Look at that mug?  Isn’t he just adorable!?!  Seriously how can you not love that?  I have a Riggins themed story to share with you.

Owning a big dog. Riggins is a “big dog” although he technically is medium-sized his personality, color, appetite, teeth size and constant need for attention make him a BIG DOG!

Riggins big dog status is never more true than when I’m shopping for my baby at Petco or a similar pet supply company.  I grab a cart … always.  I’ve made the mistake of not grabbing a cart and find myself trying to juggle in arms and on hips, oversized bags of bones, food and dog toys.   Does not work!  Then I pass all the frilly costumes and cutie stuffed toys.  Both those items will last exactly 15 seconds near Riggins.  I stopped buying him stuffed doll style toys years ago.  All that happens is my house is that, within seconds, it turns into a stuffed toy CSI crime scene.   Gruesome!

I make my way to the food section to grab a bag of grub.  Now as his appetite far exceeds his size I buy “healthy weight” food.  My theory is that he can then eat more, which will make him happy.  He isn’t overweight and is extremely active so there is a good chance that my little theory isn’t actually the best thing for him but I’m sticking with it.  Then, like a crazy person, I look for the “large breed” bags and if I can’t find them (which happens a lot) I start going to the other brands/bags feeling them to try to figure out the size of the food nugget.  Once I bought a GIANT bag of teeny tiny little food nuggets and it DID NOT go over well.  I can’t blame Riggins for being grouchy about it.  He could floss his teeth with those tiny things and I think he was unsatisfied and his inability to easily crunch them up and instead could just suck them down whole.

Once that little issue is solved I head to the rawhide section.  Again skipping over any puny little stick or bite size piece.  What’s the point?  That isn’t going to last more than seconds.  I rummage through the bone pieces for a hoof or two.  Hoofs tend not to shred and come off in small pieces until the very end when you can grab them from Riggins to keep him from choking.  The bones easily splinter under Riggins super jar strength and bone slivers are bad news.  As an extra bonus hoofs really gross people out which make me giggle.  I try to tell them that it is good for the animal that we are using every single part of him/her but it doesn’t really help out the “ewww factor”

No hoofs?  Then off to find the biggest bag of rawhide strips one can find.  These work well as they take about 5 minutes (vs. seconds) for Riggins to consume and he is pretty good about not choking on them … pretty good … but still needs to be watched.   They will satisfy his need for a “treat” which keeps him from giving me that look (see picture above) while I’m trying to enjoy an episode of NCIS with a nice glass of wine.  Nothing takes the buzz out of a relaxation time-out then having a dog sit in front of you lookin’ all sad and whiney!

Then, if I take Riggins with me, I have to make a wide arc around the open buckets of treats Petco (and other such places) put in a common area.  It’s like the buy by the pound candy/nut section in your grocery store.  Only Riggins doesn’t speak English and doesn’t understand the need to purchase prior to consuming.  I have, more than once, had to physically push/pull him back with all my weight as his head is in one of those buckets chomping along in perfect bliss.  All he sees is a giant OPEN BUFFET — ALL YOU CAN EAT sign and he is going for it!

He is a BIG DOG.  All teeth, lots of love and the cutest most adorable baby anyone can have!

Riggins is entered into a contest to be a member of the Barks of Love calendar. You should go vote for him!

VOTE HERE (CLICK).

When I told my mom about the contest I explained that not only would Riggins be in a calendar for a good cause that I would get free professional pictures of Riggins and that would be awesome. She agreed, then after a beat said, “you realize how funny that is right?”. YUP! I DO! AND I DON’T CARE! I HEART RIGGINS.

Click HERE for more info on Barks of Love organization.
Click HERE for more information on Lori Fusaro (super photographer). (Took picture of Riggins above).

Based on my past posts you should now know that sleep is precious to me and I take it very seriously. That is one of the reasons why I have a “no pets sleep with humans” policy (my mom is laughing out loud reading this). Riggins was pretty cool with this rule at one time and would even deny me his cuddling those early mornings I tried to make him come up into bed with me. The only time he really spent the night in the human bed with me is when he was sick or I was sick. Such a sweetie.

Then his b-day came and I made the grand decision that his giant ball mush bed was bad for his back (he is after all 5 now) and a flatter more orthopedic friendly bed would be the perfect gift. When the bed showed up I was happy with how comfy it looked but concerned with the lack of headrest (Riggins likes his pillow). I’ve tried many pillow options but to this day haven’t found an acceptable solution. The dramatic b-day bed change seems to have thrown Riggins for a loop and he decided my bed was where he wanted to be.

Recently I started the smack down again to get him back to his own bed and off of mine. As of now here is how this “smack down” is “working”:

* Usually when I go to bed I spend some time reading my book. It is during this 1/2 hr – hr that Riggins slowly stalks around and around the bed looking for his open chance to jump in. When he gets to the point right before a jump I command, “go to bed”. His response is to sulk off and try again in a bit.
* Riggins gives up his efforts about the same time I’m ready to turn off the reading light and get some shut eye. He knows now is not the time to make his move and instead pretends he is in a deep slumber.
* From his bed Riggins monitors my REM sleep. Waiting for the moment when I will be off my guard.
* Super early morning I’m in a deep slumber and he makes his move. He slowly gets up and tip toes to the bed. In one effortless jump he lands on top and freezes. Giving the bed time to settle with his weight and to verify that I haven’t been disturbed by his super sneaky actions. He then slowly lowers himself down. Not his favorite position but it will do for now. He has made it to the bed undetected.
* Later I find myself awake. Most likely to use the restroom but sometimes it just occurs to me I’m no longer alone on my little bed island. At this point I’m too tired to give a flying flip and although I may mutter a couple of half hearted, “go to beds” he knows it doesn’t have the weight required behind it and gives me a look dripping in sarcasm that says, “sure … I’ll get right on that.”
* As I drift back to sleep again he knows he has me. I can’t fight him. I’m too groggy and sleepy and out of it. He takes advantage to make himself comfortable. He would prefer if all the humans and animals he loved slept on that bed together in one giant pack pile. Since he can’t have that he is going to make sure his tiny pack of Wendy/Riggins is as close as it can be. This means he has to find a way to be touching me. You would think that he would put his head on my ankles or something as non-obstructive. You’d be wrong.
* Riggins does his circle, circle flop (that circle thing dogs do before they lay down in a comfy position except instead of carefully laying down Riggins has a very dramatic flop he inserts at the end). The flop is designed to land 1/2 his body on top of mine so that it can slowly slip down my side and he can do it again, and again, and again. This position also demands a pillow be under his head. He is, after all, wanting to be comfy.
* Minutes before my alarm goes off Riggins carefully inches himself away from me to curl up in a ball at a safe distance hoping that I didn’t notice the shenanigans that happened all night so he can do it again tomorrow.

He knows how to sneak into those cracks and hit you when you are most venerable. He would give 007 a run for his money!