June 30, 2013

Monday Mischief: Hold On To Your Pups, People!

We love the Tour de France. And we love dogs. But the two don't mix. Folks who go to watch the Tour should hang on tightly to their pups, lest they cause some brief heart-stopping moments like this which happened on Sunday morning during the 2nd stage of racing:
(Not the best quality as I just videoed it as it played on our TV, but you get the idea - and hopefully they won't mind me showing 10 sec of their coverage - it's a PSA after all!)

That little terrier or whatever he is just misses getting trampled by the peloton, and he probably would have brought down a dozen or so riders. Yikes!

June 28, 2013

June 27, 2013

Mirth Watch Thursday: I Whip My Ears Back and Forth

This is gonna be a quick one cuz I've had one of those annoying days where you have a million things on your to-do list and then slowly but surely they all start becoming super complicated and taking 10X longer than you thought they would. You know those fun kinda days??

Anyway, when I went on YouTube wondering what I could do for Mirth Watch today, my home page had items recommended for me. This was at the top of the list. Oh, YouTube - you know me so well!


June 25, 2013

Wordless Wednesday: Operation - Tired Puppy

My sis was hosting her book club, so asked me to bring Rita over to help tire Reggie out. (Remember when I introduced Reggie - my new nephew?)
"I still have to grow into my ears and my paws."

June 20, 2013

FitDog Friday: The End of K9 Kamp?

Today is the last day of K9 Kamp. :(

Time to lower the flag, roll up the sleeping bag, track all the dirt into the car and head home.

Mirth Watch Thursday: Connected (to the Dog) But Alone

Recently the hubs and I were watching something on TV where they were interviewing Sherry Turkle about her book Alone Together and her TED talk "Connected, But Alone." Turkle is a psychologist and sociologist who talks about how our connection to each other online and via our devices is shaping how we relate and communicate with one another in person.

It got me thinking about Rita, and how when I'm connected to her (out on a leash walk) I often still feel alone...

After all, she's obsessed with checking her pee-mail.
"Says here that Fifi got spayed!"

June 18, 2013

Wordless Wednesday: The Preferred Part of a Pig

A while back I posted about what's the best part of a dog. (I said it's the ears.) In keeping with that "what's the best part" theme, we recently let Rita decide what was the ... well, not best (we only gave her two options) but better part of a pig. I present:

Ear vs. Pizzle
We gave Rita the option of either having a pig's ear or a porky pizzle twist. Would she agree that the ears have it? Or would the pizzle proudly point a path to preference?

It was a tough decision...
"Decisions, decisions. Calculating weight-to-porky-goodness ratio..."

June 16, 2013

The Dog's Not Spoiled . . . Much

Rita turned two on Sunday so we did lots of pigging out celebrating this weekend!

Of course, since we knew we'd be pigging out celebrating a lot, we started both days this week with looong walks. (After all, it's K9 Kamp and we gotta keep Rita in good shape!) Saturday we walked down by the coast for almost an hour and a half. Sunday we stayed in the 'hood and did some 'sploring.
A gorgeous day at the coast.

June 13, 2013

Extra, Extra... Exercise & a Mess o' Followin' Up

It's FitDog Friday as well as Follow-up Friday, so we're (mainly) following up today on how K9 Kamp is going.

Have you been to Peggy's Pet Place and/or Kol’s Notes to enter the giveaway and find out more about K9 Kamp? If you haven't, then get over there. Lots of fun things to win!

So, the K9 Kamp challenge is to work an extra 20 to 30 minutes into your pup's exercise routine 3 or 4 times per week. As I mentioned at the start of kamp, Rita and I walk a lot - about a marathon a week, between a long walk every morning and sometimes another 20 minutes a few nights a week. Adding more time sounded tough, so at first I thought we'd try upping the intensity instead.
A happy-walker makes for a happy-kamper

No Mirth Today - The Worst Walk I Ever Took

I had a very different post planned for our usual Mirth Watch Thursday, but today (Wednesday as I am writing this), I had the worst walk I've ever had with my dog.

Not even sure where to start.

As you know, my friend and I walk with our dogs (Rita, and Rita's best friend, Dakota the boxer) at Fiesta Island (FI) at least 3 days/week. On the weekdays we usually know almost everyone down there. There are a couple of dogs that our dogs don't like, or that don't like our dogs, and we steer clear. Sometimes there's a bit of noise and a skirmish, but no one ever gets bit and it's always fine.

Well, now that school's out and it's summer, there are a lot more people down there. I'm constantly checking out the other dogs and assessing Rita's body language, etc.

We were just about finished up with our walk and had run into another friend who comes to FI pretty much every day with her 4 huskies. At the same time two men (big, older men with big walking sticks) and 3 dogs were coming the other direction. They had a timid puppy with them, and Dakota ran at it showing teeth. Dakota is very good about listening to her mom, but before my friend could even yell "Sit, Stay", the one man raised his walking stick and hit Dakota across the back with it, breaking the stick. (Luckily, he had the smaller of the 2 sticks. The other stick was thicker and could have inflicted some serious damage.)

June 11, 2013

Wordless (ha!) Wednesday: KONG Premium Treats Giveaway

If you've been around a while, you know I have a hard time being wordless... and this is going to be another one of those wordy-Wordless Wed. posts. But hey... you could win stuff!

We were approached by JAKKS Pets, partners with KONG for the KONG Premium Treat line, about doing a review and giveaway. Rita said, "Sign us up!" Momma said, "Hang on... let's read through everything."

Once the Momma found out the treats are USA-made (very important - don't buy treats made in China!) and use good ingredients (all-natural, no animal by-products, and no wheat, corn or soy!) she agreed with Rita.

So, the lovely folks from KONG Premium Treats sent us 3 treats of our choosing to try, and now THREE lucky winners will win the same - a prize pack with 3 fabulous treats:

A prize package with a trio of treats!

June 9, 2013

Is My Dog Dumb, Or Just Not as Bored as I Thought?

... Or is she really, really smart?

Rita is usually fine with just a walk every morning and a bit of play time in the afternoon or evening. The rest of the day, she generally entertains herself checking things out in the yard, napping, and following me around. But she often has this bored-out-of-her-skull expression on her face.
"Ho-hum. Another day. Another 37 naps."

June 7, 2013

Follow-Up Friday: Pupdates on Past Posts

This week Pooch Smooches is very excited to be co-hosting the Follow-Up Friday blog hop along with the hop's originator, Jodi from a Heart Like a Dog. FUF is the blog hop that let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend!

Personally, I like a margarita to lead me right into the weekend, but that will come later... As I post this, it's a little early to start drinking.
Sampson & Delilah from Heart Like a Dog - gorg, right?*

Since this is my first FUF post, I have a lot to catch up on, so we'll go back a little more than a week to wrap up:

June 6, 2013

Mirth Watch Thursday: Should a Mother Read Her Dawgter's Diary?

Yes. She should. And she should share it with everypawdy.

Some (most??) of you have probably already seen this video. If you are like me and on Facebook and mostly have dog-crazy friends there, then you will have definitely seen it. But, I know I have some blog readers who aren't on Facebook, so for that lone person's their benefit I share with you now - Sad Dog Diary. (Note - these are not sad. Does this seem like the kind of blog that would share a sad video?? Angel dog videos notwithstanding...)


As I mentioned, I first saw this on Facebook, but I also saw it on one of my fave blogs - I Still Want More Puppies, wherein we were asked to ponder what our dog's diary entry would be.

June 4, 2013

Wordless Wednesday: Are You Going to Our County Fair...

Okay, sing along with me, to the tune of Simon & Garfunkle's Scarborough Fair

Are you going to our County Fair? Bunnies, dogs, a hydrant of wool....
 
Yep, my sis and I are not only going to the fair, but we entered lovingly hand-crafted bunnies and dogs for the Home & Hobby competitive exhibits. Specifically, we entered "sets" in the needle-felting division. (Oh, no wait - technically it's the needle-felting class, which is within the overarching "Felting" division, which is within the "Needle & Textile Arts" category.) Whatever it is - we want to win.

I've been wanting to enter something for years, and this year we are finally doing it. They wouldn't let us enter together - except for quilts, only one person's name can be on an entry - so we decided to each enter an item (even though we made both of them together). My sis entered our tableau of bunnies: (click on any pics if you want to see them bigger)

June 3, 2013

Monday Mischief: Cats Cookies for People for our Pup

I realize that title probably sounds a little confusing. Let me 'splain. 
Cats Cookies for People! And/or Pups...
About 6 or so months ago, Rita started having these brief episodes of head tremors.