Dog Days of Summer

It's been a hot summer.  Clearly we need to turn up the AC.

Sorry, Primo.

Blogging Gold

One of the many reasons that I started writing this blog was the sheer volume of content.  It seemed like Primo was constantly being cute/mischievous/endearing/dare-I-say-perfect and I just wanted to share it with the world!  Then, we started to take him to training classes at a local, holistic pet food store and I found even more to share.  The neat toys!  The healthy treats!  The brand new doggie community that I never knew existed! 

Well, my friends, tonight did not disappoint for dog blog content.  It's like this post was begging to be written.  Tonight, I came home and my dog was chewing on a...

Wait, wait, wait.  Before I just spill the beans, let's drag out the suspense a bit.  Check out the picture below and take a few guesses as to what is lying on the floor in front of Preems.  His dad stopped at the above-mentioned pet store this afternoon and brought home a few surprises.

Primo using every ounce of his self-control to stay.

So, what do you think it is?  A piece of rawhide?  Some beef jerky?  A cinnamon stick?  Actually, it's a bully stick.  What is a bully stick, you ask?  There's no nice way to put it.  It's a dried bull penis.

These all natural beauties are like crack for dogs.  Primo was occupied for hours with this thing.  I took video of his half-hypnotic chewing because I've never seen him so possessed.  And, according to this website, you can purchase bully sticks in sizes ranging from 6 to 36 inches.  36 inches!  (It really is like this stuff just about writes itself.  Unbelievable.  I literally have dozens of other jokes about bully sticks, but my family reads this blog and I don't want them to think less of me.)

Now, Primo is blissfully snoozing after devouring about three quarters of that wonder toy.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the dog community has long known about bully sticks, but I hope that they at least had a similar reaction when they discovered the source of the, um, material.  It feels very environmentally friendly to use every part of the animal and Primo loves them, so we'll keep buying them for a while.  But even I wince a little bit when I see him gnawing on it. 

Don't Panic

So, we put Goo-Be-Gone on the dog tonight.  We're not proud of our decision and clearly didn't think it through.  It was just that he had some sort of gum-like substance ground in to his stomach and the more obvious mechanisms of ice, peanut butter, and dish soap didn't occur to us in our puppy-parent panic.

I don't have any photos of the whole ordeal, but just imagine me standing in a defensive position trying to keep Primo from moving.  That's right - I was trying to keep a nine-month-old Boxer puppy from moving while we applied some smelly, cold, foreign substance to a place on his body that I wouldn't allow him to see.  (When we make a bad decision, we really go all out.)  R was trying to limit exposure to the goo eliminator by spraying strategically, but Primo's sporadic bucking prevented any kind of accuracy.

What's even worse is that the very first command Preems ever learned in his puppy training class was settle and I didn't use it!  That command was especially designed for gum-on-the stomach situations and I completely blanked.  It's terrible.  Clearly we know who needs the training here.

In the end, we got whatever it was off of him and declared that tomorrow will be bath day.

Since I can't leave you with any photos of the incident, I'm going to share a link to the Boulder Humane Society because they have a sweet black female Boxer mix puppy up for adoption and I would bet anyone who reads this blog is just dying for a Boxer puppy of their own.  Just don't let her near any gum.

Click here to check her out.  If we had a bigger house, I would adopt her in a second.