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Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy?

December 27, 2011 By 15 Comments

Over the past couple years we’ve been hearing rave reviews about deer antlers for dogs.  If you have Labrador Retrievers in your house then you probably run into some of the same issues we do with Dublin, our yellow lab, and Stetson, our black lab.  Those two boys just love to chew up their dog toys, treats, chews, rawhides…you name it, they chew it.  In fact, Stetson can chew up a giant pressed rawhide bone in less than 5 minutes!  That’s the same bone that used to take Dublin 2 weeks to polish off (now it takes him about a half hour).  Some of the things we’ve heard about these wonderful chew toys/treats are:

  • “They are great for dogs who love to chew because they last for a very long time.”
  • “You can purchase them in different sizes depending on the size of your dog.”
  • “They don’t stink really bad like the bully sticks you get from the store.”
Deer Antlers For Dogs

Deer Antlers For Dogs

If you’d like to read more information about deer antlers for dogs then check out this affiliate link  Amazon.com (affiliate link).  Amazon readers give mostly good reviews of the Antler Dog Chew (affiliate link).

However, we recently received an email from our Guide Dog group that we wanted to share with our readers.  Here’s what they had to say about deer antlers for dogs.

Deer Antlers For Dogs

We are having an increase in the instances of dogs (puppies and adults) with acute diarrhea. All test show that the cause is not bacterial or parasitic. What all these cases do have in common……

Now I am not knocking antlers, they definitely have their place. Antlers are an excellent tool for dogs with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. But because they are considered a novel protein, once a dog is given this as a treat, Venison can no longer be considered a novel protein for that dog. This makes it much more difficult to find a novel protein if needed in the future for skin or intestinal issues.

Recently, as antler dog chews become more popular, antler is getting more scarce. Antler chew sellers are popping up all over and they are looking to sell the cheaper, low grade antler to make more profit. These antlers are old, brittle and can crack and splinter when chewed. Because of the scarcity antlers are being brought in from other countries like China where they may be treated with chemical preservatives. Antlers are also high in protein, this too can cause stomach upset especially in young dogs.

We recommend the following “chew toys” : Sterile bones, Nylabones and the occasional rawhide, these are the same chew toys that are given while they are in training. All of these chews need to be given only under direct supervision.

We do not recommend antlers as a chew toy/supplement.

Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy?  Obviously we can no longer use deer antlers as a chew toy/supplement for our guide dog puppies in training, but then again we never had the chance to use them in the first place.  By the way, I’m glad I did not have to experience acute diarrhea with my pups.  The fear of all 3 of my dogs getting diarrhea is enough to make me avoid purchasing deer antler chews for my dogs.

So I guess we’ll just stick to the Sterile bones, Nylabones and the occasional rawhide.  Lucky for us Dublin (and now Apache) loves the Nylabones and Sterile Bones so we rarely give them any other kind of dog chews.

Are current favorite dog chew toys are KONG Extreme Dog Toy and Nylabone Dura Chew Wishbone Chew Toy (affiliate links).  The KONG Dog Toy has been pretty much indestructible while the Nylabone Wishbone gets a bit jagged when our dogs chew on it, but has remained in one piece…just don’t let your dog drop it on your bare foot…OUCH!

Do you have a destructive dog that loves to chew?  What are your favorite dog chew toys?  Have you tried deer antlers for dogs?  How about elk antlers for dogs?  We’d love to hear about your experiences so tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.

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5 Dog Links You Need To Check Out…NOW!

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sorry we’re a bit late this week with our awesome doggy links of the week…

Here we are again at the end of the week (actually it’s now the beginning of the week) with our favorite posts from the top dog blogs around the world.  We’re going to keep it short and sweet…so lets get started with our adorable puppy pic:

Dublin Puppy In Training

Dublin Puppy In Training

Now that we got the adorable puppy out of the way lets check out this weeks doggy blog articles:

  • Discouraging Your Dog’s Bad Behavior in 10 Easy Steps – A great thing about working on your dogs training is that it will strengthen the bond between you and your dog.  One of my favorite points in this article helps curb destructive chewing.  We use the same technique when training our own guide dog puppies.  Another good point this article brings up is that you can change a dogs bad behavior and that bad behavior is not permanent.  In other words you can teach an old dog new tricks.
  • Top 7 Holiday Dangers To Avoid For Your Dog – some great tips on foods your pet should avoid not just over the holidays, but always.  Some foods you may not be aware of are onions, grapes, and raisins My ex-girlfriend actually gave my dog a few grapes and I flipped out.  Lucky for us it was only about 3 which apparently was ok for a dog his size.
  • Top 10 Dog Breeds That Don’t Shed – Every day I wear black clothes by the end of the day I can see long yellow golden fur all over.  If I don’t vacuum at least once a day the little fur ball tumbleweeds start forming.  Lucky for me I don’t have allergies to dogs.  However, lucky for some others not all dogs shed like my Labrador Retriever, my Australian Shepherd mix, and my Golden Retriever.  This week we came across a list of dogs that do not shed so if you’re interested in not having to vacuum or use a lint brush on a daily basis then check out this weeks list of dog breeds that do not shed.
  • 5 Easy Ways To Raise Funds For An Animal Shelter – If you volunteer at an animal shelter/rescue then check out this list.  In fact if you volunteer for any non-profit organization (we volunteer as puppy raisers for Guide Dogs of America) you might find some helpful hints on how to raise funds for your favorite charity organization.  If you’ve been following our blog for a while then you know we raised money for Guide Dogs of America through Dublin’s Puppy In Training TV video series (let us know if you want to sponsor an episode).
  • 10 Great Holiday Gifts for Great Pet Lovers - If you haven’t already checked out our list of most popular dog toys then you might want to check it out now!  However, if you can’t find the perfect dog toy then you might want to check out this weeks list of holiday gifts for pet lovers.  It’s definitely a more high end list, but maybe you’re looking for something special this year like a pet portrait or personalized doggie jewelry…not really my cup of tea.

That’s it for this weeks Puppy In Training link roundup.  If you want to submit a link for next week then just leave us a comment in the comments section below.  Did you write a great blog article this week?  Let us know about it.

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Top 10 Dog Toys

December 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

Once Thanksgiving is past and Christmas is upon us I start thinking about what dog toys I should get for my 3 dogs.  The search basically starts on the internet by typing A-M-A-Z-O-N-.-C-O-M into my browser.  Any time I think about purchasing anything my first thought is to visit Amazon.com(and usually ends with Amazon too).

How To Find Popular Dog Toys

How do I find the most popular dog toys on Amazon?  It’s simple.  Here’s my step by step process:

  1. Type Amazon.com into your web browser of choice.  We prefer either Firefox or Google Chrome, but any browser will do.
  2. In the left navigation bar hover over “Home, Garden, & Tools”.  In the sub-navigation scroll down to Pet Supplies and click on the HyperlinkAmazon Pet Suplies
  3. In the horizontal navigation just below the search box click on the “Dog” hyperlink.  This will take you directly to the Most Popular Dog Products page.Amazon Dog Supplies
  4. Now just manually filter out the toys from the regular, boring, old products.  Here’s the link that will take you directly to Amazon’s Most Popular Dog Products Page.

Just in case you don’t feel like going through my wonderful 4 step process here are the Top 10 Dog Toys on Amazon.com.

Top 10 Dog Toys

We like going Letterman Top 10 list style and go in descending order (countdown) from 10 to Number 1.  Here’s our top dog toy list:

#10 Dog Toy – Mr. Bill Dog Toy – Okay, okay a bit of a weak start to our top 10 dog toys list, but if you’re a Gen Xer like me then you might recall the days of Mr. Bill.  I envision this little guy getting shredded by the likes of Apache (my Golden Retriever) Linus (my Aussie Mix) and Stetson (my Black Lab).  Anyhow we ordered one and we’ll let you know how he performs under stress (of 3 big dogs).  The 20th most popular dog product on Amazon the price is right at $6 you’re receiving a 62% discount from Amazon!

#9 Dog Toy – Kyjen Plush Puppies Dog Squeaker Mat Toy – Kyjen seems like they’ve made some pretty popular dog toys coming into this holiday season starting off with this squeaker mat toy.  It might drive me nuts when the doggies get a hold of this one, but we’re going to order one from Amazon anyways and let you know what we think.  This one snuck in ahead of Mr. Bill by just a hair as the 19th most popular dog product and #9 dog toy!

#8 Dog Toy – Nylabone Dura Chew Wishbone Chew Toy – We’ve had one of these bad boys in the past which was chewed up, but not destroyed by Puppy In Training #2, Derby (yellow Labrador Retriever).  It got pretty jagged and every time Derby dropped it on my bare foot it left a scratch mark.  Rated for powerful chewers we eventually had to trash our Dura Chew Wishbone, but today we’re going to purchase another and let you know what Linus (aussie mix), Stetson (black Lab), and Apache (golden retriever) think of the Dura Chew.  This one is the 16th most popular dog product.

#7 Dog Toy – Ethical Pet Skinneeez Exotic Series Dog Toy – I was wondering what the fuss was about these line of toys which come in the beaver, chicken, or flamingo styles.  Here’s what Amazon had to say: “Our realistic Skinneeez toys will bring out a dog’s natural hunting instinct while dogs chase and flip-flop these toys all over the place. All Skinneeez are stuffing free and last longer than regular plush dog toys because there is no stuffing for dogs to rip out!”  Isn’t that half the fun for your dog?  I guess it’s not so fun when your dog…uhhmm…Stetson…tears up and eats the stuffing.  We ordered one and we’ll let you know if we like it better or worse then your regular plush stuffed toy.  Skinneeez is the 14th most popular dog product.

#6 Dog Toy – Kyjen Puzzle Plush Egg Babies Dog Toy, 5 Eggs – The second Kyjen toy to hit our list.  This one comes from Kyjen’s popular puzzle line of toys.  In fact we’ve loved these dog toys for years.  However, this will be our first Egg Babies Dog Toy.  We’ve noticed that our pups love to extract squeakers from regular plush toys.  These toys are great because our pups can still extract squeakers (the eggs) without destroying the toy.  This guy is the 13th most popular dog product.

#5 Dog Toy – KONG Extreme Dog Toy – We’ve had a few destructive dogs come through the house, but I think Apache (my Golden Retriever pup) may be able to take down the red Kong plus he such a big boy I think we need a bigger more extreme Kong.  Enter the KONG Extreme Dog Toy.  This is on the top of Apache’s wishlist so I ordered one from Amazon and I’ll let you know if it truly is EXTREME!  At number 11 amongst all dog products.

#4 Dog Toy – Kyjen Plush Puppies Squeaker Mat Long Body Dog Toy – We’ve been wanting to try one of these large Kyjen Squeaker dog toys.  Last year we bought the Kyjen Invincibles Snake Dog Toy and we’ve heard that these types of dog toys are supposed to be better for destructive dogs.  We plan on getting a couple and putting them to the test.   The #9 Dog product on Amazon!

#3 Dog Toy – Smarter Toys IQ Treat Ball Dog Toy  – we had the small version of this toy for our cat and she absolutely loved it.  I also recall Linus playing with it as well when he was just a pup.  However, we want to try the larger 5″ version with Stetson and hopefully can put a short review up for you guys in the near future.  Stay tuned…for a review of the #7 most popular dog product on Amazon.

#2 Dog Toy – Nylabone Durable Dental Dinosaur Chew Toy – we haven’t tried the dental dinosaur, but in the past we have enjoyed many other Nylabone dog products.  Nylabone rates the durability of their toys and this one is recommended for powerful chewers.  I think I might get one and test it with my boys who are definitely powerful chewers! This is the #3 most popular dog product on Amazon!

#1 Dog Toy – Drum Roll Please……… Kyjen Hide-A-Squirrel – one of our favorite toys.  It can be a bit puzzling for dogs at first, but your dog will enjoy extracting these squeaky squirrels form their stumpy home.  And the #1 most popular dog toy on Amazon is the #2 most popular dog product

After all that what actually is the most popular dog product on Amazon?  It’s a Children’s Gate Play Yard!?

And that’s it!  With Christmas right around the corner make sure you check out some or all of these great dog toys.  As I’ve mentioned some I’ve already tried and tested while others I’m considering bringing into the household.  If your dogs have already had the pleasure of playing with any of these dog toys then let us know what your pup thought in the comments section below.

We receive a small commission from Amazon that helps support our blog if you purchase an item from one of the affiliate links in this post.  Thank you for your support!

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5 Doggy Links You Should Not Miss

December 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

Welcome tor our first Puppy Training Weekly Roundup!  So what exactly is our Puppy Training Weekly Roundup?  Well it all started way back when we decided to compile a list of top dog blogs.

Step 1 my list of top dog blogs is now COMPLETE!

Step 2 is to add the top 50 dog blogs to my Google Reader account. CHECK!

Step 3 visit Google Reader every day and read my favorite blog articles.  CHECK!

Step 4 add cute puppy picture to post to try and attract more readers/subscribers. CHECK!

Yellow Labrador Retriever Pupppy

Dublin A Puppy In Training Endorses This Weeks Roundup!

Step 5 at the end of every week share my 5 favorite dog blog posts from the week…SEE BELOW!

Why am I doing this?  There’s so much information blasted out everyday I thought it would be nice to see just a short list of my favorite readings from the week.  Now you don’t have to scan through 50 blogs and hundreds of posts to find the top 5.  Of course your top 5 might be slightly different then mine in which case you’re welcome to subscribe to all the blogs on the top 50 dog blogs list.

Puppy Training Weekly Roundup 1

  • Let’s Talk: Has Your Dog Had Ill Effects from Chicken Jerky? – There was a Chicken Jerky scare back in 2007 and it’s back again here in 2011.  The FDA has advised consumers who feed their dogs chicken jerky to carefully monitor their dogs for hours after feeding the treats.  We stopped feeding the jerky tenders to our dogs after the first scare in 2007, but just to let everyone know we never had any problems with the treats and our dogs.  We figure it’s better to be safe then sorry.
  • Bed Bug Dog Inspection – We knew bed bugs were on the rise, but after checking out the statistics in this article I’m thinking about moving Stetson from K9 Nosework training to Bed Bug Sniffer Training.  Seriously, check this out:

Consider that six years ago, there were 537 bedbug complaints and 82 violations (in other words, verified infestations); last year, complaints topped out at nearly 11,000, with 4,084 violations cited (nearly double that of the previous year).

  • Super Tough Dog Toys For Super Tough Dogs – So this one isn’t really a blog post, but Johann puts together some awesome Squidoo lenses and this one on super tough toys for super tough dogs fits our Labs to a “T”.  In fact, I’m not so sure these are super tough enough for my boys.  We’ll have to do some of our own experimentation and report back our findings.  Thanks Johann, Gracie, and Nancy for putting together this awesome lens.
  •  Top 10 Dogs For The Energetically Challenged – I’m sure there are many of you out there who are just looking for a companion to relax on the couch with you and watch football all day Saturday and Sunday.  Well here’s a list of dogs for those who enjoy the couch potato.  One thing I noticed that I found a bit funny was that many of the couch potato breeds have a tendency to be obese…go figure!
  • Five Training Tips For First Time Dog Owners – It can be a bit hectic bringing home that first puppy or dog.  This is a great article giving you five wonderful tips for the first time dog owners.  We always preach tip #1 – Be Consistent.  It is so important to be consistent with your puppy’s training.  If not, they will have a very difficult time learning any command or behavior you try to teach.

That’s a wrap!  I hope you found this weeks Puppy Training Roundup useful.  I’m sure over the coming weeks we may make some changes like add more posts or have fewer posts.

Anyhow, if you’re a dog blogger and you wrote a particularly interesting post this week then please leave me a comment with a link in the comment section below and I’ll definitely check it out.  Who knows, maybe I’ll include the link in next weeks roundup…there’s a thought (thinking outloud again)…if we start getting some great links to blog articles in the comment section maybe I’ll include my favorite link from the comment section from each week in the following weeks Puppy Training Roundup.  We’ll see…maybe a good chance for you guys to get an easy link back to your amazing posts!

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Is It Time To Buy Some Christmas Dog Toys?

December 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Every holiday season we buy Christmas Dog Toys for our friends and family (doggy friends and family).

Of course Stetson, Linus, and this year, Dublin will get great puppy toys and treats from Santa Claus.  We received an email this morning from Amazon.com announcing a 4 for the price of 3 special on some of their doggy toys.  Amazon already has steep discounts compared to our local pet stores.  So, instead of procrastinating and waiting until Christmas Eve to do all my shopping we went ahead and ordered some great dog toys and products through Amazon’s 4 for 3 Special.

Christmas Dog Toys – 4 for the price of 3!

Here are some of the details on the Amazon’s 4 for 3 Special:

  1. Add at least 4 eligible items to your shopping cart
  2. Proceed to Checkout
  3. On the final Checkout page, we will discount the lowest price item.

Here are doggy toy (actually pet supply) section that advertises as 4 for 3 special: Pet Supply 4 for 3 Special.

Amazon is a giant store.  There were 4,161 items in the 4 for 3 specials for pet supplies.  So what special items did I end up buying?

Holiday Toys For The Dogs

I’m not too sure if this is a special offer for the holidays or something Amazon runs on a regular basis, but it’s a great way to get an added discount on already heavily discounted pet toys.  Here are the 4 doggy toys I ended up getting for my boys:

  • Invincibles Plush Snake Dog Toy, 3 Squeakers, Green/Black – This snake claims invincibility, but I think my dogs can prove them wrong.  A couple weekends ago Guide Dog Puppy Baron visited us and brought the Kyjen snake.  Dublin and Baron had many tug of war battles with the toy and it proved fairly durable…however, I don’t think it could stand several weeks of intense battles between Stetson, Linus, and Dublin.

  • Hide-A-Squirrel Pet Toy, Large – In the past we’ve purchased several of the hide-a-toys and our dogs love them.  We even still have a few pieces left from our two year old Ginger Bread House Holiday Dog Toy.  My brother’s German Shepherd mix, Georgie loves his hide-a-toy.  It’s also a bit of a puzzle for the dogs as they learn to extract the squirrels from their plush home.  That actually sounds very familiar to what my dogs do to the stuffing of the majority of their toys.

Hide A Bee Dog Toy

  • Hide-A-Bee Pet Toy, Large – We love the Kyjen Hide-A-Toy’s so much we decided to get the boys a Hide-A-Bee dog toy.  We also noticed on the Amazon.com page that people use the Hide-Bee-Hive to stuff not only the bee’s but doggy treats as well.  It’s a lot of fun for both you and your dog!

Angry Birds Dog Toy

  • Hide-A-Bird Puzzle Plush Intercative Dog Toy, Large – Yep!  We went crazy with the Hide-A-Toys on this Amazon order, but we (the dogs) love playing with them so much.  The Hide-A-Bird dog toy was/is the actual dog toy Georgie loves playing with at my brother’s house.  Every time I think about my dogs playing with this Hide-A-Toy I think of Angry Birds…not sure why I just awesome a bird would be angry after getting thrashed around by a couple dogs.

Those were our four dog toys for the price of three.  Oh yeah, and did I mention that here in California we don’t get charged sales tax on the items we buy from Amazon.com!!!

Anyhow, if you’re interested in the 4 for 3 discount check out this page before you start shopping: Amazon’s 4 for 3 Special.  Then go to this page to see the products advertised as 4 to 3: Pet Supply 4 for 3 Special

Christmas is right around the corner so make sure you don’t miss out and start shopping early for your favorite Christmas Dog Toys.

What do you think?  Have you taken advantage of Amazon’s 4 for 3 Special?

By the way, we include affiliate links in our links back to amazon.com.  When you buy an item from amazon through these links we receive a small commission from amazon.  It helps us pay for the cost of running this website.  Thanks and we appreciate your support.

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Win Dog Toys In Puppy In Training Holiday Contest

December 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Have you been following Dublin’s adventures as a Guide Dog Puppy In Training on our social media channels:

  • Facebook Fanpage – Our mini updates includes some of our favorite links, pictures, short videos, etc.
  • Twitter – Our micro updates of 140 characters or less.
  • Puppy In Training Blog – Regular size updates including puppy training tips, puppy events, puppy product reviews, etc.
  • YouTube – Our Puppy Training Videos including our hit TV series Puppy In Training TV as well as puppy product video reviews, puppy updates, etc.

We’re feeling festive after celebrating Thanksgiving so we decided it would be a great time to run a Puppy In Training Facebook Holiday Contest!

Puppy In Training Facebook Holiday Contest

WOW!!! Some of our Facebook Fans are going to get some AWESOME Doggy Toys!  Here’s what we’re giving aways:

  • FURminator Gift Package
  • AIKOU Dog Toy
  • Holiday Dog Kong Wubba
  • $25 Amazon.com Gift Card

These prizes are going out to not any old Facebook Fans, but our Active Facebook Fans.  Right now we don’t have a ton of fans (as of this writing we have 229 Fans) and even fewer active fans (those who have left comments over the past month).

We Want To Make A Donation To GDA

Our goal is to reach 1,000 Facebook Fans by December 25th 2010 and we can’t do that without your help.  We plan on making a donation to Guide Dogs of America based on the number of fans we have on our Facebook Page.  For every 100 fans we will make a $10 donation.  If we can reach 1000 fans then we’ll make an additional $50 donation.  That means if on Christmas Day we have 1000 Facebook fans then we will make a $150 donation to GDA.  We don’t need to stop there…if for some crazy reason we get over 2000 fans I’ll do the same thing ($10 for every 100 and an additional $50 at 2K).  If for some insane reason we clear 10,000 fans I think I’ll have to cap my donation.  This is money out of my own pocket so hopefully it doesn’t get too out of hand.

That’s what we plan on doing…the more fans you can help us get the more we plan on donating to GDA.

How Do I Win The Doggy Prizes?

Not only do we plan on making a donation to GDA based on our fan support, but we want to give our Active Fans a chance to win some great doggy prizes.

  • Top 3 Most Active Puppy In Training Facebook Fanatics
    #1 Most Active – FURminator Gift Package
    #2 Most Active – AIKOU Dog Toy
    #3 Most Active – Holiday Kong Wubba

We’d like to see you spread the word about this contest and the Puppy In Training Fanpage.  It will be a lot of work, but we plan on using a point system.

Point System Rules – These actions must be taken on status updates between Dec 1st and Dec 25th 2010.  You can add multiple comments per wall post, but we will only count one per wall post.

10 points – “like” a Puppy In Training wall post
20 points – comment on a Puppy In Training wall post
30 points – add a Puppy In Training Fanpage link or repost a wall post on your page or profile
30 points – add a link back to the Puppy In Training Facebook Fanpage from your blog or website (one per blog post entry)

I can track anything that gets posted to our Facebook Fanpage Wall (“likes” and comments), but you’ll have to notify me anytime you perform an action outside the wall (reposts on your profile and blog posts).

Try to make your comments meaningful and add to the conversation of the wall post.  One final note: I will only accept comments that occur within 2 days of the original wall post.  Basically we’d like you to be active, but don’t abuse the system (we will not take kindly to it).

1 Randomly Drawn Active Facebook Fan – If you don’t have the time or energy to actively visit Facebook then just leave us one comment on a post dated between Dec 1st and Dec 25th 2010 and we’ll enter you in a drawing to receive the $25 Amazon.com Gift Card.

The Disclaimers

Unfortunately, we cannot ship any of the prizes outside the continental United States.  If you win one of the non-gift card prizes we’ll email people outside the Continental US an Amazon.com gift card instead (1st – $25, 2nd – $15, 3rd – $10).

We reserve the right to change the rules at anytime.  We do our best to think out these rules, but in the unfortunate case that we find an unfair loophole we may have to make some adjustments.

I hope this all makes sense and if not please leave me a comment in the comment section below or on the Facebook Fanpage. Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Filed Under: Puppy Training Videos Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

5 Tips On How To Save Money On Your Dogs

September 18, 2009 By 1 Comment

It’s a tough economy out there and we’re doing our best to save a little money here and there.  Lucky for us we still have our day job although we did receive a cut in pay a few months back.  So that brings up the question How Can You Save Money On Your Dogs? There are a number of things you and I can both do to help save money on our dogs.  Here are five areas where I try to cut my expenses:

5 Tips On How To Save Money On Your Dogs

Puppy Bath

Photo by jsmjr

  1. Buy your dog food in bulk.  This one is a no brainer for me because I have two large dogs.  However, if your dog only eats a cup of food a day you might be buying the smaller dog food bag.  We buy the large 30 pound bag of Natural Balance Potato and Duck allergy formula because we suspect Stetson has dog food allergies.
  2. Grab your old stuffed dog toys and sew them back together or better yet start making your own dog toys.  We’ve been rebuilding our stuffed ducks, rabbits, and squirrels for years.  More recently I’ve been pondering the idea of making a plush toy snake (built out of a sock) or a stuffed clam made out of an old pair of blue jeans.
  3. Exercise, train, and give your dog plenty of attention.  Make sure you do these things and you won’t have to come home to a chewed up TV remote, piece of furniture, or your favorite baseball cap.  Believe me I’ve witnessed the demise of all these items.
  4. Are you looking for a new dog?  Try dog adoption.  There are so many homeless dogs out there why waste money on buying a dog which can cost up to several thousand dollars.  Adopting a dog is a great thing to do and you can also save money.  When we picked up Linus the adoption fee was only $37.  I just checked the LA County website and the fee to adopt a dog is $50 or $30 depending on how long the dog has been at the shelter.  The fee includes Microchip, rabies, and animal wellness vaccinations!
  5. Stop taking your dog to the groomer and take care of grooming yourself.  After all grooming is a great time to bond with your dog.  A groomer can cost $100 or more for one visit.  Head on over to Amazon.com and purchase the necessary grooming products including a brush, shampoo, nail clippers (or Dremel), etc. A few hints on grooming:

    • Make sure you thoroughly rinse all the soap out of your dogs coat.  I rinse my dog’s coat once until there’s no more soap.  Then I rinse him again for good measure.
    • The FURminator works great at getting to your dogs undercoat.  We highly recommend it for heavy shedding dogs.
    • When it comes to nail clippers I don’t like the Guillotine version as much as the regular clippers.  This pair has worked well for me in the past: Nail Clippers.  Make sure you get the correct size for your dog.
    • Lately we’ve been using a Dremel instead of nail clippers.  We like the Dremel 750-02 Minimite 4.8-Volt Two-Speed Cordless Rotary Tool over the PediPaws Dremel because it has a rechargeable battery, has different speeds, and comes with several sander bands.

Those are just a few simple hints on how you can save money on your dogs.  Hopefully this list helps you during this rough economy.

Do you have any hints on how to save money on your dogs?  If so, please leave us your pointers in the comment section below.

Filed Under: Dog Adoptions Tagged With: , , , , ,

Training Your Dog To Play Nice With Toys

January 6, 2009 By 6 Comments

Train your dog to play with a toy?  I know that sounds absolutely absurd.  However, as I’m learning some toys do require training just as you might have to teach your dog to retrieve a tennis ball or sit on command it may sometimes be important to train your dog to play properly with his new toys.

For those of you who’ve been following along here on the blog you may remember my post about the Ginger Bread House Puzzle Dog Toy.  I thought these would make great Christmas gifts and ordered several Gingerbread House Puzzle Dog Toys from Amazon.com.  I gave one to my parents dog, a 12 pound Cairn Terrier named Ralphie.  Check out the picture below:

Ralphie and Gingerbread House Dog Toy

Doggies Reaction To The Gingerbread House Dog Toy

Ralphie is not the kind of dog who prefers to tear apart and gut his toys unlike some other dogs I know (Linus, Stetson, and Derby).  Ralphie carried the Gingerbread house around a little bit and I showed him how to remove the gingerbread man from the house, but overall I think he was unimpressed.  However, the Gingerbread house and man did make for a good picture with Ralphie :)

The real test was with my three boys.  All three of my dogs love to gut their toys when given the chance.  Linus is the most gentle with his toys, but he still has the tendency to pull the  stuffing from his favorites.

Although I haven’t thoroughly exposed my boys to the Gingerbread house and it’s residents they did get a brief glimpse and some initial training with Ralphie’s Gingerbread house.

  • Linus pretty much ignored it as he often does when around other dogs
  • Stetson grabbed the house and it’s occupants and carried it back and forth around the house, but couldn’t quite get his nose and mouth through the doorway to extract the inner toys.
  • Derby had the most success and grabbed hold of the Gingerbread man and pulled him from his cozy home.

Play time with the Gingerbread house was entirely supervised and I did see Stetson creep towards his bed…Gingerbread house in tote and start gnawing on the ends of the little home.  I’m pretty certain that if left unattended this little Gingerbread home will end up in the pile of torn apart toys.  At this point I think I need to work more on showing Stetson, Linus, and Derby exactly how to extract the Gingerbread man through the front door rather than using the brute force attack and tearing off the roof.  Afterall, pulling the toys out the front door has to be like pulling the stuffing out of a plush dog toy…right?

We’ll see how it goes and I’ll keep you updated on the durability of the Gingerbread House Puzzle Dog Toy.

Did your puppy get a Gingerbread House Puzzle Dog Toy for Christmas?  How’s it holding up?

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Training My Guide Dog

November 7, 2007 By 5 Comments

I’m required to take my Guide Dog, Stetson to at least one (6 week) puppy training class and one (6 week) basic obedience class while he’s with me for the next year and half. So far we’ve attended two (6 week) puppy training classes and are on our third (6 week) basic obedience class. Tammy, our Orange County group leader holds our puppy training classes in Anaheim Hills. Ramona is the Training Director of California Academy of Dog Behavior and she teaches our basic obedience classes. Ramona worked nine years at Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar where she was responsible for helping foster families that took adorable 8 week old pups home to raise to be guide dogs. Needless to say, Ramona knows exactly what to teach us and our Guide Dog puppies in training.

Since I received Stetson last February we’ve been attending training classes once a week every Tuesday. What did we learn in training class yesterday? Well for starters, Ramona had our training area covered with dog toys…our dogs can’t be distracted by dog toy when they’re working as guide dogs. Anytime Stetson went to pick up a toy I had to tell him “No” or “Leave it” and give him a leash correction.

What is a leash correction? From the AllExperts.com website

Trainers who use training collars advise handlers to make the leash/collar correction a quick motion that sharply tightens the training collar about the dog’s neck. Then the handler should immediately release pressure; if the collar was put on correctly, the links should immediately loosen up in response. Otherwise, if the training collar remains tight, the dog won’t be able to distinguish between an intentional correction and the handler simply pulling on the dog’s neck for no reason. The dog will quickly get accustomed to being uncomfortable, rendering the training collar useless (and possibly leading to a hurt neck or throat).

The slip collar is a training collar only. It should be on your dog only when training and under your direct control. If your dog is running free and having a blast being off lead then it shouldn’t be wearing a slip collar. I have seen a dog, wearing a chain slip collar, run and jump through a brush pile. The free ring got caught in a branch effectively hanging the dog. In this instance the owner was close enough to see what had happened and immediately rescued the dog, this is not always the outcome.

Because we all forget from time to time I wanted to add these pictures of the correct and incorrect ways to put on a training collar. Of course this assumes that you heel your dog on your left side.

training collar yes

training collar no

We also worked on greetings. It’s important that when you are with your guide dog you can successfully meet other people with out having reactions from your dog, negative or positive. For instance, Stetson did two things wrong when meeting Ramona. In this scenario Ramona asked if she could say hello to Stetson. I said “Yes, but he must remain seated and calm. If he gets up or does not remain calm then please step back while I correct him. When he has been corrected (back in sitting position and calm) you may come back and pet him.” Stetson’s first reaction was to lunge forward to greet her. That’s a no no…he should sit in position and remain calm. I gave him a lease correction and got him back in a sitting position. The second time Ramona came to Stetson he remained seated, was a little excited but acceptable, the only problem was he started putting his paws on Ramona. This is another unfavorable reaction. He must learn nut to put his paws on someone who is petting him. Stetson did very well with several other greetings, but when he saw another puppy raiser named Setsu he got really excited. It was very difficult just gettting him back in the sit position. I’d have to say Stetson was a failure when greeting Setsu. And why was Stetson so excited to see Setsu? Two weeks ago Stetson spent the weekend with Setsu and Setsu’s guide dog puppy Sachi. I’m not too sure what to do in this situation and will have to talk to Ramona about how to keep Stetson calm when greeting people he knows. By the way, Sachi just went to Guide Dogs of America for her formal training with her littermate Smitty. Good luck to the two of them!

We always work on heeling and usually start the session off with a ten minute walk. Yesterday we worked on heeling, but instead of taking our normal route we walked in straight lines and did “about faces” – basically walking straight then do a 180 degree turn and walk the other direction. This helps the dogs keep their eye on their handler because every “about face” results in a change of direction and if the dog is not paying attention they give themselves a correction (by walking in the wrong direction). After a couple “about faces” Stetson got the hang of it and started paying attention to me.

Finally, we ended the session with “Sit Stays” and “Down Stays.” A “Sit Stay” is basically when you tell your dog to “sit” then tell him to “stay” then move several feet away for anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes (depending on your dogs skill level). Stetson does pretty well with these commands. He stayed in position the entire time during “sit stay.” I think his time was 2 minutes 20 seconds. He got up one time during the “down stay.” I think the time during down stay was 3 minutes 20 seconds.

That was the end of training. I’m a groomsman in a wedding this weekend so Stetson will be staying with another puppy raising family. I’m sure he’ll have a great time with the family and their puppy in training, Dustin.

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