Category Archives: Pets

Santa Paws Is Coming

We leave a plate of cookies out for Santa. We wrap gifts for a newborn. Why not put some things under the tree for your best friends? Cats and dogs may not know what Christmas is but they know a new toy or treat when they see it. Get them super excited with these cool items this holiday season.


Ruffwear Cloudchaser

A romp in the mountains could send a chill through their bones if they’re not a fluffy St. Bernard. The softshell Cloudchaser hugs your pooch all the way around his body and insulates him from cold, wet, inclement weather. The waterproof, windproof, breathable three-layer soft-shell upper fabric has four-way stretch and a zippered closure for a snug fit and easy on/off. The belly panel is coated to repel water, snow and dirt. It also has reflective piping for afterwork strolls. $79.95, www.ruffwear.com.



Orvis Toy Box

In a nutshell, this piece of reclaimed wood is gorgeous. The medium-sized box should fit into anyone’s home décor and despite its compact size will handle every toy in the house. Now you don’t have to hide that unsightly pile of squeakers and tugs. The antique mountain look will be a conversation starter. Add a personalized name plate and your dog just may clean up his own toys. $129-149. http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=8R93

Petprojekt Squeaky Snowman

It’s easy for Fido to celebrate the holidays when he’s trotting around with a Snowman in his mouth. The squeaky toy is made from 100 percent non-toxic, durable materials and should last you well past New Year’s. Get the Reindeer and Santa Claws Cat designs for extra stocking stuffers. $8-12, www.petprojekt.com


SnugglePuppie

When you’re gone all day skiing, let the SnugglePuppie take your place. This soft, cuddly pup makes a best friend unlike other toys that beg to be tossed, chewed and dragged around. A removable plastic heart beats in the middle and the pocket for handwarmers provides the comfort a mother’s body might. But your pet doesn’t have to be a newborn to discover the warmth of a best friend. Children, seniors and adult dogs too will cuddle with this slipper-sized softie. Heartbeat comes with batteries, it’s machine washable, and because there’s nothing small to chew off it’s safe for all. $39,
http://www.snugglepetproducts.com/snuggle-pets/snuggle-puppies


Dog-e-Glow

OK, a collar is more for you than her but you’ll both feel motivated to take those winter’s night strolls with a Dog-e-Glow. The light-up collar and matching leash come in all sorts of cute designs and stand out even in the dead of night. Whether it’s the bones, plaids or a Cougars or Utes style you’ll love how the little LED bulbs shine along the entire length and can be seen up to 1000 feet away. The weather-resistant collars and leashes can be set to flash, steady and off mode so the replaceable lithium coin cell batteries last up to 150 hours. $9, www.petsmart.com.


Bravo Cat treats

Cats too deserve healthy snacks and with those carnivorous attitudes, Bravo! will surely please the king and queen of the house. The Feline Healthy Medley treats of 100 percent pure muscle meat are freeze-dried to lock in flavor. They’re grain-free and created specifically to nurture the nutritional needs of cats by providing ingredients filled with easily absorbable vitamins and minerals. Use them to train your cat to come indoors, get off the counters and maybe even take that cupcake out of your hand. $8, www.BravoRawDiet.com


Power Paws Socks

Therapy animal owners can tell you dogs’ paws can pick up all sorts of nasties from the floor. So a pair of Power Paws is not just about protecting pads from cold days and slippery floors. The “Advanced” style is a non-slip, reinforced-toe canine sock for indoor/outdoor wear to prevent frostbite, improve traction, keep snow from clumping between toes without sacrificing dexterity and avoid germs at your next trip to the vet. When you don’t need the beefiness of a dog booty try the Power Paws. $24.99; http://woodrowwear.com/.


Go Get It

Move over Chuck-It. The Go Get It is no ordinary ball launcher. The retractable, ergonomic handle extends and retracts for maximum portability. Never touch a slobbery ball again. Hook the thrower to a belt loop or leash handle with the convenient end clip and there’s no excuse not to take it out to play with your buds. $17, http://www.amazon.com/Petmate-Go-Get-ball-launcher/dp/B000R7XPSA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top


Aussie Floppie

If you’ve ever witnessed the mess your dog makes shredding the insides of a stuffed toy you’ll appreciate the Floppie. This 2 in 1 rodent is filling free, and has two squeakers and a braided cotton rope hidden inside for all sorts of all-day fun. $8, http://aussienaturals.us.


Dreamables Bone bowl

Serve up his 2014 meals in this stylish, fun, playful food and water feeder. Two generous removable stainless bowls sit snuggly inside the brightly colored plastic ‘bone’ for easy washing and filling. Non-slip rubber feet keep the whole thing from sliding around at dinner time. Pick the color that matches your room or opt for black which goes with everything. The bowl comes in two sizes so cats and small dogs can have a taste of personality as well. $25-35, http://www.prestigepet.com.


Doggy Treat Dangers. READ NOW!

The news is on fire over hundreds of dogs dying from jerky treats made in China. Cats are also affected. The illness doesn’t discriminate among size, breed or age so toss the junk if you have it. More than 600 dogs have died and over 3,500 so far are sick. Supposedly, jerky treats from chicken, duck and sweet potato are doing the evil but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can’t pinpoint a specific brand or the causative agent.

Signs your pet has been infected may include vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, lethargy, or weakness. About 30 percent show signs of kidney failure or urinary problems.

For more information – please read:

Officials from the FDA need pet owners and veterinarians to report back on any issues with a pet to help figure out what and why this is happening. Testing for contaminants has led to zero results.

Report a problem in your dog here.
For details on this newest recall – go to New Dog Food and Treat Recalls.
Here is a list of other recent recalls:

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/health-alerts-pet-product-and-food-recalls-by-fda/page1.aspx

This is just a reminder for you to check the list frequently. You can also sign up here for email alerts of recalls.

Check Your Cupboards!

As soon as I heard about this recall I grabbed the bag of Zuke’s Mini Naturals I use to train Takoda. First, a big seal in the upper right corner says “Made in the USA”. Good. But because the FDA doesn’t require a company to list where each ingredient comes from I looked further down:

Chicken was the number one ingredient!

I consulted the Zuke’s website and found under the FAQ section:

All of our products are guaranteed made in the USA and all of the meat, fruit, and veggies are sourced from the USA as well (with the exception of the Rabbit and the Venison, which come from New Zealand).

Hallelujah!

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My dog has learned tricks form basic obedience to ‘cover your eyes’ with the Mini Naturals. They have less than 4 calories per piece with wholefood antioxidants like cherries, rosemary and tumeric in them. Plus, Zuke’s donates a portion of every sale to the Dog and Cancer Fund. $2.99 on Amazon right now!

Another brand I use to treat my dog is Spring Naturals. He loves the Grain Free Treats made with turkey, salmon, chickpeas, spinach, blueberries, cranberries, flaxseed, apricots, dandelion greens, apples and molasses. “Every recipe is made with only select, market-quality ingredients from sources in the United States. So with the help of some very smart animal nutritionists who shared our passion for pets, Spring Naturals was born. Welcome to a fresh new era in pet nutrition.”

Sounds great to me…and him!

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Today I’m grateful my daughter still has her eye

F*&king Facebook. Leave it to that platform to add guilt to envy and jealousy among its users. It seems like half my FB friends have started preaching gratitude. It was one thing when everyone was bragging about their lives, their children, their accomplishments, their adventures. I can keep up with that. But gratitude? That’s like confession or therapy. That’s not “me”. It should be. I’d like it to be, but I’m just so busy in my head 24/7 that I don’t stop to appreciate the brilliant wildflowers out my window, the full belly, the faint hum of the A/C on a 90-degree day. Well, today, I’m going to start tying to be more grateful. I’m sure none of you really care but for those who know me know this is a big deal. I’m kind of selfish- I take a lot for granted; let’s just say that.

I’ve been accused of being someone who is constantly maximizing their yield. I own that. Therefore, leave it to me to find a reason to be grateful- I’m told more good things will come your way. Perhaps it’s like entering a drawing- you have nothing to lose and you can’t win if you don’t play. What’s a few minutes contemplating your lot in life? I hear that slowing down to breathe is a good thing. Plus, when you really think about it, it’s like that whole “glass is half full” mentality. You know, optimistic peeps see it full; negative peeps see it as half empty. I’m definitely a half full girl.

Enough rambling. Today I’m grateful my daughter still has her eye.

And that she is such an incredible trooper and inspiration. The surgeon said he thought it was going to be much worse but he says she’s going to be fine. We have to watch for infection and for a possibility of her eyeball bulging but it can be fixed by an ocular plastic surgeon if it comes down to it. Now we’re one of those ‘look at the Adlers’ it can happen to anybody examples. Sage has been the model of perfect health – aside from the yearly cold and an ear infection or two, she’s never been hospitalized or given us a scare. That all changed when a neighborhood dog bit in the face on Monday. I blame myself. We have a dog and we never had to worry about those two together so I the conversation about putting her face near a dog’s face never happened.

This ‘other’ dog was always very friendly to her, other kids, other people, other dogs. From conversations with trainers, it was asserting dominance over a pack member. It did not try to kill Sage or rip her to shreds. It was one bite and back away. Still, the whole ordeal was horrifying.

I cleaned the wound, called her health insurance to find out where to take Sage and rushed over to the Park City ER all before you could say, “Help! I need a doctor!”

The ER doc called the three plastic surgeons that have privileges at the hospital and not one of them responded. She confidently offered to sew up Sage herself but this is her face, dammit. I wasn’t going to trust it to someone without YEARS of experience suturing a child’s face. We scooped her up, said ‘Bye’, and rushed down to the ER at Primary Children’s. The doctors there are meticulous and professional. She was seen relatively quickly but we still didn’t get home until 2 a.m. They numbed the area, gave her enough anesthesia to keep her from an awareness of what they were doing, stuffed her stuffing back into her eye and closed up the wound. Sage never cried or fought. Even while she was under, she kept saying repeatedly, ‘Momma, where are you? …Momma, is that you touching my shoulder?…. I love you, Momma.’ My heart was breaking. My beautiful little girl could be horribly disfigured because I took good dogs for granted.

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Two days later her eye is still very swollen but Sage doesn’t complain. She laughs when Ryan jokes about her street cred on the hockey ice now. The doctor told us she will have a small scar that makeup will hide or it could even fade to nothing. Other than looks, she’s the same ol’ Sage and, thankfully (here’s me being grateful again), she’s not afraid of dogs.

She refused to miss a single day of her SpyHop film class and she couldn’t wait to film her scenes as Snow, the white kitten. So I packed her Glow in the Dark Wolverine sunglasses we got at the Macklemore concert last OR and dropped her at school.

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I have to go now. She just walked in prancing to Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble and asked me to dance with her. And I was grateful to have such an awesome kid.

UPDATE: 3/14/2014- You can barely see the scar and the doctor is done with his followups. If she’s bothered at all by the time she’s a teen we can revisit for a revision. But I think the docs at Primary Children’s did an awesome job, don’t you?

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EZ Pet Barrier Saves the Day!

There are two things I vowed I would never do- I would never let my kid be seen in public without her hair brushed and I would never jail my dog behind metal bars in my car. The hair thing? Right; anyone with a kid knows that’s a battle us mothers lose often. The car thing? I held out as long as I could.
New car + Park City summers + dog = severe frustration.
As I drove my Honda off the lot my joy shifted to one thing- keeping a long-haired, outdoor dog from destroying not only my new-car smell but my new car in general. I love Takoda but no matter how hard I try, he prefers the driver’s seat when I’m not in it. I hate that.
I had my 
Petmate crate. That was an option but I’m just too lazy to drag it back and forth from the house. Shouting at him to “get back”? Uh, doesn’t work. Therefore, I hunted for one of those barriers that would turn my entire rear into a kennel but they were expensive and I feared those ceiling and floor mounts would damage my little, shiny SUV.
That’s when I spotted the 
EZ Pet Barrier. Unlike other grates that use disks that wind into your ceiling and floor for stability, the EZ lashes down with bungee cords so long as your seats have headrests, you’re golden.


I pieced together the durable metal tubing and mounted it in less than 15 minutes. The barrier has “arms” that extend, sliding into each other, to adjust for the height and width. Plastic caps keep them from slipping back and a plastic sleeve protects your car and windows from scrapes and smaller dogs attempting to squeeze between the bars.
I didn’t even need tools.


Ken and Joan Beechie were onto something when they decided to build a better barrier. What was on the market was inadequate and expensive, they described. You know what they say about the mother of invention? Necessity encouraged the Washington state inventors to create a similar device that didn’t need to be messed with every time you wanted to move your carseat. The barrier moves with the seats because it’s attached to them and not to the ceiling. I can fold the whole backseat down without ever having to take the grate out of the car.
I’m told the barrier fits most cars, trucks and SUVs but I can only vouch for a Honda CRV. You can even use it behind the driver seat if you don’t mind your dog lounging on the backseat but I choose to keep everything but the back rug free hair, drool, mud, and nail marks.


The barrier is not without its challenges, however. When my pooch really really wants to get past it, he can. He’s figured out that if he struggles between the side window and the arm, the arm slides out of the way. I’m hoping that he’ll get used to being barred so that I don’t have to super glue the metal but there is that solution. My other (small) annoyance is that he’s young and chews. I went through four straps in two weeks.


Thankfully, bungee cords are cheap. I’d rather replace them than, say, my gearshift handle. Plus, once I catch him in the act I can train him to stop. I’ll just hide out on the side of the car and bang on the window the minute I see sniff those ties. As the Beechies showed, think hard enough and you can come up with a solution to any problem. Now, if only I could get them to invent a scream-free brush for morning hair…
$59-79, http://www.ezpetbarrier.com/petbarrier.htm

Dog Training Tips- The Alpha Roll

Last night I learned about Alpha Rolls.

I met Jan Perkins last fall during the Walk and Wag event held at the University of Utah. I really liked her, liked where she was coming from in terms of dog training and she stuck in my mind. Now that Takoda’s nearing his first birthday I’m getting serious about going beyond basic obedience. Plus, He’s a teenager and starting to push boundaries. I’m sick of him trying to jump out of the car and ‘escape’; of him jumping on strangers to say hello, etc. And now he’s trying to nip Sage when she runs past him- typical Australian shepherd behavior but nonetheless unacceptable.

I called Jan and that same night she was starting a rally/agility class. He loved it; I loved it and at the end we had time to discuss personal ‘homework’. Boundary training- I always go first; through doors. He’s not allowed out of the car until I say so. We of course discussed how to correct naughty behaviors. And when a dog tried to act like he’s man of the house, it’s the Alpha Roll….


Alpha Rolls: 

Make sure you are doing your alpha rolls daily.  Alpha rolls are the same thing that the mother dog or an alpha dog would do to another dog to show dominance over them.  When a puppy gets out of control, the mother dog will put her mouth over the puppy’s neck and put them on the ground.  The puppy then will usually submit by rolling on its back and showing its flank or if very submissive will piddle.   If a more dominant dog goes after a submissive dog the dominate dog will go for the neck, put their hackles up and become very large, or get on top of the submissive dog and the submissive dog will roll on his back to show submission.  At this point most dogs will walk away from each other unless they are on their own property and are very territorial. 

Dogs understand alpha rolls and by doing these you put yourself in the leadership position.  


To alpha roll your dog:

Roll them on their side taking one hand and gently but firmly placing it over the neck.  The other hand firmly but carefully lies over their body, keeping them in a prone position.  Be careful with their legs to make sure they do not get caught underneath and get hurt.  If your dog submits easily, these can be done as a fun body massage with lots of love.  When massaging your dog use two fingers and massage gently down the spine from the base of the skull to the tail.  Massage each leg and down to each foot.  If they are sensitive, move your hand up to a more comfortable area and work back to the sensitive place slowly.  You can massage the ears, gums and jaw muscle.  You can also use these as a correction for your dog. 

Now, if your dog defies you and is not listening to your correction you can put them in an alpha roll firmly but do not praise at the end with the massage.  Have them get back up and do whatever you were correcting for.  Then you can praise.  Just make sure your dog stays down until you release them.  If your dog fights his way up and you let him, you lose big time.  They then know they are stronger than you are.  Also, make sure that your dog doesn’t put his paw over your arm while they are being rolled.  That is another way they show that they are not totally submissive. 

Do be careful when trying this as some dogs are dominate over you and you just don’t know it. They’ll snap at you when you put them down.  If you are afraid, you might have one of these dogs, give Jan a call at Live Oak Obedience.

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