Monday, February 27, 2012

I am being shunned...

With the weather as indecisive as it has been we have had snow and freezing tundra type weather followed by sunshine and warmth...which of course means lots of mud!

Even with their short coats the curly tails managed to get quite dirty and the Sock Puppet seemed somewhat itchy last night and today. This bode ill...no good can come off an itchy Shar Pei. So baths were called for.

Now both these dogs do not have even the remotest love for water. Watson is convinced that he will melt on contact and acts like he is being immersed in acid. Menchi will make astounding leaps and contortions to get away from the tub. It's like wrestling an alligator >.<

She managed to escape only once today making a fantastic bound over my head and flying out of the bathroom like the devil was after her. Oh, the joy of chasing a soapy dog around the living room...

I won though they are both washed and sparkly clean...I and the bathroom are soaked...but the dogs are clean!

Watson is quick to forgive...but the pei is shunning me as only a pei can...that is what you get living with dog royalty...

Friday, February 17, 2012

10 things...

So I was roaming around one of my favorite blogs last night: The Pioneer Woman

I go there because I enjoy her recipes and she tells some entertaining stories. Part of her site is dedicated to her basset hound Charlie. Last night I found her post about the 10 important things she loves about her dog. It was a droll and sweet read.

It made me think about some of the things that I love about my dogs that will have a non-pet or non-dog person raise their eyebrows and shake their head.

Ree talks about her dog's smell... I can so totally identify with that. I know my dog's scents and I like their doggy smell. Crazy...to most people probably...but I think to many dog owners a pretty normal thing :)

We are just odd in some ways. Many of us meet even for the first time and the discussion will sooner or later turn to dog food and what everyone is feeding and why, and how good is said food.

Poop is another thing...we watch what comes out the back end just as much as we pay attention to what goes in the front. We analyze what we see visually for color and consistency to ensure that our dogs digestion is on the right track. Not only that, but we feel it is perfectly okay as a topic to discuss in polite company. Gross...probably...but one of the things we do as pet owners to monitor the animal's health.

Often times just the way we talk about our dogs makes normal people look at us a bit funny...even worse when some of them see us talking to our dogs.

That's okay though...I am proud of my crazy. I am even prouder of my dogs :)

Thursday, February 16, 2012

I am troubled...

I have always been a dog person. I wanted nothing more as a kid than my own dog. I have had mutts and pure bred dogs and I have loved them all. I followed this year's Westminster show and got to thinking...

Like anyone in our dog sphere I see things and hear things that are connected with this common interest in dogs. Some of the things I see and hear I find worrisome.

The increasing tendency in some breeds for the show dog to be something so different from say a working member of the breed is a sad thing to me. Is not the ability to do what the breed was created to do paramount to the standard that the dog is supposed to be judged against?

The peke that won Westmister this year looks more like a wobbly hair-sausage than a dog. You can not even see his gait when he moves...how on earth can you judge something you can't observe?

The breed winner in the collie ring is the offspring of a know merle to merle breeding...a breeding that was done with the full knowledge of what the risks to the resulting puppies would be (blindness, deafness, other possible genetic defects, non-viability of puppies). In order to try and breed a stud that the breeder would find desireable.

I am of the strong belief that I should never do anything that betrays the trust of my dogs who depend on me for their lives. It is my responsibility to keep them happy, loved, healthy, fed, and safe.

Should that not still be at the core of things for someone that shows and breeds their dogs? I believe so and I know that the people that I got my puppies from feel that way. So why are there people out there that seem to feel that it is more important to win in the show ring that to safeguard the lives they have taken in their hands?

Don't get me wrong I am so not anti breeder or anti pure bred dogs...but I just can not seem to align some of these things  I see and hear with a love of dogs (or the betterment of the breed in general in some cases).

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Nothing says we missed you like...

So when Sabe and I were in the discussion stages of the plans for our puppies together one of the many things we carefully thought about was the size of the dog(s) in question.

We liked Malamutes a lot... We met several of them and really enjoyed them, but we learned when dealing with Maeve's troubles that a dog that large was not right for us. Maeve was only 50 lbs and we were already having a lot of struggle being able to help her when her rear legs stopped working properly.

Also we wanted to be able to take our dogs when we traveled places and that is easier with smaller rather than larger dogs.

That being decided I still wanted a dog that is a little more solid and not tiny and petite. We settled on the around 30 lbs range.

We are now learning that there is one drawback (at least for Sabe) to the size of dog we ended up with... The Curly Tails are just the right height that when they bounce up to greet him after a long day they manage to target that most tender of boy areas almost every time O.O

I guess nothing says welcome home like a good punch in the groin...



PS: For the people that do not know Maeve was our aged rough collie that passed away September of 2011.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Introductions...

Greetings from the land of beer and cheese...

The curly-tailed brigade consists of my two wonderful dogs Watson and Menchi.

Watson is a 14 month old trindle basenji. Like most of his breed he is a dog of many strongly held opinions :)

Menchi is a 8 month old mini shar pei. I call her my little cow, mostly because she so has the pei stubborn moments.

Other than my pair of curly tails there is my better half Sabe, our little rescue tabby Autumn, and of course myself, Moth.

I am hoping to use this blog to talk about the curly tails, Autumn, us, dog & cat related info and thoughts, and whatever randomness might pop into my brain.

I am hoping someone will come along and maybe enjoy reading some of these things.