Thursday, September 30, 2010

Product Review: Trader Joes Plush Bone Toy

Trader Joes is kind of a cross between your corner store and the grocery store. It's small enough where one can circle the entire store in less than 15 minutes but large enough where they sell raw refrigerated meat that has not expired. Granted they don't carry any of your standard name brands (um, coca cola) except in their liquor aisle, it's a pretty good place to get your groceries. However, they do have this annoying habit of carrying something that you will like a lot only to pull it from their shelves after three months because nobody else likes it (for the love of god, bring back the pad thai mix!!).

They have a fairly small pet section but one day as I was perusing the aisles, I came across this stuffed toy bone.



The dogs have a sordid history with plush animal toys. They like to go for the eyes within the first five minutes and then it's over. I figured we should try this since it didn't resemble any living creation. (Yes, I firmly believe that plush animals resemble living creatures.) In addition, the exterior of the bone was made of 100% wool.

So what else did Barksdale do, but try to skin the thing.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Product Review: Bumi Toy

I purchased the Bumi toy purely based on its shaped. Having gone through four sets of rubber rings, I was determined to find something that would last longer. In addition, it is eco friendly, 100% recyclable, and billed as extremely durable.



Ender loved it. He would fling it in the air and let it fly. Barksdale unfortunately slowly nibbled away at it until it broke.



The makers of the Bumi offer a one-time free replacement or refund if the toy breaks. However, if one has to pay for shipping to ship it back, is it really free? hmmm...

Car Dilemna

I am in the market for a new car. Right now, I'm tooling around in my parent's old 1994 Nissan Sentra. Due to parental nagging about driving around in a death trap without any air bags, I have started to proactively look for a new car. The idea of acquiring something else with a monthly payment which rivaled my school loans wasn't all that exciting but I have been wanting a new "household" car to drive the doggies around in. My Nissan isn't exactly the ideal car as I feel that it's too short for Ender to sit comfortably. The bf owns a Volkswagon Rabbit. Although it's only a two-door it is substantially roomier than my Nissan. I attribute it to the magical powers of a hatchback.

So as I started thinking about different cars, I concluded that my dream car was a Honda Element. The number one draw was the ability to hose down the interior. Can I get a hallelujah for easy clean up?

Honda Element


However, I came to realize that I cannot possibly acquire a car with only two doors. So then I started looking at cars similar to the Element which had four doors - the Toyota Scion and the Kia Soul.

Toyota Scion


Kia Soul (Okay, the dancing Hamsters did it for me)


Both had four doors but sadly I couldn't get past the ooglayness and lack of trunk space.

So I have arrived at my new dream car - a Honda CR-V. More specifically a new 2010 Honda CR-V EX 2WD. Now if only I can get someone to sell it to me for $22,000 without any dealer installed accessories. Sigh.

Honda CR-V

Friday, September 24, 2010

Report Card

Report Card for 9/23/10:

"Ender had a blast swimming today, although there was a moment when he first jumped in the bay, he went completely under water and I thought I might have to swim out and save him! Still learning how to swim."

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Report Card

Ender's dog walker leaves a little report card at the end of his walk. It has info such as time dog left, time dog returned, where we walked, energy level, peed? pooped?, and room for additional comments.

Here is what it said for his 9/21/10 walk:

"Ender has a crush on Ursula the Akita (who is new to my group.) He was acting a little bratty today and I think he was trying to show off for her! I have a few pics of them I will post to flickr."

Her caption of the following picture reads:

"Ender just met Ursula the Akita today and he is in love"

Friday, September 10, 2010

Sigh

I think this picture sums up Ender pretty well:



Photo courtesy of Doggy Lama Pet Care. (Who, quite frankly, rock for keeping us as clients.)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Product Review: Zukes Mini Naturals

I am on a constant lookout for bite size treats. Every treat I've come across, I either thought was too large and/or too much work/too messy to make into bite size pieces. Then I found a bag of Zukes Mini Naturals in a store, which are by far the most perfect tiny bite size treats I've ever come across.



These treats are fabulous in many ways. The treat is tiny enough where I can grab a handful and put them in my pocket. In addition, these treats are "wet" as in soft, moist, and most importantly STINKY enough to catch a dogs attention while outside. But at the same time, they aren't moist to the extent of hot dog juice or cheese so they are way cleaner and easier to work with.

These treats come in three flavors: peanut butter, chicken, and salmon.

Our first experience with Zukes wasn't actually all that pleasant. We tried the peanut butter flavor, which of course induced some major barfing from Ender. Not sure what brought that on, might have been too many treats, too much peanut butter, or the fact that Ender was still young.

Then we tried chicken flavor and although Ender ended up being fine with with it, the chicken flavor did not sit well with Barksdale and propelled us into epic poo/barf territory. Again, this might have been that we gave her too many treats, chicken allergy, or her age.

Anyway, as third time's the charm, we are currently using the salmon flavor which seem fine with both dogs. I have yet to find similar treats this size but if anyone knows of any, pass them this way!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Moments

When the bf and I were looking for dogs, we came across several groups that had dogs that we were interested in. Upon reviewing their requirements, we came to the conclusion that the only people that should ever own dogs are really old people or stay at home parents. Okay, maybe telecommuters as well. Oh, and students. (But I'm not sure students qualify as they are often poor.)

Anyway, we are the type of parents who work full time and crate our dogs. (Well, Ender has graduated to hallway space status but Barksdale still got to work on her pee/poo skills before she gets to taste freedom.) Usually I'm fine with that, but there are moments that I wish I didn't miss.

For example, Ender's dog walker took him to the Lake. And he swam. I have been dying, dying to see him swim but I had only felt comfortable letting him do that in a pool. We've taken him to the shoreline but I've never seen him full on swim before. I've also seen him fall into a swimming pool but that was more of a near-drowning moment. And unfortunately it was too cold at the bf's parents to jump in the pool and he wouldn't jump in without us doing it first. Anyway, that's my random thought of the day.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

LOOK AT ME!!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Ender's dog walker once likened us to tree stumps, based on the amount of attention he would give us when we were outside. He generally walks well with no pulling, but game over if he sees a squirrel, cat, dog, or person that looks like they are considering petting him. Then it's the pull, tug, whimper, lunge routine.

First of all, what a shot to the ego when you realize that your dog doesn't give a crap about you. (And that you might be far less interesting than a tree.) Then, complete and utter despair because really, how do you get your dog to pay attention to you when you personally think you are far more interesting than a tree?

His dog walker started us on clicker training and exercises where we would reward him for just looking at us.

Exercise #1:
Hold Treat to Face
Click when Dog looks at Treat (and Face behind Treat)
Treat to Dog
(This was a serious wtf moment, as in..why am I giving my dog a treat for looking at me when uh, he's SUPPOSED to be looking at me?)

Exercise #2:
Hold Treat to Face
Move Treat to Right/Left of Face
Click when Dog Looks at Face, not Treat
Treat to Dog

So after our initial wtf moment, we committed to the clicker training (because hey, we had nothing else) and Ender has gotten better at paying attention to us when we are outside. (Holy Moly, it frickin' works!)

We still have our moments, where he sees the squirrel before I do, before I get a chance to catch his attention. During those times, I literally have to place the treat in his mouth and let him lick it, and then bring the treat up to my eyes before he looks at me. And yes, sometimes that makes me feel like a crack dealer (first hit's for free!) but hey, they must be doing something right if the drug industry has lasted this long.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Product Review: Mendota Slip-Lead

This item is described as a "British Style Slip-Lead Leash and Collar in One." We purchased this on the advice of Ender's dog walker who said this item would give us more control when he started lunging at people.



Do you ever watch earlier episodes of the Dog Whisperer where he uses those $0.25 leashes or turns their regular leash upside down to use, and the leash always stays on the top of the dog's head? This doesn't happen in real life! Or maybe it only happens if you are Cesar Milan.

Anyway, this lead accomplishes that purpose, where it stays high on the dog's head, maximizing your control. There's a little leather tab on the lead which helps to hold the position. It's seriously like magic.

The jury is still out regarding this lead. We normally use a prong collar (I'll save that post for later) and originally Ender's dog walker advised having the Mendota lead for special cases where he jumps, but keeping his prong collar and regular lead as his usual walking attire. At that point, it was just too much stuff going on.

I've actually tried just using the Mendota lead for walks, but I'm not sure that this lead works well for Ender. Although the lead is extremely well made, the fact that the lead is shaped like a rope makes it harder to hold onto. In addition, it just doesn't feel as sturdy as the Planet Dog leash we have. A big part of this is probably mental on my end, but I like to feel secure when I'm walking a giant jumpy dog around the neighborhood.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Dog-Friendly Fashion

There was a moment in my life that I realized that I needed to dress the part for work. This moment occurred, believe it or not, during my internship in grad school. I was also living in Los Angeles at the time, so not having to walk anywhere helped expand my wardrobe options. I must say that my two years in Los Angeles allowed me to rock a fabulous wardrobe. Then I moved back to the Bay Area. That effectively cut many things, the most notable being heels, from my wardrobe. Two dogs later, my wardrobe has significantly downsized again. I had to learn some of these lessons the hard way but, hey now I know.

1. Wool Coats
If I can't put it in a bag, I don't need it. Wool coat = excess baggage.

2. Flip Flops
Ever been stepped on by an 80 pound dog? I have. It hurts like hell.

3. Dresses
Ever try wrangling a dog wearing a short skirt? I think I ended flashing half of Oakland.

4. Heavy Necklace
I prefer to keep all my teeth.

5. Sunscreen
I think I spent two weeks with my face in a slightly sunburned state before I realized, duh, I need to wear sunscreen