Follow-up – “Duck Duck Goose”:
It was brought to my attention by our friends at 2BrownDawgs, that Blue-Green Algae, often times found in lakes, ponds and streams; can be very harmful to our pets. Here in the northeast many times we refer to this Algae as pond scum.
I believe most people would never knowingly expose their pets to something harmful, but if you didn’t know it was harmful how can you keep them safe?
Once I heard about Blue-Green Algae I went to my trusted internet source Snopes. Guess what I found?
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Squaduche.
So I went to my next source Google and found one heart-breaking article written by a man who had just had to euthanize his dog because the dog drank water (during swimming) that had been contaminated by Blue-Green Algae. I tried to find this article again to link up to it, but couldn’t. I googled “Dog died from Blue-Green Algae” and the search returned pages and pages of articles.
I did find a some state websites that listed Blue-Green Algae as a danger to both humans and animals. Without going into great detail some of those states were Wisconsin, New York, and Vermont.
I had never heard of this before so many thanks goes to our friends at 2BrownDogs for bringing this to my attention.
Author’s Note – “Rugs Bugs and Sunsets“:
I did in fact run into some young people wearing my screen hat (LOL) but either they were too startled to say anything or they are so used to the weird things people wear these days that it didn’t shock them.
Author’s Note – “What’s Wrong With This Picture“:
Our friend Kristine over at Rescued Insanity had this to say, “If you want some advice on how to perfect the sit-stay, I am more than happy to offer it. But I despise unsolicited advice myself and will not force my annoying suggestions on you!”
Kristine, we would love to have your advice on the sit-stays!
I will throw this out there to all of you, anytime I write about a problem, behavior, trait, training, whatever regarding my dogs, I welcome your insights, thoughts and suggestions. I can’t promise I will use them, but I am certainly interested in hearing what works for you. 😉
Ah the hated blue-green algae. For people who don’t know….Not all pond scum is as harmful as blue green algae. Blue green algae looks different than regular pond scum. But if you aren’t sure, better to be safe. For us it really is only a problem once we have a long hot spell and it can appear overnight. While I do not know any dogs that have died, I do know two who became terribly ill, but recovered.
This is why it can be tough for us to find nice clean water to train in during the summer.
Anytime the water looks oily or scummy I won’t let the dogs in. I had really never heard of this and am so glad you let us know. Thanks for looking out. 😉