Housewife Life: Top Five Dog Essentials

I've been a dog mom for about three months now and I have tried a lot of products! Here are my (and Ellie's) top 5 favorite products.

1. A spiral feeding bowl
When we feed her out of her regular food bowl, she eats in less than 30 seconds. Then, she throws up or burps. So we got here this bowl and it takes her almost four minutes to eat her food!

2. Kong Jumbler Ball
This is her favorite toy by far! My mother-in-law got it for Ellie for Christmas and she is wild for this toy!

3. 30 foot leash
Our trainer recommended this and it has changed our walks! She get so much more out of the walks and it is so much easier to walk her with this leash.

4. Cozy Blanket
This blanket is great for her crate and we also use it to mark her spot on our bed. She loves her blanket!

5. Crate from Amazon Basics
This crate is awesome. It folds down in like 30 seconds and then pops back up in like 15 seconds and they take no space in the car if you need to travel with it.

And those are our favorite products!

What are your favorite products?

Housewife Life: Dog Training

Wow! I can't believe how much time and energy it takes to train your dog.

I am totally committed to training her because we will be together for more than ten years and I have seen, first hand, what an untrained dog can do to your life.

Here is what my day looks like with Miss Ellie:

6:00 AM-Outside and Breakfast
9:00 AM-Outside
Noon-Outside and Lunch
4:00-Outside
6:00-Dinner
8:00-Outside

Training Tasks through the day: Kennel training (Almost done), Hand feed one of the meals (30 minutes), 30 minute walk, 10 minute game of fetch, 10 minute game of tug, 10 minute training on new trick...right now it is lay down.

Even with all of that, I feel like I have been really productive, like she is giving me energy and motivation...mostly because I just want to get back to cuddling her.

Ellie is just one big, furry, cuddle monster who lacks manners (we are working on that and it is already better 2 days post training session!)

She likes to be held like a baby...

Just one of our morning cuddle sessions...she is not a morning dog.

Our first solo walk in the park after doing our civic duty!

She loves face kisses...I do not.

Have you trained a dog? Did you use a trainer? Share below!

Housewife Life: Squirrel!

I am all over the place right now and struggling to get it together.

Thanksgiving, Dog Training, Christmas, Work, Housework, Mother-in-Law, Cuddling with the Dog, Husband Travelling, Travel in General, Bathroom Remodels, Blogging, Nanowrimo, Planathon, the Last 90 Days challenge, Healthy Eating...all of these things are swirling in my brain all of the time.

And I know that all I need to do is sit down with my trusty notebook and make lists to get my brain together, but man, every time I start to do that...squirrel!

In fact, since I started writing this I have taken the dog out, talked on the phone, unloaded the dishwasher, made the dogs dinner, had a snack and had a fight with the dog...don't ask.

I don't really have any advice to offer today. So, who is "squirreling" a lot right now? Anyone want to commiserate? Share in the comments!