(http://kristenking.com) —The dog owners among you have probably extrapolated that the garage smells like pee because the dogs are morons. It’s been raining for days, and rather than go outside in the yard like good dogs, like the well-mannered dogs they’re supposed to be, one or both of the big dogs has taken to peeing on boxes in the garage, where it is (was!) dry. And tools. And the garbage can. And Jesse’s motorcycles.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to get the smell of dog urine out of concrete, but it’s neither fun nor easy. Concrete, as you know, is porous. Urine, as you also know, is a liquid. Liquid is just excellent at seeping into pores and staying there until it dries, leaving its lovely, lovely aroma behind.

Scrubbing helps, but doesn’t do the job completely. I’ve tried soaking the affected areas with pools of soapy water, bleachy water, vinegary water, straight vinegar, and Nature’s Miracle. Yet, my garage still smells like dog pee, and I’m running out of ideas.

I guess I should be proud, in a way, that the dogs have such superior problem-solving skills. They don’t like getting wet, so they stay inside but not actual inside. It’s good logic, if you’re a dog. I wish I had comparable strategic skills.

Contents Copyright © 2009 Kristen King

(www.meowbarkblog.com) — Murphy may look like a tough cookie at almost 140 lbs and about 30 inches tall at his shoulders. But he’s really a big wuss. (Unless he thinks you’re going to hurt me, in which case he will take you OUT, believe me.) He’s scared of loud noises, cars, any animal bigger than him, strangers, rakes, and umbrellas. Strangely, he loves the leaf blower and tries to wrap his mouth around it every time we use it. But everything else frightens him.

When I had to rush him to the vet last week with his serious tummy rash, we took the car to get inspected afterward. Of course I couldn’t leave him in the car to eat the garage people, so we went for a walk in downtown Fredericksburg to visit our favorite store, Dog Krazy, where Murphy gorged himself on grain-free treats courtesy of Nancy Guinn, the owner.

Murphy was mostly fine once he was in the store (mostly as in, aside from being terrified by the series of small dogs that came in while we were there). On the way there, though, he cowered against me every time a car passed us, and I thought he was going to poop all over himself when a fire truck went by with sirens wailing.

But everything changed when we put on his super-secret magical cape of wonder. We are trying to build Murphy’s confidence so he’s not so fearful, and we thought a backpack might be a good way to do that. Give him a job to do, make him feel important. The moment I put the Outward Hound Dog Excursion Backpack on him in the store, he was a different dog. He stopped leaning on me. He tried to play with Judy, the bulldog puppy that came in, who he’d been scared of and hiding from before I put the pack on him. He wagged his tail at strangers. It was a flipping miracle.

Will this be the key to working through his nervousness? It’s too early to tell for sure, but all signs point to “promising.”

Contents Copyright © 2008 Kristen King

Especially in a multi-pet-species household, the aloof cat often gets overlooked when it comes to playtime. But in an increasingly traffic-heavy world where more and more cats are being confined to the great indoors at all times, play is critical to your cat’s health.

I loved this article from PetStyle.com, which offers some specific ideas for keeping Fluffy physically and psychologically healthy:

Boredom, loneliness, and a lack of challenge can be extremely stressful to cats. The feline by nature is inquisitive, social, and playful, and when their lives become so isolated, without adventures to observe or participate in, and without any trouble to get into or new things in their environment to explore, they can get depressed, and perhaps even feel no sense of purpose to their lives. This of course, can lead them to becoming lethargic and more susceptible to illness.

So, what are the options available for providing more stimulation for your own indoor cat?? The two key words that most feline behaviorists agree upon seem to be: “variety” and “randomness”. Read more >>>

Also worth noting is that there’s a huge body of evidence indicating that cat owners, and pet owners in general, lead longer, healthier lives. Spending time with your cat reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, and provides encouraging companionship. When the cat’s not completely ignoring you, that is…

Tags: meow bark blog, cat advice, feline health, playing with your cat, PetStyle.com

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Things have been crazy around my house lately, as I’m sure you’ve guessed based on my posts from the month of December, but the madness is finally under control. Tomorrow is one month from our Bark Busters appointment, and the dogs have done almost a complete 180.

When David the Dog guy came, we put Pickles and Ty outside and left Murphy in with us. David just talked with us about our wishlist (which filled an entire notebook page and included such items as, "No more fighting, No more treat aggression, Come when called, No means no, etc…") and observed Murphy’s defiant behavior before getting into it.

When we started working on the techniques, Murphy responded immediately. We did an exercise to teach him not to charge the front door, and when he got the stop cue Murphy hit the brakes so hard that his butt slid around and he fell flat on his face. It was like he stood on the brake pedal at 70 miles per hour. "Wow," David said, "He got that really fast. That’s exactly what we want. Well, except for falling down. But that was good."

Every exercise we did, Murphy figured it out on the first try. He was a model student. Pickles and Ty, however, we somewhat more of a challenge. Ty just kind of stared at us, and Pickles was scared of the noisemaker we used to get the dogs’ attention when they wouldn’t listen or disobeyed a command, so every time we used it, she hid under something. (We’ve been assured that that’s normal, especially since she’s the dog who, despite being the smallest, actually had the most numerous dominance issues. She was sulking.)

Now, after a month of practicing commands and leadership and new boundaries and rules, we have 3 completely different dogs. We’ve had only two incidents with Murphy attacking Ty, both minor and quick to break up, and all three dogs are now back to sleeping in our room. The three and a half weeks we kept them separated were the worst three and a half weeks of my adult life. Pickles, who hadn’t been a night out of my bed since we brought her home except for two short vacations, had to sleep in the guest room with Ty, who never did anything wrong in the first place. I cried almost every night when I closed them in there, and Jesse and I started affectionately referring to Murphy as "the life-ruiner."

But we all stuck it out, and it’s been worth it. There’s still a lot of work to do, but now at least we have some tools to help us, and an expert resource to call on whenever we have a problem.

My verdict? Hiring Bark Busters was the best thing I have ever done for my animals, and the best money I have spent in a long time. If you’re willing to put your dog’s needs first and make changes in your behavior, I think it’s 100% worthwhile. But if you don’t want to put in the work, you’ll be wasting your time and your money.

Have you used Bark Busters? Share your experience (and, please, your location, so others in your area have a sense of the Bark Busters contingency in your region). Leave a comment.

Tags: meow bark blog, bullmastiff, english mastiff, pug, bark busters, dog training, dog fighting, pet advice

The dogs are now going at it almost every day, with Murphy instigating every time, and I can’t take it anymore! We called Bark Busters about 2 weeks ago and are in the midst of checking references for our local BarkBusters pro, but after this morning, I don’t even care anymore. I need help NOW.

It’s gotten so that almost every mealtime is a fight, every toy is a fight, every treat is a fight. Murphy is NOT a mean dog, so I just don’t understand what is happening to him! It’s at the point that I am just resigned to needing stitches in the near future because I have to break them up so frequently. I have started wearing a referee’s whistle around my neck to blow when they start going at it, because that startles Murphy enough that he pauses momentarily and I can get between them and pull him out.

I called “Dave” the dog guy today and left what I feel is an embarassingly desperate plea for his first available appointment in January. Cost be damned, I will not live like this anymore, and putting this dog down or giving him away is not an option. I know it can be fixed — I just don’t know how to do it.

And I still can’t understand how sometimes, like in this picture, they can be the best of friends and the others Murphy is intent on ripping Ty’s face off. It makes no sense. I’m at a loss.

Ever since we got back from our trip to Florida, Murphy, sweet-natured, submissive Murphy, has been, for lack of a better term, a total jerk. I don’t know if it’s the stress of our traveling a lot in November, if we’re doing something to make him aggressive, or if he’s just going through some adolescent rebellion or something, but it’s getting old fast.

Last weekend, he attacked Ty. He has been extremely food aggressive and keeps running over during mealtimes and knocking Ty out of the way to eat his food. Yesterday when I tried to drag him away, he made two snarling attempts to bite me. And that, as far as I’m concerned, is completely unacceptable. I put him down and made him submit, a la Cesar Milan, but he still kept lunging at me.

After the fight on Saturday, I’ve been a little nervous, and I’m sure that’s making it worse. But yesterday I wasn’t scared — I was pissed. And then he did the same thing again when a friend stopped by, jumping at the door like he was going to go through it. When I pulled him back, he snapped at me again and I finally just put him in the bathroom until she left because I couldn’t handle it. I know that’s bad, but I didn’t know what else to do!

I think we’re going to have to bring in the Bark Busters, because he is already way too big to be an aggressive dog, and if this keeps up when he’s full grown, I can see someone wanting us to put him down, like if he goes after someone else’s dog the same way he went after Ty.

Has your dog had aggression problems? How did you handle it? Leave a comment.

I don’t know where Julius picked up this habit, but he seems to be totally hooked on Q-Tips. And I don’t mean just any generic cotton swab, though I’m sure he’d love those, too, but the real Q-Tips, which cost twice as much as the other brands. Granted it’s a minor expense, but when Julius pulls several dozen a day out of the container and strews them around the bathroom so they’re unusable, the cost per unit increases rather dramatically.

Jesse pointed out that Isabel used to do this, but I have no memory of that… What weird habits does your cat have? Leave a comment!

Pickles just waltzed up to me with a big, empty Ziploc bag. Not a big deal, except that the bag previously contained bones from the fried chicken I ate for dinner. A speedy investigation revealed that Ty opened the trashcan, removed the bag of bones, ate them, and gave Pickles the bag to lick.

Enter panic! I called Ty’s foster mom who had him before we adopted him. She used to be a vet tech, and she’s my after-hours emergency vet every time the dogs do something stupid and I don’t know if it will kill them or not. “Oh, don’t worry,” she drawled, “my mastiff Duke ate a whole Cornish hen one time and he was fine.”

Apparently the dog whose stomach and intestines are ripped by by splintered chicken bones is actually pretty few and far between. My official instructions are to keep an eye on him and see if he acts weird or throws up. If he throws up once, it’s probably from the greasy fried-ness. If he throws up multiple times, something is wrong. He will poop the bones out, so I’m supposed to watch for bones and blood in his stool. A little blood is no big deal — probably just a scratch –  but a lot could be a puncture. And if he doesn’t poop at all, he might be plugged up and need to have them removed.

Let’s hope for no vomit, no blood, and smooth, natural removal of the bones.

Now, to find a new home for the trash can…

Every time we go to the dog park, the other pet moms and dads are blown away by how friendly, nonaggressive, and well socialized Pickles, Ty, and Murphy are. “They listen to you so well!” “They’re so big, but they’re so calm!” “How do you make them listen like that?”

The answer? I expect them to do what I tell them do. I don’t beg them, bribe them, or plead with them. When I want them to sit, I tell them to sit and then I make they do it. It’s called follow-through, and it’s the cornerstone of good parenting, whether for kids or for animals.

One couple at the park this last time had a Yorkie who, in addition to trying to hump Pickles incessantly the whole 2 hours we were there, terrorized and started fights with all of the other dogs, including two crazy, uncontrolled, unaltered male boxers who I could tell were just itching to rip him to pieces. Every time the Yorkie went after another dog, the owner would pick him up by the scruff of the neck, cuddle him, and say in a baby voice, “You’re such a bad widdle doddie, awen’t ooo?” Gee, no wonder it kept misbehaving — they were rewarding it for being a monster!

I couldn’t take it anymore, so the last time the commented on how well-behaved Ty was in particular, I said, “That’s because I punish him when he does something bad, so he knows I mean it when I say no. I put him down and make him submit when he disobeys. It’s the only way to make them listen to you. You have to mean it.”

They were skeptical, so I led Ty over and made him submit in front of all of the other dogs. Then I did it to Pickles. Then, I helped them do it to their little Satan Dog, and I swear to you, it worked.

Why people are baffled when their dogs keep doing things they get rewarded for is beyond me. If you don’t want your dog to do a behavior, stop rewarding him for it! And then YOU can have the best-behaved dogs in the dog park.

Do you have any fun dog park stories? E-mail them to me!

Ordinarily, we don’t give our dogs any people food, except what falls from the counter while we’re cooking, for instance, but only if we’re slow on the pick-up. But today, we made an exception. Today, we let them lick the serving dish that held all of the turkey, and we poured the leftover gravy over their regular dry food.

The two main reasons we generally don’t do this are (1) that we don’t want them to get fat and (2) that we don’t want them to be beggars. My mom’s dog is a begging FIEND who will not leave you alone while you’re eating, and he’s gotten table scraps from day one. He’s so aggressive about it that he’ll actually nose your arm while you’re eating until something falls of your fork. He even jumped on the counter and ate a stick of butter once. And he’s no small dog — about 80 lbs in his heyday.

But every now and then, it’s not going to hurt to give a LITTLE extra goodie if you limit the amount and put it in the dog’s bowl (or at least on the floor) rather than feeding it from the table. And if it means less work for you, or if you’re out of Tupperware and just can’t store the food but can’t bear the thought of just throwing it away, it can be fun for everyone.

Do you give your dog people food?