Snuggles with Monroe :)

It's starting to drop chilly early in the evening now, so last night we popped jumpers on the girls whilst the heating warmed the house through. We came across a pair of PJ's we ordered months back from Tinkerbells Closet, so we decided to put them on Monroe. She was thrilled with her new found warmth and got down next to me on the sofa for a cheeky nap!

Isn't she a cutie pie?

Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe, Lily and Lola.
xo  

Buffy's 'paw-ly' paw :(

Today we decided it was high time for a 'spa day', so the girls all got brushed out, dry shampooed and had their nails clipped. It all went smoothly, until we got to Buffy's nails, when we discovered one of her nails on her right hind paw had a split down it, right into the quick and it had bled a little :(

It looks to be a few days old, so we've no idea how she did it! You can't see the split in the picture but you can see a little bit of dried blood and a little piece missing on the end of her nail, where the split starts D:

(click the picture to enlarge it.)

1. Is where the dried blood is & 2. Is where you can see the split starting.

It doesn't seem to be hurting her so I smoothed the edge of the nail off and gave it 2 coats of an extra strong clear top coat to hold it together and stop it splitting more as it hopefully grows out!

Isn't she a brave little soldier?

Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, brave Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe, Lily and Lola.
xo

Dog Photographer

of the year 2011... certainly isn't going to be us! Not with our useless camera and often uncooperative 'models' ;)

But there's no harm in entering, so fingers crossed for us, it's a great thing to do especially with the proceeds going to such a worthwhile charity, the Kennel Club Charitable Trust.

There's also prizes to be won, such as a Pixum canvas print of your pooch and a Lomo camera, the runners up prizes aren't bad either and a friendly competition is always fun :)

To find out everything and anything you could possibly want to know about the competition, including how to enter, clickity click over here!

As info isn't our strong point here, how about we give you a run through of the Hilton's top 10 model-esque tips, that way at least your model is prepared! (Or should that be prepawed?)

1. Look fly! Bathed, brushed and pampered to perfection? Lookin' like one hot dog!
2. If the world is your oyster, then your home, garden and local park can sure be your stage. Try going out and about for some great action shots.
3. Macro, you know how adorable your dogs crinkly nose is, get in close and show the world.
4. A happy dog is your best friend, caught in natural poses, your dogs eyes will shine.
5. Think outside the box. What makes your dog unique? Try to capture their personality in the shot, with poses and props.
6. Faces, your dog has as many emotions as you, use toys and your voice to bring out different expressions and catch them on film.
7. Angles can be your best friend, everyone knows what a dog looks like from above, get creative and be prepared to get a little mucky!
8. A dog is art in it's own right, don't over complicate your shots, let the subject speak for itself.
9. Have fun, if you're taking pictures for your photo album or for a competition, your feelings will show in your shots and most importantly...
10. Be proud of the beautiful dog you call your own and work those cameras!

Best of luck to everyone who enters!

Love & licks,

Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe, Lily and Lola.
xo

ETA - You can check out our entries here!

We're 'Dotti' for dogs!

It's been an eventful week or so at our house, ups and downs, a few sad times, but not things to dwell on here! We'd rather tell you our good news :)

Buffy got a new toy, a 'Dotti', yes it should be shared but Buffy is the toy monster in our house, so it's become her 'Baby' lol. Simple things please simple pups :)

She's taken to snoozing on it too!

Sleeping beauty...

And some news we've been waiting a while to share...

Meet Hilton number 5!

Adorable no?
She's finally coming to live with us this Wednesday, so we thought we'd share the news at last :)
She's Monroe and Lily's half sister! (Same dad for all 3).
Name wise we're torn between Lola and Clover, we might end up doing a poll xD

More pics/vids to come soon!

Love & licks,

Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe and Lily.
xo

Lily update!

It's been a week now since we first took Lily to the vets for her stomach infection and she's pretty much all better :)

We had a rough time with her, she had a fever for 3 days and in the end didn't eat for 5 days :( She lost about 1/4 of a pound, which doesn't sound a lot but she only weighs 3 pounds anyway!

Looking back at the picture of her in our last post, she looks so sick and small, my poor girl. I couldn't be happier to say she's back to her old self and is eating well, so should put the weight back on easily.

 

My dad and step mum fussing the girls, Lily getting extra tlc on my dads knee.

In other news I'm hoping to do another KC related post in the next day or 2 and we'll have some exciting news to share soon as well!

However it's ciao for now from us,

Love & licks as ever,

Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe and Lily.
xo

Got Beef?

We've had a look back through our blog and we seem to be more than a little behind!
We promised over 2 months ago now, in Lily and Alfie's Half Birthday post, for a picture of little Alfie, well here is said picture update of the one, the only:

'Mr Alfie Beef'!

Alfie's well and truly part of the family with my dad and step mum now and is as spoilt as any of our girls. He visits us from time to time, although how much his mother (Rafferty) appreciates these reunions we're not sure! 

Hopefully it won't be too long before we'll have some more pictures of him, especially as his and Lily's joint 1st Birthday is coming up shortly! (September 5th).

That's about it for now! Ciao!

Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe & Lily.
xo

Bed, bath and beyond.

As the title suggests, in the past few days there has been a bed, a bath and a er, beyond?
Let us explain...

'Mamma' came to visit us yesterday, so in honour the girls all got spruced up, hence the 'bath' part...

I'm not sure they were thrilled, but they look lovely for their grooming session :)

The 'bed' part of our title comes from one of the gifts mamma bought us!

Doesn't it look snuggly and super sweet in there? ^^

And last but not least. the 'beyond'... is something that seems to be 'beyond' the girls...
Especially Rafferty! ;D

 I don't think she quite gets the idea...

Can you guess what it is yet? :p
It's a furry crinkle tunnel from Karlie! (It's actually a cat toy lol!)

Spoilt little darlings huh?

That's all for now, we'll be back in a few days with pictures of Alfie from the Alfie/Lily half birthday post! :)
Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe & Lily.
xo

Ravishing Rafferty

It feels like it's been a while since we had any really nice pictures of Rafferty, as most people will know by now, she's more than a little camera shy. However, we did manage to snap a few shots of her gorgeous self earlier and thought we'd share them with you now ^^

And just because we can't let anyone feel left out..

Hope you enjoy ^^
Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe & Lily.
xo

Show us yer teeth!

A little while ago it came to our attention that just about the only thing lacking in our doggy routine, was good dental hygiene. Now, we have various chew toys; rope tugs, nylabones, marrowbones etc and we have beef knuckle bones, but there were still a few pesky bits of nasty plaque on their back teeth from the food we had prior to Orijen, (especially on Buffy and Rafferty's) so we decided to try out a few different products!

First, we invested in a toothbrush, we chose the Petosan SilentPower.

Then a well reviewed toothpaste.

And finally, a good plaque remover.

All in all I can't fault these 3 products, although we're not using the toothbrush much, the girls don't like it much, so rather than stress them we use a piece of rough lint to clean their teeth :)
We've been using the Logic and Fortan for about 3 weeks now and have seen vast improvements tbh. Unfortunately we didn't take any 'before' shots, but here's their teeth 'after' -

 See that piece of plaque in the middle of her back tooth? The entire tooth was covered in a thick layer when we started!

 Same story for Raffertys too, she had a lot on her fang teeth as well, which is mostly gone :)

 Monroe's are pearly white! Just doing 'maintinence' work on hers now :)

Ditto for little Lily :)

Buffy and Rafferty both need a little work still, as you can see, but over all a major improvement, which is great! ^^

That's all for now folks,
Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe & Lily.
xo

'Haul' aboard!

Today has been a lovely super sunny day so far, so we decided to get some pictures and videos of the girls with their new toys! :)
We ordered them some peach flavoured (pet safe) 'Incredibubbles', a 'giggle' ball, a Starkmark bob-a-lot treat dispenser, all 4 'flavours' of the Walkies crisps by Sharples N Grant and a pink Zig a Zag motorised ball... Phew.
Everything has arrived, aside from the Zig a Zag ball, which we're expecting tomorrow or Friday :)

Here's our haul;

A few pictures of the girls enjoying their new things;

And to finish, some videos of them in action;







Love & licks,
Rio, Jonny, Buffy, Rafferty, Monroe & Lily.
xo