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Pet E.R. Guide Review

November 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Are you the type of person who always takes his dogs on vacation?  If so, then the Pet E.R. Guide might be something to add to your dog traveling kit.

The Pet E.R. Guide

So what exactly ist the Pet E.R. Guide?  It’s a book/directory that lists 24-hour and after hour veterinary facilities in the United States.

PetERGuide_small

I mostly travel locally with my dogs, but we do make the occasional trek outside of the county.  Not long ago we made a trip up to the Sequoia’s, camped, hiked, and fished.  Everything went well and at the time I never heard of the Pet E.R. Guide and never even thought about emergency veterinary service for my dog Linus.  However, looking back at our little adventure things could have gone south on several occasions:

  • When we were asleep in the tent I remember hearing this horrible sound I first thought could have been a bear (I was groggy).  Actually it was just Linus making that familiar sound right before he vomits.  We weren’t too sure what upset his stomach, but noticed some bits of food that we believe he picked up down by the river.  Fortunately, after throwing up on our sleeping bags he felt much better, cuddled up, and went back to sleep.
  • While hiking down the river we came to a waterfall where we all got into the water for a photo opportunity.  Linus didn’t want to join us and just stayed along the river edge.  However, after hearing our excitement he decided to hop from rock to rock to get to our position.  He nearly fell over the falls onto jagged rocks (about a 10 foot drop) and I’m almost positive he would have broken some bones if he had fell.

Lucky for us neither of these incidents resulted in a trip to the Emergency Room.  However, you can see how easily an accident could happen.  The Pet E.R. Guide lists hundreds of 24 and after-hour vet facilities throughout the US and could have been indispensable on our trip.

By the way, it had crossed my mind that there might be a directory for emergency veterinary clinics somewhere online.  I did several searches in Google and did not come up with a good source.  So as I’ve mentioned earlier if you are the type who likes to travel with your dog or pet I highly recommend getting a copy of the Pet E.R. Guide.  It could save your dogs life.

We received a complimentary copy of this book for purpose of reviewing.  This article contains affiliate links.  If you click the links on this page and make a purchase we will receive a small monetary commission that we will use to help cover the costs of running the Puppy In Training website.

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So You Want To Be A Dog Trainer Review

August 9, 2009 By 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I ordered a pile of books from Amazon.com one of them being So You Want to be a Dog Trainer.  I’m not really thinking about becoming a dog trainer I just enjoy reading new information about dog training, dog careers, dog training certifications, Dog Training Schools, Online Dog Training etc.

This book is a very short read, but filled with all kinds of useful information that your normal dog training books don’t usually have.  As you might have guessed from the title this book is about how to become a dog trainer and doesn’t really cover dog training techniques.

So You Want To Be A Dog Trainer Review

I love books I can read in a day or two because whether or not it’s a good book I will finish it.  The giant tomes that go on and on whether or not they are exciting books or boring text I often don’t finish.  And lets face it the majority of dog training books available are dry and slow reads.

So You Want to be a Dog Trainer was short and to the point.  I finished it off in a couple days and found it very informative.  Some of the most interesting points were:

  • Becoming a dog trainer is not just about training dogs, but about training people.
  • What kind of dog trainer do you want to be – you don’t have to be an expert in all areas of dog training maybe you just want to teach group lesson basic obedience.
  • Dog Training Schools – the book talks about many different places where you can get an education in dog training.
  • Dog Training Certification – there really isn’t one.
  • The in’s and out’s of setting up your dog training business

There are many other great points throughout the book, but I’m going to save some of that for a more detailed description I plan on putting on the Online Dog Training Schools website.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but there are some things I didn’t like about it.  If you want to hear my negative commentary on this book then check out Online Dog Training Schools in the next few days where I will put up a more comprehensive review or just subscribe to the RSS feed and you will receive the review through your RSS reader.

If you’re already interested in getting this book I suggest heading over to Amazon.com to get your copy today.  Here’s a link:
dog trainer

So You Want to be a Dog Trainer

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Top 5 Dog Training Books

April 23, 2009 By 4 Comments

There are hundreds probably thousands of dog training books available.  In fact if you do an exact search on Amazon.com for “dog training” in the books section Amazon returns 4,909 books available.  I don’t know about you, but when it comes to finding the right books I rely on several different metrics:

Choosing Dog Training Books

  1. Dog Training BooksDoes the content match my subject? Dog training books is very broad and I may be looking for puppy training, dog tricks, agility training, advanced training, etc.
  2. How old is the book? I generally look for the most recent editions and give more value to a book written more recently.
  3. Who wrote the book? If you read, watch tv, or listen to the radio you may already have a feel for different authors.  For instance, have you heard of Cesar Millan?  You may like his teaching style and prefer a book written by him.
  4. Are there online reviews? This can be tricky because I know for a fact that these reviews are sometimes inflated.  In general I like to see a book with several hopefully non-biased reviews.  You can check Amazon’s or Barnes n Nobles reviews or try entering the name of the book with the word “review” into google search.
  5. Offline Friend or Family reviews? I’m already in contact with many dog people so I will often ask their opinion on what good books about dog training they’ve read.

If you follow these steps you will most likely come away with a good dog training book.  I must say that I have not read hundreds of dog training books (more along the lines of tens), but of those ten these are my 5 favorite:

Top 5 Dog Training Books

In no particular order here are my top 5 dog training books:

  1. Puppies For Dummies (For Dummies (Pets)) – I purchased this book before I brought home (as an adult) my first puppy.  If you plan on getting a puppy, but you haven’t brought that little furry ball home yet this book is a must read.  I read it cover to cover twice before bringing home my first dog Linus 4 years ago.  The book starts with the basics of choosing a breed, puppy personalities, where to get a puppy, basic training, and tons of other useful information about getting your first puppy.  This book is highly recommended!
  2. Petfinder.com The Adopted Dog Bible: Your One-Stop Resource for Choosing, Training, and Caring for Your Sheltered or Rescued Dog – If you follow this blog then many of you know that Linus came from the Carson shelter.  I purchased this book recently not because I’m in the market for another dog, but instead to learn about the behavior of dogs in shelters and how it is different to re-train a dog versus training a puppy from scratch.  This is a great book if you plan on picking your next dog up from the dog shelter.  Even though Linus was a puppy when I picked him up I’m pretty sure he had some trauma from his short stay at the animal shelter.
  3. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dog Tricks – After Linus cleared puppyhood…actually he was still a puppy at about 10 months old, but had mastered most of his basic obedience…I decided to try working on some trick training.  He learned several show stopping dog tricks from this book (well, it impressed friends and family).  Linus was well suited for all of the tricks in the book (he hated it when I worked on sneeze on command) he did learn many of the basic and semi-advanced tricks including shaking hands, waving goodbye, playing dead, rolling over, and many others.
  4. Eco Dog: Healthy Living for Your Pet – A great book on learning to be a green dog.  There are several projects throughout the book that shows you how to great all-natural alternatives to your regular dog products.  This includes one of our favorites on creating your own dog toys (quite the money saver).
  5. Guide Dog Training Manual – Unfortunately, this training book is not for sale, but instead something we as puppy raisers receive before we bring home our first guide dog puppy in training.  I’ve probably read this manual five times while raising my two guide dog puppies: Stetson and Derby.  For the most part the manual covers basic obedience similar to the information you’d get out of a book like the “Puppies for Dummies” book I mentioned earlier.  However, there are several pieces of information that are specific to Guide Dog Training that most people probably do not teach their dogs.

As I’ve mentioned earlier there are thousands of dog training books available to you through Amazon.com, Borders, or Barnes and Noble.  This is just a short list of a few of my favorites.  If these books aren’t what your looking for I’d recommend you try my five step process for finding the perfect dog training book.

I’m currently in the market for a new book and I’m considering either a book by two famous authors: Cesar Millan or Victoria Stilwell famous for their shows The Dog Whisperer and It’s Me or the Dog.

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Puppy Feeding Schedule – Lessons From Marley & Me Part 3

January 7, 2008 By 12 Comments

Puppy Feeding Schedule came up twice in the past week. The first time was at New Years when talking to a family friend who just recently got a labrador retriever. The second time I came across puppy feeding schedules was in Chapter 4 of Marley & Me.

If you haven’t already please take a look at my other articles on Marley & Me:

Buying Puppies

Naming Your Dog

Puppy Feeding Schedule – Marley And Me

From Marley & Me:

Marley and MeFollowing the instructions on the bag, we gave Marley three large bowls of puppy chow a day. He wolfed down every morsel in a matter of seconds. What went in came out, of course, and soon our backyard was as inviting as a minefield. We didn’t dare venture out into it without eyes sharply peeled. If Marley’s appetite was huge, his droppings were huger still, giant mounds that looked virtually unchanged from what had earlier gone in the other end. Was he even digesting this stuff.

Apparently he was. Marley was growing at a furious pace…

They may have been overfeeding Marley. Be careful how much you feed a lab. Most labs will continue eating until they are sick. A friend of mind told me his black lab got into and ate an entire bag of food in one sitting. Of course he was very ill and had to make a trip to the vet. Fortunately, the dog was okay, but as you can see Labs have a tendency to overeat.

New Years Day Puppy

My entire life I’ve gone to my Aunt’s house to celebrate New Years. She has a traditional Japanese New Years celebration with plenty of great food and people moving in and out of the house all day. While taking a break from my eating frenzy I had the chance to talk to a friend about his new 6 month old puppy. We chatted for a while about what great dogs labs are…I have Stetson my Guide Dog Puppy in Training and he recently got a purebred lab. During our conversation he brought up the fact that his dog would eat like a horse and would consume a 40 pound bag of dog food in less than 2 weeks. That sounded like a lot to me and I asked his age (6 months) and his weight (75 pounds). He was feeding his lab about twice as much as I fed my two dogs.

Stetson is 1 years old, weighs 65 pounds and eats 3 cups of food a day. Linus is 3 years old, weighs 55 pounds, and eats 2 cups of food a day. The two of them finish a 40 pound bag of food in about 1 month. New Years Day Puppy eats a 40 pound bag of food in half the time it takes my two dogs to eat the same amount of food. That means my friend must be feeding his dog about TEN CUPS OF FOOD A DAY!

Guide Dogs of America Recommend Feeding Schedule

Below was information given to me by Guide Dogs of America on how much food I should feed my puppy in training.

When you first receive your 8 week old puppy you will be feeding him/her 3/4 of a cup 3 X a day soaked (Canidae Dog Food) in hot water until it softens. Keep doing this for about one week, then taper off on time of soaking so eventually he/she will be eating dry food with a little water.

Increasing the food gradually so that at 4 months you will switch to feeding twice a day, an average of 1 1/2 cups 2 X a day

When your puppy is approximately fifteen months old, switch to feeding him/her once a day. An average of 3 cups a day (depending on the size of your puppy, if your not sure – ask us)

One of the great things about raising a guide dog puppy is I have a tremendous resource for any questions I have about my dogs. If I think Stetson is eating too much, have a training question, or a puppy raising question I can check with my group leader, our group trainer, any of the puppy raisers, or the puppy raising department at Guide Dogs of America.

Canidae Dog Food: All Life Stages

Canidae All Life Stages FormulaCanidae Maintenance Formula for All Life Stages (40-lb bag) is the food Guide Dogs of America feeds all of their puppies (the only exception is if a dog has an allergic reaction to this food). This makes it much easier for GDA when puppies come in for training and when they stay at the kennel. Changing a dogs diet can be upsetting to the dogs stomach and can cause diaharhea or vomiting. Believe me, I witness this first hand everytime I change Linus’s dog food or even sometimes when I give him new treats (obviously a very sensitive stomach). Here’s the feeding schedule Canidae recommends for a dog that is 75 pounds and 6 months old:

According to the chart a dog 6 months or older between 50-75 pounds should eat 2-3 cups of food a day. That’s pretty close to the amount of food Guide Dogs of America recommends, but much less than the 10 cups of food the new years day puppy is currently eating.

Problems with Overfeeding Your Dog

Here are some issues I see with overfeeding your dog:

  1. Obesity – your dog will become obese. This is not good because of the health problems related to obesity.
  2. More Poop – who wants to pick up more poop then necessary?
  3. Costs More Money – Obviously the more food your dog eats the more food you have to buy. Obese dogs with health problems require more medical expenses.

If you own a Labrador Retriever be careful with their feeding you don’t want an obese dog. From what I’ve observed most Labs love to eat food and many Labs are obese which leads to medical problems.

I’d love to hear what you think. Are you and experienced lab owner?

Do you have a skinny puppy?  Check out this article on How Much Should I Feed My Puppy

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Lessons From Marley & Me Part 2 – Naming Your Dog

January 3, 2008 By 2 Comments

I’m only on chapter 2 of Marley & Me and already I feel like I should post another article about the book. Chapter 2 covers the ever important decision of what to name your dog. Of course this will effect both you and your dog for hopefully the next 10, 15, or 20 years of your lives.

Here’s a little information on how John Grogan and his wife came up with the name Marley. I also wrote a short bit on Guide Dog Puppy Naming and how I named my shelter dog. Finally, I added a short section on hints for foster puppy raisers on naming a litter of puppies (works for any litter of puppies).

If you haven’t already take a look at Part 1 of my writings on Marley & Me:

Marley And Me Part 1 – The Perfect Dog and Buying Puppies

Bob Marley

Bob Marley - LegendAfter choosing a puppy (they have to wait a few weeks before the pup is old enough to come home) Grogan and his wife begin arguing about what to name their puppy on the drive home. After listening to the soothing reggae music of Bob Marley they both simultaneously come up with the name Marley for their new puppy. I happen to think that is a great name for a dog and may use that some time in the future (I’m a fan of Bob Marley myself).

A quick aside: I was watching the movie I Am Legend the other day and Will Smith’s character in the movie explains that he named his daughter “Marley” after the legendary singer Bob Marley. I must say that is an interesting, but cute name for a little girl. By the way, do you think the title of the move “I Am Legend” has a heavy Bob Marley influence as well?

Guide Dog Puppy Names

When I first got involved with Guide Dogs of America I wasn’t sure if the school would name the puppy or if I would have the opportunity to name him. Every Guide Dog school is different, but at Guide Dogs of America you get to name your own puppy. There are a few guidelines:

  1. Each litter is assigned a letter from the alphabet. For instance my puppy came from the “S” litter and therefore his name had to start with the letter “S”
  2. Your puppy cannot have the same name as one of the existing active guide dogs or puppy’s in training.
  3. You have to get final approval from the Puppy Program Manager at GDA.

***they discourage you from using extremely common names.

There were 5 puppies in the “S” litter:

  • Stetson - my puppy
  • Stuart
  • Skylar
  • Salem
  • Sukie

Four out of the five puppies were black labs and one was a yellow lab just like Marley. By the way, congratulations to Stuart who I saw won the puppy trials for his age bracket at the GDA Open house last summer.

Where Does The Name Stetson Come From?

Everyone seems to like the name Stetson and often wonder why and how I came up with that name. Stetson is a type of hat (cowboy) and also there is a cologne name Stetson. Well, a few years ago my cousin was dating this guy who happened to be in the Stetson cologne commercials. We always called him the “Stetson” man. For some reason that stuck in my head and when it came time to name my puppy I thought Stetson would be a cool name.

***the new Stetson man (last I saw) was Matthew McConaughey.

Shelter Dog Puppy Names

I had no idea what to name my puppy when bringing him home from the Carson shelter. Of course there are no rules when naming your shelter puppy and after bouncing a few names around with my ex-girlfriend we had three we liked:

  • Linus
  • Fiver
  • Max

Watership DownLinus came from the Peanuts (you know…Linus and Lucy, Charlie Brown…) cartoon strip. Fiver was a name I read about in the Richard Adams book Watership Down. In the book Watership Down Fiver got his name because he was the fifth in the litter and the runt. I liked the name Fiver because the animal shelter said their were five in the litter and the puppy I chose was the runt. Finally, my ex-girlfriend came up with the name Max…she said he just looked like a “Max”. We went ahead and stuck with the name Linus and I must say he really does look like a Linus (he even has his own blue blanket).

Fostering and Puppy Names

If you are interested in fostering puppies then you will have the chance to name several puppies at the same time. My suggestion for naming litters of puppies…think of a movie or book that you enjoy and name them after the characters in the book/movie. For instance, are you a bit of a geek and are fostering a litter of nine puppies. Why not name the puppies after the nine in the Fellowship of the Ring The Lord of the Rings: Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Samwise, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gandalf, and Gimli.

Usually after foster puppies are adopted their names are changed by their new forever owners anyways.

Puppy Name Resources

Here are a few links on puppy/dog names:

http://petrix.com/dognames/

http://www.puppy-names.com/

http://www.funpuppynames.com/

I’d love to hear what you think? Do you have any plans to name a new puppy?

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Lessons From Marley & Me Part 1 – The Perfect Dog and Buying Puppies

December 31, 2007 By 3 Comments

Today I began reading Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog and wanted to relate some of my experiences with puppies and dogs as I read through the book. The book starts off with the perfect dog and buying puppies.

The Perfect Dog

Many of us have grown up with what we percieved as the perfect dog. In the preface John Grogan covers his perfect puppy/dog named Saint Shaun. Saint Shaun was very easily trained, never did anything wrong, the envy of all his friends, and to top it all of would back into the bushes to do his business (it all sounds a little over the top to me).
Marley and Me

What do I think of the preface and the perfect dog? Saint Shaun may very well have been perfect, but as kids I don’t think we’re always exposed to all the responsibilities of owning a dog. If we forget something such as picking up after our dogs, brushing, washing, or grooming the dog our parents will often cover for us. Often times as kids, we don’t even realize all the responsibilities involved with dogs. I guess what I’m trying to say is there is a big difference between the family pet we owned as kids and the puppy/dog we buy/own as an adult. The full responsibility of owning a dog is something we should consider with great care. Of course not everyone thoroughly thinks through dog ownership and this can be seen by the ever increasing number of dogs and puppies that are euthanized at the shelters.

Buying Puppies

In Marley & Me Grogan’s wife researches the newspaper classifieds to find the perfect dog. Is this the best way to buy a dog? I don’t claim to know the best way to get the perfect dog, but I have talked to many people and currently own two dogs of my own. Check out Dedicated to my dog Linus to see some of my writing on dog adoption. I was considering a pure bred golden retriever or labrador retriever before I picked up Linus from the shelter. It was recommended to me that I attend dog shows to find a reputable breeder and not to find a breeder by looking through the classifieds. I was told that a good reputable breeder has no need to advertise their puppies.

However, I did look at classified ads and did visit some of the puppies in the ads. The second thing I was told about buying a dog was that before you buy a pure bred find out what genetic defects the breed may have and make sure the parents are certified. By the way, it is very difficult not to take home all the puppies when you see, touch, and play with the litter. I highly recommend using Grogan’s strategy when looking at litters, but unlike Grogan stick to it!

From Marley & Me:

The deal I had struck with Jenny when I agreed to come here was that we would check the pups out, ask some questions, and keep an open mind as to whether we were ready to bring home a dog ‘This is the first ad we’re answering’ I had said. ‘Let’s not make any snap decisions.’ But thirty seconds into it, I could see I had already lost the battle. There was no question that before the night was through one of these puppies would be ours.

I’m going to reiterate…please don’t give in and stick to the plan!

Meet the Parents

As you can see Grogan and his wife choose one of the puppies from the first litter they visit. It is a backyard breeder who has AKC certified puppies. However, Grogan does not mention whether the puppies parents have certified hips, elbows, and eyes which is very important when buying a pure-bred labrador retriever (yellow lab was the same dog I was researching before I found Linus).

Parents are a good indicator of how the puppies will behave. Grogan and his wife meet the mother just as they arrive at the house and describe her as “just what we pictured a lab would be -sweet natured, affectionate, calm, and breathtakingly beautiful.” The chapter ends with meeting the father…Grogans description: “…very big yellow blur…as it galloped past…soaking wet and covered up to its belly in mud and burrs…tongue hung out wildly to one side and froth flew of its jowls…odd slightly crazed yet somehow joyous gaze in his eyes…” Not exactly the perfect dog and a foreshadowing of things to come.

Let me know what you think. Have you read Marley & Me? Are you interested in buying puppies?

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