Puppy Connections

Hi everyone it’s me Gracie. Today’s topic is all about canine companions and compatibility. Not with humans, which is great because if I’m being honest they want way too much companionship from me. Don’t even get me started on how much they have to bribe me with food to sit on the same couch as them. It’s truly pathetic.

No, today we’re doing something a little different.

We noticed a trend on Instagram a few years ago as we started becoming friends with a lot of Bichon and Wheaten Terrier accounts. Many times there were families with a Bichon and Wheaten together, just like us! We’ve noticed more and more, not just with our breeds, that there’s definitely a trend with people having a certain “pairing” of breeds if you will.

Well, We’ve been in contact with a website PuppySpot and they’ve developed an infographic showing certain breeds that have a particular ease of getting along together. I guess this is called being friends. 

Since it’s February and we have Valentine’s day on the 14^th and more importantly celebration National Love Your Pet Day on the 20^th they were inspired to make puppy matches. 

Apparently the PuppySpot finds it super adorable when puppies have friends. We agree and thought this was super fun (okay that is clearly the human talking).

I; however, was not surprised by the lack of Bichon listed. I should obviously be an only child.

I admit dogs with friends do seem kinda cool. In fact, occasionally I’ll wander over to my neighbor, Monkey’s, house and see if he wants to play.

(Human note, Gracie runs away whenever she can and tries to hide as a stowaway at Monkey’s house.)

Anyway, if you’re thinking of adopting another companion or finding a new canine friend consider the info above when making your match so you have this sweet match...

My cousins Max and Duke are pretty rad pals

Instead of this...

#mylife

Sister for sale. Only serious buyers need inquire. (HN: she is not for sale)

Special Thanks to PuppySpot for the infographic, and to our cousins Max and Duke for being model friends. 

Lost and Found

                    

 Hi everyone! Happy New Year!!

 Today's topic is short and sweet. You see, I’ve developed a little habit of running away lately.

My humans are NOT impressed. I find the best time to take off is in blizzard conditions. 

This makes it especially hard to find me because I blend right in. I’m a master at camouflage.

We did a little digging, figuratively #lame, and wanted to talk about how helpful tags actually are in recovering a lost pet.

According to ASPCA 

”Forty-nine percent of dog guardians found their dog by searching the neighborhood, and 15 percent of the dogs were recovered because they were wearing an ID tag or had a micro-chip;”

We decided if it helps at. all. then we need it as a precaution. 

So Let’s talk accessories! 

Well…sort of. We’re talking ID tags specifically. You see, my girl human has an obsession about me wearing my tags NO MATTER WHAT! My other human doesn’t see the big deal. We live in the country after all and I have a micro-chip sheesh. Well today while taking some photos of me (because why not) she got to wondering about the personalization of ID tags.

My human spent TONS of time picking the perfect tags for us.

My feisty sister has this tag

This one is mine

So we want to know what are your safety precautions and do your ID tags express your personality? We can't wait to hear from you! 

Halloween Safety

It's finally here....Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!  

Basic Deer and Magical Unicorn

We've finished all of our costumes and we're ready for the festivities. I hope you are too. Gracie wanted to be sure I pointed out how magical she looks while her sister is well...basic. 

We wanted to share with you a few tips to keep you safe tonight. 

6 Pet Safety Tips:

1. Biggest on our list is to make sure your pets are wearing their ID tags in case something were to happen.
2. Keep pets in doors in their kennels or a behind closed doors. Halloween can be a scary time for pets. All kinds of cosutmes may easily startle your pet and cause them to react in ways you don’t anticipate. They may nip, or get lost. If you keep you pet with you to greet trick-or-treaters consider keeping them on a leash for their protection.
3. Watch for holiday decorations. These can be very tempting to your pet, especially if they smell good.
4. Be very carful of glow sticks and glow accessories. These can be dangerous to your pet. Take care to keep out of their reach.
5. Keep the candy away from fido. This can cause tummy upset and should not be ingested. Also, take extreme care to keep anything with xylitol away from your pets. This is a common sweetener commonly found in sugar free items.
6. Lastly, keep you pets inside, safely with you. Some mischief-makers have been known to harass, hurt, steal, and even kill pets on and around Halloween. This is despicable, but preventable by informed pet parents nonetheless.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N

What have we here?

Let’s just talk, for a second, about how much we LOVE Halloween! I mean, you get to be anything you want for a night. In Gracie’s case she has to be anything her girl human wants and she's never getting out of this holiday.

When choosing a costume we tend to play off of Gracie’s natural features. We find that this makes the costume much more adorable.

Since she’s white and fluffy we watch for ideas year round and gather inspiration to keep on hand in case a costume opportunity comes knocking at our door. We’ll be ready. We’re always ready. 
(In fact, we really wish costume opportunities would come around more often.) 

This year we decided on a Unicorn costume. It made sense to us because while other dogs have to dress in white clothing, we could just add some accessories and be on our way.  

To make this costume yourself click here.

 Proud Pony Pose 

Behold my horn

I have no idea why this keeps happening

Yeah, we found a castle

We’ve drawn inspiration from clouds, cotton candy, Beanie Baby’s, panda bears, and most other fluffy animals. These are just a few of the costumes we've created over the past couple of years: 

Later this week we’ll do a little reminder to all you pet parents about Halloween safety for your pups. See you then!

DIY Unicorn Costume

This costume turned out to be one of the easiest I’ve ever done! The goal here was to make it magical and part of making it magical, for me, meant I wanted to make the attachment of the costume as hidden as possible. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

DIY Unicorn Dog Costume

Supplies:

•  Hot glue gun
• Scissors
•  Small hole punch
•  Mesh witch hat
•  Pink foam sheet (I ended up using a sparkle purple instead)
•  White felt sheet
•  4-6 side combs
• Thin white elastic
• Gold ribbon (I used a more whimsical ribbon, and gold elastic)
•  4 fastening brads
•  Light pink yarn
•  Hot pink yarn
•  Purple yarn
•  Aqua yarn

I can't get over how great those hooves are! 

She has no idea how cute she looks!

She's a Proud Pony

1.     To make the unicorn horn, take the witch hat and cut the brim off and discard the brim portion.

2.     Wrap the white felt around the hat and hot glue in place. Tuck the excess felt inside of the cone.

3.     Wrap the gold ribbon from top to bottom of horn. Secure with hot glue.

4.     Measure with the elastic, the circumference of your pets head from the top of the head, around the chin keeping elastic behind the ears.

5.     Cut elastic, leaving two extra inches. Hot glue each end inside horn like a party hat.

6.     Hot glue a side comb inside the horn for added security. I made mine removable by hot gluing elastic loops for the comb to attach to.

7.     For the mane, I cut 6-8 inch sections of the 4colors of yarn. You’ll want to adjust for the size of your pet. Tie the 6-8 inch sections in a knot at the center to a long piece of yarn, Creating a long “stack” of tied yarn. Knot each end of the long piece of yarn to ensure the shorter sections don’t slide off.

8.     Take 3 side combs; secure one to the top, middle and near the end by hooking sections of the comb through the yarn knots.

9.     For the tail, you can hot glue yarn to the side combs. I took a hair elastic and tied a knot, at the center of 12-14inch yarn sections, all the way around the elastic. I packed it tightly for a full dramatic look.

10.  Pinch the elastic in half. Secure one side comb through the yarn knots on the top section and another side comb through the knots at the bottom.

11.  To make hooves, cut out 4 half moon shapes. Fit to your dog’s feet, adjust moon shape if necessary. Hole punch (as small as possible) where the foam needs to meet, and secure with fastening brad.

If you dog’s hair doesn’t allow for side comb fastening, use elastic in place of combs.