Dog Park Day

I've had Oates now for just over 3 years.  In that time, he's managed to escape to freedom no more than 5 times.  He's tried to escape more than a million times... he's a runner, he's a sniffer, and the two mixed together are probably the reason he was found roaming the streets in the first place. 

We have an urban dog park about 2 miles from our house and in the 3 years I've had Oates, we've never been!  I'm always been afraid that he would somehow find a way out (even though it's completely fenced on all sides), or he'd play too hard with another dog and get in trouble.  Most of all, I was worried because even after 3 years, I can't get the little guy to come to me when I call him outside.  Inside - yes.  Outside - different story!

A few weeks ago, I finally bit the bullet.  Mommy and Daddy took Oates to the dog park.  Luckily, they have two separate areas, and one is for dogs under 35 pounds.  This was perfect for Oates.  I could see him from anywhere, and if he acted up, I could just go up and grab him.  I even worked with him on coming when he's called, and he did it!! 

I don't know why I waited so long.  He loved it, and I loved giving him time to run around and play with other dogs.  I went again this past weekend and there were several pugs and even another puggle!  I'll be going back many-a-time as the weather gets nice.  (Can you spot Oates?  He's on the left in the brown harness.)

Birthday Boy

Happy 4th Birthday to Oates!

VOTE FOR OATES

Oates wants to go to Ft. Lauderdale with mommy and daddy and be in a commerical for 1800PetMeds!  Help him win by voting for him once a day!  It will make him very happy in this hot hot weather.

A Heavy Heart

Oates and I are very sad this week.  It's with a heavy heart that we mourn the loss of not one, but two of our very close doggie pals.  We have had to sadly say goodbye to Colby the Lab and Chester the Boxer.

Remember when we got to have Colby  for the weekend?  Colby was about the same age as Oates and as you can imagine, we are pretty heartbroken by it.  He was taken from us too soon, and was always a good loyal dog to his mom, Shannon.

Chester faced a battle with lymphoma and hard as he fought, did not win.  He was a lover, and a slobberer and his mom and dad even taught him how to fetch a beer from the fridge. I hope there is beer in heaven for him to fetch!  What a good boy...

When things like this happen to your friends, you see and feel the heartbreak.  I cannot imagine a life without my little Oatesy... We all fall in love with our pets, and they are family to us.  Oates and me send out our best to Colby and Chester's families.  We are there for you when you need us!  You can get through this, and your loveable pups will always be loved and missed.

Movin on Up

This puggle no longer lives in Westwood Paradise.

Sad.  I know.

When Oates heard we had to move, he was pretty angry at us.  The house he grew up in. The house he loved to try to escape from.  The house he called home.

And when we moved in to the new place?  He was as shaken as I was.  It's no fun.

Seriously mom... where are the wood floors and the upstairs that I can sneak up!?  You actually think I can live here??  What about your blog??  You'll have to change the subtitle!

Mom and Dad kinda felt the same, but things are working out.  Yeah, we don't have wood floors, but Oates has a great new backyard with a deck so we can hang outside with him now.  And yes... I will have to change my subtitle... but what's in a name?  Oates will always be the Puggle in Paradise, now matter what neighborhood it is. 

Tonight, Oates and I went on our first adventure into the neighborhood and it was great.  Yeah, there is no park at the end of the street now, but there are plenty of dogs around and all the streets have sidewalks!  Tonight we met a black lab, and what looked like a red puggle.  They were friendly and cute.  Then we met another dog on our own street that was a chow boxer mix... which made me realize that the red puggle looking dog from before was probably a chow boxer too.  Very cute - very puggle looking.

Are chow boxers common?  Is that weird to see two within a block and 5 minutes of each other?

We had a fun walk, and our neighborhood now lets us walk past lots of shops and restaurants for some fun new socialization.  There's lots more flowers around here too it seems.  (Very paradismic!) It's crazy the difference a mile can make.

We will miss the old place, but we're settling in just fine.  And after plenty of elbow grease and some new paint, we'll be good to go, and Oates will be making this face in no time!  Paradise has found a new home.

Puggles and Geocaching

It was a beautiful Spring Saturday this weekend, and my boyfriend and I decided to try out this Geocaching thing that seems to be all the rage!  A perfect day for a long walk in the sunshine, and a great opportunity to wear out a rambunctious puggle.

We had a rough start trying to calibrate our Google Hero phones to be the perfect GPS location devices.  After unsuccessfully trying to make Oates sit with his leash on in a park full of dogs across from where we live, we headed up to a local coffee house for less doggie interference, some iced coffees and geocaching tutorials.

Being the tech genius he is, David figured it all out and we were headed off on our adventure.  Our first stop, we were total rookies.  We looked around so much we got the attention of the homeowner (a big geocaching no-no), and then still couldn't find the cache after he directed us right where to look!  Soon a group of neighbor dogs decided to bark at Oates and he went a little berserk about it.  He doesn't really bark back, it's more of a loud whine and extreme pulling.  Trying to make an exit, we scuffled down the sidewalk and managed to rustle up the neighborhood even more when 3 more dogs peered over a tall retaining wall and began barking.  Goodbye cache... Maybe we'll come back for you without the dog in tow.

Things got more calm after that.  We ran into a few people on our journey but not many.  Oates did his best to heel (which he never does a good job of), but his geocaching skills seemed a little subpar for an animal that follows this nose everywhere!  Maybe if there were treats in some of those caches, he'd be more inclined to help us find them...

We had a successful day finding 5 caches around our neighborhood.  I guess not too bad for our first try.  Oates was happy to make it home, lap up some water and curl up on the couch for a well deserved nap!  Mission - successful!

For the Sake of Research

This is my neighbor, Anthony, age 12.  We had a fun evening with Oates a few days ago to help Anthony with a science experiment.  We talked about hypotheses... and helped him set up everything with timers and toys.

The test was about dogs, and the types of toys they choose.  He had a variety of toys in 3 categories to set up.  Some were play alone, some were interactive and some were especially textural.  The test was to give the dog 2 minutes to seek out the toy of its choosing from a basket, and log which toy got the most playtime the most amount of times.

After three 2 minute rounds for each of 3 sets of toys, Oates decided he liked a stuffed squirrel, a stick and bright yellow stuffed bunny most!  It was really fun watching him be overwhelmed by the selection, sniffing and biting to find just the right thing.

We did somewhat of a tie-breaker with the favorites, and I wasn't surprised to find out that Oates' absolute favorite was the stuffed squirrel.  He just kept going back to it.  There is something he loves about stuffed animals that squeak!

How adorable... both human and doggie!  Anthony has a toy poodle named Belle.  Her favorite was the red ball.  Typical.  :)