Tag Archives: Pets

My “Top Dog” & She’s A Total Doll…..

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Before we decided to try this parenthood thing out with our two kidlets, we got Bailey.   Our beloved cockapoo truly is our first child and she totally prepared us for raising children.  Like any proud parent, I show Bailey off to EVERYONE. I carry her picture in my wallet and post embarrassing photos of her on Facebook.  Well, look at her, you can’t deny that she is cute.  Wait, she just not cute, she is downright adorable.  Though she’s now six years old, she still has the heart and energy of that puppy I fell in love with the moment I saw her!

My all-time favorite picture of Bailey

So when I heard about the GUND “Top Dog” Contest, I thought it was perfect way to show off my pooch. Continue reading →

What I Learned About Parenting From My Dog

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Last week I introduced you to Bailey, our cockapoo.  Bailey means a lot of things to our family – she’s a loving pet, a trusted friend and our “starter child.”  Because before we had the kidlets, raising Bailey up from a pup was the first stab at this whole parenting thing for Hubs and me.

Bailey was a smart and sweet puppy. She took to toilet training right away — just a few weeks of marching around outside at all hours until she pooped was all it took!  She had a lot of energy, even for a puppy-but we quickly found she maybe wasn’t listening as well as she should to her new mommy and daddy.  As new “parents” we needed a little expert help.  At first, we actually brought in our own low-rent “dog whisperer,” and while she tried her best, she was no Cesar Millan.  So once she had all of her shots, we enrolled Bailey in an obedience class.  The six-week “puppy education” course promised to get us off on the right paw by teaching her good behaviors while helping us to establish a strong bond with our pup.  The Hubs and I were excited to teach her basics like “sit” and “stay,” plus how to socialize with other people and dogs.  Like any newly married couple, and proud new “parents,” we wanted to do this training together.

There was our first problem.

Poor Bailey had the two of us literally “barking” orders at her as we each took turns during the lessons to train her.  I was the stern taskmaster and Hubs was the sweet encouraging one.  Bailey was clearly confused by our different parenting styles and the end result was a big flunk out of obedience school. The only command she responded to was “park it.”  For that lesson, Bailey had only one person training her (Hubs took her to that lesson, I was on a business trip) in one consistent way and ingrained it in her brain.

So we learned an invaluable lesson: that as parents, we needed to be in sync and find a middle ground between our two styles in order not to give our future children conflicting messages.   FYI…this is still something we struggle with.  When we catch ourselves being out of sync on something with our kidlets, we try to take it off-line and discuss it without them around, so they don’t know that we don’t agree!

Now Bailey isn’t the most obedient dog, but she can sit, lay down and definitely knows how to come to the kitchen when it’s dinnertime. We did all the everyday things parents do with their kids…..

We took her to the beach:

To the beauty parlor:

Bought her a winter coat:

And even dressed her in the cutest Halloween costumes:She never ran away or out of the house and into the street, so the Hubs & I figured we had the doggy parent thing down enough to feel a bit more confident about our next big project: having kids!

When I got pregnant with our son, Bailey would not come near me. She totally would snub me, or if she did come near me, she would immediately pee. I guess she was marking her territory – like “hey kid in there, I was here first” – or just doing it out of spite. We were worried that Bailey wouldn’t adjust to the baby and we would have to sadly adopt her out. The night our son was born Hubs brought home a blanket from the hospital to let Bailey sniff.   Bailey went totally crazy, her tail wagging, all excited and wound up sleeping in her little dog bed with it. Much to our relief, when we came home with our son we were thrilled that Bailey loved him as much as we did. Maybe she finally realized she was getting her own new playmate!  We repeated this entire scenario for kidlet number two, but once our daughter came home, Bailey went back to her old self.

Bailey is now six years old and entering middle age – I guess that makes her 42 in dog years, haha, she’s older than me now! – but she’s still a puppy at heart.  She NEVER slows down.  She’s constantly chasing squirrels, chipmunks and birds in our yard. She hasn’t caught one yet, and I’m not eager for her to do so!  The kidlets are getting older and are starting to interact with her more…and sometimes, not so nicely.  But Bailey is very sweet and patient, always wanting to “give kisses” to the kids. No matter how much they pull or tug on her, she’s NEVER growled at them or put her teeth on them.  It’s like she knows they are kids, her “brother & sister” even, and though they annoy her sometimes, she needs to protect them.

With all the craziness of raising two kidlets plus the Hubs and me with full time jobs, Bailey sometimes has to take a backseat.  However, we try to make it up to her – taking her out for some extra playtime, long weekend walks, and plenty of treats (she loves chicken strips!). When she’s at the kennel, vet or groomer – Hubs & I always say how strange it is not have Bailey around. She is truly a member of this family, and the house would seem empty without her.

Did I Forget to Mention Our First Child…Bailey!

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Over the past few weeks I’ve introduced you to me, my two kidlets, the Hubs, but in my old age (I am turning 40 this year, YIKES!) I seemingly forgot to mention one member of our family.   This is Bailey, our first child…

Okay, so Bailey is really is a dog – but I mean that in the nicest way possible! Bailey is truly our first child.

Growing up, I had always wanted a pet, but we never had a cat or dog due to my sister’s supposed “allergies.” That was the official explanation, but quite honestly, I think my mom just didn’t want to have to deal with the hassle of an animal.  Many of my childhood friends had dogs and I was always envious of the affection and true devotion of their loving pets and was awed at how protective they were of their charges as well.

When the Hubs and I got married, we knew we wanted adopt a dog. In fact, taking care of one would be our first test as to what kind of parents we might be, baby steps to raising a baby, you could say.  The Hubs had grown up with dogs in the midwest but was unable to have one while living as a single guy in an apartment, so he was enthusiastic about a furry new friend.  About a year into our marriage, we were ready to expand.

The Hubs and I tried for weeks to adopt a dog from local shelters, but with no luck.   Why, you may ask?  Because even though we had a nice house, a big yard, money for vet bills and lots of love to offer a desperately deserving doggie, we both worked full-time. The people who ran these shelters, while perhaps well-intentioned, thought it wouldn’t be “fair” to the animal that we wouldn’t be home during the day.  I had explained to them that we would have a dog walker come in while we were at work and we would have the entire weekends with the dog, but that wasn’t good enough.   It was quite a disappointment, honestly.  We didn’t really want to go the “buying” route when there are so many dogs in need, but we were rejected by four different shelters, all for the same reason.

So our next step was to buy one from a breeder. Since we now could pick the breed, we first had to figure out the best kind of dog to get.  We didn’t want a dog that was too big, hairy or aggressive (I had a scary experience with a big dog as a child), but we also certainly didn’t want a Paris-Hilton-accessory/barking-rat kind of dog. So, like any good parents-to-be, we did a ton of research and came up with the perfect pooch for us – a cockapoo…a cocker spaniel/poodle hybrid.  Our dog would be smart like a poodle, but warm, cuddly & devoted like a spaniel. Best of all, the dog would be hypoallergenic – having hair rather than fur – so no shedding all over the house and no worries about anyone’s allergies.

We were well-aware of the real problem of puppy mills.  We needed to find a responsible, humane breeder (not cheap) and after more research we eventually stumbled upon Bailey’s breeder in Wisconsin.  Bailey came from a litter of eight.   We had hoped to get the chocolate-colored female from the litter but when we inquired, we were told that all the pups were already spoken for, except one, the runt of the litter.  The breeder sent us this photo:

Notice the dookie on the sheet in the background.  We took one look and knew that this poopy puppy was destined to be ours!  Bailey joined our family at ten weeks old.

And let me tell you, Bailey quickly became daddy’s girl.  I think it’s because Hubs picked her up from the airport cargo depot.  Hubs took her out of the cage to take a look at her and give her some water.  It was just love at first sight for both.  Bailey wagged her little tail at her hero and Hubs just melted.  To this, day he is always the first person Bailey runs to when we come home, and she is always hanging around in hopes he’ll go outside and engage in her favorite activity-chasing a football.  Endlessly. Hot weather, freezing weather, day, night, doesn’t matter. Honestly, it must be instinctual because we never trained her to do any tricks, she just saw the ball one day and literally picked it up and ran with it!

As for me, Bailey and I have sort of a love-hate relationship.  I’m much more of the disciplinarian of the household, so I was constantly ordering her to get off the couch, get off the bed, don’t chew my shoes…you know, the usual routine.  If I scolded her, she would immediately run over to Hubs for some comfort.  But I am her mommy in every way.  When she was sick and wouldn’t eat, I hand fed her food with a fork.  For her first birthday I even got her a doggie cake to celebrate the day! And like any first child, we took way too many pictures of her!  She soon became well represented in any family event, usually giving us a “what the heck is going on here look” for the camera.

In my next post, I’ll tell you about our first serious attempt at parenting Bailey – taking her to obedience classes. Let’s just say, I think we learned a lot about how to raise kids from the mistakes we made with our “starter child”…

Does your family have any four-legged members? Did they arrive in the family before the kids did?