Heart Like a Dog

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

Dogs In Jeeps

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We’ve finally gotten a string of decent weather in my little corner of the world.

People are driving with their car windows open, and I’ve noticed so many dogs with their heads hanging out the window. It makes my heart happy to see dogs enjoying their rides.

Sampson and Delilah don’t get rides in the car as often as they used to, and apparently someone was missing it.

It isn’t often that Hubby is getting home at the same time I’m leaving with one of the dogs for their walk. But it happened this past Thursday.

Delilah was so happy to see the dog Daddy, that she jumped right into the jeep on his lap.

Naturally, I laughed. But then I snapped the picture.

I think she would have happily gone for a ride.

Securing Your Pet’s Safety in an Emergency

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Week 3 of Kathleen Gage’s BlogPaws community challenge.

One of the best things about going to BlogPaws Conference, is the ability to connect with sponsors. I loved talking to the different sponsors to find out how they’re helping animals in the community. One of the sponsors of BlogPaws was Hills. I stopped for a chat at the Hills booth to talk about their hydrolyzed diet. (More on why we might need THAT in a future post.)  

While I was there, I learned that Hills has a program that helps pets when disaster strikes. You can read more about it HERE.

In our swag bag we received a post card from Hills with tips for securing your pet’s safety in an emergency. The tips are listed in bold, while my comments are in italics.

*Use a microchip or collar ID. Personally, my dogs are microchipped, but when we travel we also use a collar. Both my online information (from the chip) and the tags on my dog’s collars use my cell phone. I am basically never far from my cell phone, and when we travel, it’s definitely the easiest way to reach me.

A decal on the door let’s emergency personnel know that I’m inside.

*Put a rescue decal on the door or window.  This is more for an emergency that occurs when you are not home. We have decals on our front door, and the bedroom window. In the event of an emergency where you are not home, first responders will know to look for your pets. (Side note, I periodically use a Sharpie and freshen that decal up.)

*Know where to look for your pets, in case of evacuation. Typically my dogs are on the couch, and if they are freaked out they seek one of us out. But if your dog or cat tends to head for a bedroom or bathroom, look there first. Knowing where they will be, will save you time.

*Know where the closest pet friendly place is for you to go. While I think the tide is slowly changing, a lot of shelters still don’t allow pets. One of the BlogPaws sponsors was Red Roof Inn. All Red Roof Inns will allow one dog, while some allow more. I believe LaQuinta’s also allow pets, but I’m not sure of their policy.

*Carry a picture of your pet. I don’t know about you, but I have tons of photos of both dogs on my cell phone, and I rarely go anywhere without it. If your pet is lost or separated from you for some reason, you’ll be glad you have the photo.

*Take a pet carrier or crate with you for safe transporting. Obviously this is if you have the room in your car, and your pet is comfortable in the crate. Otherwise I suggest a good seat belt system for the car, and a double-clip harness for the leash.

One of the things I noticed when visiting the Hills website, is they also suggest having a “Go” bag. A “Go” bag is a bag you have stocked for emergencies. In a future post, I’ll list their suggestions, with some tips of my own.

Putting a little thought into how to handle an emergency, or evacuation will help make the situation less stressful for everyone involved.

Many thanks to Hills for these awesome tips.

Peace of Mind

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For the first time in my life I found myself watching a stranger walk my dog and I didn’t like it one bit.

It wasn't as bad as wearing boots and a sweatshirt on a walk.

It wasn’t as bad as wearing boots and a sweatshirt on a walk.

Let me back track.

In a couple of weeks I’m going away on vacation. Truth, I do almost all of the dog walking/care giving in this house. Now, Hubby is capable of walking the dogs, but for whatever reason, he just doesn’t like it. When I do manage to squeeze a day or two away, he will walk the dogs. Reluctantly and not the way I would walk them, but he does walk them.

Weekends of course are easier for him. But weekdays are hard, because he starts work at 7:00 am and leaves the house by 6:30. THEN about three weeks ago, he was offered over-time (and who can pass that shit up with my hours cut in half at work?) Because it’s so dang hot, he starts work at 6:00 AM and leaves the house at 5:30. In order for him to be able to walk both dogs, he’d have to get up at 3:30 AM, and I can’t ask him to do that.

So I went to my old trainer and asked her and she recommended someone. We spoke on the phone for about 1/2 an hour and she is a  really nice lady.  We set up a meet and greet and she came over to the house yesterday. The dogs both loved her and we sat and chatted for a bit, then she said, “So how about we walk the dogs?”

Since Sampson’s walks are timed, she started out with him, while I took the D-Dog. Once we turned around, we switched dogs.

So maybe it’s just me being a Nervous Nellie, but here’s what I observed:

Sampson was practically in the middle of the road, with cars coming, I said, “Buddy, what are you doing, there are cars coming.” And she brought him in. (When I walk my dogs, they are on the inside of me, closest to the curb.)

Delilah’s leash was too tight. So I waited a minute and then I said, “You can loosen up on her leash,” as nicely as I could.

Of course, we WERE talking while we walked which could have had a bearing on it.

Afterward we chatted a little bit more and we talked about her payment, and her coming over again before I leave, and her meeting Hubby etc.

She had shared with me on the phone that she is insured AND she uses the same Vet I do.

We talked about encounters with other dogs, and I asked her if she’d ever had an incidents and she said, “No.”

She left me with her business cards and a contract.

Since Delilah’s walk had been shortened (because we walked with Sampson) I took Delilah out for a few more minutes.

While we were walking, I was thinking about the dog walker and I started getting really freaked out. Almost like panic attack freaked out.

I’m leaving in two weeks, and I need a dog walker, but suddenly I wasn’t 100% comfortable with the person I’d chosen.

So I started thinking. Where do you find a good dog walker? I thought of the websites that offer that service, but honestly, time is short now.

Then I remembered hearing you should ask your vet, as many times the vet techs, also do dog walking/pet sitting. And I thought of the lady up the street who has a vet tech stop by in the mornings and walk her GSD.

I thought about Sampson’s favorite vet tech who loves him as much as he loves her. So I called my vet and asked if Emily did any dog walking. As luck would have it, Emily was there and would be available to walk my dogs on the days I needed.

Of course, I told Emily everything and advised her I might not like the way she walked my dogs any better. 🙂 And she totally understood that.

It made me feel so much better, because Emily knows both of my dogs really, really well and both my dogs adore her.

I feel really badly that I’m going to have to tell the original dog walker that I’m going with someone else, but I feel, for my own peace of mind that it’s the right thing for me and my dogs.

I'm tickled pink to see Emily.

I’m tickled pink to see Emily.

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