Lucky Dog Blog

the heat is ON...

outside during these dog days of summer...

Here's a picture of Poochie, Curly and Cooper all trying to beat the heat. They all found the floor in the basement next to Mavis's desk apparently the only cool place in the house according to the next picture which says it was 30 degrees INSIDE her house..

Dogs often have two hair coats;an outer coat called a guard layer and a fuzzy coat closer to the body called an undercoat. Most dog's undercoats will thin out in spring to prepare for the warmer weather while the guard coat stays. One school of thought is that your dog will benefit from a good shave to help your dog rid himself of extra heat. Dogs don't sweat, their only means for heat loss is through evaporation from the saliva and panting which don't seem like they'd be super effective in the hot summer heat while wearing a coat. If you dog is not regularly shaved, his skin will not be used to the suns rays which may be more harmful that the heat itself.

Because the guard coat actually sits away from the dogs body, there is a barrier of air underneath which is what normally keeps your dog warm in winter. Your dog's skin heats this air which is then trapped by the hair. Some firmly believe that this layer of air between your dog's body and guard coat, as long as the undercoat has thinned will also keep your dogs cool in summer. Kind of like a layer of shade under the coat.

To keep your dog cool, AND his skin protected from the sun try these

• Give your dog a good brushing, particularly with a brush that helps remove the undercoat.

• If you're going to give your dog a shave, go for areas that aren't typically exposed to the sun like the center of the belly. This will give them some relief from their heavy coat and provide a larger area to get rid of heat from when lying on the floor.

• Get them a fan and/or a kiddy pool...

 

• ALWAYS PROVIDE FRESH WATER AND SHADE. If you leave your dog outside, there has to be somewhere for them get out of the sun.

• Keep exercise to a minimum in temperatures over 30 degrees. Even if they'd LOVE a game of fetch, cause you KNOW they WILL play even if it kills them.


• Never leave your dog in the car, even if you leave the window a open a crack. The heat in cars raises incredibly fast and incredibly high. If it's really hot, windows open a crack won't cut it.

For dogs with a single coat layer like our Vizslas, or a boxer like Crash, hanging out in this heat is less of a life threatening issue as long as there's shade and water. In fact, Ruben and Calvin will go lay out in the sun for hours in this crazy heat.

Good Luck staying cool and thank you for the topic suggestion Sheetal!

Start drooling...

...your Lucky Dog prizes are on their way!  I'm finally catching up on some important business. 

More Lucky Dog info coming your way later today.

And the Winner IS...

Lucky Dog Photo Contest Winner for week 9 is Snickers O'Rourke!!!

this is our sweetheart, Snickers.
he's about 4 years old, and we adopted him from our local humane society shelter three years ago.
he had been abused, then dumped out in the country.
it was winter, and at the time there had been a terrible blizzard/ice storm.
when they found him, he was covered with ice, and his body temp. had dropped terribly, dangerously low.
they rushed him back to the shelter, and used warm towels to keep him alive.
lucky dog.

today, he is a happy dog.
he had some trust issues when he first arrived, but now, life is good!
he loves to sit on the porch with me in the morning, and watch the birds come and go to the feeders.
W-A-L-K and B-I-S-C-U-I-T are his two favorite words.
he has learned lots of tricks, but WAVE is one of his best, and he always gives me a KISS when I put food in his dish.
we are the lucky ones, to have him as part of our family.

Congratulations Snickers! We here at Lucky Dog think you're pretty cute and since we're orginally from Winnipeg (aka Winter peg) we have serious respect cold weather and the dogs that brave it. We hope you enjoy your biscuits while watching the birds but we must warn you, birds love the Peanut Butter and Saskatoon Biscuits so keep them close! Patricia, please email us your address.

****To submit your favorite dog picture to the weekly Lucky Dog photo contest, please send your photos with a bio to service@luckydogbiscuits.com and put "photo contest"in the subject. Winners are announced weekly. Check out the nominees so far in the "Lucky Nominees" photo album. GOOD LUCK!

 

A wee problem

Actually, it's not very wee, it's pretty big!

The Culprit: Dutch VanderWal

The Crime: Peeing all over my stuff!!

The Story: We've just recently moved to British Columbia and are currently sharing a home with my sister and her partner Jason. They own two very personable dogs named Maddie and Dutch. Maddie is a female  retriever mix and Dutch is a male rottie, lab mix. Both are fun, friendly and beautiful dogs.

We have our own entrance to our suite off the mail entrance to the house and when no one is looking, Dutch headbutts the door open and makes his move...which is a three legged stance, the fourth leg high in the air and right next to a piece of furniture. We were leaving the doors open but after the first incident, which I can only interpret as "you're in my house so this is MY FURNITURE" we got the picture. We smartened up and started closing the door to our suit at all times. However, the door does jam sometimes and when you think it's closed, it isn't and Dutch figures that out pretty quick with his ninja headbutt move. He's peed on my couch, my ottoman, my couch, my baby change table and pooed on the carpet, pretty much in that order. And this is a 70lb dog by the way so these aren't little tinkels! This morning, I was still in bed when I actually heard him peeing on the change table! I'm not sure what to do to discourage this behavoir.

Ruben and Calvin are not without incidence. BOTH Ruben and Calvin escaped to the upstairs suit, both said Hi to Jason, and then BOTH started to pee in his hallway!! Luckily Jason was there, he was able to rush them outside where he says they stood there beside each other peeing for what seemed like 8 minutes. This doesn't make sense because they both were taken to the park for a pee and a poop an hour earlier.

And then there's Calico. She just a b**** lately. She'll take rounds out of Sally and Jason's cat Harley at any given opportunity. Actually, what she really likes to do is escape from the lower suit, head upstairs, eat Harley's food then find him and attack him. This is a rickety 14 year old female cat and he's a four year old outdoor male cat!

So you may have figured out by now that we're hosting our own little zoo with 4 dogs and 2 cats. Okay, I now see that I should have expected some issues... and I did, I expected the cat issues but I'm kind of caught off guard with the CONSTANT PEEING ON MY STUFF!!

The Moral of the Story: Don't expect 4 dogs and two cats to go along with new living arrangements without a fight I guess. What I really need here is a solution folks. I suppose I could start with making sure that the door is closed tight at all times. All of the dogs get along really well which is a plus. It could be much worse if the dogs didn't get along and were attacking each other. Actually it's pretty funny when you see my two dogs and cat hanging out at the door. The dogs are dying to go upstairs and play and the cat is dying to go upstairs beat someone up.

If there are ANY SUGGESTS I'm all ears and pee soaked furniture...

E-Challenge Part II

OK - I'm sure you are sick of my entrepreneurial pep talk but I have one last thing to say on the subject for a while - and it's a bit cheesy so hold on to your lunches.

So here's the scenario.  This morning I get up to go for my morning row.  It is about the only form of exercise I can actually endure for more than 10 minutes.  I started rowing about 8 years ago.  It took me about 3 years to fall in love with it (mainly because it is really hard to get the hang of), and after that I was hooked.  Anyway, I'm late - as usual - and I've misplaced my keys (which I JUST had in my hands). So after five minutes of frantic searching, I find the second set and get going.  Incidentally, when I got home after the row and invested another five minutes of searching throughout the house, I found them in the garbage bag in the garage.  I guess I threw them out with the gum I picked off the floor of the garage.  I wish I was making this stuff up but it is, unfortunately, my world.  The gum that fell, just to add to the frustration, was the last one in the pack, which meant I had to go back in the house to get a new pack.  SO - I'm frustrated, late, it's early in the morning, and I have a super busy day ahead of me.  I AM GRUMPY!

I get to to club and get to row my absolute favourite boat - the single.  There is no hiding with this boat.  You have nothing to rely on but your own ability to stay afloat,and only have your power to get it moving.  The challenge is that the boat is thinner than your butt (and given that I haven't been rowing for 2 years, the difference has significantly grown).  So you CANNOT SCREW UP or you will be swimming.  So I'm happy, I get my boat.  I get out on the water and discover that the water is choppy.  Now for those non-rowers, this means that every time I take a stroke, the boat pitches (keeping in mind my butt is hanging OVER the sides). It is super frustrating because you feel like any minute you will fall in.  You can't get momentum. Your blades (or oars) bang against your fingers. Generally not pleasant.  So I'm already grumpy, now I'm struggling to get exercise and thinking about turning around.  But since I'm already here I may as well get some exercise.  To my absolute delight, when I reach the bend in the river, the water is glass smooth.  (Can you see where this story is going?)

Glass smooth water is the rower's equivalent to Easter for chocolate lovers (if you are into the whole easter bunny thing).  This is nirvana baby!  You can put the power on without fear of tipping, the boat cuts through the water. You feel like a SUPERSTAR!  I start to get into a groove.  Then it dawns on me to take a look at where I'm going.  Again, for the no-rowers, in rowing you always have your back to the direction you are headed.  You get a great view of where you have been, but need to take the time to look at your direction and the hazards coming up.  When you get into the groove, you sometimes forget to look.  That happened to one group and they ended up running into a motorboat anchored in the river.  How oblivious do you have to be to run into a boat?  And that's when I had my Forrest Gump "life is like a box of chocolates" moment.  Here comes the cheese.  Here's my "business is like rowing" moment (and I'll be brief):

• There will be rough water.  If you persevere, you will hit better water. In the meantime, you refine your skills, become stronger and become a better rower.
• When you hit smooth water, enjoy it, but don't forget to stay focused.  It doesn't take long before you get off course or hit a MAJOR obstacle OR BOTH.
• If you don't hit better water or you shouldn't be out there in the first place, get the hell off the water.  There will be other times and it is not worth risking your well-being.
• Set a goal. It makes it easier to hang in there, especially when the goal is in sight.  (for me it was a bridge and about 30 more strokes)
• If you stop (especially in a current) you will lose ground. But sometimes you have to stop - whether it is to take a good look for obstacles, or because you are tired.  That's fine.  Regenerate.  But get back on course before you lose too much ground otherwise you begin to question the sanity of your goals.
• And last but not least, if your butt doesn't fit in the boat - that's OK. At least you are in the boat and not sitting on the sidelines with a donut watching the boat. 

So there you have it for my cheddar moment of the day.  I was honestly thinking about this while I was rowing. There are only so many times that you can admire ducks so you have to do something for that hour.

I will leave you with a couple of my favourite posters from the website Despair.  By far, the funniest stuff I have seen in a long time.  I like them because they don't take life too seriously (and they make fun of the rowing "Teamwork" poster)  Enjoy.

And if you have made  it this far, tell us what you want to know about.  We need some topics. I am still looking into prostates, but I'm sure you have things you want to know.  Tell us!  We need to know. 

Again, my apologies for the copyright issues. I can only hope the extra website traffic will make up for it.

   

The worst part about pet ownership

There comes that inevitable time when you have to say goodbye to your beloved pet.  It is the worst part about pet ownership because it is almost guaranteed that you will outlive your pet.  And no matter how many pets you've owned, the process doesn't get easier.  I was reading my favourite pug blog, Mr. Norman Featherstone's Stud Pug blog when I saw not one, but two announcements, from the same person who lost two fur-family members,Tiny and ChiChi, not even a week apart.  I am so sad for Sandy and her family in Florida.  Even though I don't know them, I know how sad they must be right now.  And since I am facing the same thing in the near future with Curly (he's not sick - just old), I know this day is fast approaching for me as well.  I was saving this post for that day but since I think Sandy and her family need it right now, here it is.  It came to me from a vet friend who has the unfortunate job of dealing with this topic more often than I can imagine.  She didn't write it, but it was sent through a series of emails.  I tracked it back to the Pet Whisperer's website at www.thepetwhisperer.com.  The vet writes:

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year old Irish Wolfhound named Belker.  The dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family that we couldn't do anything for Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made the arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for their 4 year old son, Shane, to be a part of the procedure.  They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog one last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.  Within a few minutes, Belker peacefully slipped away.  The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without difficulty or confusion.  We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up - "I know why."

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me.  I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.  He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?

The four-year-old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

That's a pretty smart kid.  We wish our pets could stay around longer, and we do everything we can to make that happen, but eventually the best thing we can do is say good-bye.  Sandy and family, I hope you are remembering all the good times with Tiny and ChiChi. It sounds like they had a good life with you and will be greatly missed.  Take the time to remember and grieve.  And know that there is a whole pet lover's community that is thinking about you!

Mavis

And the Winner IS....

Toby Hellmuth!!

Okay, so we might be a little biased on this one... But you have to admit, it's a HILARIOUS picture!

We don't have bio on this one but what we can tell you is this: Our good friend Kal Barteski from iDeaMonsters gave Claudine Hellmuth some Lucky Dog Biscuits for Toby at a scrapbooking seminar in Vancouver. Claudine took them home and sent in this picture and we think its pretty priceless!

Congratulations Toby! Claudine, please email us your address so we can send Toby more Lucky Dog Biscuits.

And if you're a scrapbooker/artist, you can catch both Kal Barteski and Claudine Hellmuth at Inspired. hosted by Donna Downey

Have a great day!

Garbage can-itis averted

The Villain: Calvin Holtslag

The Crime: Tearing the garbage apart, spreading it wall to wall and trying to eat the meat soaked styrofoam

The Story: Quinn was making out dogs their food. Great food, lots of beef, livers, sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, apples and tomatoes. Whenever we pull out the big turkey roaster, the dogs go crazy because they know whatever we're doing it's all for them. The recipes I listed in previous posts here and here were smaller versions of the ones we typically make at home. If we're doing a beef recipe, we usually start with 10 lbs of meat and it all gets cooked together in a huge turkey roaster. That way, the all of the nutrients stays in the roaster and isn't lost by boiling veggies separately, not to mention it makes an nice gravy that bastes all of the other ingredients. Anyhow, Quinn packaged up all of the beef styrofoam containers, of which there were many because small packages of beef were on sale, in a bag and set it beside the garbage. I guess that makes US the villains for not being smarter about our garbage. None the less, it was the biggest mess I've EVER seen. Styrofoam, plastic, water from the meat packages spread everywhere, you could barely see the floor. We walked in and there was Calvin, hunched over, tail tucked, ears back, walking on his tip toes. We hadn't seen the mess yet but we knew something was wrong Now, when I was in school taking my Veterinary Technologist course, our instructor was adamant that dogs do not have a guilty conscience. She said we over "Disney-fide" pets, gave them too much credit for human like feelings and that there was no way a dog feels guilt. Hmmmmm....

This morning Quinn says on his way back from taking the dogs on their off leash walk, Calvin gave him the slip and took off back to the woods, hid behind a tree and took a fast poop, which was full of styrofoam. Quinn thinks he was trying to hide the evidence from him. Okay...this might be an example of "Disney-fication".

The serious note to this story is that garbage poses a serious danger to your dogs; it can be a lifestyle cause of pancreatitis. Pancreatitis can be caused by obesity, diabetes and some medications but a common trigger of acute pancreatitis is cooked fatty foods often found in the garbage (called "garbage can-itis"). Acute pancreatitis makes the dog very ill and can easily be fatal without immediate treatment which is often IV fluids and gut rest. When I worked in the veterinary clinic, we'd often see Beagles in for pancreatitis due to a garbage raid but apparently Yorkshire Terriers are a high risk breed for the infection. Once your dog develops pancreatits, he is predisposed to bouts in the future and can lead to diabetes since the pancreas produces insulin.

Moral of the Story: Make sure your dog can't get into the garbage. We were lucky. It was a pretty funny scene in the kitchen but we kept a close watch on Calvin overnight to make sure no signs developed...which was Quinn's excuse why Calvin needed to sleep under the covers with him (stuffed animal-fication?)

The Entrepreneurial Challenge

As usual, I started off my morning reading a couple of my favourite blogs. I'm not sure if this is a "work avoidance" tactic or a desire to connect to some like-minded people.  Either way, it usually takes up a good hour of my morning and, in my mind, is a great way to start the day.  If I was in a real office (by real I mean downtown in some over air-conditioned concrete box where I would have to wear a suit - no offense to anyone in one of those concrete boxes at the moment though), I would have spent at least 45 minutes becoming office presentable and another hour talking to colleagues.  The way I look at it, I am WAY ahead of the game by staying in the home office reading blogs.  ANYWAY, I was reading the Tiber River blog this morning and had to laugh.  Laugh because I could have copied and pasted it into our blog with a couple product name changes.  It is EXACTLY what we face on a day-to-day basis.  Their topic was called "the business of business".  Essentially, how do you grow, chase opportunities and still stay sane and in business?  It is a problem faced by so many small businesses.

As a small business owner you see so many opportunities that you would love to chase.  But the reality is there are only so many things you can do with the amount of time, money, and people available.  It is hard to pull out of the day to day operations long enough to look at new opportunities and evaluate the merits of the opportunity.  By evaluate, I'm not just talking about whether people would like the product.  I'm talking about crunching numbers, looking at the bank account, and looking at the operational logistics of realizing the opportunity.  That takes a LOT of time and when you are running around doing the day-to-day stuff, who has time to run some financials?  Heck, who even knows HOW to run proper financials?   There are so many distractions.  I swear some days  I have the attention span of a two year old because I bounce around to so many things. (in fact, I am supposed to be working on something else and not writing the blog - oops!)

I remember one article in my small business class at university called "Growing Out of Business".  The general theme of the paper was that many companies become victims of their own success. They grow too fast and run out of money, people, product, production capacity, etc. until they can no longer survive. I always assumed you should chase growth as fast as you can and that most companies failed because they didn't get customers. I'm NOT saying that either Lucky Dog or Tiber River is in danger of "growing out of business" so by all means keep buying our products.  All I'm saying is there comes a time when you have to force yourself to step back to look at the opportunity and the fit at this moment in time for the business.  The timing might not be right.  The opportunity might not be right. Or the opportunity might not be right at this time.

We did a brief step back to evaluate some opportunities.  With the pet food recalls and cry for human quality pet foods there is a HUGE opportunity to expand.  We have tons of product ideas - food, biscuits, natural health product - tons I tell you. We want to expand into the US as well. The potential growth is outstanding BUT we have to be able to keep up with demand so we have to take it one step at a time.  We did a brief number crunch which really helped tease out the right opportunity for this moment.  Things can change though and that is the frustrating, fun, exciting part about small business.

So hang in there Tiber River ladies.  We are in the same boat on this wild and crazy river.  What has helped us stay on the right side of the water (that would be the air side) is surrounding ourselves with lots of good people. People who give advice, people who listen to us complain, people who cheer, and of course, the customers who tell us they love us (feel free to share some love with us!).  And a little number crunching once in a while doesn't hurt either.

See you ladies tomorrow when I pick up my BUG SPRAY, now known as Outdoor Living spray, for Cooper, Curly and me.

Mavis

My apologies to Sherman's Logoon for not getting copyright rights!

And the Winner IS....

Tiny Taz Walters!!!
This is Tiny TAZ. He's a really lucky dog! He was found as a stray, wandering the streets in western NY State, a dangerous place for such a tiny dog. The warden captured him and he ended up in an animal shelter. We had been checking the shelters, looking for a small dog that could be trained as a service dog. He fit the bill. Now TAZ is my love, and my helper. After a back injury, it is difficult for me to bend down and pick things up when I drop them. TAZ to the rescue! Without any training, he began to pick up whatever I dropped, and hand it back to me! We rescued him from the shelter, but I'm the really lucky one - I found him!

Congratulations Tiny Taz!! Not only is Taz cute but he's helping his mom out with her bad back, that's pretty cool.

Be sure to email us your address so we can send you your Lucky Dog Biscuits!

Keep sending those pictures in. Be sure to include your dog's biography too, we love getting to know your dogs. Forward photo submissions to service@luckydogbiscuits.com and put "photo contest" in the subject. Please forward them in jpg format and remember to send in those bios...it might increase your chances of winning!