Looking Forward to Spring! | Joey and Teddy

Spring has arrived and with it nicer weather, ( well this is England so it's still not thrilling ) it's lighter for longer and of course the countryside is beginning to bloom! I love Spring and find that this is the season Joey, Teddy, James and I explore the most - and take the most photos too!

This Spring we are looking forward to:
- A trip to Wales, to play on the beach and have a bbq with my parents who will be hollidaying there.
- Camping together! We have only taken Joey and Teddy camping once so far, it rained and felt pretty difficult. So, we are looking forward to a dry and sunny camping trip or two in Spring when work allows.
- Visiting the beautiful Lake District!
- Taking some Easter photos of Joey and Teddy - watch this space!
- Time spent in the garden and being able to sit out for dinner and weekends etc - bliss!
- Shooting 'Springtime' for our 2014 memory book.

What are you up to this Spring?!

Here's handsome Joey enjoying some shade and having a break on a big walk last year:

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

See more posts featuring Joey and Teddy, the rescue dogs behind Itty Bitty Fluffy blog { here }

Whoever said Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, Didn't Have a Dog | Joey and Teddy

Joey is my best friend, faithful companion and furbaby. I don't write or say these words lightly, I mean them with all of my heart. We adopted Joey two years ago now, and the changes he has made to my life are immense, not to mention the changes we have made to his. Once a very nervous dog, scared if you got a pan out of the cupboard to cook - he would run away to hide or for a long time he wouldn't even step into the garden on his own. He had so many quirks and issues but has come so far to be a very happy dog indeed ( even when he little brother Teddy is terrorising him! )

I often call him my sunshine, firstly because he really is, and secondly, he loves sunshine - as do I! It's a common love we share and enjoy together! These days, Joey will take himself off into the garden for a lay out in the sunshine and I will look at him and feel so proud for how far he has come and what an achievement this little act is. I'm of course proud that we did that for him too. It took time, tears, patience and understanding, but the result is the beautiful friendship and life we share together.

See more posts about Joey and Teddy 

National Dress Up Your Dog Day | Joey and Teddy

Instagram was full of fantastic doggy portraits this morning for National dress up your dog day - #nationaldressupyourdogday - and we did a quick impromptu couple of photos of Joey and Teddy. If you're a regular reader of Itty Bitty Fluffy blog you'll know that Joey doesn't mind wearing a scarf or even Christmas lights! He will pose away for a treat or two! Teddy is another story but we managed to snap him wearing a snood although he does look a little cross about it! Follow us on Intagram for more fun with me Joey and Teddy { here } ...

And we have a funny outtake too ...

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

See more posts starring Joey and Teddy the rescue dogs behind Itty Bitty Fluffy blog { here }

Joey and Teddy on Instagram

We recently joined Instagram as some of you may know, and it's been great to share candid shots of Joey and Teddy and their everyday cuteness. We've made lots of friends already too - with fellow dog lovers, pet photographers and both Japanese Spitz and Staffador owners too! You can join the fun by following ittybittybijou on Instagram, but of course we'll be posting some of the pictures on here from time to time too. This will be a much easier way of sharing our adventures with you rather than carrying lots of photographic kit around permanently - as much as I love to!

Follow Joey and Teddy on Instagram 

Back with a Bang!

As you'll have noticed, we have been away for a while - we've been super mad busy shooting weddings and had a very hectic season! If you fancy a checking out some our recent beautiful wedding photography work check us out at www.catharinenoblephotography.co.uk and { here }

We have some great things instore for Itty Bitty & Fluffy blog - bringing you the best lifestyle Pet Photography from around the globe, exquisite brands and products you'll just love, must read books and of course tales of Joey & Teddy - our resident rescue dogs and inspiration behind Itty Bitty & Fluffy blog.

Joey & Teddy - After an Adventure

Having enjoyed a busy day with Joey & Teddy - with a big walk ( or what we sometimes feel is more appropriate to label it as an adventure ) we all come home to collapse and enjoy the evening together. I often look adoringly at their tired, contented faces as they sleep and I feel warm inside. I think about how happy their lives are now, how lucky we are to have them as part of our little family, and of course I always admire how cute they look in this blissful state. However, sometimes you can't help but giggle when you catch a seriously sleepy Staffador, with his mouth open, looking a little less glam... Sorry Joey!

See more posts on Itty Bitty & Fluffy blog featuring our own rescue dogs Joey & Teddy { here }

Joey & Teddy - Teddy is a Hair Ball...

Ok, so we knew when we adopted Teddy that his grooming routine would be much more involved than Joey's. It is actually quite theraputic as Teddy will happily lie there, falling asleep and he very much enjoys it! It also makes for a nice bonding time together too. So, we anticipated grooming time and extra dog hair to clean up, but what we didn't expect was just how much hair Teddy sheds!

Each day he is groomed with a special comb / brush for his longer coat and also his undercoat and we always joke about the fact that we could make mini Teddy toys from the amount of hair each grooming session accumulates. At first we put this down to him being an outside dog at the dog shelter before we adopted him, and so becoming an indoors dog again he was shedding a lot. Then we put it down to summer arriving and some rather hot weather, but after 2 months we have a new theory - Teddy is just a hair ball!

See more posts about our own 2 rescue dogs, Joey & Teddy { here }

Joey & Teddy - Teddy on the Loose!

This week we had a rather scary episode with Teddy, our crazy little Japanese Spitz rescue. The result of which taught us an important lesson! The training for this situation / event had completely slipped our minds before, and we are sure many other dog owners may have overlooked it too, so today we are talking about keeping your dog safe...

We have a front door and also a porch / entranceway with a door to the rest of the house as you enter. The porch door is always kept closed to keep Joey & Teddy safe, so that they can't run off out of the house as we leave / enter. However, one day this week James was loading our camera equipment into the car for a shoot, his hands were full and so he had not closed the porch door or front door. Teddy of course saw this as an opportunity to follow 'Daddy' outside and to the car. He didn't know any different as we hadn't taught him to not go any further than our front door. We should have trained our dogs this incase of something like this happening, every dog owner should. It may take a bit of training time for you and your dog but it could save their life!

So, Teddy is out on the loose and he is indeed about to terrorise the neighborhood as he starts to chase a car along the road! So very dangerous and luckily for us the driver of the car stopped so that we could get our tear-away Teddy! He has a fixation with cars which we are working on with him so we were very fortunate that this was all that happened.

We learnt that yes, we can always try to be safe and vigilant in closing a door ourselves, but if for some reason the front door may be open, we really should train our dogs to not cross this border without our say so. It is a matter of safety for both themselves and others. After this mis-adventure we will certainly be working on this with Joey & Teddy.

See more posts about our rescue dogs Joey the Staffador & Teddy the Japanese Spitz { here }

Joey & Teddy - Becoming Forever Friends

We've now had Teddy the Japanese Spitz, 6 weeks this weekend and have really noticed some changes which show that he is settling into his new life with us! Joey is also enjoying time with Teddy more - at first Teddy was oh so bossy and a bit of a bully with Joey. Now we find them sat together in the lounge, on our bed and they even fell asleep together the other night!

When out on our walks we especially see their friendship grow - Joey & Teddy are off together on an adventure! At first we actually felt a bit left out, but we are really enjoying it and also pleased about how well it's all going as we wanted a friend for Joey.

See more posts about our rescue dogs Joey & Teddy { here }

Joey & Teddy - Teddy Tries a Spot of Gardening...

We love spending time in our garden and with a glorious week of sunny, warm, weather we decided a spot of gardening was in order. Teddy thought the same and was very keen to help! We had just bought some new plants and pots to add to our collection and set ourselves up in the garden to do some planting. 

As I knelt down filling up the plant post with soil I had Joey on one side of me licking my face - if you bend down he never misses an opportunity to kiss you! On the other side I had Teddy biting my glove!

As this mayhem calmed down I began to plant a pretty new Alpine with round clusters of flowers, only to realise Teddy was sat there looking rather pleased with himself - with one of the pretty clusters of flowers poking out of his mouth! He kindly dropped it into another plant pot for me! 

Of course I had to get the camera for this and as I returned my cheeky little gardening assistant has decided to hold one of my gardening gloves to ransom! Gardening has never been so funny!

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

See more posts and features with the Itty Bitty & Fluffy dogs Joey & Teddy { here }

Joey & Teddy - Sleeping Teddy

Teddy is a very busy little doggy! He rarely seems to sleep during the day unlike his big brother who goes back to bed straight after his breakfast! Even after a big two hour walk, and plenty of playing fetch - this little guy will play, keep a watchful eye on the neighborhood out of the window, pester Joey and pinch socks! It was a rare occasion to find him asleep so we rushed to get the camera! He of course woke up but the two photographs we managed to get were cute. 

See more posts about life with our rescue dogs Joey & Teddy { here }

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

Joey & Teddy - Introducing Teddy

We are delighted to finally introduce you to our new rescue dog Teddy the Japanese Spitz! With bad weather, lots of work and a very untrained and hyperactive Teddy, it has taken us a while to get these photos done but here they are...

We adopted Teddy 4 weeks ago this weekend and it has been hard work but full of giggles and it is so worth it! Joey and Teddy are getting along great - as you can see - but we'll save some of their stories so far for another post!

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

We shall soon be making some updates to the blog to accommodate Teddy's arrival, such as the 'Just Joey' category will now become 'Joey & Teddy'. There will be a new button for this in the sidebar and we will also be adding a page with Teddy's rescue story too.

See Joey the Staffador's rescue story { here }
You can also find more posts featuring adventures with our dogs { here }

Joey & Teddy - The Kong Wobbler

We wanted a dog toy for Joey & Teddy that would be interactive, interesting and something that would allow the dogs to play together or on their own - without us having to actually play it with them. We decided to try out the Kong Wobbler toy!

The bottom of the Kong Wobbler simply unscrews so that you can put doggy treats into it, pop it back together again and the dogs have to try and figure out how to get the treats. The treats fall out of a hole in the toy but it is weighted at the bottom so that when it is knocked it moves around unpredictably.

It was so interesting to watch their first play with the Wobbler! Whilst Teddy tried to stick his tongue through the hole, Joey nudged it with his nose. We encouraged the nudging and before too long a treat fell out! You could see their brains trying to work this game out which is an added bonus - it is something tactical and they learn how it works.

Joey grasped the game quickly and bounded around the garden thoroughly enjoying the game, nudging it with his nose and spinning it around with his paw. Teddy didn't quite grasp it but was more than happy to watch Joey do the hard work and then help him collect the treats when they fell out!

We've used it every day since it arrived and both Joey & Teddy are super excited to see it every time! Although we wanted a toy to entertain them without us having to play too, we have found it great fun to watch their latest moves, tactics and learning whilst they play!

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

If you have a Kong Wobbler let us know what your dogs think too!

See more posts about our own rescue dogs Joey & Teddy { here }

Just Joey - Joeys 2nd Birthday!

Last week we celebrated Joey's first birthday with us and his actual 2nd birthday. We got him a few token gifts - because we haven't had him very long, he has everything and he is pretty spoiled anyway too so he didn't need very much! We got him a nice new lead and collar, a 3 Peaks nylon frisbee toy, a lovely organic rice bone chew and yummy treats for the week!

Something we were super excited to give him was a scrumptious, pretty, Pupcake doggy cupcake! It was very kindly sent to us by the wonderful Alpha & Ruby's Dog Bakery ready for Joey's birthday - he loved it! Of course we couldn't resist marking the special occasion with a little celebration and photo shoot! Here are the pictures and what we did...

Alpha & Ruby's Dog Bakery sent us this pretty, scrumptious looking - yet healthy peanut butter flavour Pupcake for his birthday. Aren't they just utterly cute! We added a little white glittery number 2 candle and placed in on top of a pretty cake stand. We also decorated the table with more dog treats, blue balloons, hearts, doilies and Joey's first ever birthday card from us!

Above is a frame of photographs we have hung up at home with pictures of ourselves with Joey and our first few months together as a family. You can see that we all love to cuddle up! 

. Images by Catharine Noble Photography .

Joey loved his Pupcake birthday treat - as you can see!

With thanks to Alpha & Ruby's Dog Bakery for the lovely gift!

To see more posts about our life with our wonderful pet dog Joey go { here }

You can alao read Joey's rescue story { here }