You can Lead a Dog to Water...

...But if you do, be prepared for them to fall in love with being wet!

We knew when we got Betty that there would be a strong possibility she would love water based on her breeds and their personalities, however, she's surprised us with HOW MUCH she loves water! You'd think she was a fish the way she wants to be wet all the time.  I can't wait till next Summer to take her out to lakes so she can swim and romp around!

I first became aware of Betty's addiction when I tried to take a shower one day with her in the bathroom.  We had just gotten her and I didn't trust her to stay in the living room or our bedroom alone while I showered so I brought some toys into the bathroom and let her play on the floor while I hopped in quick.  As soon as the water turned on and I disappeared behind the curtain she had to know where I was.  At first I thought she was just being clingy and missing me after 5 seconds because she thought I was never ever ever going to come back, but then I realized she was curious and wanted to get into the tub but couldn't reach.  

I gave in to her curiosity and picked her up and set her in the back of the tub away from the running water so she wouldn't get too wet unless she wanted to.  Up until this point she had had several baths and never seemed too thrilled about them, always trying to climb out mid-bath and whining that she was cold afterward.  However, now that she was in the tub with me she was happy as a clam.  I let her walk under the water and play until she decided it was time to get out (Hey! It gave me time to shower in peace!).

Weeks went by and she had a few more baths and complained less each time.  This past week, however, she had BEGGED to get a bath every time I open the bathroom door.  We keep it shut so that she can't get in there and destroy the garbage, so whenever she hears me opening the door she comes running and jumps into the tub and sits, waiting like a good girl, for mommy to start the water for her!

Caught in the act!

"Ok, I'm done, let me out!"

Now, some of you might think, "She's thirsty, that's why she's seeking water so doggedly (excuse the pun)", however, she's always got a bowl full of water, so that's just not the case.  She absolutely LOVES water! Licking it, splashing in it, getting her head and paws wet, everything! She's even taken to trying to get into the toilet lately, which is a habit I want to nip in the bud!  As long as she's playing in clean water, I have no problems with her little quirk.  Sometimes I'll even turn the tub faucet on a little bit and let her play for a few minutes if I don't have the time to give her a full bath!  She loves it!

The only problem we've come across with her being a water lover, is that it kind of eliminates the possibility of using a spray bottle with water to correct bad behavior!

Here's a totally unrelated shot of Betty being a good girl, trying out the new bed I made her!

(She doesn't know it yet, but she's sleeping here tonight instead of with mommy and daddy!)

And finally,

 I've been trying to capture the rigmarole I have to go just to type one of these: 

"I'm just gonna make myself comfy, Kthanks!"

This is Betty's favorite nap spot.  She'll bite my fingers and wrists because she finds the typing annoying when she's trying to catch up on her beauty rest...sigh.

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Dear Betty:

Dear Betty:

You are the apple of our eye and we love you with every ounce of our being.  Someday when you're a little older we know you'll understand the following:

-The laptop keyboard is not a pillow/walkway.

-The laptop screen is not an appropriate chew toy.

-Mommy's hair braid is not an appropriate chew/tug toy (especially at 6:30am).

-We love your kisses but man is your breath stinky!

-Mommy needs her hands to type, you can't use them as pillows.

-Mommy and Daddy's heads aren't pillows.

-5am is not an acceptable wake up time.

-No you may not have a piece of cheese.

-Shoes are not chew toys...

-..Hands aren't either

-The vacuum cleaner does not want to eat you, or mommy, it's OK!

-The iron does want to eat you so stay away!

-Your bunny brother doesn't want to wrestle, although I'm sure he wouldn't mind cuddles if you eventually win his trust!

-Your doggy uncle and aunt don't like to be chewed on like chew toys.

-Grammie might think you can do no wrong but she doesn't have to deal with you 24/7.

-Your coats aren't torture devices, it's COLD outside, I see you shivering!

-No, means NO!

-Sit doesn't mean you're always getting fed.

-Barking louder isn't going to allow you to get your way.

-We spend $$$ on toys for you and you want to play with an empty water bottle?!

-We appreciate your efforts to do your business on the wee wee pads, but please make sure you color within the lines!

-Cereal bowls are not for puppies to lick out, you're not entitled.

-Stairs are just as easy to walk down as they are to run up.

-Biting faces will result in an immediate time out.

-You might smell something awesome in the middle of the street but that doesn't mean you can go sniff it out...

-...or sit down and pout in the middle of a walk because we won't let you go smell it.

-Not everyone wants to stop in the middle of the sidewalk to play with you!

-Babies are not chew toys.

-It's really not necessary to pee 5 times in a 30 minute time span.

-Stop growing so darn fast! You're the cutest puppy in the world and we love you so much! We can't wait to see what a beautiful, smart, well behaved dog you become!

                                                                                                          Love,
                                                                                              Mommy and Daddy

Down South and Back Again!

 Greetings everyone!

It's been an eventful couple of days for all of us.  We made a surprise 12 hour road trip to South Carolina on Sunday.  Obviously we couldn't leave Betty all alone so we figured we'd see how she did on the road.  She was AWESOME! Once we got down a rhythm of playing, peeing, eating and sleeping she was the best passenger ever!

She's officially peed in 7 states and pooped in the nation's capital.  She loved sitting on mommy's arm and sniffing out the window at all the new exciting smells on the way down and back.  Every time we stopped at a rest area everyone fell in love with her, and being the ham that she is she soaked up every ounce of attention she got!  She even met a friend from Texas and his owners.

He was an 8 month old Catahoula Leopard dog.  They really wanted to play but I guess he plays a bit too rough for a 3 month old pup so his owners held him back as we chatted.  They said he was the same size Betty is now when he was her age, and now he's a whopping 60 lbs and not even fully grown, so that gave us a glimmer of hope that she's not going to be teeny weeny forever.

Overall the trip was a great success and we had lots of fun.    Josh and I are still trying to recover from 48 hours of sleep deprivation but Betty has all the energy in the world since the majority of the 24 total hours we traveled she slept.  Here are some pictures of our journey!

This is how She spent most of the trip :)

Grammie providing some moral support while Betty was searching for the perfect place to poop

Dog on a dog!

This was a preeeettttyyyy big sign, see the arrow!

Posing pretty on a big ole' West Virginia rock at the welcome center

More pictures to come once my mom uploads them!

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Betty's Best Buddy and Grandpa!

Morning everyone!

It's 4:33 AM so you know it's a Sunday if I'm posting this early!

Yesterday Josh and I made an emergency laundry stop at my parent's house to wash all our funky dirty sheets and bedding (we have a deal that if I provide baked goods while the laundry washes my parents provide the washer and dryer haha!).  We hadn't quite told my father about Betty yet because he is always anti-animal (until he has a chance to play with them).  We're trying to get my dad to negotiate with my grandmother to let us move into the duplex she owns so I kind of didn't want him knowing we had gotten a puppy until we had the keys in our hand.  But with Thanksgiving soon approaching we were going to have to break the news eventually.   

My mom and I decided it would be best to "puppy bomb" my dad.  When we got there we opened the door and naturally my parent's whippet and miniature pinscher came to greet us.  In the melee we set Betty down and told the dogs to "go see daddy" (my dad) and all three trotted over, it took a minute for him to get that there were three dogs (you'd think her bright pink fleece coat would have given her away!) but once he saw her his first reaction was "OHH! Puppy!!!" I was SOOO relieved! It couldn't have gone more smoothly.

Our visit quickly turned into a major play session for Bene and Betty again.  The first few times we took her over he was very interested in her but cautious and didn't play with her.  The last time we went, it was full blown Wrestlemania for about an hour until they were both too pooped to party.  This time was no different.  Bene and Betty romped around for over an hour much to everyone, especially my dad's, delight.  It was good for him to see how friggin' adorable she is and how well his golden boy Bene responds to her.  It's also great for Betty to be around other more mature dogs so she can learn appropriate behavior.  I can't wait to take all three of them to the dog park for a puppy play session once Betty is fully immunized.  It's getting pretty cold though so we might have to wait till spring.  Definitely wish she was ready today because it's supposed to be 62 degrees and sunny! Perfect dog park weather! Oh well.  

In the meantime, here's some pictures and a video (all courtesy of my lovely mother) of last night's romp. 

Enjoy!

Here's a taste of what a typical play session is like.  Don't let Tona in the background fool you, she's 10 and very crabby, but her bark is worse than her bite!

 After that rough-n-tumble play session these two were sleepy!

 Cuddle time!

Bene looking after Betty as she sleeps :)

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

             

Stink. Stank. STUNK!

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I don't know about all of you out there but I  HATE the smell of dog odor.  

However, I LOVE dogs, so you see I have quite the conundrum.

Until now!

I'll let you all in on a little secret: I'm ADDICTED to Pinterest!  There, the first step is over, I've admitted it.  But seriously, it's an amazing site, and if you're not on it (and have a few hours to get sucked in) I highly recommend visiting it.  Besides the oodles of glorious recipe ideas I find, my new addiction is cleaning tips.  Since money is tight, every little thing I can do to save money is a must and I've become a huge fan, thanks to Pinterest, of homemade cleaning products.  For the past month we've been using homemade laundry detergent and it's amazing and cheap! We also now use vinegar with essential oils (to make it smell pretty) as an all purpose cleaner (I don't think the stove and bathroom have ever been cleaner).  But today I made something that I've been meaning to make for a while, and I'd love to share it with you because if you've got dogs, cats or just a stinky musty house this stuff is great.  

I'm sure you've all heard of/used Febreze before.  Well, at $5 bucks a bottle it can get pretty expensive when you're constantly trying to get potty training puppy smell out of your wall-to-wall carpeting and memory foam mattress topper.  One day, while Pinning, I stumbled across the recipe for homemade Febreze.  Hmm, this seemed like a win-win for me, it's homemade and supposedly works better than Febreze.  I was skeptical, but I Pinned it anyway with the intention of making it soon.  Weeks passed and I got busy cleaning other things and such and I forgot about the homemade Febreze.

Today I woke up and it hit me like a smelly punch right to the nose, Betty's accidents have really started to smell the place up even though I regularly clean up after the ones I see.  Sometimes she goes on a stealth mission and I have no idea where the pee ends up.  She also had a rash of bed-wetting incidents and we decided that it wasn't worth it to strip the bedding each time she peed since she was probably going to do it again, so we would spray the area with Woolite for pets and let it dry.  Unfortunately it all started to get a little concentrated and I decided enough was enough.  

Last night she slept through the whole night more or less and the 3 times she woke me up early this morning she made sure I knew to wake up and let her go potty so we didn't have a wet bed! Woo hoo!  So off the stinky stanky sheets came and then came the task of de-stankifying the bed and carpets.  I started with a homemade carpet refresher (baking soda and fabric softener.  find the recipe here).  My essential oils are currently hiding somewhere unknown so I used an 1/8 c fabric softener to mix with the baking soda.  I also didn't have a nifty sprinkle cheese container so I used a bowl and a slotted spoon to sprinkle it on the floor and mattress.  After an hour I vacuumed it all up, and did a sniff test.  It definitely smelled better but it was still a bit stinky if you really sniffed.  That's when I remembered the homemade Febreze!  We had a leftover Febreze bottle laying around so I grabbed that and the rest of the ingredients and mixed some up.  The recipe is super simple and pretty much everyone should have the ingredients on hand (if you don't have liquid fabric softener you can use essential oil).  The recipe can be found here.  Wow, this stuff works! I sprayed it all over the carpet in the living room, the couch, the mattress topper and our room's carpet.  I used almost the entire bottle (which is ok, because apparently the cost to make this is around .15 cents!)!  

Betty doesn't seem to notice a difference, in fact I think she liked it when the place was stinky as evidenced by her newest idea of a good time: Fart smelling.  I've submitted her to dogshaming.com so look for my weirdo dog on there if they decide to post her.  It's also a hilarious site that dog owners can relate to, so check it out!

Look at that face.  She's proud of her silly ways.

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Happy Election Day!

Good afternoon everyone!

For those of you reading in the good ol' US of A, happy Election Day! For everyone else out there, happy Tuesday (and day after Guy Fawkes Day for you Brits)!  Today is very important to me because I really believe everyone should vote.  Yes, some people will say your vote really doesn't count, but actually it does especially if you're in a swing state.  Granted, NY isn't a swing state, however, I get a thrill out of voting and doing my civic duty, so I packed Betty up and left her with my mom's dogs while we went and voted together.  Josh got to vote for the 1st time today (this is my 3rd presidential election...I'm old).  I'm so proud of him for being a responsible US citizen and voting!

Betty is proud of us too- 

see?

If she could vote she would have voted:

Naptime/Snacktime 2012

...She was not impressed with my hard earned sticker

Right now Betty and I are relaxing waiting for the laundry to be done.  After that we'll be taking a walk with my mom, Tona and Bene.  Hopefully once my mom uploads it I'll be able to post a video of Betty and Bene playing and wrestling.  It's great to have older dogs around to let her play and teach her doggie rules.  

Until Next Time

Get out there and 

VOTE!

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

These Paws Were Made for Walkin'

Good Morning All!

Hope everyone is doing well on this fine Monday morning.  Here in NY its dreary and cold, but that didn't stop Betty from waking Josh and I up at 6:30 AM.  We both wanted to catch up on sleep today so after trying to ignore her hoping she would go back to sleep we decided to let her out thinking maybe she was hungry or thirsty.  After she had a quick nosh and drink she came bounding back to the room wanting to play.  After a while she settled down, but not after first thinking she could use my face as a seat (this is not my favorite way to be woken up).  All was peaceful and quiet for the next hour and a half until little miss decided she was tired of sleeping and would like to once again play.  Well, mommy got the hint (daddy is a much heavier sleeper/actor) so I bit the bullet and suited up to hit the 30 degree weather outside.  That's right, if you decided to wake me up early, I'm gonna take your butt for a walk and hope that it wears you out!

Betty is still learning how to walk properly on a lease.  I'll give her MAJOR kudos for being really good about not walking ahead of me and tugging.  She's perfectly content to walk behind me or at my side, which I know from experience with my parent's dogs is a good thing. However, she's got serious puppy ADD when we go for walks.  So far we've only ventured out enough to cover half a block of walking before we turn around and come home.  Her little legs just give out and she gets really cold.  But every time we go on a walk she gets SUPER distracted with any little noise or person that walks by.  Forget it if another dog comes around, she wants to run away with them and play!  

Today an older man was walking with his chihuahua mix in the opposite direction we were.  I want her to be socialized so she's not afraid of strangers so I generally let her stop and meet people/dogs that want to check her out.  But every time I do she has to stop and wants to follow them as soon as they leave, which throws off the flow of our walks.  I couldn't even get her to finish going around the block today and ended up giving up because I was literally dragging her behind me.  

I don't want to make walks a bad experience by dragging her, but I'm not sure how to positively motivate her to keep walking.  She's VERY scent oriented like a true hound, but she also hasn't quite grasped the "leave it" command when she's become too obsessed with a scent.  I know she's still really young and it's going to take a matter of time for her to learn, but I'm just wondering if there's maybe a way we can expedite the process or make it more stimulating for her.  As always, please drop us a line if you have any tips or tricks.  If I find something that works I'll definitely post it in case anyone else reading this is having similar issues.  

Today is a cleaning day so this will probably be my only post, but no promises :)

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Lazy Sunday Part Deux

Hello again!

Betty's favorite napping spot: curled up between mommy and the couch

Dinner is in the oven (chicken and biscuits) and Betty is taking a snooze so I figured I'd post again today. I've been meaning to write about our visit to see my maternal grandmother "Nana" Bonnie last week.  My Nana is 76 and has Alzheimer's disease.  She's currently living in an assisted living group home with a few other elderly/mentally handicapped adults.  It had been a few weeks since I had gone to visit, so Josh and I figured we would take Betty over to meet her and her housemates.

My grandmother has owned dogs her whole life.  Growing up in rural Iowa she was a true farm girl at heart and loved animals.  When her last dog, Brandy, died years ago my grandparents decided not to get another dog seeing as they were both getting older and wouldn't want to deal with bringing a new puppy into the house.  I think this is a choice she regretted because as her Alzheimer's progressed she really missed the comfort of having a dog.  However, since she's been living in this new home she has attached herself to the resident dog Toby, a shih tzu mix, so we figured bringing Betty would be a welcomed treat.

Boy, were we right! 

Not only did Nana enjoy the visit but two of her other housemates who are well enough to move about enjoyed it too!  One man who is unable to communicate and only waves and smiles and rarely sits down actually sat down and watched Betty play even though he was reluctant to actually pet her.  Nana held her for a long time, stroking her and relaxing while we visited.  Even the house operator's daughter enjoyed playing and racing with her.

Betty and Nana...Love at first chew!

Relaxing and checking things out

Cuddling and sleeping!

Which got us to thinking- Plott Hounds and Labs are both breeds that do well when they have tasks or jobs to do seeing as they're high energy, so since Betty is such a sweetie with strangers why not train her to be a therapy dog!  I firmly believe in the healing power animals have.  Studies have shown they lower blood pressure and raise the quality of life for their owners.  Why not share our little Betty with people who could benefit from her visits?!

Of course this is only in the brainstorming stage for the time being, but seeing the effect she had on my Nana and her housemates really got me thinking that this could be the start of something good for all parties- Betty, Josh and I and the people who's lives she could touch.

More to come on this topic as I research what it would take to have her certified!

I'd like to sign off for the night with a video of 

Betty doing what she does best- 

Looking cute while sleeping...

Here she can be seen napping, sucking on her own tongue and apparently chasing squirrels in a dream

Enjoy!

:)

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Lazy Sunday

Hello Everyone!

It's been a few days since my last post because I've been trying to clean the house and puppy proof things, but today we're taking the day off cause we're all sleepy and the weather is BLAHHH.  Betty is at the stage right now where everything needs to be in and around her mouth and any crevasse needs to be explored.  I'm going to go on record stating that taking care of a young puppy is WAY harder than taking care of a baby.  Sure, I'll probably get a few comments telling me how wrong I am, but think of it this way: a newborn sleeps a lot and can be put in a bouncy seat or one of those rocking swing things they love so much so that you can get some housework done.  A 9 week old puppy will whine and squirm if you try to hold it or pen it in somewhere unless its sleepy, and in that case it'll whine and squirm till you pick it up and rock it to sleep (Editor's note: our dog is TOTALLY not spoiled).   So needless to say, I've had to work my cleaning schedule around Betty's nap times.  

Potty training is still touch and go.  Today and yesterday were not good days.  Today so far she's peed on our bed a total of 4 times. I have to give her credit though because she will now bark and stomp every time she needs to go out and do #2.  Now we just need to get her to alert us every time she needs to go #1.  It takes time, I know, but I cringe every time she leaves a mark on our $125 memory foam mattress topper.  

Yesterday Betty got to have a play-date with Josh's nephew, Dakota, while we babysat him.  They were instant best friends.  Betty would like to play a bit rougher than Dakota would, who just turned 1 in August.  Once in a while Dakota was pretty rough with her and she did fine handling it.  It's good to know she'll be a good dog to have around children.  

While at my mom's house this week I picked up some fabric to make some new dresses for Betty, so just as soon as I have a free minute I'll get started on those. Stay tuned!  I'd also like to make her a doggy bed so that we can start training her to sleep in there instead of on the bed.  It was cute at first to have her sleep with us but the peeing and her habit of sleeping on my chest are gonna get a little old once she hits her adult estimated weight of 60-80 lbs!

We also had trouble this week getting Betty to stay in her crate while we tried to go see an exhibit at a local museum.  We got her in the crate, left the house and got about a house down the block before we decided her cries that sound like a child screaming "help" were too loud.  We didn't want to take the chance of having the cops called on us for child/animal abuse.  So unfortunately we missed the exhibit which was only in town for 2 days.  Such is the life of puppy parents.  

We are having a terrible time getting her to stay in the crate for more than a few minutes.  The only time I've gotten her successfully in there and left her for more than a minute was when she was already asleep when I set her in it.  She was awake when I came home and not yelping, possibly because she was already in there when she woke up?  I've never crate trained a puppy before because, frankly, I don't like the idea of leaving a dog in a small space most of the day, but Betty gets into everything.  Right now it's not a huge issue because I'm not working but I'm not sure what will happen when I do return to work. 

If anyone has advice on how to get her crate trained we would LOVE to hear from you.  We've tried letting her go in on her own, adding toys, treats and her blanket to make the experience better but no dice.  I don't want to make being put in the crate a negative experience, but I know she'll need some tough love eventually.  I'm wondering if she will eventually mellow a bit when she's a little older? Just in the last week and a half her personality has changed drastically. She went from shy and reserved to adventurous and very vocal when she wants something.  Again, any tips or tricks would be much appreciated, just leave us a comment! 

Also, check out the fancy schmancy collar tag Betty got this week. 

She's legit now.

:)

Until Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

The Terrible Two's...as in Two Months!

The theme of this morning's post is brought to you by the fussy puppy to my left.

I may look cute, 
but I'm a holy terror when I have energy!

It's now been 7 days since we brought Betty home and what a sleepless 7 days it has been.  Don't get me wrong I'm over the moon that we have her, but right now she's going through this phase where she's acting like she has the terrible two's.  She takes about 5 naps a day which is great because when she's out she's OUT, and I can get things done around the house, but when she's awake- whoa brother, let me tell you, she's into EVERYTHING and whines like a toddler who can't use her big girl words.  

We knew she was a high energy breed but didn't think that would set in till she was older.  Don't ask why we reasoned this cause it turned out to be completely wrong.  The Plott Hound in her is also known to be headstrong and stubborn.  That's also already kicked in.  Trust me folks, after hundreds or thousands of years of breeding, people kind of know what they're talking about when they set breed standards for temperament!

Betty is basically at the stage where she wants what she wants, when she wants it and that was two minutes ago, so what are you waiting for!?  Food, potty, play-time, you name it.  I spend half my day trying to figure out what she's whining and fussing about.  I'm pretty well in-tune with her potty routine at this point although yesterday she peed three times on the floor of the living room with no warning at all DIRECTLY AFTER we had taken her outside.  I'm beginning to wonder if its due to the weather.  I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to pee or poop outside in 40 degree, rainy, hurricane weather either.  Just like a human baby/toddler who hasn't yet learned to talk she whines and cried whenever she's: frustrated, hungry, has to go potty, lonely, tired, wants to play, you name it.  She knows at this point that if she cries she gets attention.  I definitely want to nip this behavior in the bud.  

Currently Betty has a case of the zoomies.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, zoomies is what happens when dogs get bursts of energy and go crazy running around trying to release that energy.  She's racing around the living room like a thoroughbred. I just hope she tires herself out soon so she'll take a nap and I can get some housework done!

If anyone out there in Internet Land has any tips on how to get through this stage (specifically kennel training and keeping a high energy, low attention span dog busy) PLEASE share your thoughts!!!

Till Next Time

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

The V-Word

VACCINATIONS!

dun, dun, dunnn

All puppies have to go through a series of vaccinations to ensure their health and the health of any other dogs they come in contact with.  We've never had our own puppy before and our parents took care of vaccinating our family dogs so this is sort of uncharted territory for us.  The woman we adopted Betty from said she got her first set of puppy vaccinations from an at-home kit purchased from Tractor Supply Co.  I've never heard of at-home vaccinations and I'm a bit weary of it even though I'd prefer 9 times out of 10 to do things myself.  She said they were only $7 a set so that is a huge difference seeing as a typical vet visit can run upwards of $75.  We're still on the fence about whether to get the shots from TSC or take Betty to the vet.  We've got 2 weeks before she's due for her next set but money is really tight so I guess I'll have to do some more research before then so we can make an informed decision.

If you've given your dog at-home vaccinations from TSC or a similar place we'd love to hear from you, please drop us a line! As always we appreciate any feedback you can give us!

First Year Puppy Vaccination Schedule

I found this great "Dummies" site with the puppy vaccination schedule.  

I'll definitely be hanging onto it for future reference.

Till Next Time!

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Weight

Good morning world!
It's 4:30 am on the East Coast and I'm wide awake.  Josh goes to work at 4 am on Sundays so I'm right up with him.  Betty and I took daddy to work and now she's back asleep and I'm still up.  I decided to put this time to good use and look up breed info.  It's been bugging me lately when people ask what breed Betty is and when we tell them Lab/Plott Hound they all comment on how tiny she is, some even saying their labs were twice the size she is at 8 weeks.  This leads me to believe 3 things could be possible:

1. Betty is the runt of the litter and might not be full size for her breeds (40-80lbs) when she's an adult, which is fine with us because we have a smaller place and having a smaller dog isn't a bad thing as long as she's healthy.
2. She's not really a Lab/Plott Hound.  I'm not sure what she'd be, but I'm really curious.  My sister and her boyfriend had their dog Aurora's DNA tested to find out her breeds and now I'm leaning towards getting that done just to make sure she's really what we think she is so we know she's the right weight.
3. She's sick. I hope to God this isn't the case.  She's playful, pooping and peeing just fine and has a good temperament.  She's been de-wormed and I've been checking to make sure they're gone for good so I don't think that's the issue.  Her appetite has been a little low in my opinion.  I'm not sure how much she should be eating a day/how much she's actually eating (this is the next thing I'm looking up!), but to me it seems like she sort of grazes all day.  My parent's Whippet, Bene, does this as well and he's perfectly healthy, so as long as Betty gains the weight she needs to I'm ok with her eating small meals.  For a breed that's susceptible to bloat from eating big meals and then roughhousing I'm fine if she's a dainty eater. I'm not sure what else would stunt her growth. 

In any event, I'm hoping to get down to the bottom of this issue soon.  If you know of any good websites or have any tips for us please don't hesitate to contact us! We would love to hear from you!

Til Next Time!

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh

Happy Howl-een!

This is my favorite time of the year, the air is cooler, leaves are changing and falling and Halloween is upon us, a time to dress up as whoever you want.  I know some people have issues with dressing their dogs up.  They think it's ridiculous, cruel, stupid, beneath them, etc. I'm not one of those people.  I love dressing my dogs up and they love dressing up! My parent's dogs, Tona and Bene love to put their "pretties" on and prance around.  I also think it's functional in the cold weather we experience in Upstate NY.  I would rather look ridiculous than let my puppy get sick.  That being said Josh and I went a little crazy at Petsmart tonight. 

I usually try to shop for animal goods at a locally owned pet store (Pet Depot) rather than the big chain stores, but Petsmart has a tag engraving machine and that's why we originally went there (until we found out their tags were like $15!). So instead of getting her a tag like we planned we ended up perusing the racks of 75% off Halloween costumes! Yes, I said it, 75% OFF! Most costumes were originally between $10 and $20 so they ended up being dirt cheap (I think we paid $3 for each!).  We had Betty's costume narrowed down to a penguin and a pumpkin.  Pumpkin won only because the penguin had a hood and we didn't think she'd like having something on her head.  

Here she is in all her orange glory!

In between being bombarded by other customers and employees ooo-ing and aww-ing over how precious Betty was and the "huh?'s" every time we told someone she was lab/plott hound we managed to find 2 more outfits for her:

a cheerleader for her Uncle Jay's favorite team 

-And-

Mommy's favorite! Rockabilly puppy!

With all the excitement going on she got pretty tired quickly (a good thing for Josh and I who have been taking turns doing the 1am and 5am potty breaks) and decided she was too tired to find a legit place to sleep.  The following are my favorite sleep positions of the day.  Enjoy!

When she's really relaxed she makes silly faces

She also sleeps at 90 degree angles (daddy was so sleepy from work!)

In this scene, she was struggling to make it up onto the pillow, stopped and decided where she landed was good enough.  Too cute!

Finally, here she is totally relaxed and sprawled out, you can really see her tiger stripes here :)

Well, it's getting late here (10pm) and Betty has woken up from her 8pm nap and wants to play (Josh works at 4am on Sundays and has to be up around 3! Uh-oh).  

Final thought: They should really make a chew toy shaped like fingers because Betty won't leave mine alone when I'm typing!

Till Next Time!

XOXO     

Betty   

Rachel  & Josh

A Brave New World

Welcome Friends!

My name is 

BETTY!

I am an 8 week old Lab/Plott Hound mix living in Upstate NY.

Here's my mom and dad!

Josh and Rachel

or as I like to call them:

Pooper-scooper #1 and #2

I'm starting this blog to serve as cross between a diary and a how-to guide. Josh and I have never raised a puppy on our own before so we're entering a brave new world together.  Hopefully along the way I'll find useful tips and tricks to raising a well-rounded and well behaved dog that I can pass along to you! If nothing else this blog will chronicle the life and times of Betty.  She may be tiny now but I have a feeling 60 lbs from now she's going to be a big handful. Join us in this wonderful journey!

Till Next Time!

XOXO

Betty

Rachel & Josh