Dog Blog Archive

Puppy mills are alive and well across North America. Would you know how to recognize if a puppy was from a puppy mill? Puppy mills are in it for the profit.  They do not care about the welfare of the animals in their care and most animals live in deplorable conditions. Here are some of the red flags to be aware of:

• They are selling puppies in large numbers or always seem to have puppies available.
• A breeder refuses to divulge the name of their veterinarian. If you are given the vet information, make sure they actually exist.
• Advertisements are constantly in the newspaper classifieds or listed on the internet to buy puppies from the same person.
• The same person always has puppies available or advertises them at every occasion as gifts. 
• A breeder offers multiple different breeds for sale. Responsible breeders breed one maybe two breeds of dogs.
• The seller wants to meet you in a public place to complete the sale.

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To date you’ve bought your kids countless stuffed animals, a goldfish (well several actually but the kids don’t know that) and you have even tried promising a kitten – but it’s just not cutting it.  YOUR KIDS WANT A DOG!

As a life-long dog lover, life with a dog is a blast – if you do it right! But is it right for you? So here is the naked truth. It all comes down to one question – the same one you’d tell your friend to ask herself if she was thinking of having a baby ... Am I ready for my life to change?

Just like having a child, you have to factor your dog into EVERY part of your day. If you’re cool with this list of scary stuff, keep reading. But if the answers are no, a dog is clearly not on your horizon. NO guilt. In fact, feel good that you’re making a responsible choice now. Celebrate with a latte and secretly smile as you watch other people walking their dogs in the rain.

Are you ready for the reality check?

1. Puppies take a lot of time. Think: house training, puppy classes, proper socialization and constant supervision.  Is this the year you’ll be happy to schedule your life around your dog?

2. Dogs aren't cheap. Bills will come from the vet, the groomer, the dog walker, the boarding kennel, and the pet store! Are you ready for them?

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They’re back.  After the much-publicized porcupine fiasco of 2013, 2014 and 2015 proved to be quiet years on the rodent front.  The 'one that got away', we had assumed, had learned his lesson and was on the lam.  After the confrontation and very expensive lesson inflicted on my dogs, we had assumed that he had gone on to easier pickings.  With age comes wisdom or maybe courage and the allure of the vegetable garden once again beckoned.

For those who aren’t familiar with the ‘Great Porcupine Incident of 2013’ let me recap.  We have lived for over a decade in a quiet suburban area.  Our neighbourhood is surrounded by a wooded area and borders the Bow River valley.  A lovely area to live. Every now and again a moose or bear will get itself lost and find itself in someone’s backyard, but otherwise, we remain off the wildlife track except by the occasional coyote and deer and the gazillion squirrels and chipmunks that call my backyard home. Following the floods of 2013, things changed.  The river valley was flooded and the wildlife found themselves without a home and ventured forth into parts unknown.  Most fortunately for the porcupines who found themselves in this same predicament, the new found homes come with some added bounty, namely my vegetable garden.  And so began the ‘Great Porcupine Incident of 2013’. 

The first clue that we had visitors was the evidenced by my vegetable garden.  Not the kale, or the beets or the beans.  Just the lettuces.  I called the City.  Nothing they could do.  I called a wildlife agency.  Not their remit in the city.  Hmmm.  I called a commercial trapper who specializes in trapping porcupines.  They promptly came out and set their traps assuring me that it would only take a day or two.  Armed them with tasty apple and other porcupine ‘crack’.  And we waited.  Well, the porcupine returned. They used the conveniently placed traps to more easily navigate around the booby traps I had placed to make access to my vegetable garden more difficult.  The ‘porcupine crack’ ignored in favour of the lettuce.  I called the trapping company and the owner, a wizened old guy, who had been trapping for years came out to attend to my problem.  He walked into the back garden, stood silently for about 5 minutes, scratched his head and told me that he would be giving my money back.  It was porcupine nirvana back there he said and there wasn’t any way they would be able to trap them.  Great!

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The first known documentation of massage was in 2700 B.C. by the Chinese. The first detailed records of massage, preserved by the British Museum, date back to the year 300 B.C. and contain descriptions of movements that are identical to those practiced at the present time. There is mention of massage in the early writings of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, and Turks, as well as the Persians, all having practiced a primitive form of massage.

Hippocrates, the “Father of Modern Medicine”, learned massage from Herodicus in 1800 B.C.
Records of application of massage by the Japanese, dating back to 1000 B.C. are still in existence; indeed, massage is recognized in Japan today as one of the foremost forms of healing.

While canine massage may be a relatively new occurrence in the grand scheme of time, it is none the less a powerful tool in healing that we can provide for our animals to help ensure that they live long and healthy lives.

Since the New Year is rocking around quickly I thought it might be fun to create some New Year resolutions for the dogs in our lives. So here are five ideas for you to consider:

1) No New Year would be complete without a resolution for losing weight. If your pup needs to lose a few, try reducing their food portion by just a little bit at each meal. Over the course of the year this will add up to a big difference. Also be careful with the between meal snacks even through those big brown eyes plead for a treat, the calories can quickly add up.