Chalk Coloured Puppies

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law Ashley was over with her puppy for a puppy-play date. 

We sent my DH out for Blizzards, reeses peanut butter cup, and in the meanwhile, we got board. 

The idea sparked that we should colour our puppies! But how! 

A little while earlier I had seen Pet Grooming: The Good, the Band, and the Furry colour a puppy and she used chalk! So, I pulled out the chalk and we went all out. 

Mind the terrible pictures, low light and figidity dogs = not my BFF

Caper got a green tail and a green back

Rosey had her white spots turned purple

Daisy got some some pink highlights

How did we do it?

1. Soak Chalk. 

Do soak it for as long as she suggests. We only soaked for like three minutes - because we were impatient, but wait the full ten so the chalk gets all soft and easy to use! 

2. Rub on dog fur. 

Not as easy as it looks for the more frigidity. Daisy stayed still, Caper loathed me. 

3. Spray with a light dusting of hair spray. 

We didn't spray Rosey because of her sensitive skin (Boston Terrier, you know) 

and she lost almost all of her colour

4. Let them run wild. 

Daisy's lasted the longest.

Caper had a hint of green in her tail for a while

Black and White Sunday

I wish I could say this is one of the easiest posts of the week, but its not. I have SOOO many beautiful pictures of my babies, it's so hard. Easter was just another long weekend, so nothing themed! Well, the pics came from today and their visit to my in-laws! 

Black & White Sunday

These two puppies miss their Cousin! 

Snow Puppies

Long haired small dogs = A SNOW NIGHTMARE! 

Why? 

The picture speaks a thousand words. We were probably 2/3 through our walk at the dog park when I had to pick her up and carry her back. I had picked her up a few times and broken the snowballs off her belly, but alas, no avail. She had no coat on that day, but her coat wouldn't have prevented the issue. 

Poor little havanese. 

Her poodle brother doesn't have this problem because we cut his coat right down. :) 

he just gets cold now. 

So what did we do? WE WENT TO THE PET STORE!

And found her something more practical. 

A PUPPY TURTLENECK SWEATER

Today we tested it out. 

Verdit --- slightly better option.

But she still got snow up on the bottom half of her legs and on the far end of her belly.

They did have a long underwear style sweater... that might have been better. 

I think she might have to rock her muttlucks! 

Especially if we continue to have this horrible, but beautiful, wet snow. It's been like a foot of snow in the past day or so... such a surprise after spring-like weather for most of January/February

Daisy's Hormones

We should have taken the health insurance offer from the SPCA when we adopted Daisy.

I knew we had a problem because she was 3 years 6 months when we got her and she wasn't house trained. But I shrugged it off. There were lots of changes going on in her life. 

It's been 3 months, and the accidents aren't getting better. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes during the day. Sometimes it looks like she was headed outside, but then, she just went. And, I've never seen it happen, but I THINK it's Daisy. I'm 95% sure it is. 

The boarder where we take our dogs suggested that Daisy drinks WAY LOTS of water. 

She suggested we take her to the vet. We trusted her. 

I hummed and hawwed. And then I woke up to pee stains on my bedroom carpet and the vet was being called. Brought her in the next day. 

***

She's lost a little weight. She's on the slim side the vet explains.

Oh Uh. 

As a shih tzu cross she is prone to kidney failure.

Awesome. 

We'll just do a blood work up to check and see whats going on. 

Okay. 

It could just be that she has a weak sphynctor. 

Oh, and I guess you can't teach your dog to do kegels. 

Or maybe she's anatomically built weird, like an extra large vagina which pools urine and it just releases. 

Oh F**k. I hope not. 

***

Anyways, after an anxious 8 hours, the vet finally called back with the results: NORMAL

Sweet. 

But, because it might be her sphnctory hormones.

Expensive hormones because the cheaper ones she says not the safest for my dog. 

Okay. I trust.

Now, twice a day hormones. And then one half a pill every week. 

The joys of having a furbaby.

Update: Success. It's been working.

Less accidents. 

On her follow up appt the Doctor suggested I get her dewormed since she shows an abnormailty in her bloodwork that is linked to having a weakness to worms... awesome...

Winter Dog Care????

I was going to wait till another day to post this.
But it snowed like a lot last night.
I feel so underprepared. My dogs coats aren't made.
They don't have booties. And they aren't loving the snow at all!

The snow has fallen.

Now, how do I take care of my puppies?

The First Thing I've done in prep is taken them to the groomers.

I had their paws trimmed.

From what I hear, I'm going to have to be careful of their paws getting frost bite and ice clumps, and of the deicing chemicals on the roads when I take them for walk. 

The Second thing I'm working on is dog jackets.

My boarder suggested coats for when it gets REALLY cold and windy. 

At what temperature should my dogs where there coats?

anyone have any advice on winterizing their dogs?

The Third thing I'm thinking about is dog booties.

I've been thinking of making matching ones to their jackets. 

Like this pattern here or this one

Or buying some from Etsy or the Pet Store.

What are your ideas on dog shoes? Do you let your dogs where the shoes?

I'm also seeing some information about balms... 

 Something like this or this one, Mushers Secret

or maybe homemade recipes like this one

The Fourth thing I'm thinking about is house training.

Daisy already has a disadvantage. 

But today, I came home to not one, not two, but 4 puddles on my linoleum. 

This is Capers first winter.

Daisy has already expressed disinterest in snow. 

Puppy Pads? How can I puppy pad train my puppies? 

Check out these Nine Must haves...

And I must remember this post too about small dog care in the winter.