We are THRILLED to bring you this guest post from the adopters of our very own former foster sweetheart, Little Zee (now Medivka). If you have  a dog and a baby — or are thinking about kids in the future — you’ll find some great tips here for setting your family up for success. And the darling photos of Medivka and her human sister? Just a sweet little bonus!

We wanted to get her used to our family and house without her suddenly having to change her habits and expectations when a baby arrived. So that meant not getting used to climbing up on people or couches or beds, which wouldn’t be polite without asking first anyway. As first time dog owners, training was a huge priority for us, and I think immensely helped all of us communicate. The positive reinforcement methods were, well, positive, instead of a “no no no” stressful experience. And we’ve carried the “leave it,” “go to bed,” and “down & stay” to situations around our baby. They are not perfect by any means, and that is purely due to our lack of practice with Medivka in various situations, but for the most part she knows what we expect, and it’s no different from when we started training with her about a year ago.  

What we didn’t anticipate was excitement leading to an undesired interaction between dog and baby. Especially a sweet dog like Medivka. Before we had our baby, we had friends visiting with a less than 1 year old who had already had a positive interaction with our pup. So we all made the mistake of having them say hello to each other as soon as they arrived, and not setting them up for a safe greeting. Medivka was sitting and did her happy/playful paw motion, and our little friend was too low and got a scratch right on her face. It did not break the skin, but on such young skin looked like a gash and was obviously an unpleasant shock for her. We felt very fortunate that our friends had met Medivka before, the scratch was accidenta, l and they also felt the incident was due to a poorly set up situation for dog and child. I felt especially irresponsible for putting both of them in that situation and not thinking ahead about how to set her up for a successful greeting with such a small person. So with that experience in mind…  

We wanted to support the comfort of both Medivka and our Baby, who’s now 6 mos old, so we’ve taken a slow approach to introducing the two of them. I read some information about introducing dogs and babies and followed some, but not all of them. For example, we prepared Medivka for staying out of the baby’s room for now, especially because she is off balance and it’s a small room. She became used to that rule before the baby came home and it wasn’t a sudden negative association w/the baby. I did not, however, carry a doll around in a sling or stroller. Medivka is mostly flexible to new people and things, so I did not see that being an issue. I did give her time to get used to me carrying the Baby K in a sling and was careful not to lean over her with it, but to squat next to her to say hello so she wouldn’t think the baby was falling on her.

The morning before we brought our baby home from the hospital, Dad took a blanket that smelled like the baby for Medivka to smell, as a way to give her a heads up of a new smell to become familiar with. I came in alone to greet Medivka without the baby, so she could comfortably say hello to her Mom in a familiar way. Overall she seemed curious about the new little bundle of human, but did not seem too bothered by her crying, except a few times she came over to see what the heck was going on.  As we all spent more time together, we let Medivka sniff the baby’s feet more to greet her in the morning and I would spend some time petting Medivka with and without the baby. We try to go on “pack walks” most nights, as well as giving Medivka a good greeting and petting throughout the day.

This past weekend we had the same repeat little visitor friend, who is now walking and talking, and they had a great meet and greet, Medivka generously shared her toys, and was treated with some dropped apples. I noticed she laid down on her own when the little visitor was very close, which I have been rewarding her for doing with Baby K. Medivka also played hostess dog to several costumed kids from 6 mos-4 years who took over her backyard and ran around shrieking. We put her on leash for the bigger crowd of little people, and gave her the job of cow bone chewer with breaks for getting petted and sniffing around.  She did a great job and stayed up late partying until 11pm!”

**Thanks to Medivka’s forever-family for the great write-up and the three photos of Medivka with tiny humans**

On Wednesday my Mama told you that I was going to spend the day at the Dogtor’s office and have them take away my special eye feature. Just as a reminder, here’s what I looked like before my day of adventure. See my special eye feature?

Well, Mama took me to the vet’s office for a playday with my friends — or at least that’s what I thought — and the next thing I remember, I was laying on a dog bed and everything was kinda blurry and swirly and silly. I could hear some people talking to me, but they were obviously speaking Martian, because I couldn’t understand them at all. And then I woke up again a little while later, and one of my nice friends was saying “Chick, your mama’s here!” and I was so happy that I tried to get up, but whoa, that was harder than I expected! So my friend helped me walk out to my mama without bumping myself into any things, and boy was she a sight for sore eyes. Here I am when she picked me up, getting some lovin’ from another one of my friends:

And of course mama had to lift me to get into the car since I was pretty hammered, but when she opened the car door, I was in for a surprise — my Doodlebug had insisted on coming along to pick me up. Ain’t he sweet?

He had to make sure I had somebuddy to rest my conehead on for the car ride home, and boy was I happy to have him.By now you’re probably wondering why I have a bumble bee bandage on my arm and also a cool tough guy set of stitches on my shoulder. And I will tell you why. Mama told the vet that while I was “under” (under what, I wonder??), she should go ahead and look at my little lumps and bumps all over my body and to delete any ones that she didn’t really like. So she found a couple of flea-sized ones and two bigger ones, maybe the size of a squished blueberry. She took ’em off so I could be good as new! She told mama not to worry and that they were probably no big deal, but that she thought I should have some tough guy scars so the chicks dig me even more.

Anyhow, we got home, and again mama had to lift me out of the car and walk me very slowly into the house, because my buzz had not worn off yet. She let me go out in the yard (I’m not allowed to have any walks for TWO weeks), and I’m not even sure what happened. I think I just sat there like a little sleepsitter the whole time while Doodlebug frolicked about.

As soon as I was feeling clever enough again, I realized that I had a Great Opportunity to milk this for all it’s worth. I managed to get Mama to give me a whole can of tuna fish for dinner and move my most favorite, luxurious, fluffy, yummy, king-sized dog bed right into the dining room so the Bug and I could supervise her making dinner for her and dad. Pretty smart, eh?

My brother was open to my cleverness too, and let himself be used as a cone-rest while I napped peacefully.

So then I ate my tunafish, took my pain pill candy and went to sleep, and — whew! — a good night’s sleep sure did me good. I woke up feeling GREAT! I played with Mama with a toy before she went to work, and after she got home I took a nice long nap in the sun.

Mama even said I was “crazy as ever,” whatever that means. She said it after the Bug and I zanily chased a squirrel across the yard while mama yelled “NO RUNNING!!” But when I came back, she just gave me a big hug and told me what a good boy I am. I guess she’s happy I’m back to my old self!

Thanks everyone for the well-wishes. Just look how well you made me!

Mr. Chick is an emotional guy — everybody sees it the minute they meet him. He ponders and worries and pines and begs and wishes and dreams and suffers and loves. All day long. You can see it in his talkative ears and his wrinkly forehead and his pouty mouth and his quivery body and his soulful, expressive eyes. Please love me, they say. And we do, of course.

He doesn’t shed many tears — because although he would lead you to believe that his life is one full of difficulty, he actually lives a life of luxury — but he does have semi-permanent tear stains on both eyes, hinting at tears shed from pure, Chick-like emotion.

And over the past few years, he has been growing an extra-special eye feature on his left eye. It’s a little pink bump of tissue right at the edge of his lower eyelid, right up against his eye itself. It’s not malignant. But it is there. For a while now, our vets have told us to just keep watch over it, and let them know if it gets bigger or starts to irritate his eye, leading to bleeding, tears, or other irritation. For years, there was nothing. We didn’t think about it. But lately, we’ve been noticing bigger, more frequent tears, and some irritated redness to the little intruder.

So at his last annual exam (which went marvelously, by the way), the vet decided that it’s time — a minor surgery to remove the silly bugger so it doesn’t rub against Chick’s beautiful, expressive eye and bother him any more. It’s a quick, easy procedure, and there shouldn’t be any complications. But still — it is surgery, and he’ll have to go under full anesthesia — something that carries a slight risk for a dog, especially an older gentleman like the Chickster.

By dinner time, he should be home snuggled up with his Doodlebug on his favorite sofa, tucked in to his favorite blankets. But in the meantime, please send him a well-wish or two!

I’ve been telling mama and telling mama — we need a real family photo with all of us people and dogs in it, not just handsome me, silly brother Doodlebug, and daddyman. Mama needs in too! But she’s always behind that black, treat-dispensing clicking device, so she almost never gets in our photos. So after eons and eons of trying, I finally convinced her to get a friend to take some official-like family portraits for us. So here are some!

As you can see, I was feeling a little grumpy because mama pulled me out of bed so early to get pretty for our photo shoot. Poor Doodlebug just looks confused, as always. Still, we think our pal — and very talented Austin wedding photographer — Cecily Johnson did a smashing job!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Well friends, I am ready for you to congratulate me, because I have a very large, major accomplishment to announce:

This year, I am not moving.

Are you wondering why this is a big deal? I will tell you. It’s because this is the first year in my whole entire life that I have not moved at all. Now are you impressed?

You see, in my first year I moved from inside my mama to outside my mama. Then the next year, I moved from a place I don’t care to remember to the slammer, and then from the slammer to my mama’s house that smelled like Mexican food and laundry. Then the following year, I moved to a place with no fenced yard. The next year, I moved to my grandparents’ house for the summer, then back to the place with no fenced yard. Then the year after that, I moved to the place with the doggie door where I became a criminal. And then the next year, I moved from my home country of Texas to a cold place called DC, and lived in a narrow house where I got to play City Dog. And wouldn’t you know, only 9 months later I moved to the place with the big windows and the squirrel trees in the yard. Then only a year later, I moved to another house with squirrel trees, where we started our fosterings. And gosh, just when I thought we were settled, we dug up our cowdog boots and pearl snap shirts and moved right back to Austin where we belong! And that’s where we still live now, in the next year. So this whole summertime I’ve been pacing around wondering when it’s time to move again, and then I finally figured it out– there are no brown boxes and piles of paper, and I’m not feeling extra-nervous-like. We’re not moving. What a funny feeling!

But, I bet some of you are moving, or will move someday in the future. Since I’m such a moving expert, I thought I’d give you some tips on how to move like a pro without worrying your dogs too much.

1. Get your paperwork in order.

Before you get too far down the packing-and-moving route, make sure you have your pet’s vitals in order. Get your dog’s paw prints taken, Check your vaccinations with your vet, make sure your microchip info is up to date, double-check her tags for accuracy, and have a photo and description of your dog handy throughout the process — just in case. In the stress and chaos of moving, your pet is more likely to wander out an open gate or get spooked and bolt, and you want to be ready to act in case the unthinkable happens and your pal goes missing. I have never disappeared during a move because I’m more the cowery-in-the-corner type, but that doesn’t mean other dogs wouldn’t find themselves astray. Be prepared!

2. Make it a game.

If your dog is a worry wart like me, it’s nice to spend an extra day or two at the beginning of packing up making the move a game. Hide some kibble in a big mountain of packing paper, for example, or play a “toss the treat” type game in and out of assembled cardboard boxes. Feed your dog on or near a cardboard box, and play “fetch” or your dog’s favorite game while sliding heavy boxes around on the floor. My mama always plays these kinds of games with me, and even though I still worry a lot, the games make me get a little bit excited when I see the big brown boxes instead of just plain terrified. Thundershirts and herbal de-stressing tonics are also good to pull out during these times.

3. Exercise, exercise, exercise!

If your dogs are anything like me, stressiness makes them collect a little extra steam to burn off. So when we’re going through something stressy, like a move, or a rainstorm, or a long boring couple of days when mama has a cold and won’t play with us, there is one thing that always helps us relax: a good old-fashioned silly game. Sometimes we run zippy laps in the yard, sometimes we play fetch, and sometimes mama or dad takes us for a run. Exercise is always important, but extra important during move-related stressiness, when dogs sometimes don’t get the walks and individual attention they deserve. Even 5-10 minutes of intense play here or there make a big difference to me. After a nice rousing game of tug or fetch, I’m ready to snooze while mama spends the afternoon deciding which shoes to bring and which to donate. Zzzzz.

4. Make an “open me first” box for your dog.

No, don’t put your dog in the box (even though I like to nap in boxes). But do put her favorite things. Her favorite blanket or bed, her bowls, a few days’ worth of kibbles, her most special toys, and some puzzles and treats. As soon as you get to the new place, unpack your dog’s box and make her a nice, cozy spot that’s all hers. Having her things there will help her feel at home and make the adjustment a little easier. Go ahead and toss that Thundershirt and Rescue Remedy in the box, too.

5. Give your pooch a vacation.

Mama wasn’t clever enough to think of this until after our hundred bazillion moves, but it’s still a good idea for the rest of you: for the last day or two before the move date and the day or two after the move, send your furry friend to summer camp — whether that’s at a friend’s place, your favorite boarding facility, or grandma’s house. Even though kenneling can be stressful for dogs, it’s probably less stressful than winding up under foot while strangers are taking all of their things out of their house and putting them in a big van.  Or if you can’t gift your doggie a vacation, at least find a nice quiet spot in the house — a cozy crate or a remote bedroom, for example — where your dog can hang out during the commotion. Turn on the radio, fill the spot with comfy beds and pillows, and offer a steady supply of games and puzzles — like frozen stuffed marrow bones — to keep your buddy entertained while the humans do all the hard work.

And most importantly, remember to breathe. Moving is exciting and stressful for everybody, but you’ll get through it just fine! I’m the most worriest dog on the planet and I’ve managed to move nine times, only coming out with a few extra wrinkles in my furrowed forehead. You’ll be fine too!

I am feeling so very loving and generous today that even though it’s CHIX-A-Lot Friday, I’m going to tell you about something that my dumb brother, DOODLEBUG, got to do yesterday.

Check him out:

Of course you are wondering: what in the world is Doodlebug doing? And I will tell you the answer:

He is SCOOTER-JORING!

You see, the training center where my brother and my mama and I work does a supercool trip every winter to Colorado, where people and dogs get to cross-country ski together — that is, the people ski and the dogs pull them in the snow in special blue crisscrossy harnesses. Pretty neat, right? Well, mama’s boss has a bunch of Huskies, who are stone cold naturals at towing people in the snow, but some of us other kinds of dogs aren’t quite as innately skilled at towing. So this year, to get some of the Huskies and non-Huskies ready for the trip, the Center got this cool scooter, and is going to be teaching dogs how to tow people on it — it’s just like cross-country skiing, but in Texas! And without the skis. Or the snow. But still. It’s great practice!

And so yesterday, after the Huskies took the scooter for an inaugural spin, mama’s bosslady asked everybuddy: who else wants to try? And my brother immediately raised his paw — memememe! And even though I was pretty jealous that he got to scoot while I had to just sit and watch, I gotta admit — I was pretty proud of him. He took to it really quickly — even better than the other dogs who tried. And it was hard work for a lazy bum like my brother!

And the best part? A few minutes of towing Aunt JJ on the scooter and he was totally pooped out.

Happy weekend, everybody!

Holy moly, can you believe it’s already been five days since we got back from our great big adventure? I believe I promised I would tell you all about it, so I am here to tell you all about it!

First I will tell you all of the regular-exciting things, and then I will tell you the very-exciting things. Fair, right?

So Mama and Dad spent all morning Saturday pulling things out of bags and putting things in other bags, including my backpack and my brother’s new pack. Once I saw the kibbles go in, I knew it was a good adventure. Doodlebug, on the other hand, was still worried.

So we headed out in the car and we drove for a hundred billion three hours. Naturally, I stayed on guard while my brother dozed off.

When we finally got there, everybuddy put their packs on, and boy were they heavy. Mama made us pack in all our own water, kibbles, bones, and poop bags!

And just like that, we were off!

We crossed creeks and rivers and climbed and scrambled. By the time we got there, we were very panty and very happy.

You must be wondering what place I’m talking about when I say “we got there.” Don’t worry, I will tell you. There was a magic spot on top of a big hill under some cedar trees, with a nice flat soft spot for us to put our sleeping crate, and nobody around for miles and miles. It was glorious! So of course we got right to napping. Notice that I am sleeping in the dirt like a real man dog, but my brother insisted on a yoga mat like a little primadonna!

After our nappings, we felt most refreshed, and went for a little stroll before sunset. We didn’t have to wear all our kibbles and waters and everything, so me and the Dude were both feeling as light and springy as the sun was warm and yellow.

Well I’ll tell you, that walk was a turning point — between the regular great things and the most excellent great things! You won’t even believe them!

First, my baby brother the Bug got to practice some off-leash hiking! I mean, he was dragging his leash so mama or I could always step on it if he stopped listening, but still. He did it! And he was brilliant!

And then, as though that wasn’t cool enough already, Mama and Dad set up our big crate on the nice soft dirt, for us to all sleep in together. I’ve slept in the crate with them before lots of times, which was totally rad, but never with a friend/brother. It was so snug and cozy, we loved it! Only mama was mumbling about getting a bigger crate for next time. Whatever.

And the final most excellent thing that happened was that my baby brother saved us from certain death by tarantula bite!! You wouldn’t believe how giant and hairy this spider was, and it was trying to sneak into our tent while we were preoccupied with kibbles and camp stoves. But my brother saw it and nearly deathed it! Well, maybe he didn’t nearly death it, but he did alert Mama, who shooed it away. Anyway, as a team, we saved all our own lives. We are such heroes.

What an exciting weekend!

When mama came home yesterday with a new backpack for my brother and fished my trusty pack out of the garage, we started to suspect that maybe something was going to happen. Considering we wait around basically our whole lives for things to happen, we got a little bit excited.

Only then remembered: it takes humans FOREVER to actually get ready to DO anything. So we got a little less excited.

You see, yesterday was my mama and dad’s adopt-a-versary of each other, and every year around their adopt-a-versary, we go on a trip with our backpacks. We always drive and drive, and then we all put on our backpacks and walk and walk and walk through the woods, peeing and sniffing everywhere we choose, until we get to a nice spot to rest and eat some kibble. Then I lay there and supervise while mama and dad pull things out of our backpacks and make a nice big crate for us to all sleep in together. It’s a good time!

I’m an old seasoned pro at backpacking, but Doodlebug has never been before! He’s a little nervous.

So to help him feel more prepared for our little trip on Saturday, I’ve been helping him practice one of the most important backpacking skills of all: power napping during breaks while still wearing your pack. As you can see, he’s already a pro!

Happy weekend, everyone!

As it turns out, both of our boys have “official names,” which we never use, in addition to “stage names,” by which the public knows them. Along with these, there are a handful of nicknames for each dog, on top of their original shelter names that they left behind when they came home.

Does that make us weirdos?

When we brought home Mr Chick from the Austin shelter in 2004, his name was “Ralphie.” It didn’t suit him. We brainstormed and brainstormed, and eventually settled on a new name: Tyson.

It seemed to suit him at first. He was a young guy, athletic, confident, and charming. Kind of a jock. A “Tyson.”

Only later did he reveal himself to actually be a big, snuggly, sensitive baby — a chicken — and slowly (we don’t even remember how), his “true” name, Chick, emerged.

Until now, relatively few people in Chick’s life have known all of his different names. His grandparents still calls him “Ty” from time to time, as do some of his oldest friends. But to the rest of the world — and to us — he is Chick (or Cheeko or Chickster).

When Doodlebug came into our life, he was a timid, cowering, whimpery, sweet little mess of a dog named “Red.”

“Red” suited him because of his beautiful red furs, but didn’t really capture his darling, sugary personality. We dubbed him “Snickerdoodle” to match both his rich cinnamon color and his sweetness.

Pretty soon though, Snickerdoodle started to show his real self. He is sweet as anything, yes, but he is also a goofy, mellow dude. “Snickerdoodle” became “Doodlebug,” and “Doodlebug” morphed into “Dude,” and sometimes “The Bug.”

Although we know it’s silly for our dogs to have so many different names, we also love how their name chronology lines up with the development of their true selves.

Who else has found themselves with slowly morphing dog names?

Pop quiz. If your mama came home with a couple of yards of this fabric, what would you jump up and down and demand that she make out of it?

Yes. Of course. A dog bed!

And mama loves us so much, that she responded to our jumpings, dusted off her sewing machine, and did just that. She made us two dog bed covers with our friends the Ray Ban deer, and some other friends too. Pretty nice of her, huh?

Only before I had a chance to formally put my butt-stamp of approval on the new beds, my silly little brother stone cold stole them! Look how non-guilty-feeling he looks here!

So I just did what I always do, and sat quietly by looking very pouty and making some loud sighs. I guess I looked very sad, because eventually, Doodlebug did start to feel maybe a little more guilty about stacking our two new beds and using them both for himself:

So being the nice ‘Bug that he is, he shimmied over, spread out the beds, and let me share. Don’t we look better on them, side by side, together?

Well after we tested them out, we oohed and aahed over how lovely they were and how very smart mama must have been for being able to make them all by her lonesome. She said nah, they weren’t that hard (and trust me, that makes sense because mama is NOT a very talented seamstress). She just took the covers off some of our old dog beds, measured them, and made the new covers just like oversized pillow cases. And even we dogs know that pillow cases are just about the easiest thing to sew. In an afternoon, she was done!

We’re not sure about you guys, but we’re going to spend this weekend decorating our house with ourselves and our new dog bed covers. Many, many naps to come!

What are y’all up to this weekend?