Evil Teagan?

There once was a girl, who had a curl
right in the middle of her tail.
When she was good, she was very very good.
But when she was bad, she was horrid.That's Teagan in an nutshell. When she's good, she's so very good. She can be so sweet and lovable. She listens well and is smart and tries hard to please.

She has good days and bad days. And even on average days, she has Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde moments when everything can change on a dime. It's like something in her just snaps and she turns into some kind of demon dog. She growls at children and attacks Keeley like she wants to kill him. It must be pretty scary because I see peoples' faces when it happens and their expressions range from scared to confused to angry.

I've gotten pretty good at being right there and putting her into an immediate "Easy". It usually only takes seconds for her to get fully easy and relax. And even after I tell her that she can get up, she usually stays like that for a while. To me, it makes me think that she really wants to be controlled, but isn't so good a doing that on her own yet.

One good thing that's been happening is that Keeley has been trying to take back his top dog position by asserting himself more. In the mornings, he tries to hump Teagan. It's not in a sexual way; I'm pretty sure it's just about dominance and Teagan seems to understand that too.

Teagan is definitely a work in progress, but I'm hopeful that eventually we'll find a peaceful balance in our home.

Romare visits for the Holidays

Romare and his dads came to town for a holiday visit with us today. We used to always go to their house for New Year's Eve, but times change and so this year they came to us.
We exchanged gifts. Keeley and Teagan gave Romare a box of Buddy Biscuits and a package of Zuke's Hip Action. Romare gave Keeley and Teagan each two pig ears.

Keeley just loves hanging with Romare. Teagan, on the other hand, not so much. She still feels threatened by him because he's so big. She spent the majority of the time hiding under furniture. Fortunately there were no instances like last time when she attacked Romare. So maybe things are getting a little bit better with her. She did growl at him once but I immediately made her get easy and the moment passed and she acted a lot better after that.

It was a very nice visit. It's always good to see the Romare guy and his dads because they are totally pawesome.

Cute

We have an Oscar Mayer wienermobile ornament that plays the Oscar Mayer wiener song. Everytime we make it play the song Teagan is completely mesmerized by it. It's so cute. She cocks her head to one side and stares intently at it. It's like she's trying to figure it out. Where is this sound coming from? What's it all about? She can be so cute with her little dog girl ways about her.

(PS this is another photo that my friend Lauren from Baltimore took of Teagan when she was in town recently visiting)

Merry Xmas

Keeley and Teagan got to open their presents last night on Christmas Eve. They really enjoyed ripping through the wrapping paper. Keeley got a santa bear stuffie, a little snowman stuffie, a lucky bamboo stick, a 3 pack of yellow tennis balls, a green rope chew, and a new sweater. Teagan got a nylabone, a pink flamingo stuffie, a baby chick stuffie, a 3 pack of pink tennis balls, a red rope chew, and a new sweater.
After all the excitement was over, Keeley and Teagan curled up into little dog balls to take a snooze in their new sweaters from their great-aunt Carol. We hope all you dogs out there had a happy holiday too!

Happy Howlidays!

Thank you to all our DWB friends who sent us cards and emails in the Annual Dogs With Blogs Holiday Card Exchange. We love to participate in this event. It's so much fun getting mail addressed to Keeley and Teagan every day.

This year we sent snail mail cards to about a third of the list and emails to the other two thirds. I would have liked to send more snail mail cards but being unemployed, this was all I could afford this time around.


We got snail mail cards from:
Moco, Foley, and Dawson
Lorenza
Dozer, Cooper, and Dottie
Dory
Twix
JB, Chester, CocoBean, Armani, and Gaia
Simba and Jazzi
Lenny
Jake and Just Harry
Mona
Randi the lab newf
Beowulf, Gryffin, and Indy
Noah, Willow, Tess, and Lucy
Velcro
Molly, Taffy, and Monty
Kirby
Lola, Karma, and Dixie
Lady, Zena, Cody, and Joyce
Addie, Lucie, and Hailey
Homer
Comet and BLU
Jackson
Koobuss
Faya and Dyos
Amici
Charlie
River

And we got email greetings from:
Sugar
Hoover
Stella and Willow
Laney
Luna
Opy and Benson
Chloe and Greta
Ruby and Penny
Happy
Tibby
Ailsa and Brodie
Ludo
Fred
Bajas, Virus, and Hyssing
Ginger Jasper
Gaucho
Lily
Paco, Milo, and Maya
Asta
Sweepy, Sumo, and Bogart
Romeo
Indiana, Shingo, and Molly
Tucker and Daisy
Abbey and Maya
Bolo
Kira and Scampi
Scout and Freyja
Chewy and Clover
Johann

Unfortunately, our printer broke earlier this month so we were unable to print out any of the email greetings.

My mom (Keeley & Teagan's grandma) took these last two pictures of the pups with her iphone last night while they were lounging around the Christmas tree. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Keeley Funk

I call him my funky little monkey or sometimes, Dr. Funkenstein. Keeley definetley has his own special funky smell. When we first switched to raw, he seemed to stink less but now he's back to his funky self.

Keeley is incrediably lucky that he's so cute because he still gets petted a lot despite his funk. I mean who could resist this face? Even cat people love him!

Of course, everyone has to wash their hands immediately after touching him though. Really, he smells that bad. And I must really love him because I still let him sleep on my bed despite his offensive funk.

Sometimes Keeley stretches out in the middle of the night and his stinky corn chip feet end up in my face. That smell combined with his funk is more than enough to make me turn away and bury my face in the covers to escape the stink.

On Sunday I reached my limit on how much Keeley funk I could tolerate and so both he and Teagan had baths. (Teagan didn't smell but I figure there's no point to only bathing one of them.) And of course, I washed and fabreezed everything too. That was only 4 days ago, but already Keeley's funky smell is coming back.

Do you think it's his diet that's causing this funk? What am I going to do with this stinky little guy!?!?

(PS this is a photo that my friend Lauren from Baltimore took of Keeley when she was in town recently visiting)

Winter at Minooka

We went to Minooka on Saturday. There's Teagan and her grandma.For some reason I was surprised that there were so many dogs there because it was pretty cold out. But I should have known better. I mean this is Wisconsin, afterall. A little cold is not going to keep people (or their dogs) indoors.
Keeley and Teagan had a great time. These conditions are hard on Keeley's bad leg and he often resorts to his 3 leg hop, but he never complains and is always happy to go places like this.
Teagan always sticks close by to me, her grandma, or Keeley. I feel bad for Keeley since little siblings can be so annoying sometimes.
Keeley likes to walk all over and meet every dog at the park. Here he is sniffing another dog's butt. He's such a friendly guy.

Winter is here!

It's snowing! And it's supposed to snow all day long and tomorrow too.
This is Teagan's first winter and she is totally loving the snow. She especially likes to eat it.
The cold must bother Keeley's bad leg because he's been doing his 3 leg hop more and more lately. My poor sweet boy!
Teagan likes the snow so much, she doesn't want to come inside when I call her. At least Keeley is a good boy dog.

By the way, I think this is our 200th post!

our last 2 trips to Minooka

Here are some photos from our last two trips to Minooka. I know I've taken more than enough photos of my dogs here, but it helps to keep me entertained while we're there.
On this day, my dogs were testing out their new Land's End fleece jackets.

It was pretty muddy and I had to wash them when we got home. At least they looked good!

Keeley and Teagan always have a good time at Minooka.

The next time we went, the dogs wore their Xmas tee shirts that their grandma bought for them. In the small dog area, lots of people commented about how cute their shirts were. I guess small dog folks just understand more about dressing up your pooch. People in the big dog area always make rude remarks about what my dogs are wearing. They just don't get it.

My what a big mouth you have!

Well, my dogs have been on a totally raw diet for 2 weeks now. It seems to be going really well. The only thing that they don't like about it is that they only get fed once a day. I guess that's going to take them some getting used to.

PK, our SATZ trainer, said that the reason Keeley was so smelly was because of his diet. I guess she was right (haven't I learned yet not to doubt PK?) because just within a few days of this new diet, Keeley already started smelling a lot better.

Teagan continues to make quick work of her chicken leg quarter, while Keeley requires a little assistance. For Keeley I break apart the drumstick and thigh and then cut some of the meat off in strips. Apparently Teagan is a savage beast and Keeley is a refined gentleman when it comes to their eating styles. Keeley likes to savor his food, while Teagan just about swallows it whole. Could they be anymore different?

New Tee Shirts

Here's Teagan and Keeley modeling their new Xmas tee shirts that their grandma just bought them. I think they look adorable.
I know it's a little early for Christmas but it is cold outside and so my dogs have been testing these shirts out all day.
I was hoping I could get a good photo of them for holiday cards, but as you can see, I didn't have much luck. Well, there's still plenty of time so I will try again later.

It's Romare!

Romare came to visit us today! He's like the repeat guest star of this dog blog!Remember a couple of months ago, I reported that Romare, who is only 6 years old, needed a double hip replacement? Well, I've got good news to report now: it's looking like he may not need surgery after all! After talking with the vets, his dads decided that they'd first try everything else before resorting to hip replacement. Romare is on a special diet and he's already lost 1.5 pounds. He got medication for the pain and he's also getting a lot of exercise. It seems to be going well because Romare is acting more like himself. He has problems going up and down stairs and needs help to get up on a bed. But hopefully he will continue to improve and these things will get easier with time. So that's the good news!
The bad news is that Teagan continues to have issues. Everytime I tried to love up Romare, she went psycho killer on him. I guess she's just really insecure. I don't know if she was jealous of him getting attention from me or if she thought she needed to protect me from him. Teagan ended up spending the majority of Romare's visit locked in her crate. This is really distressing because Keeley always loved having dog pals over for visits and playdates and such. I hope we can get this problem corrected by March or else I don't know how we'll be able to manage a doggie birthday party if she keeps acting like this.

Aptly named

Keeley was looking really rough around the edges and was probably a little past due for a haircut. So yesterday Keeley got groomed. His name means handsome and I think I choose his name well because he's looking mighty handsome!

Arg, now I've got to give Teagan a bath. Maybe I can get Unkie Rob to help...

Playtime!

Here's Keeley and Teagan playing out in their yard. We've been having some really nice weather for November and the dogs are taking advantage of it.
They're playing chase and tug with their little orange Hurly.
They love this game but they only stick with it as long as I'm playing with them too.
I love my silly dogs!

Lapham Peak with Unkie Rob

Today we drove up to Lapham Peak with Rob. Keeley and Teagan love going on adventures. They were so excited, they couldn't even hold still for a picture. They wanted to get our walk started right away!
This year Keeley made it all the way to the top of the observation tower. If you remember, last year he was afraid to go up very high. The view is great up here!
We got started on the Ice Age Trail.
Now that we're having a spell of warm weather, all the squirrels are active again. Teagan is determined to catch a squirrel to impress Keeley, but so far she hasn't had much luck.
It was a really nice day but the sun didn't break through the clouds until later in the day.
Keeley and Teagan got to meet a couple other dogs that were hiking at Lapham too. Meeting other dogs on walkies is the best!
We switched trails a couple of times and ended up on this nice paved one that they just call the Accessible Trail.
Then after a while we decided to follow the signed back to the tower where we had parked the car.
Now that the dogs were tired, they were able to pose nicely for a picture with their Unkie Rob.
It was a nice little outing.

Minooka with Unkie Rob

We got an early start this morning and headed out to Minooka. You can see from these photos that Keeley and Teagan are already getting along better since doggie bootcamp. Teagan is a little less aggressive towards Keeley and Keeley is more empowered now and stands up for himself more.
We were surprised to run into Keeley's friend Kirby there. No not our DWB friend Kirby, but a frenchie named Kirby that Keeley plays with at doggie daycare.
Also, Unkie Rob is in town for his yearly visit. Keeley just adores him. And this was his first time meeting little miss Teagan.
I know Keeley loves me, but sometimes I think he would have been happier if a guy was his owner. Keeley just really respects men more. How did I end up with such a sexist little dog!?! Woe is me.
Anyhow, the weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Rob really lucked out.
We walked around the park 3 times and then the pups really started looking tired.
Keeley was especially tired out and is still sleeping it off as I'm blogging now.