Wordless Wednesday

All the ladies fall for that fat head, who could blame them?

Spring Walk 4.15.12

For as much snow as we got this year I have to say it is melting surprisingly fast.  Alaska finally cleaned it's act up and has consistantly been in the 40's and 50's, which means a whole lotta sloppy trails and melting dog poo.

 The sun and warmth is quite a nice reprieve from all the cold darkness.  The pups have been able to enjoy long walks sweaterless, ahh the freedom.

 Lately we have been walking at leisurely pace letting the pups roam and play and just enjoy the sunshine.  Of course mom is always quick to bust out the camera.

 Such photogenic dogs we have don't ya think.

 Playing with sticks never gets old for these two, and naturally they only want the one that the other one has.

Throw it dad, throw it dad, throw it dad

 I think Brodie could sustain on sticks alone.  They are his favorite to munch on, carry around and play with.

 An attempted family photo came out blurry and of course the boys were distracted, but all in all lovely.

Wordless Wednesday

Maybe if I sleep on her shoes she won't go to work

I'm Taken

For all those who were concerned that Brodie in all his stocky cuteness was going to get snatched up while wearing his 'Adopt Me' Sirius Republic collar, fret no longer our boy got a much needed wardrobe update.  

 With your help we picked out a masculine and somewhat dorky plaid collar from Sirius, and as always we are thrilled with the beauty and solid construction.

 Now the Brodster no longer has to defend his non-adoptableness, which is a good thing for this boy since we got propositioned daily from eligible suitors.  At least Brodie can rest assured that he is for sure in his forever home, which is more than I can say for Molly who is going to have to be a lot more creative in her attempts to get rid of her brother.

Let the plotting begin!

Overdue Easter Post

Since I had the privilege of working on Easter (awesome right?) my family changed their schedules to do dinner on Saturday night so Adam and I could join. This was the first big family event we have attended where Brodie wasn't drugged up while recovering from his scrotal surgery, so we were hoping all would go well with our exuberant boy.

 Though there are a lot of kids in my family, my parents only have 2 grandkids, so grand pups are always welcome at family functions.  This means there are always at least 2 dogs per event but usually closer to 5 or 6. 

 Though I am so far away from being ready to have kids I thoroughly enjoy watching Adam play with babies, there is just something about it that I can't get enough of.  Our niece had him totally wrapped in 2 minutes.

 Did I mention we had a blizzard the day before Easter?  Literally, a blizzard, we have officially broken the record for most snow fall in a winter in Anchorage.

 Back to the pups.  They did great, they spent a lot of time outside enjoying the 100+ acres my mom lives on and when they were inside Adam kept them occupied rough housing with them, and of course there was ample bitey-face playing.

Oh I haven't mentioned that we fight them on weekends?

All in all, great food, family and memories.  I love that my family is happy to include our pups in family events and am so glad we have dogs that can handle all the commotion.

Itch Be Gone

A while back I posted about the Brodster's itchy skin and overall allergy proneness, after reading all of your fantastic feed back and consulting with our vet regarding mild skin flare ups we came up with a 3 pronged approach to help combat his itch prone skin.
First we slowly switched over his food from a fish based, grain free product to Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Lamb and Brown Rice.  We chose this product for a couple reasons, first we had heard great reviews from fellow allergy prone dog owners, second we knew we wanted to change up the meat source in  his food, and third it is a rather inexpensive food that we were able to find on Amazon with free shipping, which means dog food delivered to our door within a few days of ordering (which has been uh-mazing!)  After a few weeks of transitioning and a few weeks of being on the new food solely, in order to reduce the chance of him being allergic to something in the treats we give him we bought a Natural Balance food roll in the same flavor and cut it up into training sized pieces (the pooches luurve them)  after just a couple weeks on the new stuff the redness between his toes has gone away, he is no longer itching his ears and his bald spots on his head have even filled in!

Our second item in his triple threat is a medicated anti-bacterial shampoo.  It helps to soothe his itchy flaky skin as well moisturize his coat and fight off bacteria living on his skin.  We opted for a Nutri-Vet brand of shampoo with a pleasant tea tree oil scent.  It was recommended to use to try bathing him 2x a month instead of our usual once a month routine.  We have used it once and immediately noticed a difference in the flakiness of his coat, and were pleased with how soft he felt afterword.

The final item in our trio is a medicated anti-fungal spray.  Brodie has occasional skin flare ups on his belly and somtimes in his armpits.  Our vet took a look at them the last time we were in and recommended an OTC anti-fungal spray to combat his tummy bumps.  We have been using SynergyLabs Anti-fungal and Antiseptic spray.  

 We feel that we have finally resolved many of the issues that attributed to Brodie's skin issues, hurray, and we are so thrilled that he finally has some relief from his constant scratching!  Though we will see how our itchy little boy does come summer time.  Do you guys have a special combo of ammunition that works to combat your pups allergies and skin itchies?

PS. Through the process of trial and error this is a combination that we have found to work for us, and our pups.  There is no guarantee that it will work for your allergy prone pooch also.

Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

Today marks 1 year since we adopted our sweet Molly bear!  Happy gotcha day little girl!  Stay tuned for  a post detailing how we partied down with the pups for her special day.