Well, it has been getting warm here in sunny Florida. And the walks with the pugs have needed to be pushed back later and later. In our journeys, though, we met a man who was an experienced pug owner. He suggested that we give the pugs a “summer shave” so they would be “cool” during the hot days. We found the idea interesting. Especially for Sol, though, since her black fur attracts heat like a moth to a flame. Also because Sol had some rough tufts of hair that could afford to be trimmed away.
We started with Benjamin. We gave him a little trim and all was well. Luna, too. While her haircut exposed much more of her scar tissue throughout her torso, her actual haircut was one to be admired.
Something got lost in the sauce when we turned to Sol, though. Most of her haircut was ok with the exception of the area around her neck leading to her head. We couldn’t quite figure out how to blend it together. So, now she has an 80’s style bi-level hair-do from her ears to her neck. The perk is that we trimmed a lot of the gray off her belly and exposed some of her tummy which really should keep her a lot cooler. In truth, Sol does look much younger with her short sassy coiffe.
The main problem came into play with Henry. He mostly sat still but then he wanted to lay down and take potty or chewy breaks. So, Henry’s hair-do is more like a hair-don’t. He has patchy fur and the faint black stripe on his back is now completely invisible. While he was a bit of a wiggle worm and not as cooperative as he usually is, we didn’t think his haircut would go quite so bad especially since the other 3 were mostly ok. Henry doesn’t seem to mind or care. It is dreadfully apparent, however, that none of the humans that “helped” with the hair cut attended cosmetology school or if they did they fit the perfect description of a beauty school drop out. Fortunately, when Henry has his harness on you can barely tell the mess of his mane we made. But when he is a nakey boy, ooh, he should be wearing a hat! (Or in his case, a sweater.)
So, while pugs have always been our breed of choice, it is probably a good thing that we didn’t fall in love with a breed that needs special grooming beyond the typical combing and bathing. Novice dog groomers we are. I think we’ll leave well enough alone and the pugs will just have to pant it out when it gets too hot for them to handle.
Many of you have noticed that we have a very pug friendly decor going on in the living room. The furniture is about a close of a match to the fawn color as you can get and the carpet throughout most of the house is a light shade. It is no coincidence that the house decor is made up of the majority of these colors. I really am crazy enough to use the pug friendly colors so that the pug fur flying about the house does not show quite as bad. The fur is there and you will notice it, but at least it won’t be the first thing you notice when you walk in the door. It also buys me some time in between cleanings because, trust me, domestic goddess I am not.
Well, Sol is a pug, but she isn’t fawn. I have been having a very good laugh about that ever since she stepped foot into our house. Please don’t misunderstand me, never for one second did I hesitate to welcome her into the house. I would never let something as little as her fur change how I feel about this little darling. I just find it amusing. It’s like she has been sent to me as a sign - a sign that I need to run the vacuum a little more often.
But all is not lost. There are other areas of the house, the Sol fits in quite perfectly. I have not seen one hair of hers on the black throw rugs in the kitchen for example. And the guest bedroom, where she is laying in the picture above, has black carpet and only seems to be full of Benjamin, Henry & Luna’s hair.
The good news in all this is that the sound of the vacuum does not bother her. Heck, it barely even disturbs her sleep.
Erin wrote in to ask a question about the infamous pug anal glands. Erin’s pug, Marti, used to go in to get her anal glands expressed every few months, but things have gotten a bit worse and Marti has to go in every 2-3 weeks now. Erin was wondering if anyone had any experience with anal gland surgery or any advice they could offer.
I wanted to pose this questions to all of you blog readers because I don’t have much experience on this one. Benjamin, Henry & Luna all do a perfectly good job of expressing their anal glands all on their own which is a blessing and a curse in itself. Another good reason we keep a sheet on the sofa.
Benjamin, Henry & Luna each got baths on Sunday. They were quite smelly so not only did we bathe them but we washed pretty much everything they come in contact with, which meant the house smelled really good on Sunday.
After his bath, Benny always gets fired up and runs around like a wild man. Here is a little video of him running around the living room. At around 16 seconds you will seem him stop and smell under the laundry room door. There is blueberry bread behind that door!
My favorite question that non-pug owners ask me about pugs is, “Do they shed?” I quickly answer YES to that question, but I feel like I can never be emphatic enough. How exactly do you express to someone that doesn’t have a pug just how much that pugs shed?While Benjamin, Henry & Luna shed year round, now is most definitely shedding season and they are all, no doubt, getting rid of excess fur for the summer. You can’t really tell because of the shadows in the picture but the grass is littered with pug fur. This was the result of a quick brushing of each of the pugs and I was shocked at how much fur came off them considering I had just brushed them on Sunday.
Each time I brush them, the same thought runs through my head, “What do people that have a fawn and a black pug do?” How do they cope with the light and dark colored fur? What do you wear? No matter what fur is going to show on something. We have light colored carpet so the pug fur doesn’t tell on us as much in between vacuuming. If I am going somewhere important I never wear black. Black has a great way of highlighting fawn colored pug fur!
The other thing that made me realize just how much pugs shed was buying my first canister vacuum. I never realized how much bagged vacuum cleaners shelter you from the truth. With a canister vacuum, after running the vacuum, all your dirt is right there for you to see. I’ll never forget the first time I ran my Dyson and saw how much pug fur it picked up. I was shocked! I just figured my old vacuum wasn’t doing a very good job, but when I ran the Dyson again the next day and saw the canister filled with pug fur again I was speechless. All this fur came from my house? In just one day? No way!
Luckily, I am not one of those people who can’t stand a little pet fur here or there. I do my best to keep up with it, but I have come to terms with the fact that it is an impossible battle to win.
My tweet about wrinkle cleaning sparked some discussions about cleaning wrinkles in the comments of this week’s Caption This so I thought I would elaborate a bit with today’s post.
Out of the three, Benjamin has the worst wrinkles. His wrinkles are constantly dirty and have to be cleaned daily. If I am really on the ball, I will clean them twice a day, but most of the time they only get cleaned once a day. Henry & Luna on the other hand get their wrinkles wiped out about once a week.
I can’t really say why Benjamin’s wrinkles get so much dirtier than the others. His folds are much deeper than the others so that may have something to do with it. He also always has his head stuck somewhere. In the grass or dirt as he is smelling and he also likes to prop himself up on his head so that he can use both of his front paws to scratch on his pillows (been trying to get a video of this for a long time).
To clean his wrinkles we use malacetic wipes. The vet recommended them to us a few years ago and they seem to work OK. They definitely get the dirt out. We used to get them from our vet in Maryland, but the last few times we have ordered them online. Other than the malacetic wipes we just try and keep Benny’s wrinkles as dry as possible so his folds aren’t a breeding ground for yeast.
Luckily, Benjamin is a good boy about letting me clean his wrinkles. We keep the malacetic wipes in the kitchen, so as soon as I go to get one he follows me into the kitchen and stands next to me gazing up hoping to get a treat. He knows the sound of the wipe container and when I open the container his little tail uncurls. It’s so sad! He doesn’t run away, he just stands there and looks at me like, “Let’s get this over with”. It just breaks my heart. But, he soon forgets all about it when he gets his treat.
What about you? What do you use to clean your pug’s wrinkles? I would love to hear your tips as I am always looking for something to help keep Benny’s face clean.
