Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Caption This #6

There is nothing more tempting to Benny than a nice big bowl of Cheerios with some sliced bananas.  Can’t wait to read your captions.  You can leave them in the comments.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Caption This #1

I thought it would be fun to do a little something different and play a little game of “Caption This” on the blog.  Each week, I will post a photo and I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks should be the photo’s caption.

I thought we could kick things off with this picture of Henry, Benjamin & Luna eyeing Luna’s birthday cake.  Henry is the one with his tongue out and Luna is in the middle.

Leave your caption in the comments.  Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Friday, March 2, 2007

Tricks for Treats at Grammy’s

The pugs are very fortunate to have 2 sets of grandparents.  G’Ma & G’Pa live in Maryland while Grammy lives here in Florida just a few doors away.  There are occasions when each pug gets to take a special trip to Grammy’s house right up the street.  Tonight was Henry’s turn.  While the 3 pugs are sometimes all at Grammy’s house at once, it is much more manageable when they go up in singles.  (The fact that Grammy has 4 cats and don’t really have the love of pugs the rest of have also makes it easier when they visit one at a time.)

So, this evening a little errand had to be run to Grammy’s house and Henry really wanted to go.  Henry is definitely the smartest and completely understands the question:  Do you want to go to Grammy’s?  When he was asked this time the answer was no different.  He raced to the door, got hooked to his leash and dragged “his human” straight up the road.  Usually we visit Grammy in daylight hours and use her back door but since it was already dark the front door was the safer entrance.  Henry, known for being a little lazy and enjoying his short cuts, though, still tried to use the rear entrance to Grammy’s.  When he was told to use the other door, Henry immediately changed his path and headed for the correct entry.

Once there, Henry darted to the kitchen where Grammy was waiting.  She had her box of cereal (special Grammy dog treats) nearby just for the king of all pugs.  As soon as he saw the box, Henry sat and went into the down position going back and forth between his 2 “tricks” to see just how many treats he could get.  All the while Grammy was enjoying having the most well behaved of the 3 pugs at her house.  (When any of the 3 pugs are by themselves they each can be the perfect single dog with Henry topping the list.)

Henry was only mostly a good boy at Grammy’s, though.  After getting plenty of Kashi cereal bites, Henry decided to take a nibble into the cats’ food bowls.  Fortunately, Henry also knows the command “leave it” and after being fussed at, Henry laid off the cat chow.  Just when it was time to go home, Grammy pulled out all the stops.  She offered Henry some ham lunch meat.  Whoa!  So, again, Henry goes into sit and down positions while he anxiously awaited more yummy treats.  At the mere smell of the ham, Henry’s eyes almost popped out of his head.  He ate it not even chewing it.  It made Grammy wonder how Henry even knew that he liked it.  Could he even get a taste?

Needless to say, Henry made out like a bandit!  He had a very good day.  Now, if he could figure out how to make a pit stop at Grammy’s every day, he’d be living high on the hog!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Diet

All this talk about food has me wondering,

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

New Treats

With the boys being on such a strict diet, it is very hard to find treats and biscuits that they can eat.  I usually give them a piece of turkey lunch meat or a carrot for a treat, but these treats don’t travel very well.

That’s why I was so excited when I came across Health Pro Luv’a Bones at PETsMART this weekend.  These are biscuit shaped holistic health treats specifically made for dogs.  They have a couple flavors available but I got the boys Roasted Turkey with Sweet Potato.  The treats are made with real turkey, sweet potato, cranberry and squash.  They smell delicious and needless to say the boys love them!

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Blue Gum Bandit

It seems there is someone on the loose in the neighborhood leaving chewed pieces of blue gum strewn about the neighborhood.  For Henry, this is the greatest find on his walks since he came across a trail of cheerios last fall.  It has been a bit frustrating for me because I have pulled at least 7 pieces of gum out of his mouth since Monday.

Both of the boys have done a great job learning the “drop it” command, but when it comes to gum Henry just refuses to drop it.

Hopefully, the blue gum bandit’s bubble will burst soon so our walks can get back to normal.

Friday, January 14, 2005

I don’t give my cat enough credit

Before I get to how devishly smart my cat is, let me give you a little bit more information.

A while back the boys were put on a very strict diet that consists of ground, 99% fat-free turkey, oatmeal, pumpkin and yogurt. Because they are on such a strict diet they rarely get regular dog treats. Instead, they get things like carrots, turkey lunchmeat and other healthy little snacks.

On the rare occasions that I leave the house without the dogs in tow, the dogs spend time in their crate. The routine generally is that I will put on a CD of relaxing music and then tell Benjamin & Henry to “go to bed”. The boys always run straight to their crate because they know they are going to get a treat. Once they are inside the crate, I go to the refrigerator and get them a piece of turkey. Once they eat the lunchmeat I close the crate door and then I am on my way.

Well, the cat is quite fond of the boys’ new diet because she loves turkey. When the dogs were still getting regular dog treats, she would never stir when I told the boys to “go to bed”. Once she realized that they were getting turkey, whenever I said “go to bed” she started running to her food bowl and meowing for a piece of turkey. I gave her a piece of course and this was her routine for awhile. But now she is at the point that if I turn the stereo on to play the relaxing music she will come running from wherever she may have been meowing the whole way. Before I even give the “go to bed” command she knows that I am getting ready to leave the house.

So now, every time I turn on the stereo the cat thinks that she is going to get a treat! I had no idea that she was so observant. It makes me laugh every time and I can’t help but be reminded of Pavlov and his dogs - except that Cupid is a cat and her bell is a stereo.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

A boy and his Kong

Both of the boys love peanut butter, so I occasionally give them a Kong with some peanut butter smeared inside. After I give them the Kong they will spend the next half hour licking it to get all of the peanut butter out. After the peanut butter has been cleaned from the inside, Benjamin has no interest in the Kong itself. Henry, on the other hand, loves to just chew on the rubber Kong. He will chew on it for hours after all the peanut butter has vanished. While he is chewing on the Kong, it makes this horrendous squeaking sound that goes through me like nails on a chalkboard. Since it is something that he really enjoys I try to tune out the sound as best I can and I let him chew it for as long as he wants. He works so hard chewing it that sometimes he chews himself to sleep.

Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Why must you eat everything?

I don’t know about you, but my boys used to pick up everything they came across when they were puppies. They are much better now (or should I say much more selective now) that they are almost 3 years old and have learned the “drop it” command.

Benjamin has come a long way since he was a pup and knows that he isn’t supposed to eat everything that he finds on his walk. He does well resisting most things, but he just can seem to resist picking up mulch.

Henry, on the other hand, may pick up a piece of mulch occasionally, but he generally finds much more interesting items. Here are just some of the things I have had the privilege to pull out of his mouth on our walks over the years:

• Gum
• Rocks
• Popcorn
• Unchewed chicklet
• Chicken wing bone
• Part of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• Cicada
• Bread (left out for birds)
• Cheerios (a whole trail left behind by a toddler in a stroller)
• Rice Chex (I think this was left out for the birds too)
• 5 dollar bill

Now you may be thinking to yourself where do these people live, but I assure you we live in a very nice, and fairly clean neighborhood. Henry just has a knack for finding unusual items.

Since the boys have improved so much it is a laughing matter now, but when they were puppies it was a very frustrating behavior. So if you are thinking that you should have named your puggie “hoover”, have patience. They do seem to get a bit better with age.