PUPSICLES for a hot day!

PUPSICLES

It is hot here in Southern California, we have been a bit bored, and there are a lot of fires in the area so there is a lot of smoke in the air. Really not a nice day to do agility outside, so we pulled out our pupsicles and had a little treat. These are nice, I like my dogs to get a variety of foods, these are a little sweet, they are cool and the dogs have fun with them on a hot day. Alicia and I made some a few weeks ago and this is the type of thing that you do not need to follow a reciepe exactly just throw in some ingredients and wing it, they always turn out really good or at least the dogs seem to think so. This is also a good use for fruit that is almost overly ripe.

OUR PUPSICLES

3 cups plain or vanilla flavored yogurt
2-3 ripe banannas
some strawberries or mixed berries
1 tbs honey
we are not that exact so we threw in some peaches as they were in season, you can really throw in any type of fruit.

MASH it all up (I used the food processor) and pour the liquid into ice cube trays, or little dixie cups. Put them in a freezer, if you are using ice cube trays you can pop out the ice cubes and put them in a bag and then use the trays to make more. If you use dixie cups then just peel the cup paper off before you serve the pup their pupsicle treats.



MORE PUPSICLES:

The receipe for this is from my holistic vet
3 cups plain non fat yogurt
1 cup unsalted peanut butter
1 tbs. honey
Combine ingredients. Pour Mixture into ice trays and freeze (2 hours)
Pop out one cube at a time and serve to your pup.

Dogs trying to take over at every turn???? REALLY?

Has anyone else seen that show on Animal Planet, it is a dog training show that is on before "It's Me or the Dog" with Victoria Stillwell? This one is called "In the Dog House". I am not sure of the trainers name, and I should find out so I can STAY AWAY from this guy and any advice he would give. I had heard about this show from a friend and so I found it on Saturday evening and sat down to watch it. The first week the guy comes in and grabs these dogs by their cheeks and lifts them up while they are fighting and flailing, it is horrible to watch, he continues to hold them up like that until they give up so he can do what he calls "pin" them, meaning to throw them on their side on the floor. Aside from this being really cruel in my opinion, goodness I can not imagine what happens to the little old lady who watches that and has a fairly aggressive or very fearful dog and tries that, someone is going to get seriously hurt when the dog really feels they have to fight back. I also think this type of thing would take a fearful dog that might react out of fear and give them something to really be afraid of.

Last week he treated us to a show about why treat training is so bad. Apparently if a dog gets any food other then his dinner, (not sure if it would be equally bad if you used his food for training....hummm..), but the minute that dogs get any other food and ESPECIALLY HUMAN FOOD, they are on the path to attacking children naturally looking for food and having no boundaries between their food and the children's food or the children. He used a demo of a dog that had been trained with treats at some point in his past, they put a doll on the couch and the dog was looking and sniffing on the couch, proof a real baby would be in serious danger from this dog because he had been given treats, HUH??? My poor dogs have been treat trained, and they eat human grade food raw, so goodness they must be very much at risk on so many levels, it scares me to think what might be happening to my dogs, ......NOT, LOL.

The trainer (I am really sorry I did not remember his name...) makes firm and fast rules that the dogs do not get on any furniture, they do not get any treats, they should not have toys, and in the first show he went so far as to say these people were not allowed to touch their dog, because with each touch and scratch behind the ears the dog gained dominance over his stupid care givers.

Is there seriously an audience for this type of training, I think that sounds sad to think there is. I would choose not to have dogs if I could not play with them, scratch behind their ears, teach them some tricks with treats, or treat them humanely. If I had to constantly be guarding against my dogs because they were going to take me over, what fun would having dogs be?

Breeze did awesome at class this week, her pads are finally healing after she had the allergic reaction to the field we train in, and Liz is looking ok so hopefully she will get the aOK to go back to normal activities on her September 1 appointment with the holistic vet. Breeze has an adjustment and acupuncture treatment too, so I am hoping they both will be back to 100% for their Tuesday's lesson.

HOW DID IT GET TO BE ALMOST SEPTEMBER ALREADY?

Homemade Dog Boots

I copied these boots from the boot that I borrowed from Alicia to protect Breeze's foot after she tore her pad. Sorry I traced a pattern from the boot and it does not look really professional, but then I am not a professional!!!! Do not get too hung up on exact measurements and being perfect, just make it work for your own dog. You can click on the pattern and then print it and enlarge it or decrease the size on your copier or you can just make a big rectangle, but hopefully the pattern will give you more of an idea of how to make your own pattern. There is one boot pictured with no treatment on the sole, that is the opposite site, and then there is one on the side that has the caulking (which actually I like the best) that is the clear one that looks a little shiney, and then the others are done with a sole of puff paint. Good luck and have fun!!!!!


Dog boots

Choose your material:
FLEECE- is nice for light snow use, grass, or some dirt use, soft
CORDURA-330 wgt is good but cordura may be more abrasive on dogs feet, it is good for hiking but check the dogs feet often
DENIM-you can use old jeans, Denim also comes in a lot of colors so it can be fun that way, works nice on hot pavement, fleece and cordura may get very hot and can melt if they get too hot.
I am sure there are other materials that could be used,


¼ yard of chosen material will be plenty to start with.

¾ inch-1 inch wide velcro You do not need much I bought one of those little packs it comes in, you want the sew on velcro, not the stick on kind. If you are making boots for a tiny dog you might want a little narrower velcro

Elastic-I bought a color to match my velcro (I used black) and I bought elastic that was as wide as my velcro, in my case ¾ inch. If you have some scraps you can use that or a yard will be plenty.

Thread to match your material, or you could just match your elastic and velcro. You can also choose how you want to complete the sole of the boot, if you choose material for the bottom sole, or caulking or puff paint, you will need those, see the end of the pattern for ideas on what you think will work best for you.

Pattern:
The easiest way to make your own pattern is to measure your dogs Paws and add ONE INCH to that measurement, that allows for a ¼ inch seam allowance on both sides of the boot and ½ inch for the foot to swell.

Use this measurement to make a rectangle this wide and then make it as tall as desired, my dogs have their boots 6 inches high. My pattern was 3 ½ wide and 6 inches tall.

You can use the pattern I am putting on the site, or you can just draw a rectangle, if you use the pattern just use your copier to change it to a size to fit your dog.

STEPS:
1.fold your material and place the toe of the pattern on the fold, DO NOT CUT ALONG TOE END. When you finish cutting out your boot it will be a long hourglass shape if you use the pattern or a very long rectangle if you use the rectangular pattern.
2.If you choose to sew a non slip surface, or leather or ??? sew that circle on now in the place indicated on the pattern, or the approximate place on the rectangular boot piece. Just put that on one side, the other side will be bare. THE SOLE WILL BE ON THE SAME SIDE AS YOUR VELCRO IS GOING TO BE ON!!!!
3.Place your velcro, the soft piece-mine is about 1 ½ inches long, take the elastic and catch the end of the elastic under the one side of the velcro so both are sewn down at the same time-I sewed it under the side of the velcro that is on the right side if I am looking at it. THE VELCRO WILL BE ON THE SAME SIDE AS THE ELASTIC AND AS THE SOLE IF YOU ARE DOING A SOLE TREATMENT.
4.Place the hook, scratchy side of the velcro (mine was about ¾) on the end of the elastic facing down so when it wraps around the foot it will be facing the soft side of the velcro. Place it so the end of the elastic is even with the end of the hook velcro. The whole elastic piece should measure about 1 ½ inches more then your dogs ankle measurement. Sew around the hook velcro on the elastic to secure.
5.NOW you can secure your elastic so it will not catch in the seams....fold your boot in half so the sole and the velcro and elastic are on the inside. Pin this and you can sew up the sides using a ¼ inch seam allowance.
6.Turn the boot right side out and trim all your threads and your boot should be ready unless you want to add on a treatment onto the sold of the boot.



BOOT SOLE OPTIONS:
1.You can use some leather scraps cur in a circle and sewn on before you sew on your velcro
2.You can sew on some non slip material, sew this on before the velcro sewing step
3.THIS IS COOL------Use some caulk-like kitchen or bathroom caulk-YEP YOU HEARD ME RIGHT, I got the squeeze tube of DAP caulking at Target. You can easily get this at a hard ware store or more department stores. I got clear, but you could get white or what ever other color they have. After your bootie is done just squirt some on and spread in a little circle, then I sort of touched it and made it more bumpy to make it more slip resistant. The clear dries fairly clear, you can see it is there but it is flexible, waterproof and gives some good traction. Latex caulk is more slip resistant I am told then silicone.
4.Puff Paint, you can get Puff Paint, I got TULIP brand from Michael's, they sell it around here at Joann's too, and I am sure it is sold at a lot of other places, pick out the color/colors you like. Take and make dots or lines, squiggles, what ever you like where the circle is on the pattern, let it dry at least four hours, then spray steam from your iron on the paint and it will magically puff up. This stays very flexible, soft and seems like it would protect if the grass was a little wet, provide a little padding.


If you make the boot out of something that ravels, then you might want to pink the top edge with pinking sheers, or allow extra material to use some binding tape or hem the top and you might want to allow a little extra seam allowance. I made mine out of fleece, but plan to make some denim ones in the future. Fleece was a really easy material to make the boots out of.

Of course the normal rules of caution apply, I would not leave a wet boot on the dog too long, but these would be great to keep snow out of dogs paws (although in the desert that will probably not often be my problem), I would check often to make sure the boot has not twisted, I would check the pad to make sure nothing was irritating it every so often, I would not have it so tight that the circulation was cut off and if the dog is on hot surfaces I would take off the boot and look and make sure they were being protected every so often and especially if I had some type of paint or caulk on the sole, I am not sure that it would hurt the dog but I would not leave the dog with any boots on if they are not supervised.

Tightening up those rear crosses

I had a really great lesson with Alicia this week. Alicia is such a great handler and I am always amazed at how many little things can make a difference, the things you would probably not be able to get in a book.

We worked on tightening up those rear crosses, and making the rear cross clearer for the dog. When you cross behind the dog-a rear cross-what the dog sees once they learn to rear your body language is you cutting in behind them, putting your body pressure on the line they are traveling. Easy enough concept, if you have your dog in a sit and you cross behind him/her, then most likely the dog will turn their head to look at you where you have crossed behind them, this is basically how rear crosses work. Just a way to turn the dog and get you on the other side of him.

So what we worked on was where I have always thought for example in the exercise we were doing I would put the dog behind jump 1, run down the line so the dog went over 2 and 3 and I would be heading as close to 4 and get a rear cross there, because I am still always thinking about always getting ahead. Well, in a rear cross by definition you have to be behind the dog, so not so good to get too far ahead....and because how the dog knows we are going to turn having a few more steps to show that I am pushing on their line and that I am going behind only helps the dog read and understand where we are going.

So in this example I stay way closer to jump 3 and only let the dog have say half of the jump,decelerate slightly then I can turn and have more steps to show the rear cross between 3 and 4. Similarly after I get the 270 turn, the one from 4-5 and am getting ready for a really tight rear cross I need to hang back a tad, a tad of deceleration and stick closer to the stanchion of jump 5 so that I have more room to push on the dogs line before that really tight rear cross. One or two steps can make a huge difference in what the dog is able to see and understand, which makes a lot more flowy run and a dog that is able to move faster and more comfortably, less off courses and everyone understanding where we are going. I am really understanding more and more what Alicia has been trying to beat into my head, that in agility we almost never should be running straight lines because that takes away a lot of information for the dog.

I LOVE my lessons and the things that I am picking up that I probably would never have been able to figure out myself!

The bummer for the lesson was that Liz is still on activity restriction and then when we got to the field Breeze was really limping on her front foot. CRAP!!! I kept trying to ignore it, but then she started bunny hopping with her back legs and doing some weird hopping all over the place. Well, turned out Breeze had this huge bumps all up and around her pads, and one had popped and she had a HUGE rip in her pad, her belly was all red and raw looking where it had touched the grass. This time of year last year Breeze had a horrible allergic reaction in the same field. I swear they are using some nasty fertilizer or something to kill weeds or ???. Anyway, we could only work a very short time with Breeze after Alicia got a boot to put on Breeze. The minute Breeze got the boot on she snapped to a normal gait. Breeze got a bath to get what ever is bothering her off her and I am going to put boots on her next time we are at the field, and bring a mat for her to do her stays on or to rest on so she is not on the grass. I worked out a pattern to make some booties, and they turned out so well I will post the instructions for making them. Boots are going on my list of things to always have available in my first aid kit, they were a life saver for my lesson for sure.

Yippie, nothing too serious for Liz

I took Liz to the holistic vet for an adjustment-it has been forever since she needed one-and to check on what was going on at herding with her gait.

One thing I forgot is how wild Liz is taking her a new place.....she was going a mile a minute and wanted to get in the room and was barking really loud. Usually I am there with Breeze who is a perfect lady, going anywhere with Liz is a little more tiring....LOL

It is not nice to compare two dogs to each other....but I am going to, LOL! Breeze and Liz are such different dogs, and react to things so differently so it is hard not to compare them at times. Breeze gets regular visits to the holistic vet and is always freaky when the vet needs to examine her, do her acupuncture treatments or chiropractic adjustments but she is quiet and well mannered about it. Breeze has such a sweet, quiet way about her, she is so much easier for me to take anywhere then Liz is, while Liz is just a whirlwind. Anyone can handle Liz, tug on her, pull her this way and that and she is just mildly interested and glad to be getting the attention. Poor Breeze will pee on the vet and has rubber legs and she really does not enjoy any part of it. So...definitely they each have their plus and minus's when going to the vet. I must admit When I leave the vet after taking Liz for a visit I am always a little more tired then I am when I leave a vet visit with Breeze.

So the vet watched the video of the weird gate and steps and really checked her pads, her legs, her knees, her hips and felt like the hip was a little out of alignment on the right but her knees seemed to feel very stable, she did not act like her feet hurt, her hips seemed fine just needing a little adjustment, so she thought that Liz must have just pulled a little something and then was just working through the discomfort so probably irritated a soft tissue injury a little further. So the prescription, light activities for a few weeks, a chiropractic adjustment, and lots of massages to keep the blood really flowing well in that area, warming her up really well and massaging before activity and a recheck to make sure she did not need any further adjustments in two weeks. Dr. Modglin felt sure no xrays were needed and that she would be just fine.

I like vets visits that end that way, just a few bucks and a little of my time but now I will not worry about those knees. It's all good!

A little hitch in Liz's step, ughgh!

Lizzie went for her herding lesson, this was the last one with the current instructor and I have another one with an instructor that I really like next week. So last time Liz was herding I had thought I saw a really different gait then I was used to on Liz, and I had asked the instructor, who said well, some dogs get a little hitch in their back...but it did not look like a back problem to me. I did notice her back a little more roached then it usually is and a lot more hoppy type of gait and her "messing" with her legs, I do not know how better to describe it. I have not had a lot of experience herding so I did wonder if she was a dog that just had a hard time changing to a different lead when we made her go the other direction, humm, could that have been what is going on? I decided to just watch carefully and try to video if I saw anything else. In between the two lessons I really did not see anything. So this week I asked Alicia to come and video the run for me, she was not there for the first run but she got the second run. Lizzie was really doing some weird things and it almost looked to me like she was trying to pop her knee back into place??? Now I am wondering if that might be why Liz has been less excited about herding, perhaps it hurts? So, a couple of days off and a trip to the vet for Liz. Liz has always been my dog that physically is as sound as they come so it is really weird to be seeing things like that from her. I felt horrible when I saw the video, I am totally not watching my dog and I did not even see those steps, I had seen some things earlier, but... gosh if I had seen how bad that looked I would not have tried to change her direction that one last time....ALWAYS WATCH YOUR DOG, yep good advice.

Lizzie's herding lesson this week, not exactly ready for trials????

OOOH Lizzie....another venue where she is not looking like a shining star....LOL. Unfortunately we are running out of dog sports to keep trying, so not sure we are going to find Lizzies little nitch just yet, LOL.

Well, Liz went for another herding lesson and I thought she did ok, and I might not know a lot about herding, but she looks amazing to me. So I was sort of bummed when the instructor said well, I am not really happy with and there is not much I see in this dog that I like, and if you want to do any real herding then would you like me to help you find a new dog? OMG, I sure am not going to find a new dog just for herding, LOL. Anyway, my mother bear bristles immediately stood up, this guy was working Liz and she does not work near as well for him as she does for me and this is only her third try, and she was doing a bit of limping (I am really not sure what that is about...), so not exactly time to write her off yet I would think....especially when she was herding the sheep but she just left twice,she left to check on me. For heavens sake it was her third time on sheep, and she actually is not totally confident yet...but she seems to sort of know what she is doing and seems about a 7 on a 1-10 scale in her excitement over it, so....GIVE HER A BREAK. Liz has her last lesson I have paid for at this current place on Sunday, so I will try to get someone to video for us and I will post it and we can all look and see if she should be written off just yet.

This all brings up something I did not know about myself, LOL, I do have a competitive drive and secretly I really was thinking that Lizzie was really going to do well at herding. She has been evaluated by others and they thought she did amazing, and not sure how much I value the opinion of this particular instructor. The funny thing is that Liz definitely does more then well enough to keep doing what we are doing and it is something that seems good for her...so why did this guys opinion that she would never be good enough to trial bother me? Poor Liz. Guess I am a doggie mom that puts pressure to perform on her puppy and I did not even realize it until this happened.

I tell you I think I will do our last lesson I have paid for with this guy and then I would like to try another instructor that I have heard a lot of great things about...and we will see. I thought about all of this on the way home from herding and one thing is for sure, no matter what anyone else says or how many sports Lizzie washes out of....she is the champion best buddy for me, so not every dog can be my perfect friend so guess she will always be tops in that category.

Yep, it is official Lizzie is "special"

I had a private and we were going to work on teaching object discrimination. Alicia set up a straight tunnel next to the Aframe. There was a jump then the tunnel/Aframe and then a jump after the objects for the dog to drive to. Alicia put an x-pen in front of the Aframe and I was supposed to have Lizzie go over the jump, then tell her "out-tunnel" while pushing on her line with my arm straight out from my shoulder and taking a step into her line, she would in theory come out of the tunnel and be rewarded after the jump that was after the tunnel. Then we would put the x-pen in front of the tunnel so she would not take that, have her go over the jump, I would pat my leg and tell her "here-Climb" so she would know to take the closer obstacle (the aframe), and then go out over the jump and be rewarded. Sounds pretty simple Right?

I sat Liz in front of the jump and looked at the x-pen in front of the Aframe and thought, hummm, she will either try to jump the x-pen or she will smash right through it and notice what happened about half way down the other side of the aframe. I was a little nervous as I released her and told her "out-tunnel" and pushed on her line and gave the arm signal and sort of held my breath. Sure enough, Lizzie ran down the side of the x-pen between the tunnel and the aframe until she got past the x-pen and leapt onto the aframe about half way up the aframe and then ran down into a 2020 position behind the x-pen. I had not considered that possibility. We tried again and this time she ran in between the tunnel and aframe and went to the back of the aframe and went up and over the aframe landing in a gorgeous 2o2o position behind the x-pen and just looked so pleased and proud to have passed what I am sure she thought was some sort of weird proofing exercise, she knew she had had to work hard to do it all just right. OOH Lizzie. I finally had to take her and guide her with hand in collar up and into the tunnel before she considered that option. It was hard not to laugh, especially when Alicia looked a bit frustrated and said she had never seen a dog try anything like that with this exercise.

Of course right after Lizzies gorgeous performance, it was Breeze's turn. Breeze of course just did the whole thing perfectly the first time and by the second time had the whole idea, it never occurred to her to run all around trying to get around or over the x-pens, she seemed to realize that the x-pens meant that she was not supposed to go on that obstacle being blocked.

I always have to remember what ever we teach, we have to consider the Lizard factor. No wonder I love her, she is always thinking overtime.