Hump Day is Everyday in Our House

By Ashley

Jelly likes to dominate his stuffed kitty, Mr. Whiskers. We are eagerly awaiting the rest of his shots this Thursday so he can be socialized. 

Also, I realize that this is weird and/or disturbing. 

Sink or Swim…Jelly Chose Both

Sink or Swim

By Ashley 

This past weekend Jelly went to the lake with me. He likes to jump into the shower, so I had not doubt that he would love the water. After a few laps out into the lake JD was less interested in swimming and more interested in running through leaves and eating mulch, lots and lots of mulch. As I watched him explore he bravely walked along the retaining wall that keeps the lake from washing away the land. In some places it's probably 2 to 3 ft above the water level. Every now and then one of his feet would slip and like a worried parent I would say "Jelly, be careful you're going to fall in." All of a sudden I heard a splash and went to call Jelly over to the steps. The poor thing was paddling with his front feet, but couldn't get his back feet horizontal to swim. I jumped in (it was cold) and lifted him out of the water. Thankfully unfazed, he happily ran over to his towel and waited for me to dry him off (he loves being rubbed with a towel when he's wet).  

Here is JD exhausted last night when we got home from the lake. He says, "No pictures please."

Soccer-Butt

By Ashley

Today Brandon and I bought Jelly a child size soccer ball. We played for a long time passing between each other and playing keep away from Jelly. We all loved it.

All of a sudden I assumed that Jelly was tired because he stopped playing and sat between us. Brandon had the ball and I turned away for a second to start picking up all of his toys. When I turned back around, Jelly had positioned himself into the dreaded poo-squat. Alarmed, I called for brandon to grab him and take him outside before he did the deed. Brandon, distracted and also alarmed, reacted by trying to kick the ball away so he could pick up the dog. 

Brandon and I are not skilled soccer players. In fact, we kind of suck.

When Brandon attempted to kick the ball away, he ended up kicking the ball right into Jelly's butt.  Feeling sorry that he had rolled the ball into the dog, he picked the ball up to set aside. By this time Jelly could not be stopped and finished his accident.

I went for paper towels and clorox spray, but was stopped by Brandon gagging. It turns out that Brandon had kicked the ball into Jelly's butt exactly as Jelly had started to potty. Brandon now had poo on his hands and the ball in a perfect, Jelly-butt sized circle. 

Let me reiterate this, Brandon unintentionally kicked a ball into Jelly's butt while Jelly was pooping. 

It's a Monday alright. 

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Puppy Style

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Puppy Style 

Brandon 

Spring is right around the corner and the Jelly Dawg is carrying on his usual rambunctious style. Jelly is growing very rapidly and even starting to shed his puppy coat. His personality is still developing and is very hard to explain. The closest explanation I can give is heterogeneous display of affection and torment. This is best displayed when Jelly meets someone new. One of Jelly's favorite things to do is meet a new person!  However, this loving ball of dynamite's fuse is lit at the very second he interacts with anyone new. The explosion that engulfs the unsuspecting bystander  is one that I must say is very surprising. This sweet now 11 pound fur ball's switch is unlike anything that I have ever witnessed. Armed with the itch of teasing and the illusion that everything is a game Jelly will at some point attempt to chew on anyone he meets. This behavior occurs no matter who the new person is. They wander into my front yard, amazed and unknowing that the adorable fluffy pup is actually any combination of cuddly or the spawn of Satan. 

In a new development Jelly has decided that our yard is not large enough to contain his awesomeness. It may just be the temptation of new smells and territories that need exploring. Whatever the case, Jelly has decided to b-line sprint as soon as his paws hit the sidewalk outside. As a result, Ashley and I have employed the dreaded leash. As a form of rebellion, Jelly refuses to use the bathroom while on the leash. Instead you can walk him for an hour maybe more outside just to find that as soon as he re-enters the house he will punish you by using the restroom in unsuspecting places. To this day I have yet to get Jelly to use the restroom on the leash, but as always Ashley is having success with this methodology. 

Some first experiences for the Jelly Dawg

Some First Experiences for the Jelly Dawg

Brandon

Jelly is off to a great start! He has effectively learned to sit and come (Jelly responding to come only occurs sometimes). His crate training is spot on and he has only had limited accidents in the house, mainly only when Ashley or I fail to take him outside. This dog is very intelligent and at some points I wonder if he is trying to out think me in some ways. Over the last few days we have had the pleasure of experiencing some firsts with Jelly. 

-Jelly has his nails clipped. 

        Imagine, if you can, the most wild animal that you can think of. The first thought that comes to mind is a wolf. This could be because of my tenure at NC State, but I like to think the wolf is one of the most wild animals out there. Now imagine that you are trying to hold that animal in your arms. How do you think that would work for you? Well, Ashley braved that first experience. Ashley had bought a pair of doggy nail clippers with the idea to take out Jelly's main weapon.... razor like puppy claws. Ashley lured Jelly to her by sitting in the middle of his play area. She picked him up and whispered sweet puppy secrets in his ear and showered him with love. She then began to hold him in her lap which he wasn't fully against. Next she started picking up his paws and snipping his toe nails. He found that this was not necessarily as appealing as romping around. His mind was saying, "Wiggle like there is no tomorrow.... Escape!"  What would be the best way to make this animal sit still? Some sort of food or better yet a bully stick! Well, we guiltily gave Jelly the treat in hopes of distracting him. There is only one problem with this solution and that is the basis of all problems Jelly runs into.... Puppy power. What is puppy power you ask? Well that is a puppies distinct ability to play with any and everything that they come into contact with. We gave him a chew toy and he decides he wants to drop it and throw it. He did anything he could to play with that chew. This nail clipping took roughly 10 or 15 minutes to achieve full clippage. 

-Jelly goes to the vet

      We took Jelly to the vet on Monday which to most dogs is the bain of their existence. Jelly being his rambunctious self was not scared one bit. Instead he wanted to explore this strange place. After all, we made him ride in the devils chariot to arrive here. I say "devils chariot" because I feel that Jelly has negatively associated the car with being taken away from his mother. He wiggled, shook, jumped, and any other movements that you can describe from a puppy. Finally they called Jelly's name and it was time for him to be examined. We took him into the small consulting room and placed him on the cold metal table. The vet's assistant began to feel Jelly's skin and legs along with some other routine practices. Now lets get back to that wild animal concept that I have previously discussed. The vet assistant decided to attempt to take Jelly's pulse. This was inherently doomed to fail because Jelly and the words sit still do not exist in any sort of  relationship. Finally she just picked him up and then held him until she had the information that she wanted. Now it was time for the vet to come in and answer all of the questions we had about the care of this puppy. Fist question was mainly about what kind of food do we give him? What brands do we stay away from? What ingredients should we try to stay away from? His answer was basically do not buy anything from a grocery store. He said you have to stay away from soy and wheat due to the allergies associated with those two ingredients. Golden Retrievers are pre-disposed to allergies due to their genetics, however we don't have that breed of dog! We have a Goldendoodle only recognized by the AKC as a mutt! The genetics are in our favor in that aspect because of hybrid vigor. During the vets conversation with us, Jelly had to find a way to amuse himself so he found two PVC covered drains in the floor. Jelly took his curiosity to a much deeper level by proceeding to chew the drains. Jelly was very healthy all the way to the end of the exam when he got back stool results showing that he had some worms. With a few doses of medicine we took our leave from the vet for a quick ride in the devils chariot to get home.

-Jelly gets his first food purchase

       Armed with the information that the vet gave me I was ready to purchase some Jelly food! I avoided any and all grocery stores along the path home and found myself winding up at the Pet Place in Boone. I narrowed my food selection down to two choices. I was torn between two brands, Blue Buffalo Large breed and Taste of the Wild. I chose Taste of the Wild because of the higher nutrient loads. Now to choose a Jelly Dawg flavor! We have salmon and a combo of venison and bison....... Being pressured to hurry up by Ashley and not knowing exactly what Jelly liked I bought both and mixed them in my dog food bin! Giving Jelly a sample of both he decided he loved it, which was an achievement in my book.

A morning of poo and a sex toy found in my yard….

By Ashley

Background:

- Flea, tick, and heart-worm meds prevent adult dogs from getting intestinal parasites.
-Puppies can get worms from their mother's milk.
-Worms (parasites) can spread through contact with fecal matter.
-Some parasites have high virulence factors so they take a stronger dose of meds.
-I share a yard with a neighbor who has two cats and two dogs.
-I don't know if she uses preventative medication for her animals.
-They poop in the yard.
- I must prevent any/ all worms from getting Jelly

Jelly is on his second, more intense dose of deworming treatment after his vet visit yesterday.

 This morning I took it upon myself to clean up the yard in order to prevent re-exposing Jelly and prevent exposing my neighbor's dogs to any parasites. I also informed her of his condition and let her know that he would be quarantined to one section of the yard until his treatment is over and he is no longer wormy.

Here's where the morning became shitty…

Shitty 1: Claim the poo
As I cleaned up the entire front yard, side yards and half of the back yard (I never venture to the other half), I noticed that I was picking up more than just Jelly poo. In fact, the ratio of Jelly poo to other poo was probably 1:3. It's fine, we've all been there, you can't pick up every poo… but it won't be a habit.

Shitty 2: Someone put a weird sex toy in my backyard
I was walking through the backyard when I decided to investigate what, for days, I had thought was a dog toy that belonged to my neighbors animals. Wrong. It was a rubber vagina. I picked it up with the pooper-scooper and showed Brandon. He didn't claim it, so into the poo bag it went. I would love to understand how and why it was there, but I am surrounded by college students so I suppose that is my answer.

Shitty 3: Jelly and the poo face
Brandon let Jelly out to potty right when I was finishing up in the yard. As I was taking the bag of poo to the trashcan I felt something bump against the popper-scooper. Jelly… He loves to nip and bite at anything hanging, dragging, or living for that matter (a quality that we are trying to overcome). Jelly had jumped at the scooper thus getting shit all over his face.

Conclusions:
Jelly immediately got a bath and the scooper is being bleached.

Day 1 The Pickup

Day 1 The Pickup
By: Brandon

8:00 am..... Ashley of course is wide awake as the sun rises and I am, well doing as I do best and snoring. Ashley proceeds to jump on me and chanting like a pagan ritual: Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly Jelly. Being my grumpy self in the mornings I attempted to place my head under the pillow to avoid the pagan puppy dance of wake up doom. However, Ashley is not one to give up or be ignored so her chanting turned into questions and some normal wake up behaviors such as: automated tooth brush noise, make up slamming against the bathroom sink, drawers and doors opening and closing, getting clothes out, and finally the dagger.  "Do you want me to start the water for you to take a shower"? One of my favorite past times is showering in water as hot as you can possibly stand so I could not refuse such a sly offer. Did she actually want me to take a shower? I believe not, I think it was all a clever plan to finally move me from my tomb of pillows. Either way, I welcome a hot shower any morning. Now that the shower was over I hastily got ready to attend my only class of the day!

As usual, Ashley and I rode to school together. We took her SUV because it had the new pups crate, collar, blanket, leash, and poopbags all loaded up and ready for the 2 hour drive to the bottom of the state. Ashley had taken pleasure in loading up everything that the new puppy would need and then some. We rode to school and, just as I usually do, I walked to my office, dropped of my coat, and grabbed my computer. During class my mind was wandering to what this new puppy would be like or how he would he change my life. I am generally a happy person so he wouldn't be fixing any depression or deep underlying issues. My hopes were that he would make me organized and even put me on a schedule.

 Finally class was over and it was time to make the journey to get my dawg.... ohhh wait,  no lets go and talk to the lady about my teaching evaluation and prolong my fat fluffy friend for what seemed like the longest 30 minutes of my life. First let me say that I love Dr. M and I listened to every word she had to say, but my heart was already down the mountain and on the way to "Walter."

 Okay, now it was time! I swiftly ran down the stairs out the building doors and to Ashley's SUV! For the next two hours I bided my time and sang along with the local radio stations as they gained and lost reception. Finally my GPS said "you will arrive at your destination in 5 minutes." As I  counted the seconds to my new pup, the phone rang. It was the puppy owner was calling to see where I was and how long until I would arrive for the new pup. I pulled into the drive way of what looked to be the same house repeated a billion times in this suburban neighborhood. A younger guy about my age greeted me as I exited the vehicle and his wife came outside to greet me as well. As I walked up the stairs the gentle whimper of puppy play greeted each step I took.

As I walked into the room where the pups were huddling, they all turned around but  only one puppy was bold enough to run up to me. This pup looked to be the largest of the group. As this pup walked up to me he proceeded to chew on my tennis shoes. When the owners walked into the room I asked which was "Walter"? Their response was one that I was not expecting. This sweet puppy in the pictures that I had been waiting for was in fact the largest puppy of the group and gnawing on my shoe. He was also the most dominant over the rest of the litter. Having learned that this pup was mine I instantly snatched him up and started to cuddle him in my arms. We walked downstairs to let the pups outside to play with their mother and father one last time and to let him go potty.  I signed all the papers and finished making the final payment for my new friend. I picked Jelly up and slipped his new collar on, but this was naturally a problem because it was too large for him. The pictures were very deceiving on the size of the puppy. Either way, I left the collar on him and proceeded to load him into the crate that Ashley had loaded into the car the night before.

 The sounds that occurred next from a puppy were the most horrifying i'd ever heard in my life. The new pup, was not only whimpering and yelping, but he was screaming. I pulled off at the nearest Bojangles for a quick snack and tried to calm him down. I got him a small bowl of water and myself a Cajun chicken biscuit with fries and a tea. I lifted the hatch to the SUV and opened the crate door. The pup was indifferent to what was happening so his first reaction was to poke his head through the crate door and instantly plunge into my fries. He skipped the chicken biscuit and the tea. He wanted the seasoned fries whose smell overwhelmed the car. After eating I decided I couldn't stand the cries of my new found friend. I shut the crate door and closed the hatch to the SUV. With the pup in my lap I proceeded to drive home to deliver this baby to his new mamma. On the way home he had a very distinct pattern of popping his head up and then deciding the world was moving too fast for him to be sitting up. Finally we arrive home to find Ashley waiting for her Jelly Dawg.

I Dub Thee….. Jelly

By Ashley 

Everyone asks how we came up with the name "Jelly." They either love the name or pity our poor animal because of it. The short answer I use is simply, "I'm weird." However Jelly's name does have a different origin. I have always loved the comic Marmaduke and it was recently made into a children's film. In the movie the children fight over the name of their new Great Dane puppy. One child wants to name him Marmalade and the other wants to name him Duke. These name choices crack me up because they seem to be two extremes, one excessively common and the other just plain weird. The children eventually compromise and name the pup Marmaduke.

Before Brandon and I even saw a picture of our puppy, I knew that he would be named Marmalade. It would be an obnoxious tribute to the goofy dog in comic. Goldendoodles are goofy, happy, wiggly dogs, so in my mind the name fit. Brandon would have none of this. In his defense, imagine screaming "Maarrrmaaaallllaaaadddee" across a field, or better yet, imagine saying "Marmalade, sit" in public. Awkward and a mouthful. My backup name was "Tuna" after an inspiring dog on instagram.  However, the puppy in the picture just didn't fit the name. Finally, Brandon and I decided on the name Jelly. It is quirky and cute and reminds me of the two original names I had picked. Soon after, Brandon and I began using his alias, Jelly Dawg.

Day 0 I choose you....

Day 0 I choose you....

By: Brandon 

The day Ashley and I had been waiting for almost 3 weeks finally arrived. Ever since we made the deposit on our goldendoodle we compulsively checked the website every 20 to 30 minutes hoping to receive word about which pup were were to be blessed with. Out of the 8 pups I selected the one named "Walter." The odds of getting him were not in out favor because we had last pick (based on payment chronologically). Somewhat regretfully, we started pointing out qualities that we liked in the other puppies just in case our "Walter" was chosen by someone else. In my mind I never gave up on getting what appeared to be the fattest cuddliest pup out of them all. One by one pups started to be reserved and our chances grew with every pick of the litter. Finally 6 pups had been choosen to be sent off on their new adventure with hopefully a life long friend. To our surprise, all that remained were the only two male pups of the litter..... apparently everyone wanted a girl. Finally, the day arrived when the puppy owner called and delivered the news that Ashley and I had so desperately waited for! Part of that conversation is detailed below.

Puppy owner: "Hey Brandon! I am happy to say that somehow you have gotten your original pick! You have Walter.... Congratulations!"

Brandon: "Wow! I am going to go buy a lottery ticket right now!"

Welcome!

The Jelly Dawg Chronicle: Keep Calm and Doodle On.  

By Ashley Tierney  and Brandon Tate 

Welcome to the Jelly Dawg Chronicle! 

Our names are Ashley Tierney and Brandon Tate. Just to give you a little blurb about ourselves, we are currently both students. Brandon is a graduate student pursuing a M.S. in Biology and Ashley am working towards becoming a nurse or just working. We have been engaged for a year now and together for about 4 years. We met during our first degree at North Carolina State University and we have been together ever since! I am sure you will learn more about us as we partake in our adventures. 

                                                                         

Ashley and Brandon

Ashley and I have decided to take on a blog in attempt to improve my writing and to document the newest member of our family, this guy:

Jelly Dawg

Jelly Dawg is our new puppy that we picked up on March 28! He is a rambunctious F1b Goldendoodle. As of today he is currently 10 lbs of raw boom and bust puppy power.

 Just in case you don't know about F1b doodles, I will attempt to give you an explanation. First off, a goldendoodle is a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle.  Our puppy is designated as an F1b because he is a cross between a Goldendoodle and a Golden Retriever. Just a note, this cross is not accepted by all people. The popular version of the F1b doodle is a cross between a Goldendoodle and a Poodle. Currently Golden Doodles are not a recognized breed from the AKC therefore, a mutt being a mutt, a Goldendoodle cross with a Golden Retriever is ok in our book.