Wordless Wednesday ~ Dashman edition

Be prepared! Not just for boy scouts anymore.

Because the holiday is on it's way here is a great article from Dog Star Daily:

8 Tips on keeping your dogs calm for the fireworks

And from Pet Connection this is a good look at why you should research your breeder BEFORE you buy that puppy.

Heartbreak ~ Where bad breeding meets poor judgement

It is also important to research the breed of dog you are considering adding to your family to make sure it is a good match. I typically recommend going to the rescue wesite for the breed you are considering. Rescues are usually much more forthcoming with the negatives of a breed than some breeders are. Remember, THEY love their breed and may not see the negatives of owning them. Love is blind after all!

When bad stuff happens to good dogs

Yesterday after finishing with a client I checked my cell phone to see a message waiting for me. There had been an "incident" at the prison with the dogs. Apparently the leashes got tangled, treats were dropped, and a fight broke out between them. One dog was injured during the fight as well as a handler while breaking the dogs up.
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Ahhh crap!
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The leashes being tangled had made separating them quickly problematic and had probably contributed to the fight starting in the first place. I say this because treats on the floor or ground with both of them present had not been a problem in the past. And yes we had discussed how to properly break up a dog fight and resource guarding in dogs previously as well. Considering it was a big dog vs small dog fight things certainly could have been worse.
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Fortunately the injury to the handler was a minor one and I received the call within 2o minutes of the incident. I was also luckily in the immediate area so I got there quickly. As soon as I saw Cooper I knew he needed to get to the vet. Of course this had to happen on a Sunday when everything is closed. A few phone calls later and we were on our way. (A big thank you to Dr. Yovino of Harbor Road Veterinary Hospital for coming in on his day off.)
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The x-rays showed a clean break of both bones in his front right leg. Ouch! Poor guy! He had to spend the night in the veterinary hospital to get fixed up. So now Cooper is on bed rest and limited exercise for 6 to 8 weeks. He is sporting a splint that will need to be checked and changed weekly and re-x-rayd routinely. He is also on antibiotics and pain medication. (an nsaid) Thankfully they let him go back to the prison to be cared for by his handler. I could tell all of the handlers felt horrible that it happened.
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I already had today off which meant I was available to handle everything fortunately. (we were short a Dr. at work so I wasn't needed) It is also good that Cooper is a dog that likes to do a lot of cuddling on the bed instead of racing around. This should make his recuperation easier on his handlers. He of course charmed everyone at the vet while there.
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While at the vet I bought a Medipaw dog bootie for them to use. (not shown in the photo above) I HIGHLY recommend them for any dog in need of a waterproof covering for a splint. It happened to rain last night so keeping his splint dry was on my mind. A cheap splint covering can also be made out of old saline bags that you tape on the foot. (Tip - Plastic baggie coverings on splints should ONLY be on while the dog is outside on wet grass. Remove it once inside so the foot doesn't sweat. A wet bandage MUST be changed to prevent skin issues.)
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Please send healing vibes Coopers way. Hopefully this incident doesn't affect our program in the future. It does mean Cooper will be with us longer and we now have unanticipated vet bills because of it. For anyone who wants to donate funds to help pay for his care, or to contribute to the cost of our training program, send checks to The Humane Society of Knox County. Write "For the K-9 Corrections program" or "For Coopers vet bills" on your donation. We would really appreciate any help. Thank you!

A trip to the lake.

Today I took Jenny to the local lake to see if she liked the water. I figure if I couldn't get her in then the possibility for ever considering an appearance at a Dock Dog event is unlikely. I didn't need to worry. The treats did the trick to get her in. The water was pretty nice so I'm sure that helped as well. We used the public boat ramp because it gets deep quickly and has good traction.

She swam a little bit and we quit there. The next step is to get her a life jacket. Pugs, and other top heavy muscled dogs, aren't really built for swimming more than a few strokes while supervised.

The next step is to get her fetching her water toy in the water. We'll practice that on land a bunch first. She already likes it. My son came with us and caught her swim on video for me.

Now I'm not really training for Dock Dogs. It's just a lark. And a reason to have some fun at the lake. I'm sure with a motivated pug it can be done. I'm just not sure Jenny is that pug. But we'll have some fun trying.

How To Get Dog Pee Spots Out Of Your Yard

Short of taking your dog on a walk every time he has to pee, there is nothing you can do about dog urine spots in your yard.

Or is there?

An interesting book find

It comes as no surprise to my regular readers that I have a book addiction. I make no apologies, it is what it is. I collect many books of all kinds. Of course dog training books are very popular on my list, as you would expect, as are dog breed history books. Fiction, biographies, short stories and young adult are some of my other interests. This means passing an open "Used books" store during say a Summer Solstice event is not possible. I try to reign myself in upon occasion but having mad money in my pocket near that open book store is an exercise in futility. So I caved. I went it to just look at the pet section and found this:

OK so I don't anticipate the need for this book at the present. But something about it just leapt out at me. It was certainly the first time I had seen a book on the subject. I actually put it back on the shelf and left. This is sometimes helpful in letting me rethink the need for a specific book I see and prevent impulse shopping. (and buyers remorse for money spent) As you can guess by this post's title it didn't work. I went back an hour later and bought it anyway. My sister made fun of me. I just couldn't pass it up though. I kept thinking, what if someone I know needs it later? It was listed at only $8.50 so it was a good deal to boot.

One of the reasons I am sharing this in a post is to let others who may have need for such a book know there is a book available on the subject. I have been perusing book stores for years and this is the first time I have seen it. The dog on the cover belongs to the author so it is written by someone who has gone though it with their own dog. It looks to be well written and includes lots of photos of many other dogs who have also had legs removed for various reasons. I'm not sure I'll be sitting down to read it though as my current que of books is already pretty long. At least I don't need to worry about the little voice in my head whispering "You should have bought it when you had the chance" should something happen to a dog I know. I do love to have good resources on hand ahead of time. Yeah I know, that sounds slightly paranoid. It's ok. I'm aware. We all have our baggage.

Beware of mothers defending their babies

WARNING: This video starts cute but doesn't end cute. It shows a dog being hurt by a mother deer.

To me the dog in the video looks old. It doesn't seem to be able to move quickly to defend itself at all. Someone said they thought the dog was trying to show submissive body posture to the deer but I don't think so because it keeps trying to get up to get away. It is to bad that A) the dog didn't go faster to the owner when called and B) the dog wasn't on leash with a wild baby deer in the area. I also don't know why the owner didn't try to scare the deer away instead of just yelling. (But maybe there was a mobility issue on their part.) And why didn't the person videoing put DOWN the camera to help either? The cat gets lucky by being faster than the dog. (and you'll notice that a person DID stick up for the cat) I posted this in hopes it may help any future dog owners if they find themselves in a similar situation.