E-mail Problems and the New Website!

I just wanted to remind everyone to go over to www.doginthedesert.com where new posts are now being uploaded!  Be sure to subscribe to the new e-mail list or RSS feed.  Also apologies to those who already subscribed and got a basically blank e-mail with this mornings scheduled post.  It was an issue with the scheduling that somehow deleted my whole post, but it wont happen again.  Thank you all for sticking with me through this transition.

New Platform!

The time has come everyone!  While old posts are still going to be archived here, new posts will be at our new website.  www.doginthedesert.com now points there.  Be sure to subscribe via e-mail, RSS, or like us on facebook to be notified of new posts.  We will see you over there!

Pet Sitters and Changing Paltforms

 Actual view from vacation

For 12 days this month we were on vacation WITHOUT the dogs.  It was an amazing time, I was in one of my closest friends weddings, but too long.  Poor Nova doesn't really do well with people other than me, so it is tough to leave her and I worry.  Typically I send Copley to hang out with his best dog buddies at our friends house and have another trusted person stay with the chihuahuas.  This was a really long trip to dump Copley on our very busy friends and our regular house sitter was out of town.  That left me with the horrifying prospect of leaving the dogs in the hands of new people!  Now don't get me wrong, I really like and trust the friends we left the dogs with but not quite as much as the regular dog sitters, who also feed raw food, take obedience at the same place as us and who my dogs are very used to.  So like any rational person I left a book and a half of printed directions, signs on all the doors and directions everywhere.  Next long vacation we are taking the dogs with us.

Nothing to see here, I am totally sane

Now that I am back I am working on re-vamping the blog.  You may have noticed the website needs a big overhaul, we have had Nova four years and she still doesn't even have an about page.  I also plan to start vlogging a little bit, so that should be fun!  With all those changes coming in the near future I am thinking of changing platforms.  Do any of you have experience with that?  I am thinking I may move most operations over to an independently hosted website and just post simultaneously on blogger for a little while.  I do a lot of web marketing for my business now and it feels so clunky to go from that to this really clunky platform for Dog In The Desert.  Our new URL www.doginthedesert.com would come with us.  Would most of you guys still find our new posts either through our e-mail subscription, RSS feed or facebook?  Please let me know in the comments!

I've been sorting through pictures for the new website so I had to leave you with an old favorite.

Maybe clip that leash instead of hitting your dog with it?

Hanging out by our mailbox

Me and Copley were out for a short walk around our neighborhood and had a terrifying experience.  I live in a suburban community, but it is still pretty tight quarters.  There are no sidewalks in my homeowners association and the houses are packed together.  The thing you need to take away from this information is that it is an on leash area for sure.  I am all for letting dogs run around in rural areas where it is appropriate, but my neighborhood is not one of those places.

Well I had Copley on a leash and we were headed to the mailbox down the street.  Between my house and the mail boxes there was a man standing with two large dogs, one tan and one black.  I'm not sure what they were, but they were tall.  Perhaps giant shepherds of some kind or something crossed with a big sight hound maybe?  The breed is not important to this story, the size is though.  As we approach the man starts yelling at the dogs angrily and pulls his leash out of his pocket.  I stopped to give him a chance to leash up the dog closest to him, it was sitting right next to him in easy reach.  Instead of clipping the leash to the easily accessible dog collar he starts angrily yelling at the dog and hitting him with the leash.  Not a gentle attention getting tap or anything, but hitting him.

I think this is the time I should say that based on what this guy and these dogs were wearing, I would bet this man fancies himself a "dog trainer."  These two were in vests with handles, and wearing around their necks the pinch collar/large black flat buckle collar combo that you might see on a police dog.  If you need all these thing to control your dog, why isn't a leash attached to at least one of them?  The man had cargo pants and a pouch that I imagine were not at all full of treats- as he clearly was using other (obviously ineffective) methods here, but still screamed "tough man trains tough dogs!"

Well the tan dog that is being hit with a leash finally runs away from his person and over to us.  He stopped facing me and Copley about 5 feet away, staring Copley down.  It was the frozen, terrifying stare that you read about in books.  Meanwhile the guy just continues his angry screaming.  I tried to assess my options here.  Picking Copley up was not going to work, as bending forward was only going to provoke an attack I figured.  The dog was huge, it's giant muzzle was level with my chest so if this fight happened I was probably screwed too.  I didn't have the mace I carry on walks because I was just headed to the mailbox.  This really could have been a disaster really quick here.  The fur was starting to go up on Copley's back and this tan dog ever so gently and silently began to curl his lip.  In what had to have looked comically opposite to the other mans method here I just calmly and cheerfully said "Copley!  Come on."  I have to give Copley some credit here, that dog always comes through for me in a pinch.  I want him to get his feet off a chair and you would think he was deaf, but in case of imminent dog attack or pigeon in the house he listens like a champ.  As I said Copley he looked at me and as I cheerfully asked him to move along we stepped sideways out of this dogs glare and walked away briskly at an angle.  By this time the man came over to grab the tan dog and was angrily yelling at it and glaring at me as I was saying "good dog!" to Copley.

Then here comes the black dog jogging down the street at us.  Luckily this one was much friendlier and assumed the "I sniff your but you sniff mine" position with Copley.  I was not thrilled about this as Copley's hackles were still up and he was clearly a little uncomfortable from our last encounter.  This dog was so tall that Copley fit all the way under him and as I was trying to figure a way to pull him out without us getting tangled up (I only had a 4 foot leash to work with and I didn't want to drop it if I didn't have to) I look down and see Copley comically wincing as this dogs giant balls hit him in the face.  It was the only hilarious part of this whole experience.

We took a quick turn around the corner and loitered at the mailbox for a long time to give the dogs a chance to move along.  I have not seen them since and it has been a few days.  Hopefully they were just visitors to the neighborhood. 

P.S.- A few resources if you are either the guy hitting his dogs for no reason in the name of "training" (indicating you might want to learn a little about the real science behind dog behavior) or if you think you might run into someone like that on the street (at least one of you will have some read on what the dog is thinking).  My favorite behaviorist Particia McConnell has some great books The Other End of the Leash and For The Love of a Dog  Those two taught me a lot of what I know about dog body language and have helped me so much in my interactions with our dogs and dogs out in the world over the years.  

Or find a local positive reinforcement based trainer and take a class.

New Year New Tooth!

Post Root Canal and Pre Crown

The Final Product

This is a story of root canals, dentists and pet insurance gone right!

A few days before Christmas I came home and found Copley with a lump on the side of his face under his eye.  We had been rummaging in the garage a lot due to the pilot light going out on our hot water heater so I figured it might have been a spider bite or something like that.  I gave the poor guy a benadryl and called our vet.  Luckily our vet is a wonderful lady who always answers the phone.  She informed me it was likely actually an abscessed tooth!  It being 6pm already there was not a whole lot to be done that night so she suggested I visit a vet who did root canals in the morning with the hopes that we could save the tooth.

 

The Lump

I am all for saving teeth.  In most practices vets just pull teeth, but Las Vegas is lucky enough to have a veterinary practice that regularly does root canals and other advanced dental work (if you are in Las Vegas and looking, it is Dr. Hewitt at Cheyenne West Animal Hospital).  Even though we knew it would be more expensive we decided to try to save the tooth. 

He looks thrilled for the dentist!

That night from my vet, and the next day from the vet who did dental work I learned something really interesting.  Dogs only actually eat their food with four teeth.    Two molars (top and bottom) on each side of their mouth.  The other teeth are mostly for ripping flesh off bones.  Admittedly my dogs probably do a little more flesh taring than your average kibble fed dog, but it is still not the main activity for a domestic dog.  While a lot of dogs do ok with no teeth at all (I have seen foster dogs that can actually get a lot done with just gums) it is pretty bad to loose any of those four teeth.  It would have basically forced Copley to move all of his eating to the other side of his mouth.  To my great relief many vets and techs told me what a young dog he was at only eight to be loosing teeth like that!  Copley acts like a grumpy old man from time to time so hearing medical professionals call him young was both reassuring and refreshing. 

As our options were being laid out at the vets office a crown came up.  I just about fell out of my seat as dollar signs swirled in front of my eyes!  I told the vet that the root canal and filling to continue to at least use most of the tooth seemed like the best plan considering it seemed unlikely pet insurance would cover a crown for a dog!  The vet in turn asked who I had insurance through and after I informed him it was Pet Plan he told me I was probably in luck.  I don't know why I figured a crown was out of the question but he believed it was covered.  After all he had a pile of literature about how this was really the best option for his long term health.  We left the office agreeing to read more about crowns and submit the procedure for pre-approval with Pet Plan to help with our decision.  The more I read about the procedure the more I was convinced the crown was best for Copley.  Luckily for us the procedure was approved just after Christmas and Copley went in for a root canal.

There was still a worry on the day of the procedure that the tooth could be lost.  The fracture went below the gum line and could have been so bad it was a lost cause and there was also the possibility that the infection would be so bad in the bone that the tooth had to go.  Even though it was possible it would have to be pulled I felt good that between the coverage by Pet Plan and the talented vet we were giving Copley the best chance at the best outcome.  This really almost seems like a Pet Plan ad here but I assure you it is not.  In fact I have been paying them for the last six years, not the other way around!

Loopy From The Surgery

Luckily the root canal went great and the tooth was saved!  After the root canal came a great time of paranoia for me.  They carve little ridges into the tooth to put the crown on.  In a person it is pretty easy to ensure the tooth doesn't get damaged in the week or so while the crown is being made.  You just tell the person not to chew anything on that side!  With a dog it looks a little more like clearing your entire house of anything even a little bit hard, feeding ground up mush as food and praying to the tooth fairy (she seemed the appropriate deity for this situation).  As it turned out everything went perfectly and now I am the proud owner of a dog who is the proud owner of a $2800 tooth.

Now to train him to open his mouth to show it off, this should be fun!

P.S.- What did Copley fracture his tooth on in the first place?  There is no way to know for sure, but after talking to the vet about his chewing habits his best guess was a nylabone.  Apparently the hard ones are actually hard enough to break a tooth.  Here I was thinking the only danger with a nylabone was breaking off pieces and eating them, which is why I was buying the super hard ones!  I will be kicking myself in the butt about that, so just a warning, if your dog is an intense chewer like Copley, maybe stay away from the hard nylabones.

Dog Owner Level 100 Reached

I really feel like I accomplished something today.  It wasn't that I have successfully integrated a feral dog into every day life with people, that I have solved problems with positive reinforcement that trainers told me I never would or that I have successfully raised a puppy.  It was today when I saw pieces of a Christmas ornament on the ground in a pile of puke and thought "this can be fixed."

I will say it is not quite as gross or premeditated as it may seem.  The items were in a small pile of just them, surrounded by a sticky kind of yellowish bile many dog owners may be familiar with.  I pulled them off the carpet with a paper towel.  On my way to the trash can I looked down and seeing as how everything was intact I figured I might just try to wash it off.  The plastic cleaned up beautifully, I found the ornament they fell off of and with a little bit of the proper adhesive everything was like new.  As you can see above it is like no damage has ever been done to the little reindeer.

How many people have an ornament on their tree that was once inside their dog?  This is certainly a next level of dog ownership.

4 Years with Nova

It is hard to believe we have had Nova for 4 years.  The day I picked her up from the rescue's vet they warned me not to take her home.  She had been living feral, scavenging food behind a tire store for at least six months.  She had two puppies who both died a few weeks before she was trapped, was malnourished, upset and her first interaction with people directly was being trapped then going through surgery.  She was scared and skinny and it was hard to say what kind of dog was under all that scared.  It turns out now, 4 years later, she is actually a really amazing little chihuahua.  She is very smart, cuddly (with me), and she has great dog skills.

Her life isn't exactly the normal that a lot of other dogs experience.  She won't voluntarily let anyone but me touch her, however she will let me hold her for someone else to trim her nails and just a few weeks ago she made it peacefully through a vet exam and a rabies shot.  Nova does things on her schedule, so we try to concentrate on the important stuff and everything else comes with time.  

Most of Nova's day is spent wrestling with Kerrigan, throwing toys in Kerrigan's face and sleeping cuddled up next to her.  Those two are the best of friends, it is hard to imagine how we would have gotten Nova through these four years without Kerri.  Nova is still wary of new things, you should check out our facebook live video from her cake eating this morning.  The cake was new, and the setup was new so as you can see she is pretty unsure what to do.  Eventually she realized the new object is food and she calms down.  Letting her work through things that in return are self rewarding has been a great strategy for helping Nova learn to live in our house.

Most of her day to day life is actually very joyful.  When she is comfortable (which is most of the time) she is a fun, silly dog.  She wakes me up in the morning by bouncing on the bed, play bowing and jumping around.  As I mentioned she throws toys around to play, loves to cuddle and gets very, very excited when she sees her clicker.  Learning clicker tricks has given her a lot of confidence and is one of the things that has really helped us bond.  Giving her some control over her own life, and learning new things through positive reinforcement has been the key to her success.  It has been a long journey and sometimes it took weeks just to get to the next little step, but me and Nova worked together to get her where she is today. 

After our rather chaotic Facebook video this morning I decided to grab an interview with Nova.  She is in a much more comfortable enviroment in this video and the clicker is in my pocket.  I think it captures a little more of the excited and happy essence that is the real Nova I get to see every day.

We Are Back

Hello Everybody!

I am here to say we are coming back and sticking around.  Over the last couple of years this blog has fallen a bit to the side.  2017 is the year we come back!  Next week we are going to be celebrating a certain little chihuahuas four year adoption day and that will be our first regular post.  In the meanwhile please, please follow us on our social media Facebook and Instagram!  We are on twitter too but I can't make any promises there.

This blog got a little stale for me for a few reasons.  Mostly because I felt like I wasn't really filling a spot in the dog blogosphere.  I don't blog from my dogs point of view, my dogs are cute but not the Tuna Melts my Heart kind of cute.  For a lot of pet products I am not very advertiser friendly because I vocally feed a home made raw diet, but for hardcore raw people I am useless because I vaccinate my dogs and believe in veterinary science.  

In the end I think this blog can have a voice going forward.  It just might take a little exploring to find that again.  In the meanwhile here is a preview from our holiday card shoot.  The photo is by our good friend @ladylockoff

We Gave Up on "Dog" Water Bottles

Instead of a long post about me falling way behind with this blog- let's just get back into the swing of things shall we?

If you have been reading for a while you would know we are outdoors people.  Not just casual, stroll at a big park people, but we camp, hike, backpack and generally spend a lot of our time in the wilderness.  Since most of that wilderness is in a desert water is a major consideration.  We have been through many different water packing methods for us and the dogs through our years out west and finally have settled on what works for us: the dogs just drink out of wide mouth Nalgene bottles.  On long hikes we will refill them out of the large water bladder we carry just like our own Nalgene.  For a long time we carried the Gulpy.  It is a fine piece of gear and for daily walks I do really like it.  The problem with the Gulpy is similar to every other method we have tried, that once you squeeze the water in the bowl portion it is there forever.  You have to squeeze out enough for the dog to lap up then you end up pouring out more water than your dog drank.  Let me tell you that on an overnight backpacking trip in the desert where you are lugging every ounce of water you have on your back the idea of pouring water out on the ground is extremely demoralizing.  The other issue with the  Gulpy is filling it with our water bladder.  Any dog water carrier out there has a lot of extra "stuff" on it as compared to a regular bottle and when you are looking to save weight on your back carrying several is not really an option.  This leaves you out in the woods trying to fill a tiny hole with water from a bladder meant to flow into large mouth nalgene bottles.  This is both not fun and a recipe to waste water.  Since our dogs are so small their faces can fit into a nalgene comfortably to drink it just started happening because it was the easiest thing to do in a pinch.  We even got Kerri a cute little nalgene that has a nice wide mouth but only holds a chihuahua sized amount of water.  Copley still needs the full size because his face is a little bigger, but he is going on less and less hikes in his older age so it is not a huge deal.

So now, after years of doing this or that we have settled on the dogs doing the exact same thing we do.  For the record I don't share water with the dogs, they do get their own nalgenes, but my husband I believe is not nearly as picky.  I try not to think about that- it is really gross.  I am curious what people with "full size" dogs do on backpacking trips.  A nalgene only would be comfortable for the little guys or maybe a hound with a long skinny muzzle as far as I can see.

Wordless Wednesday

Kerri improvising a bed on a hike at Mt. Charleston.

Wordless Wednesday

A photo from a few months ago of Nova and foster dog Bob.

5 Years With Copley!

 I am a few days late with this posting, but Copley's 5 year adoption day was also my 4 year wedding anniversary so I tend to get a little busy.  He doesn't mind sharing his big day with our anniversary though, he likes the visitors we get in town, the trips we take and the general fact that he is not the center of attention.  Better late than never here is a little look back at the last five years with my best buddy, Copley.

That is our very first road trip and vacation together.  It was only about 3 weeks after we adopted him from Henderson Animal Control where he had been for 29 days.  Was it a great idea to take a dog on vacation who had not even been out of the shelter for as long as he was in it?  Maybe not, but we travel a LOT and we figured our dog needed to get used to it.  He loved everything about that trip except maybe two border collies at the friends house we stayed at.

Copley tolerates other polite dogs and often will play with them, but there are a very few out there that he really loves.  Two of them are our other dogs Kerri and Nova.  Kerri won him over as a puppy by pulling maneuvers like this.  Nova he just loves, she could get away with anything when it comes to Copley.

 Copley loves being outside, as long as he doesn't have to get his feet wet...

 Over the years as the blog has grown and as we started our own business dealing in dog stuff Copley has done a lot of product reviews.  From the treats he gets for good sit-stays with the camera to the toys he gets to pull out of the box he is pretty happy with the job.

Copley is a very serious dog.  Most other people don't see that, because the moments of glee in his life mostly happen when he sees other people.  His favorite thing in the world is meeting new people and having guests come over to the house.  The rest of the time he is very on task.  When we are on walks he is dedicated to getting from point "a" to point "b."  When we are eating he sits nearby in his serious pose until we are done.  From other dogs he demands manners; a paw to his face, a rambunctious puppy knocking into him or any other less than polite activity results in a curled lip.  Strangely enough this seriousness is why I didn't try to compete in any obedience with him.  At class he was so happy, his butt always wiggled and he gleefully jumped at the idea of doing anything for me.  That kind of ruined his sits and his heels, but I just wasn't willing to fix that.  For a dog like him I never have felt like stopping the little moments of happiness he has, even if they are occasionally inappropriate for the setting, and I wasn't about to train it out of him.  Here is a picture that really captures his goofy side.

That is my Copley!  He is the best dog a person like us could ask for.  He lived through so much of our learning and being brand new dog owners in those early days.  With his tolerant, people-loving attitude he took our mistakes in stride.  The different training methods, the different crates, the many foods we struggled with before we went for the good stuff, the roller coaster of vets and those few times I thought dog parks were a good idea for him.  He took all the growing pains of a first dog so that one day when we get that basenji puppy I've always wanted I will have a chance of training it right.*  We love you Copley!

*That was kind of a joke.  I love basenji but I don't think even I am crazy enough to get one.

My Musings on Jurassic Park

A few weeks ago, after seeing Jurassic World, I posted this on facebook:
I thought that movie was going to give me "Chris Pratt, raptor whisperer" but instead it gave me something even better "Chris Pratt, positive reinforcement raptor clicker trainer." Swoon.

Now I have seen the movie a second time and have a more solid opinion formed.  I would like to expand on that Facebook post a little bit.  Last month, in anticipation of seeing Jurassic World, I sat down and watched all 3 of the other Jurassic Park movies.  Me and my husband are such big fans, I was way, way, into dinosaurs when the first one came out and I remember going to see it in the theater and thinking it was just the coolest thing.  I am so glad we re-watched them going into Jurassic World, not because any of that previous plot really mattered in regards to this new movie, but because it really made me think about how far we have come when it comes to how the scientific community views animals.

I had seen the previews of Chris Pratt hunting bigger dinosaurs with a pack of velociraptors and jumping into their pen pulling a move that I expected to be Caesar Milan like in his control of the dinosaurs.  I was excited for that more than anything else really.  Little did I know that the movie really was going to deliver something even better.  When I saw a movie star pull out a clicker and a bucket of meat I just about died of excitement.  Did I really just watch someone look cool controlling large, dangerous predators with POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT?  I did.  I did see that.  I also like that they almost ate him a few times, but that didn't really shake his trust of them.  He was always worried they were going to eat him so it wasn't much of a surprise.  Obviously there were a lot of inaccurate things because well, this IS Jurassic Park after all.  Besides the fact that there are dinosaurs walking around there were other things like the actual execution of the clicker training being a little off, also they do reinforce the alpha thing a little bit, I'm not sure that is totally inaccurate based on the imaginary group structure they gave the animals, but whatever.  As I walked out of the movie a friend of mine said "Maybe now people will think clicker training is totally bad-ass."  I hope so.

It seems to me that despite lots and lots of scientific evidence in the other direction that trainers alpha rolling dogs is getting more and more popular.  I am not saying I am beyond using whatever works for your particular dog, or there is only one way to train, but lets base these methods in modern, scientific fact.  As a positive reinforcement trainer I know I get criticized because in limited situations I am not beyond interrupting a behavior with something like a spray bottle, but that is a far cry from this constant punishment crap.  Come on people, every behavior is not explained with "they are trying to be your alpha" in fact most are not!  Even if your dog thinks they run your house alpha rolling them is not going to convince them otherwise.  Can't we see that positive reinforcement works?  Just yesterday me and my husband spent twenty minutes defending our position that Nova does not in fact think she is our "alpha."  Also Copley does not like rolling over at all, but I assure you the last thing he imagines is that he is my boss.  He dislikes being on his back because he has messed up sinuses from being a poorly thought out cross between a flat faced breed and who knows what else and whenever he is on his back he sneezes violently. The bottom line is we need more positive methods in the pop culture and this movie does that for sure.

One other thing I am curious about is wither the film makers were trying to make a connection to the Navy's dolphin program.  Owen, the trainer played by Chris Pratt, had recently come out of the Navy.  Were they implying that he had come from the dolphin program?  Also the raptor head pieces were very reminiscent of the ones that movies tend to portray on dolphins.  If that is the case it is very interesting to me that Owen was so against the militarization and exploitation of his raptors.  Food for thought for sure.

Stolen Dog!

I know I don't usually post things like this on the blog, but this story really hit lose to home for me.  Tonka was stolen along with a car while it was sitting in her families garage.  Her Mom had run into the house to grab a cell phone and when she came out the car and Tonka were gone.  For a while our garage door was broken, and every time I left the house with a dog the car would be running as I ran back in to shut the door really fast.  When I first heard of her story on facebook I immideately felt horrible because this could so easily been me.  When people's dogs are lost I have noticed a trend lately of blaming the owner.  People are so quick to say "That never could have been me" or "my dog could not have gotten out."  That may make people feel better but it is not actually true.  Tonka could have just as easily been my Kerri and I can't imagine what I would be feeling if it was.

I decided to post this on the blog because today I was sitting in Unwanted and Lost Pets receiving at our local high kill shelter, waiting on a dog going to the rescue we volunteer with.  There is hardly a more depressing place than receiving at a shelter like that.  While we were sitting there I met Tonka's Mom, she was looking through lost and found for Tonka.  I can't even imagine how she must feel having a family member stolen form her like that.  So please take a look at  her picture and be on the lookout for her and the dark grey Mitsubishi with California plates on the poster above.  If you know anyone in Las Vegas please share!  You also should like and share her facebook page here.

Lets bring this baby home!!

Fun Park Day

I rarely take pictures on walks anymore.  I am sure that the number of instagram followers I have suffers due to the lack of pictures, but I just can't handle two dogs on a busy walk AND a camera.  Finally a week or so ago the whole family went for a walk and I was able to get a few great shots.  As you can see Nova is enjoying family walks now!  She even did great on this day when we drove to a new park down the road.  I was looking for some nice grass to hang out in and we sure did find it.

 

 Bug Hunting!

I said Nova was doing great- but we still walk her with this yellow I need space sign and a yellow ribbon on the handle of her leash.  Does it keep people away?  Not really.  It just makes people believe me when I tell them she doesn't like strangers.  Usually if I ask someone not to approach our dogs they say "oh, I like dogs" or "my dogs friendly" or something else like that, as if I don't know my dogs.  When I tell people to stay away while pointing at a leash that says stay away they know I mean it- haha! 

By the way, did you all check out our new family business?  We are selling gift baskets for DOGS!  Full of premium items and totally customized for your pup.  Please check us out on facebook and head over to our website to sign up for our newsletter.

The Luxury Wolf

I am excited to announce our new business- The Luxury Wolf.  After a few years of running this blog I have noticed a lot of people are really starting to care for their pets like they are family (yay).  I also have discovered a lot of new an interesting products.  When one of our friends or family adopted a new dog or were celebrating with us at Christmas I would put together little gift boxes for them with a lot of the cool dog products I have discovered over the years.  In addition to that people started coming to me for advise about what to buy for their pups.  In my mind I put that all together and came up with The Luxury Wolf.  We will be selling custom packed gift boxes for your dogs or as a gift!  All of our unique gift baskets and boxes will be custom packed for your dog and then beautifully wrapped in attractive, gift-ready packaging.  Every one is different because it is packed based on what you tell us about your dog, and we can work around any allergies or sensitivities- making us the perfect gift for any dog.  Today we have launched the website with our very first products- Easter Baskets of course!  Click here to check them out and order by the 27th for guaranteed delivery by Easter.

One Of Our Large Dog Easter Baskets

In the next few weeks expect us to roll out new products such as a "Welcome Home Rescue" and "Welcome Home Puppy" baskets containing everything you need to get started with a new dog, "Get Well Soon" boxes and various Treat Sampler boxes.  Take a look at our website to see what we are all about and also check out our facebook page.

So what does this mean for the blog?  Other than a few giveaways coming in the next couple of months, not a whole lot.  I hope to keep blogging honestly about the dog world, the things I love about it, the things I hate about it, and of course camping.

Thank you all for checking out the new business.  I would so appreciate it if you like us on Facebook, visit the website and sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of the page, and let me know what you think of custom gift baskets for dogs!

Photo Shoot!

As a gift for Ben for his birthday I got Kerrigan and Copley photographed by a  professional photographer!  Pet'ographique did absolutely amazing work- they just have such a talent for capturing dogs personalities.  We had been admiring their work for a long time and I finally took the plunge and got them done.   I am BEYOND happy with the pictures.  We already got one picture printed for Ben's birthday surprise but recently went back to order some wall portraits and photo jewelry.  If you are in the Las Vegas area you really should check out Pet'ographique!

 

This was Ben's birthday gift.  On the right is a pair of boots that he has had for over 10 years.  These hiking boots have been to many states and National Parks across the whole country- all the way from Acadia to the Everglades and The Old North Bridge to Joshua Tree.  He was so sad to retire these boots but they were just falling apart.  Despite monthly leather conditioning and one re-soleing the desert finally took its toll.  Since Copley and Kerri have shared in so many of the adventures with these boots I thought there was no better way to honor these boots retirement than immortalizing them on our wall with the dogs.  The other pair of boots in the picture are Ben's new boots- they are actually the same brand, just 10 model years newer!

I think the group pictures might be my favorite- but we also ordered some of the individuals.

 Copley Teeth!  To quote my Aunt on facebook- I. Love. That. Face!

Happy Copley!

Kerri!  Those ears!

Kerrigan looks to the left.

Kerrigan Covers The Las Vegas Pet Expo

Inspecting the Loot

Hey everybody!  Kerrigan here!  Last week Annie covered our experiences at the Las Vegas Pet Expo in this post.  She told you about our friends at NKLV and all about what Shorty Rossi had to say...  mostly boring human stuff.  I offered to cover the expo from a chihuahuas perspective.  Now may I have your attention to talk about one thing and one thing only.  The contents of THIS package. 

We all know my favorite food is pork.  Next to that it is duck.  I usually lick, then walk away from those crappy meatless treats- HOWEVER- these Saintlees treats are the best thing I have tasted since Annie brought home an entire pork leg for me.  These are literally my favorite treats ever.  As soon as me and the people walked up to their booth at the expo and smelled them I just knew I would love them.  Annie was skeptical that I would like them and almost didn't take the sample from the nice woman- I literally was about to scream at her for turning it away!  Then she took it and gave me a little piece- I ate it so fast they couldn't believe it.  They smell AMAZING- like coconut oil and bananas.  The humans like that because for some strange reason they don't want their pockets to smell like fish or artificial smoke flavoring anymore.  I like it because it smells delicious!!!  I told Mom she needs to order a case of them now.

So thanks for reading my little blog post- it is time for me to go.... what?  Annie has informed me that I should talk about the rest of the expo too.  That food is not the most important thing about our trip there.  Maybe if I remember other things I can get some Saintlees treats?  They said yes.  I suddenly remembered a lot of other fun stuff we did!

As you know I am a rescue pup.  Or so they tell me- I was adopted as a little baby.  It was so great to see all the really cool rescue pups like me finding homes at the expo!  We have some real issues with the county shelter I came from- The Animal foundation- but we are still happy to see when my friends are adopted out of there.  There were quite a few little buddies like me adopted from the county shelter and from other private rescues in the MEGA ADOPTION area at the expo!  A lot of rescues were on hand with information about how to adopt too.  Did you know that a huge number of pure bred dogs like me are in shelters?  Think you can't get a 5lb chihuahua or a purebred Labrador from a rescue?  Think again!  I am proof of the chihuahua thing and here I am making friends with some ladies from the Las Vegas Labrador Rescue.  My favorite part of the expo was when I got to hang out with new people.  I LOVE NEW PEOPLE.  I wish the humans would hand me over to everyone we see in public.  No idea why they don't do that.

Speaking of being handed over to strangers... I met a really Handsome celebrity dog named Hercules.  I tried to say an appropriate hello but all anyone wanted us to do was post for a picture together.  Sigh.  This is the closest we got to each other and he smelled AMAZING.

Me and Mr.Handsome

I decided I need to get myself a pitbull boyfriend.  Hercules seems too busy for the job.  I already have a pit mix minion but he isn't boyfriend material.  Too young for me.

My minion

 We also bought some not edible things at the expo.  For starters my new favorite bed!  It is from Zen Pet Den.  It is super comfortable and is great for those times when instinct takes over and I run in circles trying to dig up the middle of my bed.  This one actually lets me do that!  It is so great that me and Nova took our first nap before Annie even put it away.  Just plopped down right in the middle of the room. Soooo confey!

Finally- if you have been following us on instagram you know I am really loving my new therapy dog harness from JuliusK9.  It is comfortable and all the librarians where I get read to by my very own kid told me my new outfit looked really good.

I think that is all I have to say.  It is time to go eat lunch.  PLEASE LET IT BE PORK!!!!
P.S.- Sorry it took so long to write this post.  Paws on the key board and all you know.

XOXOXO- Kerrigan