Well, it has been 2 weeks now since Grampy gave us his “hand me down” television. It is a doozie of TV. It is so big actually that we had to buy a whole new entertainment center for it. A few weekends ago we went furniture shopping to find something to go in the living room. We hunted all over when we finally landed at IKEA. At IKEA we settled for the “million piece, you assemble at home if you can follow the pictures” model. Between moving the old entertainment center and filling the new one, it took a full 2 weeks to get the living room back in order.
One of the reason we liked this entertainment center so much was that it had a lot of storage. You can see that the cat thought that it was a new bed and play house built just for her. She is always anxious to lend a helping paw.
Now that it all assembled you can see what those drawers are actually used for.
The treats actually are kept in the kitchen.
Yes, almost the whole entertainment center is used for doggy accoutrement. There is a drawer for collars & harnesses, another for leashes and 2 for costumes. Yet another drawer is dedicated to ear cleaner, eye drops, a nail grinder and teeth cleaning products. Goodness gracious, I think the pugs have officially taken over! You would think that Paris Hilton herself lived here and needed the extra “closet space”. On the bright side, everything is now in one central location instead of scattered all over the house in crevices of storage here & there.
You may also notice that we stuck to the pug colored décor. This is always beneficial to limit the showing of dog hair!
As far as the pugs’ opinions, well, they don’t even seem to notice. Benny is a little overwhelmed watching TV with us more so than before. He gets particularly anxious and barky when we watch Greatest American Dog and It’s Me or the Dog. Those now life size pups are a real “threat” to his home. He also isn’t too fond of the Nasonex Bee or the Geico caveman. Those commercials always get a few puffs from him.
Erin wrote in to ask a question about the infamous pug anal glands. Erin’s pug, Marti, used to go in to get her anal glands expressed every few months, but things have gotten a bit worse and Marti has to go in every 2-3 weeks now. Erin was wondering if anyone had any experience with anal gland surgery or any advice they could offer.
I wanted to pose this questions to all of you blog readers because I don’t have much experience on this one. Benjamin, Henry & Luna all do a perfectly good job of expressing their anal glands all on their own which is a blessing and a curse in itself. Another good reason we keep a sheet on the sofa.
Benjamin, Henry & Luna each got baths on Sunday. They were quite smelly so not only did we bathe them but we washed pretty much everything they come in contact with, which meant the house smelled really good on Sunday.
After his bath, Benny always gets fired up and runs around like a wild man. Here is a little video of him running around the living room. At around 16 seconds you will seem him stop and smell under the laundry room door. There is blueberry bread behind that door!
My favorite question that non-pug owners ask me about pugs is, “Do they shed?” I quickly answer YES to that question, but I feel like I can never be emphatic enough. How exactly do you express to someone that doesn’t have a pug just how much that pugs shed?While Benjamin, Henry & Luna shed year round, now is most definitely shedding season and they are all, no doubt, getting rid of excess fur for the summer. You can’t really tell because of the shadows in the picture but the grass is littered with pug fur. This was the result of a quick brushing of each of the pugs and I was shocked at how much fur came off them considering I had just brushed them on Sunday.
Each time I brush them, the same thought runs through my head, “What do people that have a fawn and a black pug do?” How do they cope with the light and dark colored fur? What do you wear? No matter what fur is going to show on something. We have light colored carpet so the pug fur doesn’t tell on us as much in between vacuuming. If I am going somewhere important I never wear black. Black has a great way of highlighting fawn colored pug fur!
The other thing that made me realize just how much pugs shed was buying my first canister vacuum. I never realized how much bagged vacuum cleaners shelter you from the truth. With a canister vacuum, after running the vacuum, all your dirt is right there for you to see. I’ll never forget the first time I ran my Dyson and saw how much pug fur it picked up. I was shocked! I just figured my old vacuum wasn’t doing a very good job, but when I ran the Dyson again the next day and saw the canister filled with pug fur again I was speechless. All this fur came from my house? In just one day? No way!
Luckily, I am not one of those people who can’t stand a little pet fur here or there. I do my best to keep up with it, but I have come to terms with the fact that it is an impossible battle to win.
My tweet about wrinkle cleaning sparked some discussions about cleaning wrinkles in the comments of this week’s Caption This so I thought I would elaborate a bit with today’s post.
Out of the three, Benjamin has the worst wrinkles. His wrinkles are constantly dirty and have to be cleaned daily. If I am really on the ball, I will clean them twice a day, but most of the time they only get cleaned once a day. Henry & Luna on the other hand get their wrinkles wiped out about once a week.
I can’t really say why Benjamin’s wrinkles get so much dirtier than the others. His folds are much deeper than the others so that may have something to do with it. He also always has his head stuck somewhere. In the grass or dirt as he is smelling and he also likes to prop himself up on his head so that he can use both of his front paws to scratch on his pillows (been trying to get a video of this for a long time).
To clean his wrinkles we use malacetic wipes. The vet recommended them to us a few years ago and they seem to work OK. They definitely get the dirt out. We used to get them from our vet in Maryland, but the last few times we have ordered them online. Other than the malacetic wipes we just try and keep Benny’s wrinkles as dry as possible so his folds aren’t a breeding ground for yeast.
Luckily, Benjamin is a good boy about letting me clean his wrinkles. We keep the malacetic wipes in the kitchen, so as soon as I go to get one he follows me into the kitchen and stands next to me gazing up hoping to get a treat. He knows the sound of the wipe container and when I open the container his little tail uncurls. It’s so sad! He doesn’t run away, he just stands there and looks at me like, “Let’s get this over with”. It just breaks my heart. But, he soon forgets all about it when he gets his treat.
What about you? What do you use to clean your pug’s wrinkles? I would love to hear your tips as I am always looking for something to help keep Benny’s face clean.
The morning at the beach was grand (pics coming on Monday) but after we got home it was time to get to some necessary grooming. First up was toenail clipping. This is by far my least favorite thing to do and it surely isn’t high up on the pug’s favorite things list. I clip all their nails (front and back paws) and then I file them down using a dremel. They behave as well as can be expected, but with 3 pugs the whole process just wears on me. I do need to remember not to do Benjamin’s nails last though. He is by far the worst so I need to remember to get him out of the way when I am fresh. Benny has this habit of trying to smack the dremel away from his nails using his free paw. He likes to live on the wild side.
After I cut their nails, I brushed them all in the backyard. I like to brush them before I give them a bath, so as to save the drain from a little bit of their fur. And today they were sandy so the brushing helped to get rid of a lot of that. All of the pugs loved to be brushed and I really enjoy brushing them. It is relaxing. A lot of times when I get off work I will go out and the yard and brush them to unwind a little. I also let the cat out in the yard and brushed her this afternoon. She is a shedding machine!
After brushing, came bath time. Much to his disliking Benny was up first. He was a good boy in the tub, though. Benny was followed by Henry and Henry did great. Little Luna was last and she was by far the dirtiest of the three. I’m not sure why but she is always twice as dirty as Benjamin & Henry.
After that the pups were pooped and so was I. Getting everyone’s nails clipped and getting everyone washed up can take a lot out of you. But, tonight is great because I have three little pugs that all smell like bananas curled up with me on the couch. Their coats are super soft and they look great. Too bad it won’t last too long!
We brush Benjamin, Henry & Luna’s teeth pretty regularly, but I’m afraid not as often as the recommended daily brushing. My gang loves their peanut butter flavored tooth paste but they are not too keen on me moving the brush around in their mouth. Henry is the best at sitting still and letting me brush and it is pretty much a toss up between Benjamin & Luna for the honor of worst tooth brusher. Luna might barely edge Benny out to take the prize because her mouth is so tiny and she just refuses to sit still. I can usually guilt Benny into sitting still for a second or two by using a disappointing tone while saying his name. This always makes him want to try to be a good boy. Luna, on the other hand, sticks to her guns and fights me all the way. If I am lucky, I can work in a tooth brushing about once a week, but I am trying to do better and work my way up to daily brushings.
How about you? Do you brush your pug’s teeth? (I also look forward to your thoughts in the comments.)
