52 Week Project | Day in the Life | Bender & Axle

The 52 Week Project is a blog circle with a theme for every week (which means we all link to each other, links are found at the end of the post).

The theme: a day in the life.

Let me introduce you into Bender & Axle’s routine. Good morning. 
I open the door the “porch” (which is basically the living room of my parent’s house – the dogs are sectioned off from the rest of house so they don’t eat the cats) and Axle greets me. He sleeps on the loveseat at night. 

Axle stretches good morning, leans in for some pets, then shifts to the back door. 

“Can I go out now? I’ve got to pee…” He’s let out into the fenced yard to make his rounds. Bender waits in his kennel (we have been on a crate and rotate schedule for approx 4 years).
Still a little sleepy Bender?
Axle trots back into the house and is kenneled for the morning, at least until 10:30/11ish. 

Bender is let out of his kennel. He has some variance in his morning – sometimes he stretches giant stretches, sometimes he trots with his big Kong, sometimes he sniffs my shoes & pants, some mornings include a bit of each. This morning he was interested in snorfeling & whiffing my pants.
The master of escape, Bender always needs to be hooked up on a lead and have an adult with him during potty breaks and outside adventures. The harness is a faded blue 2 Hounds Design Freedom No Pull harness and a gerry-rigged lead made from a braided leash + a red cow lead (haven’t found a lead that’s softer in hand but strong and long – nothing like having a smooth/tight weave to give you rope burn if Bender sees a critter to chase or dog to bark at). It lives on the floor like a coiled snake in the trackings of mud/dirt from outside.
We commence the morning potty break as well as a survey of the goings on around us (kids are being dropped off at the elementary school, the big building in the background). If he dawdles, I bring him in (still cold outside in the morning here in Minnesota) and we take a poop break later.  Now its time for breakfast! 3 cups for Axle in the blue “slow down” bowl (he vacuums his food, because who chews their food?!), the silver bowl gets 2 cups for Bender.
Axle is fed in his kennel. 

If a poop break is needed, Bender will bark at the door. “I has to poop now…”

Inside after a poop is find the Kong and run back and forth from door to wall as I “try” to catch him. 

After a good run or five, Bender finishes his breakfast. The rest of the morning is spent lounging, watching the neighborhood, chewing the Kong & sleeping. 
10:30/11 arrives. Axle can tell time and typically begins to whine right about 10:30. Bender is kenneled, Axle is let out. 
He shimmies to the bucket that holds his toys and balls. He is the type of dog who is particular about which ball he is playing with for the day, so I usually let him pick the ball he wants to play with. We head outside into the mud of the yard, with today’s choice: a racquetball.  After a bit of fetch we go in (he’s developed a bad habit of turning tail when he’s asked to come into the house when he doesn’t want to go in) but knows that it works on my parents more than with me. He lounges for the rest of the morning. They are switched for who’s out of the kennel around 1ish, 3ish, 7ish and in the evening when everyone retires to bed.

Next visit Linda with VP Shoots Photography serving Tampa Bay, Florida to see what a day in her life consists of.