Oh My Dog!

How to teach your dog to say your prayers: Trick or Treat Giveaway Blog Hop

10•18•18

Welcome to the 2018 Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop!

What’s that? you might be wondering.

Well, a whole bunch of pet bloggers got together to teach their dogs tricks AND give away a ton of awesome pet prizes to YOU! All this, btw, is thanks to the pet-blogger-herding efforts of Jodi from Kol’s Notes and Jessica from Beagles and Bargains. Without them, there’s no way I’d have this all together for you today! So, read on to learn about our trick, to see the results, and to enter to win some seriously amazing prizes! (No joke, you guys. They’re SERIOUSLY amazing!)

This post is sponsored by the brands listed in the prizes below!

Trick or Treat Hop 2018

So, here we are! Learning tricks and having fun!

The trick we picked?

Say your prayers!

This turned out to be super fun because John and I worked together on it, something we hadn’t done in a long time. And, it was a good reminder to us about the point of trick training: FUN! More on that in a minute…

A couple weeks ago, I shared an Instagram Story when I found myself with a few minutes of free time, a clicker, and some treats. I figured: Why not? Let’s see if I can get Coop to reliably put his paws up on the couch.

He got it right away, but then I realized that I needed to back up a step. Instead of him walking over and jumping his front legs up to the couch, I needed him to sit first so that he looked, you know, prayerful.

How to Teach Your Dog to Say Your Prayers _ OhMyDogBlog.com

How to teach your dog to say your prayers:

Pick a spot to start. The side of a bed would be cute. Our bed is too high to be comfortable for him, so I went with the couch. Bonus: My couch has a little ottoman that served as a block for him as we progressed. This wasn’t planned, but it worked. More on that in a sec.
Lure your dog to the couch (or bed) so that he’s facing it but right up close against it. When your dog sits (the next step), he automatically shifts back a smidge, so you need him to be super close.
Ask for a sit. You ultimately need your pupper to be sitting super close and facing the couch or bed. He might feel awkward sitting in that spot (Coop definitely did), so it might take a few tries beyond a simple “sit” cue to keep him from backing up away from the couch.
Paws up. Thankfully, Cooper already has a solid “paw” cue, so it took a couple reps of me having my hand on the couch before he got it.
HERE WE PAUSE FOR AN ASIDE: We worked on the sit + paws up for WAY longer than the initial paws up (from a stand). We did get him to do it and sustain it, but… it dawned on me and John that he was uncomfortable in that position. I’ve written about his oddly-splayed back hips before, and this was a time they came into play. He didn’t feel comfy sitting and putting his paws up. And that’s OK! No, his final trick isn’t a “by the books” say your prayers, but circling back to the main point: Trick training is for fun! That’s it! Just fun! And if your dog’s not having fun? You make a change. So, at this point, we swapped from sit + paws up to stand + paws up. You figure out what’s best for you and your dog at this point because, again. FUN.
Chin down. Here’s where things get cute. Your dog carefully places his chin between his paws to look prayerful. This took longer than 1-5 altogether. Why? We have worked for years and years and years and YEARS to get Cooper to look into our eyes. It’s standard reactive-dog training. But, when you hit on something where you need him to actively look away? It flies in the face of what he knows. That’s where the ottoman came in handy. He wanted to physically turn his body toward us, to see us, but he was restricted by that block. Ultimately, we used our well-conditioned touch stick to lure his chin down. If you don’t already have a touch stick that your dog is conditioned to, if he knows how to target anything (your hand, a sticky note) do that. Otherwise, you’ll probably have to lure with a treat in hand. Enclose the treat in your fist. Hold it to your dog’s nose, then slowwwwwwly move it back until his chin hits the couch, then click + treat.

No joke: Steps 1-5 took us about 7 minutes. Step 6? Two 10-minute sessions.

This isn’t a hard trick, but it is super cute.

That said, so many people asked us if we could please teach Violet to say her prayers alongside Cooper. Wouldn’t it be so cute?

Sure would!

She was a hard no.

Training a dog? Super fun and rewarding! Not hard but oftentimes challenging!

Training a toddler? Um. Yeah.

What tricks are you working on with your dogs these days? Any fun challenges or lessons learned? Any good tips up your sleeve to go with those tricks? We’d love to hear them in the comments!

Now for the big giveaway!! You guys. Seriously. Check out these AWESOME prizes and scroll allllllll the way to the bottom to enter to win! Then, visit the other blogs to

GRAND PRIZE:

Petco Gift Card

$350 Gift Card to Petco

**PAID FOR BY ALL PARTICIPATING BLOGGERS**
This giveaway is NOT affiliated with Petco.

SECOND PRIZE:

KONG Assortment

Assorted KONG Dog Toys
$150 VALUE – SPONSORED BY KONG

THIRD PRIZE:

Wellness Pet Food Halloween

$100 in Wellness Pet Food Dog Treats
$100 VALUE – SPONSORED BY WELLNESS PET FOOD

FOURTH PRIZE:

Petcurean Spike Dog Treats

2 Bags of Each Spike Dog Treat Recipe
(8 Bags Total)
$98 VALUE – SPONSORED BY PETCUREAN

FIFTH PRIZE:

Only Natural Pet Dog Treats

All Meat Bites, Jerky Bites, Chicken Chips,
Jerky Strips, All Meat Crispies, and Jerky Wraps
(1 Bag Each)
$78 VALUE – SPONSORED BY ONLY NATURAL PET

SIXTH PRIZE:

DOGTV Prize Pack

6 Month Subscription to DOGTV Online
I and Love and You Fresh All Rover Dental Chews
$66 VALUE – SPONSORED BY DOGTV

SEVENTH PRIZE:

Caru Pet Food Soft n' Tasty Baked Bites

Four Flavors of Soft n’ Tasty Baked Bites,
One Grass Fed Beef Bone Broth,
and One Free Range Chicken Bone Broth
$60 VALUE – SPONSORED BY CARU PET FOOD

EIGHTH PRIZE:

Treatibles Pumpkin Chews

1 Small Bag of 1mg Pumpkin Chews
and 1 Large Bag of 4mg Pumpkin Chews
$56 VALUE – SPONSORED BY TREATIBLES

NINTH PRIZE:

Noah's Bark Dog Treats

Cha Cha Chicken, Bodacious Beef, and Peanutty Perfection
(24 oz Bags – 3 Total)
$56 VALUE – SPONSORED BY NOAH’S BARK DOG TREATS

TENTH PRIZE:

West Paw Dog Toys

Qwizl Treat Toy and Rowdies Toy
$56 VALUE – SPONSORED BY WEST PAW

ELEVENTH PRIZE:

PLAY Mutt Hatter Plush Toy Collection

Mutt Hatter Plush Toy Collection
$48 VALUE – SPONSORED BY P.L.A.Y.

PLUS follow ALL bloggers on
Facebook & Instagram for a chance to win
one of 13 SPECIAL SOCIAL MEDIA PRIZES!

A new giveaway will be posted each day on either
Facebook or Instagram and will run for 24 hours.
Each giveaway will be posted on the co-hosts’
social media pages along with a select group of bloggers.
You can enter on each participating blog’s account for MORE entries!
You have to enter each day for a chance to win that day’s prize.

Co-Hosts:
Beagles & Bargains – Facebook | Instagram
Kol’s Notes – Facebook | Instagram

Plus follow us too!
OhMyDogBlog.com – Facebook | Instagram

WHERE TO ENTER:

Kol’s Notes	Fidose of Reality	Tenacious Little Terrier
Beagles & Bargains	It’s Dog or Nothing	The Broke Dog
A Dog Walks into a Bar	Maggie Loves Orbit	The Chesnut Mutts
Boogie the Pug	McSquare Doodles	Wag ‘n Woof Pets
Brachy Blog	My GBGV Life	Wear Wag Repeat
ChiPets	My Rescued Life
Dog Mom Days	Oh My Dog Blog

Visit each blog for more chances to win!

Follow #TrickorTreatDogs!

This is a Rafflecopter giveaway. Sometimes it takes a minute to load. Or, if you’re reading this via email or in a feed reader, you might have to click the link below:

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Thank you so, so much to Jodi and Jessica for organizing this entire thing! We are so grateful to you both!!!

Emergency Preparedness for Pets (with a free printable preparedness workbook!)

10•11•18

Does your smoke detector have fresh batteries?

Do you have a carbon monoxide detector? Are those batteries fresh?

What about your fire extinguisher? Is it charged and not expired? Did you know they expire??

And where do you plan to go if your area is hit with a natural disaster?

Emergency Preparedness for Pets | with free workbook download

OhMyDogBlog.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

It’s a mess out there!

Y’all, the spate of national catastrophes–from the west coast on fire to catastrophic hurricanes and flooding to savage tornadoes–one might assume that the earth is trying to knock us all off. That may be true, and this post isn’t about that, but all these disasters got me thinking: Am I prepared for an emergency?

You see all the heart-wrenching pictures and videos coming out of the south: animals trapped, terrified, abandoned and now homeless. While nothing could make me leave my pets, I have been thinking about how we can be better prepared for all kinds of emergencies from the micro like a house fire to the macro like a tornado.

Note 1: I plan to follow this post up with a pet first aid post. John and I took the Red Cross pet first aid course a while ago, and it’s time we brush up on those skills and repack our first aid kit. I’ll share that just as soon as I get it together!

Note 2: I can really only speak to dogs and cats, but I’d LOVE to get input from those of you with other animals like birds, lizards, hamsters, etc. I’d love to learn how you can add to this list for those other pets, beyond just grabbing their cage? Although maybe that’s it? If you have experience here, please share in the comments so we can all learn more!

When we lived in Louisiana, I prepared for a hurricane. Here in Indiana, I need to prepare for a tornado. In fact, I’m remiss… we’ve been in this house three years and have a big, humongous problem if we were to have a tornado: The basement isn’t cat-proofed. Which brings me to my first emergency preparedness tip:

Create an emergency preparedness plan for your pets

Are you ready for a natural disaster?

Generally speaking, based on your geography you probably know the kinds of natural disasters you might face in addition to “common” emergencies like house fires. So, plan to those. If you’re in the Midwest and need a tornado plan, figure out where you’ll go and scope the space. Our basement has a ton of hazards for the cats, so I need to tackle things like closing up the crawl space. If you’re on the shore, what’s your hurricane-evacuation route and where are there pet-friendly shelters or hotels along the way?

What’s your escape plan in case of a fire?

Can you reliably call your pets to come and get them leashed or crated to make a quick escape? Again, this is a place we’re lacking with the cats. And, honestly, this is what sparked this whole post. I watched people on the news mourn their cats because they couldn’t find them when they needed to escape. It’s so utterly heartbreaking, and it made me realize I have the same problem! So, in addition to tornado prep, I’m also adding a layer of disaster/emergency/fire preparedness for the cats. I haven’t figured it all the way out yet, but I’m going to train them to get in their crates on cue. I think it will entail the clicker and lots of fresh sushi… but I’m determined. (My friend Erik crate trained his cat, so I know it can be done!!!)

Build an emergency preparedness kit for your pets

In a life-threatening emergency, do you have the items you need to keep you and your pets safe? Imagine if you only had a couple minutes to flee, like in a fire. Do you know what you need to grab and where it’s stored?

This is (yet another) place we’re unprepared. In Louisiana, we had our hurricane stuff organized and ready to go. Here, I’m breaking this into two phases: First, putting a tornado kit in the basement. This will include flashlights, candles, water, a small first-aid kit (like band-aids and stuff… nothing too extensive), and pet stuff. The pet stuff will include leashes for all three, additional water, Coop’s pop-up emergency crate, and canned food. A lot of resources suggest emergency kits contain three days’ worth of food and water for people and pets. You have to decide for yourself whether or not that’s necessary when stocking your kit, but I’m aiming for a day-ish.

Also, going back to my intro: Make sure you have a fire extinguisher at home! Make sure it’s not expired. Change your batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; our fire station recommends changing all those batteries the same day you change your clocks each year. That way, it’s just part of your routine!

For the second piece, this is specific to an evacuation, like if we had to leave immediately. What all would I need to take for us and for the pets? An emergency preparedness kit for your pet needs to include at the minimum (btw, if you don’t want to write all this down, I have a free printable at the bottom of the post):

a jump drive with all their vet records and, just in case the absolute worst happens, a lost pet flier that’s ready to go
a few days’ worth of canned food and water
first-aid supplies (you can buy pre-made kits like this or this… I’m actually debating buying that second one vs. assembling our own… tbd)
an extra leash and collar with tags that are correct (and while you’re at it, check the tags they’re wearing now to confirm the info is recent)
bathroom gear like a disposable litter tray and litter or potty pads and pickup bags
bowls (we really like these because they take up no space and weigh very little)
a blanket
ideal: a toy or some treats

A lot of evacuation sites like shelters require pets to be kenneled, so a pop-up crate is great, too. We have one similar to this for Cooper, and as part of your emergency preparedness–like we’re doing with the cats–train your pet to the crate first so it’s not another terrifying part of an evacuation.

Organize your emergency preparedness pet stuff

OK, last but definitely not least, you gotta organize all these pieces. It will do you no good to buy all the first aid kit stuff and canned food if you can’t find it when you need to evacuate!

My suggestion: Create two sets of your stuff, one for hunkering down at home and one for evacuating. Put everything you need in one bag for each, then store it somewhere that makes sense. For us, our tornado stuff would go in the basement, and our evacuation stuff would go in the garage. Make sure everyone in your family knows where both bags are stored because, don’t forget, you might not be home at the time of an emergency! Everyone needs to be equally prepped!

If you’ve decided you need to train something–kenneling your dog in a pop-up crate, for instance, or getting your cats to go into their on cue–slot that time into your calendar so that it actually happens. Too often, emergency preparedness is put off… until an emergency, when it’s too late to be thorough.

If you’d like some guidance through the planning process, I created a free download that contains an Emergency Preparedness Kit for Pets Checklist along with a worksheet to map out your family’s preparedness plan. You can snag that for free here.

OK, now it’s your turn!

Are you and your pets prepared from an emergency? Do you have an evacuation plan or a preparedness kit ready to go? What’s your next step in being ready for an emergency? Please share in the comments!

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How to Grow Your Own Catnip

10•05•18

Clearly I have plants on the brain!

Is it because I can *feel* winter on the horizon? Who knows, but I almost included catnip in my 14 pet-safe plants you really can’t kill post last week. Then I cut it at the last minute because I thought a post on growing your own might be better since it’s SO easy and SO cheap.

It is, however, hard to kill catnip. And, if you get close to killing it, you can usually revive it.

Two ways to go: start with seeds or start with a little starter plant. Both are available nearly everywhere plants are sold. I’ve done both, and here’s my advice (though it’s cat dependent)… start with the starter plant.

Why?

Well, when I did the seeds, they took really well, but before they were but tiny shoots poking their brave little heads out of the soil, Newt dug into the pot and knocked it over. None survived.

With a starter plant, hopefully you get a decent root system to begin with so they withstand some cat action a bit better. My current catnip came from a baby plant I bought at Lowe’s. This summer, I decided to put it outside for the summer to allow it to regrow what the cats had futzed with and to–hopefully–be ready to be split into a couple different pots.

Out it went! Where I promptly and wholly forgot about it.

By the time (last week) I was like, oh, I should write a post about growing catnip! I went outside and that sucker was a mess. Swarmed with ants. Two long, spindly, dry, brittle stems in the middle, and two long, spindly, slightly-less-brittle stems on the edge. And a couple tiny baby shoots. So, I figured it was the perfect way to illustrate just how hardy catnip is!

And, of course, any blogger worth her salt snaps a before picture.

And here’s what it looks like now!

How to Grow Your Own Catnip

One important aside: If you decide to grow your catnip outdoors, just know that it spreads like crazy. You’ll probably still want to keep it in a container or line a small bed with something before planting it to keep it from taking over. I don’t have that kind of discipline, to keep an eye on it, so we’ve always grown catnip in containers indoors.

So, plant your seeds in potting soil–you don’t need anything fancy–in a pot that drains well. Catnip doesn’t like wet roots, making it the perfect houseplant for chronic under-waterers like me!

Stick it in sunlight, like on a window ledge, and it’ll grow super fast. To get a fuller plant, pinch off leaves and snip off flowers once it hits six-ish inches. (That was my big problem with my outside guy… he got SUPER long because I never pinched him back.)

You can keep your plant totally organic, too. No need to spray or fertilize. If you get bugs, like I did with the ants or those minuscule little fly things, sprinkle a little diatomaceous earth <—- that stuff is a miracle and can solve just about every garden or insect problem you have!! We discovered it in Louisiana when we were dealing with mouse-sized cockroaches, but now we use it allllll the time! It’s totally pet-safe, people-safe, and clears bugs right up.

If something goes awry like mine, it’s a pretty easy plant to fix.

Either cut it all the way down to the baby sprouts, like I did, and re-pot with fresh soil…

Or, trim back only the places where it’s dried out and start pinching back the healthy spots. This is the patience method that requires repeating the steps a few times over a few weeks.

So, you know, method #1 for me!

Catnip is SUCH an easy plant to propagate, too. When you see new growth, simply remove it and plant it in another pot. Can’t go wrong there. Once my guy recovers, I plan to spawn him into a couple new pots just so Newt and Ripley don’t have this single plant to congregate around…

Now you have a catnip plant! What next?

It depends on your cat. Newt likes it to be dried and crumbled for her to roll in, so when the plant gets full enough, snip some off to dry and serve. Ripley licks the plant itself.

The leaves also work as a bug spray for you. Grab a couple fresh leaves and rub them on your arms to repel mosquitoes.

Plus, it’s one more plant to help clear the air and look pretty on your windowsill. You can grow a bunch then dry it for your kitty friends this holiday season, too! (Would you guys want to see a DIY on how to make them into Christmas gifts?)

Have you ever tried to grow catnip? Are your cats nip fiends? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below! And I’ll be sure to share a plant progress pic on Instagram soon so you can see just how easy catnip really is!!

Everything’s fine!

10•02•18

No, really. It is!

Last night, John told me about these dogs he’d seen on a Facebook page of a pit bull rescue a bit north of us. He’s been stalking the page (hi, Deb!) for weeks now. I had just finished scooping the litter boxes, and I said, “What if a new dog doesn’t leave the litter boxes alone?” Where would we put them? Would we invest in more gates? Or rearrange?

And then we both had this moment because… wow… our life is actually pretty easy right now.

Everything's fine! It really is!

Sure, there’s toddlerhood and parenting stuff, the cats and pup, the house and chores, volunteering, civic responsibilities, etc. etc. etc., and there are hard moments in all of that. But like… life is pretty easy right now.

Next week, I go to my CT scan and oncology appointments, and it’s year six. That means instead of quarterly, I can now go annually. Huge time saver, sure, but also a mental load off. And, just thinking through these past six years, we dealt with cancer nonstop: mine for a while, Emmett’s, Lucas’, Emmett’s again. Meanwhile, we added two cats to the mix. And the long journey of adopting Violet. And moving–thrice.

And now?

Life is quiet. (“Quiet” as a relative phrase when you live with Cooper and a toddler who loves the sound of loud.)

We have routines in place. The days flow.

I used to have so many stories to tell. Reactive dog training with Lucas. Therapy dog work with Emmett. All nutty things Cooper. Integrating cats and dogs. Volunteering at the shelter and the shot clinic.

I do have so many more stories to tell. It’s just different. I need to tell you about Cooper’s “calm down” protocol and his recent food intolerance test (holy moly… eye opening). I need to tell you about Ripley’s escapades and Violet’s budding crazy-cat-lady proclivities.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Maggie Marton (@maggiemarton) on Sep 24, 2018 at 5:57pm PDT

I also have a couple big rant posts up my sleeve. It’s been a while since I stepped up onto my soapbox. I miss it that soapbox of mine. 🙂 It was so hard, though, to get anything done this past summer. For one thing, I was CRAZY burnt out after the year-long spiral of BlogPaws dismantling. For another thing? Violet!

I just needed to get some childcare, y’all!

Not even joking: When BlogPaws ended, Violet became mobile, and it was impossible to get anything–literally anything–done as she careened around the world trying to kill herself. She started preschool a few weeks ago, and now I have two days a week (three every other week!) to work. To write. To spruce up this site and to launch a couple new projects.

All that to say…

This is the first time in SIX YEARS where life just flows. We’ve got it (mostly) under control. Things are pretty easy.

Which, I’m sure, means something big is about to change–a new pet, perhaps; a sibling adoption, maybe; a move, heck, we were just talking about how it would be nice to live in a townhouse; something.

Who knows. But, for now, I’m enjoying this moment immensely!

Everything’s fine!

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A post shared by Maggie Marton (@maggiemarton) on Sep 17, 2018 at 5:03pm PDT

14 Pet Safe Plants You Really Can’t Kill

09•25•18

Plants provide a tremendous service: Not only are they super pretty, but they keep your home’s air fresh and clean! And if you have pets, you know how icky our inside air can get!

However, they can also be pretty easy to kill, which sucks. I used to feel bad when a plant in my care died, so I’ve reallllly refined my list to be hardy.

If you’re in the same boat, don’t worry! I’ve got you! This group of 14 plants are safe for pets, clean your household air, AND they’re pretty hard to kill. (By that I mean mean, it can happen, of course, but they’re pretty hardy and I share some tips below to keep ’em thriving, along with a freebie plant care tracker printable at the end.)

14 Pet Safe Plants You Really Can't Kill

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14 Pet-Safe Plants, clockwise from top left (click the plant name to see the one pictured)

Air plants: They come in all shapes and sizes, can live anywhere (literally!), and only need spritzed with water when dry!

Haworthia: Prefers dry soil and indirect light? Easy-peasy!

Boston fern: Does your bathroom have a window or skylight? These guys love humidity and filtered light, and the bright green adds a fun pop of color!

Parlor palm: Low light, no problem! These thrive in low-light spaces and are an air-cleaning workhouse!

Spider plant: Adaptable, easy to grow, cleans the air, and looks fab. If you pick any one plant from this list, this one should be it.

African Violet: Looking for a flower with your pet-safe plants? This one is a bright, beautiful purple, pet-safe, kid-safe, and very easy to care for.

Wax plant: If you’re a forget-to-waterer, this one’s for you!

Chinese money plant: Super interesting looking, bright green, statement plant. It requires regular watering and indirect light.

Polka dot plant: Who doesn’t want a fun pop of pink? Especially if it’s easy to care for, and pet- and kid-safe?!?

Calathea: This might be the most advanced plant on the list. You need a bright spot that’s not too hot and not too cold, plus careful watering. But, it’ll totally pay off when you hear the leaves rustling (seriously, they do!).

Blue Echeveria: Let’s talk succulents. They’re hugely popular. Incredibly easy to care for. But not all are pet-safe. This one is and it’s oh-so-cute, too!

Cast Iron Plant: Perhaps the priciest plant on the list, it’s bright green foliage makes it a pretty, simple houseplant that’s super easy to care for.

Bamboo: You can pick one of these up just about anywhere. They’re nearly impossible to kill (though I’ve done it… they do need water… sometimes).

Christmas cactus: Pretty, easy to care for, easy to propagate, this cactus flowers in the winter–giving you a dash of color when it’s most needed!

OK, your turn!

Do you have any of these in your home? Any you’d add to the list? Are you a green thumb… or do you need a little assistance, like I do? Share in the comments!

And I have a free, printable plant tracker for you today! Simply click here to download to help keep your watering, pruning, and fertilizing on track. Better yet: Magnet it to the fridge and get your who family involved!

Sources:

Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List

15 Pet-Friendly Houseplants That Add Green Without the Worry