What We Got For Christmas: Leash Silhouettes

Since adopting Trinity we have bought many things for her from custom collars to many types of leashes. For the longest time we have been hanging her things in a bag on our coat hanger. This Christmas I decided that both dogs need their own leash holders for their many accessories. I was looking for something unique and custom fit for both dogs. Rama's mom from Raising Rama posted a picture of her custom made leash hangers from Artisan Metal Shop. All of a sudden I heard angels singing (well maybe not but you get the idea) and I said, 'That's just what I've been looking for!' I decided back in November that those were just the right gifts for the girls for Christmas.

Artisan Metal Shop has many custom made metal art work to choose from. Their dog silhouette options are numerous. Looking through them I noticed that. being my dog's are mixed breeds, the body frames were not exactly what we think their breeds are. It took me a while to figure out which breed best fits thier body frame. For Trinity I decided on the Pointer silhouette and for Kylie I went with the Manchester Terrier silhouette.

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They are very well made, not to heavy and easy to hang. Our house does not have very much room in the entry way so we hung them in the basement hallway. I definitely recommend them for any pet owner.

Snow Dog

Our New England weathers are finally here. We had our first snow storm yesterday and I already hate it. I'm a warm weather girl and hate the temperature dropping below 50 degrees. But guess who does love this stuff...Trinity. She didn't see much snow last year but she absolutely loves it. She made a maze in the backyard with hopping and leaping through the snow.

This is from about an hour into the storm.

Kylie figured if she just plays she will be warmer.

 I decided to hang out the window at 10:30pm to get some cool pictures of the Christmas lights and snow.

Our neighbors flag pole.

Looking up

 This morning Trinity went playing in it while Zach shoveled and Kylie and I rested on the couch.

Attacking the snow

"When you gonna throw this white stuff at me dad?"

Snow dog.

 I stood under the deck to take all these pictures. It was really cold and my feet started to freeze.

Unfortunately the storm rendered us unable to go to our show-and-go at training this morning. The event was still being held but we didn't go. Oh well, there will be plenty more to attend when we don't have a foot of snow to shovel out.

P.S If your wondering why my pictures came out so good. I got a new toy for Christmas. Product review coming soon!

Happy Birthday Trinity!

Today Trinity turns 2 years old! Wow! I can't believe it, it went by so fast. Last year she was a crazy puppy now she's a crazy teenager (I hate saying that, time fly's enough as it is). This year has been wonderful.

8-week old Trinity

 Who would have known 2 years ago that a stray dog would have found a loving home and birth 3 puppies just in the nick of time! I thank God every day for Trinity's mom's family and to know how lucky all four of these dogs are to be here today. It shows me that one act of kindness can go along way.

Trinity, Jackson & Indiana. Three puppies in a basket!

Trinity during the summer. She loves the pool so much!

 Happy Birthday to our little pumpkin! We love you so much!

Our Post-Christmas Blues

We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday! I can't wait to show you what we all got from each other. I'll post something soon but today I must go back to work.

"Huh, is Christmas over yet? My birthday's coming up soon!"

Merry Christmas

We hope you all have a wonderful time this holiday season. 

No matter what you celebrate make sure you spend time with the ones you love.

We wish you a Merry Christmas (cause that's what we celebrate)

from all of us at Trinity's Love!

"And make sure you get lots of gifts. So you can tear the paper up, then spit it out. Cause that's what I do" -Trinity

Bloopers!

Tomorrow we will show you our family's official holiday picture but today you get the behind the scenes of the pictures that did not quite look right on a card. Enjoy!

Setting up the camera

Still setting up the camera

We weren't ready yet

Kylie hopped out of her sweater

My oh-no-im-not-ready-for-the-picture-yet smile

Off center

Kylie really loves her daddy

I thought making a noise would get the dogs to look at the camera.  Trinity didn't know it was coming from me.

Almost there!

 

Trinity Turns Me Into A Liar

At training class yesterday we were working on push up sits. Trinity has had issues with this. She likes to push up her front paws then 'butt scoot' into a sitting position. I tried a few times to get her to sit correctly but it wasn't working without luring her to do it. So, I asked my instructor about how to get her to sit without a treat in my hand. We went over a few ways to get her to do it. But we came to the conclusion that it is a distance problem and that I've been using a verbal command prior to the hand signal (in this exercise you don't use a verbal, just a hand signal). I decided to just use the hand signal and if she didn't do it the first time to use the verbal command so she will begin to anticipate the verbal and she will sit on the hand signal. I started to do this and the first time I signaled to her, she sat, correctly. *face palm*

Yup Miss. Trinity she turns me into a lair. I think she heard what we were talking about and decided to skip the anticipation part and just do it. I wouldn't put it past her. She's to stinking smart!

Wordless Wednesday: Kylie the Anti Santa's Helper

Santa's Little Helper decided to unwrap some of our presents last week. I spent all day friday buying & wrapping presents and on Sunday, Kylie decided she didn't want to wait a week to open the gifts. Apparently she really liked our nephews gifts cause all of his were unwrapped. Of course Trinity really can't resist peer pressure cause she joined in on the action to, which is odd cause she never did that last year. But no pictures from it cause I was really upset by it. So here's a picture of Kylie in her new pajamas!

Kylie Gets Some Training

Trinity an Kylie are both very different dogs not only in breed but personality as well. When we first adopted Trinity I began her training almost as soon as possible. I had a lot of time to train her throughout the day and bring her to class. I loved it and the training world was a big eye opener into how my dog acted.

"If I stand here like this I'm the same size as Trinity!"

Once we adopted Kylie I knew I wanted to train her as soon as possible but unfortunately her illness has prevented us in going to training classes. So for right now I have been attempting to train loose leash walking and very basic obedience. Being a small dog (only 15lbs) I hadn't really attempted to do this with her. I think I did what many owners of small dogs do, slapped a harness on her and let her pull me to where she wanted to go. I never even realized she was doing it half the time because she's so tiny that her pulling is nothing compared to Trinity who is 65lbs. When we first adopted her I told myself that I would not be that small dog owner and let her get away with things that I don't let Trinity get away with. For the most part I had not except the leash walking.

"I'm so small I sometimes think I'm a cat."

So, I decided to go for a walk with her. I did what I had been taught last year and brought my clicker and a handful of treats. I told myself again not to let her pull me and to attempt to get her to walk by my side. I started off by clicking her for looking at me then delivered the treat on my left side. I was so amazed by this. I used to think small dog's were harder to train than large dogs (yes I know how narrow-minded that is). She's doing so well at this. She now knows when she hits the end of the leash she needs to come back to me. I'm working on duration with eye contact and keeping her at my side instead of in front of me. I also love that she takes treats outside on walks. Trinity never did that. She only likes treats given to her in a building or in our backyard this makes walking difficult for us.

"No matter what you think this is very comfortable."

Kylie is doing very well with this. I've been trying my best to walk her when I have a day off from work and when it's not dark and super cold. Where I live there are no street lights and Kylie gets so cold at night. We are going to start basic obedience after the holidays I'm ready to get her going and learn how to train her to her own specific needs.

Have you allowed certain behaviors in one dog and not in the other? Are your dog's training styles different?

Happy Blog-o-versary!

Today is our anniversary of starting our blog! Yay to me for actually continuing with something and not abandoning it after a few months. I have really been enjoying blogging about my animals. It's really cool that people actually follow me and read this (Thanks followers!). I love reading all your blog's as well and seeing about how everyone's lives are different with their dogs but somehow still alike. Some blogs I follow are about dog training, others are about dog fostering and some are about daily lives with their dogs. I get to see how everyones lives are different from geographically where we live, to how we live, weather it be in the city, country or suburbs. Everyones dogs are different, breeds and personalities. We are also different from one another but yet we all have one thing in common, we all love our dogs a lot!

But mostly what I like is blogging about activities I have done with Trinity and seeing how far she has progressed within the last year and a half. I frequently look back at all my blog posts about what we were doing at the time and seeing what has changed about her. I love this time in our lives and I love expressing my thoughts on the blog.

One thing has changed though and that's the addition of Kylie. I look forward to blogging about her and what I have planned for her training. She doesn't know it yet but she will be getting her little behind into training and possibly agility??? I hope so, cause someone doesn't want to do it with me. I'm not naming any names but she's short, fuzzy and has a tri-colored coat. ;)

Thank you again for your continued support as we continue down our strange path we call our lives!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

We hope you all enjoy your halloween and get lots of candy! Be greedy and don't share with your pups. Trinity and Kylie will be trick-or-treating with their cousins.

We Had a Hurricane Come Through

We had a bit of a storm come through our little town in Mass. Well it really wasn't a little storm more like a full scale Category 1 hurricane. Last August we had Irene come through, like the rest of New England, we were out of electricity for four days. We had no water stored up and a ton of food in our fridge. I took showers at my sisters place and we cooked on the grill the whole time. I even resorted to going on our bridge and getting water out of the stream to flush the toilet.

This year I took no chances. I cleaned and filled jugs with good clean water thinking it was going to be like last year, I would procrastinate and we would be left with no water and dishes still in the sink.

Well I prepared a day ahead of time.

Yup lots and lots of water!

Being prepared means eating up all the ice cream in the freezer to make milk shakes!

The storm came through yesterday. We recieved a ton of rain and wind. I didn't go to work but Zach did and ended up coming home early because of loss of power at about noon.

The dogs on patrol.

Our lights flickered on and off through the whole storm but never actually lost electricity for any period of time. We are some of the lucky ones and know that their are still many thousands of people without power. We hope they get it back soon so we all can get back to our regularly scheduled lives.

She went outside for two minuets and was drenched.

 But I had ordered some things off of Amazon like this sweatshirt for Kylie. I thought it was funny that their was a hurricane outside but we were still getting things in the mail. Only in America. Right?

"Aren't I cute??"

"I do not like this hurricane stuff!"

Winning Stuff is Awesome

Last week Badger and Mushroom from Life in 2-Player Mode were having a contest. The prize was for any item off of doggyloot. We won the contest, which is really exciting for me considering I never win anything (well that's a lie. I did win a Christmas cookie jar when I was 10). We decided on the tire balls that light up. Trinity just loves these balls! She chases them all around the house. Zach even named them 'light bally', now whenever he says its name she runs to go get it. She's to smart for her own good sometimes. (I'm really not joking she knows that, I'll take a video of it to prove she knows this.) Here's a nice picture of her with it in her mouth. It's kind of dark but you can still see the light in the ball and Miss. Trinity's expression.

Kylie has no interest in it. She prefers toys and the occasional bone. She also can't get her little mouth around it, poor girl.

Thanks again Badger, Mushroom and Rebelwerwolf for our gift!

The 'Doggy Capturer'

This week I took my niece out for a little girls day. We were driving in the car when we saw a white heating companies van. She thought this was the animal control van and exclaimed, "Oh no. It's the doggy capturer!" I, being the crazy dog aunt I am, asked her what a 'doggy capturer' is. She told me it was a 'guy who go's around stealing dog's'. I decided to take the time to explain to her what the animal control officer actually does, in descriptions a four year old can understand. I said, "He's a person who works for the town picking up dogs and cats that have been lost or no one wanted anymore. Then he brings them to the shelter to be found by thier mom's and dad's or to be adopted into new homes" I have told her about how we should always get our new pets from the animal shelter or rescue group (she calls it the 'rescue shelter') but she didn't seem to understand what it meant by no one wanting an animal anymore. I then told her about how Kylie was found on the side of the road and that someone didn't want her anymore. She said, "No one wanted her anymore? Why would someone not want Kylie anymore?" I decided not to say how crule people can be and that sometimes people do not want to make a lifetime commitment to an animal so it's eisier to drop them off to fend for themselves. I just told her that we need to make sure we love our animals and never give up on them. 

Why would anyone not want this love bug?

It's never to early to educate children on the good and the bad side of animal ownership. I also don't understand why someone would drop off thier dog on the side of the road. All I know is that she's in our family and we will never give up on her. We promise!

Wordless Wednesday

Cookie Dough's new hoodie. Well technically it was for Kylie but its to small (weird, I know) we went to return it but Amazon is letting us keep it because we're prime customers and it would cost to much for them to return it. So now it's Cookie Doughs. I'm sure she hates me right about now : D I guess this isn't a "wordless Wednesday" post. Oh well!

Why Do All The Sick Animals Come To Our House?

 It's been over a two months since we adopted Kylie from P.S I Love You and we have had some health issues with her. The day after we adopted her she started coughing in the middle of the night. She was hacking so much that I panicked and called Zach's brother and dad to go to our house and check on her while I was at work. I was so afraid that she was going to choke to death. She was still coughing so we went to the vet that night for a check up.



The vet wasn't sure what it was and explained to us about her possibly having kennel cough. She sent us home with antibiotics and an order for plenty of TLC. The cough was improving for a week but the next Friday night she was coughing non stop for 15 minuets at a time. So, the next day we brought her back to the vet. The doctor discussed with us the possibility of having lung worm or breathing issues. She told us we could possibly have to do a chest x-ray and a trans-treachial wash of her throat to determine what she had. But we could not do an x-ray that day because she was so nervous that she would have to be restrained down to get it or be sedated which you can't do until shes off antibiotics for 5 days. So we went home with an increase in her antibiotic and a cough suppressant. The cough medicine worked really well. She became more active, she was starting wrestling matches with Trinity and could do it for 10 minuets with out going into a coughing fit. So, we decided not to do the treacheal wash and held off on the X-ray for a few weeks.

She didn't need the cough medicine for a few weeks but last week her coughing became worse and she had one a day. I made an appointment for her on Saturday for a chest X-ray. We saw several things on it. One being a pellet in her muscle on her left side. Where she was dumped in Arkansas people frequently shot dogs for sport. I had hoped she hadn't been there to long to get shot but apparently she had been. It's not hurting her so were going to monitor it for now. It also showed a lot of busy activity in her lung fields. Shes not sure if it is 1) chronic bronchitis 2) athsma or 3) lung worm. We sent the X-ray out to the radiologist for a through examination and see what they suggest we do. But for now we are keeping up with the cough suppressant and monitoring her breathing. I just want her to get better and know what's going on in her little body.

What About Me?

"You focus to much on those dogs. What about me?"

Wordless Wednesday: Creepy Dog

Trinity looks like shes stalking Kylie here. 

Kylie's First Family Outing

Last week we went to Zach's grandpas cornerstone setting ceremony. As I have said before, his grandparents were in a house fire back in January where they lost everything. His grandma was in the hospital for 5 months. But she's one persistent woman, made it through and is home doing wonderfully. Now they have to rebuild their home. The foundation is set and the masons gave his grandpa a plaque to set into it.

I had to get this picture!

This was also an occasion for Kylie, because this was her first time at a family gathering. Trinity has been to many family parties and even was at their house for Christmas last year. I was nervous that Kylie wouldn't react right. She's a little skittish around new situations and I didn't want to overwhelm her with new faces in a new setting. But, of course, she surprised me and did really well. She let people pet her head and didn't try to move away and most importantly didn't growl when someone came near me while I was holding her. She stayed calm throughout the ceremony and only barked once.

Kylie in her 'ascot'. It's just Trinity's bandana that looks huge on her. She looks like a little old lady.

Trinity, on the other hand was a little hyper but laid down and was calm when I needed her to be. But then again she's they hyper one out of the two.

Our first, somewhat, family photo with Kylie!

It was really warm out. Both girls drank plenty of fluids and I kept wetting their bandanas throughout the day. We had a good time seeing our family and our girls enjoyed being apart of the festivities.