The Affordable Homesitter

Dogs left in the car

Categories: Dogs, pets | April 3rd, 2008 | by affordable1 | no comments

It is our favorite time of year, the sun is shining, and it is warm enough to start wearing shorts, swimming, having outdoor picnics, and take our dogs for a nice drive!

It is also that time of year when our cars get very hot, and we may not always think of that, as we leave the dog in the car to run into a store, to get something to eat, run in the bank, etc. 

We have all seen the sad reports of dogs who have perished in a very hot car, and now, owners are prosecuted for that.  Abuse is no longer overlooked, people are now being made accountable for their actions with their pets.

If you need to take your pet in the car this summer, please consider the following tips!

1) If you have a portable dog bowl, or animal water bottle, bring it with you, for your animal to have frequent little drinks along the way.
2) Having the dog in the very back of the car, van, truck, may seem better for your sanity, but have you sat back there recently?  A lot of vans do not have an adequate amount of air flow, and if Fluffy is in the very back, she may dehydrate or worse.  If you need to bring your dog into a van, put sheets on the seat behind yours and place your animal in the path of the air flow.
3) An ice pack placed under a dog bed, or a blanket may even help your small dog feel cooler.
4) If you must go inside and leave your dog in the car, consider having another person stay in the car with the A/C running, leave your dog at home if you can’t leave the air on, and if you are going to be  long time, don’t foget that your dog is in the car!
Just a few minutes is all it takes for your car to reach over 250 degrees.  If you wouldn’t plan on staying in that hot condition, would you expect your dog to?

Dog falls out car window

Categories: Dogs | March 29th, 2008 | by affordable1 | no comments

My daughter and I were driving to the store, when I noticed the lady 2 lanes over, slowed to a stop, and so did the lady next to me, so as I slowed too, I saw what looked like something running across the street.  Well as I re-focused, I realized it was a little dog rolling across the street.  The lady in the first vehicle got out of her car and began to head for the dog.  She sure did look upset, and I assumed correct, because she began to pick up thedog like it was just a rag.

In her hands was a shaking Mini-Pin, who seemed shaken, hurt, and very scared.  The woman, who continued to scold the dog, got into her truck and drove away. 

My daughter and I just shook our heads and couldn’t believe what happened.  What was very sad, was there wasn’t a policeman in sight.

I know there are those “rules” that we just all follow, sometimes not because of our own personal experiences, but because  of experiences that happen to others.  Example: Don’t touch the stove, its hot.   I have heard the rule “Keep your wndows up, so the dog doesn’t jump out.”  And in my family, we follow that rule.  If I am transporting a dog, I follow that rule as well.   So if you follow that rule, but have never been witness to a reason to follow that rule, trust me, it does happen.

I hope that woman has learned her lesson, and that her sweet puppy is ok.

Bully Breeds need Extra Care

Categories: Dogs, dog training, pets | March 5th, 2008 | by affordable1 | no comments

Bully Breeds need extra care

Hello all!

http://www.theaffordablehomesitter.com
I was never raised with bully breeds (boxers, pit bulls, staffordshire terriers, etc) I was only raised with cocker spaniels, and cats. It was until I was in my 20’s that I owned my first pitbull-mix puppy. I never thought of her as a “dangerous” dog, when this 5 month old puppy came up on my patio and needed a home. It wasn’t until my mother met her and said “OH MY GOD SEND HER BACK, SHE’S A PITBULL. She was convinced this dog was going to grow up and eat my children and terrorize my family like the dog portrayed in the movie Cujo.

From the beginning I socialized this dog. We went to the neighbors house, we went to the dog park and played with other dogs and got another dog for her, a male. Bullies are instinctivley pack leaders, and will act superior to other dogs and to humans if you allow it. Below are some tips for handling a pitbull. They really can be very loayl and good mannered dogs!

1. I always advise if you are going to get a bully, get it as a puppy. I know, I can feel you cringe at the thought of training, accidents, teething, but at the puppy stage, they contain no “history”, they are easier to train and mold into the perfect dog!

2. What kind of dog do you already own? If you already own a bully female, then you will have more success introducing a submissive male into your household. If you try to introduce another female into your house, this could lead to problems. My 2nd pitbull got along great with our adult female chow. As a puppy, the pitbull would tug on her ears, run around the house with her and all was fine. And then when she reached adulthood (which is 2 years of age) I woke up one night to her attacking the chow. I dont just mean growling, I was in my pajamas screaming for help trying to get her jaws out of the chow’s neck. Blood everywhere, I was shaking and screaming, and nothing would get this dog to release. sorry to say, we had to adopt the pitbull out to a only-dog home. This was a wake up call for me. I put on the training cap and began to take lessons and vowed thos would never happen in my house again. If you have a dominant male in the house, an alpha female could also prove to be a disaster if he isn’t going to allow her to take control. It is best if you have a female, get a submissive male (most pitbull males are not going to be submissive. If you have one, you are very lucky! If you have a male, then get a submissive female.

3. From the moment the puppy enters your home put your hand in the dish. Pick food out of the dish and feed the dog, add food to the dish, pet the dog, make noise around the dog, push the dish away. Dish posessivness can be a real problem for pitbulls, and if you have a toddler walking around the dog who doesn’t like people or hands near their eating area, you could have a fatal situation on your hands. So, be a pest, bother the puppy constantly while he’s eating and this does help curb the posessivness. Never seperate puppies eating eaither, unless they show you there’s a problem.

4. Same thing with bones. Take the bone away, give the bone back, hide the bone, fetch with the bone, do not let the puppy think he is superior with this bone.

5. Dog park, other dogs, walks, kids…socialize this puppy. He needs to know he is not superior in any pack, he is just as common as they are. We really concentrated on this step, and had success with our dogs being good with people and other dogs. That pitbull was great around people even though she attacked the chow!

6. Dog lessons. I can’t stress this enough. Sit, stay, down, leave-it, NO, off….these are going to be the keys to your being the pack leader in your house. by the time your dog is a year old, if they have had no training, they think it is their house, and they own you. This is a dogs natural instinct, in the wild they set them selves apart as being leader of their pack. To show this dog YOU are the pack leader, you have to be able to control his behavior. He has to be raised to respect your commands, you are in control, period. You don’t want a 2 year old who’s out of control… just think of him as a 14 year old child who wont listen.

7. Be consistent. If you dont want him on the couch then dont allow it. Dogs dont understand yes today and no tomorrow, or yes for her (the wife) and no for him (the husband). There has to be consistency in his enviroment.

8. DO NOT allow a dominant dog or a bully to sleep on your bed. I dont care how warm, fzzy, cute, cuddly, they are…. the “den” is where most dominance can occur. YOU are the alpha in the house and therefore that is your DEN (bed). Dog sleeps on the floor, in a crate, bathroom, etc. You are not equals.

I will include another blog on what to do for bad behaviors in case you are already experiencing issues and need some help!

Enjoy your puppy!

Andrea

YEAST issues, the daily frustrations with a canine and her yeast

Categories: Uncategorized | March 4th, 2008 | by affordable1 | no comments

When I was growing up, I never remember having a dog who had allergies, or any major health problems at all.  In my college years, I never had any dogs with health issues eaither, the dogs ate their food and mine, slept on an afghan or a wool blanket, and not once did any one of them itch or sneeze.

I began to raise half breed pitbulls a few years ago.  Precious was a rotweiler pitbull mix who was an awesome dog.  Faith was next, she was great until she turned 2.  After she went after another dog, I am sorry to say that she had to be put down.  We felt so horrible, responsible, but sometimes, you don’t know what is in the dog’s make-up.  Faith was a rescue dog, all of my dogs have been rescued in some way, eaither by shelter, or we just find eachother. 

Pitti is the newest addition to my family.  We picked her out at a local shelter, and she appeared to be healthy, full of life.  She is an oddball combination, pitbull, vizula and golden retreiver.  The usual comments from people are… “what is that” …… She has the coloring of a golden, with a little patch of wavy hair on her butt. She has a pinkish skintone on her face, and a little longer face, with a pitbull amount of muscles.

I began to notice, in about 3 months of having this dog, that she sure seemed to itch herself alot.  She didn’t come to us this way, it just seemed to start happening.

When Pitti started to eat and scratch at her skin to the point of rawness and sometimes even bleeding, I took her to the vet.  I was told she had allergies, and $85.oo later, we had an antibiotic in hand.

The antibiotic seemed to make the skin look better, but within about 2 weeks after the dosage was over, the flair up was back, and sometimes she seemed to itch worse than before.  I went to the local pet store and found some hydrocortisone lotion, and it was there a clerk suggested a new food, in case that is what she was reacting too.

I put her on the suggested allergy formula of no wheat/corn dry food that they carried.  3 weeks on this food, Pitti continued to itch.  I went back in to the pet store and now they suggested the vegitarian formula.  A few weeks on that and she still itched.

The vet placed her in prednisone and Temaril P.  The vet suggested we try a duck and potato dog food or a salmon and brown rice variety, so off to the store we went for our 3rd attempt to stop the itching!  All of Pitti’s symptoms dissapeared, that is, until the medicine was gone.  Her skin in the creases of her legs felt hot, and looked raw and rough, like elephant skin.  Her ears were scratched so badly she rubbed the hair off the backs of her ears, and inside had brown discharge, and sometimes was bloody.

After 3 rounds of Temaril P, 2 rounds of prednisone, and 2 rounds of antibiotics, the vet was stumped.  He suggested we try cyclosporine.  The drug made her sick to her stomach and gave her diarreah.  She already had a tough time gaining weight and keeping weight on, and this pill made her feel awful.  I could see it in her eyes she wasn’t doing well.

I began to search myself for articles on severe itching, raw skin, etc.  Under allergies, I actually wasn’t finding the symptoms were matching.  I ended up seeing a link for dogs with yeast issues.

It was there that I found out what was wrong with my dog.  Pitti has an overabundance of Candidia, and thats why the cycles of drugs only worked for a little bit of time, and then appeared to get worse.

Nzymes.com sells all of the medicines, tells you about symptoms, how to use their formulas to treat the yeast, and what foods to now stay away from, etc.

My dog is now on a grain free diet, called Eagle Pack.  Pitti likes the anchovy formula.  Because she likes wet food also, and I am trying to build up her calories for weight gain, I also purchase EVO/Innova canned food, which is grain free.

The process of yeast removal seems a little scarry and hopeless at first, especially if you are lik me and want your dog better, NOW.  Yeast doesn’t go away quickly, and when it starts to die off in the dog’s system, symptoms tend to really flair up on the skin.  But this is actually a good thing, and means healing is beginning.

There are 4 steps to the Nzymes kit.  The first one is an enzyme pill that can be crushed or chewed whole, and this is doubled dosed for 60 days.  I just crushed this and put it in her food.  Step 2 and 3 are antibacterial type formulas, and work at killing the overgrowth of yeast.  These are also doubled for 60 days.  And they are just added to the food too.

Step 4 is a probiotic formula, and isnt started until the other formulas have been used for 2 full weeks.  Because the steps require such little amounts, most of the tincture and drops will last for awhile.

When the skin really flairs up, you can also dilute the oxy drops with water, put in a spray bottle and use topically.  I have done this with Pitti.  It does make a difference.

We are now 2 months into treatment, and she is doing really well.  She has bene slow to gain weight, but the probiotic does help with absorption of foods, so slowly it will help this.

So if you have been doing rounds of antibiotics, temaril P, prednisone, and your dogs symptoms have not improved, it may not be allergies.  Check out Nzymes.com and see the list of symptoms for yourself.

Here’s to itch free days!

you may reply at any time if you have any questions.

Craigslisting Dogs

Categories: Cats, Dogs, dog training, pets | March 3rd, 2008 | by admin | no comments

The dog has to go…tonight? Whats up with that!

OK, I have been keeping this opinion to myself, but after yesterday’s 4 posts on craigslist of “my dog has to have a new home today”, I dusted off the soapbox.
I agree, we all make mistakes in life, we make mistakes with who we date (ends up being not so sweet, romantic, etc), who we marry (not compatible, a jerk, wrong life partner), where we buy a house, (the new freeway being built next door, the junkyard man has moved in behind you, the barking dog, screaming kids) BUT….. we do have choices, and if at all possible, we should research these choices first, before we leap into something.
Before I bought my house, I was informed what was to be built around me in the next 5-10 years. I am more cautious of who I date….ask more questions, have that person meet family and friends before I get too lovestruck…..so, PURCHASING A PET SHOULD BE DONE WITH THE SAME CAUTIOUS CARE!!!
Scenario:
Someone lives in an apartment, and the apartment complex only allows pets under 30 pounds, then it wouldn’t be wise to get a Rottweiler puppy for your son’s Christmas gift…..unless you plan on moving within the year of purchase, because the puppy is going to end up at 30 pounds between 5 and 8 months.
My suggestion:
Research breeds of dogs first, before you go hunting around. Pets911.org lists pets in all counties, shelters, etc. So you can see these pets first, do a breed search, and then research about that breed. Impulse shopping is not a good thing when purchasing shoes, purses, dresses….and dogs too! Is it a good apartment dog? Some dogs don’t do well in small places (rottweilers, labs, goldens, chessie bay’s). Is the breed known for chewing up things like carpet? Is it a more excitable and energetic breed like the Manchester terrier?
Children:
Kids get attached to the family dog, cat, bird, guinea pig, hamsters, ferrets, etc. They don’t understand how you love this dog on Monday, and then on Friday have posted it on craigslist. It is hard on children to love their pets, and then they have to go away.
My suggestion:
Once again, check the breeds out more carefully. Maybe you could have saved your children from heartbreak if you realized BEFORE you bought the dog that it wouldn’t be a good fit.
Also think about that pet who has grown to love you, who is just wanting to be a member of your family, who doesn’t mean to do the things they do.
Think before you “post” him away!