Nylabone rings are better than any other Nylabone shape!

Halo fell asleep chewing on her Nyabone

My dogs love to chew on Nylabones.  Especially Halo!

The Nylabone company offers their synthetic bone product in a range of shapes (and flavors).
The original looks like a long, thin bone.  Other shapes include a big "beef bone", a hallow stick, a wishbone, and dinosaurs (ha!).

I've bought almost all these different-shaped Nylabones for my dogs over the years, but the story always ended the same.  At some point, my dogs would chew the Nylabones down small enough that it could possibly be swallowed--once my dogs could get the whole thing in their mouth all at once, I'd throw the bone away and get a replacement.  And even though the bones lasted a relatively long time, I still wished they would last longer.

Halo with her favorite Nylabone!

I was very pleased when I discovered that Nylabone also offers ring-shaped bones.  The textured ring, in particular, seems to last for a very long time.  I bought a textured Nylabone back in May.  And even though Halo chews on it daily (and Leopold every now and again), the bone is nowhere near needing replacement, and I imagine it will not need replacing for a long time to come.  The ring shape makes it near impossible for Halo to ever get the whole thing in her mouth, even when she's chewed it enough that its gotten thin.

Want to get a Nylabone ring for your own dog?  They're sold at most pet stores, or you can buy them from amazon.com here: Nylabone Dura Chew Large Textured Ring Bone Dog Chew Toy

Don't know what a Nylabone is?  Check out one of my previous posts!

nom nom nom

Convenient Product Link:

Reiterating the importance of supervising your dog and financially preparing for when they get sick or injured

I recently received a comment on my post “Fun activity fordogs who like to ‘disembowel’ their stuffed animal toys”.  The commenter relayed their scary experience:  their dog ate 10 pieces of rolled up fleece.  Luckily, she was able to get the vet in time to induce vomiting to bring up the pieces of fabric.  This person ended her comment by stating that she had “no resources left financially” if there ends up being a blockage. 

This comment has spurred me to reiterate and repost on some topics I think are important for every dog owner to be aware of.

One.  It is ALWAYS a good idea to supervise your dog when they are playing with toys that they could potentially swallow—whether on purpose or on accident.  I supervise Leopold every time I give him the activity in the aforementioned post, even though I have never seen him eat anything but food (and grass…..).  The commenter’s conclusion was that no one should roll up treats in the fleece for this toy.  My conclusion is that a dog owner should always keep an eye on their dog when giving their dog activities that involve anything that the dog could potentially swallow.  If you keep an eye on your dog, you can correct the behavior and/or take away the toy right away and prevent your dog from having, what we call at the clinic, a foreign body in its system.   It’s even important to supervise your dog while they’re chewing on bones. As I've mentioned in a previous post, bones can crack and become potentially dangerous.

Two.  Owning a dog is not a cheap endeavor.  Taking care of your dog properly costs money.  It seems like owning a dog can be a cheap when you think only of the food you have to buy it.  But making sure your dog is healthy can add up quick.  Dogs get sick, need regular checkups and vaccines, heartworm preventatives, flea/tick preventatives.  All these things cost money.  And a trip to the ER can diminish your savings and/or force you to put your furry friend to sleep if there is no financial alternative (I’ve seen this happen. It is incredibly sad.)

I highly recommend to all dog owners who do not have independent financial security to get veterinary pet insurance.  It is an investment into your dog’s health and life.  Pet insurance is affordable for most, and there are more carriers available as it become more popular.  I wrote a post on pet insurance a while back.  I know that since then, more well-known insurance companies like Nationwide now offer pet insurance.

Three.  Dogs can do stupid things.  They eat rank-smelling items like dirty socks and dirty underwear.  They chew at carpeting and unravel it right into their gullet.  I once caught Halo eating dirt because some crab juice had spilled on the spot—she was eating rotten crab dirt.  I also discovered one day that she has somehow pushed past the fence around our compost and eaten some of the compost (which ended in a trip to the ER).  Dogs lick antifreeze because it’s sweet.  They eat turds and dead animals.  I have learned that having a dog means expecting that they will sometimes do stupid things.  And the most you can do is try your best to prevent situations in which your dog will harm itself, and have money in reserve or pet insurance to take them to the vet when they do get hurt or sick.  I have also learned that sharing a life with dogs is a learning experience.  That is, after all, what this whole blog is about.

Leopold, the Gum, and the Peanut Butter

I guess you could call this "Adventures on the Road, part III", as the beginning of this story takes place during the end of our road trip mentioned in the two previous posts.

As people are wont to do on a road trip, we stopped at many a service station on our day of driving home from Cape Cod.  At each stop, we would assess the car's gas level, our hunger level, and how strongly we needed to visit a rest room.  We would, also, put the dogs in their harnesses and let them hop out of the car to walk around for a bit in order to stretch their legs and take care of business.

Leopold, you have gum on your paw!

As you may know, service stations are not the cleanest places--inside and out.  At one of these not-so-clean service stations, Leopold stepped in gum.

At the time of the gum adhesion, I actually thought the substance I saw on his foot was mud, and didn't worry too much about wiping it off.  A little mud never hurt anyone.

The following day, however, we were out on our walk when I noticed that the "mud" was still on Leopold's foot.  I stopped to investigate ("Why isn't this mud falling off?") only to discover it was actually a hard wad of gum.  It had mushed right into his paw pad, up around his nail, and into his fur.

Once we got home, I looked up home remedies for curing "gum paw".  Just like getting gum out of human hair, many people recommended peanut butter.
So that's what I tried.
I am pleased to report that peanut butter worked like a charm!  I massaged the peanut butter onto the gum wad, and it almost immediately started to release from Leopold's fur, nail, and paw pad.  Leopold's paw was gum-free in no time.


I was happy that the solution to this problem ended up being so easy.
And Leopold was happy that his paw tasted like peanut butter afterwards. 

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

 

massaging peanut butter onto the gum on Leopold's paw

the gum is starting to come off!

On a side note, the experience of massaging gum with peanut butter was just down right gross.  (someone had chewed that piece of gum!  as in... it was in some stranger's mouth!  uck!).  But for Leopold, I would touch a thousand pieces of service station gum if it meant he was healthy and happy and gum-foot-free

Adventures on the Road Part II: Wine Tasting with Dogs

Stopping to enjoy the view while traveling the Cayuga Lake wine trail with our dogs.

After discovering that we were not allowed to leave our dogs unattended in the cabin in which we were staying at Cayuga Lake State Park, Chris and I (especially I) felt defeated.
Now what?
It seemed like spending a day happily gallivanting down the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail had fallen off the table and onto the ground to rot like a forgotten grape: there's no way to get wine out of that.
We had planned to "gallivant" in a car, safely driven by a hired wine trail guide (Finger Lakes Winery Tours & Fitzgerald Brothers).  Chris called up the driver and explained the situation and ended with "We don't know what to do".

In the back seat of our winery-mobile with Halo and Leopold.

....to which the driver responded "Bring them!"

!!
A response we were not expecting! (but maybe hoping for deep deep down)

Our driver showed up with a sedan, introduced himself as Dan, opened the back door and welcomed both our dogs onto his leather seats without a second thought.  He told us later in the day that ours were the first dogs he's ever driven around on a wine tour.  I was impressed with how cool he was about having 125 lbs worth of dog in the back seat of his car.  Halo and Leopold quickly decided that they liked Dan, their newest friend.

As it turns out, there are many wineries along Cayuga Lake that allow dogs in their tasting rooms.  In fact, we learned on the way that there are even some wineries that have their own dogs (or cats!) in residence who lounge about in the tasting rooms.  Dan explained that it was lucky we were already planning on checking out the Cayuga Lake wineries instead of the Seneca Lake wineries (which are not far away) because the Seneca Lake wineries tend not to be so dog-friendly.

Leopold lays down on the floor of the
Goose Watch Winery tasting room for a nap.

It felt very strange at first walking into a winery with dogs, and we did get some looks.  Almost all of those looks were friendly, however, and followed by sought permission to pet our incurably cute dogs.  Leopold and Halo were the open windows through which strangers felt invited to chat with us;  I don't think I've ever interacted with so many strangers while out wine tasting before.


I've always felt that having a dog is like being part of a club.  As soon as another Dog Club member sees you with your dog, they instantly get excited and want to tell you about their own dog or their childhood dog or some dog they met here or there.  We met many other members of the Dog Club while out wine tasting, and other non-members who were intrigued by the sight of the dressed-up couple with dogs hanging off their arms.

Halo was so sleepy at the end of the day that
she laid on the floor and rest her head on
the console in the winery-mobile.

We visited six wineries in all:  Swedish Hill,  Goose Watch,  Buttonwood Grove,  Knapp,  Americana, and Sheldrake Point.  Along the way we gave treats to a highland cow named Melody, learned why the area is known for its Rieslings, and Leopold met a cat close up and personal (if you're curious, the cat hissed and Leopold spent the rest of our time at that winery with a watchful eye and a low woof for the cat).  For lunch, we ate at a Bistro call the Thirsty Owl, that offered outdoor seating so that we could have our dogs with us.   Dan the driver also brought us to a scenic overlook of the Taughannock Falls, which was absolutely amazing.  By the end of the wine tour Chris and I were feeling light and happy, and the dogs were tuckered out from all their new experiences.

Our day ended up being fantastic.  And what felt at first like a disaster, turned into a unique experience that I would recommend to those who like to find new activities in which to include their dogs.

A scenic overlook of the Taughannock Falls

Halo waits in the car while we give Melody a treat.  Halo does not like this.

Offering Melody a treat

waiting for lunch at the Thirsty Owl

Halo and Leopold enjoy some cold water.

Strolling by the grape vines

Halo and Leopold look out over a vineyard.

Adventures on the road Part I: Learning about Possible Campground Dog Rules

Halo sticks her nose over the dog barrier we constructed in our car.

Chris and I took somewhat of a road trip with the dogs as part of our honeymoon.  The plan was to drive from Madison, Wisconsin to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  On the way we were going to stop in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, spend a day wine tasting, and then be on our way the next day.
We reserved a cabin at Cayuga Lake State Park in Seneca Falls, NY because they fit our criteria: they allowed dogs.  We planned on thoroughly wearing out the dogs in the morning before we left for wine tasting so that they wouldn't be restless in the cabin.  We thought it was a good idea.

It was late at night when we arrived at the Camp Ground; the staff was gone for the day, but they had left us our key and some campground information.  Upon reading through the park information, we discovered that rabies vaccination certificates were required for all dogs staying at the camp ground.  I thought of the rabies certificates that I keep safely in my filing cabinet at home and wondered to myself who in the world carried around their dogs' rabies vaccination certification papers.  The vet gives you a tag to hang on your dog's collar along with the certificate so that you don't have to do that.  I wondered if this was a common requirement for doggy campground patrons.  Regardless, we must have completely missed this piece of information when reserving our cabin online.  

Huddling with Halo and Leopold (there was a fridge, an oven,
but no heat!  Good thing we had warm blankets!)

We settled in for the night (huddled together is more like it, because it was so cold!) deciding that the first thing we would try to do in the morning when registering is beg for mercy and see if they'd let us stay at the campground despite our certificate-less situation.

Luckily, they agreed to letting us and our dogs stay, stating that it was ok only because we were just staying two nights.  Any longer and we'd HAVE to provide the certificates.
<phew>
We took the dogs for a long walk and then headed back to the cabin to get clean and ready for our romantic day of wine tasting.

Back in the cabin, I took a moment to sit.  My eyes wandered over the humble abode: concrete floor, four small beds, patrons' initials scratched into the log walls, cob-webbed windows, and the occasional laminated sign stating various park rules.  Quiet time was after 10p.  Check out was before 11a.  No Smoking.  Phone number for park police.  And dogs are not allowed to be left in the cabins unattended.
DAMMIT!  The whole reason we chose this place was because they allowed dogs, meaning that we could keep the dogs there while we were out wine tasting.  Again, we must have missed this piece of information when making our cabin reservation online. CRAP!

Upon later investigation, I discovered that we did, indeed, miss a small section about the requirement for all pets to have proof of vaccination in the form of a Veterinarian certificate and that pets must not be left unattended.  I'm inclined to blame our error on the stress of planning a wedding.  Yea, lets go with that. 

But really, this experience taught me something important about traveling with dogs:  make sure you carefully look at all campground rules pertaining to dogs before making a reservation and definitely before arriving.  Chris and I also decided that it would be a good idea to put together a file folder of copies of our dogs' vaccination records to take with us whenever we travel with them again in the future.

On October 5, 2013, I married my best friend--my best human friend, that is! ;-)

I've been a bad blogger and have been neglecting Leopold's Crate.  Sorry!
I have a good reason though: I was preparing for my wedding (making a wedding dress can take a while!)!  I'm happy to say the wedding went well, and now life can get back to normal. :-)

Halo and Leopold dressed in their best for our big day!

So my dog ruined his sweater...

I mentioned in the last post that one of the only things Leopold has every really destroyed was his sweater.  I bought it for him because he doesn't have enough fur to be outside long in winter; I never thought I'd be the type of person to dress my dog in a sweater, but a girls got to do what a girls got to do to keep her dog warm.  I decided to buy him a sock-monkey sweater because, well, he just looked so darn cute in it.  It was a little pricey for my wallet, but cuteness triumphed.












And... then I accidentally left it down too low,  went out for a bit, and returned home to find that Leopold had torn off all the "cute" parts of the sweater (ears, monkey face.... all gone).  I was sad, and angry at myself for leaving the sweater down where Leopold could get at it.  What a waste of money!  I couldn't bring myself to throw the sweater out, so I decided to "fix" it.

I replaced the lost monkey ears with monster horns, and filled in the missing monkey face with a monkey skull. 









The end result was a unique, punk sweater that passers-by get a kick out of.  I think it suits Leopold's personality better, anyway.  (He can be such a little punk!)   :-)

One cute monkey sweater bit the dust.
One punk monkey sweater is born.


Leopold is usually pretty good about not ruining my (or his) stuff, but every dog has his day.  and I've learned that living with dogs means that you've got to accept that sometimes stuff gets ruined because there is only so much you can do to prevent it from happening.



I'm happy that I was able to turn this particular ruined garment into something functional and funky.