It's hard being famous.....

A big week in the life of a little dog! Brinley did her tour of duty this week appearing on Animal House Calls with me on Tuesday, (will replay this Saturday March 27th @ 10am) She did a fantastic job, was super well behaved and calm, and made sure to put on her really cute face whenever the camera panned over her.

With her 2nd TV appearance in the last couple of weeks, she is now recognized at the dog park, people will ask "Did I see that dog on TV?" Of course she doesn't let her knew found fame go to her head, she's just glad that she is now a furry dog like the rest of them!

Back to the vet this week only to find out she has a staf infection, so new meds added to the Boxer Pharmacy......

Other than that she is still eating the vegetarian food, double what it recommends for her size and she has not gained an ounce, so she is still a whopping 38lbs.

On a good note the Puglet has lost weight through all the cardio he has been getting when he chases her at the park.

The trouble you can get into when you set your mind to it!

So as a puppy grows, they learn, they test the limits and they have lots of fun. As Brinley has gotten more comfortable we have been giving her some time out of the crate while we are out of the house. Generally if we are not going to be out more than an hour or hour and a half we will try her out of the crate. We do our best to "set her up to succeed" we ensure we don't leave tempting things out for her to get into, we put out a good supply of toys and bones, made sure all "potty duties" were completed outside before we left and off we went to leave the puppy monster to her own devices to see if she could handle some alone time free in the house with the puglet.

Now up until this point we had tried this several times, and generally if the time frame did not exceed an hour or so we came home to puppy slumber and no issues. So on this particular night we ran a bit behind and were out for close to 2 hours....and we did a very poor job on our "set her up to succeed mission." We had left a very tempting sample can of hair product on a table that was at easy nose height. My hair dresser had given me this great product to try, but apparently with her new furry self, Brinley thought that this would be a great product for her long locks. So she had a chew party with the can, which of course sprayed product all over the floor, all over her and anything else she directed it at.

Two hours later we returned home to a dog that was basically stuck to the hardwood floor (this is some sticky hair product when sprayed by a dog and likely licked to ensure it stuck well to the floor.) Brinley's feet were pretty much suctioned cupped to the floor, she had hair product on her face and particularly on her nose, which she obviously used in replacement of the thumb she is lacking, and then it seems that she took her sticky nose and rubbed it on her fluffy bed so that she had a nice array of fluff all over her nose. This was quite a site, but due to the floor situation I could not even get the camera to take a picture I had to get a bucket and start un-sticking the puppy monster from her predicament......and all the while she was as happy as can be stubby tail wagging the whole time and a bunch of kisses.

The Puglet on the other hand was mortified at this terrible behaviour and would not come anywhere near the sticky floor and spent the night glaring at Brinley with such disdain.

About an hour later and 16 floor washes on hands and knee's, and a full dog wash, floor is not sticky and dog is not as sticky, nose is still a bit tacky......

Lesson learned, as Foster Daddy says - all items to higher ground, or as I say, dog must go in the crate!

Brinley's beach day

In an effort to celebrate the lovely sunny day Brinley had her first day at the beach, well first trip to the beach. We were due to go to the vet, and since he is in that neighborhood we decided to have a run along the water first. Brinley was very curious about the water, but the waves lapping up against the shore scared the pants off the little monkey, and she began to leap in the air and bark at the water.

With some coaxing and throwing some rocks into the water, she finally got brave and ventured in to see if she could save the rocks. Once in she kept pawing at the water and trying to dig up the rocks.

After some beach fun we headed to the vet. So good news is the mites are totally gone, bad news is the bacterial infection seems to be getting worse and has also caused a secondary infection in her ear which is a total mess, (hence we went to the vet ahead of the regular schedule.) So new medication and a couple new tests to check some stuff out and we will see how things go.

Stayed tuned to this space for updates..............

She started out like a lamb....but now she is a full puppy, hear her roar!

Brinley is now the Queen of this castle, the Puglet's (Ayla our former foster puglet is in the picture with Brinley and Olly.) She has everyone human and canine companion alike bowing to her every need and being very tolerant of her puppy antics. Olly has even become tolerant of the "toy drop" this is a special move Brinley does when she wants Olly to play (which he rarely does.) When Olly won't engage in play she will pick up toys and proceed to drop them on him....his head, his back, whatever, and she doesn't stop at just one, she has been know to bury him in toys. Olly will refuse to engage in any play when she does this and instead he allows her to bury him in the toys, he will continue to lay there with his eyes closed.

Brinley's TV appearance on Friday was a great success, she charmed everyone along our walk on Queen Street and right through the TV Station, being the ever gentle puppy that would simply sit and wait to be pet. Brinley has excellent manners and is a great listener. She is fully house trained and goes to the door every time. She absolutely loves the ball and would fetch all day if she could. She reliably catches the ball and brings it right back to you so that you can do it again. At the park she is the biggest ball stealer going and will even try to put more than one in her mouth at a time. She plays very well with the other dogs, and will recall away from the group when I call her. She is by far the fastest dog in the park, tearing a brindley streak through the off leash with many dogs hot on her heels, but none that can actually catch her, (this of course makes her even happier, and she gets that really proud prance when they all give up!) Walking has become much easier and she actually gets pretty excited when the leash comes out, bouncy around, but as soon as the collar comes out she sits patiently and waits for the collar and leash to be put on.

Best of all she now has 95% of her fur back. It is a bit thin in spots, but every inch of her has some.

We had a small party at the house this weekend with about 35-40 people over at first she was super nervous and chose to go upstairs to one of the bedrooms and lie on the bed, but as more and more people visited with her she finally decided to come down.

Once downstairs she checked everyone out, but then curled up on the couch and snored the rest of the night, nothing could faze her.

Brinley's week with Foster "Dad" and her rise to Boxer Stardom

Well the little furless wonder is a whole new dog, she is furry and quickly embracing puppyhood.....very quickly. In my absence last week (I was traveling for work) foster "Dad" was in charge. A detailed protocol of foster puppy 101 was left. Feeding info, medication, bathing, topical sprays/creams, dog walker schedule, crating......very detailed. But those puppy dog eyes soon won foster "Dad" over and when it came time to crate the monkey he caved because she looked "so sad" and chose to leave her out to rule the roost with the Pug while he was at work.

So the first day our little puppy monster didn't really know what to do with herself and everything was generally left in tact. By day two she had cruised across the dining room table, eaten some candles and had a shoe party, but alas foster "Dad" still felt bad about crating her, so he opted for the "move things to higher ground" approach. All items that are not nailed down were put out of her reach, or at least what he thought was out of her reach.

Day 3 puppy monster blew through some credit cards by chewing them to bits, she has expensive taste, she chose the Gold Card, and gave it a real run for its money.

Still on day 4 foster day still couldn't bear to crate her (now if I had know what was going on, I may have crated foster "Dad" for his bad behaviour, but I was oblivious.) Day 4 was umbrella day, and puppy monster spent the day dismantling an umbrella and shredding it to bits.

Day 5 - light bulb moment - foster "Dad" crated Puppy Monster!

Once I was back Brinley went back to the vet and had a check up, she is still struggling with some type of bacterial infection, her lymph nodes are inflamed and her blood work is off, so we will continue the antibiotics and see where that leads.

She is furrier, and furrier each day, and getting to be a fairly confident little thing.

She has made fast friends with the Pug (who is not too easy to win over,) and he now lays on her or rests his chin on her when he sleeps.

She will be featured in the Beaches newspaper shortly and she will be on the CP24 morning show this Friday between 8:45am - 9am.