Happy Birthday, Kitty!

Today is Kitty's 5th birthday! She is a little upset we didn't do anything special.. in fact.. don't tell her, I'm the worst doggie mom ever.. I only JUST remembered it's her birthday! whoops! Here's a crappy cell phone pic of my beloved birthday girl. I'll try to get some good ones of her later. :)

Do Aussies Shed?

Meee? No, never!!

VitaCost.com Giveaway Winner

Thanks to random.org, we have a winner for the www.vitacost.com $25 gift card!

Drumroll, please..........................

Aaaaand number 1 was assigned to Amanda and Nola from Dachshund Nola! 

Thank you to those that participated and thanks again to Vitacost for allowing me to host this giveaway!

Hopefully I will be able to do more reviews and giveaways in the future.

Review & GIVEAWAY: VitaCost Pet Products

Hi guys! We were offered the opportunity to review a couple of items from Vitacost.com, so we jumped at the chance!

First up, Happytails Sleepytime Tonic.
http://www.vitacost.com/happytails-sleepytime-tonic-1-fl-oz-1

This is a natural tonic meant to help calm nervousness. Kitty and Breeze both get a little antsy during thunderstorms, and we've had a couple of them lately! I went ahead and gave them some of the Happytails Sleepytime Tonic to see how it would work.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but overall they did seem a little more capable of calming down. I noticed less pacing with Breeze, and Kitty didn't seem as insecure.

Overall I would recommend the Sleepytime Tonic for thunderstorms, car rides, vet or groomer trips, or any other potentially stressful situations. The results aren't magical but I really like that my dogs aren't drugged, and the ingredients are natural.

Keep in mind that tonics and medicines are sort of "bandaids" on problems. If your dog has anxiety issues I highly recommend counter conditioning using positive reinforcement, however the Sleepytime Tonic could help your dog get to a relaxed state so that training can begin!

The second product we got to try out was Happytails Fur Butter (or fur worse!)
http://www.vitacost.com/happytails-fur-butter-or-fur-worse-8-oz-3

Before we get into this I would like to point out that it's really important to feed your dog a high quality diet, whether that be a kibble, homemade, or even raw food diet. My dogs eat grain free food and I find that this has greatly improved their skin and coats.

That being said, even dogs in good health can occasionally get dry, flaky skin! Breeze is especially prone to dandruff and itching when the weather changes due to her environmental allergies, so the Fur Butter arrived at a great time!

The unsuspecting victim

I wrangled up the Border Collie and opened the jar-o-butter. It has a pleasant, natural scent. I kept thinking it smelled almost waxy, and then I looked at the ingredients- beeswax! Well, no wonder! 

Mmm, beeswax and shea butter!

Once Breeze was clean I dug into the 'butter. It kind of has a Crisco-ish feel to it. Almost a tiny bit greasy, but it doesn't leave that feeling on your hands once its rinsed. It doesn't lather, as it's not a shampoo, but I worked it into her skin and coat and let it sit for a few minutes.

Marinating!

I think I may have used a bit much as it wasn't the easiest to rinse out completely, but I did grab a big ol' dollop of it when I was working it into her coat. Anyway, it rinsed out fine and I towel-dried our model here. To my surprise, she actually dried pretty quickly. Normally I find that conditioners leave her overly-oily (I'm assuming they aren't really soaked up by the coat) and it takes her forever to dry. This was not the case. 

Breeze is normally a VERY rough-coated dog, borderline wirey even. Now, though, her coat is feeling soft and "light," which is great! I will definitely use this product again. I'm excited to use it on Aero, with his loooong hair. 

Now for a GIVEAWAY! 

I am so excited to be able to host a giveaway thanks to Vitacost.com! 

To enter to receive a $25 Gift Card to Vitacost, just comment below! I will assign each person a number. On Monday, June 3rd, I will put the numbers into a random number generator to select the winner! Good luck!!

Disclaimer- All of the opinions in this blog post are my own. I was not compensated for this post in any way other than given the samples to try out. 

Wordless Wednesday

Bad Blogger

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates recently. I am going to try to post more regularly- we've just had a LOT going on. I got a new job that was supposed to be part time but has been more full-time and I'm trying to adjust to balancing things there and here at home, hubby has a hurt back and can't help out (plus, I'm stubborn and want to do it all myself), had a tragedy this week involving a raccoon and my beloved laying hens.. Excuses, excuses, I know.

 Breeze and Riot did get to go swimming yesterday but I didn't take any pictures. Oh, and Aero got his new haircut. I'll be sure to have him blog about it. I have been sent a couple of pretty neat items to review and will be writing that up as soon as I have a chance to test them out. Thanks to those of you that are still stopping by!

Mom is CRAZY!

OMD! So, yesterday, mom went to this thing called "Linear Appraisal" or something. She was helping out the goat breeder where she got one of our goats. She was just supposed to go, help out, and come home. Well she left at 7 this morning and didn't get back til FOUR PM! What the heck! And then, she has the indecency to bring THIS home with her!

Eeeeeek!

Mom said she doesn't have a name yet. She is an "experimental" which in this case is part LaMancha (hello, elf ears!) and part Alpine. Whatever! She looks like a GOAT to us! Now we have THREE. It's okay, as long as they don't take up too much of mom's time. We need to remind her about priorities maybe!

Wordless Wednesday

Smiles!

Black and White Sunday 3

Sibling Saturday

We hope everyone is having a great weekend! 

Wordless Wednesday 2: The Loophole

We have a "no balls in the house" rule

Aero's New Collar

Hi guys! I won Dachshund Nola's giveaway of a collar from The Sewing Dog! I was really excited to win and had mom pick me the Green and Blue Peace Signs design. It was really hard to choose one, there are tons of awesome styles. Mom says I look good in bright colors, though! The collar arrived last night and we did our photoshoot this morning.

Laaaadies, what do you think?

Big smiles

I think I look pretty spiffy!

Excuse the plant matter in my hair.. 

Smilin' with my new collar on!

Anyway, thank you so much again to Dachshund Nola and The Sewing Dog! 

- Aero 

P.S.... Any wonder my registered name is Delende Koridawn Three Mile Smile?

I'm Going to be a Star

This ball doesn't squeak, but it sure is fun to nom on! 

On Saturday my aunt and uncle came over. Uncle Jason is entering a video contest and he wanted a dog for it. Well, hey! I'm a dog! So, just under a month ago, he sent a "basic list of behaviors" to my mom, and we worked on learning them. I don't know as many tricks as my siblings, so there was lots to do. Mom said that even though I knew the least, she picked me for the role because of my steady temperament.

I had to learn to play dead, to bark on cue, and a few other things. Mom says she wishes she had taught me a "marker" spot, because it turned out we needed to do a recall with a standing stay before I got to a certain point. She said teaching a marker would have been more simple, but we sure made do with her just asking me to come, then saying "wait!" before I got there. I was a little confused at first, but I did great! Oh- did I mention it was at night?

Hopefully we will be able to show you the video soon. Uncle Jason is doing all the editing and shooting some more scenes. I hope he wins the contest!



-Riot

Black and White Sunday 2

SNACKurday 1: Minty Peanut Butter and Banana Cookies

Welcome to Kitty's Kitchen! Today I'm supervising Mom as she attempts to make cookies! We are going for peanut butter and banana, with a touch of mint for fresh breath (parsley also works great for this!). 

Step one. 

Mom cut a few mint leaves from the plant and snipped them into tiny pieces. She mushed up a super ripe banana, and combined those ingredients along with a big dollop of homemade peanut butter in a bowl. Then she added an egg from one of our chickens, and enough flour to make it into a dough-like consistency. She also preheated the oven to 325 degrees!

The Dough

Step two. 

Mom rolled the dough out on a floured cutting board and then put some more flour over top of that. She said this helps it to not stick. Then, she took the bone-shaped cookie cutters and set to work. 

These are all for me, right?

The cookies!

Step three. Mom stuck 'em in the oven. Apparently now, we wait! We weren't sure how long they were going to take because mom said she "pulled this recipe out of her butt." One time, Aero ate some string and she had to pull THAT out of his butt. Hopefully the cookies are way better! 

Waiting for them to get done baking!

After about 15 minutes, we flipped them over and then stuck them back in the oven.

Another 15 minutes later, they were done!! Woohoo! But, we had to wait for them to cool. Darn it. 

Yuuuum!

They were a hit with all of us. I am still a little bit outraged that mom didn't give them ALL to ME. I mean, come on, I did all the work! 

Can we have moooore? 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-Kitty 

Hairstyles

Hi guys! Aero here today. Mom wanted me to ask for opinions. As you know, I'm a Chinese Crested! I'm of the powderpuff variety, that means I have soft, long hair all over my body. This is when I was about 7 months old!

My hair could get longer than this- I'm talking floor-length curtain of locks!

Mom had me shaved into what's called a "Pony Cut" for a while.... I got a lot of compliments on it, and it was nice to not have to have my bum brushed! The problem with this cut is that my feet still attract a lot of leaves, stickers, and dirt.

Check out my sexy little booty!

I've even been shaved pretty much bald, except for a mohawk and my tail!

Yeehaw! This style is super low-maintenance! AND you can see my collar.

Well, here's the deal. Don't go spreading this around, but I'm a little bit SENSITIVE when it comes to being groomed. Mom would love to have me in full coat, but it takes a LOT of commitment and to be honest, I just don't have the temperament to sit through grooming every day! Mom has tried for more than two years to counter condition me to brushing, but I just don't like it. My hair is super-soft, and it mats REALLY easily. I'm telling you, don't look at it funny, it'll snarl up into a tangle!

Here I am today! I just got a bath yesterday.

Note the plant matter in my legs

Mom thinks I look super cute right now (I'm always super cute, though!), but she'd like some opinions on how I should wear my hair for the summer. The options are...

............................................drumroll, please.................................................

1) Nekkid with a mohawk and tail. 

2) Just like this, but shorter

3) A pony cut! 

So, what do you guys think?

-Aero

Wordless Wednesday

Thinking of Boston

Today we want to take a moment to extend our love and positive healing thoughts to those affected by the bombings in Boston.

Swimming!

Hi everyone! We have a pond on our property, and it sure is nice on the warmer days like today! Mom and I spent some one-on-one time at the pond, she took some pictures!

Before I got in, I watched the ducks


It's really mossy, but I don't care! In I go!


I got it!


Check out my figure


Just keep swimming!


Come on, throw it again!


In case you didn't notice, I brought it back..


WARRBGLERBLE


I got it again!


Here I come..


What do you MEAN, "Only one more time??"


I love this game


Thanks for stopping by! See y'all next time!

- Breeze

Black and White Sunday

Aero fishing with his daddy

Saturday

Happy Saturday! I'm just kicking back and relaxing today. Mom took care of a pesky rooster that had been tearing up my beloved chickens pretty bad. Did I get anything? No! Fear not, he's in the fridge "resting." I bet Mom is gonna cook him up, just for me! (She says she isn't, but maybe it's a surprise). It's because I'm going to be a star, you know. My Aunt Erin and Uncle Jason are coming to shoot the video next Saturday. Mom has some sort of announcement so I'm handing the blog over to her- see ya later! 

- Riot

I've been thinking of doing rotating themes for Saturdays- here are a few that I'm thinking about. There might be more in the future! 

Sibling Saturday: a photo of all four dogs together

SNACKurDAY: the chronicles of homemade dog treats- recipes, pictures, doggie reviews, etc

Silly Saturday: A goofy picture of one or more of the dogs (kind of like the one above, but I don't have the heart to tell Riot it's a silly picture!)

Learnin' Stuff

We adopted Riot from the BARC animal shelter in 2009. I spent a lot of time working on things such as sitting for greeting rather than jumping on people (he was a terrible jumper), walking nicely on the leash (talk about pulling!), and potty training. I taught him some really simple stuff, like sit, stay, down, and shake, but other than that didn't do much with him in the trick department. (Kitty: "He's a dummy!")

This is the first picture of him!

Recently I was asked to train one of my dogs for a few simple things for a video. I can't give a bunch of details just yet, but I chose Riot for his steady temperament. Aero would have been first choice in terms of ease- he already knows all of the cues I needed- but Riot better fits the bill aesthetically. It's been really wonderful working with him. To be honest, I was in a bit of a "training funk," where I didn't really want to work my dogs much. Riot and I are really enjoying the bonding time, and he's doing great.

I needed a bark cue, so here he is with that. We've already added the standing stay (another new thing) and a bit of distance.

We have another week before shooting, so I'm very confident that he's going to do just great! I will continue to work with him even after the video is done, as we are having a lot of fun. He's a pretty creative dog! I feel like I'm learning things about him that I hadn't noticed before, and he's been with us for 4 years. 

The Ugly Stool

Kitty here. Mom enjoys re-purposing things on occasion. Grandma bought her this ugly stool at an estate sale thinking she could spiff it up and turn it into a milking stool. Mom says she's going to tear the tattered fabric off of it, sand it, and paint it to look "distressed." You know what's distressing? Me, having to sit on this UGLY stool!!

Mom, really? This is not fit for a princess.

Did you say "treat"?

I'll pose on it again when it's more acceptable to look at! (P.S. that's Sheba the cat. She's okay in my book.)