Friday, July 31, 2015

It's a Jungle out there!

Phoenix

I'm still trying to get back to normal, so this week we went walking with my friend and her dog Ava a couple of times. It's nice to get out to the park with a friend! The weather has really gotten hot again, too! We went early in the morning and by 9:30 we were already hot!

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Beach Throwback!


This is a picture from way back when from before we had Phoenix. Zoe and I took a solo trip to the beach. Back then I used to paint her nails all the time and it was always hot pink!

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

ZoePhee tries: Barkworthies


We were recently sent a bully stick from Barkworthies to try out. Barkworthies is a company that makes treats sourced from free-range, grass-fed beef. The treats and chews are completely digestible and contain absolutely no preservatives, chemicals, or additives. The company is also eco-friendly.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Down


The past week was a pretty rough one for me. I have not been feeling well and you all probably noticed the lackluster posts. Right now I'm so low on energy but I'm trying. Thank you all for your patients. I hope next week is better.

The girls are being really good and I don't really have any mischief to report other than it rained both weekend days and they were pissed. It was pretty funny. The look on their faces when we went outside and they saw it was raining. They were unimpressed and did not want to step into the wet grass. They wanted to go back inside almost immediately but I was able to convince them to go and we went for a shorter walk.

Hopefully things will be better soon and we can get back to our regular programming.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Zen


Last year we won a Silver Paw Tag giveaway hosted by our friends at Love is being Owned by a Husky. I decided to go with the Lotus tag because I figured Phoenix could use as much zen as possible. She wears her tag every day and I'm not sure if it's helped chill her out but I love it anyways. With the water ripples and the Lotus flower, this photo feels really zen to me!

Happy B&W Sunday everyone!

Friday, July 24, 2015

Sinking Butt! Fit Dog Friday


We've been doing pretty much the same thing! Lots of swimming and running around. 
Phoenix is still letting her butt sink occasionally, which makes for some hilarious pictures.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

8 Photos of Happiness


We were nominated by the wonderful Dachshund Nola to do the Eight Photos of Happiness tag. Thanks so much! I'm really excited to do this tag so let's get right into it.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

I and Love and You "Bully Sticks" Review


Hi everyone! I hope you're all having an awesome day! It's time for our monthly chewy.com review! If you didn't know, chewy.com is an awesome company that delivers high quality pet products right to your door. Their shipping is incredibly fast and they have wonderful customer service!

Monday, July 20, 2015

Hide the Toy! Monday Mischief


After rescuing her toy a bunch of times from the river, 
Phoenix decided the best course of action would be to hide the toy from me! 


I don't think she did a very good job!
Back into the drink for you, toy! :)

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Choices! Force Free Dog Training - B&W Sunday

"Is the cookie good enough to make it worth getting wet?"

 I try to keep things pretty force free at my house and when training. My dogs get a choice and it's a "cue" not a "command". I'm requesting that Zoe join me in the water and it's her choice. She does not have to but if she does come she will get a fabulous treat. As you can tell from the photo she's not really thrilled about the whole water thing yet but in time she will figure it out! Maybe not this year but we will keep trying! Choice is so very important in dog training and even more so if you have a "soft" dog like Zoe. If they feel like they have a choice they are more likely to choose you. (Which she did.)

Happy B&W Sunday everyone!

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Weird Human! Sisters on Saturday


Neither of the girls could figure out what their Dad was doing. Why he would voluntarily swim... SO weird! Zoe was even getting really worried about him. She would sit on the edge of the beach and whine the further he'd go. 


Phoenix decided that barking at him might help. So they played the barky bark game. She is such a funny dog. 

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Friday, July 17, 2015

Swimming and Running! Fit Dog Friday

I can't believe I got the toy in there, too!

This week we've been doing a ton of swimming. The trail to get to the river is about a mile and the dogs run free all the way to the river so they've been doing some running and bunny hunting as well.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

SPLASH!


Phoenix has been making a lot of big splashes at the river lately!


She seems to really enjoy fetching the new boomer rang that my husband bought her!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

If Looks Could Kill...


I'd probably be dead! Zoe was not all that thrilled about us spending two hours at the river last night! She would much rather be hunting bunnies than learning how to swim. Even worse!! Abuse! Abuse! I put her back on the leash before she could kill anything. So sad! I know.


We did manage to get Zoe swimming. She wasn't that happy about it. She really didn't want to get her tail wet. I'm thinking about getting her a life jacket so she can get more confidence. She's very scared of swimming. Poor girl! 


She's much happier hanging out on the beach!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Phoenix is a Cheater!


The girls will often race each other back to me when I call them. I finally caught Phoenix cheating on camera!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Swimming Lessons


Phoenix is trying to teach Zoe how to swim! We actually got Zoe swimming a couple of times but unfortunately someone decided to fire off some rounds and after that the fun was over because Zoe got very upset. I hope that I will be able to get her back into the water and that she doesn't associate swimming with the noise she hates. :(

Friday, July 10, 2015

Stress In Dogs


I would normally have a Fit Dog Friday post for everyone today, telling you about some sort of fun adventure and exercise we've had during the week. Unfortunately, this was the 4th of July week and we've had a rough week with two very stressed out dogs and we didn't do much. We didn't go on any adventures. We stayed at home, only taking short leash walks around our complex. That way if we heard any bangs we could hussle home where the dogs feel safe. I wanted to make sure the dogs were feeling better after being traumatized for several days in a row by explosions of fireworks in the neighborhood before taking them anywhere. We finally managed a short walk at the big park last night after the girls seemed to be more calm.



It can take several days for the stress hormone "cortisol" to work it's way out of a dog's system and I know from experience that when Phoenix has been stressed out she will make poor decisions. Zoe will tend to be hyper vigilant when she's been stressed and she has a hard time following my cues. When dogs are really scared they are unable to learn so it's better to let them calm down before attempting any training. I would prefer them to both be feeling better and back to normal before we do any off leash stuff. Both dogs were completely worn out anyways from being so stressed out and on edge that they spent most of the past few days sleeping.

So let's talk about stress. 

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Out of Cookies!!!

"What happened to the cookies!?!"

Have you ever seen one of those funny shirts that says "Out of Beer, Life is Crap!"? Well we are officially out of cookies and both dogs have agreed that life is crap!

"Out of Cookies!! Life is Crap!"

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Sisterly Love



I love it when I can get the girls to pose together! It makes photo shoots so much more fun!

Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Fallout from the 4th of July.


While families are having barbecues and celebrating by blowing up the neighborhood, we sat in our hot apartment in fear of opening the windows that the booms would be even louder. Zoe huddling in terror in the bathroom and Phoenix either glued to my side of hiding behind the recliner, every 2 seconds the sky sounded like it was falling. Boom after boom until early in the morning. The entire weekend consisted of booms with only a bit of relief during the hottest part of the day. By the end of Monday, I started to feel punished by the fireworks as well. Watching your dogs having a panic attack with no way to comfort them is the worst feeling in the whole world and I started to feel jumpy at the booms, too.

I feel so badly for all of our dogs at this time of year. I wish there was a way to explain to them that it was dumb humans celebrating and that the booms can't hurt them. I can't imagine how our war vets must be feeling with all the booms going off, too. It must be so hard for them! I wish people would be more considerate and keep their celebration to the day instead of extending it for days on end and I worry about all the misplaced pets in shelters. I wonder if they will find their owners again. At least my dogs had the luxury of being tucked safely inside.

Since the celebrations started, Zoe does not want to go outside. When we get outside she mostly refuses to walk. I have to really coax her to go. She gets to grass, goes potty and then attempts to drag me back inside. Phoenix has been pretty much the same way. Neither dog is comfortable going out. Zoe has also been refusing her meals and we have to really beg her to eat or add toppers to her food to get her eating. I am really hoping that people will stop lighting stuff off and that my dogs calm down soon.

Monday, July 6, 2015

Dog Training Requires Patients!

Everyone loves a KISS!

Hi everyone! Today we are joining the Positive Pet Training Blog Hop! This month's them is "training mistakes" but any positive training posts are welcome. Thanks so much to the hosts and be sure to click around on the linky list to see the other ones!

Ah... training mistakes. There's so many places I could go with this but I'm going to take you on my own personal battle with myself. Fighting the "Frustration Demon."

Sunday, July 5, 2015

We Survived the Fireworks! B&W Sunday


This photo was from our "blog party" photo shoot. I didn't make them wear hats while they were scared. Zoe is doing her "cover the nose" pose which sort of makes her look pitiful which was pretty much how our day went yesterday with the fireworks. So the photo works well for this post.

Yesterday was the scariest day of the year for pets everywhere and my girls were no exception. We weren't able to go outside very much throughout the day because everyone was lighting fireworks off at random. Around 7:30pm I gave both dogs benadryl, melatonin and valerian root. Zoe wore her thunder shirt and Phoenix wore the anxiety wrap that we reviewed a while ago. By 10pm the fireworks got really bad and neither dog was very happy but we did a bunch of CC and they did okay. Zoe mostly wanted to be left alone but Phoenix wanted to cuddle. It was interesting because this is the first time Phoenix has ever been upset about the bangs and I was not expecting that. Usually she doesn't care. I really hope everyone used up all of their fireworks and that the bangs will stop. Watching my dogs freak out is not very fun for me. :( I think next year I'm going to get some heavier duty drugs from the vet.

Thank you all so much for stopping by yesterday and wishing us a happy blogiversary! I really appreciate everyone's kind words! <3

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Happy 4th of July & ZoePhee's 1st Annivesary! Giveaway!


Happy 4th of July!!! I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday! Since Zoe is really afraid of fireworks we will be staying home with her and doing our best to keep her calm. Phoenix doesn't seem to mind them, though and it's really helpful to have a normal dog around. Zoe is able to calm down a lot faster when she sees that Phoenix isn't bothered.
 I hope everyone has a good time tonight!


It's time to put on our party hats!!! 
It's our very first blog anniversary!
If you couldn't tell, I am VERY excited!



We made it a year! I can't believe it! When I started this blog, I honestly didn't think very many people would read it! I always hoped that it would be successful but I never imagined it would be what it is today and that's all thanks to you! Thank you all so much for coming back and supporting us! I appreciate each and every one of you and I feel like I've finally found my home in the pet blogging community. We've become an online family and I love you guys! I really can't thank you enough! Thank you to all of my blogging friends! I really appreciate all of you being very patient with me when I have had questions and helping me along the way with your positive feedback.

I also wanted to quickly thank all of our sponsors. I've been able to work with some amazing brands this year and I really appreciate those opportunities! Thanks so much!

Zoe & Phee say "Thank you!"

Let's look back at a few of your favorite posts:


You guys seem to really like it when I rant about stuff! :D I'm hoping to do more funny ones in the future!  

Here's a few of everyone's favorite photos:

Everyone loved the tulip photos!

Happy Girls!
KISSES!
  
Bitey Face!

This year has been so amazing. Blogging has been life changing for me. I can't wait to take you guys on more of our adventures! I have so many fun ideas for posts and I can't wait to get started on them!



So to celebrate our 1st Blog Anniversary I'm hosting a giveaway! One lucky reader will get a treat prize pack from 5 AMAZING brands. The prize includes: 1 Bag of Bravo "Crunchy Delights", 1 Bag of Caru "Soft ’n Tasty Lamb Treats", 1 Bag of Look Who's Happy "Turkey Happy Wraps", 1 Bag of Spring Naturals and 1 Bully Stick from Barkworthies.

No purchase necessary. Giveaway is open to US residents only. Giveaway will run from July 4 through July 11, 2015. One (1) winner will be randomly selected and notified via email. Winner will have 48 hours to claim the prize; failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the prize.
 Please use the widget below. All entries will be verified.

Also, I'd like to send a big shout out to Ashlee from Matrix Partners! Thanks so much for sponsoring this giveaway!


 
Thanks Again and Good Luck everyone!

Friday, July 3, 2015

ZUMI Leads Review #NeverRoamAlone


Happy Fit Dog Friday everyone! I hope you're all having an awesome day! Today I have a review for you on two gorgeous rope leads from ZUMI! We all know how important fitness is and going for walks is a great way to exercise and bond with your canine best friend. I really believe having equipment that is sturdy and functional but also comfortable is important! If your equipment is cutting into your hand, you're not going to have much fun on the walk. I'm so excited to tell you about these leashes! We were given our leads in exchange for an honest review but I am not being compensated to tell you about them.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Teaching My Dog To Swim! Rescuing Wubba!


So now that Phoenix has gotten better and really excited about swimming out for a stick, I've decided it's time to transfer that behavior onto a toy because sticks can cause injuries. So the night before we went to the park I put some value on the toy by having her retrieve it for food and making it extremely exciting to get. Then when we got to the park we did a bunch of land retrieves to practice. My husband was sure I'd lose the wubba in the river. At one point, I totally thought we were going to lose it, too! Her butt started sinking and she made her way back to shore without it but she immediately went back in to try again. I'm so proud of her! She's gotten so brave!