Moving House With Pets

When you’re moving into a new house, you want to make sure your furry companions are taken care of. here’s our quick guide to making sure they’re happy and healthy when you decide to relocate.

Settling In

Just keep your animals contained in one room of the house, or the backyard. Move all of your furniture into the new house. This way, when you bring your pet into your new place, that won’t think it’s foreign and instead will be used to the smells and familiarity of all of your furniture. Hopefully it won’t freak out and run away.

Keep Your Pet Healthy

Make sure the new place is free of pests such as ticks, fleas or bedbugs by calling in a pest inspector or other professional. If there’s pests that can latch onto your pets fur in your house, you pet is going to become agitated and upset, and also unhealthy. So before you move in, make sure the place is pest free.

Getting Used to the Neighbourhood

There’s going to be all sorts of new things in the environment. New neighbourhood animals, new trees, new places to play. Make sure to start walking your dogs straight away, so they can acclimatise to the environment, and also so they know their way back in case they ever get lost. This will help them become at ease with their new surroundings.

Letting Them Go Free

After all of the removalists, pest inspectors and and anyone else has left, and all of the boxes unpacked, you can let the animal move freely throughout the house. Just let them explore at their own pace, smelling things and remembering which room is which.

Be sure to show them where the kitty litter tray is, or where they can go outside to go to the toilet. Bring out their toys, and let them play in the area where you plan to spend most of the time, such as the lounge room.

Hopefully, by taking these careful steps, you pet won’t freak out, and will feel at home within a few days.

Christmas Gift Ideas for Dogs

Merry Christmas!  This Christmas don't forget to give your fur friends their presents too.  Although there's not much dog stores here in Manila.  I've tried my best to include dog gifts into my Christmas shopping itinerary. 

Santa Lychee

So here are my Christmas gift ideas for dogs.  I bought these stuff from Bow & Wow and Hobbes and Landes. 

 My maltese Lychee is a small dog and she's a treat lover.  I bought her lots of treats.  When choosing dog treats, I always go for the premium ones which are wheat-free.  

• Newman's Own Premium Dog Treats Cheese Flavor
•  If your familiar with Newman's Own organic product lines for humans, well they've ventured into dog snacks too.  Our seven dogs love the cheese flavor.  I bet your dog will like it too.
• Cloudstar Wag More Bark Less
• I chose Cloudstar Wag More Bark Less because they have peanut butter cookies.  Both humans and dogs can't resist the delicious taste of peanut butter so I'm sure my dogs will love them.

• Delicio Baked Pet Treats
• Delicio is a new brand for us.  Their products are very cheap so we decided to give it a try.

• Taste of the Wild
• Our dogs love Taste of the Wild but its too expensive here so they only have this for special occassions.  Their default dog food is Acana and Canidae.

• Nylabones
• We only trust nylabone as chew bones for our six Chinese sharpeis

How about your?  What did you get for your pets this Christmas?

National Geographic's First Doggy Day Camp

I was very excited when I saw the registration for the National Geographic's First Doggy Day Camp which was held at the Bonifacio Global City Ampitheatre. Although the online registration was closed, they had on-site registrations too.  

I was surprised at how many dog and dog owners present for the event.  I'v attended many dog events before.  But, this was the biggest one I've seen yet.

Although it begun at 1 p.m., I arrived fashionable late at around 3 p.m.  Upon taking the on-line express lane, i was given my map, a yellow dog bandana and a wooden dog tag.

We roamed around a bit supposedly to catch the Pet Parade but we didn't notice that it had already left.  We then decided to fall in line in the National Geographic booth because they gave out a cool campers bag  if you are able to guess how many Pedigree Dentastix is in the jar.  It was around 4 p.m. when we started lining up.  At around 4:50 p.m., we were told that they will have a short break of 15 minutes.  I guess it was quite reasonable that dog owners together with their dogs did not leave the line since no one expected the booth to resume its operations at around 5:30 p.m.  They then advised all those who are lining up that they don't have sufficient supply of the cool campers bag so everyone was asked to write down their guesses with their name in a small sheet of paper so they will raffle the bags later.  We never knew what happened with that since when we glanced after collecting our stamps, the booth was empty.

According to the map, there are benches for the kibble treats cafe but we didn't see any pets eating and instead it became resting place for humans so we didn't pay attention to this.  There was also a photo exhibit that featured ten of the best submitted heroic dogs.  I'm sure their owners are very proud of them.

After the dog parade, the hosts procedd with the rest of the program such as the introduction to the stars of GMA7’s primetime television show Aso ni San Roque, mini agility race by Urban Sports K9, games and lectures from  Ferdz Recio and Joy Uy.

The Pedrigree booth gave the dog owners and their best buddy a memorable experience by capsulating them into a professional photo.  In addition, they also gave some loot bags with Pedigree Dentastix.

Furrfect Grooming by The Dog Spa

My favorite and the best booth is The Dog Spa.  They were very sincere in offering their FREE services to as many campers as they can.  I was asked to choose the service I preferred: nail trimming, face trim, dry massage or ear cleaning.

Lychee's Face Trimming

I chose the Face Trimming for Lychee.  The Dog Spa's groomer is so professional.  He was able to handle Lychee easily and accomplished the task at hand quickly.  Seeing that Lychee lost her bow in the mass crowd, they gave her a FREE cute yellow plaid ribbon that matches her bandana.

Here's another dog having its nail trimmed.  The dog looks relaxed don't you think?

Although the agility course was supposedly not part of the attraction, it was opened to a limited number of people who wanted to try it out.

Although the program had the dog blessing which was the primary reason why we came, Lychee was too tired already so we decided to had for home.  Overall, we learned a lot from the talks and Lychee was pretty happy with her grooming.  I hope there will be another National Geographic's Doggy Day Camp next year!

Pet Passion Dog Shop: Dog Grooming a.k.a. Lychee's Make Over

We always buy our dog supplies at Hobbies of Asia in Macapagal.  So when we were looking for a place to go for Lychee's dog grooming we decided to try Pet Passion Dog Shop.  

They offer dog grooming for only 300 pesos.  I guess that is why they are many customers.  The location is pretty convenient too because it is near SM Mall of Asia.  So when Kurt and I went to attend the Go Nuts Donut's Donut Talk at their SM Mall of Asia branch, we left Lychee at  Pet Passion Dog Shop.  It was around 5:30 pm.  We were told to come back for her around 7 p.m.

Before

This is how Lychee, our maltese, looks before her Dog Grooming

After

This is how Lychee's Summer Cut after her Dog Grooming

We initially wanted a Puppy Cut  but we were told that Lychee has too many mats.  They asked if we were okay with a Summer Cut.  Since it was really hot anyway, we agreed.

The Dog Grooming was pretty good.  But, Kurt noticed that the her eat fur wasn't at the same lengths.  They   snipped it quick though.  The cut was clean.  We didn't see any bald spots of rashes with Lychee except on her butt.  Kurt says that's normal because the shaver gets to hot when too many dogs are groomed simultaneously.  It healed within a few days.

Overall, we were very satisfied with the service especially the price.  We'll probably go back again if we need more grooming in the future.

Our Doggie Divas Fashion Show Experience at SM Manila

I previously mentioned about the Doggie Divas Fashion Show (see separate entry).  It was our first time to join a fashion show so we woke up early to groom Lychee.  She had a bad hair day.  But that won't stop us.

Kurt Grooming Lychee Upon Arrival

Me and Lychee Before the Show

Each contestant walking the red carpet

Host talking to the partcipant

We arrived at the venue at exactly 2 p.m.  We were given a button pin with number 20 on it.  We were shocked to see many dogs there.  There were 35 contestants.  Most of them had their custom-made gowns and costumes.  Compared to them we were under-dressed.  Especially since we just bought Lychee's dress the day earlier at Tiendesitas for a measly 200 php. =p

Carribean Themed Chihuahua

      While waiting for the registration to be completed, the host was asking questions among the audience.  Kurt was raising his hand knowing all the answers but unfortunately he was never called.


At 2:30 p.m., the show started by parading the contestants around the upper ground floor.  Lychee was so happy to roam around at the mall.  While most pets wanted to be carried, Lychee was enjoying her walk.  As we returned to the event center, the three female judges were introduced.  They were judges chosen among the sponsors.  A brief information was given about them such as their profession (unrelated to dogs) and whether they had pets.


The participants were asked to walk along the red carpet and place their dogs at a table by the end for photograph.  Participants were divided into batches composing of five dog owners each.  Since we were number 20, we have at the fourth batch.  At the end of each batch, a spokesperson from the person discusses their products.  While waiting for our turn, Lychee kept rubbing her face trying to remove her big red glittery bow.  People wanted to take a picture of her but Lychee was a hyper dog so it was quite difficult to make her stay in one position.  Kurt also did not manage to take a single photo of us durign the show for the same reason.=(


When we were called, she walked straight to the table.  I place her their to have her pictures taken.  There were around 8 photographers.  I glanced at the judges but there weren't looking.


Soon, the participants for the guardian and dog category were called so we walked the carpet again.  After that it was the pair dogs turn.  After 30 minutes, the judges announced their decision and awarded the prizes.  As expected we didn't win anything.  The show ended as scheduled at around 5:00 p.m.


We quickly exchanged our button pin for our Alpo giveaway.  All contestants should have one but some of the contestants didn't get a chance to claim theirs because of the insufficiency of supplies.  Some of the contestants went home even before the giveaways were given.  (Probably because some non-contestants were given some)

Doggie Diva Winner

2nd place for Doggie Diva

3rd runner up for Doggie Diva

2 chihuahuas in similar dresses = best pair winner
(funny because we almost bought the same buy 1 take 1 for 300 dresses at Tiendesitas!)

2 chihuahuas pair up close

Mask man + Kid with wig = Guardian and Pet Winner

All 7 Winners

After the show, it rained.  Lychee loves the rain so we walked on the way home.  She had mud all over her feet so when we got home, we had to bathe her again.  It was a tiring day.


Overall, we are probably not for the fashion show type.   We didn't want to overdress her because we were too worried that it would make her feel uncomfortable.  We realized that Lychee will always be cute in our eyes.  It doesn't whether she wins based on others judgment.  To us, she will always be our "Doggie Diva."