and another thing about treats…

I forgot to mention - don’t forget to go and see your local grocery store’s butcher. You can buy real bones for your pups and they are MUCH cheaper than the prepackaged ones - and dogs love them.  You just have to ask for them, they aren’t out on display. One note: have the dogs eat them outside - they tend to smell a bit.

chunky

Ok, so I like to give my dogs treats. I started out with all the exceptionally good (and pricey) stuff. Then I started with the less expensive but give it to them more often treats. I’m not sure if it was that or the fact that I was feeding them twice a day and most days, Henry would only eat one meal and Jess would then eat three (!). Anyhow, Jess soon lost her girly shape (and her neck) and became a bit of a fatty, fatty, fat, fat. She looked sweet but didn’t run quite as quickly as before and when the vet said she was 15 lbs overweight and it was going to seriously damage her health that was the turning point.

I changed their diets to one meal a day ( Iams Dog Food is great and so is Purina One Dog Food and they aren’t too pricey). I also give Jess baby carrots as treats - she loves them and the vet said to give her as many as she likes!

I’m happy to report that after only four months, my Jess is back to fighting fit weight and they now just get treats occasionally - Happy Hips Treats are one of their favorites - Henry can smell them from two rooms away.

Moral - too many treats make doggies fatty, fatty, fat, fats.

a baby story

Like any new mum, I had much anxiety about bringing my new baby girl home. The worst of which was how were my four legged babies going to react to a new, noisy one in our home. I had researched much about it and the best, simplist and most realistic things were to A) bring home a blanket the baby had been in to let the dogs get a good sniff ahead of time and B) to have someone else carry the baby in the house. The theory being that the dogs would think that someone had brought this little, noisy bundle of sunshine in our house and left it there and now we need to care for it - which I find a very sweet notion (wonder what Cesar would have to say about that one!).

Well, I’m not sure if those two things worked but I’m happy to say that our expanded home is still happy. Our brave Henry was terrified of the tiny, seven lb. baby and our Jess, having so much of the mothering instinct, just couldn’t love and kiss her more.

 Whew!

It’s a scary thing when you love your dogs so much and you are faced with a possible decision where they would have to leave your family and go to live with someone else. I can’t even think about it now, it upsets me so. My advice, if I may, to those who are planning to have a family eventually and want to get a dog now - try getting a family friendly dog (lots of wonderful, available mutts out there from the dog pound or animal rescue) - or watch lots of the Dog Whisperer! http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/

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