return home on Monday. They were more work than I was anticipating (not to mention that they required a two-hour dough refrigeration time), so to keep Cooper busy while I was in the kitchen I gave him a new Kong toy. You put dog food inside and he has to topple it over just right to get the food out of the keyhole. This toy definitely kept Cooper busy for at least a half hour while I was baking!


And here’s a photo of the cookies Cooper and I made -- a plate full of Yodas, storm troopers, Darth Vaders, and Boba Fetts. There were a lot of cookies, so Jeff took them to work and his coworkers ate most of them.

Puppy Class, Playdates and a Grooming

The past two weeks have been very exciting for Cooper -- he's been going to puppy class, had a couple playdates and got a haircut!

Cooper has been to two puppy classes and he's very well-behaved in class. We missed the first class while we were in New York, but it wasn't a big deal since they just learned "sit" and Cooper already knew how to sit. During the second week of class, everyone learned "down" and "come" -- another two commands we had already taught Cooper. But Cooper's still more than willing to sit or lie down over and over again just to get a treat! Here's one photo of Cooper performing in class.

Last week the class learned to retrieve a toy, which Cooper also knew already, but he didn't perform it as well in class as he does at home...probably because of all the distractions in class with other dogs, toys and treats! This week we've been teaching him stay at home and he's unbelievably good at it without much practice!

In addition to puppy class, we've also been taking Cooper to play with other dogs. Cooper spent one afternoon playing with his friends Otto and Kaya. I didn't get any good shots of them all playing together but here's a photo of the two big dogs.

And when I say the dogs played together, it was more like Cooper would find a toy to play with and then one of the other dogs would take it away from him. Cooper definitely ranked at the bottom of the totem pole at their house!

The day after his playdate with the big dogs, Cooper got a haircut. The owner of Cooper's dad Cabot and his brother Brinkley lives nearby and she gave Cooper his first grooming since we've had him. I was surprised by how much hair she cut off! He was looking extra cute after his trim, but unfortunately I forgot to take before/after photos to see the difference.

This weekend, we went to a local agility trial so that Cooper could play with his brother Brinkley and sister Abby (her name was Apricot at birth). Abby -- the only liver and white puppy in the litter -- lives in Alabama now with four other Springers and came to Georgia so that one of them could compete in the agility trial. It was exciting to see all three pups play together -- they're all so cute! In this photo, Brinkley is on the left, Cooper in the middle and Abby on the right. (It was too hard to get a good shot of all three of them!)

Jeff and I took Brinkley and Cooper for a walk around the park while we were there. Brinkley is definitely much better walking in a group than Cooper is. Cooper always wants to be in the front of the pack and run as fast as he can to get "somewhere". After our walk, we sat and watched some of the standard and jumpers agility trials. It was a lot of fun! Maybe one day Cooper will be in the ring!