Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Ask Follow Up

Since we had a few good Ask OBP questions, we wanted to finish fielding them before next week when we address the one about our favorite Halloween outfits since we know that will be a full post in itself. So, we will answer questions from Terry pertaining to toys from puppyhood and sleeping in awkward positions. Christie, ever the hygienic pug lady, asked about how often our pugs get a bath. Those will be today's topics.

I will go backward, though. Bath time. Ugh. Yeah, bath time has never been on a set schedule. It was a kind of "as needed" or let's do it this time "before it's needed". The as needed times would come when: Luna would roll in whatever grossness she could find, Benny would pee on Henry or step in his own poop, or when Henry sat for a spell when a nearby sprinkler was watering someone's grass with reclaimed water. In these cases, they all would get a bath. When they were able to avoid mishaps, baths would be about every 3-4 weeks in summer and a little longer than that in cooler months. And of course, we would try to "beat the grease"....you know that feeling that is left on your hand after petting a dog that REALLY needs a bath? Hopefully we never left someone feeling like that. But there may have been a time or two when we waited a day or 2 too long and they were post ripe.

One of the things we did notice was that Luna, the smallest, was ALWAYS the dirtiest by far. Like SO dirty! So much dirtier than the boys. She totally should have gotten a bath easily twice as often as the boys. Henry would typically be next dirtiest and Benny was usually overall the cleanest with most of his dirt on his stinky feet!

Thank you, Christie. I am sure your pugs get the full deal quite often. I mean you had a pug shower created just for them! We tried to use the set tub for baths but that did not work so they just shower where we shower.

Now, Terry. You asked about sleep positions and toys. The sleep one is an interesting one. The pugs, when they were young, would sleep in some seriously awkward positions. As they aged, however, they limited their sleep position to only a few positions all of which seemed more comfortable. And as they each aged, they would no longer be as comfortable on soft pillows, dog beds or even the people bed. Eventually they all preferred the floor. But in their youth, they mostly slept on Henry! He was often the bottom of the pug pile. So, for the others, it may not have seemed uncomfy, but for Henry, always being piled on probably was not always ideal. But they would sleep with their heads hanging off the edge of a bed or sofa, squeezed into a cat bed, on their back like a dead bug or in various other shapes. One of my favorites, which was not staged, is the one of Benny laying on Henry (picture above). Benny was always hugging up to Henry. It's no wonder that Henry misses his bro so much.

As for toys, oh yes, our pugs played with their toys well into their early 10's. After that they really only wanted chewy sticks. But they were quite the tuggers and shakers of fluffy toys.They had a rope toy that had multiple prongs so that they could each pull. A stuffed octopus worked well for tug, too. That one left their peeps some legs too, so that we could all play. Luna liked things that made noise (but of course was particular about the sound) while Henry preferred rubbery toys or stuff just to carry around and Benny, of course, had his favorite puffy. Henry had pool toys that he liked to fetch and this was part of his summer routine until his health and vision started to dwindle (so that was up until he was 11 or so).

That would be a big yes, Terry. The pugs loved their toys beyond just puppy hood. Maybe you have not found the right toy? I can say that one Henry's faves was the paper towel roll. The boys also would do a mean job on a newspaper! Much like children, sometimes the best toys are the simplest.

Thanks everyone! #KeepAsking!