Saturday, March 28, 2009

Flashback

This week’s flashback: Not Guilty

Just one of Baby Benny’s infamous antics.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Today, Baby Benny turns 7 years old!  I can hardly believe it.  It seems like only yesterday I was bringing that little guy home.  Technically, Benjamin is my first pug.  We picked him up on a Friday afternoon and he was the only pug in the house until Saturday afternoon when we brought home Henry.  The 24 hours that Benny was the sole pug of the house gave him the distinction of being the first pug to steal my heart.

Before we took Benny home, we made a stop at Aunt Laurie’s office so the two could meet.  Benjamin was charming as always, but he also had a potty accident while he was there.  And that little incident was foreshadowing for what was to come with Benjamin.  I don’t think I will ever meet a dog that will ever have as many potty accidents as Benny had in the first year of his life.  He was forever going to the bathroom in the house and there was a point, about 6 months after Henry was potty trained, that I thought he would just never learn.  We had ruled everything out.  There were no medical reasons hindering him or any other special circumstances.  It was just him.  Around the time I was contemplating pitching a tent in front of the house because one of us was always taking Benny out to go potty, the stars aligned and something clicked with Benny and he was suddenly potty trained.  He went from having accidents every day to having no accidents ever.  There was no occasional slip up, he just got it and he became a pro at going potty outside.  It has been years since he has had an accident in the house.

Benjamin’s learning style is similar to flipping a switch from off to on.  Benny can be completely inept at doing something one day and the next day he will have confidently mastered that very same skill.  When the boys were about 6 months old, we enrolled them in a basic obedience class.  They were known by the instructor as the wiggle butts and we had the honor of sitting next to two lab puppies who were the smartest and quickest learners in the class.  I would always sit with Benny closest to the labs hoping that Benjamin would pickup some of their savvy via osmosis because in the early weeks of the class Benjamin was in danger of flunking.

One of our first assignments was the “sit” command.  We learned the techniques on how to teach the command in class and then we were told to practice, practice, practice at home.  Henry had the sit command mastered a day or two after class and that was good because that gave us plenty of time to focus on Benny because it took him at least a few more weeks before he knew how to sit on command.  We would do about 4, 5 minute training sessions a day and each time no progress was made.

I will never forget the day we were visiting G-Ma & G-Pa and we were all sitting around outside.  I had a bag full of liver treats that had been broken into tiny pieces and I was going to show G-Ma how well Henry knew the sit command and how Benny just wasn’t getting it.  The pugs didn’t disappoint at first.  Henry sat on command each and every time he was asked and Benny, well, he just stood there wiggling his butt.  G-Ma & G-Pa thought that was just the funniest thing.  Then, I told Benny another time to sit and to everyone’s surprise he did!  I pretty much gave him all the treats that were left and everyone was giving him “good boys” and lots of love.  From that point forward, he never missed a sit.  It was like a switch went off in his head.  And for Benny it has been like that with everything.

Reflecting back over the last 7 years I can’t help but smile as all of the Baby Benny memories fill my head.  He may have caused us a lot of grief with all the potty accidents as a puppy, but he has more than made up for it over the years will all the times he has brought a smile to our face or turned around a crappy day by doing something silly.

Happy Birthday, Baby Benny!

A few of my favorite Baby Benny moments shared on the blog:

• Things I have learned from my pugs - Benjamin
• Puppy Pictures
• Standing Guard
• Benny’s Throne
• Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty
• Beach Bums

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Spring is Here

I love our walks with the pugs in the evenings.  They are usually a great way to unwind from a hectic day.  The last few nights, however, I have felt like I am in the middle of the old school video game Paperboy.  There have been other dogs off leash, kids on bikes, bees and all kinds of other obstacles thrown our way.  If only I had a sack of newspapers with me so that I could throw one at them and get them to pause for a few seconds so that we can make our way down the street.

While I never encountered this type of hinderance in Paperboy, one of my biggest pet peeves when out walking the dogs is when someone walking another dog stops to talk to us and doesn’t know the leash dance.  When dogs meet, they sniff each other and they inevitably make their way to the other’s rear end to really get to know each other.  They circle and smell, circle and smell and during that process the leashes will inevitable get tangled.  When this happens, I try to keep up with the dogs and get the leashes untangled.  It is really great when the other person is of the same mindset and can help keep the leashes straight so that our dogs don’t become conjoined twins.  It really irks me when the other person just stands there while the five dogs get their leashes all in an knot (my four and their one).  Some are oblivious, but there is one person that I encounter fairly regularly that just laughs and says, “Oh, look they are getting all tangled up!”  What a very keen observation!

So while that person drones on and on I just keep untangling the leashes and thinking to myself that it is quite obvious that this person has never owned more than one dog at a time.

And for this very reason, I am glad that we move the clocks ahead a few weeks back.  When it was getting dark earlier, we would walk the dogs before dinner and now since we aren’t in a mad race with the sun, we can walk the dogs after dinner.  Trust me, you don’t want to have your dogs leash get all tangled with mine when I’m hungry.  I think everyone will agree that walks after dinner are much, much nicer.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

All About Chewing

Last week Darci & Abbey the pug wrote in wondering about chewing.  Abbey loves to chew and Darci was wondering if all pugs are avid chewers.  Three out of the four of my gang love to chew.  How about your pugs?  Do they like to chew and if so what is their favorite type of bone.

Looking forward to hearing all about the chewing habits of the pugs out there in OBP land

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Caption This #100

Can you believe that this is the 100th Caption This post?  So for the 100th time, I’m looking forward to your captions in the comments.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Free Ride

We try very hard to make sure the pugs get in one very good walk per day.  They are always out and about during the day, walking to the mailbox or just taking a quick trip to the corner and back, but in the evenings we like to take them on a nice, long walk that is about a mile or longer.  When we first got Sol I wasn’t sure how well she would do with our walking schedule.  Don’t get me wrong, she loves to get out for a walk, but she by no means has the endurance of Benjamin, Henry & Luna.  We didn’t want to start a routine where we walked her separately.  She wasn’t too fond of being left at home while the three fawns went out for a stroll and that idea didn’t sit well with us either.  Then we remembered a pouch that we had bought many years ago when the boys were puppies.  Our solution was to let Sol walk as long as she wanted and then when she tired we would put her in the pouch for the rest of the walk.  That way she gets in her walk and still gets to be with the pack and the boys and Luna still get their power walk.

It has turned out to be the perfect solution because Sol loves the pouch.  She just sits in there with her little paws hanging over the edge taking in all the sites and smells.  The good part is that Sol is up to about a half mile walk a day.  If the weather is just right she will walk the full mile, but she by no means does this every day.  A half mile seems to fit her well and she is very content trotting along behind the three fawns.  As soon as we see her start to tire we plop her in her pouch and continue on our walk.  Relieved to be done with walking, Sol relaxes and smells and snorts the rest of the way home.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Fashion Forward

Another shirt from the set that G-Ma sent Luna.  I found this shirt to be particularly funny for Luna.