A Penny Saved, is a Lesson Learned!

It was Saturday morning and I woke up planning on taking all the dogs on a hike. I broke them up into two groups because they are all on different levels of training. I decided I would take Glacier, Dixie and Penny in the first group. I got them all loaded and off we went ready to hike. I got to our destination and parked, which was close to a busy street, and proceeded to get the dogs out of the car. I let Penny out first. I then turned back to the car to get Dixie out, when Penny caught the scent of something and started backing up. I had not turned around yet, but Lynda, who was hiking with me, called out that Penny was slipping out of her collar! I whipped around and Penny had completely slipped her collar! I shut the car door and immediately called Penny to me. Penny‘s expression turned playful, she bounced away from me and turned and went into the street. I stepped away from the car, she turned and looked at me, I called her again and this time she started toward me. I was relieved she was not in the street anymore however; she did not come back all the way. She stopped about 3 feet from me, ears perked up, prancing and seemed to be a little confused as to what we were doing. Once again I stepped backwards and said, “Penny come!” I could see the wheels turning in her head; it was time for her to make a choice. I knew if she bounced away again she was going to take off. I said, “Penny, cookie!  Let’s get a cookie!” As she approached, I reached out, showed her the treat and petted her head. I gave her the cookie and reached around to hold her while I put her collar back around her neck. Penny then received twenty treats with the words “good girl” after each treat!

Tonight, as I sit with Penny, I have been thinking how differently things could have turned out. I sat here just a week ago readjusting Penny’s collar because it seemed a bit tight. I adjusted it to where it was snug and I could put two fingers in it and I tried to pull it over her head. The collar was just right. However, I think what happened, was over the last few days as Penny and Banjo ran around and wrestled in the backyard, it became loose again. I did not check it before we left since I had just adjusted it. The other thing that occurred to me was that when Penny’s collar slipped off, she had no identification left on her because it was all on her collar. Penny is microchipped but that only works if she is picked up by animal control or if the person that finds her takes her to see if she is chipped. Everyone will not take the time to do this. Because of this, I have decided that I will no longer attach the leash to the collar that has my dog’s I.D. tags hanging on it. Now, I will walk them in a harness, and I will double collar Glacier. This way the walking collar stays attached to his leash and I will check it before each walk. If the walking collar loosens and slips off or even unclips (which has happened to a client) he will have all his I.D. on him, including a microchip.

The last, but most important point, is please train your dogs to come to you! My rule for recalls has always been that when my dogs come to me they will ALWAYS get reinforced with very HIGH value treats. All of my dogs are food motivated. When all seven are playing in the backyard and are at the far end of the property, I ring a dinner bell and they all start running towards me. As they get closer I start saying, “Come, come on, let’s get cookies!!” When they reach me I have high value food waiting for them! They have had meatballs, leftover meat from dinner the night before, a can of cat food, dog food, cheese, hotdogs and even frozen doggie yogurt! Their reward for coming always rotates so they never know what they are getting. I also make coming inside very valuable. So sometimes when they reach me I say, “Come, get cookies, let’s go INSIDE!” When we reach the kitchen, out come the treats again! I have also put treats in my pockets and have hidden in different areas of the yard. This is really fun at night! I yell “Come” in a high playful voice. When they find me, everyone gets a treat! I have also surprised them by just calling them out of the blue, as they are all lying around sleeping. They jump up and come to me and are given treats. Also, remember; do not call your dog to you to do something that they don’t really like. At my house that would be things like getting a bath or Dremeling their nails. When I need to do these tasks, I walk over to them and gently take their collar and walk them to where I need them. This may or may not need a treat. For example, if it is to take a bath, they get a treat for walking with me to the tub and then another when they get in the tub!

When your dog finally comes to you, it should never end in a negative response from you, no matter how frustrated you are. If it ends in a negative, why would your dog want to come to you in the future? This may seem like a lot of work, but actually it is just a bunch of fun games to play with your dogs and the pay off could be priceless! Penny is quietly sleeping in her dog bed thinking of her great hike today and I am thinking how glad I am that she is there!

A "Normal" Trip to the Store? Not Hardly!

It was a normal Thursday afternoon, a sunny clear day with a 107 degree temperature. I had a two hour break in the middle of the day and I thought I would take that opportunity to run to Petco, 15 minutes from my home. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to get Glacier, my newfie mix, out of the house, so I took him with me. I parked, picked up a few things, let Glacier visit a bit and then headed home.

I pulled out of the parking lot and noticed traffic was backed up a bit on my normal route, so I decided to try and take the back way home. I pulled up to the red light, I was in the left lane against the median and had four lanes of traffic to the right of me. As I was waiting for the light to turn to green, I noticed that the rotation of the light skipped us. It not only skipped us once, but four times. Now I had been in the car stuck in traffic for about 10 minutes, which is not terrible, but on the third skip of the light my air conditioning began to blow out hot air and it is still 107 outside. I rolled the windows down because it felt like it was 120 degrees in the car. I looked over at Glacier and he is panting extremely hard now. I look around the car for a bottle of water which is sometimes on the floorboard left over from all our hikes and walks - the typical "I will bring it in later". Unfortunately, this time I had taken all the bottles in the house. No water. I look around and the traffic is still not moving and I am boxed in. I am beginning to get very nervous about Glacier, I look over again and his head has dropped, eyes squinty, a little sunk in and now strings of drool are coming out of his mouth. I raised his lip, and pushed on his gums until the spot I was pushing on turned white, when I released my finger, his gums turned back to pink very slowly. I knew he was in trouble. I looked to my left, the median was a hill that was too high for me to drive over. The only way out was to the right. I began to lay on my horn, wanting the attention of the cars around me. I also began to rock my car back and forth, I did not care that I looked like a crazy person, I was. I waved at everyone to move their cars. If I could just get one person to try and move, the traffic in the far right lane was getting through on right hand turns. I had to get to that lane. The lady next to me looked at Glacier and I think she figured out what was happening. She also began to inch her way back, then before I knew it, other cars were inching back creating a domino effect, three lanes made a spot for me to cut across and I was on my way. Once I got the car moving the air kicked back in, I put all the vents on Glacier and in a second we were home. I gave him water and patted him down with cool cloths. I turned on the living room fan and he laid on the tile floor. He was ok.

I wanted to share this because I never dreamed a short car ride could be so dangerous. I know people that live up north and deal with extreme winter weather take precautions when they travel. It never occurred to me that our summers, especially this one, is just as extreme. A twenty minute trip to the store could have been very tragic due to a red light. From now on, when my dogs go anywhere with me, I will always have water for them to drink and a spray bottle to mist them. I also knew what to look for in Glacier as far as dehydration. This is how I knew he was in trouble. He did not vomit, if he had we would have went straight to the vet. Please learn from my experience!


What you need to know about dehydration:

Dogs lose fluid through: breathing, panting, elimination, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, evaporation through the feet and other body surfaces.

Dogs replenish fluid by drinking water or other liquids and by eating moist foods. A relatively small drop in body fluid (4-5%) can result in visible signs of dehydration.

Signs of dehydration:

1. The skin loses elasticity as it loses moisture. This can be somewhat misleading since younger and fatter dogs will have more elasticity than older, thinner dogs. It is important to have an idea of what your dog's skin looks and feels like on a normal basis. Pinch a little skin between your thumb and forefinger on your dog's back. When you release it, it should pop back into place immediately. (You can try this on the back of your own hand as an example) As the tissue under the skin loses moisture, the skin moves back more slowly. In extreme cases, the skin doesn't pop back.
2. The eyes appear sunken and lack moisture.
3. The mouth appears dry, the gums and nose are dry.
4. Delayed capillary refill time. Pull up your dog's lip and look at his gums. Place your index finger firmly against the gums so that they appear white. Remove your finger and see how quickly the blood returns to the gums (they will become pink in that area again). This is called capillary refill time. If you do this when everything is normal, you will have a basis upon which to compare. The gums of a normal dog refill immediately, the gums of a dehydrated dog could take 3 seconds or so to return to their pink state.

If your dog shows visible symptoms of dehydration, he may need a trip to the vet for immediate replenishment of fluids. In serious cases, your veterinarian may administer fluids under the skin or directly into the blood stream.