Baby-proofing the Dogs

Recently, we have been realizing more and more the challenges of having a baby in the house with two large dogs.

And becoming a bit concerned about it.

So I'm calling in reinforcements. I've contacted the training guy from the local Berner club to give me some pointers. Riley has been showing signs of jealousy big time. More and more all the time. Especially since we'be gotten Sabrina. But not just jealously. Overprotectiveness. I think he's just a little confused what his role is.

Sabrina, I have no doubt will love and adore the baby (and probably drown it in sloppy kisses, not good either). She is also the one I'm concerned about stealing baby bottles and eating dirty diapers. (I didn't come up with these. These are just a few examples of naughty dog behavior that I read in Time Magazine.) Demomting the Dog

Will the baby be able to sleep through the symphony of Wroo Wroos that escalate whenever someone comes to the door? Will the baby lose to Sabrina all of the baby toys? Recall Sabrina's obsession with plastic? More importantly, will I lose my patience when the dogs waken the baby from a much needed nap or destroy a favorite toy for the 5th time?

I certainly never imagined anything but perfect harmony in my mind before all of this became so real. After all, the Dogfather and I are true dog-lovers. Animal-lovers if you will. We would never love our dogs any less, no matter what...I think?

I'm getting on Amazon right now to find a good book on baby-proofing the dogs.

8 Random Facts

Molly the Dog of the World played this fun game on her blog so we thought we'd play too. The first one is Riley's and the second, Sabrina's.

Eight Random Facts about Riley, in his own words:

1. I'm perfectly handsome, except for the fact that my tail apparently has a "kink" in it. This kink causes it to curl around like a question mark when I hold it up high over my back. Some people say it's a "fault." I think it's attitude.

2. I never used to let any men pet me. I would give them the evil eye and they would think I was some poor abused/rescued dog. But ever since my little sister came along, I've changed my ways. She seems to love everyone's pats and scratches and I realized I was missing out! Now I make it a point to go up to men and get patted. It only took 4 years.

3. I typically don't care for vegetables. I'm a canine for goodness sake! That means sharp, knashing, meat tearing teeth. But I do enjoy those delicious roasted brussell sprouts around that Turkey Day holiday.

4. I LUV to roll in stinky stuff. That includes goose poop, deer poop, dead things, you name it. Lovely times.

5. Whenever my little sister gets in trouble (and that's a lot), I try to apologize for her. The humans just melt over that stuff and forgive you right away. All it takes is a long face and a little pawing action and poof! they ooh and aw over you again.

6. Red meat is my favorite kind of meal. Beef or buffalo please!!

7. Last year after I hiked Cadillac Mountain for the second time in my life, my left knee gave out. I think I pushed myself too hard (or my humans put too much of their food crap in my hiking pack). Either way, I had to have knee surgery. But I am all healed up now!

8. I don't swim. Gimme the life jacket and I'm happy to get on the boat with you. In fact I've been on a motor boat, a canoe, and an inflatable raft before. But not without my life jacket, thank you very much!


Eight Random Facts about Sabrina, in her own words:

1. I love everyone. Yes! Yes! There's no one that doesn't like me right?!

2. I love those meowing cats in our house. We have three and I love to play with them. They make all sorts of funny noises and I love to sniff their butts!

3. I eat anything and everything. Throw it at me and I'll be your garbage disposal. That includes your apple cores, old veggies from the fridge, milk at the bottom of your cereal bowl, leftover cat food, whatever! I'm here to serve.

4. When I get a little anxious I chew on plastic. And usually the nearest plasticky thing is the remote control. I've gone through four of our own and I got one of Auntie Dory's too. Ooops, so sorry 'bout that.

5. I love love love to chase the ball. When there is ball, there is nothing else in the whole world that can distract me. Well, beside a nice puddle of muddy water that is. I am a very good retriever and can always find the balls that other irresponsible dogs leave behind at the park. Can you imagine leaving a ball in the park?! Unbelievable.

6. I still do lots of naughty things cuz they say I'm still a puppy. Haven't they realized yet that I am a Flat-Coated Retriever?! We are known to be the Peter Pan of dogs. We NEVER grow up! That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. Sorry about the remotes, again.

7. I am my Dogfather's offical backpacking partner. Though I've only gone on two trips I think that's pretty good for being a puppy! I want to go on more. They are fun!

8. I make lots of really funny noises, out of both ends. Whenever I lay down or change positions, I have to groan. And I frequently pass a little Pssssss, out the other end. Tends to happen most when I'm going up and down stairs. Oh, and when I'm doing the doggy stretch-big time. Oh and sometimes when I'm just sitting down. Dunno why.


This was Fun! Thanks Molly for the idea. Wouldn't you like to play too?! Tell us 8 Random Facts about you!

Clean For A Moment or Two

Riley and Sabrina were sent to have a day of beauty yesterday. It was Sabrina's first spa treatment. I'm sure they both thought it was highly unnecessary. Apparently Sabrina had a panic attack when they took Riley out first to bath him and she was left in the kennel. Or perhaps she was upset that he got to play in the water first. In the end, they both received glowing report cards when I came to pick them up 3 hours later. Ears trimmed, coats soft and shiney, nails done, they were both ready to bust outta there.

Upon returning home, Riley made it a point to trot right over to the asphalt and perform some acrobatic flip/body slam move (as if to increase the dramatization) to the ground. And did a back shimmy shimmy roll, grinding that newly glossed coat of his into the everyday dirt of the world. I guess he didn't feel like Freesia was a good scent for him. I thought it was quite lovely.

Sabrina did not use such immediate dramatic actions to express her feelings towards me. She simply ran to the nearest body of water when we arrived at the park later that afternoon and laid right down in the rusty colored stream. No one, not one single person witnessed my little Sabrina all nice and clean. That was clearly her payback.

"Clean? Who me? My mom's crazy. We're dogs, we're not meant to be clean?!"

Well, they were both supposed to stay clean until they passed their therapy-dog certification tests on Sunday. Yeesh. What was I thinking...that's 3 whole days.

Lazy Dog Days of Summer

Today is officially the first day of summer. The longest day of the year. YAY!

*I* am also officially on summer vacation, as of yesterday. No more crazy kids for 3 weeks. And what I love most is...I'm sleeping in! (til 6 or 7 am) That's sleeping in for me. I could never sleep in before. It just made getting up early that much more painful on Mondays. Plus I would get restless and the dogs would get restless. But now the little leech inside my body keeps telling me to sleep on! sleep on! And sleep I will. The other night I konked out at 7:30 and didn't get up til 6 the next morning. YAY!

Every morning when the Dogfather rises at some ungodly hour, another warm little being takes his place on his side of the bed. I usually roll over to find a soft furry black dog that responds to the name, Sabrini Beeni Butts (Thanks Auntie Dory). She likes to sleep with her head on her daddy's pillow and she likes to sleep in with me. She also keeps good track of time and makes sure I don't sleep the day away. She's never let me sleep past 7am or nap in the afternoon past 6pm. There are parks to go to and balls to chase! I am enjoying our walks in the park just as much as the dogs are. That's just about all I have the energy for these days and I try to walk for an hour if I can.

Well, off to walk the dogs now!

Ming Needs A New Home

We have come to the unfortunate conclusion that the little Ming-a-ling needs to find a new home. With the new addition due to arrive in our family by the end of the year (a non-furry new addition), we can no longer accomodate her special needs. Here is a little background on Ming.

We found her behind our house four years ago. It was around September and it was a rainy night. The Dogfather heard her pitiful wails and recruited me to help find her. It wasn't too difficult to find the loud crying, white kitty in the dark. She suffered a scraped nose in the scuffle but seemed fine. Except she was clearly not someone's pet. She hissed, spat, growled, swiped, and guarded her food with intensity. I remember putting a bowl of food down for her and as her took gulpfuls of food in, she kept one paw on top of the food pile to protect it. She was all of one and a half pounds when she weighed in at the vet's the next day. Her estimated birthdate is 7/25/2003.




As she grew in the following weeks, she stealthly stole food off of our plates and off my chopping board right from under my nose. But the little Ming grew on us, as well as Riley, as she slowly developed into a lovely domesticated cat. We have many pictures of Ming sleeping with Riley, crawling all over his back, and sucking on his fur. The two of them grew up together and kept each other company while we were away at work.
She also took to the oldest cat, Little Li, as a playmate. The two kitties played chase, tag, and wrestled together.




Ming was not welcomed by our other cat, MeiMei, however. MeiMei enjoys the leisurely life of laying in a lap and being petted. No running around. No pouncing. No chasing for this plump girl. She certainly was not amused by any of this new kitten's antics. So she warned her off by growling, hissing, and spatting. This only intrigued Ming more. Ming now realized that she could get a rise out of MeiMei by just walking past her. And thus began the rift between the two. Ming would purposefully go out of her way to annoy MeiMei. Ming would stalk Mei while she was snoozing and viciously pounce on her, sending her straight out of a blissful sleep into a hair-raising screech. The more Mei growled, the more intense Ming's obsession with her became. It finally got to the point where we felt MeiMei's well being was jeapordized. The attacks were becoming more frequent and intense. And quite frankly, I was tired of listening to the growling. It is a very unsettling, deep growl that makes me feel like I have an upset stomach.

Our solution for the past two years is to separate the two. During the day, Ming is allowed to actively roam the house with all the other furkids while MeiMei gets the spare room/Dogfather's office to herself. She has her own bed, window perch, and safety and security. Everyone is out together only for the brief time of eating dinner. Food trumps all other interests here. After dinner, the cats are generally good as they digest their food and do their business. When things start to get a little hairy, Ming is sent to her crate so that MeiMei can have some socialization time with us. Ming then spends the rest of the night crated while MeiMei has the rest of the quiet house to enjoy. In the morning, MeiMei has her breakfast first and is retired to her "office" before Ming is let out. This arrangement seems to have worked out fine for us. Ming tends to do well being crated at night. In the past, if left to roam, she exhibited strange behaviors that could only be described by me as mournful and lonely. She would walk around the dark, quiet house crying and moaning until she found something to play with. This usually involved tossing something down the stairs and chasing it. NOT something we wanted to hear in the middle of the night when we're trying to get some sleep. Early in the morning before we woke, we could also hear her scratching at the bottom of our closed doors, mewing to get in. We finally decided to crate her and it seems to give her a sense of security and a place where she belongs.



The few times we have been careless and left a door open, Ming has clearly shown her jealousy of MeiMei and attacked her. She has also been known to urinate on Mei's belongings or my belongings to clarify her feelings to us. Believe me. It was loud and clear.

With the new family member due to arrive, we will be planning to change the office to a nursery. MeiMei will probably still be allowed to stay, but the door will no longer be kept closed. Therefore, there will be no way to safely separate the two cats.

We are beginning our search early and are willing to take the time to find a good home for our little Ming-a-Ling. Here are the recommendations I would have for any potential adoptive home:

No other cats

Preferrably a dog or dogs in the home for her to play with. She may be quite lonely coming from a home of 5 animals to being the only one and she gets along with dogs wonderfully.

Indoor only. Although she enjoys going out on to the balcony to bask in the sun, the few times she has accidently gotten out (or fallen off the balcony) she was been quite frightened and wanted to be back inside as soon as possible. If you do not live near busy roads, she may eventually learn to love the outdoors and I don't doubt she will be a fantastic mouser.

Minimal vaccinations. Again, she has been a indoor cat all of her life. She has had all basic vaccinations and is in great health.

We will provide you with her crate to maintain her sense of security when you may need it.

We will provide you a couple months of food if you would like. She was raised on a raw diet but will eat anything out of a can. She has never seen a kibble before and I highly doubt she will eat that. If you would like more information regarding a raw diet I will be happy to assist you getting started.

If you decide to take her and realize it is not going to work out, we will happily take her back, but ONLY BEFORE DECEMBER 1. Anytime after that will be impossible for us to take her back. We really hope this doesn't happen and whomever decides to adopt her has a good understanding of her needs and will commit to adopting her. Please pass the word onto anyone you know that may be interested in adopting a beautiful, fun-loving, kitty.

New Challenges

Yesterday I attended an 8 hour training session to learn more about training Sabrina for a pet therapy program. The training was without our dogs; strictly a handler-focused workshop. I decided to try and register Sabrina through a larger, more established, more well known, international organization. In three weeks, Sabrina and I will try to pass both a skill test and an aptitude test. If we succeed and overcome the 60% failure rate, we will be offically registered pet partners with Massachusetts Pet Parters (MPP), which is a subdivision of Delta Society. Massachusetts Pet Partners

The day was long and full of important information. We have a training manual that is over an inch thick and all the participants had to participate in a variety of small group and role-playing activities. We are expected to read the entire manual before test day. I was impressed how seriously they took the training and certifying teams for therapy work. Although at times, I admit, it did seem a little over the top.

Riley was certified through another local pet therapy program. The training workshops were very different. Riley and I attended 7 hour and a half sessions together. We spent part of the time listening to the instructor and the other half of the time practicing skills. We had opportunities to practice teaching our dogs to "leave it", walking around wheelchairs, approaching people in walkers, and how to walk our dogs down a crowded corridor. It was more of a handler-dog training session. I loved the hands on training and practice. I felt the criterion for certification, however, was loose and in my opinion, irresponsible. They passed a lot of people that I felt clearly did not have control of their dog nor a good understanding of their dog's behavior. Many people left the workshop without a good understanding of how to advocate for their dog. Basically, a lot of people who just think their dog is cute were certified and set loose to bring their dog to potentially volitile and unpredictable environments. This includes myself.

MPP spends a lot of time talking about all the potential challenging situations we may find ourselves in and how to advocate for our dogs' well being. They stress that your dog is NOT an entertainer. They are trained to provide a service, which could include entertainment, but is much more than that. They teach people how to look outside of themselves, socialize, they teach empathy and elicit nurturing emotions. However, as thorough as this training was, we as handlers are expected to train our dogs for the skills and aptitude tests on our own. This means I need to find ways to expose Sabrina to a variety of environmental stimuli on my own. It is a rigorous test and we will get marked down if we need to command our dogs multiple times to perform the skills. They obviously take the testing very seriously. What I also like about their testing is that they specifically state what type of envirnment they feel your dog is capable of: predictable or complex. I now realize that the environment I have Riley in is complex (high stress, highly unpredictable, lots of change, etc) and he would have done so much better in a predictable environment.

I plan to bring Riley on test day to see if I can register him through MPP as well. We have a lot of work ahead of us in the next three weeks and I hope we can do it! Keep your fingers and paws crossed for us!!

We're In the Clear...I Think...

A week ago on a warm, dewy morning up on the hill by the Paine house, Sabrina took out Riley's good leg. He was minding his own business, happily grazing on the fresh new juicy shoots of grass behind a hill. Sabrina was 100% fixated on the tennis ball and Chuck-it I had in my hand. I usually try to throw it over the hill so that she has to run up the hill, then down to get the ball, then back up and down the hill to return it to me. More bang for my buck, is what I think.

I cock my arm back to give the Chuck-it a good sling and the second the ball was about to leave my possession, I saw Riley's head appear at the top of the hill. And the tennis ball sailed in a straight line directly over him with Sabrina sprinting after it. But it was too late. She, of course, sees nothing but the path of the ball and as Riley came up over the hill she ran right THROUGH him which actually ended up being his right leg. I could not tell if she knocked his hip, knee, leg, whatever. All I could hear were Riley's cries. Screams actually. Terrible, pitiful, heart-wrenching cries that I still, today, cannot get out of my head. He headed straight for me, crying, clearly in a lot of pain. I instantly shifted into protective Mommy mode and ran to help my baby boy. I slid my left arm under his belly, supporting the weight of his hind-quarters and tried to calm him down with soothing words. Little by little I massaged his right leg, first the hip, then down his thigh to his knee, and then his ankle. He accepted the inspection and seemed to relax a little bit. After 10 minutes, I finally had to let his weight down and it was happiness to see him trot off. His gait was still a bit off and he was definitely standing without putting weight on it, but he was able to walk and trot back to the car.

Back at home, an ice pack, homeopathic remedy, and extra fish oil was in store for him. My biggest fear was that we were planning on leaving for vacation in just a few days. Sabrina and Riley were going to Auntie Dory's house to play with Agave for 5 days. I feared Riley would not get the rest he needed to recuperate from the injury. I could not imagine going through another knee surgery with him. I would do anything not to have to have him go through that again. So for the next few days, close leash walking and only one short walk a day proved to be just what he needed.

It's now over a week since the incident. We went up to the Paine house this morning and Riley would not go anywhere near the "site of the accident." In fact, he was quite spooked when I headed in the direction of the hill. Tail down and eyes sunken, he turned around and headed the other direction. I found him waiting by the car. My poor sweet boy! So we headed into the woods instead and he happily bounded into the thick brush. Funny how smart our furkids are huh?