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!

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!!!

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!"

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!

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.

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!

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 ;)

Pitty Post Day: On BSL and Why It Makes Me Angry

 Happy Birthday to Corbin from, Oh, Corbin. Here is my post for the Blogville Pitty Post Day!

Imagine one day you’re sitting on your couch enjoying a nice evening with your family. You hear a knock on the door and its animal control demanding to see your dog. Your pup comes out of the living room to greet the new stranger with his tail wagging furiously. The man takes one look at him and tells you to surrender your dog to him.

“Why?” you ask.

He replies with “Your dog is deemed dangerous by the court of (insert your state here).

“But my dog has never done anything to anyone. He has earned his CGC, I’ve had him for many years, and he even lets the kids ride him like a horse!”, you tell him this, with a shocked look on your  face.

The officer states the facts, “It’s the courts ruling and I must take any dog that looks like a Pitbull.”

You attempt to reason with the man, “My dog is not a ‘Pitbull’. There is no such thing as a breed called ‘Pitbull’. He is an American Staffordshire Terrier mix and like a child to me. Please do not take my baby!” The man does not care and grabs your petrified dog from you. You yell and scream, demanding for him to return your baby to you, but your shouts are unheard from the man who then places your child in the back of his truck. This is the very last time you see his wonderful face that has now turned into fear. You and your family cry uncontrollably as you know you will never see your first born again.

The seen I portrayed is not uncommon and in many areas there have been court rulings to ban Pitbull type dogs. This bothers me very much because a court can rule, not just bully breeds, but any breed it deems ‘unsafe for the public’. They can say that Trinity looks like an Airedale and they are ‘dangerous’ so therefore I must surrender her to the animal control officer. The words ‘over my dead body’ come into my head when thinking of this. My pets are my children and I would sell my home & re-route my life to keep my children safe and with me. In my mind there is no better place for them but with me. I am also bothered by this because Zach and I do plan on having another dog. What happens if we fall in love with a dog that resembles a Pitbull? What if they deem my new dog ‘dangerous to society’ and ban them in my town? I am lucky that there is no BSL in my town, but there are many BSL laws in surrounding towns.

I feel that it us up to us dog loving, unbiased people to over turn these laws. We fight for many rights in our country so why can we not fight for all dogs rights. Pitbulls are not a danger to society and any dog can be rehabilitated to become a loving family member. Take a look at the V-Dogs, of all the dogs pulled from this horrible dog fighting ring only 1 dog has been people aggressive, but will be living out her life at Best friends animal sanctuary, not a bad deal considering the horror these dogs faced in there lives. Education is also a key factor and many people only know what is being shown to them on T.V or on the internet. I try to over turn these stereotypes whenever possible. So please do the same because they could be coming for your dog-child to.

I Think I See A Pattern...

I have a confession... I love black & white and Tri-colored animals. I have written before what my qualifications were when I was looking for a puppy and how she had to be black. But I have realized what I really love is the contrast of colors in the animal. Here are a few animals I have not mentioned or have briefly mentioned before on the blog that have captured my heart.

These two are the very first animals I had.
The cat was Charles Black and White George Gregory, Jr aka Junior and yes that was his full name.  He was my step-mom's cat who was a year older than me and passed away at 14yrs old.
The dog was Akira and the very first dog I ever loved. She was a Black Lab/Keshound mix and was a very hyperactive dog.

This was Misty and my big momma kitty. She was one of the outside cats that came around Zach's parents house a few years ago. She was the most loveable outside cat I ever meet.

Here are a few of the kittens that I loved.

Rufus, she is a girl.

Beautiful Annabell.

Lazy Dusty.

I always joke that I will most likely have black & white or Tri-colored animals in my life. Every time I see a cat or dog I like on petfinder.com, it usually has contrasting colors in its coat. But who knows maybe my next pet's color will be completely different and surprise everyone, even me.

What about you? Do you have a pattern when it comes to what you like in a pet? Or do you like to spice it up and have something completely different?

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!

High Energy Dogs and Why I Love Them

I love a high energy dog. I know, your probably asking your self, why? Well, the reason that is, is cause they are so eager to train. They want to be with you all the time and doing things with you. Having a high energy dog makes you get outside and play or take a walk. Plus, being high energy, they enjoy being with you. I love the fact that once Trinity gets really hyper it means it's time to go outside and play fetch or go for a nice long walk in the woods. Which means I exercise, which I do not enjoy doing unless it's fun for me and I think it's fun training her. I once told someone what type of dog she was (at least my best approximation) they said, "Wow, two hyper breeds." "Yes, she is hyper and we do a lot of things together to burn off her energy", I replied. I love to put her with my niece and nephew sometimes because she looks at them like, 'I don't know what your saying but it must be fun cause your really excited about it!' Which makes her excited therefor she runs around like a wild maniac.

"I so tired after running around all day."

So, my next dog needs to match Trinity's hyperactive personality. Plus I want to do agility with him/her because someone won't do it with me. I wonder who that could be??

Proper Dog Socialization or How Trinity Would Be The Perfect Foster Sister

Proper socialization is very important for everyone. Whether you have 4 legs or 2, we all need to interact with things that are out of our comfort zone. Dog's, in my opinion, are very high on the scale of proper socialization. They need to be desensitized to be around all types of things such people, animals and especially dogs.

Trinity playing with all her friends at our training center

 I was very lucky to have such a well socialized dog. Trinity loves all types of dogs and people. Of course it does help that she had a great dog mommy to show her how to do this. Although she still enjoys chasing her kitty sisters. But I understand that not all dogs are as perfect as my baby is (I'm a little biased). An incident that happened over the weekend really got me thinking about this.

She loves to play!

Zach and I went over his parents house and our friend came over with his small dog, Pancake. My father-in-law's dog, Lady, was adopted after living with her 8 siblings in foster care for 4 months with out being with their mom. Unfortunately, Lady doesn't have very good social skills and dislikes new people and dogs coming into her home. Which caused a problem when Pancake came over. She ended up getting out of the house and pounced on him scaring the crap out of him and my nephew. I was inside with my niece and all I heard was yelping and people yelling.  Lady's quite a fat large dog and doesn't understand that is not the way to greet other dogs. Trinity, on the other hand, knows that to greet others you have to smell them and then if they like you, a play bow is the way you initiate play time. You don't just force your way on to another dog.

She's got an 'only child syndrome'. (Sirius Republic collar shout out!)

But I do know that it's not all the dog's fault. As their parents we need to train them, socialize them and if need be, to desensitize them to things that cause them to be scared or react. So I ask myself. What happens if I had not taken Trinity to puppy kindergarten? Or allow her to play with all types of dogs at the dog park? Would she still be a wonderful dog whom has wonderful doggie social skills? She still has many things to work on, but that's nothing training can't fix. I feel confident that Trinity would be an awesome foster sibling (bucket list here I come!) and would be ok with having another dog in the house. Even though Trinity's ok with it I still have to convince Zach, er??

"I like to socialize with my Auntie!"

I do know that when you adopt a dog not all are perfectly socialized. So, how do you work with your dog? Did they come well socialized or did you work on their issues?

Positive Training

I am a person who believes all pets are a part of the family. I call my animals my children, 'the girls' and sometimes I refer to Trinity as 'the baby'. I also believe that, like all children, they need to be raised appropriately. They need to know right from wrong, and for dogs, how to behave politely in public. As the parents we need to teach them this.

"What? Your my parents?"

 When we first adopted Trinity  I was watching a lot of 'The Dog Whisperer' on the National Geographic channel. I was amazed how these dogs reacted to him and the behavioral methods that were done with them. Caesar trains the 'alpha' way and treats dogs as wolves in a pack. I attempted these methods with Trinity and they just did not work. I also re-examined my thoughts on my animals and thought 'if I believe that dogs are a part of our family why am I treating her like a dog'. That may come off as strange to some people, but dogs were trained to work with humans to do human tasks. We breed them to help us do hard tasks to make our daily lives easier and as a result dogs have bonded with us like no other species has. Even monkey's, who are supposed to be our closes species, do not even bond with us the way that dog's do. 'Dog's Decoded' showed us this. I also wanted Trinity to enjoy her training with me and not be scared into doing commands.

"Training's tough!"

I have now gone in a different direction with our training. We are a 'positive training' family, with minimal punishment. She goes in the bathroom for a few seconds (literally) when she's done something wrong, I saw this method on an episode of  'It's me or the dog'. We clicker train and have been doing positive training at Masterpeace. This has advanced our training and she loves positive feed back from us and lots of treats! I have been doing much more bonding with her this way and follow Zak George on You Tube. He has tons of positive training methods that involve bonding with your dog as the primary way to train. I also have subscribed to Pamela Johnson who is also on You Tube. She teaches freestyle methods to have fun with your dog.

"Mommy even made me do a trick before I ate my birthday cake!"

I know that everyone has a different way of training. I believe if we can train our dogs with love and bond with them in the process it makes ours and the dogs lives better. But remember training takes time, consistency, patience, and love!

"My mommy and daddy are the best! I love them!"