Thursday, January 31, 2019

#ChewyInfluencer January Review #2

Can you believe that this is the last day of January already!
We hope our friends experiencing the Polar Vortex are staying safe and warm! 

For our second review this month we chose

Stella & Chewy's Lil' SuperBlends Small Breed 
Cage-Free Chicken Recipe Meal Mixers 
Freeze-Dried Raw Dog Food Topper



This recipe gives your dog what he naturally craves,
 and is made from 95% cage-free chicken, organs, and bone, 
plus 100% organic fruits and vegetables. 
Simply scoop, mix in with your pet’s kibble, and watch him come running! 
The bite-sized morsels are perfect for small breeds.


Just look at the blueberries and dried strawberries along with the chicken and lots of other good stuff


Ingredients
Chicken With Ground Bone, Chicken Liver, Chicken Gizzard, Organic Bananas, Organic Wild Blueberries, Organic Strawberries, Pumpkin Seed, Potassium Chloride, Organic Cranberries, Organic Spinach, Organic Broccoli, Organic Beets, Organic Carrots, Organic Squash, Organic Apples plus good vitamins and minerals


The pieces are easy to crumble 
and make a delicious topper on our dinner
Mom also gives it to us a a treat! 

We love Stella & Chewy's Meal Mixers! 



And we love our friends at Chewy.com for sending us this bag free of charge in exchange for our honest review


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel



Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Monday, January 28, 2019

Compromise and We all Win!


Last week 
we told you about my working on a K9-FITbone 



and how I do not like the spiky side


Well Mom & I sat down for negotiations
 and we came to an agreement


She put 2 layers of thin fabric on the bone 
and I got better treats 


Then we went to one layer of thin fabric


FOUR FEET on the Bone!!


This is where the situation stands for now
A little compromise can go a long way

Mom hopes we can eventually dispense with the fabric
I am thinking of asking for steak
BOL! 


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel

Friday, January 25, 2019

Good News on Nature Friday



Good news from Hazel's dogtor appointment yesterday!
Her lungs were clear and heart rate good.
The combination of lasix and dilitazem 3xday is working.
We do hope eventually to reduce or discontinue 
her trachea cough medicine (temeril-p) 
but for now we will make no changes.
Thank you again for all the well wishes for our little girl.


On this Nature Friday 
we would like to share a beautiful sunset 
we witnessed a few weeks ago





Mom says the pictures never do it justice!

This is a blog hop with
Rosy, Arty and Jakey at


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel



Thursday, January 24, 2019

#ChewyInfluencer January Review

Time to tell you about the wonderful treats 
our friends at Chewy sent us this month to review

Wellness Core Petite Treats Lamb, Apples & Cinnamon Recipe Soft Grain-Free Dog Treats


From the Chewy.com website
Wellness Petite Treats are just the right size for small breed dogs. These goodies have the healthy ingredients their little bodies deserve but still pack the big tantalizing flavor and soft texture they can’t resist! As your BFF munches, she’ll experience bold flavors from real lamb, apples and cinnamon. Each protein-rich bite contains whole foods along with flaxseed to promote a healthy, shiny coat, plus you’ll never find any wheat, wheat gluten, corn, soy, artificial flavors or preservatives. These healthy rewards are perfect for training, treating or just plain spoiling!



Ingredients
Lamb Meal, Dried Ground Potatoes, Tapioca Flour, Glycerine, Lamb, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Cane Molasses, Pea Fiber, Apples, Flaxseed, Chick Peas, Salt, Cinnamon, Guar Gum, Mixed Tocopherols Added to Preserve Freshness, Rosemary Extract.


These treats are bite size and soft
exactly what Hazel & I like


The combination of lamb, apples and cinnamon 
smells wonderful


Don't mind if I do, Mom!


How about me Mom??


YUM! YUM!

Wellness Core Lamb, Apples & Cinnamon Petite Treats
were a big hit with us. 
I say "were" because the bag is already gone. 
BOL! 

disclaimer: as a #ChewyInfluencer we were provided this bag of treats free of charge in exchange for our honest review


A quick note
Hazel is doing well on the new heart medicine.
She has a recheck appt. this morning.

We would like to say a special thank you to Miss Natalie and everyone at Chewy for this lovely pick me up bouquet



We don't know of any company that treats it's customer with such great care!

We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Monday, January 21, 2019

Can We Make a Deal?


As part of conditioning my fine tuned pug bod 
we work on different things at class
 to help strengthen our core.

One thing we do is practice balancing on a K-9 FitBone


One side has smooth bumps


I have no issues getting on that side
easy peasy


I do not like other side which has kind of spikey bumps
Teacher says it is good for our toes 
so she let us take one home to work on 


After dancing around it for a bit 
I finally offered mom a quick step over

Mom said "no deal - I want more"


Ok - how about I just barely touch one foot?

Mom said "you can do better than that!"


Standing on one foot-
 my final offer!


phhhhhht!
How will we break this impasse!
Mom wants all 4 feet on the spikey side
I don't want any feet on the spikey side
Will we be able to come to a deal 
that makes everybody happy??


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel

Friday, January 18, 2019

More Snow on Nature Friday


It's all about snow again 
on Nature Friday at the PugRanch 
Nature Friday is a fun blog hop with 

The snow we got Wednesday morning 
did not stick around long
The temperature warmed up to 40 degrees 
and the new snow melted away 
(we still have piles around in the yard).
 Yesterday it rained off and on all day.


Before we went to bed last night 
the rain turned to slush, then snow


The wind blew the snow sideways


And we woke up to snow


plastered on everything!

Big storms are heading east


We hope all our friends stay warm and safe!

Hop on the hop 
and show us some nature in your neck of the woods!

We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel


Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Wordless Wednesday


More snow today




It was brought to our attention that the second article link in Monday's post was not working.
It is now fixed, thanks KB!


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel

Monday, January 14, 2019

Hazel and Food for Thought

First we want to thank everyone
 for their POTP, prayers and well wishes for Hazel

We are happy to report the new heart medicine has helped Hazel be more comfortable with her breathing.  This medicine is to help her heart pump better. She did have some fluid build up when she was checked on Thursday so we doubled her afternoon dose of Lasix. We hope now between the two medicines we can keep things in check. She is scheduled for a recheck on the 24th. 


We have some other developments (don't panic) as a result of Hazel's issues so we are going to let Mom take over.  She may be a bit long winded but we hope you will read through what she has to say

Friends, all of us love our pets and always want to do what is the very best for them, which includes feeding good food. You may have heard there are new reports that grain free food may cause heart problems in dogs. Because of some things that transpired at our vet last week, I went looking for information.  I am writing this post as information only, not as an expert by any means and not to influence anyone.  I hope you will read carefully and not make any rush to judgement. 

When I took Hazel to the vet last Monday and it was determined by x-rays that her heart was enlarged our vet asked me if we fed grain free food. I said yes. She then told me about the recent reports that some grain free diets may be leading to dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs.  At 14, Hazel's condition can very likely be attributed to her age, but we made the decision to x-ray Mabel as well.  So we took Mabel in on Thursday as a precaution not expecting the answer we got. Mabel shows a slight enlargement on one side of her heart. I just wanted to cry. When I got home I started looking for information and what I found was quite interesting. 

First - If you feed grain free food DO NOT PANIC!
It does not seem to be the lack of grains 
but some of the other ingredients that are added to SOME of the grain free diets.
I am going to tell you some of the main points I took from a couple of articles I found and then I will provide links to those articles for you to read if you want

The report included the fact that all of the cases had something in common: all the dogs had been eating diets heavy in peas, lentils, chickpeas, and potatoes.
“Diets in cases reported to the FDA frequently list potatoes or multiple legumes [our emphasis again] such as peas, lentils, other ‘pulses’ (seeds of legumes), and their protein, starch, and fiber derivatives early in the ingredient list, indicating that they are main ingredients.”

Not All Grain-Free Foods Are Under Suspicion

Please keep reading to the end of our post but here are links
 to two very informative articles from Whole Dog Journal 
that will give you more complete information
Please read if you have any concerns about the food 
you are currently feeding your dog.





Again I want to stress, these reports are very new and we just wanted to put this information out there and you can draw your own conclusions and thoughts. 

Yes, Hazel's age could be the main cause of her enlarged heart.
Mabel had her share of health problems in her first year and her x-ray results could be related or just coincidental.  At this point Mabel is totally fine but by changing their diet we have a good chance of stopping and maybe even reversing the slight enlargement. After much searching I found a good quality kibble that has none of the suspected ingredients.  It is not grain free but neither of the girls have problems with grain. That may be over doing it but at I would rather be safe than sorry.  We will be monitoring Mabel by doing x-rays again in about 9 months.


Thanks for reading
and thank you again for all your love and well wishes for Hazel


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel



Friday, January 11, 2019

Nature Friday in the Snow!


Weather permitting, we go to agility practice on 
Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. 
This Tuesday we had snow on the ground but the sky was clear and little to no wind. The temperature was a very brisk 20 degrees.  Mom and I thought it would be good to get out of the house for some fun. The snow in the field was too crusty to run on so we set up a small course
under the pavilion. 

The owner of the property sent this picture to his wife
 (who is one of our training friends and an agility enthusiast)



Mom & I sat on the bench in between runs 
to keep my feet from getting too cold.
We only stayed about 45 minutes
 but it was great to get out in the fresh air!


This is a blog hop hosted by



We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Hazel Update




We received some discouraging news on Monday
The new medicine we started last week was doing nothing for Hazel, in fact her wheezing seemed to be getting worse again.  Xrays were done and it was discovered that her heart is enlarged to about twice the normal size.  Her heart is causing the pressure on her trachea resulting in her difficulties. We are getting new medicine hopefully today. Because of her small size the medicine needs to be compounded to get a small enough dose. She still has her appetite. And although seems more tired, she is acting like her sweet self, so we have our paws crossed the new medicine will help her enjoy a better quality of life 


We would like to thank Ann at Zoolatry 
for this beautiful badge


Any prayers and good vibes would be appreciated

We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Tootin' My Own Horn Tuesday!

Whoo Whoo Whoo!!


I am starting the year off with a bang!

Over the winter months we take a fun combined skills class
Each week we do conditioning exercises 
and different skills from
Rally, Obedience, Agility and Tricks

After several weeks of classes we end by taking 
the AKC Trick Dog test and last night 
I earned my first title of the New Year!!

Trick Dog Intermediate!!



I had to perform 10 tricks from this list




Five of us passed the intermediate test
left to right
London, Tennille, Touche', Me
Avy the Weim girl left before the picture was taken.


And check out who made the 
Pug Dog Club of America 2018 Rally Ratings!!!



We are off to a good start in 2019!!!


We are the PugRanch Kids
Hazel & Mabel