Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Brie and I would like to wish everyone a very joyous year and safe travel during the holiday season. Brie is already tired of all the holidaying and she has been a very lazy dog today.

End of Year Clean Up

The end of the year is almost here and our house is hardly tidied up, and today Brie was supposed to help me clean up her house, but it turned out to be silliest idea I ever came up with. She just pulled all the toys and her blanket and everything that she had decided to horde in her house out and left it there. I guess it's much easier vacuum when it's empty, but I had to put everything back in. I don't think our little poodle is very helpful when it comes to tiding up around the house.

Working out

It has come to our attention that Brie might have gained some Christmas weight, sure its understandable for people, because we eat Christmas roast followed by heavy Christmas pudding. Plus the Christmas cookies and the pie and the ham and lots more. Brie didn't feast out on a Christmas meal, but lately we've noticed that Brie might be getting a little tummy. To be on the safe side, today we encouraged her to work out little with her new Brie size soccer ball.

Messy little Poodle

Brie loves nature. This doesn't mean she likes to go to the park to enjoy the clean air, what it means is that Brie loves to bring outdoor things inside. She loves rocks, leaves and wood pieces, and she will bring in branches to shred into little tiny pieces that I have to vacuum up. She never does this in one place so my entire living space gets covered. Also, Brie has a knack of carrying things around the house and then onto the bed, so my vacuuming has to be extended to the rest of the house.

Christmas present

Brie got given lots of Christmas presents this year, and I feel almost bad as Brie hasn't given any presents out. Brie doesn't shake the present or peek inside, but she smells it and if she knows there's a treat inside, she will maul the wrapping paper. Since Brie lacks opposable thumbs we gave her a little help and unwrapped it for her.This year our biggest hit among the presents was little reindeer antlers, they are so cute and it also has little brown ears. I'm not sure what we were thinking but at least Brie is colour coordinated wearing both Santa's outfit and the reindeer ears. Thank you to all our family and friends who gave Brie presents, and since she didn't get anyone a present hopefully this hilarious picture of Brie will bring a smile in this post Christmas season.

Ham stealer

We tend to get a festive ham on festive occasions, and this gives Brie a new reason to celebrate. This is because she loves ham, of course ham is too salty and not suitable for dogs, but there are always little windows of opportunity that Brie has found to steal ham. The first tactic she goes for is when the ham is being carved she waits for it to be accidentally dropped and pounces, then when this fails she looks up at my husband with those puppy eyes and whines. Sadly, this sometimes works. The last desperate tactic is used when all of the guests leave the table, Brie swiftly jumps up and steals the ham off the plate. The first time when we saw this we were so angry at her, and now that we know what she can get up to we have been extra careful, hopefully this works.

Last year she was so tiny that the ham was bigger then her.

Merry Christmas

Brie and all of us at SNIFF dogwear would like to wish all of our readers and our doggie friends very Merry Christmas!

This is my crude ginger bread cake, it came as a kit but I still found a way to mess it up. If only Brie was a better helping hand

Sleepy hooligan

Brie likes to support my husband's favourite soccer team with him. But due to the inconvenient time difference, English soccer games are on live either very late at night or early in the morning. So this is a test for a true supporter, to see who can really stay up until the end of the match.

Brie is undoubtedly the first to dose off, until the occasional cheer and chant by my husband wakes hers up, causing her to give him a very bothered look. She also demands to go out for her own half time break.. when the game is still on. Usually I have to be the one letting Brie out, as my husband might miss a crucial goal.

Just after kick off, settling into her seat..... The end of the first half.... and the end of game.....

Faster than the speed of light

Brie loves running, and even though she is a little wee poodle she runs fast. OK, she doesn't quite run as fast as light, but she definitely runs faster than my husband, which isn't saying much I know. For her daily work out we like to go to a nearby park, where she runs between my husband and I so that neither of us have to run too much.

Brie bunny hops instead of running and from a distance people think she's a small fluff ball bouncing up and down. Her stamina is overwhelming - she doesn't ever seem to get tired - but we know she is tired really when her tongue starts hanging off to the side, and she starts panting.

Company for Brie

We always like to speculate on getting another dog for Brie to play with. Ever since we met Beau and Phoebe, we are considering this more than ever. They play and sleep with each other all the time and they get on well.

My concern is that I'll have to do twice as much grooming, and if for some dog reason they decide to get muddy and wet together then that's double the mess to clean up. There's also training the new puppy and that whole concern over whether the new puppy will get on with Brie to worry about. And last but not least my husband can't get it into his head that he is officially removed from the naming committee in our family, as he comes up with some terribly 'unconventional' names. So to avoid all the fuss, I think we'll just stick with our one high-maintenance poodle, Brie.

First meeting

I'll elaborate a little on the last post - Brie didn't get over her shyness that easily, in fact, there was a long long journey, well, in dog years at least. It was with the help of Beau and Phoebe's parents, who were kind enough to invite our little shy Brie over to their house that were were able to get Brie used to other doggies.

As I pondered about Brie, frolicking around in a field with other doggies while the Carpenters played in the background, my husband decided to give Brie a pep talk, about being confident and making good first impressions.

Despite all this she did what she always does - crawled up in my husbands' arms, and hid her tail. However when Beau and Phoebe calmed down from the initial surprise of seeing a new doggie in the house, Brie seemed not too bothered about getting sniffed, sure her tail was still in between her legs, but it occasional came up, and she even decide to wag it once or twice. And by the end of night Brie herself showed some curiosity towards Beau and Phoebe. There are still a lot more socialising steps to go, but I was overwhelmed with joy.

Beau and Phoebe

Brie loves going to beaches, and so do we. Auckland's East Coast beaches have lots of doggies after 6:30, and I thought what better way for Brie to get over her shyness of other dogs than meeting more dogs, in small doses, on the beach. With our family friends, and parents of Beau ( Pekingese and Bichon cross) and Phoebe (apricot Toy Poodle) we go for an occasional stroll with our dogs. Even though Brie was timid about meeting these two very friendly dogs at the start, she has now got over her shyness and wags her tails when she sees them, and even greets them in a doggie like manner. Beau is big brother to Phoebe, and he loves other dogs. He shows Brie and Phoebe how dogs do things, like smelling bums and digging holes. Phoebe is a 6 month old puppy who is just growing up so fast, and wants to do everything that Beau does.

Tricksy Brie

After exploring different brands of dog food, the only doggie food Brie prefers, seems to be Purina One, so that's what we have been feeding her. But since she is a little dog and doesn't get excited over food, she needs us to sweeten the deal. When she eats ALL of her kibble she gets a little dog treat.

But what usually happens when she finishes her breakfast or dinner, she sits down next to my husband and starts staring up, until she gets noticed and licks her nose to show she has finished her food. However our little tricksy Brie has learned to pretend she has eaten all her food by leaving a kibble or two to tricks us both. She still claims she has finished her meal, but the next day she'll leave one extra bit of kibble, and the next day it'll be another. I knew Brie was sneaky, but we never thought we'd be tricked by our little poodle.

Hand-me-downs

One of the bonuses of knowing other doggies, is that Brie gets hand me downs when clothes don't fit any more. And since it was Xmas season, Brie got given a Santa's outfit. It's a bit baggy around her chest, but she looks very festive. It's questionable whether she looks like a Santa though. I think she would make a terrible Santa considering she will probably forget the presents and steal the cookies instead. Come on Brie, ten more days to go, can you be a good, well-behaved poodle until Xmas???

Just a thought

More presents arrived in the mail today, and it was Brie's present from my mother. Since the tree is raised and doesn't have much space underneath, the presents have been relocated to a Brie-free-zone to prevent any disastrous events. And Brie's present are piling up, but there are none so far for me!!! What is wrong with my family, that husband of mine is going to be in so much trouble if he doesn't get me a Xmas present. Just a thought now that I think of it - I don't think Brie has been a good enough little poodle this year to deserve a present. Considering what happened last year I don't think Brie will be behaving on Xmas day this year either.

Xmas Stocking

I find Xmas season a bit stressful - first the cards, then presents and then the dinner. Especially as some of our family members are hard to buy presents for, but Brie is just so happy to get anything (as long as she can eat it) so it makes Christmas shopping lot easier. This year I was looking for a Xmas stocking for Brie, but didn't find any that I liked, until I saw this doggie paw shaped sock. It's extremely cute, and ever since we brought it home, Brie has been very fond of it. I think she thinks the sock is a part of the present and she expects to get to play with it. However I am the kind of person who supports recycling, so she has to restrain herself as I'll be using the same Xmas stocking for years to come.

When wild poodles attack

Last year Brie was a little tiny puppy, so we weren't worried about her attacking our christmas tree, but this year, I was concerned that she may get curious and try to take the Christmas ornaments off. I attempted to eliminate that doubt by introducing the baubles to Brie in a carefully observed experiment. Unfortunately this brought the wild side out of Brie as she kept punching the baubles with her paw. She also tried to pounce on them. The answer was simple - just put the tree up higher. So our mini tree is off the ground and out of poodle's reach. I guess it kind of ruins the aesthetic a bit, but it must to be done.

My other concern was about what might happen to those glass ornaments... So we ended up buying only plastic ones, so if for some mysterious reason one of them drops and Brie bites it, it won't shatter in her mouth.

Ahh the worries of having a little curious poodle. My parents have a dog and they have elaborate glass baubles on their christmas tree, but their dog couldn't care less about the Christmas tree and just takes a nap pretending he never even noticed.

Stake out

We have a lot of fruit trees in our neighbourhood, so we have lots of visits by numerous kinds of birds, which I really like. And of course Brie is very curious about birds, she loves to do a little bit of bird watching, but they always fly away as she gets a bit too excited. So I thought I'd give her a hand by picking out a great stake out outfit so she can blend into the environment.

Surprise surprise, when you are ready for the birds they never seem to come out, so I chucked a few bread crusts out to attact some birds. And the result was that instead of the birds getting attracted to the bread, Brie tried to munch on the bread. I think my mission of getting Brie into birdwatching failed miserably, she'll just have to bird watch from our lounge. She looks good trying to stake out though.

Tenacious Brie

We are lucky enough to have my cousin over during the Xmas season, and Brie is super chuffed about this, as she loves it when guests occupy the guest room as she can rummage through their luggage. However, she has, not once, or twice, but three times gone in to the guest room and tipped over the rubbish bin. So now Brie gets escorted out if she goes into the room. But our Brie is tough and tenacious. This one time, the door wasn't properly closed, so she nudged it with her nose and manage to open it in order to raid the bin. Now every time she walks pass the door and sees that the door is closed, she checks to see if she can open it. My poor cousin gets a poodle knocking on the door every so often. Even though it must be annoying for visitors I have to give it up to Brie as she is one tenacious doggie.

Devilish

Brie's new thing at the moment is to jump into the car and peer out. She gains confidence as she feels bigger and taller when she is in the car, although we have smallest town car in the world. However as she isn't tall enough to look out of the window she stands on her hind legs, but this gets tiring for a small dog like Brie, so what the general public sees is an unrecognisable ball of white fluff that's bobbing up and down in the car window. So today when I returned to the car after picking up a magazine, the lady who had parked her car next us said that she wasn't sure if what she saw was cat or dog, but she that it is devilishly cute. Once we got in the car my husband and I had a chuckle about how truthfully she captured Brie's personality, but I'm sure she doesn't really know how devilish Brie can get sometimes.

Doggie Socialising

We had been meaning to meet up with our family friends and their new puppy 'Mina' for a while and we were finally able to do that last weekend. As already mentioned, Brie is pretty shy when it comes to meeting new dogs, so I was apprehensive about whether Brie would be able to socialise. Since Mina is a six month old Griffon/Pomeranian cross she is about half the size of Brie, and she is a very sweet natured friendly dog. Unfortunately my high hopes were shattered when Brie decide to hide her tails between her legs and run far away from Mina as possible.

As I listened to my shattered hopes of future doggie play dates break into bits and getting spat out the end of a shredder, Brie enforced a three meter radius restraining order on Mina and whenever she came too close Brie ran away to maintain distance. So I decide to play match-maker to lure both of them together, and even though Brie's tail was well hidden between her legs, she seemed to show some curiosity towards Mina.

And to my joy she mustered up the courage to go up to Mina by the end of the afternoon, I even managed to get them together in the same frame hurray!!! And Mina's parents want to bring her over for another play-date! Yay, maybe one day Brie will able to conquer her shyness towards other dogs.

The puppy play school dropout

We enrolled Brie into Puppy Play school when she was very young for her to learn to socialise with other dogs. Her first week was just a disaster, she decided to hide under the chairs, and when other puppies came over to investigate she cried like a siren and had an accident. The second week it wasn't as horrific, as she decided to socialise with other owners, but still not dogs. And this just continued. Despite her increasing exposure to puppies, Brie showed little interest in playing or greeting other dogs, instead sitting around with the owners and observing other dogs as if she were a human. This puppy school had a diverse range of dogs, and Brie was even scared of the chihuahua puppies half her size.

At this school, when puppies gain the skill to play and socialise with other dogs they tend to leave and face the real world. So when Brie was still struggling at nine months old, when other puppies who were three or four months old were graduating, my husband and I decided that Brie had probably learned as much as she could from her time at puppy play school. She did learn all the tricks they taught her, plus she learnt to pee on wet newspaper. Since she is a dropout, my concern is that she will get a tattoo, start a rock band and have her own hydroponic garden in her little house.

Namesake

Brie is a very quick learner, after she arrived at our home she figured out that after we open the pantry she sometime gets training, so she associated the sound of the pantry opening with training , so whenever the pantry door is opened she comes into the kitchen to investigate.

We had a little incident in first week where we lost Brie around the house, I looked around everywhere, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. I was panicking but when I went to open the pantry there she was hiding in the bottom. She sneaked in while it was open and she got stuck in for a little while because no one knew she was there.

Recently my husband and I have been obsessed with this new craze of gourmet potato chips, and we found this new flavour - Prosciutto and Brie. I know its silly but I had to buy it. As always, Brie comes to investigate, and as the food has Brie's name on it, it's cannibalism for her to eat her own kind, so I guess she has to sit this one out.

Nosey Neighbour

Brie decide to become an honorable neighbourhood watchdog, but what she is really trying to do is snoop on the neighbours. If she isn't sitting on her watch tower, she is often peeking through the fence, being a nosy neighbour. She has her mysterious hoodie on but she really isn't good at peeking out , so she isn't very good at undercover work.

She also took on the role of welcoming committee, she does a welcoming dance when people come over, this kind gesture goes out to the neighbour as well, she puts her head through the fence and greets him when he comes home. The poor neighbour's doggie has to wait until Brie has had her attention.

Quality time

My husband has taken up the role of pre-bed brushing in order to have quality time with Brie. I find this works because this way she doesn't bring in leaves and seeds which has clung on to her fur onto the bed. She does that enough during the day, today she even decided to bring an entire branch and chewed it into small bits on the bed.

Anyway, she gets bit sleepy when she gets brushed and I think she enjoys her back getting brushed the most. So she sometimes rocks from side to side while she is dosing off, then she looses her footing and falls onto her bum and wakes up. Today she just lay down and started sleeping. I guess it's not her priority to get her tummy or her legs brushed.

Gettin' Dirrrty

We realise summer is just around the corner when we notice excessive growth of our lawn. Of course my husband is in charge of mowing the lawn, and Brie loves the lawnmower, but it's a bit dangerous for little poodles so we keep her locked in while its getting trimmed. This does not mean she waits patiently to be let out, she will look out from the house, to make sure she isn't missing out on fun. This is when everything gets messy, Brie commences her investigation. Brie plus grass clippings is just a recipe for disaster, she rolls around in the grass, and it sticks her mussel fur and other places and she just gets soooo covered in grass. Bits of short grass gets inbeded in her fur and even brushing it can't get them out, often we put clothes on her to prevent her torso region getting covered, but her face and legs are just a mess afterwards. Most of the grass clippings come off when she runs around and plays around the house. She has no idea why I vacuum everyday.

ALL IN!!!

Brie is playful but also a pretty sneaky dog, when we play Trivial Pursuit she will try to steal pies and dice and when we play Scrabble she will try to steal the letters. So when my husband decide to get a poker chip set, Brie went on a mission to steal a chip. Her hustling technique works like this; she waits until someone stands and leaves their chair, then causally sits in the empty chair and joins in conversation, and while everyone is not looking she hides them in her mouth and runs off with it.

Afterwords she has guilty look on her face so we know she did it.
So this is Brie caught red handed in action, hope this will raise the level of public safety around here.

Sleeping Beauty

I guess the end of week is tiring for everyone, and perhaps unsurprisingly... Brie is having a sleepy day too. She skipped breakfast, and has been sleeping all day. I guess if my schedule was as hectic as Brie's; doing the odd trick for a tasty treat, the occasional brisk walk around the block, and frequent power napping... it must be difficult for a little poodle like Brie.

Her busy day thus far has consisted of taking a long nap in her house, a short siesta on the couch cuddled up to jumper lying about, and sleeping some more on our bed. In fact, that is what she is doing right now.

Something that I have noticed about Brie is that she loves to sleep on people's clothes, if I have left clean washing out to put away, she will undoubtedly nest in the clothes bundle. Or if I lay my clothes out to wear after my shower, I'll find them ruffled up in a fashion that only a small dog can manage. I guess she feels a little left out, so she snuggles up to our clothes for comfort, Honestly, I mean does she have to do that with my freshly washed clothes? I really don't mind if Brie did that with my husband's clothing though... did you get that Brie?

"zzzZZZZ"

I'll take that as a yes.

Brushing teeth.

Another doggie teeth issue, keeping those teeth clean so they don't get cavities. As Brie has just acquired her new adult teeth we want to keep them clean, and also by keeping her teeth clean it gives her fresh breath (so I heard). I decide to go to the pet store to buy her tooth paste, in I go and asking for dog toothbrush and dog toothpaste, I get a puzzled gaze with a hint of a crazy woman look from the shop assistant. Since I did my research I knew such a thing existed, so despite the ignorance of this shop assistance I kindly explained and off he went to find another shop assistant. She was very helpful and explained that dogs love the poultry flavoured toothpaste. Poultry flavour??? Does that mean chicken flavour? Hmmm that sounded OK and I gave it a sniff thinking it would probably smell like chicken chips. Well it just wasn't. It smelled like yeasty chicken oxo gone bad, and since Brie likes stinky stuff I figured this will do. Unfortunately they didn't sell a toothbrush there so we picked one from the vet and we had a try. The doggie tooth brush type that was rated easy to use on web was the finger toothbrush type.

Although keeping it playful and fun to make her like her teeth being brushed, the result was more licking off the toothpaste and less brushing the teeth. My husband is in charge of this duty, and Brie now gets excited when he puts on the toothbrush and she waits for it sitting down, she is slowly getting used to the side of her canines being brushed, but she still licks the toothpaste off afterwards. And as for the fresh breath, well it's full of a rich poultry aroma. She is currently waiting for a recruiting agent to contact her to get into a toothpaste ad for dogs.

Bi-Canined Dog

There are so many products out there to make the life of puppy's and their owners a little bit easier during teething, but what Brie has is TOO MANY TEETH at one time. When her adult teeth starting to come out and replace the baby teeth I was thinking "oh Brie is going up so fast" with some tears in my eyes. But then the adult canines came through, but baby canines seemed to just stay put. She spent a good two months being an eight canined dog. She had a little bit of a problem getting food stuck between two canines, as well as shock you get when she yawns exposing eight canines.

So I did what any hypochondriac parent would do - consult a vet. And she recommended to wait a while because they may come out by them self, or if it doesn't they have to removed them. As I'm not a big fan of the dentist, I figured I'd go with first option. So we decided to wait a month, then two, thinking that we may need to get them pulled out. However, a couple days later, my husband spotted her chewing something small, and despite Brie's lack of co-operation he got it off her and there it was, her FIRST baby canine. I was so ecstatic that I decided to congratulate Brie and even thought she had no clue what she did right, she demanded a treat as she got praised. I was so sure this would open the flood gates, but despite my hopes the next one came out month later, then another a month later again. Yes she still has one more to go, but I guess the thought of having one canine pulled out is lot less scary then four. Despite my concerns Brie is having a lazy day today.

Identity crisis.

As I mentioned before, I'm convinced that Brie has an identity crisis. She has no idea that she's a female toy poodle. She is a dog that prefers people over other doggies, and she hates getting her bum smelt by other dogs. And if we're lucky we may see her smell other dogs noses????? yes very questionable behaviour for a dog.

In her spare time she like to graze on grass like a sheep, I noticed her noticing a family of sheep the other day. She may think that they are her own kind. Another alarming habit that she picked up lately is that she does her business while lifting up one leg like a male dog. And last but not least she uses pillows when she goes to sleep like people!! After carefully analysing the data collected by me, I have come to the conclusion she think she is a male half human half sheep monster. And I have to emphasise this point clearly that she didn't get this trait from me. I blame my husband.

Brie and Tube

There is nothing that Brie likes more then a tube, yes a tube, rolled up cardboard that resembles a hollow cylinder, she loves tubes. Empty glad wrap tubes, toilet roll paper tubes, fax paper tubes, tubes of any size, she isn't picky when it comes to sizes. The other day I was cleaning up wrapping paper looking for any left over Xmas wrapping paper I can use from last year. I must say Xmas wrapping paper is a huge scam as it's wrapping paper that can only be used for one festive event. But I always end up buying several since you don't want all the presents to look same in the same wrapping paper.
Anyway, as my husband is the kind of person who put the empty ketchup bottle back in the fridge, there were empty wrapping paper rolls with the other paper. As soon as Brie spotted this over one meter tube, she was jumping up in joy with stars in her eyes knowing that she is entitled to get this tube.

So ignorant me decided to give Brie the tube thinking she will not be able to carry it around and will probably just get bored with it. I could not be any more wrong. She decided to drag it around the house banging it on walls and doors and anything else came in her and the tube's way. Just because her new toy is over sized doesn't mean it stops Brie from going about her daily activities. If I sat and watched TV on the couch she would chew it on my lap, while the other end obstructs my view or worse, banging it on me. Luckily now this tube is half the original size due to Brie's doing. I am scripting a plan right now as to how I'm going to smuggle out the empty tubes post Xmas without Brie spotting and repeating this mayhem.