There are lots of benefits to letting your dog sleep in your bed. When Pepper was a puppy, we were crate training her, so she slept in a crate. I think that this was really important for her, but now that she’s older I love having her sleep in my bed. We even got a bigger bed to make room for her in it.
It took a little bit of convincing to get my husband on board with it, but he is at least ok with it now. Pepper seems to understand that I am the one who likes her in the bed because she tends to sleep by me most often.
I love having Pepper sleep in my bed because she helps keep me warm. This is especially great in the winter because I can never seem to keep my feet warm. Pepper is more than happy to snuggle up and keep both of us warm. Even in the summer, we sleep with an air conditioner and a ceiling fan on, and although this keeps hubby cool enough, I am still sometimes cold, so it’s great to have Pepper. I think this makes her more comfortable too, at least in the winter. I think she gets cold sometimes and likes the snuggle.
This is my mom’s dog snuggling with her in bed
Strengthens bonds with your dog
I think that cuddling in bed is a great bonding time with my dog. We are both relaxed and it’s a good way to just chill out together, both in the evening and in the morning. It’s a good alternative to scrolling your phone before bed, and it can help both of you calm down and sleep better. She’s part of our family. We want her to feel loved and welcome wherever we are. For that reason, she’s allowed on the furniture too. Let’s face it. I love her more than I will ever love a piece of furniture!
This is Pepper snuggling with my sister when she came to visit.
She lets me know if something is wrong
I also like that Pepper will let me know if something is wrong in the middle of the night. She is a lighter sleeper than I am and wakes me up if she notices anything strange going on. Most of the time these are just noises from outside, but I like that she is aware and will let me know if there is something, I need to take care of.
One night when Pancake was sick Pepper really wanted to sleep in his room. Normally I don’t let her do this because she tends to move around a lot during the night and I am afraid it will wake him up, but she was insistent, and because he was sick, I let her. I figured if he needed my help in the middle of the night, she would let me know. (Luckily, he didn’t need anything, and she didn’t wake him up!)
Pepper also lets me know if there is something wrong with her in the middle of the night. She gets sick sometimes too and I like to have her close by so that I know she is ok. Occasionally she has gotten sick in the middle of the night and because she is sleeping with me, I know about it and I can quickly clean up the mess and I know to watch her carefully the next day.
What do you think? Do you let your dog sleep in the bed? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Do you know how cats like to chase laser pointers? It’s really fun to watch them go crazy, but have you ever tried it with a dog? I did. My sister was visiting, and she didn’t think it would work at all. Boy was she wrong. Pepper loved the laser pointer. After about two days of it though we were running low on batteries. After several more batteries, we decided to try it with a flashlight since we were tired of buying specialty laser pointer batteries. I used this LED Maglite that my dad bought me for Christmas several years ago. She likes that so much more than the laser pointer too.
The Maglite is nice because it has a really bright beam due to the LED lightbulb. It can also be super focused to create a small bright beam of light for her to chase.
We use this all the time to wear her out, especially when it’s cold outside. She will run up and down the halls of our house and around the rooms. Sometimes we even take it outside to the backyard and let her chase it around when she hasn’t been able to get out for a walk. This is especially great in the winter when it gets dark so early, and when we need to wear her out quickly before someone comes to visit.
I’m sorry for the terrible quality of this video but this is Pepper chasing a flashlight outside in the dark.
Now that Pancake is around, he loves to play with his big sister’s favorite toy. He will run around with it giggling hysterically. He has so much fun. It’s become part of our bedtime routine.
Here is Pancake giggling hysterically while playing with Pepper
We actually ended up buying a mini Maglite because it’s easier for Pancake to handle. We also have one of these flashlights that works pretty well. He drops it less, which damages the walls less and huts his toes less.
Growing up I always had dogs, but my husband didn’t because he and his dad were “allergic.” It was kind of one of the conditions when we decided to get married that he would let me have a dog. He told me that he wanted a dog that could catch frisbees, so, we have a dog that is an excellent frisbee catcher!
Today I’m going to walk you through the steps I took to teach Pepper to catch a frisbee.
What you will need:
A dog
A thrower (aka you)
A frisbee
These are my favorite kind of frisbee. I find that the soft rubbery dog frisbees are the best. We tried the hard plastic kind for a while, but they would crack when she would bite down on them and they would cause cuts in her mouth that would make her bleed. Not good. Her grandparents bought her one of these, but it also makes her bleed. It’s sturdier than the rubbery ones though.
Frisbees do not make good chew or pull toys. Every time we leave a frisbee with a dog sitter it gets ruined because the people will play tug with Pepper, so that is one of our rules. She only gets the frisbee when it’s time to play the right game with it. Otherwise, they will just get ruined.
A large area to play
Your yard may be big enough, but it may not be, just try it out to see. We started Pepper out at a dog park in our apartment complex. Since then we’ve tried to find large open fields for her to play in. A dog park might be a good place, we’ve also played with her in a large open space behind our church. Just find a place that works well for you. Sometimes we will play across our large front yard and our neighbor’s front yard.
First, your dog needs to know how to play fetch. We were pretty lucky. Since Pepper is a retriever she pretty much “came out of the box” knowing how to play fetch. We didn’t have to teach her. She doesn’t need to know how to play fetch with a frisbee, any toy will do.
Step 2.
Take your dog outside and start playing fetch with a frisbee. She doesn’t need to be able to catch it, just to chase it and bring it back. It’s also ok if you are not good at throwing a frisbee. You will get better. When Pepper was little, she was really terrible and giving toys back. She was great at bringing them back but bad at letting go. That is ok. We would use two frisbees when we took her out so that she would drop one when we would throw the other.
Step 3.
This step is super great because you don’t really have to do anything. Eventually, your dog will learn that it’s easier, or more fun to catch the frisbee before it lands. When Pepper figured this out it was a game-changer. Now she loves to play frisbee and she is so good at it. When we take her out other people who see us playing are always really impressed.
You will continue to get better at throwing a frisbee too. When we first started, we were pretty bad. Now we’re pretty good at it. I tell people that you can get better at anything you do 200 times a day for a year. That’s not to say that you need to play that often. Play as often as you like, but we loved the game, so we played it all the time. We still play a lot, but not quite as much since we have Pancake too. (BTW he is awful at throwing the frisbee, but he still loves it. He’ll get better eventually too.)
Step 4.
This step kind of goes along with your other dog training, but you need to teach your dog the “drop it” command so that she will release the frisbee. Once you have this down, you’re pretty much good to go and your dog will be an excellent frisbee catcher too!
Even though Pepper’s been playing frisbee for a long time now, she doesn’t always catch them.
I would love to see pictures and videos of your dogs playing frisbee! Please share them on my Facebook page!
Pepper came to me when she was just 8 weeks old. She was soooo cute! I loved her instantly. I actually cried when I held her for the first time. We had an instant connection. I knew we were going to be best friends! I quickly took about teaching her how cool life is and all of the fun things she can do. I gave her toys. I taught her to play fetch. I took her to the park. She shredded things in my living room. We had lots of snuggles! It was the best! I loved having such a sweet puppy in my life and I still do!
See how cute she was? Wouldn’t you fall in love too?
On Valentine’s Day, when she had only been a part of our family for two weeks and she was just 10 weeks old she was acting significantly less spunky. She wouldn’t eat or drink. It was very strange for her since she was ALWAYS getting into trouble. I felt like I couldn’t leave her alone for a second. But on this particular day, she was just sleeping a lot and lying around.
I called my mom and asked what to do. She said that puppies will eat and drink when they are hungry and thirsty, so I should just watch her closely. Since she was still so new, I didn’t have a veterinarian picked out for her yet. I did some research to see available veterinarians in the area, but since it was a weekend most of them were closed.
This is a picture of my husband with Pepper at the hospital. He had a cold.
As the day went on, she wasn’t making any improvements, so I made a call to the University where the pet emergency department is. They told me their fees and asked if I wanted to bring her in; I told them I would be there soon.
Going to see the veterinarian
We met with a veterinary student whose first reaction to seeing her was “aww she’s so cute!” even though he sees pets all day. I knew that she was cute, but I love hearing that he thought she was too. He took us back to the exam room and performed an exam. He also took some tests. He told us some things it might be and then left to have the tests run and to consult with the resident veterinarian. One of the things he told us that might be the problem was Parvovirus.
What is Parvovirus?
Parvovirus is something I had never heard of before, despite having grown up with dogs. I did some research on my phone while I was waiting for him to come back. It seemed pretty bad and I was really hoping that wasn’t the problem. When the student came back, he brought the resident vet with him. They confirmed that Pepper had Parvovirus and proceeded to explain what that meant for us. I will try to give you the best explanation that I can.
There are two forms of Parvovirus. The most common is Intestinal, this is what Pepper had. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, lack of appetite, lethargy, and fever. It affects the body’s ability to absorb nutrients and the puppy will become dehydrated very quickly. The less common type is cardiac which attacks the heart muscles of fetuses and very young puppies. This type is often fatal.
Here is more photo evidence that Pepper was cute!
Puppies are usually diagnosed with Parvovirus between 6 weeks and 6 months old. It can be transferred by direct contact with an infected dog or indirectly through an infected dog’s feces. The virus can even live in the soil for up to a year. This can happen in simple ways such as playing fetch with a muddy toy that has been contaminated by the ground, or nearly any contact with other dogs, or dog feces. The virus is resistant to most cleaning products and weather changes. For some reason unknown to veterinarians some breeds are particularly susceptible. They include Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, Labradors, Dobermans, German Shepherds, English Springer Spaniels, and Alaskan Sled Dogs.
There is no cure for Parvovirus and treatment usually focuses on treating the symptoms and preventing a secondary bacterial infection. The puppy will usually receive an IV to ensure that they are hydrated and are getting adequate nutrition. The survival rate is about 70% for puppies who are treated in a hospital. Even after recovery, they will likely still have a weakened immune system for a while.
There is a vaccine for Parvovirus that is given at 6 weeks and then two more times after 10 weeks old.
I don’t have any proof, but I believe Pepper contracted the virus through the soil at the dog park. We would take her to the dog park, and she would play fetch with us. There was a lot of mud there due to it being late winter/early spring and even though I’m sure most dog owners picked up after their dogs, even if just a little bit of contaminated feces was left, she could easily be exposed to it.
The vet told us that she would need to stay at the hospital for a few days in quarantine to be supported through fighting this virus and that we needed to prepare our home for her return.The only things that kill Parvovirus are bleach and UV light.She would also need to stay inside and avoid contact with other dogs for two weeks.
This is from the day she came home from the hospital. You can see she is very sleepy.
They showed us where Pepper would be staying in quarantine. We could see through a window, but no one could go in without a protective antiviral suit on. I cried as we left her at the hospital and drove home.
Preparing for her to come home
I remember thinking that it was a good thing I didn’t need to keep Pepper out of trouble while I completely disinfected everything in my house. It was a lot of work. I cleaned all of the hard floors with a bleach solution and I even put some in a shallow pan to soak the bottoms of our shoes in so that we wouldn’t spread the virus. We washed all of her bedding with bleach too. For all of the surfaces that we couldn’t clean with bleach, I went over with a UV sanitizing light. It took a very long time and it was a lot of hard work.
Pepper in the kitchen while she is sick.
We completely re-organized our house so that Pepper could stay on hard surfaces that would be easier to sanitize until she was better. We moved the kitchen table into our living room and a couch to the border between the living room and the kitchen, with a baby gate covering the rest of the area so that she could wander and play in the kitchen.
Coming home
Luckily, we only had to leave Pepper at the hospital for about 24 hours before we could bring her home. I called in sick to work the day after she came home to be with her and make sure she was ok. She just slept a lot and cuddled a lot (which was very unusual for her) because her body was so busy fighting the virus.
This was a really hard time for us because we were working on potty training Pepper at the same time and that had to go on hold until she was better. We brought home puppy pads and I even sent my husband out to get diapers for her. *
My husband stayed home with her the next day and she started to do much better. She was playing and eating again. Some of her friends (my husband’s friends) who were our neighbors wanted to come by and see her. We asked if they were sure since she was contagious and since our house was set up so weirdly. They agreed and came to play with her for about an hour. It was so nice of them, but we had to remind them to wash their clothes and shoes before going around other dogs.
This is the first time she got to go outside after getting sick.
Recovery
Pepper gradually recovered and got to go outside like a normal dog. We celebrated! It took us a little longer to potty train her after that since she hadn’t been able to go outside at all for two weeks.
All in all, the whole fiasco cost us about $1000! It was super unexpected for us and it was tough to come up with the money so quickly.
After that, we got Pepper some health insurance so that we wouldn’t have to do that again. I just want to be able to say “Yes” to any care that she needs without having to worry about how I am going to pay for it. Now we have insurance through Figo. It costs about $50/month and we have a $250 annual deductible to meet. It’s not a perfect system, but it saves us from having a very large unexpected bill again.
As a result of the Parvo Pepper is also a little bit smaller than she would otherwise be. Her regular vet (now) told us that Parvo can stunt the growth of puppies. It’s not that the virus itself stunts them, but they usually get it when they are very young and growing very quickly. Because their little bodies are spending so much energy on fighting the virus they can’t grow as well during that time and will sometimes be smaller.
We don’t mind her being small. She’s about 50 pounds, which is small for a lab mix. I think she was probably the runt of her litter and had Parvo on top of that. We consider her a custom order. We call her a dark chocolate miniature lab.
Another picture from right after she came home from the hospital, again, she is very sleepy.
Prevention
Recommendations for protecting puppies from Parvovirus include the vaccine of course, but you should also be careful when socializing your dog. Only socialize your dog in a private area with healthy fully vaccinated dogs. Avoid public areas including dog parks, pet stores, and other dog designated areas. If a dog has had Parvo in your home, it is best to not have puppies in the home for several years. A dog who has recovered from Parvo can still be contagious for up to two months after recovery.
You can help to prevent the spread of Parvovirus too. Even if your dog has had the vaccine it is important to always pick up after your dog to protect other puppies!
I hope that this story has helped you understand more about the Parvovirus and how destructive it can be. Please keep your young puppies away from the dog park and other older dogs as much as you can until they have been vaccinated.
*This is a funny story because he called me from the store and asked me what size to get her. Since we didn’t have any kids yet, I really had no idea what to tell him. I just told him how much she weighed, and he went with that. Luckily that worked and the diapers he brought home fit. We just had to cut a hole for her tail.
I think that everyone with a baby and a dog has had this problem. How do you keep the baby out of the dog bowls? They are just so curious, learning and exploring everything. It’s very natural for them to be interested in the dog’s bowls, but it isn’t safe.
Pancake really loves water and baths, so whenever it’s quiet for more than 30 seconds he’s probably splashing in the dog bowl. L
Babies can get sick from the bacteria in dog bowls, or even drown if the circumstances are stacked against them, but how do you keep them out of the dog bowl?
I looked everywhere for an answer, I looked into baby proof dog bowls and there really isn’t much on the market. I found a very expensive RFID tracking bowl that connects to a chip on your dog’s collar (Pepper doesn’t wear a collar when she’s in the house anyway) and it doesn’t even seem to work well. Everything else I found was able to be accessed by a curious baby.
The felt bad taking them away from Pepper and she’s not the kind of dog who eats on a schedule. I just leave food and water out for her all the time and she can access them whenever she wants to.
You really just have to move them to a place where the baby or toddler is less likely to end up because it really is impossible to watch them and keep them out of trouble all of the time.
I eventually had to just move her food out of the kitchen. I ended up putting it in the closet of the bedroom I use as an office, it’s pretty out of the way for Pancake, although he does hang out in there sometimes, and it’s easy for Pepper to access. When Pancake is in there and starts to get interested in the dog bowls, I can just close the closet doors rather than close off an entire room of our house.
If it’s warm outside and you have a doggie door outside might be a good option, or if there is a room that the baby doesn’t go in that would be another good choice. If your dog eats on a schedule you may be able to only put food out when it’s mealtime and set water up on a similar schedule. Maybe you could even teach your dog to give you a signal when they need water.
The other thing I have to watch out for when having the dog bowls in an out of the way place is that sometimes I forget to fill them. You could counter this by setting an alarm on your phone to check them at the same times every day. I try to associate checking the bowls with something else I do every day. Since Pepper’s bowls are in my office, I check them when I start working, which is early in the morning, during nap time and before bed.
Pepper was smart enough to figure out that I had moved her bowls and she didn’t seem to mind at all. She’s even used to looking for them when we go on vacation and have to put them in a different place.
Having the bowls out of the kitchen mostly keeps them out of sight out of mind for Pancake, although when he does get interested it is easy to just close the closet doors for a while and not really miss out on anything.
I hope this helps you. If any of you have come up with a better solution to this all too prevalent problem, I would love to hear it. Let me know in the comments below!
This is just a simple outline of some simple tricks you can teach your dog. Some are more purposeful and some are just fun.
1. Sit
Sitting is one of the most basic dog tricks and probably the first one for most dog owners. It’s a pretty simple trick for a dog to learn and it can be very useful for dog owners.
2. Lay down
Laying down is another very basic, but useful dog trick. It is simple for the dog to learn and for the owner to teach.
3. Stay
Stay is a very useful dog trick that can be used to keep your dog out of the way for a short period of time. You can use this time to clean up something that is unsafe, to put away something that you want to protect from your dog, or to set up a fun surprise for her.
4. Fetch
Fetch is not really a necessary trick, but it is the most basic dog game. Fetch simply requires a dog to bring something to you. It’s best to start out with a ball or some kind of dog toy that your dog really likes so that they will be interested in the game. Toys that squeak are also good motivators for your dog.
5. Shake
This is another fun trick for your dog to learn. I remember teaching it to Pepper. She hated it at first, but now it is one of her favorites. I would have her sit, then I would say shake while I picked up one of her front paws. I would give her a treat after. She’s gotten so good at it that she will often shake multiple times, which front paw she gives you. (She thinks this is a really easy way to get a treat now.)
This one is kind of a bonus trick because once you’ve taught your dog to shake, waving is pretty simple. Most dogs will pick up on the hand sign of offering your hand when you go to shake, and they will extend a paw for you to take. In this case, you would start out the same way, except extend our hand all the way to them, stop a little bit short so that their paw basically misses your hand and say wave. From there I recommend moving on to using a hand sign that looks more like waving so that it doesn’t get confused with shake.
6. Nose
This is a really cute trick you can teach your dog. The goal is that you offer your hand with the palm out while you say “nose” and your dog will bump your hand with her nose. My sister actually taught this one to Pepper while she was visiting. She learned it pretty much instantly because she is always using her nose to show us what she wants.
7. Turn around
Turning around is a fun trick for your dog. I will just use my finger and indicate spinning around and Pepper will turn around in a circle. It’s very cute. Pepper doesn’t seem to mind the trick at all, but Princess, the dog I had growing up, must have thought it was the most annoying thing I could ask of her. She would make such a fuss about doing it. It was very cute and brings back very happy memories for me.
8. Roll-over
This trick is also just for fun. When Pepper was learning this trick I first had her lay down. Then I would kind of push her over onto her back and then all the way over and say roll-over. It took a little while for her to figure this one out, and for some reason, she has now decided that it means to turn around, probably because the hand sign I use it too similar to the hand sign for turn-around, so I actually had to update it to “roll over all the way.” Pepper is kind of picky about doing this trick, but when she’s properly motivated she remembers it and can perform it perfectly.
9. Go to bed
Go to bed a command where I will point to one of Pepper’s many dog beds through our house and she will go there, lay down, and wait for me to release her with an “ok.” This trick is a little bit more advanced because it requires her to wait for a longer time and she needs to wait for me to release her. It is useful for getting her out of the way when we are doing something that could hurt her, like moving large boxes in and out of the garage or re-arranging furniture. She can usually still see us from where she is, but she is not underfoot, so she doesn’t get stepped on, or trip us, which is nice. Ideally, if Pepper learned this trick perfectly, I would be able to send her to bed when someone comes to the door so that she would not bark and them and jump all over them, but I haven’t gotten her trained that well on it yet.
10. Play dead
This is another one of my favorite tricks that Pepper does. You can teach your dog to lay down and roll over partway so that they are lying on their back and stay there, or you can go a step farther and have your dog turn around before lying down and rolling over onto her back. I did this because I thought it was cute. I used a finger shooting hand sign and the command is “bang bang bang.” So, when I want Pepper to play dead I look at her and use two-finger guns to “shoot” her three times then she turns around in a circle, lies down and rolls over onto her back with her feet sticking up in the air. When I was teaching this trick to Pepper, she actually added a few steps of her own that have stuck, and I just think they are so cute. Before she turns around, she will bump my hand to make sure I have a treat for her, then after she turns around, she will touch my foot and then lie down, and rollover with her feet in the air. I have no idea why she added this step, but I find it very endearing, so I never bothered to correct it.
