So, one of the things we have learned about puppies, or rather re-learned, is that boxes are way cooler than regular toys. Every time we get a box, the puppies make it their personal mission to shred and flatten it. We don't mind. It gives them something fun to do and breaks the box down at the same time. Before we had puppies, we had to break our boxes down ourselves. Notice how the pieces of the box are nice and small. They weren't even done in this picture. We ended up with small pieces of box all over the dining room and living room, but all we had to do was collect them and put them in the bin- no folding and jumping on boxes or pulling them apart. The puppies take care of all of that. They are a box demolishing machine! Of course, the cats weren't about to let the puppies have all the fun. Kitty P sat under the table grabbing the odd piece of cardboard that happened her way. Kitty S stalked the puppies from the table. Some days, it's just too pretty to stay home. We tried talking ourselves into just playing in the yard and being lazy, but the puppies were enjoying being outside too much. The only thing keeping us from staying outside longer were the mosquitoes. The puppies took turns chasing each other around the yard, playing keep-away with a rock they found. Then they all just plopped down to bask in the sun for a while. Finally, Miss S brought up the elephant in the room. "Can't we just go to the beach?" She had a point. Besides, who could say no to a face like this? So after the puppies took a short nap, we all piled into the car, and off we went- except for the cats of course. I don't think the cats would really enjoy the beach that much. Plus, they don't travel well, and Mom was not in the mood to have to clean out a poopy car kennel... So, the cats stayed home. We all had a really good time. There were plenty of people during some parts of the walk. Our puppies just kept walking, and didn't try to frantically go over and say hi. There were even other dogs, some making quite a bit of noise, but with a little bit of coaxing, they just kept on walking and didn't pay much attention to the other dogs. Their training really has made a difference. We can't wait to start the next set of classes. Seriously, though. How could you not go to the beach on a day like this? We've been playing around with the video function on the camera. So, here is a short video of the puppies walking on the beach. Okay, seriously. How can puppies grow so fast?! Just yesterday Miss M weighed like 12 pounds and could run under the dining room chairs. Now, she's almost as tall as the big puppies and can keep up with them in the yard. Our little baby girl is growing up. She is a quick learner too. Because we feed the puppies in their crates, they sometimes leave a little food in their bowls for later, knowing that the other puppies can't get to it. Miss M figured out that she can go to her crate and bark and I'll let her in. Then she can eat a little bit of it and I will let her back out when she's ready. She likes this system. I like it too because she's going in her crate quicker now when I tell her to go into her crate. Such a cutie! The last couple of days have been really nice- no rain at all. Today, the sun even came out. I don't understand the weather this year, but I'm not complaining. Some years by the end of April, we are already having temperatures in the 90's every day. Last night though, it got down into the low 50's, and the high today was only in the mid-70's. If the weather would stay like this year round, it would be perfect. The puppies have been loving it. They've been able to go outside more, and we have been letting them play longer because it is so enjoyable outside. Pit bulls are so remarkable. Their agility is amazing- they can turn on a dime. I'm still not sure how they can fly through the yard at top speed without running into things. We discovered yesterday, that they really like playing ball with us. We had gotten them a soccer ball to play with, and they chased it around a little before chewing it to pieces. We had gotten them a cheap rubber ball a while back, but they hadn't seemed too interested in it until we brought it into the yard yesterday. Dad and I kicked it back and forth across the yard to each other, and they went nuts and got super excited. Every time we would kick it, they would chase it, bump it with their noses, paw at it. It was a great game until Miss B popped it accidentally. I think we are going to have to find a more durable ball for playing in the yard. On a different topic, I think our yard decided to make wine. We have a tree that I think may be a mulberry tree of some sort. With the storms last week, tons of berries were blown into the yard. The rain made a berry soup, which is now fermenting. Every time we walk into the middle of the yard, we get hit with a blast of berry nastiness. When the berries first fell, the puppies were very interested in them. Now that they have turned into berry shots, the puppies steer clear of the middle of the yard. The next few pictures show the extent of our berry yard still. The cats are totally grooved in to life with the puppies. They have also really warmed up to the cat-tree/ scratching post. They have decided that the scratching post is the best place to nap because there are two levels. The puppies can reach the lower level, but they don't mess with the kitties if they are on the tree. Of course, just like the puppies, they prefer napping on our bed...
Apparently winter decided to go on vacation here in Texas. It was 80 degrees at our house today with no clouds in the sky. Seriously, how could you possibly be expected to stay indoors on a day like this? (Paraphrasing Ferris Bueller). So, we did a few things around the house, and let the dogs wear themselves out in the yard for a while. Then we just couldn't take it anymore and decided to go to the beach again. Yes. That's two days in a row. But seriously. How could you not? They need exercise. We need exercise. It's a win-win. So, this is what an evening at the beach looks like when you get there early enough to still take pictures. This is how an evening at the beach looks after we get home.
What do you do when there are blizzard warnings all over the place for people up north but you live in the south where it is 75 degrees? Go to the beach of course. Miss M is finally past her waiting period on her last set of shots, so we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and head to the beach. She absolutely loved it. It was her first time on a walk that long since she wasn't allowed in public areas before all of her shots were finished. It was also her first time at the beach. She tried to pick up various bits and pieces of seaweed to carry along with her until she found the next piece of seaweed. When we stopped for a rest midway through the walk, she discovered that she could dig and that not only was the sand super soft, but also she didn't get into trouble for digging- unlike in the yard at home. The bigger puppies already knew about the beach and love it. They get excited just driving down the road to the beach. The only thing we heard coming from the back of the car on the way home after this was snoring. It was a good trip.
From what I have gathered after trying for a while to take pretty pictures of our puppies, putting a puppy into a pose and getting it to stay there is an art in itself. Luckily, puppies sometimes just pose on their own. Take Miss S for example. In the title picture at the top of the page, it looks like I had her sit by Miss M and then look at the camera. What actually happened is that I put a blanket on the couch that I wanted to use to take a picture of Miss M while she was sleeping. Normally our puppies aren't allowed on the couch, so as soon as Miss S saw me putting Miss M on the couch, she jumped up on the couch too- hoping to be able to stay up there since the baby was there. She snuggled right up to Miss M and tried to take a nap too. It was really cute, so I just let her stay there and took pictures. She heard the camera making noise and opened her eyes to look at me just as I took that picture.
Our puppies all secretly think that they are people. We let them sit on the love seat, and they lean on the arm- like they are people too because that's what we do. So again for the picture of Miss S and her rock in the lat post, I just let her sit there with her rock and took pictures as she happily went about chewing it. I would totally like to take credit for any of the cute poses, but our puppies are just natural models I guess. It's been a little tricky getting well lit shots of Miss M. She is extremely fast and doesn't sit still very long. The only time she's still is when she's eating, but then she won't look up to get her picture taken. I am now on a quest to take some cute pictures of the five of them. I have several shots in mind but need to take them in the daytime so that I can get more natural light. So far, she has been fitting in well with the other dogs. She doesn't seem to realize that she is small. She chases them around, bites them, plays with them and pays attention to how they go outside to potty. Yesterday evening I was in the kitchen and heard her whimper by the door. Just out of curiosity, I opened the door for her and she immediately ran outside, did #2 and ran back to the door to go back inside! I was amazed! Of course she got lots of praise for that. Miss M also got to meet one of Dad's students. She loved the little girl but was a little distraught because the girl kept wanting to hold her, which meant that she had to be still. That's not an easy thing to do for a 6 week old puppy. She looks bigger in this picture than she is because the girl is also small.
We decided to take the puppies for a walk again today. We want them to get used to walking in populated areas, but didn't want to start them out with a huge crowd. We decided to take them on Sunday afternoon when we figured most people would already have gone home. They were extremely excited to get to go for a ride again. One of the town squares had a really pretty Christmas tree set up so we decided to stop and take some pictures. We had a little bit of help on the focus part today from an unsuspecting skateboarder who skated by while we were trying to get them to look in the same direction. Of course, then they wanted to play with the skateboarder.
Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to take the puppies to the beach for a walk and to see about getting some cute pictures with Christmas decorations in the background. The historic district is really cool normally with gas lit street lamps and Victorian style buildings that have been around since the 1800's, but at Christmas time, it is even prettier. The pups don't have any experience walking around in large crowds yet, so we decided to walk on the beach instead and then just drive through the historic area to see how many decorations were already out. We learned a hard lesson on the way to the beach. We discovered that if we leave the leashes on and don't give the puppies something more interesting to chew on, they have a tendency to chew the leashes. So before heading to the beach, we made a pit stop at Petsmart for two new leashes and some bones to chew on. Once we finally made it to the beach, Dad was totally stressed out and ready to just turn around and go home. Mom was worried that the puppies would need a potty break before making the long trip back home and convinced Dad to walk a little anyway since they were already there. As luck would have it, during our walk, we came across a family trying to take Christmas pictures on the beach. They had a little Christmas tree decorated with starfish set up as a back drop for their two girls. While the girls were playing at the water's edge, we asked if we could take some pictures in front of their tree too. The mom was more than happy to oblige and even took a few pictures of the puppies using her camera and a few of us all with our camera. Trying to get the puppies to sit still for a picture with an interesting tree and two kids playing nearby was not as easy as it sounds. We loved the little Christmas tree was an excellent idea, and we loved the little white starfish. We were really glad they let us take pictures and were super happy when she offered to take pictures of us. I didn't catch her name, but mystery Christmas Tree Lady, if you find this, Thank you!! Even though the trip got off to a rocky start, we were really glad we went for our walk when we did. We were also glad we went to that area of the beach. That's not where we normally go, but if we had gone to our usual spot, we would have missed the Christmas tree. It's funny how things work out sometimes.
This Thanksgiving we had dinner at the beach, which the puppies all thought was a great idea. Mr. C felt that if we dressed them all in festive banadas, his chances of getting turkey would be higher. Mom was happy that he was so eager to get into the holiday spirit and picked out some harvest looking material. Originally, we were going to make them all fleece jackets, but the forecast called for temperatures in the upper 60's, which seemed a little too warm for fleece. After getting to ride in the car for a while- one of their favorite activities- the puppies got to get out and visit with tons of people they had never met and three other dogs. Miss S really really wanted to play with the miniature pinscher, Minny, but Minny disagreed. Miss S can't figure out why all of the little dogs she meets are scared of her and don't want to play. Her two-legged cousin tried to help her out by holding up the little dog for her to smell, but the little dog still didn't want to play. By the time we left, Minny was more comfortable with the puppies, but wasn't quite comfortable enough to play. By late afternoon, the shade and breeze on the balcony started getting a little too chilly and the littles started shaking. So we held them on our laps to warm them up. The older puppies stayed in the sun a little more and were too interested in what everyone else was doing to notice the cooler temperatures. At that point, we were wishing we had gone ahead and made the fleece jackets. Texas weather is so unpredictable. It was a very good Thanksgiving. The puppies were thoroughly worn out by the time we left and slept almost all the way home.
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AuthorFirst time pitbull owners who found two pitbull puppies abandoned on the side of the road and decided to adopt them...And then loved them so much, they decided to get two wonderful mastiffs. Archives
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