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Duncan is insane after his bath! (by slobber tales)

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Questioning my doodle love...

Ya'll...

Something terrible happened. Something that may make me question my undying love for Duncan. For real, ya'll. I may not be able to love him anymore.  You know his super adorable little Doodle face?

The adorable little face that cocks its head to the side when you speak to it?

The one that is so adorably expressive? 

Well, yesterday I had to give him a bath because he's allergic to life and explodes in the itchies if you don't keep him freshly bathed.  The interesting thing about Duncan is his mouth and lips are this weird human skin color. It's sort of weird/gross/funny and we always laugh at him when we are snuggling with him. 

But yesterday, as I was bathing him, I noticed something that I dunno if I've noticed before. When you get the doodle wet, and I mean WET, his nose is all weird and pointy.  And flesh colored. And the sponge-a-form on his nose? It's brown. And attached to the weird flesh colored mouth and lips.  So-- take the weird, pointy nose (his bone structure shows off the poodle part of his heritage, at least in the face), the weird human skin color of his lips and mouth...and one really starts to realize that Duncan-- my sweet, adorable, kissable doodle...sort of resembles....

A mole.

Ahhhhhhh soooooooo groooooooossssssssssssss! I don't know if I can take Doodle kisses ever again because ewwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!

[slobbertales]

It's Monday!

Yeah, it's Monday, however

The weather is gorgeous

I have coffee

The A/C is no longer leaking on my furniture and carpet

Monday just always seems longer and lamer than the rest of the week, but I swear that's because I just spent my entire weekend snuggling, hugging, kissing and zerberting two of the sweetest doggies on the planet. 

           We took the pups to a different park on Sunday morning, and of course they loved it. We went out to Georgetown Bark Park this time. This is one of my favorite dog parks, mainly because it's just straight up gorgeous. The trees are gigantic and ancient, which means the park is shady almost all the time. There are bits and pieces that are out in the open, but it's nice knowing your dog at least some shade to escape to, unlike Round Rock Dog Depot-- which sort of just sucks all the way around when it comes to shade. 

The doodle is looking back to make sure he's going the right way...

It wasn't long before Stella decided she'd had enough babysitting and anteloped away. 

The young lady below attempted to love on Stella about 50 times, but she was not having any of it.

Strike One:

Strike Two:

Strike Three:

While Stella was not interested in allowing the pretty young lady to pet her, she was feeling *quite* frisky by the time this sweet old man came by:

We were desperately afraid that she was going to jump on him and knock him down, but the old man was not concerned. Stella danced, flirted and hopped around this man, as happy as she could be. He wanted to pet her so badly, but she was making him work for it.

 Eventually, though, his patience paid off, and he was rewarded for his efforts when the Donkey came to him, ready for pets and lovings. 

Such a tired baby... She's so happy here. Her head is so round, and her ears are terrible. No worry lines to be found!

Duncan's time was spent doodling around the park...

... and hanging with Daddy

Have a great week, everyone!

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#slobbertales #stellablue

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#slobbertales #duncandoodle

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It's here! September's Bark Box

It's barkbox time again! 

This month's box was aweeeeeeeeesome. And sadly, I got not a single freaking photo of the dogs eating their crap, nor playing with the toys, so I sort of fail. HOWEVER-- this is one of those times that barkbox did it SO right, that I don't even want to be sad about the 'no pics'. 

So, this months box had this cute little turtle rope toy thing. It's good. Stella took her giant dog face and chewed it.  There's some bit of beef jerky looking crap. I'm sure that will be cut in half and distributed to the dogs at some point, but I've not yet done so.

What I really want to get to, is the bag on the far left. You can see the words, "It's Purely Natural" peeking through in my shitty Instagram photo. Awesome. 

BaAnyway, Jay and I keep a couple of kinds of treats on hand for different circumstances. If we are going to leave them alone while we go out and about, our new 'go to' treat has pretty much got to be Texas Toothpicks.

These are PERFECT for just about any dog at any age. Duncan is 19 weeks old and has been loving these since day one. Stella is a year old and she loves these too. They are simple, not messy, and even though they are super gross when you think about what they are, they aren't nasty to touch, and they don't make the pups have that weird, rawhide nose thing they get when they try to eat a giant rawhide bone. The problem is that tehy are 20 dollars a bag at the pet store. We go through a minimum of a bag a week. I found these on Amazon today going between 15 and 18 dollars. I'm pretty pleased with that. However, what I wanted to actually talk about was the It's Purely Natural treats in my barkbox.  Stella freaking L O V E S them, and I thought Duncan might break my arm trying to stick his Doodle nose in the treat bucket to get one out. The flavor I was given in the box was Chicken and Brown Rice Biscotti with Sweet Potato Chunks.

I got these last night, and ended up giving them two each. They went over so well, I went on Amazon and bought 2 more bags of the Chicken/Sweet Potato and then I got a Beef and something or other to see if they liked that more. Chicken can be so sketchy, that I just hate buying chicken or chicken flavored anything.

I really am going to have to get some photos of these silly pups dancing around for these biscotti treats. For real.  

Happy Thursday!

[slobbertales]

Winter is coming!

I'm so over Game of Thrones. I can't believe I even made that the title of this blog. Anyway, the other day when I was chatting with some of my friends from my Great Dane forums, we got on the topic of jackets for the dogs.

Now-- let me start off by stating the following:

I do not care for dogs to wear clothes unless it's some special, photo-op thing, but coats are different.

If you don't have one of these giant dogs, don't roll your eyes. I promise-- almost all of them HATE the cold with a passion. They just don't have near enough coat on them to keep them warm.

Here's a prime example of why we put a coat on Stella:

Look at her face. You can see the tiny bit of snow on the ground around the outer edge of the photograph. This isn't one of those moments where I just caught a good shot, either. She's literally SOOO unhappy. The wind came whipping around that corner, and she turned around and hauled butt back to me and the safety of the house. Anyway, as I was saying before, we were talking about coats for our dogs on the Dane forums, and someone suggested that I go to at Feed store to find one. I think I will, because the foal blankets look like a FABULOUS idea. 

Here's Stella in her jacket last year. Look at her. Beautiful, regal, majestic, stoic.

You people all tell me the same thing after you see photos like this: "Ohhh, Charity- you take such great pictures! And Stella, wow, she's just so   terrible  well behaved and gorgeous.  For every single photo like the one above, I take 10 like the photos below. 

Here's Hunter trying to wrangle Stella into the jacket she's wearing above:

She's biting the crap out of his arm in the photo above.

Look at her face. It's completely smashed into the ground. She could not be behaving any more terribly than she is right here.

She's full on pissy right here. She's falling out, flipping her body around, fighting Hunter at every turn.

I can't remember what was happening here-- but she's for sure still biting the crap out of him.

"Screw this-- I'm ripping it off."

Good times. 

Anyway, this year I think we're going to take her to a feed store and see about getting some horse blankets for her to wear in the winter. She's going to be so pissy and thankful at the same time.

As for Duncan-- well he's always hot and has a fur coat. He's going to freaking love winter.

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18 weeks!

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Duncan found a new friend Sunday morning at t he dog park!

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Looking for our photos? flickr!

If you've stumbled upon this site because you found me taking photos of Stella and Duncan at the dog park on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you can find them on our flickr page!

Even if I don't post updates on this site, you can always look around the slobber tales flickr , as I dump most of the photos from my camera directly onto it each week.

You can find the link below, but if you somehow forget it, don't forget that the small flickr icon on the left will take you directly to my flickr homepage!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slobbertales

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These two are so fracking cute. Stella gets so annoyed at the Doodle. He's a terrible pest. Also, it's hilarious how she's hollering at him. 

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Sunday morning at the park

Our pups have been growing like weeds these last few weeks. We've been busy in the Slobber Tales household of late, but on Sunday morning we headed out to Cedar Bark Park.

Cedar Bark Park is one of those neat dog parks that has a little pond for the dogs to swim in. Stella has been pretty good about getting in there when we go- each time a bit more confident.  This was not only Duncan's first time at the Cedar Bark Park, but it was also his first time around a large body of water.

As you can see, he's not opposed to being in the water, but the truth is, all he wanted to do is run around the park and see all of the things. He is *so* friendly. There isn't a dog that he won't run to and greet, tail wagging. He normally ends up on his back, as submissive as can be, but he never loses his friendly, happy little attitude. He stayed in the water playing with his daddy and Alea for just a brief moment-- and then he was off. Most of the time, he could be found trying to find his Dane, and see what all the 'big kids' were doing.

Stella returned from harassing every dog at the park to come check on her Doodle. Several times this was nothing more than a fly by, as you can see from the above photo. She checked to ensure he was all in one piece, and then went on her way to see all the other happenings in the park.

As you can see from the above photo, Stella is engaged, attempting to play with the dog carrying the orange bumper. He is not impressed with her playful stance, to say the least. You can see the Doodle running along the edge of the water, watching his Stella carefully.  

While across the pond, attempting to introduce Doodle to the water, I looked up and caught the above photo. Note the sad expression. The long face. The very flat ears. She didn't mind running through the water, but she was not at all sure about falling off the ledge like that. Generally, Stella likes to find a friend who will really get prancy, and not be intimidated by her size. The more playful the dog, the happier Stella is. Well...she met her match this week, as she found herself a couple of FABULOUS young men to entertain her:

Her first friend of the morning was Super Happy German Shepherd. I have no idea what this dogs name is, but he was so in love with my girl. He followed her all over the park. She didn't engage with him much as far as wrestling and stuff is concerned, but she did play tag with him most of the morning. But, her heart was stolen away this overcast Sunday morning by McCoy, a super adorable little merle boy. 

Super Happy German Shepherd decided that even though he was second string to McCoy, he still loved Stella and wasn't going to give up trying to win her heart. 

And while all of these are adorable-- it's this next photo that really just sums up the whole entire trip to the park. Stella's ears tell it all. To sum it up in one word? Terrible. She's full on terrible. McCoy is in full play bow- with Super Happy German Shepherd following closely at Stella's heels.

<3 these cuties!

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Happy Birthday, Stella Blue!

Yesterday was a very, very special day in the Slobber Tales household. Our beautiful girl celebrated her first birthday!  I swung by a specialty pet store on my way home from work called Woof Gang Bakery because I remembered they had special baked goods that are made for doggies.  I hoped I'd be able to find a cookie or something special for her celebration-- but ended up with WAY better stuff than I had hoped.

I wasn't convinced the dogs would wear the party hats AT ALL-- but figured I'd at least give it a try.  

I got home and did some chores while we waited for Daddy to arrive. Stella knew something was going on, though, because she smelled the doggie treats in the bag, and could not understand why I would not dish them out immediately.

Eventually, their daddy arrived and the party began!

Step one was to get the hats on the pups. 

Stella wasn't too bothered, as one can see. As a matter of fact, she's sort of proud of that stupid party hat, and may, in fact, be showing it off!

  Here she is with her birthday cake, all wrapped up and adorable. We decided we'd waited long enough, though, and began opening their party treats!

Stella is attempting to help her daddy open the wrapper in this photo, as you can clearly tell. Apparently, he wasn't going fast enough for her.

And of course, Stella being Stella-- she wouldn't take the treat directly out of his hand. It must be thoroughly investigated before it gets anywhere CLOSE to the doggy mouth.  

She is finally ready to consider taking it from daddy-- but only consider the possibility. Duncan cares zero%.  He will eat the food from your hand, the floor, your mouth, Stella's butt-- it doesn't even matter. He'll eat it. Eventually, though, Princess Pup over there did take the treat:

And then began to slowly nom...

The doodle was bouncing off the walls by this time:

I mean, honestly. Look at him. Hat askew. Dirty beard. Laughing face. Terrible, terrible animal. He looks drunk. *shakes head*

All in all, these two sweet things had a great time celebrating Stella's birthday. Probably too great a time if this next photo is any indication...

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Happy 1st Birthday, Stella!

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Bark Box: August

This months BarkBox was SIGNIFICANTLY better than last months. As usual, the box came adorably packaged, and the second it came through the front door, Stella knew that whatever was inside was hers.

This month we received a shark water toy, in a fabulous shade of burnt orange (HOOK 'EM HORNS!!). Stella wanted this SO desperately when I opened the box, but waited patiently on the other side of the baby gate.

The first thing we tried, was a Duck Strip. These were sort of weird, and reminded me of beef jerky, except in smaller, yet thicker pieces.  We opened this and offered it to Stella. Also, before I link the video, please ignore how crappy all the 100 baby gates look and please also excuse the giant, burnt orange container in the middle of my entryway. I've been cleaning up a few of our rooms and getting some long time storage stuff together to put in the attic! Anyway, here's Stella checking out the Duck Strip.

I'd like to go on the record as saying that even though she dropped it after taking it from Jay, it was just so she could investigate a bit more before eating it. She LOVED this thing-- just took her a second to figure out if she wanted to eat it or not.

The second item we tried was the Freeze Dried Liver Munchies. First off, liver is gross and it makes me want to gag. But-- in the past the dogs have really liked freeze dried stuff-- and it's not too filling. So Jay was going to give the first liver treat to the Doodle, but then Stella glared and considered taking the food straight from Duncan's mouth, so Jay gave her one too!

And finally-- what everyone (Stella) was waiting for-- the release of the shark. Now, I didn't actually get video of the super adorable part where they were both tugging so hard, and bouncing around. However, you can tell from Stella's prancy walk that she's pleased as punch to be playing shark-tug with Duncan. She loves 'tug' so much!

Sadly, the shark is already ripped in multiple places. We did not even get it NEAR water before the devil dogs ripped it-- but they had a great time doing it!

I love Bark Box, and so do my pups!

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Stella goes to the park!

Stella went to the dog park this weekend. Since Duncan has been around, what used to be "Take Stella to the dog park every single time you possibly can." Has changed to "Take Stella to the dog park either on Saturday or Sunday." This has come around because we have been ultra busy, but also because she's always exhausted from Duncan beating the crap out of her. Anyway, we got to the dog park, and this happened:

I don't know what to say about it, really. She's so happy! As I've mentioned before, she doesn't really wrestle with other dogs there anymore. She basically just runs around and play bows at everyone!

She's smiling pretty much the entire time she's there. I don't know if I've ever seen another Great Dane as social as Stella is. 

We only stayed about half an hour, but she was exhausted, to say the least. Exhausted, and smiling: