Tag Archives: Dogs

Doggy Diet

Posted on by
Reply

My Sadie bear had to go on a diet per the doctors orders. She weighed in at 82lbs at her last visit. The vet recommended getting her down to the low 70’s.

She said no more packaged treats and to cut her dog food by 1/4. She said absolutely no table scraps. However, hard boiled eggs and baked chicken were great snacks for her (in moderation).

After starting her diet I realized I’m the one who made her fat! My poor dog! I never realized how many table scraps I actually fed her. If I made Ryder a sandwich and cut off the crust, Sadie got the crust. Leftovers from dinner that I didn’t want to keep, I’d toss to her. Random parts of my snack or lunches I would give her. It had become such a habit to drop her food, over half the time I didn’t even realize I was doing it. That is until I put her on a diet. I was cutting the crust off Ryders sandwich and went to hand the crust to Sadie and stopped myself. Feeding the dog was literally a habit I was having to break!

It’s been exactly a month and I took Sadie to the vet to get weighed. She weighed in at 72 lbs! That’s a 10lb weight loss in 30 days! You can see she feels better. She moves around a lot more. She actually goes bounding after the kids to play with them. Before she looked like she had to drag herself up off the floor if she needed to move.

A one mile walk used to about kill Sadie. She would come home and lay on the floor for a while panting. Now she can go almost 4 miles and needs maybe 10 minutes to recover before she’s ready to go and play with the boys again.

I think she still has a few more pounds to lose. The extra weight can be hard on her joints, especially with her being 12 years old. But she’s made great progress! I think 5 more pounds should be no problem for her. I’m proud of my old pup. She’s getting healthy so she can take care of her brothers for a few more years 💙

Rest when you’re dead….

Posted on by
Reply

Tired….So tired….I’m woken up every morning at 3am, 4am and 5am to the dogs pacing. The clicking of their nails on the hard wood is the most annoying noise in the world. I swear they do it just to annoy me some days. 🐕

Then at 5:45am Ryder decides he wants to get up. I have a full day of chasing a toddler around till 9pm. I never in my life would have guessed how exhausting it is chasing around a small human and picking up the tornado like destruction they leave behind. It seriously is a lot of bending over and lifting. 👶🏻

I’m in bed at 10:30pm only to wake up at 3am by the dogs again. It’s a never ending cycle. Combine that with pregnancy aches and pains and I am one miserable human. I keep praying for one morning to just sleep in till at least 7am and not be woken by the dogs, pregnancy pains or Ryder. But then I realize that’s wishful thinking. So I keep telling myself when I’m dead I’ll finally get to rest. 😂

Dogs and kids

Posted on by
Reply

One thing I’ve found interesting over the last two years is how attached my dog Sadie has become to Ryder. 🐕

When I brought him home from the hospital she snarled and growled at him. She would pace by his bed and whine. She was clearly unhappy. I really worried that she was not going to be ok with him. ❌

I gradually introduced Sadie to Ryder. I made sure to only pet her when I was holding him. I wanted her to understand that when I had him, I still loved her and would give her attention. When I wasn’t holding him I sort of ignored her. So she got rewarded for being good when he was close. After about a month she eased up and become interested in him. By the time he was 3 months old, she would actually go and lay by him. Now, he’s almost 2 and she is glued to him. She follows him all around the house. 💙

She’s really protective of him and careful of what he does. If he does something she knows he’s not supposed to she lets out this growl. It’s not a mad growl like when she growls at the mail man or lawn guys. It’s like a warning growl. As if she’s telling him not to do that. 😡

When Ryder gets too close to the pool or is in the pool and gets too close to the steps, she will actually growl and put her body in between him and the pool/steps. If he goes over by the deep end to put his hand in, she runs over and lightly nudges his arm and growls as if to tell him to tell him to stop. He’s even put things in the pool that didn’t belong there and she went to retrieve the item out of the pool, and move it far away from him. 🏊🏻

Every dog is different. I never expected Sadie to take to Ryder as well as she did, but I’m so grateful. It’s nice having a second set of “eyes” on him. She may not be able to do as much as me but I love that she tries to help keep him safe. 💙

Toilet paper, baby and a dog

Posted on by
Reply

Never in my life did I think I would come to hate the sight of toilet paper. Don’t freak out I’m not about to discuss anything gross.

What do you get when you have a baby, a dog and a roll of toilet paper?…….a HUGE mess that you are stuck cleaning for days.

So recently Ryder discovered the toilet paper holder in the guest bath. He loves to pull the toilet paper off the roll. I don’t know how he does it. I turn my back for just a few seconds and a full roll of toilet paper goes from the roll to the floor. I’ve learned that while this happens, he shreds a few pieces too and keeps them in his mouth or hands. He then distributed these little pieces all over the house without me looking!

This is not where it ends! My dog LOVES the cardboard part of the toilet paper roll. So she will take it and “burry” it in random places in the house. Guests have found toilet paper rolls between the cushions of our sofas when visiting.

Needless to say, this game of theirs goes on for days. I say that because I’m the one cleaning up the little pieces of toilet paper and hunting down the hidden cardboard roll. It was cute the first two times. Not so much anymore 🤦🏼‍♀️

Dogs and babies

Posted on by
1

1C506738-95A6-4997-AB07-FFAE545F9B79When I first got pregnant with ryder I was so worried how the dogs would take to him. People kept telling me pit bulls are not good to have around kids. Both dogs are older and pretty set in their ways. My dog Sadie is very protective of me. She follows me everywhere. When I first brought Ryder home Sadie would growl and pace a lot. I decided to take an approach where I made sure to only pet her when I was holding ryder or he was close to me. When I didn’t have him I pretended she wasn’t there. I wanted her to know that he was ok. So when he was close she got attention. After about 2 weeks she started to relax. By the time he was 1 month old she would actually lay next to me when I held him. As he got older and I would lay him on the floor to play or do tummy time, she would come over and lick him or just lay and watch him. Now that he’s 8 months old she follows him everywhere! She has to know where he is all the time. She gives him kisses all the time, lays her head on him and watches him play. It’s the most beautiful thing to see. 

Don’t ever listen to anyone when they say you can’t teach a dog to love and be ok with a baby. Like people, every dog is different. Sadie is a pit bull lab mix. When I tell people she’s part pit they freak out and can’t believe I let her around ryder. She’s a dog! Forget what type and ignore the stereotypes. She’s always been a sweet loving dog to me so I knew I could get her to love ryder too. Despite the bad rap they get, pit bulls can be the most loving and kind dogs if they are brought up correctly!