Bellybutton sisters report #1:

This is the report, in her own words, from the breeder who is watching the girls while we visit family in California:

About 10 minutes after you left Cricket started playing so the rest of the night went fine. She is still a bit protective of them jumping up at me when we are on the couch so George has been snuggling them like crazy, to avoid any growling ahem....... sure......... right.

They seem to be following the schedule pretty well, except for them being up until 2 AM! I put them in bed, Willow settled in and Jewel did not think they was okay at all so sorry Mom they ended out for the night.........

Willow likes to chew the tree branches, and the skirt, and the bows, so tomorrow should be lots of fun! They bring toys under the tree to wrestle, so they are half covered in pine needles, they smell super holiday scented!

Only one pee accident on the tree skirt!! but they have been using the pads pretty well for both #1 & #2 at least to give us signs.

Jewel is exactly as I remembered her, smart and crazy. Willow is in love with her, jewel cant move more than a few feet away without shadow willow following her, and they have a new game with the spider.........Willow holds onto it, Jewel shakes it and takes her for a ride. Looks like lots of fun if you like whiplash.

I see so much of the mommas in them its amazing. And yes Cricket loves loves loves their food, so I will be checking into it myself since I have been toying with the idea of a switch when we are done with the 65 pound bag we have now.

Jazz is warming up, she spend last night on the couch watching, today she is starting to bark and play so it will only be a matter of time before we have a mad house of Tzu 500, pray for my dead Charlie brown tree that it survives all this, or at least survives another 2 days...

Here are some of our favorite pics Shawna sent us while away...

No Pup-Squeak's For A Week

Last night we dropped the squeaker's off at Shawna's, where the pups will spend the Christmas/New Year's week. As soon as we got their, Jewel's mom, Cricket immediately exerted herself as master of the house. Willow, who is generally quiet around other dogs was fine with this, though at one point Cricket randomly bit at her just to make sure she was in compliance. Jewel, on the other hand was not so well behaved, jumping and barking at her as is her custom with any, usually much larger dog. Jasmine was more interested in us than her daughter or niece.

We spent nearly an hour with them, filling Shawna in on thier various play, sleep, and pottie behaviors. Ian is walking around with empty nest syndrome this morning, but we are sure that the girls are going to have a blast this week, if they haven't started already. Between Shawna, George, daughter Maddy, Jasmine, and Cricket, the girls are going to have constant play and attention. They even have a big yard to run in, weather permitting. With any luck, Willow will be completely house trained when we get back to Seattle!

Ian's 34th Birthday Party

"Whoah... Look at all the people's that mommy and daddy brought to play with us," thought Jewel and Willow as Ian's work and Lindy Hop friends showed up, one after the other for Ian's Birthday party. The pups were the hit of the evening, rivaling the jellow shots, egg nog, and bourbon balls.

The term of the evening was "dogged up." If not sure what this means, think un-classy term for a pregnant woman. John, ShihtzuDogBlog's #1 fan, was definitely taken with the pups, earning the nick-name the "Dogfather."
To Rob's dismay, his fiance, Jen, was also smitten, volunteering to babysit. Though I don't think she means when the snow is good, being a skier herself.
All of the world class spouses/others loved the pups, except for maybe John's Wife, Nicki. She had the misfortune of stepping in a poopie, that for some reason landed on the patio instead of in the box. In that regard, we believe there to only have been two accidents. We expected more given the disorientation associated with the number of people.

Sarah, exclamed that she needed a lap dog.
The night was Hectic, prompting the girls to konk out like never before. Ian tried to get them to sleep in the bedroom, but the house was actually quite hot, so they kept returning to the front door, which was away from the crowd and the source of a cool draft.

Our Apologies...

We must apoloagize for the lack of blogging this week. Becky has been busy setting up her practice, Seattle Naturopathic Clinic of Lynwood, all week. Tasks have included painting, scrubbing, transfering furniture...you know. We did manage to take some good pics. Also, as a shameless plug, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, or King/Snowhomish counties, and have friends/family expressing an interest in Naturopathic/Natural or alternative medicine, or just plain wanting help with dietary or lifestyle changes, feel free to send them the link -- www.seattlenaturopathy.com.

Jewel tones and Willow bark...

...The season's premier holiday accessories!


Ok... BIG news everyone:

We got the doggy door and they BOTH know how to use it. It took less than 10 minutes and 10 grams of hamburger to figure it out. For Jewel. (video will post in a few days)

Willow had it figured out this morning in 3 tries with green beans.


Jewel *has had enough green beans. And gag me if I ever see another one*

Jewel has figured out that *Important Things* get put on The Coffee Table, and within her reach, no less...

(ok so, truth be told, I didn't have the camera out when Jewel did it, but I managed to get Willow to pose for the shot...)

We have a puppy mansion. We inherited it from Auntie Chai and love it, thanks.


We have a Big Idea that until the poopies are 100 poo-cent housetrained we'll smash the puppy mansion up against the pet door so they can go between there and the patio when we're away from home. They won't be able to run laps around the house (maybe Jewel will finally put a little finish on her bones...) but they'll have lots of room to wrestle and all the fresh air they want.

Today I trimmed Jewel's nails, which she *hates.* because I put her on her back. She hasn't been getting much practice with that since Willow came home. I trimmed the toe hair on both of them. You would have thought I was flogging them for all the whining and crying they made.

THEN we went and visited Daddy at work. Jewel was TEARING around the office because of all the traction. She's SO FAST!!! She's in great shape because they run around the house all day, peeling out everywhere: so they get A LOT more exercise than the ground they actually cover. It's like having them on a treadmill.

We've started a trend at church. We brought Jewel to church to visit with everyone, and within 2 weeks the associate pastor had gotten Rudy and brought him, and yet another guy said his family got one since meeting Jewel.
Rudy's a cutie, huh?

Firecracker and the Bunny

For some unknown, ungodly and unwelcome reason, I woke wide awake at 2:30 this morning and it's only just occured to me (hours later...) that there has got to be something in this house that may help get me back to sleep. So we'll see how it works...

But enough about me....

We had a lovely Saturday. We took the girls to Green Lake...

It took us 2 hours to get around for all the visiting they had to do with the peoples and the puppies.

Jewel's got her first crush: Coconut Fudge Bucket. A chocolate male shih tzu about 6 months old. She was just TAKEN with Fudge!


Jewel's not one to act submissive spontaneously, but she rolled and had her leg up for this heartbreaker...



As many know, it's about 2.8 miles around. Jewel trekked the whole darn thing. Willow was carried no more than half a mile.
BOY did they ever conk out when we got home! A solid 3 if not 4 hours of napping.

That one gets style points....

This was welcome as we had invited my sister and family over and our condo was in disarray and we were able to put everything away. This being the AB-norm until Jewel arrived home a month ago (already?), since my life consists of triage-ing puppy 'activities.' My niece and nephew love Jewel and were itching to meet Willow. Entertaining the family was the easiest 3 waking hours I've had since Monday since the kids were all over the puppies.

"Don't hate me because I'm devastatingly beautiful...."

Sweepy puppies...

I call them 'my little poopies.'

The girls have been great this morning, with mom in charge. I actually got up with Ian and there's been only one accident. And Daddy hasn't growled a single time

"...The bunny puppy did it, in the ballroom, with the colon..."

I don't know what's up with Willow choosing far corners to do all her business. Which I need to pick up and take to the vet today.

(As I'm writing this, Willow is intently watching a car commercial)

Willow is the bunny puppy. She so sweet and fuzzy but she's a PILL!!! It's a good thing she's cute as a button. She jumps into my lap and triesandtriesandtries to chew my chin. She barks and baits Jewel. She'll do AAAAAAANYTHING to get a treat, so training has been smooth (except the housetraining).

She chews EVERYTHING. I pulled out the bitter apple on Tuesday. She lapped it up. She actually licked it up.

(Jewel just jumped off the couch, clearing the computer power cord, landing in the snuggler bed, overturning it and spilling them both out )

It's remarkable how they can sleep all night, play for an hour and a half and crash for another hour or two.

Their play is getting incremently less intense and more play-like, instead of fight-like.

They take turns sleeping on the puppy bed, and strangely, they even are sleeping on the hard floor. And they're never far from each other.