We have rescued 4 dogs. Two pointers; english and german short-hair, a black lab, and a rottweiler-lab mix that, I call our rottenLab. Two are 6 years old; and we added two puppies last year. The older dogs really trained the two new puppies, and now are smaller than the pups. We have acreage so they walk themselves; however, I do take them each individually on their own 30 minutes walk, each morning to start our day. We feed them the Only Natural Pet Easy Raw Turkey/Sweet Potato food.
Vacations always cost us more for the dog hotel than our own room. I have thought of getting a house sitter but worry about them finding a creature one night and the sitter having to try to get them back inside, so just always choose the kennel. The folks at our kennel treat them like family.
@LeastComplicated That’s amazing. Border Collie’s are SO smart! Our older dog is not the sharpest knife in the drawer; but she’s so good natured it’s OK. You would have died at the length of time it took to housetrain her (we got her as an adult; she was likely an outside dog prior to that). We got used to her level of smarts, and then got our younger dog. He was described as a beagle retriever mix and he is SO much smarter than his sister. Housetrained in 2 days; can master any puzzle (our older dog gives up on trying to get things out of a kong - poor thing) and learned commands/obedience at a reasonable rate - just like the books said they would. We were amazed. I’m sure he’s nothing compared to a border collie though. Have you ever seen that joke about dog breeds and changing a lightbulb - it’s so funny. https://www.dogingtonpost.com/dog-joke-how-many-dogs-does-take-change-lightbulb/
I’ve never had a dog that didn’t poop on walks, even if he had already done it earlier. It’s what they do. My current dog usually does it more than once.
@Nrdsb4 Same here. My dog usually does it twice or three times. One time I gave it the command to poop just as a joke and it actually pooped! Do you just leave it there or pick it up?
My dog almost always poops on his morning walks with me, but never on his evening walks with my husband. It is actually a good thing for traveling/staying in hotels
@Nrdsb4 Oh, I never knew that it was the law. I see people walk dogs that poop and they don’t even bother picking it up. I agree with you that it’s very inconsiderate. What’s worse is when they do it on your lawn!
I love that light bulb joke, especially the end with the golden.
Speaking of light bulbs, this weekend my husband installed small lights in our landscaping to light up the house. That afternoon, my dog was looking out the back door and doing the bark and growl combo that means “there’s a creature in our territory.” I couldn’t see anything, so I let her out…she rushed to the light in the flower bed (wah wah). Great that she’s so observant, but did she really think the light bulb was an intruder? We’ve worried about her eyesight before! (This was maybe 20 feet outside of the door).
And now a serious post. After seeing something online about burnt dog paws…how do you know when it is too hot to walk on the sidewalks? Can you trust your dog to move to the grass if it is too hot? I’ve been taking some midday walks in our 90s heat, and I take her to the grass when we are in sunny spots, but she moves back on to the sidewalk. I feel the side walks before we head out, and they are hot…but surely her paws are tougher than my hand. How do you know when it’s too hot for their paws? (And despite my light post above, I consider her pretty smart, if it matters)
@TS0104 Hot or warm? If you wouldn’t walk barefoot, I’d try to stick to the grass, though I don’t think a dog would purposely walk on too hot sidewalk after you have steered them to grass. I find sidewalks don’t often get unbearably hot unless they are in wide open, blazing sun all day (think about how a pool deck gets ridiculously hot). But if there are trees, house shadows, etc and dappled sun periodically, they are usually OK. Asphalt gets pretty hot, pretty quickly though.
@TS0104 I’ve been doing some research on this and it says you can tell by putting your hand on the pavement and holding it for 5 seconds. Some other sites say 3 and 10 seconds but I prefer 5 since it’s right in the middle. If you can’t hold your hand on the pavement for 5 seconds, then it’s too hot for you to walk your dog. If you really want to walk your dog, I suggest walking in the morning or evening when it’s cooler.
Mushers Secret can be used year round to protect your dogs paws - not just when it’s snowy and icy. Try massaging it into their feet two to three times a week to protect and condition their pads. I personally wouldn’t walk them on pavement at midday - I think morning and evening are best for sidewalks or asphalt. My dogs head for the grass when it’s warmer than 80.
Thanks @3kids2dogs , @MoonKnight . I will try the 5 second test. At the hottest, the sidewalks have been like outside of coffee cup hot, you can keep your hand on it but its hot, not like pool deck in FL burning hot (which I experienced last week and couldn’t take more than 2 steps). @sabaray Do you think Bag Balm is like Musher’s Secret? We have some Bag Balm on hand.
Good luck with fireworks everyone…my dog isn’t bothered, but I know it’s tough for many! No real way to get away from it!
Do you do teeth cleaning for your dogs? I am having trouble to brush my baby’s teeth, I give her dog chew (virbac oral hygiene chew) daily and her mouth smells very nicely), but am thinking of taking her to my vet for a doggie teeth cleaning, but then I don’t like to have her put into sleep to do that. What do you all do?
Love the lightbulb’s jokes! ?
My baby also always poops when she is on the morning walk, generally two or three times then and once or twice in the afternoon too. My vet once told me that dogs only poop once, mine is way more than that.
Our first dog was a German Shepherd lab mix who was almost 17 when we put him to sleep (from old age, never sick a day in his life!). We got him from the SPCA. He was a great family dog. So laid back.
We currently have two dogs. We have a 110 black lab mix we got from the SPCA. He was 2 y/o when we adopted him and is now 9 y/o. Sweetest guy ever but definitely imposing to passers by!
A year and a half ago, I decided we needed a second dog to keep our lab company. We’ve never had two at the same time, nor had we ever had a puppy. I couldn’t resist this “desert dog” puppy who had been abandoned with its litter of pups and mom in Kuwait. She is part Saluki which is a Middle Eastern breed. She’s really interesting looking - people constantly ask questions about her. She’s only about 30 lbs so funny to see her frolicking around with our other huge dog. It was a huge adjustment though - 1) housetraining a dog who arrived during an unseasonably cold winter with temps in the teens (used to desert heat, it took her a while learn to go potty outside) and 2) she has lots of anxiety which has taken a very long time to get under control. She hated being in a crate and could not be left at home for very long. This also made house training difficult (hatred of being in crate) But the difficulty getting her to adjust was very frustrating for Dh and the kids - lots of barking as well as some household destruction. She has finally settled down and the most adorable thing ever and I’m so glad we never gave up on her.