Blog • Page 31 of 36 • Three Dogs Training

Everyone’s looking forward to Halloween, but what about your dog?

While Halloween is great fun for us, it is often very stressful for a lot of dogs. Here are some helpful tips and products.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year.

It distills everything that a holiday should be – fun silly enjoyment with chocolate!

Halloween also happens to be the day we adopted Boo, but that’s another story.

The air is crisp and kids are running around acting and dressed strangely.

There are knocks on your door constantly and there’s food being handed out from bowls that are probably at dog height.

Halloween activities are all great fun for us, but can you think of a combination of things that could put a dog more on-edge? (Unless, of course, you added firecrackers into the mix?)

One of the reason we like holidays so much is that they are departure from the norm of everyday life. We do different things. We adopt different schedules. In a word, things are different. For a large number of dogs an unexpected change in routine is like fingernails on a blackboard and can set off a spiral of stress-related, unhealthy behaviors.

Where to put the Chocolate?

The bowl of mostly chocolate should be up and away from the dog. Your dog should not be able to reach it by jumping or putting his paws up, or knocking it over.

What about all the knocking strangers in weird costumes at the door?

I can’t see anything through this Peephole!

Your dog doesn’t need to be right by the door. Have your dog in another room as far from the door as possible. Give your dog a stuffed kong or other puzzle toy so he/she is happily occupied. A stuffed bone, or goat horn would be good too.

I have written a number of blog posts on anxiety aids and have a number of products that can help in the Boo-tique.

If none of the anxiety aids or toys helps reduce your dog’s stress, your veterinarian may be able to prescribe some anti-anxiety medication.

Then it will be time to call a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and/or a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant so that next year your dog can have a

Happy Halloween.

Goodbye, Riley

Riley, a good friend and great dog, was taken from us far too soon.

There were hundreds of fireflies serenely flying all around the yard Riley loved the night she left her family. There was no question that it was little Miss Riley telling everyone she loved them and everything was going to be OK.

The adorable, fuzzy, petite Ewok had come to Linda and her family only three years before. A cuddly, sweet, gentle soul who loved doing her “bang, bang” trick Riley was more than happy to snuggle up in everyone’s lap one minute and work very hard for Linda to try to become a therapy dog the next. Riley ultimately told Linda she was more happy just being Linda’s personal therapy dog—and she was.

While Riley’s life was short it was filled with love from her human family, her canine family and her extended family in which I was happy to be included.

Sometimes the Universe deals us a raw hand and sometimes when it does it softens the blow just a little in ways we do not even expect. Riley was around long enough to welcome and begin teaching Maggie, the puppy golden, how to be a comfort to the whole family and carry on Riley’s love of mischief while she softened the blow of Riley’s early departure.

I know that every night Linda and Maggie will look for the fireflies; to try touch Riley’s spirit one more time.

The sky, too, is feeling the loss of Kinsey

Kinsey’s loss is one that touches the hearts of everyone who knew her.

It is raining out now—the kind of rain that is slow and depressing—not a grand thunderstorm that thrills. I can only imagine the sky, too, is feeling the loss of Kinsey.

This very clever, almost-nine-year-old Mini Schnauzer was the proud owner of Jill and Linda. They brought her to me when she was just a four-month-old baby-dog for her puppy class. Bright and happy to work Kinsey sailed through her classes and found herself becoming a happy working Delta Pet Partner early in her life. She brought her two humans with her to nursing homes and other spots where she would routinely make people smile as she sat with them for petting, or sat on their laps for a snuggle, or did a few little gag-parlor tricks to make everyone giggle.

When first I mentioned Rally O to Kinsey’s human Jill— Laughing at me Jill said, “There’s just no way.” But, of course, Kinsey would not be daunted by anyone’s doubt—she sailed through her rally exercises and always looked at the distraction toys as if to say, “Who are you kidding, I am so all over that…” I knew then that the exercises would have to be more difficult and perhaps I needed better distraction toys. Kinsey pushed us all to be better and better. She helped shape the lives of her sister Shelby and baby brother Arlo as she guided them on how to live in a human world—Kinsey knew it was all about carrots…

The love that Kinsey gave to and received from her humans was, as so many of us have known from that special dog, epic in its scope. We all have had a dog (and if you’re lucky more) who moves our hearts profoundly and permanently. Kinsey was that dog. Just as Jill and Linda shaped and lured Kinsey’s behaviors for training, Kinsey shaped and lured their hearts for unconditional love.

As I said when Dante passed:

All told, dogs ask very little of us. They ask us for love, they ask us for patience and understanding, and for our mercy and bravery when their time comes. And once they’re gone, they part with one final request: to not let the pain of their loss stop us from someday filling the dog-shaped hole they leave in our lives with another canine soul.

Kinsey will be missed beyond description.

Pinball versus Stick

Pinball takes on his foremost nemesis: a stick in our backyard.

Finally a sunny and comparatively warm day we decided to combine some fun outside for the newest addition to the family, Pinball, along with a chance to test out our newest gadget – a Flip camera.

Pinball was the only member of Callie’s litter – the only boy in the litter – who wasn’t adopted from the shelter right away. When she died it seemed right to bring him here. He seems to be liking it – or at least the stick.

Enjoy!

A Sweet Short Life Remembered

Far too soon after Dante we’re forced to say goodbye to another furry friend as Callie is taken by the parvo that infected her litter.

Callilily-Baby-Girl’s-Bagel, our first silly-named dog was in this world for only 11 weeks.

She and her six siblings were born to Ginny, a sweet collie/terrier mix whose family sent her packing to a kill shelter when they discovered she was pregnant. She was on the usual “due to die” lists that circulate between shelters and ARF brought her up from the south to Beacon to have her babies and find them all forever homes.

Ginny was always sweet and soulful with anyone who interacted with her. She passed her striking eyeliner on to her puppies who were born on November 6, 2010. I got to see them when they were just hours old and we started working on their bio sensor early neurologic stimulation on day 3.

I’ve always believed that our dogs find a way back to us – I was struck by Ginny’s eyeliner – and couldn’t help but remember that Dante always had similarly striking eyeliner. I watched her puppies as they grew and we worked with them and one always drew me to her – she was sweet, bright, eager, confident, and had the most beautiful eyeliner.

As they grew we thought it a good idea to give them some home social skills so Lawrence and I brought all seven puppies home for a couple days just before Christmas. They learned all about the sights, sounds and smells of a home. I let them explore a little (with massive supervision) and let Porthos and Boo tell me who they wanted to be their new family member. Porthos and Boo gravitated to Callie and her look-alike sister with shorter fur. The choice was made. I had gravitated to Callie, the boys had gravitated to Callie and Lawrence had, too. We were all in agreement.

All the puppies went back to the shelter for another week before they were ready for adoption and, when I picked them all up again the Thursday before New Year’s Day for some more social skills, something was wrong. The only boy in the litter was lethargic and then started vomiting and began having diarrhea.

Because none of the girls were sick the vets thought it was an obstruction or some infection unique to him. We treated him with fluids, antibiotics, and other meds and watched him carefully. Since Callie was staying with us she was not going back to the shelter that Saturday and because the boy was not well he stayed with us, too. By Monday all the girls were sick and by Wednesday the vets knew it was Parvo – a hugely contagious and deadly disease. All the girls including Callie were much sicker than the boy and were in ICU for a week.

When we were told we could bring Callie back home we were thrilled. She had made it through the worst of it we thought. Pinball – her brother’s new name – went back to the shelter to find a forever home. For nine days after she came home to us Callie was perky, eating, playing, kissing, and running through the snow to catch up to Porthos and frolicking between Boo’s feet. Then she started to slow down a bit and become just a bit clingier on Sunday night. By Monday night she was not eating much at all and by Tuesday morning her vomiting woke me. Her poopies were normal but her demeanor was frighteningly lethargic.

I made an appointment with the vet for that afternoon and watched her carefully that morning and saw she would approach the water bowl but sometimes not be able to drink. She would wobble sometimes and occasionally fall over. Every now and then her right eye would go in the wrong direction and she could seemingly never get comfortable. Her exam was fairly normal except for the lethargy and signs that she was struggling to pee every few minutes. Antibiotics and fluids were prescribed and home we went.

By just after seven Tuesday night Callie was drooling heavily and Boo was whining and pacing around her pen. Porthos suddenly started acting strangely, alerting us that she was having a massive seizure. Rigid post-seizure, we rushed her to the vet who had brought her through her Parvo who was open late and told us to come right in. She seized a few more times at the vets, went into shock and she was lost to us by nine.

Dogs move into our hearts and homes with light speed. We can’t remember a time without them once they are rooted into our souls. And when they are ripped from us so quickly in the midst of such innocence, it is easy to say – “no more.” But then the meaning of our time with these joyous critters would be lost.

Once again and all too soon we find ourselves heartbroken. We and the boys will miss Callilily-Baby-Girl’s-Bagel and we will wait to see what to do next.