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What The World Needs Now Is A Dog Birthday Party
PetsPhotography

What The World Needs Now Is A Dog Birthday Party

by Jill
written by Jill

Arlo is home! He was away at obedience training for what wound up being 8 weeks. It was hard, and I have mixed emotions about the program itself, which I may or may not get into at a later date, but he did learn a lot (though there is still much for us to work on), and we ultimately feel like it was good for him.

I specifically saved these pictures for today- election day- because, well, we all need some pictures of dogs having a birthday party right now, don’t you think? 

While he was gone, we missed his 1st birthday. But don’t fret! We had a belated party for him last weekend.

Oh yes.

We did.

Complete with birthday crown and McDonald’s cheeseburgers.

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And unintentionally phallic balloons.

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He may not look thrilled, but Arlo suffers from Resting Sad Face. I promise a great time was had!

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He definitely DID NOT question his life. He was overcome with joy!

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Clearly!

And let’s hear it for that training. Look at him not eating those cheeseburgers.

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I actually think he and Rosie (the pug) thought it was a trap. Why would someone set out perfectly good cheeseburgers at dog-eye level?

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AND THEN LIGHT THEM ON FIRE, OMG!

img_5362Okay, maybe they questioned their lives a little.

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Or a lot.img_5384

But ultimately they got to eat the cheeseburgers! Please notice the pickle that was quite literally eaten AROUND and not touched by either.

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Message received, guys. Next party, I’ll ask McDonald’s to hold the pickles.

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If you want more Mastiff-Pug Love in your life, you can follow @ArloandRosie on Instagram. 

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A Puppy Update, Mostly In Pictures
PetsStuff

A Puppy Update, Mostly In Pictures

by Jill
written by Jill

A little Arlo & Rosie update for you…

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As we hoped (hooray!) they are best buds. It’s hilarious to watch them play together.

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I’ve posted some videos on the @ArloandRosie IG account.

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Rosie is definitely “the boss,” despite weighing probably 1/12th of what he does.

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We could not ask for a better fit when it comes to her personality blending well with not only Arlo’s, but the rest of the family. She’s just like all of us- feisty, loud, and not afraid to ask for what she wants.

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She is a true lap dog, which is a totally new experience for us. And while we’d love to snuggle with her all day (okay, not really me because at this point in pregnancy I seriously don’t want any living thing touching me), Scott broke down and got her a tiny little dog bed that fits on our desk so she can sleep there while we work. And she does! For hours!

A photo posted by Arlo & Rosie (@arloandrosie) on

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Arlo is ENORMOUS now, and while we’ve been working as best we can with him on obedience training, we’re going to take it a step further because it’s SO important that this enormous dog, who is going to be even bigger in another year, doesn’t accidentally hurt anyone, including our soon to be born baby – we know he would never do so intentionally.

We’re sending him to a dog obedience training camp, I guess you would call it? We’ll visit and work with them and him. It’s going to be hard, but it’s run with so much love and respect for the dogs, and it comes highly recommended. It’s not too far from us, a beautiful place in the country where he gets to run and play, and the investment is going to be worth it in the end. So if Arlo doesn’t show up much in my photos over the next month, that’s why.

(And thank you in advance for respecting this decision and knowing that we’ve done a ton of research and truly feel this is the best thing for HIM and for us.)

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Now, while he’s gone, we’re going to have to seriously work on little Miss Rosie. She may be incredibly adorable, but she has been awful at having accidents in the house. I can watch her all day, take her out every hour, and the minute I’m not looking she poops in the house. She was trained to use puppy pads before we got her, and I have a hunch that that taught her to poop on soft floors like carpet? IDK, is that a thing that happens? We’ve never had small dogs, and never used puppy pads.

But once she has that down, I’d love to let her sleep with Leyna every night. I mean…. tiny girl puppy snuggles!

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Fingers crossed we have two well-trained doggies on our hands come December when baby arrives.

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And Then We Got Rosie
Pets

And Then We Got Rosie

by Jill
written by Jill

I told her we’d get her a “tiny girl puppy,” and we did. Meet Rosie.

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You may be thinking she’s just the product of parent guilt and irrational pregnancy brain, but our decision to get her was much more thought out than that. She’s not just a fulfilled promise to a broken hearted Leyna after learning she would never have a baby sister.

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She’s a much needed playmate for Arlo, our 9 month old English mastiff. We’ve known for a few months that he really needs and deserves a dog that will play with him, and be a companion. Before I found out I was pregnant, we contemplated adding another mastiff to the family. That plan was quickly scratched when news of baby #4 came, though. I just… we just… we can’t with another massive dog.

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So the search for a small dog who we knew would be able to handle the chaos of this family and the size of Arlo began right after I made that promise to Leyna.

Because, oddly, now is actually the best time to do this… at least for the next year and a half. No school for the next few weeks, I’m feeling okay at 20 weeks pregnant, there’s no newborn to take care of, Scott’s not traveling for a while, and neither am I. I know the initial reaction is that we’re crazy, but I think it’s just a temporary crazy that will hopefully lead to some (relative) calm after baby is born.

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If you’re thinking, “But wait, don’t you already have another dog?” you’re right. We have a 13 year old chocolate labrador- Callie. She is SO tired.  She. is. so. tired. We honestly don’t know that she will make it much longer. And we certainly feel bad that she can’t get some peace with Arlo begging her to play all the time.

The good news is, so far, it seems our plan has worked! Arlo and Rosie wear each other out to the point of exhaustion a few times a day. And Callie is left alone to do what a 13 year old dog really wants to do- sleep.

A photo posted by Arlo & Rosie (@arloandrosie) on

From @ArloandRosie on Instagram 

It took a couple failed adoption attempts with other dogs to get to Roise, but we’re happy we found her. I never considered a pug, but now I can’t imagine a better fit for our situation. Our concern with going small was that the dog would be skittish around our loud and rambunctious family, not to mention the 100+ lb dog we’d want them to play with. But Rosie has a feisty personality and doesn’t seem to realize she’s the size of Arlo’s poops.

Press play!

A video posted by Arlo & Rosie (@arloandrosie) on

I think it helps that she came from a family with a toddler and goats. We are comparable to a pack of toddlers and goats.

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He’s Smelly & He Snores & He’s One of Us – Arlo the Mastiff
PetsPhotography

He’s Smelly & He Snores & He’s One of Us – Arlo the Mastiff

by Jill
written by Jill

We’ve had Arlo for about a month, and he’s probably three times as big as he was when we picked him up.

I would weigh him but our scale is broken and I don’t really want to fix it because I like eating Girl Scout cookies without guilt.

Much like Arlo likes eating his own poop.

Cutest poop breath monster.

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He is *mostly* house trained, and yes, we know the poop eating can be a sign of something off, but we’re pretty sure it’s just a puppy thing right now. And yes, we’ve done the pineapple and the meat tenderizer added to his food thing, but he still persists the few times he gets away from us and into a dark corner of the front room long enough to poop himself a tasty snack.

He still sleeps in his crate, but we finally moved it to our room (it was in the office at first) so he can now sing us his sweet snoring lullaby every night. I woke Scott up the first night, thinking it was HIM snoring. Nope. The dog. The 10 week old dog, snoring like a grown man. Precious.

He does not, however, sleep in the baby jail during the day anymore. That lasted for about…. 10 days.

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He is very smelly. Very, very, very smelly. I think this just means he’s a normal Mastiff because our last one also oozed swamp smells from his butt.

It’s a good thing he is CRAZY cute.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on

He went through a phase for a few weeks where he really, really loved snuggling with Scott’s boots. So okay, eat your poop, whatever. You’re adorable.

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He’s learning to walk on a leash, and to sit, and to walk up the stairs and find toys he wants to play with. That last trick is not encouraged.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on

He howls.

A video posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on

He sleeps. A lot.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on

He has finally made Callie at least acknowledge his existence, and occasionally manages some snuggles with her.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on

He’s loud, and messy, and gross, and he makes a huge mess. So, seems like he’s assimilating well. He’s one of us.

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Christmas & Puppies & Glitter Beards
ParenthoodPetsPhotography

Christmas & Puppies & Glitter Beards

by Jill
written by Jill

I really checked out over the break, didn’t I? I started to feel bad about that. For not posting pictures here of our Christmas and New Years. Sometimes I’m SUCH a BAD blogger.

Post every day at the same time, they say. That’s literally my New Years resolution for the blog every single year.

But I’m not going to lament and type up excuses. Same old song and dance. I feel like I’ve written this post 20x before.

How were YOUR holidays? I hope they were lovely and relaxing. At least I can say I feel relaxed!

I mean, Lowell is still waking 2-4 times a night, and I have a puppy to watch every waking moment, but you know. It’s relative.

No real resolutions for me this year, no diets. Definitely no Whole 30 this year (but you have fun if you’re doing one!). I DID order a Passion Planner which should get here soon. Oh! And I got an Apple Watch for Christmas from Scott, and I totally thought it was going to be gimmicky but it’s actually so freaking useful and maybe it will change my life.

Anyway, it’s a Monday, and I have the kids home with me today, so gotta go, like, be a present mom and stuff. But here are some pictures! I’ll be back tomorrow. I promise. Because SCHOOL!! I hope you will be, too. Happy 2016!
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Arlo lived under the Christmas tree most of the time, which made him adorably sad when we had to put it up.

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Christmas was the best year so far. The kids ages are magical.

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THIS THING is the best toy ever invented. (Step 2 Extreme Roller Coaster)

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Leyna turned 5! FIVE.

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Annnnnnd I gave Scott a glitter beard.

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So I’m pretty much caught up now. That’s basically all you missed. Well, that and the time I had to have a talk with the kids about why we don’t put pictures of naked butts on the computer, and how I bought my 2.5 year old pacis for the first time in 2 years.

But there will be time to go over all that later this week.

Picture settings in the carousel below for those of you visiting via desktop view.

 

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How Arlo Found Us
ParenthoodPets

How Arlo Found Us

by Jill
written by Jill

I didn’t want another dog for a long, long time after we put our English mastiff Bruno down the day after Lowell was born.

That was 2.5 years ago.

I said, let’s wait until Callie, our chocolate lab, passes.

She’s still alive and well (and nearly 13 years old).

I have enjoyed the lack of grown-man sized poops in our back yard and not having to worry about slipping on a puddle of slimy drool on our floor.

More pics of Arlo in this post!

The baseboards in this new home have no idea what’s coming (nor does the ceiling or the walls or the kitchen cabinets). I haven’t even stocked up on Magic Erasers yet. The kids are going to have to learn what a “slobber towel” is and how to get one quickly before they are slimed.

Mastiffs are messy and enormous and they poop very big poops.

And we missed having one in our family, like the crazy people we are.

A brief history of Bruno, our last English mastiff:

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We got him when he was 4 months old. A woman bought him from a pet-store, not realizing he would grow to outweigh her husband. We paid her a small re-homing fee, and he went to us instead of a shelter. A month later he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and we gave him 2 injections of insulin a day, and checked his blood sugar levels with a human glucose monitor multiple times a day for the rest of his life.

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When he was diagnosed, the vet told us we’d be lucky to get 5-6 years from him. He lived 10 years, which is an average life expectancy for a healthy mastiff.

He was a ton of work, and we never regretted any of it, even at the end when I was 9 months pregnant and he began having multiple seizures a day. Was I happy about it? Of course not, but I’ll never take that time back.

We grew to adore the breed. Truly, he was such a special dog. We had him long before we had kids. He was basically blind from cataracts by the time we brought our first baby home. He was never anything but loving toward all our children.

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Kendall, 3 days old, and Bruno, 5 years old

Scott left me at the hospital with a 1 day old newborn to take Bruno to be put down. He’d had a seizure while in the backyard for a potty break. My mom couldn’t lift him to bring him in from the hot July sun.

I knew from the minute Scott came back, trying to hold his broken heart together for his wife and new son, that we would have another mastiff someday. What a shame that Lowell never got to know Bruno.

I thought we’d rescue one. For a few months I’ve been checking out local rescue groups. The thing about massive breeds, though, is some people in this world think they should be made into intimidating, fearful dogs.

It worried me to bring in a mastiff more than a few months old who may have been treated to fear humans or expect harm from them. You’re looking at a potentially 200+ lb dog with social issues, and while these can be worked through, we are not at a place to put our young children in that position.

Mastiff puppies never came up on any rescue sites.

So I began researching reputable breeders in the area. The kind that devote their lives to this breed, and aren’t producing puppies to be as giant as possible, but breeding for that gentle disposition that we fell in love with in Bruno.

After a bit of a hunt, and some wait lists, I found that one was adopting out a 12 month old mastiff, and I thought this might be the best compromise -an older dog, house trained, who needed a good home.

She wouldn’t sell him to me. Her concerns were that he wasn’t raised around children up to that point, and that would be okay if we had older kids, but knowing we had a 2.5 year old she didn’t think it would be a good fit.

Plus, there was a man coming to see about him the next day.

I respected her so much for that.

She followed up to let me know that she did have a litter of puppies ready to go that weekend, though. And yes, she had 2 brindle males, just like what we were looking for.

Well hell, I knew right then we were going to get a puppy.

We drove 2 hours out into the country, and we fell in love with her dogs and her. Her heart was the size of Texas, and you could tell she devotes her life not just to her mastiffs, but to animals in general. She had several cats and other dogs she’d rescued on the acres of land they lived on. It was like a happy animal farm.

Unlike the last time, when we knew Bruno came from a puppy mill and we never got to see his parents, this felt so right. Arlo came from a house of love. His parents were happy. Here’s his daddy, Hugo. (I couldn’t get a good pic of his mom. She was a runner.)

The Arlo we have now wasn’t our first choice. We went there thinking we’d get his larger brother with lighter brindle coloring. Scott loved the size of him at first glance and didn’t even really consider the other brindle male.

That is until the 2nd brindle attached himself to Kendall, following him around the puppy box. He walked right up to me and put his face in my hands while all the other puppies ran the other direction with the larger brindle male.

That one was the bossy pants ring-leader. This one? He was independent and sweet.

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The breeder encouraged us to give him a better look. She felt he’d be a great fit for a family with a toddler. I love how she gently encouraged us to make the right choice, all the while letting us think it was our idea.

And yes, this was a family choice. A couple people asked if he was going to be a surprise Christmas gift for the kids. I respect that this is something some families do, and I don’t think less of them for it.

For us, though, we really wanted the kids to grasp that this dog is a lifetime commitment from everyone in our family.

He’s a pet, not a present. He’s not something we can donate to someone else in 6 months. He’s ours if he gets broken, he’s ours if he gets boring.

Kendall is very proud of the fact that our Arlo chose HIM. We didn’t find Arlo, Arlo found us.

Also, Arlo has an Instagram account now – @ArloTheMastiff– because I can’t stop taking pictures of his sweet face.

Press play!

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Can’t Talk Long. Got A New Baby.
PetsPhotography

Can’t Talk Long. Got A New Baby.

by Jill
written by Jill

Of course, there’s a story behind this, but for now, this is all I can share.

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He’s an 8 week old English Mastiff. We named him Arlo.

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Yes, after The Good Dinosaur.

Scott and Leyna wanted to name him Bowser, at first. I was campaigning for Slimer (because MASTIFF), and Kendall wanted to name him Mike.

But he is an Arlo.

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Such a lover. He chose us. He wouldn’t let us leave without him.

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We purchased him from a reputable breeder, and he’s AKC registered.

You guys, we set out to adopt, and I fully believe in the rescue system. I’ve rescued many animals. But that didn’t work out this time, and I am confident we made the right decision for our family with this puppy. More on that in another post.

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For now, I have a baby to take care of. He’s SO good at going potty outside… if only I take him fast enough.

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And yes, I took pictures of him yesterday because we know from experience that he will be SO BIG SO SOON.

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More to come later this week on how we found him, why we decided to commit to him, and why he’s not a Christmas puppy.

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