Sunday, December 30, 2012

Our Most Memorable Blog Posts of 2012

This past year was fun and entertaining, and D and I experienced a few large and small steps in our life as a married couple. As always, our dogs have been amazing companions to us and I can honestly say that I love blogging more than ever. I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who stops by and reads our blog. Here are a few of my most memorable blog posts from 2012.
1) In January D and I celebrated our six years of marriage and all I can say is - boy did it go by fast; two dogs, two cross-country moves, ten overseas trips (just him...), lots of time being separated for special occasions (six birthdays, four anniversaries, one Thanksgiving, and one Christmas), one looooong deployment.

2) In February D came home from his looooong deployment. It was on a Sunday night, after 9 o’clock. I was in my pajamas. Nothing unusual was happening… the doorbell rings and I freak out thinking that it was a man with a hook for a hand and he was going to break down the door. Actually, it did not turn out to be a hook-handed man – it was my long-deployed husband!?!?

3) In May we packed up 200 boxes and said good bye to my home town of Seattle and moved to Carmel, California.

4) In June, after attending one of the most powerful social media conferences in the nation for pets, bloggers and anyone in the animal industry, I wrote Elizabeth’s survival guide to attending BlogPaws.

August was a busy month for us. 5) Luna walked on narrow, elevated planks; she jumped over [low] hurdles; she weaved through a slalom; she even passed through a 12-foot-long tunnel – all on her first experience at The Zoom Room.

6) My family visited Carmel for the first time and I was able to get more play time with my nephew Ben. We spent time at the beach and visited Fisherman’s Wharf.
7) In October, Shorty after achieving our goal of getting Luna comfortable with the agility equipment at The Zoom Room, we decided it was time to challenge our little Penny.

8) In November D gets a Knee Injury while playing soccer which resulted in no major tears to the MCL or meniscus, but a dislocation of his patella. Today, D is still not able to drive, but is more mobile thanks to physical therapy three times a week.

What were your favorite posts from 2012? Also, what do you hope to see more of in 2013?

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Black & White #24



We are teaming up with You Did What With Your Weiner and Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.
1) Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below.
2) Follow your co-hosts and follow as many other blogs on the Linky as you’d like.
3) Please ONLY SUBMIT A FEW PHOTOS with minimal or no text, and make sure it’s in BLACK AND WHITE.
4) Grab the “Black and White Sunday Blog Hop” button below and include it in your Sunday Blog post.


Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas Photos

Here are a few photos of what Christmas looked like around hour house this year.  As some of you may remember, my husband was deployed last year, so to have him here (and on winter break for two weeks) was extra special!  There was lots of eating, drinking, lying around in our happy-lounge pants, dog walking (yes it was sunny here in CA), movie watching, cooking, and gift giving. To tell you the truth, I’m not quite ready to take down the Christmas tree. Maybe I will just have to keep one or two of my pretty red decorations out for a few more weeks!

Click on the photos to enlarge them :)

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Wordless Wednesday #108


Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas - 2012



A Merry Christmas to all of our blogging friends!
Love,
Luna, Penny, D & Myself

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Black & White Sunday #23



We are teaming up with You Did What With Your Weiner and Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

1) Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool
below.
2) Follow your co-hosts and follow as many other blogs on
the linky as you’d like.
3) Please ONLY SUBMIT A FEW PHOTOS with minimal or no text,
and make sure it’s in BLACK AND WHITE.
4) Grab the “Black and White Sunday Blog Hop” button below
and include it in your Sunday Blog post.


Friday, December 21, 2012

What’s The Best Type Of Overnight Boarding For Your Dog?

Most of us dog owners, at some point in our lives, will need to rely on a dog sitter; whether it is a trusted neighbor, a family member, a well-established dog daycare, or the local veterinarian, someone else may have to keep watch over our dogs.  So what’s the best type of overnight boarding for your dog?  What should you consider about your dogs, their habits, and potential care environments? Can your dog(s) handle being alone?  Do they do well roaming around unsupervised? Do they get into mischief, or food?


Luna is a very docile and calm dog who doesn’t mind being left alone, and while she doesn’t love crates, she tolerates them well and quietly.  Back when we only had Luna, we knew that when we needed to travel, we could simply put her up at our vet’s office (it didn’t hurt that they were totally in love with her, of course).  Penny, on the other hand, often gets anxious when we crate her and leave for the better part of a day – even in her own home/surroundings – so ever since Penny has been with our family, we’ve relied on my mother’s careful assistance to watch her when we’ve travelled.  Now that we’re a few thousand miles away from mom, we’ve had to reconsider our approach, and develop a ‘Plan B.’  We started talking about what we might do several months ago, knowing that it all hinged on Penny.


Penny seems to feel much more comfortable with company (whether human or dog) than alone, and
she’s been known to bark when confined for a long period of time.   Penny will actively hunt for food if left unsupervised, and if she finds it open and available, she’ll eat until she becomes ill and at risk for bloat, so obviously she needs to be in a clean (un-cluttered) area where the chance of her eating something unhealthy is low. 

Based on those factors, we decided to find a dog daycare/sitter in the area, and solicited some recommendations from local dog-sperts.  Based on their input we selected a sitter, and then spent several days over the past two months getting to know her and her home, even dropping the dogs off for a couple of test-runs. We had several discussions regarding our dogs’ good and bad habits (barking, food hunting), training levels, and personalities, with the ultimate goal of making sure it would be a good fit on both ends. It did seem like everyone was compatible and we were reasonably comfortable thinking about leaving our dogs in her care.

My husband and I decided to take a simple overnight trip to San Francisco last week, marking the first time since we moved to California that we were going to have to execute dog care ‘Plan B.’   Dropping the dogs off was a snap; I provided explicit instructions on feeding them, and reminded the sitter what to look out for (having discussed all of the dogs’ idiosyncrasies, including Penny’s food hunting, during our previous meetings and test-runs).  I hopped back in the car, picked up my husband, and we drove up to enjoy a ‘colorful’ night in San Francisco.

Upon picking up our dogs the following day, however, both D and I instantly noticed that Penny was about 50% wider than she had been 24 hours earlier.  We pointed it out to the sitter, and she claimed she didn't recognize anything unusual.  It looked very clear to D and me that Penny had found, and consumed another dog’s food, and not in moderation.  We politely, but quickly, snagged the dogs and headed for home. Fortunately, our route home passed right by our vet’s office. We called up to make an emergency appointment, and the first available was 1.5 hours later, but the tech told us we could drop Penny off for monitoring.  We jumped on that offer, and it was a good decision; almost as soon as we walked in, Penny forcefully vomited several cups-worth of yellow- and red-colored kibble.  Hmmm… what’s wrong with this picture? Well, Penny doesn’t eat colored kibble for one, and she only gets ½ a cup of food A DAY!  The vet administered CERENIA (an injectable solution for the treatment and prevention of acute vomiting) and drew some blood to make sure there was nothing major going on internally (Pancreas and spine are always concerns).  Penny’s blood work came back normal, and after a good night’s rest, a MAAAJOR bowel movement, and reduced portions of food and fluids for 48 hours, Penny’s girth is greatly reduced and she is feeling better.

I ultimately believe that this daycare owner generally does a good job providing care for dogs, and that she really does enjoy her business; however, I don’t think she will be able to watch after Penny in the future. While I don’t harbor any ill will toward the dog sitter for what happened to Penny – after all, she (our dog, not the sitter) is rather quick and sneaky when it comes to food hunting – I was surprised that she (the sitter, not our dog) did not recognize Penny’s extreme weight gain.  D equates the visual difference to dropping off Kate Moss, and coming back the next day to find Kathy Bates!

So now we’re back to square one-ish…  We could revert to Plan A, which would consist of putting both dogs up at our local vet, or opt for Plan C, which would involve flying mom down to love on the pooches! This brings me back to the question of how you decide what type of boarding is best for your dog.  I wish that this post could have been a complete and definitive guide to choosing the right type of care.  Unfortunately, the process is a combination of balance and compromise, it’s not scientific, and you may get part of it wrong… the key is to only make one mistake, and not to make it twice.  While the ‘doggie daycare’ may SOUND like the perfect option for care, not all dogs are suitable for doggie daycare, and not
all daycares are suitable for all dogs!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Wordless Wednesday #107



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Night Before Christmas - Graphic

The Night Before Christmas
The Night Before Christmas graphic produced by Pet365 and Dogorama. Click here to view the original post.
Thanks to Pet 365 and Dogorama for sharing with us their latest graphic! We love this classic poem :)

Monday, December 17, 2012

Our Food Routine

Jessica from You Did What With Your Weiner recently shared a fun video of her dog Chester’s dinner routine. She asked her readers “does your dog have a routine to let you know it is time to put food in his or her belly?” Our answer is YES! Our routine usually involves lots of barking and lots of spinning. I don’t know why, but Luna likes to spin for her food.





I’m in the Monday Mischief Blog Hop!  Hop around and make some new friends! This Blog Hop is brought to you by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, My Brown Newfies, and Luna, A Dog’s Life.  You can read more about how to link up here.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Black & White Sunday #22


We are teaming up with You Did What With Your Weiner and Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

1) Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below.
2) Follow your co-hosts and follow as many other blogs on the linky as you’d like.
3) Please ONLY SUBMIT A FEW PHOTOS with minimal or no text, and make sure it’s in BLACK AND WHITE.
4) Grab the “Black and White Sunday Blog Hop” button below and include it in your Sunday Blog post.


Friday, December 14, 2012

Video References - How To Trim Dark Nails

A few weeks ago I shared with you what was inside my grooming tool box and the different tools I use when cutting the dogs nails. Here are a few of my favorite video references that I have relied on after I was introduced to Penny’s dark nails. Each one of them offers something different, whether it’s a good visual on how to identify the quick, a holding technique, or the right angle to hold your trimmers.
This is a great video that gives you precise instructions on exactly how to find the quick of a dogs nail and where to clip the nails. She also shows you how to use a dremel tool on your pooches nails.  The video is ten minutes long, and she does cut the dogs quick (I couldn't even tell) but it’s worth watching the first part if you are having a hard time identifying the quick.





What I took away from this video was a good holding position for Penny as she can be quite squirmy when it comes to getting her nails trimmed. D is the holder, and I do the cutting.





These two guys are fun to watch and they cover lots of things from counter conditioning, canoe shaped nails (you will get the reference if you watch the video), and different angles to hold your cutters.





Do you trim your dog’s nails? If anyone has any other tips or thoughts to add, please feel free to comment.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Wordless Wednesday #106


Monday, December 10, 2012

Is It Starting To Feel Like Christmas?

I will admit that even though we have our Christmas tree and decorations up, it still doesn't quite feel like the holidays are here. The Holiday season here on California's Pacific Coast is definitely different (and warmer) than the Holiday months of the Puget Sound area of Washington State.  Believe me when I say that I am not complaining about this – I am forever grateful that my husband is with me this year and not deployed – but I just have always liked my winter months being cold enough where I have had to rely on my big fuzzy socks to wear on my feet verses my current flip flops.




Saturday, December 8, 2012

Black & White Sunday #21


We are teaming up with You Did What With Your Weiner and Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.
1) Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below.
2) Follow your co-hosts and follow as many other blogs on the linky as you’d like.
3) Please ONLY SUBMIT A FEW PHOTOS with minimal or no text, and make sure it’s in BLACK AND WHITE.
4) Grab the “Black and White Sunday Blog Hop” button below and include it in your Sunday Blog post.


Friday, December 7, 2012

A Six Month Old Puppy Golden Retriever

Oh to have a six month old puppy Golden Retriever again... that would be fun!  I keep telling D that I would be more than happy to have another 'baby' in the house.  He just smiles and nods like a good husband should.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Wordless Wednesday #105

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