Today the puppies graduated from the Advanced Level of puppy school. They had a good time showing off on relay work in the store, met people, got to finally visit with some kids and even got to eat puppy cake. The day started off dark and stormy. We took the puppies out early for a potty break and were glad we did because shortly after we came back in, the sky opened up. The lightening was so close, that not even a second passed between the lightning strikes and the thunder several times. The puppies don't really care about storms. They just stayed asleep. We had put them in their crates when they came back in because their feet were muddy, but Dad let them come back into our room after the storms started getting bad. They were super happy. Miss M came running in, jumped up on the bed and then realized the others weren't all there yet. So she jumped back down, ran and got her ball and then jumped back up on the bed with her ball. She happily chewed on it until Mr. M took it from her.
We weren't sure if we were even going to be able to go to puppy school with all of the storms in the area, and we kept a close watch on the radar all morning. We decided to take a test run before loading the puppies into the car to make sure the conditions weren't too bad- the car needed gas anyway. It was raining lightly, but the roads weren't flooded, so we decided to try. We got the harnesses on and the puppies into the car. On the way, we stopped by Buddy Bites to pick up a graduation cake. The puppies knew right away that it was for them. Notice the puppy nose checking out the cake in the picture below.

Of course, you can't have a graduation without pictures...

This time, Mr. C was very cooperative. He didn't want a repeat of last time. He wanted to make sure his graduation pictures were professional.

Our puppies really love puppy school. We love it because it gives us a productive outing every week in a climate controlled area- important when it is raining or over 100 outside. Grandpa made an excellent point though when we were at their house, that the puppies still hadn't learned how to use a vacuum and clean up after themselves in puppy school. We decided that we might need to send the puppies to grad school in hopes of learning how to use the vacuum cleaner instead of just chasing it around the living room.

Yesterday, Miss S and Mr. M turned 1 year old! I can't believe that year went by so fast. I vividly remember getting the text one year ago today, that they had been born. At four weeks their mom rejected the whole litter, so we brought Miss S and Mr. M home with us. They were so tiny! They were so young that they still got cold easily. We had to keep a little fleece wrap on Miss S or she would start shaking. 

Back then, we could carry them around in one hand. These days we are doing good to pick one of them up with both hands.

We decided that we needed to do something special for their birthday. Grandma came over yesterday, and we had quite a bit to do. The puppies go to play with her, but we didn't have time to celebrate. Since the puppies don't really know anything about birthdays, we figured they wouldn't care if we celebrated a day late.
On Miss B and Mr. C's birthday, we made coconut bread and let the puppies all share about half a loaf. Since then, we have cut sugar and most of the flour out of their diets, so we wanted to go with something a little healthier instead. A doggie bakery opened up not too far from us recently, and we had been wanting to try it out anyway. It's called Buddy Bites, and if you are in the Seabrook, Texas area, it is totally worth trying. They have all kinds of toys, leashes, shampoos and other goodies, but most importantly, they have homemade, healthy dog treats. They make custom birthday cakes for dogs in the shape of a bone, but you have to order them two days in advance. We didn't realize this, so we got a birthday cookie for each of them instead. We didn't want the others to feel left out, so we brought them each a treat too. We really liked the Buddy Bites store and plan on going back there again soon. The next puppy birthday is Miss M's in three months, and now that we know that you have to order cakes in advance, we will be sure to call ahead so we can get a cake. 

The puppies smelled the treats in the bag before we even got them out and instantly knew that the treats were for them. Mr. M and Miss S had a hard time waiting. The suspense was unbearable.

Miss B, Miss M and Mr, C were very glad that they got treats too!

All in all, I think it was a good birthday. The puppies got to tear up a box and two plastic bottles. Plus they got fresh baked goodies that were made just for them. They don't know it yet, but Buddy Bites is dog friendly. Next time we go, we are planning on taking them with us. All I can say is that it's a good thing they have the treats in a case. I don't think they would be safe from Miss S. She loves treats.

Today we took the puppies to their first social event. Their trainer, Ms. A, was hosting a puppy treat give away event, and they were invited. So, after feeding them breakfast and taking them out for a necessary potty break, we got them ready. They weren't expecting it at all and got super excited when the harness bag came out. They are pro's at going to puppy school, so as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, they knew right where to go. 
We've actually never taken them to a Petsmart on a Saturday before. Usually we try to take them places when we know it won't be very busy to minimize the distractions. Today, there were tons of distractions. In addition to the treat party, it was adoption day, and there were tons of people in the store with their dogs. I don't think our puppies have ever seen that many other dogs before. They were really excited to see Miss A and were happy when she pulled out the treats.

Most of the other dogs there were small dogs. What we've noticed is that a lot of the small dogs are not super friendly. Our puppies really don't understand why the other puppies don't want to play. It's actually kind of funny to watch. They love puppies, and every time they see one, they want to go over and lick it and play with it. Mr. C totally wants to have every puppy he sees as his own. He's already had lots of practice with puppies (Mr. M, Miss S and Miss M). So he is sure that he needs to lick them and clean them and play with them and cuddle them... The rest of our puppies love other puppies too, and they get very confused when the puppies they see don't feel the same way. Of course, they also get confused when the cats get tired of being slobbered on, but that's a different story.
We decided not to stay right by the treat table the whole time and took them on walks around the store. They got barked at by the adoption puppies. Mostly, they just glanced at them and kept walking- with a little encouragement. They got barked at by a few other little dogs. Mr. M is the only one who barked back. We all had a good time and the puppies were very happy that they got to go do something fun. As usual, they slept most of the way home. We were very proud of how well they did walking around the store with so much distraction. It was super noisy, and there were people and dogs everywhere, but they stayed calm and just walked. They also had their picture taken a few times and got to meet several new people.

We decided it was best not to tell the cats where we went. We know they like dog food, and they are already jealous that the dogs get more treats than they do. But can you blame us? The puppies do things to earn treats. The cats just make noise and knock things off of the table. Plus, they already have a reputation for being bad travelers (picture a long car ride with two cats in a carrier full of poop and throw-up- not pleasant). Needless to say, we weren't even thinking about taking them anywhere.

We've been getting into the holiday spirit around here, and the puppies have been giving us a hand with the decorating. They are very diligent in their efforts to shred things in the living room. As demonstrated by Mr.M below. 

They are all very considerate in making sure that no treats get left behind to clutter up the kitchen counter. They also offer to be taste testers on anything Mom is cooking- you know, just to make her feel like she is doing a good job at baking for the holidays.

They check out any stray boxes laying around the house to make sure that no gifts are left behind.

They also make sure to warm up the bed for Mom and Dad. It's like an electric blanket but without the electricity. Only really, it's like having a fossil fuel powered blanket. I'm sure they violate EPA emissions rules at times.

Most of the time the puppies are doing something cute or funny, the camera is in the other room. This evening, we decided to grab the camera and bring out the treats to see if we could get some pictures of how concentrated they get when there is food involved.

I think I need to make more treats.

Before we had puppies, I just thought a dog treat was a dog treat. They were just dogs anyway, they wouldn't know the difference. I mean, come on. They lick their own hinter regions. Milk Bone, rawhide, whatever. Right? I couldn't have been more wrong. A dog treat is not just a dog treat. As it turns out, some dog treats give your puppy diarrhea, mess up their teeth, or even worse if they have allergies. Once we brought Mr. C and Miss B home, we started looking at dog food a little differently. If GMO corn and soy cause tumors and cancers in people, why would we want to give that to our puppies? Wouldn't you save money in the long run on vet bills for various cancers and conditions if you spent a little bit more and got the better quality food? I like to think so. Plus, if you give your dog high quality food and treats, it seems to me that their stools would be more manageable. 

So then, what kind of treats do you get? We looked at Petsmart to see if Blue Buffalo made treats too and searched online to see what kind of non-GMO options we could find in that department. As it turns out, there are organic and non-GMO treats out there, but at the rate our puppies were going through treats for training, it would have been better for us to buy stock in a treat company. 
With the first two, we went through quite a bit of trial and error before realizing that we shouldn't go too fancy trying to augment their food- or else they would end up with diarrhea. We started making sure that they had the recommended daily amount of dry food and then gave them a little bit of canned food every once in a while as a special treat if they were doing really well. We also found these really cool 'Happy Tummy' treats online that were supposed to settle their stomachs. Once we started evening out their diet and giving them the tummy treats, the diarrhea went away. 
We were happy that we had finally figured it out... then we tried to reorder the Happy Tummy treats and discovered that the company no longer sold them! Nooooo!!!
I didn't want to switch them to unhealthy treats or give them treats that would mess up their stools. So I again turned to Google to see if there were recipes for dog treats. There were, but I wanted to include most of the ingredients listed on the Happy Tummy treats because they had worked so well. I tried a few of the recipes just to get a feel for the dry ingredient to wet ingredient ratio and then came up with my own recipe. I bake them in really small pieces so that you can give your puppy several treats without filling them up. 
I will put my recipe and some picture of them in my next post. I have to make a new batch soon anyway! The puppies all love them, I like them because I know what's in them. I can even pronounce all of the ingredients. Inconceivable! ( <-- Shameless excuse to quote the Princess Bride)

After a busy day yesterday, we took the opportunity this afternoon to work in the yard. There were some tree limbs that had grown long enough to rub against the edge of the roof, so the puppies volunteered to help Dad trim them. They had never seen Dad on the roof before, and Miss B barked nonstop at him until he was finished. Miss S took cover in Mom's lap while all of the branches were falling. Once they were all on the ground, the puppies did their best to drag them around and pull some of the leaves off.

The dogs in the yard behind ours are interested in our puppies. The male is not friendly toward small animals, and I am convinced that if he weren't so small himself, he would attack our littles if he could. He used to stalk Miss B from the other side of the fence too- crouching low and then charging the fence. Eventually he gave up and now just runs back and forth along the length of the fence with Miss B and Mr. C when they pay attention to him.

After that much excitement in the yard, there was only one thing to do... All four of the puppies helped Mom make dog cookies in the kitchen. Mostly, they just kept her company hoping random goodies would make their way down to them from the counter. Afterwards, Mr. C and Miss S acted as the official testers before Miss B and Mr. M realized that the treats were ready.