SacPaws.com

I may have mentioned before that our pup Forrest isn't too bright, hence her name (like Forrest Gump).  Well she proved just how slow she is again this afternoon.  I had to run home to work on my wife's motorcycle (the battery connection was loose and it wouldn't start).  I came to find Forrest and Shasta in the front hall as usual, and what do I find on the floor but a piece of elastic cord off of my jacket!  I happen to know if was Forrest because she is the only animal that we have who is tall enough to reach up into my jacket hung WAY up on the coat hook and chew the elastic waist cord.  She also look guilty the moment I walked in the door.   I kindly let the pups out to pee and then the moment Forrest came back in she got the muzzle.  We have a very nice and well loved muzzle that allows her to still drink easily, but she won't be chewing anything until we get home this afternoon.  We've tried every kind of positive and negative reinforcement that we've seen & none of it seems to get through Forrest's THICK skull.  Shasta learned after the first or second time we muzzled her for chewing, but Forrest just hasn't gotten it yet.  Maybe she never will, but we'll keep trying so hopefully someday she and Shasta will be free to roam the downstairs while we're gone at work...or we'll buy her a really swanky muzzle :).

I'll have to post a picture of Forrest, aka Hannibal Puppy, when I get home.

This last weekend was Easter, so my in-laws and nephews came down to visit and so did their dogs.  Daisy, Shasta's sister, and my mother in-law's dog Chief came with them and stayed with us.  Needless to say it was a FULL HOUSE.  Partly because we had three extra people in the house AND 4  dogs (if Chief's size was accounted for it was more like 6) plus one small cat.

We also built a fence on Saturday so all the dogs hung out in the garage while we did that.  They were fine in the garage but kinda worked up all being together in a small space, so we decided to take all four of them to the dog park (we went to our favorite dog park Partner Park in S. Land Park).  Neither Chief nor Daisy had ever been to a dog park because there aren't any in South Lake Tahoe where they live.  It was an adventure just getting there, since Chief is old, quite overweight and has hip problems so getting him into the car was a small miracle.  Once we got there Chief was so excited he knocked Kerry, my wife, down on his way out of the car, and since Chief is probably nearing in on a 'deuce' weightwise he can be hard to handle.  Once we got into the dog park with all 4 of the dogs we let them off their leashes and they RAN and ran and ran, even old Chief ran more than we had ever seen him run before.  We really couldn't believe it, but he and all the dogs seemed to have a really good time.  Our newly formed holiday 'pack' didn't want to leave, that was until a huge mallamute tried to mount Chief and they fell down into a heap on the ground.  Fortunately Chief was okay and was able to get up and walk back to the car after we got everyone back on their leashes.  We gave the 'old man', as we call Chief, an ibuprofen and he was fine getting around that night and on Sunday too.

My mother in-law wanted us to keep Chief, because we brushed him (tumble weeds of fur came off that dog I tell you) and took him to get exercise at the dog park and for walks at night.  She unfortunately just doesn't have as much time to spend with him as she would like because she works two jobs.  Alas we couldn't keep Chief because he is much too large for our small home and backyard (as well as our CC&Rs).  Hopefully Chief and his 'little buddy' Daisy can come down again and we can all have another dog park adventure...a sort of 'adventures in babysitting' for the dog hair set :).

My wife Kerry and two of our furry children, the pups Shasta and Forrest, left to visit my in-laws this morning.  They will be there until Thursday night.  I of course miss my wife, but I'm always a little surprised at how much I missed the little, or not so little, furballs when they're away or we have to leave them for a trip.  I guess my mom is right they are our practice children.  We get up with them in the middle of the night if they get sick, we take them to the doctor for medicine and vaccinations, we take them on play dates, they flunk out of school ;P, etc.  I saw a cool quote on a picture of this guy's tattoo of his dogs, that says "I hope I can be as good of a person as my dogs think I am."  I'm sure that is a quote from somewhere/one else, but it is true that our dogs love us unconditionally and we should do the same for them and for each other...we always think our special rescue dog Forrest says 'don't judge' when she does something we feel she is being weird or annoying AND we try not to judge her or anyone (furry or otherwise) else.

We are one of the pet families that was asked to review pet products for sacpaws.com.  Our first review was done last night and it was a funny experience to say the least.  Two of the items we and our pups reviewed were 'treats' and those never last long around our house anyway, but trying to take a picture of the dogs, and cat, actually using the treat products was hilarious.  They scarfed the treats down so fast that we could barely get a picture before they were done.  We did get some cute shots though and our cat even liked one of the treats.  I'll put more details in the product reviews, but the whole process was quite fun and entertaining.  I think sometimes that those really cute poses and looks that our pets give us are 'just' for us because darn if I can ever get a picture of them doing it even when I'm holding the camera and have it turned on and ready to shoot.  We look forward to testing the sticky sheets that have already been reviewed, because dog hair is always a constant in our lives so being able to remove it a little more easily would be a god-send.

An update on the Shasta 'going' on a leash situation, that most mornings she will pee on a leash but we have yet to get her to go 'number 2' on the leash.  It would be wonderful if she could just do it because we could take both the dogs a lot more places if they would do their business while on leash.  Forrest is as happy as can be to potty while on a leash, but Shasta is just stubborn.  If you don't believe a dog can be truly stubborn you haven't met Shasta, this is a dog that was locked in her crate for 'punishment' and was told to sit/lay down and she just stood and glared at us for about and hour until we let her out...strong willed is not a good enough description of this pup.

I forgot in my last post to mention how Shasta was doing with her allergies.

She seems to have gotten over, or out of her, whatever was making her cough and have runny eyes.  We'll still give her allergy medication to calm her down occasionally, but now she doesn't need it daily.

We always wonder what the dogs would say when they don't feel good if they could tell us...okay we wonder it at other times too ;).

Tonight we go to pick up the stuff we're going to be reviewing for the sacpaws site.  Look for pictures and reviews starting tomorrow.  We're getting dog treats so I'm thinking Shasta and Forrest will be giving them 'glowing' reviews, unless of course they are liver flavored then our prim lady Forrest will turn her nose up...this is an animal who will eat poop but not liver!

Happy Thursday!

Our dogs are home alone while my wife and I are at work.  They are fine but we have to lock them in our front hallway because our 1 1/2 year old dog Forrest chews random things (out of anxiety probably).  We always leave them with toys, food and water but would like to let them roam free as our dog Shasta is able to because she 'knows better' than to chew things that aren't toys or food.  Hopefully Forrest will just stop chewing like Shasta did when she was nearing 2 years old.  It makes me feel bad that they have to be locked up, but we both work and/or go to school.  We spend a lot of time with them both when we're home and take them everywhere we can, going as far as only staying at certain places that are dog friendly when we go out of town.  I think this has been on my mind because this is the first full week that my wife has been teaching, and I have always worked full-time since we've had the dogs.  The dogs are very attached to my wife and even lay in the hallway when she goes when they aren't locked in there.  Maybe once my wife starts getting paid for teaching we'll hire a dog walker to take them for walks a few times a week.  I'll have to describe walking the 'ladies' in a later entry...it is always an adventure.

You make think by the title I'm talking about human allergies to dogs, but rather I'm talking about dogs who have allergies.  We already knew that our younger dog Forrest had allergies, but little did we know that our older girl Shasta had them too.  She now has a 'lovely' cough after going up to my folks' house this weekend.  Granted my folk's live an 1/2 an acre and much of it is cover in plant life, but she'd never had problems previously.  Now both the pups get their daily dose of benedryl hidden in a piece of cheese.  I guess it is better that the whole family (except the cat) take allergy medicine so no one has coughing, sneezing or watery eyes.  And we definitely wouldn't give up on going to my folks' house because they pups run themselves ragged and are good and tired for a couple of days after we get home.

Ker just started working full time again this week, so we'll let you know how the ladies do after a full week of no mamas at home for 7-8 hours a day...

PS we found that the pups don't bark at all strangers just the ones that aren't animal people :).

Last night we let the dogs out to run in the parking lot in front of our house.  I should probably let you know that the parking lot in front of our house is a pay lot that is only 'inhabited' from 8am to 5pm.  There are 'islands' with trees and ivy in the parking lot that the dogs like jump into and the lot is huge and surrounded by high bushes so it is great place for the dogs to run around in the evening.

...So the girls, that would be the dogs Shasta and Forrest, were running around as usual.  Then it was time to go back inside and as usual we call Shasta and runs right into the garage ready to go inside, but Forrest decided she wasn't ready to go back inside.  Forrest did her 'pretty proud puppy' sit as we like to call it and just looked at us.  My wife called her and called her, and I tried the 'bye bye Forrest' trick that usually works but not that night.  My wife we to grab her and Forrest ran just enough to stay out of reach...then finally my wife called her in her firm voice and Forrest finally came close enough to get grabbed.  Forrest has 'selective hearing' sometimes and has never tried to run away but will just be stubborn for not reason.

Maybe we should stick to the dog park...naaaaa