Pug Voices

My two pugs are very vocal but in different ways. Sunny's a loud yawner (the sound she makes is out of control and always makes me laugh!) and likes to howl when excited. Rosy is a growler and barker (too many dogs in tv commercials!). Both are noisy snorers (Rosy is super loud!) and frequent tooters. All of their sounds make me smile or laugh, unless it's super late or early and I'm trying to sleep!

What are some of your favorite and least favorite sounds your dog makes?

Weekend Is Almost Here!

Yeah, it's Friday! This is pretty much what happens every Friday when I come home. 

So glad the weekend is almost here! Not because I have exciting and awesome social plans, but because I've been fighting off a case of bronchitis for a while now and have been so tired and can use a couple days of rest. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Pug Freaky Friday

This is me at the office in pug form. Or maybe think of this as a pug version of Freaky Friday, and I'm at home napping all day long as Sunny sadly sits through long and tedious conference calls and reads the most eye-numbingly boring documents.

Pug Chat

In honor of Pug Chat today, here's a drawing of some pugs chatting the way that they do. 

I don't usually do black pugs with my ink-only drawings because it's too hard to do right, but since we have so many different kind of pugs at Pug Chat I wanted to include them here. What do you think? Below is the drawing with just fawn pugs. 

If you want to join Pug Chat just follow HamiltonPug on Twitter and use the hashtag #pugchat! He hosts an hour long chat every Wednesday at 7pm Eastern and there's always prizes being given out at the end! Hopefully we'll see you then! 

Lazy Pug Loaf "Stealth" Roll

I call this the lazy pug loaf "stealth" roll. It always makes my laugh when my pugs act like they're being subtle or stealthy because they never are! Most of the time they'll get up to move, but sometimes they're just too tired (or trying to be too sneaky) and they'll slowly scoot over to the target. Silly creatures!

Sleepy Monday Mornings

How is it already Monday?? I didn't get enough sleep this weekend and I'm still battling the last bits of the flu I got last week so it was very hard to get up this morning! Especially since it's cold again and the girls were being all snuggly in my freshly laundered bed. At one point in the morning Sunny was snoring by my side and Rosy stood by my head pawing at me until I lifted up the comforter so she could snuggle in. It was the perfect morning, except for that whole getting up and going to work thing.

Furry Barnacles

I know I've said this before, but pugs really have no concept of personal space. And I love it! Pugs were bred as lap dogs but my two don't just stop there. They are all up in my face, sitting on my shoulders, resting on my feet, bumping their faces against my legs, tripping me everywhere I go. Rosy especially will follow me everywhere from room to room, and sometimes even when I just go across the same room.

If you like dogs that give you space and aren't needy, then a pug is not for you. But if you love the idea of having a little furry barnacle with you at all times, then a pug may very well be for you!

Happy Love Your Pet Day!

I just found out that today, February 20th,is Love Your Pet Day! So everyone give your pet an extra hug and kiss because there's nothing better than the unconditional love of your pet!

Boop

No one can resist booping Sunny's tongue! Not even Rosy.

Race to the boop! Photo finish! I think Rosy won.

Twisted

Sometimes when the girls are play fighting it looks like they're playing an extreme and fast-paced game of Twister.

Happy Valentine's Day

To be perfectly honest, I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day. But at least it provides a reason to draw some lovey dovey pugs!  Hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day!

(P.S. I'll be adding this to my store as well soon.)

How Much Do You Love Me?

Here's another Valentine's Day themed drawing I did that I never uploaded into my store. I was supposed to add text and I was going to do a few of these "I love you more than..." in rows. Instead I forgot about this one so I added some text using one of my phone's apps. I'll do a proper version of this for my store soon. 

Smooching Pugs

I did a bunch of drawings for Valentine's Day cards and then never got around to putting them up in my store. I'll do that eventually for next year but here's one of the drawings I did of two pugs kissing. 

Cue The Poop and Pee Strikes!

Oh boy, we're expecting a good amount of snow in the next couple days. Sunny's and Rosy's paws are already quivering at the thought of having to wear their booties. And Sunny's bowels are already preparing for a good ol poop strike. Her bladder is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the moment to join in with a pee strike. Luckily Rosy understands that the faster she goes, the faster we can go back inside. Sunny's the wild card though and the lowest common denominator. We can't go back inside until she goes or until I get fed up  and finally bring them all inside.

Blackfish Fawnpug

During the holidays my sister and I watched the documentary Blackfish about orcas in captivity. It was an extremely interesting, well done, and tragically sad documentary. I admit that I did go to Sea World as a kid a few times, but I would never be able to go as an adult now that I fully understand what it means to keep orcas in captivity for human entertainment. While I understand that there are some educational benefits, I think the main problem with orcas is that they are just such large and social creatures, it's hard to provide a suitable environment in captivity.

Afterwards, as my sister and I sat dazed in a post-documentary and -wine-and-chips-binge (yeah, we're classy like that), she asked whether we're kinda doing the same thing with dogs. I looked over at my snoring pugs, happily draped over our laps, and answered that while that may have been the case early on in the domestication of dogs, I seriously don't think our dogs could survive or be happy in the wild now. Pugs especially have been bred to be companion dogs. But it definitely made us think about how we interact with animals both as pets and as wild creatures.

If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend watching it.

P.S. I know lots of people successfully have crate trained their dogs, but I generally let mine roam free in most of my apartment while I'm gone. It's just a personal preference and the girls rarely cause any trouble or messes (knock on wood! Watch now I'm going to go home to some sort of disaster today). The only time they're in there with the door closed is when I have maintenance workers in my apartment or if we're traveling in someone else's car.

Happy Cartwheeling Pug

Woohoo it's almost the weekend! We're so excited we're doing cartwheels of joy! I'm normally a grumpy person but even I can't resist the Friday rush of giddiness. I think I'll try to do happy themed drawings on Fridays going forward because Fridays are awesome. No matter how much the workday sucks or how many long and boring meetings I have scheduled that day, nothing can rein in the happiness of the weekend closing in!

Prehistoric

This is a drawing for this week's Illustration Friday topic "prehistoric." I wanted to do this drawing for several reasons:

(1) I like to do Illustration Friday when I can and if I get a good idea for the weekly topic as it often pushes me to do something outside my usual.

(2) To point out that not only does Sunny have a juicy drumstick, but she's always flaunting it!

(3) To point out that Sunny and Rosy have no real survival instincts and are scared by the stupidest things but want to attack very dangerous things like cars, big dogs, wild creatures on TV. So if faced with a dinosaur, I think there's a very good chance they would bark at it instead of running away.

(4) I pretty much only draw pugs lately, so I wanted to see if I could draw a dinosaur. Dinosaurs are hard!

Morning Rituals

The girls and I have a regular morning ritual for weekday mornings. I wake up and get ready as they snooze some more and then as soon as I had to the kitchen Rosy jumps off my bed to follow me to "help" clean up any crumbs as I eat breakfast. Finally when it's time to go for their morning walk I go to Sunny, now awake but looking very sleepy and lazy. My bed is high, so after a morning belly rub I scoop her up in my arms and bring her out of the bedroom. The whole time she's sleepily snorting up at me as Rosy frantically hops around my legs. As soon as Sunny's four legs are on the ground Rosy goes for the first drumstick attack of the day and chaos soon erupts as the girls get excited for their walk and breakfast.

They have such different funny personalities and always help ease the pain of getting ready for work each weekday morning! (Except when they are particularly naughty or difficult during their walk! Luckily today they were in their best behavior despite the freezing rain.)

Pug Selfie

In honor of the selfie, 2013's word of the year, here is a pug selfie. Everything is better when it's been pugified!

Monday, Unfun Day

Go away Monday! No one likes you! Especially when you are so cold and rainy. Even my lazy pugs who just sleep all day hate you, because you and your workday take me away from them and I'm an excellent napping buddy/dog pillow. So just go and don't come back for at least a week!