Tara Croft: Poop Raider

Tara is doing well. She is bringing up the rear of the litter and weighing in at 30 pounds. As I type, she is playing with her newspaper chew toy right next to Kiko, so as to tantalize him and try to get him to play with her. Too cute! Here are a few things Tara is into this week (besides poop eating, which of course continues to top the list):

1. Tara has this very adorable little grunt that she does. She's not big on licking your face, but sometimes when she "noses" us or is in a really good mood she does this very cute little grunt. Kind of like a baby pot belly pig, it's just really fun to hear!

2. Tara gets the hiccups. a lot. I've never known a dog to hiccup before, but Tara gets the hiccups several times each week. I don't think she is eating too fast or anything like that (we use the 'eat better' bowl and also her treat ball for meals). She just gets the hiccups fairly often.

3. She lost at least two baby teeth last week. I happened to see one hanging sideways by a thread in her mouth one night, and the next morning two were gone. I did not find them, but I can see the new teeth starting to come through the surface.

4. Tara discovered the upstairs and the basement this week. The upstairs is exciting because my cat, Lilith, lives up there most of the time. Although Lilith is not very friendly to dogs, Tara is still intrigued. And the basement is even more exciting because the kitty litter boxes are down there . . . and of course, cat poop! She knows she's not supposed to go up or downstairs so she's been taking ninja lessons to effectively tip toe on the stairs without anybody noticing. We've creatively blocked both entranceways to upstairs and basement now, and so sometimes she sits at the gate and stares longingly up or down the stairs and whines to let me know that I have blocked one of her favorite pasttimes.

5. When Tara wants to get off of the couch, lounger, or chair, instead of walking or jumping off she lays down and slides her body off of the chair in a snake-like fashion. It is hysterical. We don't know why she does this, but I think maybe sometimes she is trying to decide whether she really wants to leave or not and then takes her sweet time deciding while she slowly rolls off the place she's sitting.

Pet Names oozing with "cute"

This post was inspired by my friends, Nathan & Charles, and their dog Sadie. Sadie has what I think is the best alias pet name EVER: Mrs. Woofington. Yes, that's right. It's so good that I think they should copyright it, because I am tempted to steal it every day.

Everyone has cutesy names for their pets and loved ones. And we're certainly not having any shortage of pet names in our household! In fact, Sam and I often make up songs for our pets that go along with their pet names, or that sing to the tune of popular songs. Here are some of our favorite names for our furry four-legged babies. What are some of your favorite "pet" names for your loved ones?

Kiko
kiko biko
kiko butter
kikos fart-anopolis (his greek name)
keekster & keekmeister (from his aunt katy)
keeker beeker
buddy
buddy-boo-bah
snorey-snore-alot


Tara
Tara-bo-bara
Sleepyhead
T-time
Tara-boo
Tarr-ible (when she's in full-on energy puppy mode)
Tare-bear
baby bear

Lilith
Lily girl
Lily
lily-potamus
sweet baby girl

It always comes back to Kiko

One of my friends mentioned that this blog is titled "kiko and his furry friends" but then all the photos are of Tara. Now, that's not exactly true, but . . . point taken. If you go back far enough there is some history and many photos of Kiko, from when I first began this blog. But it feels like too much time has lapsed since Kiko's last featured post, so here it is.

Many people ask, "So how is Kiko doing with this new puppy?" Well, it's been a process for sure, but I think Kiko is doing really well with his new charge of "big brother." At first Kiko barely tolerated Tara, as she wanted to chew on him and attack him in play, all the time. But as Tara has grown and matured some she has started to understand that Kiko is not her chew toy, and she is gentler with him. And as her gentleness grows, so does Kiko's acceptance of Tara. As of last week, we see Kiko allowing Tara to snuggle with him on the bear chair, and sometimes he follows her out at the dog park. Overall he is still Kiko, who's favorite pasttime is snoring away while he's cuddling with you. So, as long as Tara wants to participate in that, Kiko's all for hanging out! Besides that, we have noticed that Kiko has developed some more food aggression than he had with Bentley. In fact, I think Bentley taught Kiko about food aggression, so I am really hoping Kiko does not pass that on to Tara . . .

Ok, well enough talk. Let's get to some Kiko-fabulous photos!

This is a test post to see if my posts show up on Sam's website . . .

Berners and pugs and friends, oh my!

Today Tara and Kiko met up with some friends at the dog park . . . A beautiful and gentle 3 1/2 year old berner named Brody, a german shephard / corgi mix friend named Logan, Maya the beautiful golden retriever, and Siva the sleek and playful shephard mix! She also played with some other dogs, a german shephard named Sasha and a cute little hound puppy. We've been watching Tara closely at the dog park, because we know sometimes dogs can be aggressive there, but she seems to seek out the gentler playful dogs and tries to run with them. In a few photos here, you can see Tara and Brody sharing a stick together. How sweet!

Tara's Weekly Top Ten

I really like posting a weekly Top Ten list for Tara, because I think it is a nice way to pay attention to what she likes/doesn't like on a weekly basis and to see what she is learning and how she is growing over several weeks. So, here is her top ten for this week (18 weeks old).

Tara's Top Ten For This Week

1. Being sideways and upside down (Tara can get herself into all kinds of crazy positions)
2. Eating poop
3. Eating sticks
4. Going to the dog park and getting slobbered on by other dogs
5. Trying to get her gentle leader off (although she is getting used to it through her normal fun activities)
6. Laying underneath the coffeetable
7. Snuggling with Kiko and getting into Kiko's bed with him
8. Belly rubs
9. Eating her 'puppy fish' and bully sticks
10. Eating her breakfast and lunch out of her 'treat ball' instead of her bowl

Tara's Not-Favorite Things
1. This week we discovered she is afraid of the wind. We were at the dog park when this fear of wind came on suddenly. She began trying to run away from the wind. So I started doing recall and sit with her to redirect her attention and that worked pretty well, she eventually became less afraid of the big bad wind.

We are using the Susan Garrett training tips that Mary-Ann alerted us to a few weeks ago, and they are really fabulous. Today is week 4 at puppy class, and she is doing pretty well. Walking on a leash is becoming much easier since we started using the gentle leader, and Susan Garrett had some great tips today on how to really normalize using this head collar.

Dog Park!

This weekend Tara went to the dog park for the very first time! Her and Kiko had a blast, she played and played and played with just about every dog in the park. Kiko found another little pug named Maya to play with! What we've realized about Kiko, is that he is like the "doorman" to the club, at the dog park. He loves to hang out by the gate, check out and greet the new dogs as they come in, and then keep the line moving! Kiko does not like to hang out with any one dog for very long, just enough for a proper greeting and then he wants them to move on. Ahh, Kiko, always makes us laugh and smile!

Here are some shots of Tara and Kiko at the park, and also some of Tara snuggling with Kiko on the bear chair that night after the dog park (passed out!). Enjoy