• 16Jun

  Rabies, Ticks, and Fleas! (oh my)

  Dog Training (General) No Comments

  This time of year is the beginning of the worst season for rabies, ticks, and fleas.  While any of these problems can occur at any time, incidences occur most between June and September. Keep a close eye on your dog!

  If you suspect an animal has rabies, call 911 and stay inside.

  If your dog experiences any sudden behavioral changes, such as overly affectionate, aggressive, lack of appetite, gain of appetite, limping or acting as though in pain, take them to the vet for assessment. While it may not be rabies, it may be another illness or injury.

  Inspect your dog regularly for fleas and ticks.  Even with a tick product, ticks may still get on your dog and then transfer to you once they are repelled by the dogs’ medication.  Remember to remove a tick as quickly as possible, as lymes disease is not instantly transmitted.  The faster you move, the better!  swab the tick with alcohol or flea and tick medication, and use tweezers to carefully remove it.  Drop it in a jar with rubbing alcohol in it, seal the jar, and dispose of it.

  To minimize your chances of your dog getting ticks, keep your lawn mowed and your dog out of tall grasses.   Check your dog after every walk!  Fleas are more insidious parasites- the best defense against fleas in my book is a good offense with a product! We have a recipe for a holistic flea powder here- let us know if it works, or if you use something else!

  Have a happy, healthy summer, and remember to do your agility!

  For more information regarding rabies, and flea and tick-borne illnesses, check cdc.gov.

  

  Tags: dog safety & health

• 27May

  Perils of Plantings

  Dog Training (General) No Comments

  I have two hobbies- gardening and my pets. I actually bring both of my dogs with me as I traipse around the yard, trowel in hand, searching for the nasty weeds. Nova likes to chase the clods of dirt I throw for her, and Quick watches very carefully and tries to help. He puts his paws in holes and everything!

  But until last week, I didn’t know a product I was very seriously considering using for my hydrangeas (smack in the middle of dog-accessible yard) could very easily kill my dogs. Cocoa-shell mulch contains the ingredients that are lethal to dogs in chocolate (surprise, surprise… I bet everyone but me knew this!) and if the dog eats the mulch, they can become very ill. Watch what you mulch with! A lot of dogs love the gardening smells of fresh earth, fresh compost, and fresh mulch! Quick has stolen every last bag of mulch, moss, and compost that has come in to the woodshed, and dragged it all over the yard, with big sister Nova helping!

  Many other gardening products can be dangerous or lethal to your dog, so be careful to keep it out of reach. If you’re not sure about a product, call and ask both the company, your vet, or assume the worst. Don’t forget, just because something is organic doesn’t mean it won’t be dangerous for a dog to ingest.

  The ASPCA has a searchable guide to toxic and non-toxic plants to dogs, cats, and horses. It’s well worth looking at! Don’t learn the hard way that your dog will get sick if he eats your flowers.

  

  Tags: dog safety & health

• 13May

  freekibble.com

  Inspirational 2 Comments

  It can be difficult to support shelters the way we’d like to. freekibble.com is a website where EVERYONE can help give food to shelter animals!  There is a trivia question every day, and for every answer you give (even if its’ the wrong one) you give ten kibbles of dog or cat food.  While ten kibbles may not seem like a lot, think of it this way.  If ten people do it, that’s a hundred kibbles.  That’s a quarter cup.  That’s breakfast for some dogs!   It takes a second, and you can do it every day. If ten people do it for ten days, that one thousand kibbles!  That’s a respectable amount of food! (there’s a link for cats, too!)

  There are several hundred subscribers to this blog.  If everyone does this, we could contribute 6,000 kibbles in just one day!  It takes so little, and yet it can be so much to a needy animal.

  

  Tags: dog safety & health, Events & News, Inspirational

• 05May

  The Importance of Canine Massage

  Dog Training (General) No Comments

  When I first began working with my dogs, I raised an eyebrow at canine massage in general. I do not need massage. My dog CERTAINLY does not need massage. (oh, how wrong I was on both counts…)

  I believed it was complex, and involved long downs and hours of rubbing, and to be honest I figured I’d wear the fur right off or at the very least turn it into felt!  I attended a beginners obedience class for my puppy, Quick, and every class started with massage and aromatherapy! I was skeptical. It was only an hour class, how were we supposed to do massage?  what kind of class required massage?

  It was easy. We started with rubbing our dogs ears, just like I always do when I’m happy with them, except it followed a pattern of one ear, then the other.  Then we rubbed down our dogs shoulders, stroking down their front legs with both hands and playing with their feet and toes. Rub down the sides (Quick by now had stopped vibrating and was leaning against me, moaning happily), and then the back legs. And lastly, the instructor told us to rub our palms down their backs, starting at the back of the neck and all the way out the tail.

  Five minutes, and we were done. The dogs were ten times more relaxed, all smelled the same (like lavender), which reduced meet & greet sniffing, and I now know my dogs’ baseline.

  That might not sound like much, but it can be incredibly important in agility! If you touch your dog regularly, you know how they should feel. You’ll be able to find hot spots before they’re bald, cockleburs before they’re completely entrenched, and sore toes can be treated before your hard-core herder starts holding up his feet in pain.

  Consider me converted to massage.

  

  Tags: dog safety & health

• 19Apr

  Building a Bond with your Dog

  Dog Agility Training, Dog Training (General) 5 Comments

  When you’re working towards Agility with your canine partner, you need to form a bond with them.  It can sound complicated, but honestly, there’s nothing easier in your agility training than bonding with your dog! it should happen naturally.  Your dog wants to love you.  You care about your dog.  Now all you have to do is learn to communicate this affection and caring to your dog!  He already communicates them to you, no matter how subtly.  As the dominant partner, you have to be the one who dictates the expressions and the nature of the bond.

  What are some ways you can deepen your bond with your dog? It’s easy!

  • Tug Games: Tug games heighten your dogs’ pack drive, and since you’re his pack- his alpha, to boot! playing tug with you is a bonding and training experience that your dog will LOVE.  If your dog does not initially enjoy tugging, make it the highest value thing you can.  There are some great tug products available on the market, from crackly bottles in bags to stinky mesh tug bags. (sorry, I know they’re great for getting your dog to like tugging, but I just can’t imagine putting mushy gooey food in something and then REUSING IT.
  • Feeding Time:  When used properly, dinnertime is a very close experience.  If your dog were a wolf, he would hunt in his pack, and eat after the higher ups had eaten.  Here, they eat for ‘free’ as it were.  Don’t let your dog have ‘free’ food! Require at the very least a sit for their bowl!  I prefer a sit and wait, and some days they get released right away… sometimes they don’t!
  • Massage: Dogs may seem not to enjoy getting massages, especially if they’re wriggly and want to play, but once your dog gets the hang of you rubbing his sides and legs and neck, he’ll be jelly. Massage shows dominance over your dog and cements your status in his mind.
  • Watch Me/ Touch/ Target:  Any time you command your dog to watch you, or touch/target, you’re building positive reinforcements for something your dog considers (usually) to be very easy.  Yet, this is a very important exercise! it teaches your dog to focus on you instead of any distraction and that you, his leader, will reward that action.

  There’s so much more you can do to bond with your dog… and a whole lifetime to do it in!  Every interaction you have with your dog is bonding of one form or another.  Make sure you make the most of it, because your dog sure does!

  

  Tags: dog safety & health, dog training

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