Pee or Puke

So the reason I have not posted on here for a while was the fact that I thought that nothing had really happened to talk about (and my life was boring) but I realized that blogging was about just sharing everyday things that I think may be boring but other people had no idea what really happened. So here is my next post..

Today I had my little friend Daisy with me to playgroup. I don't know if you remember but Daisy is the dog that gets travel sick very quickly.

So we take her to playgroup.

We have discovered her problem is a vision thing, as long as she can see forward with a little help sometimes turning her head by hand so she faces the direction we are traveling, she is fine and I mean really fine, not even a little drool. As soon as she cant see out of the car, she will start to drool and very quickly throw everything on to my Xfc fabric covered front seat, Xfc means its easy to clean, they say.

Thank god she does not get in my other car.

That's not the story though, just part of it.

We go to the park with Daisy and all the gang, Mark helping me get there as usual.

It's when he leaves that the fun begins, on my way back from the park Mark goes off on his own way to walk other dogs while I drop all the playgroup dogs home.

So, Daisy has the privilege of riding in the front seat, depending on the day and the dogs in group, someone will ride with her.

Today it's Daisy and Luigi yeah.

The short ride from the beach to Daisy's house begins, It's less than a mile.

Out of the parking lot and turned right, no drool, yeah,

Straight down the road for about 300 feet, no drool, oh yeah,

Left turn, no drool, really, wow, last week at this point she had already covered the whole seat with a nice orange glowing mound of stuff but not this week, yeah.

On to the home straight, it looks good, two more minutes and I will get there with no mess. Oh yes, one more turn and I will make it. I turn, all is cool in the car, no clean up today but what, what's that noise? It sounds like water bouncing of cardboard.
I look to my passenger seat not knowing what to think and there it is, Luigi is pissing all over the seat, not just a little pee a lot of pee.

Hey at least Daisy did not puke today and that's a good thing.

How Much Will We Get?

Judging from this picture from last year, Luigi's hoping for a lot of snow this season...

BBC will not air Crufts dog show next year

Has anyone been following the news about the Crufts dog show.

Here is a link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7779686.stm

A few old pictures I found

Here's what training can do...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqbVbPvlDoM

Kai is here for the weekend

My Dog Chews Everything

How do I stop my dog from chewing my Shoes, Chair, Blinds, Table or ______? (You fill in the blank) In my case, it was the wall. I'm not kidding - when she wasn't stealing the cats' toys, the little girl pictured above loved to chew holes in the wall.

Chewing is natural behavior for a dog - it helps them keep calm. When a dog gets anxious, such as when the owners are gone, it may resort to tearing up the sofa just to calm its nerves.

Most people I see try to solve this problem by giving the dog a huge selection of toys, hoping that the dog will chew on these and leave the inappropriate things alone. In my opinion this only reinforces to the dog that everything is a chew toy, so it learns nothing from this.

So how do we stop unwanted chewing? Here's the process I use:

While at home, place the dog in a space where it has no access to the inappropriate items, like a small room or a crate, with one freshly stuffed KONG* and nothing else. After about 30 minutes or so, let the dog out and spend 5 - 10 minutes playing tug or other games with a chew toy of your choice. Place the dog back in the crate with a freshly stuffed KONG (Don't forget potty breaks). What we are doing here is developing a chew toy habit. Every dog is different in how long it takes to get the picture, but most catch on pretty quickly. When the dog is not confined to its crate or room and you notice it playing with the toy, you should lavish praise and give a treat to let the dog know that this is great behavior. If you do catch it chewing on something you don't want it to, replace that item with the appropriate toy.

Once your dog has developed a great chew toy habit, the house should be safe from further destruction, and you will know your dog is at home happy and content.


*When using a KONG, I mix wet and dry dog food together, fill the cavity most of the way, then seal it closed with peanut butter and place it in the freezer. (If you don't use wet food, you can just moisten the dry kibble with water instead.) The frozen food takes longer to get at, thus making the chewing and licking last longer. Just don't forget that this food counts towards your dog's daily requirement - I'm not advocating over-feeding! Some people only feed their dog via the KONG - they believe that a dog working for its food is much more beneficial than just getting it for free.