Category Archives: Pets

12

Jan. ’15

The Pups Version of Musical Crates

But this is my crate!

But this is my crate!

Sleep Over

Sleep Over

Bonnie and Belle haven’t been crated in months.  They sleep upstairs with us in our bedroom.  Bess has two crates is crated when we are gone and at night. When we first brought Bess home she was in a crate in our bedroom at night to be close to us.  This became a problem when she had difficulty getting down the stairs and across the house to the pup pen during our middle of the night potty breaks. So we had her sleep at night in her daytime crate to make the distance to the pup pen shorter for her. Bess is basically housebroken now, (let the balloons and streamers fall from the ceiling in celebration!) and in all my humanness I decided that she must be lonely downstairs by herself, so the past couple of nights we had her sleep back upstairs in the crate with us.   This morning after a  1 am potty break on our way back upstairs her firmly planted paws told me in no uncertain terms that she prefers to sleep downstairs thank you very much!  Ok, no problem I said and put her in her downstairs crate.

Fast forward to two happenings this morning.  When Bess came in from the pup pen she went right into her crate, sat down looked at me and yawned clearly not ready to start her day.   Then I heard laughter from Greg, who was still upstairs, Bonnie and Belle were curled up together in the crate in our bedroom.

I don’t understand their attachment to the crates but I am glad that the pups feel comfortable in the crates even when they don’t need them.

Such is life with our pups!

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31

Dec. ’14

Tiaras Plus Treats Equal…Epic Failure!

Tiaras plus treats equal…. epic failure. Belle clearly hates hers then she took Bonnie’s off and tried to eat it. Bess kept hers on just long enough to snap the picture. So even though we can’t get the cute pics with props from our crew to yours we wish you a happy and blessed 2015. Thanks for reading our posts we hope they make you smile. Oh and for those of you who can take the cute pictures with props. More power to you, you are my heros!

Treats and Tiaras

Treats and Tiaras

Belle clearly hates it.

"Bonnie, let me help you get that thing off!"

“Bonnie, let me help you get that thing off!”

"Anything for a treat, but hurry up I don't like this!"

“Anything for a treat, but hurry up I don’t like this!”

“Good it’s off!”

 

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30

Dec. ’14

Pupdates

Belle

Belle

Bess and Belle

Bess and Belle

Bess

Bess

Bonnie

Bonnie

Sleep over in Bess's crate

Sleep over in Bess’s crate

I love watching our pups sleep. They manage to look cuddly and silly all at the same time.

Bess is growing like a weed, she almost doesn’t fit on her self proclaimed puppy shelf on our coffee table any more.

I have had to intervene in the play between Bess and Linus, Bess plays a bit too rough for Linus’s tastes at times but then other times Linus still instigates the play so they are still fast buddies.  Belle will occasionally remind the pair that she was Linus’s buddy first.

Bess is still teaching us about her likes and dislikes, she loves, loves, loves sticks and always has to find one to carry around when she is outside. Her favorite inside toy is the stuffingless fox, I’m not sure what the draw is but it’s the favorite of all three of our girls.

Bonnie continues to morph back into puppy mode, (if indeed she ever left it) to be the first in line to rough house and play tug of war with Bess. But Belle is relaxing her “I’m the mom” stance and is playing a lot more with Bess too so progress is being made.

Bonnie and Belle went to the vet yesterday for their x-rays to check for hip dysplasia. We will get the results from the OFA in a few weeks. Our vets and their staff are fantastic and I trust them fully but it was still difficult for me to leave Bonnie and Belle  as they had to be put under an anesthetic for the x-ray.  We were able to bring the pups home at the end of the day and this morning they are back to their old selves which this dog mom is happy about.

Bess had a round of tummy rumbles the past few days with several nights of limited sleep for both of us. I am happy to say that with the help of yogurt and bran flakes and medicine from the vet her tummy rumbles have subsided and we both had an uninterrupted sleep last night!

Looking forward to the coming year, not sure what it’s going to hold although we hope to continue with Bess’s puppy classes and keep working toward the Canine Good Citizen classification for Bonnie and Belle.

Happy New Year to you and your families from Greg, myself and our snuggly silly crew!

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07

Dec. ’14

Bess at 11 weeks

 

My turn!

My turn!

curled up with big sister Bonnie

Curled up with big sister Bonnie

 

Boy is she growing fast! In the past few weeks Bess has been showing us what she is made of.
She and Linus kitty are becoming good buddies and love to wrestle with each other. They take turns instigating the action.

Lucy kitty is still watchful and making sure the pup is behaving. she still can’t believe we would shake up her world by bringing another dog into it.

Bonnie pup and Bess love to play tug of war with the stuffingless toys.

Belle pup and Bess race each other and I’m not sure who enjoys it the most.

For something so little Bess does a great job keeping up with her big sisters.

Bess and I are attending puppy classes, and she got the hang of sit pretty good, but we are still working on gentle and touch. She’ll get it in time. She seems to enjoy playing with the other puppies that are in the class.

She is already showing us how she is different from her big sisters. She has a longer reach so the garbage can has to go even farther back behind the child gate. She is definitely more vocal than Bonnie and Belle. I am getting a kick out of how she rings the “gotta go” chime. All three pups have a different way of ringing the chime. Bonnie gives the chime a hard nudge with her nose, if that doesn’t bring us she puts her head in the middle of the chime and gives a good shake. Belle gives a dainty nudge with her nose, if we don’t hear her she touches the chimes one at a time that makes for a beautiful sound. Bess jumps up on her back paws and uses her front paws to ring the bell. One paw first but then if we don’t respond or if she really has to go badly both paws at one time kind of like a forceful double high five!

All in all it’s going great, of course we are still transitioning and learning Bess’s ways, like what it means when she sits and stares at us. So far it has meant, I would like a tummy rub please, or I have to go out, or I want a toy that I can’t reach or …

One thing we do know is that our Bess Sprout pup is a wonderful, fun, loving addition to our family and she is loved dearly.

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22

Nov. ’14

Bess AKA Sprout Week 2

 

Hello!

Hello!

Bessie has had a busy two weeks. She seems more like a Bess than a Bessie and she spends just as much time being called Sprout. The Jolly Green Giant from Green Giant vegetables had a sidekick named Sprout who thought he was big like the Giant. Bess seems to think she can do anything Bonnie and Belle can do hence Sprout.

The pups

The pups

Linus and Lucy are getting used to having Bess in their life. Lucy tries to ignore her much like she does Bonnie, Belle and Linus. Linus however is game and he and Bess seem to have fun together.

Let's play!

Let’s play!

Bess is proving to be a quick learner especially where the “gotta go” chime is concerned. She has figured out that ringing the chime means the door opens and she gets to go out in the pup porch and pen. I was washing dishes the other evening and heard the chime. I turned fully expecting to see Bonnie pup imagine my surprise when Bess’s little face looked back at me. I snapped her leash on and out we went. She went right to the bone that the older pups had left on the porch. She wanted the bone and she figured out what she had to do to go out and get it.  Not wanting to lose a teachable moment we continued out to the pup yard.

We had our first puppy class last week. Where we learned Find It,  Soft Mouth, and Gotcha. Soft Mouth is easily my favorite as Bess has sharp little puppy teeth!

She is going pretty good when it comes to chewing on things.  Lucky for her, she joined a family that has an abundance of chewy toys.

So many toys to chose from!

So many toys to chose from!

Bonnie and Belle are getting used to having Bess in the mix.

Judging by their looks and behavior they don’t quite know what to think about her but they have figured out that she’s fun to play with!

Bonnie and Bess

Bonnie and Bess

Did you see that!

Did you see that!

All in all it’s been a good week!

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18

Sep. ’14

Morning Routines

Our pets morning routines differ for each one of them.

Bonnie pup sets off her Bonnie Bark Alarm when she feels it’s time to get up or she thinks she is missing out on something.  Thank goodness she is now back to sleeping in past 4:00am.  When I open her crate door she just stands there for a bit relishing in the fact that she can come out of her crate but wanting to do so when she wants to.

Belle pup is our late sleeper and will open a sleepy eye to look at me when I open her crate door. Often she stays put to get a few more minutes of sleep.  Then she slowly stretches her way out of the crate and into the room and comes to me as if to say “Well Good Morning, I’m up!”

The pups then wait in the living room for Greg to come down stairs and enjoys a quick good morning love and cuddle that starts the day out well for all 3 of them.   During the course of the early morning each pup comes to me at separate times for a love and cuddle from me.

Linus kitty will meow a good morning unless he is busy elsewhere in the house.  He usually quiet in the morning unless he is mousing then he’s anything but quiet!  Linus is still learning that cuddles are a good thing, he prefers quick drive by pats.

Lucy our matriarch kitty greets us with a good morning meow then proceeds to follow both Greg and I from room to room and surface to surface until she gets a good morning hug and a cuddle. If we don’t see or hear her she reaches out a paw as we walk by and snag us which usually works well to get our attention.

No matter how they greet us, the morning isn’t complete without their good morning greeting.

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24

Aug. ’14

New Weekend Tradition or Girls Go Get Greg!

A few weeks ago we started a new weekend ritual where the pups get to wake Greg up.  It doesn’t matter what they are doing when they hear the words “Girls, where’s Greg? Go get Greg” they stop what they are doing and run straight to the closed door leading upstairs and wait not so patiently for me to open the door.

Yesterday morning I said those magic words and Belle got up from where she was laying, cocked her head at me started to run to the door only to pause to make sure her sister Bonnie was coming from the kitchen to get in on the fun then paused again in the dining room to greet Lucy kitty who was sitting on the computer table only to come to a skidding halt before the closed door.  where she looked at me as if to say “Hurry, hurry Greg’s up there. I gotta go!” All of this took maybe 30 seconds.

As soon as I opened the door the pups bounded up the first flight of stairs, skidded around the corner to the second flight. Ran into our bedroom and in a flying leap landed on Greg thereby waking him up. I personally think the sound of pounding paws on the hardwood floor wakes him but either way the job gets done. 

I love to hear him say “Good morning girls, how are my girly pups?”   According to Greg, Belle after making sure he is awake will run into the bathroom where she searches for the bar of soap that tastes so good to her. While Bonnie quietly sits beside him so he can pet her, and pet her, and pet her some more.  I have asked him if he wants me to stop having the girls wake him up and he just grins and says “No, that’s ok.”  So a tradition is born.

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06

Aug. ’14

Refresher Course in Leash Walking

Now that things are settling down and there is a bit more time I decided it was time to start working again with Bonnie and Belle on leash walking. We live in the country and have a long lane which makes it the perfect place to start practicing. After they remember how to walk on a leash politely then we will start going into town to practice.  Our goal is to be able to take them with us when we go to antique car shows, parks, parades ect…

I’m taking the pups out one at a time for a couple of reasons. First so we have some one on one time and second because combined the pups almost weigh as much as I do so it’s easier for me to control one at a time.

Belle got to go out first this time She did pretty good staying by me and walking at a fast but controlled speed. She did a great job listening to the “leave it” command when a bunny ran not once but twice in front of her. She also did great when I told her to “leave it” when she saw a cat cross the road a few feet from her.  She did get scared though when a big truck zoomed passed our lane we were close to the road. We also practiced sitting a few times during our walk.

When it was Bonnie’s turn she kind of wiggled, hopped, and really wanted to run. Luckily the bunny stayed in the corn field this time as did the cat. Because I have a feeling she wouldn’t have listened to the “leave it” command as well as Belle did. However she didn’t have much of a reaction when it came to traffic passing our lane.  When we practiced sitting during our walk she gave me a look that said “You want me to what?! “I mean there’s all this exciting stuff out here to explore and you want me to sit!”  But even though she didn’t want to she did eventually sit.

All in all both pups did very well for the first night of our refresher course in polite leash walking.

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24

Jul. ’14

So Smart it’s Scary!

I had just gotten settled into the recliner for a bit of an afternoon break. Bonnie and Belle pups were on the couch laying together and Bonnie was snuggling with her stuffingless fox. Belle walks over Bonnie to come climb into my lap, tail wagging, happy wiggles and rolls over for a belly rub. Bonnie upon seeing Belle getting some loving can not resist and leaves her fox and climbs up with Belle and I in the recliner. Bonnie proceeds to give me a bunch of pup kisses on my nose, in my ear, deep in my ear and on my cheek. She is very happy to be getting some loving too. Belle in the meantime climbs off my lap back on to the couch and grabs the fox that Bonnie abandoned in her quest to not be left out. Was it by chance? Oh no she knew exactly what she was doing. Oh Pups you are so  smart it’s scary sometimes!

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20

Jul. ’14

Snippets!

I just have some random snippets to share from over the past few days.

Our 3 year old grandson isn’t sure yet about our feisty energetic  pups, and enjoys them the most with a door between him and them which is totally fine.  The other day while watching the pups wag their tails as they looked at him. He said their tails look like they are clapping. After he said that I took a closer look and when their tails bumped they did indeed look like they were clapping!

He and the rest of his family brought the pups a couple of tennis ball launchers because his aunt has one for her pup and he thought our girls should have them too.   I am hopeful that the next time he visits, that from the height of his grandpa or daddy’s arms he will want to launch the tennis balls for the pups to chase and will feel comfortable playing with the pups because I know the pups want to play with him!

The pups always sleep with their stuffingless foxes and this morning when I opened their crate doors, I noticed Bonnie took hers went to Belle’s crate laid it in her crate and picked up Belle’s and ran to the pup cushions to play with it.   A while later though I noticed that Belle and gotten hers back.   I had to laugh though that Bonnie traded hers for Belle’s.

This morning while working on the computer I have been interrupted twice by the pups and their “requests”.  It’s made me aware once again of the differences in our nearly identical pups.  Bonnie comes up and true to her nature head bumps my arm when she wants to be loved on. Belle on the other hand true to her nature will come up and gently lick my hand as a request for some loving.  Two totally different personalities, both equally loveable and precious!

Good Morning!

Good Morning from Linus!

 

Love from Bonnie and Belle

Love from Bonnie and Belle

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