Hoppy Easter

Hoping the Easter Bunny was good to everyone!

Here are some more embarrassing pictures to brighten your day!

Hailey Bunny - "I can't believe I have to do this?"

Happy Easter - Hailey

Emma - "I hope my dad gets home soon. He never makes me dress up like this!"

Bagheera

Baggy: "Remember I may look like a cute bunny but I could kill you in your sleep!"

Getting Ready for Easter - The Chicks

Baggy says thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes.  He had a great day.

Now on to Easter

The one thing we hate about holidays is that the Lady uses this as an opportunity to take embarrassing pictures of us.

Here is the first round of our 2013 Easter Pictures: The Chick Edition!

Nin - too embarrassed to show his face

Raging Nin

Hailey Chick clearly wondering when this will be over

Phod - Happy to do anything to make Lady happy!

Feline Friday - Happy Birthday Baggy!

It is a very Good Friday indeed. Today we celebrate our Baggy's 18th birthday.

Our Lady says that there were some times that she didn't think Baggy would live this long. Like when he was young and ate a magnet and had to have that removed from his intestine. Our 2 years ago when he was diagnosed with kidney disease. But here we are with a cat who is happier then he has ever been. 

Happy 18th Birthday Baggy. 

Baggy, snuggling for love with the Lady

Flyball

Thank you for all your comments. Lady is feeling much better and is now trying to catch up on the life she missed while sick. Today is also the last day Emma is here without Uncle Chris. He is back and coming over for Easter tonight. We are sure we will miss her.

Ok, now to our post.

The Lady got this bright idea that it would be nice to be in an activity for the end of winter. Looking at her schedule and the school schedule, she decided to put us (Lee and Phod) in flyball. Well, really she thought Phod would love this and Lee could go along so she wouldn't destroy the house when home alone.

As you regular readers will know, we missed the first class because someone had kennel cough.  The next obstacle was getting Phody into the car. He is taking a pill called Cerenia to help with his motion sickness. He hasn't thrown up the 2 times he has tried it but either it or the stress of the car is giving him diarrhea (once in the car, the other time not in the car). However, he is happier to go in the car and doesn't have to be forced.

Our Lady didn't blog about our first class because she was too embarrassed with our behaviour. We were too excited to really focus. We really wanted to play with the other dogs, but the teacher won't let us. She says in competitions you can't play, so in her class you can't play. Our Lady wonders if this is a little strict for an introductory class where most won't go on to compete, but she tries to keep us away from potential friends.

Lady says we were much better the second class, but both need to work on waiting.   She is very impressed with how well we both due when it is our turn to go. We can both be very focused then. Here is Phod showing off his mad skills working on turning.

Our biggest challenges which we will be working on over the weekend are when the ball is introduced. Zaphod loves the ball and doesn't want to drop it and Hailey will chase the ball, but doesn't care to pick it up.  Practice will hopefully help!


 Our Lady's favourite part about our class - how tired we are after.

Have a good one

Wordless Wednesday - Hailey and Nin

Tasty Tuesday - Emma and Lee

What does a girl need to do to get on her blog?

For the most part Emma has continued to do well with her house training but there have been a few exceptions. First, last week when I had the plague (or really bad cold or flu thingy) I knew the dogs were not getting enough exercise. However, I did not have the strength to provide it. I also needed them to be quiet so I could rest. I gave them each a hoof (which allows for hours and hours of content chewing by all parties). The problem being that each hoof was filled with treat that had wheat. The next day Emma had a bit of a set back. On the plus side, it did help confirm my belief she should be wheat free.

Something looks good over here.

Then we made the startling discovery that Emma has been getting into the cat area. Here, not only is she eating the cat's food but she is enjoy the smorgasbord that is the litter. We are monitoring her to prevent this from happening. 

While I do love Emma, I am looking forward to being a 2 dog house as of the weekend:)  The house may seem boring then, but that is what I want!

Note from Hailey: Dear Blogville, my Lady is very mean since she got over the plague and has not been letting me blog or visit blogs as often as I want. She says the next 2 weeks will be "bumpy" as she has 2 big work projects, but she hopes to find some time to let us visit you all. 

Let's just have a little taste over here . . . I can't be being bad as Lady is taking pictures and not scolding! 

Mischief Monday - Zaphod

Answer to yesterday's teaser (and Phod is very embarrassed that we are sharing this): Phod was that happy after he licked himself for about 3 minutes. The people in the house thought this was very funny. [Clearly they need to get a life].

Mischief of the week goes to Zaphod. Last week when the Lady was fitting a horrible virus the Man brought back from Cuba, he started wandering away. It isn't really a run away as he often is going slow. Sometimes when Lady is calling him back, he looks at her, smiles and keeps going. He doesn't go too far (to the neighbours or the bush behind the house). He comes back after about 15 minutes. But this is a habit that is stressing the Lady out. He tends to only do it with her and not with the Man. So Lady is taking some of his off leash privileges away.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Guess Why I am so Happy?

I will tell you the answer tomorrow!

Happy Sunday!

Feline Friday

Nin is in the bag again!

Emma and her poop update

After writing about Emma's poop problem, we decided to change her diet. The past few months our dogs have been on a grain free food. Since I have taken gluten out of my diet and feel 1000% times better, I wondered if it would help my dogs. So we switched Emma to grain free food and within 3 days, she was only pooping 3 times a day. Half the amount and she is not peeing nearly as much (meaning hardly any accidents).

While our dogs have been on grain free food, I still allow them to have some treats with grain in it. Neither have shown any signs of sensitivity so I think it is fine for them. However, for Emma, given her  issues, I have purchased grain free treats as well. 

The other change is we are limiting her access to rope toys. We have discovered that she eats the rope and that upsets her stomach.

We will see if these changes continue.

PS: Zaphod is a gentleman and always let's Emma win with the rope. He is very gentle with her and it is very sweet.

Wordless Wednesday - Emma and Zaphod

WE GOT MAIL!

We have never gotten parcels before so imagine how thrilled we were on Monday when we had not one, not two, but THREE waiting for us! It was such an exciting day!

We didn't even know where to begin, so we let the Man open his first.

The Man opening

Us waiting to see what he got

Look how happy he is with his gift! 

Here is his gift!

Thank you Mollie, you did a great job at cartooning us!

Next it was our turn. We started with the Mollie box. To find great products go visit Mollie and Alfie's shop at: http://www.molliesdogtreats.co.uk/,

Here is Zaphod checking the box out

Now it is Hailey's turn

Here is the new squirrel

Here all the other cool treats and toys. Most of which Lady put away for later. We get to keep out the squirrel and the pig. We love the pig. Lady and Man have to keep putting it together. 

Look at this stylish poop bag carrier. We will look smashing at the park.

Thanks again Mollie, for the great stuff. We will talk about the other things once the mean Lady let's us have them. 

On to parcel number 3 . . .

What is in this one?

Look it is a great book! Can't wait for Lady to read it to us!

Our book is the prize we won from Susie and Bite's guess our weight contest. We look forward to reading it!

We were so busy with our mail and toys we hardly had time for mischief last night!

Mischief Monday - Lee edition

Lee had 2 moments of mischief yesterday.

"Where did this come from?"
"What's up here?"

1) Although this cupboard has been in this place in our house with the same stuff on it for over 7 months, Hailey noticed it for the first time yesterday afternoon. This caused her to jump around and bark and bark. She particularly barked at the head on top.

2) Around 11:30 last night she started to bark and bark and bark. The Lady was sleeping but the Man was up. The Man's solution was to yell, "stop barking", which actually just disturbed the Lady more. Her barking also upset the 2 other dogs who started to bark. The Lady has been hoping for one full night's sleep without the dogs waking her up, and she guesses that is not happening.

Today is the last day of winter. We are getting a big storm starting tonight! We say the weather is causing mischief too!

Houston do we have a poop problem?

Sleeping Emma

As we have been getting to know Emma better and as she has settled into the routine of our house, we have noticed something. This dog poops a lot. And by a lot, I mean 5-6 times a day. At first I thought it was because she had too many treats or because she wasn't use to eating just 2 times a day or because she wasn't in the routine, so we cut treats to next to none. Still all this poop.

We have had 4 dogs in our lives, 2 small ones and 2 big ones. Loki, Gemini and Hailey generally pooped/poop 2 times a day. Zaphod usually goes 3 times. After surveying my dog owning friends their ranges were 1-3 times.

This had led me to conclude 6 is probably too many. This has also made me think that perhaps she has some sort of food sensitivity. I do know that a Greenie (a favourite treat in our house) really upsets her tummy, so we are avoiding those. I know many of you have pets with food sensitivities, so here is our question to you:

How did you figure it out? What do you feed them?


Thanks!

Pips and Puddles Appreciation Day

To celebrate please visit http://dachsieswithmoxie.blogspot.ca

Lady says we are honoured to be asked to participate in this event.

I think she is just happy to have a break from talking about us:)

Winter be gone and updates

As we say goodbye to the last of winter! 

I like this off leash training, but do you really have to take all those pictures, it is cold out here. Look I am standing on 3 legs! 

I am being as cute as I can be, can we go in yet?

I guess we might as well watch the sunset if we have to be out here. 

Other updates:
1) Our Nin seems to be eating more again. For some reason he doesn't like his soft food, but likes Baggy's, so our Lady is letting him eat that.

2) Phod's cough is gone and he seems to be feeling better. It didn't get too bad and knock on wood, neither of us girls seem to have gotten it.

3) Emma is staying with us until Easter. Uncle Chris is on an assignment or something until then.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Our Gemini would have turned 8 on Sunday, so I dedicate this Wordless Wednesday to her memory.

Celebrating our Week

To celebrate the end of the long week alone our Lady is presenting us with awards.

How can something so cute and little be so much work!

Dog who was the least amount of work: Hailey (Lady wanted to faint when she realized this). Lee is never the least amount of work, but this week she was a dream dog.

Dog who made interrupted sleep the most: Emma

Dog we felt the sorriest for: Zaphod - it is not his fault that he gets so car sick or got kennel cough

Pet who is causing the most worry: Nin - he has not been eating very much the last few days.

Easiest overall pet: Baggy

Things we learned this week:

• 3 dogs is way too many - 2 is the right amount
• Lady never wants another puppy again (she had said that before but this really reminded her)
• Our vet was right, even with the kennel cough vaccine you can still get it
• Phod has a great memory to remember how much he hates the car
• Sometimes things you think will make your life easier make it harder
• The Lady can walk the 3 of us for about 25 minutes
• A king sized bed is not big enough for one adult and 3 dogs
• Lady gained a better appreciation for the single parent life with real or fur kids 

Thank you all for your comments and ideas, we haven't been letting our Lady answer them:)

Aunt K give me love, don't blog

PS. Phod is feeling much better. He isn't coughing and neither of the other 2 seem to have caught it. However, Emma had a touch of an upset stomach . . . always something.

When the Man got home last night, he scared Emma and she peed all over the bed. Lady really loved cleaning up pee when she wanted to be sleeping. Man came back with a cold and is cranky.

Lady does have to admit this was a better week then last time the Man and Uncle Chris went away. That time, Gemi died. No one died, so it is better.

Looking forward to a few quieter days!

Mischief Monday - You don't need a nap

Look at my little face - I can't be that much of a bother!

The Setting:

Sunday afternoon - a very tired Lady in need of a nap.

Her mistake:

Inviting the dogs to nap with her.

The mischief:

First all 3 start to wrestle on her. Now the Lady is happy that we are all playing nicely, but she really wants to sleep and have us wrestle at a later time.

After all the wrestling - Emma asks to go out! [we have had some progress on this front, some accidents, but she is now starting to ask - Sunday she asked 7 times and did her business outside 9/10 times]. While Lady is thrilled that she is asking, she is not thrilled to be getting up from her nap.

After the outing, round 2 of wrestling.

Lady tries to convince us to settle, but we don't.

After a bit, Emma asks to go out again. Lady is happy and annoyed. Emma goes out and looks at her. Lady realizes Emma has asked purely for attention.

They come back in and since it has been 30 minutes since Lady tried to start her nap, she puts Emma in the crate, takes the other 2 to the room and after a few minutes of whining, Emma settles and she gets her nap.


The next setting:
2 am and 3:30 am.

Her mistake:
Having toys for us to chew

The mischief:
Emma ate some rope toy and what looks like a rock (Lady has no idea where Emma found the rock) and was up throwing up in the night. And of course then peeing on the floor. Emma seems in fine spirits this morning, so no cause for concern.
Lady wonders why we don't want her to sleep. Today was her only early morning all week, which sucks enough thanks to the time change. 

Lady is really looking forward to going to work today. She loves us all, but she is looking forward to a few dog free hours. She also should be home in time for a nap . . . .

Black and White Sunday

I think maybe I am a cat person - by the Lady

First, I would like to say, I do love my dogs very much, but this week has made me appreciate the simplicity of my senior cats more.

It is not that the dogs have been really bad, it is just they have been exhausting.

To catch you all up on how things have been going:

Wednesday night:

10:37 pm - gun fire in the neighbourhood. Woke me up and freaked Miss Lee right out! She was terrified. I had to get out of bed and force her back. We were able to settle back down within 20 minutes.

Thursday:

Camp day for the girls. Hailey was not a happy camper. She was freakin' out all the way there, and while we were waiting to check in. I felt so bad. She did not have fun. She was very happy to be home at the end of the day.

We had mild success with Emma's house training and more importantly Phod didn't have any accidents while I was at work.

Didn't work on car training to give Phod a break to see if this would help. 

10:20pm was our gun fire time . . .took more time to get Lee to settle this time. Spent the night in a dog sandwich Lee asleep on one side of my legs, Phod and Emma asleep on other side. Phod actually slept with me much of the night. At one point, he and Emma were all curled up together, it was very cute and I wish I had a camera.

Look how cute we are, we are worth the work!

Friday:

Work at home day.

Not a good day for house training. Have discovered Emma will pee a little outside and then come in and pee some more. However, we will celebrate she did ask to go out 3 times. This is an improvement.

Car training: Every few hours take the dogs out and try and get Phod in the car. Have been able to get him to put his front feet in the car.

In the afternoon, hear Phod coughing. Realize I have heard this hack a few times over the past few days. It originally started when he had a hoof. I had assumed he had a little piece stuck because that is what is sounds like. Think maybe this is more serious, so google "kennel cough" and hear the exact cough.

Swear - a lot - like a sailor. Know my vet is at work today (because a friend had texted and asked for his info and then said she had an appointment that evening), so I call him. Stars align and he is at his desk. Describe the situation (because I have a dog who is terrified of the car and is sick . . .) he says sounds like kennel cough, his guess a virus. I am picking up some drugs that may or may not help, but won't hurt tomorrow. I have been told as long as he is eating not to be too stressed about it. I have to watch the other dogs. We are to stay away from others, so that means we can't go to flyball tomorrow. Hopefully we can join the class week 2 or we are out , a lot of $. 

So camp, which was suppose to make my life easier, made it much harder.

Saturday:

We didn't hear gun fire last night, so that is good. But it could be because we had to have the humidifier running for Phod. Spend the night in a Lee/Emma sandwich, am woken at 5 am to Emma trying to get back on the bed. I had missed her getting off and it was too late she had done her business all over the floor. Decide to clean it up in the hour when I have to get up anyway! Get up, clean it up, clean up the spot coughed until he threw up a little [I must say I expect him to be coughing more with this, he doesn't cough too much but when he does it is crazy sounding. However, we may be at the "it might get worse yet" phase.]

Can't wait to see what else life brings today. I am leaving all 3 at home as I have to go and see a client. I have a few errands to run and I am bringing Aunt C out for a sleepover. It will be nice to have the support.

Is this week over yet?

Feline Friday

Ok, it is not the best picture because I was laughing too hard and Nin wouldn't stay still.

I wonder what it says as pet owner when my poor cat was in distress and my first thought (because it was not life threatening) was to photograph it!

Happy Friday!

Nin wearing a bag!

Update on how it is going

Tuesday was pretty good. I was at home so that helped. I gave the gang hooves [See attached pictures] for the afternoon so got to work in peace! I spent my evening working more on house training with Emma. She refused to pee outside and I knew she had to so we played the, in the crate for 15 minutes, and then outside of 5 minutes. We played this game for over 1.5 hours before she peed.

Wednesday morning went something like this: Got Emma to pee and poop outside! Emma will  now eating a whole meal at meal time with some supervision (mostly to make sure Hailey doesn't push her out of the way). Got myself and everyone ready to go to camp.  Got the girls loaded in the car. Tried to get Phod loaded in the car. Finally lift my 60 lb boy in and close the door. Since he is not harnessed, by the time I get to the front door he is there ready to lunge out. He then went and hid in the corner of the garage and shakes. I looked at him and the car and then said "Phod, do you want to stay home?" and he raced to the house door. So I  set him up in the crate. I had booked a longer day out then he is use to because I had assumed he would be at camp. I then drove to town with a stressed out Lee because Phod is not with her, feeling like a horrible "mom" to have left my boy at home.

Left the girls at camp. Went to work. Went back and pick them up. Emma loved attention from the staff and Hailey was shy and didn't play much. Got them into the car, Lee searching the car for Phod and drove home worried about my boy who has been alone for too long. Upon arriving home I left the girls in the car and  raced into the house to free my boy, only to find him standing at the door waiting for me. The latch on the side door of the crate was not done up and he must have squeezed out. There was a pee on the floor which I cleaned up and while I was cleaning it up, Emma peed on the floor (even after we had just been outside for like 10 minutes - but it was her only accident yesterday so this is progress).

After dinner, and a successful Emma bathroom break, I took Phod for a walk alone to get the mail. I must say how nice it is to have one and not get pulled. Came back and started the car desensitization program. I was able to get Phod to take a cookie off the bumper. That is as close as he would get. I have cancelled camp for him today and will keep working on this car thing. I need to get him in for flyball on Saturday. We will be trying the vet's expensive drug that day.  Maybe if he doesn't get sick he won't hate it so much.

So people ask me "how is it going?" and like all things in life it is good and bad. if Emma peed outside and Phod wold get in the car it would be great.

Note: Found out this morning that my brother in law will be at home for March, so Emma will only be with us for the week. I am assuming he is going to have her come and stay with us in April. That will give him a month to teach her a few things!

Wordless Wedneday - Hailey Bug

Day 1

Note: Our Lady is ok with you all laughing at her. She says she is laughing at herself.

After our morning adventures of Emma getting loose and running away, the Lady's day did get better.

It is 60 km (37 miles) to where the Lady was working today. We got to go in the car too because Lady was taking us to day camp! Lee was so excited she sang the whole way. Phod was not excited and threw up the whole way. Emma slept the whole way.

We finally get there (it took forever, it felt like 87 years) and as soon as the Lady put the car into park, Phod came bouncing over the seats to stand on her lap. Phod had been sick. Phod had stood in it. Phod put puke foot prints on Lady's coat and her pants. Then when he kept out the door he knocked the papers she needed to register us into camp on the ground and she had to chase them. [As our Lady is typing this, she thinks people are going to think we are making this up, but this is true]. Since the girls were secure in the car, the Lady took Phod in first.

The next adventure is checking him in. You see, the Lady didn't bring all his vaccine info and was missing one. So before they would take Phod they had to call the clinic to assure he had his shots. This caused confusion because he was under the rescues name and not his own . . . . Fortunately they did have them.  Against his will, Phod was dragged into the day camp.

Emma, helping write the blog

When the Lady had called to make our reservations in Pet Smart Doggie Day Camp, she did not realize she was calling the U.S. She couldn't figure out why the girl kept calling him Zedaphod until she checked him in. When she spelt his name she spelt it Canadian Z=zed not Z=zee, so when the person heard "Z=zed" they wrote Zed. We laughed at our American friends. So many people (even in Canada) have trouble with his name. Maybe HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy should be required school reading.

Next were the girls. Hailey was pleased to go to the back, Emma whined and carried on. A semi-guilty Lady then left and went to work where the first order of business was to try and remove the puke foot print.

Lady shouldn't feel too guilty because we had a good time.

"Hailey, what do you want Lady to write about camp?"

Emma's report says "She was a tiny bit shy going into the playroom at first but with some reassurance and cuddles she warmed up quickly and played with Daisy, Lidan and hung our with Oreo."

Hailey and Zedaphod (teeheehee)'s says "Zedaphod warmed up very quickly and was meeting new dogs in no time. Hailey preferred to stay quietly on the side lines but did get the chance to say hello."  Talking to the staff, apparently Phod's new BFF is Otis who he played with until he collapsed and Lee would only play with Phod. She can be shy in these situations even when she is happy to be there.

The ride home was quieter. Phod threw up some more. Lee got stressed when it was dark. Dinner was good and we had a fairly quiet evening, most likely because they are all very, very tired! The only catch to the evening was Emma wouldn't/won't go lay down alone. She has to be on or beside the Lady. This presented some challenges, but we hope to work through those.


Today will be different as Lady is working at home all day. We slept until 6:30 (yay!). When the Lady went to take us out, 7 deer were on the road in front of the house, so we went out back. 2/3 have pooped outside and one inside, even though Lady took her out alone for like 10 minutes and just stood there. We will keep working on it.

Mischief Monday

Last week was full of mischief:)  Our Lady did remain calm and didn't want to kill us.

Recap of the highlights:

Off leash training

Monday:
Take potatoes off the counter and rip the bag up - no damage to the spuds.

Tuesday:
Nothing, other than growl at the new bed our people got.

Wednesday:
Do really well at off leash training until we are just about to go in the house and then take off. For the first 15 minutes we just ran around the valley and hills behind our house. Our Lady calmly tried to catch up. First we would go up the mountain and she would climb up and then we would run down. She tried to tackle Lee. At this point Phod went back to the house with her and Lady got the leash and went out after Lee. Lee was no where to be seen but since there was lots of snow (we got another foot or so on Wednesday), she tried to track her. Unfortunately Lee went into the Valley where no creature had gone this winter. The snow was waist deep on Lady, making it hard to track. As Lady was turning around to find a trail, about 200 meters away she heard a familiar panting. A very happy Lee had returned. They climbed back up the mountain to the house. Both were exhausted after. Lady decided off leash training was on hold.

We are acting out a heart shape here

Thursday:
Get into the recycling (which the people have finally got smart enough about and moved to a place we can never get it)
Poop and Pee on the floor.

Friday:
Nothing, but the man put Phod in the crate to reduce the change.

Saturday:
Lee peed in her dog bed.

Sunday: Emma caused mischief cause she is not house broken, but nothing major.

Today: Emma got loose and started down the quiet road we live on. Of course it was commute time so one of the 6 people who lives on the road was coming. She almost got hit. Lady had Lee on leash. Phod followed. We made it to the last house on the road before Lady was able to tackle Emma. So she had to carry Emma, with Lee on leash with the neighbours dog trying to play. Phod had taken a detour to the lake. We all made it back safe and sound but Lady was a little frustrated. All this happened the 30 minutes before the man left. She says it is going to be a very, very long week.

Our house in the woods

We will try and get into more mischief this week, but we are in camp several days so it will be harder.