Adventures at the Pet Cafe

So I had visited the Pet Cafe before but without Daphne. I like that it's a small neighborhood type pet store so that even though the products may be more expensive (because they only carry the good/expensive brands), I like supporting a small business. Plus they have Daphne's favorite squeak toy, which I love because it has no stuffing and replaceable squeakers. Today was my first trip with her. She was very excited but it brought out a concern I have. I got her a meal (I think she really likes the concept of lunch) and some doggie ice cream for dessert. She scarfed them down. There was another dog at the table next to us who got its meal a second before us and it ate it nice and slow. Daphne must have beat this dog by like a minute or two. Ice cream is something I won't be trying at home. She didn't understand that she was suppose to lick it not chomp and chew it. But it was fun. My concern was the fact that she does scarf down the food, like I starve her or something. My sister's dog does the same thing so I know it's not that I am but perhaps I am underfeeding her a bit. I feed her what the bag tells me too but I have a feeling it might factor in people giving their dogs treats. I don't give her treats with any sort of regularity. I guess the only one she gets often is the one I put in the Kong as I leave in the morning. But that's really the only treats she gets. Sometime she'll get some when I'm training her and occassionally she'll get a Busy Bone or something while I eat but she doesn't get something regularly. I guess I've just been so afraid of making her overweight or making her come to expect and demand (through whining) treats at a certain time the other dogs in my family. But I think I should give her some treats after dinner or something. So I picked up the treats my sister gives her dogs which are all natural and I'm going to try to set up some sort of daily treat giving. Perhaps it will stop her from acting like I starve her!

Hangs head in shame :(

So I haven't updated in forever and I apologize. It's been rather crazy two months. I think the first thing I should update about is our wonderful camping/hiking trip to Texas. This was when I discovered that Daphne is okay in the car though she likes to look out of the window a lot. I took the back seats out and she was sort of upset about that as she could no longer see out the windows. So we piled up some stuff so she could see. That means I should probably put at least one of the seats back in the car for the trip home. She also loves hiking, especially rock climbing. We decided to climb up this old stream bed up to cave in the side of the cliffs. Pretty steep and full of boulders and rocks. At first I was hesitant to take her with us but another thing we found out was that she has become really really clingy. Every time we left the car she would start doing this horrible whiny bark and she even did it even when Jenn stayed in the car. So we brought her and she was hopping her way up the rocks. Even boulders three times her height she scaled by jumping up and then digging in. She even didn't mind camping, except for the short times we had to leave her tied up by the campsite while we got stuff from the car. She learned that the tent was inside and enjoyed cuddling up with us among our sleeping bags. She also quickly learned that cacti hurt. Enjoy some pictures!



Then I went away for 1.5 weeks for the wedding extravaganza and I got back to an extremely clingy dog. She now cuddles up with me on the couch rather than sitting on the other side and the worse part is in the bed. She use to just sleep in the corner far away from me but now she tries to sleep right next to me. It really doesn't work all that well as I turn a lot and get hot easily. But I like that she really loves me. Also she has gotten better with her commands and is getting better with the "come" command. I really hope she doesn't lose it all when we go home with mom and grandma. . . .

Last night was Halloween and we didn't get any trick or treaters. I got her a costume though because I was planning on going to the Doggie Costume Parade last weekend but I was sick. So here's a few cute pics from last night. And I think I'm up to date now.