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.
There’s less than a month to go until our wedding, and the pace is really picking up. Tricia’s got Law finals wedged between now and the wedding, so her plate is REALLY full right now. I’m plugging away at the tasks I’ve been given, so i’m not slouching, but her stress level is through the roof.
Fortunately, there are pugs for that. One of the gifts we got at a shower recently was this laundry basket, and Gizmo and Gadget sometimes call it a bed. Here, i was showing them that they could get into it, and immediately, they said, “ok, we’ll get in there, and we’re going to look really comfortable and pose with our paws up for you!”
Well, not really, but they’re not posed. As soon as I saw them sitting like that I RAN to get my camera and snapped a few shots.
So, I’m starting to work on a slideshow for my wedding rehearsal dinner, and to do a “practice” slideshow, i made this one.
I was just playing around with effects and music, etc. The song is “Da Hype” by Junior Jack, featuring Robert Smith of The Cure. All the pictures are of Gizmo and Gadget.
This past sunday, we had wedding shower on saturday night and a small brunch sunday morning. The brunch was held at my friend casey’s family’s home. (Casey runs Roxwel and Blastro, and has a bit of a blog his own here.
I worked for Blastro for a while myself, back in 2000. We were building out their content management system & streaming media infrastructure, and, the fun part was that, at the time, they were broadcasting live music shows every night. So, at about 5 or 6, after work, people would start showing up to do a show, bringing beer with them. For us, work became party, every night. That was actually one really fun work environment.
Anyway, back to the present. We went swimming, and I brought Gizmo and Gadget over. I didn’t figure they’d like the pool, but Gizmo was really interested in it. I pulled him in, but he was terrified, so I let him sit on the side of the pool. Then, I brought Gadget in, and he actually started to warm up to it.
The picture is of me letting him climb onto my back, almost playing “chicken” with him on my shoulders. I’ve got video on YouTube that’s uploading now, so next chance I get, I’ll have some actual video of Gadget swimming.
April 22, 2006 at 12:39 am · Show more about: dogs, Pug, Pugs
I dont know if you give your dogs last names or not, but right now, Gizmo is “Gizmo Miller” and Gadget is “Gadget Kastl” Gizmo was the Pug I picked out from the litter. Tricia’s mom loved Gadget, so she went back and got him, and he eventually ended up with us, which we think is great, but Gizmo was my dog first. He lived with me before anyone else did, so he’s Gizmo Miller. (It also sounds good, something about the M in Gizmo goes well with Miller).
Tricia and I are getting married in a month, and we think Gadget’s going to change his name to Gadget Miller. It doesnt sound as good, but we think he’s going to change it.
Anyway, we call Gadget, “Gadj” (GA softG), and we call Gizmo, “Giz”, “Gizzy”, “Gizmo”, “Mo”, or “Momo.” I try to be more masculine and call him Gizmo or Mo, but that doesnt always happen.
What do you call your dogs? Oh, and for the person who posted on the last post, if you move to the Warehouse District in New Orleans, you won’t be out of place, you’ll be moving to where Gizmo and Gadget live! They like it here except for not having a yard to frolic in.
In a bizarre way, Gizmo and Gadget liked Hurricane Katrina. They got to stay on a pug farm with 40 other dogs, then they got to stay in Baton Rouge with a yard and a situation where they never were left alone, ever, and they had about 6 walks a day. How much better does it get for a dog?
Gizmo and Gadget don’t like to get out of bed in the mornings. They always used to get up right away, but starting a month or two ago, they’ve taken to staying in bed, pretty much as long as possible. They’ll wait until no humans are in bed anymore and there’s significant morning-time activity going on.
Gadget likes to come into the bathroom while i shower in the morning. Specifically, he loves to sit on the bathroom floor mat next to the space heater — we think he just likes being kept warm by the heater, but who knows.
Gizmo gets into whatever nook he can, usually between a wall and the toilet.
Sometimes, Gizmo gets what cannot be descibed any other way but, “Crazy Happy.”
He runs around and just has the biggest smile on his face. He’ll run up and lick you in the face (which he usually never does), and he’ll try to burrow into you.
. They work great!
are great for cleaning up messes, and are reusable.
