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.
The morning at the beach was grand (pics coming on Monday) but after we got home it was time to get to some necessary grooming. First up was toenail clipping. This is by far my least favorite thing to do and it surely isn’t high up on the pug’s favorite things list. I clip all their nails (front and back paws) and then I file them down using a dremel. They behave as well as can be expected, but with 3 pugs the whole process just wears on me. I do need to remember not to do Benjamin’s nails last though. He is by far the worst so I need to remember to get him out of the way when I am fresh. Benny has this habit of trying to smack the dremel away from his nails using his free paw. He likes to live on the wild side.
After I cut their nails, I brushed them all in the backyard. I like to brush them before I give them a bath, so as to save the drain from a little bit of their fur. And today they were sandy so the brushing helped to get rid of a lot of that. All of the pugs loved to be brushed and I really enjoy brushing them. It is relaxing. A lot of times when I get off work I will go out and the yard and brush them to unwind a little. I also let the cat out in the yard and brushed her this afternoon. She is a shedding machine!
After brushing, came bath time. Much to his disliking Benny was up first. He was a good boy in the tub, though. Benny was followed by Henry and Henry did great. Little Luna was last and she was by far the dirtiest of the three. I’m not sure why but she is always twice as dirty as Benjamin & Henry.
After that the pups were pooped and so was I. Getting everyone’s nails clipped and getting everyone washed up can take a lot out of you. But, tonight is great because I have three little pugs that all smell like bananas curled up with me on the couch. Their coats are super soft and they look great. Too bad it won’t last too long!
We brush Benjamin, Henry & Luna’s teeth pretty regularly, but I’m afraid not as often as the recommended daily brushing. My gang loves their peanut butter flavored tooth paste but they are not too keen on me moving the brush around in their mouth. Henry is the best at sitting still and letting me brush and it is pretty much a toss up between Benjamin & Luna for the honor of worst tooth brusher. Luna might barely edge Benny out to take the prize because her mouth is so tiny and she just refuses to sit still. I can usually guilt Benny into sitting still for a second or two by using a disappointing tone while saying his name. This always makes him want to try to be a good boy. Luna, on the other hand, sticks to her guns and fights me all the way. If I am lucky, I can work in a tooth brushing about once a week, but I am trying to do better and work my way up to daily brushings.
How about you? Do you brush your pug’s teeth? (I also look forward to your thoughts in the comments.)
So, if you read Monday’s blog post, you might have wondered why it was titled Going Bananas. Sure, you might be able to infer that after all that grooming I was a little bit out of my mind, and while that is true, my whole point of titling the post Going Bananas was because we got some new shampoo that smells like bananas.
It was my intention to tie all that in and the new banana shampoo was supposed to be the real subject of the post. But I got interrupted a couple times and totally lost my train of thought. It wasn’t until a re-read the post yesterday that it dawned on me that I only told half the story.
So here is rest:
We bought some banana scented shampoo for the pugs. In the bottle, it smelled just like banana runts! And banana runts are the only runts worth eating in my opinion So now, I have 3 little pugs running around the house that smell like fresh bananas. I like it. Too bad it won’t last long!
On Saturday evening, while relaxing on the couch and watching some TV with the pugs nestled around us, I couldn’t help but notice how smelly the pugs were. Henry smelled straight up like a dirty dog, Benjamin smelled like bad cheese and Luna somehow smelled like Chinese food. Deciding that I couln’t get a sudden craving for Moo Goo Gai Pan everytime Luna came near, I knew I had to give the pugs each a bath on Sunday so that they wouldn’t clear each room they entered.
Since I was giving them a bath, I figured I might as well brush them, clip their nails and clean their ears while I was at it. Brushing did not go quite as smoothly as usual. We headed out into the backyard for a nice brushing shortly after the pugs’ dinner and they were just way too excited to be brushed. All they wanted to do was play. Despite that I did manage to get a little bit of brushing in. It wasn’t my best work, but it was better than nothing.
Up next was toenail clipping, and no one enjoys that! It went pretty well, though. 60 toenails were cut and 60 Cheerios were issued (plus a few extra for good behavior) and no one bled. I’ll count that one as a victory.
The only thing left were baths and ear cleanings. Both of those tasks went fairly smoothly. After their baths, I figured it made sense to wash their dog beds and all of their favorite things to lay on so as to keep the pugs clean a little longer.
By the time everything was said and done, I was exhausted and so were the pugs. I know tomorrow though, I will have 3 squeaky clean pugs on my hands that are just itching to get dirty!
This weekend was full of pampering for the pugs. Although, we clearly did not see eye to eye. The pampering began on Saturday evening with toenail clipping and I don’t think any of the pugs would classify this as pampering. I think they would liken it to torture with a few Cheerios thrown in here and there. On Sunday, everyone got a good brushing which they thoroughly enjoyed. Then, everyone got a bath. Henry enjoyed his bath and Luna would have enjoyed her bath had she not had to get wet. And Benjamin, well he was a nervous wreck. Not only does he not care for getting wet, but he is very antsy during his bath. It is almost like he can’t bear to see his dirt being washed away and that he is afraid that he is going to get sucked down the drain with it.
So, if you were to talk to the pugs, they would say that the only good thing of the weekend was being brushed. Well, that and the pizza crust they got on Sunday night!
So now, I have 3 little pugs running around the house that smell like fresh bananas. I like it. Too bad it won’t last long!
