15 Day Disabled List

When you participate in many physical activities as we do (running, chasing squirrels, barking at strangers, etc), you're bound to come across an injury from time to time.  Unfortunately, one of us has an issue with our impeccible physical condition.

A few weeks ago, Desi came up limping after a hard day of playing in the back yard.  Most of the time, Desi seems to be fine as she does not limp at all.  However, after a long run or a few sudden bursts around the yard, Desi starts to limp once her muscles cool down.

Desi's owners decided to let her rest for a few days in hopes that some rest and relaxation would be all that she needs to recovery.  This strategy was attempted a few times and unfortunately, Desi is not getting any better as she still has a limp.  With all 'home remedy' options exhausted, Desi now must go to the vet this weekend to get her leg checked out.

We mention Desi's injury because we want to make sure that you're aware of any injuries that your canine may be experiencing.  Obviously, a limp probably indicates an injury to your dog, but there are other signs to look for.

If your dog is shaking, that may be a sign of an injury (or the dog has indigestion or an internal issue).  When a dog shakes, many times that means the dog is experiencing some level of pain and you probably need to address the shaking by calling the vet.

If your dog is lethargic, that may be another indicator that your dog may need medical attention.  A normally active dog who suddenly shows limited energy levels and/or just won't move at all is another sign that you need to contact your vet.

I hope these few tidbits of info help when dealing with a possible canine injury or illness.  Being canines, we can't talk, so we trust our owners to look out for physical signs that we're communicating to them.  Remember, we're there in your time of need, so please be there in our time of need.

Until next time,

The Long Road Ahead

Good evening faithful fans of the Toes n Tails gang!

We'll just get this out of the way right now.  We do not have pics of our new member Hadley at this point.  Hadley's owner was supposed to send us a photo or two and she has not come through yet with the pics.  We know in our last post that a pic was promised, so we hope you can forgive us for the delay.

Now getting down to the business of the day.  Our owner is training for a marathon and he has decided to bring us along for the training sessions.  Running with our owner is bittersweet.  What is sweet is that we get to get out and stretch our legs, get some great exercise, and let the neighborhood animals know that we still are the king and queen of the neighborhood (that includes other dogs, cats, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and any other unfamiliar creature that crosses our path).   What is bitter is that one, our owner doesn't actually let us chase after these critters and two, sometimes the courses that he maps out are extremely long (over 10 miles is long to us).

However, when you look at the big picture, the training runs are great for us.  The fact that we both have gained a few extra pounds over the winter is something that our vet brought up during our last visit and to get back to our tip-top spring and summer shape, we need to drop a few pounds.  By the time our owner is ready for the marathon (May 1), photographers and onlookers will be quite impressed with our toned, athletic bodies (having our photograph taken is second nature at this point of our lives as we are very easy on the eyes (and camera lenses)).

Before signing off, we would like to recommend that if you have a dog, the warm spring weather is right around the corner, so get out and get some exercise with your pup!  After a nice walk or run, you will feel better and your pup will feel better!  Daily or frequent walks with your canine is about as good as it gets and both of you will benefit, so in the words of an unnamed goliath shoe company, "just do it."

We're back!

Hello old friends,

Yes, it's been quite some time since we've posted, but fortunately for you, we are back online!  We could make up any number of excuses, but the truth is, we're canines and we have no concept of time.  For us, the fact that we haven't posted in an hour, a day, a month, or a year is really not something you can blame us for because we truly have no clue how long it's been.

A quick update on us.  We (Desi and Rocky) doing fabulous for the most part.  Desi needs a new pink collar (thanks Rocky) and Rocky needs to lose about 15-20 'winter' pounds (thanks Rocky), but other than those small matters, we are doing suburb.

We do have some big news to share.  The pack has a new member and her name is Hadley.  Hadley is around 6 months old (from what we hear, because we have no idea how old any dog is) and she is part Golden Retriever and part German Shepard.  Hadley joined the crew after being rescued by some really nice people who cleaned her up, feed her, and loved her until she found a permanent home.  A few of you may have pure breed dogs, which is fine with us, but if you ever get a chance to rescue a dog, we highly recommend it as rescues are some of the best dogs in all the land.

We will try to get a pic of Hadley to post on the blog so all of our faithful followers can get a glimpse of the new pup on the block.  However, we must go now as our owner is removing baked chicken out of the oven as we type and if we do not get to his side soon, he may not think we're interested in obtaining a bite or two of what smells like (to us) the most incredible thing we've ever smelled in our ktichen.

Until next time,

Out of the Blue

Yesterday, we had an unfortunate incident that was bound to happen.  If you have been following our adventures, you're probably well aware of the fact that we run/walk around our neighborhood a great deal.  You're probably also aware of the fact that we have had issues with other dogs in the neighborhood coming out to 'greet' us or even advance aggressively towards us.

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but yesterday one of those random incidents turned into a very bad situation.  During our morning runs, we usually end up running up a 30-35 degree incline for the last quarter-mile.   At the end of one of these courses, two old beagle dogs live in a house on the very corner of the top of the hill.  Sometimes, the beagles are tied up on a railing in front of the house so they can 'do their business' while their owner tends to other things inside of the house.

Usually, when we pass the house with the beagles and they're outside, the dogs bark at us (and we bark back at them) as our owner pulls us past the house and towards the finish line.  Yesterday, the dogs were able to reach us as we passed and chaos ensued.  Both of us (Rocky and Desi) tusseled with the two beagles, which turned into an all-out dog fight.  Our owner, exhausted from the 5 mile run (we were literally less than 100 yards from our finishing point and were in a dead sprint when we met the beagles), was diligently struggling to separate us.  Even worse, the collars slipped off of two of the dogs (one of us and one of them), so our owner was having even more difficulty separating the two dog packs.  With nowhere to tie up either of the dogs that were leashed, the owner grabbed Rocky by the collar as he tried with one arm to pick Desi up and carry her away.  This did not work.  After about 90 seconds (it seemed like 90 minutes to our owner), a neighbor ran up and helped him.  The neighbor grabbed one dog while our owner secured Desi and put her collar back on.

At this point, the beagles' owner was outside.  After getting everyone separated, our owner checked with the beagle owner to see if her dogs were ok.  They were.  The owner then asked our owner if he was ok and if he needed the paramedics called.  He said no because besides physical exhaustion, the only damage to him were severly scraped knees and legs (from trying to separate the dogs on a sidewalk).  For the rest of the day, our owner was not happy with what had happened.  He did not yell at or punish us because we're just dogs and we were only reacting, but he was more upset with the fact that people continually leave their dogs outside with no supervision and then act surprised when incidents occur such as today (or when the little toy dog came running out after Rocky and our owner grabbed it and moved it, which caused a confrontation with the toy dog's owner).

Please, please, please make sure that if you own a dog, you always supervise the animal when it is not confined to your house where it cannot physically get outside to harm a human or another animal.  And if you know of anyone who does not supervise their dog while it's outside, please pass this message onto them.  Luckily, no dogs or people were hurt yesterday, but for a few seconds, it seemed like that was not going to be the case.  We don't want anyone ever having to break up a dog fight, let alone having to tend to a dog injured in a fight or even worse, killed in a dog fight.  Just use a little common sense and precaution with your canine friend and stuff like this will not just happen 'out of the blue.'

Employee of the Month

Are you one of those dog owners who praises a dog for a job well done?  If not, you should.  And if you do, remember to be consistent with your praising.  If you're wondering where we're getting at, of course we're going to explain ourselves! 

You see, one of our owners taught us from a very early age to protect our home and surrounding area.  We learned that if we barked at strangers and/or strange sounds around our home, our owner would praise us and give us a treat.  Being intelligent, dashing canines that we are, we took full advantage of this 'job offer' and barked at strange people who passed our house because that was what our owner taught us. 

Now, you may think that barking at every person who goes by may be going a little overboard, but remember that we are just canines and we do not have logic, so even if the person passing by is not a threat, we do not know this.  All we know is to react, which means we bark.  However, we do have a sense of smell, so when that person who comes by our house and/or up to the door is 'familiar' to us (meaning, we recognize their scent), we probably will not bark, but will become extremely excited (ex: when one of our owners walks up the sidewalk and we recognize them and start wagging our tails excessively and knock over a fan, etc).

We wanted to bring this type of scenario to your attention because last night, we heard strange sounds outside of our house and we sounded the alarm (Rocky howling and Desi barking in high-pitched, short barks).  One of our owners (not the owner who taught us the personal protection/guarding skills) became very agitated with our alarming noises and told us to stop it.  This really confused us...weren't we supposed to alert our owners if unfamiliar sights and sounds approached???  Since our other owner recognizes canine behavior a little better, he calmly proceeded to get our attention, thank us for alerting them, and then practiced our 'down' techniques that we learned with grilled chicken bits a few months earlier.  Once we heard the down command, we immediately laid down and remained calm.

We may not be perfect (even though we think we are), but we are smart, loyal, and passionate towards our owners.  Whether you teach us good habits/tricks/commands or bad habits/tricks/commands, we will always be consistent in our behavior, so please remember this before punishing us and/or reacting in a negative manner after we did something that we more than likely were taught or learned from our owner.  We may just be dogs, but we deserve your respect and to be treated fairly because everything we do, we do in our owner's best interests.

Happy Birthday to us!!

Sometimes, good things come in pairs.  For us, this past weekend was a 'double the fun' weekend.  Of course, we had a lot of fun celebrating the 4th of July (minus the loud, scary fireworks that numerous goofballs set off around the neighborhood).  However, the real excitement was our third birthday celebration!  For those of you 'not in the know,' the black dogs of the Toes N' Tails Gang (Rocky and Desi) turned 3 years old on June 30th.

How did we celebrate you're probably thinking?  We celebrated by taking a trip north to enjoy our birthday with our brother Murphy (also born on June 30th).  Not once, but twice, we enjoyed dog bone sundaes (if you haven't had one, it's vanilla soft serve ice cream with 3-4 dog biscuits mixed in). 

To be completely honest with you, the process of us enjoying our treats did not go as smoothly as our owner's imagined.  For our first sundae treat, we escaped from our owner's clutches and took off into the woods searching for small animals (or whatever else we smelled).  Our owner had to get in the car and drive about a mile away to come pick us up.  Knowing that our dog bone sundaes awaited us, we jumped right into the car so we could get home ASAP!

Our second sundae treat went much smoother, however for the second treat, Desi had some real issues with the hardwood floor that the treat was placed on.  Desi scooted and scooted the dish around the floor before finally wedging the dish into a corner, where she then made quick work of the sundae.

So, we're finally 3 years old (that would be 21 in dog years).  No, we didn't celebrate 21 years like many humans do.  However, we'd much rather have a good romp around the woods and a tasty treat than anything else, so I'd say our day was pretty 'doggone' good (sorry we really couldn't resist).  Even better, we got to see our big, chubby brother Murphy, who hasn't changed one bit.

Some people covet expensive material items or trips to exotic locations for their birthdays wishes.  But for us, it really couldn't get any better than enjoying the simple pleasures such as spending time with our family, eating ice cream, and chasing squirrels around the woods.

Hot Under the Collar

We know taking car rides with your dog is an extremely pleasant experience.  You love your dog's company and the dog REALLY loves being out and about with the ability to take in so many smells and sounds.   However, there are a few precations that you should take when your canine friend is riding along with you.

First, never, ever, ever let the dog ride in your lap as you are driving.  If you don't do this and wonder how anyone could drive with a dog in your lap, well it does happen and we've seen it.  If you do do this while driving, stop immediately!!  This is dangerous for you and your pet!  What if the pet hits the steering wheel and you wreck?  What if the pet distracts you and you wreck?  What if the pets leg gets caught and twisted in the steering wheel when you turn?  None of those are desirable options, so please keep your canine in the back seat.  The back seat will still allow him to sniff, see, and hear everything around him and your dog will be quite content to have 'their own space' in the car during the trip.

Secondly, if you stop to run errands while your dog is with you and the temperature is 75 degrees or above outside, please do not leave your dog in the car for more than 3-5 minutes at a time (not 35, but only three to five!!).  Dogs have a body temperature that is higher than humans and with the permanent fur coats that we carry around (yes, thinning hair/bald guys are jealous of us), it gets hot FAST when dogs are stuck in a hot car.  Even with the windows cracked, the temperature to a dog is extremely uncomfortable as well as unhealthy/unsafe.  If you truly care about your dog, you will take this advice to heart!
Lastly, do not let your dog stick his head out of the window when the car is traveling at high speeds.  Most vets will tell you to never let your dog stick his head out the window (because of eye safety issues with the wind affecting the eyes and/or flying bugs/objects getting into their eyes).  However, our owner lets us put our heads out the window if we're just puttering around the city or neighborhood as we're really only averaging a speed of 10-15 mph (with all of the stopping), so they think that is ok.  But if you are unsure, err on the side of caution and crack those windows only enough so the dog can stick his nose out.

We hope these car tips are suggestions that you really take to heart.  Not just for the dog's safety, but for your safety as well.  Now if you'll please excuse us, we're about to pile into the the car for a nice long car ride north.  We can wait to see what smells, sights, and sounds are in store for us on the way!!!

Our Favorite Spot

When you were training your dog, do you remember the exact details of the training session?  Where you were, what time was it, what were the surroundings?  You may or may not, but the chances are, your dog familiarized itself with those details and those details helped your dog make it through the training session.

We mention training surroundings because someone recently came to one of our owners with a question.  What was that question, you may be wondering?  The question was "why does my dog go find a carpeted area of the house to get sick on (or even worse, to eliminate (use the 'restroom' to you humans)) instead of going/staying on a hard (easier to clean) surface such as hardwood/tile/laminate flooring?

The reason that canines may search out the carpet or rugs for these occurances is largely due to the fact that when you're training them to go outside, you take them to eliminate (potty) or get sick on a grassy surface.  Since the dog uses this surface successfully and is reinforced with a treat and/or praise for using the grassy surface, the dog files that rough surface into his reaction database for a later time period.  Reaction you are saying to yourself?  Yes, reaction is what we call that.  You see, dogs really don't "remember" things in their life, they really just react to situations and individuals.

A dog has no logical thinking skills, no way to track time, and no way to remember specifics.  A dog's present and future behavior is based largely on feel, smell, and sound.  Feel meaning if the ground is rough and that is where the dog goes to the potty, than that dog will usually always go in the grass (or on gravel, etc).   If you train the dog to eliminate on concrete or a hard, smooth surface, than that dog will usually always go on concrete (or a hard, smooth surface).  This is why a dog heads straight for the carpet (rough) when inside if they have an emergency where they just can't hold it until the door is opened for them.  Please keep this in mind when reacting to what your dog did....they are just doing what you praised them to do!!!  Also, please keep in mind that if you do not catch a dog in the act of a negative activity (going inside, biting/chewing on something it should not, etc), you have to catch them in the act (yell loudly 'NO') or else you might as well not even say anything at all.  If you come home to find that your dog has chewed up your shoes and they are not currently in the act of chewing, the dog will have no clue whatsoever what you are talking (or yelling) about if you decide to react towards them, so you may as well save your breath.  When our owners were trying to train us to not chew on stuff or to not potty inside, they would 'bait' us (put stuff out for us to chew on and then hide) into that behavior so they could catch us in the act (and yell 'NO') so we would file that behavior away as something that we should not do.

We can also give you a few examples of smell and sound.  Smell meaning that they can identify other dogs or people or places based on the smell of who is around them/where they're going (dogs can smell a great distance away, so if your dog gets excited when you're not that close to the destination it's because they already can smell where you're headed (if they've been there before)).  Sound meaning that they can identify if a situation will be positive or negative based on what they're hearing (if you have ever been around a dog that is scared of men, it's not because (well, it's hopefully not because) of the current male in their life, but probably because of a past experience with a male that was not kind to them.  Dogs hear the deep voice of a man and react to negative experiences based on that deep voice.  The same holds true for vaccum cleaners or whatever other crazy noises scare your dog.  And just remember, if you chase the dog around playfully with the vaccum once and the dog doesn't find this funny, the dog will probably be hesitant around a vacuum for the rest of his life.

We hope this rambling information helps you out.  Remember, in training sessions, it's not the dog who is usually the problem, it's more than likely an incompetent training (and that includes some 'professional' trainers).  We're headed to a nice shady spot to cool off, so we suggest that you find one as well!

Dog Treat Olympics

Like most dogs, when we were young pups, our owners attempted to train us to do certain functions necessary to our behavioral development (stay, sit, down, etc) as well as specific 'tricks' for their enjoyment (speak, shake, etc).  Throughout these training sessions, our owners were consistent in their praise as well as their reward method.  The reward method which we speak of is treats.

Now, for the novice dog owner, 'treat' is basically the same thing, which would be any sort of reward that a dog seems to enjoy (dog biscuits, dog bones, human food are just a few).  However, some dog trainers feel that classifying treats on different levels and rewarding those treats based on the degree of difficulty of a function/trick/skill that a dog has accomplished.

Since you're reading with intense anticipation, we're going to let you in on these levels just because we're that darn thoughtful of our human companions.  The three levels of treats that we receive from our owners are gold treats, silver treats, and bronze treats.  Examples of bronze treats would be pieces of dry dog food (seriously, some dogs cannot tell the difference between what they eat for meals and what they get for treats), carrot sticks, Milk-Bone biscuits, or any hard dog biscuit that you buy at a store or make at home (check out the internet for many easy, cheap, and quick to make/bake dog treat recipes that are more than likely a lot healthier than mass-produced dog treats you find at major retailers).  Examples of silver treats would be meatier/smellier treats such as 'Snausages' or something along the lines of that, peanut butter treats (store bought or homemade), or pieces of cheese (they can be slices or small cubes).  Examples of gold medal treats would be pieces of cut up hot dog, pieces of cut up chicken breast (small cubes), or small pieces of sliced steak (our FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  Dogs are natural carnivores, so when you bring out smelly animal flesh, we're probably going to do whatever is necessary to obtain that piece of meat.

How you reward these level of treats is subjective to your individual training situation.  For a new pup, any sort of acquired training (potty outside, sit, down, etc) deserves a gold treat at the beginning stages of the dog's life.  However, as the dog develops into an adult and needs more advanced challenges (stay, fetch, etc), you can then start to work with the different levels of treats.  When we were young pups, we received all sorts of treat levels for potty breaks and for sitting down.  Once we got a bit older, we strictly got bronze treats for those actions and our owners focused on more advanced training (stay, down, leave it) for the silver and gold treats.  Once those were mastered, our owners moved on to the most difficult challenges (tricks or training in front of distractions (other people, other animals, other dogs (we didn't group 'dogs' with animals because we believe that we're somewhere in the middle of the two....not techincally people, but definitely not just an 'animal' of some sort)).

Keep in mind that the more distractions around the dog, the tougher it will be to train the dog.   This holds true even if you have gold treats for the dog.  When Rocky was a pup, our owners could have been holding a raw piece of New York Strip in their hands and he would not have cared if there were distractions around him (squirrels, open/unfenced areas, etc).  When you're just starting to train and/or are moving onto more difficult training routines that the dog has not mastered, please be sure to try to limit the distractions by training in your own home, then in your own backyard, and then finally in more public areas such as parks.

If your dog is very smart and very good at easily/quickly picking up any and all training and tricks, you may want to consider moving onto stuff like agility training or water sports (retrieving, etc).  We canines love a good challenge and there is nothing that can get us in trouble faster than not being challenged (ex: staying at home all day bored and unexercised while our owner is at work/out at a restaurant, etc).

We hope these training tips and treat classifications help you out!  As always, if you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section and we'll address them.  In the meantime, happy training!!!

The First Day of Summer

While the recent warm weather has definitely caused a little discomfort to us canines (while don't you try walking around all day in a permanent winter coat), we are excited to announce that we have a new favorite appliance in our owner's home.  No, it's not the vacuum cleaner and no it's not the dishwasher (both of which could disappear forever and we would not miss for a second).  Give up yet?  Well our new favorite household appliance is none other than the fan that our owner brought up from the basement a few weeks ago.

Since some strange guy came to our house a few weeks ago and told us that the metal box that sits outside the house isn't working that well, our owners have been using fans around the house.  Have we taken full advantage of these machines that cool the rooms?  Of course we have.  Being loyal fans of the Toes N Tails gang, you should be well aware of the fact that anything/anyone/anyplace that remotely benefits our lives and more importantly, our comfort level, will be held in high regard when it comes to our views on the matter.

Whether the fans are in the living rooms (during the day), the kitchen (during the times when those self-centered owners leave us at home), or in the bedroom (the evening/nighttime), we are usually parked right in front of one of these 'cool' machines.  Are you wondering if we block the airstream from our owners?  If you are wondering (and even if you aren't), the answer is yes.  Why do we care if our owners can feel the breeze or not as long as we're comfy?  Just like when we take a walk and we end up jerking our owner's arms out of their sockets when we see an attractive target (squirrel, other dog, ice cream cone in some kid's hand, etc), we take our needs/wants/desires into consideration well before we take our owner's needs/wants/desires into consideration.

Is that the correct way to go about living?  Probably not, but then again, we're just dogs, so we really don't know any better (or at least that's how we spin any situation in which our 'optimal living' may be in doubt).   Enjoy the first day of Summer and whenever you have a day where it's really hot and you long for a cool, shady spot or a spot in front of the fan, just imagine us spread out in front of one of our fans and hopefully that image will cool you off a bit.

A Shoulder To Cry On

If you've been reading this blog for quite some time, you're probably aware of just how spectacular us canines are here at the Toes N Tails gang. And if you have the opinion that we're not that spectacular, hopefully you've at least benefited from a few of the tips/suggestions that we have provided in hopes of making your daily experiences with your dog as optimal as possible.
Today, we're not going to give you any tips or suggestions on how to make your dog's life better. Today, we're going to give you a suggestion on how to make your life better. To be specific, we're talking about a resource to turn to when one of life's unexpected, unfortunate happenings rears it's ugly head and decides to happen to you. This could be a job loss, a health issue (yourself or your friends/family), a financial issue, or any other issue that causes the smile on your face and the joy in your mind to disappear. If for some reason you experience an unfortunate event that really affects you, we suggest that turning to your dog can and will be a big help in easing the pain.

Your dog? Yes, your dog. No matter how how bad it hurts or how tragic the event, your dog will be there for you to help you ease the pain.  A canine may not be able to solve your problem or reverse your tradegy, but they will be able to comfort you and give you an outlet to release your pain.  We at the Toes N Tails gang have been there for our owners in times of need and we're quite certain that your dog will be there in a time of need for you as well.  Pet us, hug us, hold us, talk to us, cry if you need to....whatever it is, we'll be there for you to comfort you. 

We make joke around about hogging the bed, chasing squirrels, and eating your unattended slice of pizza when you're not looking, but our true goal in our lives are to loyally be there for our human owners.  We want to protect you, we want to bring joy to your lives, and we want to be there for you in times of need.

If your someone that has recently been affected by life in a negative manner and could really use a pick-me-up right now, go find your dog and pet them, hold them, talk to them.  We guarantee that you'll feel at least a little bit better about your current situation.

(Not) Pleased To Meet You

When you first meet someone, you're (hopefully) very excited and/or pleased to meet that person.  Whether it's a new family member, a first date, a first day at a new job, a friendly face at a party, or any other social setting, meeting someone new is fun and exciting!  For the most part, you're quite certain whether or not meeting a new person is going to be a positive experience (exceptions would be when that first 'meeting' is someone knocking at your door trying to sell you something or when someone tries to rob you or when you meet your husband's/wife's/boyfriend's/girlfriend's significant other (yikes!)), but even in those bad situations, you have a good handle beforehand of whether or not the experience is certain to be positive or negative.

With canines, the certainty of a new meeting going well is everything but certain.  Even though we're lovable, huggable, extremely cute companions to you, your family, and your friends, we are still animals and that needs to be kept in mind when introducing us to unfamiliar humans as even more importantly, when introducing us to unfamiliar fellow canines (and even worse, unfamiliar cats).

You see, many of our canine ancestors were either bred or trained to be guards or protectors of our pack members (that includes humans, who dogs consider a part of their pack) and territories (the dog's residence, whether that is inside the home or the perimeter of the property).  With this in mind, you can probably figure out that even though we want to be friends with everyone, there is a chance that we can't be just because generations of breeding and training has instilled in our inner wiring that protection/guarding is our job, so there is a possibility that confrontation is just second nature to us.
We're not trying to scare you away from wanting to own a dog or to try to befriend a dog, we are just trying to educate you in hopes of preventing any sort of accident due to not taking these points into consideration.  When you think about dogs that may have issues in a social setting, also keep in mind that just because a dog is friendly with humans doesn't mean that it will be friendly with other dogs (and vice versa).  Some dogs are great around all humans and all dogs.  Some dogs struggle to interact with other dogs.  Some dogs are great around certain dogs, but not strange dogs,.  And some dogs are great around some humans, but not unfamiliar humans.  This doesn't mean that the dog is a 'bad dog', it just means that for some reason, this specific dog just has it's own reasons for reacting as it does.

How do you prevent an 'incident' between your dog and a human and/or other dog?  You prevent incidents by being responsible dog owners and taking every measure necessary to ensure that the interaction between your dog and another person/dog is comfortable/the least bit stressful in the beginning introduction.  If you're trying to introduce your dog to an excitable dog or an excitable child, maybe wait until that dog or that child has calmed down before continuing with the introduction.  If you're trying to introduce your dog to an unfamiliar setting (a new dog park, a home the dog has never been in, etc.), try to introduce the dog to that settle with the least bit of distractions possible (early morning when few folks are at the park and/or when the unfamiliar home is empty/quiet).

For a 'real-world' example, we're going to our owner's Mom's house today to hang out and what our owner does to prevent any sort of issues with his Mom's dogs are to take us in the house and let us sniff around for a second and then go outside and sniff around before they let his Mom's dogs out to play with us.  This way, every dog has a chance to settle in for a few minutes knowing that we've arrived to visit instead of just opening the front door and having chaos ensue with four big, excited dogs greeting each other instantly.

We hope our comments help you if you have struggled with canine interactions in the past and/or are concerned about interactions in the future with your dog and other people/dogs.  As always, if you have any questions or comments, please post them and we can address them because as you know, we're very intelligent canines and there is really not any question that you could come up with that we cannot answer in a satisfactory manner.

Now go out and enjoy the day!!

Punching the Time Clock

Earlier today, someone asked our owner if we sleep all day.  As we sat there thinking of whether this person deserved our attention or not (or course they deserve our attention), we also thought about whether this was a valid question or just a sarcastic jab at our energy level, we started wondering how do we really spend our days???

After about ten minutes or serious, deep thought, here is a percentage breakdown with we came up with:

50% sleeping
20% begging for food/eating
20% working (home security/personal security/canine duty (sniffing trees,flowers,etc))
10% exercising

Usually, from about 6-7am (depending on when we get up) until about 9am, we take care of the exercising and begging for food/eating, but that time is also usually mixed in with some work (either indoors from a window sill or outdoors in our yard/a neighbor's yard). 

From 9am until 4-5pm, we usually get most of our sleeping in.  To be fair, our owner says that we spend a percentage of this time begging for his lunch and/or working (usually, this is where we take care of the indoor home security (mailman, garbage man, people on the sidewalk, squirrels, etc). 

From 5pm until about 6-7pm, we either are begging/eating or exercising (depending on whether or not we were exercised in the AM).  On a good day, the exercise is combined with a car ride (YES!!), but those are definitely not an 'everyday' occurance.

From 7pm until 10pm, we mix in naps with a little bit of home security.  Then from 10pm until 6-7am, we're in a complete slumber as we take advantage of the dark, cool room to get our REM sleep in for the night.

Not a bad life, huh?  Included in this post is a pic of us caught in one our daily acts.  We hope you enjoy!

Poker Face

In our last post, we told you how much we like 'gold' treats.  Yesterday, we decided that we like gold treats so much that we went ahead and helped ourselves to a few.  I'm sure you're just sitting in your seat in anticipation waiting for the story, so here it is.

One of our owners decided to cook up some chicken breasts yesterday afternoon.  To be exact, he grilled up 1.65 pounds of chicken breasts.  The whole time he cooked the chicken, we made it known to him that we were definitely available if and when he needed a taste tester.  Being the self-centered guy that he is, he had the audacity to taste the chicken himself without giving us any!  The nerve of that guy!

After the chicken was cooked, our owner took the chicken off the grill and put it on a plate to cool down.  Before he cooked the chicken, he cut it up into small chunks (so he could shake them up in wing sauce and have homemade boneless chicken bites....mmmmmm!!)  As the chicken cooled, our owner decided to go outside and take care of a few chores, which took about 10 minutes.  10 minutes is plenty of time for us to take care of something we're interested in.

As our owner worked outside, he wondered to himself why his two loyal canines were not at their usual post (back bedroom window with a full view of the woods and driveway behind the house where the could clearly see their owner).  Giving us loyal companions the benefit of the doubt, our owner decided that we were just taking it easy in the living room.  WRONG!

Upon entering the kitchen, our owner noticed that his plate of chicken had disappeared (well, the plate was still there, but no chicken was present).  As he turned around, no one was to be found, so our owner went into the living room where both of us looked at him with our best poker faces.  We didn't blink, we didn't move, we didn't wag our tails, we didn't open our mouths.....we just sat their looking straight ahead at him.

To give him credit, our owner didn't react negatively at all and instead just said to us, "whichever one of you it was, nice magic trick in making the chicken disappear."  Now, our owner's Grandpa used to call Rocky "the bandit" because Rocky had the knack of taking things he wasn't supposed to and making a game out of trying to recover the lost items.  But with the calm, cool, and collected way that we both played our hands (card hands...it's a metaphor because we don't have real hands, we have paws), our owner has no idea whatsoever as to who ate that chicken and that's the way we like it.

P.S.....the chicken was delicious!!!

Treat Time!

As loyal followers of the Toes N' Tails gang, we're quite certain that you spoil your dogs just as much as we're spoiled by our owners (we take that back...I doubt there is a dog on this planet that lives the life of luxury that we enjoy).  And as spoiled dogs, you probably give you dogs treats every now and then as a token of your affection for your canine companion.

However, do you know that depending on how you give your dog treats, he may actually be taking your genorosity for granted?  Yes, that is correct....your loyal dog may be turning into a dog with a sense of entitlement just because of treat time.  How can you prevent your dog from turning into a furry version of Paris Hilton?  It's actually quite easy!

When you provide a treat for your dog, you should ensure that your dog is always 'doing something' to deserve the treat (regardless of whether that treat is a milk-bone, a carrot stick, a piece of hot dog, or whatever kind of treat you have for the dog).  We at the Toes N Tails gang call this 'working for prize' and once you start consistently practicing this with your canine, you should have a more obedient dog on your hands.

For beginners, you should always make your dog sit for any treat or desired action (going out for a walk, going for a ride in the car, etc).  Even us (extremely attractive canines) have to sit for our treats.  We sit for biscuits, we sit for pieces of turkey, we sit for 'beggin strips' (which our owner really thinks are the exact same thing as the beef jerky that humans consume).

Once you have 'sit' down (get the pun there..."sit down"), you should move on to more advanced tricks.  A few suggestions would be 'stay' and 'come' and 'down' and 'speak' and any other tricks that you can think of.  If you're concerned that some tricks may be tougher for your dog to master than others, you are probably correct.  Speaking for ourselves, we have issues with 'stay' and 'down' most of the time, but we are really good at 'come' and 'speak' (speak is something we do regardless of whether there is a prize involved or not). 

For the tougher exercises, you can substitute more desired 'prizes' for your dog (such as hot dog pieces or chicken breast pieces or any type of meat (plain meat, we want to add....do not include any sauce/condiment on the meat treats) as these more desired treats give the dog a little extra incentive to work harder for the end result.  Just from experience, Rocky (white stripe on his face) is a little more motivated to get down and stay down where there is a piece of beef in front of him instead of a carrot stick or milk-bone.  When teaching Desi and Rocky to 'come' to us, it was pretty much a lost cause until we started using pieces of chicken breast, so if you think your dog just isn't 'trainable' when it comes to tricks and commands, try out our suggestions before throwing in the towel.  You'll be surprised at how much food motivates a canine.

When you refer to these different levels of treats, you can classify them as 'bronze' or 'silver' or 'gold' treats (just like the Olympic medals...like the ones our favorite skier Julia Mancuso won in Vancouver).  Bronze treats are your standard dog biscuit/milk-bone, Silver treats are beggin' strips/snausages/human crackers/carrot sticks/celery/apple pieces, and Gold treats are pieces of steak/hot dog/chicken/turkey.

Are you clear on all of our instructions/suggestions?  We hope so!  If not, let us know and we can answer any questions you may have.  In the meantime, get to work on getting your dogs to work!!

The Fly

Now that the weather is getting warmer, we are noticing more and more intruders around our yard (you've heard all about the cat and the squirrel).  Last night, we encountered a creature that had the nerve to come into OUR house and torment us.  This creature took pleasure in teasing us for at least 2 hours and by the end of the 2 hours, we were completely baffled.  Who is this creature we speak of?  The fly.

Around 7pm, we noticed this fly in our owners bedroom.  The fly was buzzing around our favorite spot in the bedroom, which is the back window (where we station ourselves for guard duty in search of possible intruders/trespassers).  To our owners, the fly just seemed like it was trying to get back outside (it keep running into the screen), but to us (handsome & beautiful canines), this fly was just trying to mess with our heads.

How did we react to the fly teasing us?  By attacking it of course.  For 2 full hours, we chased the fly all over the bedroom and even through the house (he went in the living room a few times).  We barked at the fly, we jumped at the fly, we chomped at the fly (this was our owners favorite as Rocky's lips made a noise every single time he tried to 'chomp' down on the fly), and we chased the fly (on hardwood floors, this wasn't easy).

Unfortunately, we're here to tell you that we were unsuccessful in catching the fly.  After giving 110% in our chase, we became tired (or bored) after so many close calls that we finally said the heck with the fly and we curled up for our nightly slumber.  With the experience we gained during our first attempt at catching the fly, we're pretty certain that the next time that fly has the nerve to come into our house, he will regret it.

Permanent Fur Coats

Do you notice the four beautiful canines in the profile pic?  Do you notice what they have in common?  What all four dogs have in common are that they all have fur coats and they all have their tongues hanging out.  What does this mean to you non-canines who may be reading this blog?  This means that we were in a situation where we were trying to cool down.

Depending on the breed and type of canine, we can get very hot very quickly.  With thick fur coats that cannot be removed (maybe shaved/trimmed down, but not removed) coupled with the fact that dogs have a higher normal body temperature, the need to cool off may arise at a much faster pace than our human counterparts.  Our tongues hang out because that is how we sweat/cool down instead of through the skin like human beings cool their bodies.

Why is bringing up our body temperature/cooling techniques important today?  Because depending on where you reside, the temperature may be steadily increasing to the point of where it becomes uncomfortable for a canine.  Whether it's running, walking, working, or just sitting around the house, temperatures over 75 degrees can make life for a dog a little hot around their collar.  If the dog has a dark/black coat (such as Desi and Rocky), the sun attracts more heat to the dog's coat, causing body temperatures to rise.

How can you fix this as responsible dog owners?  The answer is simple.  Just make sure you leave fresh water out for your dog at all times, whether it's in the house or outside in a shaded area.  If your dog stays outside for an extended period of time, make sure they have plenty of shade to rest and relax under.  If you're really looking to please your dog, you can cool them off before/during/after long walks by pouring water on their coats (our owners turn on the outside faucet and use running water to cool us off....just don't turn the sprayer on 'full' or 'high' or 'blast' because that scares us....'mist' or 'shower' works just fine).

A few other treats for your dog during hot days include ice cubes (some dogs really love them, some dogs hate them) as well as Frosty Paws frozen dogs treats (we've never seen a dog who didn't like these treats!)

All of these options are fine choices and no matter how you choose to cool your dog down, just do something to make sure they stay cool.  Your dog will be thankful and will really think that it's 'cool' that you're such a great owner for watching out for them!

Hitting the Wall

As some of you know, we get exercised pretty regularly.  However, during the winter months, one of our owners (the one who runs us most often) came down with some sort of virus/chest cold that knocked him out of commission for a few weeks.  In addition, that same owner has been really busy during the Spring, so we haven't been able to exercise as much as we would like in the past month or so.  What does this mean to the Toes N Tails gang?  It means that our endurance level has taken a hit.

Desi (all black) doesn't seem to be affected by the lack of recent training as she is still quite spry during our runs.  Whether 1 mile or 10, Desi is strong throughout the run.  However, Rocky (stripe on his face), is a totally different story.  Rocky has hit the wall big-time.  During our past 3 runs, Rocky has struggled to finish each time and during our last long run (Saturday afternoon at Sharon Woods), Rocky basically said the heck with running around mile marker 4.5 (our course for the day was around 7.25 total miles).  What did this mean for all parties involved?  It meant that Desi and her owner had to continually stop as Rocky slowed down (or stopped) to catch his breath/smell the flowers/water the flowers.  We at the Toes N Tails gang can understand a pit stop or two, but Rocky has turned the runs into basically a 'stop at every exit and check things out' routine.

After some rest, some coaching, and a little encouragement, Rocky was able (barely) to finish the course as he dragged himself across the finish line behind his owner and Desi, who led the way.  After the run, Rocky guzzled a couple of bottles of water (placed in a bowl of course...Rocky can't drink from a water bottle) and was ready for the ride home (with the windows down to cool him down).

Once Rocky made it home, he took a few more drinks from his water dish, waited for his chow to be made, scarfed down his food, and then went and laid down for a nap.  I don't think anyone saw Rocky's eyeballs for the rest of the night as he was crashed out.

Looking ahead, we hope to get our endurance levels back to where they were around Christmas time (we ran 12.5 miles in Toledo one morning) before the hotter Summer days arrive.  Wish us luck as we turn it up a notch these next few weeks!

Something to Bark About

You may have recently seen an email circulating that warns of toxic mulch found at certain retailers (Target, Meijer, Home Depot, etc).  The toxic mulch supposedly contains ingredients found from chocolate (which is toxic to us canines) and has caused a few faithful companions to suddenly become ill and pass away within a few hours of digesting the mulch.  While we have not been in contact with this mulch first paw (not first hand people, we're DOGS), we do not discount the statements about the mulch causing other canines to become sick.

If you're not really sure what mulch is or is made of, mulch is shredded pieces of wood/tree bark that is processed through a shredder and then treated with certain chemicals/ingredients/dyes to make it more desirable to consumers based on their personal preferences (type/color, etc).  What we are here to tell you is that no matter the type/brand/size/color/smell of mulch, it is not good for our tummies AT ALL!!

Some of the mulch you may buy is treated with 'fertilizer' which could come from animal waste (and we have heard human waste has been used as well...seriously).  Some of the mulch you may buy is treated with dyes (to make it red/dark brown/black/brown).  Some of the mulch you buy is treated with fertilizer to help the plants/trees/shrubs/flowers grow faster/stronger/healthier.

What does this all mean to you dog owners/dog fans?  This all means that you should not allow your dog to chew on and/or consume mulch.  "Fido, fetch the stick" is so 1950's because in present times, vets and dog professionals will tell you that wood/bark is not at all good for a canine's stomach/mouth/throat/digestive tract.  Would you chew on a tree branch and swallow a bunch of pieces?  No, because it would make you sick!  Same with us canines.

Buy us a chew toy or two (we have one that we highly recommend, so ask our owners about it) instead of allowing us to chew on wood/bark/mulch.  At the end of the day, we really don't know what we're chewing on, so you cannot trust us to steer clear of mulch....this means you have to take control of the situation and watch out for us yourselves (are you listening dog owner???)

While it may be an inconvenience to watch us around mulch/bark/wood, we are certain that it will be much more of an inconvenience to take us to the vet if we become sick and/or even worse, have a fatal occurance due to digestion of mulch/wood/bark.  You love us enough to make sure we that we're not the next subject of the mass email going around warning about toxic mulch digestion, don't you?  If you even hesitated with answering that question, you should not have and if you did, go back and provide the correct answer.

Enough 'barking' at you for now....go out and enjoy the fine weather today (we already have during our sunrise run!!)

Burrito Eating Contest RESULTS!!!

A few weeks ago (well, like we've said before, dogs can't keep track of time, so we really don't know how long ago it was) we posted information regarding the upcoming burrito eating contest pitting Rocky "The Fat Man" against Desi "The Pig" in a no holds barred food consumption marathon. After making our initial post, our owners decided that maybe Chipotle burritos were not the best thing in the world for us to be eating due to the amount of spices/seasonings that some of the ingredients include. Did these mean the competition was cancelled? Of course not! Our owners are pretty smart people (they picked us out, didn't they?!?!), so they brainstormed for alternatives that would better suit our tummies.

After considering a few options, our owners decided on a homemade burrito-type meal to use for our contest. The homemade meal consisted of rice, mixed veggies (carrots/peas/beans), grilled steak, and a small amount of our regular chow (we run with one of our owners, so we need those vitamins). After making up the ingredients, our owners filled the bowls and then weighed each bowl to compare. Rocky's dish weighed in at 2.2 pounds of food and Desi's dish weighed in at 2.0 pounds of food. That would be around 8-9 McDonald's quarter pounder patties in each bowl!

Once we were in our crates, our owners each had a stopwatch and they simultaneously put the bowls in our crates and started the timers. The race was on!

Not to anyone's surprise, Rocky took a quick lead as he started scarfing down the steak pieces (Rocky is obsessed with any type of steak/chicken/pork) as Desi slowly munched away. After a couple of minutes, Rocky seemed to be shooting himself in the paw as he basically buzz sawed his way through his bowl, shooting bits of rice/meat/veggies all over his crate, which would make the clean up process take some time. Desi, in the other crate, was deliberately and consistently eliminating the contents of her bowl with a much cleaner and conservative approach.

At the 5 minute mark, the contest was anyone's to lose. In the next minute, Rocky started to clean up around his bowl and the majority of the food inside of the dish was gone. Meanwhile, Desi chomped away (laying down of course, like she does every time she eats). Rocky seemed to be losing valuable time as he messed around with cleaning up the food that he had thrown all over his crate.

At the 7 minute mark, we had a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In an official time of 7 minutes and 1 second, Desi "D-Wiggy" had defeated Rocky "Rock Star" in a major upset of competitive eating. Not since Desi's early days (ages 4-9 months, when she was nicknamed "Pig") had Desi beaten Rocky in finishing a bowl of food. As Desi licked her chops, Rocky finished his bowl (enough to the satisfaction of the judges) in a time of 7 minutes and 50 seconds. Desi's owners were shocked that she beat The Fat Man, but nonetheless, they were proud of their little girl.

Desi then celebrated with her grand prize (a "Beggin' Strip") while Rocky wasted no time in accepting his consolation prize (also a "Beggin' Strip"). No one told Desi that Rocky and her both received the same prize even though she just smoked him in the competitive eating competition, but with a full belly of steak and a mouthful of Beggin Strip, I really don't think Desi minded that much.

Rocky handled his defeat as his owners expected, which meant he just walked into the bedroom, climbed up onto the bed, and took a nap as he laid in the sunlight coming from the back window.

These dogs really do lead a tough life....