Dog – Page 7 – Not Content to Crawl

Wookie’s First Grooming Experience

Posted onFebruary 17, 2017

I took Wookie to get groomed for the first time today. It was a little nerve-wracking to leave her with a stranger, but she came highly recommended by our vet, plus she works in the back room of the vet’s office, so she was close to home and to medical care should she have needed it for any reason. The groomer works by appointment only, so she was only there while being groomed and not sitting in a cage before or after which is nice.

Here’s a before photo of my little hot mess.

Here’s after her spa treatment.

The good – She looks so cute! The groomer gave her a bath, removed some mats from her back legs (she had to shave a few spots), removed the hair from inside her ears, trimmed the fur around her paws, shaved her around her private areas, clipped her nails, rounded off the nails with a dremel, cleaned around her eyes, trimmed the fur around her eyes, and brushed her out.

The bad – All total it cost $60.95. The base shampoo is $35, but it was $5 extra for the de-matting, another $5 extra for rounding her nails, plus I purchased a brush for $8, and then I gave the groomer a 15% tip. Ouch! I plan to keep up with her brushing moving forward to drive that price down as I don’t want to be spending too much every 6 weeks. Even though her fur has grown uneven we agreed to leave it alone because the groomer said that fluffy puppy fur is going to disappear in a couple of months anyway and if she trimmed it that would just accelerate the process.

The ugly – Wookie nipped the groomer at least twice when she was brushing her face. I’m not sure if she broke skin or not, but the groomer said she really hates the comb! I know all about that because she goes nutty at home when I bring out the comb, so I need to be better about desensitizing her to it.

Overall I think it was a good first step for her, although the little stinker peed on the carpet twice since getting home. I think them shaving her private area made it feel uncomfortable. She only seems to forget her potty pad training after something big like a vet visit. The last time was when she got her rabies shot.

Posted onFebruary 13, 2017

After my doctor visit Friday (2/10), I did a little shopping. One of my stops included Party City where I snagged this cute bunny cutout for 99 cents and this St. Patrick’s Day sign for $1.99. Both are for the front door.

I wanted to get a nicer Easter sign but they all had glitter on them which looks nice at first but makes a mess in the storage bins, not to mention eventually wears off.

I made a few other stops to grab some stuff for Joe for Valentine’s Day as well.

Friday night we watched Neighbors 2 which I thought was better than the first one.

Saturday morning we went to the arboretum for their Chocolate Expo and spent about $30 on goodies.

1st photo: jalapeÃ±o chocolate covered Slim Jims, a mint Oreo, cherry bombs, pretzels, chocolate covered Bullseyes.

2nd photo: dark chocolate toffee and an oversized turtle.

We tried everything so far except the pretzels and the turtle. The toffee is always good, the bullseyes were just ok, the mint Oreo was awesome, as were the Slim Jims. I think Joe really liked the cherry bombs too but I didn’t just because I’m not a fan of twizzlers.

We stopped at Chipotle for lunch and then went home to pick up Wookie to take her to Petsmart for their special Puppy Love event. She met some dogs and people and seemed to react better than last time. She also got some free treats!

In addition, I bought her an Easter toy. I love that the free Greenie’s she got are worth $10! We won’t be giving those to her until she’s 6 months old, however.

We signed her up for their 6-week puppy training course which starts next Saturday. I think she’s going pretty great with her training overall, but she could definitely use more socialization and it will be interesting to learn what we are and aren’t doing right with her too.

Sunday we did some grocery shopping super early in the morning. I couldn’t sleep so we found ourselves at Meijer just after 7 am.

We went to an 11 am showing of The LEGO Batman Movie which was, as expected, awesome! I can’t get enough of how cute and clever the LEGO movies are, and even though I’m not into the series, after seeing the preview I’m really looking forward to The LEGO NINJAGO Movie as well.

We made a stop at home to feed Wookie and then went to Beef Shack for lunch and then to Fermilab for their open house. However, once we got there and learned it was just science experiments set up for kids in this one building we’ve already visited before, we left. I thought we would be able to see the offices/labs in Wilson Hall so that was disappointing. I think it was a bit misleading to call it a open house vs a special event.

We wrapped up the weekend by watching The Grammys. I don’t know what the deal was with Beyonce but I couldn’t stand her so-called performance. She acts as if she’s the only woman who has ever been pregnant. It just reeked of self importance and it made me look away. I’ve never been a huge fan but she’s really rubbing me the wrong way lately. In contrast, I did like Lady Gaga performing with Metallica even if James’ mic wasn’t working. My favorite performance, however, was the tribute to the Bee Gees. Growing up my parents had a record player and a limited number of albums, one of them being Saturday Night Fever. We listened to it a lot so along with Creedence Clearwater Rival and the Carpenters, so the Bee Gees hold a special place in my heart even though I don’t really listen to their music very often.

Wookie Dookie

Posted onFebruary 6, 2017February 6, 2017

Yep, that’s one of my nicknames for her. Here she is impersonating a cat… and actually laying in one of the two beds she has but rarely uses.

Saturday we took Wookie to Petsmart and then Petco. She didn’t puke at all during or after the car ride which is good!

At each store we put her fleece blanket in the cart and let her sit in there while we pushed her around the store. She was pretty nervous/scared (she was shaking) and even growled at some dogs and one of the Petsmart employees but no one noticed since it was pretty quiet and there were a lot of people and dogs in the store.

Once we got to Petco she was calmer and even let a girl pet her under the chin without fear. I was proud of her and it makes me hopeful that she will socialize better as she’s exposed to more people and animals.

We also got her a lot of new toys because she’s spoiled rotten. Chewy.com had puppy pads on sale (150 for $10 if you sign up for autoship) so I added treats and toys to the cart to get free shipping. With the discounts my total was only $26 for $50 worth of items. Between Chewy.com, the two pet stores, Big Lots, and Menards, she got somewhere around 6 new toys this weekend alone. Plus I got her some new treats from Pet Supplies Plus. I told Joe the other day that this dog won the owner lottery.

Wookie’s Play Date

Posted onJanuary 30, 2017January 30, 2017

Saturday we took Wookie to our friend K’s house to hang out with her two dogs. I had no plans on visiting for four hours but she took that long to warm up enough to not be glued to our sides. I really hope the more she sees them the quicker she will relax.

She vomited as soon as we arrived and Joe got her out of the car and then again in the car when we got home. Luckily the new car seat protector I purchased cleans up easily. I hope she grows out of that! I’m not sure whether it’s anxiety or motion sickness or a combo of the two but I want her to enjoy car rides.

I’m also going to sign us up for a puppy class at Petsmart even though I fear she’s going to spend the entire time too scared to interact. On the other hand it isn’t doing her any good to not introduce her to new situations so I might as well take the chance. It can’t hurt her now that her vaccinations are complete.

Weekend Recap

Posted onJanuary 21, 2017January 23, 2017

Friday 1/20

Made Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes for dinner. Came out pretty good. Need to use more steak sauce next time than recipe dictates for more intense flavor.

Went to play Bingo with friend E at the church. Didn’t win squat, as usual, but had fun nonetheless being silly.

Saturday 1/21

Purchased a cute Nightmare Before Christmas purse from Hot Topic. Was BOGO so Joe got a Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirt.

Had $10 of Kohl’s cash burning a hole in my pocket but couldn’t find anything I wanted the weekend before. Was about to give up when we came across dog beds on sale 50% off. So this CuddleDuds bed was under $13 when all was said and done.

Checked out the new Mariano’s. Super busy! Used coupon for a free reusable grocery tote. Bought some cheese and crackers after sampling it with pesto. New delicious combo we never thought of trying before.

Went to Petco to use $30 off 30 lb bag of dog food but they only make the puppy variety in a 15 lb bag. Employee said “let’s try the coupon anyway and see what happens” and it worked! So what was normally $40 was $10 plus tax and I used my $15 egift card so it was nothing out of pocket.

It was almost 60 degrees outside so we took Wookie for her first park visit. We used the new seat cover and seatbelt hardness I had purchased at Amazon and although she wasn’t quite sure how to sit at first, she was much calmer than when we put her in the crate. We chose Armstrong Park because it tends to be less crowded. We came across people on the path and she was more afraid of them than the dogs they were walking. As soon as they’d get close she’d stop hauling ass (we need to work on leash etiquette) and hide behind me. What a drama queen! One guy had his teacup Yorkie in the basket on his bike. He stopped to chat with us a bit. It’s funny how much friendlier people are when you have a dog. Got lots of “he’s so cute” comments when people walked by too. She definitely is a cutie! This is her after her walk with the wind blowing through her fur.

We made sure to wipe down her paws when we got home so she wouldn’t pick up any diseases.

Joe took care of some stuff around the house:

Installed our new wireless doorbell I got off Amazon. We haven’t had a functioning doorbell in years and normally I wouldn’t care but it helps with package deliveries, especially on those rare occasions where they require a signature.
Replaced a pipe under the kitchen sink.
Took apart the dryer to see if he could determine why it doesn’t heat up consistently. We were hoping just taking it apart would get it working reliably but it isn’t so he’s going to order one of the parts it could be from Appliance Part Pros. They have a 365 day money back guarantee so if it’s not the correct part we can send it back and try another.

We planned on going to the Oswego Light Festival but felt too lazy to drive all that way so stayed in and watched Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates instead. I used my free birthday code from Redbox.

Sunday 1/22

We went to Drury Lane for a Home and Garden Show and ended up scheduling three estimates this week for replacing our patio door. I really hope they are affordable, otherwise Joe is going to do it himself.

After the show we walked around Oak Brook mall. It wasn’t bad considering it was under 50 degrees. We missed an entire section of stores, however, so I didn’t get to check out this Aritzia boutique I keep hearing some YouTubers fawning over. Maybe next time. We got all excited when we spotted a DMK Burger Bar there but it’s actually still under construction. I did find a black pair of sneakers for $22 at Sears – Fila Windstar 2 is the brand/model. I’ve been needing to replace my black Nikes for awhile (they are literally five years old because I really take care of my stuff) but didn’t want to spend $70+. They are running shoes but for me they are walking around and shopping shoes.

We were pretty hungry but couldn’t think of any place good for lunch so I decided to make some tuna salad at home instead.

We also used the newer playpen (which Joe separated into two sections earlier in the week) to keep Wookie contained to the living room and put her crate, bed, water and food bowls, plus the pee pad, on the tile by the fireplace, and let her hang out with us all evening. She was really good (no accidents) and even played by herself and napped (although not as long as she usually does because she was probably worried about missing so much since she’s not used to be out that long). I hope we can do this more now that she’s older (she turned 4 months old on Saturday) because we were actually able to watch TV without her having a fit for once. Some nights we’d haul ass upstairs just to get a break from her since even though she can hear us up there if we turn off the lights downstairs she stays quiet.

Monday 1/23

Cleaned the upstairs, did laundry, went to Aldis for groceries, and kept an eye on Wookie. She has thrown up bile three times over the past few days. Initially we thought maybe it was the chew bone we gave her so we took it away. Now we’re not sure what it is but since it’s only once in a given day and she acts normally otherwise, we’re not sure whether we should be too concerned just yet. She wouldn’t eat lunch today and slept a lot, but her poop is normal. She kept refusing food unless I gave her just the hard food. Suddenly she doesn’t care for the wet food which she once loved. I’m a bit worried since the hard food might be upsetting her stomach but I guess we’ll see since that’s all she would eat all day.