How May Times Has Your Dog Done This To You?

Can you help?

Nekoe is looking for a new home.  He is a 2-year-old purebred Golden Retriever who is great with kids and other animals.  (he has a pet rabbit!)  If you have any interest in this dog, or know somebody who might, please contact Pam@petbreederconnection.com  

Spring Has Sprung

I think I would have to say that my favourite season is spring.  Don’t get me wrong, I love summer, but as a wife and mother who works, I always seem to be looking ahead, and never seem to have the freedom to just enjoy the moment.  Even if it’s a quiet Saturday afternoon, I am looking ahead to what I have to make for dinner, or when my next deadline for work is, or what gift I’m going to buy that kid for his birthday party next week.  My mom assures me that when I finally do retire, and all four kids are out of the house, I will finally get the pleasure of living in the moment.

I guess the truth is that I love summer best, I mean who wouldn’t ?  Hot days filled with kids, and swimming.  Warm nights sitting outside with friends.  But as soon as summer hits, I can’t help but look ahead and realize that fall is just a few short weeks away.  Back to school, back to bad weather, back to the cold of winter.  So I will call my favourite season spring.  That way, when I look ahead, I have all of summer stretched out before me.

Besides that, spring is a pretty nice time of year.  In one week, we will be turning our clocks ahead, in about three weeks, we will see the first buds poking their heads above the soil and the buds on the lilacs swelling til they burst.  The birds return, the bees come back.  It really is a time of renewal, and it has the ability to lift my spirits to a point that I can’t remember why I was so damn miserable and depressed all of February.  But, alas, like everything in life, spring does have it’s moments of misery.  Take for instance the back yard.  As everything melts, our back garden turns into what I imagine the LaBrea Tar Pits to look like.  And being the proud owner of two large dogs, the dirt that is forever coming in the back door feels like a never ending cleaning test.  Mud on the glass from where they jumped up to let me know they were ready to come in, mud on furry bums from where they sit on the hill overlooking my neighbours yard, and mud in the paws.  It doesn’t really matter how well we wipe paws or how many times we wash them, the mud eludes us, only to come out the minute they run up the carpeted inside steps!  And lets not forget the hair. Spring is the time for getting rid of those heavy winter coats and lightening up for the warmer days ahead.

My german shepherd is not a terrible shedder.  If my previous shep was any indication, the really bad shedding comes as she gets older.  My golden, on the other hand, sheds like it’s an olympic event and he is the gold medal winner.  We normally shave him down as the days get warmer to do us both a favour, but at this point, its still a little too cold outside to make him naked.  So meanwhile, I decided to give him a really good going over with the brush, working each inch of his body with my brush to get as much undercoat out as I can.  (As I’m writing this I can hear my vacuum cleaner breathing a sigh of relief!) I never realized that a golden retriever is made up of a whole bunch of other golden retrievers!  I have never seen so much hair come off of one dog in one sitting in my life.  The more I brushed, the more came off.  I’m pretty sure Oscar lost ten pounds in a matter of thirty minutes!  But here’s the good news; spring has sprung, the undercoat is gone, the floors are clean, the dog looks great, and all I have to look forward to is the glorious warmth of summer.

Love you til the end

There are so many opinions these days on which emotions our pets can actually feel.  It would sometimes appear that they can convey guilt, happiness, sadness, indifference, and just about every other human emotion.  But the truth is, as far as science can understand (and I’ll admit I cannot figure out how scientists come to these conclusions) dogs do feel emotions, such as happiness, grief, anxiety and any other emotion you can imagine would come in handy in the wild.  Jealousy, pride and guilt are examples of secondary emotions that animals simply do not feel.  It always cracks me up when people tell me their dog looked guilty.  Dogs are very smart animals.  What you are most likely seeing is a learned behaviour pertaining to action and reaction.  If Fifi poops on the rug and gets in trouble, she may learn over time and more accidents that if she looks away, and behaves in a certain manner, her punishment is not as harsh.  This is not the same as guilt, this is self preservation!

The one emotion that I can guarantee dogs feel is love.  There are many stories of dogs who stick with each other through thick and thin, such as a seeing dog behaving as his blind friends eyes, or a large dog protecting his smaller companion.  I have even seen video of a dog who was hit by a car being dragged off the highway by his companion.  (you can see the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofpYRITtLSg)

I can attest to the fact that my dogs love one another.  Two years ago we had to say goodbye to our beloved 10 year old german shepherd Maxi.  That evening, after the deed was done, our 4 year old golden retriever lay out on Maxi’s bed.  This in itself was strange behaviour, because in the 4 years we had owned Oscar, he never set foot (or paw as the case may be) on her bed.  He had his own bed.  Well that night as he lay out on her bed, I realized he was just lying flat.  I don’t know how to better describe it. He was not resting, or trying to sleep, it was almost as though he was breathing in her scent or her essence and somehow saying goodbye.  Within one week of Maxi’s death, the entire length of Oscar’s back turned white, and it remains that way to this day.  Lucky for him, he is blonde or he would look like the worlds biggest skunk.

Fast forward a few weeks and we adopted Kahshe to round out our family once more.  While initially, Oscar found her to be an immature pain in the tail, literally, they gradually bonded.  The one time we separated them and my husband took Kahshe up north with him, they were both despondent. (The dogs not my husband!)  Their joy upon reconciling was quite evident.  It kind of reminded me of our twin boys when they have spent a day apart.

There are days, when Kahshe, being 5 years younger than Oscar will drive him crazy, but come the night, it is very rare for them to be sleeping apart.  I have no doubt that when the day finally comes that we have to say goodbye to Oscar, not only will I have to deal with my own grief and that of my children, but I will probably be dealing with a grieving german shepherd as well.

You can read more about dog’s and their emotional states in our March newsletter at http://www.petbreederconnection.com

The Perfect Dog!

Is there such a thing as “the perfect dog”?  I would have thought so, but the older I get, either the less tolerant I am, or the more truth I see….I’m not sure which.  I have two dogs.  My first is a rescue that originated in a pet store, so probably a puppy mill, and ended up with a young lady who was just starting her life and didn’t have enough time to look after him properly.  Oscar is the sweetest, kindest, gentlest Golden Retriever you could ask for.  In fact he is a poster child for the breed.  When I brought him home at 8 months he was a little heavy (108 lbs), but with the proper diet and exercise he holds steady at a svelte 83 pounds.  He has a perfect golden coat, a quiet demeanor, is loved by all that meet him, and will celebrate his 7th birthday this spring.  That said, he has a penchant for “hot spots”.  These are infections that can happen under long fur when the skin underneath gets moist and does not dry properly.  It is a bacterial infection that causes great, gaping wounds that the dog continually scratches open when you are not looking.  If I do put the cone-of-shame on him, then my house usually needs re-painting from all the walls he bumps into, or it stresses him out so much that he will just stand around, looking depressed and panting.  Antibiotics take care of the issue, but try as I might, I have not been successful in my attempts to thwart this silly infection, and we usually end up with two rounds of it over the spring/summer months.  Most Goldens are very prone to this issue.  My next problem with him is his breath.  Ugh!  There are days when I can smell it when I am a good three feet away.  We have tried brushing his teeth, but the only thing that helps, and only for a short while, are the bad breath cookies.  So we keep plenty of those in stock!

My other dog is a beautiful 2 year old German Shepherd.  I will admit that we never should have brought this dog into the fold, but we did and we have to deal with her.  You see, we lost our elderly German Shepherd about 2 years ago now, and somehow the household which includes myself, my husband, my daughter and son from my first marriage (both in their twenties), my then 6 year old twin boys and Oscar the Golden Retriever, seemed too quiet!  To this day I look back and wonder if somebody slipped something into my drink!  Three weeks after losing our beloved Maxi, along came Kahshe.  I dedicated myself to her training, vowing to never have a German Shepherd that was a liability.  We got her used to other dogs, used to small children, socialized her every day, leash trained her to walk at my side, and generally made a good canine citizen out of her.  Then she turned 1!  She decided she hates little white dogs, will protect the house to the death, even if it is someone she knows, fight with the neighbours dog through the fence, run over anyone giving oscar attention to get it for herself, and generally just be a pain in the butt.  I know, I know, she needs more exercise….well, she gets run everyday!  She can no longer be run off leash since the “little white dog incident” that cost me $350, but we do our best.  When we are up north at our cottage, where she can run free, and there are no neighbours to harass, she is the most perfect dog in the world.  Her recall is astounding, she loves to swim, and after a long day, will just lie out on the deck, even if company comes by.

So is there a perfect dog?  I thought I had two of them, but the older I get the more I realize perfect is in the eye of the beholder!