Oh My Dog!

We’re spending a week at a lovely cabin nestled in the woods, catching up on sleep, devouring a stack of books, working on some writing projects, and hiking with Emmett and Lucas. Thanks for sticking with Oh My Dog! while posting has been light, and we’ll be back in 2010 completely refreshed and re-energized.

In the meantime, have a very happy, wonderful, joyful new year!

Christmas card, Take 1:

Christmas card, Take 2:

Christmas card, Take 3:

Ah, well… Maybe next year! Wishing you a very happy holiday!

Baby Tank and Buster

“A dog can express more with his tail in minutes than his owner can express with his tongue in hours.”
–Unknown

Emmett and I spent the morning visiting with a kindergarten class yesterday. To say those kids were extremely high-energy is a gross understatement. They were bouncing off the walls with pure joy to have a dog in their classroom. While the reading exercises were perhaps ineffective, they certainly had fun. In fact, one little boy kindly offered to burp his story rather than read it. Hmm.

Anyway, I saw this video and wanted to pass it along. It just goes to show that animals can help people in the most unimaginably wonderful ways.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Recently I realized I write mostly about Emmett. In truth, it’s because Emmett is larger than life. He’s confident and calm, he can go anywhere and meet anyone, and his tail never, ever stops wagging. He spends time sitting calmly with children at the library or performing tricks in boisterous classrooms. Emmett can meet any agitated dog and remain unfazed. Actually, that’s why Lucas came into our lives in the first place, and the reality is that Emmett does play a large part in Lucas’ story, which – bear with me here – this is kind of a long post but I included lots of cute pictures!

Tonight, for about ten minutes, Lucas dozed with his head on my lap. His paws splayed out above his head to rest against my stomach. While those ten minutes of snuggling may not sound like a big deal, for me, those ten minutes are a major victory.

We adopted Lucas in April 2007. I fell in love with his big, brown eyes and his enormous ears. When I walked past his cell, he raised his head and just stared at me. He was a one-year-old shepherd mix, they told us at the shelter. He had only arrived there in February, emaciated, and riddled with mange. He limped, which he might grow out of, they said. And he couldn’t be around other dogs. He can meet Emmett, we said. So we brought Emmett to the shelter, and the shelter staff allowed them to meet – sending two volunteers and their staff trainer, which probably should’ve been a red flag. But it didn’t matter. I was smitten. But of course Emmett and Lucas bonded immediately. Lucas behaved inappropriately several times, and Emmett let him know. Lucas fell in step behind Emmett within the first three minutes. The shelter staff was floored. We were floored. Lucas came home with us.

The mange never flared up again. The limp, though, was a big problem, which we’re still managing. In fact, we found an amazing vet when we moved to Indiana who did a full workup and discovered – to everyone’s absolute shock – that he had suffered a pelvic fracture, most likely from being hit by a car as a very young pup, that went untreated. The bones healed, so his pelvic bone is too narrow to support his large body. Dasuquin, by the way, has been a godsend. Beyond the limp, the skinny, frail pup started to bulk up with good nutrition and exercise. Turns out he wasn’t quite full grown. Compare this pic (taken on vacation eight months after adopting him) to the picture above (taken about one-two months after adopting him):

One thing the shelter nailed was that Lucas could not be around other dogs. Except Emmett. We struggled with some pretty serious fear-based aggression. My very wonderful, dear, dog-trainer friend helped us immensely in those early days, bringing her amazing dog Wookie on long walks through the park. Every single time Lucas saw a dog, even from a great distance, he would start crying, shaking, whining, barking, and would eventually lunge and snap at the dog. At the time we lived in one of the few dog-friendly condo buildings in Washington, DC, so obviously this was a huge problem for us. Without going into all the excruciating detail, it took a solid year of management followed by another six months or so of counter-conditioning (if you want the details, feel free to email me). Now, I am so proud to say, the dog who hated (HATED) other dogs, is now as friendly and social as they come. He now loves other dogs. Any whining or crying is out of excitement to get to PLAY instead of aggression.

His aggression wasn’t the only problem we faced. For the first several months, Lucas never wagged his tail. Not once. Lucas feared everything – the city bus, plastic bags, the vacuum, the hair dryer, really anything that made noise or was somehow new. One day our neighbor drove by and yelled “hello” out of his car window, which scared Lucas so badly that he took off at full speed, pulling me straight into a No Parking sign and down into the street, leaving me with cuts, scrapes, and bruises on my face and arm.

Lucas would not be patted, either. For nearly a year, the most we could get was a nice, even stroke along his side. Touch his head? He would freak out and run laps, barking, around our living room. Now, he doesn’t like to be snuggled nearly as much as Emmett does, but Lucas will casually walk over to me and sit next to me, allowing me to pat him. Or he’ll rest his head on my lap or on John’s leg. He’ll let me throw my arms around him and give him a big, huge bear hug, though he wiggles out of it after a few seconds. We can tug on his tail, tug on his ears, lay our heads on his belly.

Every single time I sit and snuggle with Lucas or he curls up next to me in “his” bed, I’m amazed at how far we’ve come in the past 2.5 years. He truly is a different dog. Almost everyone in my extended family has a dog, and most of those dogs are much, much smaller than Lucas – but he has a reputation for being a “gentle giant” and everyone gladly lets him play with their little ones.

Every single time he does something sweet – puts his paw on my leg, rests his head in my lap, wags his tail at me – I just burst with pride. He has blossomed into a darling boy who guards our house and keeps an eye on everyone. Lucas is one of the silliest dogs I’ve ever known – give him a one-inch slice of apple and he’ll keep himself busy winging it around the house and batting it under furniture for a solid ten minutes. He plays with Emmett and other dogs, he wags his tail a thousand times a day, and he brings so much joy into our lives with all his silly, playful antics.

Knowing how far we’ve come makes every moment with Lucas that much more enjoyable. The reality is that it took a full year to overcome the majority of his problems, and sometimes I realize we’re not all the way there. He can’t be by himself, which is rarely a problem, but just last week when Emmett and I had a school visit and John had to be at work, we had to hire a dogsitter to come stay with Lucas. Though it’s very rare, sometimes he will lunge at another dog, though we’ve been able to identify his triggers and can mitigate the situation (those rare occasions are, of course, those times when we’re not paying enough attention to our surroundings to distract or remove him).

We were in the very fortunate situation to be able to help Lucas. We had Emmett on our team. I have a best friend who’s a dog trainer. John worked from home for that first year, and I’ve worked at home since he started school. We’ve done four or five rounds of obedience training in addition to in-home training. I’ve read stacks of books about dog training. John and I argued a lot about how to approach his behavior. But  knowing that he is a happy, well-adjusted pup who truly enjoys his life is so incredibly amazing. And yes, this is so cliche, but… it was all so worth it.

This pic has nothing to do with the post. I just think it's ridiculously cute.

Tonight Emmett and Lucas take a practice AKC Canine Good Citizen test. I’m looking forward to it because I’m pretty sure they’re going to fail spectacularly. However, it’ll give me a really clear picture of what we need to work on before the real test a week from today. Before Emmett’s therapy dog test, I “loaded” my pockets, meaning I gave him treats all day long, sometimes for no reason, out of the same pocket. In no time he made the association between my hand going in my pocket and him receiving a treat. You are not allowed to use any treats for the test, so I used this technique to trick him. Before the test component requiring him to completely ignore another dog – his biggest challenge – I stuck my hand in my pocket. He instantly gave me his full attention and practically waltzed past the other dog. Therefore, I’m repeating that maneuver for this test. We’ll give it a whirl tonight and then refine over the next week.

In the meantime, I discovered a couple new blogs today that I wanted to share. They’ll be added to my blogroll, but here they are:

3 Woofs & a Woo

Why Everyone Should Train Dogs

And this one is already on my blogroll, but I thought today’s post – How many words does your dog know? – was particularly interesting. After tonight’s CGC debacle, I think I’m going to catalog the boys’ vocabulary.

This weekend was filled with animal assisted therapy activities. We typically volunteer at children’s programs, particularly the literacy initiatives, and this weekend was full of activities. In total, Emmett touched (or, I should say, was touched by) nearly 200 children!

Thursday night, we participated in a Head Start program. Emmett met 50 children aged 3 and 5. It was the youngest group he has ever worked with, and he did great. Though the purpose of our station was to read a storybook, most of the kids just ran up to him, waving their arms, screaming, “DOGGGYYYY!!!” They’d pat him, then run off to their next activity. Emmett loved their high energy and would position himself to receive their exuberant patting.

After Head Start, Emmett uses John's backpack as a pillow for the car ride home.

On Friday, we visited a local elementary school to visit with four first-grade classes, totaling just over 100 kids and teachers. The kids had a ton of silly energy, but they totally got into the idea of reading to a dog. Their teachers wove the concept into homework assignments, encouraging the students to practice reading with their family pets.

Today we participated in our monthly Animal Reading Friends program at the local public library. A lot of the kids from the elementary school from the day before attended today’s program, which was great. Emmett is actually starting to amass a little bit of a following, with kids returning each month to read with him.

Emmett enjoys a much-deserved treat.

After all his hard work this weekend, we drove through Starbucks on our way home for him to get a Puppy Latte, which is one of his favorite treats.

Emmett adores children, and I love the literacy programs, so this is a great fit for us. The best part is hearing all the funny, creative questions the kids come up with. We’ve been doing it for about eight months now, and though some of the questions are becoming predictable, some continue to catch me off guard.

The most often-repeated questions:

- How old is he? (6)
- Is he a boy or a girl? (Boy… at which point the boys pump their fists and go, “YESSS!!”)
- What’s his favorite food? (Peanut butter)
- Does he like to swim? (I have NO idea where this question comes from, but we get it every visit. And, yes, he likes to swim.)
- Can I have him? (No, no you can not.)

Some of the less predictable questions from this weekend:

- What do you do for a living? (Asked by a little 6-year-old girl. Adorable.)
- Can you please make him do a back flip? (Nope. Sorry.)
- Is it true that a dog’s spit can heal a person’s wound? (I looked this one up. No, it’s not true.)

We have one more visit scheduled this month, a kindergarten class next Friday where Emmett will participate in both reading and writing activities – something I’m very excited about.

Emmett is now sound asleep, splayed out and snoring softly. All this activity wore him (and me!) out, but it’s totally worth it.

Lucas post-op

Lucas has had a histiocytoma once a year since we adopted him, 3 total. Luckily, it’s a benign skin tumor, and the surgery is relatively easy. The first was on a toe, which left him with a shallow nail bed on that one toe, but our vets in DC took amazing care of him during his recovery, and we haven’t had any problems with the nail bed. The second occurred shortly after we moved to Indiana, and was on the front of his leg. We hadn’t had much time to find a vet so went to the first one that was recommended to us.

The surgery went fine, but when he went back to have the sutures removed, the vet tech asked if we’d like to schedule a surgery to have the scar fixed. At the time John joked, “Nah, chicks dig scars.” But later, we questioned why anyone would subject their dog to an elective cosmetic procedure. The extra anesthesia and the recovery with all the inherent risks of infection… to fix a scar he isn’t even aware that he has? Though we declined the surgery, we kept questioning who would do that? But if they offer it, then some people must, right?

Then I saw this article on Dolittler today: Five Tips to Minimize Scars Post-op. I was amazed to find out that people elect NOT to have surgeries for their pet due to the risk of scarring. I don’t know… it just seems as though the surgery is far more important than the possible scar or even fixing the scar that appears.

Is it just me? Does this seem crazy to anyone else?

(For his third histiocytoma, btw, we have since found a new vet who we ADORE!)

Buster chases Lucas

“We never really own a dog as much as he owns us.”
– Gene Hill

Love this: Emmett isn't paying attention, and Lucas looks like a total goon!

For the past few months, I obsessed over dog food research. I want to switch the boys to a high-quality kibble because I want to ensure we’re doing everything we can to keep Emmett healthy and cancer-free. Let me tell you… the research available on dog food is pitiful, at best. Plus, the more I learned, the more distressed I was about the options. However, after weighing it all out, I (think) we’re switching to Wellness, though I haven’t yet committed enough to purchase a bag. (I keep going between that and Innova or Blue Buffalo… any opinions/ideas/benefits/drawbacks to either??)

Over my search, I encountered several useful sites and wanted to share them here because I know how frustrating and overwhelming it can be to research dog food:

• Dog Food Analysis: Rankings and reviews that include the product labels. Very helpful.
• FDA’s explanation of pet food labels: Dense, but useful. I learned a lot about what terms mean and it helped me to eliminate some options.
• The Dog Food Project: Detailed information on labels, how to read labels, and brand comparisons.

I know this is a highly contentious topic, especially with the movement for home-cooked and raw diets – neither of which are possible in our case for a variety of reasons, though we currently and will continue to supplement their kibble with meat and fresh fruits and vegetables.

What do you think? Any experience with the foods I mentioned? Or any research recommendations? I want to make this decision within the next couple of days so that I can purchase the new food while I still have some old food left to transition!!