Sept 27th - National Puppy Mill Awareness Day

Today is National Puppy Mill Awareness Day.
Did you know that 99% of puppies sold in pet stores come from puppy mills?  The picture that the stores will show you when you ask where the puppy comes from will be one of a beautiful ranch house, with a family in front with puppies of course. Everyone's happy.  When the reality is this..

Every time that someone purchases a puppy from a pet store or online they are supporting the mills and condemning even more dogs to a life like this.

If you're going to purchase a puppy, do your homework and find a reputable breeder in your area..

Please Pardon Me While I Start The Day With A Rant

Yesterday I took the pups out for their usual evening stroll around the neighborhood.  When we were coming to this one house I saw the owner pull into the driveway and actually hesitated, trying to decide if I wanted to continue past or wait until they went into the house.  You see, these people have a dog and they tend to let her out without a leash.   We've met this dog a couple of times before, not by my choice but because she came running up their driveway and she's been 'ok'. But Doobie has terrible body language - always so stiff - and I've been watchful. 

When I saw the back of the car pop open, she had a look that just zeroed in on Doobie, then jumped out and was coming towards us like she was stalking while the owner was still in her car.  I started going more into the road and then she ARRRGH!  Charged at him and basically bowled him over.  Thank goodness she stopped at that.  She even looked like "Oh Crap! What did I do?"  As I picked Doobie up and headed for home, I heard her owner say that I shouldn't have been pulling the dogs away.   Excuse me?  

Normally, I have dropped the leashes when she comes up.  But she had THAT look in her eyes as soon as she saw him.  So I thought, "Uh-oh, we'll go into the road."  I wasn't "tugging" or pulling them, I just started going that way.   If anyone else had seen that dogs look and the way she came towards us... they may have been yanking and screaming.   It was scary! And they probably would have called Animal Control.  It's a disaster waiting to happen.  And when it does, it will be the owners fault for not taking the right precautions and the dog is the one who will suffer for it.

After I took the dogs home and made sure that Doobie was truly alright, physically,  I drove back over to her house to talk to her about the incident.  I'm amazed at how well I kept my composure. 

The owner knows that her dog reacts to dogs that are on leash being lead away and yet, she still takes these chances.  But what really struck me was when she said that this wouldn't have happened if she had the shock collar on her.  Who knows if that's true.   I have a feeling the shock collar may have been the WHY her dog reacts to dogs being lead away and WHY it happened.  It's very possible that when they were training with the shock collar, she may have been shocked at the exact time that a dog was being lead away.  Or every time a dog was being lead away.  

Picture this.  You are with your dog.  There's a dog near you and the owner starts to lead that dog away.  Your dog turns and maybe starts to follow and ZAP!  you shock it because that was unwanted behavior.  Makes sense in your mind, doesn't it?  

Now picture it from your dogs perspective.  She sees a dog being lead away, perhaps turned to watch or possible follow it and ZAP!  She can then associate the shock with the dog being lead away.  Therefore, to her, dogs being lead away equals pain.  She now has to stop those dogs on leash before she gets zapped.

Think about it.

I offered to work with the owner to see if we can't lessen this dogs reactions using positive methods and I think she's going to take me up on it.   Is there a guarantee that her dog would never react that way again?  No.  But it's worth a try.

"My dogs are friendly!"

Oh my goodness, yesterday was such a beautiful day, the pups and I went for a walk in the woods behind a local park.  It's quiet, and we're usually alone, they get to enjoy nature, sniff all the new smells, and just 

"be dogs"

Do you see what I see?

Once we were at the turn around point, I saw a man with his dog on leash coming around the corner.  I kept my pups attention while he quietly went in another direction. No muss, and no fuss as we began to head back to the car.
As we were rounding the corner that leads to the main part of the park, I hear those infamous words that can make anyone shudder... "My dogs are friendly" and before I know it, three dogs are upon us, immediately imposing on my dogs space.

I'm happy to say that nothing happened, they really were friendly. And, besides being taken aback and definitely a little irritated, my pups were ok with it. Ok. Not happy. But suppose my dogs weren't "OK" with it? Or were scared of other dogs or people? Suppose I was the one that was scared of dogs? When I told the owner about the dog up the path, he said, "Oh, that's ok. These guys are friendly" That won't do you or your dogs any good if the other dog is not. In fact, that is when something can go terribly wrong.
My point is that just because your dogs are friendly, it doesn't mean that the world will be friendly back. Allowing them to run up to other people, with or without dogs, is rude and can turn into a dangerous situation. So, please be polite. Leash your dogs when others are near. Take them off the beaten path and give your pups treats for paying attention to you so that others may pass you without a thought.
And one more thing, NEVER have your dog off leash unless it's a safe as can be environment, they pay attention to you, and they have a great recall!  Keep them safe.

Why would you want to do all that?

I just don't get it.

vs

I was walking my dogs the other evening when I saw someone down the road also walking her two dogs.  While I was watching her I was hearing whirr, click, whirr, click, click, whirr and so on.  She was using retractible leashes for both dogs.   

Now, both of the dogs were small and neither of them were "pullers" but I still heard the whirr (let the line out) Click ( lock it = that's far enough) , Click ( unlock), whirr (out goes the line again), click, whirr, click...  You get the idea.  And let me tell you, she had it down.

Meanwhile, I've got both of my dogs regular leashes in one hand, my hands staying nice and warm in my pockets, free to come out to give the pups a treat for walking with me and paying attention to me with no effort what so ever.

All I could think of while I was watching her was "Why?  Why would you want to make a nice relaxing activity like walking with your dogs into something that requires so much thinking and good mechanical skills?"