Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Unwanted Hitchhikers…ticks and fleas (Day One Hundred, Five)

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If I had any doubts spring was around the corner; they were dispelled last evening when I pulled a tick off Sampson.  Ticks are easy to detect on Sampson as they are dark and he is light; Delilah is another story however.  I took a flashlight to her last night and we tried as best we could to check her.  Because the dogs share our bed it is very important to me, that they are bug free.  

I am very much against the traditional methods of protecting animals from ticks and fleas; this is purely personal. There are two main reasons for this 1) I believe putting any type of “chemical” on my pet is not in their best interest.  2) The topical chemical you put on your pet does not PREVENT the ticks and fleas from hitching a ride.  The insect gets on your pet and bites him/her and then within 24 to 48 hours it dies.  Think about that, something that has been ingested into your pet’s system is toxic enough to kill a tick! (Have you ever TRIED to kill a tick?)  Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? 

Instead, I try my best to prevent the unwanted pests by natural means. I do this in a number of ways. 

1)      I have my yard sprayed four times a year to minimize the ticks in my yard (yes, I know that sounds hypocritical as I don’t use chemicals on my dogs, but instead I use it on the yard they play in.)  However, they do not go outside in the yard until the chemical is dry and truthfully, unless we are out there with them, they don’t spend a lot of time in the yard.

2)      I feed my dogs “Bug Off Garlic” from Springtime, Inc.  Garlic is a natural preventer of ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, and gnats.  Springtime usually has some really good specials where you buy one and get one or two free.  I just ordered 1,000 chewable tablets and got another 1,000 free; this will protect my dogs for almost 6 months.  This cost $69.00, for two dogs and six months; much less expensive than the leading flea and tick topical product. Of course, I will have to hide Mr. Picky’s tablets in his food, but I can feed them to Delilah as treats.  There is a lot of information about the benefits of garlic for your pets on the Springtime website.  It takes a few weeks for the garlic to really work; so what I usually do (and I admit to having been lax this past year) is reduce the amount of garlic they ingest over the winter, I then ease them back into the full dosage by early spring.  They make a bug off garlic product for cats as well.

3)      Since not all ticks are picked up in my yard and we have once again begun hiking with our dogs, I will also use a natural, topical spray.  I use Bug Off Spray sold by Earth Animal.  This product has a really nice citronella smell and comes in a pump bottle.  I spray their legs, chest, back, tummy and tail with the pump, when it comes to their face and neck I pump the product into my hands and rub it on.  Delilah is such a girl and likes to smell pretty, so she didn’t mind, but Sampson wasn’t so sure this morning.

He wiggled

 

and twisted as if to say

Get this stuff OFF ME!

 

 Clover oil is another natural product used in preventing ticks, personally I do not care for the smell and I haven’t really figured out a great way to use it, so I don’t.

As I was googling my links, I also found a couple of other websites with information about natural products you can use for your pets, if you are interested in trying a more natural way to protect your pet; let me google that for you.

Spring is springing! (Day One hundred and four)

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Spring is just around the corner; I know this because the chipmunks are at it again.  Yesterday sweet Delilah spent most of the day in front of the French doors; watching and waiting for the chipmunks, naturally they did not disappoint her.

If you look really closely, you can see the chipmunk she is staring at.

I observed her as unobtrusively as I could; which is difficult for me, because as soon as I make a move, she is usually right there with me, never mind trying to turn the camera on.  As soon as the shutter opens, no matter what she is doing or how engrossed she is, she usually turns to look at me and that breaks her concentration. 

Something was missing I thought yesterday, as I watched her tear out of the house and up the stairs; for the what seemed like the 10th time; while she still whines a little in the house, she is not barking when she “charges”.  This was something I tried to instill in her last year, but naturally I have no idea how to teach a dog to be “stealth.” Of course, an 80 pound dog running full-out across a wooden deck is not quiet, which alerts the chipmunk she is coming.

If I could just get in there....

Somehow, she knows exactly where the chipmunk will go, whether this is from observing the chipmunk, or the fact that she has a great nose.  She is not afraid either, she sticks her nose right in the hole that chipmunk has disappeared into!  I actually went outside yesterday and removed some of the snow off the stairs, so she would have better access.  Believe it or not, she patiently waited while I did this.

Oh good, mom is here to help.

Dog training and positive reinforcement (Day One Hundred and Three)

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the key to training a dog is repetition.  Remember when you were learning your multiplication tables in school, you repeated it over and over again.  1 x 1 is 1; 1 x 2 is 2. It works the same way for dogs, thankfully they don’t have to learn multiplication though!

Finding the right dog trainer is imperative to the health and well-being of your pet; when you are searching for a dog trainer, many people forget about themselves.  Finding a dog trainer that you are comfortable with and you can work with, is equally as important for you and your dog.  Let me be very clear, I will not do anything with/to my dog that I think is wrong, or that I am not comfortable with.  Even if you have never had a dog before, if you think it is wrong or will hurt your dog either physically or mentally, don’t do it.

When we first started obedience class with Sampson at 1st Command Dog Training, there were two trainers; Chris and Sara, by chance we got Sara and am I ever so grateful for that.  Not that Chris is a bad trainer, but Chris is a very strong, determined woman and coincidentally so am I.  Chris will say, “You need to do XYZ for that dog;” but that doesn’t work for me.   Once she told me I might want to try Sampson on a low-calorie dog food;  I looked her dead in the face and said, “I don’t want to.”  The girls in the shop were giddy after that confrontation and it took a while for Chris to even look at me again.

Sara on the other hand will say, would you like to try a choke collar on Sampson (no, I would not, I do not like choke chains.)  Sara will let it rest, Sara is also open to hearing what I have to say and actually considering it.  She also doesn’t mind if I try different training methods that she is not teaching.  Such as the positive treat reinforcement I am currently working with Delilah on.

Thursday night as we were driving home after obedience class, Chet said maybe on Sunday we can take the dogs down to Valley Falls and try them off leash.  I have been sick about it ever since.  I don’t really think he gets the concept of off leash, he wants the dogs to stay within about five feet of him the entire time; when they run farther ahead, he calls them back and if they don’t come he keeps calling, I can hear the anxiety in his voice and I’m sure the dogs can too.   However, I really did want to get them out today, so I packed my pocket full of dried chicken and grabbed what was left of the roast beef and we walked up the street to the park.

As we exited the driveway, we noticed a small group of four kids heading up the street to the park; the pain in my stomach intensified.  We got to the park, let the dogs off leash and began our trek in; two of the girls ran past us.  My dogs did not chase them.  That was incredible!  The last time someone ran past us on the trail, Delilah ran after the poor kid; who kept looking behind her as she ran, all the while I’m shouting, “She won’t hurt you!”

The kids went straight up the path into the field, so we banged a right and headed up the other side and to the trails; just as we took a left to head into the really wooded area; a man and woman with two labs (a chocolate and a black) came down the hill.  Naturally the dogs have to greet each other, thankfully for us their dogs were off leash as well and as it turned out, Sampson, Delilah and I had met the dad previously.  It went fairly well until they departed down the hill and we headed into the woods; Delilah went with them.  I called her and I kept walking, but she didn’t come, just as I turned around and headed back, here she comes!   

We hiked through the woods and as we were approaching the field, we could see two of the kids on a rock in the woods; Chet heeled Sampson and I clipped Delilah on the leash just to be sure we wouldn’t have anymore mishaps.  Once we got out into the field we could see that the kids had now all come together and were sitting in the middle of the field, since we usually walk the perimeter I let Delilah off leash again.  The dogs did amazing; I said to Chet, “I’m almost afraid to say it for fear of jinxing us, but I’m pleased that the dogs are ignoring the kids.”  Indeed they were, they simply ran along the edges of the field, sometimes venturing gently into the woods, but staying right where they needed to be.

As we exited the park, I asked Chet, “So how do you think she did?” 

His response?  “Awesome.”

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