Heart Like a Dog

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

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Throw Rugs – A Dog Owner’s Best Friend

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If you have dogs, rubber backed throw rugs are a MUST have. They are extremely portable, easily washable and quite simply, versatile.

Consider the following uses.

  • For dogs with mobility issues, these rugs can be used to provide traction on hardwood or tile floors, or areas where slipping is likely to occur. Providing traction for an injured or aging dog with mobility issues, can help give your dog confidence and make navigating the home easier.
  • We use the “Place” command in our home. When we eat dinner, the dogs are supposed (Oh, Delilah!) to lay in one place while we eat dinner. To make this easier for the dogs, we use mats. But rugs work just as well. Plus, as I mentioned previously, there rugs are portable, and can easily be packed for use in traveling. So when you’re trying to eat dinner at your sister’s house, your dog will not be begging at the table. 

Lay here she says. I’ll give you a treat she says. I’m waiting Mama.

  • Speaking of traveling, having a special rug in the car for traveling can make a trip more comfortable for an anxious pet. Having something that is familiar to them and smells like home can help ease that anxiety.
  • Because these rugs are so easy to wash, you can use them on areas where you don’t want pet hair. Do you have a dog that likes to climb on the couch? Use a rug on the favored spot, and help save on your vacuuming.
  • Urinary incontinence can affect older dogs, especially spayed females (watch for our upcoming post on our struggles with it.) A rubber backed rug in the spot your dog likes to lay can be used to protect bedding, furniture and dog bedding. A throw rug is far easier to wash than say…a couch, or…a mattress.
  • Speaking of easy clean up, I use throw rugs for when the dogs are snacking. Every night my guys get a frozen Kong stuffed with pineapple and applesauce. And let me tell you, devouring this Kong can get very messy, which is why I use the throw rug. Besides it being easily washable, the rubber backing keeps the rug in place and helps keep the dogs in a spot where they make the least amount of mess.
  • For drying or grooming purposes. My dogs will walk in the rain, but it comes with a price. They expect me to dry them off when we get back inside. Training your dogs to stand on a throw rug after a rainy (or muddy) walk, while you dry them off will save your carpet or floor from muddy paw prints.

These are some of the ways we use throw rugs in our home, where/how do you use them?

Love/Hate Relationship

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Longtime blog readers know…Delilah has a love/hate relationship with the chipmunks in our yard.

They love to taunt her by standing right in her sight, and she hates them when she goes flying outside and they dive into one of their tunnels.

Yesterday, as Delilah and I came back from our walk, Hubby said, “See that brown spot just inside the black drainpipe?”  I nodded. “I think that’s a chipmunk.”

Delilah and I usually play a treat finding game in the driveway. It’s my way of getting her use to being off-leash, but keeping her focused and in the yard.

I unclipped her from her leash and said, “Chippie” as quietly as I could.

She ran up the driveway, looking around. Finally, she found her way to the pipe. It took about 10 to 15 seconds before she realized the chipmunk was in the drainpipe.

Damn but I wish I’d been quicker with the camera, and caught her with her nose in the drainpipe!

Close…but no chippie!

What the woof! What’s a dog gotta do to get a chippie?

Once she figured it out, she started pawing at the drainpipe. Which made Hubby tell her to stop, and of course, it made me laugh. 🙂

NuPro Joint and Immunity Support For Dogs

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This post is sponsored by Nupro. I’ve been compensated by Nupro to share my opinion of their product. However, Heart Like a Dog will never share products that we don’t use ourselves. All opinions expressed within are ours. 

You all know Sampson has been struggling with Cruciate issues since 2014. That’s three years ya’ll. Three long and painful years of watching my dog struggle.

Struggle to get up, struggle to walk, struggle to be comfortable. During these three long (did I mention they were long) years, we’ve tried a number of different products and treatments in an effort to help ease that struggle. Some of course, like anything else, have worked better than others.

Every once in a while, you find a treatment that has a dual purpose. For us that treatment is NUPRO Joint and Immunity Support for dogs. (I refer to this as, “The Silver Label”.)

Nupro Joint and Immunity Support helps with joint issues as well as giving the immune system a lil’ something’ something’.

I first found out about Nupro at our local pet expo. With Sampson’s struggles, I’m always on the lookout for new products. I was given a very generous supply of Nupro to see how it might help Sampson.

There is also a Gold label which is a totally holistic product chock full of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and essential omega fatty acids. 

For those keeping score at home, I call this one, “The Gold Label.”

The container we received is five pounds and quite large. For a dog Sampson’s size (87 pounds) the recommended dosage is 2 scoops to begin and after a month, you can reduce it to one scoop per day. Depending on your dog’s issues, you can also keep it at two scoops per day, which I do. The five pound jug lasts us close to two months.

The ingredients. Oh so important to us! There are no wheat, corn or soy fillers!

Glucosamine, MSM, Ester-C (a mineral blend of Vitamin C), Norwegian Kelp, Ground Flaxseed, Yeast, Desicated Liver, Amino Acids and Enzymes, Garlic, Calcium, Lecithin, Lactobacillus Acidophilus.

Initially I waited to add this to Sampson’s diet. He had his annual exam towards the end of November and I had scheduled a follow-up with another vet at our clinic who’s been very helpful with Sampson’s joint issues. I wanted to be sure that everything we were doing was complimentary, not detrimental. I had received some samples at the expo, so I brought those with me and got the ok from Dr. Atz to try it.

The directions say you can sprinkle it on their food, or make it into a gravy. At first I started sprinkling, but then I was struck by brilliance, and realized that Sampson doesn’t drink a lot, so if I made it into a gravy, I’d not only be helping his joint issues, I’d be giving his kidneys a little boost too. (You have to love a product that serves a dual purpose!)

We feed raw, so I don’t pour it over his food. Instead he gets the Nupro as the third course, or “dessert” part of his dinner. (Yeah you read that right, my dogs get a three-course meal. That’s two (count em), two courses more than I get.) After he’s cleaned his bowl, and had his small scoop of pumpkin, I mix up the Nupro. I use a small milk pitcher, (because it has a spout) for ease of pouring. I call it his, “Go-go juice” and if I’m a bit slow in the mixing, he comes over to wait while I do it. I use a bit of warm water, add the Nupro, mix it up with a fork and then add a bit of cold water and mix again.

Sampson loves this stuff. I’ve said to Hubby, “Even if it wasn’t doing anything for him, I’d give it to him anyway because he loves it so much.” Siriusly, his little front paws ‘dance’ while he waits for him. And of course, Delilah is waiting by his side, so she can lick his bowl clean. (Because, the Lab part of Sampson doesn’t lick. Right) **eyeroll**

I wanted to wait a good while before sharing this because Sampson is a dog who is slow to adapt to things. We know this. Both from the surgical repair on his knee, and his recovery from the non-surgically repaired knee.

I can tell you, after five full months on Nupro, I definitely see a difference for him.  He has far less shaking in his back legs when he’s in the house. He seems to get on and off the sofa, and bed with far less discomfort and there are even days when he will pick up a toy and fetch it or tug with it. Of course, with his issues we try to discourage any sirius physical activity.

But what about the cost, I hear you say? Well in my humble opinion, the price is quite reasonable. This five pound container sells for less than $40. Which means this costs me about 66 cents a day.  (You can also buy it in a 20 pound container, which saves you about $80.)

I don’t know about you, but for me, 66 cents a day is a small price to pay to help give my dog some comfort in his senior years. It’s less than a cup of coffee.

Coffee is bad for dogs. I’ll take Nupro instead.

Am I telling you to give up your coffee?

Hell to the no!

I say be like Jodi. Keep your coffee. Considering cutting something from your grocery bill that you buy for your husband. I’m cutting out his cookies…;-)

Oh, and another cool thing, Nupro isn’t just for dogs. Nupro makes supplements for cats and ferrets too!

 

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