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My Boxer, No Longer a Puppy

24 Sep

My Boxer, Leah, is not longer a puppy as she officially turned a year old in August. She has gained that regal Boxer look, and she is still very sweet. Thinks she’s a lap dog, and owns the couch, but that’s my spoiling showing up.

Unlike Brody, my Jack Russell, she doesn’t chew and destroy her squeaky toys, nor does she jump on people or bark like crazy when the doorbell rings.

Purebred Boxer

My Princess “Leah”

No, she wasn’t named after the Star Wars character, Princess Lei , but after a boxer we knew named Princess, and a derivation of my Leo, my Dad’s name who loved Boxers.

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Introducing Leah the Boxer

3 May

Leah, a Brindle Boxer

Introducing the newest member of our family, Leah a brindle Boxer. She’s now eight months old and I’m a little late in posting her pictures,but here’s a snapshot of her life so far.

She’s a sweet little girl, smart as a tack, and  extremely gentle. Only heard her bark twice, she learned to walk on a loose lead in just a few days and that in itself takes some getting used to as my Jack Russel, Brody is like a freight train at the end of the leash.

Speaking of Brody he took to her right away and is extremely tolerant. At first I thought he was picking on her. Nope the other way around. Leah used Brody’s hind legs as teething toys. Literally, as Brody would walk or run by Leah would take the opportunity to grab at his hocks. Most of the time my ferocious Jack Russell would roll over and let her continue to chew, all the while “growling and complaining.” He really does love her.

At one time Leah could easily walk under Brody’s stomach, now it’s the other way around. She’s almost done growing, at least in height, but based on her food intact she has a lot of filling out to do before she’s mature.

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Day 204/365: Thor, The Mythological God of Thunder

29 Jun

Can you see Thor?

Can you see Thor?

 

Phone rings…

Beth driving home from Lincoln: “Have you seen the sky?”

Me: “No, but let me look, OMG, it’s awesome! I gotta get my camera”

Beth: “The clouds are really scary, be careful”

Me: “I’m looking at the storm clouds over your house, very cool”

“Oh, my, one of your cats is on the roof again.”

Beth: “What color is the cat?”

Me: “Black and white”

Beth: “That makes sense, that Thor, the god of thunder”

Can you see him, he’s to the left of basketball hoop on the front roof, a little white smudge.

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Day 166/365: Meet Romeo the Basset Hound

21 May

Romeo the Basset Hound

Romeo the Basset Hound

Thanks to my friend Julie, who suggested I take a tangent from my flower photography, I got this wonderful photo of her Basset Hound Romeo. Isn’t he a darling?

I’ve never been too successful with pet photography it’s always been purely by luck if I get a good picture. My digital camera has a very slow shutter lag that causes me to miss the perfect shots. But, I was using my son’s Canon Rebel EOS while he was on home from the Marines.

So happy I stepped outside my box. I did a series on pet photographers on the Dog411 blog I write for Pet and Kennel Supply and have seen some wonderful pet photographs.  If I ever get a better camera I’m going to try some more. I just LOVE this picture and it’s really becoming my favorite. The one below is pretty cute too, I caught him in mid howl.

Romeo the Basset Hound

Romeo the Basset Hound

So how do you overcome the shutter lag? Even when I press halfway down I miss “the shot”, this makes me want to buy a higher end camera in the worst way.

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Day 129/265: My New Car, a Ford Escape

14 Apr

After ten years of driving Subaru Outbacks I wanted something a little bigger. You see my fiancee is over 6’4″ and an ex-defensive lineman, so a smaller car is not very comfortable. But from driving a Subaru I was also spoiled to all wheel drive.

My goal, a smaller domestic 4×4 SUV that got good gas mileage. I live in Nebraska, you might have seen a little of our winters, and I didn’t feel comfortable driving a 2WD. So after doing my research on www.fueleconomy.gov I decided that my decision was a Ford Escape. Isn’t she pretty?

2001 Ford Escape

I searched all over the internet  for a good deal on a pre-owned car. I had a price range where I wanted to stay and expectations on mileage. Sometimes you just have to throw that out the window when you find a good deal. This 2001 Escape had just been detailed and pictures were just uploaded onto the internet when I saw it. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time.

Facts: Baxter Jeep Dodge, Omaha (ask for Kenny), 2001 Ford Escape XLS, 69,291 miles, asking $8,950

I knew from all my searches that for an Escape in that price range I wouldn’t be able to find with less than 120,000 miles. I had spent hours looking at other Escapes in the area and none were in this good of shape or as clean. But I had to bargain, and I did, hard. After several hours of deliberation we settled on $7,995.

After driving it to Des Moines the next day it got 22-24 mpg on the highway, not bad for the size vehicle. My Subaru consistently got 25 mpg.

So I drove it off the lot that night. One of the first things I did was buy a Dog Pet Barrier for the back. No more dog hair in my back seat.  Below is the day I installed it and we went to the park to enjoy the sun and a good book.

Day 129: Off the the park!

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Day 125/365: Kyjen Dog Toy Test, Part 2

10 Apr

Day 125: The Evil Stare

Welcome to phase two of my Kyjen dog toy test, we first reviewed the This Hard Core FireHose dog toy made by Kyjen Dog Products was the toughest match for my insane Jack Russell. Can you see the green glow to his eyes? Yes, this fabric is the same kind used to make firehoses, tough, durable, but not exactly Brody tough. It did take a few hours to breach the end, totally wore him out and he had to take a rest.

Toy testing is hard work,...

He was bound and determined that no one was going to have his toy and he guarded it well. This small dog toy is tough though. It is tightly packed with fluff, and has a squeaker at both ends. Took several hours of diligent work to get the first one out, but because the fabric is so tough Brody couldn’t tear the rest to get down the narrow opening to the last squeaker.

Can you see remnants of fluff under the couch?

Over twenty-four hours later the squeaker remained in the opposite end and just puzzled him. In a couple of days the Firehose toy did submit and give it up. You might ask what do I do with all these “dead” toys. I throw them in his basket, empty skins, chewed balls with holes and he does take them out one at a time to examine them. For example Brody still tosses his Real Squeaker Mat from Kyjen.

I’ll tell you about that one in the next edition of Brody’s Dog Toy Test.

 

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Day 121/365: Kyjen Dog Toys, Official Tester

6 Apr

A Box of Toys! For ME?

Many of you have followed my quest to find the indestructible dog toy. Specifically a squeaky toy, as so far only the Kongs have survived. My postings on this adventure attracted the attention of the Kyjen Company who makes unique and innovative dog products.

They sent graciously Brody a box of challenging and definitely unique squeaky toys and I’m going to do them justice during my by documenting Brody’s experience.

I let Brody pick out of the box and the first one he picked was the Hard Boiled Softies. It honks rather than squeaks and this was different. It is a plush covering with a hard rubber “yolk” inside.

It's a bee! It's different!

He pushed and honked it and eventually the antennae and the wings came off. Then he went to work on the bottom part of the plush bee because he couldn’t get at the noisemaker. After a few hours the egg came loose from its fabric. I was very impressed with the thick rubber construction. Since it was a very large size it was more difficult to puncture.

Got it loose!

After the egg was out of the “shell” Brody played and bounced it around all night. What? All night, a toy actually lasted all night? This is a first! The squeaker stayed in the egg even. It wasn’t until the next day the squeaker became dislodged and disappeared inside the dog toy cavity. I fully expected it then to be chewed into many pieces. Nope.

A week later I’m using the egg as a treat toy. I break up his dog bones into three pieces and put them inside. It’s a perfect size the egg is large enough in diameter to encourage some serious chewing and tossing to get them out.  This next phase of toy play will last him hours if I keep the treat pieces large enough.

I have put the egg back in it’s shell a few times, but it’s chewed up enough where it doesn’t stay. But I’m impressed. As you can see from the video Brody really loves his toys, small toys are a challenge to play interactively with him as he plays keep away. Next review is of a toy that is the perfect size in my opinion, maybe if they merged the two together?

Thank You Kyjen!

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Day 116/365: Mighty Dog Ball

2 Apr

Day 116: Dog Toy testing

Brody my Jack Russel is at it again, testing dog toys. He loves this job. I on the other hand am getting tired of toys only lasting a few hours. Tried something a little different this time, The Mighty Dog Ball. This particular squeaky toy from MyDogToy.com had a hard rubber interior, no fluff. As usual Brody loved the ball, pushing on it making it squeak, chewing on it until the fabric was soggy.

That novelty lasted thirty minutes until his tooth punctured the fabric, then the tugging began. Within ten minutes the fabric was off. The ball inside would have been a good option for an additional play toy, if it were tougher, like  Kong tough. (Kong toys are the only ones he can’t destroy).

Back to the Mighty Dog Ball. He found the little squeaky device and purposely extracted the offending noise, then chewed it to bits. Time. one hour fifteen minutes.

Coming up in a special addition is a feature on the Kyjen Dog Toy Company. They have caught wind of Brody’s amazing destructive ability and sent him (and me) a whole box of toys to test and review.

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Day 93/365: Cat on the Porch

8 Mar

Day 93: Cat on the Porch

Day 93: Cat on the Porch

Another trip to the mailbox and a stop at my neighbors house, her cats will be a common subject as the weather gets nicer.  It was a drab overcast day and I was disappointed with the original picture. No sun, no oomph, so I worked some photoshop magic.

Photoshop CS2 Notes: Regular adjustment layers with smart sharpen, then went in and decreased the lighting, bumped up the contrast, and added a warming filter. What a difference! After adding some additional sharpening on the face and whiskers and  I was happy.

SOOC (Straight out of camera)

SOOC (Straight out of camera)

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Day 85/365: Dog Toy Testing Continues

26 Feb

Day 85: Brody's New Toy

Day 85: Brody's New Toy

Brody seems so happy, and he is, happy to destroy any squeaky dog toy that comes into the house.  If you read his previous toy escapade, you will see he is quite the toy enthusiast and he’s at it again, another dog toy test, another day with fluff littering the living room. Mighty Dog Toys are promoted as being tested by tigers (watch videos here) and encourages the consumer to rethink durability.  I signed up to be a toy tester with MyDogToy.com to save money, they are half price if you agree to review the toy on the website, now it’s become a challenge. I hope the feedback I give VIP Products will learn actually create an indestructible dog toy. Wouldn’t that be wonderful.

Look at me, look at me!!

This has been the best squeaky dog toy so far. I liked it because it was big enough to grab and pull away from Brody without getting near his mouth. The Mega Gear Ring was much easier to play fetch and throw, I loved it and I  think Brody even loved the big size. The Ring seemed to fight with him as he ran and he carried it various ways with his head  the middle of the circle. Tried to get various pictures, but he moved too fast.

The outside fabric was quilted and prevented him from pulling all the outside cover off. That frustrated him to no end, he could only rip one square inch of fabric at a time. Mighty Dog Toys goes to great lengths to attempt to make their toys durable, and for normal dogs, or even persistent dogs this would work, as you can see below VIP Products tries really hard.

Seven Rows of Stitching Each toy’s seven layers of material are sewn together with two rows of linear stitching and two rows of cross stitching. The four rows of stitching are protected with an industrial grade luggage material that is sewn 3 more times. Seven Layers of Material Three layers of 600 Denier industrial grade material, three layers of plastic coating and finally one layer of soft fleece. All seven layers are rolled together and then sewn with a one inch cross pattern to prevent layer separation. Protective Webbing Additional industrial grade luggage material is sewn around the outside edge with three rows of stitching to cover and protect the first four rows of stitching. Squeaker Safety Pockets Each Squeaker is safe and quiet because they are sewn into a nylon safety pocket beneath seven layers of material.

Yes, I'm the destroyer, bring on the next one...

It took Brody almost 2 hours to penetrate and release fluff. This is the longest of any dog toy I’ve ever gotten him. Then it was only one of four compartments.
This was great!  He literally exhausted himself. The last compartment wasn’t breached for almost six hours. He eventually tore and ripped holes in the fabric, but threw and tossed it around for the next couple of days.

We had a lot of fun with this one, and if I had taken it away after a few hours, then given it back later, it would of latest for days.

Photoshop Notes:  Top picture, which really is my “photo of the day “,  normal action layers, but I erased the background in the upper left of the cabinet and Xbox controllers, it was distracting and messy

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