Poison Control - Just In Case!

Some day, my friend, this might come in handy ...

The poison control for dogs is 785-532-5679---785-532-4100 second # answers 24 hrs at no charge..

I want a Golden ...

I love them - they're friendly, smart, and loving.

On the downside, they are VERY active, like to dig (most of them) go through a long puppy hood (mentally ... about 2+ years!) They are hairy and shed. They do have a bit more "doggy' odor than most ... even though I feed my dog home cooked food (no bad stuff that is supposed to magnify the problem) I still notice it. I have hair on my sweatshirt right now and bet I ingested a few with my dinner. And I live with someone who vacuums every day!

I just want you to be prepared - if you need a clean house or are a couch potato, be honest with yourself and keep looking for a more compatible breed. They're not for everyone!

Also, they are pre-disposed to certain health conditions. Pass right by the pet store puppies AND the backyard breeders and find yourself a REAL breeder. Insist upon health clearances for BOTH parents ... if the first pup you see doesn't have them, do NOT believe that "the parents are healthy ... the pups will be fine." Too many times that ends in monstrous vet bills, early deaths, and distraught owners. INSIST upon health clearances.

Natural Flea Solution

I lurk about (and generally cause trouble) on Yahoo Answers and can't believe how many times I have typed a response to a question about fleas. Well, let me rephrase that - I can't believe I did it more than ONCE without just putting it here and copying and pasting ...








Given the extremely high toxicity level of chemical flea preventatives, many folks are wondering if there's a better way. I won't guarantee results, but I am having good luck with the following.











The natural way to combat fleas:





Feed garlic ... 1/2 clove per day for small dogs or cats, up to a clove or two for a big dog. It's garlic, not rocket science. You will occasionally read that dogs shouldn't have garlic. Most vets have decided that onions are a no-no but garlic is good for several different things - flea avoidance being a big one.





Feed brewers yeast - from a teaspoon to a tablespoon. Dissolve in warm water and feed with meal.





You can also sprinkle brewers yeast on the dog but do it outside - the fleas will jump off and you don't want them on your carpet!

Here's a great pet product from Lavish in Mission Hills. It smells delightful and has great essential oils to ward off fleas. Garlic, brewers yeast, and essential oils - you can't go wrong!

I also detest fleas enough that I won't think a single bad thought if you decide to exterminate them chemically. They are nasty little buggers! If you do use chemicals, don't waste your time on the pet store "flea aisle" products. They are toxic + not effective - a bad combination! Go straight to the vet counter at petsmart or google "discount pet medication" and get Advantix or Frontline!

Cookies!!

Yes. I used my day off to bake teeny-weeny cookies for my dog. Peanut Butter Pumpkin, rolled thin and cut into teeny pieces.

They weren't THAT hard to make ... I may have solved the kibble dilemma!

Cooking Day

This is my second pot of dog stew. It's really quite easy - thanks to Costco and Henry's! This is "Doggie Oats" from Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Cats and Dogs.

It really isn't very pretty but it doesn't taste bad (just a little lacking in spice) and it's easy. This is just chicken breast, oats, veggies, and Healthy powder, a vitamin-mineral supplement that is made up of brewers yeast, kelp powder, bone meal, and more. It provides natural sources of all of the essential vitamins and minerals and the calcium-phosphorus balance is carefully balanced at a 1.4-1 ratio. Heady scientific stuff we're working with here!

Then look - you just put it in containers, refrigerate/ freeze as needed. Warm one up and it's a meal. It's not THAT much more work than delving into a bag of Unknown Kibble Bits.

Houston ...

Yes. I have a problem.

I miss kibble because it works so well for training! Teeny little treats ready to go - yummy to eat and Lily will actually work for them. I have chopped chicken in my bait bag for leash training but what about my MannersMinder and the Buster Cube?

I can't stick chicken stew in a Buster Cube! What do I do? I don't want to make 3 million little pieces of cookie each week!

My Dog Smells GOOOOOD!

Go ahead. Scroll down to that glimmery picture and put your nose right up to the screen.

No doggy smell! She smells fresh and clean and it's been days since her last bath! The ears are still a bit stinky but defintitely less waxy - I will mix up soem ear wash and see if we can get them clean for good!

Gunky Eyes

Lily's coat is beautiful, her scratching is decreasing, she's got a great shape and is growing nicely. The thing I just can't get a handle on is her gunky eyes! She wakes up with eye goobers, I clean them out and she's good for the rest of the day.

The vet checked them out and said she doesn't have an infection or anything that requires treatment, simply to clean them and rinse with saline if needed. He seems to think it's probably an environmental irritant - dust, grass, pollen, etc. Darn it, it's irritating me!

Andi has an eye rinse solution in her book but it includes boric acid and I just can't bear the thought of putting boric acid (makes a good natural ant poison, BTW) near an eyeball. Need to do more research to feel comfortable.

Lily's Pals

Here are two of Lily's friends, Kalani and Ricochet, practicing their surfing at Fiesta Island. (Cheez Whiz is a favorite "attractor" in surfing ... it gets on boards and puppies!)

Look at that sad face! And a tongue sticking out, even. You can tell these two are sisters!

Nutritional Source

I ordered kelp powder and calcium lactate from VitaSprings.com this morning. The prices were great and all of the supplements were familiar names from Henry's and Whole Foods.

I'll keep you posted as to delivery and service!

Slight Hiccup ...

Lil has SOOO much good nutrition packed into her chicken stew that I don't know what to bribe her with for training!!

I can use some diced chicken. She loves carrots ... but boy do I ever miss the days of the neat little pieces of kibble!

Luckily Lily's tummy likes the new stuff much more than my fingers like the old stuff - she wins!

Sparkle! Sparkle!

We started the Essential Fatty Acid formula on Wednesday. By Saturday night Talen, Jordan, Lisa, and I were all enthralled by the glimmering sparkle of Lily's coat!

It has a sheen to it that reminds me of show horses with that "Show Sheen" formula. You know, the greasy stuff you rub on the horse, then cover them with a blanket till showtime because any dust, hay, etc. will stick to it??


Except that Lily is shining from within and there's no greasiness to her! I know this picture doesn't do it justice, but just pretend that you can see little glimmers of spun gold in that fur!

Granola Girl Gone Wild

It is Week One of the Whole Pet Diet Experience. This week is all about Essential Fatty Acids. The chapter includes a recipe for an oil blend to balance Omega 3's and 6's in forms that are readily available to dogs and cats. We are essentially lubricating Lily's body: not only skin, coat, and nails but also heart, eyes, and other tissues. We are providing her immune system with an extra boost to fight off any bad guys. We are on a mission!!!


Last night was an experience. Armed with "Whole Pet Diet" I bee-lined for the nutritional corner of my local Henry's Market. I asked for wheat germ oil (out of stock) and barley juice powder. (What?? They make juice powder?? Stop and think about THAT for a moment!)


In short, I found things like kelp powder, spirulina, and chlorella. Nutritional yeast, lecithin granules. I found Things I Have Only Read About In Books. Mystical things, one and all. My wonderful little service dog in training has led me to the Temple of Nutrition.

Apparently I am the World's Worst Granola Girl. I survived 9 years in the wilds of Northern Idaho, following my dad's whims that ranged from "mildly back to nature" to "raving survivalist."

I could identify keifer long before I knew about cake mixes; we canned fruits and veggies for the long, cold winter ... I have read whole food nutritional articles for as long as I can remember. But I had never before experienced the thrill of The Nutritional Yeast Aisle.

Folks, when 'they' say that pets are good for you, just believe them.

Lily's Diet

For those of you who have read the Service Dog Blog, you may remember the trouble I had trying to decide what to feed my Virtual Dog. Let me tell you, the real dog isn't any easier!

I read multiple books and was frustrated. Can it BE THAT hard??? Can't we come up with a number of calories for the day by weight + activity level, proportionate amounts of fats, proteins, carbs, and then just mix it up? This is NOT rocket science - the fact that there are dogs in 3rd world countries and that wolves survive lets us know that this is a rather hardy creature!



I was tinkering a bit with Lil's food, trying to decide if I really did want to cook home cooked after all of the warnings about possible imbalances, etc. when we had a bit of a hiccup. I fed her some Natural Balance Turkey roll as a training treat. This was an all natural, premium, commercial food, on par with the Canidae kibble I was feeding her while studying more about home cooked food. It gave her diarrhea that had me running down 3 flights of stairs multiple times in the middle of the night (in my pajamas, hair sticking up all wild ... what a sight!)



I switched quickly to steamed rice and chicken. Her tummy settled right down and, not surprisingly, I noticed within a few days that she was scratching less and her coat seemed to have gotten just a wee bit softer.



I did the Classic Move: "Well," I thought to myself, "that's going well. Why not mix some kibble back in?"



Does that sound smart to you? It wasn't. More tummy trouble, more itching, no benefit. I was worried that rice plus chicken wasn't giving her all of the vitamins she would need. Obviously, over the long run, this is true, but kibble is not the answer - at least not for Lily!



So I was back at the bookstore. I read through Pitcairn, Strombeck, and Brown. I decided upon Andi Brown's book for it's simplicity, attention to detail, ease of asembling ingredients, AND the foreward by Dr. Pitcairn. There are so many reviews on the internet - I found one this morning from a professed "dogaholic" who quoted some DVM sources but apparently has no credentials of her own. She endorsed Pitcairns book but specifically opposed "The Whole Pet Diet" by Brown for lack of complete nutrition. This seems self-contradicting given that Pitcairn himself endorses the book in his forward.



So I am following the "Whole Pet Diet" for the next 8 weeks. Who am I kidding? I'll do week one and two this week because I am impatient - but I will take the time to do the journaling and will keep you posted on the results!



My specific goals for this dietary plan?

• "Properly formed" stool


• An end to itchy skin


• No more eye boogers (yes, the vet checked them - they're fine but seem to be sensitive to some "allergen.")


• A healthy animal that lives a long, happy life!

There she is - doing a somersault on Couch with Blankie!

Things People Say ...

It amuses me to no end the things people say ...

I walk the streets of San Diego for about 2 hours a day. Lily and I are usually focused on each other and ignore most of the passers by but every once in a while we have a brief conversation. To their credit, lots of people ask intelligent questions:

How old is she?
How long have you been training?
What is being trained to do? (She wears her red Service Dog vest while training.)

But then there are the 'interesting' ones:

"Are you a professional trainer or is that your dog?" one man asked.

"No, this is my dog." I answer, thinking I must look pretty darned sharp with my obedient little dog. I have my bait bag around my waist, clicker in hand, dog in a perfect heel, then an automatic sit at the street corner ...

"Oh. Do you have to give lots of treats? I'm training my dog but I just can't bring myself to wear the bag."

Oh yeah. Because looking good is really maximized when you have a dork of a dog bouncing at the end of a leash and jumping up on people, barking his head off. A bait bag would be WAY worse!

My friends, I have dozens ... I'll keep you posted as folks make me laugh!

Another quickie: "Yeah, I had a dog but it was a small dog so I never needed to train it."

That was a good one, huh??

Finding Our Vet

Why is it that we always seem to bond to our vets when we're having a pet crisis? I first met Dr. Simpson of Spring Valley Veterinary Clinic way back in the mid- 90's when our Bichon Skippy had a torn ACL and needed surgery. Our "other" vet quoted $3-5k and told me it was so expensive because he didn't do the surgery himself and "subbed it out" to another vet.

Our family friend, Barbee, suggested that I call Dr. Simpson. He took a look at Skippy's knee and told me matter of factly that he could manage it and the cost would be under $1,000. He said, "It just happens to be one of the things I know how to do."

Fast forward to The Lily Days ... I was in a panic. That should sum up the story, but let me continue ...

(This next part all goes in high speed and a very high-pitched voice.)

The breeder had skipped the "middle" round of vaccinations and I thought she might need another round. And if she did, could we do it at the appointment we had scheduled for Tuesday, or did it need to wait to the three week mark? What should we do in the meantime? What if she picks up something while we're out walking? Should I keep her in and make her potty on puddle pads? What do I do? Could we fit in a rabies shot before then because I need that for her Service Dog registration? does she have to be 16 weeks or 4 calendar months?

And I have to get this done ASAP because I need her rabies done so she can get her Service License so she can live in our apartment ... Do you see how rough this is?

Yes, I used every bit of my brain power to make this as complicated as possible!

I called Dr. S's office. I faxed over her records to date. The tech called back and told me we needed to reschedule. I called back again ... I got a new person ... I asked for the original person because I couldn't possibly explain it all again ... the original person got on the phone and really heard my question ... then she put me on hold.

Finally, I heard a male voice, "Anniessa, this is Dr. Simpson. Lily is fine. She had all of her shots after 15 weeks so she is covered. She has to be 4 calendar months old for her rabies so I'll see you on Tuesday the 10th."

The calm was palpable. So I took Lily out for a guilt-free walk! And when I get the paperwork to our apartment manager next week, all will be settled.

Whew.

The Service Dog Experience Begins ...

Months ago the thought first occurred to me that I might benefit from the assistance of a service dog. As is customary when I start thinking about something, I researched the heck out of it. Checked every book out of the library, joined groups, asked questions galore.

I researched the qualifications, the service dog certifications, and typical tasks that dogs can be trained to do to help. I reviewed the Americans with Disabilities Act. I studied the Public Access Test to see how a dog needs to perform in order to be entitled to access in public places.

(This is her dad, Luka)

I even went through a brief, indignant, self-righteous stage when I was railing against "fake" service dogs and the abuse of the ADA by able-bodied people. Well, I may have let most of that go, but watch out if I see you in public with a rowdy dog - I am likely to approach with The Two Acceptable Questions: Are you disabled? Is this your service dog? I'm ready!

Now I've reached a huge turning point. I have a possible match and we are meeting her this weekend! Thank goodness for digital photography - this is her at 5 weeks:

I've done my research. I've gotten a note from my doctor. I've notified my apartment manger. I've even ordered a wire crate ... I've considered every angle: Where will she go potty? Where will we put her kennel? How will we minimize the hair for Sven? How will I keep him from doing too much for her? If she doesn't go to work with me, she will by default be home where he is most of the time ... I don't want to make extra work for him.

But most of all I feel as if the change from "considering a service dog" to "we might be two days away from getting a dog" is amazing.

The best description I can think of is thinking back to the days when my brothers were small. After a long day with them I would be exhausted and just about out of patience: at the end of my rope. Then my mom would call from work to let me know she was leaving and she would ask if we needed anything from the store. The relief was enormous - I knew I was going to survive another day! I was re-energized, ran around trying to pick up the toys we'd had out, ran a vacuum over the floor (Really, mom, I did clean up a bit - you should have seen it before!)

(This is mom, Kalani. I'm sure she's almost as good as my mom!)

You know that moment in Princess Diaries when the William Tell Overture starts playing and Joe drives the limo to rescue Anne Hathaway? Yep, like that.