DIY Friday -Making Cheap Toys Last Longer

I added the keys so you could see that it is bigger than a golf ball. I didn’t realize how much it looked like a golf ball until I took this picture. Our puppy becomes bored very easily and so we have to have a lot of toys available to keep him entertained. I love the dollar store for small items and things that we don’t need to last for a long time. Naturally I thought the dollar store would be a great place to purchase dog toys and it is. However, some toys just fall apart too fast. We bought a rubber ball from the childrens toy section that our puppy seemed to be able to rip pieces off of in just seconds. At first I thought well I guess we will just have to throw that toy away, but I have found a solution to my dilema. cover it with an old t-shirt to make a new toy for him that he can’t chew through so easily. This would also be a great idea for those of you have a aggressive chewers and need something more durable. Those durable toys can be really expensive and you don’t always need a toy that will last forever!  Step #1 Criss-Cross two rectangular pieces of fabric and place the ball in the middle. Note: you could also use a empty waterbottle or any toy your dog would chew through.  Step #2 Use another piece of fabric or rope to tie up the loose ends of fabric. I used an elastic style fabric.

Step #3

Let your puppy play with your new creation!

DIY Friday – Dog Feeding Station

So I was looking through Pinterest this week and came across this adorable pet feeding station! I am a fan of DIY projects how fun to get your hands dirty and end up with a functional item that you made.  I love this idea, but apparently we have a shortage of dressers in this area. I have scoured the classifieds, thrift stores and even craigslist looking for a decently priced dresser and there none to be found. One day I will try this project because it is so cute!

This project comes from http://craftywifecraftylife.blogspot.com/
What a great site, Katie has a lot of fun projects for you to try out.

This is the finished product.

{source: Crafty Wife Crafty Life}Pet Feeding Station: She thought of everything there is even a cat bowl on the top so the dogs don’t eat the cat food!

To get full instructions click on the image above.
If you give it try let me know in the comments below.  I will keep you posted on how mine turns out when I find the right dresser.

Wordless Wednesday-Valentine Edition

The Colorful Puppy

The Colorful Puppy
by Billie Jo Yeturi (used with permission)

Sitting still is hard for some puppies. Puppies like to play and run and jump and did I mention play?

But not for the colorful puppy. He liked to sit next to his human and watch people and think about what they were doing.

Some puppies thought that he was weird for not wanting to play. But the colorful puppy was content to just on the bench and smell the wind as is brushed passed his ears.

Other puppies would walk by the colorful puppy and make fun of him. Saying “you’re strange, colorful puppy, you never get off that bench and play with us.”

But those puppies didn’t know that colorful puppy had a wonderful world of fun games in his head. He liked to think about playing and running and jumping while watching the other puppies. He didn’t think he was strange in fact in his world he could jump farther, and run faster than any of the other puppies.

Colorful puppy was happy to be himself and didn’t care what others thought of him. His human loved him and that was all that mattered.

Every puppy is different you don’t have to do what everyone else does. Just do what makes you happy.

Could it be, are we Suburbanites?

So, today I am preparing to go to a meeting tomorrow and I said to my husband, “You remember we have to go into the ‘City’ tomorrow, right?” To which he replied, “O my goodness we are total suburbanites.”
My husband and I met in a fairly large city in the midwest, fell in love there and we got married there. Then his job shifted us out to the west coast. Since neither of us knew anything about the west coast other than it is terribly overcrowded. Therefore, we decided to move outside of the city, because we understood that a fairly large city in the midwest means a small town out west. Why does the word, suburbanite carry so much negative connotation. I enjoy my suburban life. We can flit around town with ease and we even know some of the clerks at the local stores, because life is pretty simple out here in the suburbs. Although, when we were younger we never thought we would want to be away from the fast paced city life. As we have settled into our life together things have slowed down and we don’t go out as often as we used to. We do enjoy a good adventurous vacation or day tripping here and there, but friday nights these days include a movie and snuggling on the couch with our dog. Here is what the Urban Dictionary has to say about the Suburbanite:

“The most prevalent vermin in the USA, usually indigenous to the Midwest. Recognized by the following characteristics:
-Pretending that they have lots of money, but are actually broke after spending it all trying to impress people with their McMansions, SUVs, etc.
-Love of shitty chain “restaurants” such as Applebee’s, Chili’s, The Olive Garden, IHOP, etc.
-Severely lacking in social skills and intelligence, due to their refusal to interact with anyone other than their elementary/middle school classmates from 15-20 years ago.
Suburbanite: Ooh, I don’t like it in the city! I might get shot or mugged or something!
City Dweller: Stay the f@*$ out, we don’t want you around here anyway!””

And as much as I don’t like to admit it, we are suburbanites. No longer the twenty-somethings we were, but growing older and taking on more responsibilities. Who knows maybe even someday I will be a soccer mom?!?!?
As for now I will be content to be the mom of a Four Legged King.

Wordless Wednesday

What do you think about “Cesar’s Way”?

I just finished reading Cesar Millan’s book, Cesar’s Way. The book was a little redundant, but to his credit even though you read about the same topic over and over, you still feel compelled to continue reading. I felt there was a lot of “name dropping” and self praise, though you have to admit that the man has made a name for himself despite the fact that he came to the US illegally in the early 90s, so those methods are working for him.

As you probably already know Cesar’s Way is a book about one man’s interpretation of Dominance-Based Training. The idea is that if you can convince your dog that you are the leader you can automatically get him to do what you want. Does that somehow seem to good to be true? Well, not for Cesar, he has had tremendous success with this method and he has also helped (in his words) thousands of dogs become happy, healthy and balanced.

So how does someone put these methods to work for themselves? The path to convincing your dog that you are in charge is not an easy one. You must remain the pack leader 24-7, you must be sure that you are “calm and assertive” ALL the time you are around your dog.  In every situation you must enforce the rules you have set up for you dog or he could resort back the same behavior as before. Consistency is key. Also you must follow Cesar’s plan for success which is a balance of, exercise, discipline and affection in that order.

In my opinion many of the methods that Cesar puts forth make sense and seem to work. I am not a fan of positive reinforcement as the only means to train your dog. However, at the same time I don’t think most people can be disciplined enough to completely adhere to Cesar’s methods and therefore they don’t work as magically as they do on TV for the average person. They simply become an unhealthy aggression over your dog, which I don’t believe Cesar would agree with either.

I have watched Dog Whisperer on National Geographic Channel many times. I really enjoy the show and most of the techniques Cesar uses seem to make sense, but there is a school of people out there who disagree with “Cesar’s Way.” There is no doubt that Cesar is dedicated to his dogs. His daily routine would put many athletes to shame. He starts his day with four hours of exercise with the dogs at his Dog Psychology Center.  While the dogs are resting after the four-hour workout he goes to work behind a desk so to speak. Then he feeds the dogs, and works some more until it is time for them to go rollerblading which can take him a few hours. Then back to the center for a game of ball with the dogs. Which puts us near the end of the day, but Cesar’s day is not over, since the dogs are tired it is easy for him to do one on one work the individual dogs as needed. Whether or not you agree with Cesar’s methods, they work for him and he is clearly doing what he thinks is best for his dogs.

Read the book and decide for yourself if “Cesar’s Way” is the best or even the only method for you and your dogs. Happy reading!

If you have already read the book I would love to hear your opinion! Feel free to comment below.

DIY Pet Pillow

I don’t know about your pups but our dog just started sleeping with us. He is all over the bed all night long. He goes from laying peaceful between us, to laying on my husbands head, then on my feet, then spread eagle across our legs…well you get the picture. My husband could sleep through a hurricane, but I am light sleeper so this decision to let him sleep with us has led to some sleepless nights for me. Therefore we (and by “we” I mean “I”) are going to try for a modification to this sleeping pattern. I have used one of my sweaters to make a pillow case to place on the floor next to our bed. It was a pretty rudimentary design for the “pillow case,” but it worked out well and he likes it. First, I started by using a sweater that I was ready for the rubbish pile. I wore it around the house for the afternoon just to get a little of my scent on it. Then I made the pillow case. The plan is to get him to sleep on it around then house then move it to the bedroom. He will do a “sit stay” pretty well, hence I don’t think it will be too troublesome to get him to sleep on the pillow. However, we shall see.

I have added a quick overview of how I did my pillow. I stitched mine by hand you may want to use a sewing machine in that case you would not stuff the pillow first, but last.

P.S. For the pictures I just used safety pins to hold it together. You could potentially leave the pins if your dog is not much of digger. Mine likes to scratch at his pillows to fluff them and I chose not leave the pins fearing he might unhook one and poke himself.

Wordless Wednesday

Any Advice About Taking a Dog to Death Valley?

source:http://www.cartoonizemypet.com

Can you believe this is 2015? And oh my goodness, Valentine’s day is right around the corner. My husband and I are planning a trip to Death Valley. We enjoy being adventurous together, several years ago for our first Valentine’s day together we went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. We had so much fun. We were living in the MidWest and we flew to Las Vegas and then rented a car to drive to the Grand Canyon. I had no idea that it snowed at the Grand Canyon. Obviously geography was not my forte. It was great to just be spontaneous and do whatever we wanted when the mood struck. However, this year is a little different, this year we have a dog and we are trying to decide if we should take our Naayae or leave him home. We will be camping and probably will not do any major hikes, just a little site seeing of some of the major points of interest, like Ubehebe Crater, Dante’s View and the Devils Golf Course, but many people have cautioned against taking our dog. He is small under 20 pounds and will always be with us, either on a leash or in our tent. He is a good boy when walking on a leash and doesn’t bark at other animals. Since this is our first trip to Death Valley other than beautiful scenery, warm days and chilly nights we don’t have any idea what to expect. Are there really that many wild animals just waiting to eat a little dog? Anyway, we have a great dog-sitter lined up and she is more than happy to keep our little guy, but we will miss him bunches.
Have any of you been to Death Valley? Did you take your dog? How did it go? If you didn’t take your dog, do think now that you have been there you would have?