Enough Fur for Two Dogs!

Better late than never, I guess. Now that summer is more than half over Louie has finally "decided" to blow his coat. All of this fur came off of him in 20 minutes.

Hopefully Louie will be a little cooler now. You would think after all that he would look naked, but he still has tons of fur left.

If you are curious about how I got so much hair off of him so quickly. Here is a picture of the tool I used:

It's a grooming rake with rotating and retracting pins. It conforms to the dog's body as you use it, so it's pain-free. Katie and Louie seem to enjoy being groomed with it. When Newfoundlands are blowing coat I have found that this tool removes undercoat faster than any other.

Summertime and the Living is [Not] Easy...

Summertime in Arkansas is usually not very pleasant. Unfortunately, this summer seems worse than normal. Our temperatures for the last several weeks have been in the upper 90's to 100's. One recent afternoon our heat index reached 111. Yikes! We go for a walk every morning at 6:00 a.m. but it's still around 80 degrees at that point so our walks have been short. Due to the lack of exercise we have been trying to find ways to keep the Newfs entertained. Katie and Louie play hide and seek the kibble most nights before dinner time and often have wrestling matches in the living room trying to burn off some of their Newfie exhuberance.

Below are some low key shots of two Newfoundland dogs staying mellow and trying to keep their cool in the blistering heat:

Below is Katie trying out our new retaining wall. Louie used to frequently walk on top of the old one that was made out of railroad ties, but Katie never would. Now that we have the new stone wall Katie is getting on it, but Louie wants nothing to do with it.

When Katie reaches the end of the wall she sits down and then pivots 180 degrees on her behind so that she can get off the wall the same way she got on without having to jump down. These Newfs can come up with some interesting maneuvers sometimes.

While we are at work during the week Katie and Louie spend most of their time in the dog room - sleeping I suspect. The room has a giant dog door so they can go outside whenever they choose, but they prefer to stay in the air-conditioned room with 3 fans blowing the cool air on them.

Besides the heat another thing we don't like about summer is that the dogs occasionally get hot spots. Louie recently developed a small one on his leg. I wrapped it up to keep him from licking it. The vet said we would need to apply bitter apple spray to the bandage to get him to leave it alone, but he underestimated our Louie. While I was treating him, Louie never tried to take the bandage off. What a good boy! Now he's all healed up. I truly don't think I've ever encountered another dog as patient and tolerant as Louie. He will let you do anything to him including putting goofy hats on his head as you saw in the 4th of July post.

Louie loves the cool tile floor.

Louie spends a few minutes outside each afternoon waiting by the gate when he knows it's time for us to come home.

Newfie 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Love and Licks from Katie & Louie