Butt Mom!

So my husband is going to Hawaii tomorrow (for the business portion of his trip) and I won't join him until next week. "Business" portion...yeah right...

Okay, so I'm a little jealous.

Here are some images of what he'll be looking at this week :

And this:

And this:

And I'll be looking at this:

Not that I don't love my dogs and all their parts- but their little tails are curled up so I always get a perfect view of their butts. It helped with potty-training but certainly is no breathtaking beach view.

Utterly Terrifying or Just Really Bad Music??

We have a thing of holy terror in our house, apparently. To us humans it may be an object of auditory pleasure but apparently- it is not music to Teagan's ears.

Behold, the horrible, terrifying GUITAR!!!! (doodooodoooooooo)

I have owned this instrument of evil for quite a while but I recently reclaimed it and decided to strum on it for a moment. Teagan ran out of the room with her tail between her legs. I guess my playing was THAT bad. In my defense, it was really out of tune. But still, I'm no Eric Clapton.

So I've tried to warm her up to the guitar by giving her treats and leaving it out on the couch where she usually sleeps. She's not fooled. She knows this thing makes horrible noises ( thanks, Teagan- really good for my self-esteem) and she's not going to be around when it comes to get us all. So far she's gotten this close:

And that was only with the help of two new stuffed squeaky toys, Daisy as a shield and a peanut butter yogurt drop.

Then I strummed it and she did the terrified slink away:

Eventually she ended up in her usual place of solace- her crate. AKA her bedroom. Now I can't tell if she's afraid of the guitar's noise or she's just going through her teenage phase and is going to start locking herself in her room and rolling her eyes a lot as if to say, "Mooooom will you puhleeese stop embarrassing me by playing that stupid guitar all the time!?" Fine Teagan- I see how it is...

Well guess what? Your sister Daisy LIKES it when I play the guitar. So there!

Well...it could just be the peanut butter yogurt drops but I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Get in their bellies! No...not mine. Theirs.

Since we have some new pups in the family, I have been asked about food recommendations. We feed the girls Wellness pet food http://http//www.wellnesspetfood.com/.



It uses no animal by-products or fillers and since I'm kind of a health nut myself - I prefer to not have all that nasty stuff in my pet's food too. Teagan had dermodectic mange as a puppy and she needs to have a diet high in fatty acids so the Whitefish and Sweet Potato mix helps her skin and coat stay healthy. Plus, it seems to be easier on their stomachs than other food that I've tried (Nutra/Iams/Purina).



We also began feeding Wellness to our cat, Mo, who has a large abdominal growth and was very sick and skinny. We changed him to Wellness wet and dry- their wet food is human grade food- and he has gained back all the weight he lost when he was sick. I prefer my cat fat!



















Here's my fat cat pouting for more food.

Also a big hit in our house- their Turkey and Duck treats. Note: I think they smell terrible and always wash my hands thoroughly after touching them. My husband, on the other hand, thinks they smell really good and has even gone so far as to place a treat IN HIS MOUTH. I can't tell if it was just to gross me out or he actually thought it smelled that good but let's just say he did some extra rinses with Listerine before he could kiss me again...




So if good taste for humans is a selling point for you- my husband can vouch for that. I cannot and honestly, I kind of don't want to talk about it anymore because it makes me sick to my stomach.

Faces similar to the faces made that day...

Do you smell that?

Check out that doggie schnozzle action!

Good news or Bad news first?

Bad news- I tried the halti/gentle leader on Daisy to see how she did with it. She's been pulling lately and I thought it might be easier to have them on the same kind of harness.

Daisy disagrees.

In fact, I think if she could speak I'd probably have heard a stream of expletives. Needless to say, she did not enjoy her walk. In fact, for most of it, she laid in the grass and rubbed her face into the ground. Oh well. I'll be looking for a sporn halter for her instead.

Good news- Daisy now knows "Down" and "Roll-over" and it is unbelieveably adorable. And of course, like most dog-mothers, I think my children are geniuses. I'm surprised I haven't gotten any calls to have her perform on Leno or Letterman. I was at Petsmart yesterday while a puppy obedience class was going on and I couldn't help but be slightly smug (I kept it to myself of course) because their dogs couldn't even "stay". I probably should stop- this kind of thing brings on bad karma!

In other news- I want to buy my doggies a St. Francis charm for their collars and I've found a couple cute ones. I figure it might help if they ever get lost or go "astray". I've got a couple options but if anyone has seen any super-cute ones- please let me know!

Fun fact: St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals. You can even get your pet "blessed" once a year by the Catholic Church on his "feast day". He believed that every creature is important. The love we give to a pet or animal, and receive from a pet or animal, can draw us more deeply into the larger circle of life and into the wonder of our common relationship to our Creator.

I hate mosquitos!!

If you're like me and you live in the Southeast, you know this year is particularly damp and warm- hence more mosquitos than average. I think this is the worst it has been since I moved here 4 1/2 years ago. I have been able to ward off bites in years past with the best all-natural mosquito lotion ever- Anders Natural Soap Company's Mosquito B-Gone. However, the ticks have also gotten really bad around here and this summer, I was diagnosed with lyme disease and had to go through three weeks of treatment. Good news- I'm lyme-free now and shouldn't have any long term, serious effects. It has made me extra cautious with my dogs too!

The little ladies are on Frontline Plus which protects against flea and ticks. (So why haven't they developed this for people??) But not mosquitos. Unfortunately for the dogs, I can't rub my awesome lotion on their fur and I don't want to use a spray with a bunch of nasty chemicals in it. And worse- they get swarmed by mosquitos. I have to bat away clouds of them from my pups in the yard! I recently found a bug spray especially for dogs- Ark Naturals NEEM "Protect" Spray. It works pretty good- it has citronella in it and my dogs don't like the smell so I use it sparingly but it has made a big difference in the mosquito clouds.

Did I mention that I HATE mosquitos??

Now I just need to find a nice chew bone that doesn't give them the runs...any suggestions??

Like...stage parents

Teagan is suffering through her eardrops and ear cleaning like a champ. She has already stopped scratching her ear and shakes it much less. But she's got a greasy-looking ear due to the medicine. She'll need a nice bath and beauty treatment when her drops are done.

Daisy is fascinated by the ear drop process and after it is over, follows Teagan around and sniffs her ear. Teagan just looks at her mournfully as if to say, "You're lucky kid- you don't know what it's like..."

Teagan is getting a special trip from the animal behaviorist next week to help her be less skittish around children. And since education is sooooo important to us, she's getting signed up for her "Manners Package" at dog school where she'll learn not to pull on her leash and jump up on people. If a trainer can get her to stop pulling at her leash and whining when she sees another dog- I'll name my first born child after them. Unless they're named Mildred or something. I do have some limitations on that...

Also, my friend Michelle found a bumblebee dog toy for her puppy Winston. http://mydogblog.typepad.com/weblog/2008/07/the-busy-bee.html

A bumblebee dog toy just like the one in Best in Show and I'm so jealous. I want a busy bee for my dogs (preferably 2!)- if anyone sees one- alert me! I know what you're thinking- "Please don't become a crazy dog show person". I have to admit- we DO subscribe to the L.L. Bean catalouge and prefer Macs and have a blog for my dogs....but that's beside the point. I need a busy bee! Don't make me say it again.

Poor Baby

Teagan has an ear infection. She's itching and shaking her head and I'm hoping the ear drops work quickly. She clearly doesn't feel good. Even worse- she HATES getting stuff in her ears with a passion. She runs and hides every time she sees her ear cleaner so doing all this 2x a day will be torture for her. She looks at me with such sad eyes. Poor thing.

Send her some get well kisses!

Daisy's going to school!

Daisy just got signed up for her Canine Good Citizen class! She begins in August and I'm pretty excited for her. I know she'll love it.

We're doing it through Teamworks this time. They have classes for agility, flyball, tracking and therapy so both Teagan and Daisy could benefit if we decide to do more classes with either one. They also have competition classes (music, circus dog stuff) which totally cracks me up.

So far- Daisy can sit with a verbal command or hand signal. She is working on stay and come with a verbal/hand command. I haven't introduced her to "fetch" yet but I have a feeling she'd love it. The one thing I'll say about having two dogs- I feel like I don't have enough time to give attention to both of them! I run alone with Teagan ( Daisy can't keep up with her little legs) and I plan on playing fetch with only with Daisy to see if she catches on this week (without Miss Know-It-All Teagan stealing the ball) but I just don't know if that's enough! So much work to be done! So little time!

So after much research (via google images) and some personal opinions from my vet and assorted animal loving/studying friends...we've decided Daisy is most likely a Jack Russell/Chihuahua.
I just wonder how she came to be so calm!!
I could get her tested to be sure but I don't think it is worth the $. Plus, just like in Teagan's case- it is more fun guessing that actually KNOWING.

So now that we think she's a designer dog, it doesn't change much...but now I feel free to dress her up in clothing because she's made for a Gucci bag.



Needless to say, Daisy's not pleased.