We have gotten to the point again when I start questioning the wisdom of living in Texas in the summertime. I like Texas in general, but summers are just not always fun. So what do you do with this many dogs when it's too hot to even go to the beach? 
Pool Party Time!
It had been a while since we had brought out the kiddie pool, and we weren't even sure if they would remember it. They pretty much just picked right back up where they left off last year.

Unfortunately pool parties don't last very long at our house because as soon as they've played in the water for a few minutes, they are nice and cool and ready to play. So this happens:

Then this happens:

Then this:

And the water ends up looking like this:

Luckily there's plenty of entertainment inside too. There's napping, kitties, napping with kitties. 

Of course, in all fairness, the kitties nap pretty much everywhere.

Kitty B takes first prize for napping in odd places. She decided that Dad's computer was pretty comfortable. While he was trying to use it.

Times like these sometimes make me wish we lived further north. Today's high? 1 million degrees. Tomorrow's high? 1 million and 1! 
Why must it be so hot? When you're in the house, sometimes you get the feeling that the a/c isn't working as well as it should be. Then you step outside for a few minutes. When you step back in, you realize that the a/c is working fine, it's just that hot outside. Needless to say, the puppies have been getting a lot of use out of their little pool. Here are a few pictures taken over the past week of their backyard fun. They've realized that they can run around and get hot, then jump in the pool to cool off.

One thing about summers in the south is that it's so hot you end up being lazy. I see blogs written by people up north with pretty parks full of people and summer evening strolls outside with their dogs, and I feel slightly guilty about not enjoying our area parks more. Then I step outside and remember instantly why we don't go outside more- especially not in the middle of the day. In the middle of the day when the thermometer reads 96, it actually feels like 105. The concrete is too hot to walk on barefoot, so there is no way I would want to take the puppies with their tender inside-dog feet for a walk on that. Plus, after about 5 minutes, all you want to do is drink something cold and stand in the shade. Getting the dogs to come back inside after playing in the yard was difficult in the winter and spring. We would sometimes end up spending 5 or 10 minutes just trying to convince them to go inside. In the summer, you just have to say, "Okay, everybody in," one time, and they are already waiting by the door. It is just plain hot outside right now. Besides that, even if you don't mind dealing with the heat, the minute you step outside most days, you are greeted by a flying welcoming committee of mosquitoes. The closer to the coast you go, the bigger and fuzzier they get. Sometimes you worry about them beating you up and taking your wallet. They are practically the size of the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. 
Needless to say, once I've been outside in the yard for about half a minute, all of the guilt I once felt about not going to the park just melts away.
So what do we do instead, you ask? Inside stuff. Lots of inside stuff. Where there is air conditioning.
We went to Grandma and Grandpa's after a trip to the vet last week. It was already time for Mr. C and Miss B to get their 3 year rabies shot that they get a year after their first shot. Mr. C weighed in at a whopping 80 pounds! Miss B was right at 55. Miss S, Miss M and Mr. M weighed 74, 54.7 and 69 respectively. They are all so big already! I'm not quite sure where the time went and how it could possibly be time for the one year booster shot. When we got to Grandma and Grandpa's the puppies went to work on the plastic bottles that Grandma and Grandpa needed crushing. Grandma outsmarted them this time and moved the cat food before they got there. We took them outside several times, but with the heat, the potty breaks didn't take very long.

The puppies love visiting Grandma and Grandpa, but they always get so excited that they don't nap as much as they should. They were so worn out that after the early morning potty break the next morning, Miss B and Mr. C slept in until I made them get up at 10! The little ones won't sty still for very long after the first potty break of the day, so if we want to get any more sleep after that, they have to nap in their crates for a while. Miss B and Mr. C gladly sleep very still on the bed most mornings so that they don't get sent to their crates too. The day after the vet visit was a school day, so we let them sleep a while and then got them fed and took them out before getting them ready for class. We learned all kinds of fun things in school. This class we learned physical skills as well as mentally challenging ones that actually tire them out quite well- a very good thing when it is so hot outside.
For the past couple of days, we have been practicing their new skills and then playing some outside with the pool in the evenings. We are very proud of Miss M- she seems to have gotten the idea that she should pee before getting into the pool (unlike a certain 80 pound someone).

Of course, every time they cool off in the pool, they find a new spurt of energy and someone always starts a new game of chase. Miss M gets impatient with the bigger dogs if they aren't out of the water fast enough and will bark at Mr. M until he gets out and chases her. Then they stop and she chases him. Miss S doesn't like it when the play gets too rough and is constantly trying to make sure that Miss B doesn't get out of hand with the little one. Miss S is so funny. She takes Miss M's toys all day long and would take her food if we let her, but if anyone messes with Miss M, Miss S is quick to step in and handle the situation. She's big enough now that once she grabs Miss B by the collar to pull her away from Miss M, Miss B can't get loose. Miss B has a ton of energy and is very vocal about it. So even though she never actually bites down on Miss M (or any of the little puppies), she sounds like she is getting wild. Miss S doesn't appreciate her cussing like that at all. When any of the other puppies gets a little too rambunctious, Miss S gets right in between the two offending puppies and breaks it up. We used to think she was bullying them, but the more we watched, the more we realized she just doesn't like them to play too rough. 

All kinds of songs pop into my head when thinking about summer in Texas. Some like it hot, Feeling hot hot hot, etc. I'm not sure I like it quite this hot, but the advantage is that we have plenty of opportunities to play in the pool. I think we are going to need a heated kiddie pool in the winter so the puppies still get to play in the water. Mr. C, who doesn't really like getting into the bath tub or that kind of thing, has no problem getting into the pool on his own now. We can even tell him to go get in the water and he gets right in. Yesterday, even Miss B got in by herself when we told her to. I think they are really starting to understand that when they get in the water they feel cooler. Of course then they are cool and go into turbo mode, zooming around the yard before getting hot and going back to the pool.

Miss M likes the water so much that she doesn't even care if the other puppies are zooming around the yard any more. She just watches them from the water. Occasionally she will get out and chase them a little, but then she goes right back to the water. The others will join her and then go back to playing, and she is totally fine with that. I think that if we had a regular in ground pool, she would never get out.

I'm glad that the puppies all like the water so much. It works well with the big plan of eventually taking them sailing. I think they would do well with the sport of dock diving, but I am a little hesitant to start them in it because I'm not sure I want them to have an idea that they can just jump off docks- especially later on when we are sailing. I think Miss B especially has the energy to really do well at it. From what I hear, pit bulls usually do pretty well at dock diving because of their energy and power. I guess we will have to give it some thought.

And now...a little bit of fun in our redneck tanning bed. I would lie and say that we enjoy frozen adult beverages in our redneck tanning bed, but really, I don't think we could go near the kiddie pool without having puppies jump in and knock us and our drinks over. So we leave the pool fun to the puppies. We shot this short video while trying to put water in the pool. After this we decided to fill the pool before bringing the dogs outside. Notice how Miss S takes off as soon as she notices that Mr. M and Miss M have discovered the water hose.

Yesterday was the 4th of July, and the puppies did not appreciate it at all! We dropped by to visit some friends for a little while, and decided that we should leave the puppies at home. We were glad we did because some of their neighbors let off firecrackers early, and it would have really freaked the puppies out. It's one thing for them to be scared of fireworks while they are safe at home. It would be really bad to have them freak out and get loose in an area that they don't know. The friends have an Irish Wolfhound puppy named Miss K. Miss K is only 3 months old but is already taller than my knee.

Once the firecracker fun started, Miss K decided she had had enough and that it would be way safer in her Mom's lap.

When we got home, the puppies were totally freaked out. It's actually illegal to set off fireworks in our neighborhood, but I think some of the neighbors may have been setting off firecrackers while we were gone. The puppies were so nervous that they wouldn't leave our sides. They wouldn't even potty at first. Every little sound made them start barking again. Miss M was so nervous, she just stood by Mom shaking. It took a little while for them to calm down. Until about midnight, people would randomly set off a firecracker. The puppies would crowd around us again, Mr. C would start barking and Miss M would start looking worried again. I felt really sorry for her. We took then out for a potty break again a little after midnight, but they just did number 1 and ran right back inside. I suspected that they needed to do number 2 but were too scared to stay outside long and just held it. Miss M slept cuddled up next to Mom all night. This morning, they all went right out and did number 2.

Today, we had fun with the kiddie pool in the backyard. We made the mistake of letting the puppies out before the pool was totally full. The little ones jumped right in. Then Miss M and Mr. M discovered that the hose was still on...

This is why we can't have nice hoses. 

We let the puppies play for a few minutes and then took them inside so that we could put more water in the pool. Once the pool had more water and it was a little cooler outside, we took the puppies back outside. At first they were a little hesitant to jump in because the water was higher than they had seen before. 

Then Mr. M discovered that it was even more fun with deeper water.

Miss S and Miss M were both a little nervous about getting in, but once we put them in, they kept going back for more pool time. We think they realized that getting in the pool cooled them down. They all took turns playing chase and then getting back into the pool. Miss B and Mr. C are a little less convinced. We put them both in and they enjoyed it while they were standing in the pool. Before taking them back inside, we put Mr. C back into the water to rinse off the dirt. I didn't have to fight him at all. We told him to get in the water and he gently stepped into the pool. I think we are making progress,