Rainy days = destruction

Rain in our house means no walk.
No walks = two VERY energetic pups.

For the past 3 days in Sydney it has rained non-stop day to night. Unfortunately this also means no walks for our boys (esp since Gus HATES getting his feet wet). While we’ve taken them out the front of our town house to a patch of bark garden to relieve themselves (in case they haven’t gone by themselves in the backyard), the really haven’t had a decent walk or run.

I now understand why some silly people surrender dogs for being too ‘energetic’ and destroying things in the house – but fail to realise that this is what dogs do without proper exercise.

First – we lost an Ikea Catalogue (that was being used as a door stop). Fairly understandable. Ikea Catalogues don’t make great door stops, as they make better ‘rip and tear’ toys.

Second – very muddy floors due to muddy outside paws. Also understandable.

Leaving the house for an hour and having the dogs rat through the garbage to pull out the baking paper from the previous nights chicken roast dinner – scattering it ALL over the kitchen and carpet – tearing it to shreds and putting grease and fat all over the floors?….. ….. No words describe that scenario.

I’ll just wait for the sunny days.

More Mischief from Ludo

Email i just got from Ash to let me know what the boys have been up to:

So I’m upstairs working and I hear this… *scratch scratch scratch* sound from downstairs. It’s not something I’ve heard before, so after a moment I turn around and Gus is at the top of the stairs looking at me, as if to say ‘It’s not me!’

“Where is your brother hmmm?” I say

I get up and walk down stairs, poke my head over the banister and…

Ludo is nowhere to be found. I wait, because surely he’ll appear any moment.

But he doesn’t. So I walk down stairs and as I enter the kitchen he’s standing near the fridge, looks at me, and starts wagging his. Something ever so slightly suspicious in his demeanor, like he expected me to do or say something, but didn’t.

The sound reminded me of the metal brackets on the bottom of the skirting board around the kitchen, so I assumed he must be been scraping at some food lost nearby. But I couldn’t find any anywhere I looked. Ah well, he was probably just playing with something, case solved! Back upstairs to work.

Half an hour later, I hear the *scratch scratch scratch* again. And then again. I stop, turn around. Gus looks at me, “Not me!!”

I get up slowly and creep silently to the edge of the stairs.

*scratch scratch scratch*

I tread lightly down, looking over the banister to the lounge room, but he’s nowhere to be found.

*scratch scratch scratch*

Taking a few more steps down I look over to the kitchen and there — there he is, paws outstretched, on his back legs and reaching as high to the sky as his tiny body allows, scratching at one of the kitchen cupboards. No… not at the cupboard, _above_ it, reaching with all his might to what’s on top of the cupboard, to what’s above it on the kitchen bench.

The defrosting chicken necks!

Not only this, but just as I bend my head over the banister I see his mouth grab the edge of the plastic bag which is just lightly hanging over the edge of the bench, and before he can pull the whole thing down to the floor I boom out “No!!”

He drops down and hurriedly runs over to me, tail wagging furiously, not only because I told him off for doing something he shouldn’t, but I think he knew it was something he shouldn’t be doing to begin with. That look in his stance the first time I went downstairs — he thought he had got away with it!

Little rascal!

Can you dig it? I’ve got two that can!

Gus and Ludo have discovered ‘digging’.

Started with Ludo one weekend, outside, in the rain, creating his own mud puddle and having a great time. Luckily Gus, who doesn’t like rain or having wet paws decided to come upstairs and tell on his brother.

I know he can PHYSICALLY talk – but believe me, he came upstairs with a certain look that said “Hey Ma, you might want to see what my brother is up too!”

I did find him digging and didn’t have the camera handy – so this is how he looked POST crime…

LOOK AT HIS FEET!!

Do you still love me??

Check out the mud on the window!!

 

…. and in the last few days – Gus AND ludo have both created a new hole in the back of the garden. grrrr

AND they bring their muddy clumps of dirt into the house and carpet to chew on. Delightful treasures.

Gus’s got a beauty spot

This is Gus as a wee pup,

and then this morning:

Admittedly this is a terrible photo – taken in the dark, after a walk in the rain. So he’s rather soaked. He’s also wondering where the hell his treat is.

BUT you can clearly notice that he has a beauty spot on his left check!

I’ll have to try and get a better ‘non- soaked’ photo up….

 

New pet? Prepare for the unusual changes.

If you’ve been thinking about getting a pet, choosing a breed, a name, a breeder, a colour, what types of pet products you’ll need – how you’re going to “dog proof” your home. Don’t forget about the OTHER changes that will most likely change as well.

We certainly considered all of the above, plus the usual – how will we train them, yes we will have to pick up poo, yes we’ll have to go walking regardless of how miserable and cold it is..etc etc

BUT THERE ARE OTHERS!! Below are just a few that we’ve noticed:

• Floors will stay clean for less than 2 hours after you clean them.
• Items you leave on the floor WILL have a 90% increased chance of being chewed.
• If you work from home, you will have them lying on the floor next to you..more often distracting you.
• Instead of cuddling ones partner, you’ll cuddle a puppy instead (beware this one.)
• You’ll start talking to yourself (well at the dog/s) when you go to do things. “OOoh, let’s go to the fridge and see what yummy food there is” (even if it’s your snack).
• You’ll find yourself looking for them when they are asleep.
• Doggy ‘dream barks’ will pull at your heart strings.
• You’ll also find yourself looking for them if they are being noisy in another room.
• If you have wooden floors, expect to see the addition of some dog hair tumble weeds rolling around the place.

And the most impressive point on the list:

• You and your partner will discuss the intricacies of dog poo as if it were a fine wine.

How much, what it was like, how you should adapt their food, how many you got on a walk… the list never ends.

And I wouldn’t swap it for anything.

Pet Expo – “Oh no! You’re dogs are fat!”

Sydney had it’s Pet Expo on over the weekend. Naturally I went along to have a sticky beak on all things ‘pet’. I also couldn’t help but have a pat with all the cute puppies and dogs from all the different breeds. This is where, when I started having  a chat with the ‘cavie’ society, that I got a serious telling off…

I should back up ever so slightly, firstly, I’ve been battling with Ash, telling him our puppies certanly ARE looking chubby. And if you can recall last week – I posted the ‘battle’ over food I usually have with Ash. (http://www.facebook.com/YoursDroolly)

“Argument with MOTH goes like this.. MOTH: But what if they get hungry later??? ME: Your encouraging them to binge eat. Stop wasting food and making them fat. MOTH: But they have a shorter digestive tract than us so they will get hungry. ME: Yes, but they don’t need more food! (MOTH then confesses that he fed them a snack at lunch because they ‘looked hungry’). *BANG* <- that’s me hitting my head against the fridge in frustration. “

My two – if you compare Gus’s ‘top view’ above, are certainly getting into the ‘Over weight’ section. Surprise surprise when I weighted them at the local Pet Barn. 12Kg and 13.3kg! You fat little porkies. -They should be more like 10kg max. (This and all the health side effects I’m already aware of by the way. Keep to get them less chubby).

So when I was discussing this with the woman at the expo stand, I unsurprisingly got quite the talking down too.

Her: “Oh those poor things, What a strain on their hearts! You don’t want them to have heart problems! How would you feel if you got diabetes or heart problems!”

Me: Oh Gus was born with one.

Her: Oh no! They need MUCH less food and no treats and certainly more exercise.

Me: They do get walked twice a day already.

Her: That’s good, well less food for certain. More veggies!

Me: They only get 1/2 cup of kibble and a small bit of fresh meat and veggies.

Her: Okay, that’s good. Well no treats! All these guys (dogs) get is one small treat (nail size) and only for doing something good! (shows me the most depressing looking treats in the world)

Me: hmmm- very interesting.

From there I somehow managed to escape with my tail between my legs. Discussing it at home I have got him to cut down on the treats. Halving biscuits and treats where possible.

 

New Muff Pup for Gus

So this isn’t really a real post, but I bought Gus a new ‘Muff pup’ toy. I bought him the LARGE size, since he absolutely LOVES his Medium size one.

When I say ‘loves’, I meant ‘bonks it to death almost every night’. I’m not exaggerating here either. He’s quite addicted now if you recall. So every night, usually as we’re just finishing dinner, he’ll head over to his bed, drag his muff pup to him and give it a good rogering. Last week he fell over mid bonk and kept going. If that’s not quality comedy I’m not sure what is.

Only we felt bad, he’s grown out of ‘medium sized muff pup’ and could do with a larger size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we get him large size muff pup.. and he’s not interested.

Doesn’t have that ‘need to be bonked’ smell obviously…

 

New tricks

Ashton has taught our boys a new trick while i’ve been away. Since he works from home so often- typing away on his computer-he’s got the boys their own chairs.

See with having 2 dogs, brothers, if you have one on your lap then the other one looks up at you longingly to be brought up as well. So then you swap dogs- and the reverse happens.

So Ash has taught them to jump up on the swivel chair so they can be the same height as him.

I was cleaning in there yesterday and heard the chair squeak and swivel around almost 180 degrees. Gus had jumped up all by himself. (think fat cat swiveling around in his evil chair and you have something close to what happened). Too funny.

Oh .. And then they chew the chair next to it…

And then taking over the chair…

Mischief n mayhem

Mischief and mayhem struck again this morning. Carpet up- as much destruction as possible.

First Hair Cut

 

We have finally bit the postman and taken our puppies to the dog groomers.By no means a cheap operation when you have more than one dog, but we do think it was worth it.

When Ash went to pick them up – the Groomer said they were such lovely, well behaved puppies that if we’d been 5 minutes later, she would have taken them home. Awww, shucks. (Bet she says that to ALL the puppies)

BEFORE

GUS:                                                                                          LUDO:

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER

 

 

“I’m so cute now…

Lying on the floor…LIKE A BOSS”                            “We got given cute little ribbon bow ties and black bandanas!”

 

“Iz look like a bandit now!”

 

FYI- WordPress and editing photos really sux – so I apologies for the layout. It looked WAY better in my own head.