September is a big month for me. I just turned 2 years old and am officially a young adult dog. Admittedly, the whole dog adulting phase is exciting but also challenging.
When a dog hits two years old, all the training and fuss humans make in our early years makes sense. With age comes perspective and dog gone wisdom.
Now I get the value of having basic doggy manners makes sense, beyond the desire to get more treats. Also, you get to do more cool things because you are officially a young adult dog. For example, I’m old enough to try out scent training classes. Of course, I will be reporting back on how that goes.
Things that change when you hit two years old are small things. Your humans may need to fine tune your doggy diet to ensure you're healthy. For instance, to protect my joints, coat and skin health and overall health, my humans have added Krill Oil to my diet.
Straight from the Snout™, doggy adulting is turning out pretty good.
Oh, and it seems my humans got all my hints and threw me a dog party. To celebrate turning two years old, I got together with about eight of my dog friends for off leash fun and tested my humans’ dog party planning skills.
Here’s how my 2nd birthday went: from my birthday gift search course for #CanineEnrichment to my party between 5 and 8 of my dog friends.
My special day started with humans inexplicatedly singing a song called, "Happy Birthday" and testing my ability to not eat my dog safe homemade pumpkin carrot pupcake.
Some great TollerTails.com subscribers via Facebook gave my huMommy a suggestion for homemade birthday pupcake.
She made the Pumpkin Carrot Pupcake from MyModernCookery.com but opted not to do the frosting. Instead, she put 1 Tablespoon natural unsweeted whipping cream with tiny bits of bacon for sprinkles.
Toller Tip: Make mini muffin party favours for your doggy guests.
My humans learned a lot from Helen Moore, co-owner of Wholesome Canine, Canine Training and Behaviour expert when I visited the Scent Den (you can read my review by clicking here).
Based on what they learned from my interview with Helen Moore on the benefits of a Scent Den and canine enrichment (you can read my interview with Helen Moore by clicking here),
my humans created a low cost #canineenrichment present hunt for me.
The goal of making a dog present hunt was to stimulate my doggy brain and senses. It sure did work!
Instead of conventional wrapping paper or just giving me birthday gifts, my humans included them in my scent hunt by placing them under things. (See photo below)
My present is hidden in the box under some wrapping along with a tasty morsel to help me locate my birthday present.
Doggy Party Time!
When your brthday falls in the middle of the week, sometimes you got to change the date of your party so your dog friends can attend. At least that's what my humans said.
Since there's construction everywhere and no dog parks nearby,my humans found an indoor doggy play place for me an my pals at Dogtopia. Also, this really worked out given that it started raining and I really hate rain.
It was a big day. And I had lots of fun.
My humans have spent the last 2 years teaching me good doggy manners. So, it's only fair that I reminded them that it's only good human manners to thank doggy guests.
Trust me, I approved of all the yummy snacks first and we made a doggy treat bag.
My Straight from the Snout™ view is that turning two is pawsome. Esepcially, when you can spend it with great doggy friends!