Heart Like a Dog

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

Making Sure Your Dog’s #TummyWorks

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This post is sponsored by Finest for Pets. I’ve been compensated for sharing my opinion about their new product, TummyWorks. Please note, while I have been compensated, Heart Like a Dog only shares products we feel are relevant to our readership and would never recommend a product we do not use ourselves.

TummyWorks

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, “I believe the gut is the root of all evil in the body.”

I know it is for me. When I eat something that’s not right for my body, I definitely know it. For instance when I eat wheat (a food I have an allergy to) I am left with a very bloated feeling and often time end up with hives. When my body is overwhelmed dealing with the reactions to the food, it doesn’t function at the capacity it should.

I believe it is the same with dogs. When your dog eats something and vomits, you watch to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and if it does, you eliminate that food from their diet. But what if your dog is experiencing symptoms that are not quite that severe? We all know how stoic dogs are, it’s possible your dog could be having some gastric distress. If they aren’t showing it, you may never know that something is not agreeing with them.

When you have a dog like Delilah who will scarf down any and everything, it’s hard to know what may or may not be bothering her.

When Delilah was diagnosed with elevated liver levels back in 2014, I made some changes in our lifestyle to help reduce stress on her liver. After all, the liver’s job is to remove toxins from the body. In this ever growing world of chemicals, it’s easy to see how a liver could get overwhelmed.

Some of the things I’ve done is using more natural products in our home for cleaning purposes, reducing toxins I put on her body (we go natural with our flea and tick preventions) feeding treats with limited ingredients.

The other thing I’ve done, is added a good multi-vitamin and a probiotic to their diet. I firmly believe it’s a great thing to add a probiotic to just about any diet, human or canine.

Probiotics are one of those supplements where you don’t necessarily SEE the benefit, because it’s busy doing its job on the inside. Of course if your dog is having diarrhea or vomiting (or they’re super gassy) that’s a totally different story. In that instance, you should be able to SEE (and smell) the results.

The thing I’ve discovered about probiotics is, they can often times be pretty pricey.

When my friend Steve over at Finest for Pets asked me if I’d review his newest addition to this pet line, I jumped at the chance. TummyWorks is a premium probiotic and digestive enzyme.

Some of the benefits that Tummyworks provides is

  • Relieves Diarrhea, Gas and Bad Breath
  • Helps to reduce Shedding, Itching and Hot Spots
  • Optimizes Digestion
  • Improves Health and Energy and Boosts the Immune system.

As you can see, TummyWorks has a number of great benefits. Besides helping regulate the good bacteria in your pet’s guts, (Bonus, it’s not just for dogs, it’s for cats too!) it’s helping to boost their immune systems. Think about it, when your immune system isn’t strong, it’s harder to fight off illness and injury.

Which is why with Delilah’s liver issues and Sampson’s adrenal/ACL issues, it’s important to me that their immune systems are as strong as possible.

The container of Tummyworks should last a dog Sampson or Delilah’s size two months; at the cost of $28 a container, that’s a good investment (in my opinion.) Of course, with both my guys on it, it will only last a month, but still a good value in my eyes.

When I first got the container I admit I sort of freaked out. The recommended dosage is 2 scoops per day, I thought, dear lord, I’ll be through this in a week. BUT the scoop is tiny, oh so tiny.

It can’t taste bad either because I sprinkle it on their meals twice per day and both dogs eat it up with no issues and lick their bowls clean.

TummyWorks Probiotic Okay, Delilah might NOT be the best example to use here, because as I said, she’ll scarf down anything.  Sampson however, is very picky. There have been supplements I’ve used on him, and I’ve stood and watched as he’s eaten around them. When he had his ACL surgery we had a wrestling match because I was trying to get him to eat a peanut butter covered pain pill. And he KNEW it.

Yes, he’s that dog.

Frustrating. As. Hell.

But lovable, OH SO lovable.

But lovable, OH SO lovable.

I only have one tiny issue with TummyWorks…it’s that tiny scoop. Not that I want a bigger scoop mind you, just that in transit the scoop kind of got buried in the container. (I told you it was tiny.) My suggestion to Steve would be to see if the scoop could either be taped on the container, or secured in some manner. That’s it, that’s my only complaint.

So….Do you know a dog that could benefit from using a probiotic? Yes? Good! We are super excited to be sharing TummyWorks with you and Steve at Finest for Pets has generously offered to let us share some with our readers.

Giveaway Rules: We will be giving away five (5) containers of Tummyworks. The contest runs from 12:01 AM March 1, 2016 until 11:59 PM March 8th. All times are Eastern Standard Time. Winner will be announced Thursday, March 10, 2016 (if I remember.) E-mail addresses will be forwarded to sponsor and winners will be contacted by sponsor directly. If a winner fails to respond within three days, it is the sponsor’s discretion to request an alternate winner. Contest is open to persons located in the US. (Sorry international friends.)  Winner will be chosen by Random.org Contest rules are set by Heart Like a Dog Blog. 

Phew, that’s a lot of bullshit if you ask me, but I have to lay some ground rules.  OKAY, finally we can get to the contest.

Leave me a comment and let me know your interested in entering. Tell me which of your pets will benefit the most from using TummyWorks.  Bonus entry if you share this on Facebook and tag Heart Like a Dog in the post(verification required.)

This post contains affiliate links. If you order from Amazon by clicking on a link, we may receive a small commission. 

 

PebbleSmart Doggie Doorbell

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Sampson was taught to ring a bell to go out when we lived at our other house, but our current house doesn’t have a great place to hang my bell set. (The damn thing keeps getting shut in the door if I hang it on the knob and I refuse to let Hubby make a hole in the door frame.)

So when I was contacted by Keith at PebbleSmart to review his Doggie Doorbell, I jumped at the chance.

Truthfully, I’m not so much worried about the dogs letting me know they want out, but the idea of them letting me know they were ready to come in is pretty awesome. It beats Delilah standing at the door and barking her fool head off.

PLUS there was that time this past summer, when I thought Sampson was inside and he wasn’t, and Hubby and I went out and left him outside.  Talk about feeling bad.

Seriously, dogs scratching or barking to go out/come in can be damaging. To your door and your ears, and depending on how enthusiastic they are, they could damage their nails or paws.

PLUS the thing that I’m not real fond of is the smudges on my glass doors. Really, who thought glass doors would be a good idea?

My first suggestion to you, is to watch the video on Keith’s website and the second suggestion is to read the whole manual before you start ANYTHING. I could have had this review done sooner if I’d known that adhesive was included (instead of waiting for Hubby to install it. Although I do have to share, the area I put the doorbell was wood and the adhesive didn’t stay, so Hubby did add some screws.) Also, I could have saved a whole lot of doorbell noise, if I’d read to install PebbleSmart first, AND THEN INSERT THE BATTERIES.

Needless to say, it was a pretty noisy morning the day I installed it.

PebbleSmart is named after Keith’s dog, Pebble.  This doggie doorbell is easy to install and comes with everything you need to set it up and get started training your dog right away.

The three basic pieces of PebbleSmart

The three basic pieces of PebbleSmart

The instructions that come with the doorbell tell you exactly HOW to train your dogs to use it. My thought is you could also teach your dogs to ring (or touch) PebbleSmart BEFORE you install it, which might make transitioning easier.

PebbleSmart

PebbleSmart

We’ve been working on this for close to a week now. Truthfully some days are better than others. Sampson seems to take to it quite easily but Delilah is still a work in progress. As you’ll see in the video the first morning she HADN’T had breakfast and was super excited which makes it hard to work with her.

Keith put a lot of thought into the PebbleSmart.

It comes with adhesive for easy application.
The unit is easy to put together.
There’s a handy treat holder that’s easily removable to help train your dog.
It has 36 choices for the alert, so if you’re not a Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong fan you’re sure to find something to suit you.
The volume is adjustable so if you’re in a different part of the house you can turn it up so you can hear it better.

While the volume is adjustable, even at the lowest setting seemed to be too loud for Delilah. Keith suggests putting the unit in another room while your dog adjusts to the sound.

Even that was too much for Delilah. Sunday when Sampson was training, Delilah was hiding in the bathroom shoving her head between Hubby’s legs (I remedied this by wrapping the PebbleSmart in cotton and a piece of material and placing it in a plastic baggie.)

You can purchase PebbleSmart directly from PebbleSmart and Keith tells me he ships the product the same business day, and you can also purchase it at Amazon. (If you do purchase from Amazon, we may receive a small commission.) And if you hurry, you can still get it in time for Christmas.

Have you ever considered a doggie doorbell? How does your dog let you know (s)he wants in or out?

This post is sponsored by PebbleSmart. I have been compensated for sharing this product with you, but Heart Like a Dog only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. PebbleSmart is not responsible for the content of this article.

Natural Stride Joint Supplement

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Disclosure, I received compensation for this post, either in the form of product, payment or both. That being said, Heart Like a Dog will only provide our honest opinions and only shares products we think may be of interest to our readers.

Long time readers know that March of 2014 Sampson had surgery to repair a torn ACL. Sampson was almost 10 by the time he had his surgery and from everything I’d read and everyone I talked to, he should have had no problem recovering from the surgery.

But that wasn’t the case. For whatever reason Sampson got the shitty end of the stick (the surgeon’s words, not mine.) He struggled mightily in his recovery.

We signed him up for physical therapy and he had two bouts of that, and never made it farther than the underwater treadmill, even though there were other exercises he should have been able to do.

He ended up with arthritis at the surgery site and he also struggled with strained Illiosoas muscles and I’m pretty sure he still struggles to a degree with that today. What finally helped him get to his current level of recovery (I’d have to say he’s at about 85 to 90 percent) was putting him on a Glucosamine supplement, which he continues to use.

We were quite happy with the supplement we had Sampson on, then Jen from My Brown Newfies shared her story about Sherman and the supplement he was using.

After having a great talk with the Natural Stride rep, we decided to give Natural Stride a try.

Sampson’s been on the Natural Stride for about a month and a half now and it works as well as the other supplement I’ve had him on. I haven’t seen any significant changes in him, which we knew was a possibility going in considering the degree of his arthritis. BUT I also haven’t seen him back sliding either.

What I really LOVE about the Natural Stride is the options for administering. Natural Stride comes in a powder form which I sprinkle on his food in the mornings and he eats it without issue. And it also comes in chews, both regular and veterinary strength.

Natural Stride Hip and Joint

Natural Stride Hip and Joint

Just like with any supplement, the initial dosage is basically double for the first couple of weeks to really help it get into your dog’s system, after that you drop down to the suggested dosage. So for a dog Sampson’s size, he should get a scoop and a half of powder, or three chews. I give him one scoop of powder in the morning and one chew at night before bed.

Delilah hasn’t shown any indication that her joints are giving her issue, but I have her on a low dose of one chew, which she gets at night.

I started out on the regular strength.

I started out on the regular strength.

I really like the chews (well not to eat, because, well that’s just gross) but I love the ease of being able to pack a bag of chews if you have need to travel.

Since Sampson and Delilah get a ‘treat’ every night before bed it will be easy to continue if we happen to be say, visiting my sister.

So what’s in Natural Stride? Let’s take a look.

Cetyl Myristoleate – anti-inflammatory, pain reliever and immune system modulator.
Glucosamine HCL – alleviates pain and helps rebuild cartilage.
MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) – energy production
Vitamin C (ascorbic Acid) – antioxidant
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) – helps strengthen joints
Lecithin – key building block of membranes.
Vitamin E (tocopheryl acetate) antioxidant.
dL-Methionine – essential amino acid
Citrus Bioflavonoids – antioxidants
Omega 3- reduces inflammation and lowers risk of chronic diseases
Yucca – anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory.

You can read more about the ingredients here.

One of the things I really LOVED about Natural Stride is they have products for dogs, humans and horses.

Synodrin for people comes in pill form. No Chews for peeps.

Synodrin for people comes in pill and gel form,  no Chews for peeps.

Since my husband also takes a glucosamine supplement, he’s been trying the human form, and they also have a muscle rub for those days when you might have over done it.

I also received the equine product, which I passed along to my vet, and it’s currently being tested on some horses at the farm where she boards her horse.

Why does she make me pose with these things?

Why does she make me pose with these things?

As always, you should check with your veterinarian about what is right for your pet.

Update! – I didn’t realize it but winner, winner, chicken dinner! I have a discount code for any of you who would like to try Natural Stride for your pups!  All you have to do is enter JODI20 in the CODE section when you check out and the good folks at Natural Stride will give you 20% off! Sweet deal right?

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