Raw Diet

With Thanksgiving just around the corner and the holiday music already blasting, we are all prepping and meal planning and looking for ways to treat ourselves.

With Thanksgiving comes the Turkey and all the "good" stuff that a turkey brings with it. O.K. Quick story time..
    "Last December I had a Holiday party and invited all of my friends over for a big dinner. I made the turkey, we had sweet potato cassarole, green bean cassarole, and the list went on and on. I cooked the beautifully 22 pound bird and he was so juicy and yummy. I made sure to avoid the common rookie mistakes like cooking a frozen turkey or Flambaying it. BUT.... I did forget to remove the "gizzards" ( The neck and heart and Liver) Now in my defense, I looked and searched and called my mom and we came up with the idea that maybe they forgot my bag of goodies. Mike was upset since he and his mom always eat the heart and liver on Thanksgiving morning. They fry it up and split the goods. YUCK... anywho as we were carving Tom I found a little present... The missing gizzards hanging out in the belly of my FULLY COOKED and BEAUTIFUL bird. So of course I told Mike not to tell and chucked the small parchment paper bag of cooked insides and chalked it up to extra flavor for my Bird... OOOPs...

Anywho This year I have a new found love for the gross gizzards of my Turkey! They make a delectable treat for Ace Face. Dogs can eat raw meats and its much better for them than most of the dog food brands on the market. The only stipulation with feeding your dogs raw is that you feed them "fresh and locally farmed grass fed meats". Whats the point of giving your pooch a steak or a bowl of ground beef, that is from a cow that had a high corn and grain diet. I mean you are what you eat even if you have four legs and a tail.

How to feed your Dog Thanksgiving Day Goodies!

-The Neck- If your pooch is little like mine and will pretty much eat anything in site (i.e. the floor, molding, underwear) then you want to make sure that you supervise and hold the Neck so that he doesn't just swallow it whole. Yes they can eat the raw bones, Bones are good for dogs teeth and they can digest them just fine. Just make sure that everything passes smoothly.

-Liver and Heart- No need to cook, just dice it up and add it in with your dogs food. Just make sure to check the dogs stool to make sure that they are still firm and not too watery.

*Hint checking your dogs stool can help determine how they are digesting and if they are feeling good or not.

Do you feed your dog any raw foods?

XO,
Ash

Training Update

Passed out Puppies!

So training continues in our house and we have been incident free... Thank God. I am more aware of Ace's moods and his patience and I think he has gotten a little calmer. We are working on his hard mouth, (when taking treats) staying when people come in the door, and he is learning to go to his bed when he wants his own space.

They Really Love each other...

Ripley and Ace get along great but sometimes they just get a little too intense. 

Both puppies are learning to trust us more and more and they are learning when to give each other space and when it's ok to play. Training two dogs at one time is tough but its also kinda funny to... 

There are times when I will be trying to get Ace to put his head down and Ripley will come by and lay down and put his head down. What a star student. 

I am working on teaching Ace to bark. I was told if I teach him to bark I control when he barks from now on. Any tips or tricks on how to teach a dog to bark on command?

XO, 

Ash

Aggressive Puppy

Hey everyone! Ace is getting soooooo Big!

He's 38 pounds and he has developed a love of swimming. Yep that's right this little guy loves to jump and play in the water.

He is still eating SUPER fast even though he uses a special bowl, We are still working on getting him to be less aggressive with his food and especially around Ripley.

He is still putting his hair up on occasion and getting into little fights with Ripley. We have learned to squash it before it turns into anything big and so far that is working out very well..

Any tips on how to train dog to dog aggression out?

Know any good dog trainers in Boston Ma?

XO,
Ash and Ace Face

Ace loves his uncle Scotty

Puppy Love and Hate

So Ace and Ripley are officially room mates!

Yeah so we have developed some issues right off the bat. My pup Ace is a protective pup when it comes to Mom and Dad and his food. We have had three instances that have involved food and one that involved me and Mike. Ace gets mad and snaps at Ripley. So we try and feed them in seperate rooms, or at the same time and then pick up the bowls once feeding time is over.

We are also trying to teach Ace that it's ok to let other dogs and people come and see his Mom and Dad. He means well and is such a good boy, but I am glad that we are having this problem now and we live with Ripley so we can fix this problem.

They are super cute together they play all the time and cuddle with each other. Ace is super fast and has more traction on our hardwood floors, so they play tag all the time and Ripley has trouble catching up and just trails our fast pup while whining. It's super cute and funny too!

 I love my pups! Do you have any tips or Tricks for training your dog not to be protective?

New Home

Ace face has gotten a tad confused, We recently moved out of our Apartment and his first real home. He was funny while I packed boxes and taped them up, he would grab the ends and rip the tape off. He likes his new home but its funny because once we moved all the furniture and such and went to the apartment to clean he sniffed the whole darn place. He must have been on the scent for all our stuff.

New Updates on the Pupperoni :)

- He LOVES his new crate... He even hops down off the bed and goes in there and sleeps all night with the door open.

What a good Boy!!!

- He has a new bed and is starting to love that as well... Our new House is all hard wood floors and the little stich of carpet we have he was sleeping on so we bought him a K9 Balistics Tuff Bed and he loves it :)

We got black, so he matches it! 

- He has a new backyard to run around in and play in which he loves :)

- He is loosing teeth like a lil Monster... I have found 6 teeth so far, not sure what we are gonna do with them. I wanted to make an ornament Mike says thats weird and creepy.

- He passed Puppy Class! Yay!

He is getting so big and so smart I love him so much he is such a good boy!!! Everyday he just amazes me how much  a lil person he is, he has such a personality. He has forever stolen my heart!

Puppy Class

Tonight Ace has his second to last puppy class. He is so darn smart and I just love him... we have been doing puppy pushups which is asking him to sit, lay down, sit lay down all really quick and one after another. He is very good at puppy push ups. He is also very good at staying, he can stay for duration and with distractions which is all very good. He is getting much better at leave it, its hard for him to hear mommy when my yummy steak is staring him in the face on the table at eye level, so lets just say due to my laziness of eating at the dinning room table Ace has gotten a few good licks or bites of steak here and there. Ooops. Nonetheless he is doing great and should pass the class with flying colors.

Being at class he sometimes gets NON Paleo treats, which is ok in moderation. One of the perks of where we go to puppy class is that its held in the store so we get 20% off his Orijen Puppy food which is awesome... He loves his puppy food although we have discovered that my baby boy DOES NOT CHEW his kibble. He pretty much scoops it into his mouth and swallows. When he eats you hear No crunching or chewing... what a silly boy.

He has calmed down much more as well. When he hears me pouring his food he stands at attention but he is paitient and waits for me to put down his bowls and release him before he even looks at his bowl. That's such an improvement over tackling me for the bowl and whining and barking in excitement.

He is such a good puppy, always makes  me laugh, we play hide n seek all the time its his favorite game. I can't wait to take him hiking and for him to have his own yard. We move in Ten days and I am Sure he is going to love running around in his new yard!!! So excited!

Pooped Puppy!

Ace had a VERY long weekend  and he was certainly a Pooped Pup last night. We started out with a very long ride to Jersey and that ‘lil pooch didn’t whine one bit even though we were in traffic. Friday night he did his usual kiss Rudy’s face while he barks at him and pull every single toy out of the basket and play with each and everyone until he passes out.

Saturday morning he was up bright and early at 6:30am. I tried to have him sleep in till at least 7am but he wasn’t having it. So we went potty and he played till about 8:30am while I snoozed on and off on the couch.
We left the house at 10:30 all of us headed to watch Lindsay, Catherine, and Ashlee in the Warrior Dash and try and avoid a wet and Muddy hug. But after a parking mishap and horrible planning on the Race Peoples part we ended up Dropping them off and killing an hour in time. We went down to Morristown, found a great little spot and parked. Mike and I and the pooch walked through Morristown which is a little city with shops and bars and restaurants with LOTS of people. It was GREAT practice for Ace to walk around  and walk in a popular area with a lot of distraction. He did pretty well, and only approached people that approached him first, That was AWESOME. Mike got me a coffee which was VERY much needed and we just walked and relaxed. It was HOTT HOTT HOTT but still a very nice day. After 45 minutes of that we walked back to the car got Ace some water and then headed back to the race. We found a secluded spot to park at a nearby catholic school. After playing with Ace in the parking lot I found a cut though the woods so we went on a mini hike for some warrior friends.

We got Lindz and headed off to our Nana and Gramps house. After a quick meet n greet with Aunt Karen and her Friend Cynthia, along with meeting our cousin Katelyn, and a quick kiss from Nana, Gramps and Aunt Niecy I brought Ace inside while we ate a quick lunch and for him to cool off in the AC. Mike and I had some lunch meat, some coleslaw.

We sat on the porch for most of the day chatting and playing with Ace. For dinner we ate some Burgers and BBQ chicken and some salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes from Gramps garden J YUMMY!!
Ace was pretty much passed out once I fed him. He had a pretty action packed day. After a nap he went home and did some laps or something we call the ACE 500 where he just for No reason at all starts running and barking all by himself. Then he passed out for the night with me J
Sunday he got to play with Blue a(black lab) and he met his first ever cat Rugby, but they didn’t get along too well. They got nose to nose but they didn’t play much. Ace did love playing with his toys though. Silly dog, After playing with Blue we went to see Sid and Enzo (two Goldens). I tried to get him in the lake but he had no intention of swimming.

Needless to say this is what he looked like after being in the car for only 20 minutes.

And he also slept like this a lot on the way home, silly dog. I am sure he will catch up on his sleep today while he is in the crate. He needs to rest since he will see Chance and Rudy again this weekend when we move! Yikes.