My Birthday!

Actually we have two Dog Birthdays in March so we celebrate both Taryn and Kylie's Birthdays on the same day. We usually pick a day that is about half way in between both Dog's Birthdays (you could NEVER get away with this if you had human kids!). I'm kind of silly and I like to make a little bit of a big deal about the Birthday "party". I made a trip to PetSmart and bought some doggie staples. I then stopped by Three Dog Bakery to see if I could by a couple of cakes or individual "special" baked treats. This bakery is really fun, they make all kinds of baked cakes, cookies, cupcakes, s'mores, carrot cakes, and a ton of other dog safe treats. I have bought cakes from this bakery for the last three years, Taryn's 1st B-day, Taryn's 2nd and Kylie's 1st B-day, and now Taryn's 3rd and Kylie's 2nd B-day. This year we had two other guests at our party. Payton of course was a party goer and also our neighbors golden retriever Baily. We have blogged about Baily before, he is such a great friend to our girls. Baily also turns 3 this month so it is appropriate that he joined our party.

I usually order our cakes ahead of time from the bakery, but I wasn't able to this time. Luckily they had two cakes ready to go and it just took a few minutes to personalize them. I had to buy some party hats at the bakery and also a party favor for Baily to take home and enjoy. The dogs had a blast per normal. Taryn really seemed to know what was up. This is her third party. She recogognized the smell of the yummy doggie Birthday cake.

I hope to post pictures later of the dogs in the party hats. Those are on my neighbors camera. We of course will be having a party for Payton on July 6th! What a joy all of our dogs are to us!

Peace,

Jamie

Size Doesn't Matter!

I've mentioned before that Kylie is the Alpha Dog in our house and pretty much has been since she joined our family. The funny thing is that her older sister Taryn weighed about 70 pounds when we brought Kylie home and Kylie was probably pushing 10 pounds. What made Kylie the Alpha Dog? Attitude! Attitude is everything Baby! Little Kylie came into our lives with a big attitude. She knew that she was second fiddle to Mom and Dad, but she wasn't going to be second fiddle to another dog. Since we have added Payton to our household Kylie seems to be a little unsure about her place in dog society. She definitely shows signs of being threatened by Payton's confidence. Payton just turned 8 months old and I have been noticing that she is giving her older sisters a little bit more heck these days. Payton settled into our home really well and Mark and I believe that she is fully integrated and her past is a thing of the past. One of the reasons we believe this is her feisty nature with her Sisters. It's fun to watch the dogs do the "dance" of play fighting. They are just testing each other like puppies do in a litter to see what the pecking order is. Lately it has been hard to identify who is doing what to who because it seems like it's always the three of them wrestling. Sometimes it's individual, sometimes they gang up on one, and then change who the target is a second later. Don't worry, everyone is "smiling" and having fun playing, but we know that it's more than play. There is a rank being decided and reinforced every time our dogs play like this. The top picture is of Payton and Kylie playing. Payton is the one on top, obviously not intimidated by her older Sister. The bottom picture is of the two of them a few seconds later right before they curled up and took a nap together.

I guess that the reason I am sharing this is that one of our Dog friends Mango has just been introduced to his new little brother Dexter. Mango is a full grown Mastiff who I think weighs 130 pounds. Dexter is an adorable Black Labrador who weighs 15 pounds. Mango's Mom posted some cute pictures of their first afternoon together on Mango's blog. In one of the pictures it looks like Dexter is getting feisty with his gorgeously massive brother Mango. I think Mango has his paws full. It makes we wonder if Dexter will be top dog in his new home.

Peace,

Jamie

*Just got a message from Mango, he is a little offended that I described him as being 130 pounds, he is actually 230 Pounds!!! Whoa, even when Dexter is a full grown Lab Mango will still be at least 100 pounds heavier. That is one big Mango Man!