I love this commercial. Love it! Right now, at Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue, there’s a Schnauzer mix up for adoption that looks like a smaller version of the dog in this commercial. Hi name is Tyler and he’s an absolute sweetheart!
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Posted in Adoptables, Dogs, General, Videos
Things are going well with Stevie. So well, in fact, that we often forget that he’s blind. He hasn’t run into anything in quite a few days and he plays like every other puppy I know. He and Toby are buddies – even though Toby runs to higher ground when Stevie becomes relentless in play (he likes to jump up onto the couch and sit next to us, all while pawing at Stevie’s head). We do, however, have two issues:
1. House training – Stevie has grasped piddling outside, but pooping remains a mystery. He hasn’t made the connection. He doesn’t give any cues either. He poops randomly and in no one particular place. So, intensive house training continues. Any recommendations are welcome and very much appreciated!
2. Bad breath. Stevie’s breath is horrible! We’ve switched his food to the same organic dog food that Toby eats and he’s loving it. He gets his daily DentaStix. Yet, he’s stinky. No sweet puppy breath here. The vet has checked him out, said his teeth look great, and believes that it will correct itself now that his diet has changed and we’re providing dental care. I sure hope so because his breath can wrinkle your nose.
So, that’s about all in terms of issues. We’re fortunate and, like I keep saying, blessed. We’ve been rescued by two dogs now. Two dogs that have wonderful lessons to teach us.
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Posted in Adoptables, Animal Issues, Behavior, Blindness, Dogs, Health
Tagged bad breath, DentaStix, Dog food, house training, poop, West Highland White Terrier
Stevie has been with us now since Monday and I’m so amazed at his progress. His blindness hasn’t held him back one bit. He had the whole house mapped out by the end of the day on Tuesday and now he confidently makes his way from room to room. He was even chasing Toby around the living room at full speed this afternoon. He’s been sleeping soundly from about 11:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. since Tuesday night and he’s getting the house training thing down as well. He runs confidently around the yard and enjoys laying in the grass. He relies quite a bit on Toby for guidance and Toby willingly obliges.
Toby was tentative with Stevie at first – very gentle in his play. But
now he gets right in there and he and Stevie wrestle around like they’ve been doing it all their lives. The first couple of days Toby would crouch down in front of Stevie to engage him in play. Of course, Stevie wouldn’t respond because he couldn’t see him. Now, Toby comes up and taps Stevie on the head with his paw until Stevie jumps up and then they’re off and running. Toby was also surprised at Stevie’s boldness with toys. If Toby has something Stevie wants, Stevie just takes it. At first, Toby would just sit and bark at him. Now, he goes right in and takes the toy back. It makes for quite a bit of humor.
I’m also amazed at how well the rest of us have adapted to Stevie. It feels as if he’s been here all along. The transition has been exceptionally smooth for everyone. That’s how we know it’s right. He belongs with us and we belong with him.
There’s a dog lover’s saying that goes “Blind Dogs See with Their Hearts.” In our case, our hearts were captured by a blind and partially deaf West Highland White Terrier Poodle mix named Stevie who was living at Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue. I posted a while back about Stevie and since that time, my family and I have fallen head over heals in love with him. That being said, we officially adopted Stevie and will be bringing him home tomorrow!
We’ve been educating ourselves about the precautions we need to take to prepare our home for his safety and we’re good to go. We’ve put a baby gate at the top of the stairs, raised all exposed cords, created a ‘safe spot’ for him and even put a low fence in an area of the yard that will give him a frame of reference when he’s doing his business outside. We’ve hung jingle bells by the front door so he can tell when we open it, and we’ve hung a small bell on Toby’s collar so Stevie can hear him coming. He’s been added to our pet insurance, a vet visit has been scheduled and we’ve booked our first grooming appointment (our groomer has a blind dog as well). He’s got his own bed set up, a new set of toys and treats, a smart little collar, a tag telling others that he’s blind and a comfy harness for walks. We even bought a classical music CD to play for him at night because that’s what he’s used to hearing at the shelter.
I’ve joined several online groups for owners of blind dogs, downloaded multiple articles, bought several books and talked to everyone I know that has any experience with blind dogs.
We’re so excited to have Stevie as a member of our family. He is a very special little dog with a huge heart and a lot of love to give. And we have a ton of love waiting for him. I know he has quite a bit to teach us and we’re so blessed to have found him.
Soon you’ll be reading much more about Stevie, Toby and all of our wonderful adventures together!
Posted in Adoptables, Behavior, Blindness, Dogs, General, Health, Pet Care
Tagged Bichon, Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue, blind, blind dog, classical music, deaf, dog, Poodle, West Highland White Terrier
I have a poop problem – not me personally, and definitely not my dog. My problem is this – I live in a subdivision where some people don’t feel the need to clean up after their dogs. I consider myself a responsible dog owner. We bring clean up bags with us on walks and scoop up any mess our dog makes. But I’m starting to think we may be one of the few families that actually does this.
Here’s the deal. We have a lot of kids and a lot of dogs in this neighborhood. Together, it makes for a fun and family focused place to live. But when you are playing outside with your kids and they step into a pile of some dog’s poop and it ends up in your yard and, eventually, on your carpet, the warm, fuzzy feeling is gone.
Something else to consider, besides the mess, dog feces transmits disease, contaminates drinking water and makes our neighborhood look unkempt to visitors or potential homebuyers. It’s not healthy for our kids and our pets to be exposed to the waste of other animals.
As a fun fact, in Toulouse, France, where they have similar problems with poop clean up, the city council has equipped local police, street cleaners and animal control officers with internet-enabled PDAs so that when they come across a dog mess, they can take a geo-tagged photo and send it to the appropriate city agency that then sends out a clean up crew. It’s estimated that there are approximately 455,000 scoopfuls of abandoned poop piles on the streets of Toulouse at any given time. I think it’s safe to say that we don’t want that kind of problem.
I’m hoping, as our subdivision develops and a Homeowner’s Association is established, that guidelines are put in place that mandate the clean up of pets. I love our neighborhood, but I don’t love cleaning up, or stepping in, the messes of other dogs. I’ve got my hands full cleaning up after my own.
Cleaning up after our pets is just proper petiquette!
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Posted in Animal Issues, Dogs, General, Health, Pet Care
Tagged Cleanliness, dog, dog poop, dog waste, Feces
Today was a great day. I normally don’t volunteer at the shelter on Sundays, but they needed someone to do warm compresses on a couple of the dogs that had surgery. It was just me with more than 15 dogs and I loved every minute of it.
After doing a little bit of clean up and saying hello to all of the dogs, I took Cupid, a super sweet Shih Tzu mix, onto my lap for her warm compresses. She settled in quick and dozed while I held her. The shelter’s radio was playing classical music and all of the dogs were quiet. It was so peaceful. Next came Mickey, a Bichon Frise. He sat on my lap for a few minutes, but was anxious with the other dogs close by so I brought him back to his crate and finished the compresses there. He was relaxed even though he still has some pain from his surgery.
After that was done, I spent some time with Stella. The special, one-eyed Silky Terrier that I mentioned a few posts back. She was excited to see me and we cuddled on the couch for a little while. All she wanted was some tummy rubs and a few good scratches behind her ears.
After a couple of hours, I headed out. The drive home was quiet as well. I haven’t been that relaxed in a long time. I’ll have to plan more visits on Sundays – it’s the perfect way to end a week.
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Posted in Adoptables, Animal Shelters, Dogs, General
Tagged Bichon Frise, dog, Shih Tzu, Silky Terrier, Sundays
Well, Toby is now supposed to be wearing an e-collar – or as we call it, the cone of shame. He has a skin infection on the inside flaps of his ears. He’s been rubbing them on the ground and itching them. Poor thing. So, now he’s on antibiotics, a skin ointment and he has to wear the dreaded cone of shame. When we put it on him, he just lowers his head to the ground and doesn’t move. It’s going to take some getting used to. I feel bad for him, but he should be okay in a couple of weeks.
I’m always so proud of him when we go to the vet. The staff loves him and he behaves so well. They took blood (heartworm check), poked around in his ears and he didn’t even flinch. He wagged his tail, licked the vet and took treats happily.
Good boy, Toby!
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Posted in Dogs
Hearts for Paws 