It's exhausting being this cute...

Our naughty boy

We have so much fun with Bailey, he always keeps us laughing! Check out what happened when he got a hold of a roll of paper towels...

Such a naughty boy!

Our poor little latchkey puppy

Bailey isn't exactly enjoying being at home alone all day. Not that I blame him, but we really don't have any choice until he's housetrained. Plus, he chews everything in sight! Nonetheless, we feel so guilty about leaving him all day. Ryan has been going home at lunch to check on him, and he's usually howling away when he gets there. We have baby gates up to keep him in the hallway and give him space to run. Hopefully Bailey gets used to it soon enough... it breaks my heart to think about him!

More gratuitous Puggle Pics

More from this weekend. PS - just click on the pictures to see them larger or download them.

We survived our first weekend with Bailey!

...I say "we survived" because puppies are a HUGE challenge. We knew that going into it, but nevertheless we love having Bailey in our lives.
We went to pick up Bailey at 6 PM on Friday night. He did great during the car ride home. When we got home, he was very hesitant and shy... but that sure didn't last long! We gave him a tour of his new home, and we had to laugh when Bailey saw himself in our mirrored closet door! He was convinced there was another puggle in the house, and was pawing, licking, and whining at his own reflection. Too cute!
We learned very quickly that we need to watch Bailey's EVERY move! He seems to enjoy peeing on every rug in the house. Luckily, since we have hardwood floors, there aren't that many rugs to choose from... but he pretty much "christened" each one this weekend. Our solution was to roll them up and store them... now hopefully he finds the peepee pads and uses those instead.
Like most puppies, Bailey is a chewer. Although we bought plenty of chew toys for him, he seems to have a taste for shoes, slippers, rugs, electrical cords, plants, leaves, twigs, grass, fingers, ears.... pretty much everything!
Our first night went pretty smoothly. Bailey seemed to take to his crate pretty well, and he stayed there the entire night. We set up the crate on top of a hamper, so his crate was level with our bed. Whenever he whined, I would just reach out and put my hand in there so he would know I was there. I got up every 2 hours or so to take him out to go potty and then I couldn't get back to sleep... in fact, it was hard to get much sleep at all the entire weekend. (Bailey has a cold!) but we figure it's great training for our newborn!

More about Puggles

So it turns out that not many people know what puggles are. Many of my coworkers went "huh?" when I told them I got a puggle.

Puggles are 50% pug and 50% beagle and 100% adorable. Although they are not a registered AKC dog breed, they are really gaining popularity in the US as a "hybrid breed." Most puggles are either all fawn-colored or all black, but sometimes they can be multicolored or spotted (sort of like a beagle.)

Puggles usually have the leaner body of a beagle, and also the beagle's longer snout. This prevents them from having many of the breathing (and snoring!) problems that pugs have. (Trust me... a snoring pug can keep you up at night... my sister has one.) Puggles also have a beagle's long floppy ears, while they can have the brindled forehead of a pug. Their tails are usually longer, but they curl like a pugs.

Character-wise, puggles can take either the traits of a pug or a beagle. Both breeds are known to be great with children, which is obviously a major plus for us! Pugs are generally thought of as "lap dogs", while beagles are more active. Beagles can be howlers, so we're hoping our puggle does NOT get that trait!

Meet Bailey, our new puggle!

Monday morning Ryan emailed me a listing he had found on signonsandiego: puggles for sale! We have been waiting and planning for a dog for well over a year, and we had decided on the coming weekend to finally get one! The puggles were in El Cajon, and from the pictures they were totally adorable. The price was $575, and that included vaccines and microchipping.

So we drove out there at lunch to meet the puppies. Ryan had warned me ahead of time that I had to "control myself" and not get too attached. All I have to say is... YEAH RIGHT! Even as we drove up the driveway, we could see the adorable puppies.

After meeting with D'Anna the breeder, we went out to see the pups. There were 3 puggles available: a fawn male, a fawn female, and a black female. They were jumping all over the place and totally excited. Once we picked up the fawn male, it was all over. He's such a lovable guy... gave both of us kisses and loves to be held. It wasn't 5 minutes before we told the breeder "We'll take him!"

So tomorrow (Friday), after a long week of waiting, we will finally go pick up the little guy. How could you resist that face?