Fit Dog Friday – Pierson’s Agility

I love teaching my dogs tricks. Pierson is especially fun to teach because he is so eager and so smart. Don’t get me wrong, Maya is eager and smart too. But Pierson has much better focus. He also has a lot more energy and needs regular physical and mental stimulation. So what better way to give him both than to give him ‘work’ to do.

I’ve thought about disc dog, but he is reluctant to catch the frisbee in his mouth. He is also not very good at bringing the frisbee back after I throw it. He wants to run away with it and chew on it. So I considered agility instead. Last year, I taught him how to jump through a hula hoop. It was a bit difficult at first because he was scared to jump through. But once he learned the hoop was nothing to be frightened of, his jumping skills took off.

Then over the winter I taught him how to weave through poles. I only had three poles so there were only two weaves, but he caught on to the concept rather quickly.

Then I saw the Kyjen dog agility starter kit online at a reasonable price and just had to get it. It came with one high jump, six weave poles, and a tunnel. Pierson took to the high jump right away. It was just like jumping through a hoop. He did well on the weave poles too, but he tends to miss some of the weaves.

Because it took so long for him not to be scared of the hula hoop, I thought the tunnel would take a long time. But he learned the command ‘tunnel’ after just two days. The following video was made after just under two weeks of playing with our new dog agility starter kit.

Although Pierson really seems to love this sport, I don’t think we will be doing any competitions. For one thing, I am not big on competitions. I’d rather keep the exercise fun rather than make it a chore. For another, Pierson does not like other dogs. I can imagine that trying to get him to do agility when there are other dogs around to distract him would be quite difficult.

No, we will stick to the starter kit in the back yard. Perhaps I will add some other agility stuff later. But overall, we will just keep dog agility fun.

Have you done agility with your dog? Any training tips?

Fit Dog Friday – Getting Fit with My Dogs

I’m working on Pierson’s dog aggression by going on group walks with other dog owners. It’s dog training and exercise at the same time.

My dogs are very fit and healthy. It helps that I am careful about what I feed them and how much. And that I keep them relatively fit by taking them for regular walks and playing fetch with them. But I have not been so good at keeping myself fit and healthy. So this Fit Dog Friday is mostly about me and a little about how my dogs Maya & Pierson contribute.

Benefits of Keeping Fit
I’ve been very focused lately on losing weight in a healthy way. Since mid-December, I have lost 18 pounds. Now, thanks to a little initiative on my part and to great partners like Maya and Pierson, I am only 5 pounds away from reaching my goal weight! Besides the benefit of losing excess pounds, I also get to buy new clothes, I have fewer problems with acne, my fibromyalgia symptoms are less severe, and I feel like I have more energy.

Healthy Diet
How did I do it? I did use some Herbalife products. However, these products were merely a support. What really helped me lose weight were the lifestyle changes. I’ve always generally eaten healthy foods like whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies, and baked but not fried meat. But I’ve also been eating too many sweet foods. So the first thing I did when I really made up my mind to lose weight was to eliminate those sweets (for the most part).

Walk, Walk, Walk
The second thing I did was exercise more. It hasn’t been enough to just walk the dogs. Now we walk faster, more often, and further. Sometimes, instead of driving to the convenience store for a cup of coffee, I will walk the mile distance with Maya or Pierson. I’ve even taken one of them with me when I walked to the UPS store to ship a package. I also walk to the grocery store if I just need a few things, but Maya and Pierson don’t get to go because they are not allowed in the store and I don’t want to leave them tied up outside for that long.

Fun Activities with the Dogs
Maya, Pierson, and I have also been doing more fun activities together. Instead of just playing fetch with the dogs, I try to get involved with the games. Seeing who can catch the thrown ball becomes a contest to see who can get to the ball first. Although I always lose this game, Maya & Pierson love it when I chase them. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I’ve also been taking Maya to dog park more often. Our dog park is around Clinton Lake and is not fenced. So from the dog park, we are able to walk the wooded trails to an area by the lake for Maya to swim.

Dog Walking Group
I’ve recently joined a group of other dog owners who have trouble with their leash-reactive dogs. In this group, we actually walk spaced out so that our dogs can’t hurt one another. The distance apart depends on the dog. I have to be the furthest away because Pierson’s behavior is the worst amongst the group. His behavior is especially bad at the beginning of the walk. But after about 10 minutes of walking and rewarding for good behaviors, I can decrease the distance between him and the dog ahead of us. After a few of these group walks, Pierson still has to walk a few feet behind. But this group has really helped him decrease that distance.

I can see us doing even more fun activities this spring. My husband and I are talking about going camping and hiking. I’d also like to teach Pierson some agility, which means less time for me sitting at the computer and more time outdoors. What other fit activities can you think of that Maya, Pierson, and I could do together? What do you and your dogs do to stay fit?

For more Fit Dog Friday posts, check out the link below:

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

Monday Mischief – Squirrelly Squirrels

This is my first Monday Mischief. Why haven’t I posted a Monday Mischief before? It’s not because Maya and Pierson aren’t mischievous, because they are. But because it is so hard to get a photo of their naughty stuff.

So today’s mischief isn’t about Maya and Pierson, but about squirrels. Remember my post from April 3rd – Small Signs of Spring? I mentioned there is a squirrel living in my neighbor’s house. I see him all the time but can’t seem to get a photo of him.

I finally got his photo yesterday. Not only that, I found out there are two squirrels living there and probably a nest of young squirrels too.

The squirrel living in my neighbor’s house peeks his head out.

There’s not one squirrel, but two!

This squirrel must have been trying to sneak out. The other squirrel grabs his butt and hauls him back in. No going out to party tonight, mister!

How is this mischievous? Because the squirrels drive Pierson nuts (no pun intended). They intentionally tease him as they scurry about. Just look at how Pierson watches them.

Tonight’s movie, “The Squirrelly Squirrels” will be featured on the outdoor patio in HD.

So what king of mischief are other dog bloggers up to this Monday? Find out by clicking the link below:

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

My Dogs and Cutie Patootie Poetry

My dog Pierson looks funny as he tries to catch a snowball! (pin me)

Anyone know what a patootie is? Where in the heck did that word come from? I say it all the time to my dog Pierson. But I have no idea on the origin of the word, or even how to spell it. I looked it up online, but both spellings and definitions differ. The most common spelling is how I have spelled it here. I’ve always thought patootie was a nice way of saying butt, but some definitions say it is a term of endearment. Perhaps it is both.

Anyway, the word patootie inspired me to write a poem about my dog Pierson, aka Mr. Fluffybutt:

My Pierson is such a cutie.
But he can be a pain in the patootie.
He barks at every little sound and sight.
And with other dogs he wants to fight.
But he is so super smart.
And his prettiness captures the heart.
Oh, how lucky I am to have my fluffy boy
Despite the yapping, he is such a wonderful joy.
(Hugging him is like hugging a big wiggly stuffed toy.)

And not to leave out my lovable Maya:

Oh my, oh my, oh Maya.
My sweet adorable papaya.
Sometimes she gets a little overexcited.
But if sweetness was a crime, she’d surely be indicted.
Oh what a happy Labrador.
My Maya is never a bore.
For everything she does, she does with zest.
Life is great when you view life as one big fun fest.
(Even though sometimes she can be quite the pest.)

My Labrador Maya really really enjoys chewing on sticks. It is her most favorite dog toy. (pin me)

Back to Pierson… I watched this great music video some time back (below) and thought it would be so much fun to teach my dog Pierson to do some of these things. What do you think? I think I can tell from the above photo that he has dancing potential, right?

Emerging from Rescue Dog to Family Dog

Happy Rescued Boy, PIerson.

This post is appropriate for spring as it is an article about growth. It is a story about the development of a rescue dog into a loved and cherished family dog.

I’ve been in contact with a new friend lately about her new rescue dog. And her story made me think about when I first got Pierson. He was so shy and nervous back then. I assumed I would have a calm and quiet dog on my hands. But then over the course of a few weeks, Pierson came out of his shell. He is a different dog today than he was back then. Here are his experiences and some things you can expect when you rescue a dog.

Shy to Outgoing
Pierson is still shy around strangers, but even that shyness is relatively mild compared to the shyness he expressed when he first came home. After spending time socializing him, he now allows most people to pet him. I don’t think he will ever be outgoing because of his breed tendencies. But it may be different with other rescued dogs. You might start out with a very shy dog and end up with one that absolutely loves to meet new people.

Unsure to Confident
When Pierson first came home, his walk was slow and deliberate. His tail was held low and his eyes were constantly on the lookout for a way to escape in case things went wrong. Today, he prances around with his tail held high. He knows this is his home and we are his family and he is completely at ease. When we go out, he is still confident because he knows I will take care of him.

Quiet to Loud
This may not be the case with all dogs, but it is definitely the case with Pierson. It was a couple weeks before I heard him bark. Now, not only does he bark (at every little thing), but he howls with excitement too. You should see him in the morning at feeding time. He wags his tail so hard that his cute little fluffy butt wiggles, he spins around in circles, and then he promptly sits and howls. It is the cutest thing!

Calm to Playful
I remember trying to play with Pierson after only having him for a couple of days. He didn’t understand that it was a game and still wasn’t too sure about me. The first time he ever played, it was with Maya. After a couple of weeks, he started to play with me too. I imagine my laughter when I tried to play with him scared him at first. Now he associates laughter with good things and we play and laugh all the time.

I use laughter now as a way to put him at ease. When Pierson heard a loud noise while we were out the other day, he got really scared. I purposely laughed at him playfully because the loud noise was nothing to be frightened of. He immediately calmed down.

Behavior Issues
Pierson developed a few behavior issues as he got more comfortable. When he first came here, he was too nervous to come out of his corner to do naughty things. But as Pierson got more comfortable going about the house, he started chewing on things, putting his paws on the counter, and digging holes in the yard. Expect some of these same things to happen when you rescue a dog. Remember, they don’t know what is right and wrong yet. As they come out of their shell, they will be investigating their new surroundings more often and may sometimes do things you don’t want them to do.

Pierson’s rescue documented on my Facebook Timeline in January 2012. (Sorry it’s blurry. I don’t know how to make it sharp like the larger image file is.)

Watching Pierson slowly come out of his shell has been a wonderful and rewarding experience. I love Pierson so much and am very proud of the dog he has become. A rescue dog requires time, patience, and training, but that dog is worth every effort. Pierson’s rescue story sort of reminds me of The Ugly Duckling story. Has your dog emerged from an ugly duckling into a swan?

 

 

Wordless Wednesday – Dogs vs Cats Part II

In Part I of Dogs vs Cats, we compared the two. But now, let’s have dogs and cats decide among themselves which is better.

In this funny pet video, it looks like the cat is in charge:

Proof again with our cat visitor Mau ruling Maya at our house:

But wait! It looks like the dog’s got this cat in hand. The dog thinks this is a fun game while the cat is not at all happy about it. Poor kitty!

And the dog in this video makes the cat do what its told whether it wants to or not:

It looks like it is still a toss-up. Perhaps if we watch this funny pet video we can decide which is the funniest, dogs or cats?

So who wins? I think we have a tie!

For more fun pet stuff on Wordless Wednesday, visit our other blog, PetAutoSafetyBlog. Here we have some funny Subaru commercials. Also, check out the blog hop below.

 

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

Review of Kinn Kudose Pill Concealer for Medicating Pets

The Kinn Kudose pill concealer base, bottle with apple/chicken baby food in it, and pill casings that will disintegrate when your dog eats it.

I recently had the opportunity to try out the Kinn Kudose pill concealer. When I first saw the product online I was a bit put off by the price. But when I got it in the mail I was pleasantly surprised. This isn’t some cheap flimsy product. It is very well made. And if you are medicating pets regularly, it is very useful.

At first I had a difficult time with it. One of the recipes it suggested was a peanut butter with oil recipe. It calls for smooth peanut butter and that is what I used. But I used Smucker’s Natural Peanut butter which is just peanuts and salt, no sugar or other additives. Even though it was the smooth variety, this particular brand was not as smooth as the peanut butters which have additives. So when I tried to squeeze it out of the Kudose bottle, it wouldn’t work. I guess the peanut chunks were too big and got stuck in the nozzle.

So I went and bought some baby food, which was another recipe Kudose suggested. It suggested chicken and gravy but I ended up buying sweet potato with turkey and apple with chicken. These worked very well and squeezed right out of the bottle. In fact, it came out so easily that the first pill I made was overfilled and I made a mess. But after making a couple more, I was able to make them quickly and easily.

The Kinn Kudose pill concealer with a pill case in it, the bottle on top, and sweet potato/turkey baby food being put inside.

Maya takes medication on occasion. I hate it when I try to hide the pill in soft cheese and she still manages to spit it out. Sometimes I would just skip the pleasantries and drop the pill in the back of her throat and close her mouth to make her swallow it. Not fun, but at least she ate her medication. But with the Kinn Kudose pill concealer, medicating Maya is 100x easier.

While the initial cost of getting the Kinn Kudose base dome and bottles might be considered pricy, it is a onetime cost and well worth it. The only other thing you would have to buy afterwards is more pill cases. These cases are just under $5 for over 100 of them.

The pill cases dissolve quickly so that the goodies and medicine you are putting inside gets digested by your dog. So you will want to make a pill as needed, not in batches. Simply open the empty pill casing and put the larger piece in the proper slot of the Kinn Kudose base. Put the medication in the casing. Then take the bottle of whatever goodie recipe you decide to use and set it directly over the pill casing onto the base. The attachment on the bottle makes it very easy to just simply set it and fit it over the top. Squeeze gently until the pill case is full, take the bottle away, then take the other piece of the pill casing and place it over the top.

After medicine is put in the pill and it is filled with the treat (in this case it is sweet potato/turkey baby food), put the pill together.

Ta da! In no time at all and no mess, you have a delicious tasting pill. Both my dogs gobbled it up!

Pierson really wants the pill from with the apple/chicken baby food in it.

Maya really wants to try a pill from Kinn Kudose with sweet potato/turkey in it. No meds this time, just a treat.

For more information about Kinn Kudose, visit their website, Kinninc.com. They also have a pill splitter/crusher so that you can break pills in half or crush them for mixing.

Opposites Attract – Two Different Dogs But Both Very Special

Maya & Pierson would be like two peas in a pod if they weren’t so different. Some days I wonder if they are in love and other days I wonder if Maya sees Pierson more as a pesky little brother than her best friend. But they are a lot more compatible than Maya and Sephi ever were.

The obvious differences between Maya and Pierson are:

• Maya is a girl; Pierson is a boy.
• Maya is light in color; Pierson is dark in color. (This makes it very difficult to wear clothing that doesn’t show dog hair.)
• Maya has short hair; Pierson has long hair.
• Maya loves everybody and every dog; Pierson is shy of people and hates other dogs (except Maya).
• Maya scares people away with her size and exuberance; Pierson attracts people because he is so pretty.

Training Differences
There are differences in training too. Both have a very high food drive so it is relatively easy to train them. But Maya gets so excited that she doesn’t focus very well. But sometimes training her is easier than training Pierson and sometimes it is the opposite. Take the jumping through the hula-hoop, for instance. Maya caught on right away, although she does tend to jump onto the hoop so it is around her belly rather than through it. But Pierson took longer because he was afraid of the hoop. It took me 4 days to teach him rollover but 4 weeks to jump through the hula-hoop!

Crate Training
Crate training Maya was super-easy. It was so so easy that I couldn’t believe my luck. Especially considering that Maya was the first dog I had ever crate trained. There was one night of a little tiny bit of whining and that was it. But Pierson was the opposite. He was actually quiet the first night because he was so unsure of his surroundings. But he went insane on the second night. He broke out of his pet crate! In fact, I believe the severe bloody nose he had on his third day in his new home was caused by him escaping his pet crate. His nose didn’t bleed immediately after the incident but something about the next day burst the blood vessel and had me rushing him to the emergency vet. I decided not to crate train him since I am home almost all day, he is potty trained, and he quickly outgrew the need to chew on stuff that wasn’t his.

Potty Training
While Maya was easy to crate train, I had a very difficult time potty training her. I’ve had dogs my entire life and have never had a dog give me this much trouble with potty training before. Pierson, on the other hand, only went to the bathroom in the house once. It happened about a month or two after I got him and it was his first time in our basement. There must have been some smell down there that enticed him.

Yep, Maya and Pierson are very different. But they are both very special. I love each of them because of, and in spite of, their differences. If you had a dog then got another dog only to find out he/she is nothing like your other dog, just remember that every dog is different. Some dogs have more challenges than others. So instead of comparing them, embrace the differences and face those challenges with a warm heart.

Not So Wordless Wednesday – Remembering My Dog Sephi

My Beloved Sephi

-Persephone – April 1, 2001 to November 2, 2011
-AKA Sephi, Sephi-Doodle, Boo Boo, Brat Dog, Devil Dog (she chewed up all my bibles when she was a pup), April Fool (notice her birthdate)
-Theme Song – Flight of the Valkyries, add words to the canon – “Sephi-Doodle, Sephi-Doodle, Sephi-Doodle! Doodle Head.” (I’ve got to make some sort of video for her with this.)
-Most Recognizable Physical Traits – Black spots on her tongue, big German Shepherd ears, Sephi always wore a bandana from age 1 1/2 to her very last day.
-Most Prominent Personality Traits – Aloof, well-behaved, lazy – she did love her walks but couldn’t handle walks that were too long, dog aggressive (especially in her final years), loved chasing squirrels and rabbits but was wary of cats.

This is one of my most favorite pictures of Sephi.

It has been nearly one year since I lost my beloved dog Sephi. I still think of her often, mostly with the joy of remembrance but sometimes with sadness. I still have photos of her around the house and on my refrigerator. My husband and I still occasionally say, “I love you more than Sephi loves food.” I would still have some photos of Sephi on my phone if I hadn’t bought a new phone this year. And it wasn’t until this October when I finally changed my profile pictures from Sephi, Maya, and I to Maya, Pierson, and I.

I miss those big Shepherd ears.

The Bargain
Sephi was a great dog. I could tell you stories about her all day, if you let me. But two things made her stand out as a special dog. The first one is that she helped me through my divorce and helped me adjust to my new life. Sephi was a puppy when she was given to me by my ex, then my husband, as a way of saying sorry for his infidelity. My life was falling apart but Sephi was there for me. My husband left me, but I got Sephi in exchange. What a bargain!

The Intruder
The second special story about Sephi was the day she protected me from an intruder. I came home in the middle of the day sick. In my muddled state, I forgot to lock my apartment door. Sephi didn’t usually bark when people came to the door. And she never barked at maintenance when they came in to fix something when I wasn’t home. But Sephi barked like mad that day when a stranger tried to come in. I barely heard a man’s voice through all her barking. By the time I got up to see what was going on, the man was gone. I was so proud of Sephi, who had never taken the initiative to be aggressive towards another person before.

Sephi loved to ride in the car.

I said two stories about Sephi, right? Well, I forgot about our trip to Oregon. I drove from Kansas to Oregon to visit family there. It was just Sephi and I on that long long trip. Sephi didn’t do anything heroic but she did make me feel safer, especially when my car broke down in not-so-Bliss, Idaho.

Sephi loved snow.

Yes, Sephi was a very special dog. I miss her terribly and am getting tears in my eyes right now as I write this. But she had a good life, and I had a better life because of her. I miss you Sephi. ❤•.✿.•❤

Like Maya, Sephi was a model for many of my PetAutoSafety.com products.

If you want to read more about Sephi, simply put Sephi in the search field of this blog and in the search field of our other blog, PetAutoSafetyBlog.com.

See Sephi’s cute spotted tongue?

As an artist, I never drew a picture of Sephi when she was alive. But now that she is gone, I feel the need. Here is a rough sketch from the photo above. I will show the finished piece when it is done.

Here is a cute drawing that someone else did of my Sephi.

Dog Shock Collars v. Train Humane Day

Celebrate Train Humane Day and Learn the Cons of Dog Shock Collars

(No shock collars or negative reinforcement methods were used in training my dog Pierson to jump through this hoop.)

If you’ve been reading my blogs you know that my dogs are very smart, especially Pierson. But I admit, I am terrible at training my dogs to walk properly on a leash. I’ve tried several humane techniques with my exuberant Lab Maya and some have worked to a point. She was doing fairly well until I got my dog Pierson. Pierson goes absolutely nuts when he sees another dog so Maya has taken up barking excitedly whenever she sees another dog. Now I have to walk them separately and train all over again.

I came across a great blog post that mentioned most issues with dogs can be alleviated with proper exercise. The logic is if your dog is getting enough exercise, they tend not do get overly excited. This make sense, but not for my Maya. When I commented as such on the blog, another commenter mentioned that it was because I wasn’t using the right techniques and that Maya’s issue could be resolved within a few days.

Really? I’ve tried several well-known techniques. What possible miracle technique could be out there that would cure my Maya’s issue in just a few days? Come to find out, this commenter was talking about shock collars. Personally, I don’t like this technique one bit. Oh, I can see how it would work in getting Maya to behave in such a short time. But here are the reasons I won’t use one:

1. It is cheating. I think far too many people use a shock collar as a shortcut to training. People who don’t know how to train a dog or who don’t want to take the time to properly train a dog use the shock collar shortcut. Now, I must admit that the person who recommended the shock collar only recommended it as a last resort since I have tried all other methods. If the decision to get a shock collar is because all other methods have failed and it is a danger if you can’t get your dog to walk properly on a leash, then perhaps I can see it. But it is not a danger for Maya. I can live with this issue and would rather continue to try to resolve it the humane way.

2. It takes the joy out of training. Maya is a sweet dog and she loves training time (mostly because she gets treats). I love training time too because I enjoy watching how enthusiastic she is about it. Training time is our bonding time. If I start shocking her in training, she will dread that time.

3. It tends to only work when the dog is wearing the collar. I’m going to admit another fault of mine. I grew up in the old school form of training. Most of my earlier dogs learned this way. It wasn’t until Maya was about a year old that I learned more humane methods. So for a few months in Maya’s early life, I used a pinch collar. It worked great. However, if I walked her without the collar, she was naughty all over again. If I couldn’t get her to walk properly on a leash without the pinch collar, then I wasn’t really training her.

4. It can turn a dog to aggressive or submissive. This does not happen in many cases, but it could happen. I’ve heard stories of dogs suddenly turning aggressive because of the shock collar. Perhaps the person using the collar didn’t use it properly or perhaps it was the dog. Every dog is different. A shock collar can also make a dog overly submissive. I can see this happening with my sweet Labrador. Maya is very sensitive. Yes, I’ve raised my voice at her a time or two. I’ve never raised my hand to her but when I yell she acts like I am going to beat her. Can you imagine how she would react if I shocked her? Poor Maya!

So what are the positive points of using a shock collar? Quicker results, easier, may be able to help if all other methods fail. But when I weigh the pros with the cons, I see a great imbalance. For me, reason #2 alone far outweighs everything else. If you don’t believe me, just check out some of my videos on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/user/naturebydawn/videos?flow=grid&view=0. I have quite a few videos of my dogs doing tricks and you can see how much they’re enjoying themselves. Do you think Pierson would be having as much fun jumping through that hoop if I had trained him with a shock collar? I think not.

If you’ve considered using a shock collar, please do your research and don’t be tempted with the quicker and easier results. Train Humane Day isn’t just about treating your pet humanely, it’s about learning the overwhelming benefits of not using harsh training methods. For more information on this special day, visit http://trainhumane.unitedcp.org/.