Wordless Wednesday: Modeling

Stanlee proved yet again that he is a perfect model for my bow-ties.
Dog bow-ties sold here: Little Blue Feather Dog Bow-Ties

The Paper Mama

Funny Friday - All Lit Up


You leave a pup alone for 2 minutes and you come back to find he has tangled himself in Christmas lights, plugged them in and is posing for you.

Who knew



Who knew:

I would turn into a dog lover.
I could love any animal this way.
that Miley would be our first dog in our family.
that boston terriers are so funny.
I would learn to love Stanlee that way that I do now.
I would laugh at our pups more than a show.
I would talk so much to a room filled with just our pups.

Who knew...


I didn't.

{Funny Friday} Dog Costumes

Source: bhg.com via Michelle on Pinterest


Source: etsy.com via Michelle on Pinterest


There is something hilarious about seeing dogs dressed up in costumes or with photography props. In every photo, I always wonder what the dog is thinking. This weekend we have plans to dress up Stanlee and MileyJo for some Christmas pictures. I hope they enjoy it as much as we do.

Tuesday Tutorial - Dog Hammock Seat Cover

This past year, Justin purchased a black heavy cloth hammock style seat covering to use in our cars to keep the dogs off of the seats and the hair collected in one area.  The hammock was a great idea, but there are some changes I would make if purchasing one again.  {One thing, I would never buy a black one when you have a white dog} 

I came across this tutorial on how to make one yourself, and think this would be perfect for people wanting to test this hammock style seat covering in their own car.

The great thing about this tutorial; you can custom fit it to your backseat and it is machine washable.  *Also, fleece is crazy cheap right now with Christmas sales.

Click here for tutorial
Surprise your pups with a stylish soft seat covering for Christmas ;)
Happy Handmade Holidays!

All it takes is ONE

I saw this video earlier in the week and I couldn't help but cry for this poor dog.  I didn't know what to expect when I hit play, and I did not think it would affect me in the way that it did.  As I am crying and watching this dog's story, they share the poor little pups new name in the ending.  A name that is forever in my heart.  A name that changed my view on pups, adoption and not giving up on a dog.  Take a look...




While I watched this video, crying, MileyJo came running over and jumped up on my lap.  Shortly after, Stanlee follows.  These two pups {especially Miley} has always been sensitive to me when I am sad, hurt or feeling really emotional.  I hugged my little shark pups for a good period of time in my lap before I went back to what I was doing before the video.  

Isn't it amazing what just one person can do?!

Fine Dining

Yesterday I shared with you the amount of food our vet recommends for small pups, and today I am going to share what type of food our Shark Pups inhale eat.

Like I mentioned yesterday, our pups are very sensitive.  Miley used to have bad allergy problems, and Stanlee has always had a sensitive stomach and coat issues since we adopted him.  Luckily, this diet is great for allergy prone dogs and sensitive stomaches!



We have heard from several vets that beef, chicken, gravy, grains, corn, soy and egg can be a leading cause of allergies and upset stomach for dogs.  Our vet recommends avoiding all of these items in their diet.  This Natural Choice venison and sweet potato meal seems to be a winner with our pups!



As for treats...


...we are going to try something new.

Now that our dogs are at a healthier weight, I purchased more treats for them when they are being even more awesome than they already are.  The treats I bought today are a different brand than I have tried in the past, but I looked at the ingredients and read over the packaging and hope they are a good fit.

So hopefully your pups are healthy, happy, hyper little cuties, but in case they are lacking in the allergy fighting power maybe you could make the switch to the Shark Pup diet and see if you notice any difference with your little ones.

Feed. Me.


When we moved to our new area this past summer, we started taking the pups to an awesome vet nearby that was recommended by one of my friends.  Although my friend had wonderful things to say about the vet, she did warn me that this particular vet office is pretty strict on keeping their dogs very lean.  

Did I mention Miley's nickname used to be tubby, tubbo and tubs?!  I started to feel a little concerned about her first vet visit.

At the pups first vet visit, they did great. Everyone thought they were too cute and I felt like a proud momma.  Then came the dreaded conversation about their weight.  The vet was so sweet and helpful, but one thing she said to me really shocked me.  She said that small dogs should not have more than 1/3 cup of food twice a day.  {my mouth dropped}.  This was so shocking to me, because I was feeding them about 3/4 cup twice a day, which I thought was a "diet" because the bag of food suggested 2 cups a day!  Then came something even more shocking; the vet said Miley should not be eating anymore than 1/4 cup twice a day until we get her weight down.  

Oh. My.  I felt a little scared on how we were going to cut that much out of her food intake without her going around the house chewing everything up that stood in her way.  

Surprisingly, I think Stanlee has had a harder time with the food shortage and tends to vocalized his feelings at least an hour before dinner time as he stares at his empty bowl.  There has been a couple bad pup moments where Miley chewed up something in the house, but, I do feel like I am better understanding how to make this diet work.  

I have realized that schedule is very important to them now.  Since they are getting less food, we need to make sure they are getting their meals at a specific time each day and try to be consistent with that.  Before, we would go somewhere for the day and just feed them when we got home, regardless of what time it was and they did not have any problems.  Now, if they go an hour past their expected meal time, Miss Miley will go on the hunt looking for something to eat.

I thought I would share this for anyone else struggling with their pup's weight or with others who have heard this nutrition information?!  Our pups have lost weight and are now in the normal expected weight for boston terriers which makes me happy.  Now that we have their weight under control, I will start back on healthy treats when they are being sweet little pups or when I am feeling extra loving toward them ;) 

Tomorrow I will share with you what the diet of an allergy prone, sensitive stomach, gluten free pup looks like.  Stay tuned...


Five Favorites: Stanlee Edition

Five of my favorite characteristics and photos of Stanlee:

  1. his over the top excitement to see me every morning when we wake up 
  2. his mismatched ears
  3. his stance
  4. his little face is so full of expression
  5. he loves to be loved on

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    Proud Puppy Mom

    This past weekend we traveled to our hometown to surprise our families with a little visit.  Justin's dad and nephew had their birthday last week and my dad's birthday is this wednesday.  We went out to dinner, ate some cake (ok...a lot of cake), played with siblings, and the dogs spent a lot of time running free in their grandparents backyard with their cousins Louis and Brady.  At the end of the day when they were all exhausted, MileyJo and Stanlee shared their new bed with cousin Brady.  It was one of those proud puppy mom moments when I saw them sharing ;)  


    {I wonder how many more bostons we could squeeze in with them -wink}

    Funny Friday

    MileyJo and Justin's nephew enjoying treats in Miley's cage :)

    This little guy is turning 7 today!  Happy birthday B!
    

    Family Time

    There are very few things I enjoy more than spending quality time with my family outside.  Sometimes Justin is a little overworked and the pups are usually cooped up inside our apartment with me during the days while I work from home.  When a warm sunny day comes along, we just can't seem to pass it up.

    Every time we have a warm fall day, I tell MileyJo "we need to really enjoy this because it is probably the last one we are going to have!"  But then surprisingly, we get a 65 degree sunny day thrown in the middle of upper 40s weather.  Thankfully, we had one more weekend day to enjoy some outdoor play time.  Justin, MileyJo, Stanlee and I packed a bag and hiked the Cuyahoga Valley National Park this past Sunday.  We all loved it and I would say I was the most exhausted and out of breath family member by the end of the hike. -wink



    I think that is a smile on Stan's face :)



    Button Dog Collar Tutorial

    Yesterday, Leigh-Ann from Freckled Nest shared a really great tutorial on how to add some charm to your pup's collar.  I found it so adorable that I just had to share with you all!

    Click below to read her tutorial!
    Button Collar For Your Pet





    Have a great weekend friends!

    Puppy Love

    I have grown to love these dogs in a way I never thought I could.  

    I have loved them since they were young pups and I think it is safe to say that the love is mutual.  It's funny how we can show so much love to them, and in the everyday little things, they show their love back to us.  I think they are going to keep me around ;)

    An unexpected photo from last weekend.  Stanlee looking up at me while Justin was taking his picture.  This could be one of my favorite Stanlee photos.  Makes my heart melt.
    Thank goodness for camera phones to capture our evening snuggle time.

    When Miley was just a small pup in spring 2008.





    Pet Portraits

    Last month my friend Abbey was telling one of her friend about my new Shark Pups blog and showed her my site along with some of my photos of Miley and Stanlee.  After talking for a little while, her friend suggested I look into programs to allow me to photograph foster dogs to help their chances of getting adopted.  She read an article about this and was going to send it over for me to look into.

    About two weeks later, I saw the same article surface on the Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue (MWBTR) Facebook fanpage!  I thought this could be a really fun opportunity for me and something great for the dogs as well.  I am a volunteer for this group, I have a nice new SLR camera and a love for photographing my pups.  When I was younger and starting college, one of the directions I wanted to go was Photography.  Although I did not follow that career path, I still have a love for it.  I take pictures everywhere I go and really enjoy the whole process of photographing and editing.  After reading the article on the MWBTR page, I emailed the person in charge and attached a few photos of my pups letting them know I would be more than happy to photograph their pups.  After running a small online store selling my products I have learned that it really is amazing what good photography can do to help sell your items.  So after emailing back and forth a few times, we are setting up a date or two in northeast Ohio for boston fosters to come get their pictures taken :)

    This is something I could reeeeaally love doing on the side!  Here are some of my recent photos of my pups and photography.









    Halloween Photos

    One of the things I love about November 1 is looking through all the fun pictures friends and family post online of their families dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  Justin and I do not have any kids, so we like to dress up our pups instead :)  I did not buy Stan and Miley new costumes and thought they could probably just wear last years outfits.

    Well, this was good and bad.  Miley has lost a few pounds (so proud of her) and her rooster costume did not fit her this year.  On the positive side, If you dressed up as a farm animal at Chipotle yesterday, you got your burrito for only $2!  Thank you Miley for letting me borrow your costume.  Who knew we wore the same size?!  {-wink)


    Instead of having a lobster and a rooster this Halloween as planned, Miley dressed in Stanlee's lobster costume and Stanlee wore his new sweater and handmade bow tie collar.  They were the cutest pups on the block!



    Hope you had a great Halloween!  Now it's time to prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

    Freshly Pinned

    I don't know about you, but I am slightly addicted to Pinterest!  I love waisting spending down time on my computer looking through anything and everything that my fellow pinners have pinned.  One of my main focuses the past couple weeks have been the pups and photography.  Today I am teaming up with Jessica from JessicaNdesigns to deliver you some fresh new pins!

    Pins:

    1. A new sweater from Bean Town Handmade for Stanlee this winter.
    2. Photography inspiration.  This pup also looks just like MileyJo!
    3. Cookies from Sugar and Meringue.  I would love a boston terrier birthday party ;)
    4. An adorable little print on Etsy from Multiple Personality.
    5. My husband loves Abraham Lincoln + I love BTs = Abe Lincoln BT magnet!  Found on Etsy from shop Rubenacker.