Happy Easter!

13/42:. The Easter Puggy, originally uploaded by mandypug.

Via Flickr:
Izzie wishes everyone a happy Easter and hopes you all enjoyed your 2 pound chocolate bunnies and piles of cadbury cream eggs. She got bunny ears in her Easter basket.

Bring on Spring

Spring officially began on Wednesday, and it did indeed act like spring with highs of 14 degrees Celcius and sunny skies! Did I utilize that day doing cool outdoor things and taking photos? Nope! I walked the Pug in the morning when it was still chilly and then did laundry and cooking and washing the Pug during the nice part of the day. Lame, I know. Then it ended up snowing on Thursday. Sloppy wet snow that I hauled dog food bags inside in at work. Also lame.

So today is Friday and I get most Fridays off so I was determined for it to be nice today and to go and take non instagram photos of Izzie because I've been severely slacking on that. Luckily my blue sky dance and the power of optimism and a positive attitude (or as I call it, "Retrieverism") worked and today was lovely and sunny out, a pretty day even if snow was still on the ground and the cold wind was still blowing. 

You want me to SIT in the SNOW? Yeah you know where you can go...

The majestic ewok has a silent but stern conversation with the sun.

The wind was pretty chilly on her eyeballs!

Frosty face! I imagine this is what Izzie might look like when she's more grey.

The extreme sport of Icicle fetching. 

Hopefully spring is indeed on it's way, and soon too! We want to play agility outside again!

Border Collies, Puppies, Sheep, Puppies, Mud, Puppies

... Did I mention Puppies?

Om nom nom! Sarah's Foot!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love puppies. All puppies. They're squishable and cute and I don't even mind if they pee on my leg as they're puppies and they don't really know any better. You know I want a puppy so bad but cannot have one just yet, so the next best thing is other peoples' puppies. 

At 6 weeks they start looking like dogs instead of guinea pigs.

Sarah was going to Alta-Pete to give massages to the dogs and do a little lesson with Gyppie and I kind of invited myself along haha. I'd never been out there so I wanted to go... Okay, really I just wanted to see the litter of puppies they have. It's safe to visit them as they all have homes and I knew I wouldn't go home going sad because I can't have one. This way I get some of my puppy fix so I don't go crazy. There were six puppies in the kitchen area with me and their young dog, Try, helped me hang out with the pups while Sar gave massages. Seriously, it was heaven even though puppies kind of smell bad.

Fleece (or hamster) tugging on my sleeve. She's my favourite.

We did other non-puppy related things too. I watched Gyppie's lesson and she had fun. I don't know much about herding but I'm pretty sure she did well. I also met the guardian dogs, Togo and Alaska. They loved attention, especially Alaska. She followed me around and sat on my feet and rolled in the snow and nearly pushed me over by leaning all her weight on my legs. Such a ham.

Alaska asking for some belly rubs.

We also got to see the lambs. So cute! This one liked Sarah and thought she might have a bottle for him. Then he bopped poor Pleat in the nose with his hoof. 

Lamb hugs!

As for the mud part of the title? It was mucky out there. I'm glad I invested in rubber boots the other day as the mud would have definitely been terrible in my normal shoes! Being a city kid I don't have much use for boots other than the leather high heeled kind (and even then I rarely wear those). I had loads of fun though! What a great way to spend a day off. Thanks again Sarah!

Some June love.

... Oh yeah! June came up to me and let me pet her, several times, and she even wagged her tail. I'm told this means I'm special and I should be flattered. =)

Promises Promises

Today it was nice out all morning. I meant to take Izzie for a walk before going to work at noon but I ran out of time between loads of laundry. So I promised her I would walk her after work. Of course I didn't look at weather reports and was oblivious to the snow forecasted for this evening. Bummer, more snow.

But a promise is a promise when it comes to the pug, so as soon as I got home from work I put on the ol' coat and boots and put Izzie's on her too and we headed out.

It was snowy but not really cold so the pug enjoyed it. I think it's the cold she hates more than the snow. 

She enjoyed herself though wagging her tail and prancing around in the drifts. She even ventured out into the deep snow on her own!

Maybe she'll even learn to like snow enough to make doggy snow angels someday!

A Thing for Bling

You all know by now that I really like collars and leashes and sparkly things. So when something comes together that combines those three things, I'm all over it. So when I found out a local(ish) agility person was making these awesome hand stamped, hand dyed, leather martingale leashes I jumped at the chance to have one.   



Izzie's is purple with off set flower stamps all over and purple rhinestones in the centres of the flowers on the collar piece. The leash piece is 3/4" wide and the collar is 1" wide. It fits Izzo perfectly and is just gorgeous and well made! We used it all weekend and it's buttery soft now.






















Hopefully she'll have a website soon and I'll share it when she does.

Snow Days

9/52:. Stranded, originally uploaded by mandypug.

Quite the eventful agility weekend for us!

It ended up blizzarding so bad that they closed the highway home and we were stranded up there. Luckily the Connellys are awesome and took us in and fed us for the night. They're good people for sure!

We got home safely on Monday and the roads were mostly okay, a few sketchy spots and my windshield needs some rock chip repair from the sand being sprayed up. But hey at least they were drivable and I had a driving buddy to follow home. Thanks again Sar.

As for the trial results. No Qs but we had a great Masters Challenge run. Need to work on making sure Izzie knows we're a team out there and that she can't just do whatever she thinks is right and that I need to learn to feel her out there and be more proactive in making sure she succeeds in what I'm directing her to do. Not just watch in slow motion as she makes a mistake.

Always learning something...

What a Pug Should Look Like

That's what Izzie is according to her rehab vet.

No joke, she even took photos so she could show her off.

I've been working hard on Izzie's fitness. I do believe it plays an important part in her endurance and even in her drive. Heck if I wasn't strong enough to do something comfortable do you think I'd want to do it? No way.

Anyway, we've been doing mucho peanut ball work as well as regular walks on and off leash. Hills, flats, fast pace short walks, slow pace long walks, running, etc. Then on top of all that, lots of stretching. I stretch this dog all the time, before and after activities, before bed, when she wakes up. Massage massage massage, stretch stretch stretch. Takes a bit of extra time but so worth it. I can see a difference and it's only been a couple months of doing much of anything.



Izzie's weakness is her lower back and rear end. She muscles in the front well and has always had a skinny little behind and her back has always been a bit roachy. You can see it in photos.

However after I've been working on it more with her, doing exercises that strengthen those things, I've seen an amazing difference. Her back end is visibly more muscled and her core is stronger and a bit thicker (not in a fatty way, if that makes sense) and she even stands more squarely now, no more cheating and standing all crooked and weird. Her back is also levelling out and although it will never be that flat show dog back, it's getting stronger and the roaching in bad places is going away.

As for her energy level? It's increased dramatically. After breakfast instead of going back to bed, she wants to play ball or bitey face or run around. She gets bored with doing nothing wants to go walking and chase birds and bark at frisbee golfers (see, even the pug knows frisbee golf is lame).



Anyway what i'm getting at is conditioning pays off if you work hard at it.

As for the appointment? Well she saw Dr. Devall last month up in Calgary to check out her weird tricep thing, which went away with stretching and crate rest. She had a few adjustments needed and some laser and traumeel. Her whole body was rotated to her left, kinda how heeling makes her turn. So with all that done when i heard she was coming to town i figured it wouldn't hurt to have a follow up visit. Luckily everything stayed put and she only needed a few little things. Her head was on straight and her pelvis wasn't tilted, and she noted that Iz is noticeably more muscular in the rear.

So all in all, she's the picture of health and the poster child of what a healthy, in shape, active Pug should look like.

 

Ya, she's pretty awesome.