The V E T For Dental...

Well the new foster boy won't be a foster for much longer. Mommy announced WE'RE KEEPING HIM! Yeah right on! She said he fit in so well and quickly and works well with every aspect of our family that Diego (now Jasper) will become a permanent part of our family. He will be staying indefinitely and become my big brother. You can expect to hear lots more on him. We got him a week and a half ago on May 19th, and since then he's settled into our hearts and laps and been teaching everyone in the family, even me, all kinds of new things. He went to the V E T today to get his teeth done. Mommy said he had awful breath and possibly an infection. Jasper doesn't eat his food like a normal dog, if it's dry food he swallows it, if it's mushy food (which is what we eat) it has to be warm or it hurts his mouth. Mommy is pacing around nervous to find out how many teeth they have to pull. Isn't that mean?! Mommy said he'll feel better but my gosh that sounds mean, pulling teeth. Poor guy. We all miss him and it feels weird without him around. We have to go pick him up in about two and a half hours, till then mommy is just waiting to hear from the vet. Here are some pictures from yesterday of the two of us having a good time.

Diego is here...

It's been a very busy weekend and the human is just now getting around to the blog. We left early Saturday morning, my goodness it was a long trip to Denver. Little over two hours with traffic but I was a good girl. We went to the MidAmerica Boston Terrier Birthday Bash in Denver (ok it was in Northglenn close enough!) and we had a blast! I got to meet the big surprise, my new brother!

He's a five year old true brindle boy who is a owner surrender. Two families merged and no longer can provide him the attention he needs and some behavior issues we're stated to be the reason behind his surrender. They have had him his whole life, the poor boy was heartbroken! He just stood there and didn't care to join in any festive fun at The Bash. I tried to play with him but he just ignored me, no growl, no snap, he just looked away and kept searching for his daddy. Momma tried to cheer him up and bring him places and get his mind off of it, but he was stubborn.

Finally after getting so much attention at the bash, we headed home. My brother still wasn't in a good mood. We relaxed a bit at Grandma's house we we're going to be there for awhile. I got to meet a new family member! Jethro is Aunt Sara's new dog, he's a coonhound and he's a BIG boy compared to little me! Sunday we had to go to a Birthday party there was going to be lots of dogs and it was an hour drive so Mommy took all three of us for a walk together cause everyone else went to church. We had a blast!

We've been going on daily walks, Mommy said we need to exercise more while the weather is nice so we walk roughly .8 miles every night after dinner. We live at 9,494 feet and this altitude bothers my mommy, and I get sooo tired, but Diego, that boy LOVES to walk and can go forever! With all the hills in this town it's tough cause the human has to push that big wheel thing that the little human sits in, a strowler, they call it heh, I don't like that thing, the big tires scare me. Well we gotta go cause the brother needs a dental and mommy needs to call the vet to get him an appointment asap, she said he smells like infection, whatever that is.

The Big Surprise...

This human doesn't have much time to update so here's a quick one! We're packing today for a quick mini vacation to the Denver Boston Terrier Birthday Bash. We will be gone for a few days while we visit family in the area. We will still be able to check online via our iPhone but I won't be bringing a computer with me. We will be staying in Denver till Monday some time. We plan on taking lots of pictures! There will be tons of other dogs, toys, humans, games, and stuff for us to buy ;) It's a huge fundraising event for MidAmerica Boston Terrier Rescue group. An organization I volunteered to help with. Which is what the big surprise is! We've been talking about this big surprise for a few weeks or so now... and tomorrow is the day... that our new foster boy comes home. That's right, ever since I got Gia I felt guilty that I didn't adopt. Growing up we always got our pets as strays, owner surrenders, but mostly, SPCA or shelters. I looked around my area for quite sometime looking for a Boston Terrier to no avail. I looked for breeders, none had any litters planned till later this year. I went with a breeder from Oklahoma because they seemed like a nice small breeder, older couple, retired, did all the necessary health tests and was willing to ship. I had never purchased from a breeder so I wasn't quite sure what I was suppose to look for. After I got Gia, I realized that MidAmerica Boston Terrier Rescue actually covers my area and there are dogs here however, their location was always listed as Omaha, Nebraska because that's the location of this rescue group. Beside their names it would say in Iowa, in Colo etc. but due to the website you cannot change the location for each dog, instead it lists them all in Nebraska. I started to follow MABTR (MidAmerica Boston Terrier Rescue) on Facebook and they we're calling out for emergency foster homes. I applied right then and there without even knowing how the Foster program worked. I had never fostered an animal before... this will definitely be a new experience for us. Here are some of Gia's animal sleeping poses.

The Rabbit

Frog Legs. Personally my favorite.

Clean Bill of Health

Well we just got back from the vet, those mean people poke and prob me everywhere, but I showed them I tinkled on the floor then went wild running around the room I think my mind was something like this... Dr L. holds me and starts lovin on me, so I return the favor and give him lots of kisses. He laughs and let's me lick him. Then he turns me around shoves something in my bum guys! How rude! He loves me then pokes me! So he puts me down after I blankly stare at him for poking my bum, and I dash around the room like a wild animal. I stop and piddle and then keep dashing around, I'll show you! Then he picks me up and I act like nothing happened, then he pokes me with something sharp in my neck, my human said it was a shot to keep me healthy. Then he shoves this water into my nose, something about helping keep away the colds. THEN they shove this awful tasting stuff in my mouth. My furiends I officially have been poked everywhere I could imagine except my eyes... though they did shine a light in them and in my ears. BUT I got a clean bill of health and Saturday we're going to the Boston Terrier Birthday Bash for MidAmerica Boston Terrier Rescue in the Denver area, we're sooo excited, my human said there's going to be LOTS of Bostons there. I'll get to play with them all. Can you imagine that?! My human promises to bring her nice big camera and take lots of pictures. But it's been a long day and I'm going to sleeeeeeppp now. One last request, can all my Furiends say a prayer for Lily the Frenchie, her partner in crime Benny, and their humans? Lily had to have back surgery and everyone is very worried about her, you can read more about Lily and her family here at this blog, Two French Bulldogs Please say a prayer for them! Thanks, Gia

We've Been Busy Planning...

So my human says we have a surprise coming REALLY soon. I don't know what it is, I'm so excited I can't stop wagging! My human said it was very big! Bigger than me. Any idea furiends what it could be?! Hmmm... Yesterday we went to the dog park again, my dog it was so much fun! My human said she was going to test me and see how good I was going to be and we went -drum roll- to the BIG DOG AREA! I was a golden Boston I tell ya! I came to my humans every time they called. They gave me lots of praise, as much fun as I had walking around with all the big dogs (and some little) I was a very good well behaved girl. I found lots of humans that gave me lots of attention and called me all kinds of things. These humans melted when I ran up to them and pawed their leg for some kisses. I'm going to make a good queen of the dog park my humans said. This was only my second time at this dog park, but it was a lot of fun. My humans said I can come back and do both the little dog area and the big dog area cause I was a good pup. My human didn't get many pictures, we we're in the area doing 'business' and so mom said we can go when we we're done since it was great weather. I'll be going back next Tuesday to see more of my types, the Bostons. Here's a cell phone picture my mom took.

May Showers Don't Bring Flowers...

May showers don't bring flowers... it brings snow! That's right this two mile high city is covered in powdered stuff dey call snoooow. Now furiends I've never seen this stuff, and if you haven't either lick your human and tell them how much you appreciate them sending the snooow makers away. It's wet, it's icky, it's cold, and it's EVERYWHERE! I spent an extra ten minutes looking for a spot in the grass that wasn't covered in this icky stuff, I had to settle for a huge rock my human has in the yard. I was not a happy camper, I dashed out the door, just to be trapped on the concrete driveway searching for one path off to the grass that wasn't covered in this yucky stuff, my golly I had to ggoooooo so I jumped in did a backflip (ok it was like a belly flop but backwards I'm working on it!) and pedaled in the snow as best as I could and finally found a rock. Did my stuff and dashed inside avoiding all snoooww that I could. My human wasn't allowed to take pictures, I demanded she turn off the gosh darned thing and find me a grass spot. She did go back outside just for you furiends so you know what this white powdered stuff looks like, I would hate for you to be caught off guard. My human says up here it's normal for this stuff to appear anytime of the year whenever it would like, I hope you guys get more warning!

My human said that's the carriage house, and that I'm not allowed in der. It looks so cool though!

Learning To Walk...

... on a leash! Here you thought I forgot how to walk huh. My human has been putting this strappy thing on me and attatching a longer strappy thing they call it a leeeaazzzsh and harness. Whatever, that strappy thing and longer strappy thing and trying to get me to follow her. Ha. I just sit down and look at her like she's crazy, that is till she pulled out some hot dog on me! I'll follow anywhere for more nibbles of hot dogs anyday. So we walk around the driveway, pretty easy, and I eats lots of hot dogs, soon my human said we can go for walks, whatever that is, as long as she has hot dogs, count me in! That's all for today, short and to the point, my human has been cleaning the house for some special day she said on Weznesdays or something... I have a big surprise. Who knows. Maybe it's more hot dogs? What do you think furiends? Why she cleaning the house for hot dogs, why I gotta wait till Weznesdays?

Mmm Pork!

Nothing much is new today, my human had to clean the carpets so I spent all day bringing in sticks to rub all over the carpet. That yucky fabeeezee stuffs they wash the carpets with smells awful. Who in their right mind thinks that 'seabreeeeze' smells good. I'd rather smell grass, sticks, and dirt anyday! Silly humans. It's not like their noses are two inches from this god awful stench. Today we tried a change to my foods. I normally get chicken with my Honest Kitchen Preference, but today the humans took out pork for dinners so mommy made me some this morning to try with my THK, oh my gosh that stuff is amazing! She made it with a little bit of butter too! I gobbled it down, I ate almost a days portion (of what I normally eat) in one meal! It was that good my furiends, tell your humans to let you nibble some pork, I know not many kibbles are made with pork, or treats for that matter, but my human does home-cooked so I get lots of variety!

Mmmm pork with my Honest Kitchen Preference. I ate it without parmesan cheese even! That's unheard of.

Snuggling up in mommy's lap ready for a nap now that I've eaten way more than my usual lunch. Today has been pretty boring aside from the pork, I slept most of the day. I woke up and the small human gave me my bullystick, I don't know if that pork woke something up in me or what but these bullysticks suddenly became great tasting too, I think my taster buds are working in overdrive since tasting that pork today. I nommed on that bullystick till I fell asleep with it in my mouth, I even dreamed of chasing bullysticks! Anyways that's all for today, we're busy cleaning the house. The human said she might have a surprise so I have to clean the house, but she won't tell me what it is. She's awfully mean sometimes.

I fell asleep on top of my bullystick, mean mommy moved it.

So when I woke up the first thing I did was search for my bullystick. Oh, there it is. Why yes it does have grass on it, for added taste. Some humans add this thing called salt, I prefer grass, sometimes dirt works too.

Waggin Tails

Well the humans brought me to the dog park to meetup with other Bostons like me yesterday. It was a forever drive in that moving metal box they call a car. Seemed like it was never going to end, then finally it stopped, and they got food to tease me with. Onwards we went to the Dog Park they said. That's what they called it. Isn't the world a dog park? Shrug. I'll never get them. Eventually we arrived and I knew instantly why they called it a dog park, it was full of dog smells, more so than the rest of the dog park they call the world. There was puppies and dogs EVERYWHERE! I didn't know which one to greet first or what tree to sniff first I was so overwhelmed I ran in circles around my humans to make sure they were alright before I began exploring. There was a bunch of other dogs that look like me, mommy called them Bostons, I'm pretty sure in the dog world we just call them dogs. I must have met six or seven other dogs that looked a lot like me and many other small dogs my size that didn't look like me at all! I had so much fun, I got so many pets, and random people kept telling my humans how pretty I was and how small I was. They we're all really nice and mommy said I had good manners-really good so we can come back again soon. I'm so excited to come back and meet more puppies my size. After most of the doggies that looked like me left we did a lap around the small dog area, it's so big! The humans said the fence is really secure so they feel safe letting me explore. I followed my mommy at her heels the whole time! She said she was surprise with all the freedom that I still followed like a big girl, I know where my food comes from, I'm not getting lost in a strange dog park! That's for sure. Here are some pictures mommy snapped with her cell phone, she didn't want to bring the big camera till she knew what the weather conditions were going to be like.

First sniffs.

I protect the humans at all cost! I was circling everyone and making sure none of those strange dogs were going to hurt my humans before I explored.

This is Tilly, I think, she's only two weeks older than me! We really got a long well. We sniffed and barked, we even played like puppies together.

None of the Bostons wanted to drink from the water bowl, every other different looking dog did, then one came up and peed in it, mommy frowned and dumped it out before any Bostons even drank from it, we all wanted to drink from the cool cup thing that dripped from a bottle this man brought, it was so neat I told mommy we need one. All in all we had a great time, the humans said it's good for my socialization and that the vet said I need lots of it so I can work on my alpha issues, whatever that means! I can't wait to go back, thanks for reading! - Gia

So Much Action

Well yesterday the human guy R fixed most of the fence so I can't escape. I've never ventured close to the fence yet, but they said there was wild animals where we live and that they don't want me wondering. Pffftt I'm the only wild animal here! Hear me roar. Yesterday the humans stayed outside and played with me and they turned all red and stuffs, silly humans that's why I stayed in the shade, I'm a smart puppy! So now that the fence is fixed and I have my puppy shots we're heading out to the dog park, I'm so excited! The humans say there will be other Boston Terriers from our meetup group that the human joined plus lots of other dogs. The woman said we would have to stay in the small dog area since I'm not very good at recall or verbal commands, my tiny attention span just doesn't allow for that yet! I do come when called but the human said she can't trust me yet, I'll show her how good I am today when we go to the dog park. Anyways here are some pictures from yesterday and last night. I was so tired from all the playing in the backyard that the humans kept snapping pictures of me when I was sleeping, they said I was snoring with my eyes open, yeah right!

They say my nose has kissy spots, silly humans those are freckles!

Early Morning Baking

It's not so bright here dis morning! My momo said we was going to practice walking on da leash in the backyard but it's looking like the sky might cry. Momo said we'll have to practice inside if it does. I got a new bed, momo put a blanket under the chair I likes so much. She said she loves me so much I can have her old pillow and comforter for my very own bed till we find a bed I like. I don't like the beds momo bought for me, they just don't suit my fancy, I much prefer the lumpy comforter and pillow she gave me. I can smell good stuffs in the kitchen, I think she's making me hot dogs she said, I don't want to eat a sister or a brother! Oh dear that's mean, I swear this woman is crazy! I confess they do smell good, I keep going over to the stove and putting my sniffer up wondering why she wants to fry doggies up! This lady is crazy if she thinks she can fool me, those ain't no doggies! She said they are for training, I'm good at all sorts of thing, like sleeping, and well, sleeping, oh and kisses, I do those really good! Maybe I can gets some of those smellies in the over if I give her lots of kisses and sleeps lots in the sun?! Guess we'll see! Yesterday we went for a walk, whatever that is. I honestly had no clue what momo was asking of me. I just sat down and stared at her like she was nuts. We went to a Birfday party, lots of people said I was a pretty girl, some of the guys even got all mushy and wanted to keeps me, I told them no and went back to my momo the minute they put me down! There was so many little people like the one we have at home, momo calls her my sister Demi, I had lots of fun they all petted me even the wittle wittle one. She was nice and wasn't rough with me, I liked following her around, she must of got new feet cause she was clumsy and fell lots. That's all for nows, I smell good stuffs in the oven I gotta go police and taste test ;) Gi Gi Gia.

I Got A Pocket Full Of Sunshine

It's a wonderful morning in my house! De sun is shining and everyone is happy. Momo said she has to go to a Birthday Party today and that I have to stay home alone in my kennel, what she talkin about?! Mean momo you can't leave me here alone! That's animal abuse don't cha know? I fell asleeps in de bed last night with momo, I'm not suppose to be der, Daddy caught us when he came home from work, I gotta be a good girl and sleep in my kennel he says, but momo said I can snuggle her anytime as long as I sleeps in de kennel at nights. My new foods is delecious, I never knew dis new stuff dey call stinky cheese can be so goods! You should ask your momo or daddy for somes too, you'll love it! Momo said it's really called parmezan cheeze and dat it's human stuffs. If momo can eat it, so I can I right? I seen her sneaking a bite of my foods. She said de websites say she should try everything I eat so she ates my foods yesterday-just a bite, I guess I can share a wittle bit. Here diz some pictures of me over de last few days. Momo loves taking my picture she says I pose pretty for herz.

Week One & A Half

April 17th marked the addition to our family.  A small four pound, eight week old, Boston Terrier puppy had traveled from Tulsa to Denver to become part of our family.  We picked up our cuddly little girl that afternoon and have been so grateful for the amazing joy she has brought to our life.  We quickly settled on a name, Gia, and she would be quite the Diva like the supermodel she was named after.

Gia has been with us a whole week and a half nearly ten days to be exact.  In that time we have learned so much from the abundance of information the internet and the people online that we decided to compile everything going on in one place.

Gia developed some behavior issues on day three of being with us, she started to growl.  I felt like it wasn't an aggressive growl and started to search for information on young puppies growling when being in a person's lap and being adjusted with movement.  The information I found online has been plenty but nothing seemed consistent.  We we're in information overload and we we're starting to feel helpless.  So many people recommended a behaviorist but we simply couldn't afford the travel fees included on top of the price we we're given, living over an hour from any major big city with those services was such a great disadvantage for us.  We searched high and low for one in our area and decided if we wanted to get this resolved now, we would have to do it on our own.  So my research began at the vet.  Our vet ruled out medical issues and suggested that it was an alpha puppy behavior and not aggression.  We were given tips on how to curb her growling (but not prevent it!) and it's been working miracles for us.  Gia officially is minimally growling when being handled in only a few short days since trying these new methods given to us by our vet.

Over the last ten days Gia has been here we have weaned off the kibble she came on and onto a higher quality kibble and eventually onto The Honest Kitchen (THK) Preference diet.  THK is a dehydrated 100% human grade dog diet that you add water to.  THK Preference is a base diet that requires you to add your own meat as well as hydrate with water.  Gia wasn't enthusiastic about this food at all.  I was set on trying everything under the sun, more water, less water, more dry mix, less mix, soak longer, sprinkle with chicken on the top, I was exhausted at trying to get her to eat and quite frankly, I was worried.  She barely touched the stuff unless I sprinkled chicken on the top and even so, she wasn't eating enough for me to feel comfortable.  We went back to the high quality kibble and I e-mailed the company in hopes of finding something that worked for my little picky diva, Gia.  The representative, also a Boston Terrier mommy, suggested Parmesan cheese (I always called it stinky cheese!) or adding broth instead of water.  After I felt Gia had ate enough kibble (over the course of a few days) for me to be ready for her rejection of the THK again, I was ready to be as stubborn as her if she choose to reject it again.  Our first meal with Parmesan cheese was a total success!  I wasn't ready for her to eat so enthusiastically, I was quite shocked at the change in her behavior when eating the same stuff (minus the Parmesan cheese) as before, that she rejected time and time again.

This blog will be a compilation of our clicker training, positive re-enforcement training, holistic ways, and adventures.