On the road with Squinty…

Sometimes Marty and I have to divide and conquer when it comes to the spätzle business, which by the way, was launched six years ago yesterday.

He went to the farmers market, and I made deliveries in Saratoga, NY, with Nelly. It was a good decision since it was cold and windy.

After I loaded up the deliveries, we hit the road. Nelly was happy as a clam in her little bed on the heated seat. 

She is safe in the truck since she is harnessed in and can’t distract me or jump around the car while I am driving. 

After our first stop at Healthy Living, I got her out of the warm truck to pee. When I opened the door, she was squinting at me. Squinting = she doesn’t like something. 😂

She wouldn’t pee since she is stubborn, so we went to the store five below to look at their cute doggie clothes, which cost $5 or less.

When I was looking at little fleece jackets in her size, I heard her snorting. I turned around, and she had a pair of shoes held together with elastic around her neck. 

I started cracking up, and so did the customers who saw her. It was hilarious, and so was her reaction. I found her size and some puppy wipes and left. 

When I harnessed her back into her seat,  I put the jacket over her with the wipes, and she squinted at me again. Lol. 

After we made our next delivery at the store Four Seasons, I got her out of the truck again since I wanted to walk across the street to the Saratoga farmers market. She squinted at me. 😆

I was a vendor at the Saratoga market for four years and wanted to say hello to some of my vendor friends. Nelly loved the market.

As I recall, there are many dogs at the market and lots of Frenchies. She got to meet one of my favorite Frenchies named Louie. 

Louie used to run to my table and sit for a piece of spätzle every week. He knew exactly where my tent was and would drag his owner down the sidewalk.  

We started heading home, and Nelly fell asleep before I pulled out of our parking space. She snored the whole way home. 

When we got home, I took her out of her harness and put her down on the driveway. She squinted at me. 

When we got inside, I tried on her new jacket; she squinted at me again. By now, I laughed out loud and kissed her on her little head. She is really something.

It turns out she did like the jacket because when I asked her to pose, she did, and I squinted her and snapped her photo. 

It was an enjoyable and different delivery day with my little Nelly girl. She was happy to see Klaus when we were home. 

The shenanigans began right away since they both woke up from a nap. She was raring to go and ran around like hell on wheels. 

Since I wrote about her peeing in the house, the weather got warmer, and she could go in and out whenever needed.

She hasn’t had one accident, even when they are playing hard. I watched her run out the door, run down the stairs, run skidding to the one step down to the grass, and run like crazy until she found a spot to pee, then ran back inside.

I’m glad she finally got the hang of it; we just have to ensure the sliding door is open when they play inside.

Life with little Miss Squinty is never boring; she makes everyone smile when they see her. She really is the best and Klaus is one hell of a good sport.💕

Wheee!

With each week, Nelly sees, learns, and does more things, and Klaus, Marty, and I fall deeper in love with her.

This week, Nelly’s cute sweater my friend Ann knit her was too small. Since the weather has been dreadfully cold and wet, I bought her a three-pack of pink fleece sweatshirts and a cute t-shirt.

“Mommy, take this off me, it’s too small.”

We have been doing our homework from puppy class with Klaus and it is going brilliantly. We are practicing sit, lay down, and come; I throw in shake with Klausie boy.

One of Nelly’s and my favorite times is her daily grooming or spa time. Frenchie’s love to be pampered and clean and Nelly is no exception.

When she sees me get out her grooming basket, she lays on her back and waits. She snorts the entire time which is her way of talking to us. It’s adorable.

Nelly’s big outing of the week was a trip to Home Depot and riding in the cart. If she is going to come with us everywhere, this is a training exercise as well.

She was so excited riding in the shopping cart. While we were walking around I worked with her to sit down in the cart.

She listened well but sometimes saw something new and would get up on her hind legs. I would gently pull her back with her lease and say sit. Over and over, but that’s how she learns.

Jon Katz often writes about how owners don’t follow through with obedience training and wonder why their pets don’t listen. I am training Nelly all day, every day.

I have so much more patience and time to train Nelly than I did with Otto & Klaus. I find that the things that I have learned as a belly dance teacher apply to dog training.

I say, “Nelly, pose.” and she does. 😂

Watching how much fun Nelly and Klaus have while playing together is heartwarming. I was able to spring-clean our refrigerator, freezer, and pantries without interruption. This was indeed a major accomplishment.

As long as I can hear them, things are good, it’s when they get quiet, I check on them. When this happened yesterday, I found them sleeping in front of the fireplace.

When I saw them like this, it was a total awww moment that would make me grin ear to ear. She is truly a little sweetheart. 💕

Doggie treat recipe…

We started puppy classes at our vets last night. Marty and I need to be on the same page regarding adequately training Nelly. Frenchies are stubborn like bulldogs; you’d think they were German. I am married to one for over thirty years. LOL.

The class has ten puppies, most of which are large dog varieties. Nelly may be the smallest puppy in the group, but she was the ring leader. She wasn’t shy and wanted to play with her new friends during the getting-to-know-you time.

The instructor, Jen, told us to bring soft, easy-to-eat treats as they would be using them as a high-value reward. We bought Nelly a package of tiny treats, but she couldn’t eat them fast. That’s when I came up with the idea of making soft little treats for her and hard ones for Klaus.

We are taking everything we know from raising a bulldog along with friends with Frenchies advice and putting them on a seafood-only diet. A seafood diet for these types of dogs is necessary for their skin and allergies.

Klaus has been on a grain-free diet due to his allergies most of his life. Just a little bit can flare up infections in his ears, wrinkles, or feet. I hate being “that guy” that has to say when someone offers him a dog biscuit, “Oh, no, thank you, my dog is on a grain-free diet.” I don’t say gluten-free, like us.

I started reading blogs about homemade doggie treats recipes, seeing millions of ads popping up as I tried to navigate through the blog post to get to the recipe. I never hit the jump to the recipe button; as a fellow writer, I try to give the blogger a chance.

When I finally got to the recipes, they were not just long but included so many useless steps and fussing around. That is why the recipes I write are simple, easy to follow, and no bullshit.

Here is my recipe for soft and hard doggie treats without further ado.

Doggie Treats

Ingredients

1 3/4 Gram, besan or chickpea flour
1/2 cup Natural peanut butter without any sugar, artificial sweeteners, or salt
1/2 cup Canned pumpkin purée NOT pumpkin pie filling

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, peanut butter, & pumpkin. Mix with your hands until the dough is no longer sticky. Add more flour a little at a time if necessary.

With clean hands, turn the dough onto a floured worktop and knead until smooth. Use more flour if the dough is still sticky while kneading.

Wrap the dough with film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Dust your worktop with flour and roll the dough to 1/4-1/2 inch. Cut out shapes, a bench scraper, or a pizza wheel into squares or rectangles. You can reroll your scraps if using cookie cutters.

Lightly spray a sheet pan with pan spray. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on the sheet pan.

For soft treats, bake for 5 minutes to see if they look baked but soft. Take out of the oven and let cool on the sheet pan.

For hard dog treats, bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on the thickness of your treats. Turn off the oven, leave the treats in the oven with the door closed continue to harden for another 20-30 minutes. This makes them hard without burning the bottom.

Doggie treats can be stored at room temperature. Use an air-tight jar or container for soft treats and one that isn’t air-tight for hard treats.