Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Fun, Fun, Fun….Day Three Hundred, Twenty Six

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If anyone had popped their head into the Mellow Mutt during Thursday night’s drop-in obedience class they would have seen dogs wandering and running freely, two and three people working with one dog and moms in tunnels.

It was the best class and the most fun I have ever had at obedience class.

We started out with our typical ‘Downs,’ and ‘Stays.’  After the potty break Sara decided to take out some agility equipment.  The tire,  tunnel and a short tube were brought out.

Some of the pups were old pros at the equipment and were running through the tunnel and having a blast.

There were a couple of dogs who were a bit shy of the equipment  or had never seen it before; those were the dogs who made the night fun.

This is Paxton

I’m not sure if Paxton is pure lab or not, but I’m fairly certain he has some lab in him.  He is a very sweet boy who was initially very shy around other dogs, but has grown tremendously since his mom started working with him.

Paxton had never seen agility equipment before and so was understandably a bit hesitant.  At first they were trying to force Paxton thru the equipment and I kept my distance.  Instead I focused on Delilah and running her through the tunnel to get rid of some of that lab energy. 🙂

No way am I going in THERE!

Then I noticed Sara and mom were trying to lure him with treats, that’s when I dropped Delilah’s leash and jumped right in. 🙂

We tried coaxing Paxton into the tunnel by throwing some treats just inside it.  Paxton’s mom was inside the tunnel at the far end with treats in hand trying to encourage him through.  He wasn’t having any of that.

I decided I would go through the tunnel and with treats in hand, work my way backwards bringing Paxton with me.  When I was about two-thirds of the way through I heard Hubby shout, “Keep going Honey, there’s a dog behind you.”

What I learned is I cannot crawl faster through an agility tunnel than a dog.  I burst out of the end of the tunnel and said, “Which of you a*holes sent their dog through the f*cking tunnel while I was in there?”

Laughter all around and apologies from Brockway’s mom as the Malamute came out behind me. 🙂

 

Finally we decided to straighten the tunnel and shorten it and by using treats to lure Paxton in, we got him through the tunnel!   Yeah, it was so rewarding and everyone was excited that he had done it!

Okay, it's not so scary when I'm focused on the treats.

Next up was Miss Maggie, a shy Golden Retriever; and she wanted nothing to do with the tunnel.  Class was probably over by this time but we were so excited with Paxton’s success; we had to try Maggie.

Miss Maggie at our outdoor obedience class.

We shortened the tunnel up until it was just a bit longer than Maggie herself; I sat at the entrance to the tunnel with Maggie and her mom and I fed her some liver treats.  Then we put some just barely inside the tunnel, then a little bit further and a little bit further.

After a minute or two of this, I moved to the other end of the tunnel and reached through with my hand full of treats and offered them up to Maggie. Tentatively she put her head in the tunnel and I moved my hand back and ever so slowly, following my hand Maggie went through the tunnel!!

When she reached the end and her head was clear I gave her the treats. We gave her lots and lots of praise and love; while she stood with her butt still inside the tunnel.

After class I heard many comments about what a fun class it had been.

I would have to agree.

This is the Saturday morning blog hop hosted by Two Little Cavaliers, go on hop along.

You can get your code here.

 

Follow-Up Friday…Day Three Hundred, Twenty Five

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For those new to the blog, my follow-up Friday provides me with an opportunity to update or revise a post from the previous week. 

Blog The Change – Author’s Note:  BTC happens the 15th of October, January, April and July.  When I first heard of BTC I jumped in feet first; all fired up and wrote a letter to the Governor of CT  asking him not to sign a bill that would severely impede rescue organizations.  I was unsure what to blog about for the last BTC and so I wrote about all the dogs and cats that get dumped  into shelters and possible reasons why. After I made my last BTC post I found out that there are themes.  Apparently this past BTC’s theme was Puppy Mills. 🙁  If you stick with this blog you’ll find I have a tendency to jump in feet first without testing the waters. 😉 

Dear Delilah/Dear Mama – Author’s Note: Truthfully if Delilah could communicate with me; I’m pretty sure she would take me to task a lot harsher than that post. 🙂

Training Centers – Author’s Note: I was a bit hesitant to post about my training center experience, because I really felt you all would take me to task for being such a coward and not sticking up for little Nikka.  Your comments were all very supportive and made me feel a lot better.

Vaccinations – Author’s Note:  I should have noted that CT’s rabies vaccination is once every three years.  The other thing I’m not sure I was clear on is, just because they weren’t vaccinated last year does not mean they won’t be vaccinated this year.  It will depend on what our vet says and what type of risk it entails.  

Thanks for reading and commenting, we hope you have a great weekend.

Vaccinations….Day Three Hundred, Twenty Four

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Our friend over at 2BrownDawgs posed a really great question to me; why don’t I vaccinate against Distemper.

I’m going to try not to climb on one of my favorite soap boxes here, but give you a quick and dirty. 😉

The older I’ve gotten and the more information I digest, I’ve begun to feel that we over-vaccinate in this country. Honestly, if I was having children right now I would be thinking long and hard about what I would vaccinate for. But I digress….

The first set of shots we gave to Sampson left him with a hard lump on his lower back. That was when I seriously started questioning shots.

In CT your dog must be vaccinated for Rabies; that is the only shot they require. Most training centers require your dog to be vaccinated against Bordetella (Kennel Cough) and Distemper.

Sampson has been vaccinated against Bordetella and gotten the virus; three times.  That was when I asked the vet what the point was of vaccinating him if he was going to get it anyway. The best explanation I got was the shot covers two or three of the 12 known strains. Well if it covered all but two or three then I might consider it; but since I don’t board the dogs and they don’t go to dog shows, I pass on the Bordetella.

In the past I have had the dogs Titered  (Tie derd) which is a measuring of antibodies in the blood. That is usually sufficient for daycare.

Each year when I take the dogs for their annual visits, I discuss the shots with the vet to determine which shots they really need. At Delilah’s last visit we talked about Distemper and Parvo and if I remember the conversation correctly, our Dr. feels the shots protection lasts much longer than the manufacturer indicates.  Hubby thinks she said ten years, but the American Animal Hospital recommendation is seven years.  You can read their recommendations for all vaccinations here.

My vet tends to favor the holistic side of medicine, which is why I like her and every visit I say, “Dr. Soutter, what do you vaccinate your dog for?”

Last visit she vaccinated for Rabies and Leptospirosis; and since we spend a lot of time hiking in areas where wild animals live, we decided to vaccinate for Leptos.

Sampson is scheduled for his yearly check up next Friday and I intend on re-visiting the vaccination subject.  I’ll keep you posted. 😉

Thanks again to 2BrownDawgs for the most excellent question.

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