We had two, furry children this weekend

This last weekend we took care of our friend’s dog, Woodrow. Woodrow and Hiro are just about the exact same age and have been best friends since we got them 2 years ago. Whenever we say Woodrow’s name, Hiro perks up and looks at the front door. They absolutely love each other.

Taking care of the two of them together used to be pretty difficult. Neither one seemed to know how to calm down when they were together. We have had many sleepless weekends where they would literally play for 24 hours straight! This weekend we realized how much older and more mature they are. There were still a few gladiator type wars in our living room and a couch blanket may or may not have become the victim of a tug-a-war game, but they both did really well. They were able to calm down in the evenings and sleep all night instead of play all night.

Hiro and Woodrow are a bit demanding when it comes to attention…this is what most of the weekend looked like. Aren’t all three of them cute? I think so!

-Lauren-

Hiro + Squeaky Ball = BFFs

He is pretty obsessed with these little guys. They are by far the best dog toy we have purchased.

We have the orange and a red one (which has made a huge difference in Hiro actually retrieving a ball from the water). The poor guy couldn’t see the tennis balls we kept throwing. Now we have a ball obsessed dog.

Look at my two boys. :)

-Lauren-

Hiro’s getting sneaky

This morning I got up and made my usual breakfast…oatmeal with flaxseed and brown sugar. I guess I forgot to close the pantry door after getting the oatmeal out and no sooner had I sat down to watch the news, did I hear a bag rustling and Hiro running out his doggie door. I thought maybe he had knocked something over and ran outside because he had gotten scared. But, when I look up all I saw was Hiro sitting outside on the patio eating a piece of “good stuff”.

Before I continue with this story, let me take a minute to explain “good stuff”. When my sister and I were little, my mom used to put evaporated milk on toast every once in a while for us. We loved it! She always called it “good stuff”. I remember one morning when my Dad was making us breakfast and he asked my sister and I what we wanted…we both excitedly said we wanted good stuff! He had no idea what good stuff was and we were not too happy. :)

Fast forward about 18 years…when Hiro was a puppy I taught him that “good stuff” was a treat. Now he gets super excited when I ask him if he wants “good stuff”. Well recently we picked up some treats at Costco and apparently they are the best “good stuff” we have gotten because Hiro loves them! So this morning when he found the pantry open and no one looking he decided to help himself to a few. I thought it was pretty funny so when he came back inside I pretended like I had not noticed. He trotted into the living room and looked at me (making sure I had not caught onto what he was doing). Then he casually walked back to the pantry and sticks his head in for more. I wish we had a flip camera or something because this would have been great on video! I was laughing too hard to get mad at him, but I at least called his name. He jumped and ran over to me with 2 “good stuffs” hanging out of his mouth.

No telling how often he has done this when we were asleep or not home. When I told Jon about it, he said he doesn’t really make an effort to make sure the pantry door is closed. I guess from now on we will have to keep the pantry door closed just like the closet door (I’m not sure if I shared the shoe story on my blog). I’ll just say it involves us leaving our closet door open one night and Jon finding 10 pair of my shoes all over the backyard the next morning. What can you do besides laugh, right? :)

-Lauren-

*Update…sometimes Jon leaves me notes on my computer from Hiro…this is what he wrote tonight…

“Hiro peers around the corner; coast is clear. His nails tap on the tile as he makes his way across the kitchen. One last glance over the shoulder; still no sign of resistance. Speed and stealth, he thinks to himself. Don't be greedy. However, as the smell of the good stuff feels his nostrils he gets excited; tail wagging frantically. Nervously, he plunges snout first. The crinkling of the bag startles him; his stomach all tied in knots. No time left now. He grabs all he can in one quick snap of the jaws. Out the door he runs with his prize. He walks a little easier now, confident he was undetected. Finding his spot in the yard, the crumpled grass in the shade, he finally collapses and enjoys his treat. Another successful raid of the good stuff.”

He should be writer.

Hiro says he’s sorry

This is the email that I had to send to my parents today. First, a little background…when my parents were in town for Mother’s Day weekend their dog Rubi stayed with us. When I took her back to my parents I forgot to bring her bed, so it has been in our living room waiting for my Dad to come to Austin on business and pick it up. Well this morning this is what Jon and I came home to.

Um, yes that would be the bed that doesn’t belong to us. And no that is not popcorn, that would be the foam stuffing that used to belong inside the bed.

Dear Rubi,

I am writing to say that I am sorry, because I may have definitely destroyed your bed. My mom and dad went to breakfast and I guess I thought they were not coming back, or maybe that they went to the park to play without me. Anyway, I got a little bit mad and started chewing on your bed (which I was laying on at the time). Well, one thing lead to another and before I knew what was happening I had torn a big hole in the bed. Since there was a big hole, I started pulling out the stuffing…you know how exciting tearing up pillows can be. When my parents got home I knew they would not be happy and I was right. They told me that you get to pick out a new bed and I will have to pay for it out of my allowance. I will lick as many hands as I have to in order to pay for a new bed for you.

I’m sorry, I hope you will still be my friend.

Love, Hiro

Poor guy, look at that face…he was so sorry. We are just thankful is was a replaceable dog bed versus our couch cushions.

Lucky for Hiro my parents love him, so I think all is forgiven. :)

-Lauren-

hiro and dexter

Today we went to the kite festival. It was ok...the main section of Zilker was closed off so it wasn't as good as it has been in the past. I took some pictures but they were all too bright and washed out. We met up with our friends Aaron and Stacie and decided to take their dog Dexter with us to Auditorium Shores for play time. We picked up a new squeaky ball at Petsmart this morning and it was a big hit.

Aren't they cute together? :)

how to keep your dog off the couch

As promised here is my post about how to keep your dog off the couch. Let me start with some background...when we got Hiro he was only this big...cute right? :)


We used to put him up one the couch because he couldn't get down by himself and he would just fall asleep. We knew we could get ready or get stuff done without worrying about him getting into something.

Even after he grew the couch wasn't such a big issue. Sometimes we would let him on but most of the time he would sleep on the floor next to the couch. Slowly he started getting on the couch more often...first when we were not home, and then when we would leave the room and eventually he would climb up with me sitting right there next to him. After one too many muddy couch cushion occurrences I decided enough was enough. He is a dog right?? He can lay on the floor with his own pillow right?? Yes!

So how to keep him off the couch? Well it was easy to keep him off when we were in the room and it only took a couple of times for him to learn we didn't want him up there when we were at home but not in the room. However keeping him off the couch at night and while we were gone was a challenge. We started blocking off the couch with baskets like this

But that was a pain. So my dad suggested I go buy strips of plastic carpet runner. It is smooth on one side and spiky on the other.

So over the weekend I went to Home Depot and gave them the measurements I needed. The sales woman asked me what I was doing with it and I told her my situation. She laughed and said that more people come in to buy this for that purpose than for its actual purpose. Now at night or whenever we leave I just lay these strips across the couch and loveseat.

Its pretty easy and they easily fit under the couch when we don't need them. Yay for clean couch cushions again!

Anyone else have any creative pet tips? I would love to hear your stories. :)

Finally

I have been looking everywhere for directions on how to make my own blog background and I finally found the here. I just made my background and I changed up my header (again). I have so much fun trying new papers and elements I feel like I change my header and background on a weekly daily basis. I can't help it, it is fun and addicting! Maybe I will get good enough that people will want me to make them headers and backgrounds...for now I will just keep changing mine up. :) The only thing I am unhappy with is the fact that my header is not centered inside the border...I tried everything I could think of with no luck. Any advice?

I am so excited that tonight starts my 3 day weekend! We have decided not to paint the office this weekend...well more like I neglected to get the supplies and Jon and I are both feeling like a relaxing weekend instead of a home improvement weekend. We'll get to it someday.

Jon came back from Colorado today. He has been gone since Wednesday and in the past Hiro has not handled his absences very well. I can't remember if I have posted about this problem or not so here is a recap.
Hiro is very well trained most of the time. We have been able to leave him inside unattended for several hours at a time (he has a doggie door that he learned how to use when he was only 15 weeks old). The only time we had problems was when we left him at home and it got dark, however if we left enough lights on he seemed to be fine. Then Jon got a new position at Dell that is 80% travel (its not as bad as it sounds). When Jon is not traveling he gets to work from home which means he spends a lot of time here with Hiro. Well, when Jon started traveling Hiro started destroying the couch throw pillows. After replacing the pillows that came with our couch and then replacing the replacements a couple of times I started picking up the pillows hoping that would solve the problem. I was wrong. He recently started to go after the couch cushions! That is something I can not be replacing over and over (well not even once really). The thing is its hit or miss, for example Thursday Jon was gone and Hiro did great while I was at work. Then today I came home to a new hole in another couch cushion and a destroyed pillow, which I started leaving back out hoping that would detract him from the cushions (as I am writing this I am laughing to myself...I mean seriously I am a behavior therapist I should be able to deal with this behavior). So here is the state of our living room furniture: couch = 1 hole in a cushion, loveseat = 1 hole in a cushion, ottoman - holes in 3 of the 4 corners. And next weekend I am throwing a baby shower at our house...perfect.

Our puppy has a weight problem

Earlier this week Jon took Hiro to play at a Auditorium Shores. He loves to play in the water with the other dogs. We try to take him out there a couple of times a week. We have started to notice that he is a little chubby compared to the other laps out there...in fact we started calling him our chunky monkey...sad I know.

Anyway Jon was picking up after Hiro earlier this week and noticed a worm (gross I know). Actually he has had this before...he loves to drink the water at Auditorium Shores and his best buddy Woodrow had worms a few weeks ago so we were kind of expecting it to happen. Anyway its not a huge deal, he just has to go to the vet and get a single dose of medicine. Jon was able to take him to the vet that afternoon. While there he asked the vet if she thought Hiro was a little chubby for 1 and 1/2. Her reply "He's only 1 and 1/2?!?!". I guess we have our answer. :( Hiro is now on a reduced diet. Every time I feed him he looks at his bowl and sighs...so sad. We are going to start taking Hiro on longer walks and some runs, hopefully we can get this chunky monkey in shape soon. :)

Highlights from the week

This week has had some ups and downs...

On Wednesday I skipped class and Jon and I got to spend the day together. It was really nice because our schedules have been off a little bit these last few weeks. He has been working more on the weekends and I am in school/work everyday during the week.

We needed to talk Hiro somewhere fun, since it had been awhile. So we decided to talk him on his first kayak trip. It was pretty funny. We rented a two-person kayak and struggled to get our timid dog on the huge foreign orange thing. First we tried sitting in our usually positions...me at the front and Jon in the back. We initially put Hiro in front with me, but quickly realized that wasn't the best idea. Together, Hiro and I weigh more than Jon and Hiro kept moving around making it difficult for me to row. We had to pull over and switch places. Once Hiro and I were in the back and Jon was in the front to steer we were able to make pretty good progress. We were able to row over to a dog park area that is right on the water. We docked and let Hiro run a play for awhile. The return trip was much easier and I think Hiro finally got the idea that he just needed to sit still and enjoy the ride. We are going to try to take him again soon.

On Thursday I got stuck in traffic and actually missed work! I left school around 2 and I was supposed to do a session from 3-5 that afternoon. At about 2:30 everything on 35 came to a complete stop! Then I saw three firetrucks drive by, and I knew it could not be good. I was able to look up traffic.com on my phone and I found out that a bus and a couple of 18-wheelers collided and there was oil and diesel fluid all over the highway. Luckily no one was injured, but they shut the highway down for 3 hours. I sat in basically the same place on the highway for over 3 hours. I didn't get home until 5:45.

Friday was my last day of summer school. Wow am I glad that is over. Driving down to San Marcos everyday is too much for me. I don't think I will be taking summer school again next year. I have 8 more classes to take before graduation and I think I am going to spread them out over Fall, Spring, and then a Fall. That means I will done December of 2009. I have about a month until Fall classes start and when they do I will only have to drive to San Marcos twice a week.

Jon and I went to see the Dark Knight Friday evening. It was really good. It was nice to go out just the two of us. It has been a while since we have gone on a date date.

Funny Story

Jon and I got Hiro neutered a couple of weeks ago (it was sad, I know). He did really well, but he licked his stitches out the day they were due to come out. So the vet told us we had to keep him from swimming for yet another week. For a dog that will do anything to get in the water, that is pretty hard. On Saturday we decided to go swimming with some friends a Barton Springs. We packed up the bag we normally take to the greenelt with Hiro along with some towels. I guess that Hiro figured we were going to the greenbelt without him and got mad. He took one of Jon's flip flops outside and destroyed it. The next day Jon went looking for his lost shoe and found it outside. When he brought it in and tossed it on the living room floor for me to see, Hiro jumped up on the couch and tried to hide behind my back. It was so cute! Jon and I just sat there laughing. Hiro clearly knew what he did wrong. :) Hopefully Jon and I will be a little better a discipline once we have kids.