pugsgiving

We took Meiby to Nick's grandparent's house on Thanksgiving again this year. Last year we took her crate with us and locked her up while we ate. This year she's not so tolerant of the crate. She doesn't sleep in there anymore and she's trustworthy to leave loose when we are gone now so she's never locked up. Instead, I concocted a special treat for her to keep her busy while we ate:

I filled a hollow bone with carrots. Worked like a charm!

Happy Pugiversary!

One year ago today we first brought Meiby home with us. She was very shy at first but immediately became a member of the family. She has changed quite a bit since then but we couldn't have asked for a better pup.

Her first 2 days with us she wouldn't eat - now she lives for food and will eat anything you give her without question.

For the first 2 weeks we had a "no dogs on the couch" rule - that quickly went out the window when we realized it was just sad to have a lap dog that you have to sit on the floor to cuddle with.

She was scared to death of her first squeaky toy.

It took us a week to work out a sleeping arrangement that worked for all of us. Having her sleep in her crate in our bedroom worked for about 8 months until she figured out that the earlier she wakes me up with her whining, the earlier she gets food. Now that we trust her loose in the house, she just sleeps out in the living room.

One of the first toys I bought for Meiby was a Nylabone Dental Chew. She wouldn't even look at it for months and then all of a sudden it was her favorite thing ever. We've replaced it 5 times now and moved up to a bigger size. It's become her comfort bone.

We kept Meiby crated whenever we were gone for the first 6 months or so. We experimented with leaving her loose for short periods of time until we finally trusted her enough to leave her loose. Now she's a full time free range pug!

We had an extremely cold and snowy winter this past year and while Meiby loves the snow, she's no fan of the sub-zero temperatures. Because of this we trained her to use puppy pads when needed and this is, for better or worse, still in effect.

On January 3rd she was a year old. We switched her to adult food and had taught her lots of tricks.

This summer I took Meiby to obedience classes and she is much more observant now. She'll now wait for us to tell her to eat rather than diving into her food. She will also "come" on command pretty consistently and "get off" of me or the couch when I tell her to. She's still begs like crazy though... perhaps because someone spoils her ;)

It has been just wonderful having Meiby around for the past year. We're so lucky to have such a sweet little pug around! We loves you Meibs :)

Mother's Day outing

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and fur-baby moms! I spent the day with my mom at her house in the country: cooking out, hiking in the woods, having a few drinks...

I took my pug-daughter out there with me and she had a great time running around in the woods, barking at the horses (those are some BIG dogs!), and stirring up trouble with my parent's dog and cat.

Fun with "Aunt" Missy

We took Meiby to my parents house yesterday and she had lots of fun running around and stirring up trouble. She has met their dog Missy a few times and they are now starting to really interact. (We policed them a lot the first few times, just in case they didn't get along. We didn't want anyone to get hurt.) Meiby loves my parents house because there is lots of room to run! She attacked Missy's toys, tried to provoke the cat and played lots of "chase me" with Missy.





Then she got tired and made herself at home on the coffee table...

We're back

and Meiby was just fine while we were gone. Her eye cleared up right away so we stopped giving her the pills (painkillers) but we're still administering the eye drops 3X daily. It's amazing how well she takes it. The first day or so she resisted and squirmed alot but now she's very still and we can get both eyes in a matter of seconds. ...she knows she'll get a treat when it's over.

Anyway, we still don't know what happened to her eye but we're glad it's fine now :)

My parents had a little party this weekend and I took Meiby over there with me. She fully gets along with my parents dog (a big-ish pitbull-(we think)-mix) and cat now. She loved all the attention of the guests and managed not to poop in my parents' house! Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me... but I'll try to get some new photos or video up soon...

First Overnight Away...

Meiby's parents (us) are leaving her overnight for the first time since we've had her. We're going down to Indianapolis tonight for Nick's Indiana Bar Admission Ceremony(!) tomorrow and we're not bringing the pup with us. I've arranged to have a friend stay the night at our house tonight so Meiby won't be alone all night. We won't even be gone 24 hours but we'll miss her. Of course today, of all days, Meiby woke up with a swollen, red, gooey eye. Nick is at the vet with her right now. Hopefully it's no big deal but if it is I'll probably stay home with her and Nick will go to Indy without me. We'll see...

...well, I think the eye will be OK. The doctor didn't see any scratches or anything but they gave her 10 days worth of eye drops and pills and we'll take Meiby back in after 10 days. It doesn't seem to bother her much but she's certainly not a fan of the drops. We're still going to go to Indy tonight and just get back as early as possible tomorrow to take care of her.

It's a Meiby!

We drove up to see her on Friday after I got off work.

We met her family:

We met Happy/Meiby:

We brought her home:

We called her Meiby:

She's just the sweetest!

Mom and Dad

These are Happy's parents Arbor (fawn female) and Duncan (black male)

We are very enthusiastic about meeting Happy next weekend. She's being spayed this Friday so she'll be healed and done with that when/if we get her. We like the idea of getting a black pug because, being the vampires we are, we wear a lot of black (and Nick will be wearing suits a lot soon) and both of our cars are black. We hear pugs shed a lot so it's for the best that we have a black dog. We'd be happy with either color squishy faced dog though. We also decided that we liked the idea of getting a 6 month old puppy instead of an 8 week old puppy because we don't want to have to leave a baby pup home alone for too long. I'll be able to come home for lunch so she will only be home for 3.5 hours at a time. But that's still a bit too long for a tiny one. So when we found "Happy" at 7 months old she seemed perfect. Plus, she's already crate trained and mostly housebroken! ... any suggestions for a new name?

Happy

I've been in touch with a breeder not far from here who has a little black female pug named Happy. (It doesn't seem that her namesake is reflected in this photo... sad little pug face...)
She could be ours! (but we might have to rename her ;) ) She is almost 7 months old and will be spayed this weekend. We are going to try to visit her next weekend. I could be a mom by next weekend!

We're expecting!

... to be puppy parents! After several years of wanting a pet but being restricted by landlords and law school, we'll finally be able to get a puppy (after Nick takes the Bar Exam next week.) We decided to get a Pug puppy and I've been in contact with several breeders to find the right pup for us. Here is one that has a possibility of being ours:

We bought some books this weekend to help prepare us for our furry child: Pugs, Pugs for Dummies, and The Power of Positive Dog Training. We plan on taking her to obedience classes and are going to try to train her at home. We're very excited in case you couldn't tell. I'm starting this blog with the intentions of documenting our puppy's progress, life, cuteness, etc. I know this has been done many times before but each puppy blog I've found has been helpful in a different way so I hope this one can help someone as well. Until the puppy arrives I'll keep posting updates about our preparation and search...