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Let’s face it, when I became a mom, I thought I’d be teaching my kids. Little did I know just how much they would teach me along the way. I remember when I had Maggie, we sent home blankets she had been wrapped in for the dog to smell to get use to her. You see, our dog, Lady Jane had been our baby up until this moment. We had no clue how she would adapt to a tiny little human around the house all of the time but we wanted to make it a good transition for her. We knew she was great with kids, so we weren’t concerned, but willing to take the steps to make it perfect. Apparently it worked. Every time we laid Maggie down on the floor to play, Lady Jane would take watch right next to her like a bodyguard. It was a friendship from the start and it’s only gotten bigger and more beautiful as the days go by. It’s only fair that we make our best pet a little something special to show our appreciation this Thanksgiving with a PAWfect Dog Treat and Leash Sign. All of her favorite things in one place.

That friendship only got stronger as the days went by. Maggie is now six and we call her the animal whisperer. She’s all princess all the time, but more important, she is every animal’s best friend. The kids play with Lady Jane all of the time and it’s so much fun to watch. While I was pregnant with Maggie, and even when she was littler, we took Lady Jane on long walks every day. When I got pregnant with Charlie, we stopped going all of the time because I was in some pain. We never got back into the swing of things, and now with three small kids, I realize that we need to. You know why? They put on her collar and leash every day and walk her around the house and the yard. They make her do tricks and try to teach her new ones……she’s nine. She’s not really into learning new tricks, but that doesn’t seem to stop them. Every thing she does, they want to reward her with a treat though, so she thinks this is the best thing EVER.

Lady Jane is always at the front of their minds no matter what we are doing. They are actually trying to convince me to send her to somebody to train her {I’m beyond confused by this, but they think it’s a great idea, ha}. Every trip to the store warrants a million questions on whether we can pick her up a new toy or a new treat. I love it, it’s so beautiful to watch this friendship and love. I love seeing the kids be so thoughtful about somebody else and their happiness – even if it’s mainly the dog. Of course I gave in, I love Lady Jane too and she definitely deserves it for how tolerant she is with the kids’ games. This time we picked out some new treats along with some of her favorites. After all, I love my dog and we want her to be happy this Thanksgiving! The kids saw these PEDIGREE® JUMBONE™ for Large Dogs in individually wrapped packages and we knew that Lady Jane would LOVE them. We also picked up some of her favorites – PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX™ Fresh Large, 6 count and PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX™ Beef Flavor Daily Oral Care Treats for Large Dogs, 7 Count – Hey – we love her but she gets some BAD breath!

Anyways – onto our sign. First off – let’s gather our supplies.

Materials

Wood:

~2 – 5 1/2 x 3 1/2

~1 – 5 3/4 x 3 1/2

~1 – 23 x 5 1/2

~1 – 23 x 7 1/4

Stain

3 Wooden Knobs

Paint

Screws

Wood Glue

Okay. To get started, cut your wood and sand the edges. I use to hate cutting wood myself, but it’s actually a little therapeutic now. And since getting my own little sander, life is good! Once you have the wood ready, go ahead and stain it all and let it dry. I recommend doing this in a well ventilated space, stain is smelly and gives me a headache. {Stain the knobs now too if you are planning to. I just painted them, not stained.}

Next up – I designed my stencil using my cutting machine, but there are ways to do it without a cutting machine too. Before you place your stencil and paint, place your shelf and knobs just to get an idea of spacing. Once you know how much room you have, go ahead and put your stencil on and paint your design or your dog’s name. I decided on bright pink paint for her name and white paw prints. I also wanted to write treats on the treat cubby. It’s far easier to work with the stencils before putting all of the pieces together. After painting, remove the stencil and allow it to dry. *Use multiple light coats of paint, rather than one thick coat. This helps prevent the paint from bleeding.*

While you are waiting for that, go ahead and paint the knobs if you are painting them. They can sit and dry at the same time.

Once your paint is dry, you can start attaching the pieces. I started by wood gluing the treats cubby together and clamping it to let it sit overnight. You want to take the 2 pieces that are the same size and glue the ends to the front piece. At this time, I also went ahead and wood glued the shelf onto the back piece and clamped that to let it sit overnight as well. It doesn’t need to sit overnight but I get impatient waiting for wood glue to dry and always mess it up, so it’s best for me to leave it overnight.

Once that is all set, I wood glued the bottom pieces and the back of the treats cubby and attached it to the shelf. Go ahead and clamp that and let it sit awhile too.

Now you want to turn the sign over. Using a very small drill bit, you want to make three holes in the back where the shelf piece meets the back of the sign. This will help keep your wood from splitting. Then, go ahead and screw through the holes as an added measure of stability.

Repeat that process where the three knobs will go. Mine didn’t get super tight, so I added a tiny bit of wood glue to keep them in place and not spinning but it isn’t really necessary.