Taking Risks in the Outdoors

Recently I saw a picture on facebook of a dog in a Ruffwear climbing harness doing some serious mountain climbing.  Ropes and all.  My first thought seeing this picture was how cool!  In fact it still is.  Based on the reactions of the comment section of that picture it was in fact not the reaction of others.  People called it animal abuse, cruel and dangerous.  After some googling I learned the dog's name is Whisper and you can check out more info and some really cool pictures on her owner Dean S. Potter's instagram here.

I get a little defensive about this because I am someone who regularly is criticized for the activities I choose to do with my dog.  Maybe it is because I have a small dog, but we are often stopped on trails and told how cruel it is to take a chihuahua out into the wilderness.  People thought that backpacking is too much for her too.

In fact some people in the toy dog community think it is too dangerous to ever let a dog on the ground outside because they could be taken by a bird of prey or attacked by a bigger dog.  I have met multiple people IN PERSON whose little dogs never leave their house.  They potty inside, they live inside and that is it.  Do I judge the shit out of those people?  Yes.  Do I think many of their dogs are simply miserable and neurotic for being stuck inside all the time?  For sure.  In the end though I am perfectly ok with these people owning dogs.  Caring, loving and doing the best you can is what matters when it comes to owning a dog.  Those little ones that never see the outdoors are probably happier than many dogs that are chained up, ignored or otherwise actually abused.

Then there are the people on the other end of the spectrum.  The people like the owner of that mountain climber.  Their dogs go everywhere with them, get to sniff and hike and see the outdoors.  They have the sun on their back and their people at their side.  The main argument people seemed to have against this climbing dog was that she didn't get to choose to take the risk.  It is ok for people to do risky activity but not dogs, because they have no choice in the matter.  Well a few thing there-

• We made dogs.  Dogs exist because we bred them.  Huskies want to pull because we bred them to want it, chihuahuas want to cuddle because we bred them to serve as hot water bottles for us.  Collies want to herd because we needed them to move our food animals and pointers want to point because we wanted help spotting game birds.  They don't just wake up one morning thinking "geeze I really want to dedicate my life to the human race."  They.  Just.  Do.  We took their choice out of the equation when we domesticated them.  
• Dog's do not exist autonomously to people.  Except for the very rare occasion of a feral dog or a street dog they are totally reliant on people in every way.  They don't make any decisions about their healthcare, food, or even about their friends.  Even when dogs are given choice (and I do think that is imporntant) we are deciding that this is something we are going to let them choose about!  If my dogs had a choice in the matter one would eat all day then die of bloat and the other one would collect every person she ever met and glob them into one pack that never separated and all slept together in a cave with her eating nothing but pork.  If you believe that domestic animals should not exist (I'm looking at you PETA) then ok.  Valid argument, I can handle that even though I don't agree with you.  If you are however a person that ever takes your dog for a car ride then how can you say anything about choice?  Does your dog know how many roadway deaths there were in your state this year?  Do they weigh the pros and cons of a harness vs a crate vs just being free in the car then decide the method that they think is the safest?  I don't think so.

That pretty much sums up what I feel about that subject.  Then I saw another picture of the same dog, Whisper, BASE jumping.  You can see a picture of her and read about her owners rationale on that here- http://deanspotter.com/2014/05/23/when-dogs-fly-philosophy-history-and-safety/

Seeing that made me have a lot of complicated feelings.  BASE jumping is not an activity that I have a lot of respect for.  I personally have never met a BASE jumper that I felt was an emotionally stable person (they may be out there but not that I've met).  It is a dangerous sport- so dangerous that people tend to say it is not "if" you die but "when."  There are very few activities that I would put the foot down and stop my husband from doing but that is for sure one of them.  To me it is right up there with  those preachers that handle venomous snakes.  I don't care what BASE jumpers say- people who are BASE jumping are doing it knowing that no matter how careful they are they might die.  You can read this study where they find the fatality rate of BASE jumping is approximately one in sixty participants.  That is part of the rush, if they didn't have at least a tiny death wish they would be skydiving or climbing or white water rafting or any other of hundreds of outdoor adrenaline junkie sports that are not as death wish-ey.  Those may be my feelings but I am for sure not going to stop anyone from doing it as long as they are an adult and their insurance pays for the search and rescue.

I can just hear people reading this thinking I am some sort of couch sitting outdoor hating person who "just doesn't understand."  I guess I can't really prove to the internet that is not true except to say that I just made a holster for my bear spray and I travel in circles where the pros/cons of BASE jumping is something that actually gets discussed.

But we still have the idea of that DOG jumping.  It bothers me a lot.  I would not do it.  Why can't he just leave her with a friend at the bottom of the mountain?  Hire a dog walker?  His rationale of either with me or locked in a car he gives in his article is nonsensical to me.  You could arrange for an activity for her while you base jump for sure.  HOWEVER- after thinking on it- I say good for her owner Dean.  That dog loves them and loves the outdoors and as he said in his article she would rather be out base jumping with them than stuck at home.  In the event that she goes splat on the wall of a canyon with her owner it would be unfortunate.  Thing is that dog has a better life than so many others out there and she would go down with her best friend doing something that she obviously loves to do (even if it is just because her owner loves it).  Above all else I believe in personal choice, leaving risk assessment up to individuals and enjoying life- not living in a padded room.  I can not very well in one breath defend taking a chihuahua camping in rattlesnake territory because "what kind of life would she have locked inside away from all danger" then tell another person that they can't base jump.

I just had to get out my opinions on this one.  Please share yours- I really want to know what people think about this!

Pet Naturals Hip + Joint Review and Offer

When I was contacted by Pet Naturals about doing a review of their joint supplement Hip + Joint I was very excited.  It could not have come at a better time!  I actually was looking into getting that exact product to use for Copley.  He has been on some sort of glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM for several years now and it has been really helping him.  He does not have terrible joints, but his hips are not great and he does see a chiropractor because of poor posture.  Occasionally when he over does it his knees bother him as well, and a good joint supplement has really helped him out.  For the past 6 months or so I have been using three different individual supplements (one each for the chondroitin, MSM and glucosamine).  They are marketed at humans so I open up the gell caps and split them into his meals.  That was working ok for us except that we are traveling a lot this summer both with and without the dogs.  Splitting up pills is both complicated for our dog sitter and cumbersome on the road.  I am already doing so much with carrying raw food and preparing individual servings for dog sitters I wanted a simple supplement.  After some research I settled on Pet Naturals Hip + Joint for a few reasons-

• It is one chewable for Copley.  Nothing to break up or count or mess with, just hand it to him with his dinner.  He also loves it so that's a plus.
• It has all three things I am looking for (MSM, chondroitin and glucosamine) in good amounts!  It is very hard to find a single chewable that has all three of those in high enough doses to be effective.  One of these chewables is nearly exactly the dosage I was measuring out myself, unlike many supplements that have a lot of one supplement, or no MSM.
• It is not so expensive that I feel like I need a second job to pay for it!
• It includes Manganese.  I have had a lot of luck with Nova using a manganese supplement from her vet for her LP.  I like including it in Copley's diet too.

In conclusion I love this stuff!  Copley has been on it for a few days now and it is working just great.  I plan to stick with Pet Naturals Hip + Joint even after summer traveling season is over.  It is giving me everything I need and is super convenient.

The folks over at Pet Naturals are also offering a great offer to my readers!  The first 100 people who visit www.petnaturals.com/hipandjoint-offer/ get a FREE BAG of Hip + Joint AND a valuable coupon.  After the first 100 people you will still get a coupon, just no free bag.

P.S.-  If you are looking for a good calming supplement I have used and had luck with Pet Naturals Calming chews.  I am a big believer in L-theanine since my vet recommended trying it and Nova responds very well to it.

I was given a free product to use myself in exchange for my honest review.  As always my opinions are my own and I am always honest with my readers, particularly when it comes to things going INSIDE my dogs.  I would never recommend something I don't trust completely with my own animals.

Nova is Amazing

Last night for the first time Nova ran to the door, scratched at it, ran towards me to make sure I saw, waited at the door while I opened it and then barked when she wanted back in.  ALL BY HERSELF.  No Kerri, no Copley, just a Nova wanting to go outside.  She saw a cockroach on the patio and wanted to eat it.

To you this may not seem like a big deal.  For Nova this is a momentous occasion.  So exciting that I have dropped what I am doing to blog about it.

Nova is only housetrained because she goes out with the other dogs and has a DoggieLawn in the house for when she can't wait till someone else has to go out.  I let her out sometimes when I have the inkling that she wants to go, and if I open the door and call her over she will run outside if another dog goes with her and she has to pee.  I have never pushed this issue with her because this is actually not a housetraining problem, it is rooted in a much much bigger Nova issue.  She will not take any action that she believes will cause a person to stand up.  Even when she initiates play with me she does it in a way that she is sure will not cause me to stand up and move around.  If I do she puts her ears back, tail down and crawls into a corner or crate.

She scratched at the door- knowing I would get up.  Happily waited for me to do so then she barked to come back inside- knowing I would get up to let her in.  My mind is totally blown, this is one area that I thought was never going to change and then she goes and proves me wrong again.

I have no idea why tonight was the night she decided to take this leap, however like all things Nova it appears to be the new norm.  It is like she waits until she is ready to do something all the way before she does it at all, because she asked to go out again this morning, once again like it was no big deal.  I have responded by not making a big deal out of it but inside I am jumping for joy every time she trots over there.

Finally I have to share what Ben said about this.  "Are you sure it wasn't actually Kerri?"  I am sure, because she did it again.

Chihuahua- Pigeon Hunter

WARNING:  We did all we could but this story does not end well for the pigeon.  So pigeon enthusiasts might not want to read.  Everyone else think a good thought for our little friend that hopefully is flying free in pigeon heaven.

I woke up yesterday really early because Ben left early and it woke up Copley. He needed to go out so I drowsily put on a robe, woke up the chis and opened the back door. I just want you to imagine me, contacts still fuzzy, sleepy, stumbling out the back door 3 hours before my typical wake-up time. Suddenly I hear flapping and screeching and look down to see Copley trying to play with a pigeon on the porch. As I am trying to usher the action away from the door and get Copley away from it out of nowhere a chihuahua (still not sure what one but I think it was Kerri) grabs the pigeon and runs into the house with it. This all happened in less than 5 seconds. Barely awake to pigeon in the house is not the way to start your morning.  

So I call Copley over and put him in a down stay.  That I think deserves a little attention, because my dog down stayed with a pigeon freaking out in the living room.  Can I win an award for that? Copley has a great trait where the higher value the item he wants the more willing he is to listen to me.  I somehow managed to convince that dog that in every area of life he is likely to get what he wants by listening to me.  His willingness to accept that truth I am eternally grateful for.

At this point Kerri has the pigeon and Nova is going for the vital parts.  It was like a pack of wolves, tiny, tiny wolves who had no idea what they are doing.  The pigeon gets free and I grab Kerri by the scruff. I'm yelling at the pigeon because I am not really thinking straight and then Nova comes out with her best home defense posture and starts going for the pigeon again.  So I have Kerri by the scruff and Copley is like teetering on the edge of what he can handle in this down stay and Nova is trying to eat it and I finally get a hold of Nova the pigeon titers on it's feet, the thing is not in good shape and takes a moment to right it's self then it calmly walks out the door that I then manage to close. 

First order of business is I empty a treat jar into Copley's mouth because seriously that was like the best down stay I have ever seen in my life.  Hopefully my sheer joy and every treat on the counter made Copley's patience worth it.  If only the chihuahuas would behave like that.

Copley still has to pee and I am still delusional that the pigeon just needs to recover and fly away.  So I send the chihuahuas to the DoggieLawn, because they are not going out there with that pigeon and I put Copley on a leash to pee/scare the pigeon away.  Outside we go and there is the pigeon, looking a little iffy and wandering around the yard.  Copley pees, whines at the pigeon and then I take him inside.  Pigeon can't fly, it is not leaving the yard.  The problem I realize is that the neighbor a ways down is poisoning pigeons.  I have lived in this house for over 4 years, surrounded by pigeons and not once has one let a chihuahua catch it or come close to coming inside the house.  Occasionally one will hit the window and hang out in the yard for a few hours recovering, but they always squawk at the chis to scare them away, or fly off when they come over and they always leave eventually.  I am beginning to suspect that this pigeon has been poisoned.  I call a friend I have who raises baby pigeons every so often and they tell me that it was probably poisoned and there is nothing they can do to help me.

Pigeon is no longer with us.

Moral of the story here- don't poison pigeons!  It just thins the population and they breed more to get the numbers back up anyway.  There are services that will trap them all and put up spikes and other deterrent and guarantee no pigeons on your roof for like 5 years.  Poison just litters the neighborhood with dead/dieing birds and in the end doesn't really do anything at all.  Our walks have turned into dead pigeon spotting adventures, it is gross.

Backpacking Chihuahua!

Kerrigan went on her first overnight backpack about a week ago!  Overall I think she had a good time, although I was not there so I am getting all of this second hand.  Ben and a friend took her to summit a mountain in the desert near Searchlight, NV.  The main complaint I heard about Kerri was that she was slow moving.  Since there was no trail she had to navigate through all the small brush that the people were just stepping over and that took her a while.  The other issue is that no one makes actual boots for small dogs so they had to stop a few times to remove little spines from her paws, a problem that would have been totally fixed by something like Ruffwear Grip Trex Boots in a tiny, tiny size.  Sadly there is no good outdoor gear for tiny dogs so we have to pick her up from now on when there are spiny areas.

Another challenge was that we usually use Zukes Power Bones as trail snacks, but now they are owned by Purina and I don't give Purina money, nor trust them with the health of any member of my family.  So instead I sent her with boiled chicken hearts with honey and coconut oil as an energy snack and it seemed to work out great!  Not sure if it will be a permanent solution or not, I will have to see how it holds up on longer trips.

Getting ready to leave

I was a little worried about this trip, but in the end I do think Kerrigan had a good time even if she slowed the people down a little bit.  Just goes to show chihuahuas really can do anything bigger dogs can!

About to head out.  Also I am in love with that truck.  It is an International Scout and I want one really, really bad.

Kerri helping with breakfast

On a final note KERRI has joined twitter @doginthedesert  I am too long winded for twitter so I am letting Kerrigan take care of the account.  You should follow her if you want- but be warned, she is telling it like it is and might get political, so follow at your own risk.

DoggieLawn Product Review

I want to start this review out by saying that I never thought I would have a dog that was "pad trained" fake grass trained or in any other way trained to go inside my house.  No matter how small the dog was the very idea of it just seemed disgusting to me.  In fact I thought people who had their dogs trained to go inside were just plain crazy.  Copley was of course trained to go outside and Kerrigan was trained to go outside from the time she was a puppy.  It was not until I got Nova that I decided we needed to find an indoor solution (and started to realize a lot of people have perfectly good reasons for needing an indoor potty solution).  It was at the time not going to be a permanent fix but she needed a place to go when she was not yet willing to go outside.  So I put pee pads in her pen.  For a variety of reasons a year later still have pee pads in my house.  Nova only uses the pads once a day, if that.  Kerri will now use the pads if we are gone for a while but overall they are occasional use products.  We tried taking them away but then Nova would totally un-housetrain herself and the only thing worse than pee on pads that I have to pick up is pee somewhere else in my house.

When I was contacted by the folks at DoggieLawn about doing a review I was intrigued and interested in trying the product but I did not at all expect to love it as much as I did.  In fact I plan to subscribe to DoggieLawn myself at the end of the month when my grass is worn out.  The stuff is AMAZING!  Take it from a skeptic, this stuff is the best solution I've ever seen if you need your dog to do it's business inside the house.  Me and Mr.DogInTheDesert were both skeptical going into it but the grass just keeps coming through for us at every turn.

First of all it is real grass.  Just like the stuff you have in your backyard, except that it is grown hydroponically so there is no dirt.  Because it is a real plant you do have to water it.  I was a little skeptical about that.  Won't watering peed on grass make the room smell like pee?  Well I am pleasantly surprised that the stuff does not smell!  I got the petite size (it is the size that is available starting at $29 monthly depending on how often you want it) and with occasional use over two weeks you can't even tell its been used.  I can't smell anything at all in the way of dog pee.  We did have one "incident" where Nova had a slightly runny poop and even after picking it up there was some *stuff* left on the grass.  I was pretty bummed out about that because it seemed like the whole thigh would be kinda ruined by one only slightly iffy poop.  Then it occurred to me to try to rinse off the grass.  I took it out of the box, put it in the backyard and hosed it off.

As you can see it held up perfectly.  I let it dry out a little bit for a few hours, put it back in the box and replaced it in the potty corner in the dog room and it has been great since.  This is certainly not the intended use of the DoggieLawn but it does prove even clean freaks like me can use the DoggieLawn.

I think the best feature about DoggieLawn is actually the free training help they provide!  Once you subscribe you can call and schedule a time to speak to a trainer that can help you out with any issues you are having AS MANY TIMES AS YOU NEED!  That's right- they have a trainer available that will listen to your specific situation and help you get on the right track.  Just that would be worth the subscription fee!  My dogs did not need any help, I just replaced the pee pads with the grass and they went right for it, but I did talk with one of the trainers and they seemed friendly, knowledgeable and their methods of housebreaking get my stamp of approval.

In conclusion DoggieLawn is great!  Two other great uses I wanted to mention are potty training a puppy.  If you plan to have the dog go outside only, but they are still to young/unvaccinated to use your outside grass DoggieLawn would be a great alternative to pee pads because you are actually teaching the dog to go on real grass!  Seems perfect to me.  Also if you live in an apartment and want a solution that can be put on your balcony or porch DoggieLawn would be great.  Of course it also would work great for people like me who are pee pad users (or as I am now going to say used to be pee pad users before I found DoggieLawn)!

*I was given a free patch of DoggieLawn for this review but my opinions are all my own.

A Nova Update

"I am blossoming into a beautiful flower, and using your plants as beds."

The other night I was at a fundraiser for one of my favorite local organizations Incred-A-Bull and I ran into a lot of people who I had not seen in a while and asked how Nova was doing.  Actually most of them asked about "tire store chihuahua" as she is more commonly known.  If you are a new reader you might want to check out some of my old posts about Nova, but to sum it all up she was a totally feral dog living behind a tire store until she was trapped and I got her.  It is hard to really say how she is doing in a few words of casual conversation, but what I came up with is this.  

"She is very comfortable around the house, very smart and she has taught me a lot."

All that is true, but it is so much more complicated than that.  Nova has come so far in the last year that I can barely believe it but many things are still a big challenge for her.  She has brought challenges to me as a trainer that I had never seen before and more than that she opened my mind to a lot of new ways of doing thing, and proved that what I before would have said "works every time if you do it right" I now realize is just a great place to start.  If nothing else at least every dog that enters my life from this time forward will benefit from the things I learned from Nova and the partnership we have (it truly is a partnership) in navigating the scarey world.

As far as day to day life, Nova is nearly a normal dog around the house with only a few accommodations.  She is potty trained 100% but because she will not ask Ben to open the door we have pee pads inside that she uses if he is the only one home.  She participates in barking that Kerrigan starts, but she is not an excessive barker at the outside world.  When people come over she does hop around nervously and will do some aggressive barking if she feels trapped in a room or needs to get past them for food but mostly is not at hassle to visitors.  She will take food from people, and even sit or touch for food from strangers and visitors.  She has never gone after a person aggressively, and it is obvious she is acting out of fear, but I always lock her up when kids visit.  She has proven that if she is actually cornered and grabbed she rolls over and goes to a submissive scared place, but I don't think I will ever trust that she would never go to an aggressive place.  Because of that I am never going to let her near children loose in the house.

She does do a lot better out in the world.  We have a regular walking route we take and she happily does that with me and Kerrigan.  If people approach us she sits by me as Kerrigan is petted and while on a leash generally looks to me for guidance.  Any change to our route however is a reason for panic the first time or two, then she goes with it like she is an old pro.

A few weeks ago we "graduated" basic obedience class.  She did not participate in everything at class, but was actually excited to go and I did not try to push her too far.  She LOVES her clicker and with it's help she accomplished a lot of things at class.  She walked around with other bigger dogs very close to her, she walked for a short while with someone else (our instructor) holding the leash and she did a lot of her clicker tricks in public.  Also on one day she tried to instigate play with another tiny little dog at class.  The owner was kind enough to let them go for a minute then moved on.  I am so proud of how well she did and I plan to take the class again.  Nova is a very smart dog and while nervous at parts I think she appreciated the challenge of class.

Speaking if smart, Nova has learned a LOT of clicker tricks and is enjoying going through Kyra Sundance's book 101 Dog Tricks and learning even more!  She really gets the idea of the clicker and it is so easy to shape behaviors with her this way.  The unfortunate thing is she will not "perform" for anyone but me!  I am thinking I should get a tripod and video camera then make her a you tube star.  I was thinking of getting her to act out an entire Shakespearean drama or something like that.  I say thinking about it because the odds of me having enough time in my life to actually do that is rather slim, but we can dream.

So in conclusion, Nova is very comfortable around the house, very smart and she has taught me a lot.  She continues to improve in her relations with people every day, she loves Kerrigan and Copley and she is just a joy to clicker train.  Nova may never be a totally normal dog, she certainly is not ever going to run up to strangers like Kerri does but every day she gets a little less scared and figures out a little something more about living with people.  She is a lot of work, and I can't say I recommend adopting a feral dog but for me she has been a joy.

There is a Nova update for everyone!