THE CHOCOLATE DOG BLOG

Bosco had a 2nd day of perfect-ness! man he must get bored being alone that long but I know he loves it when I get home and we go on a long walk. here is this weeks pic of the week, have a great New Year's Eve whatever you may be doing! Bosco and his fav toy "snakey"

He did it, he did it, he went all day without any problems! What a good boy, never doubted him for a second. He spent just over 14 hours on his own, no messes or anything. I dont like doing it but it will only happen once in a while. So no need to poo poo me haha. He was super happy to see me and we had a good walk! can he do it for 2 more days!!

Well today I am enjoying a day off but tomorrow Bosco and I enter into a new area of life. With my new job I have pretty long shifts and tomorrow will be the first day where he will spend along time on his own. Mind you this is nothing new, he has lived the shift work life with me since the day I got him but generally I have had other people check in on him. Katie is in Toronto visiting family so the next 3 days the Boss man will be spending a lot of time on his own and indoors. I know he can do it and that I am over worrying but it is a new thing so we will see how it goes. I am just glad I have a well trained 2 year old and not a puppy. That would be hard for sure. So wish Bosco luck and I will let you know how he does. I will take him for a nice bonus walk tonight to ease my guilt haha.

happy holidays everyone, did you and your doggies have a great time? I am just getting back into things today after a busy few days of festivities! It is cold and snowing today but it was very mild and nice to be outside the last few days. Bosco had a good time and I know he is going to rest today as well. I took some pics of him opening his presents and how he spent the last few days. Feel free to say hi and tell me about your Christmas. I have a lot of new ideas and things to write about in the New Year so please dont worry about the lack of posts the last week or so. I am off to the mall today so enjoy your days this week!

from me and Bosco, wishing you all a happy holidays and there will be updates a plenty after the holidays wind down.

Lazy Bosco

Today is the last day that Bosco gets to have someone around all the time. I am going back to work tomorrow so he has to get back into the mode of spending some quality time on his own (sleep). As of tomorrow Katie will be doing a lot of the Bosco stuff and he better learn to walk the line so they can have a happy partnership. Since moving out here in October Bosco has been on a pretty sweet sched, lots of walks and doing whatever, whenever. God speed Bosco, we will get there! Today I had to get some dog food so I took Bosco with me down the street to House of Dogs, our local pet shop. There was another woman in there buying presents for her lab so she asked if it was ok to try some stuff on Bosco since he was about the same size. I said sure, so she was trying on Christmas collars and hats and all kinds of stuff. Bosco like the good boy he is just sat there soaking up the attention. He ended up getting a free treat for being a good sport. We are home now and Bosco has gone back to parading him new toy. I got him a big chewy bone yesterday and he has this odd system of carrying it around and leaving it in every room. He does this for days, just walking around with it. Then eventually he will start to chew it and he wont stop until it is totally gone. I refer to it as Bosco giving the bone false hope of a long life. silly pup. bosco/katie The new dream team, stay tuned to see how they get along.

with the Raptors record going to 4-20 Bosco has finally grown tired of watching. He wants to be part of the solution so he wants to try out for the team. give me the ball on the block yo!

not for the Canadian election.........Bosco!! he is featured today on the Daily Puppy.

well it must be Friday again, time for the Bosco pic of the week. Tomorrow please go and check out The Daily Puppy. One of Bosco's puppy pics is being featured.

The new dance for this winter. break it down! As you can see we had some fun in the snow today. Bosco goes crazy for the white powder. Sometimes I dont even know if he knows it is cold. Check out the red belly! hope you and your doggie are having fun in a winter wonderland somewhere.

Electronic Petfeeder Electronic petfeeder maintains healthy feeding schedule anytime. Keep any size pet fit, trim and properly nourished when you’re away from home or if your hectic schedule interferes with pet care. Programmable feeder uses a digital timer to automatically dispense just the right amount of food up to eight times per day. Veterinarian-recommended for diabetic pets. Feeder has digital timer with battery backup, eight programs per day and daylight saving feature. Clear storage container lets you see how much food remains, and an airtight cover keeps pet food fresh. UL-listed. you can find this and many other things here

read this on Dognews.com Thought For The Week What not to feed your dog this Christmas, as well as some good Christmas treats to consider, are the thoughts for this week. Positively green vegetables will help boost the dogs immune system. Fruits may not be as good as vegetables, since some are quite acidic (as well as sugary) and can affect a sensitive dog's skin or digestive system. Everyone is tempted to feed the dog scraps from the Christmas dinner, but keep in mind that very fatty food scraps can cause pancreatitis. The occasional scrap is okay, but use common sense, too. Definite no-nos are raisins and grapes. A small handful can cause kidney failure. Chocolate, of course, is a scourge and can cause heart failure. Milk chocolate is not as dangerous but is still not advisable. As for the specially prepared dog chocolates, the theobromine is removed, but if it contains milk and/or sugar, keep it away from your overweight pet. Cows milk, of course, most dogs lose an ability to digest with age. Goats milk is a very viable alternative, particularly for puppies. We realize it is tempting to indulge your pet, particularly at holiday time, but the reality of the situation and the best idea is to feed as usual during this time of the year and don't give in to your own indulgences. In the long run, your dog will be far better off. • I think my dog is enough of a chocolate that he does not need any this holiday season anyways. have a great day

some of the highlights or lowlights of Bosco's Vet history over the first 26 months of his chocolate lifetime.

• irregular heart murmer (went away around 5 months). The first vet I went to wanted to perform a 400 dollar ultra sound on him even though it is a common problem among puppies. Thank god I waited.
• bite mark hole like a bullet in his side from playing too rough. He never even knew it was there. Took some meds and time for it to fill in.
• Broken front toe nail from going down the stairs too fast. He had to have it YANKED right from the root. That had to hurt. It grew back fine.
• Backed up! Did not eat or go to the bathroom (#2) for about a week, again meds and time and he was fine again.

This of course does not include the clip clip of being a boy dog but I figured that was routine.

Having a Lab I expect some crazy injuries and I also know they are super tough and bounce back from most things.

Oh Bosco you silly boy!

I forgot to post a a pic of the week last Friday! I am losing it in my old age. Well here it is, have a great Monday. Bosco showing off his waiting skills. Ok boy! eat the Christmas tree.

it is a slow day today so far. It is raining and mild here in Halifax so that is making everything wet and slushy outside. I think Bosco is just now drying out from our walk a few hours ago. I have nothing interesting to say so I will just post a picture of the wonder dog. have a great Sunday everyone. Bosco last Christmas when we were opening gifts.

Well it kept snowing last night, all night and we have quite the load of white powder outside this morning. I was already out to shovel some and now I am warming up inside. It would be a great day for snowy sports that is for sure. here are some pics of Bosco outside last night playing in the snow. his fav stick was buried. closer! this is fun, I do not want to come in.

Well we are currently having our first major snowfall, you know the kind, where everyone gets super paranoid and everything shuts down. So I took the chance and walked down to Kings with Bosco to pick up Katie. He loves snow and was sticking his tongue out constantly letting the flakes melt. He was certainly a chocolate dog dusted with sprinkles. The fun really started when we got back home and I let him off the leash. He ran to the back yard and started his snow happy dance as I call it. Running madly in circles, kicking snow up everywhere. Then he started dragging this huge stick with him too. Does anyone elses lab or dog for that matter go crazy for snow? he is soaked and tired and will probably lay in front of the heater for the rest of the night. if only I had my camera with me!

So I left off the story at the point of meeting Bosco and his litter for the first time. I was excited for the entire week and everything worked out, I passed whatever test the breeder gave me and I had the cash to get the pup. So the Friday before I was to get him, I had my bike stolen from my place and that was my ride to work and back. Now I had to pay to get a metropass again and that cut into my money for the pup. It was a real bummer because I could not buy another bike because I did not want postpone getting the dog. I figured out some cash flow and managed to squeak by and buy the pup and all that had to be bought and done once he was home. I had the crate, toys, food and newspaper ready for the arrival! Next since I could not bring him home on a go bus I had to find a ride out to Milton. Luckily I had a friend who had a sister who was a student so she was free the day I could pick up the chocolate boy. Turns out my guy was the last one left and my only request was for a male and ideally a calm one. So we drive out to Milton and actually had to go to a stable (the breeder also dealt with horses) so we pulled up and I was very hyper. With camera ready we walked into the stable and there he was tied up next to a big ol horse haha. It was so cute to see and to this day Bosco does love horses. Money was exchanged and the boy was mine!! He was cuddly right from the start and fell asleep on my lap on the way home. It was cute to see him check out his new digs, exploring everywhere, seeing where he was to go to the bathroom outside and his new crate. I wish I could relive that day again, it was so fun and it was very much like a new born child coming home. Here are some pictures of that day and I will get to more of the special moments in Bosco's development in the coming weeks. Have a good friday everyone. my first pic of B & me. car rides are fun! welcome to your new backyard. man I am tired!

where did I leave off? Oh yes I decided that I wanted my own dog and now it was time to go for it. I did not do that much research to be honest and maybe that was naive on my part but I just wanted one fast. I called a breeder in Milton that was posted in the Toronto Star classifieds. I called and set up a meeting to see the litter of chocolates that they just had. I guess the dad was a well accomplished chocolate show dog and the mom was a great and nice black lab. I booked a time to get out to Milton and I was very excited. I started doing more research into cost and what I would need to buy. I had a few friends who have had dogs for years give me some tips. The day came to head out to Milton and I do not have a car so I had to take transit. This meant a go bus! I was going somewhere I had never been and so I left incredibly early. So I am on my way excited to meet the little chocolate guy and I get to the station in Milton and guess what. I forgot all the notes I had with the address and phone number of where I was going. I was in a panic for sure, the Go station was empty and closed for renovations and all I had was a pay phone. I tried to remember a name or anything that would help but I did not know Milton at all. My dream of a chocolate was fading. I called a cab and fate stepped in, I got this nice little old man as my cab driver and I explained the situation to him and he wanted to help. He gave me street names and a map to try and jog my memory. Funny enough a name did seem familiar to me so I said lets go there. Sure enough we pull up and there is a large dog cage in the back of a pick up truck! It was the place!! I made it and knocked and they were expecting me. As soon as I got in the backyard, there they were! 9 little chocolates running around, all with different coloured pipe cleaners on their necks to separate them. They were very friendly and were pulling on my shoe laces. 7 had been spoken for so I said I would take one, I paid my deposit and filled out some stuff and it was done!! I did not know what one I would get yet because it was based on who was left after the first 7 were gone. I was pretty happy and certainly excited to get my own dog. I still had to wait a week before they were ready to leave mom. here is a pic of the litter. Tomorrow I will tell the next chapter in the story. The coming home party!

A friend of mine was checking out the site and suggested that I give a little more history of Bosco, when I got him, how old he is etc. So like a really good TV drama, I will now do one of those flashbacks so you can understand the Bosco character better. (imagine some kind of white flash or sound effect) It was the summer of 2003 and I was in a rut, not happy with how things were going, not being able to meet a girl for something lasting, friends all had there own thing going and I just did not know what to do to get to a happy place again. I decided to maybe it was time to get a dog, I had been thinking about it for some time but I never went through with it because of where I was living or who I was living with. Now I was in this apartment that was dog friendly and I lived right across the street from the biggest dog park in Toronto. My roomate at the time was all for it so I decided to look. At first I wanted a jack russel terrier but as I researched it, they were certainly not what I wanted. I wanted a dog that was easy going and calm and could fit into my life schedule. That is when I decided upon a Lab or as I called them at the time, The dog anyone could train. So then I started noticing dogs more around the area and I fell in love with the Chocolate. A beautiful colour and it was new and cool. So many yellows and black labs around I wanted to go with the trendy and new colour. I mulled it over and decided to go for it. Now this is where the story gets good and I had to really work to get my little Bosco. I will continue this story next time. please come back, it is a good one. all set up, just need the dog now.

Hi everyone how are you today? In a previous post I told you about Bosco and his love for playing goalie in either soccer or hockey. Well I have added some proof to the site. On the right hand side under multimedia there is now a video clip of Bosco and I playing hockey. It is small I know but if you watch close you can see me shooting a ball at him with a hockey stick. again thanks for all the comments and traffic, things are really picking up at the Chocolate Dog Blog. I am going to have to hire an intern soon haha.

Bosco's Christmas list.

more snow

lots of food

a new plush toy

to see Sydney

lots of walks

sleeps by the fire.

Tony!

an ipod?? really?

a brother or sister

more tennis balls

and most of all, for everyone to have a great holiday season with your doggie!

these pics are from the last few years. My chocolate loves the snow. A snowy day in High Park, Toronto. I miss those walks No he is not buried, it is just the camera angle Bosco's first snow! Wow 2 years ago, time flies. Feel free to send me some of your best dog and snow shots cusdenm@hotmail.com

I just got up, it is Monday morning and we have snow!! Finally it took until December 5th but we have some white powder. Bosco was checking it out this morning. He prefers more snow to run around and get crazy but this is a start. Thank you for the growing support of the Chocolate Dog Blog as well!

Some how Bosco knows it is Sunday and he sleeps in. That is great because it means I get to sleep in! How do dogs know it is a day different than any other day? I do not know the answer but I sure do like it. Enjoy some chocolate today, I will

here is Bosco riding in a stretch limo, how about some cry-stal B?!

Hello all it is December 1 and it means you can officially start getting out the Christmas decorations without getting that look from people! Blogs also need some decorating so I put up some lights and Bosco put on his antlers. It is hard to get in the mood though with the crazy weather we are having here in Halifax. It is 10 Celcius again and very mild. No sign of snow or ice that is for sure. Bosco and I were in the back yard yesterday raking leaves and chewing on sticks (guess who was doing what). The hits are starting to improve and I am getting some good stats back from sites I have joined to log that kind of thing. So I am very happy that Bosco is getting out to the world. CHOCOLATE POWER! In other news Bosco is going to be featured on The Daily Puppy on December 17th so I hope you all go and vote for him. I will remind you again as the date approaches. He is very excited so I hope it goes well. Bosco is sleeping after his morning run, so I am going to sign off so I do not wake him up. have a good day to all you chocolate lovers.