Puppy Farts

Anyone with a dog can back me up here: puppy farts are as sneaky and silent as a ninja. You could be minding your own business, just innocently walking thru the kitchen, when suddenly you stumble into an invisible cloud of doggy gas that makes your eyes sting and your stomach heave. Forest usually doesn't make a sound when he farts so most of the time I have no warning of the God-awful trouble leaking from my puppy's butt. At least doggy poop is visible and can be somewhat contained in a plastic bag. Doggy farts are just an intangible mess.  

The last time Nick suffered an encounter with Forest's puppy gas, he sarcastically suggested what I thought was a brilliant invention. We need to strap a machine to Forest's butt so every time he farts it makes a sound and emits a black vapor that clings to the gas particles. That way we'll be warned both visually and audibly that there are puppy farts in the room. Brilliant I say!

Puppy Farts

Memorial Day Puppy Jail

We spent the Memorial Day holiday relaxing at the Iowa cabin. As usual, Forest followed Nick or me around most of the weekend. But unfortunately there were a few times when we had to isolate Forest in the screened porch for a half hour or so. For example, when Nick's cousin let her baby play on the living room floor, we were worried Forest would trample the little girl or slobber all over her face (by the way, this baby totally gave Forest some competition in the Most Adorable Center of Attention at the Iowa Cabin contest). We also had to lock the puppy up a few times when he got wet and needed to dry off before jumping all over the furniture. I'll post some pictures later that will explain how he got wet. For now let's just say it involved a lake and a very scared puppy.

Of course, Forest was not happy with his segregation…

"This is so not cool."

 "Maybe I can stick my head thru here…"

"Fine then, I'll just lie here looking pitiful until you decide to let me in." 

Memorial Day Puppy Jail

Collar Safety

One of the puppy-raising books we read had a chapter on collar safety. Its tagline was basically "DANGER! COLLARS CAN HARM OR KILL YOUR DOG, YOU SHOULD TOTALLY BE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS!" They included horror stories of a dog choking when his collars snagged on a crate door, or another dog whose tags got caught in a floor air-vent of all things. So we got all scared like we were supposed to and began following the book's guideline about tightening Forest's collar so that only one or two fingers could squeeze between the collar and his throat.

Apparently the doggy day-care folks are not a fan of our collar policy. Whenever we pick up Forest, his collar is always looser than when we dropped him off. Like fit-your-arm-thru-there loose. I think this passive aggressive behavior is their way of hinting that Forest's collar is too tight. We've come to trust the humans taking care of Forest every day more than the random books we've read, so we decided to stop tightening his collar so much. But this has created a certain problem…

Forest can now reach his tags so he's been chewing on them. At this point you can barely read the rabies info or the phone number on the back of his name tag.

These busted tags are technically the second set he's gone thru. We lost the first rabies and name tags a few months ago during one of our walks. The puppy got really excited about something and pulled as hard as he could on his leash to escape. The ring connecting the tags to his collar broke and the tags got lost in someone's lawn. Now this second set is quickly approaching retirement as well. Dang dog.

Collar Safety

1,000 visits!

Last week, the My Dog Forest blog reached 1,000 visits! Thank you all for taking the time to visit my little site. The puppy and I really appreciate your support :)

1,000 visits!

Happy Father's Day!

Unlike my Mother's Day post, I actually planned ahead this time and saved a Daddy-related post for Father's Day. Please don't mistake this as a sign that I'm becoming more responsible, still haven't bought those wedding gifts.

I never thought Forest had a favorite parent. If Nick and I are both puttering around the house, the puppy will usually stick with me. If I'm working in the upstairs office and Nick is watching TV downstairs, Forest will most likely stay with Nick. If the puppy had to choose one of our cars to ride in, he would pick mine (probably because my car is lower to the ground, making it easier for the stubby-legged puppy to get in). But this week Forest made it clear that in a specific situation, Nick is his preferred parental figure.

We had a brief thunderstorm on Thursday. Forest doesn't like the rain, but he usually doesn't make much commotion and has even slept thru storms before.  However something about this storm transformed Forest into a total wuss. The puppy huddled in the corner of the kitchen and started shaking. He wouldn't eat any food or drink water. At first we thought he was sick. Then he began following Nick around the house. Forest is a big cuddlier, but he was always suave about it, like "Oh you're sitting on the couch now? I guess I'll just meander on to your lap for a quick nap." But during the storm, Forest was adamant about being as close to Nick as possible. For example, our puppy usually hates sitting in office chairs. He gets all fidgety like he thinks there's not enough room and he's afraid he's going to fall off. On Thursday, Forest was jumping on Nick's legs trying to claw his way up onto the office chair. I tried calling Forest to join me on the couch, but nope, Forest wanted to sit in Dad's lap, screw Mom.

We finally came to the conclusion that the thunder was frightening our puppy. Although Forest loved his Mommy, only Daddy would suffice when Forest was really scared.

So in celebration of Father's Day, here are some pictures of the Dads in Forest's life.  Starting, of course, with Forest's Daddy:

Forest's grandfathers, Grandpa Chuck…

…Grandpa Neil...

...and Grandpa John:

Uncle Jason, who kindly acts as Forest's surrogate Dad when we're on vacation:

And finally, Great Uncle Scott:

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Worm Jerky

Our puppy loves to eat dried-up worms off the sidewalk. Sometimes Forest won't even swallow them, he'll just munch on those chewy morsels for a few steps and then spit them out. The puppy doesn't pay any attention to wiggly, live worms. Nope, for some reason he seems to prefer dead ones. When Forest snacks on a withered worm, the term "worm jerky" always comes to mind. Gross.

Worm Jerky

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Sometimes the puppy forgets to put his head in his bed.

Uh, Forest, you're doing it wrong.

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Forest's Belated Birthday Present

Forest received a special package mailed all the way from Colorado. Its contents were a birthday card and present! My family is so cute. They probably read about his birthday mishap and felt bad for the puppy. Cause, you know, he's so neglected (slowly lifts gaze to the My Dog Forest blog banner and laughs).

This was an especially awesome present because, well, do I really need a reason? It's a squeaky toy that says Doggie Beer! That just radiates awesomeness. And total bonus points: it doesn't squeak as loudly as Squeaky Hippo. Yay, everyone's happy!

The puppy was fixated on getting the top off. Forest may have observed Nick and I open a couple of beers in his lifetime.

Thank you family!!!

Forest's Belated Birthday Present

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Forest is such a cuddlier. Here he is keeping Nick's lap warm over Memorial Day weekend.

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Forest's Pink Ball

Besides Squeaky Hippo (related video) the Pink Ball is the only toy to have survived one whole year with Forest, the Destroyer of Puppy Toys. Like Squeaky Hippo, the Pink Ball had a brief hiatus (although this one wasn't our fault, the Pink Ball was too large to fit in Forest's little puppy mouth for the first 6 months of his life) but now the Pink Ball is definitely back in the puppy toy rotation. 

Time to play!

Now I was mistaken in assuming that the normal process for playing fetch was for the puppy to drop the ball on the ground so I could throw it. But no, Forest doesn't play simple puppy games. Instead, he taunts us with his Pink Ball by shoving it against our legs.

"Hey...Mom....hi...you wanna play?"

"Come on Dad, aren't you a tad interested in this here ball?"

But does the puppy ever relinquish the ball that he seems so eager to share? No. Forest wants us to fight for it.

"Aw, you can pull hard than that, you big wuss."

"Too hard! It's mine!"

Eventually I'll twist the ball out of his mouth and throw the wet toy down the hall. The puppy will scamper after it and we'll go back to playing tug-of-war. 

 "Pink Ball rocks!"

Please do not tell the color-blind puppy that pink is traditionally regarded as a girlie color. I don't believe in stereotyping colors, but Forest is a little sensitive about his manhood since he got snipped.

Forest's Pink Ball

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

The first photo I ever took of our little puppy. 

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

Fuzzy Photo of the Day

While cooking dinner last night, I glanced over the counter and found a fuzzy beast sprawled across the kitchen floor. This position just screamed "RUB MY TUMMY!!!"

I don't know how long Forest was posed like this before I noticed him, but the puppy waited patiently, without moving an inch, while I dug the camera out of my purse and snapped a few photos. Damn straight he got his tummy rubbed.

Fuzzy Photo of the Day