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.

Wordless Wednesday

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Bragging Rights!

Trinity and I have been continuing our training in competition obedience for quite some time. We are coming up on our 4th session in the same class, but don't worry we haven't failed by any means, the class continues on until we are ready for the novice class.

I have seen her grow so much in the last year and a half, not just physical, but behaviorally to. She has gone from an over excited little ball of energy ready to do anything and everything, to a smart, obedient (sometimes she ignores me but she's getting better about that) girl who learns quickly yet still remains full of energy. She's always loved to play and will take any chance she gets to play with another dog, well so I thought, up until last class that is.

 

We have another dog in our class who also is full of energy. He wants to play with the other dogs and attempted to play with Trinity. We were in a sit/stay in heel position when he came right up to her. Guess what she did? Nothing, absolutely nothing. She never moved an inch, not even to adjust her front feet. I was so proud of her, she got a lot of chicken and praise from me.

By the end of class she was mentally drained, so as our instructor was asking to us I had her lay down. Again, this dog tried to play with her. Now you would think that she would try to play, but no, she shifted her weight and turned her back towards him, as if to say, 'No, this is not play time, it is work time.' Again, I was such a proud momma, stuffing my baby's face with chicken. She deserved it! As we walked out I was on cloud nine, so I told everyone about it.

To think, back a few weeks ago she would have gladly accepted his invitation to play. But she didn't and all our hard work is paying off. I'm so proud of my girl. She's growing up!

Zach's Company Picnic

We had a wonderful time at Zach's company picnic. We had lobster and I found some new animal friends. Except for the lobster. He is not my friend. I always enjoy this time of year.

Trinity's Swimming Style

Due to popular demand here is a video of Trinity swimming.

We hope you enjoy your weekend swimming just like Trinity did!

Trinity Get's a New Collar

I decided last month to buy a new summer collar for Trinity. I already bought a collar & leash from Sirius Republic for Christmas, but I decided she needed another one to add to the collection. I looked on the Sirius website again and again for a cute new collar that reflects her personality. I looked and looked but ultimately decided that, although they have great ethics involving rescue, their prices are getting just to expensive. Don't get me wrong, they make beautiful collars, but I also wanted to try something new. A Heartbeat at my Feet wrote a post about another made-in-the-U.S collar company called, Collar Mania. So I decided to give them a try. I looked at their website and man, do they have so many choices! I saw a really cool Tardis one but the collar could only be in a 2" and I thought that would be to large for Miss. Trinity. So, again, I looked and looked, and looked one more time before finally decided to go with a beautiful multicolored star collar. Collar Mania also has a feature to add a satin lining, for FREE!!! Being someone who loves free s*%# I opted for the fuchsia color. I also decided on a 1 1/2" martingale (her Sirius collar is a 1"). Boy did I pick right. It is gorgeous, the hardware is durable and they have a small D ring on the side for tags (so no more getting her leash stuck on the rubit!). They delivered my collar in the time they said they would. I was very happy when it arrived, as was Trinity!

This dog loves the back of the couch. She's still not allowed on it but, were working on that.

So by my estimation The Spoiled One gets a new collar approximately every 3 months. But, I love this collar. I even bought it on sale twice. I picked the pattern from the sale section and then received a 20% moving sale discount. Score! Thanks to Collar Mania for feeding into my collar addiction!

*Trinity's Love was in no way paid to do this product review. We are not affiliated with Collar Mania in any way (except as buyers). We just love to shop and blog ;)

Happy Independence Day

Trinity swam while celebrating our countries independence. We love this day. Now we need to watch The Patriot!!!

Something is in the Water

If their is something in the water, Trinity will get it.

"Oh look! It's a thingamagiga."

"I will get it out for you."

"All done. Oh, wait, what was that?"

I like to think she thinks like Ariel would. I hope you swam just as much as Trinity did this weekend!

Strut Your Mutt

On Saturday we went to the 12th annual Strut Your Mutt event. The event was sponsored by the North Attleboro Animal Shelter and proceeds went to the shelter for all of the cute-as-can-be pups and cats that are waiting for there forever homes. We did not walk in the dogathon and mostly what we did was window shop with some buying of raffle tickets. Trinity was very nervous at the beginning and started foaming at the mouth while doing her 'I'm not to sure about all of this' jumping on me. But then she calmed down and walked nicely through the traffic and even posed for the cameras. We had a lot of fun, hopefully now we can go to bigger events now that I know she wont be to nervous.

"I'm always the way I want to be!"

Eating At Restaurant's With Dogs

I always like to bring Trinity with us places and since I've been reading the Take Paws blog I am have been thinking about more places to take her. This year I want to be able to take her on a mini vacation to see how she does in a hotel or cottage. But if she wants to go with us she needs to be well behaved at a restaurant. Here in New England their are not many places for dog's to eat outside. I always read others blogs and how they have outdoor seating at a pet friendly restaurant. Then I get jealous that we don't have many here. But I have found some and on Thursday before our class we went to Panera Bread to eat where they have an outside seating area. She was very good. She only barked once and it was more of a 'I'm nervous about this please reassure me it's ok being here.' bark. Which we did, we gave her a lot of treats for lying down and being silent. She just watched other people walk by while she continued to lay down. I was very happy she didn't want to meet every person who walked by, especially kids, she loves kids.

On Friday we went to a surf & turf car hop restaurant where they have picnic benches to sit at. Once more she was very good. She was more concerned with what we were eating than the other people around us. This time she barked at the birds for a few times, but then stopped after they were done mocking her.

A few more times of doing this and she will be ready for a real restaurant.

Dog-E-Glow Testing

A month ago I had signed Trinity up to be a product tester for Dog-E-Glow. We were testing out a collar and leash in the pink plaid. I had not taken any pictures of them because I had it only for a few weeks before the collar stopped lighting up on me. I sent it back and it returned to me yesterday. Unfortunately one weekend to late. I wanted to use it during the holiday weekend. But all is good because this time we got the stars & stripes collar. I am super happy with this because I love to have holiday wear for her. I had bought her a summer collar at the end of the season last year but she doesn't have an American Flag type collar. It's really nice and lights up red. Now she has a pink light up leash and a red light up collar. She won't match, but hey, she doesn't need to impress anyone. She's super cute without accessory's!

I had to tuck back all her fur!

"This is my good side!"

Close up!

I really like that it lights up so I can find her now when she's running around in the dark. It will make it easier to know where she is when we go in Zach's parents pool area in the dark. On Saturday it was very hard to find her while we were watching a movie outside. But that will change with this collar, all I have to do is look for the bright red light!

We Love To Swim Now!

I have said before that I am very nervous about bringing Trinity off leash while on walks. Luckily Zach's parents live on 7 acres of land where we can go for a walk without worrying about anyone coming up to us or distracting her from coming to recalls. I am very glad to share that she (maybe me) have made some progress with off leash work. We brought Trinity down to the river on there property and she had a blast running around and eventually swam. Here's a very adorable video of our experience, enjoy!

A Trip to the Vet= More Antibiotics

Trinity had a Doctors appointment this week. I was very excited to get her another rabies vaccine, she lost her 2011 tag at my in-laws back in December. I was also ready to get it over with because Trinity hates shots & the people who give them to her.

"I'm not so brave sometimes. But don't tell the squirrels that!"

 She had some blood drawn to check for heart worms, lyme disease & anaplasma. She did not like that they held her paw & she said "That really really hurt!" because she backed up while they were taking the blood. Then she wouldn't go near the vet tech later on. She then was climbing on me while I was sitting on the chair.

"Next time I'm gonna bring my Auntie Lady. She'll scare them away for me!"

Then the Vet came in. He admired her "Beautiful blue tinged eyes." that apparently are "Very unique." (I hadn't even noticed that). He said she's at a perfect weight (55lbs) and won't grow much anymore so we should take her off of puppy food. He also likes her back legs and said that they are 'nice and strong'.

"I'm such a big girl!"

Well, here's the bad news. While she is negative for heart worms (yay!) she is possibly, positive for Lyme disease & anaplasma. I knew those ticks were bad, but I never thought she would get this! But the good news is that, it is curable. So, now she is on antibiotics for a month to treat these diseases. In her short life she's been on 3 courses of antibiotics. But I'm glad that she had the test and will be treated so she can heal fast!

"That still wont stop me from driving to the woods."

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Summer Activities

Now that the summer has passed and fall is here in New England. I want to share some things that Trinity, Zach & I have done during the hot summer months.

In May we went to our Niece/Goddaughter's birthday party in western Mass. She turned the big 3! Isn't she cute? Apparently I never got a good picture of Trinity.

In June she got spayed. This was her still waking up from being under anesthesia.

 July started our swimming lessons for Trinity. Zach's parents put in an in ground pool to much of all of our delight.  Trinity had to be carried in by her Uncle Matt. She did get the hang of swimming and learned where the exit was very fast!

After she got out of the pool, she was very wet and shook off vigorously. My niece & nephew call her 'porcupine dog'!

In May we started puppy kindergarten at Master Peace. She graduated in July.

In August we went to the beach with her cousin & Auntie Lisa. I searched for awhile for a beach to take the pup to. Unfortunately all of the beaches on the RI coast all prohibit dogs. But I did find one beach in Plymouth, MA that lets dogs on the beach. It was also much cheaper for parking & a lot less crowded than in RI. Trinity really enjoyed herself on the beach. It was also my nephew's first time at a real beach! Next year Trin & I will bring my niece!

We went on many walks in the woods this summer. Zach had a vacation and we all went for a nice long HOT walk in the woods!

She also has had MANY play dates with her Aunt Lady, cousin Calypso , and her late cousin Jewles.

Trinity & Lady after a long play session

Calypso came over our house one night

Trinity & Jewles drying off after a dip in the lake

As you can see, we have been bringing Trinity everywhere and anywhere we can. We want her to be comfortable around many situations. She still has some progress to make, but in the 8 months we have had her she has progressed so much. We look forward to bringing Trinity on some fun trips this summer.