My Dogs’ BEFORE and AFTER Pics

As I wait for Dog Whisperer to air, I got to thinking about my dogs. Two of them just got new looks. So I decided to post their BEFORE and AFTER photos:

Here’s Siam my Miniature Poodle

I finally had his face shaved, something I was adamant I would never do, mainly because his facial hair was turning dark brown because it was always wet with water and drool. He ended up looking mighty unkempt with his constantly wet mouth. I didn’t want to shave his face because I didn’t want him looking like a poodle. I love it when people ask me what breed he is because he looks like a cross between a sheepdog and a mop. I’m not a big fan of the poodle cut, but I relented only as far as the face is concerned for hygiene purposes. I plan to keep the Chow-ish ploofy fur that everyone says is so un-poodle-like for as long as I can. As the months pass, grooming him becomes more and more an uphill battle. I literally have blisters on my hands caused by brushing out his balls of matted hair. I don’t know how long I can manage this, so eventually I think he’d have to have a short cut as well.

Here’s Cairo my Yorkshire Terrier

This was a difficult decision for me. Everyone tells me NOT to have his hair cut because that’s the crowning glory of any Yorkie, the fine long silky hair that distinguishes them from other breeds. But it’s always magulo! They end up looking like oily tendrils than they do long flowy locks. Plus, it’s so hard to spot ticks or fleas because he’s always a tangled mess. Who knows what lurks underneath that matted jungle. So I finally decided to give my poor boy a break and give him a puppy cut. And I am infinitely happier for it! I don’t think I’ve stop hugging and kissing him ever since the haircut! The long hair on his body is gone, he got more of a schnauzer cut, but he looks free and liberated from the chains of matts and tangles. I love it. Come to tink sa pwet, I think I’ll give him a big hug and snuggle with him as we watch Cesar Millan.

Siam’s Home!

Oh my goodness, it was so nice to have Siam back home! It took all of my will power to not kiss him and hug him and squish him and shmoosh him when I finally saw him after a week! I was getting all the videos from Lestre and their Petiks Atbp Facebook page (you can check out Siam’s videos HERE) and it was tickling me pink seeing Siam trying out those agility exercises. Finally, an activity that takes advantage of Siam’s jumping mania (he’s like that alien in the app Doodle Jump)! He’s always been a jumping dog, as if he’s happiest when bouncing high into the air like a dog-kangaroo hybrid, so it’s nice to see him challenged to use it for a purpose. I was beaming like a proud parent seeing him do so well with the exercises because I always knew he had it in him, he just needed the proper stimulus. I also loved seeing him walk off-leash, which I’ve never been able to do with him just yet, although he’s always been good on the leash. But still, the idea that I too can walk him off-leash someday is a prospect I relish.

When I finally got there, Siam started whining a bit, something they never heard the past week, so I guess I do elicit Siam’s clingy side, but he stopped at once when corrected. Lestre taught us a lot of the stuff that we can do to help challenge Siam and his restless energy. The problem basically is this: Siam is an intelligent dog who gets bored when there’s nothing to challenge that intelligence. So the tricks are just some of the things I can do to challenge him. I can change our daily walk route, I can buy him a doggy back pack that he can carry while we walk, and I can even train him to stay for progressively longer periods of time. Even that can already expend a lot of his need for stimulus. Sometimes it’s not just the physical exercise that he needs, it’s also the mental.

We took Siam for a walk with Lestre teaching me the proper way: how to read Siam’s body language, what to watch out for and how to respond to unwanted behavior. At first Siam was a bit too excited to be with me again, so he was really all over the place, but once I established that I meant business, he was walking like a pro by the time we were on our way back. Of course Lestre told me that Siam’s success will really depend more on how consistent we will be AFTER his rehab. If we don’t put into place a lot of what we learned, then the whole exercise would’ve been useless. I really plan to attend one of Lestre’s classes once I have a free weekend. In these classes, it’s the dog owners who are trained instead of the dogs.

When we finally got home, Lestre instructed us to walk Siam first, then walk the other two dogs (Nairobi and Cairo), and let them encounter each other during the walk. Of course Siam went crazy seeing his two best buddies again, and it took all my pack leader mojo to calm him down. I must admit, I’m really too soft on the discipline side, so I need to sharpen whatever alpha male vibe I can muster. But to be fair to Siam, he’s really more attentive to correction now. He’s still is every bit the firecracker that he was, but a snap of a finger or a loud “SHHHT!” (shhht not sh*t, fyi) is usually enough to get his attention. He’s still a handful, but at least he’s starting to listen now.

The rehab is far from over, in fact on our side, it’s just the beginning. But at least we have a plan of action now. I didn’t really put Siam in Lestre’s hands to be magically “cured” of anything, but more for the diagnosis of problems that I may not be able to identify correctly on my own, and maybe a plan of action as to how we can approach these problems. And I knew from the start that the bulk of the work will be done by us, after Lestre gets the ball rolling. So now, we got our hands full in hopefully sufficiently meeting Siam’s needs for physical and mental stimulation. It’s a full-time commitment and we are willing to take on the challenge! For now, I’m just so glad to have Siam back, I think I may have hurt him a bit a couple of times when I hugged him a little too hard and when I bit his ear a little too much. I couldn’t help it, I was just going crazy because I missed that little heffalump so much! He was pretty much sleeping in my arms like a giant furry baby during the drive from Las Pinas to QC.

To Lestre and the whole Petiks Atbp team, THANK YOU so much for adopting Siam as your own for a week, I promise to try my very best to continue what you’ve started, expect me to update you on our progress, and expect even more texts and messages bugging you about questions and clarifications that we may have regarding Siam. Maybe every now and then we can drop by so Siam can run around with his buddy Isko? And if you’re up to it, maybe Nairobi and her hot temper can go next?

Siam In Rehab

Yup, you read it right. Siam is in doggie rehab, or doggie boot camp. But it’s nowhere as bad as it sounds. At my most trying time, I remembered this guy that I met when I hosted a pet event, this guy named Lestre Zapanta who I interviewed onstage, and who turned out to be an animal behaviorist. Just for reference, think a local dog whisperer. At the time, I was talking to him about my aggressive chihuahua. But at the time that my poodle Siam was keeping me and my neighbors up with his relentless 4:00am barking (refer to my at-my-wit’s-end blog post about it HERE), the time when I was so close to giving up and contemplating defeat for the very first time (and giving Siam away), I remembered Lestre. So I tried to find the calling card he gave me, and I found it amid the tons of cards I messily keep in one drawer, and gave him a call. He told me about his company, PETiks Atbp.

Lestre told me that there was a lot of hope for Siam, and that he can board Siam in his place, and try to fix what needs fixing. The problem was, Siam was a mere 3 months old at the time, with only 2 shots in, and they couldn’t board him unless all his shots were complete. So suffice it to say, I bit the bullet and kept Siam for an extra 5 months, through all his shots, his neutering and my 2-week vacation. After all that, finally, Siam was ready. In Siam’s defense, he already evolved from a canine menace into a lovable companion in the past 5 months. He doesn’t really whine anymore, but he still gets a bit restless when left alone and starts shredding the houseplants’ leaves into leaflets, among other things. Nothing major anymore, and the idea of giving him away had been long filed under the “No way, Jose!” drawer. But I still agree with Lestre’s initial diagnosis that Siam is way too intelligent, and needs more intellectual stimulation than I know how to offer. So I finally decided to board Siam with Lestre, and he’ll figure out what makes him tick, identify possible behavioral problems, and find a way to correct these behaviors. Plus, Lestre promised to teach Siam lots of tricks, which poodles crave, because it gives them mental challenges that they hungrily need. So hopefully after a week or so, Siam will be a “better” dog (I put the word “better” in quotes because we love Siam just the way he is; we just feel there’s always room for improvement). Of course Lestre has a “no visiting” policy from us “parents” so as to have Siam’s full attention. We the enablers/spoilers might be an unwelcome distraction. Check out the PETiks Atbp website by clicking HERE. Their website is under renovation so you can check out their Facebook page in the meantime.

As resolute as I am about Siam’s rehab, of course it was torture leaving him in a strange new place for the first time since we got him last November. It felt like leaving our kid at school for the first time! Siam gave me a look as if to say: “Daddy, am I in jail?”

I can’t wait to have him back home! Hang in there Siam, we’re rooting for ya!

Siam’s Big Day

My baby’s a big boy now, all 14 pounds of him. He’s 6 months old, and any minute now, he’s about to reach sexual maturity. Of course I’m talking about my youngest pup, Siam, supposedly a Toy Poodle, but more like a Miniature Poodle given his size. He’s grown ginormous the past couple of months, and as you can see in the photos, he now looks like the love child between Aslan and a Jigglypuff. The best time to neuter a male dog is right before sexual maturity so he doesn’t develop the habits that usually accompany this stage. Cairo, my Yorkie, got neutered a bit late, so even after the procedure, he never got rid of his territorial spraying or humping. Siam still pees like a girl so hopefully he doesn’t spray anymore.

Most people still cringe when I say I spay and neuter my pets. A lot still consider it cruel, when in fact vets and animal rights advocates mostly consider it the more “humane” way to go. I say mostly because of course there will be dissenting opinions, but generally, the widely accepted fact is that spaying and neutering is the way to go. Spayed and neutered animals generally live longer and healthier lives. Spaying a female dog also eliminates the messiness associated with the heat cycle. Neutering of male dogs and cats can prevent certain undesirable sexual behaviors, such as urine marking, humping, male aggression and the urge to roam. If you have more than one pet in your household, all the pets will generally get along better if they are neutered.

And of course there’s the problem of over-population. So many breeders already, no need to add any more. Too many dogs going to homes that are not necessarily prepared for a companion animal. So many dogs are bought by families, only to be given away or left tied in a corner after they prove “too hard to handle”. Once the cuteness of the puppies evolve into the more robust adult dogs, many families balk at the actual work that needs to be put in. So even if you have people in mind to give your future pups to, it’s no guarantee that they’ll have loving homes to go to.

Of course it goes without saying that I’m nevertheless a mess. Because although I advocate spaying and neutering, it’s still a surgical procedure and it’s not without its risks. So here I am, on pins and needles, hoping that there are no hitches and that the operation went well. I’m still waiting for the text from my vet saying the procedure is done, that Siam is healthy and well and that he is on his way home. I’ll post an update once I get news on how things went. Hang in there, Siam! Get well quick, so you can jump again all you want!

Here’s the PETA spay/neuter ad with Jane Lynch:

 

My Jumbo Poodle

Does this look like a toy poodle to you?

This is our “toy” poodle Siam as hoisted aloft by our yaya, who is quite big-boned herself (don’t tell her I said that!). So for Siam to dwarf her hefty proportions is saying a lot. So like our yaya, our dog seems to have some weight issues. Siam is supposed to be a toy poodle, which by definition means it’s the smallest of the 3 poodle breeds. There’s the Standard Poodle (which is as big as a Retriever), the Miniature Poodle (which is the mid-sized version) and the Toy Poodle, which is supposed to be tiny. When we got Siam, he was this tiny bundle of wool, like a lost little lamb looking forlornly for his Bo Peep. He practically fit in one hand.  Then, as the days pass, he started growing at a rate that really scared me. For a while there I seriously thought we got ourselves a Standard Poodle. But our trusty vet assured me that Siam is most likely not a Standard Poodle, but he isn’t a Toy Poodle either.  It’s safe to say that he’s a Miniature Poodle, with a final size that’s probably a bit smaller than a Beagle.

These photos were taken about a month ago, so you can imagine how big he’s gotten since.  As of last weighing, he was 10 pounds, which is not really that heavy, but he’s huge for a 4-month old puppy.  He’s much lighter than his size would betray. As for my problems with Siam, I would have to reserve that for a separate post. Siam has been a major life lesson for me. I thought I was just getting a dog, I didn’t know that I was getting much more than I bargained for.  For now, I just wanted to share how my Toy Poodle is so not one.