My adopted mutt, Charlie: 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!!