6 month and a bone

Today Denver is 6month old !

Of course, we had a mini birthday party and Denver received a new bone - and as usual, Denver was quite happy when he saw we had a new gift for him: A brand new bone...
I guess he likes to collect them, since even if there is bones everywhere, he always react like "Whaaaawww, a super nice bone, never had one before !"

And here comes a funny fact of yesterday afternoon:
When Nuage went out in the street, a mom and her two daughter stopped Nuage... They wanted to know who was the so nice dog she had - They noticed him on the window for some times and were wondering if Denver was a Husky or the "other breed" :-)

Yep... looks like Denver takes his Malamute ambassador job really seriously... doing "Look how beautiful I am! How cute I can be - I also love to kiss and you like it too right ? Yes, we are a special breed of dogs: We look handsome and we behave awesome !"

So Denver played the "I love you" to the two teenage girls: he didn't stop giving kisses :-)

Sometime I am expecting Denver to get business card out of an hidden pocket and start to give it around. A card with "Denver of Edelweiss Forever - the dog you can only dream of"...

I know people likes Nordic Dogs - but when I see how they react with Denver I can see "My god, they are not just beautiful...they are really wonderful like in movies..."

I also noticed something funny during the promenades with our big baby: If we pass near an aggressive dog, Denver stop being "youpee, a friend!", he moves and put himself in front of my wife, between her and the other dog, doing nothing except quietly looking at the other dog... tail in the air, no fear in the eyes.

I can feel his brain doing "hmm... not a friendly one... Nuage seems nervous... let's be ready in case of need..." - I love the silence on his side, his ear toward the agressor, his tail on his back showing to the other: I am not impress by you, not at all - I won't attack, but you better keep your distance or something bad will happend - something bad only for you by the way...

It's a strange vision/feeling - I know our "funny" and joyful Denver, and when he behaves like that with my wife I suddenly see something else: a more 'primitive' side: he is courageous and his master is sacred - he is ready to prove it if it's needed.

This make me quite confidant when she go out with him alone... I know that our wonderful baby is not just a big baby but also a strong and proud dog - that he is ready to protect Nuage if he needs too.

And now, lets cut the blabla and here comes the pictures of our baby boy and his new bone :-)

Hey ! I am 6 month old - really ?! - you got a gift? for me ?!!

Ok, I do "lie down" !

Heu... I still lie down, I can get my gift now ? houhou ?

I am a gooooooood doooooog - I would like the gooooooood booooooone nooooow...
Pleeeaaaaazzzzz !

I love when a bone smells new

Mala-Mamuth !

Sooooo goooooooood !

I do the cute face of "I have a new bone"

I am a proud bear !

Dignity !

I am wondering what will i get for my 7th month ?
For sure, I hope to get at least 2 bones when I will be 1 year old...

Mala-chon

My parents came to Bruxelles with Heidi and Mop Tuesday. And my mom bought a new toy for Denver :-)

After a "couic couic" ball, Denver now has a "Grouiiin Grouuiiin" piggy, and not just a simple grouin sound -it's something that actually sounds like a real piggy...

Believe me, Denver is really crazy about this rubber pig :-)
Strangely, he is not violent with it, at least not yet. He does not chew it too strongly - just enough to get the sound. Sometimes, he even passes his time just by pressing it with his nose.

So now, when we are watching a movie, we have Denver lying on the ground next to the sofa, chewing softly the piggy, and there are a few moments like:
"Jack, I'm gonna tell you something really important, so listen well - grouiin GROUUINN - Oh my god! Really ? - Yes, she did GROuuuuUUUiiiiIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiNNNN"...

Thanks mom :-)

Of course, sometimes he gets bored, so he puts the piggy on our legs and starts to press it against us... meaning "Play with me and my  Super Piggy!"...

Sometimes, it even gets more funny - Nuage plays with the piggy like a puppet and then Denver starts to jump everywhere, bark, howl and run trough the apartment with full speed :-)

Yep, in addition to his piggy games, Denver loves speeding and doing slides when he is happy... yep... it's not a sled dog but a slide god. That's something to see in this type of dogs when they start to run full power and sliding half a room, stopping at 1cm from a wall (most of the time...)

In another register - this evening, the rain arrived in Bruxelles - a heavy and sudden rain. I went out for the evening walk with Denver but he was once again "Pfff - it's not the good time to put a Mala out... at least not a mala like me. Can we just go home ?" And he was looking at me all the way like, "I hope you enjoy it coz I don't. I am NOT a fish; I only eat them!"

After the walk, we went to the garden since Denver didn't do anything outside. And he discovered something wonderful: One of his favorite holes was full of water... soooo cooool.... So Denver started to dig the small swimming pool, trying to understand from where the water came. He even started to bark at the water. Since this didn't help, Denver actually put his full face into the muddy water, and when the water arrived near his eyes, he barked - I am not kidding ! - It resulted in some bubbles and a quite strange sound, something like "wblouprf"... I have no clue how he made it to bark under water, but for sure, I was laughing my ass off.

Of course, at the end, Denver was pretty dirty and we had to rinse his legs and face in the shower - Yeah - Denver stays in the appartement with us... so "being that dirty" was not really convenient :-p

Some photos of our "clean" Denver and his new best friend - Mr Piggy

That's MY baby pig !

Yes... It's a really cuuuuuute and smaaart piggy...
hihi...

Garden Wolf

The weather today was quite nice, no training so we went to the garden to play and take some pictures of our Garden Wolf aka Denver...

That was quite fun !
Here comes some results:

Tasty ground

That's my hole

Garden Wolf

Denver Moto GP

Hey! Teacher!...

Leave the malamute alone!...

I guess Sunday was not really an interesting day at the training for Denver - he was quite happy at the beginning - doing all the requested stuff with happiness up to an annoying moment: The trainer noticed that Denver didn't need Nuage to tell him what's the exercise to do... Our smart dog was listening to the trainer and when the guy was saying "sit down/lay down", our dear Denver was doing it without any doubt...

Of course this was "not good(TM)" - So the trainer requested Nuage to not let him follow any orders which are not given from her directly... So Denver was quite "WTF?"

After that contradiction, as an outsider, I think Denver was "Okay - when you human beings know what you want, you call me back, until then, eat my shorts"...

I am a little bit annoyed by this request - all the articles I read about Mala, they always say that these dogs where selected for this strong feature - they are not "one-master" type of dogs. It's awfully logical, and I do like it that way. If we have to go somewhere else for a few days and if we cannot take Denver with us, I want him to listen to and obey the persons, who will be supposed to take care of him, perfectly (Hello Mamy :-) )

So I was quite impressed by Denver's aptitude and his "good" reaction to the trainer - doing all his requests happily and expecting congratulations... I was thinking "hehe - what a smart baby - I am sure all your ancestors must be proud of you" then ooops...

Ok - I may put myself too much in Denver's place. I know this was done in a nice and professional way, but come on... I already feel a little bit bad to request Denver to walk like a city dog but it's just to avoid any possible risks.

To be honest - I was actually thinking of leaving this training on the spot... But OK, that's probably over reacting... I think it's good for our Denny to see other dogs because it makes him happy...

So, as I said, after that incident, Denver was bored - Keeping him sitting was pretty hard for Nuage - Denver was more: "I sat for 1 minutes and no actions - I will take a nap and send complains to my lawyer"
(not good(TM) - so Denver was pissed a little bit more...)

For the last 10 minutes, poor Nunu had to handle a really annoying Denver...

Honestly, I am proud of Nuage and Denver even if the training session wasn't really good - Nuage managed the bad mood of Denver perfectly - tried to keep him interested in the activities even if our national hero was "yeah yeah - and let me guess, just after annoying me to not lie down you will say "lie down" ? - I don't want to sit now - so i WON'T SIT - you push ? I can push too... you shout ? cool, I can shout as well !

Opinions are welcome - I am looking for some outsider's point of view on this subject.

And as usual, some pictures of the training...

Hmm, listening time !

Ok, let's wait the beginning by watching some football instead.
He is doing the beginner stuff I am not a beginner anymore...

(after the "don't listen to stranger") Denver: I know - you think it's funny...
But you will see, after that he will say lie down and you will all have been sitting for nothing...

Nuage made it to get Denver happy again: a hidden biscuit in the pocket went to the hidden stomach of Denver ;-)

pffff - you will see...

Actors Studio

I guess Denver is qualified for an Oscar...
Yesterday, we went to the park all together to enjoy the 1st of May.
The weather was nice, and Denver was really happy, so it could have been a normal day.

We sat down on the grass, enjoying the weather - Denver was in a good mood, too - lots of rabbits' traces on the grass - so far so good.

Then I lied down... Denver was suddenly thinking "Yeeeeesss - Let's run a little bit". Too bad that he forgot a small detail: He still had his leash... So Denver started to run with full power... and of course at some point, the leash strangled his neck [the leash is 1m long, so it occurred quite fast]...
so poor Denver was suddenly stopped (and I gained 10 cm of arm length...)

Of course that hurt - so Denver lied down and started to cry and shout like a hell... Not a little volume at all - he shouted with full power for at least 1 minute... We ran to him - he just lied down there shouting...but not moving a lot.

We started to have movies running through our heads. I was checking him and trying to determine if something was broken - no obviously visible injuries, no broken bones... He still was shouting like a hell, and there were at least 20 peoples looking at us, horrified... I am not kidding! I saw heads popping everywhere in the park and looking at the terrible scene: A dog is dying !

I was going to take my phone to call a vet and to get an animal ambulance - wasn't sure if I should even try to move him... I was just thinking "What the hell is happening ?"

My wife then took out a biscuit from her bag and showed it to him - hmmm - the shout then was 50% lower... hmm... 2sec after the shout stopped completely. He went back on his feet, ate the biscuit and started to check the grass again...

WTF !

For 20 minutes we were sitting there, checking if everything was really fine - everything was OK! It was just like nothing ever happened to him. With no visible problems, Denver was full of joy again - I pressed nearly everywhere, did a massage... and he'd got nothing...

My wife told me that actually, sometimes,  he shouts like that when he doesn't want to do some things which are stupid or useless to him  - for example: Sitting down, laying down, and all the things he learned from the school, but practiced without " biscuit" as treats. Just the shoutings are shorter...

I guess he was just really not expecting the limit of leash length... so he must have been hurt a little bit and then went on shouting due to the surprise/annoyance...

Dear god...  that's was something.... but really, Denver deserves a Oscar for that... or could give lessons even to a professional Italian football player...

So, to keep it in the actor mood - a teaser of the next Denver movie: