Toy or Tree?

When I look at that photo it appears as if Cody, Truffie's brother is saying, hmmm toy or tree?

From Nadia:

I just wanted to share a few photos of Cody. This past weekend, we decorated the house for Christmas and I have to admit, we have a lot of stuff. Cody was just hilarious. He was very curious about everything and had to sniff everything but the funniest was these four guys (I sent you a picture of them).

When they came out of the box, he was seriously annoyed! He just barked and barked at them and went into attack stance. We did have them on the floor at that time right on his level. Anyway, he would back away and then go in and bark at them some more. I wished I had it on video. Anyway, finally, I put some treats around their feet and let him discover them on his own and since then, they have been great friends. What a laugh! So this will be an interesting month and we will definitely need to keep an eye on him. He never goes in the dining room as he doesn’t like it in there but now we find him in there all the time because of the tree in there! He knows he’s not supposed to touch the trees but of course he tries all the time! He particularly tries to eat the bead garland and a couple of the wooden instruments. It’s just like when the kids were little and we couldn’t decorate the bottom third of the tree!

That last photo was taken by our groomer, Lora, as I had him there today. We can’t wait until Christmas morning when Cody gets to open his presents LOL!  

Wide Eyes Wonder

I placed Truff on the stairs. tried to brush his hair back and then made funny faces at him to get him to look at me.

I never saw him looking at me with such big eyes.

I wonder what he was thinking?

Before Heavy Rain

The Spice helped with socializing the pups out on the deck. She's a true character. It's hard to remember that she is a puppy too just fully grown.

She is the first in the morning to pounce on my body to remind me that it is time to get up and if I tell her to go back to sleep, she will give me an extra 20 minutes. But she doesn't have patience when it comes to Mommy i am HUNGRY!

I had big plans to take the pups outside, wash dawgs and all that but nothing today is going as planned.

Still, we will have to kitchen it and I will eventually get the 2 moms washed. 1 down, 1 to go. Then I have to groom the rest.

Marathon Washes

We are down to the last week of Fiona's pups making their debut so I did a marathon of washing the adults. I have yet to wash the Spice but will tomorrow. I ran out of steam.

When I wash, I cut the hair between the pads as winter time brings snowballs and when the havanese tend to bite them out, they also can create mats between their pads that are painful. Some people use a clipper and I use a pair of curved scissors but also my dawgs lay on their back and let me do it. I have yet to achieve this with Spice yet so with her it wil be a two person job, I imagine. We shall see as I will try.

My goal is to get her to lay on her back so I can find any mats in her armpit area and it also allows me to groom her underneath. It's a true bonus to get them to lay on their back and I always work at having that as a goal. It's just conditioning and trust that is a factor.

I also use grooming time to check their ears, clean around their eyes and just simply make sure they are knot free with a comb. I don't pull out the mat with a comb. I just either hold the mat in place and pull it apart with my fingers after spraying it with grooming spray or I use a brush to break it apart. Then I go on the hunt again with the comb. If you are this thorough at bath time, your job in-between is much easier even at the once in a lifetime 'blowing coat' stage.

PS: they don't blow their coat but actually they get their undercoat and due to the different lengths, it creates mats more easily. That is why so many choose to cut the hair during this time to even it out and let it all grow in one length reducing the struggle.

Besides, hair does grow back says I with my long hair. ROFL!