Dog Pictures

I love this picture of Thor...every time I see it I laugh. Haha. I had the hardest time even getting the picture I was laughing so hard.

Trig...

Scary picture of Thor...don't worry he's not going to attack or anything...there is actually a ball somewhere and he and Trig are playing with it.

He is so foamy/slobbery...

An Illustration

An Illustration of doggy-swap-a-roo...



Here is Thor...enjoying his time on the couch.
Trigger is starting to get jealous, he want's some couch time too!
So he starts the brawl....

Now he edges Thor off the couch...

He gave up so easily this time.

Side Note: I know this couch is totally disgusting looking, but my dogs love it. I try to cover it up, but they always undo my covering...so we just let them have it. We never let people sit on it or go near it, so don't worry, we won't make you sit on it if you come visit.

The Favorite Child

So I'm posting about my dogs again. You can stop reading now if you want.

Sometimes I favor one dog over the other. This worries me because what if when Jon & I have kids I favored one over the other?

The Vet asked me once if I liked one of my dogs more than the other and I told her I did and I felt bad about it. She told me not to worry because sometimes she felt the same way about her kids. She said she loved them both so much, but one of her kids was just easier than the other so she at times felt like she favored him more than the difficult one.

Thor

Trigger

Anywho, lately I have come to the conclusion that I don't necessarily have a favorite, I just like different dogs for different things, make sense? Haha. Thor is not as hyper as Trigger, but Trigger is sweeter than Thor...

Hahaha. Don't worry, I'm laughing at me too. I just needed some words to go with my pictures.

2 Spoiled Dogs...I love how Trigger thinks it's okay to be laying all over my pillows.

Such is Life

Well, I have sort of been looking for another little part time job to earn a little extra $$. I found one...it's retail...I already somewhat dread it. Ahh. I have worked retail before and while I love being surrounded by clothes all day, I despise being surrounded by the "customer". I hate being treated like crap by said customers. So here's to hoping they are all angels!

P.S. I found this video the other day and really liked it...it's all about Great Danes.

Things my dogs have destroyed...

So today as I was trying to organize some pictures I ran across multiple pictures of things that had been destroyed and ruined by my dogs. Hahaha. I don't know why i have taken pictures of these things...but I have.

First we have...
What? You don't take pictures of your dog eating garbage?


Here is what I came home to another day...

Then most recently this was broken by Thor. I guess he wanted some candy corn. But let's not talk about it, it makes me too sad. Oh, and I don't have a picture of this thing destroyed, but you see that book sitting up there on the fireplace?


Yes, that too was torn to shreds as well one day.


Trigger had had this stuffed puppy since he was a puppy, but one day it was dragged out to the backyard by Thor and promptly un-stuffed. Every now and then the dogs will dig up a shred of the red puppy.

Then the dog beds. I don't know how many dog beds we've gone through, it has to be over 10 dog beds.

Somehow we still let them hang out here...they're lucky they're cute.

P.S. 95% of these photos were taken over a year ago when they were both still going through the puppy stage...the only one that has happened recently is my apothecary jar.

Happy Birthday Trigger!

Well, instead of boring you with a MILLION pictures of my baby puppy I felt like being informative and boring you that way instead (+ a couple pics). I have had lots of people ask me lately about dog ownership/owning a Great Dane and so here is my 2cents:

(ignore the pink collar, it was just for marking purposes)

1. Research different Dog Breeds. Believe it or not I did actually look into a lot of different breeds. Jon wanted a Great Dane and I didn't...I wanted a fun house dog that wasn't too high maintenance, but could be lovey. Well believe it or not, that's a Great Dane.



2. Visit LOTS of Breeders. This was really hard for me when we first started looking at pups. The first breeder we went and saw I was ready to pick a puppy, but Jon forced me to do some more looking...I'm SOO glad we did. After looking around I realized that I wanted a breeder invested in the welfare of the puppies, not their wallet! (The first breeder we met was so anxious to get the pups sold...almost like there was something wrong with them or something?...)

3. Take your PUPPY to Obedience Classes. This really, for me, is the most important. I learned the hard way about this. This will give your dog a HUGE advantage! Really! They will learn all kinds of basic commands and tricks as well as getting the socialization with other dogs and humans! This can also be a good bonding experience for owner and K9. Your dog needs to learn that you are in control (especially with a great dane who may become bigger than you someday) and that your are Alpha! Trust me, this is SOO important! When I took my dogs it only cost 60$ for an 8 week class that included training supplies--WELL worth it! Before you get a dog check out a couple of places around town...make sure they are certified trainers as well! If you have kids, most places do kid doggie obedience too, which would be a great idea too!

Well those are just a few starters. I really do Love my dogs. They are good practice children. Haha. And even though I complain about them sometimes, I really do love them a ton and we have so much fun with them!

Happy 2nd Birthday TrigFace.

P.S. Trigger is seriously the best dog! Our vet even said that Trigger is her doggie boyfriend!

How could you not LOVE that face?

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

How to get the big spotted (crazy) dog to spaz out (and how to watch mallorie look stupid):

Haha. Do you enjoy it as much as we do?

Even though he could easily jump over the gate he won't...he's too scared.

Utah, School Project, Dogs, Costco

So this last weekend we took a little trip down to Utah to see Jon's dad (he just got back from Iraq). While we were there, Jon's sister, Holly, had to do a class project and she enlisted our help. The project was to do something out of the ordinary in a public place. It was for her sociology class and so whatever you do is supposed to elicit some sort of response from other people--it has to be interesting. --Sidenote: I never had any school projects like this! What's up with that?-- Anyways, her idea was to go to a parking lot and yell: "look, a UFO!"
Well then Stephanie has the idea that we should make tin foil hats like in the movie Signs. And to save you from a long drawn out story, it was a good time. I have a hard time keeping a straight face so I was laughing the entire time, but it was still good.

While we were there Jon and his dad gave the dogs a bath which was long overdue. They're already filthy again, but oh well, what are you going to do? They're dogs.

P.S. Yesterday at work they had some reps from COSTCO come and get us signed up for memberships...I AM SO EXCITED FOR COSTCO!! Let the countdown begin!

That's okay...I didn't want to pay bills anyways

I may never understand what is so wonderful to dogs about eating paper...

Is it the tearing sounds? Does it make you feel powerful?

Is it that 10 cups of food a day (per dog) is just not enough? Is that why you scavenge around the house all day looking for scraps of paper, food, bugs...etc?

...Besides where do you find all this paper anyways? I swear I have no idea where you get it half the time.

Well, don't worry. I didn't want to pay the bills anyways...

(Sorry it's a cell phone pic...it's the best i could do...)

Well, and I guess since you, Trigger, ate the actual bill...it would only be fitting that Thor ate the envelope too.

All Grown Up

Look how much my Puppys have grown!

Trigger when he was a baby... (ignore me--I look pretty scary)

And then a picture from earlier this year:


And then of course...Thor when he was little (actually he never really was that little:

And now he's HUGE!


Weren't they cute puppies! No wonder we ended up with 2...they tricked us with their puppy cuteness!

Trip to Utah

Jon got Labor day weekend off so we decided it would be nice to get out of the house. We packed up and took off. Of course, this was 10 bajillion times easier now with the new car! Click here if you missed that post. Anyways, the pups enjoyed the car trip too, they just slept most the way & in turn it was much more enjoyable for us as well!

Okay so last Christmas my parents got Jon and I an Ikea gift card. Finally on this last trip to Utah we got to go to Ikea! I wish I had some pictures to show you of some of the stuff we got, but I don't. I will, however, show you some pics when I finally get our bedroom decorated--it may be awhile. I got a big long mirror to hang above the bed, a duvet cover, blanket, and a couple other little knick knacky things.

We hung out with the fam. Did lots of eating & Relaxed. Mission accomplished.

Oh yeah...When we finished shopping at Ikea we ate at their little cafeteria thing. This is what Jon ate:

Raw Fish...he said he liked it. I tried it...it wasn't as bad as I thought, but I definitely wouldn't eat a plateful of it. I played it safe with my Swedish Meatballs:

P.S. We got 26 mpg out of the Green Machine! Not bad.

Hardy-har-har

Last night i went to lay down on the floor and trigger (who was already laying down) got up and decided to join me.

Thor looks anoyed:
Trigger & yours truly:
What are you doing Trigger?:

My Shadow

This is Thor, you've seen him before, i'm sure, but here he is again...

He is my shadow as of late. Thor has some *ahem*issues* is that how you'd say it? Anyways, sometimes we think he may be short a few brain cells or something. For example, today he was sitting next to me and all of a sudden he ran out of the room and started barking. I looked around trying to figure it out...turns out it was a POSTER that i had set on the ironing board. I picked it up and he went nuts and ran into the other room and hid. I tried to call him back but he was too freaked out to come near me. Anyways, just things like that make us think there might be something wrong in there?

Well last June Thor and I started taking obedience classes to hopefully help with some of his issues and get him better socialized with people and other dogs. It has made a HUGE difference! I am so glad we did it and it was worth EVERY dollar! He still has some dominance issues, and still isn't crazy about other dogs, but at least he can function around them now. The thing that has improved most is his behavior towards me. He used to never listen to me and now he does (usually). In fact, now he follows me EVERYWHERE! Sometimes he won't even go outside to potty unless i go out too. If i sit on the couch he will sit next to me and just look at me, if I go to the bathroom he waits outside the door. I like having a buddy, but now we're going to have to work on him being a little more independent!

Our new trick!

We have been working on "bow" for a long time now. Both the dogs finaly do it, but Trigger isn't as crazy about doing tricks as Thor is.

Here is the video of Thor "bow"ing and Trigger ignoring me.

And yes...I do have to say "bow" in that really annoying voice.

Being Crafty

As you all know by now, we have 2 MASSIVE dogs. One thing we seem to go through like crazy, besides dog food, is dog beds. They are soo hard on the beds--plus, Thor chews on everything! Dog beds are EXPENSIVE and we are so sick of forking over money to buy another dog bed that will be destroyed. Well, I have been saving the stuffing that the dogs pull out of the dog beds and today i finally made some new beds! All i spent was 20 bucks and I got 2 dog beds (instead of buying 2 beds for 40 bucks each--i think the reason they are so expensive is because we have to get such HUGE beds). Anyways, I was proud of my accomplishments!

Look how much he is enjoying them! He's my Baby.

OH!! And possibly the best part--I had some left over material and used it to make some pillows for my living room! My Grandma helped supply the machine and the smarts of the whole operation, but you should know that i DID sew everything MYSELF. THanks Grandma!

Trigger Face

Okay, I know I am lame for posting so many pics of my dogs, but they are my babies. Here is Trigger asleep on the couch. Haha.














Here he is being Princey-boy.

One More...

Okay sorry, this will be the last one for today...I think?

Thor graduated from Obedience Class!! Whoo-hoo! We still have a long way to go and until the next class up starts we're going to take the basic obedience class one more time to make sure that we have everything perfected.

Thor won a little squeaky elephant toy at the class. He was carrying it all around.

This morning I took Trigger and we walked down to Old Town for the 4th of July parade. He is so fun to show-off. He is well behaved--for the most part, and is the most friendly, silly dog ever. (We usually draw a little crowd because of his size) He loves to be loved on and it doesn't matter who's doing it! Here is a picture of him watching the parade!

Dogs and Water

Last week we took the dogs out to Massacre Rocks National Park. They have a couple little trails and then, of course, the river. The dogs have never been swiming before so we tried to get them out there to try it. They were'nt that excited about it, but trigger went in because he loves me and he does whatever i want him to do whether he wants too or not. You can tell he hates it, he keeps trying to sit down in the water. Anyways, it was fun to get out and do something.

Oh we also saw a snake as we were leaving. It was the biggest snake i've seen in the "wild" (is that how you'd say it?), but i'm pretty sure it wasn't a rattler which is good.

***On a seperate note, i have just finished New Moon the second book in the Twilight series! It was soo good!

P.S. Apparently my videos are not uploading on my blog, so i will try and upload them to youtube. If you scroll to the very bottom of the blog there are some of my videos you can see.

Thor & Mal go to Doggie Obedience School

This Thor and I, and we just started Doggie Obedience Classes! Whohoo! (Not that Thor is unmanagable or anything {he's only a shy 150+ lbs} , but he could be better-me as well.) Here is our story from day 1:

I had been stressing over this class all day! Seriously, i was making myself sick over this; what if he drug me around the room (he weighs a good -at least- 30lbs more than me), what if snapped at another dog, what if he snapped at a trainer, etc... I even had to leave work early so that i could calm down before we left for class. Then we went to class. Things went pretty un-eventful (thank goodness) while all the dogs showed up and got ready for class.

The trainers all introduced themselves and gave an intro of the class and what kinds of things to expect, and what we'd learn. Then we jumped into the exercises.

Here is what our first excercise was: Physically lay your dog down on the ground and hold him there no matter how much he fights it, he can not get up until he is commanded. If that means you have to wrestle him to the floor and hold him there until he calms down, that's what you have to do.

I silently laughed inside. Hahaha. I think everyone else in the class probably was laughing at me too! I had to be the smallest person there, and I, by far, had the biggest dog in the class. There is no way that i could physically lay Thor on the ground and hold him, especially with 20 people and 20 dogs all around. So i just told Thor to lay down and i tried to hold his leash down so that he couldn't get back up. To coax him to keep laying i had to keep scratching his belly --which they had said not to do because it was cheating--and of course he couldn't be discreet about it, he was totally sprawled out all over the place.

Anyways, i know i'm blabbing on and on, but over all it was a good night. Thor didn't instigate any fights (although he did snap at a couple dogs who sniffed his behind-and rightfully so, i would have done the same. Plus it didn't help that the owners weren't paying attention to their dogs--that made me kind of mad) , he didn't snap at the trainers, and i actually had better control of Thor than some of the guys with smaller dogs! I was so proud of myself, and Thor.

The End.