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Sunday, November 28, 2010

He's A Big Boy Now!

Remember this?  Astro and Zephyr on Sept 26, 2009, the day Astro came home.  He was such a tiny little thing, eight weeks old and barely 12 lbs.  

From day one Zephyr was so happy to have a brother.  I think he could tell right away that Astro was was for him and wasn't leaving.

Zephyr was always gentle with Astro when he was a babe.   Both Zephyr and Astro are really good with small dogs.

Here's the little cutey pie now at 16 months.  He went to the vet the other day for his year booster shots and he was 75 lbs.  Not quite as big as Zephyr, 87 lbs., but close.  These two are absolute best friends.  Zephyr has done an excellent job teaching Astro the ropes and Astro's even taught Zephyr a few things.

Astro is full of personality and great facial expressions.  He's very playful and lets me or Zephyr or a kitty know when it's time to play.  Even though he is 16 months old it seems like he is in the middle of complete puppyhood.  He's full of energy and needs to get some good running and playtime each day. 

He is always bowing to play or stretch.  Last winter in one of our basic obedience classes Liz, our instructor, suggested teaching your dog to bow.  All I had to do was start giving this a name and it didn't take long before Astro was "taking a bow" on command.  He started agility classes last spring and is doing an excellent job.  When it came time to teach his contact behavior I decided on the 2 on, 2 off.  After a little while I realized that all I needed to do was tell him "Take a Bow" on the contacts.  It is so cute!  I'm teaching it to Zephyr now because so far his contacts have been the "unintentional running contact".  ;-)

The little guy tears it up on the trail and he's got nice strong bones and muscles too, just like his big brother.  I have some great action shots of the two of them in the forest that I will hopefully post soon. 

Today we got our first good snow, about 6 inches and the boys had a great time chasing each other around the yard and catching snowballs that I threw.
 
 And chewing on each other.

Here he is looking handsome in a rare moment of standing still.  Hopefully I will be able to show him a little this winter and spring.

The lights of my life!

5 comments:

Two Greyhound Town said...

Awwww! In the first photo, I thought he was an Iggy. I did not realize he was a greyhound. He definitely grew up to be a handsome guy.

houndstooth said...

He is one adorable puppy! I loved seeing how he's grown so fat. I'm betting he's still got quite a bit of growing to do, too. I have a huge soft spot for the big boys, even though I have my tiny girl here!

Bunny would like to add that she adores other hounds who have the same wonderful fashion sense that she does!

I thought I'd seen on one of your posts earlier that you use a flexi lead on them when you hike. Does that work well for you? I've never used one, and I'm not a big fan of them, but I'd like something that can give Bunny a little more freedom when we hike, but not let her get too far from me. I like clipping her leash to my backpack now, so my hands are free, but I'm wondering if I could work something out with a flexi.

Sue said...

Adorable. Loving the photos.

I so wish I could have a second Greyhound.

Hiking Hounds said...

The Flexi is great for giving the dogs more freedom and eliminating some of the pulling. It really helps them get more exercise on the hikes where they can't go off leash. If they stop to smell something I can usually keep walking and they are usually done smelling by the time we are at the end of the leash and they'll catch up. I actually have the really long Flexi, 26 feet. It does take a little more paying attention though because you have to watch that they don't get wrapped around a tree, or another dog. With my energetic boys sometimes this requires patience, especially at the beginning of a hike because they are so excited to explore. Sometimes I use a coupler with the flexi and then they can't get crossed or pull me in two directions. After they calm down I take the coupler off and have them on two Flexi's. Hope this helps.

Never Say Never Greyhounds said...

That is so cute how much they like each other. All of mine get along, but I don't think any of them are attached or seem especially connected.