Made in the U.S. of ...China?

The FDA has reported several complaints since 2007 about chicken jerky treats manufactured in China, dogs have become ill and for some it has even proven fatal. I had not heard of these complaints until last week when the story circulated again on the internet and so for the last two months we have been feeding Charlie the Welcome Home Chicken Jerky treats available at Centinela Feed. From the first bite we knew he was hooked, the minute the bag came out he would make a beeline for his bed and sit patiently waiting for his favorite treat. He has never become ill from the treats, but after reading the FDA report we were naturally concerned. I scoured the back of the package, but found no information about where the treats were manufactured, so I called the number listed. A very kind customer service representative confirmed that the treats are in fact manufactured in China, but she tried to assure me that the plant is inspected regularly and that they have never received any complaints from customers. We decided that although we have had no issues, we will no longer be giving Charlie the treats. Anyone who followed the news this past year is aware of all the appalling recalls to come out of China, from toys to tainted milk, so for me it was a no brainer.

Now the hard part: finding something to replace Charlie's favorite tasty treat. After 20 minutes in Centinela Feed yesterday it quickly became apparent that all brands of Chicken Jerky are manufactured in China, along with a great deal of other dog treats. We finally settled on some flavored milk bones, which he seems to like although it's no jerky. Later in the day while running errands we stumbled on a small local pet store where we found some promising candidates. I selected a bag of dehydrated sweet potatoes which have a similar consistency to the jerky, fingers crossed that Charlie feels the same.

The Unwritten Rules

Every dog park has a sign posted at the entrance listing the rules, obviously for the purpose of making the dog park a safe and enjoyable experience for all. In addition to these listed rules, in my humble opinion, there is a need for a certain amount of unwritten etiquette as well. For example, in almost every dog park bunch there is certain to be at least one dog I like to call "the humper." This is the dog whose activity of choice consists of mounting every dog in the park. If you are the owner of just such a dog, it is your responsibility to pull your offending dog away and not just stand back, giggling nervously and proclaiming "Oh, he always does that, I don't know why." Hmm, I wonder.

Worse yet are the people who seem to have less sense than their four-legged companions. Today we took a trek out to the big park, which was packed with dogs and owners, Charlie had a great time, I, however, was dismayed by the fact that two people chose to bring their small children with them to the park and by small I mean not older than three years at the most, one even younger. Now, I am all for the dog park being a family experience, but there is a huge issue of safety, especially when dealing with very small children. Charlie is not an aggressive dog, but he LOVES small children, loves them so much that the minute he spots one he makes a beeline, drawn like a magnet, and jumps up to lick their face. Of course anytime we are in public he is leashed and so he is not allowed to leap on children. The dog park, however, is a free space where he can run wherever he pleases, it is made for him and other dogs, not for children, but when a child enters a dog park and is injured, either intentionally or accidentally, who is to blame? I certainly don't want to take the risk of finding out and so I can't help but think that children so small should not be allowed in, or at the very least should not be able to walk around on their own two feet. If you are smaller than a small dog, then perhaps you are too small. 

Today I was appalled to find that not only was one little girl allowed to run free in the park, but she was not even there with a dog! It's one thing to have your child accompany you and your dog to the park, but to enter the park without a dog is irresponsible and just plain rude. It's not a petting zoo for crying out loud. It's a park... for dogs.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday!

ROVER

Tuesday was Charlie's first visit to Rover Kennels, a doggy daycare in Culver City. We had been looking for a place that we could use occasionally to board him either for the night or a few hours, when we came across this place and immediately loved it. We went in for an "interview" last weekend and Charlie came through with flying colors. We were a tad nervous since he has been irritable as of late, going through his "terrible teens," but he did great.

Tuesday night we had an event to go to so we brought Charlie in for Dinner and a Movie, which allows you to drop off your dog anytime between 6-7pm and pick up anytime before midnight (Monday through Friday), he is fed his dinner, gets play time with other dogs and then gets to chill out in the presidential suite watching a movie (how that works I have no idea, as he has almost no interest in our television at home). Dinner and A Movie was one of the main reasons we sought out Rover, since they are the only facility we found that offered a service like this, but once we saw the place we knew it was perfect. It's a great facility and the people there are friendly, attentive and obviously dog lovers. Charlie seemed to be happy with the experience on Tuesday so we are bringing him back again tonight while we meet some friends for dinner and drinks.

WANTED: Peanut Lady

WANTED: Santa Monica Peanut Lady

Crime: Scattering peanuts which rile up the squirrels and birds and in turn, make Charlie crazy.

Last seen on the corner of 4th and Raymond scattering peanuts on the sidewalk.

Always seen carrying a one pound bag of peanuts (source of peanuts unknown, deal with a circus elephant suspected).

If spotted, call for back-up. Do not approach or you may come under fire of peanut pelting.

Tails of the dog park

This past weekend we were at the nice dog park at the Santa Monica airport, standing around chatting while Charlie played. Apparently Sunny was standing a little too still and a dog mistook his leg for a tree.

I thought it was hysterical, Sunny was less amused.

Until, that is, the same dog thought he would make a matching pair and relieve himself on my leg too. 

Good times.

Happy Halloween!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth... fangs and molars

The tooth fairy will be busy the next few months as we just discovered this week that Charlie lost his first two baby teeth: bottom row, front and center. While his gummy smile is ridiculously cute the irritability and chewing that accompanies the next several weeks is not. The Nylabone, once ignored, is a new favorite of his along with the ChillyBone, a canvas bone that can be soaked and frozen, both seem to sooth his imaginably aching gums. 

Bird Chasing - A Series

Don't tell Charlie what he's chewing

Charlie is a chewer. Plain and simple. Anything he can get his teeth on he is happy to chew. His preferences include: shoelaces, our couch, magazines, the living room rug and of course my hands. The only thing Charlie likes chewing better than any of these things is a tasty, fragrant bully stick. I like to think of the bully stick as a puppy pacifier, when all else fails it is our go to for calming the little wild man's snapping jaws. For those of you unfamiliar a bully stick, aka "macho sticks" aka "bully bone" aka "pizzles" is a dog treat made from a dried bull's penis. While some dog owner's have qualms about allowing their Fidos to chomp on animal parts, bullysticks are all natural, fully-ingestible and unlike rawhide will not choke or obstruct a dog's bowel. Charlie is of course oblivious to the true nature of his favorite chew stick and I am happy to keep him in blissful chewing  ignorance especially when it spares our furniture, flesh and sanity.

Dog parks - the blog

Check out this great blog on all things Dog Park. Just awaiting final vaccines, but we are itching for our first field trip to the local dog park and are lucky enough to have three within spitting distance! 

Up with hope... Up with dope!

Finally had a private session with the dog trainer last week, of course it happened to be at 10am, coinciding perfectly with Charlie's morning naptime, thus rendering him drowsy and cute and leaving our protests of aggressive behavior and nipping seeming just silly if even made up. Caryl, the trainer spoke to us at length and gave us a few tips on dealing with aformentioned non-visible behavior, which of course when applied during awake periods of playful aggression are all but useless. One tip, however, was more than well-received by both owner and pup: doggie dope.

Doggie dope, otherwise known as Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Dog Food Rolls, is literally the canine equivalent of the greatest thing since sliced bread. This doggie smack can be sliced, crumbled or shredded to be added to food or more importantly used as a tasty treat, especially handy as a training aide. There is nothing Charlie wouldn't do for a fix!

Don't forget to flush

Since bringing Charlie home we have been with him 24/7, either at home or bringing him to work everyday, in an effort to curb accidents and the need for buying new furniture. Separation anxiety is an issue we are growing more and more worried about as time passes and as of late we have begun to discuss leaving him alone for a few hours at a time, but the question arises of how to deal with the inevitable need to "go potty."

Our current house training has consisted solely of taking him out every few hours to do his business and rewarding him for doing so, which has worked out well so far with only a handful of accidents. However as we ponder leaving him at home, we have been considering the necessity of putting paper down or using pee pads. The trouble with these options is we fear the direct association with going on the floor of our apartment.

I researching our options online, I came across this little gem:

The penthouse dog potty for the cosmopolitan canine.

Aggressive Maneuvers

Although for the most part calm (well more like constantly sleeping), Charlie has for the past two weeks been known for routine moments of aggression. Like clockwork, every day from about 4pm till 6pm and then again from 8pm till 10pm (predictably the exact moment every evening that we fall onto the couch in exhaustion and hope for a moment of respite) he runs the gamut of "bad" behavior: nipping, chewing in furniture, barking, tipping over his water bowl and any other form of mayhem he can think of. The most recent and surprising aggression of choice: the leg-hump.

Contrary to popular opinion, the leg hump has less to do with sexual frustration and more to do with asserting dominance (especially in neutered dogs). As explained in this article,  mounting is a maneuver used to enforce dominance over other dogs and in our case, human beings. What does it mean when he ignores our leg for greener pastures in the form of his ever-submissive blanket?  We are hoping the trainer will have some insight, four days and counting till the first session.

Quiet time...

... our favorite time of day.

Required Reading

As we have quickly discovered, there are so many books, articles and websites dedicated to puppies and dog training that it can become overwhelming sifting through everything trying to determine which methods and philosophy work and don't work. In the two short weeks of puppy ownership, I have managed to breeze through two books and I have two more waiting to start. The hard part of deciding what to read and what not to read is determining what qualifies as a good and trustworthy source of information. 

Almost anyone who likes dogs or reality television knows Cesar Milan "The Dog Whisperer" and if you have watched his show you know his success rate at dealing with behavioral problems is high. Having seen Cesar on action on his show I already felt a level of trust and so his was the first book I picked up. "Cesar's Way", which as I have discussed on my personal blog, provides a great deal of insightful information on dog psychology and how human interaction affects a dog's behavior, but it answers very little in terms of specific dog handling and obedience training questions. 

The second book which both my husband and I have read and continue to reference as we attempt to train Charlie is "The Puppy Whisperer" which offers step-by-step instructions on obedience training as well as general tips and information on raising a puppy. I came across this book after sifting through the dog section at Barnes and Noble on day two of puppy-ownership, already exhausted and desperately seeking answers. So far he has learned "sit". We are still working on the rest and I continue my search for more literary guidance.

How it all began...

On August 11, 2008 the hubby and I adopted our new young pup, Charlie, from the Santa Monica Animal Shelter. He was ID'd as a 2 month old, male, rat terrier mix and he won us over from the first moment we saw him. We had been discussing getting a dog for as long as I can remember, having grown up with dogs, we are both dog-lovers and it has pretty much been an inevitable that we would eventually bring one into our home. For the past year we had been visiting the West LA shelter almost weekly, having made the decision a while back that we would prefer to adopt an animal in need of a home rather than buying one from a breeder, but we had our hearts set on adopting a puppy so that we could train him or her from the get-go.

As anyone who has visited an animal shelter will know, puppies tend to be few and far between, and even then they tend to be a larger breed. As apartment dwellers we felt it wouldn't be fair to adopt a large dog simply as a matter of space necessity and so although we knew it would be a rare find, we continued to visit the shelters in hopes of finding a small breed puppy. On August 9th, having been tipped off by an acquaintance about the location we decided to pay a visit to the shelter in Santa Monica and there at the end of the short row of kennels he sat, a tan and white fluffball of cuteness.

Upon inquiring on his availability we were informed that he would be under a waiting period until the following Monday and that there was already a list of people to adopt him three names deep. At that we figured there wasn't a chance he wouldn't be snapped up, but the woman was quick to point out that most people who chose to put their names in have a tendency at no-show, so half-heartedly we put our names down as fourth in line to adopt and showed up at 8am on Monday morning on the very off chance we might be the only ones there. And I'll be damned, we were.

The two weeks following have been a blur, Charlie, as we spontaneously named him, was swooped off to the vet to be neutered (a requirement of the shelter) and then at 6pm that evening we suddenly found ourselves at home with a two-month old puppy and a whole lot of questions. What should we feed him? Should we paper-train or not paper-train? What should we do with him during the day when we are at work? And as the days have rolled forward we have quickly found ourselves asking more questions and having fewer answers.