Ok, so this isn’t the NICEST thing in the world, but it is pretty funny, and it has a happy ending. I won’t give it away, but Samson is smart! — So click play, and watch “Pug Bowling”
Update: Everyone, I know this can be a charged issue, but please, keep things civil in the comments. No profanity or insults, please.
Update 2: This is not me. I saw this video on the net, and posted a link to it here. My pugs are Gizmo and Gadget. This video is about Samson. I’ve never met, talked to, or emailed Samson, his owner, or the maker of this video.
Today, Gizmo and Gadget went under anesthesia to have their teeth cleaned. Everything went OK, but gizmo had to have 1 baby tooth and 2 permanent teeth pulled, because of cavities. Also, gadget had a really rare, non-preventable type of worm, which we’ve got some pills for. It’s nothing serious, but it’s good to get it taken care of before it gets to be serious.
So, post-vet, the boys are very subdued, all they want to do is lie around — they are obviously feeling bad. In the picture, you can see gadget’s shaved leg where the IV was placed. If you want to see a close up, you can see one in my post in the forums.
So, I think the solution to pug breath IS teeth cleaning, but you can’t do it very often. If anyone has any suggestions, please, bring them to the forums.
Today, Tricia took Gizmo and Gadget to the vet for a checkup. Overall, they’re healthy, but we have a few problems. First, their teeth really, really need a cleaning. We’ve known they needed help, but it’s time to do it. Friday, they’re going in for a good cleaning. While they’re at it, they’re going to go in and clean up some of the buildup in their ears. I know it’s not good, but we don’t clean their ears out as often or as thoroughly as we should.
I’m hoping the teeth cleaning helps their breath.
Most importantly, though, and, well, I suppose I’m eating my own words here, but gadget is officially overweight. He clocked in today at just under 28 pounds, which is entirely too big. We thought he was “pleasantly plump” at 24 pounds, but, for whatever reason, he has kept on putting on the weight. So, we’re going to need to make some changes around here. I’m not sure what they are yet, though.
He gets 3 walks a day, and we can’t really walk any LONGER than we do already — most of their walks are in the New Orleans summertime heat. Pugs just cant go outside for that long in the heat here.
I may just have to break down and get a treadmill.
If you have any ideas for helping out with Gadget’s weight, let me know in the Urban Pug Forum
We saw a whole bunch of pugs today at the meetup. This is Tony, hanging out with Tricia. Unlike Gizmo and Gadget, Tony loves to play fetch. Gizmo & Gadget just have never liked fetching, but Tony & some of the other pugs there, just went fetch crazy.
People also asked about Gadget’s weight. Yes, he’s big. He’s about 24 pounds now, which is very big for a pug, but, well, “he’s not fat, he’s just big boned.” — No, really, he is big boned, he was bred for it. Gadget is like the NFL offensive lineman who has 8% body fat, but is 300 pounds. Not that gadget is made of muscle, it’s just that he’s built with such a big frame that the fat he does have (hey, he IS a pug) makes him seem fat.
Anyway, we had a great time at the pug meetup, and if you’re local to New Orleans, you can go to yahoo groups and find the new orleans pug meetup group to find out about when we’re meeting. Also, if you just want to get your 2 cents in about anything and everything pug related (or just tell me that you think gadget is too fat), you can go to the Urban Pug Forums. Oh yeah, one more thing — i posted all the pictures from today at Flickr.
Update: I’ve had this in the works for a long time, but I just told my employer yesterday. I’m going to be quitting my job as a Software Engineer to attend Tulane University Law School this August.
It’s a huge change for me, but I think it’s the right thing for me to do. Not very many strong engineers actually go to law school, so there’s a demand for people who have technical experience along with the ability to practice law, or, more specifically, patent law.
It’s not going to be easy, but I think that it’s the right thing for me to do.
Gizmo and Gadget fully endorse my decision. They’re seen here in bed. As they’ve gotten a little older, they now like to sleep later and later. It’s getting to the point now that they don’t want to get out of bed to go on their morning walks — how ridiculous?
Oh, and the converstations are just getting started in the Urban Pug Forums. Come on in and see what everyone’s talking about!
Hello everyone! I’ve just set up the newest addition to Urban Pug. No, we didn’t get a new pug, but we DO have Urban Pug Forums! — Enough people email me with questions and suggestions that I thought I’d give everyone a place to discuss to their hearts’ content.
So, just to get things started, I’m inviting everyone to come introduce yourself in the new forums. The URL is easy to remember — http://forums.urbanpug.com
Ok, so here’s the long awaited update on pictures of the pug haircut. First of all, the picture right here is of Gadget, taken about 2 days after his haircut. You can see the flickr set of photos about this to see all the pictures. What I’ve learned about this is that shaving definitely helps, a lot, but it’s not a cure-all to pug shedding. There is still hair on the floor, but it’s shorter, thinner hair.
Ok, here’s what I learned about shaving pugs: First, if you get a trimmer, you want to go against the grain with the trimmer. This forces the hairs upwards and ensures you get every hair cut to the same length. If you see in some of the pictures, there are “grooves” — this is because i didn’t go against the grain everywhere. Going against the grain also cuts shorter, because it’s pushing the hair away from the body. I used a 1/8 inch guard, but 1/8 inch is too short if you’re going against the grain. Next time, i’m going to use a 1/4 inch guard and see what happens.
Furminator: This thing is pretty good, I think. It certainly pulls a lot of hair out. I don’t know if it’s pulling hair out that doesn’t need to come out, or if it’s pulling hair that’s going to fall out soon. It seems as though it gets a TON of hair, but it always seems as though after I use it, more hair falls out. Maybe it’s just loosening it?
When I get back from a wedding this weekend, I’m going to try furminator-ing the boys, washing them, then use conditioner, then dry & furminate again. Maybe that will do the trick? I’m not hoping to get rid of shedding, but if i could have less hair on my pillow when I go to sleep or maybe be able to brush the boys less, that would be great.
These have been out for a while, but I’ve never posted them here. Whoever came up with this is insanely creative, and pretty damn good with graphic design tools, too.
I promise I’ll get pictures of the shaved pugs up soon, I promise! Overall, I think shaving them helps the shedding. They still shed, just not as much, and the hair they do shed is essentially their undercoat, which is very thin and short, which means the “pug tumbleweed” is smaller and less visible.
June 25, 2006 at 10:42 pm · Show more about: Pug, shedding
Well, not really. If you have a pug, you know the unstoppable force of shedding. As a wise sportscenter anchor once said, “You can’t stop it, you can only hope to contain it.”
Yes, this is true for pug shedding. As I understand, pugs have an overcoat and an undercoat. The undercoat is also called “down” — it’s lots of small hairs right next to the body designed to keep warm air close to the body. I also understand that through genetics, black pugs only have one of these coats, I think the outer coat. (I think the outer coat was bred to be darker and the undercoat was bred out — but i’m not sure on this)
Anyway, black pugs shed less than fawn pugs, apparently. I wish I had known this.
So, how do you keep your pug from shedding? Well, I have a couple techniques. The first and foremost is my vacuum. This is what is meant by “containment.” I now have a dyson 14 animal vacuum, which i highly recommend. The next step after that is to brush frequently. If you can get the hair off in a controlled manner, you’re more likely to get it in the trash can, rather than on your floor or clothes.
I use a furminator along with the standard wire brushes you find in stores. The furminator essentially is a fine tooth comb combined with prongs that cut or pull the hair out. It does a very good job at gripping and thinning hair. However, It’s still not enough. Pugs shed A LOT, especially after a bath.
So, Tricia and I just had to make a bunch of returns to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and one of the things we picked up was a barber’s hair shaving kit. I just shaved Gizmo and Gadget to 1/8 inch of hair, and, well, it’s kind of a butcher job (Gizmo hates the look, but he didn’t mind getting shaved).
I’ll have pictures up in the next day or so, but, well, i’m not a professional, and they look kinda bad. However, what’s left is most of their undercoat, and they’re a LOT cooler, especially in the New Orleans summertime heat. Gadget’s already starting to get way overheated, and we thought that a good way to combat the heat was to get rid of some of the extra hair.
So far, the shedding has been lessened — what sheds is shorter hair, and there’s less of it. We’ll see what happens when there are baths and more time has passed, but I think this is going to be really good for them, once their “bad haircut” grows out a little bit and later when I get better at trimming them.
Do you do this? Should I have gone longer than 1/8 inch? Do you have any tips for pug shaving? Reducing dog shedding?
I read online that ground flaxseed was great for reducing shedding, and maybe i’ll try it. Anyone know?
This picture is of Gadget resting his chin on his food bowl. It’s something he doesnt often do, but is worth taking a picture of, because it’s so freaking cute.
Anyway, we’ve had an eventful weekend. First, we traded in most of our miscellaneous extras and duplicate items off our registry from Dillard’s for silver. We’re going to end up with 6 place settings of our silver, which is French Provincial.
We also went to Baton Rouge for Saturday night and most of Sunday for Father’s day. We went to lunch with my parents and Tricia’s dad (her mom was out of town and arrived early back in town Sunday evening) — We also went to dinner at Fire, a relatively new place not too far from our house on Saturday night with Chris and Melanie. I gave chris some rum from St. Lucia along with a rock from the beach (He has a master’s degree in geology). Anyway, we also went to Angeli on Decatur friday night, and both nights were fun.
It’s back to the diet for me, now.
Oh, so, Saturday, we used some gift certificates along with a 20 percent off coupon to get (really cheap) a Dyson 014 Animal vacuum. So far, it’s amazing — it sucks up Pug Hair with NO PROBLEMS. Really, it is lighter, more powerful, and just flat out better designed than any vacuum i’ve ver used. I can’t say enough about it, except that it’s something we never would have bought without wedding-gift-money.
Oh, and the boys got a well-deserved shower this evening, along with a huge shedding tool session, which the Dyson sucked up immediately. (The dyson is also good with the Space Bags we got and are putting extra bedding material in)
So, back to the pugs. They just loved riding in the car (Gadget loves the back seat, now), and they loved the excitement of going to Baton Rouge. Change is good for dogs, it gives them some change in their daily routine, which is very important.
Oh, and I saw my dad kiss one of the Pugs today. That’s huge. Pugs are a life changer. They have so much love and personality. Everyone should be around pugs at some point.
If you WANT a pug, email gizmo@urbanpug.com — we might have some up for adoption soon. Keep checking back for more details.
Ok, so I think i’m over it, but the whole time we were in St. Lucia, I kept on talking about making up some tshirts and stickers that say rastapug.
On one of the tours, i saw this tshirt and had to take a picture of it. It’s not a pug, but it’s definitely a rasta dog.
Not much else going on around here. Pugs are being pugs, and we’re falling for their tricks. We actually have more pillows now (5 or 6 on the bed), so there’s actually enough room for each pug to get a pillow by our heads and still leav enough room for us!
We’re back from the honeymoon now, and it was a lot of fun, but there were NO PUGS THERE! G&G were sorely missed for the week, but they had an absolute ball in Pug City. They’ve both come back more muscular and thin than before, so much so tha we thought that Gadget had lost 3 pounds, at least!
I weighed him, and he actually gained a pound. He really bulked up exercising a lot, but he’s thinner than ever. He could take dermot any day! (Gadget is now 24.5 pounds, which is pretty huge for a pug)
Anyway, a couple weird things — I’m “used” to the wedding ring now, but i’m NOT used to holding leashes with it. It “gets in the way” of the leash to me. I’m sure i’ll get used to it, but that’s what I’m dealing with now.
We’re still really busy catching up with everything, but the wedding & honeymoon went off near flawlessly, which is saying a LOT for all the things that can pop up. We’re riding a high right now with how well everything went and how much fun we had on the trip. It’s all “over” now, and we’re re-adjusting back into the real world, but we certainly have pugs to help us cope with it!
Here’s gadget in bed. again. It deserves to be posted about 100 times.
Things are getting pretty hectic around here, there are less than 10 days til Tricia and I get married.
Oh, and we might know someone who wants to give away a pug or two. So, if you’re interested or might be interested in a ~3 year old female pug, check back here — i’ll have more information later.
Gadget’s getting the whole “cute thing” down. He is learning how to get his belly rubbed on demand, which is getting to the point of ridiculousness.
Also, we’ve been watching The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. I really like Cesar Milan’s techniques, and he’s very effective, but all the dogs seem to have major problems. I’d like to get some help with the “little things” around the house.
Gizmo and Gadget aren’t neutered (for show), and they love to mark when nobody’s looking. (They’re smart enough to NOT do it when anyone’s home) I think this is primarily instinctual, but I’d still like to get some help. They can’t go in a special room while we’re gone — nothing’s suitable besides where they are, and they get 3 walks per day. I think their problem is 99% instinct, so I’m at a loss. Right now I just “clean it up,” but that doesnt mean I like it.
Oh, also, Gadget’s “fold” was really red, probably because we’ve been lax on cleaning it. I cleaned it, and we’ve been putting little bits of cortizone cream in there, and that seems to have fixed things up. He’s not 100%, but he’s getting close.
. They work great!
are great for cleaning up messes, and are reusable.
