Outside Adventures

If you have stumbled onto my blog and are from the cedar valley area and find yourself thinking....."GEE! Those cute lil pups sure look familiar!" well.....you're probably right! Back in 2010 Lola and, a much tinier Graham tested out the Potty Patch for KWWL's Does It Really Work Segment. Although the video is no longer online, you can still read the article: http://www.kwwl.com/story/13557915/dirw-potty-patch . While living in the loft downtown the patch worked great for us.

As Seen On TV

Since then, we have purchased a house and are attempting to teach our dogs that carpeted floors are NOT one giant potty patch! Learning to potty outside seems to bring daily outside adventures. Graham seems to enjoy belly flopping into the plants before going potty on them and Lola finds every distraction she can from worms to roll in, people to bark at, and the odd need to sniff every single blade of grass in the lawn. Even the rain doesn't seem to phase these crazy two when it comes to finding things to do outside other then going potty! Our newest distraction is the loads of helicopters the maple tree's have dumped on our lawn. Not sure how great these are for the dogs but according to my dog they are the best thing since peanut-butter!

Other fun things we deal with outside are...

Muddy Paws

Trampling Plants 

Eating Not-Good for Us Plants

And Finding Fun Things To Tangle Up In!

We are slowly learning to go potty outside and not inside. Our main issue is shy Graham who likes to hide when he goes to poop. One nice thing, is he likes to poops in our basement and since putting the potty patch down there he seems to go on that. One tiny paw step at a time I suppose! Our second issue is just getting the dogs to tell us when they need to outside. Every so often Lola will let us know but more often then not it's us needing to just remember to take them outside every now and again.

I enjoy the time outside my fluffy butts and am happy they like it to. One nice thing about being outside all the time is there seems to be something new and interesting they do each time. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Anxious Graham

I've always figured Graham had some small anxiety issues. He seemed to get worried more then other dogs, leaked a little when he was scared, and seemed scared of almost everything. When he was a puppy we bought a new mop. Josh decided to chase Graham with the mop which resulted in us getting to use our new mop!

However this weekend began to make me wonder if we needed to try something new. We visited my parents for a bridal shower and, of course, the pups came along. Josh and I went to see a movie Friday night. We found out Saturday night that Graham had spent a portion of the night pawing a their door whining. This began to make me worry how he was going to handle hanging out with my parents for a whole week when we go on our honeymoon. Lucky for us we had a vet visit that was due.

We have been wondering about the thunder shirts for the dogs. We figured it would help with Graham and we also have terrible luck with both the dogs and car rides. We've even wondered if it would help calm Lola down so she would stop barking at at the thunder thinking she could beat it up! So....like always, our small vet trip turns into a pricey one!

Thunder Shirts

Graham almost seemed to instantly calm down. Not 100% but you could tell he was pacing around less. The car ride home was more enjoyable. He still was undecided on what lap to sit in but was quite and would sit in a lap longer then the ride there.

Graham and his Thunder Shirt

Lola on the other hand, may not be enjoying hers as much. We'll have to see how it tests out but as soon as I put it on she did that fun thing were they freeze and refuse to move.

Lola and her Thunder Shirt

I even picked her up and moved her to the couch and she still was frozen...

Frozen Lola

It's been a few minutes now and she's doing lots better. Can't wait to try these out in the next car ride and storm! Really hoping they help Graham when we are gone for a whole week.

Homework Helpers

Sometimes having two dogs can make doing homework a bit tricky. They are either being cuddly and sleepy next to me, getting into something, or being needy and attention seeking! There have been times I've had to get up from my laptop 4 or 5 times before I can even get logged onto my classes! First they want water, then they are chewing on something they shouldn't have, then they want a Greenie, then they want to be super cuddlers who want to be on you not next to you!

I always feel bad when they are playful and I have a paper to write :(. I'm so excited for my classes to be over! Graham has a list of tricks to learn and we have a nice big house to play in now! But for now I have to deal with homework and the many doggie distractions such as:

Dogs on my books!

 Dogs being cute and cuddly!

Dogs getting in my space!

 And dogs behind my laptop!

and don't think they are being little sweethearts simply sitting behind my laptop...

I'm often dealing with dogs peeking around my laptop, pawing at the back of my laptop, trying to climb on my laptop, licking my laptop, etc! And lets not forget Graham's favorite.....licking my fingers while I type!

And don't think it's Lola being the distracting one just because I only have pictures of her! Graham is quite notorious for trying to sneak between me and my screen. When he is unsuccessful he ends up sitting close to me whining and more often then not sitting next to me means sitting on my books. At least it's nice to know I'm not the only one ready to be done with school!

Sleeping In

Sometimes it's hard to get up in the mornings. Sometimes I went to bed too late, sometimes it's the weather, and other times it's because I'm dealing with two fluffy cuddlers.

Cuddly Graham

Some days, I swear, they know exactly when my alarm is going to go off. They will sit on my pillow just waiting. The second I move its kisses and puppy tails wagging! Other mornings, I think they would hit the snooze button if they could. I've had mornings where Lola jumps when the alarm goes off. I've had mornings where one of the pups will barely lift their head and give me the sleepy, stank eye, and lay back down. And other mornings they simply don’t move an inch until I’m 100% out of bed. It’s nice on the weekends when they want to cuddle but it sure makes it hard to get out of bed to go to work when they are being little sweat hearts. 

Lola Laying on Me

Lola tends to normally sleep on my right side and graham enjoys Josh’s spot. Occasionally I’ll wake up to a dog attempting to take over my pillow. My favorite is when sleepy cuddling time moves from the bed downstairs to the couch.

Nap Time Belly Rub

Sometimes I'm Lucky to Sleep on the Pillow

Nap Time!

 The best time for cuddles is when it's slightly chilly. Some mornings I'll wake up to little puppy kisses on my face. That is Lola's signal for me to lift the blanket so she can cuddle up underneath. Graham has recently learned how to tuck himself in. Graham likes to find an opening in the blanket and then worm his way under it until his head pops out the opposite side he snuck in. I have woken up a good number of mornings to find graham perfectly tucked under the blankets and occasionally his head on Josh's pillow!

Graham Successfully Tucked In

I love my cuddle time with my pups. I hate how having to go to work sometimes cuts in with this time. Some people may go to work on the cloudy, rainy, gloomy days thinking "man my bed and blankets sound comfy right now". I go to work thinking "man my bed and blankets sound so comfy with my pups cuddled up with me!"

Start At The Beginning

So I've decided my dogs are to gosh darn cute to simply keep there adventures to short Facebook statues updates. After debating if I should jump right in on the blog I decided I would just start from the beginning with a simple introduction to my pups.

Lola

Lola is my lil baby. I don't even think of her as a dog, she is a real person. She is bossy and yells at me when her water dish is empty but is a teddy bear when she is sleepy. Lola was born on October 21, 2008 and is a Maltese. I actually put the deposit down on her the day she was born! She was my baby since day one! 

1 week old Lola

The ten weeks we waited to bring her home seemed to take forever but soon enough I was cradling the tiniest little puppy in the world! We were never told she was the runt of the litter but from her tiny size we are assuming she was. When I first held her in the car I asked her if she liked the name Lola and she crawled up my hoodie and gave me tiny little puppy kisses.

Puppy Lola

We've had our scares with Lola. As a puppy she was attacked by a Rottweiler at the dog park and when we brought Graham home we ran into some tummy issues and depression. Because of all of this Lola is quite content sitting on laps and isn't a fan of play dates with other pups. She's a smart dog and has a long list of tricks: Sit, lay down, stay, shake, spin, dance, and circle.....we may have to get into those on a later date :). Like I said, Lola is my lil baby girl and I would do anything in the world for her

Pretty Lola

Graham

Graham is the dog of the house. He is a Morkie, a Matlese and Yorkie mix. What Lola lacks in being a dog Graham more then makes up for. Graham as born on July 13, 2010. Unlike Lola we didn't have Graham picked out when we went to get a dog. At the time the breeder had two black Morkies and one Brown one on his website. We knew we were going to bring a dog home that day, just not sure which one. 

Sleepy Puppy Graham

When we arrived to pick out our dog we were greeted with a black Morkie and the brown Morkie. The black one sat in our arms and seemed calm and chill. The brown one was kissing us and was happy to see us and we just knew this excited lil guy not only had to come home with us, but wanted to come home with us! Little did we know that excitement was going to be a handful!

Graham and His Black Markings He Out Grew

When we first brought Graham home he had some cute black markings that disappeared after his first hair cut. Under his lil chin was a black line that looked like a smile, I was sad to see that one go. Graham has some differences from Lola. He is a bit more scared of new things, is more playful (could be due to age), and seems to get himself in more trouble! The first year we had him I went through three pairs of black flip flops because he learned how to climb our shoe rack. He was also able to somehow get out of a dog play pen while everyone was gone at work! Graham only knows how to sit and spin and can stay for awhile but don't think he isn't as smart as Lola. Sometimes  I think he gets himself in trouble because he's to smart for his own good. I've just learned to find ways to make sure he can stay entertained. 

Handsome Graham

Living with two dogs is sure one interesting adventure and I can't wait to share all my stories with you!