All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth... fangs and molars

The tooth fairy will be busy the next few months as we just discovered this week that Charlie lost his first two baby teeth: bottom row, front and center. While his gummy smile is ridiculously cute the irritability and chewing that accompanies the next several weeks is not. The Nylabone, once ignored, is a new favorite of his along with the ChillyBone, a canvas bone that can be soaked and frozen, both seem to sooth his imaginably aching gums. 

Bird Chasing - A Series

Don't tell Charlie what he's chewing

Charlie is a chewer. Plain and simple. Anything he can get his teeth on he is happy to chew. His preferences include: shoelaces, our couch, magazines, the living room rug and of course my hands. The only thing Charlie likes chewing better than any of these things is a tasty, fragrant bully stick. I like to think of the bully stick as a puppy pacifier, when all else fails it is our go to for calming the little wild man's snapping jaws. For those of you unfamiliar a bully stick, aka "macho sticks" aka "bully bone" aka "pizzles" is a dog treat made from a dried bull's penis. While some dog owner's have qualms about allowing their Fidos to chomp on animal parts, bullysticks are all natural, fully-ingestible and unlike rawhide will not choke or obstruct a dog's bowel. Charlie is of course oblivious to the true nature of his favorite chew stick and I am happy to keep him in blissful chewing  ignorance especially when it spares our furniture, flesh and sanity.

Dog parks - the blog

Check out this great blog on all things Dog Park. Just awaiting final vaccines, but we are itching for our first field trip to the local dog park and are lucky enough to have three within spitting distance! 

Up with hope... Up with dope!

Finally had a private session with the dog trainer last week, of course it happened to be at 10am, coinciding perfectly with Charlie's morning naptime, thus rendering him drowsy and cute and leaving our protests of aggressive behavior and nipping seeming just silly if even made up. Caryl, the trainer spoke to us at length and gave us a few tips on dealing with aformentioned non-visible behavior, which of course when applied during awake periods of playful aggression are all but useless. One tip, however, was more than well-received by both owner and pup: doggie dope.

Doggie dope, otherwise known as Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Dog Food Rolls, is literally the canine equivalent of the greatest thing since sliced bread. This doggie smack can be sliced, crumbled or shredded to be added to food or more importantly used as a tasty treat, especially handy as a training aide. There is nothing Charlie wouldn't do for a fix!