You’re lucky to be meeting Pippin on the other side of a screen. Otherwise, you’d be getting a full on 40lbs of jumping white fluff with a bark to make a headache turn into a migraine! You would also be covered in white fur by the time you left our house!

Pippin is an American Eskimo Dog and Shiba In mix. Someone dubbed them, Eski Inu dogs. In our house we have a few different names for him, but I promise, it’s not Eski Inu. The Great White Dog, Hell Hound, Terrible Tiny Man all seem to make an appearance daily. But his main nickname is Tiny Man. This would have suited him if he had been the size the vets had predicted but alas he’s a 40lb “Tiny Man”.

While we have dealt with abnormal ups and downs of puppyhood, we made it to Pip’s first birthday on February 5th, 2016. He celebrated with his now seven year old sister dog, Layla (who we lovingly refer to as Ludog) and a great doggie birthday cake from Woofgang Bakery. Oh yeah, and doggie beer! The doggy beer was a big hit, of course alcohol free, and was the perfect way to enter into his first year!

Let’s go through our life with Pippin. He was the cutest puppy and there’s pictures to prove it!  (Want more pictures? Check us out on our Instagram!)

We were out on a patio with our wonderful angel of a dog, Lu dog. We were enjoying our normal lives with a few drinks, sunshine and a perfectly behaved dog. See, here we are, don’t we look happy and normal?

We had been searching and searching for the “perfect puppy”. (I promise you, that doesn’t exist) But we saw this white little fluff ball with his ears on the wrong sides of his head and we were sold! This little ugly duckling would be our new little squeeze! We brought our soon to be “Pippin Dog” home forever! Lu dog was a little confused by his crazy puppy antics, and his snuggling.

Okay, okay. Let’s just get through the cuteness now! Here’s a slew of pictures of Pippin in the puppy stages!

Okay, so the first week of puppyhood and #Pippinlife looks super cute in these pictures. Here is what you don’t see…

Night 1: Pippin DID NOT like crates. (Still doesn’t! Check out our
“Crate Training the Anti-Crate Dog” post)This wasn’t the normally puppy tears but true cries of fears. We started to think to ourselves, what sort of hell is this?

Day 1: Overall, a good day. Filled with snuggles and me trying to nap.  Considering no sleep and all… We thought of names for the pup and took the day to work from home and just love on him.

Night 2: Oh dear god. Really? This isn’t done yet!? Okay, we gave up here. The poor thing was truly distressed. (We have had many many fosters and puppies and I had never heard or seen anything like this). This is the night we created the burrito. We took hand towels and wrapped him up so he could sleep in the bed but he was SO small!

Day 2: We noticed something wasn’t quite right with his gums and his patterns. Scheduled vet appointment for Day 4. We named the white ball of fluff Pippin. This is when it truly started and days turned to weeks and weeks to months.

It feels like everything else is just a blur of puppy breath, cleaning accidents and lots and lots of Swiffer pads. Did I mention Swiffer pads? Every single day was an adventure with Pippin and there were so many people that wanted to be a part of this cute pups life!

Well, at 9 weeks old we had our first excursions through puppyhood and now my first advice for new owners. I had never, ever been fond of Nylabone products. They made me nervous. I mean come on, flavored plastic? YIKES! So low and behold our first (of a few) “HOLY SHIT” vet visits. So long story short;

We, the dog parents, bought the Nylabone teething toys. The toy got chewed into tiny pieces (because flavored plastic!) and swallowed. This was Pippin’s first emergency vet visit.  So now starts the puking party and monitoring for impactions.  Happy 9 weeks Pippin.

We got some meds, we puked a lot and us pet parents had to check poops! But eventually we became a happy puppy again!

By three months old, he was a full fledged healthy and pretty rapid growing pup! The vet said he wouldn’t top out over 15lbs! So ya know, we were starting to wonder what was going on with our hulk puppy.

By this point we had made all our regular vet visits. I have to say, I was hesitant but we did the Banfield Puppy Wellness Plan for Pippin’s first year. Of course, I would say health insurance for our pets has more refundable alternatives but overall we liked this. All his shots and boosters were covered as well as his neuter. When he went in he never dropped his canines and it was only about $200 to get them removed while he was already sleeping after his surgery. The plus side, it was in our local Apex, NC Petsmart so of course, everyone got treats after the vet!

Alright, moving quicker now to catch everyone up to speed so we can actually begin our #Pippintails!

At 7 months old we did a photo shoot at an adoption event for Hope Animal Rescue! We met and played with so many dogs all weekend! A wonderful puppy photographer even snapped these photos of my “No, I am sorry they aren’t for adoption” dogs. If you’re looking to work with a great rescue we of course recommend them! #PippinApproved #LuDogVerified

Okay, actually Pippin is not in love with traveling. At least by car. We had to buy a puppy hammock and get Banfield to give us perscription anti-nasuea medication to make it up the mountain to Boone, NC. We rented our favorite house at White Fence Farm in Boone, NC and the dogs enjoyed a wonderful weekend! Oh, and the pet parents got to go to High Country Beer Fest! Lu Dog was raised in Boone, NC when I was in college and it is THE most dog friendly place to go!

Whew. So much happened! We got back from vacation and it was Pippin’s first move. Lu Dog is a seasoned mover and finds herself a quiet corner to sleep in. Pippin on the other hand was jumping into boxes, eating cardboard boxes and making a whole mess of the ordeal! He was NOT a good mover! But we moved and settled in!

Pippin was breaching 9 months old on Halloween 2015! We did a little play time with Lu Dog and Pippin while they rested and got ready for our Halloween Party! We did the Star Wars thing for most of the night, but then, Pippin decided to show his TRUE colors.

Right about now I am wishing for some of those Halloween sweet treats to keep me going! Recapping a whole year of puppy life is something else! But, nothing like what it actually took to raise this devil pup! Every year we celebrate with Blue Buffalo Boo Stew and we recommend you do too! You can find a post about some of their Halloween products (as well as a few others) here on Odd Things I’ve Seen. I am already getting ready for our 2016 holidays so stay tuned for all the goods!

At  almost 10 months old, Pippin had his first Thanksgiving! He tasted turkey and even got his own yummy Thanksgiving Feast in a can! We used Merrick’s Thanksgiving Day Dinner and they LOVED it! We got ours at Petco and recommended you pick up some cans!  A great way to involve your pup without giving them too many table scraps!  Merrick is great about having seasonal grub for our pets and it makes it fun as pet parents to be able to switch it up!

So, before we get to Christmas, let’s tackle winter in the south. It’s not wintery white wonderland around here. It’s a wet and apparently muddy season for us here in North Carolina. Here is how Pippin enjoyed some “winter” fun. You can see here that his Christmas bandana is now brown. There was no hope for it after. All that work that Pooch Pad Grooming did he just went and got muddy!

So we are rolling into Christmas! (But hopefully not rolling in the mud!) In our house, the dogs are just as spoiled as the dogs. Of course, Lu Dog, a six year veteran of Christmas time knows what to expect. Pippin on the other had tried to eat ALL the presents under the tree. We even had to apologize to family and friends about our wrapping this year. Let’s just say, Pippin like to help wrap presents. (He’s even a little muddy in this picture!)

We then enjoyed a normal Christmas morning with the fire place roaring, Christmas movies going and of course some pup shots! It was a wonderful Christmas morning!

So one of our Christmas Gifts was this wonderfully hilarious book called, “How to Live with a Neurotic Dog” by Stephen Baker, from one of my best friends! A few days after Christmas, you can see how Pippin felt about it…

This is how we entered our New Year 2016! Ripped, torn and overall exhausted from raising  Pippin puppy. Luckily we are one month away from his 1st Birthday on Feb 5th! But before he actually turns one, we have been working on something behind the scenes!  Pippin graduated basic training! WOO HOO! Best Paw Forward, in the Raleigh NC, area did a great job of teaching Pippin (and of course us) how to work as a team. January 16th we had a graduation celebration and everything. You can see below how Pippin choose to celebrate his achievement! We owe a big thanks to our friends at High Craft Beer Shop in Cary, NC for letting Pippin buy his first beer! (Of course, the puppy parents drank the beer!)

As you can see, Pippin was really getting ready for his first birthday! But, we got lucky! Even though it was more ice than snow, Pippin got to play in his first snow! He was a little confused where his yard went (and were to go tinkle!) but he loved eating it all!

Alright alright! I will finally share Pippin’s birthday! If you’ve made it this far then you must really be getting to know our little Pippin! We got our dog beer and cake from Woofgang Bakery in Cary, NC.  (We also did this for Lu’s birthday as you will see below)

We all enjoyed Pippin’s first birthday! We are so happy he has finally hit the halfway pint through puppyhood! Now that we have covered Pippin’s first year we hope that you will join us on this adventure of PIPPIN TAILS! We will cover training, lessons learned, treats, toys, food and more! Want to know something or get advice? Leave a comment and it might make it as a post.

Don’t forget to check out our Instagram for more cute pictures!