Adventure Dog Blog

Much to my dogs’ dismay, I found this dog toothbrush set at PetSmart when I was shopping and decided it was time to start brushing their teeth.

What made me think of it was seeing all the dogs that were virtually un-adoptable at the local animal shelter because they were old and had very bad teeth. Getting a dog’s teeth done can be quite an expensive procedure, and anaesthesia is risky business so it’s always better to avoid it when you can.

I got a kit like the one pictured above that came with a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a little finger toothbrush that’s really just a rubber thingie with some nubs on it.

I started by introducing both dogs to a little bit of toothpaste on my finger and letting them lick it. The second week, I let them lick toothpaste off of the little rubber finger brush. After using the finger brush for a couple weeks and getting it in their mouth a bit, I started with the real toothbrush. I’m still not able to brush a lot of their teeth, but they do quite enjoy trying to lick all the toothpaste, and I am managing to scrub a bit. It’s better than nothing.

So here are my Tips for Brushing Your Dog’s Teeth:

1. Start Slowly. The last thing you want to do is rush, and end up turning the situation into a negative experience for your dog. Dogs don’t easily forget!

2. Try Your Finger. Even if you don’t have a special rubber brush that fits on your finger, you can put dog toothpaste on your finger and rub it on your dog’s gums and teeth.

3. Use a Schedule. I brush my dogs’ teeth once per week. This way, it has become a routine. They know what to expect when the toothbrush comes out, including the treats they will get when everything is done. It has become an event they look forward to.

4. Use a Dog Toothpaste! This is important! There are chemicals in human toothpaste that you shouldn’t give to your dog.

5. Reward Your Dog AFTER. After your dog has sat and allowed you to fudge around in their mouth, be sure to give them lots of love and attention. They will remember this next time they see the toothbrush come out.

Hopefully in a few weeks, I’ll be able to report even more progress with my dogs and their teeth!

It’s highly likely that you’ve already seen the following site, but if you haven’t, man you’re in for a treat.

I LOVE my pug, and in searching for information on pugs, I discovered Obey the Pure Breed, a website that has really unique designs for all kinds of products, from t-shirts and posters to bumper sticks and baby onsies. They have images/designs of ALL different kinds of dog breeds and all of them are really unique. And this is not your usual product. This is “propaganda for canine world domaination”!

I think what I really liked was that their designs featuring pugs really capture the true character of a pug. I’ve seen so many people try to draw a pug or design an image, and they just can’t get the wrinkles right or the squashed face to look natural.

Look at that face, isn’t he hilarious:

I think this site has a lot of stuff that would make good stocking stuffers for friends and presents for the people in your life with dogs. I think my little Chublet would look hilarious in one of their pug shirts, and trust me, he’s going to take over the world. Soon. Just not yet.

Take a peek, these dogs are hilarious.

I was just reading a post on Bark Blog that discusses a news item about a family who took their dog to the vet with tumors that required surgery they couldn’t afford. They decided to have the dog put down. The story gets a little confusing here, but essentially what happened is a visiting vet decided to do the surgery on the dog and keep it. Eventually, the family was contacted and reunited with their dog, and left quite upset over the whole ordeal.

In Bark Blog, they raise the question of what can be done to help animals that are being put down because their owners cannot afford surgery.

This isn’t the only scenario where I’ve seen dogs suffer because someone can’t afford their surgery. At my local animal shelter, they often have older dogs up for adoption that require expensive work on their teeth. The shelter will only let someone adopt the dog if they pay for the surgery and have it done first, and so often these dogs will go un-adopted. There must be a way to help these dogs as well.

There are a few problems that need to be solved besides saving the dog’s lives. The first would be having the surgery paid for and completed. The second is finding some way to keep the dog with it’s family.

1. Create a pool of vets who are willing to perform surgeries on animals to ensure they are more easily adopted from animal shelters, and for families that cannot afford surgeries on their pets.

2. Create a fund that provides financial assistance to families that need it to pay for these surgeries.

3. Find a way to provide better payment options for low income families who require surgery for their pets.

Unfortunately, there is a shortage of vets who are willing to work for free, probably because there are just too many animals and families needing help. A vet has to earn a living. Maybe this issue could be solved if all vets donated a certain amount of time per month to the pool.

Who would start and maintain the fund for assisting families financially? And can vets offer better payment solutions?

Hopefully this is an issue that more people will think about and the ball will start to roll.

When it’s windy and cold outside, my dogs are almost as hesitant as I am to go and play outside. Almost. Well actually, they’d probably drag me to the park if it was up to them, but sometimes I must refuse.

It’s frustrating when days can go by and the dogs haven’t had their daily fix of romping exercise with other dogs. What can a dog owner do on those days to keep their dogs from tearing up the house with pent-up energy?

The following is a list of activities that you can do with your dogs during the winter months to keep them in top shape and happy:

1. Find a local dog meetup. Many of these groups will meet indoors at a local dog daycare where dogs can run and romp together and nobody has to stand around outside.

2. Visit your dog friendly friends. Taking your dog to someone else’s house can be enough to break up the monotonous routine of their day. Even better, visit a friend that has dogs and let the dogs play together in the yard, or even in the house.

3. Join a flyball team. Flyball is a sport for dogs and their owners where the dogs run a race, jumping over jumps to catch a ball at the end. Flyball teams are always hoping to find small dogs to compete as the height of the jumps are set by the smallest member of the team. This sport is often played indoors so it’s great for the winter.

4. Take your dog to the pet store. Whenever you run off to get that new bag of food or pick up some treats, load those dogs into the car and take them with you! Going for a ride, sniffing out a new place, and meeting other dogs can be an exciting outing!

5. Visit your local dog daycare. We run a dog daycare from our home where dogs come to play with us, and often stay overnight. There are also larger commercial dog daycares run in buildings with big playrooms for the dogs. You can use dog daycares to ensure your dog gets enough socialization, exercise, and entertainment. Some daycares are now setting up indoor dog parks, so look for one in your city.

6. Teach your dog some more tricks. A training session can involve lots of laying down, jumping up, spinning around, and more. You can use a training session to give your dog some entertainment and mild exercise.

7. Play hide and seek. Lots of dogs enjoy a good game of hide and seek where they have to find you, or find a toy that you’ve hidden. We will tell Anna to wait, and let her sit in the livingroom while we go off and hide a toy somewhere. Then when we say “okay!”, she knows it’s time to go find her toy. We had to make things very easy the first few times we played, but as she caught on, we had to make things harder and harder. I know a woman with a border collie that LOVES this game, but she has to go down into her basement and hide the ball in the sleeve of a coat or buried in things, because he’s so good at finding it!

8. Dance. There are people who participate in musical freestyle, a combination of obedience and dance. If you can train your dog a few basic moves, you could be dancing together in no time!

9. Get down and wrestle. My big dog Anna has always really liked it when I get down on the floor with her to play. Her tail wags like crazy if I push her down onto her back and sniff at her ears and face. She used to be a little rambunctious for play like this, but now that she’s older, she’s pretty gentle with me. I get just as much exercise as she does when we wrestle!

10. Blow bubbles. One summer we discovered that Anna just loved chasing bubbles. If you have a room in your house where it won’t cause problems to get some soap on the floor, mix up yourself a batch of bubbles, find a bubble wand, and start blowing. Anna goes wild snapping and catching them in her mouth. It’s really fun!

This could be the ultimate Christmas gift for any dog owner you know. I’m thinking this might even be a good gift to myself.

On Etsy.com I found AmeliaMakesArt, who can make a little dog of needled felt, all in the likeness of your dog.

There are other examples on this page and she says that from time to time she offers these needle felted dogs for sale in her shop to anyone that wants one. She explains that if you want yours made to look like your dog, you will need to send her a bunch of photos. You can also just specify which breed you’d like her to felt.

I think these looked so cute, I just had to post about them. Click here to visit AmeliaMakesArt’s page on Etsy.

I can’t think of a good word that combines both “dog” and “bunny” together. However, I have photo evidence that a dog mixed with bunny is CUTE!

I found an online store called Trixie & Peanut that sells all kinds of products for dogs, both big and small. Considering I have a large dog and a small dog, I liked finding a site that had products for the two of them together.

What made me laugh out loud though was their section of wigs! REALLY! Wigs for dogs! I found the idea pretty hilarious. However, in that section, I also found the above bunny hat, which is pretty ridiculous but too darn cute to resist! Just imagine my little Chublet wearing that hat! Poor doggie!

If you want to see the site for yourself, you can click here for the wigs and hats, or click here for the main page of the site. They have plenty of products that aren’t ridiculous, so check them out.

It has been quite a long period of time since my last blog entry, and a lot of things have happened. In early April 2007, our black pug Mr. Meaty was hit by a car and killed. It was an extremely difficult time. We had a funeral and had him buried at a local pet cemetary, which helped to bring us some closure.

After waiting four months, we decided it was time to bring another pug baby into our lives, and we adopted Chublet. He is a beautiful fawn boy who is just as rambunctious and crazy as our Meaty, and we love him to bits and pieces. He has really helped to heal my heart.

Anna (our big dog) was honestly happy to have Meaty gone. She soaked up all the attention and started acting like a playful puppy again. I was nervous to introduce a new pup because I felt she might retreat once more and behave in a less joyful manner, but to my surprise she was quite excited to have Chublet around. I think now that he’s older, she is beginning to tire of his constant pestering, but I will work hard to get him to behave and give her some peace.

I am now running a dog daycare from my home and we often have different dogs visiting and playing. As such, I’m gaining experience with all different breeds and personalities, and it’s quite fun for the most part.

I have decided to start up the Adventure Dog Blog once more, and hopefully will have some great posts for you! I’m glad to be back.