Tea and Dog Biscuits

This last weekend was wet and rainy; a perfect weekend to stay indoors cuddling with Marley and reading a good book. I read the most delightful book, Tea and Dog Biscuits by Barrie Hawkins.

Its about a couple in England who decide to start a rescue for German Shepards.  They have made plans as in "when we have more time" until a major illness strikes Mrs. Hawkins.  She wants Barrie to start the rescue to give him focus while she undergoes surgery.  While she is in the hospital a young man calls begging him to take his dog because he is homeless and living in his car, thus starts the rescue organization.

The writing made it easy to imagine living with German Shepards and running a rescue.  As charming and delightful as the book is Barrie does not hide the dark side of rescue. I'll stop before I give the entire story away.  

It is simply a great read and perfect for a dark rainy day. 

The rescue organization is GSD Homefinders and 10% of the royalties from the book are going directly to the rescue organization. 

Today brought to you by the letter T

 

I recently purchased the Alphabet Drills book by Nancy Gyes and it has totally changed my life. Well, not quite; it has revolutionized our training sessions.

The book is simply beautiful and the drawings are pretty easy to understand.  I do spend a lot of time thinking, "No way can we do that!"  Turns out we can, the the exercises are pretty much broken down from easy to complex.

We started working on the letter T which was covered in our class a couple of months ago.  It was nice to be challenged by a few complex additions to the easy exercise.

All the students in our Agility class purchased this book, which our instructor totally appreciates. She just emails us the letter of the week and we all come prepared and know what to expect in class.  This week we are working on the letter M.

I totally love this book and I see myself using it for quite a long time.

It also comes with a CD that includes a trial of Clean Run Course Designer.

Dogscaping Creating the Perfect Backyard & Garden for You and Your Dog

I like to pretend I can garden, in reality I tend to murder my plants. Especially the "hard to kill" plants like mint or rosemary. I can win awards for the scrawniest tomato plants. I've actually grown the only zucchini plant that produces 3 vegetables.

Well, I've recently moved to a new place with a large patio and I thought it would make a great space for plants and veggies. Once I started to think about what I wanted to plant, I started to worry about Marley eating something toxic.

I was delighted to find Dogscaping! It begins by explaining how to design for the type of dog you have. It walks you though plant selection and organic fertilizers, compost and mulch. There are a few dog recipies and lots of great ideas.

As I flipped through the beautiful pages, I saw two dogs that looked familiar. It was Johanna and Gracie from Raise a Green Dog, I felt like I knew celebrities. Their article about organic lawns was fabulous.

Overall, I loved this book, it was simply beautiful. The ideas were fabulous and there were projects within different sections such as a diy dog pond, doggy sandbox and a fetching strip. I especially loved the section on acceptable plants for the type of dog you have, for example plants that will survive canine excavators. I see a dog friendly water feature in Marley's future.

Rescuing Sprite

A couple of days after Mahone died, a friend gave me a copy of Rescuing Sprite. I was a bit flabbergasted she would give me such a book and promised to read it soon.

It is a lovely story about a man who talks his family into acquiring a dog and his family loved having a pet so much they look for and adopt Sprite. They were informed Sprite was about 3-6 years old. Sprite adapts quickly to their household and everybody loves him. After some time they realize Sprite is much older than they believed and he has some undiagnosed health problems.

The author discovers that no matter who we are or what we do we all seem to feel the same way about our pets. Our pets seem to occupy a part of our soul that defies explanation. I loved this book and I'm glad I took the time to read it.

Bonding with Marley

I've just finished reading Bonding with Your Dog by Victoria Schade and I found it fascinating.

She indicates there is a difference between a dog that loves you, listens to you and is bonded with you. A bonded dog will find you interesting and look towards you for fun.

One of the suggestions I've incorporated into our life is spontaneity. All meal times and potty breaks have not changed, I want this to be fun not stressful. We are taking random walks during the day and I'll point out fun stuff for Marley to check out. Frogs are her new favorite even though I will not let her paw at them or lick them.

I've stopped asking her to play fetch (which she dislikes) and I've started keeping bubbles and my laser light handy. She loves chasing bubbles and the crazy little red bug from my pocket drives her crazy.

So far I feel great about how this has changed how we interact. While at the park she keeps an eye on me and comes the minute she feels I'm taking something out of my pockets. Our walks are so rewarding and fun. She has never really pulled on the leash but she used to forget where we were going and tend to walk behind me. I can now put my hands in my pockets and she walks along my side and I feel like we are in sync.

Dogged Pursuit

I just finished reading "Dogged Pursuit: My Year of Competing Dusty, the World's Least Likely Agility Dog" by Robert Rodi.

Rodi basically chronicals his attempt to make his scared sheltie into a champion. Overall the book was funny.

I really liked the way Rodi becomes involved with agility and how out of place he feels amongst the other participants. I'm sure anybody who has tried a new activity has felt the same way. I like the way he is always surprised when he feels included within his agility group.


I totally loved they way Rodi continuously reminds himself that Dusty reacts to his emotions and insecurities. When Rodi is out of sorts, Dusty acts lost and out of sorts in the field. Every time Rodi questions himself, Dusty seems to forget how to do agility. I totally loved this aspect of the book.

Emotions in Dogs

I talk to my pets all the time, the cats usually ignore me. When Marley first moved in she would look like the picture below. She would look at me and if I looked at her she would avert her eyes and flick her tongue, in essence she looked kind of embarrassed and confused. I recall stopping in mid-word and just looking at her as I realized...she does not speak English. I was talking a lot and she was not sure If I wanted her to do anything or if she should be doing something.
This moment was a turning point in our relationship. I stopped talking for the sake of talking and I began to teach her some obedience and tricks. Teaching her obedience and tricks gives her confidence that she is doing what I ask and I believe makes her feel secure. The picture below illustrates Marley's usual expression. The ears and eyes are relaxed and the mouth is slightly open and appears to be grinning, in essence a happy, relaxed dog.

I just finished reading a wonderful book called For the Love of A Dog by Patricia B. McConnell,PhD. This is a wonderful book where she discusses emotions and how dogs express those emotions. I started to read it because I wanted to learn more about the differences in Marley's expressions. I learned more than I anticipated. Marley has started doing this weird hip bump at other dogs. I was wondering if she was "presenting" except she has been neutered. This is discussed in the book and it appears it is a dominant female dog action and now I know what to look for and can avoid any potential dominance issues at the park.

p.s. Marley was not happy about the flash on the camera in the first photo.