Our courtyard has a water feature and it has just been filled with water!  Don’t forget, I’m a winter pup so I have never had water experiences except for in the bath.  Mom wondered what I would do so she brought me over and I jumped right in!

It was fantastic and mom laughed while I hopped around.

By the time I was done the pool was not quite as full!  Tee- my friend Beau is coming!

Mom eventually pulled me out and made me dry off in the sun before going back home.

Mom’s talking about taking me to the beach now.  I don’t know what the beach is but I heard the word water so I’m all for it!  I have great webbed feet so mom says I should be a great swimmer.  Eventually our water feature will have a granite slab added and only an inch of water over it so mom let me take advantage a few times today before they finish it off next week.  I loved it!

My 28 week photo will be up tomorrow morning!  We hope everyone is having a great long weekend!

I’m saving up for an iRobot Roomba 564 Pet Series.  I get many comments when I mention this to people.  The comments are always one of these:

• “I can’t believe your going to spend $400 + on a vacuum.”
• “They don’t work, I have one like that.”
• “You can’t need to vacuum that much.”

To which my responses in my head are:

• I spend 15 minutes a day vacuuming for a quick vacuum and about 30 minutes for a deep clean (under bed and couch, vacuuming cushions of couch, etc).  If my time cleaning is only worth minimum wage at $10.25 then I spend over $1243.66 and over 121 hours yearly on just quick vacuums.  So yes, over $400 for a vacuum that will last me a few years is definitely worth it.
• Everyone who has told me that “they don’t work” has not actually tried an iRobot Roomba.  They have bought other $100 versions that weren’t the iRobot brand.  The saying “you get what you pay for” pop’s into my head.
• And during shedding time I feel like screaming if anyone tells me I don’t need to vacuum that much.  (Just so you know, Aaron doesn’t mention a word when I pull out the vacuum.  It’s 15 minutes of the vacuum sound or the night of me screaming about the hair stuck to the bottom of my feet.)  And just as proof, in case you fell into this category, I took some pictures.  Here’s my freshly vacuumed floor in the living room:

And the bedroom:

And this is my living room floor LESS THEN 24 Hours after I vacuumed:

And the bedroom:

If you’re wondering, the clumps of hair are Dexter’s husky hair and the single hairs everywhere else belong to Jack.  So considering this is about 19 hours worth of hair, yes, I do in fact need to vacuum every day.  I dream of Mr. Roomba.  Seriously.  Don’t worry, Aaron knows.

On another similar topic, this is the den, aka “the dog room”, where Dexter and Jack’s toy box is kept as well as their crates:

Notice how there is NO hair in there?  Aaron and I don’t use this room yet and therefore Dexter and Jack don’t use it either.  The dog room is the cleanest room in the condo!  To which my answer to the question “How do you have room for 2 large dogs in a condo?” that I get all the time is: “Even if I had a castle with a million rooms, Dexter and Jack would be in the same room I was in.”  And wouldn’t you want them with you anyways?

So tell me, does anyone have an iRobot Roomba 564 Pet Series vacuum?  Do you think it is worth every single penny?

Click here to print and download PDF.

Jack is 27 weeks this week! Time sure is flying! We are a day late again posting Jack’s post.  Between dad running the Sporting Life 10k down Yonge Street yesterday and then hanging out with Grandma for Mother’s Day we didn’t get a chance to post about it.  Jack is feeling better now too thank goodness. Last week was tough for the poor guy. Mom says he seems to be making up for it the last couple days. He’s been a little crazier. Last night while mom, dad, and I were in bed, Jack was having puppy sprints around the bedroom and living room. Here is Jack’s 27 week photo and our first one with us both laying down:

It’s our “stare down the cheese” look.  Here’s the runner up, which looks exactly the same:

To see all of Jack’s weekly photo project, click here.

Did you know that dogs can catch colds?  Well they can.  Poor Jack!  He was sick starting Sunday afternoon until he woke up Thursday morning with the doggie cold.

Here’s some doggie cold info:

• Dog’s can catch colds from other dogs just like humans can catch colds from other people.
• Symptoms can include runny nose, watery eyes, coughing, loss of appetite, sneezing, headache, and fever.
• Dog’s don’t catch colds from people and people don’t catch colds from dogs.

How do you know if your dog caught something more serious than the cold and needs to be taken to the vet?:

• A regular doggie cold usually lasts only a few days.  If it doesn’t clear up, then a vet visit is in order!
• If your dog is a young puppy or an older dog, take them to the vet right away.
• If your dog is severely dry coughing it could be kennel cough, see your vet!
• Other serious symptoms include high fever and vomiting.

What were Jack’s symptoms?:

• Sunday after the dog park, he threw up on the way home in the car.  Jack is prone to car sickness, as is Dexter.  It was a warmer day and Jack doesn’t handle the heat well so we didn’t think anything of this.
• Sunday evening Jack started moping around.
• Monday Jack slept all day, had a dry nose, had no appetite, and didn’t want to drink.
• Tuesday Jack slept all day, had no appetite, didn’t want to drink, had a runny nose and runny eyes, and felt warm.
• Wednesday was the same as Tuesday.
• Thursday morning he woke up 70% better, drank without help, and even played tug-of -war with Dexter but was still pretty weak.
• Friday he is back to normal.

What did we do for Jack and what can you do for your sick dog?:

• To get Jack to drink we mixed some plain chicken stock into his bowl of water.  It was the only way to get enough liquid into him.  We put one tsp into his big bowl of water.  Remember that chicken stock is salty so well some salt is good, a little bit goes a long way.
• On Monday I mixed some pure pumpkin (not the pie filling) into a bit of his kibble and he ate it.  I also added water to his kibble to help get some extra water into him.  Pumpkin also calms the stomach by the way.
• On Tuesday, the pumpkin in his kibble didn’t work so I cooked up some plain chicken with a few tbsp of pumpkin and he gobbled it up.  Just give a little at a time.
• On Wednesday, I gave him the cooked chicken and pumpkin again with success.
• We kept Jack warm and dry.
• Normally Jack is crated at night (he still needs a potty break at about 2am most nights) but we let him sleep in our room to watch over him.
• Potty break walks were kept frequent but short so we didn’t exert him more than needed.
• We gave him lots of love.

Thank goodness Jack is feeling better!  It’s never nice to see your pup not feeling well.  After we decided that Jack wasn’t just over exerted from visiting the dog park two days in a row and the warm weather we had (normally this type of exertions only lasts one day max or the length of a long nap), I overheard one of our neighbors say that her poor dog just got over being so sick.  Jack had played with her dog on Sunday as well.  So we concluded that the doggie cold was going around our condo complex and since all the dogs meet up at our courtyard, it was super easy for Jack to catch.

So far Dex is a-ok.  We have been walking them separately and washing their beds, blankets, and toys regularly.  And Dex still isn’t over Jack’s bad breath so he hasn’t been accepting any kisses from him either!

We just wanted to point out that the above statements are strictly our opinion.  If you are uncertain if your dog has a doggie cold or if it is something more serious, then please just take him to your vet.  Also, do not give dogs your Aspirin, Tylenol, Motrin, or Advil!

Last week mom posted about how bad Jack’s breath was so she tried brushing his teeth.  Brushing his teeth worked quite well and we don’t mind if Jack kisses us now.  But the other day mom bought a parsley plant at the grocery store and after reading up on how parsley freshens people (and dogs) breath, mom thought we’d bake some breath freshener treats for Jack and I!  Of course these are grain free because as you know, I’m intolerant to grains and grains shouldn’t be part of a dog diet anyways.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 cup potato flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup cheese
• 1 1/2 cups of cream or milk

For this recipe just mix all ingredients together in the order they are shown.  Remember potato flour takes a lot of liquid to roll out so you may need to add a bit more cream.

Mom cut them into bones for me and also rolled some into balls for Jack’s training treats.

Bake them at 325F for 10 minutes, then flip and cook for 10 minutes more.  Watch them because depending on how thick or thin you roll them out they may need a little less or a little more time.  We like ours a little crunchy so we rolled them thin.

How did we like them?  Well mom made us sit and wait first while they cooled.

Jack loved them of course!  He kept hopping around so this is the best picture mom could get.

And I thought they were pretty good too!  Mmmm.

And the best part is that our breath smells great!  Well, my breath was fine in the first place, Jack on the other hand…

I can get use to this!  It’s Jack here and I’ve been feeling pretty bad since Sunday evening.  I’ve just been sleeping all day and night so Monday night mom let me sleep on Dexter’s orthopedic and I was so good that on Tuesday night mom and dad let me up on the bed for a bit with Dexter!  This is how it went:

Dexter is on dad’s legs and I’m on mom’s legs!

Then we both zonked out!

I could get use to this!  I don’t think I’m going to be crated anymore at night!