Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Day 125: Charlie butt

I took this photo at the dog park on Saturday and his body is positioned just so that you can't see his body or head! It's just a butt!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Day 124: Lots O Topics

Wow. Lots of inspiration for things to write about tonight...
  • talking to your doggie and keeping it's attention
  • cute and super easy dog recipe
  • Meet The Breeds!
I was walking Charlie a little while ago and notice that I get extremely annoyed when he walks in front of me, pulling the leash. We've had him for 4 months now and he still hasn't perfected "Heel". So I'm trying a different approach. I used to tug the leash and say heel and "reel him in" to walk next to me with a shorter leash. Tonight I decided to just talk to him. To get him more used to hearing my voice and how it changes. I've also been talking to him in a more soothing voice, as opposed to a commanding voice. He IS responding better to the soothing voice! While I was talking to him I was looking down at him and he would glance up and look at me every so often. I talked to him about whatever came to my mind. Basically like I was talking to Mark, except I could talk more! Here are some things you can talk to your dog about:
  • the weather
  • how nice his coat looks on him
  • how short his legs are
  • how abnormally large his paws are for his body size
  • his coloring
  • that cute little thing he does when you wake up in the morning
  • your best and worst of the day
  • what you will have/have had for dinner
I was on Pinterest (CrabbyBlabby) and a super easy dog treat recipe popped up. It's called Cleo's Pumpkin Dog Buscuits and you can find the full story here. It's on a neat recipe blog called Simmer Till Done

I haven't had a chance to make them yet because the only ingredient I have is sea salt, sooooo Charlie boy is just going to have to wait. And this brings me to my next topic: Meet the Breeds.

Meet the Breeds was held at the Javitz Convention Center in Manhattan. There were booths set up with dog treats, dog food, leashes, collars, pamphlets, and the best part, dogs! We bought 3 large bags of treats for him at a bargain price! Mark and I went on the second and last day, Sunday. There were over 150 dog breeds there! We got to pet most of them. At one point, I was standing in a crowd of people, looking at all the chaos and all the dogs and I had a huge smile on my face and I thought to myself, "I am so happy!" Dogs seriously make me so happy, it's ridiculous. And I think there are a lot of people who feel that way.

We talked to one lady who owned 14 (that's FOURTEEN) Irish Wolfhounds. FOURTEEN. "I live in the country." Must be nice to own so many humongous doggies! Oh my gosh they were so beautiful. They might have been my favorite that we saw. But then there were the Chocolate Labs. I go gaga for Chocolates. My most recent dog was a purebred Chocolate Lab. She was our family dog. We got her when I was in 6th grade and she lived a long and glorious 14 years. My parents had to have her put to sleep last year because her hips were so bad she could barely walk and was in pain. When I'm on the phone with my mom I think I hear her coughing in the background sometimes.

Anyway, back to Meet the Breeds, photos below are from the show! Enjoy :)


Gorgeous black and white Great Dane. Soooo beautiful!

The gentile giant, The Mastiff! Think Fang from Harry Potter.

Soft little Beagle. So sweet! He wouldn't look at the camera.

The beautiful Irish Wolfhounds. These were 2 of the 4 they had at the booth. The big gangly one has his head resting on his momma. He's only 9 months old!!
aaaawwwwww lookie the little Chocolate puppies!!

An adorable Pointer.

Can't remember the name of this guy but he was so handsome and huge and gentile!

Can't remember what this guy is but he just had a haircut.
Nice pose lady! Sweet little Bulldogs :) Well, they actually aren't very "little", they're short.

Our very own handsome boy.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Day 118: Beach Day Vay-cay

We took a family trip to a dog beach in Larchmont. It's on the Long Island Sound. The community is so beautiful there and it was the most perfect day: beautiful and breezy and a sunny 70 degrees.

Our day started off at PetCo. We bought food and treats. And I found a really great dog book that I ordered for half the price on Amazon. Mark got it for me for Christmas (Thanks, Honey!). It's called Dog Lover's Daily Companion: 365 Days of Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Living a Rich Life with Your Dog and it's filled with great tips about training, etc... The title really says it all. We spent about an hour in there. Of course, we had to look at all the fish, birds and turtles, guinea pigs, ferrets, mice and rats.

Charlie was pretty good in the car. Before we left the apartment, Mark gave him half a dramamine. We waited a half hour before we left, as is recommended, and he slept nearly the whole way to PetCo. But during the time we spent in PetCo, the medicine wore off. SOOO of course he threw up in the car on the way to the beach. He waited until we had gotten there and parked the car... And he did it on the side of the seat where it meets the door. Yup, right there where all the crevasses are. Mark cleaned it (hesagudbooooooyyyyyyy!!)

There were two areas where there was sand and the tide was really low. The rest of the coast line consisted of huge rocks which we climbed on to get closer to the water. We let Charles off the leash and he was running around on all the rocks and climbing them like a pro! Since he has a low center of gravity, he did really well! He kept trying to drink the water but kept spitting it back out (because it's salt water). A lot of dogs were there, frolicking about. We spent about 4 hours there in total. At first we walked around on the paths and climbed some rocks. Charlie was loving every second of it. We finally walked over to where the actual dog beach was - with sand and everything. Two doggies wouldn't leave him alone. One dog half his size kept yapping at him and trying to mount him! Charles wasn't having any of that. Another dog a little bigger than Charles kept running along side him and trying to push his head under Charlie's chest. Those two dogs were annoying me because I just wanted Charlie to have a good time without getting bullied!

Charlie ran into the water a few times but wouldn't go deeper than he could walk. It was hilarious  I don't think he knows how to swim!

On our way home (it's only a 20 minute drive), Charlie was pretty good. He laid down almost the whole time. Once again, he didn't throw up until Mark was parking the car. Poor pup-pup. I just don't know if he will ever be okay riding...

Anyway, here are the photos from our day out :)

The doggie beach area.

Looking all austere.

Happy Boy.

Family Photo!

Look at those ears flappin' in the wind!!
Leaping into the water for the first time!
All the doggie paw prints.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Day 116: Dogs are smarter than people.

On Friday, Mark was working at night. That meant Charlie would only be home alone for 2.5 hours. I came home to Charles greeting me at the door... He pushed the top of the gate off the wall so the door popped open and got out that way. We are going to move the gate into the hallway more so that he can't pop it open like that. Is it so horrible for him to have to stay in the area we are confining him to?

Oh, he's registered now! He got his new tag in the mail the other day. We're only 3 months behind schedule! It was funny actually, his new tags came the same day my new license came. It's like we're both brand new.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Day 114: People are smarter than dogs.

Mark and Charlie were waiting for me when I got off the train tonight :-) Love those surprises!!

Charlie was acting really weird tonight. He didn't eat his breakfast this morning, so when we went to feed him dinner, his dish was already full. We could hear his gutty-works gargling from across the room! He fell into a slump a few weeks ago and he was depressed for a few days. So maybe he's going through something like that again. It's like every so often, he gets the idea that maybe he can't trust us.

After a few failed attempts at leading him to his food dish, he would not eat. So I got the bright idea to fill his orange toy with his food and he would think he was just playing around and forget that he's anxious and afraid of us. It worked! Got ya Charles!!! I can't just hear him now "Heyyy-nobody-pulls-the-wool-over-my-eyes-and-gets-away-with-it-seee." He will probably get back at us tomorrow by taking a massive dump and tracking it all over the floor.

Here tonight, for all of you to see, the first photos of Charles taken on the new camera! MUCH better quality than my dumb old iPhone.

Handsome Pup with his treat toy

You've got a stray hair on your upper lip, Sire

awwwoooohhhhhhhhh lookit that little pawpawwwwww

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Day 113: Let sleeping dogs lie.

How could I disturb this little guy? Fast asleep (on Marks side), in all his adorable Princely glory. Le sigh.

Day 113: Charlie gets more adorable

Little Boy Charles has started doing the most adorable thing. He nudges things with his nose! I've had other dogs who have done this and have always loved it. I got really excited when he did it the other day for the first time. Ill upload a video of it when I get some good footage with our brand spanking new digital camera!! I've been wanting to get one so that I have higher quality photos to put in the blog (hey, I think it's a great excuse to get one). Also I'm in the process of giving Mark all of my Charlie videos so he can edit them and upload them to Charlie's very own YouTube.com page, so stay-tuned ya'll!

Photos tonight feature Charles sleeping on the couch next to me with his head and paw resting on my leg. My heart just broke a little, thinking about how adorable that was.

Oh and also there is a pic of a restaurant named Charlie Mom. It's Chinese.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Day 112: Charlie has a brother!!

Mark was walking Charlie the other day and a guy passed by who said that he owned a dog that looked just like our Charles. He said that he got his dog, Guinness, from the Yonkers Animal Shelter (which is where we got Charlie from!) and that he got a doggie DNA test for Guinness and that he's part Anatolian Shepherd (which is what we thought!!) mixed with another dog which Mark cannot remember but is an ancient breed. He sent Mark some photos of Guinness and is supposed to be sending a photo of the DNA test. I'll be sure to follow up with him.

Posted below are photos of Guiness.

Guinness has a much furrier face.

SAME body shape! SAME docked tail. Same short legs, both have 22 toes.

Same furry butt, same coat, same coloring, same age.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Day 106: BAD dog!

Charles dearest made a great escape from his gate today and decided to have his way with my favorite shoes. Not only were they the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned, but they aren't made anymore. Oh, bah humbug. He's getting coal in his stocking this year! A great big deserving lump of it. Why I oughtta!!

Guilty dog photo below.


Total Pageviews