Slurpie Turns 1

My Christmas Eve Baby - Slurpie is 1!

to celebrate his 1st birthday on 24th Dec 2008 we went to cold storage today and bought a premium slab of beef sirloin. I seared it slightly in olive oil and his sides are boiled sweet potato and veggie (capsicum and broccoli). Look at his wistful face as he awaits the command to start his feast!



And this is him getting all buddy buddy with his ah gu birthday present

Pic of the month - Telok Blangah Waves

I am turning a year old soon!

Doggie Crane

This is our new devise that can pick up objects safely and securely......introducing the doggie crane system:

Fridge Raider

No matter where Slurpie is in the house, underneath the sofa, in the room or out at the balcony and no matter what he is doing, sleeping, chewing his toys or peeing even, he is always by the fridge within seconds when it is opened. He knows his favorite apples are in there! Fridge = Food. His theory is to Sha Chuo Bu Fang Guo I think cos we really do not feed him from the fridge but somehow he notices that his food are stored there maybe!

Stripped!

Overdued pics of how Slurpie looked after the Stripping. The first stripped portions of head and back has already grow out and the fur is very straight and shinny. Nice!

In 2 mths time he should be a handsome boy! Note he was not really affected when we did it as we did it slowly and sometimes he will actually fall asleep.

Play date doggie care

Boxster a 6 mths old salt and pepper belonging to the neighbor came for a play date one Sunday afternoon. He is hyper! The 2 can wrestle non stop, take a 1 min break next to each other or wait while the other take a drink of water and start wrestling again! Well no complains as that gave us the luxury to just relax and watch some TV while they entertained each other =) Wrestling pics are a blur as they were that hyper so could only manage their resting shots.

Nutritional Meals

We have started slurpie on nutritional barf diet, raw beef/lamb/kangaroo meat with veggies and sometimes some boiled potatoes. He is loving it and I guess it must be good for him too as his poo has reduced meaning most of it has been digested and absorbed?? Less stinky breathe too and we think he is putting on muscles not fat =).

What we do is to buy the meat and veggies and prepare them over the weekend into meal size portions using plastic bags and freeze them. Every night we will defrost 2 portions for the next day in the fridge. Its simple actually as all it takes is lots of chopping of the veggie and some packing. The vegs are cheap, I just buy what looks fresh and is having promotional prices (like 3 broccolli for $2.15). For meat we go for minced frozen beef/lamb about $5 for 5 days portion. Kangaroo meat for pets from Cold Storage Katong, hugh pack for about 10 days portion for less than $10. Healthy and good! What you see below has some Alfalfa from our salad yums....

MOVIE of the year

ok so the photos are still in the camera and i have been slacking. But good things must share and this had to be timely!

MARLEY & ME is ocming soon on the big screen, yeahhhhhh. Loved loved loved the book and while movie versions seldom can meet the expectations, i am sure i wouldn't mind this one since there will be cute labs haha.

Watch the sneak here

Schnauzers Gathering at Sentosa again

26th Oct 2008
tanjong beach, sentosa

After 4 mths we are back for the gathering at Sentosa. This time the weather was perfect, cloudy and no rain perhaps because it was also the Barkday Party of the year. Slurpie was surprising well behaved, never barked once. Only time he was notti was when he was distracted by this other schnauzer (male too) and he went off to the beach following him while Slurppa and me panicked and went about searching when i realised my bumble bee was gone!

Still had not downloaded pics from my cam so i stole from Serene's page haha. She has the whole event posted in great details. Go look here >>> Thanks for the great gathering gals! Will upload mine asap.

By the way i was not being cruel and making slurpie wear bumble in the sun but cos he has just been stripped and we did not want the sand and sun to irritate his skin.

Slurpie was so happy

Bumble Bee, Slurpie (aka the hand-stripped Botak) LOL~

Slurpie, digging for gold bars? bones?

End result of the digging~ muahahaha

Ahhhhh~ The sand below is cooler!

Ebi checking Slurpie out

Jester checking the Bee out

Designer Home

wouldn't it be wonderful if Slurpie could have a cool kennel that blends into our modern home. Look what I found on DenHaus

beautiful! could totally act as a coffee/side table yet Slurpie can hide his toys in there. Someone please buy this for Slurpie.

Itadakimasu Slurpie San

sushi for your poochie anyone? are we really humanising our pooch too much? Much as i think this is really cute, to me the ingredients will be a more important consideration. I do not think that Slurpie San really cares what shape his food comes in as long as it ends up in this tummy! Oh by the way this sushi set fo dogs comes with "wasabi" too for a complete jap course. Click on the picture for source.

Botak Pooch

introducing the skin head poochie

Slurpie Passes Obedience Class

Phew! Never had I thought that I would have felt so nervous when my dog takes an exam! We have thought that Slurpie would fail for sure as he was not very consistent in all the trial exams. He gets distracted really easily and likes to sniff the floor.

But Slurpie did PASS his exam! yeahhhhhhh i am so proud of my botak poochie (will do the botak post another time). Barely passed with 163/200 (150 is the passing mark) but still am so so proud! Perfect scores for sit and down stays. He got major deductions for moving for the stand for examination whereby he thought the lady had food in her fist as she was clenching her hand so he quickly sat down and gave her his cutest face. Haiz....he did well for this all the while. And major deductions for Come command when he sat there simply refusing to move despite how the man tried to call him. He only came after like 5 attempts to wave, clap and signal to him. Tsk tsk.....

Gucci Poochie

OMG this is just so adorable! USD150 tsk the last I checked the tree outside my house was still not sprouting money......

Slurp Better

wooo i love this, so chic and pretty that i will probably leave it in full view after a feed!

Hugx 401 Max (Donegal Pink)

Very expensive of cos....but other then satisfying the vain owner to have something this pretty, it is designed to make it easy for pets wearing the elizabethan collars or buster collars (or the lamp shade as I like to refer it as) to feed. Useful and aesthetically pleasing. Ok Slurpie, mummy get one for u when u let me strike lottery k...

Eco Biopet aftermath

awhile ago I posted my personal review of the product here and I am really impressed and surprised when the director/GM actually read my review and gave such a good reply. I think it really speaks volumes about the commitment of the company and their dedication. Thank you Mr. Desmond Ng for your thoughtful explanation and concern.

I just want to reiterate here that what I have written were very personal observations and l may have not detected significant smell improvements although the consistency did improve. It could be due to wrong dosage, other products we were feeding Slurpie or maybe incompatibility with Slurpie in particular. The email however has really impressed me cos it is so rare to get a company who bothers to check responses to their products and actually address any concerns or bad reactions of the consumers in such a sincere and genuine gesture. =)

Plug & Play H..ping

How about keeping yourself amused at work with:

click here.....

Mari - tear jerker

not sure if this was shown in Singapore. This clip alone had me tearing, I love my Slurpie!

Find Command

During one of the weeks that the man was away for biz trip, I got bored and tried to play Find with Slurpie. It worked and he really likes it, try with your poochie they really like to be lil sher-dog holmes *wink*

I started off with him doing a sit stay in about 3m away from the room where I intended to hide one of his favourite toy - pluto stuffed toy. I stood at the entrance of the room and showed him I had Pluto in my hand, then I walk out of sight into the room and placed Pluto about 1 m away from the door. For the 1st couple of times do not really hide the toy so they get the idea what the command Find means.

After that I released Slurpie with a OK and said Find Pluto while standing near Pluto. He came running and when he picked up Pluto I immediately praised him. Good Find. Repeated it a few times each time placing Pluto further into the room, on top of the low stool and eventually behind objects so he has to sniff and hunt around for it.

Now I can totally keep any toy out of sight or reach and when I say Find he will start sniffing everywhere. Hehe very vey fun really, try it!

Sit Stay Meal Times

Since day 1 we make Slurpie do sit stay before he gets his meal. The duration gets pregressively longer. This is the time when he is the most focused (on the food!) and you can do whatever you like to him! The man now actually do stripping/grooming for 15-30mins now while Slurpie stares longingly at his meal. Occassionally he lets us knows he has waited to long by whimpering or trying to crawl to the food slowly.....

This is very important as we let him know he only gets to eat when we allow him to (we use release command OK). I have also extended this to play time. When I play fetch with Slurpie I will give the stay command before I throw sometimes and he knows he can only run after the toy after I release him. He thus knows his hierarchy in this pack =) hehe.

“Heart-Kun” The Cutest Chihuahua in Japan

A Chihuahua puppy has been born in Japan with a large, clear, heart-shaped pattern on his coat.

Shop owner Emiko Sakurada said that she had been breeding dogs for several years now and had never come across such strange markings.

She says that she has no plans to sell the puppy. She has named the small dog: “Heart-kun”.

Feisty puppy scares off 3 bears in NJ back yard

The Associated Press - http://www.kansascity.com/

If only Goldilocks had a cockapoo.

A 15-pound cocker spaniel-poodle mix named Pawlee scared off a mother bear and her two cubs Sunday morning after they strayed into his owners' back yard.

Whether his bark was worse than his bite, Pawlee's tactic worked just fine. These three bears got the hint and took off.

"We had just let him out for the morning and he ran into the yard and started barking his head off," owner Fran Osiason said.

Osiason said her 9-year-old son, Jacob, went outside to see what the commotion was about and came running back in to report there were bears in the yard.

She was worried that the mother would come after Pawlee to protect her cubs, but the pugnacious pup, just 8 months old, had other plans.

His barking drove the two cubs up a tree, and they eventually climbed down and hopped over a fence with their mother and retreated into the woods.

Osiason said she, her son, husband Andrew and daughter Eden, 6, have had Pawlee since he was about 8 weeks old. She marveled at his fearlessness.

"He's a little fur ball," she said.

Northern New Jersey seems to breed feisty pets: In 2006, a tabby cat named Jack chased a bear up a tree in his West Milford yard.

Bears are not uncommon in Wyckoff, but Osiason said her family has lived there for about 10 years and had not seen any until Sunday.

With Pawlee on guard, they might not see another one anytime soon.

wow 8 mths old same as Slurpie but no darling, i do not think he was barking at bears last night when he barked his head off at the yard!

Super Model Poochie

You know how MTVs and commercials always have models with hair "flying" behind them. Well I think Slurpie's secret ambition is to be a super model.

we have this small circulator in the living room which was of cos intended for our own purposes. Somehow Slurpie realises how cool it was to lie there and now he is always in our way! Yes he lies so close we get worried that his tongue would be cut by the blades sometimes and worse of all....he blocked out all the wind! Argh....this is myyyyyyyyyyy fan!

Smart ass always goes there after his walk (even if it is not on haha) and in the afternoons when we are home. Now doting daddy actually switches it on for him even when we are not in the living room. hmmph....must i repeat this is my fan? I have more proof of the MTV model wannabe

Guilty as charged.

Dog Show

This sunday! See u at Expo

Slurpie Hand Hand ^ 5

Clever me took this with the camera held vertically and I have no idea how to rotate so the clip is right side up =P so tilt your head instead la

anyway we are so amused by Slurpie's version of hand hand which is more like a high 5 as he raises his hand so high hahahaha.....

Chris Christenson "Spa"

The ever doting daddy again sourced what he deem will make Slurpie look and feel better. After loads of research and reading, he went out to buy the Chris Christenson starter kitThe series of products was suppose to make Slurpie's coat Black, keep his coat dense and also healthier. Below is the summary of each item.

Black on Black Shampoo
Like most shampoos for blackies, the shamppo is black in color. However it claims that it is not a dye. It is supposed to remove the red in black coats, increase color intensity and add sheen. it can also be used on salt & pepper, blue, brown. We had to apply it straight to a wetted Slrpie, worked it thoroughly into his coat and let him stand for 5mins. We chose to do a full body massage while waiting, sigh, he really has better treatment than I do in this home!




Thick N Thicker
After rinsing out the shampoo, we applied Thick N Thicker. This was slightly foamy in texture. We were to concentrate on fur ends and again leave it on for 2-3mins. Supposed to strenghten hair shaft and repair split ends (gosh never knew dogs have split ends?) I guess its like a hair growth cum conditioner in human terms. By this time my wet dog looked a tad pathetic as he kept wondering when is the washing going to end!




After Bath Rinse
Again we had to rinse off and next up is the After Bath Rinse. Supposed to rinse away residues of the 2 items above and seal the cuticles of the fur so it is healtier, easier to comb and retain moisture. Luckily there was no waiting time, we could just wash Slurpie thoroughly after we worked the solution into his coat. By now Slurpie smelled so clean and good (not kidding really good scent compared to the other shampoos). But we are still one step away from the end of this Spa treatment.




Ice On Ice Spray
After we towelled dry Slurpie, it was the spraying time. This is like a leave in conditioner and detangler with SUN SCREEN! Not only will it provide a glisten to the coat, it will repel dirt, rain, dust and urine. So I guess when Slurpie misses cue the next time and accidentally pees on his front legs it will not stink as much??? hmmm......





By the end of the whole process which took us about 45mins excluding ear cleaning and brushing, I was seriously quite displeased with the man. Hey he has never paid that much attention to my hair! Ok granted that I am one of those lazy gals who do not really bother myself. Imagine Slurpie has 4 different products and so many processes to keep his coat looking good where as the man only uses shampoo and me shampoo + conditioner. I do not even have any hair treatment thingy or leave in conditioner. OMFG I was so amazed at the completeness of this kit and how much attention to details! Never would I guess my poochie would have a spa weekly from now on while we have quick showers ourselves. Imagine the shock the old school dog owners will have haha i can so imagine my parents tsk-tsking to the length we will go for Slurpie.

Verdict:
Smells great not overpowering scent but a mild clean soap scent.
Hair looks a tad shinnier maybe will improve with more applications.
Whole process takes much much longer then ordinary shampooing and my poor Slurpie did not seem to appreciate the Spa, he was trying to break lose in between.
Cost seems ok about $28 for the starter kit, worth considering if it works. May buy again pending results after repeated use.

Eco Biopet Review

What:

Eco-BioPet is a composition of micro-organisms from the soil of Gunma Region in Japan.

- Maintains a healthier digestive system
- Improves the absorption of nutrients in the small intestines
- Improves the quality of Poo
- Reduces/Eradicate the foul smell of Poo
- Strengthens the immune system
- Suppresses pathogenic bacteria in the intestines
- Reduces stress level in the Pet
- Increases reproductive activity

How:

Once taken by the animal, it will activate enterobacteria and intestinal activities to promote the animal’s growth and health. It suppresses coli bacillus, clostridium, salmonella, B-hemolyticbacteroides, and other pathogenic bacteria while increasing useful bacillus, such as lactic bacillus, in the intestines. It also produces digestive enzymes such as Amylase and Protease, as well as Vitamin B Group and Vitamin A. It stimulates intestinal immune cells to produce antibodies and activates macrophages.

All Natural - Not Chemically Enhanced…no fear of introducing chemically enhanced products to the Pets.

Ok honestly we bought it partly due to the attractive notion that Slurpie's poo will not stink as badly. The box stated detailed instructions not to keep in air tight containers or even plastic bags. No contact with water too or all the micro organism will die within 7 days.......creepy somehow to know the saw-dust like stuff is alive!

We faithfully gave the prescribed amt mixed into Slurpies breakfast and dinner. Supposed to see results in 10 days. Till now I think at least 3-4weeks have passed and well....his poo still stinks a lot! Ok so it did not work on the stench for Slurpie's case. However the consistency of the poo seems to have improved overall. It was more often solid although on some days maybe due to other factors such as us feeding him fruits or him being overly excited, the poo was still a little soft. I really cannot tell if this product works or is good? hmmm anyone care to share your experience?

When we finish this box, i intend to stop and observe the difference. If there are no key difference I will not buy again though. Too many supplements already! (blame the man)

Maintenance in progress

Hello all

been busy trying to personalise a new template for the blog. find this iphone template too narrow and cramp. the poochie is testing our patience now. at 6.5 mths he is probably going thru the similar period of terrible 2s for kids i think! he has been whining, talking back and demanding!

I think all dog owners can differentiate the different ways your poochie barks, whine, cry etc so trust me when i say he talks back to us! When we get home we always ignore him for at least 5 mins or until he stops trying to jump and sit to wait for us to greet him. If he jumps we give him the knee treatment. So he does try to keep his butt on the ground although we can see its quivering with excitment and if our greeting do not come quick enough by talking to him and giving him some hugs and pets, he will start chiding us with this particular bark that tells us how disappointed he is and that he wants attention now! The same happens when we leash him but do not leave the house immediately or when he sees his food being prepared but not served to him after it is ready. We just ignore him or say quiet sternly. Hopedfully he will pass this phrase soon!

Will update soon when i have more time. Work is too busy now! help.....

meanwhile check out poochie blings here

Slurpie Nursery Class

Slurpie missed out the socialisation aspect till he was about 4.5 months old due to some vaccination and health reasons. As such although we had been successful in training him in the basic commands covered earlier (Sit, Down, Stay) we were contemplating signing up some puppy classes just so he gets to socialise with other puppies/dogs.

tiny slurpie barking at the husky

We realised the very first time we brought him out that he gets intimidated by almost everything that moves and strange noises. We also recognised his fear barking with ears pulled back whenever he meets another dog. The barking no doubt stressed him out since he kept feeling fearful, it also made us stressed as we have to keep trying to calm him down, hold him back as he tries to lunge and apologise to everyone whom he barked at.

We tried to bring him out at every opportunity. Walks around the estate and the neighborhood park, East Coast Park (lots of obstacles: cyclists, runners, screaming children, roller bladers, bbq smells, shrieking teenagers, other dogs phew!), dog runs etc etc. We were trying to get him immuned to all the various strange sights and sounds that he does not experience at home. However we also wanted him to have actual socialisation with other dogs in terms of playing and not just the usual sniff and goodbye 5 mins greetings on such walks.

So we signed him up for a puppy orientation class. $180 for 4 x 1.5hrs lessons with 4 other puppies. The other puppies were younger than Slurpie, mostly about 2mths old and of cos as expected, ours was as usual the most vocal of the lot. He tends to bark as he approaches another pup/dog but once he gets a chance to go nearer and sniff he will stop.....until they run about or jump on him =P

Poor little Slurpie was made to face the wall on the first lesson for about 15mins as he kept barking when he saw 4 other pups and so many people confined in the room. Haha actually it really cracked me up when the Trainer's helper carried him and stood in the corner with him turned so he faces the wall. He seemed so pitiful hearing the other puppies playing but yet unable to see even though he tried to turned his head.

The lessons taught what Slurpie already knew: recall, sit, down and basic grooming. But the trainers told everyone to just let the puppies play even if they are rough or slightly agressive so each will teach the other what is wrong behavior. It was really good cos we saw a more agressive/untrusting pup slowly learning to join in the play, the merry little pup who learned to growl when required to defend herself and of cos our blackie who learned there are other puppies too in this world and how to play with them. None of us owners were overly protective like the people we meet on walks. We kept an eye in case of real danger but generally we realise our pups can all roll and tumble, growl and make up with no love lost. So what we really got for the $180 was a nursery play group for Slurpie and his first graduation photo:

P/S: the trainers were wonderful patient and nice people but the all love and treats method with ignoring bad behaviors approach really did nothing much for Slurpie who already had some bad habits. perhaps if he had gone earlier before 3 mths...but for us we needed another school of thought that would help Slurpie curb his fear barking problem. We are attending one now, 2nd lesson so far....will update progress!