Goodbye to Mackenzie

Our Guide Dogs coordinator just picked up Mackenzie. :(

Farewell, buddy. Good luck in Guide Dogs training. We're so proud of you, and we'll miss you very much. xoxo

Feeling sad about Mackenzie

Our date to say goodbye to Mackenzie is just over a month away. :(  It's been a wonderful experience fostering him, and I'll miss him so much.  

He's so cute, sweet and smart. If Matthew gets out of bed before me, he'll let Mackenzie outside and give him breakfast. Sometimes after Mac's finished eating, he'll sit at the bottom of the stairs and wait for me to come down. It's so sweet and makes me smile every time!

xoxo

Mackenzie's new hairstyle

Mackenzie as a bunny rabbit - animated gif

Mackenzie likes sitting in front of the heater

Recent destruction

That cute face; can't stay mad at him very long...

The cute, it burns

Mackenzie on his back wagging his tail

Mackenzie being cute today - wagging his tail while on his back.

Mackenzie testing out his new bed configuration

Mackenzie has a low-tech hammock bed, which is basically a burlap sack (hessian bag for those who speak Aussie) over a metal frame. He chewed big holes in it, and it sank closer and closer to the ground. Guide Dogs gave us some replacement bags, so I put on a new one, then covered it with his blue fleece blanket to try to discourage chewing. Here he is testing out the new bed.

Mackenzie fetching his frisbee at the park

Mackenzie is not great at fetch yet -- half the time he gets distracted and doesn't bring it back, or when he does, he refuses to drop it. However, this time he did well!

Mackenzie eats a rawhide "munchy roll" in 5 mins 30 secs

I filmed Mac to see how long it would take him to eat a 10in/26cm long compressed rawhide "munchy roll." Answer: about 5 minutes. $1.62 per munchy roll = $0.33 per minute. He's worth it. :)

Mackenzie chasing his tail the other night

Happy Birthday to Mackenzie!

Happy birthday to Mackenzie - he's now 6 months old, and weighs 47 lbs/21 kg. He's gotten so big!

birthday presents for Mac

He still likes walks and going to the park, mealtimes, rawhides and ice cubes. He still dislikes coming when called, and going outside in the rain! His adult teeth are in, and recently he's destroyed all his stuffed toys. However, I did buy him another of his favourite monkey toy for his birthday; it's his third one. Good luck, Monkey III.

Looking cute

Here's Mackenzie in the back yard - age 5 months and 18 days.

Training Day

Today we met up with the Guide Dogs trainer and some other foster parents and pups for a training session. We mostly focused on manners. At the end, the trainer had the dogs try on the harness they'll eventually wear, just to get used to having something new strapped around them. This exercise made sense for the other pups, as they were all older than Mackenzie. However, we went ahead and had Mac try on the smallest one, knowing it would be too big. He'll grow into it. :)

Here's a recent graduate, Simba, to show how the harness is supposed to look. :)

Mackenzie Update

 Happy birthday to Mackenzie - he's now 4 months old!

Age: 4 months and 2 days old
Weight: 31 pounds/14 kg
Teeth: he's lost about 6 of his puppy teeth, and can be really bitey/mouthy
Favourite toy: Hide-a-Squirrel

Likes:

• walks
• dog food
• rawhides
• ice cubes
• belly rubs
• when we sit on the floor so he can sit on our lap
• licking the wheels on the bottom rack of the dishwasher
• his own dog hair tumbleweeds - apparently he thinks they are a rolling delicacy

Dislikes:

• coming when called
• being told no (no biting, no jumping on the sofa, no eating the broom while I'm sweeping)
• an empty food bowl
• going outside in heavy rain - he was finally persuaded to go out to pee, but he wasn't very happy about  it

Overall, he's definitely worth it:

Mac giving kisses

Yay, sunbeam!

Mackenzie getting pats

Here I am giving Mackenzie lots of pats and scratchies, and smooshing his extra face skin around. (Please ignore the large pale thigh in the background.)

Mackenzie playing with his blanket

Mackenzie Eating his Pupsicle on Sydney's Hottest Day on Record

18 January 2013 was supposed to be a high of 40, so folks were advised to keep their pets cool during the extreme heat. I made Mackenzie a puppy popsicle (just some carrots in ice), which he loved.

It ended up being the hottest day on record for Sydney: 45.8C/114.4F!! (The previous record of 45.3 degrees was set in January 1939.)

I didn't go outside that day. Mac and I just stayed indoors with all the shades drawn and the air conditioning on. The few times I let him out in the back yard, it felt like walking into an oven. I was grateful I didn't need to go anywhere. (Some people had to ride home on trains with no aircon!)

It rained briefly that evening, then it got really windy. The following day, the temperature was 20 degrees cooler!