Dog Lover's Equation

1
Kind-hearted owner (not pictured)

+ 2

faithful, loyal and deserving dogs
+ 1
pair of well broken-in water-proof boots
+ 2 leashes
+1 bait bag full of goodies
+ 1 empty state park off-leash dog area


=
45 minutes of fun

+
2 tired (and wet) dogs

+
1 happy owner (still not pictured)

Missing Eggs

Generally all my puppies have outgrown their chewing habits after several months. Then along came Echo. I can't keep up with her thievery. She is over a year old now and still will investigate and take anything not attached. Lisa gave me 18 eggs from her chickens. I was in a hurry to go to my obedience lesson so quickly put them in the far back of the car-out of dog reach I thought. Each dog got their training time, after the last dog was done I opened the back of the van to put my obedience bag away and found a partially chewed egg carton.





No broken eggs but one egg missing. I was puzzled-had Lisa only given me 17 eggs? The 18th egg remained elusive, that is until I looked in the middle part of the van. A few broken eggshells were present. Echo had climbed over the back seat, chewed through the egg carton, picked up the egg and climbed back to the middle of the van to eat it-all without breaking the egg! Although I rarely muzzle my dogs Echo may be the exception-at least until she learns what is hers and what is not.

Keep 'em busy

Some days, I just don't have the time/daylight/weather to make sure the dogs get the exercise they need to be satisfied. If I have a little bit of time, I hold longer or more frequent training sessions in the house. However, there are times where I come home with just enough time to go to bed so I can get up and be productive at the work in the morning.

Those are the days I pull out the interactive toys. Eating kibble from a bowl is not very exciting so I use use the interactive toys to make the dogs to work for their dinner. It takes longer for them to eat and it requires them to use their brains.

One of my favorite toys is the Squirrel Dude from Premier. The large sized toy can hold a whole cup of kibble, the medium holds slightly under half a cup. Here is a video of Tanner and Shine working on their Squirrel Dudes.



The other toy from Premier that I like to use is the Tug - A -Jug. We haven't had these toys as long but Tanner is quite adept and getting his treats out of it.



When using one of these toys for the first time, I used a small sized kibble and put in some bits of beef jerky to provide extra motivation for Tanner. Once he learned how to manipulate each toy to get the treats out, I moved to a normal sized kibble and using less jerky. I wouldn't have to use any jerky now but I like to spoil him.

Shine often gets a portion of her dinner in one of these toys regardless of the amount of exercise she has received. I like the fact that it takes her longer to eat this way.

There are many other types of interactive toys out there, these are just two of our favorites. I would love to hear if any of you have favorites that we should try as well!

Greyhound Space Issues

One of the traits I dislike about greyhounds is their space issues. When laying down many of them have a "personal space" that they don't like other dogs invading. And they let them know when startled or touched. I have noticed over the years that most of my dogs are happy to lay next to or on other dogs until somewhere around 6 months then things change and they prefer to lay apart.
Lisa's greyhounds(one of which is Darby)tend to show this trait less than my dogs. One day I realized she asks her dogs to be in proximately of each other and deal with it. Hum...I thought can this behavior/tolerance be trained?

Lyric and Darby's picture was taken today. Lyric was asked to lay next to Darby to have her nails dremmeled. Darby didn't seem to mind in the least and seemed to find her flank a nice pillow. Lyric seemed okay with being a head rest.

Bacchus the cat

Time for an update on the cat situation. Unfortunately Genghis the cat wasn't a fit in the household and had to be rehomed/returned. Rarely have I ever had a pet not work out but Genghis wasn't happy about being picked up and handled. In fact he downright resented being handled and would lash out. Although I found a new home for Genghis as an outdoor barncat the rescue group wanted him back so back he went. In his place is Bacchus known as Ping at the shelter. The economy is taking a terrible toll in California. I think we are worse off than the rest of the country. Ping was turned in just over a year ago because his owners lost their house and had to move. Ping wasn't allowed to move into the apt so his owners drove over an hour to take him to the no kill shelter Town Cats


Bacchus is an excellent cat and is fitting in quite well. He obviously had never been around dogs but is quickly learning to hold his ground-and the dogs will leave him alone. Now if only Miss Cleo would be as tolerant!






While at the shelter I noticed all the cats had ear mites to some extent. In talking to the shelter people they were aware of the problem but were only able to treat so many cats a week. Consequently they couldn't get rid of the mites since all animals have to be treated at the same time. Since I mentor veterinary students from the new veterinary school Western University in Southern California I decided to make a field day and take the students down to the shelter and treat all cats for ear mites and fleas. We did physical exams and treatment plans for the sickest cats. In addition to the veterinary students I recruited many additional helpers with cat experience. We treated 165 cats one Sunday and at least 50 cats were feral!! Quite a learning experience for the students-and for me. Exhausting but tremendously rewarding to help so many cats.