Marley got me in TROUBLE

We were successfully working on a jump exercise and it was time to take a break. I called Marley over and heaped praise. My instructor asked, "Where is her toy? Why are you not playing with her?" I stammered out a response about Marley's lack of interest.

During our break I dragged out the variety of toys I keep in our agility bag trying to interest Marley in playing with me. She sat there and looked embarrassed. Yep, Marley gave me the "13 year old girl OMG you are so embarrassing" look. I tried a latex squeaky, Frisbee, stuffed duck, ball and a rope. Nothing, she refuses to play with toys when we are in class.

She is under the impression that playing with toys is something we do before a walk in the morning. So far I've tried playing with her and giving her treats as a reward for playing in the evening and sometimes that works, however it is not consistent.

At this point I'm not sure what else to do to entice her to play with me at other times. I welcome any advice.

Marley's Secret

On most days after a morning nap, Marley will sniff some cat butt and take a nap in the sun. As she begins contemplating a quick game of harass Bob her secret friend shows up.

Marley loves having a secret friend. Her secret friend takes her on a long walk and gives her treats and a cuddle before leaving.

Sometimes her secret friend will bring Marley's boyfriend, Cash, for a shared walk. Marley loves those days best.

Sometimes she has to share her walk, but she doesn't mind because her boyfriend usually joins the brisk walk.

Can you find the little dog?

After her secret friend leaves Marley enjoys a nice nap under a chair and dreams about chasing birds.

When I return home Marley is relaxed and happy to see me. What she does not know is I'm onto her secret. My secret is I receive an email letting me know what happened on her walk, did she poop, chase birds or try to entice her boyfriend to play instead of walk.

While I grew up in a big city, dog walkers were not very common and I always thought it was a service only offered in New York. I was very surprised and pleased to discover dog walkers are fairly common in my current city. I highly recommend a dog walker to anybody who has a dog, even if you have a back yard. It adds a nice variety to Marley's day and keeps her out of trouble. In addition, whenever she is having a health issue, it is nice to receive an email notifying me of any changes in her stool or behavior.

I really appreciate Marley's calmness and I always attempt to have her walked on days when we have a class. This is the difference between her being wild in class and her being calm and ready to learn.

All photos taken by peaceful pets.

Dog Food Recall

When ever I need to feed Marley kibble I go to a Natura product, usually Evo or California Natural. I was a bit dismayed to discover Natura was purchased by Proctor and Gamble earlier this year. I am a bit horrified to discover Proctor and Gamble has issued a recall on some of their dog foods. While Natura products are not listed as part of the recall, I'm wondering how soon before my favorite products are affected.

If you feed any Proctor and Gamble products please verify they are not part of the recall prior to feeding your pet.

What would your dream Dog Park look like?

Congratulations to the 10 finalists in the Beneful® WagWorld® Dream Dog Park Contest!

To celebrate the relationships people have with their four-legged best friends, the Beneful® brand has created the WagWorldTM Dream Dog Park Contest – in which they will award a $500,000 makeover to one lucky dog park!

Contestants entered 2 minute videos about their dog park, in which they show their local park, and describe their Dream Dog Park.

Limit one (1) vote per person, per day. WagWorld.com registration required.

To Vote:
•Review the Finalists’ entries
•Choose your favorite
•Go to your favorite Finalist’s page and click “Vote for this Entry!” You can only vote once per day

Marley's favorite park is one of the finalists and we encourage you and your friends to vote as often as possible.

Agility update

Our new instructor is adamant Marley needs to master some foundation skills before we re-introduce any equipment. We have been working on position, recalls, walking, pivoting and crate skills. It has actually been very fun. We are doing very well with anything that requires Marley to be on my left side. The right side just seems like the wrong side, it is a struggle for us to remember the right side.

Whenever Marley gets confused or tired she begins to fight any work on the right side. At that point she is just insistant on staying on my left. I've been working at keeping our training sessions short and breaking all activities into smaller segments to avoid any confusion.

I've discovered I need to keep a training journal of sorts and keep track of the exercises we do and what we need to improve. I've searched on-line and I have not been able to find a training log book. I think I should just create something, except I'm not quite sure what I should include. If anybody has an example of something they like or a site that provides that information, I would really appreciate it.

It is too easy

The other day I decided we needed a leather leash. This led to an entire day of shopping. It seems leather leashes are not very popular and if they are in stock they weigh almost as much as Marley.

After a day of hitting every pet store, pet boutique and feed store in town we were both exhausted. I picked up a gingerbread man treat for Marley at the treat bin and gave it to her as soon as we were back at the car.

As soon as I settled into my seat I noticed a clump of grass on the passenger seat. I reached over to remove it and time froze. As soon as I touched that clump of grass I felt Marley freeze and I realized my hand was between two pieces of her ginger bread man treat. She didn't growl or attempt to snap at me, she just froze and paid attention to my behavior. I removed the clump of grass and we both let out a deep breath as time resumed its normal speed.

At that moment in time I realized how easy it is to have dog/people misunderstandings. Children are especially careless with food and messes and I can totally see how misunderstandings can occur. I am very happy I have spent so much time working with Marley and she expects me to provide high value treats otherwise this situation could have easily had a very different outcome.

Grief

I expected to be devastated by letting Mahone go; however I was totally taken aback by Bob and Marley's grief. Bob has been cuddly and refused to be more than 4 feet away from me at any time; normally he is very aloof and while very curious he does not feel the need to interact with me regularly. He has also become very vocal, meowing and chirping as he follows me around.

Marley seemed to realize Mahone was missing at dinner time. She was looking around for Mahone when I called her to dinner. She ran into her crate and stared at Mahone's food bowl spot. She lightly whined and refused her dinner and breakfast. On our walk she didn't spend much time sniffing and she kept a close eye on me. I tried to entice her to play and she refused, she just looked away and sighed.

This is my favorite picture of my two troublemakers.
They spent a great deal of time sleeping together and following each other around.

It seems very easy to find books that refer to human grief at the loss of a pet; however, I have not found anything that addresses the grief other pets feel at the loss of a friend. I've totally been taken aback by the level of distress they seem to be feeling. I'm sure many people will say they are reacting to my grief; however, I think they actually notice Mahone is missing and they are grieving. I'm not sure what I can do to make them feel better.