What kind of dog is Stella?

It’s always fun to think about what breeds make up my two lovable mutts. Right now I’m convinced that Stella has a lot of pit bull terrier in her. This scares and excites me both. There’s always a lot of bad stories about pit bulls run amok, but maybe a pit bull would make a good guard dog. Hopefully Stella only has the good pit bull traits in her. As for her guard dog success, we are still evaluating.


The Iams website has a really good breed selector. There are tons of breeds listed with traits and a picture of the pure-bred dog. Here’s a side by side comparison of the pure bred pit bull (first picture) and Stella. Stella is the dog on the right. (Heineken’s on the left). It’s hard to find a good comparison picture. This weekend I took a couple pictures of Stella specifically for a comparison picture, but the little booger moves so much the pictures didn’t turn out. We have to work with the best we have. First note of comparison: the ears. I think Stella’s ears are very similar to the pit bull’s. Next, the short sloping foreheads are similar (a little difficult to see in Stella's picture). Third, the shorter snout is also comparable. Finally, the broad chest of the pit bull is similar to Stella’s (again not visual from the picture).

Pure pit bull terrier courtesy of the iams website.

Now taking some points from the description on the website about pit bulls:
30 to 55 pounds (female); Stella weighs in at 41 pounds at 9 months.


Fairly friendly with strangers. If you consider jumping and nipping friendly, then Stella is it.

Easy to train – Stella is definitely trainable, I’m not sure it’s easy though.

Dominance: High – Although I could be mistaken, I’m pretty sure Heineken is dominant over Stella.

Very dog-aggressive – Stella plays aggressively with Heineken, not too sure how she is around strange dogs.

Not much barking – Stella only barks when Heineken has a toy that she wants, or if she sees/hears another dog.

Short coat – Stella definitely has a short coat.

Vigorous daily exercise needed – I think Stella will make an excellent jogging buddy when she gets her endurance up.

Fairly active indoors – This is an understatement for Stella.

So based on these, I’d say Stella has strong pit bull traits to her. Any guesses on what other breeds she might be??

Getting sick from a really cold room

Yesterday afternoon I attended a three hour meeting.  About an hour into the meeting, I was anticipating a break, which never came.  I was starting to get really cold sitting in this conference room, so I was wanting to get my jacket.  I never got my jacket though so I sat there getting colder and colder.  I noticed that my nose felt like ice.  My toes were really cold as well (I was wearing thicker socks and tennis shoes).  By the time I left the meeting I noticed that my throat was a little scratchy and sore.

That evening my throat didn't feel any better and I kept sneezing.  Then I woke up this morning with a really bad sore throat and runny nose - a cold.  I never really thought that you could get sick just from being cold.  (I was always told when I was little to wear my coat when I went outside in the winter.  When I didn't, I don't think I immediately got sick). 

Luckily with google, you can find any information.  So naturally today I googled to see experiences with getting a cold from being cold.  In my search I read that if you get cold enough you could stress the body enough to weaken the immune system.  I fully believe that this is what happened to me yesterday.  I guess the moral of the story is: work literally made me sick.

Things to do in Houston with Parents.

The long over due post about the visit from my parents...

My parents (Mary and Steve) got into town last Thursday (before Labor Day).  To kick off the weekend, we went to Boondoggles as is tradition.  There was a whole crew of us as we took Heineken and Stella.  The dogs were named after beers so it only makes sense that they go to bars with their lush owners.  This was Stella's second time at Boondoggles, and she did fairly well.  Heineken was perfect until another dog showed up.  After we had pizza and beer (St Arnold's Summer Pilsner), we went home and watched the wedding video.  This was the first showing of the video.  It was pretty good.  I really liked watching the ceremony and of course seeing my dress again.  Some of the videography was a little sub-par, but I'm happy to have all the footage.

On Friday, Brian took the day off so he was able to share in the fun.  We started off the day going to Walmart.  Not the best thing to do with visitors but it's pretty much mandatory as I never have time to grocery shop during the week, and people need food and beer.  This also gives us a chance to pick out steaks to grill out which has also become a tradition.

After shopping, we went to the San Jacinto Monument.  This was an average activity.  I would say a little pricey for what's there, but it was new and different.  I feel that my parents need to do something touristy each time they are here.  I was excited to be able to go up to the top of the monument to see the view.  This was slightly disappointing, because there were only about 4 viewing windows and all you could see was plants and refinerys.  I guess I should have expected that since we were on the ship channel, but I was thinking we'd be able to see downtown.  There's also a battleship there.  We didn't go on the battleship mainly because it was $10 and we were all ready for a beer.  The battleship was still neat to look at it.

Since it was 3 pm and we were all ready for a beer, we decided to head to Sherlock's for happy hour.  We spent most the afternoon and early evening there and took advantage of their free buffet.  After that we headed home and played games.  Brian and I won pictionary and trivia!

On Saturday, we stayed at home and watched Ohio State play the navy.  After that we played games and got dinner at Chili's.

Sunday was also a lazy day.  Brian made me run with him, but I wimped out and ended up walking mostly.  My parents walked to the pier while we ran so I finished my run by walking with them.  It was a long walk though, and I ended up sunburning my shoulders (oops).  After that we grilled out steaks and got ready for game night!  Game night was a huge success.  I think we had the most people that night for game night ever.  We started wtih Whonu, then we played Pictionary.  Next was Cranium.  Then we ended with Catch Phrase.  Most of the group left about 1 am, but one couple stayed and we played cards til 3 am!  I haven't been up that late in a long, long time.

Monday was recovery day.  I ended up going to sleep at 7:30 pm.  I was worn out from the weekend.  From all the drinking, but also from the lack of sleep.  I had to wake up at 4:30 am on Tuesday to take my parents to the airport so Tuesday morning I was really happy that I went to sleep so early.

The summary for the weekend: 6 Heineken kegs, 1 bottle of grey goose, 6 St Arnold's Lawnmowers, 12 St Arnold's Octoberfest, 6 Sierra Nevada Anniversary IPA, 3 bottles of wine, 8 Miller Lites, and a few of Brian's Amber Ale home brew.  This doesn't count the beers drunk at bars.  So not bad for 4 adults and 4 days.

A dog update for those interested: We went 3 weeks. This past Friday morning Stella had an accident in the house.  I am forgiving her this trangression and I think she's improving.  We woke up early Friday morning because she was whining in her crate to go out.  I tried to let her out, but it was pouring so she didn't really want to go out.  Not long after this, Stella pooped in the house.  This was slightly disappointing since she was just being wimpy about the rain.  We put her back in her crate.  Before Brian even left for work, she had pooped in her crate.  She was sick though.  We think she ate something not good (my money is on a frog) and it gave her diarhea. She seemed ok Friday evening and night.  Then Saturday morning she was still having the runs.  Brian and I went to soccer Saturday morning and Stella was crated.  When we got home, I went to let her out and she had pooped again.  This time was different than 3 weeks ago though.  She wasn't playing in it, not being bothered by it.  She was visibly upset that she soiled her crate.  She was crouched to one side of the crate trying to stay out of the mess.  I think she was embarrassed.  So I think we are improving.  It's Sunday and I think Stella is feeling better, but we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Trouble Housebreaking the Puppy

Today is day 12.  Brian and I have had a rough patch with the dogs, mainly the puppy, but Heineken contributed her fair share as well.  About 2.5 months after we got Stella (she was about 7.5 months), she started pooping in her crate.  After a few days in a row of bathing Stella and cleaing up the mess, we decided that she could be an outside dog for awhile.  This was a really hard change for me because I truly believe that dogs are meant to be spoiled ridiculously, but we were so sick of cleaning up poop I wasn't sure there were any other options.

After Stella could prove outside that she could go without soiling her crate, we'd bring her back in.  But eventually she would poop in the crate, and once again we would banish her to outside.  This went off and on for awhile, for a good month or more.  Mid August when I had my mouth surgery we were home for a week so there were of course no issues then.

The first day I went back to work (a Monday about 2 weeks ago), I was a little nervous for Stella since she had a week that was definitely outside of normal routine.  When I got home I immediately smelled the poop.  I walked back to Stella's crate to see how bad it was, but the poop wasn't there.  Turns out Heineken had left a present for us that day.  We gave her the benefit of the doubt and assumed that she wasn't feeling well.  This was after all the first accident she's had in 3 years.  Monday was just the start of it though, the dogs were tag teaming us.  On Tuesday, it was Stella's turn.  On Wednesday, it was Heineken again.  Wednesday night, both dogs lived outside.  We also bought a second, smaller crate to see if that detered Stella at all.

The smaller crate didn't seem to help.  Stella soiled the smaller crate Wednesday night (it's so fun cleaning up poop before work), and then she did it again Thursday while we were at work.  By this point, I was questioning my love for dogs.  Heineken was allowed back inside before Stella since Stella was still pooping in her crate.  Heineken is used to being spoiled (see photo of spoiled Heineken above) so I think she realized we meant business when she had to endure life outside and life in a crate.  (Heineken hadn't been crated for 3 years).  They have conditioned me though.  The first thing I do when I wake up is sniff to see if I can smell poop (since Stella was having problems both at night and during the day).  The first thing I do when I get home is sniff. 

Stella was eventually allowed back in as well.  Brian and I decided to stop feeding Stella completely in the morning before work.  We had been feeding her a small amount in the morning because she seems hungry.  But at 8 months the puppy food bag feeding amount decreased by about half compared to the age 7 months amount.  So I figured this was a good time to stop feeding her breakfast.  I also figured, if she eats less she should poop less.

I've also been trying to walk them regularly, play with Stella more in the evenings so that she's tuckered out by bed time, and been trying to snuggle more with Heineken (because I believe H's issues were inspired by spite).  I'm assuming this is working because we've made it 12 days now without poop.  I'm nervous that blogging about this will jinx it, and it's been a 1 day time thing, but hopefully we have turned the corner.  I guess 28 days will be my breathing point.  The different things that I've read say that you shouldn't consider the puppy housebroken until she goes 4 weeks without an accident.  I really hope we get there this round!