Bleach Schwimming

Oh all right! It's Beach Swimming but that little bugger wanted to co-write this piece and he wanted to write the subject title.

Anyway, we went to the beach yesterday, and it was Helios first time at the beach. Of course, as the nice big brother, I must tell him the perils of going to the beach. The forced swimming, the constant exercising, the very, very wet fur.

Herbie: ok... be careful of that huge patch of water in front


EEeeWwww..... look at the scary water!


Helios took my advise to heart and was very wary of the waves. Forgive my M's quacking in the background. I don't know why she's sounding like a duck.

Let's go to the beach!


I make a very good teacher.... until Tommy and Joey came along, which I shall let Helios elaborate on his own later. Luckily, the tide was low yesterday, which accounts for the seaweed along the coast, and also I don't have to swim! Why? Coz even when I have walked a long distance away, the water is still to my belly level, and my M did not want to get herself wet this time, and my MM was overseas, there's no one to drag me into the water!

M, I tried to swim, really! But look how shallow the water is!


So since I don't have to swim, I can spend my morning running on the sand...

Land is so much better!


... and catching up on my forty winks...

Yawn....


... while looking at 2 seals jumping into the sea....



The water was so shallow that those silly water dogs had to bunny hop in the sea before they get to swim.

And poor Scuba, they tried to let him get used to shallow water but he just couldn't understand.

NoooOOOOoooOOOooo WATER!!!!


He got so upset he ran away to hide among the rocks.

I am NOT going downt there!


Just to show you how far away he ran....

Where's Scuba?


Oh all right! He wasn't running away, I was just pulling your legs. His mom thought that the rocks would make a nice photo and made him pose there in exchange for not swimming.

ok, that little bugger is bugging me to let him write the rest of the story.... so here's over to him....

Hello eberyone, I went for my first schwimming at the bleach today, but strangely my color is still the same....

My big brother Herbie was telling me how scawie the bleach is, so we played on the bleach while waiting for the others to arrive. Herbie is so nice and he let me play frog leap on him.



Later Tommy and Joey came and told me it's not true that the sea is scawie, it's just that my big brother don't like schwimming coz he's lazi. So they taught me what to do in the sea.

Tommy: Yup, just grab any toy and swim


Joey: Got your toy? Now follow me!


I like playing with Tommy coz he shares his toys with me

Tommy: When I said 'any toy', MY toys are not included!


Sometimes he lets me have them....



sometimes not....



Joey always has his own toy which I don't dare to take coz Joey scolds

Stay away from MY ball


See how good I am at schwimming now!


But my M said I look very serious when I schwim....

Conshentrating on peddling!




I think I like the bleach, I want to go again soon!

I LOVE the BLEACH!




Ok, that's all from that delusional chap, and that's all from us folks. I shall pray that the next bleach.... arghhh! I mean BEACH outing won't be that soon. The humans are saying that they will need to wait for higher tides to go to the beach so that the water will be cleaner with no seaweeds.

Now if I can just distract them whenever they talk about the next high tide.....

Feeding Fishes

Just some time ago, my MM's brother decided to take us and the family to this park to feed the fishes in the pond. Of course us dogs we more than happy to be out walking at a new park, and the best thing is, they bought a huge loaf of bread to feed us... i mean, the fishes. The bread is most certainly meant for us, right?

Gran, is the bread for us?


But nooo.... they kept throwing the bread to the fishes!



Even the turtles got more bread than us!

our competitors


After a while, I realised that waiting was futile and decided to do my own exploring but silly Helios was ever hopeful. Talk about the optimism of youth!



Look at how he kept looking at my MM's dad while he threw the bread. I tell you, the humans were almost afraid he'll jump into the water to get the bread!



We then went to another pond.. and Helios the Optimistic was still hopeful.

Where did the bread go??


Sooner or later, he'll learn to be as experienced as me. In the meantime, I'll just let him wallow in his optimism.

Helios: Yew have bread for me?


I tell you, this feeding of fishes thing, is a waste of totally good bread!

Natural Rearing

My M recently found this website, Natural Rearing that advocates natural rearing and holistic and alternative care for pets. She found a particular article about feeding quite familiar.

To extract from it's passages:

- Everybody knows that---The digestive system of the modern domesticated dog is much "weaker" than a wild dog’s and that is why modern dogs have to be fed differently to their wild counterparts.

- Everybody knows that—Each meal you feed your dog should be complete and balanced,

- It is impossible without a university education in dog nutrition to be able to successfully feed a dog,

- And of course—the best way to ensure proper nutrition is by feeding only (fill in appropriate brand name) commercial dog food.

I wonder if anyone found the above statements familiar? Yes, it is almost exactly the same thing that the vet told my M!

And my M loved the reply in the site:

"COMMONSENSE—Ask yourself the question…is that the way you design your own meals ? Each of them totally balanced with every conceivable nutrient present that you require ? Of course you don’t. No creature since life began has eaten that way!!

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that in nature, a "wild" dog will achieve a balanced diet over a period of time that can range from a few days to a few weeks. Never at each meal and never consistent. The attempt to put all the nutrients a dog requires into one commercial product is responsible for much unnecessary suffering and poor health. It is an insidious way of slowly ensuring a shorter life span for your animal and is guaranteed to sooner or later make your veterinarian a little richer."

My M is not against kibbles, it's just that I can't take them, and she has the time to go marketing and cook for us. She just doesn't like the way the vet was lecturing her, almost like forcing her to listen to his beliefs.

Anyway, thanks to some of your suggestions, my M did change to another vet when she took Helios for his last vaccination. This lady vet (whom I dislike, which I will explain why later), is a lot more receptive. She did recommend dog food as well, but she said it nicely, not in a 'I know better that you' kind of way. She did say that if my M prefers to continue with hcf, maybe she can substitute one of the meals with kibbles so that Helios will still get his nutrients. But my M is still sticking to hcf. With the recent food recall, she can't really trust dog food for now.

And now I shall explain why I dislike this vet. She said I'm a little OVERWEIGHT!!! My M asked her to check if my weight is ok, and she said I'm OVERWEIGHT!! If I had known she was feeling for my ribs, I would have stood up, because gravity will pull my skin and fur down so that my ribs are more visible. But nooooo..... she had to feel for my ribs when I'l all sprawled out on the floor, and the floor is pushing my skin and fur up to surround my ribs.

So my M said I have to go on a diet. And the vet suggested giving me fruits and vegetables as treats instead of biscuits because 'I can't tell the difference!'. Of course I know the difference! I'd prefer to have them all!

I think I shall have to avoid going to the vet in future.

Odd one out

My M took us to the dog run this morning, and Helios had fun with Scuba and two other bull terriers. Scuba had met the other 2 bullies (what a strange nickname!) just last week and his mum found out that they're coming to the park again today.

Anyway, Helios stuck out like a sore thumb, as you can see.

Odd one out


The bullies were engaged in a series of unmentionable acts (unmentionable to puppies anyway) and they decided to engage Helios as well. Well, since the humans didn't even bat an eyelid, who am I to make a hoo ha when they decided to hump Helios.

Look, this is how we play


It resulted into a little of a love triangle, because Scuba was interested in Badger, while Badger was interested in Helios.

Ménage à trois


A schnauzer happened to walk in and got the shock of his life.

When Helios started to run away, Badger ran after him, and Scuba ran after Badger.

Scuba: Wait, I'm not done yet!


Helios got a little irritated, and he actually had the cheek to snap at a bull terrier! And look at how Badger is still leering at Helios.

Helios: Take that!


But after all these, they're still friends....

Butt... butt... butt....


And what was I doing all this time? Well, doing the most important thing of course, which is to beg. Aunty V took a bag ful of treats to the park!

EYE POWER: Can I have some pleeeeeease?

Losing Puppyhood

My M says that I am loo-shing my puppy fur, they're changing into adult fur now. She says she will mish my soft puppy fur. You can see that my adult coat is a little darker and coarser than my puppy coat, which is a little coughfee coloured. Only my head, shoulders and sides are left with puppy fur.



Oh no, does that mean I'm no longer gonna be a puppy? Will people still think of me as cute? I don't care, I dowanna grow up, I wanna be a cute puppy forever and ever!

Will you still lurve me when I grow up?

Belly Tagged

I've been tagged by butchy and snickers! Apparently, we have to post pictures of ourselves sleeping belly up. This is easy peasy for me, because I love to sleep belly up!

I've been sleeping belly up since years ago!

My old bedroom in the old house


New place, still bellying up




And as a bonus, I will post picture of Helios sleeping belly up as well!




And now I will tag:

Scuba (It's gonna be soooo easy for him)
Maggie the airedale
Scout

Bye-Bye, House

My M has been busy the last few evenings packing and moving stuff. The old house will have to be totally vacated by tomorrow, and never will I see my old room again. The building will then be torn down and a new one built to replace it.

It's a little sad because I have spent a few years of my life there, and it's my first home with my M. I shall miss sleeping in the kitchen, with my head propped on the ledge while supervising the cooking. I shall miss old neighbours, and doggie friends I made here. My M said I should go and pee one last time in the garden to mark my place here. I definitely will!

My favouritest position int he kitchen

Size Matters?

After reading Scuba's post about size mattering, I decided I want to grow up big and huge and tall and stout and gigantic and.... and.... stuff like that....

So my M decided to track my growth progress before I get too huge.

When I arrived, at 12 weeks old, I was about 9kg.

As of today, at 18 weeks old, I am 13.1kg, 17.5" tall (from shoulder to floor) and 21" long (from butt to chest).

Vital stats!


But I hear my litter brother Casper is gonna be 16kg soon! I better try to catch up fast fast! Maybe if I grow into Rosco size, I can eat sweep the food off the table with my tail as well!

Schwimming

My M and MM finally found time to go schwimming at the condo's pool. They say since maintenance have to be paid every month, they might as well make full use of it. They once said they will bring me schwimming too, so I thought I will get to schwim with them, but they say no no, I cannot swim in the pool.

Why can't I schwim?


So they tie me up to the beam and said I can only watch them schwim. My big brother Herbie was not tied up coz my M said Herbie hates schwimming.

I wanna go in too!


My M promised to bring me to the bleach to schwim once I got all my needles done. I checked the dictshunary and they say bleach is a chemical that lightens color. I didn't know we can swim in that, maybe I will become a cream retriever after schwimming.
(Herbie: It's BEACH, and you're going for your shots, not needles!)

We'll go to the bleach the next time?


I can't wait to go schwimming!

Vet Visit

My M took Helios for his last vaccination last week, but unfortunately he could not do it coz he had a slight tummy upset from over-eating (told you not to finish up Tommy's dinner!). I think my M was a little pissed with the vet coz she claimed to have paid to listen to a 'lecture'. Funny, I don't see her doing any pissing at the vet tho, and I was there!

The vet asked my M what she fed that caused the tummyache, and she said we're on home cooked food (hcf), and he then asked her if we're on any supplements. So my M told him she's feeding us calcium (since our HCF has no bones, and therefore not much calcium) and the vet went 'Oh No you should not be feeding calcium!' and went on and on about why people do things they have no idea about and the dangers of over-supplementing with calcium. Even when my M pointed out that the breeder recommended calcium for growing pups, the vet still went blabbering about how too many people feed calcium without knowing about calcium-phospherous ratio etc.

And he disapproved of my M feeding us hcf, coz he said that we should be eating 'nutritionally balanced dog food', because the average owner don't know enough about nutrition to feed dogs. He even claimed that he studied a year of nutrition and even he dare not prepare his own dog's meal! Well, I would say that he have studied in vain then!

My M then made a passing mention that she would have given barf if she had time and I think the vet almost fainted. He was blabbering about why dogs should not even eat raw food and bones is the worst! He even asked my M if she would eat raw food and she told him she likes sashimi. Anyway, he said unless she has fresh chickens which she kill and feed to us immediately, he wouldn't call them fresh. And he yakked about why people want to think of dog's ancestry and feel we should feed raw meat like we're feeding wolves. And about how dog's stomach are not meant for raw food.

He also asked why my M fed hcf and she said it's coz I can't take kibbles. It's true, I have bad diarrhoea once I eat any brand of kibbles. He went on to say that there's no reason that the other dog (meaning Helios) should not eat dog food just because I am allergic to dog food, especially since he's a growing pup and needs a nutritionally balaned diet. And what's the main point of all these talk? You know how come vets will carry certain brands of dog food by certain companies? My M thinks it's because he wanted to recommended her the brand of vet prescribed dog food for 'sensitive dogs' which they carry.

My M did not want to start a debate with him so she just nodded her head while secretly rolling her eyes. Anyway, my M thinks that dogs have been living well on fresh food long before kibbles were invented, and fresh food is always better than dog food. Most of the time you don't even know what really goes into those kibbles! And with the recent food recall, dog food aren't that safe either.

And for all of these, plus a thermometer poked up Helios ass, my M had to pay $21 for 'consultation', which she felt she could have done without.

I'm sooooo glad my M did not decide to change our diet, or I'll be stuck with boring dog food every day!

She's now thinking of changing vets coz the last time she took me to for my vaccination, she also encountered another 'preachy' vet at the same place, and she cannot imagine having to listen to a lecture everytime she brings us to the vet.

Anyone can recommend any vet who is not so 'against' holistic or more natural ways for taking care of a dog?

Wespect

My big brother Herbie says I must wespect those who are older than me. So I listen to him and wespect him.
(Herbie: I meant RESPECT!)

So when he takes my toy and chew, I don't snatch it from him, although it's my toy.



And when he gets to eat something but I don't, I won't complain. I'll just lick whatever's remaining from his paws.




I wespect my big brother Herbie!

SKC Dog Show

Well, it was the dog show today, and Helios was entered into the baby puppy class. So early this morning, Aunty V came to pick us up. That silly Helios was so rude as to SIT on our very kind host Scuba!

Helios: This car cushion feels different...


Anyway, Scuba was very nice and decided to move to the foot of the car so that Helios can have the seat. I hope he said thanks to Scuba.

After we reached the dog show and a slight wait, it was Helios turn.

Showtime!






My M even had time to make scrunchee faces with Helios. Talk about being professional!

Now you see me... now you don't!


Unfortunately, Helios did not win anything, and I can only attribute it to my blur M. It's her first time showing, and instead of keeping a note of what the guy did in front of her, she was busy chatting instead. So she ended up making a boo boo of herself. Here's the proof:



After running with Helios, she thought she had to go back where she came from, then realised it's wrong, so she thought she had to leave the ring, until she saw the guy who was in front of her standing at one side. So she ran back to join the 'queue'.

Of course, after the show she did some shopping, and a few people even recognised me from my blog! Thanks to all of you who came to say hi!

We were so tired after a whole afternoon at the show that we slept all the way home.

ZZzzzZZzzZz

New Dining Table

I've got a new dining table! Well, my M has been feeding me on a raised area because she felt that it would be better on my neck and back if I don't have to bend down to eat. Previously she placed my food bowl on an inverted show rack she bought from ikea, which worked perfectly well.

But she made me a new food bowl, which was higher than my older metal bowl, so I have to raise my head instead to eat. And now with the arrival of Helios, she'll need a longer table as well. So she had a new dining table custom made for us.

Dining table


Look, it's so long that it can hold 3 bowls! And it even has a cabinet at the bottom to keep our supplements and stuff.



Of course, Helios is too short to use the table now, so he'll have to wait until he grows some legs before he gets to use it. In the meantime, I'll have the sole use of the table.

I wonder if that will mean I will have sole use of the food as well...

Younger Days

It seems that many of my friends are posting photos of themselves when they are younger. Well, as my M was clearing her old room for the big move the other day, she found some old photos of me. She almost couldn't recognise me in the photo, but obviously she knows it's me, because back then, I still had my brown muzzle. That's right, I don't always have a white muzzle.

My M said she's so used to seeing me with my white muzzle now that I almost look like another dog in the photos. Sigh... those were the days, when I was still young and handsome....

Of course, now I am MATURED and handsome.

My M didn't have a scanner so she took a photo of the photo. Sounds weird, but here it is. Note that the photo was taken almost 4 years ago, which means I was 3 years old then.

I just had a bath, so my fur looks even darker than it is.
Yummy bone


Chinese New Year 4 years ago
On 'guard' duty


Wasn't I a handsome young dog then?

10 Dogs in a Row!

We went for a picnic last Sunday, but I couldn't blog about it because something went wrong with my M's computer.

So here's the long awaited photos...

Helios was the star of the day as my M wanted to take lots of pictures as he is growing up. So she made him play fetch....



But he decided other dog's toys seem more interesting, although he couldn't quite keep up with them...

Helios: I'll get it when my legs get longer!


Joey: Your legs are longer than mine but you still can't get it... ngak ngak ngak


Lolo: Are you getting the ball?
Helios: What ball? Don't see anything.


Scuba was so happy that there's no need for him to swim that he jumped for joy.

Scuba: No swimming! Yippee!


As for me, I was teaching Helios the art of begging.

Just look hopeful


Even Huskee joined us and exercised a bit.



And he finally got to see the 'behind the scenes of group dog photos'. It took all of us at least 5 minutes to get the shot.

behind the scene: crew and models getting ready


Why did the group picture take that long? Because....

...Rafv kept wanting to run back to the shade

I need shade!


... Tommy kept wanting to go back to play
I need more play!


... Huskee kept wanting to run back to his humans
I want my Daddeeeee


While Helios, Lolo and Chewie kept fidgeting. What I'm trying to say is, I'm one of the best behaved dogs in the group.

So this is the final result.

L-R: Chewie, Scuba, Lolo, Tommy, Helios, Me, Joey, Jack (f), Rafv (b), Huskee


Actually, that's not really the final result. My M had to do some 'cheating' with photoshop. This should have been the final result... with such a huge gap in the middle that we could have squeezed an 11th dog, if we had one.

Rafv: My imaginary friend's next to me!


I was so good that I only ran off after the group photo's taken.

I'm a good boy!


I think the humans are planning a beach trip next. I wonder if they'll attempt a group photo in the water. That will be Scuba's biggest nightmare!