We bought Bailey a nice, big pillow a few weeks ago. Since she travels with us quite frequently, we opted to move her dog bed into the car (it's all about comfort), and so because of this we had to get a replacement for the apartment.

When we first brought Bailey home, it was *decided* that she would sleep in her dog bed on the floor. You know, like this

But let's face it. That beautiful little scene up there was never going to happen. Why? Because my nights usually look a little something like this...

That would be me. Awake. In the middle of the night, on the edge of the bed. It's not uncommon to wake up with a dog paw in my face, or pushing into my back. I know it looks like Bailey doubled in size in this picture. It's because somehow when she's sleeping, she manages to expand her body to the size of a full grown lab. But as if by magic, when I wake up she's back to being Bailey sized.
Now that I think about it, something is missing from the picture above..

Nope still something missing....

Yup! That looks about right! At some point EACH night I'd got all three pets on my side of the bed.
Dogs to the left of me.
Cat to the right.
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

I don't know about you, but I have one million pet names for my pets. Funny how that works out...pet names for your pets......

We learned last night that Bailey, who has been called everything from Bailster to Biddle has begun to respond to the name 'Dogis'. I don't mean she'll casually look your way when you say it, I mean she will come running from another room at the mere mention of the word 'Dogis'. Apparently Scott calls her that fairly often, and she's started to turn her head when either Bailey or Dogis is said.

This got me thinking about other pet pet names we use. Zoe has been called Zoe Bear, Panda Bear and Zoester from the toaster (a personal favorite!). But Rascal, other than being called names that aren't suitable for a child friendly blog, never really had one. That is, until Mexico.

When pet owners travel, we tend to find characteristics in our pets in the foreign animals around us. We're able to link our domesticated pets with any tropical animal within view. Don't lie- I know you've done it. I'm sure we've all had our "Do you see that parrot? He looks JUST like my dog back home!" moments. The non-pet owners around you roll their eyes and go along with your statement, probably saying something like "yes, the resemblance is unbelievable...."

And so when we arrived in beautiful Mexico last Spring (has it been a year already?), we met this creature. I was fairly certain that he was either 1) something I was imagining as a result of heat stroke or 2) an animal some mad scientist had assembled in a Frankenstein fashion.

It has the nose of a pig, the body of a monkey and the tail and hands of a racoon. They were ALL over the resort, trying to get into garbage and walking right up to tourists. For some reason, I immediately assumed that this creature's personality would match it's adorable appearance. You'd think I'd consider that neither a pig, monkey or racoon are the friendliest of animals.

We (my parents, brother, brother in law and Scott) decided that this crazy looking thing needed a name. Rather than consulting Google, we chose to name it the Rascoon. Why? We unanimously (this is where people go along to indulge me) felt that it deeply resembled our Rascal back home.

I know what you're thinking. It's like they came from the same litter.

Six days into our seven day stay in paradise I chose to shed my tourist mindset and did some research on my furry little friends. Here's what I found out.

Name: Coati Mundi
Behaviour: Unlike racoons, the Coati Mundi are active during the day. They use vocal signals to communicate, and their pig like snouts can be rotated at an angle of 60° in any direction!

Sure, I knew the name of this weird little animal. And yes, I could have educated my family about the interesting little tid bits I found out. But my entire family spent the entire vacation calling them Rascoons. One German couple sitting beside us one day thought that was what they were called! So I chose to give my Rascal his 15 minutes of fame.

The Rascoon encounter led Rascal to being solely called 'Rascoon' for an entire month after our trip. This was then shortened to Scoon. Which turned into Scooner. Then Scoon Dog. And this my friends, is the pet name for Rascoon. I mean Rascal.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Yes...I know it's not Friday (I'm not crazy). Clearly it's Wednesday. It's true! Your computer will back this up- scroll your mouse over to the time on the bottom right hand of your screen. It's okay- go ahead. You see? It says Wednesday!

I am leaving for Florida tomorrow morning, and because of this I am waltzing around my office with the joy and pride that only Fridays can bring. And so for me, on this beautiful warm day, it is Friday. And because I am in this lovely Friday mood, I thought I'd share some a funny story about the Bailster.

Disclaimer: There are a few moments in this story that I was unable to capture with film. Although when a thougth bubble pops in my head, I've been told that others do not see the tiny little clouds form to display my thought process. Thankfully I've had YEARS of experience re-capturing these moments with Microsoft Paint (thank you University!). And here I was sure I'd never get to use this hidden talent!
 
Our story begins yesterday (Tuesday. Or Thursday. Depends who you ask). We have been desperately trying to come up with a way to get Bailey to communicate to us when she needs to go to the bathroom. She doesn't bark, so the "bark like a crazy animal at the front door" approach won't work. We've got her on a schedule, BUT let's face it- no one really pees on a schedule.

It starts off like this.

It's important to act like going outside to pee is the absolutely most fun, most amazing thing you could ever do. After making the world's biggest deal about peeing on the grass, I usually get this response from Bailey.

And so I thought about using the bell training. Essentially you train your dog to hit the bell when they want to go outside. It's awesome for non barkers like Bails. Usually you hang a bell somewhere, which allows the dog to ring it I imaging her ringing it quite diplomatically. British almost. Something like this.

But the reality is a bell hanging from a string in the front hall would not last two seconds in our house. Rascal, the almighty cat protector would massacre that bell. It would never see it coming.

So I sat for a moment to contemplate my situation, and BAM. The solution was so simple! I would buy a bell that you have to hit- like the ones they put at hotels for you to ring when there's no one at the front desk. If the people in Staples could see my thought bubble, they would have been so impressed.

I ran home. Well not really. I didn't run. I walked.....OKAY. I bused. Anyhow, I burst through the door. I couldn't contain my excitement. I was dying to get on this bell training and teach Bailey how to communicate. I even deemed it "The Bathroom Bell" (creative- I know). I would ring the bell, then immediately give her a treat- I wanted to associate something good with the sound. I then placed it on the ground and put a bunch of treats around it like this (good news- I have real pictures for the next part).

And as I turn around to show Bailey how wonderful and magical the bell is with it's circle of treats, I find her hiding in the corner in the cat bed.

And to top it all off, when I go back over to the bell, this is what I found.....

Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Its a cat. EATING THE DOG TREATS. Let me show you one more time....

And where is Bailey in all this?

Well there you have it folks. I don't know what the future is like for the Bathroom Bell. I do know that my cat will eat anything. I have a dream that one day, my tiny little black pooch will walk on up and somehow tell me "Mom. I have to pee. Right Now". We've all got to have dreams. And this my friends, is mine.

Bailey was featured as the Dog of the Week on the Ottawa Dog Blog! To view this post, click here

Top Reasons That I Love My Dog

1. She is SO happy when we come home. It's true what they say- dogs are always excited that you're back. Cats? Cats don't care that you're back, they care that you're able to now feed them.
2. When I say "Watch" in our obedience class, she stares at me for minutes, hours even!
3. She barks in the sleep, but barely makes a sound when she's awake
4. Sometimes, when she goes to jump up onto the couch, she farts. Not silent farts- loud ones. Hilarious
5. She can communicate solely by raising her ears up and down.
6. She will grunt incredibly loudly if you make the slightest movement while she's sleeping.
7. She wags her tail with her entire butt.
8. She knows that when Scott puts on his suit that we'll be leaving for the day.
9. From the minute you walk in the door, she doesn't leave your side.
10. She takes over the bed each and every night. Although I complain, I don't really care. I kind of love it.
11. She has loved us since the minute we brought her into our home.

We have been enjoying our level one obedience classes at the Ottawa Canine School for the past few weeks. It has been great for Bailey to get used to some different smells and get a little more socialized. My partner in crime now has to work on Saturdays, and so I've been bringing the Bailster to the classes on my own. I really look forward to them- it's amazing to see the progress she's made. Makes you feel like it was worth every penny!
I have noticed though that my competitive nature has really come out at the classes. You see, I have this intense desire to be able to do everything the instructor asks in record time. I love demonstrating and always quickly offer up the red leash in my hand. The only problem is my dog is NOT competitive and does not like being the centre of attention at all. It took me about two classes to realize that trying to throw Bailey into the centre was terrifying her! Once I accepted the 'it's not a competition' part, Bailey began to come out of her shell.

Both dogs worked so hard that they were given a few minutes at the end of class to burn some energy. I'm fairly certain it was a game of tag!

Thank the Lord- It's Friday!
My brain is already on weekend mode- we've got class #4 for Bailey's obedience training. I'll try and remember to take some pictures this time (and be THAT embarassing mom!).
In the meantime, I thought I'd leave you with some fancy smancy pictures of Bailey and Zoe.

Looks like someone figured out how to use the black and white feature on her camera :)

Have a FABULOUS weekend daarrhhlings

Alright, I suppose it's time we get down to business.

One of the reasons I wanted to begin this blog was to a)talk about my pets non-stop and b)share Bailey's progress. Bailey is an extremely shy pooch, and has been working very hard on becoming more social. Since bringing her home in August, we've made an effort to bring her with us everywhere. It was actually because of her shy and timid personality that we looked a little further into what her past was like. I didn't like what I found as I began to dig a little further, and simply decided that whether she was from a breeder or a puppy mill, she deserved the right to be properly socialized.

Men, particularly strange men seem to scare Bailey the most. Since the beginning of her life with us, Bailey was able to be around two guys in particular; Scott (her faja) and my dad. Since the beginning Bailey has been head over heels in love with my dad. I think it's because he is a genuine pet person, and she recognized it early on (you should see her reaction when we go for a visit. She doesn't know what to do with herself, she's so excited!). Slowly we've gotten her accustomed to other male family members and have finally seen a few tail wags when they come over. And recently she's really begun to warm up to some of Scott's male friends (yay for progress!). But still, my cute little dog seems to freeze up when a strange man walks by. And so, we continue to bring her to dog parks and other dog friendly public places to help ease her intense fear of men.

Oddly enough, one of Bailey's biggest problems is that she's super cute. Because of this, ALL strangers want to come up and pet her. Sure, I think it's great for her to meet new strangers and get used to new smells, however I want her to do this on her own terms. A lot of work can be set back by one idiot over stepping his boundaries. It's easy to see when she's nervous- that tail swings right up between zee cheeks and she avoids eye contact. This past fall I was out in the morning walking with Bai. We live in a condo surrounded by other condos, particularly one that has construction going on every morning. I wanted Bailey to get accustomed to the loud sounds and opted to stay calm while walking by the noise hoping that my calm demeanor would rub off on her. So far, it had been working, until a very tall construction worker called out to me asking about my dog. I replied with one word quick responses hoping he'd get the drift that I wasn't in a mood to chat. I suppose somewhere in there he took it as an invitation to cross the path and try and pet my dog. Of course, Bailey panicked, got the leash out of my hand and ran across the street along our usual path. I couldn't decide whether to punch the worker where the sun don't shine or run frantically after my dog (which I obviously automatically did anyways). It was a horrible way to start my day! Since then, I have a hard time getting her to go around that corner where the construction site it. She's seem okay to go that path with Scott, but not with me :(

And so now, my lovely dog owning friends, I ask you this. Has this ever happened to you? How can I help Bailey get over her fear of the construction site while walking with me? I feel like I've failed her; she doesn't feel safe with me walking that part of the path. And sadly, we HAVE to cross that section to go on our walk and cannot afford to move until the fall. Any tips??

Caught Bailey trying to do yoga the other day. Running is SUPER important to this pooch, so naturally she makes sure to do some stretching after a long game of fetch :)

Here is what the 'Camel Pose' looks like.

And here's Bailey's version

You'd think I'd at least have a picture of her doing downward dog!

Happy Monday everyone!

Bailey is in her crate today. When we first brought her home, she was so well behaved. Because of this, we decided to lock her up in a room instead of using a crate. This method had been working really well until a few weeks ago, when little miss likes to chew started to munch on whatever she could find. And so, today is her first day in a crate.
Out of curiousity, do you crate train your dog? How do they like the crate? Do they have a designated 'space' during the day? What was your dog's first experience like in the crate?

On a happier note, I took some funny pictures last night of my pets with this tartan hat Bailey got for Christmas (it is a part of a tartan ensemble). Before you roll your eyes at the word 'tartan', I should tell you that I'm a highland dancer and Scottish, so tartan of all kinds make several appearances in my house (and apparently on my pets).
So here's the outfit that Bailey got for Christmas from my Aunt and Uncle

And because I'm terribly mean, I decided to put the hat on my cats.

I could not stop laughing. I'm surprised these pictures didn't come out all blurry- my hands were shaking from laughter. I don't think Rascal or Zoe appreciated their time playing dress up. Oh well!

Have a great weekend!