Tag Archives: crate

Living with Opposites

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Today I had a great illustration in how different my dogs really are in personality. Of course, I understand this but when I have such a display as I did today, I feel the need to share.

This afternoon I gave Daisy a stuffed frozen kong and gave Bella a bully stick. They were both happily enjoying their treats. So I gathered up all their towels, t-shirts, and bedding to go in the wash. During this Daisy never looked up at me. I think she might have passingly wagged her tail at me when I came close. Bella on the other hand stopped chewing and looked WORRIED! I could almost hear her inner dialogue “Wonder why mom is taking our stuff? What did we do? Is she upset? Is she taking us somewhere? Where will I sleep tonight? OMG I don’t have a home!!!”  Yep, Bella has issues. LOL

Daisy on the other hand didn’t worry until she felt it was bedtime. Then she had her own version of issues. She went into her crate, spun around, sniffed, came out and looked at me.  Then she put her front paws in the crate, sniffing around, then looked back at me (their bed covers were in the dryer still). She did her three spins right outside her crate and laid down with a huff. When I brought her bed back in she wagged her tail happily and climbed right into her crate.

My funny girls.

Saturday Morning Musings…

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I  love to see my girls run.  Although both are coonhounds, they have distinct running styles.  Bella is a graceful gazelle.  She digs in, runs low, and fast.

Daisy on the other hand, clumbers along. It takes work to get her moving and her ears make running very dramatic. She runs like a car out of alignment and it is very entertaining to watch.

Sometimes though, when they are running around something clicks and they get into a great rhythm chasing each other.  Love the ears.

Thanks a bunch to Grandpa for taking these pics yesterday with his good camera. It is hard to get fast action shots with a point and shoot type camera.  He also got experience the wonder of The Cadillac of Dog Parks.

In his visit yesterday Bella actually came up to him to smell him and wagged her tail and let him pet her. I am very happy about that. Bella has a fear of men and I really would love for her to know Grandpa is no threat.

In more random news-when I was very, very young Grannie bought a bunch of pre-cut quilting squares. She never did anything with them, and now, over a decade later, I have inherited the fabric. I’m planning on making quilts for the girls to go in their crate. They have egg carton beds now. I wash the covers and febreeze the egg carton but I find they still stink a lot. Hopefully a quilt will be easier to clean. What do your dogs sleep on? Do they have a crate and any padding in the crate?

I also wanted to let everyone know I loved reading the blogs from the pet blogger challenge. I found some new blogs that are now in my RSS feed and I see some of you found me!  And now…I’m off to join the Blog Hop! I like the blog hop even though I never add the list to my blog. Copy and pasting the html code doesn’t work for me for some reason. But you can click the icon to the right to find out more.

Another day in the coonhound house…

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A little bit about my sweet Bella. She is most likely a puppy mill dog. She seems to have little to no socialization. She is scared of pretty much everything like her own tail hitting something and making a noise.  After having her a few months, she did improve. I got her a doggie friend and she improved even more. I started her on prozac and she continued to improve.  Now she is almost unrecognizable compared to the skinny, scared dog I brought home.

This however, does not mean she is free from anxiety. On the contrary, it is still an everyday presence in our house. Daisy ignores it completely. I try to not baby her when she is freaking in general although she does come to me for reassurance that things are cool.

So, last night I was sitting enjoying Law and Order. I didn’t hear any noise and I didn’t hear Bella leave her crate. I glanced up and what did I see? Yep, Bella scrunched in with Daisy. Daisy had already put herself to bed. I am so glad she is an easy going dog.  I got Bella out and she was shaking all over so I sat on the floor with my hand on her until she settled down. I stood up and was going to encourage her to get into her own crate. She wasn’t having it. After about 2 steps she dashed back into Daisy’s crate.  Like any good mom, I made sure to take a picture before getting her out and into her own crate. As you can see, Daisy was unaffected by it all.

But we both fit!

 

I wish it weren't Monday

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Who gets the ball?

Yesterday the girls and I had a great day.

It started with a meetup at a new dog park.  It was huge!  The benefits of land out in the country I suppose.  We met a couple other dog owners (plus all the dogs that were there anyway).  The girls had sooooo much fun!  They chased each other, they tried to wrestle a bit too.  Of course they tracked all over that place just to see what they could smell.  Then there was the mud pit.  All last week our area had a ton of rain, so in this low spot was a good sized mud/water pit.  Bella loved it!  She ran through it, laid in it, and rolled all over the place.  She and Daisy would be running and Daisy would stop right on the edge.  I think she knew she’d get a bath if she kept running and got dirty.  Bella also met this cute Italian greyhound she kept trying to chase.  If was funny and a bit sad.  There was no way she could keep up but she kept trying!

We were all tired and come home to take a nap when we got home. Our evening dog park run was cut short by rain showers, but the girls did some play time with a couple puppies.  The girls are so good with the young ones.

Then came my busy night. I made my first frosty paws treats, which the girls haven’t tried yet. They are a mixture of unsweetened applesauce, vanilla yogurt, and p-nut butter. I also stuffed a couple kongs for Daisy will wellness core fish. Bella had her chicken boiled, deboned, minced, and mixed with some boiled egg.  Her meds right now have decreased her appetite so it has to be something really good to make her want to eat.

Last night Bella even chewed on a bully stick for a while, just like a real dog! I think that Prozac (Reconcile) is taking over her brain.

Daisy is doing ok in her new alcove instead of her crate. I’ve been putting her there anytime she won’t be left alone too long. When she has a bout of nausea, she tries to eat anything in sight, which is how she ended up with a bowel obstruction and emergency surgery.  Right now during the day, I still put her in her crate.  Plus, the pest control guys came today she she had to be crated no matter what.

This evening we went a little early to the dog park and they had fun. there was a 4 month old cute puppy that just followed them everywhere. It was really cute.  The mosquitoes were horrible, even with it still being hot out. Thank goodness for bug spray.

A video of them “fetching” notice how the ball doesn’t exactly make it back.  LOL

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsuNp2vbu-w&hl=en&fs=1]