Hair Extensions for dogs

What animal is this? Impossibly cute eh? When I put these pics up on Facebook, my friends thought Tiger had a new hair cut. In fact, what he has on is a fox tail in a similar colour as his coat which I am holding on to. He hates all the peripherals I try to decorate him with, but good-naturedly put up with my whims.


I realize that when other people see pics of Tiger and hear me glossing over him...how cute, how obedient, how much personality he has, how he can watch TV and see photos etc, it really seems a bit ridiculous. They may even think I'm going overboard to attribute to an animal so many human traits when all they see is another dog. When other people talk about their dogs and show me pics of their favourite pooch, it also seem so distant to me. "It's just another dog" I think at the back of my mind.


It's only when one truly interacts with the animal and stays with the pet for a prolonged period of them that some emotional bond is formed, and the animal goes beyond just being someone else's pet to become an individual entity with a personality, likes and dislikes. An example is my friend's family. At first when they meet Tiger on outings on occasion, it is just a hi-bye, pet-pet-friend's dog  kind of interaction. Later on when we went on holidays and let Tiger stay with them for weeks, they kind of looked upon him as more than just a dog and more as a person. They really missed him afterwards.


So for those of you who think we dog-lovers are crazy and indulgent, try staying with (a good) one for a week and see if you change your opinion.

Dumbbell

Yesterday Tiger went to school and shi fu Mr Patrick Wong decided that Tiger had to upgrade his dumbbell from

to this

As you can see, he has a crestfallen look on his face as he thinks it's training time again!  It's like "Oh oh...this can't be happening at home. "

My poor doggy is carrying a dumbbell the same size as a retriever's. We had to train Tiger to "fetch" and "hold" the dumbbell and it is quite cruel cos in order to train him to "fetch" it, we put his ear against his metal choke chain collar. If he lurches forward and bites the dumbbell, nothing happens. If he refuses at command, we have to pinch his ear against the collar and oh my, he SQUEALS like it's the end of the world. Every time that happens, I swear my heart aches more than his ear. Thankfully, Tiger is a smart boy. He learns fast and is very obedient, so I don't have to feel like a monster every Sunday.

I think he enjoys going to school though. Even before we leave the house, he gets so excited seeing us lug his school bag out of the storeroom. When he is training with me, he has this serious, laboured look on his face. But when I say "OK", he leaps for joy and runs off to find his friends. Tiger's really mischievous cos he will go round the class and make new friends, sniffing their butts and trying to kiss them. Some dogs aren't accustomed to being 'French-kissed' by another dog and they yelp to get Tiger off their backs. Maybe their owners don't kiss them enough. I can't survive one day NOT kissing Tiger or sniffing in his fragrant doggy scent. It makes me happy!

In case you're curious, he sleeps with me on my bed nightly with his head on my arm until his fur gets us both warm and sweaty; that's when he looks for cooler pastures on the ground. I think I'm not alone in this dog-in-the-bed thingy. A recent report says that a third of American dog owners allow their dogs to sleep with them. A lot of people think it's dirty and disgusting, but I think the benefits outweigh the cons. I've woken up in the middle of the night feeling frozen from the aircon and turned over to the hubby for some warmth, only to find him just as cold as me. That's when Tiger comes into the picture! I'd actually get up, search for him on his little pet bed and lug him into bed with me, feeling so snug as his warmth spreads over to me. It's almost like heaven. Incidentally chiengora (dog fur wool) is great for keeping warm. I've got a whole box of Tiger's fur collected so that I can make my very own dog hair scarf!

K9 Feelings

Tiger was NOT good last night. After an evening trip to fetch me home, he hadn't been feeling very well, throwing up 5, 6 times bouts ofbout yellow bile and foam. We were worried but had booked tickets to New Moon. When we came back past midnight, I realized that little Tiggy had pee-ed on my bed, wetting my silk duvet cover and down quilt. Good thing it didn't soak all the way into my new bed sheet! After removing the quilt, it still smelled fishy. On further investigation, there on my sheepskin rug was a pile of poo!! And worse, Tiggy had tried to cover his misdeed with my Paul Frank shorts. He had apparently stepped on my shorts in the process.

I was livid! My shorts all covered in squashed poo!!! And my newly-washed sheepskin too!

We confronted Tiggy with the evidence and he was as sheepish as my rug. His ears were flattened behind and he crouched guiltily. That's Hidden Poo & Crouching Tiger for you. I decided to mete out very light punishment considering that he was ill. Some scolding was enough to make him beg for forgiveness as he rolled over on his back and licked my hands. We had to do SO much washing last night. When we beckoned him to bed after we finally finished at 3am, he was so reluctant to come in, knowing that that was the place of crime. We literally dragged him in.

Looks like my little canine friend here went through a whole gamut of emotions last night. From feeling sick, to frustration that mom and dad left him alone in the big house when he was ill, to anger, to remorse (trying to cover his tracks), and finally to guilt then relief. Whoever said animals don't have feelings?

Tiger and Sebastian Hair Product

Tiger endorsing Sebastian Hair Clay, which I have just used on his mane. haha poor dog

Tiger and Tricks

Here's my Tiger baby doing some tricks, all for nothing but the amusement of his mommy. Nope, no rewards were given out. This is a low-res video, but if you would like to see TiGer in all his high-res cuteness, click here.

Of course, even though Tiger's sugar and spice and everything nice, he has not attained nirvana yet. Today we brought him for his daily night walk then left him at home as we went to skate in the park. He was very unhappy about that arrangement. To show his displeasure, he threw a tantrum by defecating in one of my rooms, and on the bathroom mat.

Strangely enough, he knew that was not the right thing to do. When we saw the mess he made, he immediately adopted this sheepish (no insult to our sheep friends out there) look, with flattened ears and lowered head, not daring to approach us. I wasn't really angry. But as a wise parent, I had to put on a facade to discipline Tiger. Anyway I made the most out of the situation. He was willing to do ANYTHING for forgiveness and I didn't have the heart to torture him. So we made up and all's well now. :-)