Ares' latest trick

When I first got Ares, I made sure to crate train him immediately. I have a studio apartment so blocking him into one area or room just isn't an option for me. We started by saying "Ares, kennel" and putting a treat in the cage so that he had to go in to get it. After awhile, he caught on and would either take his treat from my hand and walk in, or walk in when I was holding the treat.
Luna's at the stage where she won't go in her cage until she has the treat in her mouth. It's the good thing about pugs - they are incredibly food motivated.
We have several different types of treats - small ones for training and large ones to act as rewards for going into their cage. They more or less know the difference between the treats although that's probably because the training treats are usually hanging out in various spots in the apartment while the large treats are always right by the kennels.
Mike pointed out to me a couple of weeks ago that if the door to Ares' cage is closed but Luna's is open, Ares would go into her cage to wait for his treat. When he tried to show me, Ares actually opened his own cage to go in! It's hilarious!
I finally caught it on video. You can hear that I don't actually make any commands for him to go in kennel, he goes in when he sees me pick up the baggie of treats (which you can hear in the video).
Ares is such a smart boy!





Alternatively, Ginger is so untrained to go into her kennel (that tiny little airline approved carrier in the bottom of the screen) that I have to throw her treat into the back of the cage to get her to go in.
Also, I don't really know the difference between cage, kennel, and crate. I use them all to mean the cage that they go in when it's time for me to leave. Because I work long hours, they're ONLY in there while no one is home and they usually get a hard toy to chew on and a squeaky toy to play with. (I'm not sure at this point if I can ever trust them to stay outside of a safe blocked in area.)
The newest trick they're learning is:
1) I won't open Luna's cage if she's barking or whining.
2) I won't open their cages unless they're sitting.
3) They don't leave the cage until I give them the ok.
I'm hoping this will keep them from jumping all over me every time I walk in the door. It's such a bad habit that I still haven't managed to break Ares of doing.

PS. We have a really exciting week coming up! We should be getting our BarkBox and Pawalla Mini this week (BarkBox is INCREDIBLY late this month) AND our friends Maximus and Annabelle are coming back for a visit! I'll have 5 dogs running around my small apartment for about 2 days before Ginger goes home. Keep me in your thoughts, I may go insane!

pollen allergy part 2

Ever since Ginger visited the vet a week ago, I realized that Ares and Luna have been very sneeze-y and had a sudden increase in reverse sneezing. There was no doubt in my mind that they were suffering from mild pollen allergies. At the time, I knew that Ares had two weeks before he was going to go back to the vet for his mange recheck (which, by the way, he doesn't seem to have lost more hair but I haven't noticed the hair growing back so I'm curious as to what the vet will say), so I really wanted to wait until that visit to discuss allergy treatment options for Ares and Luna.

Benadryl is always an option for allergic reactions but never give animals medication without discussing it with your vet first. You don't want to give your dogs too much! (For reference, my vet said that in a pinch, Ares at 19 pounds can have one pill and Luna at 10 pounds can have half a pill.)

Unfortunately for Ares and Luna, as each day passed, they were sneezing and reverse sneezing more and more. By last night, I could hear the Ares' congestion as he was laying on me, breathing, and poor Luna would have reverse sneezing fits that would leave her literally gasping for air.

My amazing vet managed to get me in before I had to work today to see someone today to give them relief. It will take 24-48 hours for the medicine to work its magic on them but at least we've started the clock on it.

A quick note on reverse sneezing: 

it's mostly a squishy faced dog thing. One video I saw on YouTube said that it is a result of an allergic reaction to something (in Ares' and Luna's case, they were having respiratory problems from the pollen). There isn't really anything you can do to stop your dog from reverse sneezing but there are a couple of things that can help. One is to rub their throat and the other is to hold their nostrils closed. The idea behind these techniques is to make them swallow and calm down. I took a video this morning of Luna's reverse sneezing fit. She usually does it for quite awhile and like I said above, she is gasping for air when it is over. It's a scary thing to see but don't be worried if it happens.

monthly review: March BarkBox!

We got our BarkBox today! As you can see, Ares and Luna have learned that they love this box and I couldn't even get them to sit down for a picture. Ginger, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on.

And their wonderful haul. BarkBox also changed it up by having the advice columnist for Elle magazine do a little advice column for our furry friends! It was a really fun way for them to describe what came in the box!

First up: Feel Good chicken liver treats. BarkBox says "All natural and made with limited ingredients, Feel Good Treats are many a BarkBox subscriber's favorite. We know BarkBoxers want the best for their fur babies, which is why you'll be thrilled to hear that all of Feel Good's meat is human-grade. Moreover, these treats are free of wheat, corn, and soy!" A bag costs $9.95 and their website is here.

Oh man, did Ares and Luna love these! All manners went out the window as they were desperate to be the first to try these scrumptious treats! 

 Even Ginger figured out that there was some yummy goodness going on!

The next treat that came up was the Little Eatz peanut butter cookies. BarkBox says "You pup might have to wait for you to finish your appetizer and entree, but you can certainly split dessert! Little Eatz peanut butter cookies are the first cookie that humans and dogs can enjoy together - we may have gone through a bag at the BarkBox office. Scout loves when they're topped with even more peanut butter!"  These treats are for a great price at $3.99 a bag and can be found here.

These suckers were so good that I couldn't get a picture fast enough of my babies chowing down on them. Poor Luna doesn't do well with peanut butter but I dropped a treat and she snatched it up before I could get it. We'll see what happens tonight! She loved it though. You guys will have to settle for a picture of me trying the treat. Because yes, I did try it. I'm not a fan of peanut butter cookies in general but these weren't bad! I think I'll leave them for Ares and Luna though!

The first toy I gave them to try was the Harry Barker hemp bones (the tag is already removed in the picture because Ginger grabbed it out of the box and ran while I was taking pictures of the treats!) BarkBox says "Harry Barker hemp bones are stuffed with eco-friendly fibers made from 100% recycled post-consumer plastics. They'll entertain four-legged squeaky toy afficionados while catering to the design-minded pet parent - plus, they're green! Everyone wins, including Mother Nature." The bones come in two sizes, we got the small one which retails for $10 and can be found here.

They loved it! The squeaker is JUST barely hard enough to squeak that it doesn't make it incredibly annoying for me to listen to and it squeaks enough to keep them entertained so it's a win-win for me. They did not want to share this toy with each other!

The last toy we got was the LollyCadoodle wool mouse. BarkBox says "If your pup's prey drive is anywhere as strong as the BarkBox office pups', you'll know that the pursuit of mice isn't just for cats. LollyCadoodle mice are handmade by master artisans in Nepal, who in turn source their wool from local vendors." I couldn't find the cute little mouse on their site but most of their toys seem to retail about $12.95. You can visit their site here.

I totally did find it weird that my dogs got a mouse toy but Luna LOVES that tail! I think it'll be put to great use as a tug of war toy!

Finally, we got poop bags. I think BarkBox read my mind because I had JUST run out of poop bags and they were on my list of things to pick up the next time I made a pet store run. I think these were just an extra throw in item (they promote Angie's List, as well as giving me a coupon to sign up for Angie's List at a discounted price).

For the second month in a row, Ares and Luna are absolutely THRILLED with their BarkBox and I love seeing them so happy. Hopefully, in the future, I can teach them to use better manners while waiting for me to give them their goodies but I loved all the "blooper" pictures I snapped today.

Clickity-click this link to get $5 off your first BarkBox. You won't regret it!

Pugsitting picture overload

Mike gets so mad at how many pictures I take regularly of Ares and Luna. I do it because I don't want to forget anything that they do. The week of petsitting was no different with Annabelle and Maximus around. I tried to send their owners regular updates with pictures of Annabelle and Maximus because I knew that I would want that if I was on vacation. (When I went to Arkansas to meet Mike's parents last August, my sister sent me a daily Ares picture upon my request.) They went home on March 9th but I miss them oh-so-much! (That is, until Sunday when I'll be petsitting a little French Bulldog for 6 days! Her name is Ginger and she is best friends with Ares and Luna).

Here's just a small snippet of all of the pictures that I took while I had these crazy dogs.

And of course, life isn't complete without a video of their antics. (Again, look for the collars to tell whether it's my pug or not! Ares and Luna aren't wearing their collars)

dog park

I have a love/hate relationship with dog parks. In general, I love them and love the idea behind them. Ares was about 9 months old when we started going but I started taking Luna the day I got her. Of course, she wasn't playing with the dogs right away - in the beginning she would walk with us over and then sleep in my arms while Ares played and then when she started playing, we went to the other side of the park.
Because our dog park has two sides to it - the under 30 pounds side and the over 30 pounds side. Everyone always plays in the over 30 pounds side unless for some reason they want to separate their dog(s) from the  group, in which case they'll hang out on the other side. It's been used by me to get Luna used to all of the dogs without playing with them directly, by an Italian Mastiff owner when their dog didn't get along with a black lab, and by a woman whose dog tore his ACL and just got the okay to play but was still recovering.
The key for me is that I let them play - Ares and Luna know where I am and that I'm always going to be there for them if they need me and I will pick them up if they decide that they need a moment away from all of the dogs, but I don't hover over them and baby them. As a result, they are very independent at the park and even Luna can easily hold her own against all of the dogs.

Here are some videos of some of the dog park regulars playing with Ares and Luna. As you can see, Ares loves playing with Zooey (the black lab) and Trudy (brown and white collie mix). I can always count on those two to wear Ares out.

Unfortunately, as with anywhere where people can have strong, differing opinions, especially about their animals, there's a lot of drama at the dog park. The funny part is that I'm usually the youngest person there, especially among the regulars. I could be the child of most everyone there and I get along with all of them. But it's really easy to get on their bad side and I don't understand what people are thinking sometimes when they come to the dog park.

One person yells at any of the new people who forget to close one gate before opening another (dogs have definitely gotten lose before and it's no fun) and there's always the person who will watch their dog poop but make no move to clean it up.

The other big issue for any dog park is aggression between dogs. One of the reasons why I love my park is that you have to register and pay through the town in order to come to the dog park so people are usually really committed to coming. There's always going to be incidents that occasionally happen between the dogs but everyone always jumps in and stops their dog and checks to make sure the other dogs are okay. We know and care about each others dogs. I understand incidents happen and for the most part, people are concerned and embarrassed if their dog takes part in it.

But there's been a few things that have happened recently that actually made me reconsider bringing my dogs to the park. One is that one day when I was walking to the park in the afternoon, about 20 minutes before all of the regulars come, there was a man in with his dog, Lucky. I entered the first gate and started taking the harnesses off of my dogs while Lucky barked her head off at me. He met me at the gate and told me that I shouldn't come in the park because our dogs might fight. I pointed out that my dogs wouldn't be aggressive with his, but would his be aggressive with mine? and he stated that it was a possibility. When I stated that he shouldn't be bringing aggressive dogs to the park, he told me that when he signed up for the dog park, they told him that you enter at your own risk. I obviously didn't go into the dog park with him, but I did go into the other side until he left. I later called in a complaint against the man although nothing could be done because I didn't get his name.

The other huge issue is a woman who comes in with her Springer Spaniel. This dog is not super friendly, to the point where even she says he's a grumpy old dog. He's had several incidents with dogs and one time when another woman brought in her toddler, the dog went after and nipped at the toddler for no reason. The woman went up to the mother and made sure the girl was okay then said to the girl "Just don't mess with that grouchy old dog." The mother and I were both quick to point out that the girl did absolutely nothing except walk by him. It really bugs me that the woman knows that her dog can show aggression towards people and other dogs, yet she continues not only to bring him, but to let him do what he wants without stopping the behavior. It's gotten to the point where I usually leave shortly after she gets there because it's simply not worth it to me to risk the chance of either of my dogs getting injured by this dog.

I still love my dog park, though and for the most part, I love the dogs and people that come. It's a tight group of people AND dogs and I really appreciate the sense of family.

And now, a dog park picture dump to end this post on a happy note:

monthly review: February Pawalla Mini!

When I signed up for BarkBox, I also heard about Pawalla. The great thing about them is that they're currently offering a mini box (for the first 200 subscribers). Their regular box comes with 6 or more goodies consisting of wet food, treats, healthy supplements, and essentials and toys. The mini box states that it comes with 1 treat, 1 toy, and 1 surprise item that will never be wet food (they must have had some complaints about people not wanting the wet food in their boxes which makes sense to me - my dogs don't get wet food unless they're sick). When you order, you give information about your pet so that they can customize your box to suit your pet's age and size. Because we are signed up for BarkBox, I decided the Pawalla Mini would work best for us and we signed up February 12th and got our first box today, just 10 days later! I'm amazed!

The best part about Pawalla? They have boxes available for dogs or cats!

They know the drill now - pose for pictures, then they get to open their box. Excuse Luna's lion imitation, there was a poop catastrophe in her cage so she's wet from her bath.

They actually got this box open! (I made it easier for them.)

And here are their yummy goodies. I know they told me that I would be getting 3 products but I'm definitely not complaining that I got 4 and somehow, I don't think Ares and Luna will complain either!

As with Bugsy's Box and BarkBox, the Pawalla Mini comes with a helpful guide to our goodies.

First up is the Wigzi Tasties Treats. As Pawalla says, "Wigzi treats should really be called limited ingredient treats because of their makeup. If a dog can eat peanut butter, duck, and/or cheese, these small treats will be perfect. They are made with pea flour, tapioca flour, and chickpea flour, all of which are being used in the most current limited antigen foods. These are grain free, preservative free, and artificial color and flavor free. This is a USA product for your dog family that should be easy and neat to carry in your pocket for treating on the go. They come in three flavors, Peanut Butter, Roasted Duck, and Wisconsin Cheddar."

They are $5.99. It states that they are training treat size but they are about twice the size of the treats that I use for training. This would be something I would use to train them to sit and stay and such, and not "potty treats." As you can see, we got the roasted duck flavor - YUM! The best part? They were right about the limited ingredients. These treats ONLY contain duck, chickpea flour, and tapioca. They also donate 2% of all profits to animal rescue groups and shelters that find temporary homes for animals that would be otherwise euthanized. You can find these treats here.

They were so excited to try their treats! And they absolutely loved them!
If I were to buy anymore treats, these would be it. I love their size and the lack of ingredients, especially ones I can't pronounce is a HUGE plus for me!

The other treat they got was Grizzly Salmon NuTreats for Dogs. Pawalla says "Crunchy, fish treats for dogs. These are made from smoked wild salmon, fish protein, fish bone powder, fish oil, alfalfa, kelp and natural preservatives. These are great training treats as they carry a strong fish scent, are small, and are healthy for your fur family member. They have low moisture and high protein. They may crumble fairly easily. Because of the high content of omega 3 (heart healthy) fatty acids, both rosemary and vitamin E have been included as natural preservatives. These score high on the list as training aids." They're about $8.50 and can be found here.
The description was definitely right about the strong scent! The good news was, I wasn't hit by the smell as soon as I opened the bag or anything - I had to put the treats near my face before I got the strong whiff (or maybe I'm just catching the cold that's been going around my area!)

Ares and Luna absolutely loved them. I could barely get Luna to sit still long enough for the picture and later, I caught Ares trying to get the treats from where I left them on top of the oven!

The next thing I looked at was the Gerrard Larriet Aromatherapy Spray. It is described as "Aromatherapy and essential oils have been shown to affect mood, stress, energy, calmness and sleep. They are being used in human therapy and now it is available for pets. Gerrard Larriett offers three essential oil blends (Happy Jasmine, Balancing Rose, and Relaxing Wildwoods). Now we can treat our fur family to the benefits we receive. We tried the Relaxing Wildwoods, which contains shampoo and conditioner, freshening & shining spray, and deodorizing soy candle. The scent is lovely and all of the ingredients are safe for dogs and cats."
I have the Happy Jasmine freshening and shining spray and while I was worried about the smell of it (I'm not a huge fan of floral scents), this smells amazing! I immediately sprayed it on both dogs. My only issue is that my dogs don't really like things sprayed at them so they looked at me like I was crazy for a second before running off. I'll use it but definitely not as much as I could because of this. Do other people have the same problem? I'm assuming because some people use a spray water bottle as a way to break up fights and such, that most dogs don't like sprays. I don't blame them either. Still it smells super yummy and I'll definitely put it to use even if I won't be purchasing it on my own. Happy Jasmine is supposed to help sensitive, dry skin though so if I notice a difference in her dandruff from using the spray, I'll definitely reconsider my stance. I definitely wouldn't mind trying the shampoos and conditioners though. A 4oz bottle is $12 and you can purchase it here.

And last but certainly not least, Ares and Luna's favorite - the toy! This is also made by Wigzi. Pawalla says "These colorful and durable toys for dogs bounce and float! They are made in the good ol' USA, and they have none of that rubber smell!" I didn't sniff the toy before relinquishing it to the dogs so I have no idea if the lack of rubber smell is true but the dogs definitely give it two paws up! The medium lock is $9.99 and can be found here.

I really like that Pawalla included two completely different items from one company. It shows me the range of things that Wigzi produces and I'm definitely eager to explore their site to see what else they have. The toy doesn't squeak and it isn't the hard plastic that Ares and Luna like chewing on so I'm not sure how long the toy will keep their interest but for now, they think it's awesome! Y'all I'm an idiot. I just realized that the "key" spot on the bottom is perfect for adding a treat in it for playing. This will definitely make them excited!

The mini boxes range from $12-14 a month depending on the subscription you sign up for and I received roughly $35 in goodies! Ares, Luna, and I are super happy campers and I definitely think that we'll stay loyal customers for quite awhile. First impressions are huge for me and this one was great.

And one more thing, I received this e-mail yesterday:

Recalls, especially ones that can affect your dog's health, are totally scary but I'm really glad that Pawalla stepped up and made sure to send an e-mail to ALL of their customers, even the ones that weren't affected by receiving the product from Pawalla. It made me really happy that they kept me in the loop.

Clickity-click here to get $5 off of your subscription to any Pawalla box.