Fly the Friendly Skies (p.s. it's not United)

Traveling can be stressful if you haven’t done it in a while. Throw in pandemic woes with an airplane full of unmasked people and add flying with a pup for the first time, and it could very well be a recipe for disaster. But if I, someone who is an anxious flyer, can do it so can you!

Kona hasn’t flown since he was a puppy and I’m sure he has no recollection of his first flight. So our return to the DMV (DC, MD and VA—not to be confused with the Department of Motor Vehicles) was his first flight as an adult pup. We have friends that have flown a lot and have heard about nightmare and success stories. Taking all of their experiences into account, we ended up choosing Alaska Airlines. So I’d like to share our experience flying with Alaska Airlines from SFO → DCA and DCA → SFO. Your flight experience will largely depend on two things: how well you’ve trained your pup to be comfortable in their carrier for the flight and the crew.

Kona’s first flight

Your flight experience will largely depend on two things: how well you’ve trained your pup to be comfortable in their carrier for the flight and the crew.

Choosing a carrier:

• Read your airline’s pet policy carefully and try to adhere to the pet carrier dimensions as much as possible (or risk getting turned away).

• Function over fashion. This is a personal choice, but if you want to save money and time, we highly recommend going with the simple, no fuss, tried and true Sherpa carrier. Based on measurements alone, the other carriers should’ve been a good fit but were too small in practice. We tried Roverlund (loved the camo and orange design), but it was too small, rigid, and quite heavy. We also tried Wild One, but the zipper situation was a mess even for Papa Bear and it was way too small.

• The Sherpa carrier has a spring wire frame, which allows the rear end of the carrier to be pushed down several inches to conform to under-seat requirements. Initially we tried to adhere to the ridiculously small size requirements and got the M for Kona. We didn’t want to give the crew any reason to turn us away. But because the Sherpa does have some flexibility, in the end we opted for the L, as we wanted him to be comfortable.

Before flying:

• About a month before flying, start getting your pup used to their carrier (if new). We played airplane pink noise and tried to recreate being on an airplane (put the carrier under a seat and covered it with a blanket).

• A week before flying, don’t introduce new food to your pup’s diet.

• A few days before flying, make sure to hydrate your pup. You can add extra water to their food, feed bone broth, goat milk, etc.

• On the day of flying, avoid giving too much water.

If possible:

• Choose flight times where you will have time to take your pup for a long walk and get them pottied ahead of time. We had to get up at 5AM so that we could potty Kona and leave for the airport at 6am for our 8am departure.

• Get to the airport early, but not too early. Plan to arrive 1.5 hours in advance so you can walk your pup and try to get them to go potty one more time.

In flight:

• Be sure to pack mess-free food and treats, and either a water bowl for water or a syringe for giving little bits of water throughout the flight.

Upon arrival:

• It’s nice to let your pup stretch out after a long flight (or even a short one), but we recommend keeping them in the carrier (of course, the top can now be unzipped for air) until you get to the nearest pet-relief area. This can help prevent potty accidents as you’re walking through the airport. Walking often gets the system going—our friend’s pup had a big pee immediately after getting off the plane. Another friend’s pup pooped while en-route to the pet-relief area. If you’re traveling with a pup that doesn’t fit into a carrier, we recommend putting a belly band or diaper on them to avoid airport messes.

Given that there was a four week gap between flights, we made sure to continue to use the carrier throughout our trip for car travel, when dining out, etc. so that Kona would continue to view the carrier as a safe space. On the return flight home we did not play airplane noises in preparation because he did so well on the flight. Hope these tips help! What are others you’d add to the list?

Picky Eater's Choice

Updated January 27, 2022

As first-time pup pawrents, we wanted to get everything “right” on the first go. But now that we’ve had the honour of being Kona’s hoomans for nearly four years we’ve learned that like with people, each pup has their own individual preferences and needs. This seems so obvious but it is also easy to forget. It took 1.5 years for Kona to realise all the nommies he’d been missing because he was such a picky eater. And as a family of food lovers, I’m happy that we’ve come a long way from the days of him flicking food across the floor or turning his face away from a “high-value” treat. He now scratches at his food cupboard and barks for more after dinner. And he seems to have reacquired a taste for food he used to like but grew tired of.

We researched a lot about Cotons before Kona’s arrival and knew they could be finicky eaters, so we expected him to have a discerning palate. But we did not expect him to be as picky as he was. We fed and continue to feed freeze-dried “raw”, dehydrated, air-dried, and lightly cooked fresh food in rotation. We started Kona out on My Perfect Pet’s Puppy Blend per our breeder’s recommendation. It is lightly cooked food that comes packaged in frozen bars and requires a bit of planning. That is, you have to remember to take the food out to defrost a few days at a time. We also tried the Stella & Chewy’s frozen raw dinner patties. The problem with these frozen/fresh food options is you cannot really leave them out for a pup to flick around and not eat. So much food went to waste. We tried so many things like pretending to compete for his food, spoon feeding, and hand feeding, adding toppers, etc. When he refused to eat, we offered him another option. Sniff, sniff. No good? Another option. We tried everything from Small Batch Pet to Primal Nuggets and Ziwi Peak. We would mix fresh fish with the freeze dried food and he’d pick out the fish and leave the rest. We’d boil fresh eggs for him but they had to be cooked just right, and he wouldn’t eat them if they were a day old either. He once even grew tired of fresh roasted chicken!

Picky Eater’s Choice

It’s always been a challenge to get me to eat “pet food” but I love my Stella & Chewy’s dinner patties and meal mixers!

After several months of this we realised we’d been unintentionally reinforcing his picky behaviour. One day we decided that we had to change our tactics. Mealtime became stressful and unnecessarily time consuming, and I was not going to let him refuse great quality food when other pups were starving. He’s a perfectly healthy pup with no allergies and tummy issues, so there was no reason for him to not eat. I even explained to him that he shouldn’t take his food for granted. Of course he didn’t understand me, but I had to try!

So we starved him out. It took less than a day for him to catch on that if he didn’t eat what we put out within 20 minutes, there wouldn’t be another option. And he ate! And he continued to eat without complaint — we thought hallelujah, we’ve cracked the code! That is, until several months later he’d get a little picky again and we’d give him a reset. After moving to San Francisco, we came across Nom Nom fresh food at an event. He seemed to enjoy the samples so we agreed to go on a trial with them. They are similar to My Perfect Pet in that the meals are lightly cooked and come frozen, but they were conveniently pre-portioned per bag for his weight. We thought we’d found a new alternative food to alternate with his patties and I also wanted to help him lose a little weight. We tried all the different recipes and his favourite was Beef Mash. But I noticed that there were a lot of potatoes in the meals and instead of losing weight, Kona was getting chubbier. Soon after he grew tired of the food and we ended up donating/sharing the unused meals with friends.

After our experience with Nom Nom, we decided to stop faffing about and stick with one brand for his base meal and at the time Kona would only consistently eat Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried patties so that’s what we stuck with. More recently we noticed that he would eat food that he used to be picky about, but now liked again so we added other base meals to the mix. These days, Kona is no longer the picky eater he once was. He still has his preferences but I’m so amazed and grateful for all the variety he is able to eat and enjoy. In addition to Stella & Chewy’s, we also feed ZiwiPeak and K9Naturals for variety and he has no trouble having Stella for one meal and Ziwi or K9 for another. In case you’re wondering how all the variety affects his poos — they’re consistent and healthy.

Kona’s Top Foods:

Carrots, sweet potatoes, chard, broccoli, choy sum, tatsoi, spinach, peas, green beans, kabocha and pumpkin, courgette, gai lan, and lotus root. He really loves his greens! He also loves chicken, beef, pheasant, duck, turkey, pork, venison, lamb, sardines, salmon, smelt, tuna, cod, mackerel, arctic char and eggs cooked any way. All meat organs and muscle meat -- especially chicken hearts, gizzards, duck hearts, lamb and beef tongue. He’s a bit more selective about fruit — it has to be in peak season for him to enjoy. I don’t think he’s being difficult when he refuses fresh fruit. It simply doesn’t appeal to him at that given moment. He’ll eat the following occasionally but never consistently: apples, nashi, and strawberries. But he seems to love freeze dried fruit (won’t eat fresh banana but likes it dehydrated or in puppy froyo, fresh watermelon (but it tends to make his poo mushy so we don’t give it to him very often), honey, and coconut. He’ll also get the occasional cool treat (goat milk and frozen yogurt) on hot days and I’ve also allowed some grain free biscuits and even the occasional “junk” biscuit.

Supplemental Feeding:

We supplement Kona’s main meals with Green Juju / fresh lightly cooked greens from our garden, and Wildly Blended’s Bug Off. Full disclosure, this herbal blend is not his favourite but it’s been working to help keep fleas away so we love it. And we prefer to use natural preventatives whenever possible — he also prefers eating the powder to the smell of Wondercide sprays (which we use for added protection during flea season). When I give Kona a scoop of the Bug Off powder for breakfast it helps to add some fish oil to make it more palatable for him. As of this writing we’ve been using Dr Harvey’s Omega-3 blend.

We also like to add K9 Natural freeze-dried beef or lamb green tripe / frozen 1-2 lb.. chubs from GreenTripe.Com (which we defrost and portion out and refreeze). We rotate between freeze dried and fresh — freeze dried is more convenient and less pongy, but we like to give it “fresh” when possible and it’s also more economical. We defrost several days worth of tripe at a time for easier serving. If you’re unfamiliar with green tripe, it’s a superfood for dogs. Tripe is the nutrient-rich stomach lining of an animal and the 'green' simply means it isn't bleached or processed in any way.

If you’re looking for natural blends to help boost your pup’s fresh cooked food, Kona loves Bibim Paws Su-Paw Boost Probiotic Kimchi and Su-Paw Boost Organic Superfood Powder.

Pro-tip: When preparing fresh green tripe wear a mask if you’re sensitive to strong smells (you should have one readily available if you’re reading this in 2021).

Even though Kona’s become less picky about his food as he’s gotten older, it’s always been difficult to find a vitamin or supplements that he’ll consistently eat. So much has gone to waste, but he loves his PETIPET bars: the Turmeric Bars and Mobility Bars are his favourite.

Treats Galore:

Thinking back, Kona never had many treats in his food cupboard prior to moving to the Bay Area, probably because he was so picky and we got tired of wasting food. He liked jerky, chicken hearts, liver, minnows and fish chips, but it wasn’t until after we moved back to San Francisco that he began to expand his palate. I always felt bad that he wasn’t getting enough variety so we continued to learn more about nutrition and started to try more small batch single or limited ingredient treats and meal toppers from smaller companies. The original brand that helped Kona make the connection that the refrigerator was a magical place where fresh delicious food appeared was MonMo Treats. Sadly, they closed shop at the end of 2020. And so we were forced to look elsewhere for fresh treats. Now Drooling Monsters, Farm Hounds (save $20 off your first purchase with this link), Little L’s meat brittle, Soul’y Raw and Three Loves NYC have become part of his regular treats/topper rotation. Other treats that Kona has always loved and also purchase in rotation include Icelandic+ cod chips and cod skin rolls, and Vital Essential’s freeze dried bully sticks and minnows.

We will also give medium or soft chews — whether as tendon, poultry feet, or neck bones. These days it’s freeze-dried bullies or dehydrated poultry neck bones (always supervise your dog when feeding bones, chews and at mealtime in general). We love to support Aloha Made: Paradise Pawz, Calvin & Susie, Hawaii Doggie Bakery, being Kona’s faves. And cool treat options include: The Bear and The Rat (the OGs and Kona’s go-to), Boss Dog, Swell, Primal Goat Milk.

I think I still have a fear that one day he might become picky again. So I hope that in giving him all the things he loves in rotation, Kona won’t grow tired of any one thing and will always be my happy eater.

Kona x Bowie Shoots

Those of us who enjoy documenting our pups lives know it can be difficult to capture that perfect pose. Even having the “goodest boi” Kona as my model, there are times when I can’t get him to sit still or he’s just not in the mood. There are many amazing dog photographers, but I haven’t seen any that do school portraits. So I was beyond excited when we stumbled upon Andrea and her NYC based company Bowie Shoots on Instagram. Just look at all those cute faces! We crossed our fingers and paws that Bowie Shoots would do a pop-up “Picture Day” in San Francisco. I cannot believe how lucky we were that after waiting only a few months, our wish came true!

A picture really is worth a thousand words — you can definitely see the heart Andrea puts in to each pup’s portraits (not to mention, the amazing skills she has). But after having a disappointing experience with a local Bay Area dog photographer, I wanted to do my due diligence. I reached out to Andrea to learn more about her process and her photo packages. She addressed all of my concerns and was transparent from the start. Our session was 30 minutes long and we had four poses with two different backgrounds (laser and graduation). The photoshoots revolve 100% around the comfort of your pup — Kona was completely at ease (although he was probably wondering why I was being so stingy about the treats).

Andrea is patient and gentle and doesn’t put pressure on your pup to do what she wants. Instead, she works with your pup’s personality and mood that day, and captures their best side. To add to all the wonderfulness, Bowie Shoots also donates a portion of sales from every session to local non-profit rescue groups. I honestly cannot recommend Bowie Shoots enough and hope that Andrea makes it back to San Francisco soon!

Poop Crisis

The other day we went on a mall adventure with Nana. I was one happy pupper as I love exploring new places and spending time with one of my favourite hoomans. I sat nicely with Mum and Nana while they had lunch and after they were done I had a quick potty break. I seemed keen to go back inside to explore so Mum assumed I didn’t need a longer potty walk. As we were walking around I started to pick up the pace. I could hear Nana chattering away about how adorable my zigzagging was. “Look at how fast his little legs go,” she said.

Meanwhile I could sense a change in Mum and could smell the anxiety oozing out of her. While trying not to draw attention to herself she quietly made a beeline (with me, of course) for the exit. She turned to Nana and said, “Yes, it’s cute but that’s also Kona’s looking for a place to poop walk.” We were almost at the exit when I stopped and started to squat. Mum quickly picked me up and looked at the ground. Nothing.

everypawdy p

oops

[p-oops…]

Crisis averted! You see, she didn’t want to be that dog mum -- the one that lets her dog behave like an animal. Mind you, I’m a civilised pup with good manners. But she misjudged my urgency to go. And picking me up mid-poo wasn’t going to stop anything from coming out. I was confused why she was even bothering because the train had already left the station.

Mum continued to speed toward the exit -- I could see the sweat starting to bead around her forehead. Just as I was about to lean over to give her face a good lick, a respectable sized poop slipped out into her hand. Nana was still chattering away as I heard Mum quietly whisper to her that I had just pooped in her hand. “Oh my,” Nana said.

Once outside Mum thought she could stealthily pull the turd out of my bum, wash her hands and be done with it. But as luck would have it, the end bit got caught in my hair and as she was trying to gently shake it free, she squeezed a bit too hard and the poop smeared and got all over her hand. Like there was actual poop embedded in her fingernails. I don’t know why Mum thought it was funny, but she kept laughing as she pulled baby wipe after baby wipe out of her bag.

I honestly thought Mum should’ve let me go and pick it up like she would normally. But she has a strange sense of moral obligation to society, especially when it comes to keeping shared spaces poo-free. I’m glad Mum was as calm as she could be and made it seem like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. After all, everypawdy poops right?

Kona’s Care Routine: Tips and Tools

Updated: March 10, 2021

The most common question we get from fellow and prospective Coton pawrents is how we keep Kona so clean. Since there are a lot of resources where you can find expert grooming tips, I’d like to share the products and tools that work well for Mr. KB and a bit more about his grooming routine.

Cotons have a special “cottony” coat, which can be challenging to maintain if you don’t have the right tools. While they are hypoallergenic and classified as non-shedding, hairs do come loose when you brush/comb them. This is something we didn’t expect when we adopted Kona so I thought it would be helpful to mention here.

“You know you’re a dog parent when you spend more time on your pup’s grooming than your own.”

Grooming Essentials:

We do extensive research before buying any products or tools, but there’s no better way to know if something works well until you try it! While humans may love the smell of citrus or floral scented shampoos and colognes, strong scents like these can make many pups uncomfortable. This isn’t surprising considering dogs have between 150 and 300 million olfactory cells. When possible, we opt for fragrance free.

• Slicker brush

• Fine tooth buttercomb (large for body, small for face)

• Pin brush

• Absorbent towel

• Professional hair dryer

• Body shampoo

• Tear free shampoo (for face)

• Conditioner

• Detangler (these days we’ve been using corn starch)

• Spray bottle

• Fragrance free baby wipes

• Cotton pads

• Distilled vinegar

• Enzymatic toothpaste

• Toothbrush or finger toothbrush (either for dog or baby will work)

• Paw balm (soother and protection)

• Ear cleanser

Optional:

• Nail trimmer

• Grooming scissors

• Electric clippers

Goodbye Puppy Coat:

We were halfway through this challenging phase when we learned about Cotons “blowing” their undercoat. Cotons are a double-coated breed. Between the ages of approximately 8-12 months, they undergo a change from their puppy coat to their adult coat, where they lose (or blow) their undercoat. This change creates matting and I must say it took a lot of dedication and perseverance to get through it. The key is to keep the coat clean and brush daily during this process.

Daily Routine:

Kona is an active pup with a mid-length coat so we have to stay on top of his grooming to prevent matting. We clean his eyes and face and also brush and comb him down to the skin on a daily basis. Wet eye gunk smears so we simply let the eye boogies harden and use clean hands to gently remove the crusties from the eye area. In addition to wiping his mouth with a wet towel after each meal, we also brush his teeth every night before bed — this helps minimise staining from his saliva and other gunky buildup. We use C.E.T: Enzymatic Vanilla-Mint Flavour Toothpaste and also give Kona dental chews or soft bones, which help reach any spots we missed. Cotons (and small breeds in general) are susceptible to cavities, so if you haven’t built this into your pup’s care routine we highly recommend starting *TODAY*.

Depending on how dirty Kona gets after each walk (he gets several a day) we will either wipe his paws and sani area with a 1:1 water/vinegar solution and fragrance free baby wipes OR he’ll get a warm-water paw and sani rinse with the help of some mild shampoo if needed. We’ve recently been using After trying out several “dog towels” we found that The Absorber towels did the best job at soaking up excess water and cutting down drying time.

*Pro tip: Always pat dry. DO NOT RUB or you will have one very large knot in your arms.  

Our favourite and most used tools are: Chris Christensen's oblong pin brush (27mm), fine/coarse buttercomb and small A5II Mark II Slicker. It's also important to have a good hair dryer that has a low heat setting. We let Kona air dry for about 10-15 minutes (and do his crazy wet dog routine) before we finish with combing and low heat drying. Coton hair will crimp, curl, and mat if you let air dry. We love our Dyson Supersonic hair dryer because it is quiet, efficient and has various gentle heat and wind settings.

Weekly:

We apply Paw Soother and Musher’s Secret to Kona’s paws weekly, or as needed. Kona loves the taste of his all natural balms. With a little bit of guidance (telling him to “leave it”) Kona’s now a pro at getting pawdicures.

*Pro tip: To prevent losing too much balm put baby socks on all four paws to give it time to do its magic.

Bathing:

Depending on how much park or beach time he gets we give Kona a full bath anywhere from once a week to once a month. If he’s not muddy and we’ve only been to the beach we’ll let him dry naturally — the sand usually falls off after a good shake and a little fine-tooth combing. And at the end of a beach day he’ll get a warm water rinse. If he’s a little muddy we’ll use some mild shampoo — we love The Hair Wash, by Rowan, a clean shampoo made from naturally-derived formulas made with clean ingredients. The Hair Wash has a light coconut scent, which Kona absolutely loves and it leaves his hair soft and silky. We use South Bark's Blueberry Facial for his beard and paws and Burt’s Bees (for puppies) Tearless Shampoo with Buttermilk for his head and face, along with a conditioner to help protect the coat.

*Pro tip: Always brush and comb out any debris (leaves, twigs, burs, etc.) before bathing. Your back will thank you for this and so will your pup!

We spend more time grooming Kona than we do ourselves, but once you’ve developed a good routine maintaining a healthy coat isn’t as daunting as it may seem. Not to mention, we love the extra bonding time we get with Kona.

Have more questions? Check out FAQs for more information or send us a message via the contact form.

Updated: March 10, 2021

First Day of Furever

I don’t remember much about being born. I imagine my entrance into the world was naturally dramatic and chaotic. But I vaguely remember spending the first two months of my life with my litter mates in sunny San Diego, California before going to live with my furever family in Portland, Oregon.

My pawrents prepared extensively for my arrival. They read books on how to raise a puppy like The Art of Raising a Puppy and books with dogs as main characters like A Dog’s Purpose to try and understand how we learn and think.They reached out to other Coton pawrents on Instagram, researched different types of food, water, grooming tools, puppy schools, etc. They were sooo excited! For months they were the creepy dog lovers that hung out at different dog parks and frequented local pet shops -- the crazy couple with a puppy that still hadn't turned up yet.

When the moment for us to meet finally came, they drove to the wrong location to pick me up. Did they not read the pick-up instructions? Then again, they had a lot going on -- work, Auntie L visiting, and deciding last minute to put me on a red-eye flight, so I didn't die in transit (due to the heatwave at the time). And I'm sure my flight being delayed didn't help their ability to think straight either. When the airline staff asked what my pawrents were picking up, Mummy answered nervously, "one live dog." Without really checking, the bloke behind the counter replied that no dog had arrived. Mummy's heart sunk. Just as she was about to recheck my flight status they heard me being rolled in. I was so tiny Mummy couldn't see me at first. Her heart was racing, and I remember hearing her whisper to Daddy, "um, where is our puppy?" And then the floodgates opened as they set eyes on me for the first time.

Getting to know Daddy…

At just around 2 months old, I was understandably unsure of the two sleepy-eyed hoomans who were claiming to be my new pawrents. I was covered in my own potty mess and didn't smell very nice. But their hearts were filled with love and Mummy’s sweet voice and gentle touch filled me with relief.

My pawrents fed me before giving me a bath. I was so happy to be fresh and clean. It took me all of one day to acclimate to my new surroundings. What's not to love being the centre of attention and having hoomans wait on me hand and foot? I guess that aptly sums up my “gotcha day”.  And the rest? Follow my daily adventures on Instagram to find out what I’m up to!