Oh My Dog!

Eco Dog: Healthy Living for Your Pet

Books are my weakness. I can’t walk into a bookstore without snatching up an armfull of books and magazines. In attempting to be both eco- and budget-friendly, though, I’ve been working out my library card lately, which has been awesome! However, when I saw this book when I stopped into a local bookstore (gah, I know, I know, I shouldn’t even go in one, but with my Barnes & Noble member card I get cheaper coffee… right??), I had to buy it. And it was totally worthwhile!

Chock full of useful information on how to identify and eliminate toxins, the book also has a ton of great DIY projects ranging from making dog toys to pet-safe household cleansers. I’ve already tried a couple of the treat recipes, which Emmett and Lucas loved. Rumor has it I’m getting a sewing machine for my birthday, and if so, I’m going to try the fabric fish! I’m not the most crafty of gals, but they include lots of step-by-step instructions along with color photographs, which is awesome!

I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re looking to reduce your pup’s carbon pawprint or just integrate safer, healthier practices in your home, or even if you’re looking for some fun DIY pet projects.

Any other eco-friendly pet books you would suggest? Or does anyone have a recommendation for a good (preferably organic) dog treat cookbook?

Disclaimer: This was not a paid review, though the link above goes to my Amazon Associate’s page.

Go Colts! (fuzzy camera phone pic)

Coming into the weekend, all our plans have changed! We were supposed to fly into Baltimore to meet our new nephew, but we heard they’re getting a little snow, so we’re rescheduling our flights. That freed up Saturday and Sunday so we can watch the Colts win the Super Bowl while snuggling Emmett and Lucas (better pics of their Colts apparel to come on Sunday)! Then, Emmett and I were supposed to spend the morning visiting three kindergarten classes, but due to inclement weather here, schools are closed, so that was canceled. And I had one appointment this afternoon, and it seems that might be off too. Which means we now have three full unscheduled days!

I think we’ll be setting up our indoor agility course in the basement to get the boys some exercise while it’s icy out. In the meantime, while they’re snuggled in bed snoring away, I’m catching up on lots of dog blogs! Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:

From Dolittler: BSL is a bitch… until a judge says otherwise

From Smart Dog U (I’ll be working on this with Lucas this weekend!): Simple Way to Get (and Keep) Your Dog’s Attention

From Pawcurious: Meep Meep, a post about counter surfing

I also recorded Animal Planet Investigates Dog Fighting, but have yet to decide if I should actually watch it or not.

How about you? Weekend plans? Links to share?

I’m so excited to share profiles of Emmett that ran on the Delta Society blog and cross-posted on Seattle Pets yesterday!

I’m very proud of Emmett and his ability to connect with kids. Tomorrow we’re visiting three kindergarten classes in the morning, then we have a library day on Saturday. Such fun stuff!

“A person who has never owned a dog has missed a wonderful part of life.”
– Bob Barker

Voting is up for the 2010 Brodies! I was so excited to be nominated, and while I didn’t make it to the voting round, there are so many AWESOME blogs up, that I wanted to encourage everyone to vote!!

I discovered a whole bunch of really fantastic new blogs through the list of nominations and will be updating my blogroll shortly!

My big baby dozing on my lap

There are some moments when, as a dog guardian, I fail spectacularly. Our little dogs, no matter how smart, how well-trained, how reliable, are still dogs. And it’s our responsibility, as the humans in their lives who expect them to conform to our silly human rules, to safeguard our pups.

Today we experienced one of those moments, one of those moments when I should have known better. One of those moments when I should have reacted in my human way instead of trusting Lucas to react in a non-dog way.

Today, a horse kicked my Lucas.

Gah, the guilt, omg, the guilt. A local trainer invited Emmett and Lucas, among a few other dogs, to spend the morning running around her farm. How could we pass up five glorious acres of running space for the boys to play and socialize and work on attentiveness and recall in the process? Those five fenced-in acres turned out to be five mostly-fenced-in acres. There was one hole. One tiny little hole where the fence crossed a creek bed. And, of course, Lucas discovered the hole and scooted himself underneath while we people stood chatting several acres away.

On the other side of that fence was a horse, tucked away into her safe space, a one-acre area with a small barn for her to avoid the dogs. For an instant, nothing happened. Lucas sniffed the horse. The horse stood still, tolerating this invasion to her privacy. Then Lucas turned playful. He jumped around the horse. He play-bowed. He ran right in front of the horse, nose-bopping and nudging her.

And that was the moment we failed him.

Instead of mobilizing, instead of running across the field, instead of calling him… we froze. All three people standing in the paddock froze. The horse did not freeze. She ran to hide behind the barn, and Lucas chased! Fun game! he clearly thought, his tail wagging, his tongue hanging out.

John started to scale the fence, leash in hand, ready to grab him, when from the other side of the barn, Lucas yelped a loud, painful yelp. He limped around the barn, and John got the leash on him. He bit his tongue; blood pooled around his mouth. His eye was red and puffy, and he hung his head, tail down, thinking he was in big trouble.

Thankfully, about two minutes later he was running with the other dogs, playing, and taking treats. But woah, the guilt. Why didn’t we react? Why didn’t we call him or jump in there faster or do anything? We just stood there watching? The trainer, in fact, encouraged us to whip out our phone and snap a picture while Lucas sniffed the horse. “A Kodak moment,” she said.

Gah, we all should have known better, and now my baby is hurt. Not badly, luckily. His face is puffy and his eye is red. He has a small cut under his eye, and his limp will go away in a day or two of alternating heating pads and ice bags. Maybe I’ll double his Dasuquin dose tonight.

But my God, my baby got hurt when I should have been more attentive, I should have known better, I should have reacted and protected my guy.

(My guy who, by the way, is now curled up on the sofa, snoring softly, with his belly full of cheese and turkey, his two favorite foods, because plying him with cheese and turkey made me feel slightly better…)

After last week’s strange temperature spike (50 degrees! in January! in southern Indiana!), we’re back down to the more typical 14-degree weather. Of course, when it gets this cold, it’s impossible to walk the dogs. I can barely stand to be outside to walk to my car, let alone around the block… and that’s when I’m wearing my puffy coat, lined boots, gloves, and a hat. So in addition to our indoor agility course, we’ve been finding lots of other indoor activities.

One of their favorite indoor games is “find it.” Basically, I put them in a wait on their beds and sneak off to hide a toy somewhere in the house. Not only does it keep them moving, but it also exercises their senses and gets them thinking! Plus, I’ve recently started working on specificity: find hedgehog, find rope, etc.

Waiting for the cue to "find hedgehog"

Whoever finds the toy gets a few victory chews before I hide it again.

Emmett takes his victory chews.

Here’s where Lucas’ confidence issues come in: He finds the toy many, many times. However, he will only extract the toy from its hiding spot IF it’s somewhere he is totally confident. For instance, when he spots the toy on a dining room chair, he will poke his big old head under there and get the toy (sorry for the blurriness, he was moving too fast):

However, if that same toy is hidden on my desk chair -which has wheels and is, therefore, frightening – he will spot the toy, stare at it for 2-3 seconds, then keep looking. I don’t know why he does this. I have a few theories: he doesn’t want to clue Emmett in on its location, he’s hoping to find another toy somewhere else, he’s stalling to work up the courage to grab it. Who knows? But, of course, Emmett always ends up with the toy because Emmett is afraid of absolutely nothing.

It’s not just the desk chair either. If the toy is hidden in any of the bathrooms, behind a door, near the washer/dryer, the list goes on… he does the same thing every single time. He spots it. He stares for a couple seconds. He backs up, then resumes his search. I tried hiding treats with the toy, but of course that just led Emmett to the toy even faster and didn’t help encourage Lucas at all. I tried playing it with Lucas when John was out walking Emmett, and instead of continuing to look for the toy after spotting it in the scary location, he sat staring at it and crying, in essence asking me to get it for him. Which I didn’t. Because I’m mean.

My goal, of course, is to continue building Lucas’ confidence. Maybe this isn’t the right game? Or maybe I need to increase the stakes? I’d love to do an activity (indoors until it gets warmer) that will keep him moving, motivated, learning, and help build his confidence.

Any suggestions or insights?

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”
– Unknown

We returned Otto to my parents this past weekend. If nothing else, the week of dogsitting followed by a 90-minute drive up north proved that if we were to adopt a third dog, we need a bigger car, even if the dog is as small as Otto.

After Otto’s visit, Lucas needed a bath. From a week of playing with Otto, his fur was matted with slobber, and he had chunks of mud stuck to his belly. He really only needs a bath a handful of times each year, and he was due. While this might not seem like a big deal, poor Lucas hates water. Not just a little bit. A lot. He runs from the hose in the backyard. He refuses to dip his toes in puddles on the sidewalk. He won’t swim, and he definitely won’t go into the bathroom. Bathing him is an epic struggle. Last time John tried, Lucas kept trying to ninja-escape from the bathroom. And, of course, nosy Emmett was all up in Lucas’ bath business.

Since then, I have tried everything to lessen the horror of bath time. First, we worked on decreasing his bathroom-associated fear. I left treats in there for him to discover on his own. I started brushing him in the bathroom while giving him tons of treats and praise. Then I got in the tub with him and fed him treats while getting just his feet wet. When it was time for a full-fledged hose down, I cooked him sausages and hot dogs and bacon. I tried liver. No matter what, the poor guy just shut down the second he got in the tub. He tucked his tail, hung his head, and froze, refusing any of the meaty treats.

Until.

It’s such a great moment when you find the exact right motivation for your pup, right? It’s such a relief to know that you finally, finally got him past the pain of fear and into tolerance. Yesterday, Lucas got into the tub, allowed his feet to get wet, tolerated his back and neck getting wet, even stood for a good scrubbing. For what?

Slices of processed American cheese.

Huh.

This was the first bath that he didn’t tuck his tail. It was the first bath that he didn’t forcefully try to push past me to get out of the tub. Heck, it was the first bath that he actually ate the treats I was offering. It was the first bath that we got all the way through the last rinse before he started to get panicky.

All for slices of food-product-flavored-to-resemble-cheese.

Who knew.

I’m so excited to announce that I am registered and booked for this April’s BlogPaws conference. I’m really looking forward to meeting other pet bloggers and attending all the event sessions. But one quick confession: I’m not great at big social or networking events. And by “not great” I really mean that I can basically manage standing awkwardly near the food, striking up conversations along the lines of “I love shrimp cocktail” or “Do you think there’s dessert?” Or, if the event is at someone’s house, I tend to corner the host’s dog or cat and spend the evening with him/her. That being said, I am super excited for this event. I can’t wait to mingle with other like-minded pet bloggers and learn lots more about blogging!

In other news, dogsitting Otto turned very, very easy today after the boys had a playdate with our neighbor Cady last night! This is what they’ve been doing up until a few minutes ago(sorry for the blurry cell phone pics):

Lucas in my room

Emmett in the office

And Otto on today's laundry in the hall

Of course, as soon as I started writing about them sleeping all day… all three woke up and are now staring at me! Off to go walk, feed, and play with the boys!