Spay/Neuter Your Pets!

All responsible pet owners should spay and neuter your pets at the appropriate age to do so. SO many pets leave a shelter without a home and end up never getting the chance to live life to its fullest. Spaying and neutering your pet can be quite an experience for you and your pet but with a little TLC and time, everything turns out just fine and for the better! I thought we'd share each of our pup's personal experiences. 

Nanook's thrilled face. I didn't know what to do with him after the surgery since he was our first dog. I placed him on a sanitary blanket in the middle of our living room floor and surrounded him with toys even though he could care less due to all the drugs he was on lol. I was terrified like the first time a new mother has a sick baby. 

August didn't take too well to "THE CONE!" so she sufficed with being a couch potato for 3 days under close watch. We noticed wet spots on the couch shortly after the surgery and this led us to believe Nanook was "peeing on her" in her sleep lol. Come to find out the spay made her temporarily incontinent for a week through a UTI. 

Kodak didn't need a cone for even one day. He rode in the back seat like a trooper and healed like a trooper. He never once licked the incision, licked the bandage or even licked the incision after what we thought was a hernia and had to reopen him!. Tough little man. 

Dublin had "THE CONE" for more than what was necessary. She wore the cone, she ate the cone, she licked the cone, she destroyed the cone. And once she was all healed up, she developed a hot spot on her leg and wore one again, ate it again, oh you get the point. lol.

Overall each and every dog did a fabulous job with their spay/neuter and we as parents felt we were being responsible in doing so. Pull a Bob Barker and Spay and Neuter YOUR pet!

Our Embarrassing Moments

Going through old photos I've found a lot of pictures....and a LOT is an understatement. Some caught my eye and made me chuckle so I thought I'd share them with you. May I present each of my dogs most embarrassing moments. 

Most Embarrassing Moment

Nanook

Other than the look I've gotten from this poor dog when I tried to groom him for the first time (shave him is more like it) this picture was probably his most embarrassing moment. We decided to participate in Halloween for the first time as "Pet Parents" and dressed our dog up as a cow.....a girl with utters, not a boy cow which would be a bull. He was in pure torturous hands that Halloween lol. 

August

August had 2 bald spots that were rubbed raw on her arms and a gash in her chest so while treating these areas, you have to keep them protected and covered so the pet can not lick said areas. I couldn't find anything to cover all 3 spots at once....until I looked in my own closet. This was My solution. August was not amused.....

Kodak

Kodak had recently gotten his dewclaw stuck in a grated fence resulting in a large split down the quick. We had to have the whole thing removed and at the same time we discovered he had allergies. To treat the raw spot under his pads with ointment and to guarantee the area around the removed nail was sterile I had to create  "booties" for both his feet. I found socks that were too small for my feet and tried them on his which worked wonderfully! He tolerated it but obviously wasn't too thrilled seeing he had rainbows coming off of his manly paws. 

Dublin

Dublin....now for her I have TONS of pictures. Dublin seeing what she does on a daily basis is very very tolerable. Clients have to be able to poke, prod, do anything to her and she MUST remain in her chair and be friendly so in doing so she is a very tolerant dog. This is the first time I had ever really pushed the envelope with her by making her do something outside of an action. She hated to wear this costume and like the cone it was an attempted lunch a couple of times. Since then she has worn hats, stickers, ribbons, you name it.

Bed Hogs

From pups, Travis and I agreed to share our bed with the dogs as long as they followed a check list of things, then they could lay in between our sheets and on our pillows. 

 The List

1) Is the dog you want to sleep through the night on the bed Potty trained?

2) Are you sure it's potty trained and not having accidents still?...you SURE???

3) Is the dog relativity clean with no "stank" to it (aka a full scrub/groom once a month)?

4)Is the yard clean of excessive poop? (they can step in it and have it on their pads)

5)Is it shedding season for August?

6)Is it raining outside and if so are they dry?

7)Muddy paws at all?

8)Are any of the dogs having bad gas? 

Based off of those few requirements, all the dogs have been allowed to share our wondrous bed. If one of them doesn't pass a mark on the list then they sleep in the enlarged dog bed in our room instead of our own. As seen below.

The dogs love to sneak into the room and lay all over the bed/pillows when we aren't in there telling them to "scoot down" "move over" or even "get down" lol. 

Dublin enjoying open room in the bed!

August's favorite spot is MY pillow. Not Travis's but MINE and when it's shedding season that equals a mouthful of hair in my face every night!

This face makes me always say yes to her favorite place to snooze. 

Dublin loves Daddy's pillow. 

Kodak sprawls wherever his body body will allow him to. 

Nanook will sometimes "hang round" on the bed. We always catch him sleeping in our bed regardless of the other beds in the house. 

Plus, what parent doesn't love letting their kids "sleep in the middle" :)

Post-Workout Faces!

After a long walk, a 20 minute game or fetch or even just a sibling wrestling match, these pups have some crazy looking faces after they have a good workout. Say you go for a long run in 80 degree weather or you just hauled logs across the length of your yard, do you look your best? Are you glamorous and at your best flaunting level? Ha ha no. I ran these kids for about 30 minutes playing fetch and once we cooled off inside and got a nice cool drink of water all of these fabulous faces followed me into the office and I couldn't help but snap a few pictures.

Kodak has the biggest tongue ever! When he pants, not only does his tongue swell hanging over the side of his mouth, it drools a pool of saliva on the carpet ha ha. 

August is majestic but when she is over heated and pants, she looks a little silly seeing she won't typically poke her tongue out but will only look like...well this ^^^ ha ha.

Dublin gets her big ol' big eyes and her tongue curls like a lil lizard. 

Nanook will typically find a cool air vent and will chillax and wind down away from the others. I love this puppy face.

Kodak's Corn Scare

With my job I sit back and I observe. I observe owners learning how to deal with their first puppy, I observe seeing how a family deals with a special needs dog, and I observe parents struggling to understand why their dogs wont stop vomiting when 2 days earlier their pet injected a 6 inch rope toy in their living room. Well, this weekend I finally got to live out one of those things and let me tell you I will never take a "blockage" with ease again in my life. 

This big happy face woke me up Sunday morning vomiting on the floor of our bedroom. Through habit (seeing this is Nanook's specialty) threw a t shirt underneath him and threw it in the laundry. Come to find out there were chunks of corn cob in that mess that he ingested 4 days earlier and he continued to throw up more and more as the morning went on. 

Kodak continued to feel ill throughout the morning but with no heaving and passing stools we knew he was in the clear.

In the end all is well and Mr. Kodak here is doing just fine. NO blockage! He got up every last piece he ate.

Please do NOT feed your corn cobs to your pets. You see those little tiny bits of corn in YOUR poop? It comes out in theirs too because you CANNOT digest corn, so why would you be able to digest the solid cob it came on? 

I've done it before trust me and I know those who do it frequently. But please be cautious. I sure am more now that we had that scare. I think of this big man as sort of a garbage disposal but he will not be disposing cobs any time soon lol.

How My Dogs Spend Their Lunch Breaks at Work!

So when Mommy works long hard hours, so do the pups. And when I get a long extended lunch break, so do they and how do we spend it? Playing outside! Chasing balls, tugging on ropes or just sprinting through the open space!

I borrowed a coworkers "Chuck-It" toy which extends your throw times 2 so Kodak was a huge fan! Here is Him and Dublin chasing after the tennis ball. 

Here's Dublin returning it at full speed!

August and Nanook like to do their own thing exploring and sometimes chasing after Kodak and Dublin but these two LOVE fetch!

Never letting go. After this particular fetching session Kodak was SO tired he wouldn't even take a cookie as a reward! SO POOPED!

Look at that sibling love. Dublin jumped on his back to give a bear hug! Notice the excessive foam around Kodak s mouth from ball time. ha ha. 

It's never a fun time unless Mommy takes a few pictures as a group! Even when its candid you can see their personalities. 

Dubs took a ball break for some rope time and Nanook loved to join in to play tug with her. Lots of flips and tricks!

Here's Nanook's after math ha ha. TIRED.

This is my outdoor bunch. They all love to spend time out in the sun and the yard at my work allow extra running space compared to our square backyard at home. 

A Dog's Fingerprint

fin·ger·print  (fnggr-prnt)

n.

1. An impression on a surface of the curves formed by the ridges on a fingertip, especially such an impression made in ink and used as a means of identification.

2. A distinctive or identifying mark or characteristic:

A dog doesn't have fingers or thumbs (if so we would need more than a zip seal to keep treats safe), so where can you find their "fingerprint" ? A finger print shows distinctive markings but have you really looked at your pet? I look at each of mine and their nose and paw pads each have individual marking to show who is who. Every ridge, line and wrinkle shows their individual "fingerprint".

Nanook's nose. Notice the tinting even in black and white.

Nanook's paw pad. Older, faded and can be a true give away to activity and age.

August's nose. Some noses has different color to them.

August's paw pad. Not every paw is built the same, but notice her excessive hair. I trim up all of their pads but her's grows very rapidly since her breed was bred for cold icy conditions. 

Kodak's nose. One solid color but the shape is very large compared to the others. 

Kodak's paw pad. Pretty typical paw but if you compare it to the others it is very spaced out between pads. 

Dublin's nose. Very petite and one solid color. 

Dublin's paw pad. Almost cub like. 

You can have 10 dogs of the same breed/age lined up in a row and you can tell them apart all by their features. Just like a mom can tell her her twins apart, a pet parent can tell their pet from others buy their "fingerprint" and don't that limit you to their nose and paw pads seeing your pets has a very distinctive personality as well!

How Our Dogs Party

So Travis turned 25 this past weekend and our pups love party time! When it's party time that means it's "keep the dogs busy" time while we have guests over ha ha. 

The pack woke Daddy up when open mouths and lots of kisses!

Of course we snapped a few group photos before the gathering. 

What keeps a dog busy for hours? BONES! Here's Kodak gnawing away.

Nanook loves beef bones but we paid the price fort this treat a little later on. 

Dublin was tasting a piece of everyone's bone. She tended to trade bones every 5 minutes or so just to make sure she had the BEST tasting bone ha ha. 

August was real content with her femur bone. 

As a treat fro Travis's birthday we bought a mini keg and the first few pumps gave nothing but foam so the dogs enjoyed drinking a bit of beer on their own. 

August got a little toasty ha ha. They LOVE alcohol but rarely get it since their livers are more vulnerable than humans. Good things come in moderation!

This pack was pooped even the day after the party!

Dublin tried to snag a few of the party snacks the next day as I tried to enjoy them myself. She loves to Creep. 

Poor Nanook had a bit of loose bloody stool come Monday morning from those bones and was asking to go outside every 2 hours or so. With a little but of TLC, some rice, Greek yogurt and boiled chicken it cleared right up and he's back to normal!

Now THAT'S how Pups Party!