THE Dog House

OK, so I've been meaning to post pictures of Cooper's dog house once Thad and Kelly put the finishing touches on it and I keep forgetting about it. So...here it is in all it's glory; Cooper's outside dog mansion house. {Note - The boys built this from scratch.}

BEFORE
In the before pictures you can see that the house is made out of plywood, equipped with two rooms (one is insulated for the colder weather.) The roof is retractable so we can clean it if necessary (this was a mandatory feature on my part.)







AFTER
In the after pictures you can see that the house is decked with siding, trim and a shingled roof. There's a rug in the insulated room for extra comfort! As you can see, Cooper prefers to lay in the grass next to the dog house. However, we did find him in his house one afternoon. Kelly was very happy. {The dog house also makes for a great storage unit for the watering hose.}







And, of course this wouldn't be a true update without a recap of Cooper's recent activities...for lack of a better word.

• He still LOVES to grab my house shoe and prance around the house like a king.
• He now barks back at us when we tell him "No. No Bite" as if he's a defiant two year old.
• He can successfully tell us when he as to go "Potty" outside. However, we're still working mastering to pee outside.
• The other morning I walked into the living room to find him chewing on one of my nice, decorative pillows only to realize the only way he could have gotten it in his mouth was if he had jumped up on the couch all by himself. It was then that I realized how tall he's getting. I took it away and moments later, he had another one in his mouth, but this time he was on his dog bed chewing the pillow, as if to tell me that it was his decorative pillow now. Not for long!
• We had our first vet visit last night and I'm proud to say we've got a healthy, growing boy on our hands. Cooper managed to gain 6.11 lbs. in 2.5 weeks! Weighing in at 17.8 lbs! I'd say he's growing alright. Thankfully, he's eating three cups of food a day. (I was a little worried at first when he was only eating a cup a day.) He got 3 vaccinations/preventions last night, and as you can imagine, he slept like a baby all night long!
• Oh and remember that part about getting all the Christmas stuff put away before we brought Cooper home? Well, we didn't quite get the tree put in the attic. And much to my chagrin, he has chewed through two strands of Christmas lights.
• AND...THIS JUST IN! He just went and laid down in his crate ALL BY HIMSELF. This is AMAZING people! Amazing!

So you see, with all the bad comes the good, and maybe even the GREAT!

Well, I think that's all I have. Next time: Pictures from our first trip to the vet!