Heart Like a Dog

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

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I Thought Wrong

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Lately I feel like I could write a story of an off-leash dog that we’ve encountered every week.

Here’s the latest:

The end of last week Delilah (why the eff is it always Delilah?) and I were walking.  Delilah (as she always is) had her nose glued to the ground, while I on the other hand was scanning the horizon and watching for obstacles (like I always am) that might need maneuvering around.  Which is how I spotted the situation.

I saw a woman walking from one yard to another with a leash in her hand.

Ut oh, that’s a loose dog I said to myself and slowed my pace.  I watched the woman go back into the other yard, still with an empty leash.

I had seen this woman before and I knew she had a new puppy, because I had commented to her on how well her puppy had stayed with her.  She shared the puppy was new, still young and a hadn’t yet begun exploring.

Well two weeks later THAT situation had changed.

Delilah and I approached the yard on the opposite side of the street and as we did so, guess who decided to to come out from hiding in the bushes?

The puppy.  It was a puppy!!  A. PUPPY!  Squeee I love puppies, BUT I’m not sure if Delilah does or not.

So the puppy starts coming towards the edge of the lawn, close to the street and here we are on the opposite side.  The woman, leash still in hand is closing in on the puppy.  I don’t know what if any commands this puppy knows, but I do my best and say, “Sit Puppy, SIT.”

Of course the puppy bounds out into the street as the woman looks on in horror.  Thankfully there were no cars coming.  I can’t even bear to think of it.  I don’t want to run, because I know full well the puppy will follow us, so I loosen my grip on the leash and start telling Delilah, “easy, be nice, etc.”

The puppy runs over, play bows in front of Delilah and jumps up and pops her right in the face with her paws.

I am so proud of Delilah, she does get the hair on her back up, BUT she never growled or snapped at the puppy.  They did some nose sniffing and by this time the woman had made it across the street and secured her puppy.

You think I'd hurt a puppy? I am shaking my head Mama, I just don't know about you sometimes.

You think I’d hurt a puppy? I am disappointed in you Mama, I just don’t know about you sometimes.

She told me she was trying to get the dog to poop and the dog didn’t like pooping while on leash and she thought the dog would stay close with her.  Thankfully it turned out fine, no dogs were hurt or scared and Delilah did amazing!!  I however, think I earned a few more gray hairs.

I thought for sure she would have learned a lesson that night.

I thought wrong.

Last night the same thing happened, the puppy ran strait across the street when she saw Delilah.  This time I was prepared and knew that Delilah would handle the situation well, so I relaxed my leash and after a few quick seconds, Roxy (as I found out the puppy’s name is) ran over to me and I reached down and grabbed hold of her collar.  The woman thanked me and I heard her telling Roxy, “bad puppy.”

The husband on the other hand was standing in the yard all authoritative and yelled, “Enough.  Roxy Come.”

‘Cause that will work.  Honestly what do you expect from a 12 week old puppy?

Where have I been?
I wanted to let you all know that the reason I haven’t been around visiting like I normally do is I’ve been working once again on my book.  I really want to try and get it finished this year….and it’s been calling me, so I’ve been listening. I do still read, but I don’t always comment.

This is Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog.   Barks and Bytes is for any type of blog, we simply ask you to link up and make sure to give credit to your hosts.

Heart Like a Dog

Protecting Your Dog From Fleas and Ticks

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Ticks are going to be bad this season. Yes that is what we are being told in the northeast. I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand the little suckers, either on my dogs or on me. And yes, I have wound up with a few ticks myself.

For the last few years, I’ve worked super hard on limiting the toxins I expose myself and the dogs too.  So when it comes to fleas and ticks, there is absolutely NO WAY I’m using something like Frontline on my pets.  Are you kidding?  That poison in your dogs blood is strong enough to kill a tick.  NOTE, it does NOT repel ticks, no, the tick must bite your dog and then it dies.  You try killing a tick and seeing how easy that is.

To top that off, my dogs hated the Frontline application, Sampson would hang his head whenever we needed to apply it.  So for the last three or four years I’ve been searching for a natural way to protect my dogs from Fleas and Ticks.

From what I understand healthy dogs don’t attract fleas and my dogs aren’t big, stay outside in the dirt dogs anyway, but still you can’t be too careful.

Sampson and Delilah are protected from ticks and fleas in three ways.

  • Our yard is sprayed four times a year with a natural spray.
  • The dogs are checked for ticks and fleas.
  • During the heavy flea/tick season (March through November) I use a natural spray.

I’ve gone through many different natural sprays and I’m happy to say, I’ve finally hit upon one that I love!  It’s called “Flea & Tick” and it’s made by Pet Naturals of Vermont.

Pet Naturals of Vermont , spray or wipes.

Pet Naturals of Vermont , spray or wipes.

You can imagine I was thrilled when Pet Naturals contacted me and asked me to do a review of their product.  I’ve been using their spray for the last year so I was delighted when I received a container of their wipes.

Because my dogs have such thick fur, I like to use the spray.  I cover their eyes, spray the top of the head, down the back, the tail, the legs and finally the chest area and under the chin.

The dogs aren't thrilled being sprayed, but they tolerate it.

The dogs aren’t thrilled being sprayed, but they tolerate it.

But getting protection on their face has been challenging.  Typically I would spray some in my hand and then rub it where I wanted it, but the wipes, the wipes are perfect for their cheeks, nose and delicate eye areas.   I also think the wipes would be great to keep in the car, for those times you stop somewhere and realize you have nothing to use to protect your dogs.

I can get those delicate areas near their faces.

I can get those delicate areas near their faces.

Yes, it’s true, the spray has to be used daily and I imagine in some areas twice daily, but it’s so routine for me now,  it takes next to no time!

Here are the ingredients:

  • lemongrass
  • cinnamon
  • sesame
  • castor oil
  • purified water

Additionally the wipes include Vitamin E Acetate and Polysorbate 20.  I’m not 100% certain about these final two ingredients, but I figure the wipes will be used sparingly and between the two ingredients they make up just over 2% of the product.

Last year I was using a spray with similar ingredients, except the main ingredient was rubbing alcohol, which had me a little concerned about drying out the skin, especially of dogs with thinner coats.

When Delilah had her check-up last week I showed it to my Vet who said she had no problem with it.  She did say that some dogs might have a problem with the sesame oil.  If you are concerned check with your vet before using.  And of course, watch your dog to make sure they don’t have any reactions.

You can use the spray on their collars and bedding as well as anything else that will absorb the oils.

As I said, I’ve been using this product for just about a year and I love it.  So far this tick season, I’ve found three ticks, which I don’t think is bad at all.

So would you like to try this?  Pet Naturals of Vermont will be giving away a free 8 oz bottle and a valuable coupon to the first 100 people who fill out their form.

Full disclosure:  I was sent a free sample of Vermont Natural Flea and Tick in exchange for my honest opinion.  If I liked the product I would receive a year’s supply (6-8oz bottles) in exchange for sharing it.  While I have been compensated with product for this post, Heart Like a Dog only shares products and services we feel are of value to our readers and would never promote something we didn’t use ourselves.

 

I’m Drowning in Clutter

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I don’t know about you, but lately it seems like I just can’t keep up with everything.  It’s true, I’m drowning in clutter.

By far the biggest culprit for me is paper, I’m one of the few folks who could care less if the post office stops delivering on Saturday.  Bonus!!  One less day of useless crap that I don’t know what to do with.  That being said, there are other things that just seem to pile up.

Take the leashes, collars and harnesses.

Since Sampson has still not been cleared for stairs or unleashed supervision, there is only one door in our house that he can use.  It’s our French door, which we typically don’t use.  Since Sampson is a GINORMOUS puller, he’s on  a harness, but he also needs to wear his collar with his tags on it.  The harness we use has a special leash, which I use when we do our twice daily walks.  IF we are only going outside to potty, I use his daily leash and clip it to his collar.

When Delilah comes with us in the morning, I also put her on harness.  I’m pulled in two directions as it is, and the harnesses help minimize the pulling.  Delilah’s harness does not have a special leash, just her every day leash.

The French door that we use to exit the house sits right near the pool table.  When we walk in and I remove harnesses and leashes, they get tossed into a big pile on the pool table.  While it’s nice to have everything in one spot, it seemed like every time I reached for a leash, I was grabbing the wrong one, or digging it out of a jumbled pile.

I said something to Hubby and he said, “I was thinking of that, we could nail some hooks to the wall and use them to organize the leashes.”

As soon as I heard, “Nail,” I stopped listening.  I have a thing about putting holes in my walls.  I know it’s super weird, but the reality is, I’ve hardly hung anything on my walls that required a new nail hole, in the entire 7 years I’ve lived here.  At our old house, Sampson was trained to ring a bell to go outside and potty and that was nailed to the door frame,  but in our new house, I refused to put a nail or screw in my beautiful woodwork.  The bell sits forlornly on the bookshelf next to the door, sadly collecting dust.

So there I sat on Sunday contemplating exactly how I could organize all our dog walking supplies, without making a hole in my wall!

Here’s what I came up with .

Much better than a jumbled mess on the table!

Much better than a jumbled mess on the table!

This container was sitting in a pile designated for a tag sale.  It’s an old photograph organizer that I bought from one of those scrap book home parties.  I pulled some of the dividers out and made it so it has four compartments.  It holds, Sampson’s harness and special leash as well as Delilah’s harness and every day leash.

The container is sitting on the stool, along with Sampson’s every day leash, and the stool is sitting right next to the door.  Since Sampson’s harness and leash are black it’s easy to tell them apart from Delilah’s.  It has made the pool table so much cleaner and while it hasn’t cut down on the other, every day clutter, at least there is one area that looks fresh and organized.

Do you have a problem keeping leashes organized?  How do you organize all your dog walking equipment?

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You’re a piece of work, has anyone ever told you that before Mama?

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