Henry's swim camp is all about fetching. We have lots of toys that float, but his favorite is an orange lobster. I think he likes it because it is easy to grab out the water and easy for him to hold in his mouth.
Henry's routine is to stand on the first step and wait for someone to throw the lobster. He then jumps from the step and is off to fetch the lobster. Once he wrangles up the toy, he swims back to the step and jumps out of the pool with his catch to take a little break. Once he is rested, we throw the lobster back into the pool and Henry happily fetches it again.
Out of the 3, Henry gets in the most swimming because he actually swims up and back the whole length of the pool. Unless someone throws the lobster short
Henry has also mastered pushing off the edge of the pool to gain momentum when turning around to swim back to the step. You can get a good look at his turns in the video
We have so many dog beds that the pugs have started combining them to ensure maximum comfort. Like they are saying to themselves, "This bed does wonders for my back, but I love how this bed supports my neck. No problem, I'll just drag this bed over next to the other bed and voilà!"
And when it comes to dog beds you know I am willing to help in any way I can.
I have been trying to work on capturing action shots of the pugs to help improve my photography skills. Well, that, and my collection of photos of the pugs sleeping or being lazy is getting out of control.
While my skills as a photographer haven't really improved, I have been getting a good laugh at some of the photos I have been taking. Today's photo is a prime example.
I have found that the best way to get the pugs to "do something" is to play our treat catching game. The game never disappoints as it always gets the pugs moving and me laughing.
In this case, we have Henry intently focused on catching a treat I just tossed in the air. The focus, and the touch of crazy in his eyes just kills me. And Henry subscribes to the theory that the pug waits for no treat. His technique is not to wait for the treat to get to him, but to jump up and snag it out of the air.
Last night was Bark at the Park night for our local minor league baseball team. We found out about the event a few months ago and have been looking forward to it ever since. Since we had a few months to strategize, we decided to only bring Henry.
We were a family of four pugs, when we first learned of the event and we knew that a baseball game on what would most likely be a warm April night would be too much for Sol to handle. We also felt like Luna would not enjoy going to the game either. With not seeing well, Luna doesn't really like crowds. She much prefers small gatherings. Then we thought about it a little more and we knew that Benny would just be crazy with all the ballpark food around. So we thought it would just be fun to take Henry and Benjamin & Luna could have a fun night at home with Grammy.
And Henry did not disappoint. We arrived a tad early, and while we were getting out of the car, Henry met several "Event Staff" people just arriving for work. We talked for a bit and then they went into the park for work. After a brief wait, the gates to the park opened and we got to go in and check everything out. The first perk of the night was that every dog entering the park received a dog biscuit. That made Henry happy.
We walked along and visited some of the dog related booths and when we got near the concession stand, we heard a group of people calling, "Henry! Henry!" Henry went running over and wouldn't you know, Henry had previously made friends in the parking lot with the most important people at the ballpark - the concession workers.
Feeling like a king, Henry waltzed right over to the concession and stood up at the window, ever so happy to say hello to his new friends.
We finally made our way to our seats and Henry watched the players warm up. There were a few dogs around making a ruckus, but Henry just ignored them. With a full belly courtesy of his new friends, he was on cloud 9 basking in the setting sun on a perfect evening watching some people running around on what looked like some very nice grass.
After a few innings we moved up to the bleachers to get a different view and say hi to some friends. There Henry met a few other dogs and people. We tried to get a picture with the mascot, but as soon as he came near the dogs in our section went into full attack mode. Henry just watched, cocking his head to the side.
After a few more innings, we decided to head home, but not before making one more stop at the concessions so Henry could say good night to his new friends.
Thank goodness Benjamin was not around when this incident took place, but here is a little video of Henry playing with Benjamin's Puffy. Benjamin has very strict rules for Puffy and Rule #1 is, "No one touches Puffy except for Benny. Rule #2 is "Puffy is not a toy and should not be used for play."
Henry must have suffered some sort of momentary lapse this weekend.
A week or two ago we were in Walmart making a quick stop to get milk, when we saw this cute baby toy hanging from an end cap in the baby section. It immediately reminded us of Luna so we plucked it off the display strip and made a mad dash to the checkout with our milk.
We only ever buy stuffed toys for Luna anymore. We used to bring home a stuffed toy for each one of them and the boys would take theirs hold it on their mouth for a second and then drop it and look at us like, "What did you bring me that is edible?"
Luna, on the other hand, still gets excited to get a stuffed toy and plays with them the most. The boys are happy to play with one from the bin from time to time.
The little girl mermaid toy reminded us of Luna because she loves kids. I don't know why, but she just about pulls herself out of her harness if she sees a child when we are out on a walk. She sure as heck didn't get that from me. So, we thought the little girl mermaid with its little pony tails would be a fun toy for her.
Luna was very happy to get her new toy and played with it the entire night. The next day, I noticed the boys were hanging out with the mermaid. At first, they were trying to play it all cool, like, "Well, Luna just left it on the pillow and we just wanted to sit here, ya know?"
But, then I spied Henry playing with it and then just sitting there like this, which I found to be a little disrespectful. Have some manners, Hank!
An then later that day I saw this:
To which Benny replied, "That will teach her to take my puffy!"
