Oh My Dog!

Amazing that Thanksgiving has already come and gone… We have a lot to be thankful for this year, starting with Emmett and his cancer-free status. After our two-day training marathon out at a gorgeous horse farm, we went to spend the holiday with family in Maryland, leaving the boys with my parents. We had a wonderful trip, and the boys, of course, had a blast at their grandparents’ house. Emmett even got to eat two whole loaves of bread off the counter when my mom left to run an errand. I think one of my New Year’s resolutions needs to be putting a stop to Emmett’s counter-surfing habit…

After a week away (without wifi! gah!) I have a lot of catching up to do. Over the past month or so I’ve sorely neglected the blog, but there’s a lot to come, including new product reviews, more training resources, and even a giveaway! Details to come in a couple weeks!

Now I’m off to go snuggle with the boys, who I missed a ton while we were away. In the meantime, check out this video of Lucas encountering some very large horses. It’s a little fuzzy because I took it on my cell phone, and the lighting was pretty bad in the barn, but you can see that Lucas was completely enthralled with these very gentle giants.

Lucas and the horses from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.

Emmett and Lucas had a big day today. A service-dog trainer from Utah is visiting our town, and we signed the boys up for a two-day session of clicker training, agility, and advanced obedience. The training was held on a farm – the first time the boys had ever been to a farm! It was wonderful to have a wide-open, fully fenced-in space for them to run and play with the other dogs. In the pasture beyond the fence, a horse trotted around, but as soon as Lucas got a whiff of that big boy, he ran over barking his little head off. The poor horse retreated behind the barn, and throughout the rest of the day, whenever he tried to make an appearance, Lucas and two other dogs that he apparently recruited, dashed over to bark the horse back behind the barn.

The agenda mixed work and play – three minutes of focused work followed by five minutes of play – from 10 to 4. We started with some basic clicker exercises and worked on shaping a new behavior. Lucas learned “back up” while Emmett worked on “crawl.” We worked pretty extensively with hula-hoops, encouraging the dogs to walk around, through, and over. Last was agility, something the boys have never really had much opportunity to try. They both LOVED the tunnel. In fact, we struggled to get them to stop running through the tunnel! They even ran through it together, side-by-side, several times. The weave poles proved to be a bigger challenge, though they both mastered the table.

I, of course, forgot my camera, but toward the end of the day, I got out my phone and snapped a few pics of the boys doing agility work.

I lead Emmett over a jump while the trainer observes.

John leads Lucas over the same jump.

John works on the hula-hoops with Lucas.

Emmett and his new friend Riker.

When we got home, Emmett and Lucas crawled into their beds and haven’t moved in nearly four hours. Tomorrow we’re working on additional tricks – we were instructed to bring shoe boxes. Hmmm. Wonder what we’ll do with those?

*This is NOT a paid or sponsored promotion in any way. I just seriously love this thing!!

We generally try to be eco-friendly around the house and with our purchases. That means less packaging, of course, and avoiding plastic. There is one exception, however, that we have purchased over and over again: the Busy Buddy Bouncy Bone.

Not only do Emmett and Lucas LOVE this toy, but it has kept their teeth absolutely sparkling. The basic set-up of the toy is a plastic bone with ends that unscrew, and a bouncy ball slides onto the center. When you unscrew the ends – leaving the ball in the center – you load “gnawhide” rings and screw the ends back on. This lodges the little round rawhide pieces between the bone ends and the bouncy ball, making it a time-consuming, fun, and challenging task for your dog.

Though it’s nice to be able to load the toys to keep the dogs busy for a while, the biggest benefit is in their dental health. Their teeth are almost entirely tartar-free. We can’t give Emmett any real bones because he’s incapable of chewing – several choking incidents and we’ve ditched bones, dental chews, and anything larger than a quarter. But these work perfectly.

My one big complaint: As you can probably see in the pictures of Lucas and Emmett, the ends get ripped up pretty quickly with their intense chewing. Busy Buddy does not sell replacement ends, so to prevent the boys from swallowing small shards of plastic, we end up having to buy them whole new toys. If they sold replacement ends, this would be a nearly perfect toy!

Lucas and Emmett wear ribbons supporting a person-friend who's also fighting cancer.

Recently I was alerted to a new site/forum, Fight Dog Cancer,  dedicated to fighting dog cancer through owners sharing their stories.  I created a profile for Emmett, using my favorite pic and sharing our story. Already we’ve connected with an amazing resource on nutrition for fighting off cancer. Definitely check it out – it can only get better as the community grows.

Emmett snoozes after a hard day's work!

Yesterday, Emmett and I volunteered at Girl Power, an event designed to promote leadership and self-esteem in grils age 9 to 14.  Our booth focused on responsible pet care and animal advocacy. It was an awesome event, and I was incredibly impressed with all the girls who stopped by our booth.

In addition to Emmett, the booth was staffed with a cat and a ferret. Ferrets look an awful lot like chipmunks and squirrels. Emmett loves to chase chipmunks and squirrels. However, Emmett is so incredibly food-motivated that as far as the ferret was concerned, all Emmett really wanted was to eat the ferret’s bowl of food. If I looked away, he tried licking the food bowl through the ferret’s cage. Only once did he perk up as the ferret dashed by, but I diverted his attention and that was that. Same thing with the cat. Mr. Blue the cat was getting Chex Mix as a treat, which Emmett just could not understand. He tried everything to get the cat’s handler to look at him, sitting pretty, wagging his tail, licking his lips, even waving hi at a couple points. The only time he paid the cat any attention was when a little girl accidentally dropped the cat mere inches from Emmett’s face. He lunged a bit then, but can you blame the guy?

The girls who stopped by were excited to pat Emmett, the cat, and the ferret. We’ve done similar events before where, after a good scratching and a few questions about Emmett, the kids would move on. At this event, though, the girls engaged in the booth, asking intelligent questions, and grabbing the literature and bookmarks. Part of the booth included a poster about dog fighting, puppy mills, and Brownie the cat. Some of the girls had seen Brownie on the Today Show, most of the girls easily identified the pit bulls in the anti-dog fighting posters, but almost none of them had heard of puppy mills. The great part about the booth was that these messages were secondary to the fun parts of patting the animals and watching Emmett do tricks, but most of the girls really engaged, looking at the posters, and asking great questions.

After the three-hour round-trip drive and the two hours at the event, Emmett zonked out, though he did perk up when I stopped at the Starbucks drive through and got him a puppy latte, his favorite after-work treat!

Emmett reminds me he's there (and yes, my pants are usually covered in fur).

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.”
– Gilda Radner

In honor of Veterans Day, this collection of videos reminds us how hard a soldier’s absence is for his or her whole family – including the furry members. Watch with tissues nearby, and remember to thank a Veteran today!

Dogs Welcoming Home Soldiers

Lucas and Emmett share "their" chaise.

Lucas and Emmett are currently training for the AKC’s Canine Good Citizen test. Tonight was week 3 of 7, and it’s been interesting… there’s an array of skill levels in the class, which actually serves as a good distraction for the boys. The test is similar to the test Emmett took for the Delta Society, but different in a lot of key areas. For example, with the Delta Society test, they look to the handler to assist their dog in being successful, but the CGC test seems to focus more on the dog’s ability to execute the steps alone.

Luckily week 7 is a practice test. We’re getting close, but – UGH! – my dogs will not sit politely to greet a stranger! Because we’re always taking them new places, arranging play dates, etc., they are used to just wagging and greeting anyone who approaches instead of holding a sit. But, at least we know what to work on!

Anyone been through this test or trained this particular behavior? They will walk in a heel up to the person, and they will sit, but the second the person reaches out to pat them, their little butts pop up, tails wagging, and they approach… Any ideas?? Tips??

Emmett updates his dogbook page while on a conference call.

I read an article in USA Today this week that argued that people who spend a lot of time online, especially using social networks, are actually more outgoing and social, which is a huge departure from previous arguments that said too much time online meant limited social lives. Interesting stuff! (Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the link… ugh, sorry.)

I’m amazed every day at all the wonderful friendships and connections made online in the shared love of dogs. Emmett and Lucas now have a big presence on the internet beyond this blog! It’s fun to connect with other dog lovers and animal rights advocates… So to continue this online party, here are a few more places you can find Emmett and Lucas online:

• Subscribe: On the left side, use the Subscribe button to grab the blog and add it to your reader of choice!
• Twitter: Follow me on Twitter @maggiemarton for daily updates.
• Dogbook: Emmett and Lucas both have their own Dogbook pages and would love to add a few new friends.
• Forum: We joined DogForums.com to connect, research, and share tips and tricks.

What about you? Any other places we can connect?

If you have a few spare minutes, check out Offensive Play: How different are dogfighting and football? written by Malcolm Gladwell. The article explores the connections between football, dogfighting and brain damage.

Thoughts?